These questions
have been on people’s lips for ages. The answers
provided in history have been wide-ranging and varied. The Bible is clear:
"God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male
and female created he them."
(Genesis 1:27)
But what about the different races and skin colors? How did they come about?
One thing that we do know is that God
created the human race and that we all came from Adam and Eve.
Is the whole world related? Acts 17:26-28 says, “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being …’For we are also His offspring.’ ”
These verses tell us that mankind has come about from one gene pool which
God created, and we all have the same limitations. We can only use human
blood for transfusions and not insect or bird's blood to sustain life. The
times that affect us-–birth, death, Jesus 1st and 2nd coming, the seasons,
the prophecies of the Bible--have the same effect on all of the human race. Our
very length of life in a sinful world is determined by God. None of us will
live
forever without Him, in spite of medical science and all it's advances.
So why are some people black and
some white? The Bible doesn’t give a definite answer to this
question. Because man is curious and often wants to know what God has not
told us, he begins to speculate. This is not sin as long as we don’t turn
our answers into dogma. Let's not forget that what we think
is just that – not revelation. For the sake of this question, let's
take a look at some of the ideas people have considered in an effort to
explain the races.
Please keep in mind that Word of Truth
Radio.com does not accept, endorse, support, or promote any of these ideas!
One idea that has surfaced comes
from
Genesis 4:15.
After Cain killed Able the Bible says that Cain felt insecure about life and
God said, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him
sevenfold.” and “the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should
kill him.” Some have concluded that this “mark” was black skin. First of
all, we
don’t know what the mark was, but is it possible that
the black gene was started with Cain and carried onto the ark in one of
Noah’s sons or daughter-in-laws? Not very likely at all. That would be a
very prejudiced viewpoint in our opinion, and a view that has no Scriptural
evidence.
Others have jumped on Genesis 9:25 (This is the curse Noah placed on Canaan for his father Ham's lack of respect.) “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” Some have tried to suggest that the people of Africa can trace their ancestry back to Ham. Here the conclusion is drawn that the black race has been in slavery more than any race in human history; therefore, it is concluded that this curse was genetically followed into Ham’s offspring. However, the curse was placed on Canaan, not Ham. Canaan's descendents where the Canaanites and they dwelt in what is now modern Israel (Genesis 9:15-19). People wanting to bolster the doctrine of slavery in the Southern United States in the 1800’s advocated this theory of black people being "cursed". Obviously, this is a very rude and prejudiced idea that is totally lacking in supportive evidence. Some Christians believe that just as man is currently tinkering with the genes of plants and animals (and humans), scientists of Noah’s day tinkered with the genes of the animals and altered animal life, producing the prehistoric monsters we now know as dinosaurs. If we want to daydream, perhaps we could wonder if they also manipulated human embryos. Who knows? Maybe this is why God is silent on the matter. Why give the sinful heart an idea God deplores? A better conjecture is the idea of variety. When we investigate our world, we see that God has put in place a gene pool that has made possible a whole panorama of color and shapes: in the flower world, in the breeds of dogs that are possible, etc., etc. The same is true with the human race: we have a spectrum of profiles and colors, as this seems to have been God's plan from the beginning. We don't have to explain it; we only need to accept it. Some scientists arrogantly suggest that Caucasians are farther up the ladder because they have reached a superior level of evolution. Does this sound like something that our loving Creator would allow? Of course not! We can be sure that the devil is behind this type of absurd reasoning. Let's not forget that all men are equal in the sight of God. "For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)
--Thanks to George Blumenschein
for contributing to this question! Although we would like to know
everything, our humans minds are limited. God has not revealed the answers
to all of life's questions, but he has given us enough information for that
which is most important in life: a relationship with Him through His Son
Jesus Christ. That's what really matters! The good news is that every
human being has equal access to His Heavenly Kingdom, regardless of our skin
color.
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Lincoln did believe that slavery was morally wrong, but there was one big problem: It was sanctioned by the highest law in the land, the Constitution. The nation’s founding fathers, who also struggled with how to address slavery, did not explicitly write the word “slavery” in the Constitution, but they did include key clauses protecting the institution, including a fugitive slave clause and the three-fifths clause, which allowed Southern states to count slaves for the purposes of representation in the federal government. In a three-hour speech in Peoria, Illinois, in the fall of 1854, Lincoln presented more clearly than ever his moral, legal and economic opposition to slavery—and then admitted he didn’t know exactly what should be done about it within the current political system.
Abolitionists, by contrast, knew exactly what should be done about it: Slavery should be immediately abolished, and freed slaves should be incorporated as equal members of society. They didn’t care about working within the existing political system, or under the Constitution, which they saw as unjustly protecting slavery and slave owners. Leading abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called the Constitution “a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell,” and went so far as to burn a copy at a Massachusetts rally in 1854. Though Lincoln saw himself as working alongside the abolitionists on behalf of a common anti-slavery cause, he did not count himself among them. Only with emancipation, and with his support of the eventual 13th Amendment, would Lincoln finally win over the most committed abolitionists.
2. Lincoln didn’t believe blacks should have the same rights as whites.
Though Lincoln argued that the founding fathers’ phrase “All men are created equal” applied to blacks and whites alike, this did not mean he thought they should have the same social and political rights. His views became clear during an 1858 series of debates with his opponent in the Illinois race for U.S. Senate, Stephen Douglas, who had accused him of supporting “negro equality.” In their fourth debate, at Charleston, Illinois, on September 18, 1858, Lincoln made his position clear. “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,” he began, going on to say that he opposed blacks having the right to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office and to intermarry with whites. What he did believe was that, like all men, blacks had the right to improve their condition in society and to enjoy the fruits of their labor. In this way they were equal to white men, and for this reason slavery was inherently unjust.
Like his views on emancipation, Lincoln’s position on social and political equality for African-Americans would evolve over the course of his presidency. In the last speech of his life, delivered on April 11, 1865, he argued for limited black suffrage, saying that any black man who had served the Union during the Civil War should have the right to vote.
3. Lincoln thought colonization could resolve the issue of slavery.
For much of his career, Lincoln believed that colonization—or the idea that a majority of the African-American population should leave the United States and settle in Africa or Central America—was the best way to confront the problem of slavery. His two great political heroes, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson, had both favored colonization; both were slave owners who took issue with aspects of slavery but saw no way that blacks and whites could live together peaceably. Lincoln first publicly advocated for colonization in 1852, and in 1854 said that his first instinct would be “to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia” (the African state founded by the American Colonization Society in 1821).
Nearly a decade later, even as he edited the draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in August of 1862, Lincoln hosted a delegation of freed slaves at the White House in the hopes of getting their support on a plan for colonization in Central America. Given the “differences” between the two races and the hostile attitudes of whites towards blacks, Lincoln argued, it would be “better for us both, therefore, to be separated.” Lincoln’s support of colonization provoked great anger among black leaders and abolitionists, who argued that African-Americans were as much natives of the country as whites, and thus deserved the same rights. After he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln never again publicly mentioned colonization, and a mention of it in an earlier draft was deleted by the time the final proclamation was issued in January 1863.
4. Emancipation was a military policy.
As much as he hated the institution of slavery, Lincoln didn’t see the Civil War as a struggle to free the nation’s 4 million slaves from bondage. Emancipation, when it came, would have to be gradual, and the important thing to do was to prevent the Southern rebellion from severing the Union permanently in two. But as the Civil War entered its second summer in 1862, thousands of slaves had fled Southern plantations to Union lines, and the federal government didn’t have a clear policy on how to deal with them. Emancipation, Lincoln saw, would further undermine the Confederacy while providing the Union with a new source of manpower to crush the rebellion.
In July 1862 the president presented his draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Secretary of State William Seward urged him to wait until things were going better for the Union on the field of battle, or emancipation might look like the last gasp of a nation on the brink of defeat. Lincoln agreed and returned to edit the draft over the summer. On September 17 the bloody Battle of Antietam gave Lincoln the opportunity he needed. He issued the preliminary proclamation to his cabinet on September 22, and it was published the following day. As a cheering crowd gathered at the White House, Lincoln addressed them from a balcony: “I can only trust in God I have made no mistake … It is now for the country and the world to pass judgment on it.”
5. The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t actually free all of the slaves.
Since Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure, it didn’t apply to border slave states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, all of which had remained loyal to the Union. Lincoln also exempted selected areas of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control in hopes of gaining the loyalty of whites in those states. In practice, then, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t immediately free a single slave, as the only places it applied were places where the federal government had no control—the Southern states currently fighting against the Union.
Despite its limitations, Lincoln’s proclamation marked a crucial turning point in the evolution of Lincoln’s views of slavery, as well as a turning point in the Civil War itself. By war’s end, some 200,000 black men would serve in the Union Army and Navy, striking a mortal blow against the institution of slavery and paving the way for its eventual abolition by the 13th Amendment.
A final word:
What About The Debt Blacks Owe To America?
Slavery existed for thousands of years before the Atlantic slave trade was born, and in all societies. But in the thousand years of its existence, there never was an anti-slavery movement until white Christians - Englishmen and Americans -- created one. If not for the anti-slavery attitudes and military power of white Christian Englishmen and Americans, the slave trade would not have been brought to an end. If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president who gave his life to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in America would still be slaves. If not for the dedication of Americans of all ethnicities and colors to a society based on the principle that all men are created equal, blacks in America would not enjoy the highest standard of living of blacks anywhere in the world, and indeed one of the highest standards of living of any people in the world. They would not enjoy the greatest freedoms and the most thoroughly protected individual rights anywhere. Where is the gratitude of black America and its leaders for those gifts? For the answer to that question go to the link below:

