One of the formal attacks made by agnostics against the Bible and God is regarding the theme of perceived racism which many anti-Christianity people think is present in the religion. Are there really hints of racism written in the Bible, and is God really racist?
Before anything, we must carefully identify what racism is. Racism is a form of discrimination based on things that are beyond the control of people who are being discriminated against, more specifically the race that they are born into. When favor is withheld based on things that the people can control, then it's no longer racism.
To better illustrate this thought, picture this: If a store owner prefers to serve one man over another because one is willing to pay and the other isn't, the world will not call that racism. However, if the store owner prefers to serve one over the other because of his skin color, that's where racism is present.
Proverbs 22:2 says, "The rich and the poor have a common bond, The LORD is the maker of them all." In God's eyes we are all equal, but to say that He has treated all people well would be a lie. But that doesn't mean that God is racist or discriminatory. Here are some realizations that will help us fix that frame of thought.
God doesn't owe anyone anything.
The reason why so many people believe God is discriminatory in many accounts in the Bible is because they operated on the frame of thought that God owes the world. For instance, people thought Jesus was being racist when He refused to heal a woman who wasn't a Jew because many choose to believe that Jesus owed her something.
Let us remember that God does not owe us anything, but gives us everything regardless. Jesus did not owe that woman anything, but He healed her still and commended her. That's not racism. That's grace.
The Bible didn't happen in the 21st Century.
Another common stand many people who think God is racist take is His decision to allow Israel to kill off other tribes that lived in the land. To think that would be to fail to see that the events in the Bible happened at a time where culture was different and conquest was the norm.
Anyone who would honestly believe that peace treaties were as easy as asking for them in the time of conquest is dreaming up a whole new world. Asking for peace wasn't like asking for candy. Also, we must consider that these tribes existing in Canaan inhabited it because they themselves had killed off and driven away other inhabitants.
God's favor of Israel was not racism; it was grace.
And then there's the issue of God favoring Israel above every other race. Well that statement is wrong in two aspects: First of all, God's favor over the land of Israel was not to promote racism but to extol His grace. Secondly, God did not favor Israel over others.
Wasn't God the one who fairly allowed Israel to lose battles when they needed to lose? Isaiah 19:25 also tells us that God blessed Egypt and Assyria as well. Weren't they wealthy nations? Where did their wealth come from?
The reason why God blessed Israel was because it would be the nation that would bring forth the greatest victory the world has ever seen -- victory over sin through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ -- and so that through Israel ALL THE NATIONS will be blessed.
