<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]Mosaic Law takes another radical step and bans involuntary servitude altogether in Exodus 21:16: "He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death." Deuteronomy 24:7 states: “If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently, or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.” Kidnapping and enforced slavery are forbidden and punishable by death. This was true for any man (Ex. 21:16), as well as for the Israelites (Deut. 24:7).</font><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>(Fred) I do not think either one of these examples condemn slavery outright as you claim. Exodus 21:16 is condemning the act of man stealing, or kidnapping another against his will and selling such a person into slavery. But that is a command against the kidnapper and his actions, not against slavery directly. The second passage you cite from Deut. 24:7 falls along similar lines. The command against an Israelite to kidnap or steal a fellow Israelite brother for the purposes of merchandise. The command is not specifically directed against the act of slavery as a practice itself. <br><br>Now don't get me wrong, I am no way trying to be an advocate for the practice of slavery. It just seems to me that with the record of Paul's epistles of Colossians and Ephesians telling slaves to submit to masters and that masters are to treat their slaves with respect, and with Paul's personal letter to Philemon beseeching him to take back the runaway slave Onesimus and there not being one comment about the evil of slavery or command for believers to not practice slavery, that our stance against slavery should be along other biblical considerations than appealing to some passages that could be said are taken out of context. Onesimus, for instance, had more than likely not sold himself into slavery. Neither had many of the readers of Paul's two epistles. Yet, in both instances, he calls those slaves to submit to their masters and dutifully serve them, and likewise that the masters must treat those slaves with respect and honor. It is as if Paul has neutral feelings about the whole matter of slavery.<br><br>Fred<br>

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