HED: Slavery

HARMONY-EMPATHY-DESTINY
HED is newsletter for the Church of the Fourth Manifestation 
P O Box 152 Geebung Qld 4034 Australia 
HED is written in the public interest. Opinions remain those of the author only. 

On Slavery       by Scipio Santuzzi 

Some may ask: 'How can a Christian Scripturally justify slavery?' Here's how.

In the Old Testament salves were of two types: locals who were too poor & needed shelter in return for their labour. Foreigners captured in warfare or conquest. The first types could buy their freedom over time. The latter could not. Let's look at some examples.

Exodus 21.1-11: "Israelites may sell themselves as slashes for only six years. 1 If an Israelite girl is sold as a slave she cannot then be sold to foreigners. She must be sold back to her father...7-9"

Leviticus 25.39-55: "If an Israelite is so poor he must sell himself to you as a slave don't make him work as a slave. 39 If you need slaves buy them from nations around you & from children of foreigners living in your land. Such become your property & must serve you as long as they live. 45-46".

Numbers 31.7-19 & 25-47: "Israel killed all the men of Midian& captured their women. 7-9
Moses said: 'kill every boy & every woman whose had sex. The young girls keep for yourselves. 17-18
They captured 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys & 32,000 Midianite virgins..." 36

 Deuteronomy 7.1-4: "The seven nations of Canaan (1) you must defeat them. Those you defeat must be put to death. (2) Do not marry them, make treaties or show mercy a they will lead you astray" (3-4).

Deuteronomy 15.12-18: "If a fellow Israelite sells himself to you as a slave, release him after six years. 12 Do not be resentful when you have to release him. He cost you half what a hired man would". 18

I Kings 5.13-16: 'King Solomon used 30,000 men as forced labourers to fell trees in Lebanon. 80,000 more worked in stone quarries.  70,000 others carried the stones & lumber" 13-16.

I Kings 9.15-23: "King Solomon used forced labour to build his Temple. 15 For forced labour Solomon used the children of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had displaced. Those they had not killed continue to be slaves to this present time. Solomon never made slaves of Israelites. 22 Instead, they served as slave-overseers. 23"

We must not think: 'but that was then & this is now'. Put aside this alien-inspired idea of Evolution & with it the illusion of eternal upward progress. Do we see any evidence of this in human morals or behaviour? No, instead we stand in awe of those ancients who built their world to last while our collapses around us. What was true 3,000 years ago is still true. As Solomon said: 'there is nothing new under the Sun'.