DOES THE BIBLE FORBID INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE?
There is
much false and incorrect information around on this topic, but
Christians need to be familiar with true biblical teaching in
order to correctly represent the teachings of
Jesus!
Some say
that when Moses is called 'perfect in his generations'
(Genesis 6:9), this is a
comment about purity of racial stock. But the Hebrew used in this
verse does not suggest any reference to race, and the
verse is rendered much more clearly in the
NIV:
'This
is the account of Noah. Noah
was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and
he walked with God.'(Genesis 6:9, NIV).
Others say
that when God forbad the Israelites to mix with the Canaanites
this was for racial reasons. They are completely incorrect: it
was for religious/cultural reasons! The Israelites were warned
not to form alliances/friendships with the tribes within the
Promised Land in order not to dilute/compromise their
knowledge of the things of God which had been revealed to
them.
The Bible does not
forbid interracial marriages. It does, however, forbid a
Christian from marrying an unbeliever: "Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14). This Scripture starts
to get to the root of the problem! The Bible never forbids
interracial marriage but it does attack what
the modern Western world calls
'multiculturalism'!
So, first of all, in what sense was
Moses 'perfect in his generations'? As the NIV rendition of Genesis 6:9
suggests, this was a reference to decency of
character:
Noah was a fine and decent man in that he was a decent
husband, father and – most importantly – he walked
with God: He believed that God had granted him his parents, wife,
children and that to genuinely love is to love God. He
wanted to obey God and we can be sure that he sought after
God.
Secondly,
does the Bible indicate a particular attitude towards
interracial marriage?
Yes, it does. In
Numbers 12:1-8 we find an account of Moses marrying an Ethiopian
woman,
'And Miriam and
Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he
had married: for he had married an Ethiopian
woman' (Num.
12:1, KJV).
The NIV refers to this woman as a
'Cushite.' The perceived
wisdom of most scholars is that this woman was black, although
she could have been brown-skinned. Now the LORD repeatedly
asks Moses to be a faithful, consistent and obedient leader, but
on this occasion, Moses is not challenged by the LORD, but
by Miriam and Aaron! Miriam and Aaron were upset with
Moses because he married a Cushite woman. This could have been an
indication of racism by Miriam and Aaron, perhaps they had
mistaken the LORD's 'mono-culturalism' for 'mono-racism,' but in
any case, if race was an issue, this would have
been an ideal place and circumstance to set the matter straight
once and for all. But the LORD showed anger towards Miriam and
Aaron for their challenge to Moses over his non-Israelite wife!
Read the entire Scripture!
'The anger of the
LORD burned against them...' (verse 9).
We might also carefully
consider the LORD's warning for the Israelites not to
marry the tribes within the Promised Land in Exodus
34:10-16 and note how this is clearly shown to be a religious
(or, cultural) matter – not a racial
one:
'And when you choose
some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those
daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead
your sons to do the same.' (Exodus 34:16,
NIV).
In fact,
any foreigners willing to accept the LORD and His revealed laws
were always welcomed among the Israelites and we find
several Old Testament examples including Rahab and
Ruth!
So What About
Multi-Culturalism?
The
multi-culturalism being strongly promoted in modern
Britain and America, however, is not good! The LORD did not want the Israelites
mixing with the tribes of Canaan for cultural (not racial)
reasons; Multi-Culturalism says that all religions and all
creeds may be mixed together – this is but one facet of
Practical Atheism, since it is only concerned about
harmony between peoples and assumes that religion is pretty much
meaningless.
Neither
is it good that both Britain and America seem determined to
fill (overfill in the case of Britain!) their borders with
immigrants of very different cultures/religions. This is
ultimately bound to lead to conflict. The problem is that we have
robbed ourselves of our future generations through the
evil practise of abortion and we are now starting to realise that
we are headed for a situation in which a majority of our
populations are going to be over 60 within around 25 years, and
there will be few people actively contributing to the economy, so
liberal social schemers are seeing huge immigration as the
only answer. I am reminded of the very true comment that if
one breaks God's laws for long enough, they have a habit of
coming back to destroy the
transgressor!
Robin
Brace, 2005.
MUSELTOF COUNTERCULT AND APOLOGETICS UK