Webinar – BIBLICAL SLAVERY IS NOT RACIAL SLAVERY OR CRUEL BONDAGE

 Webinar – BIBLICAL SLAVERY IS NOT RACIAL SLAVERY OR CRUEL BONDAGE

Biblical slavery was never conceived or practiced in a racial way, as had been practiced in the USA and in other nations. Kidnapping of foreign peoples in order to enslave was strictly forbidden:

 

• Exodus 21:16-17 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.”

 

• 1 Timothy 1:9–10 …the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

 

• UNPAID DEBTS AND CRIMINALITY: A thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft.” (Exodus 22:3)

 

• “If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you.” (Deut. 15:12-14)

 

In many instances the Israelites could be redeemed by their family members (Leviticus 25:48). Even if the family wouldn’t or couldn’t redeem them, they were to be released after six years of labor. This would also pertain to aliens if they converted!

 

• “This is my covenant with you [Abraham] and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring.” (Genesis 17:10-12)

 

The institution of biblical slavery also provided legal protections for the slave (“servant,” “doulos”):

 

• "If a man hits a manservant or maidservant in the eye and destroys it, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of a manservant or maidservant [“slave;” NASB], he must let the servant go free to compensate for the tooth.” (Exodus 21:26-27)

 

The slave or servant was even to be treated almost like family. They were to travel together to Jerusalem to rejoice by eating their offerings:

 

• Bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord. And there rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants [“slaves”], and the Levites from your towns, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. (Deut. 12:11-12)

 

Slavery also addressed the problem of what to do with a defeated enemy. While the ancient practice entailed the extermination of the males and the sexual abuse of the females, the Bible prohibited this:

 

• “When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife…If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.” (Deut. 21:10-11, 14)

 

Biblical slavery would not divide families:

• When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. (Exodus 21:2-3)

 

• IF HE LIKED HIS MASTER AND WANTS TO STAY: Exodus 21:4–5 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.

 

Israel was to be a model of inclusiveness. All could and should come to God; all were to be under the covenant of God, and none were ever turned away:

 

• “Any slave you have bought may eat of [the Passover] after you have circumcised him…An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD'S Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you." (Exodus 12:44-49)

 

Jewish or not. Israel was also to be a model society for the surrounding nations:

 

• “See, I [Moses] have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” (Deut. 4:5-8)

 

• “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.’” (Deuteronomy 5:12–14)

 

Predictably, secularism now wants to claim the mantle of the “protector of human rights.” This certainly wasn’t the case under secular communism and hasn’t been the case historically.  “Secularism does not liberate,” according to Indian scholar Vishal Mangalwadi. He quotes historian Rodney Stark to support his claim:

 

• A virtual Who’s Who of “Enlightenment” figures fully accepted slavery…It was not philosophers or secular intellectuals who assembled the moral indictment of slavery, but the very people they held in such contempt: men and women having intense Christian faith, who opposed slavery because it was sin…The larger point is that abolitionists, whether popes or evangelists, spoke almost exclusively in the language of Christian faith…Although many Southern clergy [in America] proposed theological defenses of slavery, pro-slavery rhetoric was overwhelmingly secular – references were made to “liberty” and “states’ rights,” not to “sin” or “salvation.” (The Book that Made your World, 114)

 

There were compelling reasons why “Biblical Theology abolished slavery.” Unbiblical slavery was simply unbiblical, as Mangalwadi affirms:

 

• [Christians] considered slavery to be sinful. Slavery means toil, and the Bible said toil was a consequence of sin. God loved sinners enough to send his son to take their sin upon Himself. The curse of sin was nailed upon the cross. (114)

 

Biblical slavery differs from other forms of slavery as the punishment of the innocent differs from the punishment of the guilty. Dinesh D’Souza adds:

 

• “Christians were the first group in history to start an anti-slavery movement. The movement started in late eighteenth century in Britain…In England, William Wilberforce spear-headed a campaign that began with almost no support and was driven entirely by his Christian convictions…Pressed by religious groups at home, England took the lead in repressing the slave trade abroad.” (What’s So Great About Christianity, 73)

 

• “The Second Great Awakening, which started in the early 19^th century and coursed through New England and New York and then through the interior of the country, left in its wake the temperance movement, the movement of women’s suffrage, and most important, the abolitionist movement.” (75)

 

The secularist also charges that the NT condones even non-biblical slavery.

 

• 1 Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

 

• Titus 2:9 Bondservants [“doulos”] are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,

 

• Mark 10:42–44 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

 

• Philippians 2:7–8  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant [“slave; “doulos”], being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.