Predictable? Probably.

Red herring? Certainly.

In my post from yesterday, I quoted Scripture that references three human institutions: governments, slavery, and marriage.

Suzanne, at the "Better Bible Blog" asked, "Would you ask a slave to go back to slavery if it could be proven that it was God's will." and further noted, "I assume you would." and challenged, "Then let those who accept real live slavery to another human being ask me if I would accept it. Only as an evil."

Later, (asking me) "You oppose slavery, and I suppose totalitarian government. Christians are clearly taught to submit to both. On what basis do you resist the clear teaching of the scripture? "

(I'm answering here instead of there because my full answer it likely to be more lengthy than most people want in their combox.)

First point: The reason this is a "red herring" (comparing slavery and totalitarian governments to marriage) is that (for most people) there are obvious differences.

The first thing we have to deal with is that "marriage" means "all marriages". "Slavery" means "all slavery", so we must consider "all governments", instead of only part of them.

Next, we can construct questions that are applicable to all of these human institutions.

Was the institution of _____ instituted by God?

• Was the institution of slavery instituted by God?
• Was the institution of government instituted by God?
• Was the institution of marriage instituted by God?

God said of marriage: "as it was from the beginning..." God instituted the union of man and woman in marriage.

Government is a little stickier - There did not appear to be an "official" government among the Israelites until after Egypt. After Egypt there was a theocracy that God set up, with His people ruled by priests, who were ruled by Him. So yes, in at least one case, God instituted the human institution of government.

Slavery: I can see no place in Scripture where God began the institution of slavery; it seems that slavery is a human invention.

CONCLUSION: slavery is a human-formed institution and sits apart from the God-given institutions of marriage and government. So we don't need to compare marriage with slavery.

Next question: Are all examples of __________ harmful to humans?

• Are all examples of marriage harmful to humans?
• are all examples of government harmful to humans?
• are all examples of slavery harmful to humans?

Obviously (at least I hope it is obvious) the answer to the first to is "no, not all examples of marriage or government are harmful to humans".

On slavery it may appear that I'm waffling, but I'm not. LET ME BE CLEAR: ALL SLAVERY THAT WE SEE IN THE WORLD TODAY IS EVIL THROUGH AND THROUGH. I will include in that a more recent institution than African slavery - the Magdelene laundries. Another example is the enslavement occurring today in parts of our own world.

ALTHOUGH...if the definition of "slavery" is coerced labor, is a military draft a form of "slavery"? Interesting question, as is the question of being able to "sell" oneself temporarily to pay off a debt or crime.

But in short, yes - all examples of slavery that we see in the world today are harmful to humans.

CONCLUSION: We cannot accurately compare the institution of slavery to marriage (and thus the submission of slaves in an ungodly institution to the submission of wives and citizens under godly institutions) with submission of people within Godly and God ordained institutions.

The next question is: where Paul's words meant to encourage those in submission to authority, both godly and ungodly? (yes) Do Paul's words prohibit us from working toward justice? (Certainly not).