The Battle for Freedom of Conscience

"Thomas Goold being presented by the Grand Jury held at Cambridge, April 7, 1657, for not bringing his child to the holy ordinance of baptism, the said Goold appearing in Court confessed his child to be unbaptized, the Court sollemly admonished him of his dangerous error." Middlesex Court Original Papers, Charlestown, Massachusetts p. 699.

"The Snake in the Grass or Satan Transform'd to an Angel of Light," title page by Richard Gaywood, paper, etching, 148 mm x 93 mm. At the sides are a Puritan and a Covenanter above an author writing.{{PD-1996}}

"But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them." Mark 13:9

The colonists from the early 1600's through to the writing of the Constitution witnessed time and time again people willing to endure much persecution for their beliefs. Thus, many came to understand a person's conscience cannot be bent to the will of the government or other rulers. To change what a person believes at the core of their being requires an act of God, not of man. A battle for a person's freedom of conscience played a significant role in the war for human rights.

The anabaptist groups, like the Baptists and the Quakers, were demonized by the courts for not baptizing their infants. The Puritans, from which the Congregational Churches were formed, came out of the Church of England (many of the preachers having been trained by that church), held to the doctrine of infant baptism so strongly that they viewed anyone not baptizing their infant a messenger of Satan:

 "'Tis Satan's policy to plead for an indefinite and boundless toleration." Thomas Shepherd, "Election Sermon" (1672), p. 24

"The Lord keep us from being bewitched with the whore's cup, lest while we seem to detest and reject her with open face of profession, we do not bring her in by a back door of toleration." John Cotton, "Bloody Tenet Washed," p. 132, 192

"The Loud outcry of some is for liberty of conscience … I look upon an unbounded toleration as the first born of all abominations." Reverend Urian Oakes, president of Harvard in 1675. http://mises.org/daily/5966/The-Libertarian-Origins-of-Rhode-Island

 Reflecting upon this battle in Colonial times, I could not help but see the parallel in our own times. The cry of anger against evangelical, Bible-believing churches (indeed all who lay claim to the title: 'Christian') no longer comes from a state church but from secularists, atheists, and those in the government who have little regard for true freedom of conscience. They tote toleration while denying business owners liberty of conscience on how they run their business. There is little difference between the above quotes and the actions and words of those who wish to impose laws that are contrary to the conscience of the business owner or the individual.

The Anabaptist groups (like the Quakers and the Baptists and the Seekers) continued to stand for their beliefs, against all persecutions: from arrests, to whippings, to hangings. They did not waiver. Such conviction led others to embrace their freedoms and even their faith. People gave up their positions, their wealth, their homes in order to hold to their core beliefs. And by standing firm, drawing others to them, they eventually won for us religious freedom...which I fear we are losing, particularly if we (out of fear of losing our comforts and 'peace') refuse to stand firm on God's Word--on God's Truth, and not man's--no matter the cost.

The Bible does teach us to obey the laws of the land and live peaceably, but not to the extent of denying Christ or denying God's laws. God's laws must come first in our lives. God, our Creator, knows what is best for us. He gave us those laws, those instructions on how to live, because He knew that to work contrary to them would lead to destruction. He didn't want that for us. As an example to us, He gave Peter and the other apostles courage to say, "We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)

When  you are facing opposition to what you claim is your faith, are you willing to say as the apostles did, "We ought to obey God rather than men"?

"I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because thy are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil."

John 17:14-15

From Entrapment to Liberty

"There I stood upon a rock, and made my vows to God to forsake all sinful courses and seek the Lord, if he would direct me how." John Leland, The Writings of the Late Elder John Leland.

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;..." Isaiah 61:1

Many of our country's forefathers held John Leland in high esteem. Yet in his journal we discover he often felt unworthy to preach and perhaps ashamed of his past prior to being saved. In my opinion, this humbleness enabled him to be used of God.

I fear, like John Leland, that many people live in shame and never learn to accept God's forgiveness.

In my years in the camping ministry, I listened to many stories from young women who had suffered at the hands of a man. Often such encounters would lead the girl into a life of entrapment. Feeling as though she were damaged goods, she'd allow herself to be in a position again to receive such abuse, perhaps even seeking it out thinking that was the only way to be 'loved.' Once a victim, she moves into engaging in sinful behavior and becomes trapped in a vicious circle, not able to discern between good love and brutal lust.


Elder Leland felt a great conviction against his former life. We don't know what that former life entailed, but we can see his great sorrow for it. We know that prior to God grasping his heart, he attended dances and other 'frivolities' and that he was ashamed of this. The above statement was a result of witnessing the baptism of a young lady he'd danced with. Her commitment to change and discovery of a new life obviously impacted him.

In Isaiah 61, we find hope for the victim of this vicious cycle of a sin committed against them thus leading them to engage in sin themselves.

The speaker in Isaiah 61 is the Messiah, Jesus Christ. After the Prophet Isaiah recorded what the Messiah would do with respect to Israel and the Gentiles, we see the Messiah focusing on the individual and on His plans for each person:

• "To preach good tidings unto the meek." Note, it is to the meek. The meek are those who are poor, humble, and afflicted. Those who are proud will not look to God for help. They look to themselves for inner strength and power, or to their knowledge of science and humanities, but they do not look to God.
• "He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." When a person experiences the consequences of sin, it is heart-wrenching. When a person feels crushing shame for a sin, conviction to change can rise from the dust. Jesus was sent to be a cast or a splint for the injured heart, thus providing a way for that conviction to bring change.  As such, Jesus makes a way for healing to happen and to prevent or protect from further injury, IF the person is willing to humble herself and let Him work in her life. But like a broken bone, healing may take time.
• "To proclaim liberty to the captives." Like the young ladies I mentioned above, many people are held captive by a sin they cannot gain victory over. But Christ was sent to proclaim liberty. Where does that liberty come from? When He was on earth, He met many people enslaved by sin, including the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). When she expressed some faith by calling Him Lord, He didn't condemn her but told her to "go, and sin no more." He proclaimed to her liberty. Then He gave Himself to be the final offering for sin. Upon Him our sins were placed so that we too can "go, and sin no more."
• "To proclaim...the opening of the prison to them that are bound." When sin shackles us to the walls of our wretched life, death holds the keys to our prison door. When Jesus died and was buried, He went into that prison and took those keys. And when He rose again, He conquered death and gave freedom to all who will believe, accept Him as their sin offering, and then follow Him out of that cell. For the young woman who abandoned her body and self-respect to the use of men or for the moment of ecstasy, He opened the prison. Will she trust Him and come out?
• "To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God." When we give ourselves over to Him, accepting the liberty He offers and walking through that opened prison door, we can have hope that God will prevail against our enemies. They cannot touch our soul. They cannot take away our Heavenly Home and the freedom we have in our heart and will someday have in Heaven. That hope enables us to hold up our heads and walk a straight path. What can man do unto us? We are safe and secure under the wings of our Saviour for eternity.
• "To comfort all that mourn." Like John Leland, we at times look back and wish we'd not lived the life we did. We wish we'd made other choices or not allowed ourselves to be in a position of vulnerability or become a victim and slave to sin. But in Christ, we find comfort. We will not forever be under the dark cloud of the sins of our past. When we get to Heaven, we will remember them no more.
• "To give beauty for ashes." The world around us is burning away in the lust of its eyes and the lust of its flesh and in its pride of life. It affects us. We experience the consequences of man's sin even as all creation does. But in our hearts, we find beauty in Christ. We find beauty in the hope of eternal life He gives us. And one day, we will stand in Heaven and be awed by the beauty of His presence and the place He has prepared for us.
• "The oil of joy for mourning." Scarred, we mourn what might have been. Pain of sins deepen our sorrow, but when we look to Christ and what He has done for us, and what He has planned for us, we receive the healing balm of joy. How can you not have joy when you reflect on Him and the tremendous love He has for you?
• "The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." When we focus on the entrapment of sin in our lives, we are weighed down. But, when we focus on the freedom we experience in Christ, we can do nothing more than praise Him, and that praise rests upon our shoulders like a delicate chiffon scarf.
• "That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." Did you notice? Trees of righteousness. You don't become that by staying in the captivity of sin. "Go, and sin no more." Victory over sin requires action on our part. We must leave the old life and plant ourselves in Christ and the life He wants us to live. Only when we live according to His ways will He be glorified. And honey, we are created for His glory.

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." 

Ephesians 2:8-9

John Adams: A Moral and Religious People

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

John Adams

"And the LORD commanded us to do all these statues, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us."

Deuteronomy 6:24-25

If righteousness does not reign in the hearts of a country's citizens, justice will not be maintained. But man cannot be righteous of his own merit. Mankind cannot execute perfect justice because each individual is consumed with the needs and desires of his own flesh.

Ideologies rise up in opposition to each other, neither looking to the absolute truth found in God's Word, the Bible. Division follows leading to the abandonment of the remarkable fundamental principles upon which our Founding Fathers intended for us to govern. Reduced to mere words, the constitution becomes open to personal interpretation. Personal interpretation generally follows the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

"From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
"Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."

James 4:1-3

We cannot resolve our differences, because we examine our situations from our finite minds and our finite lives. In the end, our focus centers upon our own human comforts in this present time, and not to our children's and grandchildren's comfort, nor do we anticipate eternity. In essence, we can't see past the end of our noses.

The United States of America strayed away from God (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) by removing Him from its schools, its courts, its government, and its culture. We are no longer a moral and religious people in the sense meant by John Adams, and we are beginning to experience the consequences.

So where does this leave us?

Benjamin Franklin said:

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."

For those of us who are born again believers, our liberty is in Christ. Our faith is our righteousness and our actions are our religion, both of which reflect our morality. Have we given up our liberty in Christ for fear of persecution? For fear that someone (determined to be enslaved by the lusts of his own flesh and eyes and by his pride of life) might call us hateful bigots, religious zealots, and racists because we are standing on Biblical truths--not on man's interpretation of those truths but God's interpretation?

Have we given up our liberty because we are reluctant to suffer as Christ did for our faith? Or will we stand like Peter and John who stood before the religious leaders and said:

"...Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts 4:19-20

Or do we shrink away from the freedom of speech our ancestors fought for?

I put to you, our country will continue to shrink in power and greatness if we continue to shrink away from our Christian faith in the Almighty God, Lord and Saviour of our lives, and the precepts and principles taught from Scripture.

For those of you who know God's Word, let me ask you, where is North America mentioned in the prophecies of what is yet to come? I would much rather North America be diminished because so many are raptured by Christ than because we've experienced judgement for our sins.

What should we do? There is still hope. The people of Nineveh were told they would be destroyed by God. The people repented and pleaded for God's mercy. God saw that they turned from their evil way, and He turned from destroying them.

We may or may not be able to save our country, but we can bring God glory by proclaiming His good works, His Gospel to each person willing to listen. We can bring God glory by standing on God's Word and on the Blood of Jesus Christ shed for our sins, and when we no longer shrink from those who wish to malign us and tread upon our faith. We do not need to be antagonistic nor do we need to cower. We stand by peacefully proclaiming God's truth and not fearing what man will do to us.

I am thankful for those senators and congressmen who stand up for our faith at cost to themselves. And I will pray for them as I also pray for our country. I will pray that we will once again become a moral and religious people.

"And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." 

Jeremiah 24:7

(Note, the above verse was written for Judah, but it shows the heart of God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and calls for even the Gentiles to repent, call upon the name of Jesus, and follow Him)

The day the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia

I remember the day the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia and our Declaration of Independence from Britain's rule was heralded throughout the Thirteen Colonies. My name is Seth Braxton, born and bred in Virginia. I saw many a man give his life for freedom, including my own beloved father who died at Yorktown. I survived, for Almighty God had other plans for me. I pray daily America will regain what we, the Patriots of Liberty, fought and died for.


Greetings to all my American friends. My name is Juleah Braxton. I was not present the day your country declared its independence from Great Britain and its monarch King George. But my brother Peter, being staunchly loyal to the king, set out to fight the rebels. To the regret of my parents and myself, he did not return. It has grieved my father to have lost his son, but he will live in our hearts forever. 


Readers will find the story of Seth Braxton, an American patriot of the Revolution, and Juleah Fallows, a young English woman in love with him, in the novel 'Surrender the Wind' by Rita Gerlach.

http://ritagerlach.blogspot.com/

The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American freedom. Here are some interesting facts.

It was first placed in the steeple of the State House in Philadelphia.

It was commissioned in 1752 from a London firm, and was cast with Leviticus 25:10. "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

 It originally cracked when first rung after arrival in Philadelphia, and was twice recast by local workmen.

Historians believe the Liberty Bell was one of the first bells rung after the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.

 

Thomas Jefferson, From Whence Our Liberty Comes

“God who gave us life gave us liberty...” Thomas Jefferson

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

While Thomas Jefferson was referring to our civil liberties, he spoke the truth that God gave us life and gave us liberty.

God created mankind, and mankind enslaved himself to sin. Praise be to God that He again determined to give us life everlasting. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross, be buried, and rise again, conquering death (the wages of our sin). Through Jesus Christ we obtain liberty from the bondage of our sin.

When we yield ourselves to sin, we become its servant. Because of our propensity to sin, laws are established. For example, we have laws against murder because some in society seek to murder. Those laws enable a judge to assign an appropriate penalty to those who break the law.

The penalty for our sins--every lie we’ve told, every angry retort we’ve made, every time we have doubted God--is death (see Romans 6:23 and Revelations 20-22). We are doomed, and we know the law will decree our punishment. However, Jesus fulfilled the law, meeting the requirements of its punishment, by taking our place on the cross. He, the perfect lamb, the Son of God, God Himself, took our sin and paid the debt we owe. Now, for those who believe, liberty is offered. Liberty to do what is right without fear of punishment, even if we fail.

Yes, Thomas Jefferson, God gave us life and He gave us liberty.

“For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

I put to you that our nation would be truly free if everyone accepted the free gift of Christ’s payment for our failure in obeying the law, and then having received that liberty, lived by love to serve each other.

I believe some of our nation's fathers knew this and sought, in their ways, to bring this freedom to our country. I, for one, am praying that our nation will turn back to God and seek the liberty He offers us.