Apologetics 3

Other Issues

Intro —

The purpose of this series is to explore some of the really tough questions or arguments that come up against Christianity so that we can talk about the correct, biblical answers and be prepared for when we get confronted about our faith! Our key passage for this series is:

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Today we are exploring three more questions / concepts that are brought against Christianity. These are all heavy and real topics, so we will be just scratching the surface tonight.

And before we start, I want to emphasize something that I have not gotten to quite yet. We do not “defend” the faith, because God needs us to defend Him. God can and does speak for Himself. He is not scared by any questions or arguments.

So why are we learning this? 1. Because it is good for us to know the reasons and purposes around our faith, and 2. because we want to share with others the truth and the reality as answers to their questions.

Without further ado, our first question:

1. Does the Bible condone Slavery?

This is one that I have heard a lot of in the last few years. But how can we know the bible is true and good if it has slavery in it?

Well my answer is simple: The bible does not condone slavery, rather it condemns it… at least the slavery we think of today. But yes, the bible not only has slavery in it, it also has polygamy, (Men with multiple wives), and it has rape in it. Now just because those things are in the bible… does that mean that the bible condones them? No not at all.

God had made it very clear that marriage is supposed to be one man and one woman, so why are David and Solomon taking a whole bunch of wives?

Well, because these were the things that humans were doing as a result of their sin. Kings were taking on many wives, people were murdering and doing terrible things, and the bible was making a historical account of those things.

The same goes with slavery. Slavery was a result of human sin, not a Lord-sanctioned thing by any means. However, since it was a cultural phenomenon, the scriptures talk about some legislations around slavery, because slavery was not always what we think of today. We think of southern American slavery right? Taking human people away from their home, to work for them in a foreign land, and be terrible to them.

This was condemned in the bible straight up. Here we can see in Exodus 21:16

Exodus 21:16 ““Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.”

There’s no if, and’s or but’s around this one. The bible outlaws “harsh slavery” as it is referred to, as punishable by actual death. That is no small sin right?

The slavery that is often referred to in the bible actually is actually very different than “harsh slavery”. It was not a racial or ethnic institution at all. Slaves were often either prisoners of war, debtors, or there were actually a lot of people who purposefully sold themselves into slavery due to poverty or hardship and they couldn’t support themselves, so they sold themselves so they would be taken care of.

This kind of slavery was not outlawed, but it was given specific instruction like you had to be kind and respectful towards your slaves.

There is more evidence when in the book of Philemon, which is just one chapter, Paul is writing to this guy named Philemon concerning his slave that ran away. Paul converts the slave named Onesimus to Christianity and then tells Onesimus to return, but also tells Philemon to receive him as a brother. Showing that slavery was not a superiority complex either, it was much closer to a situational employment.

That being said, the bible does not condone harsh slavery the way that we know it, it would not have condoned African slavery we saw in the early 1900’s and therefore, although the bible mentions slavery and has rules regarding slavery, that does not discount the Bible from being true and good.

2. Doesn’t the Bible Belittle women?

I am actually going to invite my lovely wife up here to speak on this issue. Because I think it will be more impactful coming from a woman who will tell us what she knows and how she feels about what the Bible has to say about women.

Rachel, doesn’t the bible belittle women, doesn't the bible have sexist views that are favour and value men above women?

3. The church is full of hypocrites.

I don’t know if you guys have heard this much, but I definitely have. The church is full of hypocrites, not only do they all preach one thing, and do another… but they are responsible for so many bad things… so much injustice!

So here is my immediate response to “all church goers are hypocrites” … Correct. Yes we are all in a sense hypocrites its true, want to know why? Because we are all sinners! If you are a Christian you are by default a hypocrite. Because the bible tells us we need to live by all these standards, and we agree to about that, but we often fall short of those standards don’t we?

There is a saying that I appreciate that goes like this… “The church is not a museum for saints, its a hospital for sinners.” We know we are sinners, and that is why we GO to church in the first place….

This comment that turns people away from the church stems from the incorrect thought that people need to be completely cleaned up // completely perfect // completely sinless before coming to a saving faith in Christ. And that is just not true… Guys none of us can achieve that. The bible says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christianity is a process of being ignorant of our sin — to being more and more like Jesus. With that comes constant repentance, turning from our sin and forgiveness.

We come to Christ broken and messed up, not perfect and sinless, so of course we are going to do the things that we say we shouldn't do sometimes.

Fun fact… Who knows what group of people Jesus was harshest towards when He was on earth? The Pharisees. And what was the biggest issue with the Pharisees? We talked about this in our walk through Philippians… They were hypocrites. Jesus was gentle to every non-Christian when he told them to sin no more… But when it came to the Pharisees — who were the religious leaders — the Jewish “pastors and priests” of the time… He did not pull punches.

Matthew 23:25-28 and Luke 12:1-3. He condemned the Pharisees and Sadducees for their hypocrisy, saying that they were "whitewashed tombs" and "outwardly appear righteous but inwardly are full of greed and wickedness" Also Jesus called them things like a “brood of vipers”. He had the hardest things to say against the church who were doing wicked things under the name of God. God hates hypocrisy.

Now what about the times the church has done bad things…. We hear about the catholic church and residential schools a lot. I remember a few years ago, someone spray painted something pretty terrible in regards to that on Bluewater’s front sign. And during covid someone actually burnt down a church in “revenge” for the churches sins in the past.

And here is the thing… We do not have to defend the church for things like residential schools, and the crusades, Pastor’s and priests doing horrendous acts, and other terrible things the church has done… why? (Other than some circumstances where maybe the history books smudge the truth a little ) We don’t defend them because those were terrible things! Those things should not have happened and those people should be/ and will be judged for what they did.

And if someone comes to you saying that the church really actually hurt them… Do not defend the church. You can say that you are truly broken and sorry for what has happened to them under the banner of Christ, but Christ is not responsible for their hurt, Christ actually loves that person.

Those people who did those bad things under the name of Christ, do not represent God.

We do not judge the beetles for the crappy cover-band that played at that sketchy bar that one time right? You have to go to the original source to judge it.

People do not dictate whether God is righteous or not. God does.

Let me reiterate… The bad things that church has done… if you have been hurt by the church personally… I want to tell you that you are loved, and loved by more than the sinful men and women of this world… But loved by the God who’s character is unchanging, and that God who is both loving and righteous, whose justice is matched by His mercy and compassion.