Baptist And The American Indian

Brother Glen,

I have thought about this in the past; I have been thinking about it since your first post. I will try to post something later. Thanks for the links, may help lead my thoughts.

God Bless.
Bro. Dallas

 

My paternal great grandmother was Cherokee. Link to the history of the Cherokee

I would like to add a couple of thoughts, tribes varried as to their religious practices and social attitudes so this should be taken into consideration when discussing them. Also, the names we know tribes by, are not the same as what they called themselves.

In Christ,
Wisdom Seeker

 

Same here Wisdom Seeker; and my maternal grand-father has an ancestry of Mexican Indian.

I would add some information I think is relevant concerning a tribe in South America, Colombia and Venezuala I think was there territory. The Montelone (maybe mispelled), I will look, they are referenced in the book 'Bruchko' of which I believe Helen is familiar (and maybe others), my point is they were visited by a young American during the 1960's after God put them on his heart. There story was that the people, themselves, at one time did know the trail which God walked, but man had lost this trail and could not find it, though he spent his lifetime looking for it.

Bro. Dallas

 

Check out Pastor Chets site listed onhis profile. He works in fulltime ministry with American Indians. He is doing an amazing work in a largley ignored field.

 

My pastor growing up was Chocktaw (spelling?) Indian from Oklahoma. He used to say (he could get away with it) that the best thing that ever happened to the Indians was to be conquered and introduced to Christianity. Without that, he would say, we'd still be worshipping snakes and the sun. Like I said, he could say those things with some credibility.

 

Yes, this shows "Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[ 8:28 Some manuscripts And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God] who[ 8:28 Or works together with those who love him to bring about what is good–with those who] have been called according to his purpose." The treatment of the American Indians was not right, but for many (my ancestors for some) it did work for good. The taking of African slaves would be another example. Some good came from what was meant for evil.

 

I disagree with that line of reasoning. Whenever one people controls another by force it is wrong. When one people take a person's life, livlihood, home, it's just wrong. I'm sorry, but my wife's family members were killed brutally, and I don't think it was God working for good in this case, I think it was Satan working for evil.

 

I agree with Popeye here. The Israelites are the only people who were ever given a land by God, and they had to wait until the evil of the Amorites had reached 'full measure'. The Lord told the rest of us to out into the world and teach, not conquer.

Survival of the fittest is not a Christian theme for human beings!

 

I didn't say God was working for good in that, and I don't think the Bible says that either, but God took something that Satan intended for evil and turned to something good. God didn't put in the hearts of Joseph's brothers to sell him to Egyptian slavery, but God took it and used it for good. I am not saying slvers intended it for good, nor am I saying God initiated it, but God did bring about good from it.

 

Popeye, I hope you are not saying what comes across to me!
If you are, then you have a quarrel with God, not mark!

Please tell me that I misinterpreted your post!!

 

I completely agree with Mark. God is sovereign. It does not mean God endorsed the evil against either the Native Americans (Of which I am kin) or the African slaves. Some good came from what was meant for evil (mainly they were introduced to the Gospel). The same is true with Alexander the Great's conguests and the Roman Empire. God is in control of History.

 

When Hitler tried to commit genocide of the Jews and the Poles and the Insane and any other people he thought were in the way of his evil plan to take over the world...can you tell me what was good in any of that?!

I'm sorry to speak of something that happened so long ago to make a point. But how the native Americans were treated, was similar, even if we don't want to acknowledge it. And if it makes anyone feel better to say that it was because the White man was trying to teach the heathens about God...I would ask you to check out the facts. I'm sorry, the only good I can find in the Trail of Tears is that not all of my relatives died while making that journey, and I am here because one survived.

I agree, I think that evil was working, not good.

 

Not, referring to that though God certaintly permitted it.

No one here is saying what was done to them was good or that the Trail of tears was a good thing. Certaintly these actrocities were evil. God is however sovereign and allows these things. I am part Native American. Would I be better off living in a pagan worshipping society of the idol worship of my ancestors and tribal warfare OR would I be better off in the society I live in today where the Gospel is freely available? Would North America have been better as a wilderness of sparring, warring tribes that could have done little against a Hitler or is this land better off as a industrialized united Superpower that has defeated, Nazi Germany, Imperialistic Japan and the Soviet Union? What man intented for Evil, God worked out for good I believe is the answer.

 

[ May 14, 2003, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: SheEagle9/11 ]

 

Same here, and I was blessed to share some precious moments with my great grandmother before she passed on. I am grateful she was a believer.

'Tis true. Each and every one of us are a part of God's master plan. He was, is, and will always be in control. Our acceptance of His plan is sometimes the hardest part.
PJ