Let History Teach Us
Notes
Transcript
Let History Teach Us
Let History Teach Us
No topic frightens, disgusts, and encourages me like this one.
We cannot speak to Philemon and ignore some obvious issues of the day.
Paul is making an appeal for Onesimus, the slave
Paul is not making an appeal for slavery’s abolition
In this, the issue of slavery in scripture is summed up.
It revolves around this verse.
Look at it like this. Maybe this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you could have him back for ever—no longer as a slave, but much more than a slave, as a beloved brother, beloved especially to me, but how much more to you, both as part of your household and in the Lord.
Paul should be sensitive to the issue of slavery...
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”
Slavery existed in most cultures in the ancient world and in all the cultures surrounding the land of Israel during biblical times. A slave could be owned by the state—such as the publicly owned slaves in Athens who served as a police force—or by individuals. The majority of slaves were prisoners of war who were sold into slavery. (Lexham Bible Dictionary)
Others sold themselves or their children into slavery in order to pay their debts. The state was seldom strong enough to effectively supervise large number of slaves. Thus, many were semi-free and worked as serfs on state and temple estates, or as domestic slaves in wealthier households. This required less supervision. Others were true slaves—often branded to be easily identified as such—and could be bought, sold, transferred by inheritance, etc. (Lexham Bible Dictionary)
In the ancient world, slavery was not racial as much as it was social, criminal, and hierarchyichal.
This is the WORLD that exists when the OT is produced.
While the Old Testament does not condemn slavery outright, the Bible could be read as showing a consistent theme of liberation from slavery. For example:
The regulations of bondsmanship in Lev 25:25 and 25:39 provide for release in the Year of Jubilee (Lev 25:40).
The biblical narratives demonstrate redemption of servants, such as Abraham’s servant Eliezer in Gen 24:1–66 and the Israelite girl who served Naaman’s wife in 2 Kgs 5:2–3.
The prophets condemn slaveholders who ignored the Jubilee rule and forced their countrymen to become slaves again (Jer 34:16)
God’s liberation of the Israelites from enslavement in Egypt becomes the example of God’s justice and compassion, as seen in the introduction to the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exod 20:2)
But, when you go through the Torah, you find that there are rules about how you treat your slaves, so it was not eliminated.
In FACT, the rule across scripture was: REMEMBER, YOU WERE ONCE SLAVES…SO CARE FOR THE OPPRESSED!
As we moved into the NT PERIOD...
In the Graeco-Roman world, owning slaves was not limited to the rich; many households included at least one slave. The Greeks and Romans both employed a system in which slaves could own property, earn money, and buy their freedom. This system was probably implemented to keep slaves submissive. Slavery provided labor for large portions of agriculture and handicraft. Those who wanted skilled workers often used slaves rather than free men. Thus, many slaves were more economically secure than many free wage-laborers. (LBD)
Independent contractors were less secure, less reliable, and less desired.
So, it is not surprising that NT Authors USED the IMAGE of SLAVERY in their language.
But it was changed up to say, you should all BE SLAVES/SERVANTS to EACH OTHER.
When God called you, my dear family, he called you to make you free. But you mustn’t use that freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, you must become each other’s servants, through love.
(Word there is the one used for a slave)
This theme is consistent throughout the entire NT.
In the HB, God is routinely referencing the Exodus.
So what about this issue of slavery?
Does God want it to go away?
YES! When Babylon is ultimately destroyed...
They will stand far off, fearful of her tortures. ‘Alas, alas,’ they will say, ‘the great city! Babylon the powerful city! Your judgment has come in a single hour.’ The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because nobody will buy their cargo any more, their cargo of gold and silver, of precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, all the sweet-smelling wood, carved ivory, vessels of expensive wood, brass, iron, marble, cinnamon, oriental spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots and bodies … yes, human lives.
The trading in human beings will come to an end when Babylon is finally removed from the earth.
But do you notice what else stops?
Commerce. There will be no iphones.
The lithium that comes from the mines in Africa, that is not harvested with good working conditions.
We MUST remember that not all people around the world have the same CONSIDERATION or VALUE of other humans.
Some used SLAVERY in a DIFFERENT WAY...
Clement of Rome says that many Christians sold themselves into slavery in order to feed the poor or ransom other slaves (1 Clement 55.2).
Christians would learn to use the system as a sacrifice of themselves for others.
They understood the NT analogy and took it to the extreme.
But by the 17th century...
The Model of SLAVERY had changed considerably.
Technology was improving
PROBLEM*****
Christians knew the model of scripture was to free the SLAVES and SERVE one another.
But they liked the system, after all, it had been in place for what seemed like FOREVER.
So....what do you do when a SLAVE becomes a CHRISTIAN?
Many masters in colonial America believed if a slave was baptized that, “according to the laws of the British nation, and the canons of the church,” he must be freed. Colonial legislatures sought to clear up this matter, and by 1706 at least six had passed acts denying that baptism altered the condition of a slave “as to his bondage or freedom.” (CHM 62)
And it got worse...
For millennia, no one questioned the HUMANITY of a slave. They knew they were human beings.
But now…we are going to start sorting out the human beings.
And CHRISTIANITY is going to play a role in that.
Here is another...
For example, the European colonialism of the 17th–19th centuries claimed to be “opening a path for commerce and Christianity” (David Livingstone, quoted in Pakenham, Scramble for Africa, 1), but rather than treating the peoples they encountered as brothers and sisters in Christ, colonizers enslaved them and treated them as objects of commerce. (LBD)
TRANSITION....
And how is it that Christians participated on both sides of slavery in the US?
HERE ARE SOME CHRISTIAN ARGUMENTS FOR SLAVERY FROM THE 1800’s
CHRISTIANS benefited from SLAVERY, so some, wanted to justify it...
****WE ARE A LONG WAY FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS****
(Another reason why some theologies want to dismiss the Old Testament Laws)
If they don’t apply to us, then we have nothing to worry about.
Biblical Reasons
Abraham, the “father of faith,” and all the patriarchs held slaves without God’s disapproval (Gen. 21:9–10).
Canaan, Ham’s son, was made a slave to his brothers (Gen. 9:24–27).
The Ten Commandments mention slavery twice, showing God’s implicit acceptance of it (Ex. 20:10, 17).
Slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, and yet Jesus never spoke against it.
The apostle Paul specifically commanded slaves to obey their masters (Eph. 6:5–8).
Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master (Philem. 12).
Charitable and Evangelistic Reasons
Slavery removes people from a culture that “worshipped the devil, practiced witchcraft, and sorcery” and other evils.
Slavery brings heathens to a Christian land where they can hear the gospel. Christian masters provide religious instruction for their slaves.
Under slavery, people are treated with kindness, as many northern visitors can attest.
It is in slaveholders’ own interest to treat their slaves well.
Slaves are treated more benevolently than are workers in oppressive northern factories.
Social Reasons
Just as women are called to play a subordinate role (Eph. 5:22; 1 Tim. 2:11–15), so slaves are stationed by God in their place.
Slavery is God’s means of protecting and providing for an inferior race (suffering the “curse of Ham” in Gen. 9:25 or even the punishment of Cain in Gen. 4:12).
Abolition would lead to slave uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. Consider the mob’s “rule of terror” during the French Revolution.
Political Reasons
Christians are to obey civil authorities, and those authorities permit and protect slavery.
The church should concentrate on spiritual matters, not political ones.
Those who support abolition are, in James H. Thornwell’s words, “atheists, socialists, communists [and] red republicans.”
They did not just wake up one day and write these down.
Their CULTURE was CHANGING around THEM.
OUT OF FEAR, they started to JUSTIFY slavery.
And they tried to use scripture to do it.
WHAT YOU BELIEVE MATTERS!
As far as masters caring for their slaves…it was in their best interest…consider these FEW I pulled.
One slave reported that his master served him Communion at church in the morning and whipped him in the afternoon for returning to the plantation a few minutes late. Susan Boggs recalled the day of her baptism: “The man that baptized me had a colored woman tied up in his yard to whip when he got home.… We had to sit and hear him preach, and [the woman’s] mother was in church hearing him preach.” (CHB: Christian History Magazine #62)
“A Baptist clergyman in Laurens District, S.C. whipped his slave to death, whom he suspected of having stolen about sixty dollars.” (CHM 62)
He paid $800 for the slave just the year prior.
While traveling in Delaware, a child of a slave was sold: As the colored woman was ordered to take it away, I heard Fannie Woods cry, “O God, I would rather hear the clods fall on the coffin lid of my child than to hear its cries because it is taken away from me.” She said, “Good bye, Child.” We were ordered to move on, and could hear the crying of the child in the distance as it was borne away by the other woman, and I could hear the deep sobs of a broken hearted mother. We could hear the groans of many as they prayed for God to have mercy upon us and give us grace to endure the hard trials through which we must pass. —Fannie Woods (CHM 62)
“Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land Christianity…”
Reviewing the work of the white churches, Frederick Douglass had this to say:
This mindset would permeate the colonial and western expansion across the lands...
The Old Testament and Apocrypha (Empire)
Pro-imperial readings of the Old Testament can be seen in the building and expansion of US influence, such as the idea of Manifest Destiny, which portrays the Christian European settlement of the United States as God’s divine will. Manifest destiny involved a reimagining of the Pilgrims—and later European settlers—as the new Hebrews, pushing aside the Native American peoples—who took on the role of Canaanites—in order to create a new Israel. The Rev. Josiah Strong’s publication Our Country echoes this sentiment in its assertion that God was charging European Christianity “to dispossess the many weaker races, assimilate others, and mold the remainder”
Joseph Smith picked up on this when he wrote his testament.
When we say, “This is a CHRISTIAN NATION, built upon belief in the CHRISTIAN GOD,”
What some hear is, “God is empowering and authorizing me to SEE what I DESIRE and TAKE IT.”
SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH ALL THIS...
Well, this is why having a rock solid theology is VITAL to identifying error.
Otherwise, you might be participating in the oppression of people unintentionally.
As Jesus said all this, several people believed in him.
So Jesus spoke to the Judaeans who had believed in him.
‘If you remain in my word,’ he said, ‘you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’
‘We are Abraham’s descendants!’ they replied. ‘We’ve never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say that “You’ll become free”?’
‘I’m telling you the solemn truth,’ Jesus replied. ‘Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave doesn’t live in the house for ever; the son lives there for ever. So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.’
‘I know you’re Abraham’s descendants,’ Jesus went on. ‘But you’re trying to kill me, because my word doesn’t find a place among you. I am speaking of what I have seen with the father; and you, too, are doing what you heard from your father.’
‘Abraham is our father!’ they replied.
‘If you really were Abraham’s children,’ replied Jesus, ‘you would do what Abraham did! But now you’re trying to kill me—me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God! That’s not what Abraham did. You’re doing the works of your father.’
‘There wasn’t anything immoral about the way we were born!’ they replied. ‘We’ve got one father, and that’s God!’
‘If God really was your father,’ replied Jesus, ‘you would love me, because I came from God, and here I am. I didn’t come on my own initiative, you see, but he sent me. Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? It can only be because you can’t hear my word. You are from your father—the devil! And you’re eager to get on with what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he’s never remained in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells lies, he speaks what comes naturally to him, because he is a liar—in fact, he’s the father of lies! But because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. Which of you can bring a charge of sin against me? If I speak the truth, why don’t you believe me? The one who is from God speaks God’s words. That’s why you don’t listen, because you’re not from God.’
This was the Judaeans’ response to Jesus.
‘Haven’t we been right all along,’ they said, ‘in saying you’re a Samaritan, and that you’ve got a demon inside you?’
‘I haven’t got a demon!’ replied Jesus. ‘I am honouring my father, and you are dishonouring me. I’m not looking for my own glory; there is one who is looking after that, and he will be the judge.
The context of this boils down to...
Slavery is tied to: The devil, murder, and lies
Freedom is tied to: Jesus, belief, and truth
Judgement remains with God
And you may ask, Why didn’t God just OUTLAW it!
He allowed divorce because of our hardened and wicked hearts, but it WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE!
He restricts slavery in the OT and he gives all kinds of reasons to STOP slavery in the NT
It was NEVER MEANT TO BE, but HUMANS HAVE A CHOICE.
As you know, today is Palm Sunday.
The day Jesus enters Jerusalem for the final time before his crucifixion.
The message today, is appropriate.
Jesus served humanity by allowing the violence of evil to take his life on the cross.
He did that to set us free.