What the Bible says about the division of races

In keeping with yesterday’s observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought it would be appropriate to put forward the biblical foundation of when race began. For those who would like to call the Genesis account of creation a myth, then what I am about to tell you is also a myth. While I am not here to discuss the Darwinian postulation of race, I will say that only in the holy scriptures do I find a satisfactory dealing with the subject, the conclusions of which lead us to the equality of every kindred, tongue, people and nation.

The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. From chapters 1 through 5 God deals with the beginning of mankind for about the first 1,650 years. Among other things, it is very clear that God only created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, and of these two ushered forth the world’s populace. In chapters 6 through 9 God deals with the great cataclysm, Noah’s flood, and how he destroyed a wicked populace, saving only eight people through which he would repopulate planet earth. Chapter 10 is God’s chapter on how he divided what we now call “the races,” but what would arguably be better called, “the division of the race of man.”

For those who label Genesis a myth, the first 10 chapters are generally their focal point. It is hard to step into chapters 11 on and call these a myth since these are God’s chapters on the founding of the nation of Israel, and to do so is to invite the label of anti-Semitism. But look at the problems that are created when we apply this to the first 10. If they are mythical, then it is wholly plausible that not all men are created equal; differing lineages leaves open the conclusions of superiority and inferiority. Yet the Genesis account says that we all have one mother, Eve; Genesis 3:20 says, “She was the mother of all living.” And it says in so many words that we all come from a common genetic lineage post-flood, issuing forth from one of Noah’s three sons.

While it is impossible to pinpoint exactly when Noah’s descendants finally began to separate and spread throughout the earth, we are told in chapter 11 that the motivation for this was the confusion of their languages. God, in his infinite wisdom, knew man would go right back to his pre-flood wickedness unless scattered, and if taken literally, this would have been within 350 years after the flood, in the days of the patriarch Peleg; Genesis 10:25b says, “…for in his days was the earth divided….” Up to the tower of Babel, the earth, or peoples of the earth, was of one language (11:1), but when God confounded their language so they could no longer understand each other, he also divided the earth, scattering the people to their respective native lands.

It is with this confounding of the languages and the scattering of the people throughout the world that God divided mankind into what we now call races. It was through separation that the dominance of a common gene pool began to fade, allowing recessive characteristics to become associated with geographic locations. Only a great and wonderful God could have built in such diversity within the DNA, yet save it for about the first 2,000 years of human experience and then unleash it like the blossoming of a flower in spring.

But I have a dream. Not just a dream of someday white people and black people getting together, but a dream of God’s creation getting back to where it was, in the beginning. The Bible talks of such a day. In Isaiah it says, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them…And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.”

The truth is that mankind’s rebellion against God is the root of racial differences within the race of man. And it is for this same rebellion that God sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die on Calvary’s cross nearly 2,000 years ago. And for those who have trusted in Jesus for the salvation of their soul, the day will come when God’s creation will once again be at peace within itself. The only question that remains is whether you will be a part of this.

The Bible makes it clear that every race will be represented, but will you be there?

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla; contact him at 357-4229 or rghamman@mtaonline.net.