Racial tensions have been escalated around the country with the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida. Is there any solution to the global problem of racism?
Two weeks ago, an article in the New York Post revealed the results of a new study in which they claimed that simply by taking a pill racial prejudice can be reduced.[1] Really? A drug as the cure for racism?
There is one and only one cure for racism and that is the truth of Scripture. The Bible teaches there is only one race – the human race. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve. We are all descendants of Noah and his wife.
It is amazing to me how much people talk about skin color, and define people and people groups based on skin color (ie how much melanin they have in their skin.) Did you know that there are only three places in the entire Bible when God mentions a person’s skin color? First, God tells us that Esau, when he was a baby “came out red” (Gen 25:25). Later, God tells us the young man David was “ruddy” (1 Samuel 16:12). Finally, the bride in the Song of Solomon talks about her beautiful deep suntan (Song of Solomon 1:5-6).
Humans are all one color. Tan. We just come in different shades. We are one race, and we are all apart of the same family – literally. Each of us are made with equal value, worth, and dignity because we are all equally made in the image of God.
I have a number of friends who are “bi-racial” couples. One “white.” One “black.” I hate that term “bi-racial.” From a biblical perspective, they are not “bi-racial.” They are both human – of the same race – one male and one female. Now because of the different levels of melanin in their genes, it is interesting to see the skin color of their children. For some “bi-racial” couples, they have some children who look completely “white” and other children who look completely “black.” These are children from the same parents! Are we really so foolish as to suggest that these siblings, born from the same two parents, are from a different “race?”
The true history recorded for us in Genesis, and the Christian worldview that develops from it, is the only solution to racism. This stands in opposition to evolution which teaches and requires racism! From an evolutionary perspective, different strands of “humans” developed from different strands of apes and “cave men.” Therefore, it is necessary that some branches of “homo sapien” are more advanced than others. Welcome to the holocaust, ethnic cleansing, and the killing fields. These are nothing more than the survival of the fittest. Superior “races” have an obligation to eliminate lesser “races” to preserve and advance the human species. The doctrine of atheistic evolution necessarily results in racism. The more our culture embraces evolution, the hotter the fires of racial tension will become.
But those who embrace what God has said in the Bible about creation have a completely different view of persons and of “race.” If you truly hold to a Christian worldview you will never make decisions based upon a person’s skin color. A Bible-believing Christian is truly color-blind. We don’t see “races,” we see people. We don’t see groups and categories, we see people. We never give less to a person because of the level of melanin in their skin, nor do we give more.
I often ask Christians this question. “If you had a choice between 100 ‘black’ people coming to Christ and joining your church, and 100 ‘white’ people coming to Christ and joining your church, which would you choose?”
Which would you choose?
Sadly, many believers, and church leaders, when asked this question, make a choice based on skin color. More often than not, they choose the skin color which is “least represented” in their church body at the present time. Often they feel proud about their answer because they are valuing “diversity.” Little do they know that their answer is not coming from Scripture (though I believe their motives are good), but their thoughts have been taken captive by the hollow philosophy of the world.
The truly Christian response to this question is, “People are people. Souls are souls. Their skin color has nothing to do with their value or worth to me, or to my God.”
If God wanted us to make decisions about people based on the color of their skin, He would have told us to do so in the Bible. Instead, He proclaims from the beginning that all humans are created equal and from that point forward in Scripture, with the incidental exceptions noted above, never brings up the issue of skin color again.
This a vital time for God’s people to think biblically about issues of “race” so that we might rightly proclaim the Gospel!
Posted March 26, 2012
Dr. Rob Rienow – www.visionaryfam.com