[QUOTE="toast_burner"][QUOTE="mindstorm"]I consider myself a servant, no, a slave to the majesty of God. As such, I am inclined to believe that the term is now always to be considered negative. In the Scriptures themselves servant-hood itself is not to be considered a bad thing and the Christian is called to submit to all men. However, mistreating others, slaves included, is to be denounced with that many of the practices found in American slavery. That stated, the vast majority of the abolition movement in the North and within England was spurned by the conviction from Scripture that people ought to be free to exercise their faith by their own choice. With that comes both freedom of state enforced religion and freedom from slavery. As such, I very much do denounce slavery as it was seen in earlier American history.mindstorm
You seemed to skip over the part where the bible says slave owners are allowed to kill their slaves as long as the death isn't instant
"And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. 21Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money."
I agree that the passage does seem extreme in comparison to modern Western views if one views it apart from its context. This instruction not to bring justice for such a beating because the slave is his money relates only to the financial circumstances of the one he serves. This passage is not a description of how a slave as a person is to be understood, nor a is it a prescription for how a slave is to be treated. The expectation for how Israelites were to treat one another (and particularly those who were typically oppressed or overlooked) is indicated in the repeated statements at other places within the text. Take for example Exodus 23:6-9 which states the following, "You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt."When it says "he is his money" it means he paid for him so he is his property.
Why don't you look at the verses directly before it? If a slave is married and is set free his wife and children are not alloed to leave with him.If a man sells his daughter as a slave, unlike male slaves she can never be let go.
The treatment of slaves according to the bible isn't any better than in modern history.
Exodus 21,12 states that if a man kills another man by accident he must leave his land, but if that person he kills happens to be his slave then he doesn't. If slaves are treated fairly then the punishment should be the same regardless of if he's a slave or not, no?
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