Perspective by Jack Kelley“And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” (Isaiah 66:24)
I’ve tackled this issue several time in the past and it’s probably best I organize all of my thoughts into concise article.
It’s been suggested by some that because the Old Testament has a list of rules regarding slavery that somehow God condones slavery or advocates it as some sort of moral act.
We have a few problems here with this line of thinking.
First of all, nowhere does the bible actually say that God condones anything of the sort. One has to make that leap by connecting the fact that it is in the bible so therefore it is excused. By making a set of rules it automatically means that slavery is alright as long as one abides by the rules. This is also an incorrect connection.
Unfortunately when one thinks of slavery we immediately think of the situation in the United states and slaves brought over from Africa. The slavery in the Old Testament is far different than Western slavery.
In bible times servitude was acceptable culturally. It was a form of employment that families saw as a blessing to get themselves out of complete poverty. Because it was culturally acceptable The Israelites imposed their own set of rules regarding servitude to make sure that the servant was treated fairly and not abused.
In the New testament times people actually sold themselves as slaves to get out of debt.
Recording the issues regarding the cultural aspects of the servant master relationship were important because it teaches us a very important lesson today about serving our master and how Jesus Christ is fair and merciful and died on the cross to get us out of bondage to our master which is sin.
This message is replete throughout the bible and can be seen in the story of Moses and how he led the Israelites out of bondage from the Egyptians. In the case of the Israelites they were hebrew and were in bondage because of who they were as a people and were slaves because of their race and God dealt with the Egyptians forcefully as a result showing God’s displeasure with racism.
Having servants is not the ideal set of circumstances that Jesus will ultimately put into practice for us here on Earth. We are in a fallen world where we have different governments, different financial systems, and different laws. In the end God will give us a new heaven and a new Earth.
Now admittedly the bible does not appear on the surface to condemn slavery or outlaw it but let us reflect on the words of Jesus Christ regarding loving others as he has loved us and the change that comes from real salvation. If we all give our lives to Christ and follow him to the letter we would have mercy towards others and this world would be quite a different place.
Recently I wrote a blog concerning Daniel 12:4 and the outpouring of knowledge and how modern day technology may be a symbol of such an outpouring. A brother and friend and fellow blogger at “Thedissident.ws” has offered a rebuttal from the preterist viewpoint.
If you haven’t heard this term a Preterist believes in fulfilled eschatology. In other words the bible is complete and there is no more prophecy to be fulfilled. My friend is a partial preterist meaning he does believe that Jesus will return at some future time. Full preterists do not even believe that Jesus will return.
It’s difficult to focus solely on my comment regarding Daniel 12:4 because so much of prophecy ties in together. I also do not like to debate it because I admit I could be wrong however I find the subject fascinating and when I look at the world today I see things lining up like chess pieces on a board preparing for the return of Jesus Christ.
From the time of Genesis following Adam and Eve the prophecy followed that one would come that could save mankind and this was of course Jesus Christ. It’s argued today that every generation claims that it is the last but the old testament has a theme of Christ’s arrival. Most certainly every generation looked for prophecy to be able to identify who the messiah would be.
The group from the New Testament, the Sanhedrin, were the governing body that assembled to identify who the messiah was. Not too long ago we see in israel that the Sanhedrin has formed once again.
many major religions are anxiously awaiting their messiah. Christians are looking for the return of Jesus Christ, The Jews are waiting for their messiah, the Muslims are awaiting the Mahdi, and so on.
If partial preterists are correct and Jesus is going to return as the Christians believe what will precipitate his return? Would their not be some sort of indicators or signs? I believe that there are and that the clues are to be found right in the text.
Don’t get me wrong, I think as a Christian body we should focus on the salvation message and focusing too much on Prophecy can confuse and scare some. However it is certainly an issue that we should deal with. I don’t think it should be the main focus nor should we be date setting or making wild proclamations that this is certain or this person is the antichrist or something is definite. We should be watchful. We should be ‘looking up’ awaiting the return of the master of the house.
There are many problems I personally find with Preterism that cause one to have to fill in the blanks or try to explain away. The prophecy of Damascus in Ezekial states that Damascus will become a ruinous heap. This has not occurred as the city of Damascus has not been destroyed. The website for damascus states it is the oldest inhabited city known to man.
In revelation 16:12 it is said that the Euphrates river will dry up. Revelation also states that the troops that would destroy Jerusalem at Armageddon were from the East and in 70 a.d. the troops were from the west. Revelation itself was more than likely written 15 to 20 years after 70 a.d.
Many things just have not happened that are written in the bible. Peter said “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up”.
This did not happen in 70 a.d.
I’m going to stop here for now and I will offer more regarding this subject in the coming days.
What is with the argument that non-believers use that you cannot use the bible to prove the bible or God. Isn’t this a bit like saying that you cannot prove George Bush is in the White house by looking in the White house? It doesn’t make sense. The bible can and does prove itself and testifies to the reality of God by it’s very content. Many have tried to disprove the bible by using the very content in the bible such as various so-called contradictions. Apologetics has provided an answer to every objection in the bible thrown at it and it still stands today as the most read, most published book of all time.
It’s often been argued that the bible is in error based on a cursory reading of certain passages. Take Leviticus 11:6 which seems to state that Rabbits chew their cud. If one is to study the true meaning of what is written as well as the digestive process of rabbits they will discover the truth.
The old testament is just that, it’s old and written mainly in ancient hebrew. There was really no word for “cud” and in this instance it simply means to bring back the digested materials. In the case of the rabbit it does move it’s jaws similar to that of Cud chewers after it consumes one of two types of droppings, fecal and the other which is called cecotropes. The cecotropes are then consumed (a process called refection) so the animal can get the nutrition it needs. So it basically appears to eat it’s own droppings. To the ancient hebrews this was considered an unclean animal for this reason. Some have suggested that the hare does not have a hoof and the bible is also in error here as well but upon a closer reading you can see that the bible is referring to animals that have a hoof and not that the hare has a hoof.
Despite the fact that the old testament is an old set of books it still contains facts and ideas that have proven scientifically accurate and beneficial today. Science has shown that the practices held by the Hebrews were beneficial for them as a people. From their diet to basic hand washing practice were not discovered important for thousands of years after.
