Ask the Pastor 34

Where did all the different races come from?

I was going door to door with the gospel in a North Omaha neighborhood where I came across a black man drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag. No need to speculate too much as to the contents of that bottle. He made the comment that black people were unlucky because they were created on Friday the 13th. I took the opportunity to tell him that we all come from the same parents who were created on the 6th day of creation. From Adam and Eve all the peoples of earth descended, the point at which they became different races of people was at the time of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Mankind had gathered on the plain of Shinar and had determined to build a tower which would reach up into the heavens for the purpose of worshipping the sun, moon and stars. The Lord looked down upon them and confused their languages so that they would stop working and then spread out over the earth. The people then divided up by language and moved to different parts of the world, their division and the table of nations is given in Genesis 10. We see in that chapter that the descendants of Japheth became the people of Europe; the descendants of Ham became the people of Africa, Asia and migrated to the Americas; the descendants of Shem became the people of the middle East, including the land of Canaan. When these people divided by language, they also took on distinguishing race qualities such as the color of skin, other physical features and intellectual and cultural emphasis. Regardless of the race to which a person belongs, we are all created in the image of God and are all in need of redemption through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Have questions about the Bible?Send them to Dr. Greg Koehn at gak4850@gmail.com and read the answer here in this article