A racist God?
I've heard non-Christians accuse Christianity of being bigoted because our beliefs view gays as sinners, or non-Christians as lost. Things like that.
And then there are legitimate Christians who read about God killing everybody in the Flood, and killing all of Israel's enemies in Canaan. They don't blink an eye reading it, but they scarcely raise a question about it being "genocide" at a Bible Study!
So let me suggest that the OT quarantine of Israel against pagan influence was not bigotry, nor racism. It was not ethnic pride. Rather, God wanted to begin His testimony of Eternal Salvation among the nations by producing in Israel the initial example of it.
To do that, He had to separate His religion from all other religions, and provide a consistent set of beliefs, which were clearly incompatible with pagan religions. And so, He did not let the people of Israel fraternize and intermarry with these pagans, so as to maintain a true testimony to who God is and what His religion comprises among the nations.
Since God planned to expand the message of His Salvation to all nations out of the testimony of Israel's national history there would come a time when Israel could fraternize and intermarry among the nations. But that was only after God's true religion had been properly sent to, so as to be received by, the nations. Then, the Jews could intermarry and fraternize with those among the nations who shared the belief in the one true God and in the one true religion.
In this, there is consistency from OT to NT. Once it came time for Israel to send the testimony of their national history under God to the nations, and the nations started receiving it, then the door was opened to international partnership between godly people of all nations and races.
This is just being true to a religion, and has nothing to do with racism or bigotry. This is the consistent standard of the God of Israel, and also of the God of Jesus.
Jesus was the important point where Israel's historical testimony came to a head, and was ready to be delivered to the nations. And that's because that was the point where Israel had so failed that pagan nations became equally qualified to receive the mercy that Israel so sorely needed.
And Jesus became the focal point giving mercy both to Israel and to the nations. They came to be viewed as standing on the same ground, equally in need of mercy.
Paul did not fear being called a racist or bigot when he agreed with assigning certain sins to a particular people.
"For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said,
Cretans are alway liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons. This testimony is true. For which cause reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth." (Titus 1:10-14, ERV)
Paul did not hesitate to call a certain people, the Cretans, names in v12 when he says the Cretan prophet was true in his descriptions of the people of Crete. But, there is no question the three sins listed are clearly seen as sin in Scripture. But you list "gays" without any description whatever of the sin you see that fits the biblical definition of sin. All men are sinners, even gays; but gays are not specifically sinners because they love other males. So, Christians run the risk of being called "bigots" for that reason.
The word "
bigot" in the oline Oxford -
"A person who is obstinately or
unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group."
The word "
reason" in the online Oxford -
"The power of the mind
to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic."
I do not see a noun "gay" anywhere in the Bible, nor condemnation of a male loving a male including physical intimacy. Paul went on to say in the above: "not giving heed to
Jewish fables, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth."
That sounds like the Pharisee of old, "Jewish fables, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth". The wicked Cretans were listening to the Judaizers.
On the word "alway", the ISBE states: "ol'-way, ol'-waz (archaic and poetic): Properly applied to acts or states perpetually occurring, but not necessarily continuous."
To start with, there are mixed blacks and asians in my family. I have no interest in showing an ounce of racial prejudice, for the simple reason that I love my relatives.
