We don’t need freedom. We already have freedom.
What we are seeking to gain or defend is liberty. Because liberty means to be liberated from something, while freedom speaks of autonomy and self-determination. We already have free will, and can do what we want, with or without consequence.
The only right the biblical God seems concerned about is your right to act in a moral fashion. Even a slave is free to act morally. If you think about it, it explains a lot about why the Bible is not a social justice tract, because it is not meant to be.
Thus, we are free to do what we want, basically. What we fight for is liberty: to live without the oppression of states, governments and political factions. Even a Chinese citizen is free to act as a Christian, but will pay the price imposed by the communist oppressors.
When we speak of freedom, we are only speaking about the ability to navigate morally, which we all have.
We can make a commitment to evil, and keep it, but we cannot keep our commitment to good. This is how we know that we are fallen.
John Rodi
But on the other hand, if the founding fathers of the United States returned, they would probably wonder at why we have recommitted to a European, hedonistic flavor of bondage again. They would not recognize us as liberated, I think.
The truth is that we only have liberty if we are free to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads.
True freedom is the ability to live out a moral life, without interference from the state.
But if you are constantly pursuing happiness, you are not free at all. This is not merely a Buddhist concept, but is the signal that you are enslaved, a prisoner of the lusts of the flesh, under order of the body. If a man is happy, it is because he knows that God is his father, and then he has been liberated from this pursuit, entirely.
Freedom to sin, or to do evil, does not define true freedom. True freedom is freedom from sin.
After the fall, Adam and Eve were exiled from the presence of God. Would you say that divorce from God and his immediate presence is freedom? Would you frame that as a good, positive thing? Of course not. But we do.
You can never be free to make good, sound, rational or moral decisions in a world of propaganda and lies. That is why we have the gospel. It cuts through all of the cultural white noise, exposing to us the soul of rightness.
Outside of this relationship to God and the gospel, there is no freedom. There is not even choice. Choice is an illusion, because mankind is a prisoner to sin, subject to the whims of the flesh, encased in the cell of the body.
We can make a commitment to evil, and keep it, but we cannot keep our commitment to good. This is how we know that we are fallen.
Truth is just freedom from lies. Truth doesn’t grant freedom, but is the essence of freedom itself.
But there are no free choices if you are deceived. If you are misinformed, you cannot be free to make good, sound moral decisions. Therefore, freedom can only exist where no lies exist, and that certainly is not here, on earth. You can only be free after you disconnect from the world of lies.
We can make a commitment to evil, and keep it, but we cannot keep our commitment to good. This is how we know that we are fallen.
The bible says, where the spirit of the lord is, there is freedom. That is the only place you will find freedom. In the presence of the Lord, where the spirit is. Not down here on earth. Because in His presence, you will have liberation from want and lack. Christ said as much. He said that we “will ALWAYS have the poor among you.” There is no perfect world on the horizon. Its end is destruction and apocalypse.
It is our death that grants us our love for freedom. Our yearning for freedom comes from a deep desire to accumulate experience as defensive infrastructure against death. But no matter how much travel we do, or selfies we take at National Parks, we will not escape the prison of death. You cannot assemble anything against death, except good works and faith. They are the only tools we have.
Death, also, frees you completely. Liberated from want, lack, need and desire. But the problem with death is that it also frees you from yourself.
We are not even born free. We are not free beings by default. Instead we are born as bilious, blubbery, fatty, wailing nymphets. We are undressed and prone to all manner of harm. If we were all truly born free, we would all be dead.
And this brings us to rights.
I don’t know that natural rights exist except as vague metaphysical declarations. We are free to live, to die, to suffer, to resist or comply. Besides that, we are only free to be moral or immoral. We are only truly free to do good or to do evil.
Freedom itself is described as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.” And that is exactly what it is. It is not a thing in itself, or a material substance. It is the absence of oppression, like darkness is the absence of light. We have freedom when we don’t have something or someone else oppressing us.
If we don’t participate in the political arena and the culture war, the godless will gather up more power and influence, and persecutions will be inevitable. We must vote. We must attend church. We must band together.
Finally, an allowance to be moral is true freedom. If you think about it, this is what the democrats are seeking to take from us, by criminalization of traditional Christian acts– feeding the homeless, filling meters, treating a person struggling with homosexuality, persuading someone not to kill their unborn baby, or of late- even attending church.
There is no doubt that American Christians have failed America. When you consider the transformative effect that one committed, passionate person can achieve, and you consider how many Christians we have in the country, it becomes clear that the great majority have dismissed their spiritual birthright. Because if one man can turn a country on its head, think of how much power millions of Christians should wield. It is clear that there is something lacking, something missing in the believing community.
They don’t even know that their only natural, God-given right is a freedom to behave morally, to take up their cross and follow Christ.