There is this thing going round that Jesus Christ was Black, meaning when He came down from Heaven and dwelled among men, He wore that beautiful Negroid complexion.

Some people are so obsessed about this that they want everybody on earth to believe that Blacks were the Chosen People of God, that was why He chose to come down to earth as a Black. I may be one of the few who would not take this seriously and I have my reasons, why.

Firstly, when one reads about the genealogy of Jesus, there is no one in His lineage from Abraham to Joseph, His foster father, who was from theNegroid race.

Abraham, originally Abram, was a Chaldean from Ur, in modern day Iraq. Such people are not Blacks.

The only time it can be said that Blacks came to be Jews, was when Makeda, the Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia visited Jerusalem and was said to have bore a son for King Solomon called Menelik, who started the ethnicity ofthe Falashas or Ethiopian Jews. In Jesus’ genealogy, the son of Solomon who was in His lineage was Rehoboam, whose mother was Princess Naamah, an Ammonite. The Ammonites were from modern day Jordan and they are not Blacks.

One can argue that Joseph had no role to play in Jesus’ conception and so, Mary, His mother may have Black blood flowing in her. Mary was from the tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David with her lineage traced through her father Joachim and her mother Anne, who was a Levite. This proves that Jesus could not be Black.

What can be said about Jesus’ complexion? He is divine and the Second Person of Trinity. Here, one can rightly say that His complexion is not of this world. His complexion was what the three apostles saw during the transfiguration. Matthew 17:2 states, “and He was transfigured before them; His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as light.”Jesus’ complexion shines like the sun and there is no human race with that complexion.

God in His own wisdom, decided to choose a race from which His Chosen People would come from, even though Blacks were around, He chose Abraham,a non-Black.

Some centuries and millennia ago, Black empires held sway over the world and they became world super powers, with Europe kowtowing to them. What happened which cannot easily be explained is what we are witnessing now. Blacks fell from grace to grass, becoming even slaves to other races, who once adored us,right to this day. This is what we must consider reversing and not claiming Jesus as a Black Man.

The world shows no concern about our problems and we think the only way this can be corrected is to prove that Jesus Christ is Black, born in a town called Be-tena-ha, meaning “Come and Sit Here” which was corrupted into Bethlehem? It makes no sense. By the way, Bethlehem may sound like Be-tena-ha, but it means the House of Bread and not “Come and Sit Here.”

To me, this false statement in recent times that Jesus is Black and the original Israelites in Sacred Scriptures were Black, could be the works of anti-Semitics. They want an absolute total global condemnation of Israel and one of the ways to achieve that is to make the Black population, believe that initially the inhabitants of Judah and Israel were mostly Black, but they were driven out by the White Israelites. This is racism.

There is no record of Blacks being among the Jews, driven to the Diaspora after the Fall of Jerusalem; neither is there any record of another exodus, this time of Black Jews leaving the Promise Land and going way down south into Africa, beyond the Sahara.

If indeed there was such an exodus, then why did some of them not settle in North Africa?Northern Africa is composed primarily of non-black ethnicities including the Berbers, Arabs, and Bedouins. In fact, people of these ethnicities are often considered “white” due to their relatively light skin.

Someone wants to deceive Blacks and make us gang up against the Israelis.Blacks are being pushed into creating enemies with Israel and it is for a purpose, but this could backfire in our faces.

Coming back to this Black Jesus issue, the question is what impact will this have on our lives now and our lives hereafter? I cannot see Jesus standing at the Pearly Gates and receiving only Blacks into Heaven irrespective of what state of grace they are in. Sorry, it will not work that way. We are saved by grace, and that grace will never consider anyone wicked, unrighteous and unrepentant and also that grace does not look at colour.

Jesus Christ came for the whole of mankind, Matthew 28:19a, and once the soul in front of Him is clean and filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit, he or she is saved. It does not matter whether that soul is a Christian, Muslim, Traditionalist or of any religion or even atheist.

Those who changed the complexion of Jesus from Black to White, must be those who are racists.They want people to believe they are correcting an error of the past, which is non-existent anyway, only to create an error in the future, by pitching Blacks against the Israelis.And this cannot work.

Looking at things, there have not been any convincing theory as to who painted the Black Jesus, White and how and when that was done.These are only media pseudo-theoretical wishful dreams meant to create mischief. Things just do not make sense in this world.

Are we saying that when God’s attention is drawn to the fact that His Son Jesus was Black, He would make the Blacks the greatest in the world? We should wake up and find ways of reclaiming our past glory as in the times, of Kush, Axum, Songhai, Mali, Ghana, Great Zimbabwe, Ashanti and many more.

We must unite even with our ethnic,political and ideological differences, and aimed at building a strong and respected society. We are known to be very prayerful and we must turn thisinto our weapon to achieve economic strides and form a strong base with massive developments that the West will watch with awe.

We are been mocked at for always praying. We must not be perturbed but we mustturn the works of our hands, into prayer and thanksgiving to God and we shall surely leap frog into the lead, in this world. Yes, whatever work we do, we must make it a form of prayer and God will richly bless us and correct us whenever we go wrong.

In doing all this, we must resolve to love one other and never allow people of other races to divide and rule us.

Jesus Christ was born into a family, but it was not only His family He came to save, neither did He come to save only His fellow countrymen and women. He came to save the whole world and this is what we as Blacks must bear in mind. We must make use of the graces Jesus gives us and show gratitude to God by doing things that will glorify His Holy Name and stop thinking that Jesus is Black like we are, so that we can tell God that in His cabinet, there is a Black, so all Blacks no matter their state of grace should be given mansions in Heaven. That is not the shortest route to Heaven.

The shortest route to Heaven, is that long, tedious, rough and narrow path which is full of challenges but which must be faced with great perseverance, endurances, repentant hearts and a genuine prayerful life. With life of forgiveness, works of charity and great exhibition of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. A route very difficult to chart, where great sacrifices, fasting and helping all those in need are required. A route where one has to always listen to God and do whatever He tells us (John 2:5).

This is the shortest route to Heaven and not Jesus being Black that will save us. Let those who hate the Israelis come with another idea, because to me, this racist approach will not work.

May every human, Christian and non-Christian enjoy the blessings of Easter and let us remember that racism has no place in the presence of God.

By Hon Daniel Dugan