Love one another without prejudice

FRIDAY, FEB. 10: Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis USA, visited Bermuda at the weekend to talk on creationism.

Australian Dr Ham is one of the most sought-after Christian speakers in North America.He co-founded the Answers in Genesis ministry in Australia, which promotes a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis and Young Earth Creationism.

He also created the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, US, which has attracted more than a million visitors in less than three years.

Dr Ham spoke at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship’s Answers in Genesis Conference from Sunday to Monday, at the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium, CedarBridge Academy.

Ken shared how the Bible teaches, and creationist and non-creationist biologists will agree that there are not several ‘races’ but one race... the human race.

Primarily what we have used to define race is skin colour, a part of our DNA that only makes up 0.01 per cent.

Yet this has become the catalyst for great turmoil, prejudice and horrible violence in the world in the past and in the present.

However from a biological perspective we are not really that different. 

Sure there are real cultural and philosophical differences depending on where we are raised, and in some cases which people groups we grew up around, but what qualifies us as humans is we have all come from the same two parents that would have held all the DNA information for the many people groups we have today.

So what makes one ‘black’ or ‘white’ as we call it? The pigment component that each person has in their skin is melanin. It is the amount of pigment that makes our shade rather than our colour.

Simply, the lightest people have less whereas the darkest people have more. 

As humans we have a tendency to focus on our differences and to prejudge people rather than accepting the reality that we really are the same.

Why is this truth so important for Christians?  Well in the Gospels we have the line of Jesus Christ from Adam and Eve to Christ. 

This line is necessary in order for Jesus to be qualified to be one of us in order to die for us on the Cross.

The Bible teaches that no one is perfect and that Jesus died and rose again for all the things we did wrong, if we would only humble ourselves and accept Him as personal Saviour (John 3:16). 

The need for the Saviour was to rescue us from a life without God and without purpose.

The biblical approach to race is that there is only one race... the human race, and only one God who wants to be intimately involved in our day-to-day lives.

I encourage each of us to put aside our preconceived notions of others.

Rather, we should take each person on their own merit rather than placing others in a box and expecting them to live up to our expectations.

Acceptance

When we do this we limit progress in our world for love, peace and acceptance to flourish. 

Acts 17:26, 27.
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

Let’s pray that as a country we will lead the way for other nations to discover that forgiveness, love and acceptance is not skin deep.

Click HERE for Stephen Notman’s views on Ken Ham and Young Earth Creationism.