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sin,
let us freely confess and forsake it. But because we have resolved to
abandon sin, this
must include the sin of believing a lie.
So
Why Are We Writing About This?
In
the mid-seventies, American evangelicals began to wake up to the fact that
our culture
was beginning to tumble down around our ears. In 1973 the Supreme Court
had ruled that it
was unconstitutional for the various states to outlaw the dismemberment of
the unborn. Men
like Francis Schaeffer were used by God to rattle the pervasive
evangelical complacency and
to make us realize the ramifications of what was occurring — and what
was coming.
So
a significant minority of the evangelical church began to mobilize and
plunged into a
cultural war for which we were woefully unprepared. All we knew was that
they had begun
to kill babies. How can they do that? This was
America
.
As
the political battle began to take shape, the lack of historical
perspective among
evangelicals became more and more manifest. This lack of historical
understanding was
harmful in two ways — and in both ways the integrity of God's Word was
attacked.
The
first was the result of the attempt by evangelicals to portray the
pro-life movement as a
modern form of abolitionism. We were taught that earlier Christian social
"reformers" like
Charles Finney were ardent abolitionists, and we pro-lifers were walking
in their footsteps.
We were taught that Roe v. Wade was comparable to the Dred Scott
decision. And so we
argued and talked and marched accordingly. The only problem was... it
wasn't true. For the
sake of a convenient argument against the monstrosity of abortion, we
abandoned the clear
teaching of the Bible on another subject — how slavery was to be
understood.
Suppose
a man presented himself for membership in your church. Upon inquiring as
to what
he did for a living, you learned that he was an abortionist. Should he be
admitted into
membership. Of course not.
Now
suppose this same church was moved back in time, and a man presented
himself for
membership along with three of his slaves. Now what do you do? If
he is admitted to
membership, then it is clear that abortion and slavery are not considered
analogous. And if he
is refused membership, then what are you going to do when he (his name was
Philemon)
goes back and tells the apostle Paul what you did to him?
It
is obvious that in a fallen world, an institution like slavery will be
accompanied by many
attendant evils. Such evils existed with ancient Hebrew slavery, ancient
Roman slavery, and
with American slavery. The issue is not whether sinners will sin, but
rather how Christians
are commanded to respond to such abuses and evils. And nothing is
clearer — the New
Testament opposes anything like the abolitionism of our country prior to
the War Between
the States. The New Testament contains many instructions for Christian slave
owners, and
requires a respectful submissive demeanor for Christian slaves. See, for
example, Ephsians
6:5-9, Colossians 3:22-4:1, and 1 Timothy 6:1-5.
But
we mentioned that the harm was two-fold. The embarrassment of evangelicals
over the
plain teaching of the Bible can be put to an adept use by those in
rebellion against God. Dr.
Jerry Falwell was once in a television debate with a liberal Episcopalian
bishop. Sad to say,
the liberal bishop mauled Dr. Falwell badly. They were debating an issue
like abortion or |