REMINDER: Juneteenth Is About The End of Slavery in America in 1865 But, Remember, Millions Are Still Enslaved Here And Around The World Today

June 19, 1865, was the day slaves in Texas first heard about President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation three years earlier and the fact they were thus free, precious news that was brought to them by Union Major-General Gordon Granger.

Americans celebrate this day as the federal holiday of “Juneteenth,” the informal contraction of the words June and 19th by the slaves in Texas. That we celebrate Juneteenth today as a nation is an emphatic measure of how far America has come since the Civil War.

But let’s not forget that slavery, as it was known in the Confederate States of America, was only ended in the United States for an estimated four million African-Americans. Today, according to the World Population Review, there are more than 10 times that many slaves around the world  and they encompass multiple ethnicities:

“Slavery is a system in which principles of property law are applied to people, enabling individuals to own, buy, and sell other individuals—designated “slaves”—as a form of property. Slaves are unable to withdraw from this arrangement and are typically forced to work for little to no pay. Slavery has played a role in the history of nearly every country on Earth and remains a massive problem in many places around the globe.

“Today, 167 countries still have some form of modern slavery, which affects an estimated 46 million people worldwide. Modern slavery can be difficult to detect and recognize in many cases. This is because slavery has moved underground in most countries and because the definition of slavery has expanded and evolved over the past several decades.”

There is also the reality that slavery of the modern sort is very much present in America today, thanks to the Mexican drug cartels that are smuggling thousands of children, as well as young men and women, across the border to be captives in the horrors of human trafficking for sex and labor.

Let us remember, too, that being physically enslaved is not the only form of slavery facing human beings. There is also spiritual slavery and it affects every person, according to the Bible, which tells us at Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

It is a terrible thing to be “owned” by another human being, but the list of things to which we are all subject to being enslaved is long and all too familiar: Lust, addictions of many kinds, gluttony, gossip, jealousy, rage, avarice, laziness, ruthless ambition, power, celebrity, selfishness, rebellion, pride … the list goes on and on.

But there is freedom from the slavery of sin and it is made available to every person who asks for it by Jesus Christ, as Galatians 4:4-7 explains:

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

And how are you adopted? Paul describes it at Romans 10:9-11 when he writes:

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

Want to know more? Let’s get some coffee and have a completely confidential conversation. Just email me at: mark.tapscott@hillfaith.org. If you want to know why I do this, check this out. There will be no preaching, no judgement, no histrionics. Just the facts and God’s Word. Take it or leave it.

Happy Juneteenth!

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