I'm reading "God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology."
The main message in the book tells that throughout redemptive history, God has shown us a pattern.
Man sins, God judges, God redeems His people.
Only after judgement, can salvation come. Without judgement, why do we need salvation at all?
Only through judgement can God's holiness shine, can salvation come, can the remnant be redeemed.
I read an article today that makes a few political predictions that I found interesting and makes a commitment to rethink her political views if the predictions are wrong.
The author's predictions:
So, here are my foreign policy predictions:
At the end of Obama's first four-year term:
1. The US will still have an active military presence in Iraq.
2. The US will have attacked at least one more country that poses no direct threat to us. (I'm not even going to count his early air strikes on Pakistan.)
3. Military spending will have increased.
4. US citizens will be no safer from terrorist attacks. I say this because I believe the (sadly all-too-accurate) perception of the US as an imperialist warmongering nation will persist. I realize this one is open to interpretation. I would just ask you to honestly ask yourselves at the end of these four years whether this is the case.
[...]
What I do predict is the following. By the end of Obama's first term in office:
1. More than 1% of US adults will still be in prison. This number will very likely be even higher than it is today, and the black and Hispanic portion of that population will not have decreased by any significant amount.
2. We will still suffer from the kind of police abuse that is becoming more and more common: military-style raids on unarmed civilians in their homes; the shooting and tasering of unarmed citizens; and police and judicial corruption leading to the jailing of many more innocent people than can be acceptable under any system. The militarization and aggressive behavior of police forces will probably become worse before they get any better. This is another one that is somewhat open to interpretation. I would ask you to rely on your own honest judgement regarding whether you believe things have really changed in this area.
3. "No-Fly" lists will still be in place, and there may even be more restrictions on travel.
4. There will be more restrictions on gun ownership and the right to self-defense.
5. The police tactics and suppression of dissent at the 2012 RNC and DNC conventions will be just as brutal as they were in 2008.
6. Government surveillance of US citizens will continue (remember that bill Obama voted for that gave immunity to the telecoms companies that assisted with this in the past?),
[...]
My prediction: By the end of Obama's first four years in office, the US economy will be in much, much worse shape than it is now. Specifically:
1. The US will have massive inflation. The dollar will lose at least 50% of its value against most goods and services, and certainly against the goods and services most people use every day. This is a very conservative estimate. It will probably be much worse.
2. Unemployment in the US will be worse than it is now. It will be at least in the double digits.
I'm going to post the article in its entirety in June of 2012 and look at the predictions and see how they play out (assuming that the inflation thing doesn't rule out my blogging.) (first unplanned difficulty...wordpress won't let me publish that far ahead...so I'm setting it to publish in Decempber of this year and will edit the date stamp accordingly.)
I've written on this a little bit in other places and it is a volatile topic and one that is difficult to discuss without getting emotional (for anybody). I am writing from a philosophical point, not an emotional point.
I AM NOT "PRO-SLAVERY"; the post is to encourage the philosophical and Biblical viewpoint of calling sin "sin" and making sure that which we call "sin" is.
1) God does not regulate sin - He prohibits it.
If Scripture never tells us that an activity is sin, the burden of proof is on the one who calls it "sin".
The easiest way to prove slavery "sin" is to stand on the "golden rule". Treat others the way you want to be treated. If you would not want to be a slave, don't enslave others. As a Christian...that makes perfect sense.
The next question would be: might there be (or ever in history have been) a reason that being a slave might be better than the alternative? Are there any circumstances that slavery would be beneficial/harmful to either the individual or the society.
2) right off hand, I can think of four different kinds of slavery mentioned in Scripture:
---Debt slavery: If a person finds themselves overloaded with debt, they have the opportunity to work off that debt to the person owed. They are released at the end of the time, they are free of the debt. They are able to bail themselves out. (that's a definition, not a judgement.)
NOTE: I do not see this as being a good or practical thing in the society that we have today. Looking at the "debtor's prisons" that we read about, it might have seemed a good option at the time.
SIN or not? (from Scripture only, please)? (I'd rather have a discussion than put forth my thoughts - but would most likely play devil's advocate either way)
---Chattel slavery: there is no justification of this act. Slave trade was on the list of Tyre's condemnation and no matter what I might find about the other sorts of "manditory labor", the kidnapping and enslavement of a group of people - and the further keeping of their descendents in slavery is wrong. Sin. Condemned. There is no justification for this. (I believe that the preying on impoverished parents of children and purchasing them for the purpose of slavery that we see to day in parts of Africa and Asia are included in this segment.
---Prisoners of war: three choices - dead. refugee camp. slave. None of them are good choices. (Again this is for discussion purpose and I'll gladly play devil's advocate for either side - but argue from Scripture)
NOTE: the Geneva Convention permits the use of prisoners of war for "forced labor". There are strict guidelines about what sort of work can be done, working and living conditions and prohibits the use of forced labor on actual military jobs. A prisoner of war can be made to work in an agriculture setting, but cannot be made to manufacture bombs.
Using a prisoner of war for "forced labor" is not the same as conducting a war in order to get prisoners in order to get slaves (see kidnapping)
---Punitive slavery: Sorry, but I think I could convinced to be at least a little bit in favor of this one.
California: a "soccer mom" was loading stuff into the back of her car and was rear ended by an "illegal alien" (undocumented immigrant) - who happened to be driving under the influence of alcohol. This wife and mother lost the use of her legs and looks forward to many months of rehab and the expenses incurred not only as part of treatment, but also with living as a person with impairments.
- instead of being shipped back to Mexico - again - after being caught driving drunk - again - what if this man were put in a place where his labor contributed to the income of the woman that he injured?
Michigan: A man shoots and kills a cop, depriving the officer's wife and children of his love, support and income. We now have a single mom with three kids.
- instead of being imprisoned for life, what if this man's labor went into a college fund for the children of the man he killed?
Anywhere: a young man steals a car and wrecks it. The insurance company pays, the owner of the car pays, the young man may lose time.
What if a person who steals property and destroys or damages it was made to work for the owner of the property in order to make restitution?
From Scripture, please?
(NOTE: this post is only philosophical ramblings...mostly due to the continued and wearying and offensive habit of some egalitarians of comparing a Godly marriage where the husband is the leader...to chattel slavery)
What we think of as slavery (in the modern sense) fits into the "kidnapping for slavery" slot. Race-based slavery fits into that slot. Kidnapping and breeding of a group of people for the purpose of slavery is sin. Condemned. Wrong.
This "chattel" slavery (and subsequent denial of the slave's humanity) can (in NO WAY) be justified. The other three (especially in Scripture) have no impact on the way that the humanity of the slave (or bond-servant in some cases) was seen. In two of the cases the "slavery" was more "manditory labor" which was brought about by the actions of the person in bondage.
Again, I am not in ANY WAY advocating for a return of the chattel slave system, a dehumanization of a race, the manditory
From an emotional standpoint: I have no desire to be a slave or own a slave. To my modern mind, the idea is not at all attractive. As a Christian: slavery is to be avoided and I think that it is sin for a Christian to seek to be a slave.