I am having a hard time with Lev 25:44-46 44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. 45 You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. 46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly. --- Did God approve slavery?
Paul told slaves in the New Testament to be good slaves and to serve their masters as they served Christ. Paul told masters in the New Testament to treat their slaves like brothers.
Leviticus 25:43 'You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God. Deuteronomy 10:17 "For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. Job 31:13 "If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves When they filed a complaint against me, Job 34:19 Who shows no partiality to princes Nor regards the rich above the poor, For they all are the work of His hands? John 13:13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, because I am. Acts 10:34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism, Colossians 3:25 Whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. Colossians 4:1 Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Treating slaves nice is a given, but not my question. It's the freedom taken from them that God seems to approve, even can be interpreted as an encouragement to make people slaves reading Lev 25.
Let's assume for the sake of the question that He does, but then also requires slave owners to treat their slaves like brothers and sisters -- that isn't slavery as we know it, is it? Paul described himself as a slave to Christ, so should we look with worry at the example Paul set by using that language?
My 2 pfennigs worth... I don't think Scripture indicates that God either approves or disapproves of slavery, but reveals a great deal about how God commands His people to treat anyone under their care.
I don't think there's such a concept as slavery if you treat everyone as God commands people to be treated. It's not so much a 'does God approve or disapprove, command or forbid', as it is a question that misses what exactly God is doing. And I mean the question generally, not ProDeo specifically.
Paul made a choice to be a slave of Christ, God gave Israel the freedom to buy and own, surely against the will of the victims in question. Or.... Slavery was rampant long before the Exodus and perhaps seen as normal, as it was seen normal till the 19th century and as such God tolerated slavery under certain conditions as stipulated in the Scriptures. As He tolerated divorce under conditions. Because of - Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Meaning, slavery never was God's original intent. Too much gymnastics?
Scripture is neither a rule book nor a commentary on what human behavior God approves or disapproves. It is God's revelation of Himself to His creation. We should not try to make Scripture do that which it is not designed to do or to make it say what it does not address. We err greatly when we force our demands on the text.
Yes. He also gave us (as only species) a brain to understand Him, more He wants us to understand. God notable just led the jews out of slavery and then gives the former slaves the right to also take the freedom of other people? Jesus - So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. How does this fit with slavery?
That's incorrect. The Bible is chock full of examples of commentary on both human behavior that God approves of and human behavior that God disapproves of. For instance, God disapproves of lying. Murder. Adultery. God approves when humans show mercy. Compassion. Truthfulness.
What I find amusing is that there are people here who think slavery is "morally neutral" but will not answer these questions: Would you like to be a slave? Would you like to know you were somebody's "property?" Would you be ok with knowing that your "master" could beat you as long as they "didn't kill you?" Would you be ok with being chained up like an animal? Would you be ok with being taken away from your family knowing you'll never see them again? I asked these kinds of questions awhile back in another thread I had started on a completely different topic that somehow got the subject of slavery inserted in it. Anyway, nobody answered these questions. Not surprised, though. Like I said, I just think it's funny that slavery is supposedly "morally neutral" to some people, but those same people who believe that are the same people who, I can guarantee, would not be down for being a slave. In other words, their attitude is, "it's perfectly fine that some people are slaves...but not me." I guess they're special. Or something. :
;D I found a great analysis here. As it seems to be Jewish slavery was always on a voluntarily base and for a limited period of time with the option to sell yourself free and with the guarantee of a good treatment. Something that is not against the Constitution. Case closed ?
Already am, except I don't have to worry about devaluation, beatings, confinement, familial separation, etc. Quite the opposite, I'm highly valued, loved, free, and part of the family.
Likewise. What is described in the post before is a violation of the manner in which Scripture says to treat slaves, so you are apples and Stidebakers. If the choice was starvation or slavery, I'd pick slavery.
I can guarantee you would not have been fine with being a black slave in an Alabama cotton plantation a couple of hundred years ago...
That's great, but you just proved my point. You've, again, totally avoided answering my questions. I'm not talking about spiritual slavery and being a "slave of Christ.". I'm talking about earthly slavery like the kind the black American slaves from Africa endured. Again, I assert that, for all kinds of reasons, you would not have enjoyed being one of them. Why you won't admit to that, I'm not sure.
I don't enjoy being a business owner as much as I think I would enjoy being independently wealthy. So what? "Enjoyment" has nothing to do with morality. You are trying to compare two unlike things; slavery under a Biblical admonition and slavery under a non Biblical admonition. They are not the same; it is the treatment of the persons under your care, regardless of "title," that is moral or immoral. Titles are amoral.
You asked if I would like to be a slave, listed a bunch of negatives about slave trades, and I answered that I'm already a slave for Christ, and Jesus-as-master is quite the opposite of a sinful, human slave master. So yes, with God as my master I have no issue with the word 'slave'.