Quote:
Originally Posted by Skeptic-i
LT, you made the following claims:
1) While the Bible as a whole recognises the reality of slavery, it never promotes the practices of slavery.
Your first claim was nonsense - I used Leviticus (and Ephesians 6:5-8 , Colossians 3:22, Titus 2:9, 1 Peter 2:18) to show how wrong you are. Those verses condone and encourage the practice of slavery. They DO NOT discourage the practice of slavery.
2) Slavery in the OT was sanctioned due to economic realities rather than racial.
Here, I was in part agreement. However, I didn't agree with the racial claim - again, I used Leviticus to show how the law protected the tribe of Israel - but not the heathen. I also give you additional information on how biblical principles were used to later enslave the Indian populous.
3) It was the application of Biblical principles that ultimately led to the overthrow of slavery not only in ancient Israel but in the United States of America as well.
With the additional information, I showed that it was biblical principles that influenced and encouraged slavery - not the opposite.
Of course, something else came along during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were called the rationalists and the freethinkers. They were amongst the early critics of slavery - heavily criticising the Bible and the Church. This included people like Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Wendell Phillips, James Russell Lowell and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was these people that sought to abolish slavery in the US - and it was through their efforts (along with the abolitionist movements that followed) that laws were introduced to abolish slavery.
It was non-conformity(the heretics and non-believers) to biblical standards that led to the abolishment of slavery.
Your claim that it was the application of biblical principles that ultimately led to the overthrow of slavery is bollocks.
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The relationship between husbands and wives and parents and children are ordained by God from creation. Hence Paul's instruction on marriage represent the perfect will of God. . Slavery, on the other hand, is something created by human beings and does not represent God's will from creation; the Scriptures regulate the institution without commending it (the Roman institution of "bondservant" was entirely different than the institution of slavery in North America 17th to 19th century) and the evil of trafficing in human beings is condemned by the NT. Slaves were encouraged to work heartily, not primarily to please their earthly masters but as if they were working for the Lord.
I would encourage you to get a copy of the ESV Study Bible so that rather than read excerpts taken form specific atheist websites you can read whole chapters with a detailed commentary that will give you context and history.
good luck