The opposition to interracial marriage goes beyond personal opinion. There are numerous Christians who believe God does not intend or desire interracial marriage. These Christians do not come from minority denomination but remain Bible believing Evangelical Christians. They believe God created and loves all races, but He does not honor the mixing of these races. After all God set the bounds of these races and their inhabitants seen in scripture. “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man He set the boundaries of the peoples…” (Deut. 32:8). Plus, the origin of races comes from God’s desire to separate the people at the Tower of Babel. In the New Testament they refer to Acts 17:26, “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” These and other verses point to the fact that God has made man distinctly different. These Christians believe God never intended the human race to become a mixed mongrel race. God separated mankind at the Tower of Babel, not to return to each other but to fellowship within themselves. This paper will address five reasons interracial marriage should not only be accepted but encouraged in the Christian community.
First, all people and races are made in the image of God. The Bible says that the human race came from one pair, Adam and Eve, who were created in the image of God unlike the animals; this image is passed on to the human race. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Again in Genesis 5:1-3, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them.” The theologian Wayne Grudem says “the fact that man is in the image of God means that man is like God and represents God” (442). This image barring has been past down from generation to generation.
In the book of Acts Paul makes a defining statement, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (17:26). This means that Adam, who was created in the image of God, is the father of all ethnic groups. As John Piper posits “all of them (humans) are dignified above the animals in this absolutely unique and glorious way: humans are created in the image of God” (Piper, Racial Harmony). The implications mean that all men must be treated with dignity and respect that is due to God’s image-bearer. It means that people of every race deserve equal dignity and rights.
Second, the Bible forbids intermarriage between unbeliever and believer, but not between races. 1 Corinthians 7:39 says, “A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” The one biblical restriction on the couple is that they must be “in the Lord.” To say it differently, the partner must be a believer in Jesus. The same warnings were given in the Old Testament about marrying those among the pagan nations. The point was never to protect racial purity but to protect religious purity. Deuteronomy 7:3-4 is one example, “You shall not intermarry with [the nations]; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. As John Piper concludes, “the issue is not color mixing, or customs mixing, or clan identity. The issue is: will there be one common allegiance to the true God in this marriage or will there be divided affections?” (Piper, Racial Harmony). As 2 Corinthians 6:14 clearly states the Bible prohibits marriage between a believer and non-believer. This is what would be expected if our identity is not found in our ethnic race but our reflection of God’s image.
The third biblical consideration towards understanding interracial marriage is the fact that our oneness in Christ transforms and reconciles our social differences. The transformation changes what would be the barriers to blessings. Colossians 3:9-1 says, “You have put off the old self with its practices have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” The point here is not to say all ethnic races will get along. The truth is that within Christ’s image people can share intimate relationship with people of other ethnic backgrounds. The final image in heaven is that of “every tribe and language and people and nation” worshiping God (Revelation 7:9). God values and honors the differences because they reflect his glory.
The fourth point for understanding Christian interracial marriage is the fact that God created human marriage after the pattern of Christ’s relation to the church. As Geoffrey Bromiley has written, “As God made man in his own image, so he made marriage in the image of his own eternal marriage with his people” (43). In Ephesians 5:28 it says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” If the metaphor is taken seriously and literally one can look at Christ interaction with the church and see similar parallels to the blessings found in marriage. There is no disagreement over the fact that God desires for the church to be comprised of diverse ethnicities. The great commission was in a sense a call to unite the nations or ethnic groups through the gospel (Matt. 28:19-20). Paul makes his point emphatic to the Romans. The church and the gospel message is not for one people group but for all, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16, 17). God’s desire to see all the nations come together as the one universal church will one day be seen. John in the book of Revelations says, “…behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation all tribes and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb…” (7:9). The imagery of the church is anything but separated from the races. The literal reading of scripture points to God’s desire for all the nations to be united through the gospel, established in the church. How literal the church and the bride relate to physical marriage is debated. Nevertheless Scripture is clear that the union of differing races is not frowned upon by God but actually favored.
The fifth and final point in understanding how God views interracial marriage is seen how God severely disciplined people who criticized interracial marriage. In the book of Numbers Moses, a Jew apparently married a black African, which was approved by God. Numbers 12:1 says, “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite women whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.” Roy Gane gives three possible explanations to the meaning of a “Cushite women” (1) Zippora is of mixed Midianite-African ancestry. (2) “Cush” in this context is a place in Midianite territory (cf. “Cushan” in Hab. 3:7). (3) Miriam and Aaron make an ethnic slur by liking Zipporah’s darker skin to that of an African (590). The third option seems to be best supported by Scripture. For example, Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.” J. Daniel Hays, From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race, also confirms this point when he says that Cush “is used regularly to refer to the area south of Egypt, and above the cataracts on the Nile, where a Black African civilization flourished for over two thousand years. Thus it is quite clear that Moses marries a Black African woman.” (71). Therefore the evidence seems to be clear that Moses married a woman who was of a different race than himself.
The significance of this story is that God does not get angry with Moses for marrying a woman of dark skin, but he gets angry at Miriam for criticizing Moses. The criticism has to do with Moses’ authority and marriage. The more explicit statement relates to his marriage, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite women whom had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. The crazy part of the story is God getting angry at Moses’ sister, Miriam, and placing a “curse” upon her. “When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow” (Numbers 12:10). God never says a critical word to Moses for marrying a black woman, but rather speaks against those who rebuke Moses. If there was a time for God to rebuke interracial marriage it would have been at this time. Moses was Israel’s leader and prophet, someone Israel looked up to and followed, surely God would have corrected Moses if he had made a mistake.
