freedom and liberty

Is there a difference between freedom and liberty?

Often the words freedom and liberty are used interchangably.  From time to time, they may carry with them different connotations or distictive definitions based on an author’s intent.

Typically, if a distinction is drawn, freedom is typically tied to a person’s belief or feeling about their circumstances.

In contrast, liberty is typically tied to a person’s ability to perform certain actions.

Some progressives might say that “We want to protect freedom to worship”.

This may sound good, but a freedom to believe something or worship is something is quite different than the liberty to act on those beliefs.

For example, you may have the freedom to believe that “Jesus is the only way”.

However, as currently exists in many countries, you do not have the liberty to share that belief with others.

essentials

I have heard it said: “Let us unite on the essentials and have grace on the non-essentials”

I agree with that. But, then the discussion turns to the question of “What are the essentials that we are supposed to unite on?”

The Bible may not tell us everything there is to know, but it does tell us everything we NEED to know.

My observation thus far has been that there are many things in the Bible that are crystal clear.

There are also some things that require time, study, and spiritual discernment to understand. These things best understood by “getting to know” God and His nature.

Additionally, there are some things that are prophetic and “sealed” (their meaning is not clear) right now, but will become clearer as we approach the in the time for which they were written.

The more essential it is, the clearer it is stated and the easier it is to understand. Since we are to recieve the kingdom of God as a little child (Luke 18:17, Mark 10:15), then the essentials should be simple enough for a child to understand.

If you have to really do some hard core gymnastics to stretch it beyond its obvious meaning, your doing it wrong. We get into trouble when we put our own pet theories, traditions of men, and doctrines of devils ahead of the simplicity of God’s Word.

We must unite around the truth, even if the truth is sometimes hard to take.  The key is for us to submit ourselves to the truth as reavealed in the Bible.

Why the Government Fears Veterans

It has been a recurring theme in history that a government uses the youth of a generation as tools to further its own agendas and protect the wealth of the elite. Once the veteran is no longer useful, the government is quick to break its promises of pensions, health care, and benefits to those who have given so much.

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/revwar-77.htm

March 15, 1783 – General Washington gathers his officers and talks them out of a rebellion against the authority of Congress, and in effect preserves the American democracy.

June 24, 1783 – To avoid protests from angry and unpaid war veterans, Congress leaves Philadelphia and relocates to Princeton, New Jersey.

1894 – Coxey’s Army was a protest march that included disgruntled Civil War veterans who marched on Washington to claim benefits. It was the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time. It was the first significant popular protest march on Washington and the expression “Enough food to feed Coxey’s Army” originates from this march. Named after Jacob Coxey, a Civil War veteran.

1922 – Mussolini, a former socialist coalesced the Fascist party around a cadre of disgruntled war veterans and nationalists, organized into paramilitary gangs, known as squadri fascisti, who fought in the streets with communists and socialists and protested against the peace treaties and the weakness of the parliamentary government.

German Workers Party (DAP) was made up primarily of disgruntled World War I veterans. The DAP would later evolve into the National Workers Socialist Party (Nazi) and would recruit former World War I soldiers, to whom Hitler as a decorated frontline veteran could particularly appeal.

1932 March of the Bonus Army – a group of disgruntled World War I veterans marched on Washington, D.C., to demand a “bonus” promised to them for their military service, few could have foreseen the turbulence that lay ahead. Determined to ensure that the military would make good in delivering the funds promised, the 45,000 war veterans set up camp and refused to budge. When two tense months had passed and Congress refused to immediately pay the bonus, general Douglas MacArthur and officers Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton Jr. led the U.S. Army in driving the veterans from Washington with tear gas, tanks, and saber-wielding cavalrymen before burning the protestors’ camp to the ground. Though the bonus would be paid off four years later to the benefit of some four million veterans, the historical march on Washington, D.C., laid the groundwork that would eventually influence the WWII GI Bill, cement the rights of citizens to assemble, and petition the government, and serve as one of the first occurrences of large-scale integration in a time where racial relations were an extremely sensitive issue.

Isaiah 9:7-21

The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
And it has fallen on Israel.
All the people will know—
Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria—
Who say in pride and arrogance of heart:

“The bricks have fallen down,
But WE will rebuild with hewn stones;
The sycamores are cut down,
But WE will replace them with cedars.”

Therefore the Lord shall set up
The adversaries of Rezin against him,
And spur his enemies on,
The Syrians before and the Philistines behind;
And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them,
Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.
Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel,
Palm branch and bulrush in one day.
The elder and honorable, he is the head;
The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.
For the leaders of this people cause them to err,
And those who are led by them are destroyed.
Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men,
Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer,
And every mouth speaks folly.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.


For wickedness burns as the fire;
It shall devour the briers and thorns,
And kindle in the thickets of the forest;
They shall mount up like rising smoke.

Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
The land is burned up,
And the people shall be as fuel for the fire;
No man shall spare his brother.
And he shall snatch on the right hand
And be hungry;
He shall devour on the left hand
And not be satisfied;
Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.

Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;
Together they shall be against Judah.

For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still