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Originally Posted by Vagabond
How does giving someone instructions on how to do something not condone it? If I were to tell a child how to shoplift then how could one argue that I was not condoning the activity?
The bible could have condemned the practice of slavery but instead it was influenced by the politics of the day and condoned it instead.
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Just be honest with the evidence presented so far, the scriptures both you and I posted. The Bible doesn't teach anyone how to capture or control slaves, and it doesn't teach any social or economic advantages to slavery, at least the New Testament. What does it teach? In those societies where slavery exists, it teaches individuals how to act. The slave owner is told to be kind, to treat his slaves well. The slave is taught to serve his master well, not out of fear, bitterness or hatred. The slave owner has a master, Christ, and the slave is free, a child of God.
Slavery has been an institutionalized economic and social order in history. It's not dissimilar to a modern economy where some people can't imagine anything but working for a paycheck and entrepreneurs would never be hourly wage earners. Yeah, slavery is cruel and
primitive, and the Bible doesn't endorse it. The Bible isn't imposing modern moral sensibilities on ancient cultures the way critics of the Bible would like it to, either. The Bible is speaking to INDIVIDUALS immersed in the prevailing social and economic orders of their countries and their day. All of the scriptures we've quoted so far expressly address individuals in those systems, none is a wholesale prescription for society. Not one.