DEBUNKING THE ALARMING CLAIM THAT GOD IN THE BIBLE CONDONED NICE SLAVERY NOT NASTY SLAVERY!
If another religion came along that opposed slavery, the Christians would
object to the religion. They are so arrogant that they consider having
Christianity to be worth any slavery or "mistakes" no matter what the human
cost.
The Old and New Testaments claim to be the word of God and they condone and even encourage slavery though it seemed
obvious that it was wrong. The Bible laws on slavery are all stated to have been
made by God and spoken by him. The New Testament makes it clear, and so did
Jesus, that the Old Testament is infallible scripture, authored by the God who
cannot err. To say the Old Testament makes no moral mistakes is to say slavery
is not intrinsically wrong and that it is acceptable. We do not know what
Jesus Christ did before his ministry and what would we think if it came out that
he own slaves or was employed to control them?
Modern Christians want to forget that the book they say has the authority to
tell them what to do blesses slavery. It is a shock to many that the New
Testament sanctions it.
Jesus told a parable saying we naturally expect slaves to come in
from the fields and serve us at the table. Is he only saying slavery
is happening? Or is he normalising slavery-promoting attitudes? It
is the latter. He did not need to use slaves as examples. Evil
always thrives when somebody normalises it or at least stops anybody
wanting to be the odd-one-out by criticising it.
It is interesting how some Christians claim that we must accept no doctrine
unless it is in the Bible and these are the ones who say, "Slavery is wrong and
God didn't want to just order people to stop the practice immediately. He
regulated and tolerated it hoping to wean the people off it gently and with
mercy and understanding." This teaching is not in the Bible. Leviticus 25:44-46
tells Israel that it may buy male or female slaves. It even says they may be
bequeathed to your sons. This is permission and not tolerance. Tolerance would
be, "I am the Lord and I do not like slavery. But I will let you buy slaves."
God had hundreds of years to wean them off it if the Old Testament is to be
believed. And he didn't. Nothing in the Old Testament explicitly condemns
slavery. No matter what massive social or cultural change Israel suffered, its
acceptance of slavery was never challenged by God. When they didn't need slaves
or couldn't use them, God still said nothing. The argument that God was only
accommodating himself to the flawed social structures of those times in order to
gently overcome them and the people's devotion to them is only a
rationalisation. LGBT Christians argue that God may have banned homosexuality in
the past for the same reason!
We must remember that Exodus gives the words God used when he legislated that a
slave may be beaten badly but care must be taken not to do them permanent
damage. It was okay to beat them up savagely as long as they didn't die during
the beating but after. Read Exodus 21:7-11. When God went out of his way to make
such an evil law in relation to slaves, he clearly accepts the notion of slaves
being inferior beings. Nobody can be sane and argue that Israel needed the right
to abuse slaves which was why God tolerated the abuse. That excuse cannot hold
water here and it in fact insults those who suffered because of God's law. God
gives no hint that he let the beatings take place for cultural reasons or
because the people were intransigent. In fact he gives no hint that the laws are
temporary or provisional. The :Law of Moses claims to be an everlasting law.
Indeed Exodus attacks the culture of occultism and idolatry. Exodus presents
Israel as struggling to accept the law so it is nonsense to imagine that poor
God had no choice but to make some bad laws to avoid having to make worse ones.
Instead of trying to pretend that God had to put up with slavery in the Bible,
it is better to say the Bible is man-made and the doctrine that God put up with
slavery is merely a mistake or an example of human craftiness. You cannot accuse
people of being so stubborn that even God has to make evil laws to please them.
You must never accuse others on faith grounds.
The Hebrews had foreign and even Hebrew slaves and God approved and controlled
slavery. God's book, the Bible - see Deuteronomy 23:15-16, says that if the
Hebrew finds a runaway slave then he must not give her/him back to her/his
master. It cannot mean Hebrew and foreign slaves for that would mean all slaves
would be running way. It cannot mean Hebrew slaves if most slaves were Hebrew.
That would mean too many would be getting their freedom. It means foreign slaves
must not be returned. The book Christianity is Not Great notes that the context
is about runaway slaves from roundabout nations. They are given refuge simply
because they were not enslaved under Hebrew law and because sending them back to
the pagans would be doing the pagans some good. They were not given refuge out
of kindness.
The Bible God made laws permitting buying and selling of slaves and even let
masters beat them to a pulp as long as he took care to ensure that they would
live for a day or two after. Do you really think he had to make this law even if
Israel was stubborn? Demanding the right to have slaves does not mean you will
demand the right to batter them. Also, God surely could have got Israel to buy
only foreign slaves and not be buying and selling its own people as slaves. If
poor God was forced by bad Israel to tolerate slavery then he still had no
excuse for going that far. The conclusion is obvious, God endorsed slavery and
was not merely putting up with it.
Ebed, the Hebrew word for slave, is used to describe being forced to submit to
an alien power (Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties, page 87) so evidently to be
a slave is not a nice thing. The nobles might have been said to be slaves of the
king in a honorific sense (ibid, page 87) but still to be a slave is not to have
real honour. If a master honours his slave he is mocking that slave for slavery
is wrong and unloving. It is the same principle as a man praising you for
letting him beat you up.
The Bible God regulates and condones slavery in its worst and
most evil form. That people would lie about this says a lot
about their dark hearts. No mainstream Church would have the power
and money and influence it has today without its members selling
slaves and exploiting them.
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