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Q: I need some biblical counsel. I’ve recently been rather shaken by the obstacle of slavery in the Bible. I’ve always defended scripture rather relentlessly online, and I thought I had all the right answers, but even still, believing fully that God is opposed to slavery, why does the Bible not say this more clearly, so that such a deep level of theological understanding is not required to grasp the concept. Why did God allow such a practice in Israel when he as God would see the practice as evil. Why did Paul not condemn it either when he had the chance? It is left up to our own understanding to grasp the deeper idea, that to treat one another as I want to be treated and to love thy neighbor as thyself, means definitively, that God’s moral teachings is incompatible with slavery, but why does he not seem to say so in the text directly.  Edit: Also if it's volunteered labor hen why did the plagues have to come upon pharaoh for him to let the people of Israel go? A year ago I had a s...

A: The verse is very clear.  Scripture speaks of slavery and it is a good thing. It was like employment in OT, unless they were captured from conquering other countries and allowed to be slaves vs die; depending in God's judgment on them. Scripture speaks of humans in slave terms and says we are either slaves to sin and Satan or slaves to righteousness and Christ. We cant serve two masters, but we are owned by one of them either way.  Scripture has nothing to do with illegally sold human trafficing chattel slavery which is what happened back when Africans both kidnapped or sold their troublemaker people to UK and of whom some ended up in America, and many more who went to Arab countries (which still happens today). Or the slavery or kidnapped women and children who are sold into sex trafficing, still happening today globally. That is condemned in Exodus 21:16.  In OT a slave was a person who works for you to pay off a debt. Today we are “slaves” to our employe...