Slavery Ordained of God

Maybe you agree with slavery (it may seem incomprehensible to you, but there are still Christians today who believe this practice is "Ordained of God") but more probably you do not. We at CrossReach Publications certainly do not. But in the mid 1850s slavery was so normal and acceptable that ministers of the Gospel were defending it with the same zeal that many pastors today would defend the 'necessary evil of war'.

The questions it brings up are interesting. We see atheists today bring up these passages as proof of the immorality of the Bible. 99.999% of Christians today will explain these passages away, yet up until relatively recently most Christians would have agreed with them in some measure as still binding. Why is this? Has God changed? Have we changed? Is it possible that the truth of the matter is that Christians have been slowly reinterpreting almost the entire Bible for the last 500 years or so since the dawn of the Reformation? Perhaps even since the death of the last Apostle. A careful and honest study of Church history would seem to indicate this is so.

Here's an excerpt. Please read it in full.

"Let us then, North and South, bring our minds to comprehend two ideas, and submit to their irresistible power. Let the Northern philanthropist learn from the Bible that the relation of master and slave is not sin per se. Let him learn that God says nowhere it is sin. Let him learn that sin is the transgression of the law; and where there is no law there is no sin, and that the Golden Rule may exist in the relations of slavery. Let him learn that slavery is simply an evil in certain circumstances. Let him learn that equality is only the highest form of social life; that subjection to authority, even slavery, may, in given conditions, be for a time better than freedom to the slave of any complexion. Let him learn that slavery, like all evils, has its corresponding and greater good; that the Southern slave, though degraded compared with his master, is elevated and ennobled compared with his brethren in Africa. Let the Northern man learn these things, and be wise to cultivate the spirit that will harmonize with his brethren of the South, who are lovers of liberty as truly as himself: And let the Southern Christian—nay, the Southern man of every grade—comprehend that God never intended the relation of master and slave to be perpetual. Let him give up the theory of Voltaire, that the negro is of a different species. Let him yield the semi-infidelity of Agassiz, that God created different races of the same species—in swarms, like bees—for Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and the islands of the sea. Let him believe that slavery, although not a sin, is a degraded condition,—the evil, the curse on the South,—yet having blessings in its time to the South and to the Union. Let him know that slavery is to pass away in the fulness of Providence. Let the South believe this, and prepare to obey the hand that moves their destiny."