A Statement on Slavery and the
War Between the States,
by Rev. Steve Wilkins
On the issue of slavery, I want to be very clear on what I understand to be the teaching of the Bible. Any race-based system of slavery is an abomination and cannot be defended by anyone who takes the Bible seriously. Man-stealing is also a grievous sin and is clearly forbidden in God's Word, but owning slaves and following the restrictions of the Word of God in the treatment of them, is not a sin. A Christian view of slavery requires the master to educate, evangelize, and edify all slaves under his authority — so as to prepare them to live responsible and faithful lives under God. The South did not consistently follow the Biblical requirements which governed slavery and for this and other sins justly suffered the judgment of God in the war and afterwards.
The North, ignoring its own role in the establishment of slavery through the slave trade, and rife with the racism that tragically characterized the majority of Americans in the 19th century, was also judged by God in this war. The radicals in the North were driven not so much by a concern for the slave as they were by a lust for power and a desire to transform the country from a constitutional republic into a unitary State ruled by an all-powerful, centralized government. It was not necessary to fight a war in order to end slavery. But war was a convenient tool by which the radicals could put their revolutionary ideas in place. Slavery, therefore, was merely the pretext to justify the destruction of the old constitutional order of our union. By means of the war, political sovereignty was wrested from the States and placed exclusively in the hands of the Federal government. The central government, which was originally created to be the servant of the states, became their master. In this way, the war was the means by which God judged both the North and the South.
We can all rejoice over the demise of slavery in this country. But the war of 1861 resulted only in the formal abolition of the institution. The enduring legacy of that war is not the abolition of slavery, but the creation of an unconstitutional, unrestrained, leviathan-like central government which has effectively destroyed our liberties and enslaved us all.