The NXR Podcast - American Glory - The Curse of Ham Finally Explained

00:00:00.000 Today on American Glory, we're talking about possibly the world's most controversial doctrine,

00:00:04.740 the curse of Ham, and whether a prophecy from Genesis chapter 9 has anything to tell American

00:00:09.860 Christians about race, nations, and bringing order to the world. Buckle up, 0.98

00:00:14.400 it's going to be a long episode coming up right now.

00:00:30.960 Welcome to American Glory. This is season two on American Christianity. I'm your host,

00:00:35.380 Dale Partridge. This is the second episode of the season, and it's titled The Curse of Ham

00:00:39.620 and the Historic Christian View About Race in America. Now, if you don't know, American Glory 0.69

00:00:44.820 is both a podcast and a video show. And if you want to listen, you can listen to the NXR podcast

00:00:49.080 feed, or you can also go to my personal podcast feed. Just go to Dale Partridge's podcast on

00:00:52.860 Google. You'll find me on Spotify or Apple or wherever you can listen to podcasts. Now,

00:00:57.040 if you want to watch the video and it does come with helpful slides and graphics, you can watch

00:01:01.300 it also at my YouTube channel at Dale Partridge TV. Now this season, I'm going to be covering

00:01:06.640 eight topics around American Christianity. In this next episode, I'm going to be starting a

00:01:12.200 two-part series on the doctrines of dispensationalism and Zionism and how they 0.81

00:01:16.740 have shaped and destroyed much of American life. Today's topic is one of the most controversial

00:01:21.980 episodes I've ever done or probably ever will do. It's based on a five-part sermon series that I

00:01:26.940 recently delivered at our church on Genesis chapter 9, verses 18 through 27. And it's called

00:01:32.560 Race, Nations, and Christian Nationalism. Now, I've attempted to truncate that series into one

00:01:38.560 episode here on American Glory, which will be very difficult to do. And it's why this episode

00:01:43.580 is going to be a little bit longer than other episodes. And I've been forced also to leave

00:01:47.880 a bunch out. And so if you want to watch the full sermon series, that's also available on my YouTube

00:01:53.340 account, and you can listen to it at the Kingsway Sermons podcast as well. So the curse of Ham

00:02:00.300 comes from a passage of scripture that deals with Noah and his three sons after the flood,

00:02:07.040 including a particularly scandalous incident between Noah and his youngest son, Ham. And that

00:02:12.600 led to Noah cursing Ham through Ham's son, Canaan, while Noah blessed his other two sons, Shem and 0.61

00:02:20.660 Japheth. And this is vital because Noah is operating in this passage of scripture that

00:02:25.960 we're going to look at as a second Adam in a new earth. And these three sons really are like the

00:02:32.240 federal heads, not only of the three branches of humanity, but also of the many nations that come

00:02:37.540 from each one of these children. Genesis 9.19 actually says, quote, these three were the sons

00:02:43.920 of Noah. And from these, the people of the whole earth were dispersed, end quote. Now, in other

00:02:50.380 words, from these three sons come the three macro races of humanity, the Shemites, which are 0.85

00:02:57.220 generally the Jews and the Arabs, the Hamites, which are generally the African peoples, and the

00:03:02.000 Japhethites, which are generally white people, but also include some Asians and Hispanics.

00:03:07.340 Now, what makes this passage so significant is that this prophetic curse and blessing over these

00:03:14.500 three branches of humanity gives us insight into God's providential and civilizational will

00:03:20.080 for these three groups of people. Ultimately, this passage gives us like a broad answer for

00:03:26.720 why the Jews and the Arabs are the way they are, and why the Africans are the way they are, and

00:03:31.720 why the whites are the way they are. And what makes this so compelling is that not only does 0.83

00:03:38.660 Scripture support the unfolding of this prophecy, but so does world history and personal experience.

00:03:44.200 And this is particularly helpful for our present American moment because as a multiracial, 1.00

00:03:51.560 multiethnic, multicultural nation, we're experiencing increasingly difficult and harsher

00:03:58.600 conflict over things like immigration or religion or race or national identity.

00:04:03.560 And so the beauty of this passage is that it gives us biblical answers about reality.

00:04:10.160 And that is exactly what we are so desperate in needing right now today here in America.

00:04:15.880 So let's start this episode on the topic of the curse of Ham.

00:04:20.420 Let's begin.

00:04:23.620 According to scripture, we are mankind.

00:04:26.640 This is important because today many people, especially Christians, claim there is one race, the human race.

00:04:32.920 However, the Bible never uses the term human race.

00:04:35.780 the phrase human race is a modern term to downplay the ethnic and racial distinctions

00:04:40.260 that God has providentially created. As I've already mentioned, Genesis 9 recounts the first

00:04:45.520 major subdivision of mankind after the flood. And while there are thousands of cultures and

00:04:52.840 hundreds of ethnicities, there are only three races. Shem, the middle child, produced the 0.98

00:04:59.360 Shemites, or as we know them as the Semites, and is listed first because in him was the Messianic

00:05:06.100 line. Ham, the youngest son, as we see in Genesis 9.24, produced the Hamites, and Japheth, who is

00:05:14.480 called the eldest in Genesis 10.21, produced the Japhethites. Basically, in the same way the 0.67

00:05:21.340 Israelites were a family descending from a particular man, we know Jacob, but ultimately

00:05:26.000 Isaac, and Abraham. These three macro families come from these three men. Now, you need to know

00:05:32.740 that very few people resist being associated with Shem or Japheth. I mean, Middle Eastern peoples

00:05:37.920 to this day still identify as Semitic peoples, and Europeans have shown virtually no resistance

00:05:44.360 to the label Japhethite. But when it comes specifically to the Hamitic peoples,

00:05:49.920 generally the black populations. This term is considered discriminatory because

00:05:54.800 they claim it was used historically to justify inequality. Wikipedia even says,

00:06:00.980 Hamites is the name formally used for some African peoples in the context of a now outdated model

00:06:08.280 of dividing humanity into different races. This was developed originally by Europeans in support

00:06:14.760 of colonialism. The term was originally borrowed from the book of Genesis in which it refers to

00:06:20.340 the descendants of Ham, son of Noah, end quote. Now, this doctrine, the curse of Ham, which

00:06:28.540 explains the reason for the historical black civilizational subjugation and white civilizational

00:06:35.060 superiority is often claimed to have been invented by some 18th century Presbyterians to justify the

00:06:42.840 transatlantic slave trade. Now, that is just a flat-out lie. This interpretation wasn't some

00:06:50.080 fringe 18th century invention. It was held by many of the early church theologians, including

00:06:56.700 Origen and St. Ambrose and Hippolytus of Rome and Epiphanius, Ephraim Assyrian, John Chrysostom,

00:07:04.660 medieval theologians like Aquinas, Isidora Save, Honorius Augustinanius, reformers like Luther

00:07:11.540 and Calvin, Puritans like Henry Ainsworth or Matthew Poole or Matthew Henry or John Gill,

00:07:18.320 and then later theologians like Abraham Kuyper and R.L. Dabney, along with many others. I mean,

00:07:23.000 there are so many more that I didn't include. Those are just some of the bigger names.

00:07:26.720 The Glossa Ordinaria, finalized in the Middle Ages, it's a massive collection of early church

00:07:33.000 father commentaries that codify the consensus of the early writers, and it cemented the theological

00:07:38.660 rule that Ham was the true target of the curse. In fact, it claimed that human slavery was

00:07:44.600 introduced into the world solely because of Ham's specific sin against parental authority.

00:07:51.920 In other words, this isn't some fringe position. In fact, I would say that I hold a moderate view

00:07:57.760 compared to much of church history. And it was widely held throughout much of the early church,

00:08:04.560 the medieval church, in the Reformation era, and even into the pre-1900 time of American history.

00:08:12.360 Now, the reason the Curse of Ham is so intensely rejected is that we live under an egalitarian

00:08:18.740 liberal regime, treats the mere acknowledgement of any distinctions regarding superiority or

00:08:23.500 inferiority, whether that's between the sexes or the races, as some type of moral evil.

00:08:29.060 The art world has completely abandoned beauty. What used to point people towards

00:08:34.460 truth now celebrates chaos, ugliness, and radical individualism. That's not an accident. It's the

00:08:42.260 fruit of a culture that has ultimately rejected God. See, art is not neutral. It disciples people. 0.60

00:08:49.820 Jacob Dinman of Dinman Originals is working to reclaim fine art for Christ and for America.

00:08:57.040 His paintings aren't just decorations. They're statements. Pieces like A New Manifest Destiny

00:09:04.100 and Heritage Revival present a vision of an American Renaissance rooted in Christian faith,

00:09:11.700 ordered liberty, and the inheritance our fathers handed down to us. And there's something for every

00:09:18.240 budget. You can start with high-quality art prints for just $40. You could purchase hand-drawn

00:09:25.400 original sketches for only $100 or invest in a one-of-one original painting, each of these

00:09:32.900 representing hundreds of hours of work. If we're serious about rebuilding Christian civilization,

00:09:39.400 we should surround ourselves with the things that remind us of what's true, what's good,

00:09:45.080 and what's beautiful. Check out the link in the description below to see the full collection

00:09:50.100 from Denman Originals. Now, but what if the historic Christian's understanding of these

00:09:57.560 matters is actually correct, but we're simply not permitted to hold or teach that interpretation

00:10:04.320 any longer. And I believe that's the deeply frustrating position that we find ourselves in.

00:10:10.660 We can read church history. We can see the patterns. We can see the chaos caused by denying

00:10:17.200 reality. We can see the broad distinctions between the sexes and the races and the cultures,

00:10:22.500 Yet we are forbidden by the current cultural orthodoxy, even in the church, to notice these

00:10:29.460 things or discuss these distinctions. A few weeks ago, a group of pastors from a well-known

00:10:36.180 denomination called me a heretic for arriving at the historic conclusion on this passage. 1.00

00:10:42.400 And here's the truth. They call it heresy not because it violates historic biblical Christianity.

00:10:47.780 They call it heresy because it violates liberalism. And in liberalism, any doctrine

00:10:53.320 that even suggests positive or negative distinctions about races or nations or sexes

00:10:58.420 is automatically labeled as racist or misogynistic. And this is because egalitarianism is the West's

00:11:07.060 most adored idol. But here's the problem facing the liberals. We live in the information age.

00:11:13.060 Okay, statistics and videos and photographs and news and historical documents and studies,

00:11:17.860 they're now available to anyone who looks.

00:11:20.780 They can no longer hide reality as they could a few decades ago.

00:11:24.160 What was instinctual or experiential in the previous generation

00:11:28.740 has become empirical and undeniable in today's world. 0.70

00:11:33.340 I mean, you may have heard about one or two black men assaulting a white person in the 1940s. 0.73

00:11:39.240 Now I see the videos of that happening 30 times a day on X.

00:11:44.860 Now I have FBI statistics.

00:11:47.820 And as a result, more and more people are coming to see these distinctions.

00:11:52.940 They are noticing the generally civilized nature of white Western nations 0.99

00:11:57.440 and the generally uncivilized nature of black African nations. 1.00

00:12:02.240 Now, my objective in this show is to show how the Bible explains these civilizational distinctions. 1.00

00:12:08.080 That is how the blessings on Japheth and Shem and the curse on Ham here in Genesis 9, 18-27

00:12:14.480 are the cause of these broad, again I say broad, civilizational distinctions. In other words,

00:12:22.120 there is a biblical answer to the racial differences that we all notice, particularly

00:12:28.400 between African peoples and Western peoples. And these distinctions are rather sharp. They range

00:12:35.980 from rates of violence and family stability to intellectual capacity and civilizational and

00:12:42.140 technological and economic output. Okay, these truths give us answers for why roughly four to

00:12:49.240 five percent of the black population or four to five percent of the population, black males between 0.97

00:12:54.180 the ages of 15 to 45, commit around 60 percent of the murders. They give us answers for why the 1.00

00:13:01.340 Black population has roughly a 20-point lower average IQ than their white counterparts. 0.97

00:13:07.660 They give us answers as to why 70% of Black households do not have a father present. 1.00

00:13:14.680 They also explain why white Europeans account for over 95% of major scientific inventions 0.85

00:13:20.780 and technological breakthroughs, the vast majority of Nobel Prizes, most billionaires, 0.81

00:13:25.700 and why Africans account for less than 1% in all three of those categories,

00:13:30.560 even though as a global population, they are greater than whites. And so these are the

00:13:36.460 questions that we're trying to answer. And this is the content of this particular doctrine

00:13:43.120 gives us some of those answers. It talks about, for example, why are there no third world white

00:13:48.480 nations and no first world black nations? Okay, why is Japan, which is roughly 1% Christian,

00:13:56.000 a highly civilized and orderly nation, while Congo, which is over 90 to 95% Christian,

00:14:03.900 remains a third world nation. Why were ancient Rome and Greece producing advanced civilizations

00:14:11.300 and architecture while modern sub-Saharan Africa does not yet even have highways or a sewer system?

00:14:20.220 Why were Europeans the captains of these massive ships sailing around Africa in the 1700s while 0.91

00:14:28.960 most Africans had still not leveraged the wheel? See, most of all, why do these disparities 0.95

00:14:35.400 extend far beyond America and the contemporary period? Like, why do they persist across nations

00:14:43.720 and continents and historical eras. Like, why are the gaps this sharp? Why are they this persistent?

00:14:51.140 Why are they this cross-cultural? When that happens, people begin to ask,

00:14:55.800 what's truly driving them? Is it really just missed opportunities for thousands of years?

00:15:04.040 Is it just circumstance or is it providence? And I believe the answer to that question is providence.

00:15:12.140 And why it is good to understand these things is the most important question for our period.

00:15:20.320 Like, why is it important for us to look at this?

00:15:23.200 Isn't this just a divisive doctrine, Dale?

00:15:25.040 Why are we trying to bring these distinctions? 0.98

00:15:27.480 Are we trying, do you hate black people? 0.98

00:15:29.160 All these questions come up. 0.98

00:15:30.720 Now, first, it is our duty as Christians to understand reality.

00:15:36.840 And as Christians, we know that reality is given to us or best interpreted through the lens of

00:15:43.600 Scripture. Understanding reality brings clarity, and clarity brings order, and order brings peace.

00:15:51.320 Second, because there is nothing more frustrating than trying to solve problems with incorrect

00:15:58.680 solutions. And that's exactly what we have been doing. Since 1960, Africa has received

00:16:05.420 about $2.6 trillion in foreign aid, and the results are remarkably poor. In America, we have offered

00:16:13.860 trillions of adjustments in our economy. Charlie Kirk even said it was $20 trillion

00:16:20.920 since the civil rights era, just making adjustments for things like DEI or Medicare or welfare or

00:16:28.840 public schools or Section 8 housing, food stamps, many other government-funded systems

00:16:36.320 to support, in a large degree, Black families. And the results are only worse. Think about that.

00:16:45.460 They've actually, the Black population in America has actually decreased since the government has

00:16:53.120 funded much of their programs or welfare. We have sent missionaries and several,

00:17:02.560 I mean, we've sent thousands, tens of thousands of missionaries to African nations, and we have 1.00

00:17:08.100 many African nations that are now over 80% Christian, yet they still remain third world 0.97

00:17:13.420 countries. And what's the reason for such civilizational distinctions? If the solution 0.60

00:17:21.820 isn't money or religion like Christianity, what is it? And I believe the answer to all of these 1.00

00:17:28.460 questions, which again, are generalizations, are rooted in this passage of scripture.

00:17:34.660 And so I want to begin by just reading the text from Genesis 9, 18 through 27. But I also want

00:17:41.280 to preface by saying, first, I believe that all people are made in the image of God. I believe

00:17:46.380 that God is saving people from every tribe, nation, and tongue. I believe God is saving

00:17:51.020 black people across Africa and beyond, I believe that God has raised up black men for good and

00:17:58.960 godly works across time and history. Now, while I argue, or I'm about to argue, that the descendants

00:18:06.040 of Ham labor under a civilizational curse at the national and corporate level, I also affirm 0.61

00:18:13.180 that all peoples and nations stand under a far deeper curse of sin. And so every one of us must

00:18:21.960 repent and believe in Christ. Now, in addition, I just want to give some terms. I am a race

00:18:28.140 realist, but I'm not a race determinist. A race determinist claims that racial groups are

00:18:35.520 permanently locked into fixed capabilities with no possibility of meaningful change in the future.

00:18:43.280 And I reject that entirely. I believe that racial groups can be transformed through

00:18:49.800 conversion to Christianity and the generational outworking of the gospel in that particular

00:18:56.860 people group. Now, this also means that I'm not a race essentialist who elevates biology above

00:19:04.260 religion. Scripture is not Gnostic, we know that, and it places religion and biology both

00:19:12.140 as powerful factors of civilizational outcomes. Now, racial distinctions are real and they are

00:19:20.880 biblically grounded, particularly in the providential ordering that we're going to see

00:19:24.740 here in Genesis 9 and the table of nations in Genesis 10. Now, lastly, I do not expect

00:19:33.020 full civilizational equality among all peoples in this present age or possibly ever. However,

00:19:42.680 I do expect the gaps to narrow significantly over the centuries as Christian obedience increases

00:19:52.720 and basically through God's grace, the missionary advance of the church and godly Christian

00:20:00.840 colonization, we should anticipate the rise of great, stable, and glorious African nations

00:20:08.420 that far surpass what we have seen in those nations in the past or how we observe them

00:20:15.960 today. The same promise holds true for Japhethite and Shemite peoples as well. So as the gospel

00:20:26.180 saturates the world, every nation should advance civilizationally and flourish civilizationally,

00:20:34.300 each according to its unique station and calling, yet without any hard sealing imposed by ancestry

00:20:44.260 alone. So Christianity, again, does not erase earthly distinctions. It redeems them and it does

00:20:52.160 elevate them. And I include this because I don't want this message to leave black Christians

00:20:58.720 without some sort of civilizational hope. That's not my intent. There is hope, but it's only found

00:21:06.820 in obedience to Christ and through the full embracing of God's order for the world. And let

00:21:15.780 me explain that. God did not create a fair and equal world. Some are rich, and some are poor.

00:21:22.360 Some are healthy, and some are sick. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are strong. Some

00:21:28.240 are weak. Some are gifted. Some are simple, right? Some are brilliant. Some are not. Okay, most of

00:21:35.980 all, and this is just getting to soteriology, some are elect, and some are reprobate. Okay, God

00:21:42.900 sovereignly chose to save first the Jewish people, the gospel would come from them,

00:21:50.120 rather than, say, the Philistines or the Egyptians. He directed the gospel to go west 0.72

00:21:58.240 and not to go east. In other words, we have to stop putting our confidence as Christians

00:22:06.600 in egalitarian fantasies. God is not a God of equality. Now, God is a God of equal value.

00:22:16.980 We have equal value before the Lord, but we do not have equal opportunities or equal outcomes.

00:22:23.700 Okay, we have equal value before the Lord. Every one of us are equally valuable because we are

00:22:30.560 made in the image of God. And so I say all this to those who would claim this position is racist.

00:22:38.040 And I think that charge is dishonest. Racism is, at least how we define it today, is hating a person

00:22:46.080 simply because of their race. And that is not what I am saying or how I feel. And it's not

00:22:53.020 what I hope to perpetuate. My goal is to faithfully explain what scripture teaches and what

00:23:00.400 almost all of church history and even secular history understood about racial distinctions

00:23:08.720 and what modern Christians ought to do in response to this historic truth being recovered

00:23:17.040 in the years to come. So let's look at the text and read here in chapter nine.

00:23:23.620 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

00:23:30.020 Ham was the father of Canaan. 0.89

00:23:32.580 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these people the whole earth were dispersed. 0.97

00:23:38.100 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.

00:23:41.760 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

00:23:46.120 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

00:23:52.640 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it both on their shoulders,

00:23:57.200 and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father.

00:24:01.000 Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness.

00:24:06.500 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,

00:24:11.280 he said,

00:24:13.040 Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be to his brothers. 0.91

00:24:17.940 He also said, 0.51

00:24:19.000 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth 0.93

00:24:25.620 and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant, end quote.

00:24:31.620 The central question of this text is this, what is meant when it says that Ham saw the nakedness

00:24:40.700 of his father? The reason this passage generates so much discussion is because of the severity

00:24:47.780 of the consequences described in verses 24 and 25. When Noah awoke from his wine, it says,

00:24:54.420 and he knew what his youngest son had done to him. He said, curse be Canaan, a servant of servants,

00:25:00.380 shall he be to his brothers? It leaves us with five questions. First, what exactly did Ham do

00:25:09.560 to Noah? Second, why curse Canaan for Ham's sin? Third, is the curse on Canaan actually a curse on

00:25:18.460 Ham? Fourth, if the curse is on Ham's posterity, how has it manifested itself in scripture and

00:25:26.120 history? And then fifth, how should Christians, Shemites, Hamites, and Japhethites think about 0.64

00:25:32.960 race, nations, and civilizations? So I want to start with just addressing question number one,

00:25:39.560 what exactly did Ham do to Noah? Now, we are asking this question for three reasons.

00:25:47.700 Number one, a drunken man lacks awareness of his own actions, let alone the awareness that someone

00:25:54.640 has seen him naked. So the fact that Noah awoke and realized that something had been, quote,

00:26:01.020 done to him strongly suggests that more occurred than just a mere accidental glance at nudity.

00:26:08.000 Number two, the severity of Noah's prophetic curse upon Ham's line also seems to imply some

00:26:18.560 far more serious sin than simply seeing his father uncovered. Number three, scripture never

00:26:26.600 explicitly condemns a child or a relative for accidentally or innocently seeing a parent

00:26:32.940 uncovered. The Bible, like nowhere, treats nudity as some sort of criminal offense.

00:26:39.480 Now, because of these three reasons, scholars have generally arrived at three interpretations

00:26:45.220 of this passage, which I'm going to present to you so that you can consider them for yourselves.

00:26:50.720 The first is the voyeurism view, which claims that Ham saw his father undressed and mocked and

00:26:58.320 gossiped about his father's nakedness. And this is the majority modern view, but it's the

00:27:05.440 historical minority view. And the reason I think this view is so popular is that it's like a flat

00:27:14.180 reading of the text. I think it's the least intellectually complex, and it seems to just be

00:27:20.140 very, you know, oh, that's what it says. I'm going to believe it. Now, if this view is true,

00:27:28.320 it's the only passage in the entire Bible where someone is condemned for visually seeing someone

00:27:33.200 uncovered. Now, its weaknesses are its inability to explain, one, the strong language used in the

00:27:41.100 passage, two, the severity of the curse, and three, why Canaan was targeted by Noah and not Ham.

00:27:50.160 The second view is the sodomy or the castration view, which claims that Ham had sexual relations

00:27:58.220 with his father, or that he maybe amputated his manhood or something. Now, this view and the third 0.95

00:28:06.700 view, which I'll give it a second, both see this phrase in the passage, the nakedness of his father

00:28:13.420 as a Hebrew idiom for some sort of sexual activity. Now, several Reformed theologians, including

00:28:20.200 Luther held this possible sodomy view or something like that. The strength of this view is that it 1.00

00:28:29.860 explains the severity of the curse. It provides context for Noah's words in verse 24, which said,

00:28:36.300 you know, Noah knew what his youngest son had done to him. It gives a kind of a rational

00:28:42.640 explanation for how a drunken Noah would have come to know that something had been done to him

00:28:48.640 because he would have physically felt the aftermath of some sort of sexual violation when

00:28:54.240 he woke up. But its weakness is still that it doesn't explain why the curse was directed at

00:29:02.160 Canaan, which is Ham's son. So the third view is the maternal incest view, which claims Ham had

00:29:12.160 sexual relations with Noah's wife, his mother. And this view is held by E.W. Bullinger, Dr. Michael

00:29:19.040 Heiser, seemingly Peter Leihart, Roman Catholic scholar Scott Hahn, and John Bergsma. And I want

00:29:27.360 to go back to this phrase as we just think about this, this phrase, the nakedness of his father.

00:29:33.900 Now, as I said, this is a Hebrew idiom for sexual activity, the term uncovering nakedness.

00:29:42.160 is a euphemism used throughout the Old Testament for sexual intercourse, especially incest or

00:29:48.340 relations with someone biologically forbidden, like a close relative, a stepmother or something

00:29:53.060 like that. And so I'm going to read you just four passages of scripture that will help you see what

00:30:00.540 I'm talking about. Leviticus 18, 7 through 8 says, quote, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your

00:30:07.140 father, which is the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother. You shall not uncover her

00:30:14.880 nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's 0.97

00:30:21.260 nakedness, end quote. Leviticus 20, 11 says, quote, if a man lies with his father's wife, 0.69

00:30:29.360 he has uncovered his father's nakedness, end quote. Deuteronomy 22, 30 says, quote,

00:30:38.700 a man shall not take his father's wife so that he does not uncover his father's nakedness, end quote.

00:30:46.840 Deuteronomy 27, 20 says, quote, cursed is anyone who lies with his father's wife

00:30:54.340 because he has uncovered his father's nakedness, end quote. Now, at first, I kind of struggled to

00:31:03.240 buy in because in our passage, it says that he saw the nakedness of his father, not uncovered

00:31:12.160 the nakedness of his father. But then I found Leviticus 20 verse 17, which directly links

00:31:19.580 seeing and uncovering together. It says, quote, if a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father

00:31:28.500 or a daughter of his mother and sees her nakedness, it is a disgrace and they shall be cut

00:31:36.160 off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness and he 0.99

00:31:44.480 shall bear his iniquity, end quote. Then I found other verses I'm not going to read, but Ezekiel

00:31:51.300 16, 36 through 37 and 22, 10 also use this term seeing and uncovering nakedness as like a synonym.

00:32:00.080 So ultimately, what these passages show is that violating your mother is violating your father.

00:32:07.700 Seeing your father's nakedness is sleeping with your mother. Now, why? Because

00:32:14.460 under God's law, a wife is one with her husband, and so when you violate her, you violate him.

00:32:21.840 Now, you have to be thinking, if this was more than voyeurism, then why does verse 23 say of

00:32:30.840 Shem and Japheth, their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness?

00:32:36.560 Again, that sounds kind of like they're avoiding some sort of visual crime, not a sexual crime,

00:32:41.560 right? So to that, I would argue that if the phrase is idiomatic on the front end,

00:32:47.020 then it has to be, to be consistent, we have to read it in verse 23 as idiomatic on the back end.

00:32:52.940 So the verse says Shem and Japheth did not see their father's nakedness. It really means that

00:32:59.920 they did not partake in violating their mother as Ham did. And so the reason I believe this view 0.97

00:33:08.140 is the most coherent is because it offers the most explanatory power of the passage.

00:33:14.700 So a few other things. Number one is the Bible has more direct words for homosexuality and sodomy.

00:33:21.340 And so if the sodomy view were true, Moses would have likely used the word for sodomy that he uses

00:33:28.220 throughout the Torah. Second, the idea that Ham would attempt to curse Noah's line by producing 0.55

00:33:36.640 illegitimate seed is perfectly consistent with the entire narrative of Genesis and the Old Testament.

00:33:43.620 In fact, we see this pattern over and over. Cain's rebellion, the Nephilim, Abraham's sexual sin with 0.81

00:33:50.900 Hagar producing Ishmael, the rivalry between Jacob and Esau in which one became the true seed and the 0.75

00:33:57.280 other was rejected. And so this war between the legitimate and illegitimate seeds runs throughout

00:34:04.120 the entire Old Testament. So the idea that Ham committed a sexual sin in order to produce

00:34:09.160 illegitimate offspring, I think it fits squarely within scripture's recurring thing. Number three, 0.56

00:34:16.260 the Bible sees sleeping with a king's wife as like the ultimate form of dominance. 0.57

00:34:23.640 And this is what Absalom did to his father, David. Absalom publicly slept with his father's

00:34:30.040 concubines on the roof of the palace as really a deliberate way to humiliate David and to secure

00:34:36.940 his own claim to the throne. And this was a way to disgrace the previous ruler and establish

00:34:44.120 your own dynasty or royal succession. And number four, most importantly, is the maternal incest

00:34:52.360 view is the only view that offers a coherent answer for why Noah directs this curse toward

00:35:00.600 Canaan, which leads us to our second question. Why did Noah curse Canaan for Ham's sin? So Canaan

00:35:08.680 wasn't cursed because of what he did. Canaan was cursed because of who he was. Canaan was the 0.84

00:35:16.220 incest child and illegitimate seed of ham but this this leads us uh or leaves us with another

00:35:24.780 question if canaan is cursed what are the consequences for ham which leads us to the

00:35:32.060 episode's third question is the curse on canaan actually a curse on ham now in in the ancient

00:35:41.740 covenantal world, a son was not viewed as an independent individual in the way that we think

00:35:48.940 today. We have to kill off our modern tendency toward individualism. In a covenantal framework,

00:35:55.920 there's no disconnecting the curse on Canaan from the curse on Ham. And that's why so many 0.97

00:36:02.780 historical theologians have arrived at this conclusion. A son was the extension and public

00:36:08.180 representative of his father. We see this in the ministry of Christ, but his name, his honor,

00:36:14.920 his shame, his future were all bound up in his father's identity. That's a thing in the Old 0.76

00:36:20.500 Testament. And this is why names in scripture so often carried the father's name, right? Simon

00:36:25.440 Bar-Jonah literally means Simon, son of Jonah. When Saul saw David fighting Goliath, he didn't

00:36:32.840 ask, who is that young man? No, he asked in 1 Samuel 17, 55 through 56, whose son is this youth?

00:36:42.240 See, Saul wanted to know the father because the son represented the father. So the glory

00:36:49.580 that David won against Goliath reflected directly back on his father, Jesse.

00:36:55.320 Now, under God's order to bless or curse a son was to bless or curse the father.

00:37:03.920 And this is like, I think, the key to understanding why Noah cursed Canaan and not Ham directly. 0.54

00:37:10.200 If Noah had pronounced the curse on Ham, the shame of Ham's sin would have actually fallen

00:37:16.760 back onto Noah himself, the father of this incest offender.

00:37:22.100 So by Noah particularly directing the curse onto Ham's son, Canaan, the shame and judgment would

00:37:30.460 generally fall back on Ham. And so the curse on Canaan was ultimately the curse on Ham.

00:37:36.740 It was like perfect covenantal justice. The fruit was cursed because the root was corrupt. 0.75

00:37:44.760 And that is the specific target of Ham's curse was Canaan, but Canaan's curse only existed

00:37:51.740 because of Ham's evil. And so if I could kind of phrase it another way, while the curse was

00:37:58.700 particularized in Canaan, it did not stop with him. Canaan was simply the first and most visible 0.83

00:38:05.400 manifestation of the curse that I will argue flows through Ham's entire line.

00:38:13.120 Now, some people say, okay, sure, it was a curse on Ham because cursing his own son would have been

00:38:23.380 incredibly painful for Ham to watch. But the curse was limited to Canaan. It wasn't to all

00:38:29.360 of Ham's posterity. Now, some of you might be thinking, Dale, that's quite a leap, right? That's

00:38:36.320 quite a leap to say that the curse on Canaan really is a curse on all of Ham's posterity.

00:38:42.320 The text says, right, curse be Canaan, not all of Ham's posterity, right? So here's some further

00:38:48.980 rationale for why I believe this is the correct view, that the curse is not just on Canaan,

00:38:55.260 but also on Ham and all of his posterity to some degree. Again, particularly on Canaan,

00:39:00.720 but generally on Ham. So we have to remember that Noah is speaking to his sons in a covenantal

00:39:07.240 manner. So similar to what we see, like with Abraham's blessing on Isaac and Ishmael, or

00:39:13.440 Isaac's blessing on Jacob and Esau, or Jacob's blessings on all of his 12 sons. So these blessings

00:39:21.560 and curses, they're not limited to their own lifetimes, okay? They are prophetic words to

00:39:26.940 covenant heads that apply to all of their descendants. Now, we know this for certain

00:39:34.360 because the very next chapter gives us in chapter 10, the table of nations, which explicitly lays

00:39:40.780 out this principle. For that reason, in a moment of blessing and cursing, it would be extremely

00:39:47.600 strange for God to leave one entire branch of humanity unaddressed. In other words,

00:39:55.460 this would be the only instance in all of scripture where a father explicitly blesses

00:40:02.440 some sons while saying nothing to another. So I believe that Noah did say something. I believe

00:40:10.520 he cursed Ham starting with Canaan, or he curses Ham in Canaan. And again, this was the prevailing 0.99

00:40:19.720 interpretation in much of both Jewish history and Christian history. Okay, an 8th century Jewish 0.89

00:40:26.280 says, quote, just as he cursed the earth on account of the snake, as it says, may the earth 0.82

00:40:34.000 be cursed because of you, so a third of the world was cursed on account of wine, as it says,

00:40:41.460 and Noah awoke from his wine, end quote. St. Ambrose said, quote, Ham was condemned by his

00:40:50.020 father's curse, end quote. Martin Luther says, quote, Ham is cursed by his father, a servant of

00:40:56.640 servants shall he be, that is, the lowest and vilest of slaves, end quote. Matthew Henry, who

00:41:03.720 wrote the world's longest standing Bible commentary and is like a moderate by like every standard,

00:41:09.500 says, quote, he pronounces a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham, in whom Ham is himself cursed, end

00:41:18.000 quote. Matthew Poole has a commentary published by Banner of Truth that says, quote, when Canaan

00:41:24.900 is mentioned, Ham is not exempted from the curse, but rather more deeply plunged into it, end quote.

00:41:32.900 W.G. Blakely, who was endorsed by Charles Spurgeon, also published by Banner of Truth,

00:41:38.580 said on this passage, quote, though the curse of Ham was formally pronounced on Canaan alone,

00:41:44.580 it has been reflected more or less on the other branches of his family, end quote.

00:41:51.020 Abraham Kuyper adds in his book, Common Grace, Volume 1, which is published by Lexham Press,

00:41:56.800 quote, the fact that now for the first time the actual history of our human race gets underway

00:42:02.980 is expressed in the prophecy that the Holy Spirit placed on Noah's lips. It led him to sketch out

00:42:11.160 the lines along which history of the world would unfold, in his full blessing for Shem, 0.67

00:42:17.960 his partial blessing for Japheth, and his curse on Ham, end quote. And John Calvin, in his

00:42:25.420 commentary on Genesis, also published by Banner of Truth, says, quote, and that is to say, Ham is

00:42:33.440 cursed first, as if the words were framed this way. God is not content to punish Ham, who offended,

00:42:41.740 but God's rigor and severity will have to extend further. And God shows from age to age that that

00:42:49.100 lineage is an abomination to him. The first thing we have to remember about this passage is that God 0.69

00:42:56.540 wanted to punish Ham in all his lineage. So it is with good reason that such a sentence is 1.00

00:43:03.720 pronounced on Ham and his entire lineage, end quote. So let's just say that you're still not

00:43:12.140 buying it, right? You think the curse was limited only to Canaan and the Hamitic people are not 1.00

00:43:17.600 under this curse. Here's a vital point that you have to consider. Even if someone argues that Ham

00:43:24.680 himself is not cursed. We can certainly say that Ham is not blessed. Okay, so in either case,

00:43:32.940 whether through an act of curse or through the absence of blessing, Ham and his branch of humanity

00:43:40.800 are being covenantally judged. Okay, and this really leads to the fourth question of the episode.

00:43:48.040 If this curse does affect all of Ham's posterity, how has it manifested itself in Scripture

00:43:54.480 and in history. And so let's start by talking about the first line from this curse from Noah.

00:44:03.140 It says, quote, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, shall he be to his brothers, end quote.

00:44:11.180 So first, a lot of folks forget that this is narrative. And sometimes there are years,

00:44:18.400 even decades between verses. And so we often read that Noah wakes up from his wine and immediately

00:44:25.700 says, curse be Canaan, right? So he can't be talking about Canaan because Canaan's not even

00:44:32.480 born yet if it's the maternal incest view, right? And we kind of picture it all happening in like

00:44:37.560 this dramatic moment. But all throughout Genesis, we see that the story frequently jumps forward in

00:44:44.520 time from one verse to the next one. So let me give you an example. Right after the flood,

00:44:50.060 Noah and his family exit the ark. Then in the very next chapter, we're told that Noah began to

00:44:57.380 be a husbandman, plant a vineyard, drank the wine, and got drunk. That process alone,

00:45:04.560 just in one sentence, that process alone, clearing the land, planting vines from seeds,

00:45:10.900 you know, waiting for them to grow, harvesting grapes, fermenting the wine, that would have

00:45:16.160 taken several years at minimum. And so we're not looking at something that happened like days or

00:45:22.720 weeks after the flood. There was real time that passed. So if Ham, one of the three covenant heads

00:45:31.540 of the nations is cursed, or again, at least not blessed, then his descendants to some degree 0.93

00:45:36.500 should demonstrate the signs of that curse. And I believe scripture and world history do bear this

00:45:43.440 out. The great antagonists of God's people repeatedly come from Ham's line. Now remember,

00:45:52.200 Ham had four sons, Canaan, Cush, Mizraim, and Put. Canaan is listed last because he is cursed in the

00:46:01.700 same way that Shem is listed first, even though he's not the oldest, if Canaan wasn't first,

00:46:07.940 then we have to believe that lots of time had passed and that Ham had three other kids prior

00:46:17.700 to him, which is again, unlikely. And so from Cush comes Nimrod, the founder of Babel and the

00:46:24.880 builder of the Tower of Babel, the very first organized rebellion against God after the flood. 0.55

00:46:31.000 From Cush also came the great empires of Babylon and Assyria, which are repeated like archetypes 0.66

00:46:37.200 of tyrannical opposition to God's kingdom. You can see that in Isaiah 13 through 14,

00:46:42.000 Jeremiah 50 and 51, Revelation 17 and 18. Now from Mizraim, one of the other sons of Ham, 1.00

00:46:48.280 comes Egypt, right? It's the great enslaver of Israel, which becomes the classic biblical 0.97

00:46:53.460 picture of worldly oppression, idolatry, resistance to the Lord, all of that. And you can see this in 0.60

00:46:58.940 Ezekiel 29-32, Isaiah 30-31, Revelation 11-8, and many other passages. Now, put is mentioned less

00:47:07.080 frequently, but consistently appears in the scriptures as like this warlike mercenary people

00:47:12.540 who lend military support to other Hamitic powers against God's people. You can see that in Ezekiel

00:47:20.240 27, 10, 30, verse 5, and Nahum 3, 9. And then, of course, from Canaan comes the Canaanite nations,

00:47:29.480 including the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Philistines, the Amalekites, 1.00

00:47:34.220 all of which become symbols of gross immorality and divine judgment. So all four lines of Ham are 0.99

00:47:42.100 antagonists of God's people. Now, in addition to hostility to God's people, we also see biblical

00:47:50.220 and historical Hamitic servitude and subjugation, not just in Canaan, but also in Cush, Mizraim, 0.64

00:47:57.820 and Put. For example, in Genesis chapter 16, Sarai's maidservant, Hagar, is Egyptian from

00:48:06.860 Mizraim and is brought into subjection under Abraham's household and, of course, leads to

00:48:12.240 the chaos of Ishmael. In Genesis 41, Joseph is made second in command over Egypt. Later in the 0.93

00:48:20.520 Exodus, Exodus 12, 35 to 36, the entire nation of Egypt is plundered and forced to serve Israel

00:48:28.000 during the Exodus. Second Chronicles 14, 9 through 15, we have King Esau of Judah defeating Zerah

00:48:34.940 of the Cushites, who came against Judah with like this massive army of a million men and like

00:48:42.060 300 chariots. And the Cushites were completely routed out and plundered by Israel. In Daniel 11,

00:48:51.880 42 through 43, in the prophecy of the kings of the north and the south, Egypt and Put would later

00:48:59.120 be conquered and ruled over by successive Japhethite powers, the Greeks in 332 BC, the Romans

00:49:06.220 in 30 BC. In fact, Egypt was ruled over by the descendants of Japheth for over 300 years and

00:49:12.700 then put, which is modern day Libya, for 600 years. Another interesting point is that if the

00:49:20.660 curse was only on Canaan and it was only to be subject... So think about this. So Canaan is

00:49:27.360 supposed to be subject to both Shem and Japheth. And most of my opponents on this position claim,

00:49:34.560 the curse, it was limited to Canaan and the Canaanites, and it was fulfilled in the Canaanite

00:49:41.160 conquest led by Joshua. But if that's the case, then part of the prophecy would have never come

00:49:49.460 to pass because no Japhethites were involved in the Canaanite conquest. And we know Deuteronomy

00:49:57.020 18, 21 through 22, says that in order to determine if a prophet is true, his words have to come to

00:50:05.160 pass. So if we need to see submission, not just to Shem, but also to Japheth, we have to move beyond 0.63

00:50:15.640 Canaan and look at Ham's other sons, where we actually do see extensive Hamitic subjugation

00:50:24.420 to Japheth throughout history. So if you look at it just as Canaan, only Shem is ruling over 0.98

00:50:33.900 Canaan. But if you look at the curses on all of Ham's lineage, then you go, oh, now we see 0.89

00:50:43.040 both Shem and Japheth biblically and historically ruling over the Hamitic peoples.

00:50:51.480 John Brown Haddington, he's a respected Scottish Presbyterian minister in the mid-1700s. He

00:50:59.160 produced an extensive commentary on this passage, and he was tracing the fulfillment

00:51:02.940 of this Noahic prophecy throughout world history. And I wish I could read you the whole thing,

00:51:09.060 because it's just incredible to see how Noah's words come to pass so clearly among the wars

00:51:16.900 and civilizations of men. But Brown suggests that basically the curse covers centuries of

00:51:23.860 Hamitic subjugation. The Canaanites were repeatedly conquered and enslaved by the

00:51:31.000 Shemites and the Japhethites from Calda Lamor's invasions and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, 0.84

00:51:39.380 Solomon's use of the Canaanite slaves to build the temple, and later the domination of the 0.95

00:51:44.000 Hamitic peoples, by the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Saracens, the Turks, like right down

00:51:49.100 into the slave trade and long centuries of bondage across North and Sub-Saharan Africa. 0.91

00:51:56.980 Now, it's important to say clearly that the curse of Ham is a civilizational station. It's a curse 0.97

00:52:07.340 of civilizational station, not a curse of redemption. Again, as I said earlier, God is

00:52:13.460 saving Africans all over the world. Another point is the curse of Ham does not deny that

00:52:22.640 some individual Africans might be uniquely gifted and blessed with civilizational intellect and

00:52:28.240 leadership ability. And I believe God's purpose in such cases is often to raise up strong leadership

00:52:34.800 for their own people. So Africa and Africans desperately need good black leadership in both

00:52:41.440 society and the church. And extraordinarily gifted Black Christian men should view that

00:52:49.280 gifting as a divine call to lead and serve their own people. And this is why I believe

00:52:55.440 the late Bodhi Bauckham was right as he moved his family back to Africa, where he made a massive

00:53:03.560 impact. Another point I want to make is that we have been so propagandized about slavery that we

00:53:10.600 forget scripture does not forbid slavery, it redeems it. Now, chattel slavery, as practiced 0.78

00:53:18.160 in the transatlantic slave trade, was evil because it systematically violated God's structure and

00:53:25.540 command for how masters were to treat slaves. So biblical slavery, or some people would say

00:53:33.240 indentured servitude, was often used actually as a protective and pro-life measure. A master

00:53:40.180 would take in a person who would likely have died in poverty or war and brings this person

00:53:48.260 into his household, providing for his needs. And if he did that according to God's design for how

00:53:55.480 masters should treat servants, then it was done well and in a godly manner. That is to say that

00:54:02.240 there are many forms of servitude throughout history. And I don't believe that the curse of

00:54:08.120 is a command for blacks to be subjected to chattel slavery or really any form of direct

00:54:18.320 ownership of individual humans. I'm talking about this is a political subjugation, 0.87

00:54:25.120 a civilizational station. These are broad generalizations about large groups of people.

00:54:32.520 Um, that being said, I do believe that a prophetic curse, uh, is not merely spiritual or symbolic.

00:54:43.420 Um, it, it, it manifests, uh, in real physical and historical consequences across generations.

00:54:50.460 Um, I have, I've, I've summarized these, uh, kind of this curse of ham, what it would look like and

00:54:57.100 what it would manifest itself historically using four G's, geography, gospel, gods, and genetics.

00:55:06.380 I'm a preacher, right? So we got to do that. So let's look at geography. God providentially placed

00:55:10.760 Ham's descendants predominantly in some of the most geographically punishing environments on 0.79

00:55:17.640 earth. Okay. Roughly one third of the African continent is infested with what's called the 0.98

00:55:23.600 tetsi fly, which kills cattle, draft animals. It makes plow agriculture production very inefficient

00:55:30.840 and sometimes impossible. And most of Africa's rivers are blocked by rapids at these critical

00:55:38.920 crossings. And the Sahara Desert is this like massive barrier that isolates sub-Saharan African

00:55:45.360 peoples from the rest of the world. And so ultimately outside of like Antarctica, Africa

00:55:51.340 Africa is the least desirable, profitable, livable continent in the world. 0.98

00:55:56.360 And this, of course, shaped the development of its people.

00:56:00.760 Because of Africa's geography and climate, which again features less seasonal variation

00:56:08.060 than Europe did, there was historically less pressure to develop advanced food storage.

00:56:14.880 didn't have, you know, seasonal planning or really intense architecture to handle snow and hard

00:56:22.000 weather. And you didn't have this indoor technological development. In other words,

00:56:27.760 like the climate fostered physical adaptations for outdoor survival over intellectual adaptations

00:56:34.180 required for like harsh winters, long-term agricultural planning, like the kind we see

00:56:40.620 and the Japhethite people up north. 1.00

00:56:43.580 Like indoor societies cultivate intellectual pursuits, 1.00

00:56:48.600 which are music or reading or invention, right?

00:56:53.220 So their geographical placement in Africa

00:56:57.320 wasn't a mistake in my opinion,

00:57:00.280 but I think it was a move of providence

00:57:02.000 to leverage the material world

00:57:04.420 to uphold the actual curse

00:57:09.440 that was delivered in Genesis 9.

00:57:11.500 The second G is gospel.

00:57:14.460 Because of their low access geography

00:57:18.040 in God's providence, 0.98

00:57:20.160 the Hamitic peoples received the gospel later

00:57:23.080 than any other major people group on earth. 1.00

00:57:26.820 The Shemites obviously had it first, 0.99

00:57:29.420 then the Japhethites, 1.00

00:57:31.080 it was carried by Paul to the Gentiles 0.96

00:57:33.220 west toward Europe,

00:57:35.900 Greece, Rome, and obviously Europe in the future. 0.91

00:57:39.440 And so, but it was the Japhethites who actually took the gospel around the world through the 0.95

00:57:45.840 Reformation and the printing press and all the things that were invented there. 0.93

00:57:50.000 And the Japhethites are actually the ones that took it to Africa, but not until about the 1800s 0.99

00:57:55.760 in mass, which leads us to the third G, which is gods. The Hamitic peoples have endured 1.00

00:58:04.640 millennia of paganism, idolatry, animism, all of which have actively hindered their 0.65

00:58:11.900 physical development. And let me explain what I mean by that. Pagan religions don't

00:58:17.680 merely affect your beliefs, right? They shape your daily life, including your diet,

00:58:21.600 your sexual practices, your moral norms. And this leads to the fourth G, which is genetics.

00:58:27.920 when you have thousands of years of people eating burger patties made of flies, as they do in

00:58:35.320 Burundi or Congo or Ethiopia, it affects your biology. When 50% of all African peoples practice 1.00

00:58:41.440 cousin marriage, it affects your biology. When people sacrifice their children and ritually 1.00

00:58:47.060 consume blood, as they do in Kenya and Tanzania, it affects your biology. And so these practices 1.00

00:58:55.600 degrade health and increase genetic defects. And it affects things like IQ, which strongly

00:59:03.200 correlate with future orientation or long-term planning or impulse control or poverty levels

00:59:08.960 or criminality, and all of which are essential for building and maintaining complex civilizations.

00:59:16.140 And as a result of these types of factors, the current average life expectancy in sub-Saharan

00:59:22.700 in Africa is 20 years lower than in Europe. So lastly, we have to talk about the compounding

00:59:33.380 effects of all of these things, right? So you have geography, a late gospel, pagan gods,

00:59:41.000 you're worshiping demons, and poor genetics. And they essentially shape a people. And that is that 0.94

00:59:47.820 God in his sovereign wisdom designed real conditions for the Hamitic peoples in keeping 0.87

00:59:54.000 with the prophecy of Genesis 9 that would place them essentially in a servant-like station among

01:00:01.500 the nations marked by what? Well, a greater dependence, struggle, need. And all four branches

01:00:10.800 of Ham, Canaan, Cush, Mizraim, Put, display this. So in medicine, there's a process that's called

01:00:20.580 reversed diagnosis, and it's where you look at the results to determine the cause. Now, Jesus

01:00:27.340 basically used this process when he said, you'll know a tree by its fruit, okay? When you look at

01:00:34.900 the fruit, the historical and biblical outcomes for Ham's descendants, it strongly indicates 0.54

01:00:42.920 that the curse was not limited to just one branch, Canaan, but it touched the whole tree.

01:00:51.300 And so it's either a strange coincidence that virtually all the nations descending from Ham 0.86

01:00:57.720 are biblically and historically hostile toward and eventually conquered by the nations of Shem

01:01:04.720 and Japheth, and they are all generally live in a place of dependence and need, or the prophetic

01:01:15.240 curse applies particularly to Canaan and generally to Ham's entire line. Now, this leads us to our 0.93

01:01:22.940 fifth and final question. How should Christians, Christian Shemites, Hamites, and Japhethites think 1.00

01:01:29.820 about race, nations, and civilizations. Now, again, we have to remember that this text is not just

01:01:35.340 about a curse on Ham, but also a blessing on Shem and Japheth. So in chapter 9, verses 26 to 27,

01:01:44.020 it says, quote, he also said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

01:01:51.620 May God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let Canaan be his servant,

01:01:57.960 end quote. Now, the primary blessing to Shem is that the Messiah would come from his branch of 0.95

01:02:06.880 humanity. But that has not been their only blessing. John Haddington Brown, he said in 0.76

01:02:12.880 that great commentary, quote, the blessings bestowed upon the Shemites by God have been

01:02:19.320 remarkable. The most rich or fertile parts of the world fell to their share, end quote.

01:02:25.280 He goes on to explain that the blessings on Shem highlights the rich lands, the mighty empires given

01:02:33.080 to his descendants, along with this extraordinary privilege of preserving the true religion for

01:02:38.300 2,000 years or more than that, thousands of years. And essentially, the birth of the Messiah,

01:02:46.180 the birth of the church, all come from the Shemite line. Now, for Japheth, we see that 1.00

01:02:54.220 he actually receives two distinct blessings. First, God says that, well, Noah says as a

01:03:01.280 prophecy, he says that God will enlarge Japheth. So in a nationalistic context, this speaks of

01:03:10.000 like a geographic expansion of Japheth's lands, which by the way, totally adds up with world

01:03:15.820 history. Second, God declares that Japheth, quote, shall dwell in the tents of Shem, end quote.

01:03:25.220 And this points to really two realities. One, the taking of Shemite lands and territories, 0.97

01:03:30.400 which we do see in history. It's actually like why the Japhethites were in Jerusalem 1.00

01:03:38.080 during the crucifixion of Christ. We were taking over and ruling over those particular lands. But 1.00

01:03:44.140 again, God causes all things to work together for good, and it's incredible. But more importantly,

01:03:49.680 this dwelling in the tents of Shem refers to being grafted into the vine of Israel,

01:03:58.820 which is Christ. So ultimately, this is a prophecy that God would produce an expansive

01:04:06.280 and dominating people who would receive the gospel to a greater degree than even the descendants of 0.95

01:04:13.980 Shem. There's actually like in chapter 10 of Genesis, it talks about how the Japhethites 0.83

01:04:23.460 become the coastland people. And if you know a little bit about history, they go from Mount

01:04:30.440 Ararat, which is where the ark landed, and they arrive just north, about 500 miles to what is

01:04:39.780 called the Caucasus Mountains. And in the 1700s, you had a gentleman who was a Christian German

01:04:45.100 scientist, and he realized that the Japhethites really had their first seedbed of civilization,

01:04:52.120 Japhethite civilization, at the Caucasus Mountains. And it's why we call white people to this day 0.96

01:04:55.780 Caucasians. But they moved... So the Caucasus Mountains sits between the Caspian Sea and the 0.97

01:05:02.040 Black Sea, and they moved left or west through the kind of Slavic territories to the northern

01:05:09.320 Mediterranean, to Greece, to Italy, all that territory, Rome, all that was created. And 0.66

01:05:15.440 there's a prophecy in Isaiah, I think it's 42, that says the coastlands wait for his law.

01:05:23.980 And so when God sends Paul on his missionary journey, and if you looked at a missionary

01:05:33.780 journey of Paul. You can see the map is all of the coastland realities, and he's not ever

01:05:41.320 permitted to go deep beyond the coastland territories of the Mediterranean. And so

01:05:47.820 essentially, this is a fulfillment of chapter 42 of Isaiah, which is a fulfillment of chapter 10,

01:05:58.960 saying that they became coastland peoples, which is a fulfillment of Genesis chapter 9 that

01:06:05.500 Japhethites will dwell in the tents of Shem. So it's just incredible stuff when you start really 0.50

01:06:11.160 looking into the deeper details. Now, in the same way a prophecy of subjugated and servant people 0.83

01:06:20.720 manifest in certain biological and civilizational characteristics, like we saw in Ham,

01:06:26.300 a prophecy of enlarging and dominating people also is going to manifest certain biological

01:06:35.320 and civilizational characteristics. So Japheth and his descendants were endowed with ambition,

01:06:42.540 industry, high intelligence, great land, technological capacity, virtue, artistic

01:06:51.560 excellence, military prowess, Honorius Augusta Denesis observed during the time of the early

01:07:00.640 crusades. He said, quote, those of Shem are free, those of Japheth are noble, and those of Ham are 0.96

01:07:08.280 serfs, end quote. The Westminster annotations on this passage say, quote, the European Gentiles,

01:07:16.640 especially the Romans of the posterity of Japheth, extend their temporal empire so far as to account

01:07:24.240 themselves lords of the world, end quote. In John Brown Haddington's commentary, he explains how

01:07:32.980 the blessing on Japheth foretells this massive enlargement as his descendants, the Greeks,

01:07:40.260 the Romans, the Celts, the Tartars, the Turks, the Europeans, they multiplied, they conquered 0.89

01:07:46.000 vast territories originally belonging to Shem. They spread across Europe and Asia, and of course, 0.92

01:07:52.340 eventually to the Americas, and became the primary vehicle for the spread of the gospel

01:07:58.100 among the Gentiles across the world. And he concludes that the precise long-term fulfillment

01:08:05.720 of these words in both scripture and history stands really as a powerful evidence of the

01:08:11.580 divine authenticity of the Bible. And essentially, when these prophecies come true in world history,

01:08:17.640 it makes your faith stronger. And so what is the real solution for bringing gospel order to the

01:08:27.260 world, including to the Hamitic peoples? It's by embracing both the blessings and the curses 1.00

01:08:35.720 that God has declared here in chapter nine. So here's what I mean by that. God has sovereignly

01:08:42.900 assigned different stations, civilizational stations, and trajectories to different peoples

01:08:49.780 for his glory. The Shemites have been blessed to inaugurate the gospel, and they are most blessed

01:08:58.620 by embracing Christ. The Japhethites have been blessed to enlarge in both territory

01:09:06.080 and Christian regeneration, and they are most blessed when they expand through Christian 0.90

01:09:12.520 colonization. Now, to consider this in relationship to Ham, when I say Christian colonization, 0.89

01:09:22.280 were not to overtake in an evil manner, physically enslave with evil motives or exploit people,

01:09:34.260 but to establish order, godly leadership, and carry the gospel even further. 0.80

01:09:42.560 The Hamites have been assigned a civilizational station of subordination and dependence, 0.89

01:09:49.720 And they are most blessed when they embrace their station under Shemite and Japhethite 0.99

01:09:56.420 nations. 0.99

01:09:57.480 So the answer to this paradigm is not endless foreign aid.

01:10:04.140 That's part of it. 0.67

01:10:05.600 The answer is to return to Christian colonization of Africa that actually worked. 0.99

01:10:12.260 In fact, the only times Africa had nations that they have seen significant and sustained 0.90

01:10:20.600 civilizational improvement, I'm talking like infant mortality rates are going down,

01:10:25.400 murders going down, diseases going down, tribal wars are stopping. The only time they saw that are

01:10:30.980 when they have come under some type of European or Shemite supervision. We saw this in colonial 0.99

01:10:41.620 Kenya and Botswana. Dramatically, we saw this in Rhodesia. White Christians turned like a broken

01:10:50.760 third world territory into thriving first world Christian societies in less than a century. 0.99

01:10:58.840 And when that supervision was finally removed, the pattern reversed, as we have painfully

01:11:06.160 witnessed in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. I have a friend who runs a large ministry giving clean

01:11:16.520 water to places in Africa. And he said one of his biggest problems is they will put a $10,000

01:11:25.980 or $40,000 well, and then it will stop working for a $20 part and nobody will get it fixed.

01:11:34.300 they won't find a solution to the problem. In fact, in many times, someone stole the part

01:11:42.060 to take the metal to use it for something else. And the whole village goes back to

01:11:47.500 the dirty rivers and ponds to get their water and their disease.

01:11:51.780 And there's a, I forgot the gentleman's name, Frank something. He's a black man from Africa. 1.00

01:11:59.980 and he said that there's no word in many African languages for the term maintenance.

01:12:05.420 So they don't understand the idea of maintaining something in many tribes across Africa. And so,

01:12:12.880 again, this is part of the civilizational station that we're not allowed to talk about.

01:12:20.440 And what this teaches us is that national civility is downstream, not merely from religion,

01:12:28.700 but also from race. Now, again, in the end, this passage, it shouldn't leave anybody in despair

01:12:37.960 or pride. It should drive all of us to the foot of the cross. Because while the Hamitic people

01:12:46.600 are under a civilizational curse, we are all under the curse of sin. I think of 1 Corinthians, 1.00

01:12:55.220 take heed that you stand lest you fall. Don't be prideful in who you are and the fact that you're

01:13:07.600 better than a particular other race. Now, it should humble the Japhethite who might boast 1.00

01:13:15.600 in his enlargement. It should comfort the Hamite under generational burdens. It should remind the 0.99

01:13:23.000 Shemite that his greatest privilege is simply to be a vessel for the Messiah who saves the world. 0.99

01:13:28.900 God is a God of order, and it's our duty as American Christians to submit in love and grace

01:13:34.520 to the order and station the Lord has appointed for each of us. And so again, we're all made

01:13:41.620 equally in the image of God. We're all sinners in need of forgiveness and mercy.

01:13:47.680 But the gospel doesn't erase our earthly distinctions. It does bring peace to them.

01:13:55.400 And so my hope is that we can see Christian nations, whether they're Hamitic, Shemite,

01:14:04.920 Semitic, or Japhethites, white Europeans, that there's peace between those nations,

01:14:11.960 that we could actually, as Japhethites, go in and help rule over in a loving and godly way

01:14:18.300 over the African nations. Sure, there will always be conflict and war and sin involved in all of

01:14:24.820 these things, but I think the greatest shot we have at peace is embracing order, embracing what

01:14:31.600 the historic church has seen as very obvious conclusions to passages like these. And again,

01:14:38.380 order brings peace. And so as Americans, as we wrestle through the chaos of our own

01:14:45.560 multiracial, multi-ethnic, egalitarian experiment, it's time to stop denying the distinctions that

01:14:53.200 God has sovereignly established. So again, the Japhethites should not abdicate their place to

01:15:01.380 enlarge and carry the gospel of Christ around the world. The Hamites should not see themselves as 0.96

01:15:08.620 those who do not need leadership of Japheth or Shem. We must embrace biblical reality, right?

01:15:19.180 The gospel redeems individuals from every race, but it does not erase those distinctions.

01:15:24.620 and so we have to be committed to pursue clarity and order and peace in our homes, in our churches,

01:15:34.680 and in our nations, in our governments, in our politics by submitting to God's design so that

01:15:40.140 Christ might be glorified and our country might once again reflect his good order. Now, I'm not

01:15:48.480 going to be doing a weekly audit this week because this episode is long, and so we're just going to

01:15:53.460 move toward the end. And next week, I'm going to be discussing part one of a two-part series on

01:16:01.240 dispensationalism and Zionism. The episode will be titled Dispensationalism, The Satanic Lie

01:16:07.580 That Wounded American Christianity. Now, if you don't already, you can follow me on X,

01:16:12.860 Instagram, or YouTube. I'm posting new content literally six days a week. And so I'd love to

01:16:18.300 have you on that journey. My featured book for this episode is The Israel Delusion,

01:16:24.000 Challenging Christian Zionism and Reclaiming the Church as the True Israel. It's available

01:16:28.740 on relearn.org or in audio at the ReLearn app. You can also pick up a copy on Amazon.

01:16:34.800 My name is Dale Partridge. Thank you for watching or listening to American Glory.

01:16:38.600 I'll see you next week.

01:16:48.300 America will either have Christ or it will have chaos.

01:16:59.960 For years, conservatives believed that Trump could reverse America's decline.

01:17:04.780 But after Trump, the right is now fractured, exhausted, and losing ground.

01:17:10.400 Endless infighting and electoral losses have exposed a deeper problem that politics alone cannot solve.

01:17:19.540 A nation that rejects Christ cannot be restored by mere personalities, grandstanding, or Christless conservatism.

01:17:28.780 So NXR Studios' first annual conference, America After Trump, brings together pastors, politicians, commentators, and Christians that are committed to strength, cooperation, and a durable future for the American right.

01:17:46.400 Complaining is not a strategy, and despair cannot be an option.

01:17:51.780 Christ is King. Let's live like it.

01:17:58.780 Thank you.

The NXR Podcast - July 14, 2026

American Glory - The Curse of Ham Finally Explained

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