Liberty

     I am as patriotic as the next person. Freedom is something to cherish because anything less is bondage. Freedom is a great Doctrine of Christ, and is associated with truth.

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

     Jesus said this after teaching use of the Word - whatever God says. Jesus is that way, that truth, and the life (John 14:6) and as such will guide people in truth (John 16:13). Therein, Jesus said that the "spirit of truth" will come and "will guide you in all truth".  Thus true freedom is living in truth.

     Truth is when an idea is in accordance with reality. For instance, Jesus claimed to be God. He performed miracles to demonstrate that He indeed is God. The greatest miracle of all was Jesus allowing himself to be killed then arising from the grave still bearing the evidence of His death! Jesus defeated death for two reasons: to prove that He is God, and that as God only He can save from destruction. 

     When anyone accepts Jesus as God and trusts that miracle, then they have been set free. Free from what? Free from sin. 

Romans 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

     Sin is being wrong with God in that righteousness is being right with God. That is when "God's will be done" (Mat 6:10). Rightness is when the Christian's will is in harmony with God's will, and as such, God becomes a Christian's sole master (Mat 6:24). Christians put away their old master who has them in bondage and accepts God as their only Master. Jesus said, "Your must be born again." (John 3:7). The new birth is when a person is freed from bondage and has liberty. 

Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

   
     Sin has chains of bondage. Sinners do what Satan demands they do! He gets people to do his will with deception which is using truth, blending it with falsehoods, which results in people doing Satan's will. Satan convinces them that there is nothing wrong with doing their own will. Thus, man's will is in harmony with Satan's! They do the will of their father the Devil (John 8:44), are enslaved to him, and fail to even realize it. Weak Christians even serve two masters for awhile - God and Satan but inevitably one must be chosen over the other or they are still in bondage!

     Being born again has two aspects: trusting in Jesus for salvation, and serving Jesus since He is the new Master of Christians who are willing to serve Him. 

     Trusting Jesus provides eternal life. Trusting Satan is damning. However, people trust Satan by doing his will. That is bondage, is voluntary, and is thus insanity. People trust the one who will take them to Hell. That is the worst type of bondage?

     Satan doesn't care if you know that you are doing his will or not. He just wants you to do it, so he fools sinners into thinking that they are independent. He wants them "to do what is right in their own eyes" (Deut 12:8). That is the law of sin which is in contrast to the Law of God (Rom 7:25) but:

(Rom 8:2). "...the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." 

     Let me explain that. The Law boils down to the Ten Commandments. They are how people are to love God and others, and are the metrics for how to love. However, as free agents not bound by law, it's not the Law that we must obey but are willing to obey. Even God's Law enslaves Christians when they obey because they must. Our minds must be set on serving the Law of God (Rom 7:25) even if our flesh follows the law of sin. Christians still sin, not because they want to, but because the flesh is weak. God knows how weak we are, and grace is forgiving our sins... if sinners repent of them. It is conditional on contrition and repentance.

     Because bondage is "doing what is right in our own eyes" and is the same as liberty, Satan deceives mankind. True "liberty" is doing what is right in God's eyes - doing God's will, not our own! Thus, Satan uses liberty to deceive mankind. Americans bow to liberty because it is the freedom to do our own will. Even the First Amendment attests to that freedom:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

     What is the implication there? You can do your own will! Those who take that to the extreme are libertarians. Mankind needs laws for order. Mankind needs laws for the protection of life. Mankind needs laws so they know how not to hate. The Ten Commandments are how to love and are the Law of God. Essentially, they tell mankind how not to hate.

     Thus, political liberty is allowing citizens to choose God or not. Since God gave mankind freedom to choose - free will - that suits God's will perfectly. He will never force anyone to select Him. The other parts of the First Amendment are saying what people want to say or write, to go where people want to go and do what they want to do, just so it is peaceably (i.e.; not an endangerment to others).

     Essentially, political liberty is what the Hebrew people had before there was a government:

Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

     Political liberty is desiring to do "what thou wilt" which is the motto of the Satanic Bible. Spiritual liberty is the willingness to do what God wills. The framers of the Constitution recognized the difference; hence the U.S. Constitution which is the law of the land. This nation is not one of total freedom but necessary laws because the patriots knew that people had different ideas. Some prefer slavery under Satan and others liberty under God. We needed laws because the patriots knew full well the law of sin. If not for sin, no laws would be needed at all, political nor spiritual, because our wills would be in accordance with God's will.

     Some take political liberty to the extreme. God is a God with Laws. They are based on liberty in that those who love God obey willingly to demonstrate that love:

John  14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 

     It is God that we are to love, not the idea of liberty. Liberty is the result of having our first love as Jesus (Rev2:4). Not only is Jesus to be our first love but our only love since we are not to fornicate with other Gods (First Commandment). That is having other gods in God's face. 

     There is a god who represents liberty. She stands in New York Harbor. It is the concept of liberty, or the freedom to love God, which is imperative. The Statue of Liberty is of the Roman goddess Libertas. I believe it is idolatry to hold her in esteem. She is credited with our republic when it was based on God, not Libertas. 

     Others have demonstrated that Miss Liberty is the God of Reason in the Cult of Reason under France's atheistic First French Republic. They placed her statue in the churches after removing any signs of God and even had orgies in the churches! Liberty is not the God we are to worship!

     With that said, I was astounded when I first heard this "Christian" song with the lyrics (Gaither song "Statue of Liberty"):

I'm so glad to be an American...To be named with the brave and the free...I will honor our flag and our trust in God...And the Statue of Liberty.

     This syncretism is the sin of the Hebrews throughout biblical history: trusting another God. This is sang even in churches! God must be dismayed because I am astounded. I know the Gaithers are righteous people but like many Christians, they have been deceived by the appearance of innocence in the eyes of Libertas. I'm sure they fail to realize that this lady of the light represents Lucifer!

     Christians must be discerning because of the cunning of the devil. He can trick even the elect in doing his will. It is spiritual warfare and Satan's desire is that we not trust God and the first step is trusting other gods; most often ourselves!