Does the Bible support racism?
Genesis 1:27So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Psalm 139:13-14You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
All human beings are created in the image of God. Whoever you are—whatever your skin color, whether you’re a man or a woman, old or young—you are made in God’s image. Your value comes from the fact that God made you and loves you.
Revelation 7:9After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.
Scripture makes it clear that eternity will be a kaleidoscope of cultures! Our heritage and culture doesn’t affect our salvation, but it is part of who we are and what eternity will look like.
Genesis 9:20-25After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked. When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: “May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”
Genesis 10:6The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
“The Curse of Ham” is a famous racist claim. Beginning in the 16th century or so, pro-slavery advocates started using Genesis 9 as a text to justify enslaving Africans. In this passage, Noah’s son, Ham, looks at his drunken and naked father. Instead of covering Noah to reduce his embarrassment, Ham leaves him there and goes to tell his brothers—possibly to mock Noah. Shem and Japheth, in contrast, carefully cover their father without looking at his naked body. When Noah learns what happened, he pronounces a curse to punish Ham’s sin. Slavery proponents noted that Ham was the ancestor of Africans, so therefore, slavery was a just fulfillment of Noah’s curse. Some even claimed that dark skin was a sign of this curse.
This interpretation blatantly ignores central points of the passage. For one, the “curse of Ham” is a misnomer, a misinterpretation of Scripture. The curse was directed at Ham’s son Canaan, not Ham himself. Though Scripture isn’t explicit, many suspect Canaan was involved in the sordid event—which would explain Noah’s choice to curse him. That curse was later fulfilled in the conflict between the Israelites and the Canaanites. Ham’s other sons—Cush, Mizraim, and Put—are the ones historically identified with starting nations in Africa, and they had nothing to do with the events in Genesis 9. The “curse of Ham” is a horrific example of twisting Scripture to justify human sin—in this case, the sin of human slavery.
Genesis 15:16“After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
Deuteronomy 12:29-31“When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. . . . for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.”
Deuteronomy 7:1-4“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods.”
Did God call Israel to commit genocide? The destruction of the Canaanite peoples is an uncomfortable topic. This is a question commonly asked of God’s character. While it is a large subject with many pieces, here are a few insights from Scripture that can give us confidence in God’s goodness.
First, God showed mercy until judgment was unavoidable. In Genesis 15, he specifically told Abraham that the sins of the people of Canaan were not yet significant enough to warrant their destruction. Second, Some sins of the Canaanites were truly horrific. Child sacrifice was just one of the evil practices God was punishing in his judgment. Third, some specific Canaanites were spared, such as Rahab and her family who trusted in God (Joshua 2). Fourth, God prohibited marriage with the Canaanites based on their beliefs, not their race. Rahab (a Canaanite) and Ruth (a Moabite) were both foreigners who rejected their false gods to worship the one true God. They are both listed in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1).
Leviticus 19:9-10“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 19:33-34“Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
God insisted that foreigners should be treated the same as Israelites. Typically, a resident alien wouldn’t own land. They might be struggling to learn a new language, and their unfamiliarity with their environment would make them easy victims for financial abuse. Not only did God sternly condemn such abuse, but he instituted a financial safety net: gleaning. Gleaning was a practice of leaving the leftovers of a harvest out in the fields and allowing the poor to harvest it for their own food. God made it clear that his love was not limited only to Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8“You are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. . . . The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors.”
Deuteronomy 9:4-6“After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No . . . The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.”
God’s special care for Israel had nothing to do with racial superiority, political strength, or even moral merit. Instead, it had everything to do with God’s loving fulfillment of promises he had freely given.
Genesis 22:18“Through your [Abraham’s] descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
Numbers 15:14-15“If any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, they must follow these same procedures. Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the Lord and are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation.”
1 Kings 8:41-43“In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you [the Lord]. . . . all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do.”
Isaiah 49:6He [the Lord] says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Throughout Scripture, God made it clear that he was not only Israel’s God—he was the God of everyone. Israel was a key part of his plan to bless all the nations of the earth. While that plan was not made clear until Jesus came, throughout the Old Testament many non-Jews who came to know and love the God of Israel.
Acts 10:34-35Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.”
Acts 11:2-18When Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said. Then Peter told them exactly what had happened. . . . “And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.”
Ephesians 2:11-14Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. . . . but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
The Jews had a history of conflict with non-Jews (Gentiles). The Jews were called to reject the idolatry of the cultures around them and follow God’s instructions. Because of this—and because of the centuries of persecution and oppression they had experienced from other nations—the Jews viewed Gentiles as enemies of God. The first Christians were Jewish, and they felt the same way. Yet God soon showed them his plan was bigger than they had imagined. Strangers, invaders, and enemies had now become brothers and sisters in Christ!
Romans 2:28-29You are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit.
Galatians 3:28There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:8-9God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Colossians 3:11In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
Most of us are Gentiles. We don’t have a Jewish heritage. We aren’t part of God’s chosen people by birth or by a circumcision ceremony. But our salvation isn’t dependent on our race. It isn’t dependent on our gender. It isn’t dependent on our education, our financial means, our social status, or religious ceremonies and good deeds. We all belong to God’s family because we believe in God’s freely given gift.
