Refuting Christians with their Own Bible

[SteveII]

You need to read everything together and you'll understand the message of Jesus was decidedly not conducive to slavery. Paul expounded on a lot of things (that was kind of his job).

Galatians 3:27 "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

I would argue that "love your neighbor as yourself" is incompatible with owning a slave so therefore teaches slavery is wrong. Polygamy not clear except that church leaders should be the "husband of one wife". Pirating movies is stealing. Proverbs deals harshly with gossip. Abortion falls under the murder prohibition so it trumps anyone's 'rights'. Smoking is harmful to the body and harming the body is sinful -- gray area. 

As I said above to Veritas-Vincit, we encounter many situations that are not found in the Bible, so basic principles of morality are extracted and used to apply to the new situation. Is that process flawless, no.

Playing fast and loose with the translation of vaguely-related passages might seem ok for subjects that aren't overtly covered by scripture, but slavery is not one of those subjects.


The ad hoc scriptural doctrine you've cobbled together is cute, even pleasant, and it might even pass muster if the rest of scripture had nothing to say about slavery. Unfortunately for you, that isn't the case, and your argument falls apart when we get to passages that say things like:

Your slaves are to come from the nations around you. From them, you may buy slaves.

If you enslave a fellow Hebrew, you are to release him after 6 years. If he had a wife when he became your slave, she is to go free with him. If, however, you gave the slave a wife, she and any children she may have are your property and must be left behind. If your slave does not wish to leave his family, he may stand at the door and say: "I don't want to leave my family. I will not go free." You may then pierce his ear, and he may be kept as your slave for life.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters just as you would obey Christ.

In light of all that, it's practically impossible to bend anything else in the Bible into being an implicit condemnation of slavery. You're simply making an out-of-context interpretation that flatly contradicts lines of actual scripture

You do this a lot. You mix Old and New Testament together. One was written for Jews under a theocracy, the other written to us. There was 1300 years between Moses and Jesus. The question was related to what morality can we glean from the NT. I think we have sufficient reasons to believe slavery is immoral. A verse about christian slaves obeying their masters does not get you to Paul condoning slavery--especially when you read Philemon. Here is your verse in context:

Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ. 6And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7Serve with good will, as to the Lord and not to men, 8because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

9And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.