Ethnic Cleansing: A Biblical Mandate
What is Ethnicity?
Ethnicity is a complex construction that refers to a group of people who identify with one another based on a tapestry of shared cultural attributes. These shared attributes include a shared language, traditions, ancestry, religion, customs, and place of origin. It must be carefully distinguished from the unbiblical social construct of "race," which has so often been corrupted to classify people into categories of inferiority and superiority based on superficial and perceived physical characteristics. Now, it is true that ethnic groups will, by-and-large, look very similar, but it is not true that God has divided people via their race (skin color, facial features, hair composition). In fact, the bible knows nothing of our modern-day concept of “race.” The bible nowhere divides people into groups based upon their outward appearance.
In the Greek language, we find the word ethnos (ἔθνος). From this word, we get "ethnic." It refers to a people, nation, or group of people who share a common language and culture. In the Great Commission, for instance, Jesus tells his followers to "make disciples of all the ethne” (nations/people groups)" (Matthew 28:19). In Revelation 7:9, John sees a great multitude "from every ethnos (nation), tribe, people and language" worshipping God. Also in the Greek is the word Genos (γένος): This word is often translated as "kind," "family," or "offspring." It focuses on a shared origin or lineage. In Acts 17:26, Paul declares that God "made from one genos (source) all nations of men". In 1 Peter 2:9, believers are described as a "chosen genos" (race/kind). Additionally, in Greek, we find the word Phulē (φυλή), which denotes a smaller, more specific grouping, such as a tribe or clan, with a focus on lineage. It is often used alongside ethnos in passages like Revelation 7:9, referring to a smaller subdivision within a larger nation or people.
This is needful to understand because God’s ordained method of separating and segregating people is not via skin tone or lip size, but is through beliefs and heritage. In the bible the Greek terms above are often translated into English as the word “race” but, again, this does not in any way mean our modern concept of race, which, as a point of difference, is entirely an invention of man, whereas ethnicity (which is the word I’ll use in this article) is an invention of God. The current liberal order will often say that both race and ethnicity are social constructs, but this is because their powers of discernment are an inch deep. Their rejection of God makes them able to see only status, but makes them blind to origins.
All of humanity is ontologically equal before God, both in creation as made from one man, Adam, and in redemption as made one in Christ. What we observe in ethnic distinctions is not a means for division or pride, but a reflection of the creative genius of God.
How ethnicity is formed
The formation of an ethnic group, a process called ethnogenesis, is a dynamic and ongoing phenomenon shaped by historical, social, and political processes, but ultimately it is entirely determined by the sovereign hand of God (Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26). Ethnic groups build and maintain their identity through cultural markers such as language, religion, music, food, customs, and traditions. This identity is also forged by a common perception of shared origins that unites a people. Furthermore, collective experiences, from migration to colonialism to political developments, powerfully shape a group's identity. In this way, the socio-political context—the interplay and interaction with other groups, including moments of assimilation, discrimination, and competition for resources—also influences the boundaries and character of ethnic groups. Historical movements and the mobility of people have scattered humanity into different territories, resulting in diaspora communities that maintain ties to their ancestral homelands. In all these movements and developments, the Christian understands that it is not by chance, but by divine providence, that every tribe and tongue comes to be.
What determines ethnicity
Therefore, ethnicity is determined by a combination of both internal self-identification and external factors. On one level, ethnicity is a matter of individual and group self-identification. This involves a person's sense of belonging and cultural attachment to their ethnic heritage. But the key to understanding is that this person must actually belong to this ethnic heritage; one cannot simply declare it, like Michael Scott with bankruptcy, it must be objectively true, and this takes time. One cannot simply enter a new people group, having nothing in common with them, and declare that he is one of them. That is not how group cohesion works. Further, one's self-identification is the feeling of being part of a distinct community within a larger society, an identity that is often passed down through generations by customs, traditions, and family ties.
However, ethnicity is also shaped by external social and political factors. Society itself assigns and defines ethnic categories, and these labels can change over time. For example, in the course of American history, various groups of European immigrants came to America. These were the Italians, the Germans, the Irish, etc. At first, these people were not considered “white” at the time, but eventually these groups assimilated to the Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture of America and began to consider themselves “white.” In this instance, these people didn’t begin to look different from their ancestors, but they adopted the culture in which they were coming into; they understood that to be welcomed into America and be considered and an American, they needed to assume for themselves the identity of an Anglo-Saxon Protestant. This required them to abandon all notions of their previous identity. While this seems foreign and even hellish to modern ears, this is simply how the world works, and there is no use denying the point. Anyone who has ever been successful in any place of business, school, church, club, or friends group has done this—otherwise you would have been kicked out.
Now it must be stated—and we’ll get more into this below—a Christian's ultimate identity/ethnicity is found in Christ. But this suggests that being a Christian is an ethnicity in and of itself.
A Christian Ethnicity
The New People of God
The Christian faith does not merely offer a path to salvation for individuals; it does this, but it does far, far more. It forges a new people, a distinct spiritual ethnicity rooted not in bloodlines, but in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. These people, then, become a living, breathing group in the world with the intended purpose to bring heaven to earth (Matthew 6:9-13). As the Apostle Peter declared, we are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Peter 2:9 emphasis mine). This new people, the Church, transcends all previous ethnic distinctions, uniting Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female into a single body through faith in Christ (Galatians 3:28). This new identity, however, is not a passive status, but is formed and cultivated through a process of deliberate instruction, discipleship, and spiritual formation, not making a ghostly people, but people of flesh and blood, being the hands and feet of Christ on the earth.
While this is a spiritual ethnicity—because it transcends earthly people groups—it is not gnostic or ethereal; the existence of the church is proof of this fact. In fact, this ethnicity—because it transcends earthly groups—is the dominant ethnicity in existence and the one which all men are commanded to assimilate to (Acts 17:30). A rejection of this ethnicity is the rejection of a heritage in Christ himself.
Here, the biblical concept of paideia, found in Ephesians 6:4, becomes especially illuminating.
The Practice of Paideia
The Greek word paideia (παιδεία), found in Ephesians 6:4, carries a weight of meaning that far surpasses simple English translations like "training," "discipline," or "instruction." While this is the direct translation, the significance of this word is far deeper. In the classical Greek world, paideia represented a comprehensive system of education, cultural formation, and creation. It was the deliberate process of cultivating children and young adults toward a specific ideal of citizenship (for a particular culture), shaping not only the intellect but the entire person—their morality, character, and worldview. The goal was to produce a virtuous and well-rounded citizen who embodied the highest values of the polis, or city-state.
The Apostle Paul, writing to a Greek-speaking church in Ephesus, redeems and sanctifies this classical concept for a new purpose—a Theopolis: he maintains all the original meaning but directs that meaning toward the formation of a distinct Christian culture. Rather than training children to be model citizens of a fallen world, he commands fathers to raise their children "in the paideia and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4); they are to create a culture of Yahweh, rather than a culture of Ceaser.
The unique ethnicity of the redeemed
The “ethnicity” produced by Christianity is not a matter of shared genetics, geography, or cultural heritage in the worldly sense. Instead, it is a new spiritual reality based on a shared spiritual birth and a common Lord. The New Testament consistently portrays the Church as a new humanity, a new people, a new family forged by the Holy Spirit. This new people worship the same God, adhere to the same truth (found in Scripture), live by the same law (the law of God), and await the same heavenly home. While they retain their original ethnic and cultural distinctives, which are significant and important, these are all brought under the lordship of Christ and ordered according to the new spiritual identity.
This new identity is not merely an internal, individual matter but a covenantal one. It is visibly expressed through the unity of the church, where believers from every tribe, tongue, and nation gather to worship Trinity in unity as one unified body (Revelation 7:9). The fellowship, shared life, and mutual service within the church create a common "culture" of redeemed love, grace, and truth that is distinct from the cultures of the world. This culture of Christ-likeness is the true "ethnicity" of Christianity, and further, is the true ethnicity that all men are called to embrace.
Ethnic Cleansing
That Which Destroys God’s Ethnic People
Pluralism is not a force that builds, but is, in fact, a force that destroys—every time. Globalist liberals would convince you otherwise, but alas, they are mistaken. There is a concerted effort around the world to merge all peoples and groups into one group as a perverted celebration of diversity, but even this is a veiled attempt to make one ethnicity. Under the guise of celebration and peace through diversity is really the reduction of God’s beautiful expression through various people groups to a singular group of people who all think the same. Wokism/communism/Islamism are playing a game where they are trying to convince the world that true difference is in how we look, but nothing could be further from the truth. True difference exists in those things that make an ethnicity: religion, worldview, traditions, language, etc., with appearance being superficial, at best. What these liberals are doing is collecting people who think the same, thus making for themselves a new ethnicity, one whose language is a lisp.
Syncretism
Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly warns against syncretism, which is the blending of his worship and religious beliefs with those of false religions. And just so it’s clear, worship is the climax of all that a Christian is to be a do, and everything else that God commands in the life of a Christian flows from that worship. So, if God’s people are blending their worship with the worship of others, then they have effectively lost the whole identity of what it means to be Christian. This spiritual compromise, often condemned as idolatry, violates the exclusive devotion God demands from his people. This command for religious purity is a central theme in both the Old and New Testaments, as God demonstrates his righteous jealousy for the affections of his people.
In the Old Testament, God's warnings were explicit and consistently tied to his covenant with Israel. He gave clear commands against worshiping other gods or making idols, emphasizing that exclusive loyalty to him was non-negotiable. When the Israelites entered Canaan, they were strictly commanded to have no dealings with the native peoples' pagan practices, intermarriage, or false worship to avoid falling into sin. The prophets frequently confronted Israel for their spiritual compromise; for example, Elijah famously challenged the pagan priests on Mount Carmel, asking them to choose between following God or Baal, for they could not serve both. God's judgment was demonstrated in history when the Israelites were led into syncretism through their foreign wives, leading to the division of the kingdom.
The New Testament extends these principles to the church, warning her against blending Christian faith with the ideas and practices of the world. The apostle Paul was particularly forceful in his condemnation of spiritual compromise. He instructed believers that they could not partake in both the table of the Lord and the table of demons, nor could they be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers. Furthermore, Paul cautioned believers against being taken captive by empty philosophies rooted in human tradition rather than in Christ. Even Jesus, in Revelation, rebuked churches for tolerating syncretistic teachings, demonstrating that this is a sin that endangers the purity and holiness of the church across all generations.
In other words, the ethnicity of God’s people was and is of supreme importance to God; he does not want anything to disrupt or disturb it. The identity of God’s people ought not to be mixed with any other. He does, however, want the Christian faith to overtake all other so-called religions of the world. When we come to our marching orders given to us from Christ, then, we see an amazingly counter-cultural command.
The Mission of All Christians
In Matthew 28:18-20, Christians are given our marching orders from the Lord. He says, “…all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Here, we are given explicit instructions to do the very thing that fathers are instructed to do in Ephesians 6: create a paideia in all nations. We are to go out, and make the world Christian, which is to say we are to make all the ethnicities of the world identify with Christ, and therefore, leave their pagan ways, and assimilate into Christianity. We are called to ethnically cleanse the world.
A Word on Ethnic Cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is generally thought of as the systematic and intentional removal of a particular ethnic, religious, or racial group from a specific geographical area through the use of violence and/or intimidation. The goal of this removal is to create an ethnically homogeneous territory; therefore, the term gets a fairly bad rap. However, if we are thinking biblically, and we are seeking to obey our Lord and bring more unbelievers into this holy race of people, then we will absolutely seek to ethnically cleanse the world.
But how is this done? Well, in ethnic cleansings of the past, conducted by unregenerate men, things like murder, unjust arrests, torture, forcible displacement, and the destruction of property have been the go-to tools. However, with Christian ethnic cleansing, we have a host of different tools. They would include: water for baptism, wine and bread for the Lord’s supper, and the word of God for teaching. From that word, we devise arguments that tear down strongholds and destroy every argument and lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 8:4-6). In other words, we cleanse through the peaceful method of Gospel proclamation through word, water, and wine, not bullets, bunkers, and bayonets. We want people to live and stay where they are full of peace and happiness—but we do want them to be Christian—we therefore wish their old and pagan ethnicity to be cleansed by the new and righteous ethnicity: Christianity.
Make no mistake, however, we are on a mission to ethnically cleanse the world, for that is what the Lord desires. He seeks worshipers who will worship him in spirit and truth (John 3:23-24), and he has ordained his church to be the ones to bring them home.
Conclusion
So, fathers and mother are creating a Christian culture—ethnicity in their living rooms with their children, and the church is then commanded to go into the world and make disciples of all nations so that they may obey and worship Christ with all their lives. God is working from the bottom up as well as the top down, to make a people for his own possession; a people who have the same language (the Gospel), have the same heritage (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Jesus, the Apostles), have the same traditions (the traditions of the apostles given to us in the word of God, word, water, and wine), the same customs (worship on the Christian sabbath, repentance to God through Christ, outdoing one another in showing honor, etc.), the same purpose (to disciple the nations until the Lord’s return), and the same religion (the unadulterated worship of the one true and living God through Jesus Christ alone). God is making for himself an ethnic people called Christians, what a glorious thought.
