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Freedom is designed by God as the environment in which the gospel of salvation can be diseminated without
fear of persecution. It is established in a nation and given to all men, saved and unsaved alike, with the
primary objective being the redemption of all who freely choose to accept God's gift of eternal life. Tragically, few of us truly understand freedom today. Our system of law has been distorted to address social problems and mandate morality, and when the law is thus abused it becomes a vehicle for tyranny. Some myths concerning freedom; Freedom does not guarantee equality To the contrary, freedom guarantees inequality! The only equality that is legitimate, pertaining to all men, is equality before the law. Justice should be blind, and NOT for sale. Anyone with a brain can determine that all of us are unequal in many ways. Some of us are geniuses, some idiots. Some of us are slim, some rotund. Some are rich, some are poor....freedom was not intended by God to adress these inequities, and besides, they are irrelevant so far as salvation is concerned. What freedom does ensure is equal opportunity. Allow me to point out that this priviledge, by definition, includes the freedom to fail, or to put it another way, we can use our freedom not to take advantage of opportunity. In other words, we are what we determine ourselves to be in a ideal environment. Any law, or social dictum, which attempts to eliminate the distinction between failure and success, in any venue, is evil and anti-freedom. This is not to say we should not have compassion on those who suffer poverty, for it is an unfortunate truth that many do not have equal opportunity. There are injustices afoot in our society, such as racism, and other shades of prejudice. Whenever any governing body attempts to right this imbalance it results in an even greater injustice, the destruction of freedom for all. A case in point; socialism. This evil system takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Of course, this cannot be accomplished unless the government siezes the prerogative to distribute wealth according to its skewed policies by both nationalizing business and overtaxing the wealthy. It should be clear, from the failure of communism and other socialist strategies, that the intended outcome never realizes its objective. Rather than creating a middle class for all it undermines the incentive for capitol investment and plunges a nation into poverty for all. Freedom does not guarantee security You might say that freedom is a risky proposition, that is, left to our own devices some of us will do foolish things, like ride a motorcycle without a helmet, or smoke cigarettes. It would be grand if we could use the law to eliminate some of these foolhardy habits, but that can't be done without destroying freedom a mouthful at a time. American society is suffering from the crushing weight of this very malaise. We have become so preoccupied with security that we look to the law to protect us from any and all dangers. Leaded paint, mandatory insurance, smoking, seat belts, speed limits, and a plethora of other laws attempt to create a failsafe environment in which all of us will live to be 120 years old. It comes down to a choice between freedom and legislated security, otherwise known as tyranny. Freedom does not guarantee social justice We all have prejudices. This is a human failing, but it is not something the law should be used to correct. Most of us abhor racism. No man should be humiliated by denying him service in a business establishment, or making him sit at the back of a bus. Here again, the sinful nature of man will manifest itself whether there is a law or not, but to distort the law to this purpose is tyranny of another color. God provides for such injustices in his plan for us, and He deals with persecution in His own way. But when we begin to expect the law to forbid prejudice we open a can of worms that eventuates in the far greater crime of destroying our freedom. There are already laws prohibiting "hate crimes", persecuting someone for their race, or sexual orientation. The next step, and it will come, will be to prosecute Christians for voicing their criticism of, say, the homosexual lifestyle, or condemning the Muslim relgion as evil. In as much as man is a flawed creature, any arrangement we bring to pass, no matter how valid, will be abused. I submit, however, that we should be willing to tolerate the abuses rather than attempt to use the law to right every wrong. Freedom does not guarantee morality This is another fertile area for the abuse of law. No man has the right to superimpose his moral standards on another in matters which do not endanger life, property or privacy. Prostitution is a prime example of self-righteous meddling in the affairs of free men. Just because we may find a practice repulsive it doesn't alter the truth. If men and women choose to engage in sex for money, that's their business. God is the judge of sin, not us. Our laws should be designed to protect our freedom, not demand moral conduct of us. Drug laws are another abuse of the law. Like it or not, in a truly free nation its citizens should be at liberty to become drug addicts. Ok, so most of us consider this stupid, so what? It's none of our business! Most of our most serious problems with drugs would be solved by making them legal. Remove the profit incentive and you remove dealers from our shoolyards, meth labs from our middle class neighborhoods, and pushers selling drugs on our street corners. We don't see any large scale criminal activity selling booze, do we? No! And when we did have rampant crime related to alcohol it was because making it illegal makes it a profitable enterprise for criminals. *************************************** Freedom is very costly, and once we have it we must be willing to sacrifice to keep it, or lose it. Those sacrifices are horrific, but if we are unwilling to make them we become the slaves of a predator nation. It's a tough proposition, but the time will come when we'll be called upon to either buck up and fight or resign ourselves to tyranny. There is no middle ground, which is what our government is trying to affect this very hour. Elijah complained to God that he was the only true believer left in Israel, but God rebuked him saying that there were 7,000 who had not yet bowed a knee to Baal. The same is true of our society. A small cadre of believers are cognizant of evil, even though it masquerades as good much of the time, and for our sake God sustains America. By Divine standards, which are clearly spelled out in Scripture, we have passed the point of no return. In every single category which is essential for a viable national entity we have failed, yet God keeps this leaky craft afloat. September 11 was a grim wake up call that we are rapidly approaching the point where even "the pivot" of mature believers will no be sufficient to justify God's tolerance of our corruption. just as the Northern Kingdom of Sumaria fell to the Assyrians, our society is in the same state of disarray, and so will we succum to evil in the forseeable future unless we turn things around. If that comes to pass the pivot may be delivered in some spectacular way, or we may be called upon to suffer along with degenerate Christians as Jeremiah and the pivot of Judea did when they were taken captive by the Chaldeans. Of course, God foreknew that they would be restored to the land in time, so their captivity was temporary. What will become of us in similar circumstances noone can say, but one thing is certain; America is free because of Divine forebearance, but our judgement cannot be far into the future, as the 9/11 tragedy foreshadows. We should pray daily for our deliverance and remain vigilant, strong in the Word. |