is interracial marriage biblical?
Q: I need an honest answer and realize the topic may ruffle some feathers. I'm a white woman who is in love with a black man and my family doesn't support this at all. I've accepted that they probably won't ever be apart of my life if we marry. I'm in my 30's so it's my decision, however, they are claiming that it's wrong based on Scripture and is against God's Word and I would be sinning. What can I tell them???
A: Surprisingly I've never had to deal with this topic in over 25 years, but it is an issue in some pockets of the US in recent years with racism being a topic, that it needs to be addressed, and it might be a issue for some in other nations too. So I guess it's important to have a FAQ answer on this.
A: Surprisingly I've never had to deal with this topic in over 25 years, but it is an issue in some pockets of the US in recent years with racism being a topic, that it needs to be addressed, and it might be a issue for some in other nations too. So I guess it's important to have a FAQ answer on this.
I'm in the same kind of a bi-ethnic marriage, (& since the 90s). My spouses' bff sister also currently seeing a black man, and our good friends at church for over 14 years are from India and Philippines, one a naturalized citizen; both their sides are only their ethnicity. All their family lives here or are citizens here. I have a outreach friend in Christ who is married to a white woman, he was adopted as a kid and is from North Korea. I know many in mixed marriages.
It's not unbiblical. 1. Both follow the same God; profess Christ. 2. We're from the same nation; one thats a melting pot, and has grown even more so in last 20 years. People of varied ethnicities now more than ever live outside their ethnic nation. Been that way since globalization, but in some form was the same before and in Roman Israel days.
Do your parents realize that Jesus was not “white”? At no point did he say “love only those with brown skin, or light brown skin" and he was definitely from the Middle East. Tbh we are all a shade of briwn; ask any painter artist who paints people. God made everyone, so color was never something we were meant to base our marriage/love on.
Several people across the Bible were married outside of their race. People even traveled to Israel for trade and many converted to Judaism back then. Prior to that, as I recall one of Noah's daughter in laws was black. Even from Abraham's family onwards those who married in --> gave up false gods for following their husbands faith in YHWH. We see this even with Moses who married a foreigner, an Ethiopian a black woman. In fact Moses was a Jew who lived as an Egyptian till his adult life, when he aligned with his Hebrew Jewish people [Israel].
The context and bible reference is about faith not race.
Your parents are likely looking at the various scriptures where God told the Israelites "not to intermarry" but it was "because of pagan gods" those nations followed after. However, we can even look at the beautiful love story between Ruth and Boaz and know that when a different race or culture is following God, we are free to marry. This is also the case in Jesus' own lineage with Rahab. She was a foreignervin a foreign nation, who turned from prostitution, protected the Israelites, and worshipped the God of Israel. We know after her story that she married within the tribe of Judah to become an ancestor of our Messiah. If that isn't proof that intermarriage between races/cultures is ok when their hearts are right with God, I don't know what is. 🙂
God doesn't judge by the color of our skin, God made all of us humans. We are made in God's image. The only requirement God gives us is the person be a genuine believer in Jesus; not to be unequally yoked in faith.
Christianity has gone global. Every nation and people in the nations where Christianity exists, are [if the person is genuinely saved] if they now live in your nation... they're eligible for marriage. It's best if they're a citizen as there can be many problematic issues that are best avoided if it's international relationship. I'm sure you could easily think of 5 reasons.
Believers arent to date without purpose
It's not unbiblical. 1. Both follow the same God; profess Christ. 2. We're from the same nation; one thats a melting pot, and has grown even more so in last 20 years. People of varied ethnicities now more than ever live outside their ethnic nation. Been that way since globalization, but in some form was the same before and in Roman Israel days.
Do your parents realize that Jesus was not “white”? At no point did he say “love only those with brown skin, or light brown skin" and he was definitely from the Middle East. Tbh we are all a shade of briwn; ask any painter artist who paints people. God made everyone, so color was never something we were meant to base our marriage/love on.
Several people across the Bible were married outside of their race. People even traveled to Israel for trade and many converted to Judaism back then. Prior to that, as I recall one of Noah's daughter in laws was black. Even from Abraham's family onwards those who married in --> gave up false gods for following their husbands faith in YHWH. We see this even with Moses who married a foreigner, an Ethiopian a black woman. In fact Moses was a Jew who lived as an Egyptian till his adult life, when he aligned with his Hebrew Jewish people [Israel].
The context and bible reference is about faith not race.
Your parents are likely looking at the various scriptures where God told the Israelites "not to intermarry" but it was "because of pagan gods" those nations followed after. However, we can even look at the beautiful love story between Ruth and Boaz and know that when a different race or culture is following God, we are free to marry. This is also the case in Jesus' own lineage with Rahab. She was a foreignervin a foreign nation, who turned from prostitution, protected the Israelites, and worshipped the God of Israel. We know after her story that she married within the tribe of Judah to become an ancestor of our Messiah. If that isn't proof that intermarriage between races/cultures is ok when their hearts are right with God, I don't know what is. 🙂
God doesn't judge by the color of our skin, God made all of us humans. We are made in God's image. The only requirement God gives us is the person be a genuine believer in Jesus; not to be unequally yoked in faith.
Christianity has gone global. Every nation and people in the nations where Christianity exists, are [if the person is genuinely saved] if they now live in your nation... they're eligible for marriage. It's best if they're a citizen as there can be many problematic issues that are best avoided if it's international relationship. I'm sure you could easily think of 5 reasons.
Believers arent to date without purpose
For the person pursuing us, courting etc with plans to marry... what matters is, is he saved? Is he a godly man? Does he treat you right? Does he help you in your walk with God? Does he sacrificially serve you, and you him? Those are the things that matter. Not the color of his skin.
Our identity is in Christ. Our culture is Christ/Christianity & biblical righteousness, [not to be focused on their foreign nationality, culture or country, or have an obsession on their nation of origin; all temporary useless things of this fading world]. So don't pick someone who has focus or anchor in their ethnicity's "culture", but who has their focus on Christ, and Christianity above all. If the guy you are seeing has a deep cling on his ethnic culture there will be problems, you dont want to marry into that. But if he is willing to throw all that away and only focus on Christ, realignment himself to Scripture, and determines not being involved in his family gatherings where they have a bias or focus on heiritage/culture, then that's fine. There may be some cultural differences or difficulties he needs to overcome, in his pursuit of leaving those things behind, but yall might need to realize you may run into or need to deal with racism on his side too. [*Look at their social media posts and you'll know who they are pretty easily if he doesn't point them out first.] But you're marrying each other and creating your own family. You only need to deal with those other people occassionally, so keep that in mind. Most of those are likely not Christian or genuine converts, so you have to treat them like everyone else unsaved you encounter.
My family didn't expect anyone marrying out of our ethnicity but even the extended family ones i was unsure about on this were like - who cares. I was glad they recieved him [times were iffy back then, but not really]. Hes American. He proclaimed Christ. He loved me. Thats all that matters. I'm from a broken home, but had godly family, tho one gran side wasnt. He was embraced by everyone, even gran's on both sides. I'm sorry you are experiencing that. The ignorance of holding to their views on this is usually due to a lack of someones understanding the Scriptures.Even if they are only cultural Christians [grew up in the US]. These views can be typical in some southern states, but tbh people can be biblically illiterate anywhere, and can also be false converts, and some of those can also be racist. That kind of mentality is not Christian but comes from Satan, as he hates so does his people.
My suggestion is to go talk to your pastor, share what I noted, and ask if it's accurate for the topic; he just needs to be a genuinely saved person whose life shows that fruit proof. If he agrees you have a biblical pastor [if not flee that church], but if he agrees, have him go talk with your parents. Let him do the work to educate them, and so to not cause rift between you all 😊. And ask pastor to call them all to embrace him as a believer and fiancé, and love on him. Even if after that meeting it takes them time to live out true biblical mindset on this, let God work in them. You both act normal and shine Christ's light and love around them, showing grace, mercy forgiveness and patience. Some sins are hard to conquer, so both of you need to determine to dig in for the long haul in a godly minded way. And not let it affect your marriage, and not let it affect you personally. Let it be like water rolling off a ducks back.
Love is hard to find in this fallen world, I hope the parents see this in you both and come around quickly, changing their minds to be biblically aligned.
It’s not a sin if he is of a different race. The only thing that would make it a sin is if you were unequally yoked, so make sure he is a true believer. He will be the spiritual leader of the home so make sure he has a heart to mature in faith and Scripture to lead you and your family well.
You will find in Christianity such things as a black and white couple. A white and and Hispanic. Black and asian, Hispanic and Asian. Asian marry and other Asian; and most of the ones in China/mongolia are mixed ancestry. Theres also White and Asian, Koreans marrying Filipinos, etc. And these folk have a child half and half, or even adopt a child of another ethnicity or a mixed ethnicity. Even white people are varied ethnicities from different caucasian nations and cultures. Most citizens in US today are a mixed person; simple DNA tests today show this.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Also there's only one race - the human race. There is no biblical basis or godly reason for discrimination based on skin color or ethnic heritage. God does not look at our outward appearances but rather the heart.
If he is saved, that's the green light from God.
God bless
Our identity is in Christ. Our culture is Christ/Christianity & biblical righteousness, [not to be focused on their foreign nationality, culture or country, or have an obsession on their nation of origin; all temporary useless things of this fading world]. So don't pick someone who has focus or anchor in their ethnicity's "culture", but who has their focus on Christ, and Christianity above all. If the guy you are seeing has a deep cling on his ethnic culture there will be problems, you dont want to marry into that. But if he is willing to throw all that away and only focus on Christ, realignment himself to Scripture, and determines not being involved in his family gatherings where they have a bias or focus on heiritage/culture, then that's fine. There may be some cultural differences or difficulties he needs to overcome, in his pursuit of leaving those things behind, but yall might need to realize you may run into or need to deal with racism on his side too. [*Look at their social media posts and you'll know who they are pretty easily if he doesn't point them out first.] But you're marrying each other and creating your own family. You only need to deal with those other people occassionally, so keep that in mind. Most of those are likely not Christian or genuine converts, so you have to treat them like everyone else unsaved you encounter.
My family didn't expect anyone marrying out of our ethnicity but even the extended family ones i was unsure about on this were like - who cares. I was glad they recieved him [times were iffy back then, but not really]. Hes American. He proclaimed Christ. He loved me. Thats all that matters. I'm from a broken home, but had godly family, tho one gran side wasnt. He was embraced by everyone, even gran's on both sides. I'm sorry you are experiencing that. The ignorance of holding to their views on this is usually due to a lack of someones understanding the Scriptures.Even if they are only cultural Christians [grew up in the US]. These views can be typical in some southern states, but tbh people can be biblically illiterate anywhere, and can also be false converts, and some of those can also be racist. That kind of mentality is not Christian but comes from Satan, as he hates so does his people.
My suggestion is to go talk to your pastor, share what I noted, and ask if it's accurate for the topic; he just needs to be a genuinely saved person whose life shows that fruit proof. If he agrees you have a biblical pastor [if not flee that church], but if he agrees, have him go talk with your parents. Let him do the work to educate them, and so to not cause rift between you all 😊. And ask pastor to call them all to embrace him as a believer and fiancé, and love on him. Even if after that meeting it takes them time to live out true biblical mindset on this, let God work in them. You both act normal and shine Christ's light and love around them, showing grace, mercy forgiveness and patience. Some sins are hard to conquer, so both of you need to determine to dig in for the long haul in a godly minded way. And not let it affect your marriage, and not let it affect you personally. Let it be like water rolling off a ducks back.
Love is hard to find in this fallen world, I hope the parents see this in you both and come around quickly, changing their minds to be biblically aligned.
It’s not a sin if he is of a different race. The only thing that would make it a sin is if you were unequally yoked, so make sure he is a true believer. He will be the spiritual leader of the home so make sure he has a heart to mature in faith and Scripture to lead you and your family well.
You will find in Christianity such things as a black and white couple. A white and and Hispanic. Black and asian, Hispanic and Asian. Asian marry and other Asian; and most of the ones in China/mongolia are mixed ancestry. Theres also White and Asian, Koreans marrying Filipinos, etc. And these folk have a child half and half, or even adopt a child of another ethnicity or a mixed ethnicity. Even white people are varied ethnicities from different caucasian nations and cultures. Most citizens in US today are a mixed person; simple DNA tests today show this.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Also there's only one race - the human race. There is no biblical basis or godly reason for discrimination based on skin color or ethnic heritage. God does not look at our outward appearances but rather the heart.
If he is saved, that's the green light from God.
God bless
