bluelake

Actually if you take a look at Christ's walk from birth to the cross you will find that one of the first area's he went to when he started his earthly ministtry was Samaria.

After leaving the temple in Jurusalem where he cast out the moneychangers and such (John 2) he then had the encounter with Nicodemus.  And then he went out of the way and took the road less travelled by the Jews and went into Samaria where he met the woman at Jacob's Well (John 4).  And he stayed in Samaria for 2 days.  This was all before the Sermon on the Mount and His Galillee ministries.

Brother Jerry

Thanks for the greeting BEP.

But I used to go by Tog Neve.  Was quite some time ago actually.  And could not recall the log in information so just went with a new one.

And thank you for the comments as well.  And you are correct there are verses that talk about the treatment of animals as well.  I still find it truly amazing how much there is in the Bible and when you sit down and do a study, and I mean an in depth study, you can find even more and more of God's plan for us.

Be looking for some further posts and things from me.  I have many lessons I taught for the teens on some good topics.  

Later

Brother Jerry

I have often heard people talk about how the Bible talks of slavery so thus Christians must condone slavery.  

Let us get something strait on that.  Not once will you find in the Bible where God has directed us to make slaves of people.  But what you do find is many directions on how to treat slaves.  And those are in respectful manners.  

Before anyone starts to scream at all let me elaborate Because I am not condoning slavery.  But what we can gather by studying the Bible is that slavery was an invention of man and not that of God.  Throughout the Bible God has stepped in to provide us guides on how to deal with the evils that we have instituted.  Man brought in slavery but it was God who dictated the proper treatment of slaves.  It is God's desire to remove slavery and in His time He is doing so.  

The treatment of slaves was just as bad in the OT times as American histories.  The Hebrews of Moses' time were not treated as simple debtors working off a debt.  The Pharoh saw them as a threat and conquered them and forced them under whips and beatings to do hard labor and build his city.  

But if the Hebrews were to ever find themselves in a situation where they had slaves then they were to do so for the individual for only 6 years then they were to set them free with money and food.  And if they were to beat their slaves then they were to be set free.  The slaves of the Hebrews were treated with more respect than the Hebrews were shown by the Egyptians.  

There are many verses that show how a Jew at the time should treat a slave and many to remind that same Jew of their history and how they were treated as slaves.

Are we to have slaves today?  No I believe that God's plan was to rid the world of the abomination of the man created idea of slavery.  And in todays societies around the world for the most part slavery is not accepted.  But did people have slaves?  Most certainly and God provided a means to show how slaves should be treated as people and to share a love to them instead of treating them as property.

Brother Jerry.