All citations of Weld by Wayne Grudem in \u201c\u2019A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic: The Slavery Analogy\u2019 (Ch 22) and \u2019Gender Equality and Homosexuality\u2019 (Ch 23) by William J. Webb\u201d Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 2005; 2006), Volume 10:1, 106.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat kind of arguments are these?<\/h4>\n
Weld\u2019s arguments, we suspect, are typical of those made against slavery by abolitionists leading up to the Civil War. I am sure other arguments of a similar nature could be made as well. Carson, in the article cited above, suggests that if Philemon took the apostle Paul\u2019s comments to heart, slavery would be dead, at least in Philemon\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
But what sort of arguments are these? Is there a direct commandment against slavery in the Bible? We can point to direct commandments about men-stealing, but what else? Can we argue against a kind of indentured servitude as practiced by the Romans or even to some extent in later periods by the growing Western nations of the 18th and 19th centuries?<\/p>\n
I think we can make these kinds of arguments on Biblical principle. The doctrine of the image of God in man resonates strongly in our hearts. The better we understand it, the more abhorrent slavery becomes to our minds.<\/p>\n
Applying the thought process to argumentation against alcohol<\/h4>\n
Fundamentalist Christians have long been associated with an abstinence position on alcohol. This position, along with many others, is under some attack these days. A strong point of attack comes from assertions that the Bible nowhere strictly forbids alcohol and, some say, even endorses its moderate use.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s assume, for sake of argument, that this attack is true, that the Bible has no direct prohibition on alcohol. How, then, is the abstinence argument formed from the Bible?<\/p>\n
The strong warnings of the Bible against drunkenness and the deceptiveness of alcohol are cited. The facts about the difference between alcohol produced by natural fermentation vs. modern methods are pointed out. The fact of significant dilution of wine in ancient times is cited. Biblical principles of testimony, holiness, freedom from the control of addictive substances, etc., are raised.<\/p>\n
The anti-abstinence advocates scoff at making authoritative arguments from such principles and prohibitions of over-indulgence. \u201cNo authority here,\u201d they say. \u201cNo \u2018Thus saith the Lord.\u2019\u201d And so argument from biblical principle is discounted and dismissed as not authoritative or binding.<\/p>\n
How then, can we argue against slavery?<\/em><\/strong> If principles are not authoritative and all we have is a prohibition of man-stealing, how can we stand up as Christians and say slavery is wrong?<\/p>\nIn fact, we are quite ready to proclaim that slavery is wrong, a moral evil, basing our authority for the statement on principled arguments from Scripture.<\/p>\n
Likewise, we are ready to proclaim that drinking alcohol is wrong, a moral evil, basing our authority for the statement on principled arguments from Scripture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seemingly two disparate topics, no? I don\u2019t know of a direct connection, but I\u2019d like to examine current Christian reactions to both. This post is prompted by remarks made by D. A. Carson at the EFCA Theology Conference and transcribed for us here. In these comments, Carson notes the difference between the American slave trade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[117,71,67],"tags":[162,149],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-wL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}