Posted on 11/07/2010 7:37:33 PM PST by iowaguy1972
John MacArthur has a new book coming out entitled, Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ. This blog post includes a promo video. MacArthur claims that the Greek word doulos which is used a 150 time in the NT has been improperly translated as servant and that has negatively impacted how Christ-followers have viewed their identity.
Thoughts?
I believe the HCSB does in fact translate this word as slave.
Will look forward to MacArthur’s book. I have a DVD of him preaching on this subject. Basically he says that we are all either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. Of course since the word slavery can have a negative connotation to many people translators have replaced the word slave with other words like servant for example. I’ve read a number of his books and will look forward to this one.
Much of modern American feel-good Churchianity is predicated on God being the servant of the Christian rather than the Christian being the servant of God.
I’ll have to see how the ESV has it.
Very true!
You are right!!!
Watchman Nee wrote the same thing in a chapter analyzing Romans 6 in “The Normal Christian Life” some 50 years ago. I thought he had a good point — useful, but not all-encompassing (i.e. “slave” does not exhaust the descriptors of the ideal Christian). Because in another the Apostle Peter, by the Holy Spirit, has called believers “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation”. Elsewhere, Paul, by the same Spirit, calls believers “joint-heirs with Christ”.
Nevertheless, the point is mostly valid, especially insofar as we adopt servitude as a Christlike mindset, a la Philippians 2, where we are told to “let this same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus... ...who took on Himself the form of a servant (there’s that “douios” word again)”. Now I would hardly put the term “slave” on Christ, because He took on many characteristics, including servitude, to be sure; but this is the God-man of whom it was said “He speaks as one with authority...”; and so on it goes.
There’s really no pigeonholing Christ, nor His followers, for that matter. So I see the slave aspect as but one facet of who a believer is, and it goes mostly to an ideal of having a truly humble and servile outlook toward God and others.
Deu 15:12 "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
Deu 15:13 And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed;
Deu 15:14 you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the LORD has blessed you with, you shall give to him.
Deu 15:15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today.
Deu 15:16 And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you,
Deu 15:17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.
I think it goes back to this...Christ gives us everything that's important in life. We voluntarily commit our lives to him. We enslave ourselves to him and his ways. His laws.
There are slaves and then there are slaves.
Thank you! I was thinking about those very verses in Deuteronomy myself. It describes what is called a “bond slave”. When we bind ourselves to the Lord then we are truly free.
Looking forward to it. I’ve always respected Pastor John Macarthur.
From Vine’s Expository Dictionary:
http://www.antioch.com.sg/cgi-bin/bible/vines/get_defn.pl?num=2547#A1
and http://www.antioch.com.sg/cgi-bin/bible/vines/get_defn.pl?num=322#1
“doulos from deo, “to bind,” “a slave,” originally the lowest term in the scale of servitude, came also to mean “one who gives himself up to the will of another,” e.g., 1_Cor_7:23; Rom_6:17,20, and became the most common and general word for “servant,” as in Matt_8:9, without any idea of bondage. In calling himself, however, a “bondslave of Jesus Christ,” e.g., Rom_1:1, the Apostle Paul intimates
1. that he had been formerly a “bondslave” of Satan, and
2. that, having been bought by Christ, he was now a willing slave, bound to his new Master.”
Also:
” In the Greek culture doulos usually referred to the involuntary, permanent service of a slave, but the use in the epistles of Paul and Peter elevates the meaning of doulos to the Hebrew sense which describes a servant who willingly commits himself to serve a master he loves and respects (cp Ex 21:5, 6 Dt 15:12-16 discussed below). By Roman times, slavery was so extensive that in the early Christian period one out of every two people was a slave! From at least 3000BC captives in war were the primary source of slaves.
Doulos speaks of submission to one’s master The doulos had no life of his own, no will of his own, no purpose of his own and no plan of his own. All was subject to his master. The bondservant’s every thought, breath, and effort was subject to the will of his master. In sum, the picture of a bondservant is one who is absolutely surrendered and totally devoted to his master. What a picture of Paul and Timothy’s relation to their Lord! What an example for all believers of every age to emulate!”
http://www.preceptaustin.org/philippians_11-8.htm
A Christian is a child of God (Heb.12), not a slave.
They are all wrong.
A servant has a will to serve or not, the slave doesn't.
We are either servants of sin or of Christ, WE make that choice (Rom.6)
The other side of this truth (and perhaps more important truth) is that the Lordship of Jesus Christ has been left out of the gospel message for years. The gospel of the early church was, “Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords!, proven by His resurrection. Men who had wimped out at his capture became bold declarers of Who He was after seeing him in his resurrected body. That has been lost.
As in Acts, when we see His absolute Lordship, we fall on our faces and say, “What shall we do?!?!?” (Acts 2:37; 9:5, etc.).
The de-masculization of the Lord Jesus (his feminization) is actually centuries old, evidenced by men (generally) having little interest in spiritual things.....totally unlike the early church where the comittment and involvement of men was overwhelming. Today his feminization is many times worse than any time in history.
T. Austin-Sparks wrote, “origin determines destiny” and that truth is nowhere more evident than in the results of today’s weak, watered-down and feminized gospel and church - which John MacArthur addresses so well.
I hear but have not read it yet - that “The Church Impotent” by Leon J. Podies quite well addresses the historical origins of the feminization of Jesus Christ.
When one truly sees that He is Lord, one immediately also sees that he is but a slave.
And however fruitful his/her life and ministry is, he/she will always respond according to Luke 17:10: “So you too, WHEN YOU DO ALL THE THINGS COMMANDED YOU, say, ‘We are unworthy SLAVES; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’ “
All the pride and arrogance in so many of today’s Christian leaders is only proof of their poor knowledge of HIm personally. Billy Graham and David Wilkerson are wonderful exceptions to this norm, and are men who truly know God - and that they are but slaves.
The recovery of the truth that we “are but slaves” can really only come with the full revelation of Who He is - THE LORD of all.
I don't think they are wrong. The word DOULOS means chattel slave. It most certainly does not mean a free man who is merely a subservient employee.
Since when did books now get movie trailers?
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