Is slavery a sin?

[nejisan]

This subject is very intriguing to me. There appears to be nearly an entire pamphlets worth of material here.

I'm gonna sample some of it:

Exodus 21:1-4 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself."

Exodus 21:1-4 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself."

Both testaments seem to cover this subject pretty well. So here are my questions:
Is slavery acceptable to the christian God?
If it isn't then why doesn't He condemn it outright?

I have soooo many more questions, but I'll leave it at that for now. I guess I should apologize now to anyone who believes this horse is dead, I haven't seen this subject discussed to a satisfactory conclusion (personal opinion) yet. Thanks to any and all posters.

[TheBlackPhilosophy]

This subject is very intriguing to me. There appears to be nearly an entire pamphlets worth of material here.

I'm gonna sample some of it:

Exodus 21:1-4 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself."

Exodus 21:1-4 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself."

Both testaments seem to cover this subject pretty well. So here are my questions:
Is slavery acceptable to the christian God?
If it isn't then why doesn't He condemn it outright?

I have soooo many more questions, but I'll leave it at that for now. I guess I should apologize now to anyone who believes this horse is dead, I haven't seen this subject discussed to a satisfactory conclusion (personal opinion) yet. Thanks to any and all posters.

Exodus 21:20-21 covers the status of non-Hebrew slaves. I will briefly summarize...slaves are property according to the bible, and the owner of a slave can do anything they wish to their slave.

In this right, yes. The Christian/Jewish God allows slavery, you cannot deny it (to those that do), it is right there in the bible.

[nejisan]

I'm kinda surprised to be honest. I had expected a different kind of response to this. It seems that noone is going to contend that slavery is bad in the eyes of God. This raises more questions for me though..

I suppose I will give this a few days and proceed from there.

[McCulloch]

You might notice that the answers you get may vary depending on the viewpoint of the person posting. Former Christians, familiar with the Biblical teachings, will answer correctly that while slavery is mentioned in both the Old and the New Testaments, it is never once condemned. Christians, also familiar with Biblical teachings, will answer correctly that the practice of slavery, is contrary to certain principles of human relations taught in the New Testament. So, what is the answer? Yes, slavery is acceptable to the god depicted in the Bible, but only if it is carried out in a spirit of brotherly love. I find this teaching no more contradictory than the teaching about eternal torture for the unbelievers as a just punishment from a loving god.

[nejisan]

You might notice that the answers you get may vary depending on the viewpoint of the person posting. Former Christians, familiar with the Biblical teachings, will answer correctly that while slavery is mentioned in both the Old and the New Testaments, it is never once condemned. Christians, also familiar with Biblical teachings, will answer correctly that the practice of slavery, is contrary to certain principles of human relations taught in the New Testament. So, what is the answer? Yes, slavery is acceptable to the god depicted in the Bible, but only if it is carried out in a spirit of brotherly love. I find this teaching no more contradictory than the teaching about eternal torture for the unbelievers as a just punishment from a loving god.

I unintentionally started a debate within my class with this one. Currently the believers have found a bible that has the word "servant" instead of slave. They are sticking fast to the idea that this word is more acceptable and therefor must be what god intended. lol. I can only shrug at this point. Does anyone have some links that might put this in perspective?

[Autodidact]

And I suppose the Jews were servants in Egypt?

The OT authorizes Hebrews to BUY foreign slaves, to sell them and their descendants, and leave them as property by inheritance. Can you do that with servants?

[nejisan]

And I suppose the Jews were servants in Egypt?

The OT authorizes Hebrews to BUY foreign slaves, to sell them and their descendants, and leave them as property by inheritance. Can you do that with servants?

It seems the NKJV doesn't shy away from the word slave as it pertains to Moses and Egypt. However, I have been researching this a little and I honestly don't see where they have a leg to stand since, as you said, deuteronomy pretty much spells it out. I guess servants makes them feel better. The subject is now closed (probably for good) as one of our numbers was highly offended by my devilspeak. lol. oh well.

I just really wish someone could give me a good explanation for why they can overlook their gods willingness to allow humans to own each other as property. This speaks volumes for his values and virtues to me.

Thanks to you guys for posting I got like half of my favorites in one fell swoop lol.

[TheBlackPhilosophy]

And I suppose the Jews were servants in Egypt?

The OT authorizes Hebrews to BUY foreign slaves, to sell them and their descendants, and leave them as property by inheritance. Can you do that with servants?

It seems the NKJV doesn't shy away from the word slave as it pertains to Moses and Egypt. However, I have been researching this a little and I honestly don't see where they have a leg to stand since, as you said, deuteronomy pretty much spells it out. I guess servants makes them feel better. The subject is now closed (probably for good) as one of our numbers was highly offended by my devilspeak. lol. oh well.

I just really wish someone could give me a good explanation for why they can overlook their gods willingness to allow humans to own each other as property. This speaks volumes for his values and virtues to me.

Thanks to you guys for posting I got like half of my favorites in one fell swoop lol.

Unfortunately believers typically run on confirmation bias & faith. They haven't upgraded to logic 2.0 yet they run on faith 1.0.

I know this from my own personal experiences. When I was a Christian I would not/could not look at the other side of the argument, I literally knew nothing about it. Not only that but I never knew the basics of logic. I knew them through life experience (as all people do) but I never expected logic to be useful when searching for abstract truths (such as the morality of God). I also tended to use excuses when reading the bible, and I never really read it with an open mind. It's like reading a book but missing the parts you don't want to read.

I hope this explains why most Christians won't acknowledge certain parts of the bible.

[JehovahsWitness]

It depends. The Mosaic law allowed and regulated a system of servitude that was both benefitial and merciful. Christians were told to submit to the systems they found themselves under; so owning a slave was not considered a sin in the Christian arrangement. While abuse of that arrangement would be in direct violation to the Christian law of love, the non-believing slave owner would have no regard for God's law, so it would not have been a protection for someone whose owner was not a Christian.

The above Roman system of servitude existed in Jesus day and there is no record he either condemned or approved of it. He did not authorize his followers to fight to overthrow they socially unjust system that existed (see Math 22:21)

[David 2.0]

Does Deuteronomy and the concept of man stealing come into play here?

Plus, it seems like the bible allows for a slave to be free if it runs away?