What is racism?
• Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or a group of people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
• Racism is the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.”
SCRIPTURES on RACISM
1. “For God so loved the WORLD, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
2. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all ONE IN CHRIST JESUS.” (Galatians 3:28)
3. “For God shows no PARTIALITY.” (Romans 2:11)
4. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into ONE BODY—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)
5. “So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no PARTIALITY, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is ACCEPTABLE to him.” (Acts 10:34-35)
6. “Do not judge by APPEARANCES, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24)
7. “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks ON THE HEART.” (1 Samuel 16:7b).
8. “And he made NO DISTINCTION between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:9)
9. “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.” (James 2:8)
10. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)
TWO BIBLICAL EVENTS THAT ARE MISUSED AND ABUSED
• The Bible mentions families, tribes, peoples, and nations. When the word “race” comes up in Scripture, it is referring to these categories.
• However, some passages in the Bible have been used to separate people on the basis of race. For example, in the story of Cain and Abel, Cain kills his brother Abel out of anger and jealousy. As punishment, God cursed Cain to wander the world aimlessly and placed a mark on Cain so that others would not kill him.
• Some have taught that this mark was a different skin color, the first racial designation, passed down through Cain. That is simply not what the text says. The Bible says the mark was a clear warning that “anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” The mark was not intended for others, only one man.
• The story of the Tower of Babel is also occasionally used as a reference for race resulting from divine action. During a time when “the whole world had one language and a common speech,” people decided to build themselves a tower that reached the heavens to become like God himself. But God stopped them by confusing their language. However, as mentioned earlier, language and race are not the same thing. God scattered them by introducing different languages, not different races.
HERE IS A WARNING FROM THE FATHER ABOVE - 1 John 2:11
"But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
WHY RACISM IS A SIN.
1. We are all made in the IMAGE OF GOD (Gen. 1:27). God declared, “Thou shall Not murder” Why? We are made in the Image of God. Murder is wrong. Abortion is wrong. Iincredibly, some of the same people who hate racism, are 100% for abortion. That is a total contradiction. That is playing both sides of the ball. No man serve two masters. If God's Word is your authority, you have no other choice.
2. We are all sinners corrupted by the FALL OF MAN (Rom. 3:10-20). Everyone is made in the image of God and has also had that image tainted and marred by original sin. All have the same image; all have the same problem. The issue is SIN, not SKIN. We are more alike than we are different.
3. As believers in Jesus, we are all ONE IN CHRIST (Gal. 3:28).
The issue with God is not Race or Face, it is GRACE. If you have received that, then we bleed the same blood and we are saved by the same blood……the very blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. His blood covers the sins of any person of any color as long as they come to God through His Son, Jesus Christ. When that happens, that person is placed into the forever family of God and they become my brother or my sister in Christ. We are F-A-M-I-L-Y!!!!
4. Separating peoples was a CURSE from Babel (Gen. 11:7-9); Bringing people together was a gift from Pentecost (Acts 2:5-11). If you want to see the real heart of God about Racism…..look at Pentecost. People from every tribe, tongue and color coming together to worship Christ as Lord and to start the Church as one family of God.
5. PARTIALITY is a sin (James 2:1). When we treat people unfairly, as James teaches, and we favor one person over another simply because of their wealth, it is a very sinful thing to do in the eyes of a holy God.
6. We are all descended from the same PARENTS.
• Every human being is descended from Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28). As a result, “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20).
• As Scripture notes, the Lord “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). Because of the Flood, all of humanity can trace our ancestry to Noah as well (Genesis 9:1).
7. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). Hatred is murder of the heart, because hatred looks at someone else or some other group and thinks, “I wish you weren’t around. That’s like murder. You want to do away with someone. You say to them, “You are what’s wrong with this world" and "the world would be better without people like you.” That’s hate, which sounds an awful lot like murder. And that’s exactly what Hitler did to the Jews in Germany. SIX MILLION WERE MURDERED just because of prejudice.
8. Christ came to TEAR DOWN WALLS between people and not build them up (Eph. 2:14).
Racism builds walls between people, not bridges. Jesus came to tear those walls down.
9. Christ came to die for the sins of the WHOLE world (I John 2:1-2).
God so loved the world. A certain Chris Woodberry took the time to estimate the number of the white population worldwide. The result: 760 Million, which represents 10% of the actual world population of 7.5 billion. In my opinion, this estimate is very generous including many hispanic, Ural caucasians and mixed whites . God loved the whole world. Christ died for the whole world. The whole Gospel is for the whole world.
10. Christ commanded us to love everyone everywhere with AGAPE love, even our enemies.
Agape love means unconditional love!
My dear brother or sister, If you refuse to love others simply because of the color of their skin......you absolutely cannot say that you are following Jesus (John 15:1-7). Let Him take away the bitterness, prejudice and anger that you are carrying and let Him fill your heart with His unconditional love.
R – efuse to accept cultural prejudice.
A – accept others in the love of Christ.
C – onform to Christ’s way of viewing people
I – nitiate agape love into all relationships
S – peak up when racism shows up.
M – ake a commitment to peace
