When I was backslidden (no Bible reading, no prayer, etc), I had a "Christian" (backslidden one) boyfriend who is from outside of my nation. My parents disagreed, of course, and so did my siblings. I did admit that it was sin to disobey my parents but did not admit how it is scripturally wrong to marry someone outside of my nation. I, too, thought that it was OK to marry someone outside of my nation as we are not Israelites. And after couple years of on-going argument between my family and me, my older sister sent me what she called "final warning" (praise God for allowing her wisdom and courage to tell me the truth!) to this issue.
Here is what she wrote to me (it was about 4 pages long but "personal" information has been taken out
):
Quote:
Scripturally:
- God created all races and nations (Is 42:5; 44:24; 45:11,12).
- God divided them and segregated them on purpose (Acts 17:26; Deut 32:8) - God set boundaries and separated nations so that man can find God and get saved. Races/nations are not the same in their genes and chromosomes, only in their blood (Acts 17:26).
- God’s way has always been that of separation/segregation and not integration which is man’s way and the way of the world today.
- The following are some Bible examples of segregation:- Distinction from old garment and new garment (Mark 2) – you don’t put a new piece of cloth on an old garment
- Distinction between the seeds planted (tares separated from the good seed in Mtt 13)
Although there is no difference/regard to race in the body of Christ (we are all saved) – the reference is that of a spiritual application. But marriage is physical.
In Genesis 26: 34,35 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Gen 28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughers of Canaan;
7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;
8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
Practically:
- Interracial marriages are also not practically good.
- The following are some of the many problems/struggles to be cautious of as two different cultures will be joined in marriage and it should make one pause to make sure of what is being done, especially if one is not married yet:- Different cultural background (including language, customs, etc...)
- Usually, the woman will have to follow the man/please the man with regard to his cultural background and there’ll have to be some compromises
- (God told women(wives) to obey their husband, not husband obeying wife. God did not make women to rule the house but men.)
- The prejudices the children will have to face
- Even people who come from very similar backgrounds will have many difficulties. Paul said that those who marry "shall have trouble in the flesh" (1 Cor. 7:28). But the greater the beginning differences, the greater the struggles to work as one
- That is why for example, we have a Korean Bible Baptist Church because the ways, language, customs of Korean people are different than that of other saved cultural groups
- The majority of people who’ve known people in an intercultural marriage can attest to the problems and disillusionment of happiness
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I, of course, don't believe that those already married couples have to divorce and find themselves a new spouse within their nations. However, if one is not married yet, I think one has to ask self if marrying someone outside of his/her nation is really God's will.
No matter how long one has been living in foreign country, the fact that God divided nations is true and therefore "cultural differences" cannot be ignored.
So, for me, I'd rather stay unmarried and wait for God to send someone for me according to His will, rather than marry someone outside my nation and deal with that "cultural differences", etc.