Christians, why does your moral God support slavery?

Non-Christians:

What makes you so sure that all slavery is always immoral? You must have some standard beyond mere human convention to make that assumption, because this bizzare idea that slavery is wrong is only a couple hundred years old. For most of human history, slavery was considered completely morally acceptable. So, what authority to you appeal to in order to claim that slavery is IMMORAL.

If it is only your own FEELINGS about morality, only your own observations, only some innate sense of morality you think you have, then what makes your sense of morality any better, or any more correct, than that of someone who feels slavery is perfectly acceptable.

I guess one could try to say that it is "immoral" to take people into captivity, force them to work, own them, and treat them like property ... but WHY is that wrong. Based on WHAT, exactly, is that WRONG?

If you don't have some standard of morality higher than humanity to set the moral code, then what makes the moral code of today's humans any better than that of the humans in the past who had no problem with slavery?

Edit to add:

My "observations" of the consequences of slavery, BTW, include economic prosperity for the Roman Empire, and their rise to become the greatest Empire The World had ever known.

If slavery is going to be wrong, you have to find a standard higher than humanity itself.

Edit to add more:

I'm not actually saying slavery is okay. But then, I admit to having a standard higher than myself.

There are a lot of people responding to this question that seem to qualify the word slavery in order to decrease it's impact. The most intelligible answer so far (user Bella) makes the point that the slavery of modern times is mostly race-oriented while the slavery of biblical times was not. Even this isn't really true, especially given that same responder's additional assertion that people, who were poor, "sold themselves into slavery".

You can't sell yourself into slavery. That's what's called a contradiction in terms. A slave has no property, and is not reimbursed for their services aside from food and shelter (and, usually, that food and shelter was the bare minimum). The point that I believe that responder was trying to make was that, historically, and in many areas of the world, the head of a family, almost always (like 99% always) the eldest male. But, yes, sometimes a family's head would exchange their own freedom for the guaranteed well-being of his family. However, such an arrangement would commit to ongoing payments instead of a flat, one time price. Not a popular or practical choice.

The idea that skin color was the modern basis for slavery is only a partial explanation. Now, it's somewhat a matter of opinion, but such modern slavery was more based on the perceived "inferiority" of African peoples. Those first Europeans, in some insane way, decided that since the civilizations they encountered had less advanced technology and firepower, then those civilizations had to be inferior to their own. And, this kind of thinking did not begin with the European African slave trade. So many other areas of the world encountered similar situations. If one group of people decides that they are in any way better than another group, slavery is often the next step. It usually occurs when a stronger force invades and conquers a weaker force. It wasn't a financial decision on the part of the new slave. It was forced upon them, whether you are describing the European/American slave trade of Africans, the Greek (and later inherited by the Romans) slave trade from (at least) dozens of nations, or the presently occurring human trafficking and forced prostitution in several nations. These are all examples of one stronger element overpowering another.

What Belle calls "man-stealing" is a term referring to slaves. Stealing another man's slave was very often an offense punishable by death. "Man stealing" doesn't refer to turning another man into a slave in the first place.

Bottom line, the Bible doesn't take any firm stance on slavery, except perhaps that you're allowed to beat them severely. Can't we just be stoked that slavery has been eliminated in so many countries? Such abolition is based on human morality, not religious doctrine.

I know you have heard it before, but then, I have heard this question before, also...many times.

Man wrote the bible Not God. I will say no more about that.

But stop and think a minute. Hitler. If Hitler ruled the world, who do you think would be alive today? The Jews would be gone....completely wiped out. The blacks probalby, also...and Hispanics...and any other race, culture, that was not of Hitler's liking. He wanted an Aryan Race...white, blond haired Adonis'.

Hitler would have made laws and taken whatever action needed, to get his desires taken care of.

Hitler was bad. No good.

The point is....if God was also no good, don't you think that He would have already rid the world of those He didn't want on it? Why play around and tell HUMANS to do His work, when He is MORE then capable of doing it Himself?

He could have easily destroyed any group of people that He may have not liked. IF He didn't like people such as Gays, why not just "destroy" them.? People who are against Him, why not just rid the world of them.?

And today, He could do it, still. but....He hasn't. Because He wants us to have Free Will, and to do as we want.

NO..Men wrote the bible. Men, with slaves, who wanted to keep the slaves, like the men did during the pre American Civil War. Men, who did not understand gays, and thought them to be devils...so they put that in the bible. Witches, also, and disabled babies. All, devils work, so must get rid of them.

Not anything God would write. Men wrote this.

IF God HAD written this, don't you suppose that He would be very angry if people blatantly refused to do what He said.? Boom....destroyed. But He allows us to go our own way, knowing well what the punishment will be later. And that point also...why punish us now, when we will also be punished later, for the same sin?

Man make HIS own morals, depending on the situation at hand. Is it moral to rape a prostitute but immoral to rape a housewife? Some people think so.

People make the morals.

Actually, we can use the argument from the Old Testament. Jesus, in the context, was saying in the sermon on the mount (you didn't give the reference: it's Matthew chapters 5-7) that He didn't come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.

Besides, the Law of Moses was only for Jews and converts to the faith of Israel. Several New Testament scriptures make it quite clear that the Law is not applicable for believers today. See Acts 15, Colossians 2, especially verse 24; Galatians 3:13 and there are more.

And as one additional point, you didn't cite the Scripture that gave definite periods of time for anyone to be held as a slave.

There is a tendency to look at slavery as something of the past. But it is estimated that there are today over 12 million people in the world who are subject to slavery: forced labor, sex trade, inheritable property, etc. As those who have been redeemed from the slavery of sin, followers of Jesus Christ should be the foremost champions of ending human slavery in the world today. The question arises, though, why does the Bible not speak out strongly against slavery? Why does the Bible, in fact, seem to support the practice of human slavery?

The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1), but does not outlaw slavery altogether. Many see this as the Bible condoning all forms of slavery. What many fail to understand is that slavery in biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world. The slavery in the Bible was not based exclusively on race. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin. In Bible times, slavery was more a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay their debts or provide for their families. In New Testament times, sometimes doctors, lawyers, and even politicians were slaves of someone else. Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for by their masters.

The slavery of the past few centuries was often based exclusively on skin color. In the United States, many black people were considered slaves because of their nationality; many slave owners truly believed black people to be inferior human beings. The Bible most definitely does condemn race-based slavery. Consider the slavery the Hebrews experienced when they were in Egypt. The Hebrews were slaves, not by choice, but because they were Hebrews (Exodus 13:14). The plagues God poured out on Egypt demonstrate how God feels about racial slavery (Exodus 7-11). So, yes, the Bible does condemn some forms of slavery. At the same time, the Bible does seem to allow for other forms. The key issue is that the slavery the Bible allowed for in no way resembled the racial slavery that plagued our world in the past few centuries.

In addition, both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of “man-stealing” which is what happened in Africa in the 19th century. Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave-traders, who brought them to the New World to work on plantations and farms. This practice is abhorrent to God. In fact, the penalty for such a crime in the Mosaic Law was death: “Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death” (Exodus 21:16). Similarly, in the New Testament, slave-traders are listed among those who are “ungodly and sinful” and are in the same category as those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, adulterers and perverts, and liars and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:8-10).

Another crucial point is that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society. The Bible often approaches issues from the inside out. If a person experiences the love, mercy, and grace of God by receiving His salvation, God will reform his soul, changing the way he thinks and acts. A person who has experienced God’s gift of salvation and freedom from the slavery of sin, as God reforms his soul, will realize that enslaving another human being is wrong. A person who has truly experienced God’s grace will in turn be gracious towards others. That would be the Bible’s prescription for ending slavery.

The slavery in the Bible is more like a form of indentured servitude. Such an arrangement would allow a poor man to survive.

All of the laws were abolished when Christ came. The moral laws still remain though. Thou shall not kil etc.

3 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. --Colossians 21:13-23

The christian Bible is not a human rights book... it is a property rights book. It is a book with lists on how MEN are to treat their property... women, children and slaves. It is not a book about good things but one about property plain and simple.

He didn't, but because man dominates man to his ruin he enacted laws to protect the slaves. After 7 years the slave was to be set free unless they wanted to stay. In-fact they were to treat there slaves like part of the family.

man is wicked, God makes rules to control the wicked. If God loves all life he certainly wouldn't want us to abuse people or anything else.

It's because back then the richest had the slaves, yes at one point in time a tribe of Israel had slaves.

I do not consider this as I consider slavery as limits, God must never stoop to our level ground

He is a God and not a amiguino your saying yes to everything that you want to relax and live a moderate