people.gif (21079 bytes)We Are You and You Are We

by Rev. Leon Mohammed

With the ever-increasing tragedies of strife and violence in the world, there is a grow-ing need for the promotion of understand-ing and good will among men. With the explosion of technology in travel and telecommunications, the planet continues to shrink, becoming more and more a global village. Wars, terrorism, and attempted genocide that were once continents removed now appear instantly in graphic color in our living rooms. This bringing of men into close proximity to one another serves to underscore the need for finding ways to bridge the chasms of generational hatred and conflict. More than ever before, the world needs to understand biblical oneness.

The convention of sociologists and demographers has divided us into races: Mongoloid, Negroid, and Caucasian. These "racial" categories have underscored differences in physical appearance, even prompting some to offer the spurious observation that there are mental, as well as physical differences between the "races."

The Sin of Pride

Any attempt to elevate one group of people–be it on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, language, color, or religion–to an elite status, suggesting that they are physically, emotionally, or mentally superior to the rest of mankind, is idolatry, plain and simple. It is motivated by the spirit of pride that says in the words of the first self-exalted being, "I will exalt my throne above . . ." (Isaiah 14:13). When one group elevates itself above any other group and consequently demeans the status of the other, it either has assumed to itself superhuman status or has assigned to the other subhuman status. This is idolatry, very little different from the ancient emperors who arrogated to themselves divine status (like Antiochus IV, the Selucid king who even took the name Epiphanes, meaning "God manifest").

This was the fundamental sin of Nazi Germany that resulted in the Holocaust, the slaughter of six million Jewish people, including over one million children. When German leaders came to think of Aryans as superior to the rest of mankind, it was relatively simple for them to justify the enslavement of inferior peoples and the elimination of subhuman species. They even categorized all Jewish people as vermin whose extermination was necessary for the betterment of the world.

The dehumanization of any group of mankind is also sin. The record of history is replete with instances of man’s inhumanity to man that have resulted in the creation of subclasses and even the neurasthenia of whole segments of the population. When this is done by a class that considers itself to be superior socially, morally, intellectually, or physically to the subjected group, it is also the sin of idolatry.

One Race–The Human Race

The truth is that we are one race, the human race, that is denominated into many tribes, either by God’s design or by man’s choice. Paul clearly sets this forth in his Mars Hill discourse: "[God] 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 . . . for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ "(Acts 17:26-28).

We must understand that we are all the children of God (God’s creation) and that we are descended naturally from one father, Adam. We are not descended from some primordial ooze, and we are not evolving into a higher species through the survival of the fittest. Though we have many differences, we are all members of the one human race that God created. As such, we must respect the distinctives of our fellow human beings, looking upon differences not as causes for division but as mutually-complementing contributions to the montage of human existence. It was God–not blind fate or evolution–who created our distinctives, and every distinctive contributes to the overall welfare of the human race.

The Sanctity of Life

One of the fundamental tenets of Judaism teaches that all human life is sacred. It is for this reason that the sages believed that to take one human life is to take all human life. (If such had occurred in the case of Adam, then all human life would have been obliterated.) It is for this reason that the Decalogue’s prohibition against murder is recognized by the Jews as one of three commandments which must not be violated even if the consequence is surrendering one’s own life.

Elected, Not Elite

Throughout Bible history, God has chosen men to fulfill his purposes. The Bible is not a record of man’s search for God–it is the account of God’s search for man. Accordingly God has sought to elect men and women to accomplish his will. The most prominent of these elections was that of the nation of Israel. This was not, however, a call to elitism, the creation of a master race, as it were. The Jewish people have always recognized their calling to be that of witnesses to God’s truth as revealed through Torah; however, the collective Jewish people have never seen themselves as a superior race or class as a result of their election. They see their calling as more responsibility than privilege.

When the covenant of God with Israel was renewed and perfected through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, it was also extended with greater flexibility to the nations of the world. The Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus became God’s witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and took the message of God’s salvation through Jesus throughout the Gentile world. Those who believed upon Jesus were themselves also chosen and made fellowcitizens with Israel and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:11-19). The Gentiles who believed in the Jewish Messiah were converted to the new covenant Judaism which came to be called Christianity. Just like many Gentiles had become Jews before the time of Jesus by being circumcised, being taught the Torah, and being immersed in the mikveh, so Gentiles who believed in Jesus became Jews by being circumcised in heart, taught the Word of God, and being baptized in water.

This grafting of the Gentiles into Israel’s olive tree was not, however, the achievement of an elite status. It was adoption into the servant nation. The status of the believer was that of a slave to Jesus Christ and a servant to the world. Though many sects within Christianity have considered themselves in some way superior, the truth is that believers are elected, not elite, and they are totally equal in their salvation. It has been said that Christians are forgiven, not perfect. They are still one in their humanity with the unredeemed balance mankind.

We Are One In Christ

As believers in Christ we must recognize our oneness. Faith in Jesus adopts us into sonship of God so that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for [we] are all one in Christ" (Galatians 3:28).

Like Israel of old that was denominated into twelve tribes, we may always be a tribalized people, denominated into families, ethnic groups, and nations. We must always recognize, however, that this is no reason for separation, division, strife. We are of one race, the human race. We are you, and you are we!

Rev. Leon Mohammed has been a student of he Hebrew foundations of Christian faith for over twenty years. He has become an authority on principles for application of Christianity’s Judaic heritage to the lives of various ethnic communities throughout the world. He presently is engaged in research on the presence of African peoples in biblical religion for a book he will write on that subject. Leon lives in Asheville, North Carolina.