Without freedom an intelligent creature would never realize its potential. It would wither in whatever state that it existed. Theoretically, intelligent life could have been created without freewill, but wouldn’t that be just another form of slavery?
That wasn’t God’s intention. In his sovereign will, besides giving life to us, God has given freedom and freewill. The angels that God created before us have freedom of will. The extremes to which we take these gifts are of our own choosing, and we will eventually have to answer to God for them.
Since every human being now possesses potential for both good and evil, freedom without constraints becomes impossible. While it is possible, at least for a while, to be blissfully unaware of the limits, freedom can’t exist for long outside certain perimeters. Beyond a certain point it trespasses, trampling the rights of others, and becomes a breeding ground for oppression. Every kind of oppressive government then arises from the smoke.
God has endured man as we’ve experimented with all these things. He would have led us right all along, but we chose to experiment. We (Adam and Eve) chose the Tree of Science (scientia, or knowledge) instead of believing God. We’ve taught our children (mankind) conflicting versions of ethics. We either hold too tightly, or we allow too much, and can never keep our balance all the way.
Each generation tends to assert their right to eat of whatever knowledge or experience that seems forbidden, and to decide right and wrong for themselves. They think they are free to define God, knowledge, truth, love, marriage, and the limits of freedom.
In reality only God can correctly define these things. God sees the complete picture and the cause and effect of everything. He sees how far the ripples from our little movements go. That which we happen to learn from the tree of knowledge comes to us hard way, and most of the lessons learned from history seem to be lost within a few generations.
Then man has to start all over again. Abuse of freedom inevitably leads to the loss of freedoms, and that is where America is being led today. Secular society does not believe that man will destroy the world, and God must let the world see for itself. Instead of furthering the cause of freedom, Secularism is closing the door on freedom. God is as the song says, the “author of liberty.” In Luke 4:18, one of the reasons Jesus gave for his coming to this world is, “…to set at liberty them that are bruised.” God is love (1st. John 4:8), and God is freedom (2nd. Corinthians 3:17).
Insight into humanities captive state of mind is found scattered throughout the Script. The following comments are excerpts from various translations and paraphrases of Romans 1:21-25. When mankind knew God, they didn’t regard him with respect. They became thankless, and vain in their imagination. Professing themselves to be wise, they became foolish (a natural result of eating from the tree of knowledge is believing that we are the highest form of intelligence, Genesis 3:1-6).
They abandoned the idea of being created in the image of the immortal God and made idols modeled after themselves and other creatures (Romans 1:23 is also a prophecy about evolutionary thinking). They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and God let go of them.
When God lets go, we do not fall into freedom, but farther and farther away. A loosening of God’s hand doesn’t yet mean that we’ve reached the point of no return, but we don’t know where that point is. How can God let this world go on? How can God just put an end to it? God is between a rock and a hard place, or in another manner of speaking, torn on a cross between the two.
God is continually intervening in ways we don’t see, making the best that can be made of the situations we create. The Lord is holding on for that last child of freedom. When the children of this world no longer have the freedom to become children of God, there won’t be sufficient reason for the world to endure any longer. The world is screaming for God to let go, and eventually, he will let it go.
Leave a comment