Reset by David Murray, Free for CAPC Members
Reset is an excellent example of taking the fruits of common grace psychology and integrating them into a practical theology for Christians.
At the age of 11, Olaudah Equiano — the son of an Igbo elder in what is now Nigeria — found himself in a slave ship’s cramped quarters. His autobiography describes the horror: “The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate… almost suffocated us… the air soon became unfit for respiration… and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died.”
This was life for captured Africans in the infamous Middle Passage — the second leg of a three-part voyage that began with the trading of European goods for human cargo in Africa, which was then transported across the Atlantic and sold for raw materials that were carried back to Europe. Africans who survived the transatlantic crossing became slaves in the Americas.
Relatively speaking, Equiano fared better than most. His time in slavery was spent largely in the service of British navy captains and on cargo ships. In 1763, he was purchased by an American Quaker who allowed him to conduct his own minor trading operation. Equiano excelled at the venture and within three years had enough money to purchase his freedom.
In 1767, free and converted to Christ, he moved to England and became an active abolitionist. He spoke widely against the brutality of slavery and called for an end to the transatlantic slave trade. In 1798, Equiano’s cause gained an important ally: William Wilberforce.The Gospel enables believers to see social issues from a spiritual perspective — but does it remove social issues altogether?
Following his conversion, Wilberforce became Parliament’s anti-slavery voice. His 20-year battle to end the slave trade came with great personal costs. Historian Ramsey Muir writes that “in 1807 some 17 million pounds changed hands in the slave trade in Liverpool in just one year.” Some of the trade’s “stakeholders” were among Wilberforce’s own influential circle. Thus, to expose the evils of the system was to invite “vitriolic attacks in the newspapers; [Wilberforce] was physically assaulted, he faced death threats and he had to travel with an armed bodyguard.” Yet he persevered.
Wilberforce perceived enslaved Africans as fellow men and brothers and was moved to take their cause as his own. He rejoiced with tears in Parliament in 1807 as the transatlantic slave trade was ruled illegal. Wilberforce didn’t leave a legacy of numerous theological treatises yet his commitment to other image bearers revealed a solidly scriptural understanding of God.
The men we Christians lionize are usually known more for their doctrine than for their application of truth to the issues of their day. In our own time, we often honor (and rightly so) contemporary theologians who shepherd us in our orthodoxy. Many are fiery preachers with solid Biblical expositions that leave us in awe of a big God. Dr. John MacArthur is certainly among these men.
MacArthur is valiant for the truth. As a younger preacher, he was among the 334 evangelical leaders who gathered in Chicago in 1978 to formulate the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Just a decade into his pastorate, MacArthur joined luminaries including J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, and R. C. Sproul to defend Biblical inerrancy against liberalism’s assaults. Since then, he has remained steadfastly orthodox in his passion for the Scriptures. I’m thankful to say that my own theological formation has benefitted greatly from his confident preaching.
So when The Master’s Seminary — of which MacArthur is president — released a YouTube video titled “Racism and Black Lives Matter” on July 8, 2016, I expected a strong application of the Gospel to today’s polarizing racial issues. What I heard instead was disappointing.
The clip begins with this question to MacArthur:
Obviously our county has had an issue with race since the beginning. And we’ve seen a continued increase in racial issues from Ferguson to the Black Lives Matter movement… [H]ow does a pastor address