Critics of the Bible forget that it also advocates liberty. It’s the Grand Arc of the Biblical Narrative, from Genesis to Revelation. Let’s see if we can discover universal truths from these historical, culture-bound slave laws. I updated this post, which is a general introduction to a series on slavery.
Are you prepared for final judgment?
Scriptures: Exod. 21:2-6; Lev. 25:39-42; Deut. 15:12-18. The Torah balances out fairness with generosity, yet it is still obviously situated in the ancient world–its own cultural context. It is always best to evaluate these ancient texts on their own terms and in their own times. Let’s see what we can discover. For comparison, this post includes the case of an indentured servant in colonial Philadelphia.
Scripture: Exod. 21:7-11. In a culture of arranged marriage and widespread poverty, fathers in the ancient Near East did this long before the Torah existed. Now the Torah has to intervene and tell the men what the daughter’s legal rights were. This post also looks at polygamy.
You converted to Islam recently. Or you grew up a Muslim. Now what? Simple. Leave it behind and follow Jesus. Right now. There is a prayer at the end of this post.
This parable is often titled Parable of the Talents. Are you a productive kingdom citizen?
Scriptures: Exod. 21:20-21, 26-27; Lev. 25:43, 46. There were two cultural (and unpleasant) facts in the ancient Near East, long before the Torah existed: (1) Masters hit their slaves to punish them, and (2) slaves had secondary status. How does the Torah intervene and regulate those two pre-existing facts? (I also include cases of a servant girl dying allegedly from a beating and a servant boy who was flogged for theft, in colonial Philadelphia, just for comparison.)
Scripture: Lev. 19:20-22. One OT scholar says that this law protected a slave woman when she was caught in the middle between three men.
What kind of disciple are you? Wise or foolish? Are you prepared for the Second Coming?
Scriptures: Lev. 25:44-46 and Deut. 23:15-16 (and Exod. 21:16, again, with its parallel Deut. 24:7). As we have observed in this series, slavery was a cultural fact of the ancient Near East. This post also has two parallel cases in colonial Virginia.
I updated this post. Scripture: Deuteronomy 21:10-14. I knew a kid named Carl at elementary school, my contemporary. He was half European-American and half Japanese. His dad had married a Japanese girl after WWII and brought her over here.
Will you be faithfully serving God in your life when Jesus comes back? Will you do his will to the very end? If so, rewards are coming.
It’s time to educate the students at the campus protests in spring 2024 and even now. Do they know Islamic jihad continued without stopping for four hundred years before the Pope called for the first major crusade?
It goes deeper than just the attacks in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, and Orlando and now the campus protests of spring 2024 (and the others that will follow). It will go past 2100. It’s the Second Hundred Years War.
Updated: The campus protests that turn Islam into an innocent party are shortsighted and wrong on the facts.
Here are the reasons why no one should convert to Islam, which are not placed in any particular order. At the end of this post, there is a prayer to follow Jesus.
Do you believe the signs Jesus talked about in the first century can carry over to our days?
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 