Washington's Advice Forgotten
The United States of America has gone a long way from the principles of its founding fathers. Today, in a public campaign sanctioned by the highest court in the land, the name of God is being systematically erased from buildings, schools and human minds. Yet George Washington, the first president of the United States, said, "It is impossible to govern the world without God. He must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligation."
Perhaps it is easy for us to see that the atheistic communist concept of freedom is in error. But what of the possibility of world law under the aegis of the United Nations?
Will the U.N. provide the answer? It certainly DID NOT provide the answer for the natives of West New Guinea when it turned them over to the covetous rule of Sukarno! It DID NOT provide the answer in the Congo where chaos continues! It is NOT helping soothe the hatred between Greek and Turk on the island of Cyprus!
Perhaps if we could get the laws of the United States — where there is true freedom of individual action — to be the laws of the world, we would then have freedom. But what about the growing chaos within our own borders?
What about the rising crime rates that make the United States a leader in crime around the world? What about the fact that many of our cities have become concrete jungles!? Our women and children are afraid to go out even during the daytime, and grown men must go by twos or threes and even then avoid certain sections at night. What about the accumulating effect of our sin against the very air we breathe by belching forth millions of tons of waste into it every single day? What about the waters which suffer from every pollutant from human excrement to dangerous insecticides to radioactive waste?
No, evidently the thirty-two million laws which are on the statute books of the United States in Federal, State and local governments are not sufficient to bring peace and prosperity, the liberty and freedom that every man wants. We have become a giant in the world — but we are a blind giant, stumbling, weak from cancer within, trying to fend off blows from without from every other nation on the face of the earth!
NO ONE CAN REVEAL WHAT LAWS GOVERN LIFE EXCEPT THE ONE WHO GAVE LIFE!
God gives life — and only HIS LAWS can govern its freedom. Yet mankind continues to write his rejection of God's LAWS in pain, suffering and the shackles of disobedience and rebellion.
Satan's Example
Satan made this mistake originally. Despite the fact that he was a great cherub (Ezek. 28:14) — despite the fact that he had the freedom to travel from one end of the, universe to the other, the freedom to stand at the right hand of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son in the very throne-room of heaven — despite all these freedoms and more, he REBELLED! (Ezek. 28:15)
Satan reasoned he could not be FREE and still have God rule over him! So, as with all who feel they cannot be free while they are living under authority and in accord with laws, he rebelled directly against the only authority that existed which was greater than himself! He reasoned in his own mind, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like' the most High" (Isa. 14:13-14).
This first instance of rebellion against law and authority graphically illustrates what happens to those who do not understand what true freedom is. Satan could not succeed in his rebellion against God, because God is ALL-powerful. Jesus, who was present at the time of his rebellion, records for us what happened: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven!" (Luke 10:18). Immediately Satan's dream of liberty and freedom under HIS OWN TERMS faded into the nothingness that it really was in the first place. His action, contrary to the law of love, had a direct Reaction which began immediately to strip away what freedom he had! Satan and his rebellious angels with him are now imprisoned by spiritual bonds in darkness waiting their day of judgment! (Jude 6).
Now, instead of having the freedom to enjoy the magnificent creation that God has made in the star-spangled heavens, Satan and his angels — now become demons — are bitter and frustrated, spiritually bound and sick — like ". . . wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever" (Jude 13). Satan and his demons soon will be chained literally in one small place for a thousand years — THIS IS THE RESULT OF THEIR SEARCH FOR FREEDOM WITHOUT LAW! (Rev. 20:1-3)
How About Adam?
Satan the Devil, Jesus Christ tells us in John 8:44, was the original liar and murderer. When Adam was created nearly 6000 years ago, he too chose to follow in Satan's footsteps rather than obey the laws of freedom that God offered to him. He went the way of his human nature, rather than using God's strength to overcome his human nature and live by God's laws of love which bring perfect freedom.
When first created, Adam was for a short moment living a life of complete freedom! He and his wife were the only human beings on earth, and therefore free from any enemy. All that they saw was theirs — they were not placed in a primitive jungle. They were given the complete freedom of a beautiful garden, manicured and planted and planned by the Creator God Himself! Food was on every tree — therefore they were free from hunger and want.
The only freedom they did not have was the freedom to cause themselves harm!
Yet Adam and his wife took the liberty of taking the only thing that was not theirs and, in so doing, opened a Pandora's Box of evil that is still producing its fruit to this day!
Immediately after Adam and his wife chose to go their own way — as opposed to GOD'S WAY — the TRUE freedoms they had were stripped from them! They were no longer free to roam through the garden that God had created for them. They no longer had free access to the very tree of life! Now their only freedom was freedom to sweat and toil and labor to produce enough food from an unyielding and thistle-infested ground to feed their mouths and the mouths of their children (Gen. 3:17-19). Their first-born son became a murderer — and that of his own brother. Adam found out the HARD WAY that sin confines and withholds and denies — that SIN (which I John 3:4 defines as "the transgression of the law") is NOT the way to freedom and life's blessings!
Adam's descendants went from bad to worse. God finally had to cut off even the breath of life from the nostrils of all but eight souls. Each man, going his OWN way, brought such chaos, pain and agony to this world that God destroyed it with a flood. And God warns us in His Word that, "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt. 24:37). Read God's description of the way things were just before the Flood. It's like today's world: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5).
What happened? ". . . The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be PUNISHED: but CHIEFLY them that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness, and DESPISE. GOVERNMENT"! (II Pet. 2:4-10.)
God will not save any soul He does not govern! Do not misunderstand — your keeping of the law does not save you — but unless you do keep the law GOD will not save you!
Is There a Way to Freedom?
Perhaps you have been deceived along with the rest of the world into thinking — as Satan did, as Adam did, as the men of Noah's day did, as Nimrod and every other rebel against the laws of God in all history did — that the laws of God are harsh and unjust! That the laws of God curtail freedom, that the laws of God are pinched and old-fashioned. That the laws of God are evil!
But what does your Creator-God in the New Testament say?
God tells us that He created mankind in the first place with the downward pull of human nature for a PURPOSE — "For the creature [creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who bath subjected the same in HOPE" (Rom. 8:20). Did God plan to leave us hopelessly entangled in the mess and problems in which we find ourselves? Moffat's translation of the Bible answers: ". . . The hope being that creation as well as man would one day be freed from its thralldom to decay and gain the GLORIOUS FREEDOM of God's children. To this day, we know, the entire creation sighs and throbs with pain [as a result of SIN great deserts cover vast areas of the earth, the air we breathe is polluted, the waters we drink are polluted, etc] and not only so, but even we ourselves, who have the spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we sigh deeply to ourselves as we wait for the redemption of the body that means our full son-ship!" (Rom. 8:21-23, Moffat Translation)
Yes, the TRUE FREEDOM that this world is searching for is offered to us by our CREATOR-GOD! If we will learn to be subject to the laws of His Kingdom, He will invite us to be very members of that Kingdom! Sons of God in every sense of the meaning of the word son! When we come to that point we will be ULTIMATELY FREE!
The glorious liberty that Paul talks about in this book of Romans is the abundant, joy-filled, law-abiding life that God Himself lives!
But as even the wise men of our world have pointed out, you cannot have freedom without law. The question to ask is: WHOSE LAW? By now you must see that only God who is the original Law-giver can be the One to answer that question!
And He does answer it!
James, the brother of Jesus Christ and an Apostle of the New Testament church, writes, "ACT on the word, instead of merely listening to it and deluding yourselves, for whoever listens and does nothing, is like a man who glances at his natural face in a mirror; he glances at himself, goes on, and at once forgets what he is like. Whereas he who gazes into the FAULTLESS LAW OF FREEDOM and remains in that position, proving himself to be no forgetful listener but an ACTIVE AGENT, he will be blessed in his activity" (Jas. 1:22-25, Moffat Translation).
New Testament Law Different?
Many people today think that Jesus Christ was included among the rebels against the law of God — that He came to do away with the harsh judgments of His Father! Yet by His own words He stated — "Think NOT that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am NOT come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17) You might have thought before that this law of liberty that James, Jesus' brother, is talking about is some nebulous "law of love" that doesn't really have any definition — perhaps a moral code that each individual must find on his own!
But that is not the case — James explains very specifically which law that law of liberty is! "For whoever obeys the whole of the law, and only makes a single slip, is guilty of everything. He who said, Do not commit adultery also said, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery but if you kill, you have transgressed the law!" (Jas. 2:10-11, Moffat Translation) Very plainly the law being spoken of here is the TEN COMMANDMENTS.
THESE ARE THE LAWS OF LIBERTY THAT EXPRESS GOD'S CHARACTER. These are the laws of liberty that God is going to require YOU to follow if YOU are ever going to be His Son! "Speak, act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom!" (Jas. 2:12, Moffat Translation)
This IS the Gospel
The Gospel that Jesus Christ taught was NOT a gospel of rebellion! It was NOT a gospel of doing away with law and order that His Father had established! It is NOT a new preachment of freedom without law!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD! A Kingdom must have four basic things: First of all it must have a king or governing leader; second, it must have subjects or inhabitants; third, it must have an area or territory for the subjects to inhabit; and fourth, it must have laws to govern those subjects or inhabitants.
God's Kingdom is very real — not some figment of the imagination! The Kingdom of God has all of the attributes of any kingdom. The KING of God's Kingdom is God Himself! (Rev. 19:16). The SUBJECTS in God's Kingdom are those individuals who repent of and change from THEIR ways of living, and begin to live the way that this great King prescribes (Rev. 20:4). The LAWS of that Kingdom are the Ten Commandments of God and many other laws mentioned in the Bible which magnify those Ten Commandments (Jas. 1:25). The TERRITORY of that Kingdom is this entire earth (Rev. 5:10).
To understand this more fully write immediately for our free article, "Just What Do You Mean — Kingdom of God?" and also our very thorough booklet — "The Ten Commandments" — explaining how each of the Ten Commandments is applicable today.
Because of rebellion against God's laws this world is teetering on the brink of Cosmocide — YOU KNOW IT IS! As far as YOU know the next moment could bring oblivion to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth! Fortunately God reveals in His Word that there are a few years left yet before this fury of destruction will be unleashed on mankind by mankind! Jesus pointed out this time almost 2000 years ago when He said, "And except those days should be shortened, there should NO FLESH be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:22).
MERCIFULLY God is not going to allow mankind to destroy himself! Lovingly God is going to intervene very soon! But when He intervenes it will be only to save those who have chosen to live His way — to be judged by the law of liberty — to come out from the chains and bondage of sin (the breaking of God's laws) and step into the glorious liberty that God offers to those who keep the laws of His Kingdom!
The choice is yours! Will you choose uhuru — or GOD'S TRUE FREEDOM?