Race Relations Emphasis Sunday
February 10 ,2002
Good evening cousins. That’s right we are not only Brothers and Sisters in Christ, but we are also blood relatives, even though it may be distant relatives.
Today is Race Relations Emphasis Sunday. We will discuss how we are all related no matter what race we are. How the different races came about. What injustices has occurred over the years and what we, as Disciples of Christ, should be doing in bringing about racial reconciliation.
Let’s read:
Gen 1:26-28
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
(NIV)
Let’s look at:
Gen 3:20
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
(NIV)
Going back and studying Bible references and using the Strong’s Greek and Hebrew dictionary, I am convince that God created one man and created one woman from that man. So as the Bible says in many places, even in the New Testament, Eve is the mother of all mankind and we are all from the blood of Adam.
I have heard many people ask where did Adam’s sons get their wives if God did not create other people and how could the earth become so populated by the time of the Flood of Noah. Well let’s address these questions.
In
Gen 5:4
4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
(NIV)
As we see in the above verse, Adam and Eve didn’t just have Seth, Able and Cain, they had other sons and daughters. So you still ask where did Seth get his wife? Seth’s wife was either his sister or his niece. In these days of old there were no marriage ceremonies, when a young man and young woman had sexual relations they were considered married in God’s eyes. It isn’t until the third book of the Bible (the book of Leviticus) that God tells His people not to have sexual relations or marriage with close relatives.
Let’s read:
Lev 18:6
6 "’No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
(NIV)
So up until this time, people were marring close relatives. But you still ask how could the earth get so populated by the time of Noah.
In school math was my best subject, even calculus. I admit I don’t remember much about algebra and calculus today, but in reading the account of Adam’s life in Genesis 5:1-32 we can estimate what the population could have been. The average life span of people from Adam to Noah time is over 900 years. I think it is safe to assume that the gestation period for human birth was 9 months back then, just as it is today. With Adam living to be 930 year old, he and Eve could possibly have had over 700 to 800 children. Remember the earth was new and man hadn’t corrupted it with poisons and diseases.
The first generation consisted of two people, Adam and Eve. The second generation consisted of their children possibly 800. This second generation could have produced as many as 320,000 offsprings. There are 8 generations between Adam and Noah, not counting Adam and Noah generation. If you remember how to do calculus, then you can do the math, but it is very possible that by the time of the flood, there could have been billions of people here on this earth.
So all people, all races, came from the same original parents, Adam and Eve. To add more evidence that we are all related let’s read:
Gen 7:6-7
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
(NIV)
Now let’s read:
Gen 7:21-23
21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished-- birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
(NIV)
When God sent the flood, all humans were killed except for Noah and his wife and their three sons and their wives. All people on the face of the earth was killed except for these 8 people.
Let’s read:
Gen 9:1
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
(NIV)
So we see again that we are all blood relatives through Noah and his descendants. Some Biblical scholars seem to think that this is where the different races or colors of skin originated. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia and the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary and others, tells us that the name Ham also represents the color black, the name Japheth represents fair skin and Noah’s son Elam’s name represents the color dusty or brown. So this could account for the difference of skin colors. Also the Bible tells us the area that each of Noah’s sons inhabited. The regions were in different areas. Each son, going in a different direction to start populating the earth again.
So what about the languages. That is easy.
Let’s read about the tower of Babel:
Gen 11:6-9
6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel-- because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
(NIV)
We see from this where the different languages of the world came from and also that the people were scattered over the face of the whole earth.
Even in the New Testament, we are told exactly the same thing that the Old Testament has been telling us.
Let’s read:
Acts 17:26
26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
(NIV)
When did the world learned to hate different races of people? Even during the time that Christ walked on this earth, the Jews hated the Samaritans and both hated the gentiles.
I was born in 1947 and grew up in North Carolina. I remember the persecution that the Black race of people went through. I remember the burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan and their cowardly acts of wearing the white hooded robes. I remember the signs on motels, stores and restaurants that read white only. The signs on buses that read colored stands in the back. I remember my Granddaddy tell a black man "don’t look at me boy, you better look down when I am talking to you." We as white people did a huge injustice toward the black people. It is still taking place today. What is the most segregated organization today? It is our churches. Look around. How many people do you see of other races? Do you get my point?
It isn’t only the African American people that we have mistreated, what happened to the American Indians? During the 1800’s we murdered them for their land and forced them to live on reservations. During World War II, we imprisoned many innocent Asians living in the United States. During the early western days, we killed and took land from the Mexicans. So why would any of these ethic groups trust white people?
Are things any different today? There isn’t the mass outward appearance of racism today, but it still exists in the hearts of people. The TV news programs have done shows where a white man and a black man have gone to purchase a car. The white man was better treated and got the better deal on the same identical car. Again a white man and a black man have applied for the same job and the white man got the job, even though the black man was much better qualified for that job. This prejudice even exists with Christians. I left a church here in Hobbs because of racial comments the members made even inside of the church. A lot of the time we don’t understand others unless we walk a mile in their shoes. In you mind, change places with your black brother. What would be your attitude toward the people that persecuted your grandparents and are still not accepting you as equals?
Do you have any close friends of another race? Do you have any friends of another race? When you talk with someone of a different race, is what you are saying different from what you are thinking? Do you feel superior to other races? Maybe this is why a lot of our Churches are still segregated. We must reach out to all people.
The sixth promise of a Promise Keeper is this:
A Promise Keeper is committed to reach beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity.
In other words we must tear down the walls that separates us from our brothers and sisters of other races and cultures. We are all one body in Christ. Without one part the body can’t function to it’s fullest. We must learn to love one and another. We must learn to put aside our differences and look to the oneness in Christ. We must learn to treat everyone equally no matter the color of his or her skin. We need to pray that God will make us color blind, remember God made all the different colors of man in God’s on image. We need to pray for a spirit of humility. We are no better than any other race of people. Hitler thought that the German peoples was superior to all other races, but where is Hitler today?
I think the following scripture says it all. If we have love in our hearts, then there can’t be any hate toward other races. We must love and treat all races of people, as we would want to be treated. You can’t love someone and not respect them.
Let’s read:
I Jn 4:7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
(NIV)
Are you here tonight and don’t have the love of God? If the love of God is not in you, then you don’t love God. God loved us so much that He sent His only Son who live a sinless life to take on our sins, so that we could have an eternal life with God when we die. A person who loves is a content person, but the person who hates is a miserable person. By accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, God lives in you and you in God. We go through out life looking for love, but the love that we need is right here in front of us, the perfect love of God. If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, come down to the altar now and start experiencing the true love that you have been looking for all of your life.
For those of us that do know the Lord as our Savior, we need to ask God to forgive us of all of our injustices that we have done to our brothers and sisters of other races, whether in thoughts or actual deeds. Let’s reach out to others of different races and cultural backgrounds. You may be surprised at what blessings you may receive by doing so.
