“And the Sons of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites, the Hives, the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to themselves to be wives and their daughters they gave to their sons; and they served their gods.”

(Judges 3:5-6)

And we are still doing the same today. How often our sons and daughters come to us with stars in their eyes because some young woman or man has won their hearts. And what of our response as parents? “Is he respectful?” “Does he have a good job?” “What are her plans for children?” “Does she come from a good family?” Yet, how often, as parents, we fail to ask the single-most important question: “Tell me, is he a born-again Christian?”

In America, we are a nation whose great strength has been augmented by the fact that most of us have the blood of many different cultures running through our veins. My own heritage, for example, is predominantly German with a healthy dose of Italian and English thrown in for good measure. Yet, whether you are Indian (Native American or from India), African, German, Mexican, Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, Philippino, or Aborigine in your heritage (or any combination thereof), it is a wonderful thing to blend our cultures, families, and traditions — there is only one race after all (and that is human). But the first question that must be asked regardless of one’s ethnic background, is whether or not the person is Christian.

Even in the Old Testament we find Boaz taking Ruth (a Moabitess) as his wife and Salmon took Rahab (a Canaanite woman) as his wife…but in both cases, the women had converted to faith before they were married to God’s people. Some will argue for what they call, “missionary marriages,” but most of the time, when intermarriages (of faith) take place, the result is no different than what the Israelites experienced. Paganism thrives and true faith wanes in the families. I cannot think of any grief that is greater for the Christian than to see your children or grandchildren depart from the faith of Christ.