The early pages of Mark Noll’s, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, contain various observations and quotations of eminent ministers of the period supporting and condemning slavery in America. The quotations include a number of Scripture verses and extensions from them that appear to support and reject slavery. Both sides argued strongly that God was on their side, and favored their view. So contradictory were these ministers perceived to be good and honest men, that the conflicting claims became sternly blatant causing many abolitionists to turn away from spiritual arguments against the practice of slavery. That led some persons into doubts about biblical veracity, and contributed to a serious theological shift. The church so largely influential, (convincingly shown in the statistics of Noll’s study) before the Civil War set the stage for the decline of the church in daily public life after the war. The impetus of the Finney revivals and the traditions that had made so great Christian influence on American life was significantly weakened.
The matter of racism was not so much the point as was slavery – slavery of any people. The black race happened to be the victims of slavery at the time of the confrontation between two beliefs about the peculiar institution. The victims were degraded by both becoming property and treated as inferior to another race. The contradictions and fervor over differences would make a different America than that which had pertained. The situation was heating up before the war, inflamed in the admission of California as a free state, and was changed after the war. For the Christian faith the loss in the rhetoric north and south among Christians was enormous, and can be tracked today many decades after the end of the war. The Bible was made to appear contradictory so not to be taken as fully acceptable for modern life. The conflict contributed to skepticism and withdrawal from authoritative revealed Scripture that continues in our era.
Our problem is to restore the veracity of Scripture to the general public to a greater sense of its authority and appreciation for service to all mankind. The main reason for concern is that if Scripture is contradictory in so important a matter as the freedom of human beings, is it also contradictory about other issues such as marriage and family, church in society, righteousness, and other themes – even human redemption? The instructed person must find an adequate solution to the variances about Scripture. One explanation is to remember that history reports what happened without approval of every movement or event. The Bible tells two stories. One is about God, and the other is about mankind. God is a person of love, justice, holiness, and a variety of attributes. Mankind believing in him should follow his model for them. However, if mankind insists on living only in the common grace of God and makes a human way as they find it, then God asks that the choices be followed in a certain way, primarily guided by peace and right. In this light a marriage may be divorced. (God hates divorce.) In this way a criminal may be executed, or war can be waged. (God hates murder.) Mankind lives with inequities in the needs of persons. (God hates inequities.) In all of this the Lord of life permits mankind freedom to determine plans and processes. If we choose to enslave mankind, that slavery is to be carried on in this way. (It is interesting that slaves tended to find their only comforting friend for hope in the Christian God – the God of Scripture.) To report what the human race does, and to suggest some limitations on even the ugly acts of society is not to say that God approves. Our logic differs from that of God. Whatever your status in an imperfect society, are you known for faithfulness in your contribution, in love, in sacrifice to others, judged by the completeness of righteousness in self-development, thought and activity? The person missing the meaning of life to immortality for resolution of all things including injustice does not fully understand either earth or heaven, of slavery (earthly) or servanthood (heavenly) – and so the scenario may be extended. There is wisdom found in the Scripture that observes life designed for earth, showing analogy of design for heaven’s life. The life of the child is not the life of the parents. There will be more parents evaluated negatively by God for their treatment of each other and their children than will be evaluated for stealing life from slaves. One wonders why so many secular persons offering nothing but earth life are so eager to reduce faith life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020