I use to believe the scripture
Exodus 34:7 - Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth [generation].
Are we still in generation 4 of the sin of slavery?
Until I read Jeremiah 31
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
So Christians who've accepted the new covenant are no longer under this curse. What about non Christians? And I'm talking about real Christians not
CINO’s.
Just a couple of comments regarding the 'sin of slavery'.
First of all, yes - it is a sin. Menstealers are condemned in the Bible. It is an affront to the command to love your neighbor as your self -- and also to the command to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Knowing that man is made in the image of God.
That said, Slavery has been around since the time of Nimrod. It exists today. Captain John Smith of Jamestown fame had been a slave to the Ottoman Turks - until he escaped. There is nothing 'unique' about America regarding the sin of Slavery. Those that are vehement about Slavery as an evil to end all evils should go to the Sudan, and Africa, and fight present day slavers.
And finally, had America not imported these slaves - what would have been the outcome for these slaves? Their forefathers apparently were weak, and allowed themselves to be captured by neighboring tribesmen. Without an outlet, their neighboring tribesmen would have just killed them. OR, they would have sold them to the other outlet: the Islamic world. The Islamic slavers typically castrated the males - so that would not have worked out too well either.
So I agree: Slavery is a heinous sin. But the alternative for those slaves would have been much worse. Sometimes God brings good out of evil.