Last time we concluded our study of the Doctrine of Witnessing and noted that believing the Gospel is one of the facets of freedom that God provides for mankind.
Anytime anyone believes the Gospel they are irrevocably freed from spiritual death and condemnation and transferred from the slave market of sin into the Royal Family of God as a new spiritual species.
We noted that the Divine Establishment principles revealed in God's Word also provide for human freedom in the devil's world when they are obeyed and that Bible Doctrine provides the information that believer need to have the cognitive freedom necessary to live in the freedom of the spiritual life that every believer receives from God at the moment the Gospel message is believed.
We see from this that all freedom is based on God's Word John 8:32; Gal 5:1; so we will now commence a study of the Doctrine of Freedom.
Freedom is the status of human volition functioning in an uncoerced state. The principle of freedom is "Live and let live." Freedom is self-determination. It is exemption from necessity apart from the individual's human consent. It is self-fulfillment from free will.
Freedom is exemption from arbitrary control and exploitation. Freedom is related to privacy, private property, and authority. It emphasizes the need for the laws of divine establishment that define the legitimate authority that God establishes for the purpose of protecting and maintaining freedom.
A major concept that comes from free volition is privacy. The establishment and maintenance of freedom requires individual privacy. For the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ this privacy includes the privacy of the priesthood where the believer's relationship with God is a private matter that exists between God and every believer with no external interference.
Freedom demands the right to possess, enjoy, benefit, or to make profit from the private property that is acquired in life. Private property is defined as the sum total of one's possessions, tangible and intangible.
Under freedom, the individual has a right to make a profit and to possess personal private property without interference from anyone.
Ownership means the freedom and right to possess any right or interest in property as a source of wealth regardless of the amount.
God established the rules for freedom in the freedom code of the Mosaic Law that is also know as the Decalogue or the 10 commandments. Exod 20:13-17; Net notes 35 36 37 38 39 40
Freedom requires legitimate authority. Legitimate authority under the laws of divine establishment includes personal volition, marriage, family, and government. Authority without freedom is tyranny. Freedom without authority is anarchy.
Under the laws of divine establishment, freedom and authority are mated together. You cannot have one without the other.
In the spiritual life, freedom without the authority of God's Word is antinomianism. Authority without the freedom and privacy of the royal priesthood is legalism.
Life and property are sacred under the laws of divine establishment. The laws of divine establishment recognize the sacredness of property, privacy, and life as the sine que non of human freedom.
Human freedom cannot exist without human responsibility. The freedom of a nation is no more effective than the morality, virtue, integrity, and the sense of responsibility possessed by each of its citizens.
Individual freedom and authority can only coexist on the basis of integrity. In any given generation of a nation freedom depends on the virtue and values possessed by the population of that nation.
We see from this that freedom is established on morality and virtue from God's Word. Morality and virtue are another sine que non of Freedom.
This is why freedom in our nation is at risk at this time. The loss of morality and virtue by a significant number of the citizenry is destroying freedom.
The freedom we have enjoyed in our country cannot be maintained if the citizens reject the integrity that comes from morality and virtue from God's Word.
What is being pejoratively described as "white privilege" in our country today is actually the morality and virtue and blessing from God that accrue to those who honor and obey the authority of divine establishment.