After the results of the presidential election and questions from students, Tammy suggested to me that we do a WIGHs night discussing the topic of interracial relationships and marriage. Unfortunately, because of travel and other factors, the ladies couldn’t come to the discussion night. However, I think it was a blessing; it gave me a lot more time to study and pray about the topic so I will be able to do a more well rounded and prepared presentation in the future. I have found, quite frankly, that though I support and would myself marry inter-racially if God willed it, I didn’t have a biblical reason for the view I held. Since this topic has consumed much of my studying and time lately, I thought I would share some of my findings and revelations.
First: God forbade interracial marriage in the Old Testament and New based solely on religious differences
“…For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God; Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.” (Exodus 34:13-16)
Here we can see that God is not asking the Israelites not to marry outside their race because of color or culture itself, but rather because religiously the miscegenation would cause distention in worship practices and religious ideologies. Israelites were to marry within the church (as we are today, 1 Cor 7:39, 2 Cor 6:14). The “church” in the Old Testament was Israel; they were God’s chosen people and all other groups of people were pagan. From the passage above and from passages like Deut 7:3-4 we can see that the purpose for God’s instruction was because inter-religious marriage would cause Israel to deviate from the true worship of the true God. Other scriptures that illustrate this are found in Joshua 23:6-13; Ezra 9:1-2, 10-14.
Second: God blessed interracial marriages when both people were converted and worshiping Him
Exodus 12:37-38 shows us that when Israel left Egypt, a mixed multitude went up with them. In verse 43 God then explains that a stranger may not eat of the Passover. For a stranger to eat the Passover, he had to be circumcised (or converted spiritually—see Romans 2:28-29). Once a stranger was circumcised, the scripture says:
“he shall be as one that is born in the land …. One law shall be to him that is home born and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Exodus 12:48-49).
If a stranger becomes “as one that is born in the land” then it would no longer be wrong for this stranger to marry an Israelite, or for an Israelite to marry him/her because they both at that point would be in God’s eyes His children. Some examples of blessed miscegenation after conversion would be Moses and Zipporah (Ex 2:15-21), Rahab and Salmon (Joshua 2-6, Matt 1:5), and Ruth and Boaz (Ruth). If conversion didn’t occur, the consequences were quite negative. Israel was plagued for committing whoredom with Midianites—descendants of Abraham (Genesis 25:14). Solomon was rebuked for marrying, among others, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites—all descendants of Shem (Genesis 19:36-38; Genesis 36). In both cases the problem was clearly that these strange wives led the Israelites away from the true worship of the true God. The problem was inter-religious marriage, not interracial marriage.
Third: The impact of culture on marriage has eternal ramifications…
Among many things, through this study God has impressed upon me the eternal impact that my decision in a marriage parter has. It is no small decision.
Culture is important; it defines to a great extent who we are and where we come from, it makes us unique. However, in Christ there is no race or culture but His own. We are created in His image so it is safe to say that when we make a decision to surrender our lives and follow Him, we become part of a heavenly race. Thus since we are all part of this heavenly race at conversion there also must be a heavenly culture that precedes all worldly cultures. Our worldly cultures should not dictate decisions in our lives, especially on issues such as who we are to marry, where we are to live, where we are to go to church, and how we are to raise our children: God should (if our worldly culture is in line with God’s on a decision or topic, then great). This is where marrying outside our race (or outside our culture) can be difficult; a interracial relationship is bound to see trouble if one or both of the people don’t have their lives wholly consecrated to God. If a man’s family is telling him to raise his children one way and the woman’s family is telling her to raise their children another (based on culture), there will be conflict if they aren’t seeking God above all else. It is even worth mentioning that this issue is also common among couples of the same race; just because two people are white or two people are black or two people are asian doesn’t mean that their cultures, families and experiences are the same.
I am not advocating that we all should marry outside our race or within our race, because quite honestly some ministry (because of the effects of this social construct on society) would be best done by a racially homogeneous couple and some ministry would be best done by a couple of mixed race. Rather, what I am saying is that we as individuals need to examine ourselves in this area; we need to ask ourselves, am I wholly consecrated to God? Is He alone guiding my decisions and life? Do I lean more on God’s culture than my worldly culture for guidance? If my answer to any of these questions was no, I would consider that in marrying someone in the church who is fully converted, my mindset and conversion state could and would negatively effect their eternity as well as my own and possibly my children’s. That’s scary to me, and ultimately it makes me even more intent on self examination as well as cautious in my selection of a spouse. I can’t just marry a great Christian-Adventist man, he can’t just be or seem “converted.” He has to be willingly and actively choosing God above his culture; he has to say “In all things, God, your will and not mine (or my cultures) be done.”
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