PRÉCIS ON FREEDOM VS. LICENSE AND HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE

SCRIPTURE. “For you, brethren, were [indeed] called to freedom; only [do not let your] freedom be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse [for selfishness], ‘but through love you should serve one another.’” – GALATIANS 5:13, AMPC

KEY TERM: “FREEDOM.” ‘Eleutheria’ [ἐλευθερία]: ‘Unrestrained,’ as with legitimate licentiousness; Liberty, especially, a state of freedom from slavery; chiefly, moral or ceremonial liberty; freeborn, to do as one pleases; freedom from the yoke of Mosaic Law; ultimately, freedom from a state of calamity and death as a citizen of heaven; also, freedom from the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires.”

QUOTATION. “But the Hebrew word, the word ‘Timshel’ — ‘Thou mayest’ — that gives ‘a Choice.’ It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’ —It is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’” ― JOHN STEINBECK, East of Eden, 1952; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Ye have been called’— By the Gospel; ‘into liberty’ — From the bondage of the Mosaic ceremonies, as well as of sin and misery: ‘only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh’ — So as to nourish or gratify any corrupt principle in yourselves or others. ‘But by love serve one another’ —Use your liberty as may best manifest your love to your neighbour, seeking his edification, or at least doing nothing contrary thereto, Romans 14:13; Romans 14:15. And hereby show that Christ has made you free indeed. ‘For all the Law’ — With which we believers in Christ have any concern; ‘is fulfilled in one Word’ — Or precept; even in this, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ — Inasmuch as none can do this without loving God, (1 John 4:12,) and the love of God and man includes all perfection.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited 

DK. This takes me quickly back to the year 2020, when COVID-19 was wreaking havoc on the world and here in America. Hospitals were stacking desperately ill patients in hallways, medical staff were in utterly exhausted despair as people were dying at a rate never witnessed before, and dead bodies were being hastily placed in refrigerator trucks in the alleyways outside the hospital.

‘Plague’ had come to the earth in Biblical proportion.

When the vaccines were finally readied and distributed to the population free of charge, a mass of “Christians” ignited, in the name of their King, a ‘Freedom from The Jab’ Movement partly inspired by then PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP that it could better be withstood by such deadly nonsense as Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), or Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, or worse, injecting disinfectant into victims to kill the deadly virus. And later, he outrageously suggested irradiating patients’ bodies with UV light, handily dismissed by a doctor at the briefing immediately after he proposed it.

THE ANTI-VAXXERS. Consisting mostly of Evangelical Christians, this Movement argued that government mandates to get vaccinated to save lives was a violation of their God-given, Constitutional freedom, and, by God, they weren’t going to submit to it! Thus, Churches began holding illegal services, radio shock-jocks began rousing a virtual revolution against the vaccines, comparing their fight to the American Patriots’ resistance to the oppressive British Crown.

More personally, many of my Christian friends hated my argument that getting the vaccine, as our Commentary rightly states, was demonstration of “Loving our neighbor as oneself.” I tell you they symbolically spat in my face at such unpatriotic ‘misuse of Scripture.’ Christ’s own Words, beloved! T

To this day after 1.3 million Americans died from the Covid Virus, along with 5,000-7,000 medical professionals (80,000-180,000 worldwide), surveys show only about 19% of the population gets vaccinated, despite reports that Covid is still a potential monster.

LICENSE. “Leave; permission; authority or liberty given to do or forbear any act [deemed unreasonable]; excess of liberty; exorbitant freedom; freedom abused or misused in contempt of law or decorum.” –  NOAH WEBSTER, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828; edited

This, beloved, is what a great portion of the American Church considers to be their “Freedom” – the freedom to abuse or hold in contempt legitimate authority or proper legal mandates and restrictions, or the invocation of the simplest, moral decorum. Even to save the life of your neighbor!

MAGA CHURCH. These the very heartbeat of the Last Days Apostasy who dared to vaunt Donald Trump and the US Constitution far above Jesus Christ. So long as they refuse to Repent for this and a thousand other abuses of Christian Liberty, they shall, ultimately, never be heard from ever again. Ever.