FROMEVERYPEOPLEA Biblical Theology of Race

INTRODUCTION

I. An Important Exercise The problem of ‘cultural pre-understanding’ in the interpretive and applicational process. A better understanding of the major racial or ethnic groups that play significant roles in the biblical world will help us formulate a better, more biblical understanding and theology of race.

II. The Ethnic Make-Up of the Old Testament World

A. The ‘Asiatics’ or Northwest ‘Semitics’

B. The Cushites

C. The Egyptians

D. The Indo-Europeans Understanding these ethnic and cultural dynamics is a foundational step toward a biblical theology of race.

LESSON 1: CREATION, FALL, BLESSING & RACE… Genesis 1-12 The first twelve chapters of Genesis are foundational to biblical theology. Genesis 1-11 contrasts the wonderful creation of God with the terrible fall and sinfulness of His creatures. It is these first eleven chapters that tell us who we are and what our problem is. Genesis 12 then takes a marvelous turn and introduces us to the redemptive plan of God – the solution to the problem described in the first eleven chapters. It is also in these opening chapters of the Bible that we find several texts that have direct bearing on our theology of race in particular.

I. Genesis 1-3: Creation & Fall

A. The Significance of Adam and Eve

When human beings first enter the biblical story, they are introduced as Adam – which simply means: ‘humankind’. Thus, Adam and Eve are non-racial, non-ethnic, non-national human beings. They represent ALL people, not just SOME people.

B. The Image of God “So God created man (adam) in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27 Being made in the image of God means several things… “Both the dignity and the equality of human beings are traced in Scripture to our creation [in the image of God].” – John Stott

C. Ethical Implications & The First Word on Racism “In short, racism from the Christian standpoint is a response that violates the equalitarian principle implied in the biblical doctrine of ‘imago Dei’.” - H.P. Smith Same principle, different situation… Prov.14:31 (cf. Prov.17:5; Jam.3:9)

D. The Fall Genesis 3 tells the story of humanity’s fall into sin.

Though there are many theological implications, at least two are directly related to our biblical theology of race…

● One, is that all peoples of all races now share a fallen sinful nature and condition. “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Rom.3:22b-23 (cf. Rom.3:10-18)

● Two, is that all peoples of all races now share in the need for God’s redemption. “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” Rom.3:9 Thus, all people of all races share these most fundamental things in common:

● An equality of worth, value, and dignity being made in the image of God ● Equally sharing the same fundamental problem of a fallen condition and sinful

nature ● Equally sharing the same fundamental need of God’s redeeming mercy and grace

through His Son, Jesus.

II. Genesis 9: The Curse of Ham? The connection between Genesis 9 and the history of race in America. “[It] is necessary to correct one of the most serious and most damaging misinterpretations of Scripture on this subject. Indeed, as early as 1808, David Burrow, writing against slavery, bemoans, ‘I am persuaded that no passage in the sacred volume of revelation has suffered more abuse than Noah’s curse or malediction’.” – J. Daniel Hays

A. The Story – Genesis 9:18-27 “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers… Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth; and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.” (Gen.9:25-27)

B. The (Mis)Interpretation The essence of the argument…

C. An Accurate Interpretation Let’s note the following…

III. Genesis 10-11: The Table of Nations & The Tower of Babel

A. The Table of Nations – Genesis 10 Genesis 10 recounts how the peoples of the world descended from Noah’s three sons and spread out over the world.

● Avoiding simplistic interpretations

● A better understanding

o A primary function of genealogies is more than biology

o Groupings arranged by family/clan/tribe (mispahah), language (lason), land/country/territory (‘eres), and nation (goy) – (Gen.10:5, 20, 31)

Genesis 10 points to the commonality of ‘all individuals and peoples and nations, ultimately descended from the same race, with the same blood, with the same dignity, and the same fundamental problems and the same fundamental needs’.

B. The Tower of Babel – Genesis 11 It is important to note the connection between Genesis 10 and 11 and how it sets the stage for Genesis 12.

IV. Genesis 12: Blessing for All the Peoples of the World “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen.12:1-3; cf.Gen.15, 18)

A. Looking Back Looking back to Genesis 10, recall how the division of the world was described in terms of…

● family/tribe/clan (mispahah) ● language (lason) ● land/country/territory (‘eres) ● nation (goy).

The call of Abraham echoes these terms…

● ‘Go from your country (‘eres) – 12:1

● ‘I will make you a great nation (goy) – 12:2 ● ‘and in you all the families (mispahah) will be blessed’ – 12:3

God’s call of Abraham and the promises made to him are in direct response (and ultimately a direct reversal) to the disastrous human situation of sin and scattering described in Genesis 3-11.

B. Looking Forward The call and promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 introduces the immense and comprehensive redemptive plan of God, a plan that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But from the beginning, God has the diverse peoples of the earth in mind from every family and nation. “God focuses on Abraham not to be exclusive, but to use this individual and his descendants to bless and deliver the entire world.” – J. Daniel Hays

C. Implications for the Church Today

LESSON 2: FROM THE PENTATEUCH TO THE PROPHETS Many readers of the Old Testament struggle to understand how to interpret Israel’s relationship with the surrounding nations and peoples and may have the misconception that it reflects a racist, ethnocentric, nationalistic worldview, as if Israel was to think of itself as a superior people. It seems to call into question God’s heart for the nations. In this section we want to deconstruct that misconception.

I. The Pentateuch The Pentateuch is significant in forming a biblical theology of race because these books deal with the forming of Israel as a nation and how they were to relate to the nations around them.

A. The (Ethnic) Formation of Israel Exodus 1:1-5 recounts how Jacob (Israel) and his sons moved from Canaan to Egypt, and how over the next four centuries this family evolved in something much larger: an identifiable entity and distinguishable people group all their own, what would eventually become the nation of Israel. However, a brief history of Israel’s evolution from a single family to a nation reveals an ethnically diverse people.

● Let’s remember pre-exodus…

At this point in Israel’s early history they are a mixed-family of western Mesopotamian (Aramean and/or Amorite), Canaanite, and Egyptian.

● Let’s fast forward 400 years to the exodus event and the departure of a ‘mixed multitude’ (Ex.12:38) with the ‘sons of Israel’.

So, Israel, from its inception, was a multi-racial / multi-ethnic / multi-national entity.

B. Key Take-Aways From the Formation of Israel

● Israel’s identity is not primarily biological, but theological.

“[T]he central unifying and identifying feature of this people is the covenant relationship that Yahweh (the LORD) will form with them in the book of Exodus. Thus one of the major boundaries that will delineate this ‘ethnic group’ called the ‘sons of Israel’ from other groups is a theological one and not merely a biological one. To be part of the covenant relationship with Yahweh is as critical a factor of identity as any other, as least from the viewpoint of the biblical books of the Torah.” – J. Daniel Hays

“That there were many who became Israelites by theological rather than biological descendancy is many times referred to in the Old Testament.” – J.I. Durham

● God’s commands regarding conquest and laws prohibiting intermarriage were primarily driven theologically and not racially; they were about faith & worship and not race & ethnicity.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.” (Deut. 7:1-4)

C. Some Case Studies

● Case Study #1: The Exodus, the Passover, and the Mixed-Multitude “[P]articipation in the celebration of Yahweh’s great redemptive act was not based on birth or ethnicity, but rather on relationship to Yahweh and his covenant.” – J. Daniel Hays

● Case Study #2: Moses’s (Inter-racial) Marriages

o Zipporah the Midianite (Exodus 2:15-22 & Exodus 18).

o The Unnamed Cushite (Numbers 12:1) “[T]he danger of intermarriage with foreigners is one of apostasy driven by pagan beliefs. Ethnic or racial issues, other than religion, are not at all related to the prohibition. Thus Moses marriage to a Black woman from Cush did not violate any biblical prohibition. Consistently throughout the Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments, the prohibition is against marrying outside the faith, not against marrying someone of another race.” – J. Daniel Hays

● Case Study #3: Phinehas the Half-Black Priest

o Exodus 6:16-25

o Numbers 25 o Numbers 31 o Joshua 22

o Psalm 106 “Phinehas becomes a model of piety and faithful zeal for Yahweh… Imagine the different route American Christianity might have traveled if the translators of the King James Bible had known Egyptian and had thus translated ‘Phinehas’ as ‘the Negro’. The early Americans would have read that God made a covenant with ‘the Negro’, that all legitimate Israelite priests are descended from ‘the Negro’, and that God credited righteousness to ‘the Negro’. With such clear texts available, it would have been extremely difficult to defend slavery or to maintain any type of superiority-inferiority racial views.” – J. Daniel Hays

II. The Prophets Much of the prophets focus on the LORD’s judgment because of unrepentant unfaithfulness. However, frequently interspersed between texts of judgment are texts of restoration and salvation, which often includes the multiethnic, multinational gathering of the peoples of the world into the true worship of Yahweh.

A. Some Examples from Isaiah “[T]he book of Isaiah advances the concept of equal salvation for all peoples and nations more than any other prophetic book.” – J. Daniel Hays

● Isaiah 2:2-4

● Isaiah 11:10-12

● Isaiah 19:19-25

● Isaiah 45:14

● Isaiah 66:18-20 “The message of God is not for the descendants of Jacob but for the world, and those of the world who respond to it are the true children of Jacob. The message has been given the Israelites as a trust to be proclaimed… From the very outset Israel is expected to be the means whereby the nations are drawn to the mountain of the house of the Lord to learn the Torah of God.” – J. Daniel Hays

B. Some Examples from the Psalms There is a prophetic element and voice to the Psalms that resonates with the vision cast by Isaiah.

● Psalm 67:1-7

● Psalm 86:9-10

● Psalm 87:4-6

C. A Unique Example in Jeremiah “Of all the episodes in the Old Testament in which Black Cushites appear, the story of Ebed-Melech is perhaps the most detailed and the most dramatic.” – J. Daniel Hays

● Background to the story

● The point of the story

● The connection of the story to the New Testament

LESSON 3 THE IMPACT OF THE GOSPEL… LUKE-ACTS The roughly 400 years that separates the end of the OT and the beginning of the NT was a tumultuous time that had a significant impact on the ethnic world into which the gospel exploded. Massive shifts in powers during this time in this region of the world contributed to the movements and migrations of massive amounts of different peoples which created an extremely complex diversity in which the NT story is told.

I. The Ethnic Make-Up of the New Testament World A few things to keep in mind…

A. The Greco-Roman World

B. The Jewish Diaspora

C. Africa (i.e. Cush, Meroe, Ethiopia)

D. Many Others “The story of the NT took place in a world with a wide range of ethnic diversity. Although the educated population of the Roman Empire tended to refer to themselves as ‘Greeks’ (hellenists), in reality they were made up of dozens of different Indo-European, Asian, and African ethnic groups. And while many people in the urban areas were assimilated into the Greco-Roman culture, the countryside tended to remain more diverse, reflecting the ethnic composition that pre-dated the Romans… This was the diverse world to which Paul and the Apostles proclaimed the gospel.” – J. Daniel Hays

II. The Gospel of Luke & The Book of Acts

More than the other gospel writers, Luke speaks most directly to the issue of race within the Church.

A. What About the Other Gospels?

● Matthew

● Mark

● John

B. Luke and the Connection to Abraham Luke mentions Abraham twenty-two times in Luke-Acts. One of the ways Luke advances a biblical theology of race is by intentionally showing continuity with the Old Testament, specifically the blessing for all nations / peoples that would come through the promises made to Abraham.

● Luke 1:54-55 “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”

● Luke 1:72-73 “…to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham.”

● Luke 2:30-32 “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

● Luke 24:47 “… that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

● Acts 1:8 “And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

● Acts 2 – The Story of Pentecost “[In Acts 2 we get] a hint of the gospel’s power to cross ethnic and religious lines”.

– R.C. Tannehill “[Acts 2] symbolized a new unity in the Spirit transcending racial, national, and linguistic barriers.” - John Stott

C. A Couple Case Studies

● Case Study #1: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) “Luke stresses not only that the gospel demands to be proclaimed to all people of all ethnicities, but that the gospel also demands that all old culturally driven worldviews regarding racial prejudice be completely abandoned by the new people of God.” – J. Daniel Hays

“[T]he ethnic and cultural boundary between Jews and Samaritans was every bit as rigid and hostile as the boundary between Blacks and Whites in the most racist areas of the United States.” – J. Daniel Hays

● Case Study #2: The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)

LESSON 4: FROM PAUL TO THE APOCALYPSE

I. Paul’s Letters

A. The Letter to the Galatians Context: Understanding the doctrine of justification and the social implications… “Paul holds forth the vision of a community of faith in which all are one in Christ… Jews and Gentiles are no longer divided because Christ’s death (when received by faith) brings us together. Therefore, all manifestations of racial and ethnic divisiveness are betrayals of the truth of the gospel. Galatians is one of the Bible’s most powerful witnesses against any cultural norms or pressures that excludes anyone from fellowship on the basis of criteria not rooted in the gospel.” – R. B. Hays A few keys passages…

● Galatians 3:8-9 – “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’. So then, those who are of the faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

● Galatians 3:14 – “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”

● Galatians 3:26-29 – “…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith… There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

“Justification gives all believers equal status before God and unites them together as one people of God.” – J. Daniel Hays

B. The Letter to the Colossians

Context: Understanding what it means to be raised with Christ and the cultural stereotype of ‘barbarian, Scythian’… Key passage…

● Colossians 3:11 – “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

“[Colossians 3:11] is presented in the context of exhorting believers to leave their old ways of

the world and move to the new ways of Christ. Racial prejudices and divisions belong to the old man, the worldly culture that we inherited in the flesh. As we become the new humanity in Christ, these attitudes must be abandoned. Nobody must allow prejudices from their pre-Christian days to distort the new humanity which God has created in and through the New Man.” – J. Daniel Hays

C. The Letter to the Ephesians Context: Understanding the inseparable connection between vertical reconciliation and horizontal reconciliation In Christ… Key passages…

● Ephesians 2:14-16 – “For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

“Nowhere is this theology more important for modern Christians than in dealing with racial hostility. Christians of other races are part of us, and divisions cannot be allowed to continue. The racial barrier is like a festering wound in the body of Christ… Sunday is often the most segregated day of the week, for Christians worship along racial lines… The perversion of both active and passive racism must be challenged… Racism will have to be treated on two levels, both as a general societal problem and specifically within the body of Christ. Racism in any form is prohibited by the equality of all people before God and by his unrestricted love. But the theology of the body of Christ deals with the issue at another level. The point is not merely that all Christians are equal; rather, the point is that all Christians have been joined, which has far more significance and impact.” – Klyne Snodgrass

● Ephesians 4:1-6 – “I therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

“It is simply impossible, with any shred of Christian integrity, to go on proclaiming that Jesus by his cross has abolished the old divisions and created a single new humanity of love, while at the same time we are contradicting our message by tolerating racial or social or other barriers within our church fellowship… We need to get the failures of the church on our conscience, to feel the offense to Christ… to weep over the credibility gap between the church’s talk and the church’s walk, to repent of our readiness to excuse and even condone our failures, and to determine to do something about it. I wonder if anything is more urgent today, for the honor of Christ and the spread of the gospel, than that the church should be, and should be seen to be, what by God’s purpose and Christ’s achievement it already is – a single new humanity, a model of human community, a family of reconciled brothers and sisters who love their Father and love each other, the evident dwelling place of God by his Spirit. Only then will the world believe in Christ as peacemaker. Only then will God receive the glory due his name.” – John Stott

II. The Book of Revelation There’s a beautiful consistency in the book of Revelation with the rest of the Bible, specifically its connection back to Genesis. Understanding the formulaic use of language, tribes, peoples, and nations (5:9, 7:9, 10:11, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6, 17:15). Key passages…

● Revelation 5:9 – “And they sang a new song, saying… ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation’…”

● Revelation 7:9-10 – “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, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

“The vision of God’s people that John sees suggest that around the throne of God one will find Nigerians, Cubans, Turks, Chinese, Brazilians, Swedes, Afghans, Mexicans, and a host of other peoples from hundreds of different tribes speaking hundreds of different languages. The ethnic races of the world will be mixed together and brought together in worship of God. We in the Church today need to ask ourselves the question as to why our earthly churches differ so much in composition from the congregations depicted in Revelation… It is critical that Christians today visualize the true ‘body of Christ’ and ‘people of God’ correctly. This group is not a predominantly White congregation (or Black congregation, or Asian congregation). Christians who gather around the throne of God will rub shoulders with people of all races. How can we justify supporting and/or maintaining a system here in our local churches that works to divide and separate us? The ultimate people of God, as portrayed in Revelation, are multi-ethnic, in fulfillment of God’s original intention. We in the church today need to work toward that ideal as well.”

– J. Daniel Hays

FINAL CONCLUSIONS, THOUGHTS & APPLICATIONS (Adopted from J. Daniel Hays)

The biblical world was multi-ethnic, and so was God’s unfolding plan of redemption from the beginning.

Both the Old Testament world and the New Testament world were multi-ethnic, and the biblical story constantly includes individuals and groups from a wide spectrum of ethnicity. The book of Genesis makes it clear that all peoples and nations have the same origin and share a common humanity. Within the context of the dark history and present tension of the White-Black racial dynamics in our culture, it is significant to note that Black Africans from Cush/Ethiopia play an important and positive role throughout Scripture that helps tell the story of God’s unfolding plan of redemption. The Black African Ebed-Melech played a crucial role in Judah’s theological history, saving the prophet Jeremiah and symbolizing the inclusion of future Gentiles who come to God by faith. Likewise, the first non-Jewish believer in the New Testament was a Black African (Acts 8:26-40).

All people are created in the image of God, and therefore all peoples of all races, nations, and ethnicities share an equality of dignity and value that is inherent to being made in God’s image.

One of the tragic legacies of human history is the heresy of racial superiority and the subsequent myth of racial inferiority. Consciously and subconsciously, both by individuals and by social structures, both in obvious and subtle forms, this heresy continues not only in the secular world but influences the Church as well. It is critical that the Church proclaim loudly and clearly that any attitude or action that perpetuates the lie of racial superiority and inferiority is explicitly contradicted by the teaching of Scripture. Furthermore, it is worth stating that not only do all people share a common equality of dignity and value being made in the image of God, but together we all equally share the same fundamental problem of a fallen nature and sinful condition, and thus, we all equally share the same fundamental need of God’s redeeming grace in Christ.

Genesis 10-11 and the Abrahamic promise in Genesis 12 combine to form a theme that runs throughout Scripture, constantly pointing to the global and multi-ethnic dynamic inherent in the overarching plan of God.

The book of Genesis is a critical starting place for biblical theology, introducing themes that continue to surface throughout the storyline of the entire bible and help us in understanding God’s heart concerning race. Genesis 3-11 portrays the sin and rebellion of the human race against God. This sin resulted in the scattering and division described in Genesis 10-11, where people were separated both from God and from one another. A fundamental shift in human identity occurs away from a shared equality and common origin as people begin to define themselves by what separates them from others: language, family, tribe, nation. However, the promises made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12 are God’s answer to human sin and serve as a direct reversal to the separation sin causes. Through these promises all the

families/tribes/nations of the world could find blessing. This theme blossoms and flowers throughout the story of the bible finding ultimate fulfillment in Christ. The unity of all the peoples of the earth through faith in Christ is not an afterthought, but was part of the main plan and purpose of God from the very beginning.

Interracial marriage between Christian believers is a unique and powerful testimony to Christian theology and the message of the gospel.

It is often pointed out that adoption can serve as a powerful witness to the gospel, tangibly picturing something of what happens when God adopts us into his family as his children through Christ. While it is true that marriage in general is meant to picture something of the relationship between Christ and His Church, what is often neglected is how interracial marriage between believers, in particular, can tell a unique story about the gospel. Nowhere in Scripture does God forbid His people from marrying those of another race or culture who share a common faith in the worship of God. To forbid one’s children from marrying someone of another race, based not on their relationship with Christ, but solely on their ethnicity, implies the heresy of racism and makes a mockery of the bible’s teaching of unity in Christ through the gospel. Furthermore, interracial marriage between Christian believers is a tangible witness that Christian disciples do not find their primary identity in their inherited culture, but in their relationship with Christ and the reconciliation found in Him.

The gospel demands that we carry the compassion and the message of Christ across ethnic lines in both word and deed.

The ethnic-based tension and hostility that existed in the Jew-Samaritan relationship in the first century shares striking similarities with the ethnic-based tension and hostility that has existed in the Black-White relationship in today’s America. Thus, the theology presented in Luke-Acts by its numerous episodes concerning Samaritans is instructive for us. The story of the Good Samaritan and Philip’s missionary endeavors in Samaria combine to stress a compelling picture of believers crossing all major ethnic barriers with the message of the gospel that is not only proclaimed in word, but demonstrated in deed with a compassion the exhibits a genuine love for neighbor. This picture is a challenge to not allow our actions to lag behind our theology. Therefore, our theology regarding racial equality must be authenticated by action that demonstrates loving compassion for those ethnically different than ourselves. We must ask ourselves what this might look like both in our personal lives and in our churches corporately.

The gospel demands functional unity in the Church that explicitly joins differing ethnic groups together because of their common identity and shared union in Christ. The New Testament proclaims that in Christ believers form a new humanity. The old barriers of hostility and division created by ethnic and cultural differences have been demolished by the cross. Our primary identity as disciples must be based on our union with Christ and no longer based primarily on traditional, inherited, human, cultural connections. Christian believers of other ethnicities and cultures are not simply equal to us, but joined to us. We are both part of the same body, united together as one by the same Spirit who indwells us both. We are fellow heirs, brothers and sisters of the same family. The Church of Jesus Christ must work to make this theological reality a living, functional reality. The continued prevalence of racially divided churches in America points to the fact that the majority of

Christians in this country may still be identifying themselves more with their ethnic and cultural backgrounds than they do with Christ and His gospel.

The picture of God’s people at the consummation of history portrays a multi-ethnic church from every tribe, language, people, and nation all gathered together in worship around God’s throne. Picking up on the fourfold formula in Genesis 10-12 regarding every tribe, language, people, and nation, the book of Revelation stresses the rich diversity of the people of God in the new heavens and new earth. The multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-lingual people of God will be united together in everlasting, joyful worship through the redemption won by the Lamb who was slain. It is a picture of the reality that will exist in the climactic kingdom of Christ, and, as such, provides a model for us to strive toward now. If this is the direction toward which the Kingdom is designed to move, how can we as the church bear witness to that Kingdom now? In what ways, either actively through prejudice, or passively by quietly supporting the status quo, are we working against God’s design? Many of us know the theological truth concerning racial equality, yet how do we walk it out, bearing witness to racial equality in practice and not just in theory? This may be among the most pressing issues facing the Church in America today.