Why is god such a big fan of slavery?

Question

A couple of examples:

* Exodus 21:20-21 – "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property."


* Colossians 3:22-24 – "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

Isn't that a bit off?

How about this one, is this out of context?


* Ephesians 6:5 - "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ."

Answer 1

You would think a loving god seeing us all as equals would never advocate slavery wouldn't you.In the bible there are many scriptures referring to slavery but not one of them saying it is wrong.In fact Jesus gives his approval of it and states that if a slave does wrong he should be beaten accordingly!!
Along with all the sexism,genocide,child murder and general torture it makes for a lovely picture of "our Saviour" and Lord god doesn't it.

Answer 2

You are taking these quotes out of context. This was thousands of years ago, many nations had slaves then. In those times would was born to their station and could not change it. However the second quote clearly says that they should be diligent in their service and they will rewarded by Christ surely this shows he cares for them? Gods do not intervene in every aspect of life. It is the slave that will be rewarded by God and not the slave master if he treats his slave wrongly.

Well not obeying their earthly masters would be foolish would it not? There weren't exactly humanitarians back then that would fight for their rights. An easy life would be best so being obedient would be necessary. It doesn't say God instituted slavery only that he advised slaves on how to behave and reap rewards from Christ. I am not Christian but I understand that.

Answer 3

He's not a big fan of slavery!

God just made these rules because men made up the idea of slaves
If the slaves obey these rules they will get a bigger reward in heaven than their owner
But thankfully slavery is now illegal
the only slavery we have to battle now is sin

Answer 4

For awhile He was a big fan, but not anymore, the fundies will say. Apparently He changed His mind.

Exodus is funny, and Christians like ignoring it because, for one, it clearly states that God sees an adult human as more important than a fetus (punishment for causing spontaneous abortion is a fine, etc.)

Answer 5

He wants everyone to be his obedient slave so I guess being a megalomaniac God one thing just leads to the other. Absolute power corrupts absolutely...just as well God is a man-made fiction.

Answer 6

Islamic prespective:

Islam caters for rights of every creature. It urges a Muslim to show good and kind treatment to anyone under his/her control; he should neither maltreat him or her nor should he subject him/her to any form of exploitation.

Islam totally objects and fights all forms of slavery. The focus of Islam in all its teachings and rites was to eradicate this prevailing practice. Now, slavery has been abolished by international conventions, and this goes in line with the goals of Islam.

Responding to the question, Dr. Taha Jaber Al-`Alwani, president of the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and president of the Fiqh Council, states:

When Allah created human beings, He created them to be free and to be vicegerents on the earth. Slavery is something that came from people who couldn’t understand the position of the human being and it was made, in the past, as a global phenomenon.

When Islam came, it tried to bring change to get the human being back to being free, as Allah has created us, by certain procedures. Those procedures of Islam went through without interference from the other nations or states who are non-Muslim states or nations. Maybe within the third century of Hijrah or the migration of the Prophet to Madinah, this phenomenon would have been over and disappeared. But as I mentioned, because it was a global phenomenon, that procedure which was established by Islam couldn’t go through and finish with this very bad phenomenon.

Now, al-hamdulillah all people have agreed to stop this phenomenon and stand up against it. With this, there is no way to go back to adopt this phenomenon again in any way, especially for Muslims, since they must protect the freedom of others and always be with their rights to be free servants of Allah only. We should remember when the Caliph `Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said in a famous khutbah (speech or sermon) of his, “When did you make the people as slaves or servants of you while Allah, the Almighty, created them free!”
This means that the Muslims from the very beginning advocated the freedom of all human beings and were against the oppression of free people by tyrants and dictator leaders.”

Having clarified the above, we would like to state that it was a war custom in the past to take men and women as captives and then turn them into slaves. Islam did not initiate it, rather, it was something in practice long ago before the advent of Islam. And when Islam came, it tried to eradicate this practice, bit by bit. So it first restricted it to the reciprocal practice of war, in the sense that Muslims took war captives just as the enemies did with them.

Answer 7

Jesus taught us that no slave is greater than his master, see how I serve you, so in turn you must serve each other. He is our servant king and as such we are his servants. So we must live to love and serve the Lord, by serving each other.

Answer 8

why not ..when that was written it was the rage..was it not???

think for yourself...was that really God speaking or those who wrote it???

Answer 9

where is the problem?


with God?

or just in rules in general?

Answer 10

cause he dont lie