The Bible and Racism: A few points on race and origin

The church, the Bible, and racism.

 

Is the church a help or hindrance when it comes to fighting racism?

The “church” can be defined as:

1.      one particular congregation

2.      one particular or a group of denomination(s)

3.      the body of Christ as a collective fellowship of believers

That makes a HUGE difference in answering our question. Every believer and non-believer alike can and will form their own opinions when it comes to race, color, creed, ethnicity, etc. Similarly, so will each congregation, each denomination, and each region.

 

The question, when it comes to Christianity, is always, “What does the Bible say?” Since we believe that the Bible is God’s Word, this is how we know what God feels on the issue. The first item to understand in this discussion is that there is only one race – the human race. Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Indians, Arabs, Jews, etc., are not different races. Rather, they are different ethnicities of the human race. All human beings have the same physical characteristics (with minor variations, of course). More importantly, all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.

           

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. –Genesis 1:26-27

 

We must also realize that God loves everyone. (John 3:16) and laid down His life for all (1 John 2:2).

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. –John 3:16

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. -1 John 2:2

 

God is impartial to all (Deuteronomy 10:17), and shows absolutely no favoritism (Acts 10:34) (Romans 2:11).

 

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. –Deut. 10:17

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. –Acts 10:34

For God does not show favoritism. –Romans 2:11

 

James 2:4 describes those who show discrimination as “judges with evil thoughts”.

 

have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? –James 2:4

 

Instead, James reminds us again of Jesus’ teaching; that we must “love one another”.

 

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. –James 2:8 (See John 13:34)

 

In the Old Testament, God divided humanity into two “racial” groups: Jew and Gentile. God’s intent was for the Jews to be a kingdom of priests, ministering to the Gentile nations. Instead, for the most part, the Jews became proud of their status and despised the Gentiles. Jesus Christ put an end to this, destroying the dividing wall of hostility.

 

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, -Ephesians 2:14

 

Therefore, any form of racism, prejudice, or discrimination is an affront to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Since God loves us impartially, we should love one another in a similar fashion. If we, as sinners, can be loved so by a prefect God, it shouldn’t be too much for Him to expect that we keep the same high standard and love others. Jesus teaches at the end of Matthew 25 that whatever we do to the least of His brothers, we do to Him. If we treat a person with contempt, we are mistreating a person created in God’s image; we are hurting somebody that God loves and Jesus died for.

 

Racism, in varying forms and to various degrees, has been a plague on humanity for thousands of years. Brothers and sisters of all ethnicities, this should not be! To victims of racism, prejudice, and discrimination – you need to forgive. Ephesians 4:32 declares, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” No, racists do not deserve your forgiveness, but we deserved God’s forgiveness far less! To perpetrators of racism, prejudice, and discrimination – you need to repent and “present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13).

 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. –Galatians 3:28

 

God created this universe, this world and everyone in it. People exist in their variety because God designed it that way. Put simply, racism is a criticism of His handiwork.

 

 

Where did race originate? Generally, from camps, though eventually through the families of Noah’s sons spreading out over the earth. Noah’s sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Of Ham:

The youngest son of Noah, from whom sprang the western and southwestern nations known to the Hebrews. His name first occurs in Genesis 5:32, where, as in 6:10 and elsewhere, it occupies the second place. In Genesis 9:18 Ham is described as “the father of Canaan”.

The name given, in Psalms 105:23,17; 106:22 (compare 78:51), to Egypt as a descendant of Ham, son of Noah. As Shem means “dusky,” or the like, and Japheth “fair,” it has been supposed that Ham meant, as is not improbable, “black.” This is supported by the evidence of Hebrew and Arabic, in which the word chamam means “to be hot” and “to be black,” the latter signification being derived from the former. 

Four Sons of Ham (see map below):
    1. Mizraim (Egypt)
   2. Cush (Sudan, Ethiopia)
   3. Put (Lybia)
   4. Canaan (Hivites, Jebusites, Arvadites, Girgashites, Amorites, Arkites, Sinites, Hittites, 
                  Sidonians, Perizzites, Zemarites)

CURSE OF CANAAN
   1. Canaan was cursed, not Ham. (Gen. 9:25, “…cursed be Canaan…”
   2. Genesis 9:25-27 “…servitude to his brothers…”
   3. Exodus 20:5 –” A curse lasts three to four generations…”
   4. Canaan does not exist as a nation today. Other three nations exist — Egypt, Ethiopia 
       and Lybia.

 Of Shem:

The eldest son of Noah, from whom the Jews, as well as the Semitic (“Shemitic”) nations in general have descended. When giving the names of Noah’s three sons, Shem is always mentioned first (Genesis 9:18; 10:1, etc.); and though “the elder” in “Shem the brother of Japheth the elder” (Genesis 10:21 margin) is explained as referring to Shem, this is not the rendering of Onkelos. 

His five sons peopled the greater part of West Asia’s finest tracts, from Elam on the East to the Mediterranean on the West. Though generally regarded as meaning “dusky” (compare the Assyr-Babylonian samu–also Ham–possibly = “black,” Japheth, “fair”), it is considered possible that Shem may be the usual Hebrew word for “name” (shem), given him because he was the firstborn–a parallel to the Assyr-Babylonian usage, in which “son,” “name” (sumu) are synonyms (W. A. Inscriptions, V, plural 23, 11,29-32abc).

Five Sons of Shem (see map below):
    1. Elam (Arabia)
   2. Asshur (Assyria)
   3. Lud (Lydians)
   4. Aram (Aramaic, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria)
   5. Arphaxad (From which Abraham descended)

 

Of Japheth:

This name, in Genesis 9:27, seems to be explained by the phrase “may God make wide (yapht, the American Standard Revised Version “enlarge”) for Japheth,” where yapht and Japheth are represented by the same consonants, but with different vowel-points. The root of yapht is pathach, “to make wide.” 

This etymology, however, is not universally accepted, as the word-play is so obvious, and the association of Japheth with Shem (“dark”) and Ham (“black”) suggests a name on similar lines–either gentilic, or descriptive of race. Japheth has therefore been explained as meaning “fair,” from yaphah, the non-Sem and non-Hamitic races known to the Jews being all more or less white-skinned. The Targum of Onkelos agrees with the English Versions of the Bible, but that of Jonathan has “God shall beautify Japheth,” as though from yaphah.

Seven Sons of Japheth (see map below):
    1. Javan (Greece, Romans, Romance — French, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese)
   2. Magog (Scythians, Slavs, Russians, Bulgarians, Bohemians, Poles, Slovaks, Croatians)
   3. Madai (Indians & Iranic: Medes, Persians, Afghans, Kurds)
   4. Tubal (South of Black Sea)
   5. Tiras (Thracians, Teutons, Germans, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Jutes)
   6. Meshech (Russia)
   7. Gomer (Celtic)

 

 

Sources: http://www.freemaninstitute.com/RTGham.htm

http://www.gotquestions.org/racism-Bible.html

http://www.biblestudy.org/question/racism.html

This is a GREAT video on YouTube. Its 28 min long, but well worth the time. The guy in the video is Ken Ham. He’s a very well studied creation-based scientist, and pretty well knows what he’s talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez_eRihgmJ8 He points out the connection between the induction of Darwinism and acceptance of racist-based theology.

 

 

Politics. Stand for someting.

Politics. So many of us are just sick of it. Neither candidate has been telling the whole truth. Neither of them has a perfect voting record. Both of them love to sling mud. Its part of the job. One has to wonder, though, if being in the position of a presidential candidate requires such, let call it cruelty, and a heartlessness that you can publically attack another in front of millions, what else must that person have done to be in that position? Did they have to lie? Cheat? Break IRS tax codes and commit mass corporate deceptions? I’m sure that they did. You can’t get all the way to the top without stepping on a few toes.

 

He taxes too much. If you vote for him you’ll be homeless. If you vote for the other one, your children will starve. But if you vote for the first guy, they’ll lose all their education and become stupid rejects, begging for day-old scraps behind the ghetto bakery. But the other guy will take your job. And the other one will tax your new raise so you actually come home with $5 less every week. One of them will date your mom. The other will shut down her nursing home. One will have dinner with terrorists at Arby’s while the other just sends him a check at Christmas, even though they don’t celebrate Christmas.

 

Here’s what I’m saying: There are bigger issues than whose face is on the front page. Every day 6000 kids are killed by mid-term or later abortion. They refuse to allow Bibles in schools, so Christian parents teach home school, allowing their children to learn math and moral values at the same time. While the schools are taking a massive dump when it comes to value and ethics and crime and teaching self-worth, the state of California just outlawed Christians from their God-given right to teach their own kids. Now they have to send them to the cesspool of a school that will teach anti-creation science, thereby infringing on the rights of students to practice their own religion freely (but don’t worry, they won’t attack Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, pagans, wiccans, Scientologists, etc. Just the Christians.)

 

Let’s see, what else? Lets talk about gay marriage. I’m all for gays to have the right to choose their lifestyle- its their choice. (Just like my kids schooling used to be.) But I’m not for the whole gay-marriage thing. Sure, they can practice it, but that doesn’t really make it a marriage. I know, I know, they’ve redefined what “marriage” is, but it used to be a union before God between a man and a woman. Since most homosexuals don’t believe in or care for God, they can’t really have a union before Him that He will honor. But, what they hey, they ignored my right to practice my faith (only if it’s from the Christian Bible) by ignoring the 1^st amendment, why not ignore the other principals too.

 

So who is going to do what to help me out? Am I personally going to benefit from either party being elected? Maybe, but probably not. There aren’t a whole lot of things that are going to actually make a difference in the way I daily live my life. I could be wrong, but here’s how I look at it:

If one side is accused of overtaxing and the other of allowing abortions, I will sacrifice a couple bucks, even a couple hundred, per year to vote for the sanctity of life.

If one side is accused of sending jobs overseas and the other of limiting free speech, I’m probably going to have to go for free speech. There will always be a need for jobs on the US. They may not be the best, but we have too many people not to need a ton of jobs. We also have a lot of politicians going after free speech, even though the ones attacked are the churches and the right. Hmm.

If one side wants to build a thousand mile fence at the borders and the other wants to let gays marry, I will go for the fence. Those guys are great climbers and if they can get in through, over or under a military fence, then they deserve to stay. For those that can’t, they can still come here, but have to go through the legal process. Meanwhile, I stand up for what I believe regarding gay marriage. I’m not anti-gay, but I’m not pro-gay. I’m just ok-gay; they can do their thing, but I don’t want tax dollars going toward something I find immoral.

Bottom line, I can’t do anything about the politicians. But, then again, I will probably never have to answer to them. I will, however, have to answer to God. I will stand before Him and be able to say that I voted for the things and the principles that are on His side, His Law, and His eternal purpose. I will say that I stood up for hundreds of thousands of innocent children and supported their right to life. I will say that I voted against the activity that led to His destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, the activities that He calls an abomination. I will be able to say that I stood up for His Word, His teaching, for the right to exhibit by faith, to speak freely the gospel. I will say, “Jesus, I stood up for you.”

What do you stand for?

When a Candidate Lies…

In this first video, Barack’s brother says that Barack will be a good Muslim leader and that Jews needn’t worry. There is a picture of Barack Hussein Obama in Muslim dress.

Here in the second video clip, Barack Hussein Obama slips up and, quite comfortably, says, “my Muslim faith.” Only when the guy interviewing Barack corrects him, does Mr. H. Obama try to salvage the slip.

In this third video, it starts off with Barack Hussein Obama’s admition that his Christian church is ok. Then his pastor says “God damn America” There are a lot of YouTube videos about his pastor’s racist & anti-America comments. feel free to search. Then Barack Hussein Obama says he’s been to 57 states, (with 1 to go, Alaska & Hawaii). Theres only 50 US states, but there ARE 57 Islamic states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Hmmm….. There are a lot of pictures that would seem to suggest nothhing but the fact that Barack Hussein Obama has a Muslim background. Whether or not he is now a Muslim is not the issue. The issue is lying to the US people. Also, he lied on the state bar exam in Chicago, saying he’d never been know by any other names, but he was registered at his Indonesian School (as a Muslim) by the name of Barry Soetoro. The lady in the video doesn’t quite read along with the words well, but thats why there’s a pause button.