Watch the debate:
In her Jubilee debate, Allie Beth Stuckey gave a powerful display of biblical womanhood, measured, intelligent, and unafraid to speak truth in a hostile room. She represented Scripture with clarity and grace. Yet her interlocutor still tried the oldest trick in modern moral rhetoric, the false dichotomy.
He pressed her with a loaded question: “So you’re saying not all slavery is evil?” It was meant to make biblical fidelity sound like moral failure. For a moment, the framing seemed to work. She rightly condemned slavery as oppression, then later recovered the biblical distinction and reframed the conversation around truth rather than optics.
That recovery was critical. It showed why Christians must define their terms before defending them.
The Bible and Chattel Slavery
Let this be unmistakably clear: the Bible fully condemns the kind of slavery practiced in the 19th century—the racialized, coercive, lifelong ownership of human beings. The transatlantic slave trade violated every moral principle God established. It was built on kidnapping, theft of labor, and the denial of human dignity. Each of those acts carried the death penalty under Mosaic law.
“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:16)
That verse alone demolishes the claim that Scripture ever condoned the slave trade. The prophets condemned exploitation. The apostles denounced “enslavers” (1 Timothy 1:10). And the gospel shattered every hierarchy of value between peoples. Chattel slavery was not biblical; it was rebellion against biblical law.
The Modern Word and the Ancient World
The modern world hears slavery and sees that evil. But the ancient word doulos, often translated “slave” or “bondservant,” had far broader meaning. It described debt servitude, indenture for survival, judicial labor after war, or voluntary service within covenant. The morality depended on cause, context, and character of the master.
When modern ears collapse those distinctions into one definition, they erase the moral precision of Scripture and make ancient justice sound barbaric.
The Judicial and Civil Context
God’s law permitted limited judicial servitude, particularly for war captives and those repaying debts. In a world without prisons, this was often mercy rather than cruelty. Captives could serve instead of die (Deuteronomy 20:10–15). A Hebrew debtor could sell his labor, be treated as a hired worker, and be released in the seventh year with provision for a new beginning (Deuteronomy 15:12–15).
These were not racial hierarchies or perpetual bondage. They were structured, temporary systems that restrained greater evil and pointed toward redemption. God’s law built mercy into the very concept of servitude because He was already moving humanity toward freedom.
The Redemptive Reversal
The New Testament then reclaims the word itself. Paul calls himself “a bondservant of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1). The Greek doulos meant total belonging, yet Paul uses it as a title of honor.
“Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:18)
Here the paradox of the gospel is complete. Sin’s slavery corrupts; God’s slavery restores. The morality of servitude depends entirely on the nature of the master. To belong to Christ is to find the only freedom that cannot be taken away.
“Take my yoke upon you… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29–30)
What the Debate Revealed
Allie Beth Stuckey’s opponent relied on linguistic confusion to score moral points. She disarmed it by returning to Scripture’s categories, condemning the slavery of man over man while affirming the servitude of man to God. That is not contradiction; it is coherence.
Her composure under pressure modeled biblical womanhood at its best: truth spoken with grace, courage joined with precision.
Why It Matters
If believers allow the world to define their words, the argument is lost before it begins. The Bible’s moral arc moves from coercion to covenant, from forced bondage to willing allegiance. It does not erase the word slave; it redeems it.
The world hears slave and thinks only cruelty. God speaks slave and reveals the nuance of how it can mean belonging, purpose, and love.
I am a willing debt slave to Christ and have never been more liberated.
Soli Deo Gloria