Is Christianity “white” and Western?
Genesis 11:31One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans.
Matthew 1:1This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham.
Abraham came from Ur (modern-day Iraq), an Eastern country. Jesus, like most of the people in the Bible, was Jewish, a descendant of Abraham. He was brown, not white. Naturally, when people in Europe became Christians, the artwork they made of Jesus was based on the people they saw around them. In more recent centuries, as Western missionaries shared their faith, the pictures and images they shared of Jesus were from their white Western culture—creating the mistaken impression that Jesus was white. Nowadays, Christian artists in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and all over the world often paint Jesus like the people they know. With that said, Jesus was Jewish, and should be portrayed as Jewish. His racial and cultural context played an important role in God’s plan.
Numbers 12:6-8The Lord said to them, “. . . why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”
Esther 4:15-16Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”
Luke 1:38Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”
John 21:16Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.” “Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.
The most famous heroes of Scripture: Moses, Elijah, David, Esther, Mary, Peter, Paul, etc., were not white. The vast majority of people in Scripture were brown-skinned and came from Middle Eastern people groups, not from the European West.
1 Kings 10:1, 6-9When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, which brought honor to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. . . . She exclaimed to the king, “Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true! . . . Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel.”
Jeremiah 38:7-12Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. . . . “My lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone.” So the king told Ebed-melech, “Take thirty of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.”
Luke 23:26As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
Acts 8:27-38So he [Philip] started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. . . . Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
One of King Solomon’s most distinguished visitors was the Queen of Sheba, whom many scholars believe was black. The prophet Jeremiah was saved from starvation by a black man. Simon of Cyrene (modern Libya) may have been black. The Ethiopian eunuch was most likely black. These are just a few (of many) examples of black people playing important and honorable roles in the history of the Christian faith.
Acts 10:1-47In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. . . . Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” . . . Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?”
Cornelius may be the only named white believer we know of in the entire Bible. Cornelius was an Italian Roman soldier and the first known Gentile to become a believer. The beauty of Cornelius’s story is that it highlights how a non-Jew from a foreign land like Cornelius—someone who “didn’t belong”—was welcomed into the family of believers and confirmed by the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:7-12“How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
Revelation 7:9-10I 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. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”
The Bible does not limit God’s Good News to any one race or cultural context. Every race and every culture is offered the message of God’s forgiveness and grace. In eternity, we will worship God together in many languages yet with one voice!
