rom Us:
Welcome to our first issue of 1993! We hope you enjoy our new format. Besides bringing our costs down, another advantage of this is that we may begin adding some new features.
We should begin by welcoming aboard two new contributing editors. Douglas Jones will be writing a regular feature for us on the radical critique which Christianity applies to all forms of cultural unbelief. His column is entitled "Non Est" which is Latin for "It is Not." Doug was the very able editor of Antithesis, and we feel very privileged to have him with us. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. in philosophy at USC.
Paul Brown will also be writing a column for us. It will be called "Dimensions," and will seek to apply a biblical worldview to natural philosophy, or science (broadly speaking). Paul is currently working on a Ph.D. in Soil Science at the University of Idaho, and we are very glad to have him with us as well.
Another feature we are calling "Lesser Testaments." This will consist of testimonies from our staff and associates. The testimonies will all have the common theme of how God drew us to Himself, and how He has patiently taught us the meaning of sovereign grace. In this issue our circulation manager, Mike Nadreau, gives the glory to God.
Two other features have been added as well. One is entitled "Stauron" (the Greek word for "cross"), and will be written by different members of our staff from issue to issue. The theme of this column will be Christ and Him crucified.
There is also a new column which I will write on the general subject of education. It is entitled "Repairing the Ruins" and will undertake to address issues of interest both to homeschoolers and to parents who have their kids in a private Christian school.
Our "Southern Apologetic" issue drew considerable interest (and some fire). We have reprinted portions of some of the letters below, and afterwards I briefly respond.
From You:
The benefit of dredging for ancient jerking knee-bones in a politically correct, all-American lake is muddy . . . It appears you have an axe to grind about the War Between the States. But you would be better served leaving your ax dull and your audience sharpened.
I have seldom seen such a balanced treatment and never a more Biblical one. All of us down here (Christian Confederates) salute you as esteemed brethren not only for this, but for all the other fine work you have produced.
But consider this: If abolitionism was part of a shift from a God-centered orientation to a man-centered one, as Terry Morin implies, then exactly the same judgement could be made of the pro-life movement today. I would rather say, instead, that both abolitionism and anti-abortionism are God-centered. They focus sacrificially on those helpless persons who are the brothers and sisters whose sufferings are shared by the King in Matthew 25.
The origin of slaves, the treatment of slaves, and the social role of slaves all seem to be different in modern slavery than in slavery in the Bible. So when it is said in the Bible that a master legitimately had slaves, we cannot automatically say that a master today can legitimately have slaves, since the institutions are radically different.
Within the limitations of your medium, you have avoided both shallowness and that execrable prolixity and over-complication that plagues so many Christian (especially Reformed) journals. Best of all, you have done it all with a profoundly honourable meek spirit . . . All in all, for a bunch of Western Yankees, you done pretty good.
I would argue that these slaves were acquired through the biblically condemned method of man-stealing (Ex. 21:16 and Dt. 24:7), either by other Africans or by white slavers. Since man-stealing is condemned in the Bible . . . American slavery was wrong in principle, regardless of whether slaves were treated kindly or not.
Editorial Reply:
First, we do regret not being able to respond to all the points your letters contained -- this will have to do!
We agree that man-stealing is condemned by the Bible, and that the slave trade as it was practiced in Africa constituted man-stealing. We also agree that American slavery contained legally-tolerated abuses which would not have been tolerated under Mosaic slavery. But we maintain that when American slavery is compared to slavery as it existed in pagan Rome, we see that it was far more humane. And the instructions given in the New Testament to slaves and slave-owners are given in the context of a disobedient, unbiblical pagan system of slavery. So when abolitionists attacked a system that contained abuses, their rejection of the scriptural approach to fighting these abuses shows that they thought they were wiser, or holier, or more just than God .
Much of the modern pro-life movement is man-centered -- hence its relative impotence in its fight against the evil of abortion.
We must not simply fight the bad guys; we must do it the way God says. We should not fight for the sanctity of human life; we should uphold the sanctity of God's law, and the consequent dignity of human life.
