Origin Of People Groups
In Genesis 11, we read of the rebellion at the tower of Babel which resulted in people being scattered over the earth. Because of this dispersion, and the resulting splitting of the gene pool, different cultures formed, with certain features becoming predominant within each group. Some of these became general characteristics of each particular people group.15
Note that the context of Genesis 11 makes it clear that the reason for Gods scattering the people over the earth was that they had united in rebellion against God. Some Christians point to this event in an attempt to provide a basis for their arguments against so-called inter-racial marriage. They believe that it is implied here that to keep the nations apart, God is declaring that people from different people groups cant marry. However, there is no such indication in this passage that what is called inter-racial marriage is condemned. Besides, there has been so much mixing of people groups over the years, that it would be impossible for every human being today to trace their lineage back to know for certain which group they are descended from.
Does God Bless Interracial Marriage
We have now covered all Scripture that is available to us on this subject, so let me ask you two questions.
Everyone already knows the answer to that question.
If the blue and purple couple are both Christian, honor God, and love each other, where is the sin?
God judges the deeds, the soul of the individual, not the individual based on their skin color. God will and does bless interracial marriages when the family stands with God, just as with any other skin-colored family. That is just common sense.
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Interracial Marriage: Is It A Sin What The Bible Says
When I was growing up, I would sometimes hear people in my family talk about interracial marriage, and whether different cultures colliding could work within marriage. I decided to do a little research about this topic to clear up some questions that I had and that others may have about this.
What does the Bible say about interracial marriage? There is nowhere in the Bible that forbids or discourages interracial marriage. Interracial marriage is not a sin in any way. Every human is created in Gods image , and we all come from the same ancestors, Adam and Eve.
So where did all of these questions about interracial marriage come from? I will be diving into further details about this topic, and what the other requirements for marriage that are given to Christians.
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Dont Be Unequally Yoked
It is very interesting that in the section of 2 Corinthians 6, Paul ties intermarriage of believers and unbelievers with idolatry. This is the same warning that God often gave Israel. Second Corinthians 6:14-17 shows the interconnectedness of the marriage of a believer and an unbeliever: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore, Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. Paul sees that if we marry someone who is not a believer, it is like trying to harmonize Christ with Belial. Belial is a Greek word which means worthless or wicked and is just another name for Satan. The idea of being unequally yoked goes well back into Israels history. A parallel of this idea was even commanded by God regarding animals: Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together . That is because it creates tension and disharmony. The same principle could be applied in the marriage between a believer and an unbeliever.
The Bible On Interracial Marriage
God did tell Solomon and the Israelites not to take husbands and wives from the other nations.
The big question is why?
Turn your Bible with me to,
1 Kings 11:2Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
Gods reasoning had nothing to do with race. God said the Israelites cannot marry the other people as they would turn away your heart after their gods.
We have to remember, the people surrounding the Israelites were heathen people. They did not know, much less acknowledge our God, instead, they had their own gods and culture built around them.
God knew, if the Israelites married into the other people, the Israelites would also become worshippers of false gods and reject Him. So that is the reason God did not want the Israelites to marry these people. Not due to their skin color. It is very important to make that distinction here.
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The Spouse Is To Be The Opposite Gender Of Yourself
Using the same verse in Genisis 2:24, Christians are also to marry someone that is the opposite gender of themselves. Biblical marriage is to be a man and a woman, and not a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.
Just Disciple has covered this topic more in this video if you want more information about this topic.
All Races Come From A Common Source
All humans descended from the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, whom the Bible calls the mother of everyone living. For this reason, the Bible says of God: He made out of one man every nation of men. Regardless of their race, all humans are part of just one family. What, though, if racial prejudice or class distinctions are strong where you live?
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Close Bond In Marriage
The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone I will make a helper comparable to him . After each of the six days of Creation week, God reviewed what He had made and saw that it was good. But there was one thing in Eden that very first week that was not good! All the animals God had created, came in pairsa male and a female. But there was no female for Adam! That is when God created Eve and performed the very first marriage .
God made men and women to complement each otherphysically, mentally, and socially. He built into our being a desire for the companionship of a husband or wife. Thats why the Bible says, He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord .
There Is No Room In The Christian Faith For Racism
The well-known human rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” James 2:1-10 reminds us that we should not play favorites for any reasonnot race, not wealth, not social status, not anything. Loving your neighbor as yourself, regardless of skin color or ethnicity, shows godly character and glorifies God.
Besides, biblically speaking, there is only one race: the human race. We all have the common ancestry of Adam and Eve, so we are all in the same family.
Yes, it’s true that sin has wormed its way into humanity, making it all too easy for some to compare ethnicities or categorize people into their little racial boxes. Some cultures or families downright forbid interracial relationshipsdating, marriage, or otherwise. An interracial couple would need to be prepared for possible discrimination, ostracization, or ridicule but their difference in ethnicity should, by no means, be a reason not to pursue a relationship. An interracial couple who responds to sinful racism in a God-honoring manner can be an amazing testimony of our equality in Christ .
Faith in Jesus Christnot skin color, not ethnicity, not wealth, not social standingis the biblical standard for choosing a potential husband or wife.
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Does The Bible Forbid Interracial Marriage
I found that some religious denominations not only teach that different races should not marry but if they do, they are banned from church membership. Here are some of the Scriptures that they use to try and justify such teachings:
Leviticus 19:19 Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
Only One Man And One Woman
The Bible is very clear that marriage is between one man and one woman. It was Gods design that that marriage is this way. Genisis 2:24: Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Just this verse alone shows how it is right for only one man and one woman to be united in marriage. Polygamy is a sin.
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Examples Of Interracial Marriage In The Bible
In Numbers 12:1-15, Moses, who was a Jew, married a woman who was a Cushite Cush was a southern region of Ethiopia, where people were known for their black skin. The Lord approved of this marriage, but Aaron and Miriam criticized this marriage, to which God was angered by. He gave Miriam leprosy for seven days as a punishment to her criticism of Moses and his wife.
Ruth is another example of an interracial marriage. Ruth, from Moab, moved to Bethlehem when her land was struck with famine. When she met Boaz, he did not hesitate to take her as his wife because of her faith in God if Israel.
Ruth was not a Jew. She was a Moabite. Even though many discriminated against her, God loved her just the same. God does not discriminate, and He loves all people just the same.
Chris Russell from biblestudytools.com
In Colossians 3:11, Paul writes, Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free but Christ is all, and in all. We are all the same in Christ, and skin tone or different cultural backgrounds cannot hinder the mission of the followers of Jesus Christ.
Are There Examples Of Interracial Marriage In The Bible
I would ask that anyone believing interracial marriage is wrong to look up Scriptures about Rahab and Salmon, Ruth and Boaz, and let us not forget that Gods book on marriage, Song of Solomon was potentially written about an interracial couple .
One of the most well-known examples of a diverse marriage in Scripture is Moses the Hebrew/Egyptian and Zipporah a Midianite.
Exodus 2:21-22 says, Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.
Someone might argue that these were people who made mistakes, but there is nowhere in the whole Bible where God condemns marrying from another people group unless it was about a greater issue of faith. Jesus Himself was a Jew who had Gentiles in His genealogy.
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Love And Respect In Marriage
Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. . . . Let each one of you . . . so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband . Without mutual love and respect on the part of husbands and wives, a marriage cannot last. Keep up the early attentions. Look for the positive qualities in your spouse, and nurture that respect and love that first drew you together.
Interracial Marriage In The Bible
What about interracial marriage? Deuteronomy 7:1-6 tells the Israelites to destroy all the inhabitants of the Canaan land and not to intermarry with them because they would “turn your sons away from following Me, that they may serve other gods.” The same key concern of 2 Corinthians 6:14 is again expressed here.
Moses’ wife was of another race and in Numbers 12:1-15 Aaron and Miriam were punished for criticizing this interracial marriage. The book of Ruth tells a delightful story of a foreigner who became part of the lineage of Christ. The harlot, Rahab, also of another nation, is included in the lineage of Christ as recorded in Matthew 1. Colossians 3:11 makes it clear that from God’s perspective all are one in Christ.
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Why This Question About Interracial Marriage Is Being Posed
Why are people still asking whether this question is okay? Havent we moved past this by now in this day and age?
There is a lot of checkered history in regards to interracial marriage. Especially in the United States, racism is a huge part of the USAs story. Interracial marriage was illegal until 1967 when it was deemed unconstitutional. Perhaps the question is still posed because there are still parts of America, or other places around the world, that are still unsure or afraid of what interracial marriage means and are using fear as an excuse to not endorse it.
In any case, this is an incorrect view of other races and cultures around us. Every single human being is created in Gods image. We are to treat everyone with the respect and honor they deserve as image-bearers of God.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
What Constitutes A Race
In the 1800s, before Darwinian evolution was popularized, most people, when talking about races, would be referring to such groups as the English race, Irish race, and so on. However, this all changed in 1859, when Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
Darwinian evolution was inherently a racist philosophy, teaching that different groups or races of people evolved at different times and rates, so some groups are more like their ape-like ancestors than others. The Australian Aborigines, for instance, were considered the missing links between the ape-like ancestor and the rest of mankind.1 This resulted in terrible prejudices and injustices towards the Australian Aborigines.2 The leading evolutionary spokesperson, Stephen Jay Gould, stated that Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.3
Racist attitudes fueled by evolutionary thinking were largely responsible for an African pygmy being displayed, along with an orangutan, in a cage in the Bronx zoo.4
In an article in the summer issue of the Journal of Counseling and Development,9 researchers argue that the term race is basically so meaningless that it should be discarded.
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Wise People Consult Together
While interracial marriage is perfectly acceptable to God, not all people share his view. If you are considering marrying someone of another race, you and your prospective mate should discuss the following:
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How will you deal with the pressures you might face from your community or family?
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How will you help your children to deal with prejudice?
Consulting together in this way can help you to make your marriage a success.Proverbs 13:10 21:5.
What Does The Bible Say About Interracial Dating And Marriage
Nowhere in the Bible does God prohibit interracial relationships. Period. Anyone who says differently is not doing so with any sort of biblical authority.
Some would like to use the Old Testament Law of God’s command for the Israelites not to marry interracially as evidence that interracial dating or marriage is forbidden . But if we look at the context of this command, we find that skin color or ethnicity actually had nothing whatsoever to do with what God was saying.
At the time, only Israelites followed the One True God, and all other races around them were worshippers of idols, pagans, or heathens. Since God knew the Israelites would be led astray from their faith if they intermarried with men and women who followed other religions, He set this command to protect them from the temptation of idolatry.
As we find out later, in Judges 3:5-8, this is exactly what happened to the Israelites! They lived among and married Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and, sure enough, they began to worship idols rather than God, “practicing evil in full view of the Lord.”
“Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.”Malachi 2:11
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Bible Verses About Interracial Marriage
Many people are deceived. They say you cant have black and white marriages. They say interracial marriage is a sin. Wrong! Scripture has nothing to say about interracial marriages. What it does talk about is interfaith. Whether African American, Caucasian, or Native American, God doesnt care.
He doesnt judge anyone by their skin tone and neither should we. In the Old Testament God didnt want His people marrying people of the other nations not because of race, but because they would lead His people astray. They were pagans, idolaters, and they worshiped false gods.
Look how Solomon was led astray. The only thing God tells Christians to stay away from is unbelievers because what does righteousness have in common with lawlessness?
What does the Bible say?
1. Deuteronomy 7:2-5 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from Me to worship other gods. Then the Lords anger will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you. Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.
Solomon led astray
God does not want you to make the mistake of marrying a non Christian.
Reminders
God shows no favoritism.
Bonus