(June 30, 2016 at 11:13 am)SteveII Wrote:(June 30, 2016 at 10:13 am)Mr.wizard Wrote: Steve,
Why can't god give a command to stop enslaving people? You acknowledged he commands slaves to obey their masters, why can't he just give a command to the masters to not own slaves?
It doesn't matter whether or not you treat your slaves nicely or poorly, it doesn't matter whether they are forced into slavery or they do it willingly, the concept of a person being owned as property is wrong.
I am assuming you are talking about the NT. Wouldn't a command not to own slaves be the same as telling slaves they should not be owned? What do you think the result of that would be? Additionally, I think taking the teachings of the NT as a whole you cannot conclude that forced slavery is in keeping with "love your neighbor as yourself, etc.". Paul in in his letter to Philemon is asking him to do the right thing...free his slave for the right reasons. Read it, it's very short. The NT was not espousing a political change (which condemning slavery would be very political) but an internal change of the heart and attitude. Properly applied this would result in abolishing slavery for the right reasons--that is, even the best applied slavery is morally inferior to no slavery.
What!? I'm saying if god is against slavery why would he command the slaves to obey their masters, instead of just commanding people to not own slaves? Is a law telling people not to rape, the same as a law telling people to not get raped?