What Is Juneteenth, and Should Christians Celebrate It?

What is Juneteenth, and should Christians celebrate it? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. You can feel free to leave us a voicemail at that number.

Again, 833-THE-CORE. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can email us your question anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Well, today is Juneteenth. It's a federal holiday, and perhaps your company gave you the day off. And, Adriel, can you give us a little background on what Juneteenth is all about? This is, I think, a helpful, just a couple paragraphs, description of what's being celebrated. On Freedom's Eve, or the eve of January 1st, 1863, the first watch night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate states were declared legally free.

Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the South reading copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate states. Only through the 13th Amendment did Emancipation end slavery throughout the United States. But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the western most Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19th, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas.

The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state were free by executive decree. This day became known as Juneteenth by the newly freed people in Texas. If we could get the day off, I think that that would be wonderful. And one of the big questions, Bill, that people ask me the way we opened up the broadcast is, you know, is this something that we as Christians should celebrate? It's sort of an interesting question because, you know, we get that question related to quote-unquote religious holidays like Christmas. Is a Christian bound to celebrate Christmas or Easter? And of course, there's nothing in the Bible binding us to celebrate any particular holiday, but I think that we are, you know, encouraged and called to celebrate that week.

Which is good and true and beautiful. And certainly, any time justice is done, we do rejoice. We do rejoice in that as the people of God, whether it's, you know, the tearing down of abortion or anything that goes against God's word. We celebrate when we see those things turned around. And so this is certainly something, I think, that, you know, we look forward to. I think that, you know, we look back on and say, wow, one, you know, just a picture of something very tragic. But two, we praise God for Juneteenth.

We're thankful for events like this where justice is done and pray that as a result of those kinds of things, the Lord would be at work in and around us. And so, Bill, what are your thoughts? Well, I was just thinking, you know, you do have a lot of atheists and agnostics in our culture who will say things like, well, you Christians, you know, the Bible condones slavery. And that's really a complete misunderstanding of Christ's message and even how slavery was viewed in the Old Testament.

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of confusion about this, certainly. And when people think about what the Bible has to say about this and, you know, what we have taking place in our country some time ago, we're not talking about the same thing. And so understanding this gets at kind of the heart of what we want to do on this broadcast is understanding the word of God in its context, getting to the core tenets of the Christian faith and not twisting scripture is so important in sometimes around this topic in particular. I think the word of God can be twisted or people can be confused. And so, yeah, definitely something that we want to be careful with. And so, yeah.

Well said. Well, our phone lines are open. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Again, feel free to leave a voicemail if you get our voicemail system. Let's go to Reed, who is calling in from Minnesota. Reed, what's your question for Pastor Adrian? I was brought up as a Lutheran, such Lutheran. Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, I can hear you, Reed. And for 26 years. And I got a reading of the Bible, and I started reading it, and I focused on baptism for three years.

And from 78, the flood in Rochester, Minnesota. Anyway, I studied for 33 years. Just in baptism.

You have to forgive me. I had a stroke here not too long ago. But I read it and read everything on it, and I was rebaptized in the Zumba River. And when I went in the river after it went down, there was no lightning, no thunder, but I had this overwhelming peace that I couldn't understand, didn't know.

And I was wondering, is it harmful to tell somebody if they're Christian, or if they're Lutheran, or Catholic, or somebody, that they're not baptized and they're not going to heaven? Reed, thank you for that question. And I just want to pray for you, brother, just that the Lord would grant you his grace and his peace, and knowing that you just not too long ago had a stroke.

Father, would you be with Reed? Would you continue to grant him your grace? Thank you, Lord, for his testimony, for his love for you, for his desire to follow you and to please you, Lord. And I pray that you would grant healing to his body, strengthen him, Lord, for your service. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. So you came to this theological shift where you brought up Lutheran. As you were reading the scriptures, you felt compelled by a different view of baptism, and so went and got rebaptized, quote, unquote, and it was a positive experience for you. And I love what you said there just about there's no thunder and lightning, and sometimes that's what people are looking for when they go to get baptized, or they're looking for that thunderous religious experience. None of that, but a real sense of peace and a sense of God's presence, and I'm thankful for that for you, Reed. Now, I wouldn't say, if you're talking about going to people who are Lutherans and Catholics and saying, well, you're not going to go to heaven because you were baptized in this church.

I don't think that's true, one. I don't know that that would be the most helpful approach. I do think what we can talk about is the fact that baptism is always supposed to direct our eyes to Jesus, right? I mean, it's this sacrament, this visible sign, the washing away of our sins with water, which ultimately, our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith. But you have this sign and seal, this promise that God has given to his people. And so I think when you're having conversations with people, encouraging them to look beyond their baptism, if you will, to the one who washes our sins away. I mean, the sacraments of the church baptism in the Lord's Supper are meant to direct our focus, our attention upward to God. And so you have an opportunity as you're having conversations with people, maybe people from other traditions, and being able to focus on Jesus and to focus on the gospel.

That's what I would want to do. I think that's a helpful way to go about it. Now, of course, if there's a theological disagreement on how baptism should be applied or to whom it should be applied, there's nothing wrong with having those conversations either. And I think these are important topics, certainly for us to consider. And the Bible has a lot to say about them. And so we don't want to shy away from that.

I just am encouraging you, as you have these conversations, to focus on the one to whom baptism and the Lord's Supper direct our attention. And I think that's positive. I think that's encouraging.

And I think that can be really helpful. So God bless, Reed. Thank you for giving us a call.

Thanks, Reed. Appreciate you listening to CORE Christianity. Well, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can email us anytime. Here's our email address. It's questions at core christianity dot com. And of course, you can leave us your voicemail anytime at eight three three the core. Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named Randy.

I play music and I'm an author and I'm trying to sell my products and they're both Christian based and Christian messages. But I struggle with am I trying to be a star? Am I trying to get the message out?

I don't know how to to calm that wrestling match. Yeah, well, I think it's healthy to struggle with this, right? Because on the one hand, you have to ask yourself, like, who is being platformed here? And with, you know, with a Christian artist, you're saying, I want to platform God. I want to use the gifts that God has given me to platform God, his truth, his word, his son, Jesus.

And I think it's really easy for us as sinful human beings to slip out of that and to slip into platforming ourselves. And so I think it's good to ask this question, to remember also what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter two, verse three. And maybe this is just a helpful test for you to ask yourself to ask yourself this.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Is this thing that I'm pursuing, am I pursuing it out of selfish ambition because I want to make myself great? Or am I pursuing it as a way of glorifying the Lord? And we can pursue very pious looking things for selfish and sinful reasons. I mean, you know, the Apostle Paul just earlier in this same book in Philippians talked about how some people were preaching Christ from envy.

And rivalry, but others from goodwill. And so you want to think about the underlying motivations behind what you're doing and why you're doing it. And inevitably, you know, because our hearts are the way that they are, we find ourselves at times, you know, wanting to be the center of attention. And I think when that happens, you confess that to the Lord and say, God, help me to use the gifts that you have given to me to make your name great, to glorify you, to focus the attention onto you. And I think as you pray for that, as you pursue that, you're in a good place. And when you find yourself in that tug of war, you know, struggling and tempted really to platform yourself. And so I think, again, you just confess that to the Lord. And so God bless you in the ministry that you do.

And God help you and God help all of us to, with our lives and with the gifts that God has given to us, platform Jesus. So I juggle chainsaws for God. Is that like, okay?

That's just a bad idea, just generally. Yeah. You don't, now you want to know something, Bill? So my, I mean, you know this, my dad has a circus in Mexico.

I know that that sounds like a joke or the beginning of a joke, but I'm like being totally honest here. And so I have a cousin who juggle swords. He can actually juggle swords. He doesn't do it for God. It's just, he does it for entertainment, but it's there.

I mean, there are people who can really do, I've never seen anybody juggle chainsaws, but I've definitely seen people juggle swords. I hope your cousin is careful. That's all I can say. Well, yeah, they don't call him one-eyed Willy for nothing. You know, he's just joking.

He is careful. No injuries yet. Okay. That's good news. Okay. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Jackie who's calling in from Missouri. Jackie, what's your question for Adriel? Yes. Can you hear me okay? Hey Jackie, we can hear you. Okay.

Yes. I have a question for you. My mom used to tell fortunes and she was, she acted like it was a game. But when she become a Christian, after I come back to the Lord, I grew up and after I come back to the Lord, we had like social cases and weird stuff happening in our family all the time. And strange stuff. And my grandpa, anyway, it's a long story, but my mom came to the, I came to the Lord and then she, I told her this is of the devil.

This is wrong. And she stopped doing that and she came back to the Lord and she stopped because she accepted Christ. And she, she wrote, well, she accepted Christ when she was younger, but she didn't really understand that this was evil and she didn't have any training. And she, she came to the Lord and she renounced all that and she stopped doing it. And, and her, the fortunes would come to her. It wasn't with tarot cards.

It was with, she could tell it was just a plain deck of cards and tea leaves and ground coffee grounds and whatever else. And it was just evil. It was from the devil. And I told her, and I told her, and she stopped, she came, she said, I don't want anything to do with the devil. And I'm like, well, and she renounced it.

She come back to the Lord, she got saved, she got baptized and she wouldn't do it anymore. But there was weird stuff that would happen in our home whenever we was little, just all kinds of weird stuff. And anyway, then after, fast forward to now, we have a close person that's not in our family exactly, but a close friend and they, they are practicing, I don't know if he's a warlock or if he's pregnant to some of his friends that are, but he's put like curses on our family.

And my mom was just murdered. And I am, can someone that's demonically inspired like that, can they? Is there anything, as a Christian, they don't have any power over us, do they?

Jackie, I am so sorry to hear about that devastating news. And I want to say to you that the answer is no, if you are in Christ, if you belong to Jesus, the evil one has no power over you. And so the devil can, can seek to tempt us, can seek to deceive us, but if you belong to Jesus, you are going to be kept by Jesus. And John says in first John chapter five, verse 18, and I want you to listen closely to his, his words because this, this gets right to your question. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. In other words, the evil one doesn't have any, any position, any place, any authority over the children of the true and the living God. You belong to Jesus and you are kept by and protected by him. There is, and you've seen it, real spiritual forces at work, dark spiritual forces at work.

And it sounds like your mother experienced that and she turned from it. It reminds me of what we read in Acts chapter 19, where many people in Ephesus who were doing, you know, these, these, you know, practicing these sort of magic arts, you know, turning to Christ. This is Acts chapter 19, verse 18. Also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them all in the sight of all.

And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. We are in a spiritual battle.

And there are, as I said, real forces of evil, dark spiritual forces, but God has delivered you and delivered your mom out of that. And so you are protected and in Christ, but we are in a fight. And so we're called to put on the armor of God, as Paul says in Ephesians, to pray and to be rooted in God's truth and God's word. But again, I just, I just, you need to know that the Lord keeps you and protects you.

And Jesus said in John chapter 10, no one snatches my sheep out of my hand and nothing, Paul in Romans chapter 8, nothing, not even all the powers of hell can separate you from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ. And so may the Lord be with you and comfort you and ground you in that truth. Thank you, Jackie. Jackie, thanks so much for your call and for listening to Core Christianity. We'll continue to pray for you on the loss of your mom. We're really sorry about that tragedy in your life.

Well, we have a lot of division in our country right now over the abortion issue, strong feelings on both sides of it. And we'd like to offer you a devotional that actually explores God's view of human life. The devotional is called Fearfully Made, and it gives us a glimpse of what scripture tells us about the life God has not only blessed us with, but specifically made for us.

And so this devotional is a great way for you to anchor yourself in God's word, encourage you, and remind you to pray during this season in particular. It gets at issues of life. And earlier we were talking about Juneteenth, and you think about slavery and the devaluing of the image of God, casting it aside. I mean, that's exactly what we're seeing with the issue of abortion as well. It's an attack on the image of God. And so insofar as it's that, we have to fight against it.

We have to push against it, just like we would push against slavery or anything else that devalues human life. And so get a hold of this resource. Again, it's called Fearfully Made, and you can get a free digital download over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. You know, we have a lot of great resources on our website, many of those absolutely free. You can get PDF downloads. You should check out some of our our core questions and our core guides. Again, you can find them all at corechristianity.com.

Browse around our website. We know there's some resources there that will help you grow in your faith. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core. And here's one that came in from one of our listeners.

This is from Aaron. Do non-believers end up getting burnt up like a non-fooding branch that you would cut off your own tree once and done, but it's for all eternity? Or are they tortured in fire forever and ever, simmering as such? Like, so is the eternal part of that just once and done? Or is it continuing forever?

Thank you. I mean, this gets to the question of what's called annihilationism. So at the judgment, is it that the condemned, those who don't have Jesus, that they're judged and destroyed? So there's a judgment there, but they're destroyed and then they cease to exist. Or is it the case that they're judged, you know, cast into the lake of fire, as we have described at the end of the book of Revelation, that there is a conscious torment for all eternity?

Two things. One, I do think that the Scriptures are clear on this, and I do think that the Church universally has held to a particular view. There have been some who've deviated from this, but it seems to me that throughout the history of the Church, on the basis of Scripture, what Christians have said is, you know, there is a conscious torment that is experienced, that's described in the Bible, that is everlasting. And so it's not just ceasing to exist or sleeping, but that there is this judgment. Now, that's going to be different for different people on the basis of what an individual knew. You know, God's judgment is perfectly just.

We can't lose sight of that. And so there's no injustice on God's part. And there are some people who are going to be judged more severely. And in terms of, you know, what passages of Scripture would you go to? I personally, you know, when I think of the text in the Gospels where Jesus is describing hell or torment, or even in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 14, verse 11, the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. I do think that those texts, you know, they are highly symbolic, but they are communicating to us that there is this everlasting, you know, it doesn't end, it doesn't stop this torment, this conscious torment. And so that's my view. Now, we can have sort of crude ways of describing that and people, you know, suffering in this way or that way.

We just don't know exactly what it's going to look like. We know that it's going to be just, and we know that it's going to be terrible judgment away from the presence of God. And so what do we do? In light of the judgment, we call people to repent. That's what scripture teaches. We're called to repent, to turn from our sins, and to turn to God, and to receive his grace and his mercy and the forgiveness that he's provided for us as sinners in his son Jesus. And so cling to that, receive that, and have the hope of eternal life. Thanks for your question. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.