Jesus and Slavery

Jesus and Slavery
There was one other issue I wanted to raise with (D.A.) Carson . I glanced at my watch. “Do you have a few more minutes?” I asked. When he indicated he did, I began to address one more controversial topic.

To be God, Jesus must be ethically perfect. But some critics of Christianity have charged that he fell short because, they say, he tacitly approved of the morally abhorrent practice of slavery. As Morton Smith wrote,

There were innumerable slaves of the emperor and of the Roman state; the Jerusalem Temple owned slaves; the High Priest owned slaves (one of them lost an ear in Jesus’ arrest); all of the rich and almost all of the middle class owned slaves. So far as we are told, Jesus never attacked this practice. . . . There seem to have been slave revolts in Palestine and Jordan in Jesus’ youth; a miracle-working leader of such a revolt would have attracted a large following. If Jesus had denounced slavery or promised liberation, we should almost certainly have heard of his doing it. We hear nothing, so the most likely supposition is that he said nothing. [Morton Smith, "Biblical Arguments for Slavery," Free Inquiry (Spring 1987), 30.]

How can Jesus’ failure to push for the abolition of slavery be squared with God’s love for all people? “Why didn’t Jesus stand up and shout, ‘Slavery is wrong’?” I asked. “Was he morally deficient for not working to dismantle an institution that demeaned people who were made in the image of God?”

Carson straightened up in his chair. “I really think that people who raise that objection are missing the point,” he said. “If you’ll permit me, I’ll set the stage by talking about slavery, ancient and modern, because in our culture the issue is understandably charged with overtones that it didn’t have in the ancient world.”

I gestured for him to continue. “Please go ahead,” I said.

Overthrowing Oppression
“In his book Race and Culture, African-American scholar Thomas Sowell points out that every major world culture until the modern period, without exception, has had slavery,” Carson explained. “While it could be tied to military conquests, usually slavery served an economic function. They didn’t have bankruptcy laws, so if you got yourself into terrible hock, you sold yourself and/or your family into slavery. As it was discharging a debt, slavery was also providing work. It wasn’t necessarily all bad; at least it was an option for survival.

“Please understand me: I’m not trying to romanticize slavery in any way. However, in Roman times there were menial laborers who were slaves, and there were also others who were the equivalent of distinguished Ph.D.’s, who were teaching families. And there was no association of a particular race with slavery.

“In American slavery, though, all blacks and only blacks were slaves. That was one of the peculiar horrors of it, and it generated an unfair sense of black inferiority that many of us continue to fight to this day.

“Now let’s look at the Bible. In Jewish society, under the Law everyone was to be freed every Jubilee. In other words, there was a slavery liberation every seventh year. Whether or not things actually worked out that way, this was nevertheless what God said, and this was the framework in which Jesus was brought up.

“But you have to keep your eye on Jesus’ mission. Essentially, he did not come to overturn the Roman economic system, which included slavery. He came to free men and women from their sins. And here’s my point: what his message does is transform people so they begin to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves. Naturally, that has an impact on the idea of slavery.

“Look at what the apostle Paul says in his letter to Philemon concerning a runaway slave named Onesimus. Paul doesn’t say to overthrow slavery, because all that would do would be to get him executed. Instead he tells Philemon he’d better treat Onesimus as a brother in Christ, just as he would treat Paul himself. And then, to make matters perfectly clear, Paul emphasizes, ‘Remember, you owe your whole life to me because of the gospel.’

“The overthrowing of slavery, then, is through the transformation of men and women by the gospel rather than through merely changing an economic system. We’ve all seen what can happen when you merely overthrow an economic system and impose a new order. The whole communist dream was to have a ‘revolutionary man’ followed by the ‘new man.’ Trouble is, they never found the ‘new man.’ They got rid of the oppressors of the peasants, but that didn’t mean the peasants were suddenly free—they were just under a new regime of darkness. In the final analysis, if you want lasting change, you’ve got to transform the hearts of human beings. And that was Jesus’ mission.

“It’s also worth asking the question that Sowell poses: how did slavery stop? He points out that the driving impetus for the abolition of slavery was the evangelical awakening in England. Christians rammed abolition through Parliament in the beginning of the nineteenth century and then eventually used British gunboats to stop the slave trade across the Atlantic.

“While there were about eleven million Africans who were shipped to America—and many didn’t make it—there were about thirteen million Africans shipped to become slaves in the Arab world. Again it was the British, prompted by people whose hearts had been changed by Christ, who sent their gunboats to the Persian Gulf to oppose this.”

Carson’s response made sense not only historically but also in my own experience. For example, years ago I knew a businessman who was a rabid racist with a superior and condescending attitude toward anyone of another color. He hardly made any effort to conceal his contempt for African-Americans, letting his bigoted bile frequently spill out in crude jokes and caustic remarks. No amount of arguments could dissuade him from his disgusting opinions.

Then he became a follower of Jesus. As I watched in amazement, his attitudes, his perspective, and his values changed over time as his heart was renewed by God. He came to realize that he could no longer harbor ill-will toward any person, since the Bible teaches that all people are made in the image of God. Today I can honestly say that he’s genuinely caring and accepting toward others, including those who are different from him.

Legislation didn’t change him. Reasoning didn’t change him. Emotional appeals didn’t change him. He’ll tell you that God changed him from the inside out—decisively, completely, permanently. That’s one of many examples I’ve seen of the power of the gospel that Carson was talking about—the power to transform vengeful haters into humanitarians, hardhearted hoarders into softhearted givers, power-mongers into selfless servants, and people who exploit others—through slavery or some other form of oppression—into people who embrace all.

This squares with what the apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

The above is an excerpt from a book by Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 166–69:

Predestination and the Will of Man

The Protestant Reformed Churches have not changed their position concerning the sovereignty of God and the decree of predestination as they relate to the will of man.  But the doctrine has fallen on hard times in our day.

A number of years ago, when Prof. Homer Hoeksema was still alive, he and I were sitting on a Friday afternoon in the faculty room of the seminary, as we frequently did, going over the affairs of the week, discussing the problems in the seminary and in general relaxing after a busy week’s work.  We were talking about how the church in our has come to a point where even though it claims to be Reformed and Calvinistic, it in effect denies these fundamental doctrines of Scripture and the Reformed faith.  Prof. Hoeksema made the remark: You know, if you stop to think about it, it is only infrequently in the history of the church that the church has consistently maintained the doctrines of sovereign grace, those times never lasted very long.  Soon the church reverted to the age-old errors of Pelagianism and Arminianism.  That struck me at the time.  And while teaching Church History in our Protestant Reformed Seminary, the point was more and more forcibly driven home. 

The question arises:  Why is this so? Why are the great and grand truths of the sovereignty of God, of eternal predestination, and of particular and sovereign grace so infrequently maintained throughout the history of the church, and when they are, why are the maintained only for very short periods of time? I can come to only one conclusion:  Their unpopularity is due to the fact that these doctrines are thoroughly and completely God-centered and God-glorifying.  Men, even in the church, will not have it that way.  They want glory for themselves.  They do not want God alone to receive glory.  Man insists on his own place, his own prerogatives, his own importance.  He wants to retain some of the tattered remnants of a pride that burns white-hot in his heart and is shattered only by the blow of the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God, so he attacks those doctrines, attacks them vigorously in one way or another.  He attacks them by denying them.  He attacks them by trying to kill them with silence.  It would be interesting to ask a thousand people in any Reformed church, “When is the last time you have heard a sermon that was devoted exclusively to the doctrine of sovereign election or, much less, to the doctrine of reprobation?  How many have you heard over the past year or two?”  Silence is an effective weapon; it seems to destroy these doctrines.

That is the situation in the church today. It is sad.  

The Reformed may have won a mighty victory at the Synod of Dordt, destroying Arminianism and defeating its nefarious purposes.  But the simple fact is, and no one can deny it- I say it with shame and sorrow- Arminius won!

It is therefore, important that we address this subject: “Predestination and the Will of Man.”

Taken from a pamphlet entitled The Sovereign God and Man’s Will by Robert Decker, Carl Haak and Herman Hanko

Tips for Better Church Meetings

1. Be prepared: Get well organized beforehand by having all the relevant documentation, and by getting to the meeting in time to get everything set up for a prompt start.

2. Start with prayer and a short Bible reading: Do not skip this nor skimp on it. But don’t prolong it either with a long chapter, prayer, or mini-sermon. Set the tone of the meeting with a relevant reading and a prayer that asks for wisdom and guidance.

3. Agree the agenda: Agree the agenda, the timetable, and the priorities. It’s best not to start with complicated or controversial matters, but its best not to leave them until the end either. Ask if anyone has any major items for “Any other competent business,” or “Customary Questions,” so that sufficient time can be left for such items.

4. Stick to the agenda and timetable: Ask someone to remind you of the time targets you have set. This gives you extra motivation to move the meeting along and also allows you to be more objective when interrupting or shortening discussion. Group short and less important items together and make sure they don’t push out the far more important matters. After 90 minutes, meetings usually start going downhill. (Other research indicates 60 minutes - ed. ) Google staff meetings have a large clock on the table!

5. Know the rules of order and keep to them: Every meeting should have an agreed procedure for proposing an item for discussion, discussion, counter-proposals and voting.  Make sure you know the rules, or make them and agree them if there are none – and stick to them consistently.

6. Read the meeting: Try to look out for negative and positive signs in the course of a meeting. Try to interpret the tone of voices, the facial expressions, and the body language. Anticipate potential flash points and personality clashes, and take the heat out of situations before it gets too hot.

7. Listen patiently: Try to listen carefully to everyone that speaks. Try not to lose concentration and miss something important. Don’t switch off when certain people speak. Try not to read documents relating to other business, when someone else is speaking. Rather, ask for time to read before that item is introduced.

8. Involve everyone: Obviously some are going to take more prominent roles than others. However, we should make every effort to involve everyone in the meeting. Sometimes you might sense that someone has something to say, but is hesitant. Encourage them to speak. Ask people for their opinions.  Be aware of the different characters you will run across and devise strategies to make their contributions profitable.

9. Don’t abuse your position: The pastor will usually enjoy a degree of status in the group. He will oftentimes be more educated and more fluent in speech. He will gradually gain a lot of experience in church meetings. Elders will often want to prove their loyalty to the pastor. All this combines to create the potential for a huge abuse of power. If you do abuse your advantages and privileges, some people will detect it right away and you will lose respect.

10. Defuse tension: There will be tense meetings and even hot meetings. Prayer can often be useful to relieve tension and cool temperatures. Humor can also be used in this way, if used sparingly and carefully. Or you can take a short break, or suggest a change of subject and come back to it again at another time, when passions are cooled.

11. Press towards decisions: While allowing sufficient time for discussion, you have to avoid just wandering around in circles. Try to detect when the discussion has run its course and press towards clear decisions.

12. End meetings at the agreed time: Unless the circumstances are exceptional, end the meeting on time. That will build discipline for future meetings, allow office bearers to plan their time, and also prevent late-night decisions that may be regretted.

13.  Submit to decisions: In exceptional matters it may be necessary to register a conscientious dissent to a majority decision. However, that should be really a last resort. If at all possible, submit to the decisions you disagree with by casting yourself upon the Lord, acknowledging your own ignorance and lack of wisdom, and your own pride and need of forgiveness. Try to avoid a confrontational “me versus them” attitude.

14. Assign work: Before the meeting ends, make sure that ongoing work is assigned and that everyone understands who is doing what, and when the deadlines are. Pray for the Lord’s blessing on what has been decided and for help with assigned work. As someone once said: “Nothing matters until it gets a budget, a deadline, and an owner.”

15. Ensure minutes are quickly written up and agreed: It is best for someone other than the chairman to be clerking the meetings. Try to get someone who is competent, efficient, and reliable. And try to ensure that minutes are written up promptly and emailed out to everyone for adjustment as soon after the meeting as possible. This mailing could also include the specific tasks assigned to each person.

16. Follow-up with relationship issues: If you have been involved in any significant disagreements with anyone at the meeting, make sure you contact them later or the next day and make sure all is well between you, and that there are no hard feelings. Try to make sure others do the same with each other.

17. Have non-business meetings
Make sure that you sometimes meet without any business to discuss. Have prayer meetings, seminars, training, brain-storming sessions. Such meetings encourage social interaction, keep everyone in the loop, and make people feel valued.

Excerpts from 17 Tips for Better Church Meetings by Pastor David Murray - January 3, 2013

Depression, Dispair and Doubt-Killing Promises

Even though Charles Spurgeon lived about two hundred years after John Bunyan, I think Spurgeon regarded Bunyan as a friend. He said the book he valued most, next to the Bible, was The Pilgrim’s Progress. “I believe I have read it through at least a hundred times. It is a volume of which I never seem to tire.”

Perhaps one of the reasons Spurgeon resonated with this classic was its realistic portrayal of depression, doubt, and despair. Spurgeon and Bunyan, like their Savior, were men of sorrow, acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3). When Bunyan went to prison for preaching the gospel, his heart was almost broken “to pieces” for his young blind daughter, “who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides.” Spurgeon’s depression could be so debilitating that he could “weep by the hour like a child”—and not know why he was weeping. To fight this “causeless depression,” he said, was like fighting mist. It was a “shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness.” It felt, at times, like prison: “The iron bolt which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back.” Spurgeon felt what C. S. Lewis describes after losing his wife, in one of the most honest and painful passages I have ever read. Lewis said that when all is well and life is happy, God seems present and welcoming with open arms.

But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited?… Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in our time of trouble?

Some will find that sense of bewildering despair hard to comprehend, perhaps even a bit exaggerated. But for those who have been there, it is all too real.

For those who have felt trapped in Doubting-Castle, guarded by Giant Despair, take heart that the best of Christians have stayed there too. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13). And for those who have never darkened its harrowing doors, “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (v. 12).

What is most instructive in Bunyan’s allegory is how Christian and Hopeful finally find the way of escape. Christian says:

“What a fool I have been, to lie like this in a stinking dungeon, when I could have just as well walked free. In my chest pocket I have a key called Promise that will, I am thoroughly persuaded, open any lock in Doubting- Castle.” “Then,” said Hopeful, “that is good news. My good brother, do immediately take it out of your chest pocket and try it.” Then Christian took the key from his chest and began to try the lock of the dungeon door; and as he turned the key, the bolt unlocked and the door flew open with ease, so that Christian and hopeful immediately came out.

What was the key? It was called “Promise.” God has given us “his precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4).

How do we know these promises will come true? Because “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ Jesus]” (2 Cor. 1:20).

How do we take hold of these promises? By faith, in hope. God tells us, “call upon me in the day of trouble,” with the result that “I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Ps. 50:15). As we believe His promises by faith, He gets all of the credit and the glory (Rom. 4:20).

And did you notice where Bunyan says that the key was all along? In Christian’s “chest pocket.” I think Bunyan here is pointing us to Psalm 119:11: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” We all know that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12), But this “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17), cannot do its piercing, sanctifying, healing work if it remains simply on display in our homes rather than dwelling at home in our hearts. If we take God’s Word with us, if we meditate on it day and night, we will always have our weapon in battle no matter where we are.

So, dear Christian, take God’s Word—especially His promises—into your heart today, by faith and in hope. And the next time you find yourself in Doubting-Castle, and hear the terrifying rumblings of Giant Despair at the double-bolted door, remember that you have had the key of escape all along. If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.


By Justin Taylor.  (Read original article HERE)

From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine. Website: www.ligonier.org/tabletalk. Email: tabletalk@ligonier.org. Toll free: 1-800-435-4343.