There may have been some guidelines for the treatment of "slaves" in the Old Testament, but that has NOTHING to do with the slavery of African Americans in the Civil War era and before
The Old Testament certainly has commands regarding slaves, but I wasn't thinking of the Old Testament. I was thinking of the New Testament and the commands of the New Testament has everything to do with the slavery of blacks in the Antebellum South and North. There are a whole host of verses here, both New and Old Testament that give instructions to those who own slaves and servants and those whom are themselves slaves and servants.
Paul himself returned the slave Onesimus to his master Philemon. Thus admonishing Onesimus for abandoning his master and request for Philemon to receive him as a brother. Paul does not order Philemon to free Onesimus.
What Does the Bible Say About Slavery?
and NOTHING to do with today's slavery of 25 some-odd million boys, girls, women, and even men for the purpose of sex/labor trafficking today.
We are in agreement on this for several reasons. I did not make that comparison so I am unsure who you are quarreling with. What you speak of there is rape, and kidnapping and the mutilation of children all of which is evil.
The slavery that the United States practiced was indeed a Biblical sin. Old Testament and New Testament both say so.
- Exodus 21:16 = “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found sin possession of him, shall be put to death."
- 1 Timothy 1:10 = "the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,"
It was not. Exodus deals with kidnapping, the verse is 1 Timothy is translated as kidnappers as well in the KJV. This is a prime example to not trust most modern translations as the translators are lazy or have other agendas. In the Old Testament the Lord even allowed things like debt slavery where if someone could not pay their bills they became enslaved to the creditor until the payment of their debt was complete or until the Jubilee. God even made provision for slaves that were happy to have the option to make their slavery a lifelong commitment to be under the protection of their master.
To end with, you are right - not ALL slaves were beaten and raped.
However, that's not what makes slavery heinous for ALL. It's the kidnapping, buying, trading, and selling human beings as if they were NOT human beings that the issue.
Answer me this, in the below verse, in Leviticus 25:44-46, does God allow the "...buying, trading and selling of human beings...":
"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they"
Here's a good read about it as well:
God And Slavery In The Old Testament
I'm from the South and will always live here. I've heard a very rare few claim the slavery the United States practice was not sinful.
That is because most Christians refuse to accept the whole Bible as the Truth. Many Christians, like Thomas Jefferson, pick and choose what parts of the Bible they like. That's why we have progressive people claiming to be Christians flying pride flags, because they pick and choose what they want. The Bible is a take it or leave it proposition, there is no lukewarmness.
Either Jesus Christ is a member of the Godhead, the same Godhead that slew thousands upon thousands in the Old Testament, and that allowed slavery in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and who died on the cross and rose again to save all of us from our sins, or He's not. And when people start picking and choosing which parts of the Bible they like, and which parts of the Bible they want to hide away in the closet, that's when the Church loses its salt as it has today. And that is why we are so afflicted in the West with sin now.
It's embarrassing to know that people believe that. And no, my church does not celebrate Juneteenth. It's not a religious holiday.
A hymn the Old Regular and Primitive Baptists sing is called "
I'm not ashamed to own my Lord" and I refused to be ashamed of my Lord because he taught how to be a good slave master or a good slave in Philemon. Slavery was commonplace until the past two hundred years.
The Bible has three categories of moral laws:
Negative Things (
Things we shouldn't do) - Do not kill, rape, steal, commit adultery, etc
Positive Things (
Things we should do) - Treat your neighbor well, help the needy, love your brother, etc
Permitted Things (
Things that God tolerates, that likely will not exist in the New Heaven and New Earth, but that are NOT sin) - In this category we have slavery, and polygamy to name a few off the top of my head. God does not typically like them, but they are not outright sin.
None of these are anything worth killing someone else over.
Here's an interesting read on Polygamy, which is in the same category as slavery:
www.gotquestions.org/polygamy.html
It's worth nothing that the outlawing of slavery across the world is a prime candidate for reasons to be post millennial in eschatology. The gospel permeated Western Civilization to such an extent that 200 years ago there were enough Christians that were born-again to outlaw slavery through
peaceful means all over Western Civilization. The fact that extreme abolitionists in the U.S chose to accomplish emancipation through violent means rather than through peaceful means, as advocated by the moderate abolitionists, is a scar that will linger on this country forever and is why we have such racial problems. It was a case of impatient men and women attempting to force their will upon others. If they had waited a couple decades we would have joined the rest of Western Civilization just like every other Western country in the world.
