The Political Freedom Preachers
And what a striking parallel between the false ministers of Satan; PREACHING FREEDOM, all the while slaves to their own lusts, and busily trying to enslave others; what a parallel between these and the political preachers of the same doctrines.
Would-be "leaders" in various movements scream about lack of freedom, deprivation of rights, social injustices and the like. They decry the virtual SLAVERY of the peoples they wish to incite.
Yet they, themselves, preach a NEW kind of slavery — that of mindless obedience to the dictates of their own policies. Inciters to chaos and violence loudly deplore violence; whole racial movements begin solely as a power play for personal aggrandizement.
And so the human pendulum swings.
For centuries, humans have kidded themselves they can find true liberty for themselves — in their own governments, social orders, and religions.
They have only succeeded in drifting from one kind of enslavement to another — and have never achieved true freedom.
We're enslaved by our own inventions. Afraid of our own hugeness — terrified by the works of our own hands.
Today mankind sees himself facing that ultimate disaster of all — the suicide of the whole human race.
And all because we wanted liberty. Freedom. But we didn't know WHAT it was. And we didn't know WHERE TO LOOK for it.
True FREEDOM
What is real liberty? What is true freedom?
Our child psychologists seem smitten with the notion it is total anarchy; the right to do to whomsoever, at whatever time you choose, whatsoever you please.
In our homes and schools, we have seen the horrible consequences of this utter misconception; in violent youth, juvenile delinquency, growing riots, classroom disturbances, and even mounting homicides between parents and children.
In our societies today, millions of us believe freedom is the freedom FROM law, to do whatever we can get away with — whenever the opportunity strikes. We lie, cheat, rob and kill; we gulp pills, swallow hormones, diet and exercise ourselves into a physical limbo; thus breaking every basic law of health; we cheat in school, cheat in business, cheat on our income tax, and drive too fast whenever we can keep a close watch in the rearview mirror — all because we feel "free" to.
Whole segments of our society feel themselves in virtual slavery to their environment; without jobs, education, or the promise of either — or without jobs, education, or the DESIRE for either — increasingly larger percentages of us try to kill and violently plunder other percentages of us. All, of course, under the banner of "rights" and "freedom."
But what is true freedom.
It is freedom of SPEECH, to be sure. It's freedom of ASSEMBLY, too. But it is also freedom from FEAR, and from WANT, and from PAIN and SUFFERING. We seem to avail ourselves much of our freedoms of expression, and especially freedom to DISSENT.
But when will we ever experience freedom of mind and spirit? When freedom from terror, from worry, from unhappiness, from pain and suffering?
When freedom from DEATH?
THIS is the true Freedom God offers. We ought to KNOW by now that our civil liberties and freedoms are GUARANTEED SO LONG AS WE LIVE WITHIN THE LAW.
It's about time we realize LAWS protect, preserve, and GUARANTEE our liberties.
But when we BREAK the law; those liberties can be taken away from us.
It is exactly the same with the laws of God! Live within them, and we are TRULY FREE. Freedom never imagined by most of us — the lasting, secure kind that NO human can take away from us.
Listen to the way Paul put it: "Let not sin therefore reign [RULE OVER you] in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6:12).
Which Authority Will It Be?
It is a CHOICE. A matter of deciding WHO WILL YOUR AUTHORITY BE? Will you continue to be RULED, FORCED, DRIVEN, like a cowering, whimpering, slave by your own habits (smoking, cursing, drinking, arguing, fighting, stealing, etc., etc), and passions (lust, covetousness, sex compulsions; even drug usage) — RULED over, by mere human emotion — or will you determine NO SUCH SATANIC AUTHORITY WILL BEAR RULE OVER YOUR LIFE — that you will be FREE?
Paul continued, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto SIN [and sin is the breaking of God's ten commandments — I John 3:4]; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you . . ." (Romans 6:13-14).
God says of HIS true servants, sin shall NOT drive you, whip you into line, FORCE you to commit acts that bring upon you all sorts of suffering. Your own passions, lusts, vanities and jealousies are NOT to bring you into abject, groveling SLAVERY! Your own prejudices, notions, thoughts, concepts, racial bigotries and religious ideas are NOT TO BE YOUR AUTHORITY!
Paul knew there was a literal BATTLE being waged. It was a battle of two different AUTHORITIES. HE was the prize!
"I find then a LAW, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, WARRING against the law of my mind, and BRINGING ME INTO CAPTIVITY to the LAW OF SIN [NOT, AS SOME FALSE PREACHERS MONSTROUSLY PURPORT, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD!] which is IN MY MEMBERS" (Romans 7:21-23). That "law of sin" in his flesh was his HUMAN NATURE, which is SUBJECT to vanity (Rom. 8:20), which is influenced by Satan the devil; by this present world, and by the pulls of the flesh.
But Paul said he had been made FREE from that "captivity" to the law of sin.
He said, ". . . For the law of the Spirit of LIFE in Christ Jesus bath made me FREE from the law of sin and death"! (Rom. 8:2)
Now he was deciding, as a FREE moral agent, just WHO HIS AUTHORITY WOULD BE.
He decided it voluntarily. No other person, no superhuman being, no influence FORCED him.
And he decided his authority would be God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and the WORD of God. He would no longer mindlessly, blindly cringe before the whims of human nature.
He would NOT be a slave to "what people think," and to the opinions and notions of others, equally enslaved to passion.
He would not do obeisance to lust; bow down before vanity; salute vanity; obey the instant impulse of greed. He would not drift through life as fair game for the myriads of WRONG authorities all around him.
He would CHOOSE. He would choose HIS OWN AUTHORITY. And he would NOT obey it out of fear!
It was FEAR, fear of other people's opinions; fear of family, friends, associates — fear of all sorts of real and imagined consequences that made him part and parcel of his own society.
But he would never be trapped into a FEAR RELIGION again.
Now he would obey because he DECIDED to. Because he could plainly see which RESULTS he wanted — what was the BEST WAY TO LIVE.
Never again would he stoop before the Molech of fashion; the Dagon of public opinion; the Ishtar of sex, or the Mars of hatred and war.
No idolatrous power would rule him — not HIM — not the apostle Paul. He found TRUE FREEDOM. Because he FREELY GAVE Himself to God. He volunteered to SUBMIT to God's authority!
And for that, He'll possess ultimate authority, for all eternity! (II Tim. 4:7, 8 with Rev. 20:4)
God wants to give YOU authority. But HE first expects you to be freed from the slavery of your own lusts and passions, the world and its societies, and from Satan the devil.
You're UNDER AUTHORITY. Right now. You LIVE in an "authority." You ALWAYS WILL be under authority.
Whose?