[Vision2020] Wrong about the Bible: Slavery

[Ralph Nielsen]

Dear J,

I thought you knew by now that I have never proposed that we should  
live by the Bible. I'm only trying to get people to read it more  
carefully, so they don't get taken in by preachers and politicians  
who want the rest of us to be forced to live by it---like Doug Wilson.

Did Jesus do away with the "old things"? "Do not think that I have  
come to abolish the law or the prophets..." (Matthew 5:17). It was  
the Pharisee Paul who invented the idea that by his death Jesus had  
done away with the Jewish law.

But Jesus never objected to slavery, as I have already shown below.  
Neither did Paul.

Ralph



[Vision2020] Wrong about the Bible: Slavery

J Ford privatejf32 at hotmail.com
Fri Feb 2 12:14:30 PST 2007

Killing people for adultery, cutting off the hand that steals, laying  
[lying] with
someone not your spouse could get you killed...the list is endless.   
Are you
saying these things should be done today as well just because they are
mentioned in the Bible somewhere?  Are you even suggesting that  
slavery be
allowed today?

Thought Jesus' death did away with all the old things?  Maybe I'm wrong.

J  :]


 >From: Ralph Nielsen <nielsen at uidaho.edu>
 >To: Vision2020 at moscow.com
 >Subject: [Vision2020] Wrong about the Bible: Slavery
 >Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 10:26:33 -0800
 >
 >I hope I will be forgiven if I give readers of Vision 2020 a preview
 >of a letter which will soon be printed in the Daily News.
 >
 >I'm sure many readers of the Daily News were shocked to read the
 >front page story "Slavery lives on in the United States" (Jan. 30).
 >
 >Unfortunately, slavery is not condemned in the Bible. In fact, God
 >himself approves of it. Hebrew male slaves are to be set free after 6
 >years, but Hebrew female slaves and all foreign slaves will be slaves
 >forever. Slaves may be bought and sold, just like any other kind of
 >property. When you die, your relatives inherit your slaves. If your
 >slaves marry and have children, their wives and children are also
 >your property. If you beat a slave so severely that he or she dies
 >after a day or two, you shall suffer no penalty "for the slave is the
 >owner's property" (Exodus 21:21). So according to God, property
 >rights are more important than human rights.
 >
 >But don't get the idea that slavery was condemned in the New
 >Testament. Jesus never spoke a word against it but accepted it as
 >perfectly natural (Luke 12:41-48; etc.). So did Paul. In fact, he
 >made a slave's obedience to his owner a religious duty (Ephesians
 >6:5-8; etc.).
 >
 >Beware of dishonest Bible translations, like the King James Version,
 >which give "servant" where the Hebrew or Greek text distinctly says
 >"slave."
 >
 >And if you still don't think that God approves of slavery, just ask
 >Doug Wilson, the pastor of Christ Church in Moscow. He will agree
 >with me that slavery is Biblical.