Community answers are sorted based on votes. The higher the vote, the further up an answer is.
S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The Old Testament Law commanded the Israelites not to engage in interracial marriage (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). However, the reason for this command was not skin color or ethnicity. Rather, it was religi...
Login or Sign Up to view the rest of this answer.
Mi Shad Ow
I would like to point out Gods point of view according to scripture Num 12. In this chapter Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses b\c he married an Ethiopian woman. The bible does not say exactly what they said, but I believe it is safe to say it was of a racial tone. He then called them by name to come to the door of tent, and dealt with the issue as he saw fit. The other thing I would like to point out is that God made one man and one woman. Everyone after them is kin. The orders he gave in creation was "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind.......after his kind....after his kind....after his kind....after his kind." But to man kind the order was "to be fruitful and multiply". The order was for a man and a woman to multiply. The people who foster\harbor hate mis quote the creation story to suite their dogma. Rom 15:4-7 "were written or our learning.....be likeminded one toward another....receive one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God". Rev. 7:9 "I beheld and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, OF ALL NATIONS, AND KINDREDS, AND PEOPLE, and tongues". We all are family as God had planed.
OHOCHUKWU CC
My opinion on this is that God is not against any race but the wrong belief system of a person, God has children from every race and if you marry one of such children of God irrespective of their race you are not condemned but if you marry from your own race if she or he is not a child of God it is wrong. It is the person and not the race that counts
Danny Hickman
Supporter
The original question was "What can I do to accept a relationship between two people of a different race?" That is quite different from the question being answered: "What does the Bible say of such relationships?" I don't think that is the concern of the person asking the question. I believe he/she is confessing to a struggle to accept the relationship a friend has begun with someone, and is asking for help from the Christian community to deal with it. The real question is, in my opinion, "How do I deal with this?" Years ago my brother got involved with a woman of a different race (no such thing really) and I found myself in the same "predicament." We were raised by Christian parents (Father was a pastor from 1964 until his death in 2012) so you might think it shouldn't have been a "predicament" for a PK like me, but you would be thinking wrong. In the interest of brevity I'll try to answer Anonymous' question without sounding off too much about myself. And therein was the problem and the answer for me, though it took me decades to learn. Instead of loving my brother and others, I had a love affair going on with myself. The first thing to do is to try and end this affair and the Scriptures offer the help we need. The Bible tells us that when God spoke to Abram and told him to leave his homeland, one of the first things he was to do was to "circumcise" himself, an act that symbolizes a permanent change in a person's nature. Then when his children were born he was to circumcise them on the eighth day of their lives. He even had to circumcise the servants (Gen 17: 11-14). Although they were born in sin, they would now be viewed by God in a different way. This had to be very humbling for the patriarch, but I believe he cared more for what God had to say than he did his own feelings. That's the first step in trying to end the love of self affair; consider God's point of view. Lean not to your own intellect and mental process (Prov 3:5,6). This concept is foreign to us when we are still "in the flesh" (uncircumcised). With an uncircumcised heart (genitals are only symbolic) we aren't able to put God or anyone else ahead of the way we feel, whether we believe our feelings are good or bad. We are simply too human. We must ask God to circumcise our heart, our essence, to remove the hardness that occurs during the course of our lives. Another great way to "dump some stock" we've been holding on our own lives is to learn what it feels like to deny ourselves. Fasting is a great way to learn the advantage of not having what you have a right and ability to give yourself. If you're in a relationship with a person and you take away some of the reasons that person became interested in you to begin with, that person will probably start to feel differently about you. The same thing happens when we stop catering to or spoiling ourselves. I believe Moses was thoroughly "Egyptian" before he was forced to run for his life after killing a man "down" in Egypt (Exodus 2:12). After spending 40 years in one of the worst professions of his day however, herding sheep, he was the right man for God to use to bless a whole nation of people, longing to be set free from a life of suffering and sorrow. He was a murderer when he left, a deliverer when he returned, with herding sheep on the "backside of the desert" as his only schooling. Until we see ourselves in the light of God's holiness and our own selfish motivations, we don't stand a chance at putting the concerns of others ahead of our own. I wasn't buying the food, so why was I concerned with whom my brother brought to dinner?
Aija Brauvere
An answer on question - "What does the Bible say about mixed marriages?" I know myself how difficult it can get when one of the two are not in agreement with the Word of God. So, should a believer marry a non - Christian, to join in mixed marriage? According to the Word of God definitely not! Why? For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14). "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." (Ephesians 5:11). Marriage is a commitment. Man is a leader and priest at home. Woman is a teacher and queen. Man ought to love his wife as Christ loves His church. Woman ought to respect her husband. How does the one who are not following Christ's commands to its full extent, are to fulfil these requirements? All relationships are established from the very creation of the world. The life with unbeliever will be breaking oneself in order at least try to live according to the Word of God. It will be constant adaptation to the situation which will be controlled by unbeliever. Unbelievers are not able even to grasp the rules which God provides may couple live as in paradise, if followed. Dear child of God, for your own sake follow the commands of God for they are for your benefit. If Jesus wants you to marry a current unbeliever, He will touch that person's heart. If not, than that is not God's will for your live. He has something far better for you. Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil and He will flee from you. Be still and wait for God to act. Pray earnestly and ask His will, His thoughts and His intentions. He alone is able make a way where is not a way. He alone is able to provide in dried up land. He alone is able to give you all your heart's desires. Just hear and do what He says. Do not trust your feelings and your heart, for God says that our humanly heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. (Jeremiah 17:9). Do not be mingled with the unbelievers for if you do, you will be forced to adapt their customs. You will be forced to forsake Jesus' commands. "Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4). "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7). My prayer for all who are in danger to be mingled with an unbeliever is, may God lead you, guide you and protect from all pure choices. May He is gracious and loving. May He enlighten the eyes of your heart and may you by persistence keeping in His Word are able to resist desires which God forbids, and do not rush into anything without His counsel, instead be patient and wait for the God to bring you where He wants you to be. In precious Jesus name I pray and so it be. "May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." (Psalm20:4). Amen. If you would like to read full article than go here: http://mierscaurpatiesibu.org/should-a-believer-marry-a-non-christian
Joseph Lloyd
Supporter
RACE IS NO FACTOR AT ALL! However, the word tells us that it’s all about believing in God or not. Believers and nonbelievers should not be married, as per the word of God.
James Kraft
First of all, who is a believer and who is an unbeliever? Believers have eternal life because our sin debt is paid in full and we can no longer be condemned. John 3:18. Romans 6:23. The GIFT of God is eternal life. That has nothing to do with how a person lives. Paul said if we are married to an unbeliever and they choose to stay married, then we should stay married. If the unbeliever decides to leave, we should let them leave. As far as race or color or anything else, that has nothing to do with it. They may have trouble in the world because people are bias. We are all sinners and believe certain things whether they are true or not. God does not judge people by color. There are only two kinds of people in the world. Saved ones and lost ones. John 3:18. I have eternal life. John 6:47. All my sins are paid in full and I cannot go to hell because I have no sins to pay for. Jesus already paid for all my sin. First John 2:2. As far as ethnicity, I am mostly German and She is 100% percent British. We are both human. We are both sinners. First John 1:8. But, Christ died for our sins. First Corinthians 15:1-4.
Donald Short
It is my opinion that when people draw distinctions about "race" and "ethnicity" they are doing so at their own peril. In mankind's fallen tendency to obtain and flex earthly power, they completely ignore Paul's teaching in Romans 12:2 to not be conformed to this world. By doing so, in my opinion, they reject the Gospel, as well as Christ's Command to love your neighbor as yourself, in order to establish personal kingdoms instead of pursing the Eternal Kingdom of Christ. The constructs of man, ala Babel, etc., pale by comparison to what awaits us all where our skin color is not the Holy of Holies but where the Holy Spirit resides: in our hearts, the true tabernacle. In this regard, Christ is giving the unbeliever and the apostates over to their master: Caesar. And, THAT will be their reward. The sooner one realizes the consequences, the closer they will be to Christ where these things "down here" don't matter beyond what we do to honor our Lord and Savior!
Jack Gutknecht
Mi Shad Ow referred to Numbers 12. This is a cross-reference to Exodus 2:21-22: "One of the most well-known examples of a diverse marriage in Scripture is Moses the Hebrew/Egyptian and Zipporah a Midianite. “Exodus 2:21-22 says, ‘Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.’” [Moses' sister, Miriam, objected to this marriage, and God gave her leprosy as punishment]. “Someone might argue that these were people who made mistakes, but there is nowhere in the whole Bible where God condemns marrying from another people group unless it was about a greater issue of faith. Jesus Himself was a Jew who had Gentiles in His genealogy." —Emma Danzey Some see "three basic generic types of human beings: the Caucasian, the Negroid, and the Mongoloid. They claim that this is the biblical justification for there being a curse put on the black race, and white people should have no intermarriage with them. This was cited, for example, in the early documents of Mormonism, which was a great embarrassment to them when it was made public a few years ago." --Does God frown upon interracial marriages? —R.C. Sproul BTW, I went to a Mormon church regularly (had to) in Scottsdale, Arizona, when I lived there. My best friends were Mormons and they got me to go. I wanted to play on their basketball team, and in order to be eligible to play, you had to go to their church faithfully. After my folks divorced, my mom and I even had their Mormon missionaries come over to our house and give us their slide presentation of Mormonism. But afterwards, my grandma Mor Mor took my sister and me to a Billy Graham Crusade where I REALLY got saved.
Add your Answer
All answers are REVIEWED and MODERATED.
Please ensure your answer MEETS all our guidelines.
A good answer provides new insight and perspective. Here are guidelines to help facilitate a meaningful learning experience for everyone.
- Adhere to the eBible Statement of Faith.
- Your answer should be complete and stand-alone.
- Include supporting arguments, and scripture references if possible. Seek to answer the "why".
- Adhere to a proper tone and spirit of love and understanding.
- For more info see The Complete Guide to eBible