Victims, Abusers and Reparations

Victims, Abusers and Reparations is an analysis of victims and their abuser, and whether reparations are a good thing or not.

In our world, there are a lot of issues being thrown about as extremely important, but people are using these issues for their own gain. What is fair and just is not what happens after they manipulate life around us.

Victims are People that others take advantage of them

We start off with the victims. In the gran scheme of things in US politics, these are the black people. These people are from Africa. They were enslaved and sold to whomever wanted to buy them. This was a practice of times past, and it still happens today, but with illegal immigrants that are enslaved in factories and sex houses.

But if the truth be told (and recognized), these were tribal people, and one black tribe attacked and conquered another warring black tribe and then sold their enemies into slavery. This became a business for some people. But if the truth were told, when two black tribes went to war one against another, at one time one would win and sell their prisoners off, and then when the other wins, they would do the same.

In other words, there was no moral wrong in the minds of either group. So when we examine the issue of black slaves in America, who has the moral high ground? America was built on the foundation of defending the rights of their citizens. What rights did these warring tribes in Africa hold in relation to one another? In America, under our form of government, the rights of the individual are held dear and defended. In time, our entire country was thrown into civil war over this issue. Where were the civil wars in Africa where this slavery was being practiced and great numbers of people opposed it? Yes, there were constant wars between these tribes, but none of them was over the issue of the wrongness of slavery. All parties practiced it without any moral conscience.

So who has the moral high ground here? Why do people who have low moral standards (they accept and practice slavery among other barbarous practices like killing every man, woman and child in a conquered tribal enemy) are allowed to dictate to those who have a higher moral standard (America with its Constitution and protected rights for individuals)?

What does the Bible say about this?

Deuteronomy 24:7 If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you.

The taking of a human being against his will, and enslaving him, is forbidden by God. But we contrast that will Moses’ rule about when one nation conquers another, and the conquering people want to enslave a pretty woman from among the conquered. Deuteronomy 21:10-14. There was a process, and in this process, there were certain “rights” of the enslaved that were to be honored.

But the point in the passage is that “there was not to be a merchandising” of the slave. In other words, the man saw a pretty woman he wanted among the conquered, AND HE WANTED TO MARRY HER! Then that was permitted. If at some future time, he was displeased with her, he had to let her go without selling her to another. This was a single case of a divorce.

Deuteronomy 21:14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.

This is supported by another passage on the same topic.

Exodus 21:2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

This is more akin to an indentured servant. There were people from England who indentured themselves, took on the role of a servant or slave, in order to get into America, usually because they were persecuted or found it unpleasant in their home country. Most of these indentured servants from England were white people. So slavery was not always something with the stigma that it has today. People voluntarily entered into slavery for some gain to them. Exodus 21:1-11 sets out rules about this, and the awl drilling a hole in the ear lobe (which thereafter had an earring in it) was a practice of willing or voluntary servitude.

A slave was a servant

In fact, the word in Greek for slave is also translated servant, i.e. employee. So in a sense, everybody who works for somebody else is a slave to that employer, in some minor way, not as extreme as the slave trade in times past.

Victims have some weakness

But there is a point here to be noted. Victims have some kind of weakness in them, in their character. This is not an excuse for others to abuse them, but they are usually not dominating, strong-willed, forceful in their character. We can call this meekness, and use the associated biblical concept of gentleness.

In the Bible, these are traits that are upheld and commanded by God. So being meek and gentle is a good thing. But people will use that “weakness” to their advantage to abuse.

Abusers are people who take advantage

But to have a victim, you need somebody who is an abuser, that takes advantage of the victim’s weakness. Can you imagine a professional wrestler being taken advantage of and abused? No. People who are weaker or of a more gentle nature are as a rule the victims, and the abusers are people who are shrewd, controlling, dominating, and overwhelming these meek people as a rule.

James 2:5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? James 2:6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

(See Bible verses against the rich exploiting the poor. Proverbs 14:31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor. Prov 22:16, 22-23; 19:17; 17:5; 29:7; Luke 12:33; Galatians 2:10. See a list of Bible verses on Rich Exploiting the Poor)

The point to see in this is that these manipulative kinds of people, usually the rich, are the abusers. They are people who dominate, control, and want personal gain from manipulating other people (who are not like them).

Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. Micah 2:2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

God condemns the abuser of weaker people. After all is said and done, everyone has to give an answer to God for their lives. These people are under God’s wrath, because they do not act with their Judge, God, in their thoughts. There is moral law at play, and they ignore or deliberately disobey it. God will set this right one day.

Applying what we have learned

But we need to understand the principles involved and make application to our lives, to our understanding, and follow what the Bible directs us to do. What seems “fair” to some people is not really the same position from God’s point of view.

As moral people, we should be against slavery. Indentured servitude is also something that is not addressed so clearly in the Bible, but while people voluntarily enter into this, the greatness of the problems of their lives is what motivates this bad practice.

From some accounts, people who are not Americans and want to live in the United States to work and “get gain” for themselves are now paying $20,000 per person to be smuggled into the US. That is before Donald Trump 2.0. Today, that price is probably doubled or tripled. But a “poor” family of 4, husband, wife, and two kids, were paying coyotes something around $80,000 of debt to “get the chance to work in the United States.” Where did they get this money? They didn’t. The indentured themselves to drug lords and cartels that threaten their family back home with death if they don’t pay. No coyote is including any job prospect, except maybe a life in drugs.

So this is like indentured servitude. People who accept debt to make a better life for themselves. With open borders under Joe Biden, the coyotes didn’t go out of business. Their business flourished.

From what I have seen, there are estimates of some 400,000 unaccompanied children that entered the US under Biden. Where are these children now? What happened to them? If you analyze this, these aliens (because if they had US citizenship, they would not use coyotes, which are really the culprits here), but these aliens take on a tremendous debt to make their lives better.

Compassion is commanded in the Bible, but to cover for people’s stupidity is not compassion. There are legal ways to enter a country to work, but these people could not comply (they didn’t have any skills) or did not want to comply (they have a criminal mindset, I will take what I want and nobody can stop me).

It was the Democrat party that supported and defended slavery. The entire Democrat caucus in congress voted against giving blacks their freedom. They all except 1 voted against giving blacks the right to vote. Likewise, they voted in union against giving women the right to vote.

But Democrats are manipulative, controlling people. Voting against the rights of people, they then convince them that they are “helping” them by giving them government handouts. Government assistance only further enslaves them. They must vote for Democrats if they are going to continue to get these free handouts. Look at the black population of cities and states that have been under complete, unbroken Democrat control for decades. Are their situations really better under the Democrats? No. Why do Republican cities and states have a better standard of living? Why are people fleeing California for Texas and Florida? There are real reasons here.

What about Reparations?

We can define a reparation as a financial reward to somebody who has been wronged. This is a biblical concept in itself. But there is more.

Proverbs 6:29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Proverbs 6:30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; Proverbs 6:31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

If a person is poor and hungry, and this excludes thieves who are rich and just live by stealing, but it is understandable that such a poor and hungry person would possibly steal to eat. While it is understandable, it is not right, and when caught, he is to pay seven-fold of the substance of his house. That was a sufficiently drastic penalty to deter even poor people from stealing. Again, the Bible commands us to respect the poor, to help the poor, but this goes hand in hand with the poor working and trying their best to support themselves.

People who want to pretend that they are poor to take advantage of the generosity of good people are not to receive anything from a Christian. When you examine those who live from public assistance in the United States, a number of these people really are able to work and support themselves, and some even have a lot of money that they protect and don’t want to spend on things like food and shelter, clothing, medicine. They are people who just want to live off of the good nature of others.

As a pastor of a church, I have been in the homes of people who want us as a church to help them with their expenses. The line that they give us is that they do not have money to buy food. We have taken them food, but it is very revealing when in their home, they have cable TV, and the single mother has a half dozen pieces of jewelry that is gold hanging around her neck and on her hands. The wicked heart of people must be factored into all of this.

So the biblical principle is that a thief, when caught, should repay what he has stolen, many times over.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

But God has placed a limit on this reparation. It cannot be passed onto a thief’s children or descendants. The principle is the person who has willingly wronged somebody else has the complete obligation to repay the wronged person. It goes no further.

Today we are talking about people who were never slave owners repaying people who were never slaves. And somehow this is twisted into a moral issue, that supposedly God commands us to do this. If we meditate on this and think this through, what is happening is manipulative, controlling people are inserting themselves into the victim and abuser situation to get advantage for themselves, i.e. the Democrat party is getting political control out of pushing the victim narrative, and placing guilt on the abusers.

Psychological Manipulation

Here enters psychology, which I am against psychology. Psychology tries to fix man’s problems outside of the context of God. Sin is redefined to be whatever the psychologist wants to attack at the moment.

But the use of victims and abusers is very telling. Who pushed for keeping the blacks in slavery and not being equal citizens with white American citizens? The Democrat party. So they were the abusers in the matter of slavery. Who invented the KKK, the Klu Klux Klan? Southren Democrats to keep the blacks under their control and living in constant fear.

Who are now “the champions of minority rights”? The Democrats. After provoking this abuse, defending it, now they are the ones who everybody should support to defend “the victims.” They have no real moral values in this, and they are divisive, breaking up America into groups of victims and abusers, which is how they get and maintain power and control. This is vicious to use people in this way.

Victimhood is a Wrong Concept

I was in a missions conference in a black church years back, and I was the only white person sitting at the table of black brethren. The conversation turned to Ronald Reagan, and a leader of a black inner-city youth ministry was lambasting Reagan. I voted for Reagan so I was just listening, wondering what am I doing here? A black Bible teacher from a school in Georgia made a comment that I found stunning.

He said, “Brother, with that attitude of being a victim, God will not use you for anything in His work.” “Why do you say that?” was the reply. “If Joseph would have had your attitude at his brothers selling him into slavery, God would have left him to rot in an Egyptian jailhouse.”

The point of this is that God is sovereign over us. This same just God allowed Job to go through what he went through. God didn’t sin with Job. That is God’s right and within His authority. God gives us what we have in life, and He demands that we be good stewards of that.

1 Samuel 2:7 The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

Romans 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

God sets each person in life and in their particular situations of life as God feels fit. This means that the rich have nothing to brag about, and the poor have nothing to complain about. There is a lot of activity to make a rich man rich, and there are a lot of bad decisions that usually cause a poor person to be poor. But we cannot overlook the foundational concept that God places both in life. God also elevates one (the humble and contrite before Him) and brings down others (the haughty and proud).

But the key take-away from this is that no matter what you recieve in life, you should bow before the Lord who gives and takes away from everybody. You do not allow yourself to fall into the sin of complaining about being a victim.

1 Corinthians 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Numbers 11:1 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

Israel was liberated from slavery in Egypt by the mighty hand of God. But after they fled, still not taking possession of the promised land, they began to complain about what they were liberated from. God deals very strongly with “the victims” that fall into this trap of victimhood. God sent serpents in the desert to harm these complainers.

Numbers 11:4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

There was a root motive underlying their complaining, and that was greed. These people used the ill that was perpetrated again them as a reason for their getting a free handout. God took care of the some million estimated Isaelites for their forty years of wandering in circles in the desert. But God’s provision is never going to fulfill the greedy man’s heart.

James 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

So what is the conclusion? It is not morally right to ask people who were never slave owners, nor involved in slavery, to pay reparations. It is wrong for black people to think that they are owed something from the rest of the country. They are only greedy, and it is showing greatly. If all these white millionaire Democrats would just write thousands and thousands of dollars of checks FROM THEIR OWN PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNTS to every black person they meet, I would have some minimal amount of respect for their position. But what they are wanting is to take from the US taxpayer, to give.

The Democrat party has as a platform or base principle of their party the division of America, using the victims against the abusers, which they were those abusers in the past, and they continue in the same path as their forefathers today.

Victims, Abusers and Reparations