Freedom is an essential part of God’s nature and plan for man. The emphasis on freedom is apparent at Mount Sinai when God gave the people the Ten Commandments. God identifies Himself as the “author of liberty” when He begins the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord thy God, which … brought thee … out of the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 5:6).
By the time we get to the New Testament, freedom is truly front and center. When He launched His public ministry from the temple in Nazareth, Jesus read out of the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor … to preach deliverance to the captives … to set at liberty them that are bruised (oppressed)” (Luke 4:18). He told the congregation that the scripture was fulfilled that day in their hearing.
Jesus is the Messiah, and He brings freedom – freedom from the bondage of sin and death that came upon the human race when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Through faith in Christ, we are adopted back into family-relationship with our Maker – sons and daughters, children of God. This is truly liberating – the fact that our identity becomes like that of beloved little children who can call their Creator “Daddy” (Romans 8:15)!
The Founding Fathers of America made freedom a highest value. This has been the heritage of settlers to the New World who brought their love for Christian principles and longing for freedom to practice a more purely biblical religion. They created a Republic with checks and balances against the corruptions of human nature that has so far stood the test of time.
The Bible exhorts us to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…” (Galatians 5:1). To “stand fast” means to firmly resist the tendency to compromise a principle. Thus, Founding Father and strong Christian Patrick Henry could famously say, “Give me liberty or give me death!” This is uncompromising courage of conviction. And this is what we also can uphold as we proclaim the uncompromising and foundational truth of biblical creation, and the freedom for which both our Great Creator and the Founding Fathers of America stood!
– Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman
Photo: Currier & Ives depiction of Patrick Henry giving his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech. (PD) 718
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