Sermon Tone Analysis

I’ve been given the weighty task of addressing what the Bible has to say about slavery.

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge that, as a white person, I have historically benefitted from from the sinful system slavery.

I am aware of that.

And I condemn every ounce of that sinful system of slavery, the evils associated with it, and state openly that it is totally incompatible with the gospel of God’s grace.

And I want you to know, as my family, that I am seeking to love you as best as I know how by explaining God’s heart towards this issue, by God’s grace.

With that said, would your pray with me.

“I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land…Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.

I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.”

–Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and preacher

“[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God…it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation…it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.”

–Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America

There has been much evil done by supposed Christians to people over the years.

And not only have evils been done by supposed Christians, but they have used the Bible to say that God actually approves of what they’re doing.

One of most tragic examples of this is seen in God’s supposed ‘approval’ of chattel slavery in the New World from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, not the least of which took place in this very country.

As you can tell from the two quotes, we’re in a confusing situation.

You have two people saying Jesus is about opposite things.

Both Frederick Douglass and Jefferson Davis cannot be right.

One must be right, and the other, wrong.

But worse than wrong, utterly sinful.

And God takes a side.

We must know what side He is on.

Church, how do we respond?

What do we say when people quote Jefferson Davis at us, or talk about the laws in the Old Testament that talk about slavery, or quote to us, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters...”

The world around us is asking these questions.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to ‘give a defense for the hope that is in us’ ().

The world around us is asking these questions.

That is what this sermon is hoping to address.

I love the way pastor Rasool Berry put it, which will serve as my main question for the day.

When it comes to slavery...

Is God the problem or the solution?

That’s the question, deep down, people are asking.

Because they want to know if God is good.

If He is loving.

If He cares about justice.

If He wants what is best for ALL people.

Before we jump into the specific of what God says about slavery, We must lay a foundation of how God has made all people, before we go any further.

If we truly grasp how God has made us, and what that means for us, it will be a life-transforming truth for how we think about a myriad of issues and how we interact with people throughout our life.

What does God say about the dignity, worth, and value of ALL human beings?

God creates mankind (the word used there translated ‘man’) in His likeness, separate from all other creation.

In creation of mankind, God stopped simply saying ‘let there be’ and started saying ‘LET US MAKE’.

God stepped down and started forming humanity with His own hands.

God creates mankind (the word used there translated ‘man’) in His likeness, separate from all other creation.

In creation of mankind, God stopped simply saying ‘let there be’ and started saying ‘LET US MAKE’.

God stepped down and started forming humanity with His own hands.

God made humans in a way that they are ‘after God’s likeness’.

Humanity is to represent and reflect the glory of God.

To show off His worth, beauty, goodness, and truth.

This is one of our PRIMARY CALLS at Restoration.

To be a people who show off the glory of Christ.

We bear His resemblance in a way no other creation does, and He has created humans with a capacity for relationship with Him.

This changes everything

Now tie that together with

The apostle Paul makes something VERY CLEAR HERE–that from ONE MAN every nation of mankind was made.

The apostle Paul makes something VERY CLEAR HERE–that from ONE MAN every nation of mankind was made.

We as the church must remember this and be ready to correct someone when they twist God’s word to try and say that certain ethnicities or people groups are of less worth or value, or are sub-human, or not created in God’s image.

You better tell them and say “no, we all share common ancestry in Adam and Eve, and thus we are all in the image of God.

Rebellion against the image does not remove God’s image in you, nor does it negate our common call to love people who distort God’s image in them.

If people try and say that people were in the image, but they defiled it, and now are cursed, you better realize that God says that man is made in his own image AFTER sin had entered the world and distorted things.

Rebellion against the image does not remove God’s image in you, nor does it negate our common call to love people who distort God’s image in them.

I think oftentimes, we can look at people and say, well, they’re not even treating themselves as people who are made in the image of God, they’re not even respecting themselves…so why should I?

Christians, may we never say that.

May we never interact with people how we may feel they ‘deserve’ to be interacted with because of what they’re doing.

I’m glad that Jesus didn’t have that disposition towards me–that He didn’t look at me and say, we’ll, Jake has no sense of purpose, He’s enslaved to all this sin in his heart that’s against me, so I’m just going to let him rock.

May it never be.

If people try and say that people were in the image, but they defiled it, and now are cursed, you better realize that God says that man is made in his own image AFTER sin had entered the world and distorted things.

May we remember that we’ve all distorted the image of God in us, because we are all sinners, but the beauty of the gospel is that ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were sill sinners, Christ died for us’ ().

He died for us and calls us back into restored image.

That was for free.

I think oftentimes, we can look at people and say, well, they’re not even treating themselves as people who are made in the image of God, they’re not even respecting themselves…so why should I?

Christians, may we never say that.

May we never interact with people how we may feel they ‘deserve’ to be interacted with because of what they’re doing.

I’m glad that Jesus didn’t have that disposition towards me–that He didn’t look at me and say, we’ll, Jake has no sense of purpose, He’s enslaved to all this sin in his heart that’s against me, so I’m just going to let him rock.

May it never be.

May we remember that we’ve all distorted the image of God in us, because we are all sinners, but the beauty of the gospel is that ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were sill sinners, Christ died for us’ ().

He died for us and calls us back into restored image.

That was for free.

Therefore, in light of what we’ve seen about the image of God in ALL HUMANITY, here is the truth we are going to explore further.

God is utterly opposed, in fact, God hates, the dignity-erasing, de-humanizing, abusive, ethnicity-based, person-stealing slavery of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

It is a direct affront to the image of God in every individual.

It is spitting in our Creator’s face when we look at someone who is His divine creation, worthy of dignity, honor, and respect, and call that person ‘property’.

The fact that people in the New World, including our country, used Christianity–used the heart of God–to affirm those practices for hundreds of years is absolutely disgusting, and it breaks Jesus’ heart.

There is a stark difference between the Christianity of our God and the Christianity of America.

In fact, the Christianity of America that used God and His Word to justify slavery is not Christianity.

Now, all of this sounds true, but we must ask then, what do we make of the term ‘slavery’ in the Bible?

I’m glad you asked.

Defining ‘slavery’ in the Old Testament

What about the ‘curse of Ham’?

We can all agree that words have meaning, right?

Let me explain...

If I was talking to you about a paper I was writing, and needed you to proofread it for me, I could simply tell you ‘I put it in the cloud’, and you’d have a sense of what that was.

Fifteen years ago, if I told you I put my paper in the cloud, you would have no idea what I was talking about.

Cloud

Bachelor

Likewise, a favorite past-time of mine is to go cat-fishing.

In the internet age, going ‘cat-fishing’ is not something you would tell people you do for recreation, as it means something different than actual fishing.

So we can agree that words have meaning because of the meaning people ascribe to them, right?

The same is true when we talk of the word ‘slavery’ in the Old Testament.

We tend to interpret the word in light of our historical context, which has known slavery to be the terrible, dehumanizing, ethnicity-based person-stealing and ownership of another.

This is not what the Old Testament is talking about when you see the word ‘slavery’ or ‘slave’.

Two verses you might want to have locked away for the beginning of the conversation, that solidifies that this is not the kind of slavery the Bible is talking about.