Ellen Gould White
What does Ellen White write about...
Ellen Gould White über: "God's attitude toward slavery in the Old Testament"
Answer
In the Old Testament God watched over the interests of the oppressed and gave the Israelites commands that protected the rights of servants and prevented cruelty. The legislation aimed to foster a spirit of generosity and freedom rather than favoring slavery, by limiting the term of service to a maximum of seven years. God called His people to act with compassion and tenderness and always remember that they themselves had once been servants in Egypt.
God's protection for servants and the oppressed
»The Lord desired to protect the interests of the servants. He commanded the Israelites to be merciful and to remember that they themselves had been servants. They were instructed to respect the rights of their servants. Under no circumstances were they allowed to mistreat them. In dealing with them they should not be as demanding as the Egyptian overseers had been with them. They should let tenderness and compassion govern the treatment of their servants. God wanted them to put themselves in the place of the servants and treat them as they would wish to be treated by others under the same circumstances. ... The Lord stipulated that even these should not be held as serfs for more than seven years. At the end of this period each servant received his freedom. ... Thus God promoted the cultivation of a high and noble spirit rather than a spirit of bondage and slavery.«
God's claim on the human soul
»God gives [the Lord] no claim to human souls, and He has no right to hold them as His property. Christ died for the entire human family, whether white or black. God has made humanity a free moral being, whether white or black. The institution of slavery abolishes this and allows a person to exert power over his fellow human, a power that God never granted him and that belongs to God alone.«
Exhortation to justice and compassion
»So says the Lord of hosts: Practice true judgment and show each other mercy and compassion; and do not oppress the widow, nor the orphan, the stranger, or the poor; and none of you should devise evil in your heart against your brother.«
Original Sources (English)
Stephan Krol
Founder of EGW Vision
Why I built EGW Vision
Hello, I am Stephan Krol. I started this Ellen White website to make the writings of Ellen G. White and the Adventist pioneers easier to access for everyone.
EGW Vision helps you find topics, statements, and quotes faster, especially when many original sources are not yet fully available in your language. The tool searches semantically, groups relevant content by topic, and presents matching results as clearly as possible in your language.
My hope is that this tool supports personal Bible study, strengthens trust in the original sources, and helps more people discover the message of these writings with clarity, depth, and joy.
