“These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood” Genesis 10:32.
Any thinking Christian should realize the conflicts inherent in racism.
First, we know God made everyone and Jesus died for everyone.
Remember the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children”? I grew up singing along: “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Does anyone doubt that simple truth?
Second, there is only one race, the HUMAN RACE.
That line has become a cliché, but it is true, nevertheless. We all came from Noah. If Noah could look at the world today—all his descendants—he would say: “Stop fighting. You are all my children.” How can children from a single father and mother claim to be members of different races? Some are tall, some short, some dark, some light, but we are all brothers and sisters.
In fact, it is not scripture, but evolutionary theory that can be used to support an argument that different groups somehow evolved from different places and different parents.
However, there are Bible readers who promote a similar heresy, arguing that Adam was white (based on a misreading of the Hebrew word for “Adam”), that Noah was white, and that the flood was local (which contradicts Genesis 7:19-20). These people go on to argue that non-white “races” were already on the earth, were not impacted by the flood, do not descend from a common ancestor, need not be seen as “brothers,” and are inferior somehow.[1] All of that is wrong—but even if you believed parts of it, wouldn’t Adam remain a common ancestor? Are we not all one race, one family under Adam?
But this brings us to another of the amazing facts about Biblical genealogies:
These detailed records of actual people prove that there are no “gaps” where other so-called “races” crept into the story.
On the contrary, Genesis 10 traces actual people, some of whose lives are recorded in non-Biblical texts, and the texts are consistent. In other words, Noah had three actual sons, and each of them had many more sons, and the Bible records who they were and to what lands they migrated after the flood. Why does that matter? Because it proves that we are talking about the actual descendants of three sons, who came from a single father. There is no way to fit in other stories of other races.
However, though we are clearly all one race, racists have used the Bible to justify racism throughout history.
How? Isn’t this the book that says, “there is neither Jew nor Greek … for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28-29)? Yes, the New Testament clearly says there are no racial divisions, that even the division between Jew and Gentile means nothing to Christ followers. We are all one.
But racists have used the story of Noah to justify racism. When Ham made a mockery of his father’s drunkenness, Noah cursed Ham’s son: “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren … blessed be Shem and Canaan shall be his servant … blessed by Japheth … and Canaan shall be his servant” Genesis 9:25-27.
Historians believe the sons of Shem moved throughout the Middle East and fathered Semitic peoples: Hebrews, Persians, Assyrians, and others. The sons of Japheth are believed to have moved north and east and fathered the Greeks, Scythians, and eventually all the peoples of Europe and of Asia. The sons of Ham are believed to have moved throughout the Middle East and Africa and fathered the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Hittites, and the peoples of Africa. It is this belief, combined with Genesis 9:25, that was used to support racism. The idea was: Noah cursed the sons of Ham—which includes all African people—and thus they were destined for slavery or servitude.
But this is irrational too: there is not a nation, tribe, or people on earth that have not found themselves enslaved at some time. Similar to Henry Ford’s assembly line years later, the African slave trade grew exponentially because of a growth in shipping and the demand for labor in Southern cotton fields. But slavery has happened everywhere for all time.
More importantly, slavery is not Biblical. Slavery was never God’s design; look at the miracles God performed to rescue the Hebrews from slavery. God does not create lives for suffering and misery. He said, “let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26) and Adam was immediately given a job that required creativity and provided autonomy and agency. In other words, Adam had challenging work, but he was his own boss, made his own decisions, and attacked each day’s problems as he saw fit, relying only on himself. No one told him what to do or how to do it.
But the racist might argue, what about the curse in Genesis 9?
The curse on Canaan was fulfilled when the Israelites entered the Promised Land and defeated the Canaanites (Joshua chapters 6-7, 9-11). A note in my Bible reads: “Noah’s curse wasn’t directed toward any particular race; rather, it was directed at the Canaanite nation—a nation God knew would become wicked. The curse was fulfilled when the Israelites entered the Promised Land and drove the Canaanites out.”[2]
God, thank you for your word which proves that we are all one race, for genealogies that prove we all came from a single family, and for Jesus who tore down all the divisions between us so that it no longer matters whether we are Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free. We are all one family in you.
ΑΩ
[1] https://answersingenesis.org/racism/noah-a-global-flood-and-the-case-against-racism/?srsltid=AfmBOoqawEk3UjKp-vN8kVGGjfRiTVCTyVeEhp_5jT97RqTHgmzxl6Gp
[2] Chronological Life Application Study Bible, King James Version. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois. See note on Genesis 9:25, p22.
Household Words: 
Very well said!
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