Sen. Raphael Warnock says “we are all God’s children.” Actually, we’re not. Here’s why.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, who also serves as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is hardly known for his solid biblical theology. After all, in a post-Easter tweet this year he proclaimed that the resurrection was less about Jesus rising from the dead and more about us saving ourselves.

So, it’s no big surprise that he recycled a common falsehood in a rousing sermon-like speech at the Democratic National Convention. The statement is a common inaccuracy, repeated by both Christians and non-Christians who want to make the Bible sound like a feel-good ideological manifesto rather than submit its universal truth.

“We are all God’s children”

Warnock declared, “I need my neighbors’ children to be okay so that my children will be okay. I need all of my neighbors’ children to be ok. Poor inner-city children in Atlanta, poor children of Appalachia, the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza, the Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine, I need American children on both sides of the tracks to be okay.”

Sounds pretty good, right? Then he concluded with the reason he wanted “children on both sides of the tracks to be okay.” It was, he said, “Because we are all God’s children. And so let’s work together, let’s organize together, let’s pray together, let’s stand together, let’s heal the land.”

So, who are God’s children?

The call for unity, for healing the land, and for helping humanity are all good. We can get behind that. And we can agree that how human beings behave impacts the greater human community.

But then Warnock says the reason he wants his “neighbors’ children to be okay” is that “we are all God’s children.”

So what’s the problem with that? Well, in short, it’s not biblical.

See, the Bible doesn’t teach that all people are God’s children. Instead, the Bible teaches that all Christians are God’s children. We become a child of God not by birth, but by re-birth.

The Bible is unwavering in this truth. For instance, “But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name” (John 1:12, 1 John 3:1-2).

We become a “child of God” when we are born again into the kingdom of God and adopted as His sons and daughters into a spiritual relationship with Christ. And this is open to anyone and everyone who will receive Christ.

Why does that matter?

Why does that matter?

It matters because being a “child of God” includes privileges in a similar way that the child in any family enjoys privileges that children outside of that family do not have.

What kind of privileges? Inheritance, direct access to the Father, and expectations to become the person that the Father wants you to be, to name a few (Romans 8:14-17, Eph. 3:13, 1 John 3:3).

That’s why Christians call each other “brothers and sisters in Christ.” Children of God are joined together in the family of God, so we are spiritual siblings in Christ regardless of our nationality, race, location, economic status, or any other material distinction. We are siblings in Christ because we have been born again in Christ (Eph. 2:19-22, Gal. 3:26-29).

In addition, it means that Christians learn to live together, serve together, and worship together. We show the world our familial relationship by the way we behave and by the way we treat each other (John 13:34-35).

In fact, as spiritual siblings, Christians prioritize helping other Christians, providing material support and spiritual accountability when needed (Gal. 6:9-10).

But does that mean Christians are some kind of elitist snobs, helping only other Christians? Not at all.

What about everyone else?

If we are not careful, this may sound like Christians receive an excuse to ignore the needs of people outside the church. Like we have a right to keep to ourselves. Or, worse, that God doesn’t care about anyone but Christians. But quite the contrary.

While all people are not children of God, all people are creations of God. The stamp of God’s image resides in every human being (Gen. 1:27). God cares about all people because He created everyone, so Christians—children of God–should, too.

So, not everyone is in the family of God, but everyone is a creation of God. All people live in the neighborhood of humanity. That’s why the Bible calls on us to love our neighbor. The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches this very truth (Luke 10:25-37),

In fact, this doesn’t make Christians less likely to help others, but more likely to help, protect, and serve everyone. Including unborn children, who are also created in God’s image.

The watery universalism that proclaims we are all children of God is also prone to the inconsistency Warnock embraces. He lists examples of children that he “wants to be okay,” but he excludes children in the womb.

But a biblical view of humanity is also a consistent view of humanity. All people are created in God’s image and, therefore, must be treated as His creations. Before birth, after birth, and until death.

One more thing

But the real danger is not distinguishing between people who are born again into the family of God and people who are not. The real danger is proclaiming that all people are, in fact, God’s children when they are not.

This is universalism for the benefit of politics. Warnock and liberal preachers like him pawn off a social gospel or a gospel-lite social activism by preaching that all people are God’s children. If all people are God’s children, then no one needs Christ.

If all people are God’s children, everyone is fine. We just need more social activism and more socialism. It is the gospel of big government disguised as biblical preaching.

But the biblical gospel is quite different. We are not okay. We are sinners in need of salvation. And our actions demonstrate our desperate need of salvation.

See, the good news of the gospel is that you are not a child of God. But by faith and repentance, you can be.

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.