To Uphold Scriptural Teaching of Generations/ Lineages and Reject Modernistic Teaching of Races

Official Workbook overture source text

4-18 
To Uphold Scriptural Teaching of 
Generations/Lineages and Reject Modernistic 
Teaching of Races 
WHEREAS, The apostle Peter speaks of the Church as “a chosen 
generation” (“But you are a chosen generation [γ ένος], a royal 
priesthood, a holy nation” [1 Peter 2:9 NKJV, 1979; cf. KJV, 
1611]); and 
WHEREAS, Several modern translations speak of the Church not 
as a “chosen generation” but as “a chosen race” (“But you are a 
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” [1 Peter 2:9 ESV, 
2001; NASB, 1995]); and 
WHEREAS, The apostle Peter is using the language of the prophet 
Isaiah, where Isaiah gives the promise of “my chosen people [LXX: 
τὸ γένος μου τὸ ἐκλεκτόν; MT: יﬠַמִּ  יבְחִירִ ]” (Isaiah 43:20), such that 
with this word Isaiah is referring not to racial categories as used in 
modernism (“modernism” in the sense of post -enlightenment 
ideology, the mid-1700s and later) to speak of several races divided 
from one another, but rather 
speaks of the chosen people of God; 
and 
WHEREAS, The Greek word γένος is used to translate the Hebrew 
word ﬠַם e.g., Isaiah 43:20, et al.), which references not race (in the 
modernistic sense) but people; to translate the Hebrew word זֶרַע  ,
meaning seed or lineage (e.g., Jer. 29:32, et al.); and in parallel with 
the Hebrew word גּוֹי ( e.g., Jer. 31:36), which, again, cannot mean 
race in the modernistic sense, but nation; and