My Journey of Faith
The bondage that we all seem to miss is through disobedience to church traditions that are contrary to the Word of Christ.
Christian Liberty Depends on Subordination to Jesus Christ
I was a child in the 1950s and observed women in dresses all week. They could be seen walking to church wearing hats on Sundays. One family on our block in Brooklyn, New York, divorced, which was a bit of a scandal.
In the '60s, we experienced a counter-cultural revolution that began to demolish family values. Despite giving my life to Jesus Christ and watching movies on T.V. from the 30s and 40s but never attending gatherings with other believers, I can't say I was unaffected.
In the 1970s, having repented of my sin, I gathered with believers and experienced a revival in churches. We then went to Bible School to learn from retired missionaries and become aware of the radical nature of conformity to Christ.
There was a marked decline in churches in the 1980s, which was only exacerbated in the 1990s with the invention of a seeker-sensitive church model among the naive. When corruption of the truth becomes a Christian tradition, the church faces decline.
Christian Liberty Rises or Falls By Obedience
Martin Luther wrote in 1526, "The right kind of evangelical order cannot be exhibited among all sorts of people, but those who are seriously determined to be Christians and confess the gospel with hand and mouth, must enroll themself by name and meet apart in one house, for prayer, for reading, to baptize, to take the sacrament, and exercise other Christian works. With such order, it would be possible for those who did not behave in a Christian manner to be known, reproved, restored, or excluded according to the rule of Christ (Matt 18:15)."
Martin Luther understood that an Ekklesian structure would set God's people free to live according to the truths and commands of the Gospel. However, Martin could not enact the necessary changes to free the Ekklesia.
The first group of Puritans landed in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1620. They fled religious persecution in England and desired to be faithful to Christ's commands.
A CONSTITUTION OR FRAME OF GOVERNMENT, Agreed upon by the Delegates of the People of the STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY ...September 1770
Preamble
"We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe..."
Part the First. A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
III.--"As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality..."
The 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair occurred on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York. Few tickets were sold, but some 400,000 people showed up, mostly demanding free entry, which they got due to virtually nonexistent security.
Rain then turned the festival site into a sea of mud. Still, somehow, the audience bonded—possibly because large amounts of marijuana and psychedelics were consumed—and the festival went on.
Christian Liberty is not Determined by a Societies Culture but by Christ
As noted above, the Puritans were serious and zealous about creating a holy community that acknowledged God's existence and made morality a staple of society.
However, as witnessed by Martin Luther but more importantly by Jesus himself, the gathering of God's people is to come out and be separate from the world of lost sinners. Jesus made clear in Matthew 18 that we are to be an example to the world but not one with it. Such separation makes life very difficult, but that is what Jesus promised us.
John 15:20, "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also."
Persecution is promised because the lost can only be hypocrites in the "church." Societies always decline. No matter how "religious" they become, Satan always wants his people to worship him, and he always incites violence and sinful behavior.
Christian Liberty is for those who, by gathering, do not rely upon human interpretations of Jesus' word and can expect to hold one another accountable. Those who follow Jesus without compromise will gladly submit to those who lead in the same way.
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