Letters    

IN RESPONSE TO A HUMANIST WHO CHARGES THE BIBLE WITH ENCOURAGING SLAVERY, SEXISM, AND XENOPHOBIA

Dear A. F.                                                                                                       August 27, 1994

      The "Commentary" by Norm R. Allen, Jr. entitled, "Intellectualism vs. religion" that appeared in the August 18th edition of The Augusta Focus was an insult to every Christian. It could appear to some readers that the printing of such anti-Christian articles, and the printing of recent articles about Black Muslims putting them in a favorable light—it might occur to some that The Augusta Focus has taken a decidedly anti-Christian stance.

       The article by Mr. Allen was an unbridled attack upon the veracity of the Bible. It was filled with blasphemy; and when the writer stated that problems within society "have been condoned and encouraged in the Bible," and then lists "sexism, xenophobia, and slavery, etc." he is a calculated liar.

The Charge of Sexism

      To charge the Bible with condoning "sexism" reveals just how ignorant Mr. Allen is of both history, and sociology. But when he says, "...Biblical teachings helped to mold such hatred and disrespect for women," he is a malicious liar. It is to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the teachings of God's Word that women owe their elevation. Wherever the gospel of Christ has been rejected, there women are held in contempt, and in universal degradation.

     In every other religious system, women are either considered to be public slaves, or private mistresses. History tells us of the cruel treatment of women by Mohammedans, by Hindus, and by all other religious systems.

      Witness the degradation of women in Communist lands. In China, the birth of a daughter is considered a calamity. Most mothers agree to murder them. Elsewhere in the Far East, it is common for daughters to be sold by their parents. Wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is rejected, women are not considered to be responsible adults, and so are left uneducated.

     In India, women are often married without their consent. A wife is not allowed to eat at the table of her husband. And, until the gospel of Jesus Christ was brought to that land, there was no law forbidding suttee, or the burning alive the wife on the funeral pyre of her husband. The Greeks and the Romans, with all their culture and scientific knowledge, did not give a wife her proper place by the side of her husband. The Greeks had no concept of "mercy," and had no word for it until Christ coined it. It is the gospel of Christ that makes a wife a man's companion, his comforter, and the object of his affections, instead of an object to gratify his lusts.

      While the Patriarchs practiced polygamy and concubinage, God never sanctioned such practices, but from the beginning, He declared, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Monogamy, the law of one wife for a man, is the law of God. It is Christianity that abolished concubinage, wanton divorce, suttee, and infanticide; and those societies that will not be ruled by God will know the tyranny of sin with the resulting disorders of disease and cruelty. It is Biblical Christianity that guards the marriage bed, and that protects the lives of children.

    The gospel of Jesus Christ has elevated womanhood. This is the reason that pious women waited on Christ at the foot of His cross. This is the reason godly women watched at His tomb prior to His resurrection.

The Charge of Xenophobia

       Xenophobia is the fear or the hatred of strangers, or foreigners. But it was not out of either hatred or fear that God commanded Israel to be a separate, and a distinct people from the nations round about: it was on account of the fact that these people were idol worshippers. God commanded His people to separate themselves from such sinners, or they would follow them in their sinful practices. The people of God are to be exclusive, and alone. In Greek, the word "church" (ecclesia) means "called out ones." The command has not changed in the New Testament, and Christians today are still forbidden to marry unbelievers. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ...Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord ..." (II Corinthians 6:14,17).

The Charge of Slavery

      Slavery is not in, of, and by itself evil. What God condemns is cruelty. So, a slave in Israel who was assaulted by his master, and lost so much as a tooth, was given his freedom (Exodus 21:27). Any economic system, including capitalism, becomes evil when it becomes cruel to people. This is the reason that socialism and communism are such horrendous evils.

    When Mr. Allen charges the Word of God with condoning evils, he sets up himself and pretends he is qualified to judge the Author of Holy Scripture, that is, God. This is the distinction that essentially separates humanists with their worship of man, and Christians who worship the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate. For centuries, Christians have been called "people of the Book" because while a humanist acknowledges no authority higher than what he can understand, true Christians turn to the Word of God as revealed in the Bible. This is their authority.

       Christians are not to make the Bible conform to their opinions, but they are to accept as their opinion what the Bible teaches. According to the Apostle Paul, the very primer of knowledge is knowing that "no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1:20,21).

       The Bible is the authority of all Christians. The reason a humanist is not a Christian is because he trusts in himself. If God withholds from him the grace of faith, he will die in his sins in accordance with the law of the God he has chosen to ignore.

      Mr. Allen ought to spend time reading the Bible instead of reading volumes about the Bible. It is obvious that he has studied much of the writings of unbelievers. Let him now read the "Good Book."

        Norm is going to have to stand before Almighty God and give account for his deification of man, and for his deliberate, and those not so deliberate lies. No liar can be forgiven of his sins, and go to Heaven who does not repent of his sins and begin to do what is right.

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