Does God support slavery?

[nommo]

[44] Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
[45] Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

[Leviticus 25]

 

[tapero]

[44] Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
[45] Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

[Leviticus 25]

God dealt with people in that culture as they were.

In that time slavery was not as we know it to be today, or what I mean, not as has occured in the usa where much evil occured, and in the world where much evil occurs re slavery today. Though there were evil people who were slaveowners in the ot also..clearly as the Hebrews were under such.

in those days these were people who were cared for by their masters, had no other means, or couldn't pay a debt, and so became slaves, or lost wars, and other such reasons.

God teaches masters to be good.

But did not deal with the slave issue. He dealt with much other - personal sin.

Paul or another in the nt, says if you are a slave seek your freedom if you can.

point is God did not tell people to rise up against slavery.

we are taught to be obedient to authorities, even if they are awful, however if that obedience requires us to evil, then God's law comes first and so we wouldn't do the evil, unless afraid to take a stand.

So america took a stand against the evil that was/is occuring in usa, and also occurs in the world today.

As what we see is evil.

hope that helps some.

blessings,
tapero

 

[Arnold_Philips]

I always find it funny that many Christians who have never studied semitic history, linguistics, or anthropology all of a sudden become experts in all three when slavery is brought up.

The Bible and history are clear: people owned slaves and the Hebrew god didn't seem to mind.

 

[tapero]

I always find it funny that many Christians who have never studied semitic history, linguistics, or anthropology all of a sudden become experts in all three when slavery is brought up.

The Bible and history are clear: people owned slaves and the Hebrew god didn't seem to mind.

Hi, mock my post all you like, what's your take on slavery. Also, never claimed to be a theologian here.

but this is clear what went on in bible studies.

so what are you saying

Abraham lied, God never dealt with that either.

much God didn't deal with.

 

[ImmortalTechnique]

there is no god... but if the god character in the bible myths is clearly a big fan of slavery from the old to the new testament

 

[theVirginian]

Then, there was the Year of Jubilee.

Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.

 

[tapero]

there is no god... but if the god character in the bible myths is clearly a big fan of slavery from the old to the new testament

Hi, you didn't finish your sentance.

 

[tapero]

Then, there was the Year of Jubilee.

yep, this was only to the Hebrews of course, because that is who God chose to reveal Himself to in the way He did so..

So yep. there was such.

 

[jgarden]

I always find it funny that many Christians who have never studied semitic history, linguistics, or anthropology all of a sudden become experts in all three when slavery is brought up.

The Fall of Jericho (Joshua 6:16-21)
16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.

.......... 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

Slaves - what slaves!

The Israelities were notorious for not taking prisoners for slaves in battle, but systematically killing everything and everybody - and then dedicating the victory to God.

Such practices were not limited to Jericho , but were conducted repeatedly as the Israelites set about to conquer the "Promised Land."

The Old and New Testaments are a study in contrasts.

Jesus spent much of His life ministering to poor, sick and the lowest social classes.

It was Jesus who gave Christians the Greatest Commandment - all Law based on love of God, followed by love of neighbor.

It was Jesus who told His disciples that it was easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven.

For the most part, early Christians were the poor, sick illiterate and uneducated. It was the poor and slaves who embraced Christianity because it provided hope for an escape from their current lives.

 

[theVirginian]

this was only to the Hebrews of course

Yeah, I meant to include that caveat. That's what I get for researching and posting on my lunch break.

 

[Arnold_Philips]

Then, there was the Year of Jubilee.

And that made the owning of other humans completely acceptable.

 

[uberd00b]

If slavery is "absolutley" wrong, then it wouldn't have taken a moments effort for God to say so.

The fact he doesn't is to me a strong indicator that this part of the religion (at least) is a product of the society that it originated from, and not any "absolute" god.

 

[tapero]

If slavery is "absolutley" wrong, then it wouldn't have taken a moments effort for God to say so.

The fact he doesn't is to me a strong indicator that this part of the religion (at least) is a product of the society that it originated from, and not any "absolute" god.

hi, if you missed my post on the slavery, somewhere below please read it..

there is much that is wrong, and God did not address all that is wrong in the bible.

Same in nt God did not address all that is wrong in the nt either.

The message is, the gist is, we all alike sin, and we need forgiveness, which is free for all, when we come to Christ.

All sins are too numerous to deal with.

God did not deal with every sin committed even by those who believed in him in the ot.

Our hearts are loaded with sins, Christians I mean, as well is non christians hearts. difference being the christian is forgiven, has a new heart, and is renewed by being in the word, and being changed by the Holy Spirit, and our relationship with God. Yet we still sin.

Bible says if all that Jesus taught and said were written the whole world could not contain it..so we have what we have, God dealt with what He saw needed be dealt with.

Sin,

If man did not sin, there would not be cruelty and and such in this world, but we do sin and such abounds.

This is the point of things, God, wants us to believe in Him, and obey his commands..which a bit of is, love the Lord you God with all your heart soul and mind and strengh, and love your neighbor as yourself.

If we do both, we're doing pretty good.

Non Christians can do the second bit, not the first bit.

The first bit, loving God, leads us to sinning less, tho not all do, but this is what it leads to... again our hearts are loaded with sin, and many christians even do not recognize such. they think they don't sin at all sometimes.

anyway, we don't all know the depth of depravity in our hearts, but to the Christian God has given us a new heart, and alll i wrote above.

blessings,
tapero

 

[uberd00b]

Thanks for the response Tapero.

So are you saying that God didn't cover slavery in the bible?

Is the passage above then the work of man and not God?

 

[RavenPoe]

I, as a non christian, can do the first part all I want.

I love Thor, and Krishna is pretty cool too.

As for that second part, yeah we do it just as good, too.

 

[tapero]

Thanks for the response Tapero.

So are you saying that God didn't cover slavery in the bible?

Is the passage above then the work of man and not God?

Hi, sorry, you said passage above, but none shown here, so not sure what passage you are referring to.

ETA: without that passage going blindly here on other you wrote:

What I was saying is God did not exhaustively in any way deal with all mans sins, not even believers sins in the OT. One example is Abraham lieing. God did not deal with it..that's just one example.. Sins are numerous in our hearts alone, God did not deal with all our sins in the bible. Only when He referred to specific sins, again not exhaustive. and how he dealt with sin is gave us Jesus.

 

[uberd00b]

Oops, sorry, I meant in the OP at the start.

 

[tapero]

Oops, sorry, I meant in the OP at the start.

ok, going now..please refresh, as i edited last post, and you may have questions on what I wrote. We were writing at same time,

 

[tapero]

[44] Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
[45] Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

[Leviticus 25]

Ok, this is the OP..please see my reply to op in post 2.

I see what your saying here. is this of God or man.

Well, since God said it, He allowed people to be bought. Again this was a socially acceptable thing at the time.

Please be aware that he does command the Hebrews to be good to any in their household such as slaves.

He commands us all to love one another.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Slavery was not then what it is now.

However, any man can be evil and treat others ruthlessly.

when Abram (Abraham) did not have an heir, he said that his slave, Eliezer of Damascus, would be his heir (Gen. 15:1-3)

 

[uberd00b]

Ok so it seems we have a few options;

a) Slavery was ok then, but God changed his mind.

b) Slavery was different then, so it was ok.

c) Slavery was considered ok in Hebrew culture, and this was built into their religion (by the Hebrews).

Are there any others? (It's nearly 8am here and my brain is starting to flag!)

I think we can rule out option (a) as God doesn't change right?

It seems God missed a perfect opportunity to tell the Hebrews that it was wrong through leviticus, this action would not have taken any effort whatsoever.

Option (c) to me would make the most sense, the Hebrews had no conception that slavery could be wrong and as such there is no mention of it being wrong in their religion.

For option (b), in what way was slavery different back then that made it ok?