The Source of Liberty 4-19-09
Recently, at a panel on censorship given to business leaders in China, action super-star Jackie Chan made some comments about freedom and the Chinese people. “I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” and “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want,” (Copyright © 2009 The Press Association). It is obscenely ironic that a man who has been able to pursue his dreams and reap the benefits of freedom so casually advocates denying a billion people that same freedom. But then again, why should this concern Christians? Instead of liberty, shouldn’t I be writing about a spiritual topic? I am: freedom is absolutely a spiritual matter.
There is a common myth that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States gives us rights and defines what rights the government cannot take away. This is completely wrong. In fact, those documents do not claim to be establishing rights, because the Founding Fathers did not believe that rights were established by man, but were rather bestowed on us by our Creator and therefore were inalienable by man.
The Godless in this country believe that man, through the government that he has established, decides who gets what amount of freedom. It is the same with the arrogant ones who claim that people do not know best how to spend their own money, so the government should take it and spend it as determined by bureaucrats.
The Godly, however, know that it is God who raises up governments in order to carry out his will. Therefore the government that acts to set itself up as the highest power has set itself up against the Living God! God has ordained liberty and freedom in the hearts of men precisely so that men will seek him. Freedom is for everyone!
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-21 NIV)
The message of Jesus is one of freedom and hope, not one of oppression and despair! Too many Christians buy into the fascist line that “freedom is not for everybody,” meaning that what works in America won’t work elsewhere. They back up their statement by pointing out that democracies around the globe often sink into corruption and poverty. But you cannot compare those countries to the United States! The other nations are founded on rule by many people as opposed to rule by a dictator. The United States was founded on the Sovereignty of God. Our founding documents clearly cite the authority from which their legitimacy is derived as being the Creator – meaning God!
Freedom is not chaos! Freedom is the ability to choose, specifically the ability to choose to follow God. Jackie Chan is wrong. China is not the model to emulate; they persecute people for attempting to seek God. But just as a reckoning is ordained for man, so too Governments will answer for their misdeeds; God has shown in the past his willingness to bring low a nation that rejects him. We need to make sure that we do not mistake the world’s rejection of God as meaning that God’s freedom is not for everyone. And we need to reject the liberal view that “we the people” is the source of our government’s authority. God is sovereign – always has been, and always will be. Let’s treat him as such; in our political choices, in our financial decisions, and most of all in our spiritual walk as we embrace his freedom.
-Charles Peterson