So in general what he's saying is that if they owned slaves, they supported slavery, and if they supported slavery, then they agreed that their theology holds to slave ownership. And if that's the case concerning this group of church fathers then they are White supremacists and heretics.
But that's why it's important for him to speak concerning individual church fathers because we need to know not only which church fathers owned slaves but how they were involved with slave ownership, and whether they actually defended it in scripture.
If they owned slaves and defended slave ownership, then indeed, I would agree that they were living in sin but would we say today that they are heretics or would we say they're living in sin?
Howard states that they are heretics because these church fathers come with a different Gospel... but did they? Were they teaching that you have to own a slave in order to be saved?
For this, we have to step back and ask ourselves, "What is the Gospel?".
The Gospel of salvation is clear in
1 Corinthians 15-1-8:
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
At this juncture we seek to find how is Howard connecting White supremacy to slave owning church fathers. The only argument I can see here is the part where "Christ died for our sins".... and slave ownership is indeed a sin. But the question is, are the church fathers disqualified (as the apostle Paul mentioned) by living in the sin of slave ownership OR are they preaching a different Gospel by being slave owners?
Again, we would have to go into history to argue each individual case for different church fathers but more importantly, how many of these church fathers actually "preached a different gospel" in order to call them heretics?
Today, we have various denominations that hold the essentials of the Gospel but we do not regard them as heretics because we disagree with other elements of their doctrine -- as long as they have and get the Gospel correct.
But more importantly, we regard them as disqualified if they're living in unrepentant sin, and this might be a legitimate indictment against our slave owning church fathers.
But for the third time, I must include that we have to study each individual case carefully to understand how involved they were with slave ownership. For this, we need to dig deep into their biographies and historical documents, etc.
To be clear, judging them in their society wouldn't exactly be the same as judging someone in today's culture. Slavery was in full effect culturally in those days, and generationally embedded in the fabric of the economy.
One would have to ask did they know that slavery was Biblically forbidden and did they preach its acceptance? If they did, was this a "new Gospel" as Howard contends?
Surely, a person can get the Gospel of salvation correct but still be living in sin, and thus disqualify themselves. And especially if there were other voices of rebuke in society chastising them, and they refused to repent of their White supremacy.
I don't believe these church fathers (Howard is mentioning) are heretics but an argument can be stated that they were White supremacists if there were cultural voices speaking out against slavery, and they refused to repent.
I must state however, that the social gospel which has infiltrated the church in our culture is indeed a Marxist influenced heresy and it's goal is to ride the wave of perpetual victim-hood upon all those who feel oppressed by societal problems. It fails in presenting a true Gospel of salvation by clarifying its clear message of redemption, forgiveness and renewed life. It breeds more hostility and personal strife while pretending to facilitate liberation. And those who propagate this false Gospel, have also been known to state that not to believe these false truths of the social Gospel is not to be truly redeemed of the Biblical Gospel of Christ which is a damnable lie from the pit of Hell. It makes anyone who doesn't believe this heresy into racists White supremacists.
You'll never ever ....EVER see those propagating this false gospel (social woke gospel adherents) in any formal debate because they know that most of their false Gospel can be traced back to critical theory and aligned very closely with Marxists ideology which happens to be part of ALL the leftism that is tearing our country apart currently.
You'll also not catch any of these social Gospel heretics spending most of their efforts against the current cultural genocide against prodominately Black unborn human beings in the womb -- in mostly Black neighborhoods.
You won't find them exhausting themselves protesting against the Dept. of Education in their agenda of dumbing down people of color, and the propagation of anti-family and anti-Christian influence like secularism in Darwinian evolution, sexual revolution, etc., etc.
They also won't speak out against the leftist Antichrist, Marxist and globalist elite funded, Black Lives Matter movement.
They won't open up on the racism of Black people but contend that racsism (hatred of people of a different color or culture) isn't found within Black people.
Nope you won't find them because they're heretics.
And they're heretics because they preach that you need to be "woke to be saved".
I'll be doing further research to see if I can find a church father preach that you must own slaves to be saved. That would indeed be a heresy... but I doubt if I'll find it.
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