If God Is Good, Why Does He Sanction Slavery?

I stumbled upon some website that says God is imaginary and the person who wrote the article is making a case that God, being imaginary condones the practice of slavery and yet cites Biblical passages to argue his case about a God he believes to be imaginary by showing his readers the contradictions on what he doesn’t understand let alone believe. Does that even make sense? The same type of people don’t assert their disdain of slavery in pagan cultures but they seem to have an issue with the slavery in the Judeo Christian Bible.

You think slavery is bad? Then why do some people freely subject themselves to a 7-day work week on minimum wage? Why is it justified to stay late at work to earn more money to support your lifestyle? Haven’t you just freely subjected yourself to slavery? Sure no one whips you on the back, but you might as well have been whipped with the possible repercussions of losing your livelihood in the event that you underperform.

As a little girl, I grew up in a third world country. We weren’t rich but I grew up with servants. Our servants were not bought off as slaves but they subjected themselves willingly to servitude as their means of livelihood. Even though they did things at our beck and call, we did not treat them as people who were lower than us. They ate at the table with us. Our nextdoor neighbor treated their servants different however. Their servants would talk to ours and I would hear of things that their servants barely had anything left to eat and they had to wait after their masters finished.

Then I think about people decrying slavery. To an extent, they are right. Slavery is evil but they fail to acknowledge that not all slavery are equal. There’s the slavery that was common practice of Colonialists and Millennia past. Then there’s the biblical slavery similar to what I have witnessed growing up. No one wants to be subjected to forced labor or have no choice but to work as a servant in someone’s household. I get that. But I bet people decrying slavery wear articles of clothing made literally by slaves, which by the way they bought at a decent price to stretch their hard earned money.

I don’t doubt some atheists turned antislavery activists are truly sincere but since this world is full of people who love to be recognized for how socially just they are compared to God, they take on a cause with every intent to smear God’s character that if they were under scrutiny, it would only expose their hypocrisy.

So, before you cry about the evils of slavery and have the audacity to attribute that to God as being evil for allowing such a practice, make sure you yourself are not benefiting from the fruits of slave labor, but guess what? That would be close to impossible. There will always be slavery whether we like it or not and just because some people don’t like the idea of forced labor doesn’t necessarily mean God is evil for allowing it. People always had to work for a living whether forced or not. Is that evil? Possibly for an Atheist who thinks NOTHING can produce everything.

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”

Ephesians 6:5-9

God is good that He lays out guidelines for people to follow in regards to treating others fairly. Do all people heed to God’s statutes? Apparently not and that is why we see men do unspeakable evils, not just in regards to slavery but with everything else.

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