Dr Paul Allen

Regard Their Masters as Worthy of All Honor? Why is an article like this important? Many unbelievers think the Bible supports even promotes slavery. We all agree slavery is wrong. Therefore, the Bible should not be ignored as a guide to life. With that rejection in mind, this was the basis taken by an Australian Prime Minister to legislate Homosexual marriage - Kevin Rudd ignored all homosexual sanctions in the Bible based on the Bible's supposed support of slavery. A convenient method to wash one's hands of any responsibility. Look closer, Kevin. Paul issues his command to “bondservants” who are “under a yoke” and have “masters.” The word translated as “bondservants” is the Greek term doulos, the standard term for slaves used throughout the NT. These particular slaves are “under a yoke.” A literal yoke is a “frame used to control working animals” (BDAG, s.v. ζυγός). The word appears here and elsewhere to describe the condition of slaves in the Roman world. Such slaves were the...

Both slavery and abortion are rooted in junk science. In many ways, the modern abortion movement in the United States has historical continuity within American culture. The same culture that promoted chattel slavery is still thriving, only now it is trafficking in the murder of the unborn. It really is astonishing how similar the pro-slavery argument is with the pro-abortion argument. Consider that the United States was ironically founded with an affirmation that liberty and human freedom come from God: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The American experiment began with a bold declaration that many Americans themselves didn’t even believe. By allowing slavery—in fact, allowing is too passive of a word—by institutionalizing slavery, American law declared that if all men are created equal, some people ...

8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,  9 yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. — Philemon 1:8–16 God’s Providence and...

The OT condemns slavery, it might surprise you to know that the NT is even more clear. While the Torah showed how the forceful ownership of a human was not fitting for God’s nation, the NT shows that the same action is not fitting for God’s church. The Romans had a practice nearly as barbaric as American slavery, and it was referred to as “man-stealing.” In 1 Timothy 1:10, Paul tells Timothy that a person cannot simultaneously claim the name of Christ while participating in the involuntary ownership of human life. The context is important . Paul’s first letter to Timothy was written to instruct Timothy on leading the Ephesian church. The purpose of the book is found in 3:15:  "you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth.”  It is in this vein that chapter one, after an introduction, moves into describing the lives of people who by definition are no part of the church. Paul comments t...

In celebrating Martin Luther King Jr Day yesterday, we were reminded yet again about millions who have been affected by the evil of American slavery. Later this week hundreds of thousands will be invading the streets of Washington D.C. to participate in the March For Life and protest the Roe v. Wade decision. Millions of babies have since been killed and their murderers, instead of being locked up in jail for selfishly and callously murdering their babies, are not only free, but  applauded for their decisions, and given a platform  to encourage others to do so as well. How do we deal with all of this? How do we think about injustice in the world? Here are six thoughts I need to remind myself with in order to deal with terrible injustice. God sees everything David, in 2 Samuel 11, after committing incredible evil, and trying to cover it all up, seems to get away with it, and yet the last verse of the chapter tells us not only that God saw every...

Lee Strobel,  The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus   (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 166–69: Jesus and Slavery There was one other issue I wanted to raise with Carson. I glanced at my watch. “Do you have a few more minutes?” I asked. When he indicated he did, I began to address one more controversial topic. To be God, Jesus must be ethically perfect. But some critics of Christianity have charged that he fell short because, they say, he tacitly approved of the morally abhorrent practice of slavery. As Morton Smith wrote, There were innumerable slaves of the emperor and of the Roman state; the Jerusalem Temple owned slaves; the High Priest owned slaves (one of them lost an ear in Jesus’ arrest); all of the rich and almost all of the middle class owned slaves. So far as we are told, Jesus never attacked this practice. . . . There seem to have been slave revolts in Palestine and Jordan in Jesus’ youth; a miracle-wor...

What do you think is wrong with the following argument? Bible translations talk of “slaves.” In the OT no objection is made to having slaves. In the NT Christians are not commanded to free their slaves but are told to submit. Therefore, biblical texts approve of slavery. We know that slavery is wrong. Therefore, biblical texts approve of something that is wrong. Remember that when evaluating an argument terms  are either clear or unclear propositions  are either true or false, arguments  are either valid or invalid. So if you disagree with argument above, you’d have to show that there is an ambiguous term, a false premise, or a logical fallacy (the conclusion does not follow from the premises). In the lecture below, delivered on October 30, 2015, at  Lanier Theological Library , Peter Williams gave a fascinating lecture responding to this argument. Dr. Williams (PhD, University of Cambridge) presides over  Tyndale House  ...

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” ( Job 19:25 ) This famous testimony of Job has encouraged many. He knew, as we can know, the reality of his living Redeemer and that the Redeemer would one day reign over His creation as intended. A redeemer is one who buys back something which has fallen into the hands of the enemy. Originally, the creation was in the proper hands, but Adam sinned , and to a great extent the rebellious world and all its inhabitants fell into bondage at the hands of Satan . “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” ( Romans 5:12 ). We became the slaves or “servants of sin” ( Romans 6:20 ). In order to be freed, a slave must be redeemed. Could we as slaves have bought ourselves back? No, we had nothing of worth. Silver and gold would not do it. In fact, nothing short of the blood of a completely innocent sacrifice ...

Philemon (New Testament person) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Does Christian brotherly love really work, even in situations of extraordinary tension and difficulty? Will it work, for example, between a prominent slave owner and one of his runaway slaves? Paul had no doubt. The apostle writes a “postcard” to Philemon , his beloved brother and fellow worker, on behalf of Onesimus —a deserter, thief, and formerly worthless slave, but after his conversion in Rome , now Philemon’s brother in Christ . With much tact and tenderness, Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus back with the same gentleness with which he would receive Paul himself. Ordinarily, a runaway slave would be treated harshly; but Paul carefully reminds Philemon that, in Christ, he is now a fellow heir to the grace of God. Any debt Onesimus owes, Paul promises to make good. Knowing Philemon well, Paul feels confident that brotherly love and forgiveness will carry the day. Philemon was likely one of Paul’s converts and ha...

The Promulgation of the Law in Mount Sinai (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) We need to make some important distinctions about the biblical meaning of "fearing" God. These distinctions can be helpful, but they can also be a little dangerous. When Luther struggled with that, he made this distinction, which has since become somewhat famous: He distinguished between what he called a servile fear and a filial fear. The servile fear is a kind of fear that a prisoner in a torture chamber has for his tormentor, the jailer, or the executioner. It's that kind of dreadful anxiety in which someone is frightened by the clear and present danger that is represented by another person. Or it's the kind of fear that a slave would have at the hands of a malicious master who would come with the whip and torment the slave. Servile refers to a posture of servitude toward a malevolent owner. Luther distinguished between that and what he called...