Why God Didn't Destroy Humanity or Override Free Will—and How He Chose the Harder, Holier Path of Societal Sanctification
When people read the Old Testament and encounter practices like slavery, polygamy, or patriarchy, the immediate reaction is often moral outrage. "Why didn't God abolish these things right away?" But the real question isn't why God allowed cultural sin.
When Israel worshiped the golden calf at Sinai, God was ready to wipe them out and start over. When the earth was filled with violence in Noah's day, He did exactly that—judgment by flood. Total reset.
God could have chosen death—swift, righteous destruction.
He also could've chosen robots—override human will, program morality into hearts like software, eliminate rebellion by design.
But He chose neither.
Instead, God chose the harder road: accommodation.
He chose to work within broken cultures to gradually sanctify them, embedding truth in time, preserving freedom while moving history toward Christ.
It's slower. Messier. But it honors both the justice of God and the image of God in man.
The Divine Dilemma: Judgment, Override, or Redemption?
God's options were stark:
- Destroy a sinful people? He'd done it before.
- Rewire their will? That would violate love itself.
But the third option—patient redemption—meant enduring sin for a season in order to defeat it forever. God's accommodation isn't moral compromise; it's divine condescension for the sake of transformation. He didn't sanctify cultures by bypassing human agency. He did it through covenant, law, incarnation, and grace.
And that redemptive arc reaches from Genesis to Jesus—and beyond.
Divine Accommodation as Redemptive Strategy
Jesus makes this principle explicit in Matthew 19:8:
"Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."
God permitted certain practices—not because they were ideal, but because people weren't yet capable of the ideal. Just like sanctification in a believer's life doesn't happen overnight, cultural sanctification unfolds across generations.
Divine accommodation isn't an endorsement of sin. It's the strategy God uses instead of judgment or override. It's what made redemption possible without destroying the very people He came to save.
Slavery: Regulated, Constrained, Undone
Slavery in the Hebrew Bible was not ideal—but it was constrained within redemptive boundaries:
- Slaves released every seven years
- Physical abuse punishable by law
- Foreign slaves granted asylum
- Families reunited
Compared to the surrounding world, this was morally revolutionary. But even more: it was temporary. A holding pattern. A path toward abolition through spiritual reformation, not civil war.
These laws weren't meant to last forever. They were footholds toward freedom—principles to be fulfilled in Christ.
The Christocentric Fulfillment of Cultural Sanctification
Jesus didn't lead a slave revolt. He did something more radical: He preached a kingdom where slavery couldn't survive.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to set the oppressed free." — Luke 4:18
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." — Matthew 22:39
"There is neither slave nor free… for you are all one in Christ Jesus." — Galatians 3:28
Jesus fulfilled the arc that began with Moses. What the law regulated, He rendered obsolete. Love made slavery theologically impossible.
Societal Sanctification: The Long Redemption
Just as sanctification in a believer is slow and often painful, cultural sanctification unfolds over centuries. God met patriarchs and tribes where they were—not to leave them there, but to lead them toward justice, dignity, and truth.
The Old Testament doesn't celebrate polygamy, kings, divorce, or slavery. It shows God tolerating fallen systems while planting time bombs inside them:
- "Love your neighbor"
- "Do justice, love mercy"
- "In humility count others more significant than yourselves"
These ideas destabilized ancient hierarchies. And when Jesus came, they exploded into a community of radical equality.
And Here's the Kicker
Sanctification is progress without perfection. But it doesn't stop there.
Just as believers will one day be glorified, so too will cultures. God isn't just redeeming souls. He's redeeming civilizations. The law restrained. Grace transforms. But glory finishes the job.
"Behold, I am making all things new." — Revelation 21:5
Not just hearts. Everything. Societies. Systems. Structures.
Slavery was a stage. Love is the way. Glory is the destination.
The Gospel Makes Injustice Impossible
The law restrained evil. Grace disarms it. Glory will destroy it.
When Christ reigns fully, no one will own another. No one will exploit another. Why? Because love—true, divine love—makes injustice impossible.
That's the genius of God's third way. Not death. Not robots. Redemption.
The Final Arc: From Accommodation to Glorification
We do not have to choose between defending slavery or abandoning Scripture. We have a third option—seeing slavery as a symptom God restrained, dismantled, and ultimately eliminated through Christ.
What we see in the Old Testament isn't moral confusion. It's redemptive restraint—God refusing to destroy or override, but instead choosing to patiently transform.
And what began in regulation ends in resurrection.
Conclusion: Love Resolves the Dilemma
Jesus reduced all the complexity to two commands:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself." — Matthew 22:37–39
Under that love, slavery dies. Oppression breaks. Cultures rise from ashes.
The divine accommodation wasn't God compromising. It was God delaying judgment to make room for mercy. Because He wasn't interested in death or programming. He wanted real transformation.
And He got it.
Apologetics in Action — Strategic Responses to Slavery Objections
The framework of divine accommodation and societal sanctification isn't just theologically sound—it's practically powerful. It gives us a coherent way to defend Scripture's integrity without dodging hard questions.
1. Start with Their Values, Not Your Framework
Don't lead with: "Well, divine accommodation explains…"
Do lead with: "What would you have wanted God to do? Instantly abolish slavery in cultures that would've collapsed? Or gradually transform hearts and institutions from within?"
2. Use the Double Bind Strategically
Skeptic: "If God is good, why allow slavery?"
You: "That's interesting—because usually when God does intervene directly, like with Canaan or the Flood, people call Him harsh. So which do you want: no intervention or strong intervention?"
3. Appeal to Their Progressive Values
You: "The abolitionists weren't rebelling against Scripture. They were fulfilling it. Wilberforce, Quakers, Tubman—'love your neighbor' made slavery impossible."
4. Use Modern Analogies
You: "Think about systemic racism. Do reformers demand overnight change? No—they work through law, culture, education. That's what God was doing in ancient Israel."
5. Flip the Burden of Proof
You: "If you were God, how would you have ended slavery in tribal societies without collapse? You get real people, not theoretical utopians."
6. Focus on Outcomes Over Origins
You: "What other ancient religious text birthed universal human rights? The biblical trajectory—especially through Christ—is unique."
7. Use the 'Time Bomb' Language
You: "God planted time bombs—'love your neighbor,' 'do justice'—that exploded oppressive systems once hearts were ready."
8. End with Jesus' Simplicity
You: "Jesus reduced it all to love God and neighbor. Under that kind of love, slavery doesn't survive. That's the whole point."
What NOT to Do
- Don't minimize evil: "Slavery back then wasn't so bad…"
- Don't defend every legal detail
- Don't lecture—ask questions
- Don't be smug—respect the weight of the topic
Advanced-Level Responses
Moral Realism Challenge:
"Your critique assumes moral truth. But on naturalism, where does that come from? You're borrowing moral capital from theism to critique theism."
Historical Hypocrisy Callout:
"Show me another ancient legal code that punished slave abuse, mandated release, and contained abolitionist principles. The Bible leads that list."
Final Frame
You're not defending slavery.
You're defending a trajectory:
- From death avoided
- To autonomy preserved
- To holiness pursued
- To glory secured
God didn't choose death. He didn't choose robots.
He chose redemption.
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