V.
The New Testament does not impose any sort of
regulations about racial segregation,
nor does it impose any sort of regulations about racial integration. It is
almost silent on the subject. The emphasis is unity under the headship of
Christ
A.
Romans. 12:5 - so we, being many, are one body in
Christ, and individually members of one another.
Romans
12:5
(4 - 5) Bir bedende ayri ayri islevleri olan çok sayida üyemiz oldugu gibi, çok sayida olan bizler de Mesih'te tek bir bedeniz ve birbirimizin üyeleriyiz.
B.
Galatians 3:28 - There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all
one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 Artik ne Yahudi ne Grek, ne köle ne özgür, ne erkek ne disi ayrimi vardir. Hepiniz Mesih Isa'da birsiniz.
C.
Revelations 5:9 - And they sang a new song, saying:
"You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were
slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue
and people and nation,
Revelation 5:10
(9 - 10) Yeni bir ezgi söylüyorlardi: «Tomari almaya ve mühürlerini açmaya layiksin! Çünkü bogazlandin, ve her oymaktan, her dilden, her halktan, her ulustan insanlari kendi kaninla Tanri'ya satin aldin. Onlari Tanrimizin hizmetinde bir krallik haline getirdin, kâhinler yaptin. Dünya üzerinde egemenlik sürecekler.»
D.
Revelations 14:6 - Then I saw another angel flying in the
midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on
the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people
Revelation 14:6
Bundan sonra gögün ortasinda uçan baska bir melek gördüm. Bu melek, yeryüzünde yasayanlara - her ulusa ve her oymaga, her dile ve her halka - iletmek üzere sonsuza dek kalici olan Müjde'yi getiriyordu.
VI. Non-Christian
Viewpoint Historically Motivates Racism
A.
Historically, non-Christian
thinking has actually motivated racist thinking. One example of this type of motivation is derived
from evolutionary theory. A second is a general collectivism and
anti-individualism which results from rejecting a Biblical view of personal
responsibility.
B.
Evolutionary theory allows for
various branches of homo sapiens
development. This
aspect of the theory has suggested to some that other races might have arisen
from lower evolutionary branches. Some evolutionists used to offer studies
supporting "inferiority" hypotheses based on divergences in
evolutionary species' histories. These theorists claimed that what they
considered as "Negroid homo sapiens
evolved much later, and from different sub-sapiens
ancestors, than Caucasoids; and that the resulting differences in Negroid and
Caucasoid brain morphology determine such things as school achievement and
crime rates." These deplorable
conclusions could not have had a starting point on a Biblical account.
C.
Secondly, non-Christian
worldviews have also motivated deathly racist practices over the past century due to the
prevailing collectivism of unbelieving thought. Collectivism, in short, is the
view that the whole of a society is more important or valuable than the
individuals of that society. Marxism, Socialism, Fascism, and a general Statism
are all forms of collectivism.
D.
As a culture rebels against a
Biblical worldview, the people seek to rid themselves of the notion of sin and
individual responsibility.
They will go to great lengths to deny individual culpability, and the culture
will clearly reflect this shift, as ours does. However, once a culture rejects
sin as the result and responsibility of individuals, it must explain the evil
in that culture by imputing wickedness to some other aspect of the world. If
the individual is not the source of evil, then it is natural to make some
collective the source of evil. In this century, collectivists have often blamed
racial groups for cultural decay and "impurity." Asians ("Yellow
Peril"), Blacks, Jewish communities, etc. have all been victims of a
humanism's evasion of individual responsibility. We are well aware of the
millions of individuals slaughtered because of the "evil" of their
race.
E.
Historian Paul Johnson comes
close to the point when he notes that, "Christianity was content with a solitary hate-figure
to explain evil: Satan. But modern secular faiths needed human devils, and
whole categories of them. The enemy, to be plausible, had to be an entire class
or race." A healthy Christian
culture with its doctrines of individual responsibility could not fall into the
racial atrocities of humanism.
VII.
A Biblical Case Against Racism
A.
Christ is
the King of kings and the Lamb of God, whose shed blood has purchased His
people "from every tribe, tongue, and
people, and nation" (Revelations
5:9). Christ's gospel will
lead "all the nations...and many peoples" to stream to His kingdom (Isaiah. 2:3),
and "all the families of the nations will worship before" Christ
"for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He rules over the nations" (Psalm. 22:27,28). The gospel makes race insignificant. There is no
religiously important category for race in the Biblical scheme. The only two
groups who figure into the history of redemption are covenant-keepers and
covenant-breakers, believers and unbelievers. Since Christ, as Lord of His
church, has given us such great promises as those above, we should expect that
the ethical imperatives of scripture would prohibit racist practices and
attitudes. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.
VIII.
The Norm: The Sixth Commandment
A.
Biblical argument against
racism is found in the Decalogue. The sixth commandment forbids us to take the life of
another. Christ argues that the implications of this commandment are far deeper
than simple murder. The Lord teaches us that the commandment also condemns vile
mockery and unexpressed hateful heart attitudes (Matthew.
5: 21, 22). He
rescues this law from those who had clouded it with their human traditions.
-
Matthew
5:21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, F18 and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause F19 shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.
-
Matthew 5:21
«Atalarimiza, 'Adam öldürme. Öldüren, yargilanmayi hak edecek' denildigini
duydunuz. 22 Ama ben size diyorum ki, kardesine karsi öfkelenen her kisi yargilanmayi hak edecek. Kim kardesine asagilayici bir söz söylerse, Yüksek Kurul'un yargisini hak edecek. Kim kardesine ahmak derse, cehennem atesini hak edecek.
IX. The
Situation: All Nations of One Blood in the Image of God
A.
A second Biblical argument against racism is found in a Biblical
understanding of our situation. We see this highlighted in Paul's testimony to
the Athenian humanists. As noted above, evolutionary theory has been used to
motivate racial hatred, but Paul rules out any such option when he declares
that God "made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their
habitation" (Acts 17:26). Though we are not all of the same
family of faith, we are all part of the same ultimate genetic family. If all
humans descend from the same parents, then no one segment can be inherently
inferior to others.
B.
Moreover, since all of mankind
has descended from the original parents, and the parents were made in the image of God (Genesis. 1: 26), all of their descendants reflect the image of God as
well. This point brings out the particular heinousness of racist attitudes. To
treat a member of another ethnic group as inferior is to despise the face of
God. And to despise the face of God is to invite His wrath.
C.
We can see this standard of
color blindness implied in the case law of Scripture:
1. I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases
between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his
fellowcountryman, or the alien who is with
him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You
shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's (Deuteronomy 1:16,17).
2.
There
shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the
native, for I am the Lord your God (Leviticus. 24:22)
X. Contrary
to the claims of some, the Bible makes no direct claims about the origin of the
races.
A.
In fact, the Bible is
remarkably silent on this issue.
The first mention of race occurs many thousands of years after the flood, in
the book of Numbers, describing the marriage of Moses to a Cushite woman (the
Cushites were black). King
Solomon also married a black women, which is described in his book, the Song of
Songs. The book of Jeremiah
describes the Ethiopians as dark-skinned peoples, but not how they got that
way. Other than these few
verses, the Old Testament is entirely silent about when and how the races
originated.
1.
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had
married (for he had married a Cushite woman); and they said,
"Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through
us as well?" And the LORD heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble,
more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) (Numbers 12:1-3)
2.
"I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon." (Song of Songs 1:5)
3.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then
you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil." (Jeremiah 13:23)
Revelation
7:9
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could
count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm
branches were in their hands;
Revelation 7:9
Bundan sonra gördüm ki, her ulustan, her oymaktan, her halktan ve her dilden
oluşan, kimsenin sayamayacağı kadar büyük bir kalabalık
tahtın ve Kuzu'nun önünde duruyordu. Hepsi de birer beyaz kaftan
giyinmişti ve ellerinde hurma dalları vardı.
Biblical
References in English: New American Standard Bible and New King
James Bible. http://bible.crosswalk.com/
Biblical
References in Turkish: http://unbound.biola.edu/
NOTE: All
Turkish language references are only available for the New Testament from http://unbound.biola.edu/ .
Disclaimer: The
author of this paper makes no claim to speak the Turkish language. All Turkish New Testament references were
copy/pasted directly from the Internet Web Site above.
