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Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus
20:14)
Leviticus 18 provides several Seventh Commandment statutes depicting adultery. Verses 6-17, pertaining to incestuous relationships, were addressed in Part 2 of this series. Verse 19, prohibiting conjugal relations during a wife’s menstrual cycle and verse 20 prohibiting marital infidelity, were addressed in Part 3. Verse 21, condemning the offering of your seed to Molech, was shown in Parts 4 and 5 to be an idiom prohibiting forbidden lineage and interracial relationships or miscegenation. In Part 6 the argument that Moses and Zipporah, Moses and Adoniah, Joseph and Asenath, Salmon and Rahab, and Boaz and Ruth were biblically sanctioned precedents for interracial relationships was proven incorrect.
The Idolatry Argument
People who condone or promote miscegenation often argue that the Old Testament prohibitions against mixing with forbidden lineages and/or other races was only to protect Israel from the idolatry that was being promoted by the non-Israelites at that time. This assertion is reflected in the following question and answer that was published in the December 1995 installment of Home Life magazine’s "Ask Mike & Mary" column:
Q. What does the Bible teach about interracial relationships or mixed marriages? I am concerned my 13-year-old daughter may be headed in that direction. I have told her this is wrong and I do not approve. The Church doesn’t seem to address this problem. Could this be a sign of a more deep-rooted problem? Do you think I should worry?
A. Your question is one that concerns many parents. We would welcome a passage clearly instructing our children not to mix with other races when they date or marry. That would make our parenting assignment easier. The trouble is, I just don’t believe the Bible makes that statement. It does not support the idea of keeping race as a dividing line. True, in Deuteronomy 7:3 the Israelites were told specifically not to marry the members of the nations they would encounter when they would occupy the promised land. But the next verse clarifies this warning. It is not about race; it is about faith in the true God….1
Mike and Mary’s answer is typical of most of today’s churches when addressing the question of interracial relationships, but not without critique. Parts 4 and 5 of this series already provided the passages that instruct us not to mix with other races. In addition, Deuteronomy 7:1-4 does not substantiate Mike and Mary’s limited application of this particular passage in its implications concerning interracial relationships.
When Yahweh thy God shall bring thee [the nation of Israel] into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites … thou shalt make no … marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. (Deuteronomy 7:1-42)
Faith in Yahweh is undeniably central to this particular passage. With this in mind, in Ecclesiastes 1:9 King Solomon taught that "that which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun." In other words, even if idolatry were the only reason for this prohibition, the consequences of race mixing for Israel3 have not changed. In 1776 there were approximately 2.5 million people in America. Less than one percent of the population was collectively represented by 20,000 Catholics, 3,000 non-Israelite Jews3 and a few deists. More than 99 percent were white, Christian, Israelite3 Protestants. In light of these and present day demographics, it is a fact that the more non-Israelite immigrants allowed to enter and remain in the United States, the less Christian this nation becomes. In other words, the more racially-mixed and multicultural America becomes, the more religiously pluralistic she becomes, and the more pluralistic she becomes, the more heathen and ungodly she becomes as well. In other words, nothing has changed since Deuteronomy 7.
In her book The Official Guide to the American Marketplace, demographics specialist Cheryl Russell confirmed this paganizing of America:
Immigration will slowly change the nation’s [America’s predominately Christian] religious affiliation…. Because most of the nation’s immigrants are from Mexico … the Roman Catholic church is likely to gain adherents. The influx of Asian immigrants should boost the share of Americans who are Buddhist or Hindu.4
Martin E. Marty, a nationally acclaimed demographics expert and director of the public religion project, also confirmed this inevitable consequence of mixing the races:
No one noticed it at the time, but the biggest event affecting pluralism [the increasing multi-religious composition of the United States] was in 1965, when immigration quotas that favored Europeans were altered.5
The Bible repeatedly declares that Yahweh is the God of the Israelites. In other words, Yahweh is the innate God of only the Israelites. Without the religious influence of the Israelites, non-Israelites naturally serve other gods. It is a sad commentary, but when Israelites mix with other races, they usually turn to the gods of those people with whom they mix rather than vice versa. This is in fulfillment of the principle found in the Apostle Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that "bad company corrupts good morals." Once again, nothing has changed since Deuteronomy 7.
Faith in Yahweh is central to the Bible’s prohibitions against mixing with forbidden lineages. However, faith is not the only reason for racial segregation or the Bible would have provided exceptions made for believers among the forbidden nations. There is not an exception clause for believers in Deuteronomy 7 or anywhere else in the entire Bible. Consider carefully, for example, Ezra’s instructions:
…the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands…. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel…. And at the evening sacrifice … I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto Yahweh my God. And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for … we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. …should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Yahweh God of Israel … we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this. Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God … Shechaniah … answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land…. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. (Ezra 9:1 − 10:3)
It is particularly significant that Ezra and Shechaniah made no exceptions for foreign wives who had converted to Yahweh nor for the children born of these mixed relationships. This important fact of Scripture is completely overlooked by most of modern Christianity when addressing the question of interracial relationships.
Furthermore, although Israelites were forbidden to marry certain idolatrous nationalities, they were permitted to marry others within their race, such as the Midianites,6 who were also idolaters. This further demonstrates that the prohibition against mixing with certain racially-alike lineages and other races did not pertain merely to faith in Yahweh.
Additional Reasons for Racial Purity
In addition to idolatry, Ezra provided two other reasons why the Israelites were commanded to separate from the other nations listed in chapter nine:
…they [the Judahites] have taken of their [non-Israelite] daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed [race NASV] have mingled themselves with the people of those lands…. (Ezra 9:2)
In other words, this practice was condemned by Ezra not only because it polluted the religion of the Israelites, but also because it polluted or adulterated the race or the genes of the Israelites.
Verse 12 provides a second reason why the Israelites were commanded to separate from their foreign wives:
…give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever. (Ezra 9:12)
If these mixed marriages had been allowed to continue, the land of Israel would have been in jeopardy of being lost or turned over to the mixed multitude born to these mixed marriages. This would have occurred even if both parents of these mixed children or the mixed children themselves were believers in Yahweh. Israel would have been dispossessed of her land. The same thing is occurring in America and other places throughout the world, which demonstrates that once again there is nothing new under the sun.
When someone spurns his birthright, history, posterity and future through miscegenation there is no repentance or getting back what was lost even though he might deeply regret his previous actions. In other words, once a child has been conceived and born from a mixed-race relationship, there is no going back and changing it.
There are indeed horrific consequences that accompany the sin of miscegenation. May Yahweh deliver us from this and all other forms of adultery.
End Notes
1. "Ask Mike and Mary," Home Life (Nashville, TN: Life Way Press, December 1995), p. 10.
2. Portions of scripture have been omitted simply for brevity’s sake. If there are any questions regarding any passage, readers are recommended to open their Bibles and study the text to ensure that it has been properly used.
3. God’s Covenant People: Yesterday, Today and Forever by Ted R. Weiland provides a documented dissertation identifying Israel with today’s Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon and kindred peoples. Over 30 biblical characteristics of the people of Israel are provided whereby the Celto-Saxons are contrasted with today’s Jews who fit none of the biblical marks of Israel. God’s Covenant People may be obtained from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363. Suggested donation: hard cover - $23, soft cover - $14.
4. Cheryl Russell, "Most Americans Claim Religious Affiliation," The Official Guide to the American Marketplace (Ithaca, NY: New Strategist Publications, Inc., 1995) p. 252.
5. Martin E. Marty, quoted by Tom Heinen, "Scholar sees strength in abundance of faiths," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Monday, April 26, 1999.
6. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by Keturah and, therefore, were of the same race as the Israelites. They had, nonetheless, become polytheists. According to Exodus 18:1-12 Moses father-in-law Jethro did not become a convert to Yahweh until after Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt many years after Moses had married Zipporah.
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