Posted on 12/28/2021 6:37:17 AM PST by Kaslin
We acknowledge The Greatest Event In Human History -
The OT repeatedly tells of Jews attempting to reconcile with God through the state of Israel. Over and over the State rises until it starts to exhibit pathologies that bring it down.
Then Jesus arrives to show us how to reconcile with God through a personal relationship with Him.
If Jesus opposed slavery, he could have taught against it when he had the chance. He didn’t. Paul specifically tells slaves to obey their masters.
And he never spoke out specifically about many other things as well. Shall we then infer that because Jesus didn’t speak out against something, he was in favor of it?
I think not.
Thank you.
You could certainly draw the conclusion that he wasn’t opposed to it.
Enslaved to sin and death until Christ set us free!
Do you believe that Paul had authority to teach in the name of Jesus? If you do, then you have to conclude that Jesus is pro slavery, because Paul certainly is.
That’s an argument from silence, a classic fallacy.
In Paul’s letter to Philemon, he sends back the former slave Onesimus who had run away. Paul does NOT tell Philemon to take the slave back as a slave but as a brother in Christ. And then he follows up the strong suggestion with an announcement that he’ll be coming to see Philemon.
Did Paul’s authority come from Jesus?
As far as I can tell, yes.
Jesus’s own brother described himself as a bond-servant to Christ. Do you know ANYONE who would sign up to be a bond-servant to their own brother?
Paul tells slaves to submit to their owners, even those who treat them harshly. If I was ever gonna change the bible, that woulda been one of the verses I dropped. The fact that there are seemingly embarrassing verses [like Jesus’s own family questioning His sanity] is a sign that they did NOT change the bible.
Of the first 120 colleges and universities founded in America before the Revolutionary War,
That statement on its face is bogus. Wiki lists 9 Colonial era colleges
Colonial college (present name, if different)
New College (Harvard University)
College of William & Mary
Collegiate School (Yale University)
College of New Jersey (Princeton University)
King’s College (Columbia University)
College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania)
College of Rhode Island (Brown University)
Queen’s College (Rutgers University)
Dartmouth College
And these others that had colonial-era foundations
King William’s School (absorbed by St. John’s College)
Kent County Free School (absorbed by Washington College)
Bethlehem Female Seminary (Moravian College)
Newark Academy (University of Delaware)
Augusta Academy (Washington and Lee University)
College of Charleston
Pittsburgh Academy (University of Pittsburgh)
Little Girls’ School (Salem College)
Dickinson College
Hampden–Sydney College
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_colleges
Where would he have gotten the idea that there were 120 colleges in America. No school was designated as a University until 1779 and they were three of the above named colleges.
Oh! The argument from silence. How nice!
So Mark didn’t mention the birth of Christ. If the birth of Christ was important, surely Mark would have included it. So it must not be important. We have to doubt Mark’s gospel and, really, Matthew’s as well. Maybe, Matthew made up the whole birth of Jesus story. Now, that I think about it, the whole Bible is very likely untrustworthy.
How many doctrines of denominational churches arise from “Well, the Bible doesn’t say, ‘We Can’t.’” One denomination takes the logic, “Well, if God can work faith in a man or woman, why can’t he work faith in an infant.” Wham! Bam! One friend added, “Then, why can he work faith in a dog or a tree or a stone?” Bring your dog to church. Have the dog baptized. It says so in the Bible.
***Paul does NOT tell Philemon to take the slave back as a slave but as a brother in Christ.***
Suppose you were a Christian slave owner. Wouldn’t this be a command for you to follow. Or was this sentence only for Philemon?
Where is the non-Christian country that freed slaves or elevated women? If Gandhi had protested in Iran, how many minutes do you think he would have lived? Why did he win out in India? Because the British were mostly decent, ethical people! Dare I say that they were Christians.
About 1500 years before the time that Paul “supported slavery”, Moses proclaimed the Law. One commandment was “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Immediately, the status of women changed *considerably*. You husband there, are you going to be an observant Jew? Better shape up.
Another commandment: Remember the Sabbath. Many things changed - for the better. Every seventh day, the SLAVES had a day off; even the ANIMALS had a day off. Slaves were FREED every seven years. A slave owner could not divide a family by selling the wife here and the children there and the husband somewhere else. And the slaves weren’t really slaves, as we think of them in our history, they indentured themselves for pay. If they were dirt poor, they could ask, “You feed me, give me a place to sleep and I’ll work for you.” There were no jails at the time of the exodus etc.; if a court fined a person, that person would work as an indentured servant (slave) until the fine was paid off.
And make a list of the women in the New Testament. There are quite a few. It is thought that Mary Magdalene, a rather rich woman, underwrote a lot of expense for the Lord as he moved from place to place. One reason that women are not mentioned so much in the New Testament was that they could not testify in court. They could testify to hearing the Lord preach and seeing the miracles he did, but only a man’s testimony had standing in a legal sense.
So, some fuss at Paul, et. al., for not pushing for women’s rights or preaching against slavery. Here he is preaching, YOU CAN SAVE YOUR SOUL. If he preached women’s and slave’s rights, no one would hear about the forgiveness of sins.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Much of this information and much more is found in Dennis Prager’s commentaries, The Rational Bible, Exodus and Genesis. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you will benefit from reading his commentaries.
In my previous post I wrote “can” when I meant “can’t”. “Why can’t God work faith in a dog or a tree or a stone.”
You wrote, “The fact that there are seemingly embarrassing verses [like Jesus’s own family questioning His sanity] is a sign that they did NOT change the bible.”
Dennis Prager asserts the Bible is true and inspired. He says, “No Jew would ever write something bad about another Jew. Therefore, the Torah must be true.”
Does Paul get his authority from Jesus? If he does, then it isn’t an argument from silence. Paul tells slaves to obey their masters. That’s as pro slavery as it gets. If Paul and by extension, Jesus, were anti slavery, Paul would not have sent the slave back to Philemon at all.
Thank you for this clearly expressed information. Many words or statements in the Bible can be used out of context in ways that were never intended. I first learned about the major differences between slavery in Biblical times and slavery in more modern times times while listening to The Bible in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz. I highly recommend it….. three more days to finish and a new year begins.
Afte Roe&Wade, it is back to where it was.
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