Is that meant to question the ethical value of the bible and the patriarchs, since slaves existed in the Old Testament amongst Israelites?
Same old same old.
Questions are good, but when they're clearly loaded to purposely make one question the bible, ....yaaaaawn.
__________________ ...MY THOUGHTS, ANYWAY.
"Many Christians do not try to understand what was written in a verse in the Bible. Instead they approach the passage to prove what they already believe."
It depends on what you mean by own. If your referring to the slavery days of america, as in wrangling up people and seperating their families and beating them into submission then yes it is very immoral, or sexual slavery and things of this sort. However if your referring to Bonded servitude (which my grandfather was a bonded servant) then I don't see anything wrong with providing pay and food and housing for someone and in exchange requiring work, if both parties agree or one owes a debt.
But slavery is not an archaic concept and is still employed today even on a mass scale as such as our economical state. The entire system we have in place essentially places everyone into the debt of the state or somebody at some point if they ever wish to have anything and weren't handed the money for free. With that debt we are forced to work to pay it off, and in essence are a bonded servant willingly or not. So if we wish to eat and stay afloat socially we usually have to succumb to that system. Which is a form of slavery when you think about it. You just can't see the chains.
But what does the bible say about ourselves? We are not our own and we were paid for with a price...
The idea of slavery applied in the right conditions however is not necessarily a bad thing (which sounds horrible to say) but its not something we arent accustomed to as evidenced by modern society :/ So to say it is moral or isn't moral can be hard to sit down and actually think about because there are so many facets and ways of going about it because slavery encompassess so much and there isn't necessarily one true form of slavery to make a judgement on,
So i would have to say that the morality is conditional, oddly enough, if any of that makes sense lol. It was hard for me to try and word how I felt about it lol.
I believe the Old Testament showed servants (slaves) working off debts, also I believe that God wanted the Israelites to love their servants (slaves) as they (the Israelites) were slaves to Egypt and wanted them (israelites) to be kind instead of taskmasters like the Egyptians. It was immoral for the Americans before the civil war to own slaves because most of the time they were cruel (if not all of the time). So I am not sure what your motive is for asking the question. Onisamus in the new testament was Told by Paul to return to his master. Today when we work our jobs we are really servants paid for our time, and as such we owe our time to our employer. We are all to be servants of God, and as such, God is the model of what we are to serve. So, really it isn't immoral unless you treat a slave or servant with cruelty.
It depends on what you mean by own. If your referring to the slavery days of america, as in wrangling up people and seperating their families and beating them into submission then yes it is very immoral, or sexual slavery and things of this sort. However if your referring to Bonded servitude (which my grandfather was a bonded servant) then I don't see anything wrong with providing pay and food and housing for someone and in exchange requiring work, if both parties agree or one owes a debt.
But slavery is not an archaic concept and is still employed today even on a mass scale as such as our economical state. The entire system we have in place essentially places everyone into the debt of the state or somebody at some point if they ever wish to have anything and weren't handed the money for free. With that debt we are forced to work to pay it off, and in essence are a bonded servant willingly or not. So if we wish to eat and stay afloat socially we usually have to succumb to that system. Which is a form of slavery when you think about it. You just can't see the chains.
But what does the bible say about ourselves? We are not our own and we were paid for with a price...
The idea of slavery applied in the right conditions however is not necessarily a bad thing (which sounds horrible to say) but its not something we arent accustomed to as evidenced by modern society :/ So to say it is moral or isn't moral can be hard to sit down and actually think about because there are so many facets and ways of going about it because slavery encompassess so much and there isn't necessarily one true form of slavery to make a judgement on,
So i would have to say that the morality is conditional, oddly enough, if any of that makes sense lol. It was hard for me to try and word how I felt about it lol.
Sometimes the "Bible" can be a dangerous thing to base your "morality" upon. Portions of the Bible allow polygamy, execution of disobedient children, execution of various classifications of sinners, etc.
The Spirit is an indispensable guide when it relates to "moral" living. And when I say "moral" living, I'm speaking of the loving, giving, patient, and peace focused Christian life.
The Spirit should also guide us in properly interpreting Scripture.
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