I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.–Romans 12
“… do not be conformed to this world…”
British professor of theology Michael Reeves points out that “when you are within your culture, you just cannot see outside, it just feels, ‘this is universal'”…thus you may become “…a prisoner of our cultural moment…a prisoner of the age…”
A stark example of this can be seen in the many Christians in the American Colonial era who were slave holders, including members of denominations such as the Quakers. Two startling examples among Christians who stand out as slave owners are Jonathan Edwards, America’s premier theologian, and George Whitefield, the key preacher during the Great Awakening.
In the face of the abolitionists of his day, Jonathan Edwards penned a defense of a pastor who, like himself, owned slaves. Church historian George Marsden quotes Edwards writing: “the Bible expressly allowed slavery and it would not contradict itself.”
Regarding George Whitefield, Prof. Thomas Kidd writes, “Whitefield became connected with slave masters who had converted under his ministry, and though he never publicly retracted his criticisms of the institution, he complied with his wealthy friends’ offers to give him slaves and a South Carolina plantation. More importantly, Whitefield became convinced that he needed slaves to work at a Georgia plantation to fund the operations of his Bethesda orphanage.”
More than that, George Whitefield stood against Georgia’s ban on slavery. Thus, “he became arguably the colony’s leading proponent of slavery’s legalization.”
In spite of these prominent evangelical leaders, every-day Christians did not remain silent.
John Woolman stands out as one superlative example. During this period of the Great Awakening, Woolman’s conscience was unsettled when his employer directed him to write a bill-of-sale for a Negro woman being sold to another Quaker. It was 1742 and John Woolman was twenty-two.
Four years later, in 1746, Woolman wrote an anti-slavery essay, “On Keeping Negroes.” Much of his life, thereafter, was spent traveling among the Quaker Meetings in the Colonies, exhorting them to end this sinful practice among Friends. The end result: By 1776 American Quaker Meetings banned the ownership of slaves among their members.
Still, here in America in 1860, slave owners burned Charles Spurgeon’s printed sermons in protest against his anit-slavery stand. “I do, from my inmost soul, detest slavery anywhere and everywhere, and although I commune at the Lord’s Table with men of all Creeds, yet with a slaveholder, I have no fellowship of any kind.”
Fast forward to Today, and to Michael Reeves’ comment (above) which was in response to my question at the Spurgeon Library Conference. “I find it fascinating as a Brit, hearing that question being put…”
I opined that we do not burn his sermons today, but asked what might be the parallels between those sermon-burning Civil War era Christians and the reaction of American Evangelicals, today, towards Spurgeon’s clear words on war and Christians.
Here is a good summation of Spurgeon’s stand:
The typical American Evangelical response might well be the same as that of Jonathan Edwards (above), paraphrased as, “ “the Bible expressly allowed war and it would not contradict itself.”
Yet, as in John Woolman’s day, there are every-day Christians who do not remain silent. I can tell you of another twenty-two year old who was pricked in conscience and four years later was writing against Christians going off to war.
Here is a summation of my question and the response at the Spurgeon Library Conference.
Romans 12-13 Background and Context
Spurgeon Memes on War and Christians
This is the video of Michael Reeve’s response.
TextsInContext 