Was American Type Slavery Not Forbidden By The New Testament?

I keep hearing Christian Bible teachers say things like “the Bible never condemned slavery; it just regulated it” or “slaves were never told to try to escape, but just to remain content in their situation,” or “slavery in America was not ideal, but tolerated by God’s law,” or “Jesus didn’t come to radically change culture” (referring to our American type slavery). Even my main two mentors (I am so thankful for their great teaching in most every other area) made similar statements. But they were dead wrong.

History tells us many American preachers during the days leading up to our Civil War justified slavery based upon passages such as I Peter 2:18 which tell servants to be subject to their masters. And I think their false teaching is still being parroted today. Perhaps those old-time preachers were overlooking the fact that there are at least two types of slaves described in the Bible. One is forced slavery such as what happened in America two and three centuries ago. The other was voluntary slaves, which could have been indentured servants. That is when a man voluntarily (or through legal court order) sells himself into slavery in order to pay off a large debt that he couldn’t pay off otherwise.

The former type was sometimes authorized in the Old Testament when the Israelites were allowed to take prisoners as slaves when they won wars against foreign national enemies. But this is never authorized by the New Testament, and is specifically condemned in passages like I Tim 1:10 which condemns “menstealers” (“enslavers” – ESV, “slave traders” – NIV). The Old Testament allowed (even instructed) the Israelites to “hate your enemies” (Matt 5:43, Deut 23:3-4,6-7, Psa 26:5, 31:6, and 139:21-22 (“I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.”) in the sense of going to physical battle (war) against them, but the New Testament commands Christians to do just the opposite; instead we are to love our enemies (Matt 5:44ff) – under all scenarios (Rom 12:17a “Recompense to no man evil for evil”). Killing our national enemies as a soldier goes against every principle in the book (New Testament). And so does taking a slave as the spoils of such destruction.

Since the New Testament plainly condemns our American style slavery of blacks, passages like I Peter 2:18 must be talking about voluntary or indentured servants. Our politically correct society would disallow indentured servitude today, but such a system would be much preferred to legalizing stealing through the current day practice known as bankruptcy (Romans 13:8a, Psalms 37:21a).

What American slave traders did was nothing short of kidnapping “at gunpoint,” and therefore sinful (Matt 5:39). And those that bought such slaves became partakers in those slave traders’ evil deeds (II John verses 10-11). The law of Christ has always said no to such slavery.

Scenario for you to consider: Suppose a gang of kidnappers (slave traders) came at night and kidnapped your 16-year-old son at gunpoint. Would you think the New Testament condoned such action as long as they sold your son into slavery in a third world country where slavery was still legal? Would you also think your son should never try to escape that slavery, even if he found an opportunity to do so safely? I guarantee you wouldn’t think so if it were your own son. So why would we think such practice was allowed by Jesus in America before our Civil War?

Some excuse the practice by saying a lot of the slave traders were black themselves. Let’s grant that for the sake of argument. Did that make it right for the white plantation owners in the South to buy those slaves from the slave traders? You mean knowingly buying worse than stolen goods (which encourages stealing) is not bidding God speed to that stealing (II John 10-11)? And then to continue to enforce the enslavement of those purchased is consistent with New Testament principles? Nary a slave believed such; only slave owners who benefitted financially from such arrangement did.

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