Probality of God

[eatenbyagrue]

I am not shouting.  I use all caps on certain words for "emphasis".  I use bold face for long rebuttels, so that the reader can determine easily, at a glance the questioner, vs the rebuttel.

I quote the Word of God, because man's "opinion" is nonsense, and it is only "God's opinion" on any given subject that counts.  Even if the reader does not believe in God, it does NOT (all caps given for emphasis, not shouting... ) change the truth of God's Word, nor the certainty of which it will come to pass.  "Heaven and Earth will pass away but my word shall abide forever."  "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

So, I share with the readers what the Lord's thoughts are on the given subject.  For that is REALLY what is important.   

P.S.  To answer your question, I do not judge another man's servant.  They serve the Lord.  That is between they and he.  How do I know he did not tell them to stand where they are and speak what they are speaking? 


Peace to you,

Bruce

You know, you still have not explained why, according to god's word in the bible, slavery is OK.  Please ask Jesus and let us know, thank you.

[Magluvin]

You know, you still have not explained why, according to god's word in the bible, slavery is OK.  Please ask Jesus and let us know, thank you.

If there is anything in the Bible that makes modern people nervous, it is its treatment of slavery. Slavery is humanely regulated in the legal portions of the Old Testament, and in the epistles of the  New Testament slaveholders are exhorted to show kindness to slaves, but nowhere in the Bible is there anything which can be interpreted as a disapproval of the institution as such. People of our generation, Christians included, tend to have a very hard time with this, because it seems to amount to a tacit approval of the institution, and we balk at the idea that God did not consider the institution itself to be immoral.
Part of the problem is that we have false ideas about what slavery was really like. The life of a slave was not easy, but we get an exaggerated idea of the hardships of slavery from watching movies or reading historical material that is written on a popular level. Here the purpose is usually to dramatize the plight of slaves or to make some point about the evils of slavery in general, ⁽¹⁾ but the historical reality was less dramatic. In most cases the life of a slave was not much different from the life of any lower-class worker. Those who have been in the military have experienced something like it — being legally bound to an employer and to a job that one cannot simply "quit" at will, not free to leave without permission, subject to discipline if one disobeys or is grossly negligent — all of this is familiar enough to those of us who have served in the military. And yet we know that the daily life of a good soldier is not especially hard. This is what it was like to be a slave.
Another problem is, when thinking about slavery we tend to have in mind the recent slavery of the black race in America, and so the whole subject of slavery gets mixed up with the issue of racism. But in ancient times, slavery was not associated with any particular race. By condoning slavery the Bible does not approve of racism.
A third reason why modern people have a hard time understanding the Bible's treatment of slavery is that we often now tend to confuse morality with political values. The modern tendency is to politicize everything, including even the Christian gospel. Moral philosophy or ethics has become so politicized that it seems to be almost a sub-department of political science now, which is why we have seen the rise of an elaborate political correctness in our public life. "Racism," "sexism," "homophobia," and so on, are the really serious sins under this new morality. Although we all know that people are not really equal, the egalitarian ideology of our time is considered to be of such overriding importance that any slight affront to it is considered sinful, while the principles of ordinary old-fashioned morality are downplayed and even denied. This political correctness is not merely a fad, it is the logical and inevitable result of the politicization of morality, the elaboration of an entirely new morality based upon political ideas of right and wrong.
Magzimus Leviticus

[Magluvin]

You know, you still have not explained why, according to god's word in the bible, slavery is OK.  Please ask Jesus and let us know, thank you.

There is a tendency to look at slavery as something of the past. But it is estimated that there are today over 12 million people in the world who are subject to slavery: forced labor, sex trade, inheritable property, etc. As those who have been redeemed from the slavery of sin, followers of Jesus Christ should be the foremost champions of ending human slavery in the world today. The question arises, though, why does the Bible not speak out strongly against slavery? Why does the Bible, in fact, seem to support the practice of human slavery?

The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1), but does not outlaw slavery altogether. Many see this as the Bible condoning all forms of slavery. What many fail to understand is that slavery in biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world. The slavery in the Bible was not based exclusively on race. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin. In Bible times, slavery was more a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay their debts or provide for their families. In New Testament times, sometimes doctors, lawyers, and even politicians were slaves of someone else. Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for by their masters.

The slavery of the past few centuries was often based exclusively on skin color. In the United States, many black people were considered slaves because of their nationality; many slave owners truly believed black people to be inferior human beings. The Bible most definitely does condemn race-based slavery. Consider the slavery the Hebrews experienced when they were in Egypt. The Hebrews were slaves, not by choice, but because they were Hebrews (Exodus 13:14). The plagues God poured out on Egypt demonstrate how God feels about racial slavery (Exodus 7-11). So, yes, the Bible does condemn some forms of slavery. At the same time, the Bible does seem to allow for other forms. The key issue is that the slavery the Bible allowed for in no way resembled the racial slavery that plagued our world in the past few centuries.

In addition, both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of "man-stealing" which is what happened in Africa in the 19th century. Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave-traders, who brought them to the New World to work on plantations and farms. This practice is abhorrent to God. In fact, the penalty for such a crime in the Mosaic Law was death: "Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death" (Exodus 21:16). Similarly, in the New Testament, slave-traders are listed among those who are "ungodly and sinful" and are in the same category as those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, adulterers and perverts, and liars and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:8-10).

Another crucial point is that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society. The Bible often approaches issues from the inside out. If a person experiences the love, mercy, and grace of God by receiving His salvation, God will reform his soul, changing the way he thinks and acts. A person who has experienced God's gift of salvation and freedom from the slavery of sin, as God reforms his soul, will realize that enslaving another human being is wrong. A person who has truly experienced God's grace will in turn be gracious towards others. That would be the Bible's prescription for ending slavery.

Magzimus Leviticus

[Magluvin]

You know, you still have not explained why, according to god's word in the bible, slavery is OK.  Please ask Jesus and let us know, thank you.

Slavery was permitted in the Bible because of sin in the world.  It existed before the Jews were formed as a nation and it existed after Israel was conquered.  God allows many things to happen in the world such as storms, famine, murder, etc.  Slavery, like divorce, is not preferred by God.  Instead, it is allowed.  While many nations treated their slaves very badly, the Bible gave many rights and privileges to slaves.  So, even though it isn't the best way to deal with people, because God has allowed man freedom, slavery then exists.  God instructed the Israelites to treat them properly.

   
• The Bible acknowledged the slave's status as the property of the master (Ex. 21:21; Lev. 25:46).
• The Bible restricted the master's power over the slave. (Ex. 21:20)
• The slave was a member of the master's household (Lev. 22:11).
• The slave was required to rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10; Deut. 5:14).
• The slave was required to participate in religious observances (Gen. 17:13; Exodus 12:44; Lev. 22:11).
• The Bible prohibited extradition of slaves and granted them asylum (Deut. 23:16-17).
• The servitude of a Hebrew debt-slave was limited to six years (Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12).
• When a slave was freed, he was to receive gifts that enabled him to survive economically (Deut. 15:14).

The reality of slavery cannot be denied.  "Slave labor played a minor economic role in the ancient Near East, for privately-owned slaves functioned more as domestic servants than as an agricultural or industrial labor force."1


Magzimus Leviticus

[hoptoad]

Ecclesiastes 1:9

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

I understand and agree with this reference to human behaviour and the human condition, if it is read
as an allegory.
But if it were taken literally, I'd be inclined, as may many others, to question what constitutes new.

Here for example is a list of new atomic elements "under the sun".
New, because they never previously existed naturally within the solar system, and only came into existence
by human endevour.

This following list and explanation is found here.   http://www.buzzle.com/articles/synthetic-elements.html

List of Synthetic Elements
There are 118 elements in the periodic table, out of which 92 are natural elements and the remaining are synthetic elements. Technetium (atomic number 43) was the first synthetic element discovered, that filled the mysterious gap between the elements, Molybdenum (atomic weight 42) and Ruthenium (atomic weight 44) in the periodic table. Promethium (atomic number 61), Astatine (atomic number 85), Francium (atomic number 87) and the transuranium elements constitute the synthetic elements. Transuranium elements are those elements whose atomic number is greater than Uranium (atomic weight 92). Here's the list of all the synthetic elements.

Element Symbol At. No.
Technetium Tc 43
Promethium Pm 61
Astatine At 85
Francium Fr 87
Neptunium Np 93
Plutonium Pu 94
Americium Am 95
Curium Cm 96
Berkelium Bk 97
Californium Cf 98
Einsteinium Es 99
Fermium Fm 100
Mendelevium Md 101
Nobelium No 102

Element Symbol At. No.
Lawrencium Lr 103
Rutherfordium Rf 104
Dubnium Db 105
Seaborgium Sg 106
Bohrium Bh 107
Hassium Hs 108
Meitnerium Mt 95
Darmstadtium Ds 110
Roentgenium Rg 111
Copernicium Cn 112
Ununtrium Uut 114
Ununpentium Uup 115
Ununseptium Uus 117
Ununoctium Uuo 118

Hmmm .....  ?  KneeDeep