“There is only one race, the human race.” Now that sounds like something I would say, doesn’t it? Indeed, it’s something I (and other AiG speakers) have said for decades, based on the biblical truth that we’re all descended from Adam and Eve—and science confirms that. But that particular statement I just quoted was actually made by a medical geneticist at Johns Hopkins University.
You see, a report issued by a panel convened by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, argues that “Race should no longer be used to describe populations in most genetics studies.” Here’s a summary of the report from ScienceNews:
Using race and ethnicity to describe study participants gives the mistaken impression that humans can be divided into distinct groups. Such labels have been used to stigmatize groups of people, but do not explain biological and genetic diversity. . . .
Racial definitions are problematic “because not only are they stigmatizing, they are historically wrong,” says Ambroise Wonkam, a medical geneticist at Johns Hopkins University and president of the African Society of Human Genetics. Race is often used as a proxy for genetic diversity. But “race cannot be used to capture diversity at all. Race doesn’t exist. There is only one race, the human race,” says Wonkam, who was not involved with the National Academies’ panel.
Specifically, the panel recommends dropping the terms “Caucasian” and “black race”:
In particular, the term Caucasian should no longer be used, the committee recommends. The term, coined in the 18th century by German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to describe what he determined was the most beautiful skull in his collection, carries the false notion of white superiority, the panel says.
Worse, the moniker “has also acquired today the connotation of being an objective scientific term, and that’s what really led the committee to take objection with it. . . . It tends to reinforce this erroneous belief that racial categories are somehow objective and natural characterizations of human biological difference. We felt that it was a term that . . . should go into the dustbin of history.”
Similarly, the term “black race” shouldn’t be used because it implies that Black people are a distinct group, or race, that can be objectively defined, the panel says.
I couldn’t agree more! Biblically, there’s only one race, the human race (Acts 17:26), and science has confirmed exactly what we’d expect starting with God’s Word. It was Darwin and other early evolutionists who invented racial categories of humans based on their evolutionary beliefs. But they were absolutely 100% wrong! God’s Word was true—there’s only one race!
As Christians, let’s confine the term “race” to “the dustbin of history” and use the more biblically and scientifically accurate term “people groups” instead.
By the way, the report from this panel also confirms new research from AiG’s own Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson. His long-time study of human history through the lens of genetics—particularly the Y chromosome—interpreted through the biblical timeline, is utterly fascinating and will upend everything you thought you knew about history. I encourage you to watch his series, “The New History of the Human Race,” and order his book Traced to learn more. It’s a jaw-dropping dive into human history.
Now, if science says there’s only one race and we shouldn’t be dividing people up arbitrarily, why do we see so much division in our culture along so-called racial lines? Indeed, it seems like activists today are doing everything they can to identify people as belonging to a certain group or “race” and planting seeds of division between these arbitrary groups. What’s going on? Well, it has a lot to do with a worldview called Critical Race Theory or CRT.
There are whole books that could (and have been) written refuting CRT, but I’m going to give you the 30,000-foot view here for how you can think about it from a biblical perspective.
As Christians, we need to ensure we look at everything through biblical glasses. We need to make sure we’re using a truly Christian worldview, starting with the foundation of God’s Word, to build our thinking in every area. So, the question isn’t, “How can I fit CRT into the Bible?” The question we need to ask is this: “Does CRT start with the foundation of God’s Word or man’s word?”
Even a quick examination of this ideology shows that it does not start with God’s Word. Since it doesn’t begin with the Bible, there’s only one other foundation possible: man’s word. CRT is founded on man’s word, and therefore it is a secular worldview and will not be in accord with a Christian worldview. In other words, CRT is not the correct worldview because it has the wrong foundation!
So now we need to ask, “In what ways is it not Christian?” Well, God’s Word says we are identified as individuals made in God’s image, equal in value, but individually accountable to God.
CRT divides humans into two identity groups, oppressed and oppressors, essentially based on skin shade (or as some erroneously say, “color”). In short, CRT says “whites” are guilty oppressors and “blacks” (non-whites) are the innocent “oppressed.” Note, this is assigned guilt (or innocence) based solely on a person’s shade of skin. CRT is inherently racist and promotes the sin of partiality.
Scripture says we are to show no partiality.
James 2:1-4 KJV – “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?”
CRT has an emphasis on judging people by their outside appearances. But the Bible teaches us to “not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24). And for right judgment, it has to be a judgment of their heart, their spiritual state. As God teaches us:
Matthew 12:34 KJV – “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
Luke 6:45 KJV – “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
This is why God’s Word records what happened when the prophet Samuel came to anoint the next king of Israel and thought it was going to be David’s brother.
1 Samuel 16:7 KJV – “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
CRT divides people into those who are “black” and those who are “white.” And although there is much more behind this, it still relates to skin “color.” Yet all humans are the same basic color—brown—because of the main pigment for skin color, melanin. There are really no people truly black or truly white—we’re all shades of brown from dark to light.
CRT says only the oppressors are guilty. The Bible, however, says we are all sinners, and all are guilty before a perfect and holy God.
CRT, in essence, seeks vengeance and reparations. But God’s Word commands to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) and says to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
CRT says revolution and redistribution are the solution. God’s Word, though, tells us the only true solution is changed hearts through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In an eternal sense, the Bible divides people into two groups too: the saved and the unsaved. This is the focus of God’s justice and should be the focus of Christians as well.
CRT and the Christian worldview are in total conflict. Sadly, there are even church leaders who have adopted aspects of CRT to mesh it with God’s Word, but that’s no different than those who mesh evolution and/or millions of years with the book of Genesis. It’s mixing the pagan religion of our day (in the case of CRT, a works-based righteousness) with the Bible! It’s syncretism, and God hates syncretism.
Just as Christians should reject the biblically and scientifically inaccurate term “races,” we should reject CRT and instead go back to what the Bible says and fight the evil of racism using its teachings.
