And I see that you can see some of the verses on slavery, which you quote over and over, even if at times you may need more context.
Let's look at a bit of context:
In the last quote you just gave the "Master" is Christ Jesus -- the Judge of all people on the Day of Judgment to come after this temporary life.
Yes. It's a metaphor for how Christians should remain ready for God's arrival, and how their leaders should not abuse their responsibility, and yes, Jesus wasn't talking about actual slaves in this. But he still chose slaves for his metaphor without a word of judgement.
Think about it - would we do that today? "Remember, junior chefs, make sure you don't underdo the steak - it should be like that time we burned those children, all crispy and full of flavour". Or, "Remember, gardeners-in-training, tend your flowerbeds well - everything should be neatly in order, like rows of skulls in a cannibal's museum."
Just think about it - God Himself came down to Earth, to tell people how to live, and his advice was for Christians to model themselves on the institution of slavery. At what point did Jesus Christ say "slavery is wrong"? Quite simple, he didn't. He certainly said plenty of things about being good to others, but since he - in his other incarnation as God the Father of the Old Testament - had already established slavery as an institution, he obviously didn't mean the Golden Rule to apply to slaves.
The other 2 quotes you quoted we know very well -- they are the typical instruction from both Paul and Peter that slaves (and women too) should remain in their traditional roles for the moment in order to show Christ to the lost people around them.
They are to remain slaves and show Christ and the gospel message to their slave owners in order that those slave owners (and prejudiced men) could be saved. Converted.
Yes. If Christ, Peter or Paul had seen slavery as wrong, they would have had a completely different message. Instead, they acted like the white liberals that Martin Luther King so despaired of, valuing social order above liberty and freedom. For the sake of their religion, they gave up slave's freedom. They sold out the slaves. What an..."un-Christian"...thing to do!
But what about all the other verses that don't fit your summary statements, such as the verses listed in post #474 you quoted?
I'm seeing all the verses, of every kind.
Yes. So are we. And what we're seeing is that you can't whitewash away the clear permissibility and approval of slavery. Vague and general rules about being nice to people are trumped by clear and specific rules about how to take, keep and punish slaves, include specific commands to do so.
Giving up a comfortable theory is hard to do. Don't tell others to see stuff and then refuse to see things yourself.
As I said earlier, I (and I dare say cvanwey too) do not have a bias here. If we had to admit that we were wrong, our reaction would be, "Huh, how about that. Well, good to learn something new".
You, on the other hand, are a Christian. It's unfair, but we're wagering nothing in this fight, and you're wagering the character of God. It's no wonder you can't bring yourself to admit that when God says "Take slaves like this" or "punish slaves like that" or "Go and enslave those people over there" that he was approving of slavery.
I mean, how clear can God be?
He set up slavery as an institution.
He gave commandments about how to deal with slaves.
He gave commandments to
take slaves.
He came down to Earth, and refused to condemn slavery. Indeed, He and His supporters told slaves that their position was to honour and obey their masters.
Now, it's possible that this was all part of God's master plan, but if so, it obviously failed very badly. Slavery lingered for centuries, and then came back as a second slave empire, again for centuries. There's nothing to say it couldn't happen again, and again, because any Christian who looks in the Bible can find justification for enslaving others. All of this could have been stopped by God, and would have, if He were actually anti-slavery. But He obviously isn't. I mean, you can refuse to see the truth that's staring you in the face if you wish; but to anyone with an objective point of view, it's obvious. Let the Bible speak for itself, and it will tell you that God is pro-slavery.
The antebellum Christians had it right. They had God on their side. The abolitionists had
right on their side, but not the Bible.
Take a look at this. The logic is unanswerable:
Baptists and the American Civil War: January 27, 1861 | Baptists and the American Civil War: In Their Own Words
The blessed Saviour descended from a slave-holder, Abraham. This “father of the faithful,” held as many bondmen, “born in his house and bought with his money,” as perhaps any slaveholder in the South. When he was chosen out, as the one “in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed,” not a word of Divine disapprobation, on account of his being a slave-holder was uttered.
His descendants, the Jews, up to the time of their national dispersion, were as emphatically a slave-holding people as we Georgians are.
The only qualification which is due to this remark, is founded on the captivity and wars which robbed them of much of their property. Such was the case when the Saviour came among them.
He reproved them for their sins. Calling them the works of the flesh and of the devil. He denounced idolatry, covetousness, adultery, fornification, hypocrisy, and many other sins of less moral turpitude, but never once reproved them for holding slaves; though He alluded to it frequently, yet never with an expression of the slightest disapprobation.
