The subject of race on this blog is likely to raise some eyebrows, but I believe the body of Christ must be transparent in order to align on such issues.

This all started several days ago when my facebook friend, Gary Ellison, made a bold post.   We don’t see eye to eye on everything, but we are brother and sister in the Lord and have had some very good and edifying conversation.  His post generated a thread of 409 comments (so far), as many passionate believers debated their views.  So here is the post that started it all.

“Every time I see 1 of you Negros post the LIE that Edom is the WHITE-MAN I am coming right behind you and post the TRUTH! The Khazar’s (Ashkenazi Jews) are descendants of Japhet. Edom is a descendant of Abraham Isaac & Jacob, the TWIN brother of Israel. You all need to stop lying in the face of obvious truth. You are making our beliefs & community look stupid with your racist inspired lies. I challenge any 1 who espouse this to a debate on the truth. DONT BE SCARED! Our beef with Ashkenazi is valid, but he is not EDOM”

Gary’s followers and contemporaries believe that they, people of dark color, are descendants of the Israelites.  They also believe that the modern Ashkenazi Jews are descended from gentiles that took on the culture and religion of the Israelites.

Well I am just a white girl, raised Jewish, who gave her heart to Jesus after many years of fast living and poor choices.  I have no reason to be drawn into this conversation except for the fact that in 2003 Yeshua, Jesus, spoke to me.  He said “I am coming for My church, not My churches.  You have work to do.”  When I read Gary’s post and the comments that followed, I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I knew I had to respond.  For several days I pondered and prayed for the right words.

What does the bible reveal about race?

Jacob and Esau are described as very different, but twin brothers of different races is not mentioned.  Issac and Ishmael had different mothers, could be different races, maybe not.  What the bible does say about these men is that they will become the fathers of great nations.  Chapter 1 of the Song of Songs describes a Shulamite peasant girl whom Solomon is to marry.  She is insecure among the daughters of Jerusalem because of the color of her skin.  She is dark from working daily in the sun.  This would indicate that the daughters of Jerusalem were fairer skinned than she was, but still not an indicator of race.

If we are to believe the biblical account of the flood, then all races on the earth would trace their lineage back to the sons of Noah.  There has been much written about the possibility that three of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, fathered the yellow, black, and white races of men respectively.   Others theorize that when the people of the earth all spoke one language they were of many colors and shades living in community together, just as there are many variations in the size, shape, and color of the individuals that comprise a pack of wolves.  They concur that the tower of Babel incident caused family groups with common language to migrate away from Babel in different directions.  The isolation of these groups eventually led to distinct commonalities in the way they looked, based on dominant genes becoming more refined with each successive generation.

The multitude of people who followed Moses out of Egypt were slaves who had been freed.  Egypt had slaves from many nations, not just Israelites.  Imagine yourself on that day.  If you were a slave in Egypt, regardless of who you were or how you ended up in Egypt, would you have stayed behind or followed Moses?  The multitude who stood at the foot of Mount Sinai were more likely multi national and multi racial as we define it.  God gave the law to all of them, He chose all of them, and as a group they took on the identity of the Israelites.  Had they not treasured the law of Moses and handed it down from one generation to the next in an oral tradition, it would likely have been lost.

What is glaringly obvious is that the bible makes little to no mention of race.

God’s word in scripture defines groups of people based on families, geography and beliefs, not race.  People in their prideful ways make race an issue that is irrelevant to God.  Genesis 12:3 records God telling Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”   Genesis 22:18, says “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  All of the nations of the earth will be blessed by Abraham’s offspring – not some, but all.  It would stand to reason then, that race is of no consequence in from God’s perspective.  The people doing the blessing are God’s chosen, and the people doing the cursing are not.

According to Jewish law, any child born of a Jewish woman is considered Jewish.  Again, race has no bearing.  If the ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews were gentiles desiring to embrace and worship the One God of the Israelites, they would have been welcomed into that culture regardless of race, and intermarried with them thereby grafting in.  In a similar fashion, the gentiles who followed Christ were grafted in.  As a Jewish believer in Christ, I accept the Christian community as equals in the inheritance as God ordained with no weight given to color, race, doctrine, or ritual, IF, and only IF it lines up with the word of God.

I recognize that when the black race was targeted, and large numbers sold into slavery, it was a poor witness on the part of the professing Christians who took part.  The black race in America remained enslaved and separated from their culture for generations, and it left a discernible void.  It is undeniable that some white men who claimed to be Christian, and some who did not, exploited the Black race and separated them from their very identity.  I am delighted that some have chosen to search the scripture to identify their origins, reclaim their heritage, and understand their birthright as children of God.  If that search has led them to believe they are descendants of the Israelites, I have no problem with that.

My concern is that just as the ancient Jews, perverted their special relationship with God into a false national and ethnic pride, and thought that they were better than other nations or races, so also these children of God have made this an issue of race and of blame.  These ideas come not from God, but from the sinful hearts of man.  Is the blood of Jesus not strong enough to cover that sin?  Is there not enough grace within to join as equals with the body of Christ and labor in love, side by side, for the increase of the kingdom?

What fruit is to be gained by debating these points?  How genuine is the love of a disciple who is brought into the fold with doctrine based on race, that separates the body of Christ into warring factions, each claiming a birthright to being God’s special people?  This is not what Yeshua taught us!  He taught us to love God first and to love one another as we love ourselves.

Everything else hangs on these two principles.  If we fail at this, we simply fail.

Yeshua calls us to be victorious over all of our petty differences.  What is important has nothing to do with race as determined by the color of our skin or the texture of our hair.  Preoccupation  with race is a weapon of the enemy designed to keep people from their rightful inheritance.  The only thing that counts is who you belong to, God or the enemy.  If we truly belong to God, then we will willingly take our place as His humble servant and call upon Jesus to remove the spirits of contention, racial prejudice, and disharmony from our lives.   <t)))><

Blessings & Adventure

Lynn “lynnibug” Rios

I believe the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will be a beautiful mosaic of God’s children.  The furthest thing from our minds will be issues of race.