–– Tim Cantrell
The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
A recent BBC headline reads, “African and Caribbean nations call for formal apology for transatlantic slavery”. Here in South Africa, President Ramaphosa posts an article entitled, “Reparations must help to address Africa’s colonial legacy”, stating that “the wealth of former colonial powers today is the result of the deprivation of Africa’s people”.
Proposed curriculum changes in our schools ignore 5,000 years of African enslavement and focus only on 300 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, while excluding enormous Christian achievements in abolishing the slave trade. And then our rulers act surprised when there are angry mobs in the streets, fuelled by their sense of entitlement, following the example of resentful leaders?
What is a Christian response to all of this? What does God’s Word say about slavery and reparations? Since the Bible mentions slavery about 1,000 times, there’s no escaping this question if we are going to defend the integrity of Scripture and our Christian witness. Gay rights advocates use slavery in the Bible to justify gay marriage; egalitarians use it to defend female pastors.
Why is there no explicit 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not have slaves”? Why does Scripture seem to recognise and regulate something as horrible as human slavery, instead of calling for its abolition? In brief, here are four reasons why God’s Word rejects all slave trading.
Slavery in the Bible was different, more like servitude.
(1) Unlike all the modern images of horrific slave ships and race-based slavery, the biblical world was different. In the ancient world, long before any government assistance programs, the impoverished, bankrupt, or debtors would sell themselves for food and shelter. Yet this could be voluntary and temporary bondage.
In Jewish law some servitude would last six years; the slaves would be freed in the seventh year (Exod. 21:1; Deut. 15:12). Every 50 years was the year of Jubilee, where all debts were wiped out and slaves released (Lev. 25). In a fallen world, of course some slaves were treated terribly; but that’s exactly what God’s Word forbids.
(2) Slaves had legal protection in Israel.
Because Israelite servitude was not rooted in racism or even classism, their slaves actually had rights. The concept of racial slavery would have been unintelligible to an Israelite, except as a hated memory of their own bondage in Egypt. If a master permanently injured a slave in Israel, that slave would be set free without any debt; if the slave was killed, the master faced the death penalty (Exod. 21). Their slaves had protections unheard of in any other societies, including the duty of harbouring runaway slaves from other nations (Deut. 16; Deut. 23). All of this is rooted in Genesis 1-2, the sanctity of all human life as God’s image-bearers.
(3) The Bible categorically condemns slave trading.
Listen to Exodus 21:16: “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” This immediately separates all slavery in Israel from modern slavery. Says Jesse Johnson, “At no time during their history did Israelites enter into the capture and sale of human life in any way that resembled the slave trading” of other nations. Man-stealing was a violation of the 8th Commandment (Exod. 20:16). 1 Timothy 1:10 explicitly condemns kidnapping as a violation of God’s Law.
Our Protestant reformers taught that slave trading was a capital offence (see Westminster Larger Catechism). The Puritans were emphatic that this is the only case of theft that carries with it the death penalty. We mustn’t confuse God’s permission with His approval, like when Scripture regulates an ancient, pagan practice such as polygamy or slavery.
(4) Only Christianity ended slavery.
Christianity planted the seeds that would ultimately undermine the institution of slavery. In the early church, believing masters and slaves served in ministry together, and shared in household fellowship, meals and Communion as spiritual equals. As Paul wrote, there is, “neither Jew nor Gentile neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). No wonder he wrote to Philemon, a slave-owner, about how to treat his converted slave, Onesimus, as a newfound brother in Christ, including counsel about his release (v. 21).
Almost every culture and religion has practised slavery. Only one faith has eliminated it – Christianity. Paul tells slaves to be content, but also says, “If you can gain your freedom, do so” (1 Cor. 7:21). Yet he knew that a direct assault on slavery would cause greater human harm, not less. He knew he was not called to be a revolutionary or social reformer, but a gospel preacher. Only changed hearts could produce lasting political or economic changes. Social liberation is downstream from spiritual freedom. As Jesus promised, over time the “leaven” of the gospel went to work, and Christian salt and light spread (Matt. 5:13-16; 13:33).
The Christianization of Europe eventually led to the disappearance of slavery, until its modern form emerged in the 15th century. And then it was a Christian politician, William Wilberforce, in the 19th century who led the effort to eliminate the slave trade in England. It was Christian abolitionist preachers during the 2nd Great Awakening that started the sustained effort to abolish slavery in the United States. Says one writer, “Every place Christianity takes a firm hold on culture, slavery is eventually eliminated.”
What About Reparations?
Even respected pastors are jumping on the woke bandwagon of calling for reparations, which is a blatantly unbiblical, impossible, dead-end street. It is a far cry from biblical restitution based on true repentance, which is direct and measurable, not ambiguous; and it is grounded in the right to private property, not state ownership. Reparations don’t right any past wrongs or heal any hurts, but only stir up greater strife, as Thomas Sowell and others have warned in great detail.
Calling for reparations is a favourite Marxist tool for wealth redistribution, by weaponising the past to deconstruct the Judeo-Christian foundations of the West. It’s a convenient ploy to disguise envy, greed, theft, tyranny and race-baiting, to finance a lucrative racial-grievance industry. As De Young warns about leading Christian authors calling for reparations, they have “a vision filled with many noble aspirations, but one ultimately that depicts a future where the White guilt never dies, and the reparations never end”.
Praise God for His forgiving grace in Christ that removes condemnation, and for the clarity of His Word on these burning questions of our day around slavery and reparations.