DOES THE BIBLE CONDONE SLAVERY?

I hear much about slavery. Most of the time it is a person of color that is doing the talking and they seem to make it a black (Good) and white (Bad) institution.

 

I believe this attitude is detrimental to relations between the two races. When I hear such an attitude I think to myself, “They have never been a slave and I have never been a slave master” and I for one do not appreciate the inference that, because I am white I am any more evil than anyone else. What happened to either my great grandfather or theirs has no more relevant with either of our situations today than what the weather was 100 years ago.

 

This attitude also completely discounts the white people that helped the slaves escape, those masters that were not cruel to their slaves, and all of the Union soldiers that died to liberate the slaves.

 

Then because I question everything I wondered just what the Bible said about slavery. I was surprised that it does not condemn it! Even more so when I realized that if one applies the second Royal Law to slavery it does not pass the test.

 

The second Royal Law is “Do to others as you would have them do to you” If I were a slave owner and I applied the second Royal Law to my position I would have to free my slave.

 

The shortest book in the Bible (Philemon) is an account of Paul sending Onesimus a slave back to his owner. It is an example of our salvation and that I believe is why it is included. It is an allegory where we are the slave and are sent back to our Master (God) by our savior (Jesus) who paid the price for our freedom: just as Onesimus is sent back to his master by Paul, who offers payment for him.

 

I think I understand the dichotomy of why the Bible doesn’t condemn slavery and yet it is wrong.

 

God owns everyone, just as you would own a robot if you designed it and made it from your own materials. So God cannot declare slavery wrong without declaring Himself a sinner. God is love therefore He is the perfect Master and no one would be slighted by being the slave of God. But men are not so full of love and men should not own men.

 

What prompted me to write about slavery is that I was passing the home of John P. Parker the other day and since it was on a weekend it was open. Mr. Parker was a slave that managed to buy his own freedom and I have wondered how that was possible. So I stopped and asked. The lady suggested that I buy Mr. Parkers Autobiography “HIS PROMISED LAND” and I did.

 

Now, I usually only read the Bible, but I really wanted the answer and when I started to read it I couldn’t put it down. It has more action in it than “The Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

I believe it is just waiting for someone in the entertainment business to discover.

 

I also believe that the story of Mr. Parker, if handled right, could do as much to restore relations between people of color and white people as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” did to push us apart. I don’t mean to malign Tom’s Cabin” as it was necessary to unite people against slavery.

 

Mr. Parker was both white and black. His father was white and mother black. Also he was both slave and free man. He hated slavery, but he did not hate white men. Most of those who risked losing everything and serving time in jail to be conductors in the Underground Railroad were white men.

 

There was only one sentence in the whole book that turned me off. I almost put it down when I read it, but I didn’t have my answer yet so I continued to read it and I am glad I did. I can’t say enough about the book, or about Mr. Parker.

 

“O”, if you also wonder how Mr. Parker bought himself, then buy the book! I had to!

 

I GUESS GOD JUST MADE A MISTAKE!

I don’t say this lightly, but it seems that God did make a mistake! I know this because all of my brothers say that He did. Well, they don’t have enough nerve, or perhaps they are just too nice to say it out loud, but they leave no alternative with their prayers and celebrations.

 

It is said that God can do anything, so if He can do anything then He can make a mistake: that is only logical: isn’t it? You might say that though He could make a mistake He wouldn’t, but if He can do anything then He can make a mistake.

 

I think that you can see that I have been just a little confused, but now I have reached an understanding, a point where I can accept what all my brothers are saying. After all how can I disagree with everyone? I must be wrong!

 

The Bible says that God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and it says there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

 

Taking this all into account it seems to me that the King of England was established by God and the Founding Fathers rebelled against what God had established, so this country was formed in rebellion to God and not a gift from Him. It seemed to me as though it was a sin to rebel against the authority that God established. Knowing that God does not stop sin it didn’t seem that it was any more of a gift than when Israel chose a man as king. But then all of my brothers can not possibly be wrong!

 

So all my brothers seen to be saying that because this government exists God established it and it is a gift from Him! That, it seems to me, would mean, that God appointed the wrong king over the colonies and then, when He realized it, He then formed a rebellion against that king (And Himself !) in order to dispose the king. Then He set up a government that depends on man to choose a leader so that God will not make such a mistake again! It seems to me that God would need no help to choose a president, but then surely all my brothers can’t be wrong?

 

I thought God guided the people’s votes to elect the candidate that He wanted, but then I realized that He didn’t use my vote, because I didn’t always vote for the winner. That would mean that most of the time I was not helping God, but hindering Him! I also wondered why He created an extra step in the process of choosing a leader, but all my brothers just can’t be wrong!

 

I am writing this now because in about two weeks, around the 4^th of July, all of our churches will have a service where we will all celebrate the rebellion of our Founding Fathers. Ever since I thought I understood that this Government was not a gift of God I avoided that service, but now that I believe that all my brothers can not possibly be wrong I will attend.

 

I ask only one thing from all my brothers. It seems that I have angered many of you by disagreeing with your views about the Word. So would you please tell God that He was wrong when you see Him? If it makes Him mad, as it makes you mad, and I tell Him, there will be no one left to stand with me. It really doesn’t seem such a big deal, because since He knows everything He already knows that He was wrong, so you don’t really have anything to fear.

 

You see, I am standing with you now, so all I am really asking is that you stand with me.

WHY DO WE BUY INSURANCE?

The Bible tells us to place our trust in God.

(Isa 26:3&4 NIV)  “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal”.

We claim to trust in God, but then we seek and buy insurance from the world! Even churches have all forms of insurance for their employees! It seems phony to me to say trust in God when the one that is saying it has insurance.

 

We insure “our” house, when it really isn’t our house. If God wants to burn His house down what right do we have to insure it? Is it our loss, or God’s plan?

 

Who do we really trust? Consider Job and all of the problems that he had. Would insurance have helped him or hindered him?

 

God brought all of the problems that Job had on him. Now before you start throwing rocks at me I am not saying God did anything wrong. What happened to Job was for his own benefit. Job thought that he was being unfairly punished. He thought that he could stand before God and defend himself and in the end he had to admit that he was not as righteous as he first thought. Was Job’s problems his loss, or God’s plan, and Job’s gain?

 

Job knew that God had brought his troubles on him (Job 2:10), but he still trusted in God; not in man. How different would the Book of Job be if Job had insurance? Would he have said, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Besides we have insurance! What is the problem?”

 

I remember hearing a man say that he had life insurance, because he wanted his wife and family to be taken care of if anything happened to him. I asked him if he trusted God to take care of him and he said he did and then I asked if he left this earth wouldn’t the same God still be here to take care of his wife and family. As usual, when a man is presented with a different view of something, he stopped thinking straight and began to defend his position.

 

If you disregard the idea that buying insurance is an attempt to foil God and only consider it as a benefit to mankind, you should be able to see that it really is only a business. The main goal of insurance companies is to make a profit; not to help those in need. Helping those in need is the idea they use to sell their product though it is not really their main goal.

 

The idea of insurance is to create a pool in which to draw from when a disaster strikes, but in reality the money, that is paid to the companies, is used to pay the employees of the company, and then when a disaster strikes the bottom line becomes the most important consideration for the company. Those who trust in their insurance seldom get what they think they paid for. I suppose that is proper treatment for those who put their trust in insurance, but it is still hard to take.

 

I have heard my brothers in Christ speak rather sharply about other brothers that did not have insurance. They say “Why should I help those who did not buy insurance for such a time?”  Well, all I have to say about that is “Keep your money, God would not want you to spend any of “your” money to help another brother; not with that kind of altitude.” Then I wonder why anyone would give their money to a worldly company every month instead of putting it in a savings account for an emergency! The money spent on insurance is gone with no return unless there is a disaster and the money in a savings account is there generating more. Well it use to generate more, before the government destroyed the economy.  

 

I know you’re wondering if I have insurance. Well, yes I do! One can not drive a car in this country unless they have insurance. The government has decreed that I must buy those services from a business in order to drive. That has given those companies the leverage to charge anything they desire for their product: and they do.

 

That is the same thing government mandated health insurance will do. That is why politicians are all in favor of it!   ‘There is money in them thar hills!’

 

The bottom line is that you can put your trust in God, or put your trust in yourself and your dollar; that other master. The end result is when you leave this earth you leave the other master here, but if your trust is in God your master never leaves you.

 

Put that rock down and think about what I said first. I doubt if you can hit me from there anyway.