God and the Great Race Debate

by Tom Russell, Truth In Christ Ministry

What does the God have to say about the subject? Christians are confronted on all sides regarding the issue of race.  So much of the national daily discourse is devoted to this extremely contentious subject.  What are we to believe?

The term “race” has come to be used to designate genetic differences in skin color.  Many might be surprised to learn there is not a single example in the bible where a qualitative distinction is made based on the subject.  In fact, we find only one passage that speaks with certainty about genetic skin color,

Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?  Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

In the passage God expresses no more issue with the color of an Ethiopian than He did the spots on a leopard’s pelt.  Rather, the implication from the Hebrew language is that the sin of those who had become disciples of evil was as certain and unchangeable as a physical trait.   

Simply put, God created a man and woman and all people are their descendants,

Genesis 1:26-27 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;  male and female he created them.

Baseless Objections

Some argue that we see a division of races in the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, but there is nothing in the passage to suggest it.  Rather, we see a division of people based on different languages miraculously applied to them by God.

Others object to bi-racial marriage based on God’s judgment of His people in Ezra 9 and 10 but the chapters clearly reveal that the issue was related to nationality and religion, not genetic composition. (Note: 9:1, 10:18, 44)

Again, to be perfectly clear, all men and women are descendants of the first man and woman created by God (Genesis 1:26, 27), and God nowhere in His word makes a qualitative distinction based on the genetic traits of any people, and of course neither should we.

Truly, all would benefit from being as colorblind as God and children are.