"Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity)." -Saint Paul

[Slaves waiting to be sold oil painting by Eyre Crowe]


Selling human beings for profit is heinous. And yet slavery is intertwined within God's Word in a different view then the modern day view. It's an emotional thing to discuss for sure. And I struggle with the Bible's view, more than I struggle with modern man's view.

So I thought I'd drop a very controversial post, to see if perhaps I can learn more of the Lord's perspective on this scary subject for those who want to simply talk about it.

Here's another charge from the Apostle Paul, the servant of Christ, to us about slaves to consider and ponder:

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free."

God's perspective on slaves is a lot different than this world's. They either love slavery, and abuse humans, or don't understand it within the history of all the different cultures throughout our time here on Earth.

Here are some words from someone who is regarded pro-slavery: Which he was, and yet wasn't.

"There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. The doctrines and miracles of our Savior have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day." -Robert E. Lee