IndyWatchman

You don’t have to be Catholic to be a martyr. As I was researching the subject for this article I noticed that overwhelmingly the references were to Catholic priest and saints. Let me be clear from the start, you do not have to be Catholic to be a martyr. On the contrary, the definition of the word martyr comes from the  (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, “witness“; stem μάρτυρ-, mártyr-) someone who suffers persecution and death for witnessing to, advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, or refusing to advocate their Christian belief as demanded by an external party. This whole definition describes the simple Christian who has first-hand experience of God and becomes a fearless witness of His power and glory on His behalf.

I have written in past articles of the true freedom that believers enjoy and that this freedom also includes the freedom of martyrdom, so well depicted in the image above. As witnesses of the Most-High God Christians are not to be reluctant or afraid to speak the truth of grace and wrath into the social, justice, and economic constructs of this world. If a Christian is to involve him or herself in the politics of this world it is only on this level that they are to participate. When they venture to endorse a person or party they are no longer a witness for Christ, who stands above all politics, but have chosen a “cause” other than the Gospel.

It is this true freedom of the Christian to speak boldly in the face of rejection and persecution that has historically been the cause of martyrdom. It is precisely at that point of greatest conflict that the Christian is called to witness the truth of God in words that cannot be misunderstood.

“If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.” Martin Luther

It must be remembered that the state, or the Church, holding power can and may refuse to discuss the issue. It can choose to be the singular voice of authority. It may elect to destroy that which confronts it. This may be the price of direct confrontation and open conflict. This too is historically shown to be a viable option of those in power. Even though this option does not look obvious at this hour we must remember and be prepared as witnesses to offer the ultimate sacrifice; we have that freedom.

It must be remembered also that it was the Church in league with the state, at the crucifixion of Christ, during the time of Constantine, and during the Reformation that was responsible for so much death of believers, and it will be the same in future days when true believers will be eliminated by the Church in league with the state.

Need it be recalled that the past records of the great witnesses of the faith, as martyrs who acted in true freedom and liberty of conscience, who ruled out revolution, self-defense, and military honors, refused to kill any man? They understood the enemy as that neighbor which they were called to love even though he holds the sword to his neck. To be called as a witness is not a resignation to some passive activity. To be a martyr is to affirm the sovereignty of our Lord.

“I am certainly a Christian because it is my will and pleasure so to be, then you shall condemn me, if I will to be condemned; hence you could not condemn me if I would not will so as a Christian, it is plain what you can do depends upon my will.” Tertullian Apology 49, 5

Today we hear no talk like this because martyrdom is a word Christians fear. The style of conversation has changed and you hear instead much talk of politics, violence, and hatred. They justify their hatred by balancing it with love for the oppressed and the stricken. It is not on this basis that the powers can be critiqued or assessed because here they are in much agreement with both feet in the world.

To be a witness in the world it must be a deliberate act of speaking truth into the commercial Church and the state, and along with that truth, there comes an undeniable claim to persecution and martyrdom. 2 Tim 3:12, 1 pet. 4:12-14, Mat. 5:44, 5:10, Lk. 6:22, Jn. 15:20, etc.

The persecution and crushing of the Body of Christ call the powers-that-be into question no less so than open dialogue. Once the Body bleeds then roots come forth. Even though it may appear to be impotent and weak the powers are shaken and stunned and their own weakness and inadequacy exposed. The only thing that can stop the Body of Christ is unfaithfulness to the words of the Lord; the replacing of His voice with the echoing voices of men competing for power in buildings of brick and mortar. The voices of men have allowed the enemy to instill fear in the place of faith and trust. They have ceased listening to the Words of the Lord and have instead found a basis in the world and by so doing have become part of the world even though they use many God words well.

Modern Christians live in fear of the world and the only expression of their safety is displayed in their siding with a structure of power and their religion is added on as a hedge bet in case of failure. Hedge betting pays no dividend in the economy of the Almighty, it is either all or nothing. The strait gate makes no allowance for a shopping cart full of “necessities.”

The Word of God is perfectly clear on this issue:

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”Joshua24:15

What is your choice?

Tags: Christ, christian, church, freedom, martyr, nonresistance, persecution, politics, sacrifice, witness

Risk

The truly free man lives a life of risk. He leaves his home armed only with truth and with no guarantees. Every day he is presented with newness and starts each sunrise at zero; no script or earthly armor and no dictates of tradition; he is a pilgrim and a stranger and draws others into his circle. His security and peace are in his faith. The truly free man is continually faced with “risk” because it is an expression of his freedom in Christ.

Risk is the natural result of having been freed from the dictates and demands of this world and being a citizen of Heaven. We are to expect confrontation and challenges and must be prepared for this risk, unafraid, as proof of our freedom.

We receive a lesson about “risk” from the Hebrews in their wilderness travels. They were given their daily food and were not to desire anything else, e.g. quail. They were not to keep any of the day’s provision for the next day; it spoiled. They received no more or no less than needed. Jesus confirmed this teaching in His Sermon on the Mount, we are not to be concerned about food or clothing. “Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” This is both the definition of “risk” and of “freedom.” Abraham understood risk in his offering of Isaac, and the widow of Zarephath who gave all of her last remaining food to the prophet had the freedom to give everything. Likewise, the disciples left their homes and family to follow Jesus. What matters in our understanding of true freedom is our risk to trust God and God alone. This practice of freedom is our proof of love toward our Father. Just as the others were given a choice we too must choose; “Who do you love?”

Will you wager a risk on God’s faithfulness? Will He be unfaithful to His promises? Am I such a person that I doubt God can keep His promise toward me? Will He grant His promise in such a way that I might be deceived? What are freedom and risk if not precisely going all-in on the faithfulness of God’s promise?

The rejection of risk is the rejection of freedom. The rejection of risk is our rejection of love toward God.

When we accept the risk then others are compelled to trust Him also because they see that we are truly free and that we hazard our lives on His faithfulness. And, in this accepting of risk God is glorified.

Tags: Christ, christian, faith, freedom, jesus, Risk, truth

Sadness and disappointment about a wrong decision or something done.

Traveling down life’s road not paying attention and not harassed.

Meandering, thinking, contemplating with no clear vision and no map.

Then out of nowhere and for no reason existence takes a turn.

You thought you were on an easy road, alone and unconcerned.

Little did you know then, that such a simple thing

Has always been your enemy and never was a friend.

You have traveled this old neighborhood and never discerned that line

A border is there and you have trespassed, and fate has said, “it’s time.”

A startled stare and a quick look sideways, then a panicked snort

Clawing the air you begged for distance, but knew you’d come up short.

You were just too far gone in your lazy doubts and knew you’d wouldn’t clear

Now the easy road and the carefree life spells the end for this little deer.

Tags: easy road, life, pictures, poetry

Old Plastic Flowers
We get so enmeshed in appearances that practically everything is true.
Yet, out of custom or habit, even simple gifts excite great expectation of lasting long and eternal good.
The longed-for completeness that only deep dreams foretell exit in heaps of discarded facts, like old plastic flowers.
Whereunto must a man attend to find the fulfillment which he demands?
And just for a moment, with his awakening, he teeters on the verge of the answering.
He believed then, or so he thought, or that he had misunderstood the thing.
Yet, the love of sincerity has compelled him, “look again.”
Clutch that faint scent of reality, and arrest all your competing thoughts, for our Maker hides actuality,
even in old plastic flowers.

Tags: flowers, mystery, poetry

The Truth of the Flower

Is science the truth of the flower? No, the truth of the flower is the image in the brain of the image-maker. Science? It is only a thing of ways and means–pixels on a sensor–binary code in a computer–in relation to the art in the heart of the creator. Mere intellect will never discover that which owes its birth to that which is born in the heart of the image-maker. Argue against intelligent design if you must but watch the children, in whose eyes and hearts, filled with love and fleeting eternity, as they pluck a gift from off its stalk and present to their mother the essence of the Eternal. It is only a flower you say! Has science ever witnessed such weeping from the mother–understanding not the botany of the subject–who receive gifts of pure love from the hands of infant ignorance? This is not the laws of nature or a mere fact; this is the Truth of the Flower.

Tags: fall, flowers, poetry, science, truth

The Spirit of God stands at His post watching over the souls of men to guide, chastise, and instruct.

Unbeknownst to the blind are all the seemingly insignificant happenings that cross our path every hour and every day.

The alert person recognizes that all our days are numbered and steps accounted for, nothing falls to the ground without His knowledge and the books adjusted.

Plead your case in the courts of men but know full well that our God is no mere man.

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

To properly understand the freedom that these men of the Old Testament experienced we must first understand their Biblical orientation. This orientation is what gives substance and definition to their freedom. What I am describing here is the condition necessary to engage with the world in a physical way and not with some packaged and programmed presentation which is the opposite of real freedom.

These men recognized that they were “strangers and pilgrims.” This is not just a description of the men of this time but rather a definition of what Christians can and should be in all times. Those who have been born into the Kingdom, whether we acknowledge it or not, are strangers to what is around us. This feeling of estrangement, in these last days of increasing difficulties, is a shared phenomenon in the Body of Christ.

If we will recall for a moment Israel’s wilderness journey we will see that it was both an illustration and a lesson (Exodus 14:10-14). Their choices here were fundamental. They had to choose between either a life in bondage which had the perceived benefits of security, comfort and purpose or liberation in the wilderness, a place chosen to learn real freedom. This fact needs to be taken more seriously. Real freedom exists in the realm where all guarantees, assurances, protections, and obligations are set aside. The freedom of God places us in a wilderness of complete trust and reliance, a place we are to dwell and saturate and make our presence known. If we are called to be free then we must break with those things we have taken for granted. If we accept this call it will mean accepting life in a forsaken place where there is no security and renouncing societies offer of affiliation and membership. It is not possible to consider yourself free in Christ while in the framework of the matrix with its assurances, provisions, affluence, peace, and the desire for comfort and happiness. The Bible shows perfectly that this incompatibility is both radical and final. But, there is something that can prevent us from following through; the weakness of our character and lukewarmness of our attitude will attempt a reconciliation with the old life.

The impulse of the flesh is to try and escape this situation of freedom. We don’t want to be strangers and pilgrims. We want to take something of the old life with us; we want to keep something for the sake of comfort. Our natural instinct is to rationalize and compromise with the situation, to give it moist soil for thirsty roots.

Crucial to this pilgrimage, however, is to adopt a different attitude. Christians knowing the situation and condition of their carnal nature and the world; knowing it they intentionally accept the uprooting of their lives. The call of God is explicit, there must be a clean break, a parting of the ways. Like Abraham, they have seen the promises from afar and deliberately move toward them. These Christians have discerned the plan which is evident in history, they have personally experienced the expanding of their spirit through grace, they have with open heart come to realize that GOD is the One that came and will come, they have comprehended the immense love of God in His Son Jesus Christ, and because they have believed these things they accept and become strangers.

The world is where Christians must live and spend their days but they are not of the world, they are foreigners, outsiders, and strangers. They have surveyed the world through life observation and experiences. They have seen to what extent it is not theirs even though they cannot leave or avoid living in it. They have made the conscious declaration to be strangers and know that they cannot change or recover it. Their focus is on the individual, and not the world, as something worth saving.

“Forgetting what is behind and pressing on to what lays ahead” they envision what is over the horizon and are compelled to action. Their wandering is not like Cain’s desperate search for meaning; they know where they are going and that their pathway is true and full of purpose. Their wandering has often been mistaken for rebelliousness like Cain, but in essence, it is the exact opposite, a complete reversal. Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Cain looked to build a city of his own, in his own image. Christians look for completeness; men’s projects are forever incomplete, lacking, and suffer decay. The freedom of Cain – the liberty of the world – is a strong delusion and enslavement to the lie. This has all changed for the pilgrim. They have the true history of sold-out men and in their wake, they produce their own history. With his advance, he leaves a trail in the desert that leads to life; they are, every one, men of renown.

The emancipation is real and complete. Normality, what is that to the Christian? Normal is a scale used by the world to measure its accepted level of insanity. The Christian has severed the cord that linked it with normality. Jesus teaches, “Sell all that you have and come and follow Me.” “Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” “He that leaves his father, mother, and brothers for My sake . . . .” “Let the dead bury the dead.” How normal is this? Here is the break! Here is the pathway to freedom! All that once was so dear to carnal life on planet earth we intentionally place on the altar along with our very life as a living sacrifice which God accepts.

If this is true then how much more is the break when it includes country, nation, political allegiance, elections, social class, profession, union, and economics. These things are no longer our business; this is the business of the world. These things are only our business in respect to our infiltration of the systems of this world to perform our mission. They are our business only to the degree that we can involve those who we come in contact with to follow us. This is what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did; they carried the message of freedom to the world. They preached a radical break from the illusion of freedom to pursue a wilderness path of truth, trust, and hope of a real future based on faith in the living God of all creation. The Christian summons the whole world to join this pilgrim march toward the eternally rising sun of freedom in Christ Jesus.

If the Christian gives a second thought and grants any significance to this world then he is yet rooted in the world. Our condition then is pathetic even if we have Jesus on our lips; this is the “way of Cain” who was a worshiper of the Most High God only with an eye for novelty and innovation. This Christian is a blind man leading the blind, thus leading men into the ditch of human originality and death.

We are free and uprooted, and march forward, but toward what? Towards our home our true country, the place where our family resides, a place where we are no longer wanderers and strangers and aliens, a place of the presence of God our Father. There we find the end of the journey, the eternal seventh day of rest. “They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.”

The value of these promises devalue everything else, and some will say that this is mystical and anti-social, but the real question is is it Biblical? Yes, we find this teaching throughout the Bible.

As I see it the freshness of this view is that of realizing that it is not negative against the people of the world but that it contributes an element to society that is missing and needed. Being a pilgrim and living in society we do not reject it, we are disassociating ourselves from it, we are still members of society. We have something for society; we want to give it truth and meaning. We can unravel its sordid history, but we can only do this if we have a fixed vision of a true past, a fixed gaze on the future, and legs that march toward it.

In conclusion; it is astonishing that these things need repeating, things that are so obvious. Look at the instruction Jesus gave to His disciples when He sent them into the neighborhoods of Israel. But they bear repeating since we hear just the opposite today. We are taught that we need to adopt similar lifestyles, vernaculars, interest. We must act like them in their mannerisms and dress and have the same commitments and passion, and we have to join in their jokes, parties, and meaningless chatter. This is either a weakness of the flesh or a misunderstanding of Scripture. The pathway to freedom has been blocked, not by the enemy, but by Christians, and effective witnessing is short-circuited. If our word has no force it is not because we are too aloft from the world; it is because we are far too much in it. As Christians, we have no place in the world at all, not in work, not in politics, not in economics, and not in its philosophy and thought. Our witness has no effect if we are conformed to the world.

When God makes us witnesses, when He is not ashamed to be called our God, then witness exists. But, this comes about when we ourselves receive the freedom which He gives and recognizes that on earth, in society, we are strangers and pilgrims. When we participate with the world in its mischievousness we will have a presence but we become sterile.

The Christian pathway to freedom brings about separation. Just as Abraham was separated as our example, we cannot be free for God unless we are completely separated in our hearts and souls from all that constitutes the world. The pathway to freedom is along the road of change. The slave has become a free man in Jesus. His position in relation to God has been changed, as a result, now he must himself transform his position from the inside by the power given to him by the Holy Spirit. Once his will becomes the will of the Father then he will know and act accordingly.

Tags: apocalypse, Christ, christian, church, discernment, end times, faith, freedom, gospel, Israel, passivity, politics, religion, sacrifice, troubles, truth, understanding

We read that we are in the world and there we must remain. The Christian has been strategically placed in the world as a place of testing, a proving ground, and a place of service. This means that his thoughts, his life, and his heart cannot be controlled by the world and are derived from another source by another Master. This communication channel must remain unbroken in spite of the world in which he is resident. The Christian must become acutely aware that he is not opposed by the material forces of the world but rather by its unseen spiritual reality. Because he is in communion and communication with Jesus Christ he fights not against flesh and blood but against “the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness.” Just as Jesus had assurance from the Father he too is assured that he does not belong to this world and that he is freed from the violence and the fatality of the world which is moving ever closer towards death. Through the gift of liberation and freedom he can fight against the spiritual realities of the world, in the midst of the world, while remaining separated from its malignancies.

At this point my method of approach and thought need to be clarified. There is a form of reasoning in the matrix called the dialectic method. Simply stated dialectics is essentially a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish a truth through reasoned arguments and can be formulated like this, thesis + antithesis = synthesis. This method has one flaw when applied to Christian thesis and its antithesis in the world, there can be no synthesis. For the Christian the formula looks more like this, truth + lie = compromise = lie. Hegelian dialectics is used successfully in the world (and has been used even in the Church recently as a management technique for conflict resolution to grow large congregations) because truth in the world is subjective and compromise is the norm. In Christian thought the dialectic method is used to emphasize truth when interjected into a conversation to highlight the crisis and propose its historical resolution, the cross. Theologians appear to have a general fault, they always seek synthesis or unity through compromise at the expense of truth; in the nature of truth there can be no compromise.

In the fallen world all thought, action, and existence can be boiled down to what is called “necessity.” Necessity is the enslavement of man to sin. Before the Fall of man into sin creation was characterized by a total absence of necessity, man was free to be man as God had intended. Necessity had its origin in the Fall, in a shift from the order of freedom in Eden to the order of necessity in the world, as man lost his free spontaneous communion with God he was no longer able not to sin. Man is no longer free and embraces only an illusion of freedom through the machinery of state, propaganda and a form of truth called religion. Therefore the dialectical goal of synthesis, i.e. unity, can never be achieved because true Christian freedom cannot be attained inside the matrix and outside of Christ; in the parallel world of the Matrix freedom and truth cannot be nailed down and are constantly being redefined according to necessity.

The natural man of the world – and unfortunately many who claim to be Christian – are incapable of seeing below the surface into the spiritual reality in which they are struggling (I Cor. 2;14). He only sees those things that float to the surface, issues of social, political and economic problems, and he attempts to work and find solutions with the methods of the established order. As a result, the world of modern man and government are not able to save itself from its suicidal slide into death, the more so-called “progress” he makes, the more he is aware of the inadequacy of any human solution.

The only chance of survival is to speak into the situation from a position outside the matrix as an ambassador of truth. In a world of illusions only that person who is in a fixed and stable position shielded from the spirits of darkness can deliver the urgent message to flee the wrath to come. The Christian, then, who is “in Christ,” must not define the problems of society in the same terms as those who have no faith. Understanding spiritual realities with the “mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2:16), they must recognize that world situations can only be addressed by the gospel of Life in Jesus Christ. As “watchmen on the wall” of the world, Christians can “stand in the gap” by placing themselves at the point where the suicidal death-wish of society is most prevalent, manifesting the presence of life in the midst of death, the joy of freedom in the city of necessity, and that by the grace of God.

The greatest deception of the matrix is by a technique called propaganda. Propaganda is the calculated projection of the social situation in a way that individuals believe they are making informed personal choices while they are adapting and conforming to an orchestrated strategy of management. Propaganda is the influencing of behavior in a definable and predictable way in order to provoke specific acceptable responses and actions which bring about mass participation of individuals in the collective organizational matrix. It is the Christians job to shine the penetrating light of truth into this network of lies, half-truths, and innuendos. The whole idea of the matrix is to reassure the people that they are moving within the safe slow moving stream of society and history, and to convince them that they are on the verge of entering a new, better society and that technology will open the door to a healthier world.

A primary agent for the propagandizing and practice in modern society is mass media and involvement of people in entertainment and politics, especially in democratic societies where people are led to believe that it is “governance by the people for the people.” Politics gives the individual within society the illusion of freedom by creating a sense of effective participation. The “political illusion” of popular participation, general control by the people, and collective problem-solving of social problems, falsely fulfills the need that individuals have for meaning, importance, effectiveness and security, leading them to surrender themselves all the more to the politicized state and the technological system. When all values of Church and state are integrated, historically, those values have become a cocktail of demise.

Behind the curtain of visible, physical, and social spectacles are evil spiritual powers pulling levers that endow certain things and actions with “sacred” meaning. The sacred is defined as that in which individuals find their “faith, hope and love,” that which calms their fears, feeds their devotion, and is alleged to provide meaning, value, happiness and abundance. The primitive Church initially removed all the sacred symbols of idols and nature but slowly allowed others to replace those symbols such as the elevated status and position of the institutional Church and the Bible. The Reformation went far in de-sacralizing the Church but with the invention of the printing press erected a new idol, the sacred Book. In the United States we see all the above values displayed in our own idols plus a few more including the flag and the Statue of Liberty and the way in which Christians have incorporated these symbols into their worship.

If necessity is the result of the Fall then freedom is its polar opposite, but this freedom is not the popular freedom of American patriotic Christians which is the freedom of the matrix, but rather the freedom inherent in being a citizen of Heaven. God is a God of liberation from every tie that binds a person to the matrix. The victory of Christ on the cross, and every Christian who is “in Christ,” has severed the bonds to this world and all of its machinery. Therefore, no constitution, no law, no dictate or bill of rights has any authority over Christ or the child of God. Christ in His perfect freedom chose to keep the law. Free, He chose to live out the will of God. Free, He chose incarnation. Free, He chose to die, and in like manner we freely chose to follow Him. Christ is the correct and only source of perfect freedom which does not retreat from the world in fear. Freedom is the Christian’s free expression of Christ within the socio-political realities of this matrix/world.

Christian freedom can be characterized as a windmill which is energized by the tension or pressure created by the movement of the wind, and uses this tension to produce effects. The only thing that is dreaded is calm inactivity, for then nothing is accomplished.

Real Christian freedom exist when “truth” is in dialectical tension with competing ideas of the world. Without this tension nothing is accomplished. The Christian refusal to be conformed to the world can be likened to the sabotage of the engines of efficient government by exposing its illusions, and making sacrilegious the false gods in which the world has placed its faith, hope and love. Real freedom is expressed in risky Christian acts which transgress the traditions of one’s national situation. The Christian is “leaven” which infiltrates and permeates society. He is “salt” which preserves and heals. He is “light” which exposes and dispels darkness. He is a “lamb among wolves.”

There is no expectation that his actions will change the world. All of the contradictions and tensions will remain as they were. The Christian only introduces a counter-point into the matrix to inhibit its progress long enough to perform his mission. The Christian’s only expectation is to please his Commander and to live free, within the borders of an enemy nation, governed by love. Nevertheless, Christian freedom is not arbitrary or undefined. While freedom in Christ is totally open-ended, it is not without specific orientation or direction; he is not left without a compass. It will always consist of love for one’s neighbor and be directed towards the glory of God.

Tags: apocalypse, apostasy, Christ, christian, church, cross, deception, demons, discernment, end times, evil, faith, following christ, gospel, lamb, lies, Matrix, passivity, politics, religion, repent, satan, serving the Lord, truth, understanding

Sunday I presented to the fellowship my study on the Ministry of Freedom, a core value. Since freedom is such an important value in the Christian and the American life I felt that this follow-up was necessary. I am looking at freedom from a strictly Christian viewpoint, which is, in actuality, the only viewpoint.

If you are a Christian what more needs to be said? Why is it found necessary for worldly or theological representatives to propose to him certain rules of conduct or values to live by? Are not these rules actually threats to his genuine liberty acquired through grace?

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Gal. 5:1

Isn’t this the apparent paradox of the Christian life? Free but not free! This is the tension between salvation by grace (as a gift) and the working out of that salvation with fear and trembling. The traditional way is for the theologian to step in and explain, adapt, coordinate, and systemize, to hide the paradox behind the veil of words. But, this is a lost cause because the paradox is in our inability to reason correctly and not in the actual living out of our life of grace. The explanations of man stifle life and truth; free man is free, he is free because he has been freed by God. If you are a Christian what more needs to be said?

Theological discussion is trespassing when it tries to mediate in this unique heavenly relationship. “Free” man is given a gift by God, “be free,” act free, “stand firm” in this freedom as a free man; ethical philosophic discussions only destroy this freedom by trying to establish what the limits of this freedom are. The questions men want to know are just how free they are and where does this freedom end and where are the boundaries? Yet, these definitions only serve to bind so many of us Christians. Even very serious Christians need to be constantly reminded of what they are, they are FREE.

As I have tried to explain at other times, it is necessary to establish where we are at on the timeline of our journey since the creation of Adam and Eve. We are no longer in the Garden of Eden, we are on the other side of the swirling angelic swords guarding against our re-entrance to Paradise. We are now in the garden of fallen angels, the garden of evil and the world of confusion. The movie “The Matrix” exemplified these parallel situations nicely.

True meanings are important because in this world we now have things defined by different sets of competing criteria. Freedom defined by God is not the same as freedom defined by the world. What was once defined according to the Garden environment of “good” is now defined in an environment of both good and evil. What was easy before has now become complicated. What we once knew intuitively now involves many choices. In the world, outside the Garden of God, the “freedom of choice” has now become the new freedom. Choice is the result of our confused ability to reason correctly and confusion is the primary element employed by the prince of this world to govern his slaves and keep them in compliance. In a world of darkness we do not know how to distinguish between good and evil. Freedom, as viewed by the Christian, is the invasion of something new (not really new but eternally old) into the world of darkness. That “something new” is light and understanding which was given to us in (3) ways, Christ, the written word, and the Spirit. Christ is the Light, the living Word, our example, the correct understanding of life. The Bible is God’s written instruction book and reference book for all things relating to making correct choices in a foreign land, this world. The Holy Spirit is the indwelling presence of Christ to illuminate and differentiate between good and evil and to help us.

It shouldn’t be necessary to point out the fact that the Church has been an opponent to real freedom with its propagation of politics, patriotism, ecclesiology, and theology. All of these are the attempt to translate simple spiritual freedom, the freedom of Eden, into terms of this world, associated with power, confusion, and choices. Whenever the Church has been in a position of power it has regarded real freedom as an enemy, e.g. primitive Christians and the Anabaptist. Freedom as defined by God and correctly understood is incompatible with power.

As citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, living in a foreign land, we do not nullify or weaken the freedom given us by our Father country although we do obey the laws of the foreign country to the extent that we do not disobey the spiritual nature of the freedom we hold supreme. Our only citizenship is to Heaven. To the extent that we get involved with the processes and the confusion of choices inherent in the nature of a darkened world, we discount the validity of true freedom showing ourselves to still be in darkness, and choose the world over heaven and the prince of darkness over the Prince of Light. “We cannot serve two masters.”

Our duty and our right is to fully affirm in our freedom the truth of the glory of God to those who live in darkness, and that there exist an exit from the confusion of darkness into the Light of truth, and also that darkness and confusion are products of wrath which will soon be manifested in a coming judgment.

Now is the time for salvation. Freed men and women are free.

Tags: christian, church, cross, deception, discernment, evil, faith, false teachers, following christ, freedom, gospel, politics, religion, truth, understanding

By Leo Tolstoy

“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be

made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered

in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body

but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul

and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:26-28)

“Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than men!’”

(Acts 5:29)

So here you are a soldier, you have been trained to obey without question, to shoot, stab, march, read manuals on weapons, survival, and have been through military exercises and paraded before dignitaries by those who have been through wars before you. It probably did not even enter your mind to ask yourself whether what you were doing was good or bad.

Now imagine, without notice, the command comes to your company or squadron to prepare for action using live ammunition. You travel, without knowing where you are being taken. You are delivered to a town or school, and you see from a distance that a crowd of local people are in an open square – factory workers, students, men, women with children, old men and women. The governor and other civil authorities, accompanied by policemen, are talking to the crowd and the people about something. The crowd is at first silent, then the people begin to cry out louder and louder, and protest placards are raised, and the officials step back and separate from the crowd. You see that these common people, students, and factory workers are riotous and that you have been brought there to pacify them. The officials walk up to the people and walk away again, but the shouts grow louder and louder. The officials talk among themselves, and you are commanded to load your weapon with live ammunition. You see before you regular people, the same as you used to be: men in suit coats, blue-jeans, and tennis shoes; women in scarfs and jackets, the kind of clothing that your mom, dad, and wife or sister might wear. You are ordered to fire the first shot over their heads, but the people do not disperse and the shouts get louder than before. Then you are given the order to shoot, not over their heads, but straight into the crowd.

You have been taught that you are to obey without thought and that you, in concert with others, are not responsible for the results of your firing, but you know that the man who, wallowing in blood, fell down from your bullet and was killed by you and no one else; and you know that if you would not have shot, the person would not have been killed.

What are you to do in this situation?

It is not enough for you to lay down your weapon and refuse to kill your brothers. Tomorrow the same could be repeated across county, state or international lines, and so, whether you wish it or not, you must consider the situation and ask yourself what this calling of a soldier really is, which has brought you to such a state that you are commanded to shoot at unarmed civilians.

What does the Gospel say? It says that we must not only not kill our brothers, but also that we must not do what leads to murder, i.e., that we must not be angry with our brothers, and that we must love our enemies instead of hating them. In the Law of Moses, it says distinctly, “Thou shalt not kill,” without any explanations as to who may be killed and who may not. But, in the rules that you have been taught, it says that a soldier must obey any command of his superior. In the official explanation, given by the Church and the state, of the sixth commandment, they are told that, though the commandment forbids killing, he who kills in war does not sin against God. On the contrary, you are told that you must kill because you have taken the oath, and are led to believe that the leaders, and not you, are responsible for your actions. But before you swore an oath, before you made a promise to mere men to do their will, you were, even without an oath, under orders to do the will of God, of Him who gave men life – God has commanded us not to kill.

Thus it was wrong of you to swear that you would do everything demanded of you by men. For this reason, it says directly in the Gospel (Matthew 5:34), “Do not swear at all… Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” And the same is said in James 5:12: “Above all, my brothers, do not swear – not by heaven or by earth or by anything else.” Thus the oath itself is a sin. And when they lead you to believe that not you, but the authorities, will be responsible for your acts, it is a lie.

Can your conscience be in the sergeant, captain, colonel, president or anybody else, and not in yourself? Nobody can decide for you what you can and must do, and what you cannot and must not do. A man is always responsible for what he does. Adam, so the Bible tells, sinned against God and then said that his wife had told him to eat the forbidden fruit and that the devil had tempted her. God justified neither Adam nor Eve and told them that Adam would be punished for having listened to the voice of his wife and that his wife would be likewise punished for having obeyed the serpent. He did not free them but punished them. Will not God say the same to you, when you kill a man and say that your captain commanded you to do so? Thus, by killing on the command of your superiors, you are as much a murderer as the robber who kills a merchant in order to buy drugs. The robber is tempted by the money, and soldiers are tempted by the desire to win medals or the praise of patriotism. A man himself will always answer for his acts before God. No power on earth can make of you, a living man, a puppet that can be handled by others. Christ taught men that they are sons of God, and so a Christian cannot make his conscience subject to the power of another man, no matter what his title might be.

The simple fact is that these men, who have taken charge of you, are cheats, and that therefore, you must not obey them. More shameful than the harlot, whose master controls her body, is the soldier whose master commands him to commit murder.

Consequently, the Christian who wants to live a Godly life must give up the disgraceful and the godless calling of a soldier.

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