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BIBLE REF.
Genesis 1:27, 3:20
Ezekiel 36:26
Malachi 2:10
1 Corinthians 15:45
Mark 12:30–31
Acts 17:26
James 2:8–9
The remarkable truth unseen by many, including a lot of Christians, is that only the Bible can consistently account for racism’s origin, wickedness, and solution.
The root cause of racism is sin. Period. It’s been rightly said, “Racism is not a skin problem but a sin problem.” And as I’ve had the
opportunity to travel the world, I have seen this fleshed out. No matter where one goes — Japan, Malaysia, England, Africa, New Zealand, etc. — racism lifts its ugly head in various forms. Different excuses are employed: someone’s from the wrong tribe, the wrong social class, they’re too dark or too light, on and on the list goes. It boils down to the fact that no matter where people live, they all descend from Adam and consequently are sinners. All people in their sinful pride can find any number of reasons to exalt themselves and belittle others.
The biblical worldview not only explains the origin of racism but also why it is fundamentally depraved. The Bible thoroughly documents that all people descend from one man (1 Corinthians 15:45) and one woman (Genesis 3:20), and are of one blood (Acts 17:26; Malachi 2:10). This means that every person who has ever lived traces their family tree back to Adam and Eve, is made in God’s image, is equal in value, and that only one biological race exists — the human race! Racism in any form rejects the equality of every person assigned by the Creator God Himself.
It’s important to note that if evolution were true, it would be impossible to coherently argue that racism is wrong. In the evolutionary worldview, it’s logically expected that some people would be more evolved than others. That’s what Darwin concluded in his book The Descent of Man when he said,
At some future period… the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace
the savage races throughout the world.1
In Darwin’s evolutionary thinking, the more advanced “civilized races” were the Caucasians, and the “savage races” were those of darker skin. Also, if evolution is true and God doesn’t exist, then morality is relative and people are just animals. Why not arbitrarily hate, oppress, or kill someone or a group of people, especially if it increases your survival value? That’s what Hitler did in alignment with his passionate commitment to evolution and eugenics. And again, one cannot authoritatively say that Hitler was wrong without an appeal to God, who is the absolute standard for right and wrong.
With all the commentary on racism today, there’s only one real solution — the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible alone establishes the equality of all people (Genesis 1:27), demands impartial love for all (Mark 12:30–31; James 2:8–9), explains the existence of racism human-wide, and illuminates racism’s sole cure of a changed heart through salvation in the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 36:26)!
1 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (Chicago, IL: Publisher William Benton in Great Books of the Western World, 1952),
p. 336
