The Bible provides a far more comprehensive worldview for understanding justice, morality, identity, and the solution not only to interpersonal problems, but to the foremost problem of all: sinful humanity’s separation from a holy God.

Racism based on skin shade has, sadly, dramatically increased in recent decades as new philosophies in support of racism have become popular. The issue of race is impacting churches, causing division among Christ-followers, and conveying a poor reflection of Christ to the world. However, history, science, genetics, and the Bible provide a basis for rejecting all forms of racism. The Bible provides the only answer to racial unity.

The Bible accurately describes the origin of the universe, including the origin of humans. Rather than the term race,^{1, 2} Scripture uses the Greek term ethnos, which gives us the English word ethnicity. Ethnos is used more than 160 times in the New Testament and often translated as “nations”. For example, in Matt 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (ethnos)”. One influential Greek lexicon³ defines ethnicity as “a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and common traditions”, forming a nation or a people. Kinship, culture, and common traditions blend together to form ethnicity. Ethnicity has little to do with skin color. People who have the same skin color may not have the same ethnicity, and vice versa.

Today’s different ethnicities initially emerged about 100 years after the Flood. Genesis 11 records the Babel account where God confused the languages of a small, intermingled population. Cultures and patterns of thinking formed within the language groups that dispersed from Babel. These events are in the providence of God, as we read in Acts 17:26: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” Therefore, it is not wrong to recognize ethnic distinctions.

Christianity Is for All Descendants of Adam

Christianity encompasses all ethnicities. All people are connected to Adam both biologically and federally. Therefore, because of original sin, everyone is born estranged from God, and all break His commandments through sin. There is no difference in the condition of sinners due to age, ethnicity, or sex; all stand condemned before God’s law. All human relationships, systems, and institutions have been affected by sin. In addition to being one human family, all humans are also related to Jesus, who was physically born of Mary, a descendant of Adam and Eve. This makes it possible for Jesus to be the kinsman-redeemer for all people, ransoming/redeeming His own kin. Jesus claimed that salvation comes from the Jews (John 4:22) because He Himself was a Jew, in the lineage of David, of the tribe of Judah, who descended from Abraham. Yet, salvation is available to all people of every ethnicity through Jesus, consistent with God’s promise to Abraham in Gen 12:2–3, “And I will make of you a great nation … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Is It Sin?

The term racism is being used today to label as sin things that are not sin. For clarity, rather than labeling things ‘racist’ or ‘not racist’, here are examples of what is and is not sin.⁴

Not Sin

It is not a sin to have a dominant ethnic group in a geographical area. Ethnicity is connected to family. Family is the basic institution of civilization. Large families that work together over time will become dominant as they form alliances with other families (e.g., through marriage). Those alliances form civilization and government.

Sin

It is a sin to hate individuals or seek to harm them because they have a certain skin shade. Jesus teaches us to love people of all nations/ethnicities by bringing them the gospel (Matt 28:19). This logically includes people with various skin shades in those nations.

Not Sin

It is not a sin to note general characteristics within ethnic groups. E.g., Germans are known for good engineering, the French make good wine, some of the fastest long-distance runners in the world are from East Africa, etc. Although generalizations can be made, it does not mean that every individual in that ethnicity has those characteristics. E.g., Not every single German is a good engineer. In the same way, it is not a sin to note general negative characteristics. God does this with the Canaanites. As an ethnic group, they were characterized by perversion and evil (Deut 20:18). In Titus 1:12–13, the Cretans are described as liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Not all ethnic groups have the same characteristics. The distinctions are part of God’s plan.

Sin

It is a sin for courts to prejudice for or against individuals because of their skin shade. Justice is to be a principle that is blind. Scriptural standards of justice are to be equally applied to all. Not treating people impartially is an abomination to God (Deut 25:13–16). The New Testament repeats this: “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin…” (James 2:9). God commands: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24). Hypocritical/self-righteous judgments are forbidden (Matt 7:3–5).

Not Sin

It is not a sin to voluntarily associate with people you are most familiar with.

Sin

It is a sin for churches to exclude people from membership or communion based on their ethnicity or skin shade. Christ is for all the nations.

Not Sin

It is not a sin for there to be general economic and cultural differences between ethnicities. If one ethnic group is characterized by greater prosperity than another one, that’s not necessarily a sin. The Bible considers privileges blessings to be used for people’s good. There can be many reasons for economic disparities.

Sin

Although generalizations can be made, it is foolish and often sinful to lump all individuals in an ethnic group together, believing that each person acts and thinks the same. Even when ethnic groups have traits that characterize them, there are often exceptions.

Not Sin

It is not a sin to recognize the superiority or inferiority of cultures (which may include a variety of skin shades in those cultures). From a biblical perspective, Sodom’s culture was inferior. The culture of Israel under King David was superior. Christian culture has produced the highest levels of freedom, justice, and prosperity and the lowest levels of corruption and oppression.

Sin

It is a sin to believe in the inherent superiority or inferiority of people with a particular shade of skin. People are to be judged by their fruit, not their appearance. “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24

Not Sin

It is not a sin to desire to marry within your own ethnic group.

Sin

It is a sin for churches or governments to forbid marriage between different ethnic groups, which may include different skin shades. Within the lineage of Christ, there was a Canaanite (Rahab) who converted, and a Moabite (Ruth) who converted. When the Hebrews left Egypt, they absorbed repentant Egyptians into their community. Paul told the early church that there ought not to be divisions among them between Jews and Gentiles.

A New Excuse for Racism

In recent decades, the problem of prejudice by skin shade has been compounded by the spread of a Marxist-derived ideology called Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is one branch of the wider ideology called Critical Theory (CT), which is highly influential among many modern advocates of ‘social justice’. Sadly, it is also impacting the church.

Critical Theory teaches that reality and relationships should be viewed through the lens of power. People are to be divided into oppressed groups and oppressor groups according to characteristics like skin shade, class, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and age. CT tends to equate all disparity with discrimination and oppression, ignoring other possible causes for differences between groups. CT assigns guilt based on one’s group identity rather than individual sin. A person’s group affiliation—whether oppressed or oppressor—is treated as the most fundamental aspect of their identity, surpassing their individual thoughts and actions, and even their standing before God. This is contrary to Scripture. God judges nations (Jer 18:7–8) and holds individuals personally responsible for their sin (2 Cor 5:10) regardless of who they descended from, their ancestors’ sins, or which group they identify with.

Critical Theory advances the anti-biblical worldview that an individual’s perception of reality, evaluation of evidence, and even the worth of their moral judgments are largely determined by their membership in an oppressor or oppressed group. This is in stark contrast to the Christian worldview, where the Bible provides the foundation for understanding reality, facts, truth, morality, our relationship to the earth, animals, other people, our true identity, and, most importantly, our standing before a holy God.

Critical Theory’s solution to disparities between groups is that those in the ‘oppressor’ classes should be stripped of power, and that all institutions and structures stemming from their involvement should be dismantled. Like Marx’s Conflict Theory, when CT is applied in the real world, it stirs up covetousness, hatred, violence, and ethnic division rather than unity. This is the opposite of what the Gospel does.⁵

Critical Race Theory is a skin shade-based anthropological and moral theory derived from Critical Theory. It insists that ‘whites’ are the oppressor group, so imposing their norms, values, and expectations on society is oppressive and must be fought. Meanwhile, no rational arguments against CRT by ‘oppressors’ can succeed because CRT teaches that ‘oppressed’ skin shades have privileged access to truth and greater moral authority due to their skin shade, regardless of the level of actual oppression they face today. This has been called “Ethnic Gnosticism”⁶ or the idea that some people have special knowledge based solely on their skin shade. It is related to the CT term ‘intersectionality,’⁷ in which the value of your opinion depends on how many ‘oppressed’ groups you belong to. The more groups you belong to, the more valuable your opinion. For example, the opinion of a gay, white woman is less valuable than that of a gay, black, Muslim woman because she is a member of more ‘oppressed’ groups. Intersectionality teaches that we are to be judged based on our group identity, especially our racial and sexual identity. However, God judges individuals based on whether their actions are praiseworthy or sinful. Terms like intersectionality, ‘white privilege’, ‘white fragility’, ‘hegemonic power’, ‘heteronormativity’, and ‘micro-aggressions’ belong to CT.

Many advocates of CT see CRT as inseparable from other aspects of CT, including Critical Gender Theory and Queer Theory, etc., as they are also ‘oppressed’ groups.

The racism that preceded the rise of CRT still exists today and was greatly accelerated by Darwinian evolutionism. (Joe Boot provides additional insights here.) This new racism is based on Critical Theory flowing out of a Marxist foundation. While there are similarities, there are notable differences between them, as shown in the following table.

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