@vivify said
It should also be pointed out that the Bible promotes Jews as the "apple of God's eye". The bible allowed slavery and racism just like how slave owners and the Klan did.

Slavery in Biblical times was indentured servitude - someone owed a debt they couldn’t pay and so became an indentured servant. And some did it willingly so they and their children could have room and board.

It wasn’t anything like the race-based slavery in America in the 1700s and 1800s.

@pb1022 said
I would judge Christianity by the New Testament and not by the behavior of men.

As an academic subject or as thought experiment in a petri dish, perhaps. Another approach is to look at what Christians think and do as a result of, or in spite of their faith. Same goes for any religion.

@pb1022 said
Slavery in Biblical times was indentured servitude - someone owed a debt they couldn’t pay and so became an indentured servant. And some did it willingly so they and their children could have room and board.

It wasn’t anything like the race-based slavery in America in the 1700s and 1800s.

Leviticus 25:44-46

[i]“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become yourproperty. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life"

Clearly wrong.

@chaney3 removed their quoted post

And clearly, you don't.

@vivify said
Leviticus 25:44-46

[i]“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become yourproperty. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life"

Clearly wrong.

The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1), but does not outlaw slavery altogether.

Many see this as the Bible condoning all forms of slavery. What many fail to understand is that slavery in biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world. The slavery in the Bible was not based exclusively on race. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin.

In Bible times, slavery was based more on economics; it was a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay their debts or provide for their families. In New Testament times, sometimes doctors, lawyers, and even politicians were slaves of someone else.

Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for by their masters.

The slavery of the past few centuries was often based exclusively on skin color. In the United States, many black people were considered slaves because of their nationality; many slave owners truly believed black people to be inferior human beings. The Bible condemns race-based slavery in that it teaches that all men are created by God and made in His image (Genesis 1:27).

At the same time, the Old Testament did allow for economic-based slavery and regulated it. The key issue is that the slavery the Bible allowed for in no way resembled the racial slavery that plagued our world in the past few centuries.

In addition, both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of “man-stealing,” which is what happened in Africa in the 16th to 19th centuries. Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave-traders, who brought them to the New World to work on plantations and farms. This practice is abhorrent to God. In fact, the penalty for such a crime in the Mosaic Law was death: “Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death” (Exodus 21:16).

Similarly, in the New Testament, slave-traders are listed among those who are “ungodly and sinful” and are in the same category as those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, adulterers and perverts, and liars and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:8– 10).

Another crucial point is that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society. The Bible often approaches issues from the inside out. If a person experiences the love, mercy, and grace of God by receiving His salvation, God will reform his soul, changing the way he thinks and acts. A person who has experienced God’s gift of salvation and freedom from the slavery of sin, as God reforms his soul, will realize that enslaving another human being is wrong. He will see, with Paul, that a slave can be “a brother in the Lord” (Philemon 1:16). A person who has truly experienced God’s grace will in turn be gracious towards others. That would be the Bible’s prescription for ending slavery.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-slavery.html

@fmf said
As an academic subject or as thought experiment in a petri dish, perhaps. Another approach is to look at what Christians think and do as a result of, or in spite of their faith. Same goes for any religion.

How do you know if someone’s a Christian?

Because he or she says so?

@vivify said
So is any Christian going to answer? What kind of god is the Christian one when Christians have terrorized, tortured, slaughtered virtually every other race on the planet?

Start giving examples of this “mass slaughter” by Christians.

Meantime, you know how many people in just the 20th century have been murdered by atheists running communist governments?

250 million

@pb1022 said
What many fail to understand is that slavery in biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world.

Exodus 21:20-21

“Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.

Slavery in the Bible was exactly like slavery anywhere else.

One thing you get wrong: Indentured servitude in the Bible was specifically for other Jews. The Bible allowed non-Jews to be treated just like slaves were in the U.S.

@pb1022 said
How do you know if someone’s a Christian?

If they self-identify as one AND hold these beliefs:

that certain beliefs with regard to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are true, that God sent his son Jesus, the messiah, to save the world, that Jesus was crucified and died in order to offer the forgiveness of sins and the opportunity for what they see as "salvation", that Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended to heaven, that holding these beliefs and making endeavours to obey God's commandments, including those that Jesus is believed to have stipulated while he was alive, and demonstrate, by doing good works, that their faith is not dead.

There may be additional things [or things taken away] that define certain groups, sects and denominations of Christians, but I believe the above is a basic starter-commonality-core for almost all Christians.

@pb1022 said
Start giving examples of this “mass slaughter” by Christians.

Meantime, you know how many people in just the 20th century have been murdered by atheists running communist governments?

250 million

Spanish Inquisition, the KKK, white slaveowners, Native American genocide....there are too many examples throughout history to fully list.

So is your aim from this point on to skip answering how a supposedly "holy" god allows such hatred and murder? Is your plan to point out that Christians aren't the only monstrous group of people?

@pb1022 said
How do you know if someone’s a Christian?Because he or she says so?

You say so, so there is that. But I can't know if you really are one, it's true. For instance, I could say I was a Christian and copy-paste scripture or "devotionals" here too. But it wouldn't mean I hold the beliefs that I claim to. You say you are a Christian, so be it; I will associate your demeanour and behaviour with your professed Christianity.