freedom – March To Maturity

Dangerous Christianity Part 4: He Whom the Son Sets Free

Dr.Wendy Sproul — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 03:19:12 +0000

Dangerous Christianity Part 4: He Whom the Son Sets Free

Christianity’s threat to evil, powerful, God defying, satanic agenda promoting entities can be summarized in two key pillars found in its life transforming teachings. Firstly, it sets human beings free. And Secondly, it attaches people to alternative sources of power. These two pillars are certainly central to Jesus’ claim that He came to set people free and that whoever He sets free is free indeed. Part 1 of this series dealt with the question of power and agenda setting. The issue of who is wielding power over us was discussed in Part 2 of this series. Part 3 explored the matter of nonconformity and the believer. We will treat with these two pillars as we explore the permutations and implications of the freedom that Christianity extends to the believer in this article.

Christianity is diametrically opposed to bondage. Bondage is where those who want to wield power for ungodly purposes over others thrive most. It represents their ultimate objective as they proscribe and prescribe actions and consequences for those who are oppressed. Those who wield power over the oppressed do so for many and varied reasons: economic power and wealth, political power and control over others; social status and the advantages it gives them. Their interest lies in the benefits they themselves gain from wielding power over others and not the best welfare of the people and institutions over whom they are exercising power. This is baldly evident in political arenas, for example, where despots, tyrants and kleptocratic leaders exploit their populations for their own gain. Other areas of life manifest evil purpose; and any slight attention to our TV and other news sources depict this same problem in stark relief as we are bombarded with all kinds of wicked deeds and events perpetrated by individual and entities who abuse their power over others. More well-intentioned power-holders may genuinely aim to liberate oppressed people through participation in the practices of the oppressor. This idea is expressed in notions such as changing systems from within. Idealistic individuals become part of the oppressive status quo with the intention to change it from the inside. They, unfortunately generally succeed in perpetuating the oppression.

Social Scientists have long sought to explain this seemingly inevitable, unequal and exploitative power relationship between the powerful and those over whom they exercise power. According to Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, those who are being oppressed don’t know that they are in this state. They are very willing to perpetuate their state of oppression because of what they see as loyalty to their oppressor. They have to be animated or awakened to their plight as oppressed peoples. This is done through the work of an Animator or agent who comes to “conscientize” or awaken people to the reality of their situations. This awakening or conscientization is done through reeducation to enable them to reject oppression in favor of freedom. This idea, translated into our everyday terms implies that we, the ordinary people, are left with the illusion that we are free. We preach and sometimes practice our ideologies without much reaction from the powerful if we are lucky. Those who are less fortunate and live in non-western regimes instinctively keep our ideologies to ourselves as we tiptoe around those in power in order to avoid their wrath or vengeful actions and retaliation for encroaching on their power.

This tendency towards oppressive use of power is not surprising because Christianity teaches that human beings are flawed, sinful creatures who require redemption through Jesus death and resurrection. Redemption affords us the divine nature and the opportunity to walk in our spiritual, rather than carnal nature. This nature enables us to put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ and to pursue right action, driven by pure selfless godly purpose. This keeps us on the straight and narrow, but also shields us from carrying out the directives of dark agendas as we gain and begin to exercise power over others. In an ideal situation, the Christian can exercise power in a godly, liberating way – as opposed to evil oppressive ones. Only then can individuals and entities can attempt to ensure that their exercise of power does not eventually lead to selfish, ungodly purposes and outcomes. Put simply, outside of God all other attempts to wield power over others are doomed to eventual failure. One famous dictum notes that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” to explain the corrupting nature of power. Christianity teaches that only God and those who walk in His ways can successfully resist the strong impetus towards oppression and selfish, self-seeking ends. Consequently, God warns us not to put our trust in political leadership because they are bound to fail (Psalm 118:9, 146:3).

Christianity not only provides the foregoing diagnosis of the human proclivity towards misuse of power, but it Challenges this thrust towards oppression and domination by beings and entities with evil intent. It offers a protective shield against their wiles and sophisticated schemes with its active, alternative, paradigmatic framework, and its continuous provision of alternative sources of information that pierces through any attempt at programming and manipulation of people’s worldviews and ideologies. It also resists and defeats attempts to fix allegiances to their agenda as it constantly orientates and redirects the believer towards submission to and worship of the sovereign God.

Christianity’s answer to who sets the agenda (explored in Part 1 of this series) is simply “God”. God is the Sovereign who rules over all and reigns in the affairs of men (Dan. 4:17). This Soverign demands the Christian’s allegiance, so that obeisance and allegiance to all other authorities are secondary.

This obvious allegiance is a challenge to any despot or totalitarian regime. This for example is why the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic under Stalin reputedly deliberately set out to destroy Christianity and attempted to exalt the state as “god” in its place. In Western democracies, where there is freedom of religion, less obvious, possible more effective methods are used to try to replace or reorder the believer’s allegiance. For instance, the welfare system is used as the channel or excuse to become involved in individual’s personal lives. With the provision of welfare, common defense services such as police and military, education and other social services, comes the almost inevitable attempts to dictate to individuals and families how they should be structured, whom they should marry, or the way they should train or grow their children for example. Other subtler forms of intrusion against the allegiance order of Christians are found in popular culture that promotes ideas, worldviews and values that directly contradict the teachings or operations of the Kingdom of God.

Consider for instance the phenomenon of “political correctness”. Christianity presents a danger to those who want to advance political correctness because it offers counter commands. For instance,

“speaking truth in love” is one such injunction which runs counter to political correctness.

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” (Eph 4:15 AV)

God places a premium on truth speaking and believers are constantly encouraged to abide by and practice this and other principles that He has outlined. The challenge to the establishment is evident. People who conform to divine injunctions in this regard, will not be controlled by attempts at enacting laws and policies promoting political correctness, nor any other god defying, Satan promoting agendas. Believers who pledge and keep their allegiance to Christ will obey the directives of the Kingdom, rather than the dictates of this world’s leadership.

The word teaches that Christ came so that we may be free. Jesus goes so far as to claim that whosoever He sets free is “free indeed” (John 8:36). We are taught that true freedom is provided in all areas of our lives: Physically as we are freed from negative behaviors from sin and carnality, addictions and ties that bind us to bad, destructive habits;

. We are given hope, comfort, and joy instead. Spiritually, we are freed from sins dreadful hold over us and its deadly consequences. Mentally, by providing us with an alternative paradigm and way of thinking so that we can resist the world’s ideological programming and embrace the new powerful reality available to us. Politically, we are freed from allegiance to evil powers who despitefully use us as our allegiance is transferred to a kind and loving King. Finally, Jesus also changes our identities so that we have access to God’s divine power and we can do all things through Him (Phil 4:13). God’s promise of all things stands as Jesus assures us that although things may be impossible for us, they are certainly possible for God (Matt 19:26, Mark 9:23,10:27).

This freedom eventually comes to permeate our lives as we begin to manifest God’s divine will and plans in our earthly existence.

The bible constantly reminds us of God’s plans to set us free indeed. Our minds are freed from the influences of political machinations, agendas transmitted through media, popular culture, and the education system. Our systems of value can be redeemed and changed to reflect those which God wants to impart to us. Our personalities are freed as we begin to transform in to what God plans for us.

God’s divine power empowers the believer by enabling him or her to do all things through Christ, assigning him or her the tools for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), effectuating his or her transformation by mental renewal. This empowerment does not stop there and can be translated into the social and political sphere. It equips the believer to begin to exercise authority over his or her reality through transformed mental attitudes, word and action. He/she can apply God’s teaching to his or her ordinary daily reality and adopt the mind of Christ that transforms his or her outlook and manifests in empowering, liberating decisions and choices. Faith is seen as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1) and the source of empowerment for radical, transformative human action in the spiritual, social, economic and political spheres in the Scriptures. This is detailed for example, in the Hebrews chapter 11 hall of faith’s list of successful achievers. This is supported by secular history that shows that believers from the early, fledgling days of the Christian religion have successfully overcome great odds, such as persecution, changed political, social and economic systems like the Abolition movement in England with William Wilberforce; Created enduring effective social intervention driven institutions such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and the list could go on.

The Christian faith puts believers on the cutting edge of proper, purposeful godly exercise of power over themselves and others. As an influence on decision-making it has kept us flawed human beings on the right side of the exercise of power as we seek and trust God’s divine purpose and intervention into our everyday lives. It enables us to promote Godly agendas to transform lives and impact the world for good as history shows. When pursued according to God’s design, Christianity helps us to avoid corruption and the promotion of the satanic agenda. As a paradigm, it empowers us to raise a standard against attempts at programming and bending us toward godlessness and iniquity. It gives us the capacity to resist the devil and force him to flee (James 4:7), overcome self, and exercise a faith that is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

Learn More about Early Christianity’s evolution and development from Dr. Johnathan Phillips’ “Ancient Roads: From Christ to Constantine” at:

https://www.tpt.org/ancient-roads-from-christ-to-constantine/

Learn more about the formation of the Salvation Army and the Red cross.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/salvationarmy_1.shtml

And:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement

Learn more about William Wilberforce and the movement for abolition of slavery in Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce

Learn more about Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire, Paulo. 1972. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Learn more about Building on the word of God and Faith from March to Maturity.

Sproul, Wendy. 2017. March to Maturity: Grounded and Built. North Charleston, South Carolina. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

So, You Think you Are “Woke”?

Dr.Wendy Sproul — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 18:23:17 +0000

No. You are not. You are still in the matrix. You are that man who is sitting in a dark room, bound to the wall with fetters. You stare every day at the wall in front of you because it has a window that lets in the only source of light. It overlooks a beautiful scene with rolling green hills, blue skies and bright golden sunlight. You can practically feel the winds as they move the plants this way and that. The sunlight is warm and healing on your skin. The grass and trees are rich smelling and soothing. If only you could break through these chains which fasten you to the wall and walk out into this paradise on earth.

What you do not know, is that if you do break free and walk toward that window you will come up hard against the prison wall behind. All that scene is an illusion, artfully painted for you to channel your yearning. You continue to be caught up in your delusion, just unloose these bindings, and you can walk through that window to freedom and that lovely scene you constantly see and long for. Of course, it his paradise compared to the rest of the darkness and restrictions that the room presents.

The system of deception throws up illusion after illusion to prevent you from truly breaking free. Each time you move towards “truth” and “freedom” you are encountering another realm of deception that lures you into thinking you have found “truth”. Sure, you can settle in any of those illusions and live all your life believing that you have discover the genuine and the factual. All your senses, your friends, neighbors, social contacts, political allies, and everyone you encounter will reinforce the notion that you have discovered life’s meaning. You will attach yourself to causes where you find common ground with others and some sense of fulfillment too. You speak a shared language with those around you, you all embrace a collective morality and buy the same arguments, propositions and assumptions. You finally belong.

Nowhere is this scenario more evident in your politics. You have come to a place of common philosophy. You have found your “tribe” and are “living” your “truth”. Every day the headlines provide you with directions as to what you should hate, approve, love. You can find satisfaction in embrace of collaborative causes. You find meaning in the turbulent surge of emotions such as outrage at the latest appalling policy an opposing politician proposes. Righteous anger floods your veins as “they” transgress all the settled virtues your side has prescribed for all. You can release all your pent-up rage, anger, hatred and resentment at your opponents on social media and receive the reassuring feedback of all those other millions of users who echo your same sentiment. Everyone else repeats it so it must be true.

What you do not know is that everyone else is in the same prison, facing the same illusions that you are seeing. No diversion, dissention or difference is allowed.

You can believe this voice is the product of a deranged mind. After all it is one small voice that sounds a little different from the chorus you are used to hearing. It is making you uncomfortable. It is forcing you to question all the assumptions and ideologies you have so eagerly embraced. It is a minority. It should be ignored and shut out.

So, here is an experiment to tell if you are truly “woke”. It is pretty simple, you are told to use it when you are dreaming. Take an action. Pinch yourself. It is the same method, just applied to your mental and intellectual processes.

FIRSTLY

Acknowledge that there is an absolute truth that exists outside of your own consciousness. In other words, if you were suddenly to disappear from this planet or die, this truth would still exist. Christianity teaches that this truth is a person. Jesus said it:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (Joh 14:6 AV)

This word “truth” stems from the very beautiful Greek “Aletheia” which means Truth, what is true in any sense. It speaks to what is objective, reality, fact and so on. It also refers to truth in a moral sense and what is true in things pertaining to God and the duties of man among its other uses. This word is also used when talking about the Christian meaning of truth. It shows up in doctrinal verses such as:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (Joh 1:14-17 AV)

SECONDLY

Recognize that it is perfectly reasonable for you to seek that truth, whatever you may think it is at the moment. You would be in “good” company. Pilate asked, when standing before Jesus whom he thought was an innocent person on a trumped-up charge, what is truth?

“Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.” (Joh 18:37-38 AV)

Perhaps if he had asked: “who is truth”?, Jesus would also have answered.

THIRDLY

Answer this question. Can you see the boundaries of your own ideology? In other words, can you identify the biases and limitations of the ideologies you have adopted? Can you detect their weaknesses?

Were you exposed to or taught about the finite applications that they may allow for in terms of personal choices, public policies or vehicles for attracting political adherents? Can you clearly detect their usefulness or lack thereof?

If you answered “no”, it means that you are deep in the illusion. You have been thoroughly indoctrinated and are the victim of masterful propaganda. True methods of teaching will tell you the weaknesses and limitations of the ideologies and philosophies to which you are being exposed, right up front.

If you answered “Yes” to this question, you are beginning to sense the breadth and depth of the illusions to which you have been exposed and are currently enmeshed. Keep on going in your search for truth.

FORTHLY.

If you are brave enough, begin to listen to those around you. Do they demonstrate the same fanatic fervor about the group ideology as those on the other side whom they are encouraging you to eschew? Do they express the same evangelistic fervor in their zeal to measure your and each group members’ conformity to the overarching group think? Do they allow others with different notions to exist, explain and expose their ideas to you and others in your group? Do they allow you to dissent or stray away from prevailing orthodoxies?

FIFTHLY

This step is most telling of all. What happens when you raise doubt about the prevailing ideology? Do they shut you out? Do they “entertain” them and quickly guide you to a “tolerant” or “open minded” conclusion? Do they hastily distract you with some other ideas that feeds your emotions? Do they encourage you to “feel” and respond emotionally to the question under consideration? Do they use your emotions to tell you what your thoughts should focus on? In other words, do they manipulate your emotions?

One of the central promises of the Jesus of Christianity is freedom. He pointed out that those whom the Son set free would be free indeed.

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (Joh 8:31-36 AV)

The word “free” is the Greek “eleuthero” which means to liberate, make or set free, deliver, and set at liberty. It appears in only five other verses in the New Testament (Rom. 6:18,22, 8:2,21, Gal. 5:1).

This freedom is just as it says. You are free indeed. Liberated to think for yourself. At liberty to reason with God (Is. 1:18). You are free to accept or reject. You are delivered to live in the spirit or walk in the flesh (although this is very highly undesirable). You are unfettered to have your mind and mental processes renewed and healed to reflect the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

Yes, you might think, you don’t consider it freedom when that same Christian God tells you that you can choose, but if you do not choose His way you will be cast into hell. You believe He punishes those who do not walk according to His way by condemning them to eternal damnation.

Perhaps you may be right. Then your resistance to Him would be justified. You can even entertain the notion that the freedom He is offering is merely another illusion.

Consider this however, what if He, living outside of time, is inserting Himself into our temporal reality to warn us about the two sets of alternatives, choices and consequences which were not created for us. What if these choices and consequences were laws set in motion from eternity, and we stumbled into them by succumbing to the manipulation of an evil being who acted in rebellion and is destined for eternal damnation? What if that being is trying to trap us into joining him in his eternal misery by enticing us to walk his way, instead of the way that leads to true freedom? What if the being you call “god” is truly good and is constantly interrupting enemy propaganda to send you messages that are meant to awaken you to what is really going on? What if God is truly reaching down into time, this limited physical realm and trying to rescue you from all this illusion to bring you into all truth?

SIXTHLY

Test yourself. are you courageous enough to explore these possibilities? What if you find out that this is when you become truly awaken? Here is the good news, if you begin this exploration and find that it is indeed truth, you will want to continue along this journey.

not only did God provide this avenue of escape for you, but He also made it so that we can choose to love or hate, reject or accept. He outlines the consequences of each choice, but He doesn’t force us to choose. Yes, there are consequences attached to each choice, but we have not been preprogramed to make either.

We can remain with the illusions, knowing and accept them for what they are, now that we have been alerted to them. Many people do. They return to familiar comforts, unwilling to risk the loneliness or pain of estrangement which may result from abandoning the dominant and overarching illusions which parade as a “unifying force”. Life is easier when they ignore the uncomfortable and substitute it for the “broad way”

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Mt 7:13-14 AV)

On the other hand, we can catch hold of that eternal Hand that is reaching down through all the fog and deceptive mist of ideologies, philosophies, multitude of words and ideas to rescue us and place us in a bold, empowering truth that lets us interact with Him with mutual freedom, openness, honesty and love. Most wonderful of all, our surrender to God’s freedom and truth removes our illusions and places us in relationship with truth.

Learn More about Spiritual growth and maturity from:

Sproul, Wendy. 2017. March to Maturity: Grounded and Built. North Charleston, South Carolina. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

The Matrix (1999)