Freedom in Christ, part 1.

Oregon Bible Conference. Freedom in Christ Lesson 1, part 1.

It should be stated right off that the government of the United States is not God. The analogies that I am drawing here is about the attacks of Satan against the Church's freedom in Christ and the citizens freedom in the United States. Government is not something to be worshipped or blindly served, but is only an instrument that should neither grant favors and gifts, but serves the goals of the citizens and protects their natural rights.

 

Freedom requires a continuity of established natural rights that are immutable and perpetual.

 

For America, the Declaration of Independence establishes these rights and the Constitution protects them. These documents must be immutable and the meaning within them are perpetual and cannot be altered. In the same way the word of God establishes the supernatural rights of the born again believer.

 

Over the centuries, many have attempted to change the word of God, add to it, take away from it, or to just simply change its meaning, yet God has preserved His word and therefore, our rights unto freedom are preserved.

 

The United States is the oldest country in history that has a continuous constitution. The reason for our continuity is certainly not the people but the things written in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

 

The Church has continuity and remnants of true freedom in every generation due to the immutable things written in the word of God and is certainly not due to Christians.

 

In 1763 England won a war with France [7 Years War including the French and Indian War], yet as with all wars it was costly and so with its increased debt and increased power, or so they thought, England decided to tax and regulate the colonies. There was 13 years of crisis in the colonies where they were taxed and tyrannically regulated.

 

England attempted tyrannical regulation and taxation of the colonies and Satan attempted the same with mankind.

 

When Satan rebelled against God he likely thought he could pull it off. His new found independence was kindled when God created man. God created man in His image and with a free-will or self determination. Since man could choose could not man also choose to turn from worship of God, rebel against God, and then turn to worship Satan? Satan set out to change the hearts of God's perfect human creatures in order to join him in rebellion against God and so he taxed man with false words.

 

GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

 

GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

 

GEN 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'"

 

GEN 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!

 

GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

 

GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

 

GEN 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

 

Yet, as with England, Satan's taxation of words only went so far. They motivated man to rebel against God but they did not cause man to attach himself to Satan's tyranny.

 

Man separated from God but not all men attached themselves to Satan's tyranny. God brought the call of freedom to fallen man through blood sacrifice.

 

England made money but the tension caused the colonies to rise up against England in the War of Independence rather than attaching themselves to England. Great minds stepped in with ideas of freedom and such ideas that opened the eyes of some to a once in a world history opportunity to establish a government that was never seen before. A government that preserved the natural and inalienable rights of every man rather than infringing upon those rights as almost all governments before them had.

 

Without the divine inspiration of freedom they would have only exchanged one tyranny for another, as the early states did.

 

As truth stepped in to save liberty for America, so God stepped in to save mankind from tyranny to Satan, to other men, and to their fallen natures.

 

"The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate. Without this, as well as with it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but without it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed, people will fight, and endure, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters." [Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on the Constitution and the Union]