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The Perfect Law of Liberty: Our God-Given Rights
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [Luke 4:16-21]
Though there are many proofs of real Christianity, and though the Gospel accounts, the Book of Acts, and the New Covenant letters reveal very clearly these many proofs, it has not stopped the enemy from denying them.
The greatest proofs of real Christianity are Freedom:
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” [John 8:36]
And Liberty:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. [2Corinthians 3:17]
Yet, the deceiving words of the devil as spoken to Eve against the freedom and liberty of the Lord are always in play: “Indeed, has God said?” [Genesis 3:1] [1]
THE TRUTH AND THE LIE
Of course, God has certainly said, but it is just as certain that the devil is a bald-faced liar. He lies as a matter of course. His game is all about illusion and deception, saying one thing but meaning another, promising one thing and doing another, and having a veritable field day with the gullible and ignorant. He is also a hater of freedom and liberty, loves absolute control, and the last thing he wants is for Christians to be free, to think free, and to live free.
But not so with God. The Lord Jesus is into liberty, not slavery. Unlike the devil and his fallen ones, God never uses force to make people behave or adhere to His curriculum. Real Christianity is completely voluntary. And unlike the faux bros, the Lord Jesus does not demand that we all sit down, shut up, and do what we are told. Whoever advocates for such is advocating against God and is in league with the enemy.
Though it is definitely the case that the devil will twist Scripture and use his twisted versions for his own illicit purposes, it is always for the purposes of enslavement.
Prior to the corruption of humanity and of the principles of freedom, God created people to be free. He founded a document in the form of His Living Word that was later committed to paper. The Word of God is a document that advocates for the liberty of all, though only a few actually believe it and apply it correctly.
Everyone else uses the Indeed, has God said? version.
GOD-GIVEN INALIENABLE RIGHTS
After James Madison wrote the United States Constitution, some of the representatives objected that there was nothing within the document that spelled out the basic rights of Americans. Others said our basic rights were spelled out in general terms within the Constitution itself, though not mentioned literally and specifically.
But this was objected to on the basis that legal rights cannot be implied and must be codified. These objectors insisted that individual liberties and prohibitions on government power must be listed in clear language.
The objectors got their way. The proponents of liberty won the day. As a result, we have the first Ten Amendments to the United States Constitution, which are still very much in force today, and are otherwise known as The Bill of Rights.
These are God-given rights (not government-given, a devil-inspired notion), and are lawfully possessed by all citizens of the USA.
And though these individual rights are often disparaged, reduced, limited, lied about, removed, and even destroyed, such attacks always originate from the haters of liberty and thus, the haters of God.
We are living in a time when the attacks upon liberty and clear violations of our Constitutional rights are continually ramping up ever higher without present remedy, and those responsible are in collusion and emboldened by a decided lack of resistance among the citizenry.
One must never forget that freedom was paid for with blood. Our Lord Jesus paid the ultimate price for our spiritual freedom. Our American forebears, the greatest patriots, also gave their lives for every freedom listed in The Bill of Rights. Our liberty has not come cheap. If one wants freedom, one must live for it and fight for it. It is apparent that we must learn this truth yet again. It is each generation’s responsibility.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. [Galatians 5:1]
If we want to keep our God-given rights, we must claim them and use them, or we will certainly lose them.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
AMENDMENT 1
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.
AMENDMENT 2
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
AMENDMENT 3
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
AMENDMENT 4
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
AMENDMENT 5
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
AMENDMENT 6
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
AMENDMENT 7
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
AMENDMENT 8
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
AMENDMENT 9
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
AMENDMENT 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
© 2015 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Religious Slavery (Part 3)
In Part 2 of this series I raised the prospect of spiritual deafness and blindness arising from an obstinate attitude toward new revelation. As I wrote in Real Christianity,
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As strange as it may seem, what we have to show for two millennia of church history is an overwhelming preponderance of completely unique and separate Christian cultures. Stranger still, most of these are simultaneously and mysteriously united under the umbrella of a single proviso. Though not in fellowship with the other and though each claims to be under the Lord’s dominion, they are actually joined as one in their opposition to His complete rule. In reality, their actions give them the demeanor of the legendary roving bands of the ancient world, seeking pastures for their flocks, fighting those who threaten their turf, ever wondering and searching for greater power and influence, but all the while refusing to be fully obedient to the Lord. Stiff-necked, stubborn, arrogant, clutching their religious robes about them, they set their feet in the concrete of human frailty and fear, unable to trust the God of all creation whose truth could set them free.
[Real Christianity, The Nature of the Church © 2001 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.]
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As I’ve stated before on many occasions, if you want to get the Lord Jesus angry at you, be religiously stiff-necked. Act as if you know everything. Act as if the truth you possess is all the truth there is. Reject the truth the Lord is trying to reveal because it simply does not fit in with your current belief-system. Obey your religious and denominational leaders first, and consider the Lord further down the list. Act as if your church or denomination is already doctrinally and culturally exactly the way God wants it, or is certainly better than all others. Claim to have God’s truth though completely lacking God’s real love and power.
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. [2 Timothy 3:1-7]
Keep in mind that a big part of the Lord’s curriculum is correcting us when we are wrong. He does this by teaching us the truth, even it means showing us the error of our ways. The religiously stiff-necked will always reject such teaching, however. Why? Because it involves conviction. Unreal Christians hate conviction. They don’t want to be convicted. Conviction hurts. It puts one off-balance. It reveals that one is wrong. And it thus demands correction from the one who is wrong.
The Lord Jesus always attempts to do this at first with much grace and love, but that does not deaden the impact. In fact, it sometimes makes it worse. A heart that is circumcised, however, will be able to handle the pain. A tender heart can accept proper rebuke, though tears may well up in one’s eyes and fall, and though one may feel so vulnerable he or she feels there is no cure for such brokenness.
But this is part of washing one’s heart with the Blood of Jesus. It is the process of conforming such a heart to His heart. He created a loving, tender-hearted family. There is only one way to do this. The early believers had this love and were like the Lord. Their love and joy was palpable and honest and forthright. They understood well, however, that the making of a good heart involved pain.
Why otherwise do we think the Lord used circumcision as an exact description of what must take place to one’s heart? Imagine His people long, long ago when they first got word that God required physical circumcision as a vital prerequisite of being right with Him and in fellowship with Him.
And if you think heart circumcision is somehow an easy road and not that big of a deal, believe me, your heart has never been circumcised. Imagine the fact that Abraham was so in love with God and that he so honored God he circumcised himself! That’s pretty high up there on the commitment scale.
Most Christians do not have that kind of commitment. But most Christians are certainly committed to other things that bypass heart circumcision and will be extremely obstinate about it when presented with something that challenges their beliefs.
What did the Lord do when challenged about His beliefs? He simply proved who He was by not only demonstrating great love, forgiveness, and mercy toward all, but also demonstrated that He had spiritual power for good that no one else had. His credentials proved themselves.
The apostle Paul also did this. He agreed with his detractors that he was not much to behold and could not talk so well. Like the Lord Jesus, he was the opposite of what we may call a charismatic figure. He attracted no one to himself by his looks or speaking ability. If one tried to fit him for an expensive tailored suit he would still look pretty bad and probably even more so (“Hey Paul, that suit’s wearin’ you, man.”).
But Paul had a clean heart, a circumcised heart. He had love flowing out of him for others. And for his ultimate credentials, he had the power of God, something the fakers don’t have:
And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. [1 Corinthians 2:1-5]
Most Christian pastors/priests/reverends are not like this. This means their hearts have never been circumcised. It means they are not filled with the Spirit of God. It means they are the Christian equivalent of the stiff-necked people God was so incensed against in the Old Testament writings. And this anger of God presented itself yet again in its fullest expression ever when the God of the Old Testament became one of us:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” [Matthew 23:13-15]
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” [Matthew 23:23-28]
“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’” [Matthew 23:33-39] [1]
We all know what happened forty years after these pronouncements were made. What was left of the country God founded ceased to exist forever. The same thing will happen to any person, any church congregation, or even any country that formerly believed the truth and followed the Lord Jesus if they stray into rebellious territory.
But one must always remember that BEFORE the final judgment of Jerusalem/Judea in 66-70 AD, great Life and Light invaded that place. A Great Awakening happened in that place. A tremendous spiritual outpouring took place in that place.
In the exact formerly free location where idiot stiff-necked religionists had gained control and demanded the people conform to religious slavery and a false, dead code, the Life-giving Gospel of the Lord Jesus Messiah blasted upon the scene and hundreds of thousands and perhaps more of Abraham’s descendants received that Life, long before any Gentiles ever did, and it was enough to turn Jerusalem and Judea on its ear.
But that first Great Awakening never stopped the stiff-necked from fighting it or disbelieving it, no matter how obvious was the manifestation of God’s love and power. Why?
Their religion told them it was wrong.
As a terrible historical example and what should be a very frightening possibility for us all, those people went down with the phony evil ship they created unrepentant and hard-hearted to the end.
This is the exact destiny of Unreal Christianity.
So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman. [Galatians 4:31]
© 2014 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
WE ARE IN THE EARLY STAGES OF A NATIONAL GREAT AWAKENING.
Religious Slavery (Part 2)
It is a sad fact that most professing Christians do not relate to the New Testament, do not really know the Lord, and do not understand their place in this world or what this world actually is.
But they know church. And they know their denomination. And they know their pastor/priest/reverend, but often from as afar and by an idealized portrait that must be honored to maintain both proper standing within one’s congregation and also within the religious simulation created by the controllers of such establishments.
Regardless of what the majority of professing Christians may think, it is a fact that most of that which is passed off as proper Christianity in this world is actually an imitation and false mock-up merely based on real Christianity but certainly not the real thing.
And even though one may try hard to explain and reveal such facts, the purveyors of Unreal Christianity always act quickly to denounce such a one and such facts, especially because it appears to be an attack on the faux status quo and the robe-clutching religionists in charge. These people have certainly programmed their charges to think and act in such a way, whether it is Catholics protecting things Catholic, or Protestants protecting things Protestant, or Pentecostals protecting things Pentecostal.
Most Christians have been taught and urged by their leadership to honor and protect their religious heritage even though most have no clue what it is they are honoring and protecting. It is exactly the same dynamic that played out upon the factual though heart-rending pronouncements of the Hebrew prophets upon their own for violating the Lord’s way and creating false substitutes.
In these days of false chemical additives and other junk that make up the majority of our fake food supply and the millions of unhealthy overweight people such fake food has created with all manner of diseases rising forth exponentially and our desire to get back to the real food that God created and having an honest and healthy food supply and healthy living, why is it that most professing Christians refuse to honor the spiritual truth that will burn off all the fakery and heal so many of so many spiritual diseases?
GOD IS NOT MOCKED! HE WILL JUDGE THOSE WHO CREATE FALSE GOSPELS AND FORCE COMPLIANCE TO SUCH!
It angers God that He has made a Way to Life but most professing religion-bound Christians absolutely refuse to dishonor their fake cultures but dishonor the Lord and His blood-bought Way to Life all day long!
Why does one think the apostle Paul was so angry when he wrote Galatians? He simply could hardly believe what he was seeing!
You foolish Galatians (insert name of denomination, church, or religious culture here), who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? [Galatians 3:1-5]
Of course, due to the fact that most Christians have never ever experienced any of the above it is no wonder they do not understand, which just happens to go hand in hand with being bewitched.
Bewitched? Are most Christians bewitched? What ever did Paul mean? What was he driving at? And why do most Christians think he was referring to other Christians and never, ever apply this to themselves?
There is the very clear idea that people walk around in a fog though do not know it, that they walk in darkness but have been convinced the darkness is light or that there is no light. They are lost in false perceptions and do not realize they have been hoodwinked and deny it always.
If anyone should know this, Christians should know it. Why? Because the very Lord they claim to serve had this happen to Him continually as a matter of course. He is the Great Light but most of His very own people could not even see Him! It is no different with fake Christians who have accepted a fake gospel and fake light, which is not a light, and why so many are in deception and bondage and don’t even know it, even though some had previously walked in the Light.
You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. [Galatians 5:7-10]
The more we study Paul’s writings on this subject the more we catch a glimpse of exactly what he was writing about. But if we are unwilling to apply any of this to ourselves and our own religious cultures we won’t get it. But why are so many unwilling? Isn’t it precisely because they were taught to be unwilling? And isn’t this exactly why the Lord was so incensed with OT Israel to the point of calling them the following?
And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!” [Exodus 32:9 NKJV]
Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. [Deuteronomy 9:6 NKJV]
And then on the other side of the Lord’s life and resurrection, Stephen said this:
“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” [Acts 7:51 NKJV]
To bring this home, there is simply no doubt whatsoever that these prophetic pronouncements must be applied to unreal Christians and Unreal Christianity just as much as it was applied to the House of Israel, if not much more so. Most professing Christians have been resisting the Holy Spirit for centuries and have institutionalized the practice. And this is what Paul was driving at in Galatians. He could hardly believe that a people set free could return so readily to religious slavery.
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? [Galatians 4:8-9] [1]
Such a thing MUST be construed as a demonic bewitching and enchantment at the hands of false religious leaders much more concerned about enslaving God’s people for their own purposes, wealth, and standing. And it MUST be up to individual believers to figure this out and see it with the eyes God gave them.
© 2014 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Religious Slavery (Part 1)
There was a time in America—the land of the free and home of the brave—when honest workers were greatly exploited. We have presently arrived again at such a time.
This free nation also involved itself most profitably in human slavery. The North was just as guilty as the South, and 200 years before the Civil War, the northern colonies had already established the practice.
In fact, it was the northern colonies of America that profited greatly from slavery by using northern ports of entry, even though they had later stopped the practice of slavery in their own colonies. During the Civil War, the North began a very successful campaign using slavery as a war tactic against the South, though it never entertained such a thought at the beginning of the war, which was just as hypocritical as their reasons for the war.
Prior to the Civil War, otherwise known as the War of Northern Aggression, it was the South that was contributing the most to the national treasury. Some estimates were as high as 70%, though certainly above 60%. This fact must be considered by the majority of this nation’s population which has largely been untaught regarding this truth. In effect, the North knew it could never survive without the South, but also knew it used the South as a slave confederacy to fund the entire country to support the North long before the Confederacy existed.
And in the event some remain unclear on the concept, it was not the large but few plantations of the South that mostly funded the national treasury. It was the fact that the South had hugely successful ports both of entry for foreign goods and the tariffs therewith, a large percentage of which went to Washington, and also exports to foreign nations which could not be sent on their way soon enough. And though the North was a great industrial power (paying most workers chump change), and contained many more states than what later became the Confederacy, it was simply not nearly as successful as the South.
These are certainly unpleasant facts but they need not be so unpleasant if not for the great freedoms granted by the Constitution of the United States. Though the Constitution stated what it did, and though the great Revolutionary War was fought for a freedom that no great nation had ever before possessed, slavery, indentured servitude, and exploitation of workers continued to exist and actually grew exponentially.
As the Industrial Revolution continued its expansionist trek, it continued to make slaves of the majority engaged within it with a few powerful men at the top reaping most of the profits. Even small children were exploited for the money they could bring various enterprises.
The rise of the American labor unions changed this somewhat. When workers began to unite it caused management to eventually cave in to their demands. Labor unions became very successful and some remain so until today.
But many labor unions overplayed their hands by demanding more than could be provided once international markets opened up. At that advent, cheap labor again became bountiful, huge profits were possible, and there was no one to stop the exploitation of foreign workers.
At present, vast sweat shops exist all over the globe using cheap labor to drive down prices to gain a respectable market share and realize huge profits for large business owners and corporations. But as long as such low paid workers are far away and unheard from few care, since such laborers allow for cheap domestic goods affordable by the majority in first-world nations.
This is the present dynamic of international business. It is the nature of the game. The purpose of any business or corporation is to make a profit. If one is to be successful he must play by the rules. Those that do not go out of business.
Obtaining wealth has always been the desire of most, and some will do anything to achieve that goal. In mankind’s history, slavery has always existed as the best way to do that. The rise of warrior kings in the ancient world replaced former egalitarian societies that honored the freedom of individuals. Kings greatly dishonored human beings as free people and began using them in any way they wanted for their own purposes.
Indeed, the rise of such human slavery also coincided with the rise of what we now call civilization. This happened for the first time on the planet 5,000 years ago in ancient Sumer. The practice continued through the brutal empires that took place afterward, especially that of Rome, the most brutal of all. After the fall of Rome, it was the various bands of so-called barbarians that continued the practice, with each band containing its own warrior king. Such kings eventually became the later European heads of state, and adopted much pomp and arrogance to substantiate their place. Most became convinced that rule by a single king was God’s way, even though God denounced the practice almost 2,000 years before, especially when ancient Israel began to demand a king.
God has always been more concerned about human freedom, about setting people free from slavery and from rule by other humans. He wanted to be everyone’s King—the benevolent, loving, and Fatherly King that He is—but very few wanted what He wanted. Indeed again, most people have proven to want their freedom to do their will to sin and engage in lustful, selfish practices, and never God’s will.
Another curious manifestation of this rule by king emerged with the first so-called Christian bishops, those who ruled by religion over ancient cities. And it was the fabled bishop of Rome, the king of all cities, which became the king of what had then became organized official Christianity. This bishop-king, honored as the greater by bishops of other cities, soon became known as the Pope. And soon after that this Pope ruled with an iron hand.
The Reformation put an end to this in part, but curiously began to manufacture its own mini-Popes. We know these today as great Christian leaders, but some of these became so diabolical they began engaging in the same evil practices of former Popes regarding human freedom. They created religious societies with stern rules and strictures and even began killing dissenters as a matter of course. They will all get theirs at the Judgment.
Suffice it to say that God clearly hates slavery and exploited laborers in any form, and it is surely why He became a Man, to establish a way to set us all free, first from the power of sin and then from the power of human enslavers, especially those of the religious variety.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. [Galatians 5:1] [1]
© 2014 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
