Race Relations Emphasis Sunday Series

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.