A Painful National Anniversary

It's been an interesting summer for anniversaries:  Fifty years ago some 400.000 people found their way to the Yasgur Farm in Woodstock, NY, the Beatles' Abbey Road album was released and Charles Manson began his murder sprees.

But go back four hundred years and you find the sad beginning of "man-stealing" in America.  Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University writes: In late August 1619, a shipment of “20 and odd Negroes” arrived on a ship to Virginia. They were not the first Africans in Virginia, but this human cargo is widely viewed as the beginning of slavery in the English colonies.  I am familiar with Kidd's work, and this article is well worth reading.  CLICK HERE  He goes on to say that recent archival discoveries indicate that these African prisoners may well have been familiar with the Christian faith through Jesuit missionaries in their land of origin.  Could it really be that slavery in America began through the kidnapping of fellow Christians?!?  

As we began our Summer Sermon Series in the book of Philippians, I pointed out that the form of race-based, chattel slavery practiced in the United States, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, was not to be connected with the slavery referred to in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  To put it directly: What was called "slavery" in the history of the United States, is called "man-stealing" in the Bible. This is the KJV wording, and It really stuns our modern ears.  "Man-stealing" is rarely referred to in Scripture, because it such a vile and reprehensible practice.  In Israel, those who did it were to be executed (Exodus 21:16).  In I Timothy 1:10, Paul includes "man-stealing" (the NIV translates the word "slave traders") in a list of behaviors that are "contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel."  

However we choose to translate the Greek word "doulos" - whether "slave" or "servant" - it is clear that Paul did not have in mind, and could not have even conceived of, the race-based slavery that began here in the United States four centuries ago.  And don't forget that Paul refers to he and Timothy as "doulos/slaves/servants" of Christ in Philippians 1:1.  In Philippians 2:7 he goes on to say that in the incarnation, God Himself took on "the very nature of a doulos/slave/servant."  Because of this, following Christ is no sort of dehumanizing oppression.  Instead, it is about a redeeming love that sets us free to lay aside the demands of our own self-interests and then freely act in the loving-best-interest of others, just as Jesus Himself did for us.

If you would like to dig deeper into both the Bible and American history on the issue of slavery in light of the Gospel of God's Grace,  I can recommend these four blog posts from the Gospel Coalition as a good place to start:

• Does the Bible Support Slavery?  CLICK HERE
• How and Why Did Some Christians Defend Slavery?  CLICK HERE
• A British Baptist on the Civil War and Slavery  CLICK HERE
• Why It’s Wrong to Say the Bible Is Pro-Slavery CLICK HERE

The "So-Called Curse of Ham" - June 16, 2019

One of our Three Questions from June 16, 2019 was this:

Another Southern justification for slavery was the so-called "Curse of Ham" in the book of Genesis.  How would you respond to that?

For this, I'll point to an excerpt from a sermon entitled Racial Reconciliation on 1/14/1996 by John Piper.  It provides a concise definition, background and response of this mistaken idea.   CLICK HERE for the transcript of the entire John Piper sermon.

From John Piper:

Over the centuries some people have tried to prove that the black race is destined to be subservient because of Noah's words over his son Ham who was the father of the African peoples. Let's look at the actual text of Scripture and then I will give three reasons why it does not prescribe how the peoples of Africa are to be viewed and treated. Recall that Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 9:21–25:

And [Noah] drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ So he said, "Cursed be [or: "will be"] Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brothers."

Now notice three things:

Noah's Curse Falls upon Canaan

First, Noah takes this occasion of the sin of his son Ham, and uses it to make a prediction about the posterity of Ham's youngest son, Canaan. Basically the prediction is that the Canaanites will eventually be overpowered by the descendants of Shem and Japheth.

Now there are many questions to ask here. But I only have time to point out a few things relevant to our main point. Ham had four sons, according to Genesis 10:6. "The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan." Now broadly speaking Cush is probably the ancestor of the peoples of Ethiopia; Mizraim is the ancestor of the Egyptians; and Put is the ancestor of the peoples of northern Africa, the Libyans. But Canaan is the one son of the four who is the not the ancestor of African peoples. Genesis 10:15–18 names the descendants of Canaan: "And Canaan became the father of Sidon, his first-born, and Heth 16 and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite 17 and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite 18 and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite." All those peoples were the inhabitants of Canaan and its vicinity, not Africa. And the prediction of Noah came true when the Canaanite nations were driven out by the Israelites because of their wickedness (Deuteronomy 9:4–5). So the curse doesn't fall on the African peoples but on the Canaanites.

Noah's Curse Is Not About Individuals

Second, the predicted curse of Noah does not dictate how God's people should treat individual Canaanites. For example, five chapters later in Genesis 14:18, Abraham, the descendant of Seth, meets a native Canaanite, named Melchizedek, who was a righteous man and "priest of God Most High" and who blessed Abraham. Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils. So not even the fact that God ordains to bring judgment on evil nations dictates for us how we are to treat individuals in those nations.

God Plans Redemption for All Nations

Third, in Genesis 12 God sets in motion a great plan of redemption for all the nations to rescue them from this and every other curse of sin and judgment. He calls Abram from all the nations and makes a covenant with him and promises, "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." "All the families of the earth" include the Canaanite families.

So what we see is that with Abraham God is setting in motion a plan of redemption that overturns every curse for everyone who receives the blessing of Abraham, namely, the forgiveness and acceptance of God that come through Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:13–14).