Why Doesn't the Bible Condemn Slavery?

Since slavery is today considered a great moral evil, some wonder why the Bible doesn’t categorically condemn the practice. Critics even insist that the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) condones, if not promotes, slavery. Some “new atheists” proclaim that the Bible can’t serve as a basis for morality because it fails to condemn the primitive and barbaric practices of humanity’s past – especially slavery!

It is true that the Bible does not formally and explicitly condemn slavery as an institution. So how do we account for this? Just what does the Bible say about slavery? Several important points warrant careful consideration.

1. The forms of servitude and slavery practiced in a biblical context bear little resemblance to the tyrannical type of slavery found in the American antebellum South and in other modern Western countries. Certain moderate forms of “servitude” – for example, indentured (voluntary) servitude – were considered morally beneficial before God under certain circumstances in the Old Testament. Examples of this are seen in voluntary indenturement in order to earn a living or to learn a trade. It could also include the indenturement of a criminal in order for the offender to render restitution. But in none of these moderate cases, nor even the more extreme case of foreigners captured by the Israelites in war, would the so-called slave or servant be viewed as a mere piece of property without human rights. Nor would the time of servitude be constituted as a life term of bondage (Deuteronomy 15:12-13). Many slaves in the ancient world, and especially those held by the Hebrews, were able to earn their freedom.

2. The institution of slavery was so deeply rooted in ancient culture that it could not be dismantled overnight. It was practiced by every ancient people of which we have any historical record: Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Greeks, Romans, and all the rest. The records state that during the first century A.D., approximately 85 to 90 percent of Rome’s population consisted of slaves. Slavery was viewed as playing a critical economic role for society.
Nevertheless, the Old Testament Mosaic Law limited and regulated the practice and sought to correct its inhumane abuses (Exodus 20:10; 21:20-27). Unlike with slavery in other cultures, the masters in a biblical context did not have absolute rights over their slaves. Forms of slavery and servitude were permitted in the Old Testament but it was never considered the moral ideal (Deuteronomy 15:18).

3. Unlike some ancient cultures, and certainly unlike the American South in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the slaves in the Old Testament were recognized as full persons who possessed human dignity and basic rights (Deuteronomy 5:14; Job 31:13-15). Abusing one’s slaves and servants was viewed as being both imprudent and immoral (Deuteronomy 23:15-16). Nowhere was the institution of slavery as such condemned; but then, neither did it have anything like the connotation it grew to have during the days of those who traded human life as if it were a mere commodity for sale.

4. The New Testament indicates that in God’s sight there is “neither slave nor free” (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11) and that both are part of Christ’s church and equally accountable to God (Ephesians 6:5-9). In fact, in the apostolic church, slaves were granted all the rights and privileges of free men (see the book of Philemon).

5. The likely reason that the apostolic authors of the New Testament did not categorically condemn slavery was because they placed the preaching of the gospel and the redemption of lost souls ahead of societal reform. Yet that very biblical teaching about humankind and their relationship to God through Christ was the inevitable moral and spiritual force that showed the fundamental injustice of slavery in the Western world.

6. God’s way of eliminating slavery was to allow the biblical teachings (the “Good News”) to spread throughout all cultures. Indeed, it was the Judeo-Christian teaching that human beings have intrinsic value and worth as a result of being made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27) that brought an end to slavery. Many in the abolitionist movements of England and America in the nineteenth century were Protestant evangelical Christians. And they viewed slavery as being fundamentally inconsistent with the historic Christian view of man’s creation and redemption.

So while the Bible doesn’t formally and explicitly condemn slavery, neither does it condone it. It was the unique ethical message contained in Scripture concerning human dignity and redemption that provided the moral and spiritual force that ultimately succeeded in eliminating slavery as an institution. The gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ remains a powerful force against human evil and social injustice. It is also the only antidote for each human being’s slavery to sin and death. Man or woman of any social status - rich or impoverished, in bondage of any kind or free, can be saved from eternal punishment for sin (and ALL have sinned – Romans 3:23-24) by belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

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Bad Cop - Good Cop? Or NO Cop!

You are no doubt familiar with the terms “bad cop – good cop”. If you’ve seen any detective or police shows like Law and Order, you know the “bad cop – good cop” routine. That’s how many people see God.

We’re suspects. God has arrested us – cuffed us, booked us, we’re in deep trouble. We’re dead meat. He’s got us in the interrogation room and here he comes. On the one hand, he’s God the Father, the bad cop. On the other hand, he’s Jesus, the good cop. The two divine detectives take us, the suspect – of course, we know we’re not simply a suspect; we know we’re guilty - there in the interrogation room. We know we’re in the wrong but maybe we can trick God we think. According to what we know from religion and its authorities, God the Father plays the role of the bad cop. He’s an old grizzled veteran of the force. He’s seen it all – he’s a tough guy, mean, ruthless, uncaring, and sometimes in order to get suspects to talk, he’s been known to rough them up a little bit. Then there’s Jesus, well we’ve been told that he’s the good cop – he’s soft and sweet and nice.

But we’re shrewd and street-wise and we know how this whole thing is going to play out: Jesus will intervene just when God the Father is about ready to beat us up and play the heavy, and he’ll say to the Father, “Hold on. You’ve been working too hard. Let’s give this guy a break. Why don’t you cool off, go down the hall and get yourself a cup of coffee, and let me talk to the suspect.”

And then Jesus says to us something like this, “You’ve got to understand my Father – he’s got a lot of things on his mind, the whole universe to worry about, he gets stressed out – in fact, sometimes he goes over the top here in the interrogation room. But you know, that doesn’t have to happen to you. You can talk to me. Why don’t we talk before my Father gets back.”

And that’s kind of the idea some have of God – God the Father, God the Son, and for that matter God the Holy Spirit. God’s not a policeman. He’s not in the business of tracking us down, and we’re not in the business of deceiving him. He can’t be deceived. We fall for the idea that God is both good cop and bad cop because that’s what a lot of religion tells us. But there is no bad divine cop. There is only one God and, for that matter, there is no cop at all in heaven – no cop charged with hauling us in and wringing the truth out of us. God’s not a detective – he’s not a cop. He’s in the salvation business. He’s in the business of reclaiming and transforming people.

“What?” some people are going to say. “You’re saying that God is not a cop, a judge, not someone who demands justice? Are you saying that God is just interested in letting us off – in grace?” You know, people are scandalized by this notion. Of course, God is a judge. Of course, God demands justice. But God is not some hanging judge, some ruthless bad cop. God’s mission is to save us – to pardon us, to rescue us, to love us, to provide his grace to us. God is not who many think he is. God is altogether different from what many have assumed. He is what the Bible says he is – rich in mercy and grace. He is love and he is on our side and not out to get us. He’s not angry with us. He is waiting for us and he will always welcome us. Always.

God’s grace doesn’t make much sense to the human mind – that he might actually take somebody and give them blessings when they don’t actually, by our sense of justice, deserve them. God doesn’t reward sin but he loves sinners – He just plain loves the people who he has created.

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A Sunday School Nursery Rhyme

Mary had a little Lamb
His soul was white as snow.
And everywhere the Lamb would preach
The crowds were sure to go.

They followed him to synagogue
Or gathered on a hill,
They heard him speak the Word of God
And couldn’t get their fill.

But then he broke the Sabbath
Which was against the rule.
The Pharisees all turned on him
And said he was a fool.

Some people kept on loving him
But others were not sure
And even with his miracles
They weren’t sure he was pure.

They finally arrested him
And asked him who he was.
He said he was the Son of God
And that set off a buzz.

They shouted, “Crucify him!”
His blood was sure to flow
They knocked him down and beat him up
This Lamb of God we know.

They finally nailed him to a tree
His suffering was intense
They shouted obscene things at him
The whole thing made no sense.

He died upon that wooden cross
He died for you and me.
The holy Lamb was sacrificed
For all the world to see.

But then a wondrous thing took place
He rose up from the grave.
The Lamb was dead, but now alive
His purpose was to save.

He comes to live within each one
Who chooses him to save.
He’s always there – he never leaves
A gift from God to have.

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Jesus for President!

News flash! Jesus is running for President! With all of the news coverage of political parties and their platforms, the media has neglected Jesus’ campaign. The other candidates have kept Him out of debates – probably because they knew that they could never out-debate Him. His message, which is not new by any means, is good news for the nation. Jesus is inviting you and me to accept Him as the President of our lives. He promises to lead us through our problems.

Here are four central planks in His platform.

1) Jesus has the EXPERIENCE for leadership. He’s been around longer than John McCain and a lot longer than Barack Obama. Jesus has seen empires rise and fall and He knows the deep reasons for their failures. (If you believe that book, the Bible, that was written about Him, He actually created the universe and everything in it.)

2) Jesus has SUFFERED personally the pains and trials of the people of our nation. Jesus went through more physical pain than even John McCain did as a prisoner of war. He went through more mental pain than Barack Obama who was raised as a black man in a mixed racial culture. We want a leader who knows how bad things can get because He knows them on a personal level.

3) Jesus has the MORALITY factor going for Him. He has been recognized throughout the ages as a foremost moral teacher. His Ten Commandments are known all over the world, and He has even simplified them into two commandments of love. Only God really knows the morality of John McCain and Barack Obama.

4) The greatest plank in Jesus’ platform is what He can do miraculously. The other two candidates have nothing like this ability. If we accept Jesus as our President, He promises to be a RESIDENT-PRESIDENT. He has the miraculous spiritual ability to actually take up residence and live right within His followers in a living union. If John McCain and Barack Obama could even wish to do this!

So vote for Jesus! You don’t have to worry about “hanging chad” or voting fraud. The instant you vote for Jesus for President…you’ve got Him!

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What's So Amazing About Grace?

Where do you stand on this business of amazing grace? I don’t mean the hymn. I mean the idea of grace, or the…well…the doctrine of it. Do you believe that the mistakes of the past, the wrongs a person has done, even very grievous wrongs, can be wiped away once and for all by God’s love and mercy? Can someone, can anyone, can you, be freed form a lifetime burden of guilt by the grace of God?

There is a supposedly true story of a presentation by a college philosophy professor. His subject was the religion of Islam. He told the class that the Islamic faith stresses justice: good behavior is to be rewarded, bad behavior is to be punished, both on the human level and on the sacred level. The presenter said that even though he was a Christian minister and had many times taught and preached the doctrine of grace, he thought that the approach of Islam made a whole lot more sense.

It does, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t good behavior be rewarded and bad behavior suffer consequences? There’s something in us that objects to sinful deeds going unpunished, even our own sinful deeds.

A character in a contemporary novel expresses this point of view. Referring to the practice in Catholicism of the faithful declaring sins to a priest in the confessional booth, this character says:
“Confession is a thing I can’t agree with. I say it’s cheap. You kneel down in that box and say what you done. And then, basically, you get off scot-free, only cranking out a few ‘Hail Marys’ or some ‘Our Fathers.’ No restitution demanded, no community service” (Louise Erdrich, The Bingo Palace).

John Newton was the son of an English sea captain. At the age of eleven, Newton went to sea himself and, after some years, captained his own ship, one that carried African slaves. Converted to the Christian faith, Newton became a minister and hymn writer. Remembering his former lifestyle and his part in the evils of slavery, Newton wrote the words that have become beloved by millions.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

I know a person who came across a church hymnal that had taken some liberties with Newton’s words. Apparently, somebody objected to the word “wretch”. I guess it sounded to them so…well...so wretched. Most people who sing this hymn aren’t wretches, he probably reasoned, they’re good people, most of them church-goers. So this person substituted for the words, “saved a wretch like me,” the phrase, “saveth men like me.”

It was a bad decision, not only because it used that non-inclusive word “men,” but because not one of us escapes the state of wretchedness in our lives. We are born messed up with Satan’s nature; we mess up ourselves – sometimes badly. We slip into petty hatreds, we betray confidences, we remain silent in the face of injustice, we break promises, we fail to love our neighbors as ourselves, we fail even to love ourselves properly.

Wretch is the word for it. A wretch like me. A wretch like you.

My closing word on the matter is simply this – when I bring my life to Jesus Christ as my Savior, I really don’t want justice. I don’t want what I deserve. I want mercy, divine mercy. I want God’s amazing grace.

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