Individuals have for thousands of years fought for, risked their lives for and millions have died for freedom. The same is true for races and nations. In two cases, much of the world’s population fought the rest of her population for freedom. At the same time many, while yearning for more freedom, have rejected and even fought against law. This reveals a deadly misunderstanding of the nature of true freedom and the need for righteous Law. The supreme irony is seen in the fact that if the world’s people obeyed righteous Law, there would be righteous freedom and no slavery. In this series we will look into the phenomenon of freedom and slavery and how it plays out in the everyday lives of hundreds of millions of people world-wide who must understand that WITHOUT LAW THERE IS NO FREEDOM, ONLY SLAVERY.

Today, entire segments of nations and even whole nations cry out for freedom or more freedom. Man’s desire for ever more freedom has propelled him into the most deadly of protests, struggles, civil wars, revolutions and even world wars in which tens of millions of people gave their lives for one thing–freedom. In three of those cases some have fought and died for the freedom of other people. In the case of Americans, that includes World Wars I and II as well as their own civil war. In Europe there are numerous cemeteries containing the bodies of thousands of Americans who fought and died so that people they did not know could live in freedom. Those precious souls gave their lives for strangers. Warfare is justified when national freedom hangs in the balance. Individual slavery also warrants warfare in both the social and the spiritual realms. That is why I do what I do. Billions of salvation seekers are unwitting slaves of Satan. My goal is to rob him of some of his converts.

This series is about freedom–the type of freedom that produces only slavery. In this case the one who promises freedom to the captives is also their owner. His name is Satan, the ultimate slave master whose mode of operation is to enslave the masses by persuading them that he is offering the ultimate freedom–spiritual freedom. His success can be seen by looking in a phone book under heading: “CHURCHES.” God has only one church. Satan has hundreds. Relative to numbers, Satan is winning the war. But like Gideon’s 300, God’s tiny army will be victorious in the end.

Today, even within free societies, many continue to fight and struggle for what they perceive to be ever greater freedoms–freedoms, as we will see, that, when gained, produce slavery. The overwhelming majority of people today are deceived about what freedom actually is. The key to being free and avoiding slavery is to understand the nature of each. Let us gain that understanding.

Where better to look when considering the nature of freedom and slavery than the Book that holds the key to all worthwhile knowledge–the Holy Bible.

There are those who promise ever more freedom. The Apostle Peter wrote this about those false prophets: “They promise the people freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved” (2 Pet. 2:19). Peter’s description (and God’s condemnation) of such church people is summed up in one word: “SELF-WILLED” (vs 10). In Colossians 2:23 the Apostle Paul calls such craving for self-determination “will worship” in which man worships himself and lives according to his own will. Religious man’s false prophets assure him that he is in fact doing the will of the Biblical God and will reap the reward promised in the Holy Scriptures. Such prophets and their followers people have given themselves the freedom to obey their own wills. But in so doing, they enslave themselves to a god they do not understand, or in some cases, do not believe that He exists.

In the physical realm MAN BECOMES ENSLAVED TO THAT WHICH OVERCOMES HIM. Two of the most addictive elements on earth are alcohol and nicotine. Though this is common knowledge, billions of people insist on their freedom to consume both to the point of death. Such people are so enslaved to those substances that they are miserable without them. I have lost many family members to nicotine, a process I call “slow suicide.” Drugs are ravaging the lives of millions of people world-wide. Yet they demand the right to consume as much of their poison of choice as they desire. Now, even knowing the results of their decisions, cities, states, and even nations are awarding them that right, making those states accessories to thousands of suicides each year. America long ago declared a “war on drugs.” You don’t hear much about it anymore because she has lost that war and is falling deeper into drug depravity with each passing day as people enjoy the freedom to enslave themselves at will. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not freedom. This false freedom is in fact true slavery. A vivid example comes to mind. I once was asked to visit a lady who was dying of lung cancer caused by smoking cigarettes. I found her lying on a bed, looking like a corpse with a hole in her chest into which a tube was inserted AND A PACK OF CIGARETTES AT HER SIDE. Yes, she was free to smoke herself to death. And even as death approached, she was still enslaved to the poison that was about to take her life. Satan had her and was not about to let her go.

The same can be said about enslavement to pornography, which is called “sex addiction.” Illicit, as well as deviant sex has become a national addiction. People enjoy spreading their addictions around. Look at what people in authority are trying to do to our children. Sex is as addictive as a chemical drug. I make this case in the series titled Sexual Leaven and Sex and Satan’s Tautological Truth. Key words–Sexual and Tautological respectively.

The problem of personal, self-inflicted slavery is not limited to the chemical realm. In terms of numbers, slavery is much more problematic in the spiritual realm than in the chemical realm. Most religious people like to talk about freedom. The problem is that they do not take their definition of freedom from the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle John understood this Truth. He tells us in his Gospel (8:32): “And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” Anyone having a definition of freedom other than God’s definition is enslaved by the ultimate slave owner–Satan. Any deviation from God’s Law (Genesis to Revelation), even a jot or tittle (like a period or comma in English) means that one is not following the dictates of Almighty God. This is true even of the most religious among us. This becomes evident when I tell professing Christians what God actually said in His Holy Bible, the same Bible they have lying on their coffee table, or inside their purse, or their briefcase. This is the same Bible they carry to church on Satan’s sabbath. When I present God’s truth to them I can see them mentally doubling down on their false knowledge, thereby further enforcing their enslavement to their god. Satan has them so enslaved that they do not know they are slaves.

Salvation-seeking man’s “freedom” to believe and obey what he wants to believe and obey is overpowering, just as it was in the Garden of Eden. The fact that we have more than one “church” is undeniable proof that religious man is totally enslaved to his master–Satan–the serpent of Eden. Other proof is provided by the numbers. The Lord’s “My way only” church numbers only a few thousand world-wide while Satan’s “any way you want it” church numbers in the billions. Jesus warned about this future fact in the parable of the mustard seed. His church, He warned true believers, would remain tiny. “The church” that would develop out of it would become huge as birds (false Christians) took up residence in its “branches” (denominations). Everyone knows that birds cover them with feces (false doctrines), which perfectly describes the Institutional Church with its many “branches” (denominations, faiths, etc.) and many types of “truths” (doctrines, practices). See the home page of this website for a partial list of some of the types of feces (doctrines) “the church” proclaims to be God’s will. Read Simon of Samaria. Key word–Simon.

Jesus said about false religionists of His day who professed to believe in Him: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they WORSHIP Me while teaching the commandments of men instead of My doctrines” (Mk. 7:6,7). These people believed themselves to be His disciples. They worshiped Him, but in vain. Their religious descendants are following in their spiritual footsteps today. Christ’s words to each group is the same.

Just as did their original parents, modern church people have awarded themselves the freedom to believe whatever they want to believe and to react to those beliefs according to their respective wills. The end result of this “freedom” is what is known as Catholicism/Protestantism–the Satan-controlled religious abomination whose “freedoms” have resulted in hundreds of conflicting, contradicting, freedom-seeking, God-despising (read Lk. 10:16) false churches that are filled with unwitting congregants (Rev. 12:9) whom their master has deceived into believing that they are on their way to heaven.

Law limits our freedoms. Without Law each person is free to do whatever he/she deems is right, Adam and Eve being prime examples. We all know how that turned out. We are witnessing the same acts and the same results in the modern world. The anarchy that has been taking place within the Catholic/Protestant Church System has been en vogue for some 1700 years. Today we see the results of spiritual rebellion expressed socially in murder, rioting, sexual deviance, etc. in ever-increasing amounts. As I have proven time and again, AS GOES THE CHURCH, SO GOES THE SOCIETY. When the church “nailed God’s Law to Christ’s cross” she opened the gates of freedom. Where there is no Law there is no sin. Having destroyed God’s Law which governed man spiritually, he has assumed the freedom to make his own rules of engagement with God. This has brought about man’s enslavement to Satan. Church man has told God to sit down and shut up.

We are not born with sin in our hearts (minds), as Adam was not created with sin in his heart. We have the freedom to choose either holiness or sin. Both are available to man. Contrary to popular church opinion, we are not born sinners due to Adam’s supposed sin transferal miracle. Sin is a choice, a choice that we all make at some point in our lives. But it was a choice on our part–always has been, always will be. Read Sin is a Choice. Key word–Choice. We have all made wrong choices and thereby became slaves of Satan as a result. But thanks to God we can break free of slavery to His enemy and become His (God’s) slaves. The Apostle Paul tells us this as only he can: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have been given by God. You are not your own. You are BOUGHT WITH A PRICE, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which BELONG TO HIM” (1 Cor. 6:19,20). We have the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE one of two masters: the God of the Bible or the god of the earth. Our choice is all-consuming. We either belong to God or to Satan. May we all make the right choice. L.J.