What is happening to our freedoms? That’s the question on the lips of countless people in the Western world these days, Christian people among them too, surprisingly. First, an answer for Christians: When we, for decades, allow the Bible to be compromised, humanized and bastardized by godless, false church leaders and their all kinds of godless unities done in the name of love and tolerance, what else should we expect? Our freedoms are conditional! Dismiss the conditions and gone are our freedoms. If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free John 8:31-32.
First condition: abide in My word. Ignore the infantile and ignorant mouths that shout, “fundamentalist!” Abide means to continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry in the Scriptures of the Bible. Jesus Christ never speaks outside of His word. But, it begins in Genesis 1:1 and finishes in Revelation 22:21. That’s the first error too many Christian people make; they limit themselves to abiding only in the red-letter words of Jesus from the four gospels. Whilst that is better than nothing, it makes for weak discipleship which in turn, makes one a push-over for the godless, false crowd inhabiting church pulpits whose mission it is to drive Christ and His truth out of the church. It ought to be our mission both individually and corporately to drive them out!
Second condition: know the truth. “Truth is the actual state of affairs, as contrasted with rumor, false report and mythology.” The entire world system operates out of rumor, false report and mythology. That’s what makes biblical Christianity so vitally important. Remove truth from it and you’re left with spiritual and mental bondage, not freedom! That being the case, what do we have to offer those searching for truth? Nothing! That’s why they look at today’s “Christianity” then look away. Truth-seekers are not interested in participating in man-centered religiosity with its rules, rituals and traditions. They might put up with it at Christmas time and Easter but that’ll be the extent of it. If there’s no evidence of the real deal in a church they’ll head over to the nearest temple or mosque to see if it’s there.
Third condition: live the truth: Multitudes in the church know the truth but they don’t live it. In the home, in the workplace, the leisure place and in society they live like everybody else. They worry, they complain, they criticize, they blame, they curse. Why? Spiritual and mental bondage – they’re trapped in it – even more so than unbelievers. Why? Important to note: They’re self-deceived, not devil-deceived! But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was James 1:22-24. Sadly, even in biblical churches there can be more hearers of the word than doers.
Fourth condition: deny self, follow Jesus. If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me Matthew 16:24. Herein is the biblical key to true discipleship. Self-denial unseats self from the center of one’s life and places Jesus Christ there. Self-denial is the primary reason for biblical Christianity being most unpopular. It costs one everything; man-centered religious practice costs one nothing. That explains the Bible being increasingly compromised, humanized and bastardized not only throughout the Western church, but also in regions beyond it. Believer or non-believer, believe it or not, clinging to self creates trouble, not freedom. Quote: “A man’s self is to him the prime cause of most of his miseries.” – Adam Clarke.
Evidence truth reigns supreme: joy. Now that’s what people are looking for! Genuine joy – gladness of heart, calm delight, rejoice, be glad. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore Psalm 16:11. Where the Bible is not compromised, humanized and bastardized, where godly church leaders stand in the pulpits, where all kinds of godless unities are soundly rejected by the church, the presence of the Lord will most certainly be experienced in fullness of joy. Why the joy? It is Holy Spirit-given; it comes to all who have done a 180-degree turn away from self to Christ. It is joy in the knowledge that their sins have been forgiven by God and forgotten, plus the removal of all guilt for them.
It is joy in the knowledge that God’s mercy, love, peace, kindness and goodness towards them is ceaseless! It is the joy of knowing they are new creations. They have not turned over a new leaf, which is the best man-centered religiosity can offer. Too, they did not decide to clean up their act. When they turned to Christ, it was God who acted. They were created anew from within! Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new 2 Corinthians 5:17. They died with Christ, they live with Christ in newness of life Romans 6:4. The miraculous took place; they were spiritually reborn, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God John 1:13.
Therefore, Christians who live accordingly haven’t lost their freedoms. What they have lost, and gladly so, is everything that once denied them from receiving freedoms – fear of other’s opinions of them, love of self, self-righteousness, self-elevation, self-justification, self-preservation, self-satisfaction – all things selfish! They have “lost” the demonic spirits that once held massive sways over them – manipulating, intimidating, dominating spirits that control everybody outside of Christ. They have “lost” the Unholy Trinity that’s running rampant in man-centered religion – politics, religion and control. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm you Luke 10:19. How’s that for freedom?!
“Sounds like a life of perfection,” somebody says. No, it’s not. But it puts them on the path to perfection. The life of perfection will not be realized until the Lord’s return. Troubles, tests and trials continue to come their way, plus lots of persecution, but they look to the Lord in it all; they don’t cave in and roll over like Bible compromisers and the unbelieving world does. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind 2 Timothy 1:7. To succumb to fear is to devalue the death, the resurrection and the ministry of the Lord Jesus, who has promised in writing never to leave or forsake them. It is to devalue the power of His Holy Spirit living within, who gives them the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2:16. For the uninformed, the mind of Christ is the mind of God!
What is happening to our freedoms? Now an answer for the unbelieving world: you have never really had any freedoms to begin with. The many you once enjoyed and the few you continue to enjoy have always been God-given. They’ve ridden in on the coattails of our Judeo/Christian value system. When those were lived according to, in greater measures throughout the Western world than they are today, by practicing Jews and Christians, the unbelieving world was held in check by them too and benefitted greatly. The moral and civil laws of the land come from that value system, which in itself came from the 10 Commandments Exodus 20:1-17. When the latter gets rejected, the value system is no longer valued. What’s the result? A breakdown in moral and civil law in the nations.
That’s what’s happening to our freedoms! In our time, there has been a steady decline of them since the 1960’s, but a rapid decline of them since the turn of this century. When godly rule goes out the door, godless rule comes marching in. There is never a void! The former offers liberty, the latter offers tyranny. The problem being however, the godless promote their tyranny as liberty and our liberty as tyranny and the unbelieving world, for the most part, loves it that way. It always has of course, since the early days of the human race. Man has always been willing to believe liberty is tyranny and tyranny is liberty; he was born that way. That’s why rumor, false report and mythology are always more attractive to him than the actual state of affairs – truth.
Quote: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same…..” – Ronald Reagan. Freedom begins with the individual first. If he or she won’t personally fight for it, embrace it and then protect it for the sake of their own well-being, they’re not going to do so for anyone else. The march of tyranny across the Western world in all its godless forms, plus the world’s ready submission to it gives clear evidence of that. And fellow Christians, when you allow the Bible to be compromised, humanized and bastardized by your godless, false church leaders, tyranny will rule over you too. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage Galatians 5:1.