What Should We Believe About “Interracial” Marriage?

When I speak on the race issue, first I go to God’s Word to understand what God clearly teaches about the human race.

1. God made one man at the beginning.

   “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7).

   “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45).

2. Then we learn there was only one woman to begin with.

   “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:21–22).

   “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20).

3. All human beings descended from Adam and Eve. This means there is only one race of humans biologically.

   “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place” (Acts 17:26).

Yes, all humans belong to one biological race descended from the first man and woman.

All humans belong to one biological race descended from the first man and woman.

Biblical Anthropology: Confirmed by Science

In the year 2000, the Human Genome project mapped the sequence of the human genome, and when they released their findings to the world, they stated,

Dr. Venter [head of the Celera Genomics Corporation, Rockville, MD] and scientists at the National Institutes of Health recently announced that they had put together a draft of the entire sequence of the human genome, and the researchers had unanimously declared, there is only one race – the human race.1

That’s exactly what we would expect based on the history of humanity that the Bible reveals—there is only one human race.

This means all humans belong to one human family. We are all related to each other, and all have the same two ancestors from 6,000 years ago, Adam and Eve. There is only one race biologically according to Scripture and confirmed by observational science. As I said earlier, this means there is no such thing as “interracial marriage” from a perspective of biology.

A Spiritual “Intermarriage”

However, there is an issue in regard to spiritual “interracial” marriage. Consider this principle given in Scripture for us that also applies to marriage:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Applied to marriage, this principle means a Christian should never knowingly marry a non-Christian. Remember, one of the primary importances of marriage is to produce godly offspring. Sadly, many marriages end up in trouble because this principle of Christians only marrying Christians wasn’t adhered to. Also, such “spiritually mixed” marriages can result in a godly legacy not being passed on to the next generation.

Some Christian leaders claim God teaches the so-called “races” of people be kept separate because he told the Israelites not to marry into other groups of people. For instance, God told the Israelites not to marry the Canaanites. But Rahab, a Canaanite who helped the Israelite spies at Jericho is in the lineage leading to the God-man, Jesus, in Matthew 1 and is also listed in Hebrews chapter 11 as a person of great faith.

Who a Christian should marry has nothing to do with ethnicity but with the spiritual state of one’s heart.

It’s obvious Rahab stopped being a Canaanite spiritually (rejecting the Canaanite pagan religion) and became an Israelite spiritually (believing and trusting in the one true God) and thus was free to marry an Israelite. This clearly shows the Bible isn’t speaking of “interracial” marriage in a biological sense. The interracial marriage the Bible speaks against is the marriage between the two spiritual races—the godly “race” and the ungodly “race.” Who a Christian should marry has nothing to do with ethnicity but with the spiritual state of one’s heart (and many need to be reminded in our day that while biology doesn’t matter when it comes to ethnicity, biology (genetics—e.g., XY male and XX female) does matter when it comes to male and female! God’s design for marriage is one man and one woman. See Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 and Matthew 19:4–5).

When you then apply this, if two Christians get married and one has a light shade of skin and one a dark shade (all humans are the same basic color, just different shades), this is not a “biracial” couple. This is a one-race couple! This also means there are no “biracial” children as all of us belong to one race.

Don’t Talk About “Races”

Christians should be using terminology consistent with God’s Word and science to help people understand the truth concerning Homo sapiens.

Because all humans belong to one race—all descendants of Adam—this means all humans are sinners, and all are in need of trusting Christ for salvation.

I urge people to not use the term “races” but to instead use the term “people groups” when referring to humans from different cultures. We also need to stop using terms like “biracial” as all humans belong to one race.

Because all humans belong to one race—all descendants of Adam—this means all humans are sinners, and all are in need of trusting Christ for salvation. That’s why Christians need to proclaim the truth of the gospel to everyone, to all tribes and nations.

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. (Revelation 14:6)

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. (Revelation 7:9)

What a difference it would make if every person started looking on everyone else as one of their relatives, a member of our extended family!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.