Does the Bible condone, or even endorse slavery?

You can't look at the news in recent months or even years, without seeing the racial tensions that exist in America. White rights, black rights, racial supremacy. All of these terms get tossed about. When you start talking about race, what often comes up is the historical fact that Christians often owned slaves long ago. Sometimes this was couched this in terms of slavery being talked about and provided for in the Bible. The question we want to address today is, “is slavery actually condoned, or even endorsed or encourages by the Bible?”

Before we get there, there are a couple concepts I want to address. The first is something called the “Is-Ought Fallacy.” This is to mistakenly believe that something ought to be a certain way, because it is that way.

Here's an example. Jesus gives a provision for divorce. In Mark 10:5 he says, "Abraham wrote this commandment for you because of your hard hearts.” He's not saying you should get a divorce, he's saying that this happens, but that doesn't mean it should be that way. We're going to see this same type of thing when we talk about slavery.

The other concept is something that C.S. Lewis coined. Chronological snobbery. That's to mistakenly think that the thought, morality, art, or science of an earlier time period is inherently inferior to that of our current time. It's really easy for us to look back and say, "Gosh, how did they get it so wrong?" I wonder who's going to look back at us and think, "How did they get it so wrong?"

On to slavery. When people think about slavery, that often envision something like this quote from Frederick Douglas, and here's what he says.

"He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slave holding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I've often been awakened at dawn by the most heart-rending shrieks of my own aunt of mine, whom he would tie to a joist and whip upon her naked back until she was literally covered with blood. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I remember it well, and I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything. It was the first of a long series of outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it."

That's Frederick Douglas writing.

He accurately captures very vividly the picture of what we often think about when we think of slavery. We think of antebellum, pre-civil war south. We think of chains and slave ships, and subjugation of a race, and kidnapping, and forced labor, and all of these types of things. When we come to the Bible and we see the word “slavery,” we bring all of this baggage with us, and that's a mistake.

The slavery in the old testaments, specifically with regards to Israel, was servitude. This is the same type of servitude that was in play when Britain brought people over to the colonies. In fact, 2/3 of the white immigrants to the colonies were indentured servants. They had said, "Well if you take me over to the new world, I will work for you for this length of time. You "own me" when it comes to my work product, what I'm going to produce, and who I'm going to work for."

We actually use terms today like, "Buy, sell, acquire," And we don't think of these as slavery endorsing terms. Someone will buy a sports team, well what is that? That's a group of people. Players will be traded, or acquired. This doesn't mean that they're treated poorly. This same type of language is used in the old testament of serv…