A civil rights leader and author declared that the American people need repentance.
"Repentance is the only way back to God. Unless you repent, you will all perish. That was the story of Jonah to Nineveh. They repented. They repented," John Perkins told The Christian Post (CP).
Perkins is the founder of Voice of Calvary Ministries. He also wrote a number of books, such as "Let Justice Roll Down," "A Time to heal," "With Justice For All," "He's My Brother," "Beyond Charity" and "Resurrecting Hope."
At 91, the author released his last book "Count it All Joy: The Ridiculous Paradox of Suffering," sharing the story of his own suffering at the hands of police officers who tortured him in 1970.
According to CP, Perkins states in the book that the willingness of Christians to suffer with their brethren in the LORD who are facing racial discrimination will help bring reconciliation - something, he believes, that God calls the believers to do.
This statement is said to have aligned that of Pastor Ed Litton's perspective. The president of the Southern Baptist Convention reportedly declared that though the Gospel is enough to fix the issue of racial prejudice, intentional action is necessary to achieve racial reconciliation.
Perkins notes, however, that getting people to share with suffering is challenging because the "enemy" has made it "easy" for the American Christians to choose "ease and self-preservation," making them felt satisfied about themselves and their accomplishments.
The book is the last installment of his three-part "manifesto," including "One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love" and "He Calls Me Friend: The Healing Power of Friendship."
"In those three books, what I have there is an overview of the centrality of the Gospel. That's the idea. What I try to do is to put the centrality of the Gospel in those three books. The issue is what to do with our sin. Someone said we don't have a skin problem. It's really a sin problem," Perkins explained.
The author believes that the reconciliation formed by the Church is not biblical.
"It's not based on the solution. The solution is the incarnation of God on Earth, in Jesus Christ, now that's the biblical solution," he explained.
"The theology of racial reconciliation is what throws us off. We are a racialized society. We turned sin into being racial. Sin is disobedience to the Word of God and the commandment of God," he continued.
Further, he said that as people of God, Christians should reflect His character.
"He created us to reflect His image in the world. And so we were to be like a looking glass. When we looked at each other, we will see God in each other," Perkins declared.
The author and his wife, Vera Mae, are suffering from terminal cancer. Though he said that he is ready to face death and looking forward into meeting his Creator, they are fighting to stay alive because they do not want to leave each other alone.
