Most of us have heard people ask: why didn't God just create one race? They reason that if we were not divided into black and white, things would be quite different.

And yet, two of the greatest atrocities of man against fellow man today are not between black and white: in Rwanda, both ethnic subdivisions are black; and in Bosnia, all are white.

This adds credibility to those of us who believe that men without Christ will find (or create) a difference through which they can exercise their hatred toward one another; color is just a convenient excuse. See Jude 10-16 "... showing respect of persons for the sake of advantage."

The situation in Bosnia is very confusing, and few Americans fully understand it. The nation of Bosnia is a mixture of Croatian, Serbian and Moslem "nationalities," about one third of each, so that historically, there has been no domination. Indeed, this was a model of diverse people living together in peace.

The former Yugoslavia consisted of six republics, five of which had a predominant single nationality: Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia. The sixth was the unfortunate Bosnia.

Serbia, the largest of the six, was the custodian of most of the arms from the former Yugoslavia when it broke up; so with the largest number of men under arms, they blamed everyone else for their problems, and embarked upon their campaign of hatred, rape and murder, which they called "ethnic cleansing." The Serbian and Moslem populations within Bosnia continue to receive the brunt of their brutality, being relatively defenseless due to a general arms embargo imposed from the West.

As families are displaced, torn apart, their members killed and their women systematically raped, the seeds of war are sown for generations to come. Our governments offer no solution.

But there is one, and only one, answer. That answer is Christ.

To answer the question at the top of this article: God only created one race! It was not until man rose up in unified pride against God that the multitude of races and languages were necessitated (Gen. 11: 1-9). This curse upon those who would "make us a name" and not glorify God demonstrates the extreme consequences of seemingly harmless sin.

Man's attempts to overcome this of his own volition are doomed to fail. God never intended that our differences be the source of hatred and animosity. He sent his son to die upon the cross that such enmity would no longer exist: "For he [Jesus] is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity ... that he might create in himself of the two one new man ..." (Eph. 2:14-15).

This is why Paul stated that "there can be neither Jew nor Greek (Gal. 3: 28), and Peter stated: "ye are an elect race." Spiritually, we are one race in Christ.

The teachings of Christ are that you "Love your enemies, pray for them that persecute you" (Mt. 5:44); and he made our forgiveness conditional upon our forgiveness of others (Mt. 6: 15).

Nothing short of willing obedience to these commands will solve the problem! This should make the accomplishment of the Great Commission (Mt. 28: 19-20) all the more urgent to those of us who are Christians.

[Our appreciation to Nenad Jukic for his assistance with this article.]