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Slavery was widespread in the ancient world and was accepted as normal. There were more slaves in ancient Greece than there were freemen. The Egyptians used slaves for the building of the pyramids and other projects and the Romans relied on slavery in the building of their empire. It was the Romans who ruled Judea at the time of Christ and Israel had been held as slaves in Egypt under a harsh regime. While the memory was fresh in their minds they drew up suitable laws for their welfare which far surpassed the treatment of slaves anywhere in the world. Simply put their masters were not allowed to abuse them and after six years they had the option to leave free of all debts.
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Deuteronomy 20:10-18
The Israelites were not enslaving anyone they were buying slaves in the slave markets from around the world. These people were already slaves and in need of a good, secure and safe home and in Israel there were laws for their protection that did not exist anywhere else.
Other nations treated slaves as commodities to be sold on for profit and then discarded when they were too old and frail to work. Had these poor people needed to fend for themselves they would surely have died of cold and starvation but this way they had a home and security for life. After about seven thousand years we have forgotten the social conditions of the day as life was then and it is verses like this that show the goodness and provision of a loving God.
As it was they had security for life and not many people can say that today. Not only that but the provision of a will sets it out legally, the inheritor perhaps not wanting an elderly and frail dependent to look after, but the slaves security is ensured.
The death penalty was for killing your slave and followed the established rule of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Furthermore there is no record of it ever happening because the slave owner valued his own life too much so the life of the slave was safe.
Today beating your servant would be like trashing your car, you wouldn't do it. Like it says in the Bible it is your money and you are the looser.
Slaves or more properly servants in the Bible were free to go after six years; they were cared for and given shelter and food in return for work. They became part of the family and often chose to stay with the family even when they were free to go.
Compare that to Roman and Egyptian slaves and it is a different story altogether. Remember when the Egyptians held the Israelites they would not let them go, giving rise to the well known song, "Let My People Go." Not only that but if someone in the Bible ill-treated a slave it was the master who was punished. Bible slaves were well looked after and protected and their lifestyle can in no way be compared to modern slavery which Christians stopped while it was the non-Christian atheists who argued to keep people in enslavement.
SLAVERY
In his treatise, Wilberforce urged that total emancipation was morally and ethically required, and that slavery was a national crime that must be ended by parliamentary legislation to gradually abolish slavery.[205] Members of Parliament did not quickly agree, and government opposition in March 1823 stymied Wilberforce’s call for abolition.[206] On 15 May 1823, Buxton moved another resolution in Parliament for gradual emancipation.[207] Subsequent debates followed on 16 March and 11 June 1824 in which Wilberforce made his last speeches in the Commons, and which again saw the emancipationists outmanoeuvred by the government.
Wiki.
When William Wilberforce first introduced anti-slave-trade legislation into Parliament, he had high hopes. He quickly learned that opposition would be fierce.
Financial stakeholders howled. Significant elements of British economy relied on slavery. Businesspersons didn't want to sacrifice profit. Their elected representatives didn't want to sacrifice votes. Some claimed slavery benefited slaves since it removed them from barbarous Africa. The Royal Family opposed abolition. Even Admiral Lord Nelson, Britain's great hero, denounced "the damnable doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies."
http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNs...lave_Trade.htm
[quote=Grahame;5008822]In his treatise, Wilberforce urged that total emancipation was morally and ethically required, and that slavery was a national crime that must be ended by parliamentary legislation to gradually abolish slavery.[205] Members of Parliament did not quickly agree, and government opposition in March 1823 stymied Wilberforce’s call for abolition.[206] On 15 May 1823, Buxton moved another resolution in Parliament for gradual emancipation.[207] Subsequent debates followed on 16 March and 11 June 1824 in which Wilberforce made his last speeches in the Commons, and which again saw the emancipationists outmanoeuvred by the government.
Wiki.
When William Wilberforce first introduced anti-slave-trade legislation into Parliament, he had high hopes. He quickly learned that opposition would be fierce.
Financial stakeholders howled. Significant elements of British economy relied on slavery. Businesspersons didn't want to sacrifice profit. Their elected representatives didn't want to sacrifice votes. Some claimed slavery benefited slaves since it removed them from barbarous Africa. The Royal Family opposed abolition. Even Admiral Lord Nelson, Britain's great hero, denounced "the damnable doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies."
http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4218071/k.DC26/William_Wilberforce_and_Abolishing_the_Slave_Trade.htm
Yes a lot of people who were against slavery may well have believed in God and will have called themselves Christians.
Those who voted in favour of slavery were the ship owners, the slave traders and anyone else who stood to make a profit financially. Taking people captive, branding them with hot irons (I have seen them) treating them intolerably and throwing them overboard to their certain death if they saw a government patrol vessels is far from being a Christian act.
Personally I think that if anyone is a "God fearing person" then obviously they are going to believe in God and that will limit the extent of their actions, but If you take that away as atheists do then there is nothing stopping them from committing the most horrible offences against humanity other than their own sense of right and wrong, but some of these people had such hard hearts their first and only thought was one of profit and to them the slaves were nothing more than cattle.
It is not hard to harden your heart and if you talk to a fireman or someone who has to deal with motorway accidents and cut dead bodies from smashed up cars, they will tell you that in order to be able to sleep at night they have to look on those dead people simply as either dead cattle or inanimate objects. They have to for their own sanity but these slave traders chose to treat these people as they did of their own free will and shutting themselves off from God and denying His existence and the possibility of divine retribution was the way to do it and that would make them atheists, obviously their are very nice atheists as well who will do anything to help another human being, but these were atheists of the worst sort.
WILBERFORCE
Lev 25:39-55
We have here the laws concerning servitude, designed to preserve the honour of the Jewish nation as a free people, and rescued by a divine power out of the house of bondage, into the glorious liberty of God's sons, his first-born. Now the law is,
I. That a native Israelite should never be made a bondman for perpetuity. If he was sold for debt, or for a crime, by the house of judgment, he was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh; this was appointed, Exo_21:2. But if he sold himself through extreme poverty, having nothing at all left him to preserve his life, and if it was to one of his own nation that he sold himself, in such a case it is here provided, 1. That he should not serve as a bond-servant (Lev_25:39), nor be sold with the sale of a bondman (Lev_25:42); that is, “it must not be looked upon that his master that bought him had as absolute a property. No, he shall serve thee as a hired servant, whom the master has the use of only, but not a despotic power over.” And the reason is, They are my servants, Lev_25:42. God does not make his servants slaves, and therefore their brethren must not. God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and therefore they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen. The apostle applies this spiritually (1Co_7:23), You are bought with a price, be not the servants of men, that is, “of the lusts of men, no, nor of your own lusts;” for, having become the servants of God, we must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, Rom_6:12, Rom_6:22.
2. That while he did serve he should not be ruled with rigour, as the Israelites were in Egypt, Lev_25:43. Masters are still required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col_4:1. They may be used, but must not be abused. Those masters that are always hectoring and domineering over their servants, taunting them and trampling upon them, that are unreasonable in exacting work and giving rebukes, and that rule them with a high hand, forget that their Master is in heaven; and what will they do when he rises up? as holy Job reasons with himself, Job_31:13, Job_31:14.
3. That at the year of jubilee he should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family, Lev_25:41. This typified our redemption from the service of sin and Satan by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, Joh_7:32. The Jewish writers say that, for ten days before the jubilee-trumpet sounded, the servants that were to be discharged by it did express their great joy by feasting, and wearing garlands on their heads: it is therefore called the joyful sound, Psa_89:15. And we are thus to rejoice in the liberty we have by Christ.
II. This authority which they had over the bondmen whom they purchased from the neighbouring nations was in pursuance of the blessing of Jacob, Gen_27:29, Let people serve thee. 2. It prefigured the bringing in of the Gentiles to the service of Christ and his church. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, Psa_2:8. And it is promised (Isa_61:5), Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your vine-dressers; see Rev_2:26, Rev_2:27. The upright shall have the dominion in the morning, Psa_49:14. 3. It intimates that none shall have the benefit of the gospel jubilee but those only that are Israelites indeed, and the children of Abraham by faith: as for those that continue heathenish, they continue bondmen. See this turned upon the unbelieving Jews themselves, Gal_4:25, where Jerusalem, when she had rejected Christ, is said to be in bondage with her children. Let me only add here that, though they are not forbidden to rule their bondmen with rigour, yet the Jewish doctors say, “It is the property of mercy, and way of wisdom, that a man should be compassionate, and not make his yoke heavy upon any servant that he has.”
III. That if an Israelite sold himself for a servant to a wealthy proselyte that sojourned among them care should be taken that he should have the same advantages as if he had sold himself to an Israelite, and in some respects greater. 1. That he should not serve as a bondman, but as a hired servant, and not to be ruled with rigour (Lev_25:53), in thy sight, which intimated that the Jewish magistrates should particularly have an eye to him, and, if he were abused, should take cognizance of it, and redress his grievances, though the injured servant did not himself complain. Also he was to go free at the year of jubilee, Lev_25:54. Though the sons of strangers might serve them for ever, yet the sons of Israel might not serve strangers for ever; yet the servant here, having made himself a slave by his own act and deed, should not go out in the seventh year of release, but in the jubilee only. 2. That he should have this further advantage that he might be redeemed again before the year of jubilee, Lev_25:48, Lev_25:49. He that had sold himself to an Israelite might, if ever he was able, redeem himself, but his relations had no right to redeem him. “But if a man sold himself to a stranger,” the Jews say, “his relations were urged to redeem him; if they did not, it was fit that he should be redeemed at the public charge,” which we find done, Neh_5:8. The price of his ransom was to be computed according to the prospect of the year of jubilee (Lev_25:50-52), as in the redemption of land, Lev_25:15, Lev_25:16. The learned bishop Patrick quotes one of the Jewish rabbin for an evangelical exposition of that appointment (Lev_25:48), One of his brethren shall redeem him. “This Redeemer,” says the rabbi, “is the Messiah, the Son of David.” They expected this Messiah to be their Redeemer out of their captivity, and to restore them to their own land again; but we welcome him as the Redeemer who shall come to Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for he shall save his people from their sins; and under this notion there were those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. (Matthew Henry)
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Lets begin where we left off with Deuteronomy chapter 20. Here it sets out the rules of battle. First of all they were to talk peace. If the people refused then there was no alternative but to lay siege to the city. The consequence would be that the men would be killed but the women and children were to be taken safely back home. You made the assumption it was so they could be raped but in desert nations it was tradition that the women would be looked after.
They would become slaves but the proper term is a bond servant and they were to be given their freedom after six years when in year seven they were free to go and their debts were wiped out. If there was a man and he was married when he became a bond servant then he was free to leave with his wife and children but if they so wished they could stay with the family who had befriended them.
It is worth reading Deuteronomy chapter 16 where it says “you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.”
And then it goes on
You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful……(boring bit)….
and it goes on to talk about the appointment of judges who will judge the people with righteous judgement. "You shall not pervert justice. (Like you pervert the truth of the Bible) You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you."
This is a well regulated society where everyone is looked after and the people appear to be happy and carefree and rejoice in the Lord.
It sounds better than living in the UK in 2009.
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You quote from the Bible and take it out of context but those laws were for peoples protection, in particular the stranger, the fatherless, the widow and those who found themselves in a strange land. The laws were there to protect people from those over them who were the rulers, the landowners and their masters. These people did not need protection, it was those under them who needed laws to help keep them safe and secure. These were the people who were destitute and were given work to do and were taken into peoples homes where they found safety and security. The laws were to protect the servants from the bad employers. Here it is explained in more detail:
"Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner; remember that you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not mistreat any widow or orphan. If you do, I, the LORD, will answer them when they cry out to me for help, and I will become angry"
(Exodus 22:21)
"Slaves (servants), obey your human masters with fear and trembling; and do it with a sincere heart, as though you were serving Christ. Do this not only when they are watching you, because you want to gain their approval; but with all your heart do what God wants, as slaves (servants) of Christ.
Do your work as slaves (servants) cheerfully, as though you served the Lord, and not merely human beings. Remember that the Lord will reward each of us, whether slave or free, for the good work we do.
Masters, behave in the same way toward your slaves (servants) and stop using threats. Remember that you and your slaves (servants) belong to the same Master in heaven, who judges everyone by the same standard."
(Ephesians chapter 6.)
"Be joyful in the LORD's presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. Do this at the one place of worship. Be sure that you obey these commands; do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt.
After you have threshed all your grain and pressed all your grapes, celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days. Enjoy it with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns."
(Deuteronomy 16:11)
(Luke 12:43)
"Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath."
(Now we have the bad servant who gets drunk and beats everyone up)
"But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;"
(Now the master arrives home unexpectedly and punishes the servant in exactly the same way as the servant was doing to his colleagues)
"The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes."
(Justice was done in a fair and even handed manner.)
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