Thursday, December 20, 2007

A Question about Slavery and the Ten Commandments

Tim Lennox, anchor of Alabama Public Television's For the Record and fellow Alabama blogger had raised a very interesting topic for discussion over at his site about slavery being condoned in the bible.

Here is the question Tim asks:

The question I've asked is this: how could a message directly from God not identify slavery as wrong...as opposed to only coveting your neighbor's slaves? Was slavery acceptable then but not now? Please leave comments!


Please do leave comments...but on Tim's site and not this one.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quite simple. The bible was written, interpreted, re-written, edited, interpreted, re-writte, and edited again over and over by mortal men. I'm a Christian, and I believe that (in its purest form) it was inspired by God and could have even been a direct word from God, but I also believe that it's possible that it has been corrupted by man over the centuries. The basic, purest message of the Bible has always been preserved for those who don't nit pick over the details. (There's truth to the saying that the "devil is in the details.") There is also a very noticeable emphasis throughout the Bible to "seek out the truth" and to learn as much as possible, as if there is some knowledge there that the message would someday be corrupted. Even Lucifer himself used scripture to his own means, and for those reasons, my belief is that the "false religion" that the Bible warns Christians so much about will stem from Christianity itself and possibly even consider itself to be Christianity.

I'll ask some of my associate pastors and see if they can possibly give a better answer. That's the best that I can come up with.

Anonymous said...

Hey,

Almod, what a wonderful post. So glad that someone in the church, that sounds male, realizes how Satan is using the Church. Our own church and our Saviour's name around the world. Thank God. They don't seem to want to hear it, especially not from a woman.

It is written in the Old Testament, forgive I don't know the address, but somewhere in Deuteronomy, or one of the last four of the first five, that one is to not "sell their brother into slavary“. It was forbidden.

Slaves were in the Bible because slavary was a fact, so it was recorded, but that doesn't mean it was condoned, - unless it would be the bond servant, one who choses to stay, much like spouses. (:-) Or in case of debt, one could bond themselves to someone to pay them the debt, etc. but freedom was at the end of the tunnel. They also had years when all debt was wiped away. Imagine.

Be well.

Sarah,
Clear Day Girl

Don said...

almod, we are on the same page of the hymnal, so to speak, I believe. Mere mortal man has more often messed things up in order to try to explain them than not. Although inspired by their God, those early writers had to try to explain things in a way they could understand and in a way that could be understood by others of those of their time with the limited knowledge that they all had back then. I think the story of the creation in Genesis is a good example of this. When people read it today they may question how certain things were done on certain days, before there was a distinct difference between day and night. The underlying truth, I believe, is that God did things in His own way and in His own time, and it’s not necessary for us to understand any more than that.

Loretta Nall said...

Could y'all also leave these comments over at Tim's blog on the same topic.

BenJammin' said...

Well yall do realize that there are MANY different versions of "the Bible" other than the English KING JAMES version, which for many of us that is the only version we think of whenever someone says "THE BIBLE."

That is totally incorrect though, and I am Pagan. I am a Wiccan, but I believe ALL religions are powerful, and useful. (Please, spare me the you are evil speeches). The Bible is a very good book, and teaches many great lessons. We all need to realize that we have only been reading a version of the Bible that has been handed down to us from England. In the early 17th Century I believe, King James and his host of selected Catholic Bishops and Cardinals were put together to 'form' this Bible that everyone reads today as if it were the one and only Bible...

The original script was in Hebrew, was it not??? Then it was translated, and re-translated again and again and again. Some of the more powerful members of the Catholic Church may be to blame for the 'diluting' of the Bible if you ask me. For if everyone was to be able to talk to God (or the Gods), then why would we need a Priest or a Pope?

(I AM NOT TRYING TO OFFEND ANYONE, OK?)

Anonymous said...

Actually, the original scripts were in various languages. I don't recall all of them off-hand, but they include Latin, Aramaic, and ancient Hebrew.

Benjammin', I'm not at all offended by your comment, just so that you know. You pretty much just said the same thing that I did. And yes, it does cause a HUGE problem when you encounter those who believe that the Bible was written in King James English.

And just FYI to cleardaygirl... I'm a woman, too! :)