11 November 2022 Anno Domini (Veteran’s Day), the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 35And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36)
There is no true freedom apart from that offered by our Lord Jesus Christ. The boastful contention that any man has ‘Free Will” outside the salvation offered by Christ is a false and damning belief. The heart of man can will no righteousness apart from that imputed righteousness of our Lord. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) From the Fall of Adam until now man’s will, separated from the beneficent yearnings granted by the Holy Spirit, are in bondage to the Prince of the Air – Satan. The will that man feels is free without Christ is not free will, but self-will.
Rivers of blood have flowed from the veins of our best and finest on many far-flung battlefields in the defense of liberty, but throughout our history, that liberty has been conditioned on the principles of a righteous nation. Our true Liberty and Freedom was purchased two thousand years ago by the blood of our Redeemer on the ugly brow of Golgotha’s Mount.
James Arnot mentions in one of his devotions of 150 years ago the great tragedy of the loss of freedom of either individual or nation. He points out that the despondency is made worse if the captives have had their eyes put out by the cruel conqueror as in the days of the Assyrian invasions. The blind are left to imagine themselves free though the iron yoke wears heavy on their bare necks. Arnot says the greater tragedy is to see the inmate of an insane asylum imagine himself a king by plaiting a crown of rags and tinsels and pretending to give orders to ships and armies while taking furtive and frantic looks at the iron bars on the windows and the menacing glances of the caretakers. Our people are in just that condition today with the imposition of political correctness and restrictions on freedom of speech.
As a nation, America has turned from her First Love in God and turned to the cheap and mundane pleasures of Babylon. In a sense, we have been made blind to our captivity and dream ourselves to be free while our chains are being forged by godless government. We believe all our sinful pursuits derive from a will that is free, but, alas, it is the very opposite of free – it is in bondage to the god-idols of perversions, spiritual depravity, a thirst for the very things that lead to greater captivity and, finally, the death of the individual or nation so encumbered with such wickedness. If we would be free, we must be made so by the Author of our Liberties, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was our Lord who gave His precious blood for our liberty from the bondage of sin, and when we take His Mind upon us, we are not longer in hard bondage to sin, but free indeed. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” (Psalms 33:12)
When we consider all of our national problems, the depravity of our youth, the demeaning indoctrination forced on them by a capricious education system gone bad, and a political system in which the dishonest is made victor and the righteous are ridiculed – we should be aware that every ill can be remedied by the counsel of Scripture; yet, that is the only answer that is rejected out of hand by a ruthless regime of hate and division.
America has turned from righteousness and hardened her heart in sinful pleasures and excesses. Beware the words of the wise King Solomon: “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. 2When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” (Proverbs 29:1-2)
A word to the wise is sufficient.
