An excellent example of Christ's attitude toward slavery is found in His encounter with a Roman Centurion and his slave (Luke 7:1-10). The story tells of a Roman Centurion who had a sick slave. He sent word to Jesus asking him to heal the slave, but he also sent word that the Lord need not come to him because he was sure Jesus could heal the slave from any distance. Jesus Christ did not condemn the slaveholder, nor did he instruct the Centurion to set his slave free. He simply healed the slave and praised the slaveholder effusively saying, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." (Luke 7:9)¹ Passages such as that one suggested to me that the message Christ brought was one of personal salvation, not of liberal social activism.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, male or female" does not call for racial integration any more than it calls for the elimination of sexual differences or even the end of slavery. The message is very clear and very simple: salvation of Jesus Christ is open to all who believe in him, male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free.

It became clear to me that both the Old and New Testaments acknowledge the differences in mankind. Certainly, though, the New Testament expresses a climate of love and respect that represents a change from the harsher dictates of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ and the writers of the New Testament seem to accept slavery, but slaveholders are admonished to treat their slaves kindly, and although Jesus acknowledges the different races that God Himself created and the "bounds of their habitations," He decrees that His salvation is open to all.

An illustration of how far afield some of the organized Christian churches have strayed from the words of Jesus is the push by many of them for gun control. He said in words one cannot mistake

. . . and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. (Luke 22:36)²

How would the liberal media treat someone today who said, "If you do not have a gun, sell your coat if you must, but buy one!" The liberal, Marxist-oriented, social gospel that egalitarians say is in the Holy Bible exists only in their own minds. Liberal humanism has now been grafted onto the faith of our forefathers. The wimpish and almost effeminate popular portrayal of Jesus today is a good illustration. In truth, Christ Jesus was both gentle and manly. His love came from His inner goodness and great strength. One can contrast the flower-child, hippie, media version of Jesus with the Biblical account of Christ going into the temple, turning over the tables, and driving out the moneylenders with a cat-o'-nine-tails (a scourge usually made of nine knotted lines or small cords).³

In recent years, liberal radicals have so perverted the meaning of Christ's message, that some church money has gone to support Communist revolutionaries. For instance, the National Council of Churches, a prestigious grouping of mainstream churches, sent money to Communists in Africa who were ultimately responsible for the murder of Christian missionaries.