America’s Religious Liberty: From God or Satan?
READING TIME: 27 MINUTES
The following are the notes to the discussion found at this link (https://www.facebook.com/tammy.cheetham.77/videos/465000993999614/) for anyone who would like to study the subject more in depth.
Yes, we wanted to discuss the Religious Liberty Summit held on July 30 that was hosted by the Department of Justice. The creation of a "religious liberty task force" that will help protect religious communities across the U.S. from discrimination was announced at this summit.
We want to share parts of two of the speeches that were given there, but first we want to present some important thoughts on the concept of religious liberty itself. And, then at the end, we will discuss the Baphomet statue in Arkansas that has created such a stir.
So, sister Tammy, would you please present the information concerning religious liberty you have prepared?
What is the definition of Religious Freedom?
In a nutshell it means the right to practice whichever religion one chooses.
The idea is that one can choose without having the interference of government and one can practice whichever religion they believe in any given nation, culture, public or private. Religious Freedom proponents suggest this includes allowing one to change their beliefs if they so desire at any time.
The First Amendment provides that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Its application has been extended to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. We can see this concept continues in countries which advocate for Religious Freedom too.
Religious Freedom is classed as one of the human rights given to us.
The problem with this from a Christian perspective is that we never do support the belief system of any other religion, but that of the Word of God! That of the One True Almighty God, Who sent us His Only Begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins and not only ours, but the sins of the whole world. Religious Freedom is an affront to the exclusivity of the Gospel, yet it would allow for people to believe this but at the cost of accepting another belief system, as though this can be put out into the world to deceive the masses! From a Christian viewpoint we can see Religious Freedom really is not fighting the good fight of the Faith like we are admonished to do within Scriptures and admonished frequently when faced with destructive false teachings and heresies.
Now you may say to me, well God gave us a free will to choose what we believe, granted, this is the truth, yet God does not give His approval to sin so why would God give His approval for people to worship false gods? God is not the one approving of Religious Freedom. His Word says to Worship Him alone and to have no other gods before Him. (Luke 4:8, Exodus 20:3.)
Freedom of Religion may as well be called coexist because even though you can do nothing about what others choose to do or believe, you are actually giving your yes to all other religions just so you have the right to have yours. It is as though we can all get along and just allow for error to go on in this world whereas in the past and biblical times people lost their lives for standing for the truth in the face of persecution. Nowadays people want to all go along to get along and cause no ruckus!
What about Jesus being the way, the truth and the life? Now you may again say, this is what we truly believe, but let me ask you this, at what cost to the truth are you standing for the truth? A cost that costs nothing, a cost that would let error ride on by and giving your vote to it in the process. Think about the logical and spiritual implications in what you are allowing in this. I am not one bit knocking people’s hearts and saying they do not have faith in God through His Son, but we must be vigilant as to the enemy’s devices and where this will eventually lead the whole world. It will all culminate into a one world belief that will allow for any god with the Antichrist as it rearing head. Have you ever thought that the Antichrist when he comes would be championing Religious Freedom? Have you ever taken the time to realize how many antichrists are in this world today? And what do these all promote? Let’s not forget the Word of God that tells us that the Antichrist will use religion and politics as a mean to get his seat of worship from the world! Let us be led by the Holy Spirit and look to the Word of God as our instruction in Righteousness and True Liberty!
It really is like this when we as Christians stand for Religious Freedom, so that we may have the right to preach the gospel, it is like saying to a murderer, abortionist even let’s say, yes go on you go on ahead and abort your baby, so I can preach the Gospel! Can you see the problem with this ideology? But there really is no difference, perhaps even worse than this is false teaching that is murdering souls when they believe lies against God and His Son! Leading these to an eternal Lake of Fire! God’s Word tells us to expose and have nothing to do with these things (Romans 16:17).
God gave man a free will, but do we think that means He gave it to be abused or so that disobedience can be exercised? God forbid! He is not the Author of sin or confusion but of peace, righteousness and truth and hope in the Holy Spirit.
God is not the Author of sin, we are the problem, men’s and women’s hearts that are desperately wicked and because in the beginning disobedience came in by the fall. By one man’s sin did it come into the world, so we can clearly see that men choose to disobey God and through God’s mercy He sent us the sacrifice, Jesus Christ to redeem mankind so we can be forgiven and restored, not so we can abuse His gift but to love Him from changed hearts.
Whilst studying this topic, I asked myself a question and for a time was a little perplexed as to why God allowed men’s hearts to be tested by false teachers and prophets as illustrated in Deuteronomy 13:3. – The Scripture begins with Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams – so the admonition we see first and then the choice is yours to use your free will to exercise this because God doesn’t force anyone. This shows that God doesn’t condone false teachers or say yes to give them freedom, He knows they are around but says DO NOT HEARKEN! I thought maybe God allows these to preach error, until I concluded after prayer and discerning the whole counsel of God and correcting my thought that this is not the full truth, I believe this is what could sometimes make people think God is giving liberty to these teachers, but I believe the correct reason God allowed men’s hearts to be tried was not because He was giving liberty to these false teacher’s, but that He already knew what they had in their hearts, sin, wicked and unrepentant, so God never went against their free will but used these to show people that they either loved Him or they did not love Him by who they continued to heed. God never gave the liberty of error to be preached but that He used the evil men for a purpose.
We must never forget the repeated admonitions to beware of false teachers that come in sheep’s clothing, we are to rightly divide the Word, truth from error, judge righteous judgment and discern as by the Holy Spirit within us and leading us to Jesus Christ.
Following on with this matter, we see the Apostle Paul admonishing people to respect people in positions, to live at peace with all men as much as it lies with us, to live a quiet, sober life and not to go out of our way to cause offense, but in this he knew the Gospel would be an offense, a stumbling block to those that would not believe. He never encouraged us to obey man above God, rather the opposite. When religious men tell us to go against the Truth, we follow Jesus. God is the first and final authority in the life of a believer. The system of this world is opposed to Christ. Paul oftentimes found himself in prison, did he say go and fight for Religious Freedom so we have the right to preach or did He trust himself to the One Who knew best? He said the Gospel was led out to the furtherance as he was in chains so in this he rejoiced. Many standing for Religious Liberty are hindering the truth unawares. In Acts 4:18 – we see Peter and John before the Sanhedrin told to stop preaching in the Name of Jesus! Did this stop them? Did they go on a crusade for Religious Freedom? We see all these examples carried on preaching and teaching in the Name of Jesus, despite the governing authorities at that time. We do not get into this idea that our freedom to preach Jesus comes from man at the expense of allowing false religions to run wild, we look to God. When we look to Stephen being stoned in the bible, did he say stop this persecution and pick up stones and throw them back and say give me my Religious Liberty to speak? No, he trusted Himself to God. We need to just examine everything under the scope of scriptures. Yes, we are to live at peace with as many as we can but never at the expense of truth. We talk so much about voting for candidates in government that supposedly are for Christian rights. I heard so many people say they would vote for any that would advocate Religious Freedom so that we have the right to continue to preach the Gospel! I feel very sad that many do and did not understand their misplaced faith in this and not to be mean or unkind to anyone but the system is fighting for everyone’s right, for the homosexuals right, the abortionist right, the greedy person right, the Muslims right, the Catholics right, the Mormons right, the atheists right, the right to consume alcohol and drugs and cigarettes, the right they say every human being has, they do not call homosexuality sin, abortion murder, or if they do this, they do not call Catholicism a doctrine of demons, they do not call Islam a religion of hate, they may stand against terrorism but they fight for the right for this doctrine to be preached! Can you see how this will never work! It will bring a false peace to this world and a false unity, it will bring the world together and there will be none offended by it. This is not Jesus! He came with a sword, He came with truth, He came with ONE WAY! And He will come back to smash this world’s system to pieces at the Second Coming and every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ is Lord. He will Rule and Reign with a rod of iron. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Word made flesh and dwelt amongst us and will come back soon. He will never be defeated because He has won the victory once for all at Calvary and He rose again after three days. He made the way to the Father, there is no other. He is exclusive yet inclusive in that any can come. Think about it, there can’t be many right ways the world tells you, there is right and there is wrong, there is truth and there is error. Jesus loves us and died for our sins on the cross and can set you free and give you eternal life, this truth has been twisted by false teachers for thousands of years, but it remains standing. This truth has seen many martyred and families divided, it has seen people lose jobs, homes, children, livestock, lives but it remains the answer for the sin sick wicked heart to be changed. It is Liberty to live above the power of hate, sin, destruction, and evil, yet it is the most hated message by this world. It is Jesus that will always remain, He is love and I will leave you with this today, life and death are set before us, choose this day whom you are going to serve.
Thank you for those excellent points, sister Tammy. I pray that the listeners really took all that to heart. Now I want to read some statements from two of the speeches that were made at the Religious Liberty Summit as I mentioned earlier.
The first speech I want to discuss is by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He said, “A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom. There can be no doubt. This is no little matter. It must be confronted and defeated.” (Well, after everything you have said, sister Tammy, it should be overly obvious “religious freedom” is not a great tradition, but rather an affront to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ).
Continuing with the speech: “This President and this Department of Justice are determined to protect and even advance this magnificent heritage. Freedom of religion is indeed our “first freedom”—being the first listed right of our First Amendment.” (Well, speaking of Pres. Trump we remember that on this past National Day of Prayer, held on May 4, he signed an executive order he said would "defend freedom of religion and speech in America." At that time Pres. Trump said, "Freedom is not a gift from government. Freedom is a gift from God" (https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-delivers-remarks-department-justice-s-religious-liberty-summit). But, if freedom is a gift from God, and it is, then why does the government think it needs to get involved in ensuring it at all? I know we have all heard what man gives, man can take away. But, even more so we need to consider the fact that all people everywhere have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. And, I can just hear some people’s reactions to this, basically calling me crazy. But, that’s okay, just let me explain. If we can talk, we have freedom of speech and we have freedom to talk about Jesus. Now, of course, the consequences for doing so vary from country to country. But, I do not see anywhere in God’s Word where the Apostle Paul hesitated to open his mouth and use his freedom of speech to talk about Jesus. His focus was on gaining souls. The consequences, and there were consequences, did not stop him from preaching because he was truly dead in Christ; he had set his affections on things above; and, this world was not his home).
Back to the speech: “This has been a core American principle from the beginning. It is one of the reasons that this country was settled in the first place. The promise of freedom of conscience brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, the Catholics to Maryland, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, the Scot-Presbyterians to the middle colonies, and Roger Williams to Rhode Island.” (And, while it is true that some people came to escape religious persecution, just as many or more came for other reasons such as economic ones. You know, Americans grow up learning about the Pilgrims and that they sought religious freedom, but only 40 of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower were Pilgrims (https://www.history.com/topics/mayflower). The rest, whom they referred to as strangers, were allowed to travel on the Mayflower in order for the Pilgrims to raise enough money to finance the voyage. Here are some of the reasons the “strangers” wanted to travel to America: 1) Access to new land, which was in short supply in England, 2) A chance to build a better economic future for their families, 3) Getting away from their families and familiar expectations, and 4) Adventure, which was especially true with young men (https://ancestralfindings.com/mayflower-passengers-not-religious-reasons/). And, so with this example we can understand that economics was a driving force in settling this land and it continues to be on the hearts and minds of most Americans. Sadly, during the last presidential election cycle we saw many professing Christians so concerned with saving America and capitalism to the point of calling those who chose not to vote cowards and unchristian. These same ones wanted to convince potential voters that our “freedoms” of speech and religion were in danger. They wanted us to believe these “freedoms” were bled and died for by American patriots, but actually, most historians agree that the Revolution was a “tax revolt, first and foremost” (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2012/07/04/just-jesus-july-4th/). (And, then, Jeff Sessions casually mentioned Catholics settling Maryland like Catholicism was just another denomination within Christianity).
Continuing with Jeff Sessions’ remarks: “These concepts were placed into our Constitution and laws and formed a national consensus that has greatly militated against religious hostility and violence—and has helped us to this day to be one of the world’s most diverse religious people.” (But, wait a minute, we’re supposed to be a Christian nation! That’s the mantra we hear constantly. Supposedly this is why God has blessed us and will continue to do so. Many people seem to think if we just say God bless America He is obligated to do this because we are His people. But, the truth is, true believers in this nation and around the world are His people. He only ever dealt with one nation and that was Israel. But, somehow we can be one of the world’s most diverse religious people according to Jeff Sessions and still be a Christian nation. This really makes no sense at all).
Continuing with the speech: “There can be no doubt that we are stronger as a nation because of the contribution of religious Americans. Every day across America, they feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, educate our young people, and care for the sick. They do so not because the government tells them to, but because they want to. They do these things because of their faith.” (Now, these are good works and there is nothing wrong with churches doing these. However, the problem is for most of them these good works have replaced the preaching of the true gospel so they are now presenting a social gospel which absolutely does nothing for eternity. We have said many times believers will help when there is a need. But, the most urgent need is that people hear about Jesus and the repentance and forgiveness of sins).
Back to the speech: “But in recent years, the cultural climate in this country—and in the West more generally—has become less hospitable to people of faith. Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack. And it’s easy to see why. We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives. We’ve seen U.S. Senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips.” (All of these stories have been widely reported and we have seen the reaction on Facebook from those who would call themselves conservative Christians. Most have been up in arms concerning stories where bakers have lost their businesses, for example, because nobody had better infringe upon our rights! We’re Americans, after all! Or so, the talking points go. But, this is where people absolutely confuse being American with being Christian. You know, sister Tammy, there is no place in God’s Word where we are promised an easy time in this life or that we will never face persecution for our beliefs. Rather, we are told in John 16:33 that in this life we will have tribulations, but to be of good cheer because Christ has overcome this world. In addition, 2 Tim. 3:12 says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Sadly, most of those attending these seeker sensitive churches have been so influenced by the "Your Best Life Now" philosophy that they cannot even grasp the concept of persecution. They’re supposed to be the head and not the tail; they have some dream destiny to fulfill; they’re going to change the world. It’s just all so very sad because they will not be able to stand when true persecution comes).
Continuing with Jeff Sessions’ remarks: “First of all, we are aggressively and appropriately enforcing our civil rights laws, our hate crimes laws, and laws protecting churches and faith groups. In June, we filed suit against a town in New Jersey that had refused over and over again—for eight years—to let an Orthodox Jewish congregation buy land for a synagogue. And just last week we filed a brief in federal court supporting the case of a Hindu temple in Maryland that claimed to have suffered discrimination in its attempts to purchase land.” (Well, first of all concerning hate crimes laws, what happens when preaching true Christianity is considered a hate crime because we’ll say homosexuality is a sin, for example? You know, people just applaud rulings, and so forth, that they believe protect them right now, but they refuse to look down the road at what could happen. And, then, filing suits so that Jewish synagogues and Hindu temples may be built are examples of things we must do in this nation when we have government-enforced religious liberty. But, every believer should understand that Judaism and Hinduism are false religions and we cannot support the worship of false gods. You know, we have heard many quote the following phrase or something similar: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Many in this country hold to the fallacy that in order for us to maintain our freedoms as Christians we must tolerate all religions. But, realistically, that line of thinking says in order for us to have freedom to worship we will support someone else’s blasphemy of the one true God. And, this practice does not please God and in case anyone is confused I want to read a few scriptures which I refer to as the ancient Israelites practicing freedom of religion)…
1 Kings 11:4-8 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
Jer. 7:17-18 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Ezk. 20:30-31 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations? For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.
(Now, I have already made it clear that God is not dealing with America as He dealt with Israel, but I am making the point that God is not pleased when people who claim to know Him worship other gods).
Well, that is all I want to say about Jeff Sessions’ speech and now I want to move on to discuss two points in the speech given by Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. The first point I want to discuss is the following statement he made: “I want to lay out some reasons why we who are Catholic and American want to promote our first freedom, that is religious freedom. I'd like to talk about the fact that we think we are called by Jesus Christ to inspire a culture. Let me say a few words about inspiring a culture. Some words about the Catholic teaching and the kind of political culture that we desire. The social teaching of the Catholic church offers a vision, a vision to all Americans of goodwill, whether they are Christians or not. The church teaches that religious liberty is rooted in the dignity of the human person. The human person has dignity because each is created in the image of God, and this means in part that each of us has the capacity to seek the truth about God.” (You know, sister Tammy, only people who have no clue about the history of Catholicism would sit and listen to this speech and buy into all this talk about religious liberty, and the dignity of the human person due to being created in the image of God. I would love to speak with Archbishop Kurtz and ask where was this liberty and the idea of the dignity of the human person during the Spanish Inquisition? During the centuries in which anywhere from 50 to 200 million people were killed (according to which source one reads) because they would not convert to Catholicism? And, I pray that people who are unaware of these facts will study history. I am going to include a link in the Facebook note that documents these numbers so people can read more about this if they so choose). (http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/827989/15116787/1321289366180/50+million+protestants+killed.pdf?token=pDBs2os%2FvvsFkSrDE2qdnsV%2Fxeg%3D).
Now, I would like to discuss the following statement he made. He said, “I'd like to briefly address the importance of our partnering with the government. You know, there are some who claim that faith-based organizations must give up our convictions when we partner with the government to provide much needed social services, but our country is much richer when we have public-private partnerships that work well. Faith-based organizations are some of the most trusted groups within our local communities. They often have very deep roots. To exclude a faith-based group from serving the public, whether it's feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, helping migrant and refugees, assisting people affected by the opioid crisis to find a road to recovery, excluding them makes no sense in a pluralistic society like ours.” (In response to these statements I want to show how sharing the true gospel of salvation has truly changed since the institution of these faith-based groups under George W. Bush. Now, as I said earlier we will always help others when we can, but once churches aligned with the government restrictions were placed on their activities). Here is some information from a document entitled “Partnering with the Federal Government: Some Do's and Don'ts for Faith-Based Organizations.”
If someone asks me about my faith, can I share it with them? If someone asks you about your personal faith while you are providing a government-funded service, you may answer briefly. But if you wish to have a longer discussion on matters of faith, you should set up a time to speak with that person later. In this way, you avoid using government funds for what might be taken to be an inherently religious activity, and the program is kept on track. But you also have an opportunity later to share your faith and explain why you do what you do. (Now, obviously since we are a religiously diverse society as Christians we wouldn’t want to see Hindus sharing their faith at a soup kitchen, for example. But, speaking specifically of Christian churches and groups, we can see how receiving government funding inhibits one from sharing their faith, so basically what is happening is the government is providing the food for the soup kitchen or whatever, but the people giving out the food are muzzled. It would be much better if a church wanted to help in a poor neighborhood and raised the funds themselves so they could have a time of preaching while they were giving out food).
We are a faith-based organization. Can Federal funds be used to pay the salary of a member of our staff? Yes, provided that this staff person is delivering the Federally-funded service and is not engaged in religious worship, instruction, or proselytization. The staff member may be a rabbi, priest, imam, or preacher, so long as he or she does not engage in these activities while being paid with public dollars. For example, a minister may teach an anger management seminar to ex-offenders as part of a Federal grant. But the minister must keep his or her teaching on the subject of anger management separate from his church duties and preaching responsibilities. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/fbci/guidance/partnering.html (So, again we see that someone who might have wanted to preach the true gospel is forced to use psychology in his presentation instead of the Word of God and that is obviously something a true preacher wouldn’t do. It is clear that the government has aided and abetted the presentation of a social gospel and these modern churches have bought into this program rather than sticking to the preaching of the gospel of salvation. Again, we will help when we can, but Jesus said you will always have the poor with you in Matt. 26:11. We know what matters for eternity and that is knowing the destination of our souls and the most important thing we can do is share this with others. And, then, Archbishop Kurtz refers to our society as a pluralistic one which is the absolute truth. But, people want to have it both ways. They want to call ours a Christian nation while tolerating false religions as we already discussed).
Next, as I said at the beginning, I want to mention something that has been posted on Facebook for the past few days and that is the Baphomet statue that was brought to the Arkansas Capitol for a "Rally for the First Amendment" from 1 to 3 p.m. on Aug. 16. The statue was brought there by a group called the Satanic Temple and they were contesting the placement of a 10 Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds. The rally was intended to bring together religious leaders of different faiths to discuss the importance of the First Amendment and its protection for religious pluralism as being essential to preserve American democracy. According to The Satanic Temple’s spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, “Freedom of Religion means that the government must not be allowed to endorse one religion over another or inhibit any religious voices from access to public forums in favor of another. By installing a Ten Commandments monument on their capitol grounds while rejecting other privately donated monuments of religious significance, the Arkansas State government has flagrantly violated a founding Constitutional principle, for which we call upon the people to rally with us to defend.” https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/07/30/satanic-temple-plans-arkansas-rally-at-capitol-with-emblematic-statue (And, according to the Constitution this spokesperson is absolutely right. As I said when I posted about the statue, this is a result of “freedom of religion” being the law of the land. Every foul, blasphemous spirit is allowed to mock God. You know, people don't seem to understand that when you tolerate every religion that means every evil, Satanic group can have a voice. People have thought so highly of "freedom of religion," but this is the result. So, again, so much for being a Christian nation.
People see the obvious evil of the statue, but not the evil inherent within the Constitution which allows the worship of false gods to begin with, all the while the nation calls itself Christian. You know, all the religions in the nation worshiping false gods such as Hinduism and Buddhism have the very same evil at their core as this Satanic Temple. People either worship the God of the Bible or they worship Satan. That’s it. So, it’s rather disingenuous that people are so upset about this statue and not upset about every mosque, synagogue, and so forth.
Well, that is all I have to say at this time, sister Tammy, except that I pray people would wake up the fact that God gives us our freedoms and anything man gives he can take away whenever he wants. So, we need to stop looking to man and look to God. You know, if the idea of man-made religious liberty worked we would see every church building full, but we rather see every entertainment venue full, whether it involves movies, sports, rock concerts, etc. We need to admit the fact that in the nations without man-made religious liberty, where Christianity is illegal or persecuted, there is a true appreciation for the things of the Lord. There are trials and tribulations, persecutions, yes, but when churches are burned, and believers lose their lives, more and more come to Christ. But, in this nation and others with “religious liberty” the societies grow more secular by the day).
I pray people will just seek out where they’re putting their allegiance, really. Is it to God or Satan because this is what it really comes down to. And, you know, speaking of the persecuted churches, I’ve been looking at a few of them in China and it just breaks your heart to see how far we are with this so-called religious freedom; where it has brought the church. And, you know, like the Apostle Paul, he would rejoice in his chains, and I think whichever situation that we’re in, not to advocate religious freedom, but if we have persecution or not, in a sense we should still be preaching the gospel. In every situation we’re in there’s always opportunity to preach Jesus. Again, I always find the gospel does flourish more when persecution arises so really we’re not to be fighting for something we already have in Christ. You know, freedom to speak the gospel doesn’t come from a man, doesn’t come from anywhere but through God, through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And, this is where we ought to be remaining as believers and keeping to the Word of God because there’s so much division caused by this. It’s ripped the body of Christ apart. And, at the end of it God would desire that people would repent. God hates division within the true body, let’s say that. But, those who continue to advocate this after learning the truth I think that then you’ve kind of chosen your path. We’ve all been in a place where we’ve been deceived by the culture, the world, by what we’ve been brought up with, ideas that we’ve been taught about history. A lot of it’s been twisted to Satan’s advantage, but the truth will set people free.
READING TIME: 27 MINUTES
The following are the notes to the discussion found at this link (https://www.facebook.com/tammy.cheetham.77/videos/465000993999614/) for anyone who would like to study the subject more in depth.
Yes, we wanted to discuss the Religious Liberty Summit held on July 30 that was hosted by the Department of Justice. The creation of a "religious liberty task force" that will help protect religious communities across the U.S. from discrimination was announced at this summit.
We want to share parts of two of the speeches that were given there, but first we want to present some important thoughts on the concept of religious liberty itself. And, then at the end, we will discuss the Baphomet statue in Arkansas that has created such a stir.
So, sister Tammy, would you please present the information concerning religious liberty you have prepared?
What is the definition of Religious Freedom?
In a nutshell it means the right to practice whichever religion one chooses.
The idea is that one can choose without having the interference of government and one can practice whichever religion they believe in any given nation, culture, public or private. Religious Freedom proponents suggest this includes allowing one to change their beliefs if they so desire at any time.
The First Amendment provides that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Its application has been extended to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. We can see this concept continues in countries which advocate for Religious Freedom too.
Religious Freedom is classed as one of the human rights given to us.
The problem with this from a Christian perspective is that we never do support the belief system of any other religion, but that of the Word of God! That of the One True Almighty God, Who sent us His Only Begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins and not only ours, but the sins of the whole world. Religious Freedom is an affront to the exclusivity of the Gospel, yet it would allow for people to believe this but at the cost of accepting another belief system, as though this can be put out into the world to deceive the masses! From a Christian viewpoint we can see Religious Freedom really is not fighting the good fight of the Faith like we are admonished to do within Scriptures and admonished frequently when faced with destructive false teachings and heresies.
Now you may say to me, well God gave us a free will to choose what we believe, granted, this is the truth, yet God does not give His approval to sin so why would God give His approval for people to worship false gods? God is not the one approving of Religious Freedom. His Word says to Worship Him alone and to have no other gods before Him. (Luke 4:8, Exodus 20:3.)
Freedom of Religion may as well be called coexist because even though you can do nothing about what others choose to do or believe, you are actually giving your yes to all other religions just so you have the right to have yours. It is as though we can all get along and just allow for error to go on in this world whereas in the past and biblical times people lost their lives for standing for the truth in the face of persecution. Nowadays people want to all go along to get along and cause no ruckus!
What about Jesus being the way, the truth and the life? Now you may again say, this is what we truly believe, but let me ask you this, at what cost to the truth are you standing for the truth? A cost that costs nothing, a cost that would let error ride on by and giving your vote to it in the process. Think about the logical and spiritual implications in what you are allowing in this. I am not one bit knocking people’s hearts and saying they do not have faith in God through His Son, but we must be vigilant as to the enemy’s devices and where this will eventually lead the whole world. It will all culminate into a one world belief that will allow for any god with the Antichrist as it rearing head. Have you ever thought that the Antichrist when he comes would be championing Religious Freedom? Have you ever taken the time to realize how many antichrists are in this world today? And what do these all promote? Let’s not forget the Word of God that tells us that the Antichrist will use religion and politics as a mean to get his seat of worship from the world! Let us be led by the Holy Spirit and look to the Word of God as our instruction in Righteousness and True Liberty!
It really is like this when we as Christians stand for Religious Freedom, so that we may have the right to preach the gospel, it is like saying to a murderer, abortionist even let’s say, yes go on you go on ahead and abort your baby, so I can preach the Gospel! Can you see the problem with this ideology? But there really is no difference, perhaps even worse than this is false teaching that is murdering souls when they believe lies against God and His Son! Leading these to an eternal Lake of Fire! God’s Word tells us to expose and have nothing to do with these things (Romans 16:17).
God gave man a free will, but do we think that means He gave it to be abused or so that disobedience can be exercised? God forbid! He is not the Author of sin or confusion but of peace, righteousness and truth and hope in the Holy Spirit.
God is not the Author of sin, we are the problem, men’s and women’s hearts that are desperately wicked and because in the beginning disobedience came in by the fall. By one man’s sin did it come into the world, so we can clearly see that men choose to disobey God and through God’s mercy He sent us the sacrifice, Jesus Christ to redeem mankind so we can be forgiven and restored, not so we can abuse His gift but to love Him from changed hearts.
Whilst studying this topic, I asked myself a question and for a time was a little perplexed as to why God allowed men’s hearts to be tested by false teachers and prophets as illustrated in Deuteronomy 13:3. – The Scripture begins with Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams – so the admonition we see first and then the choice is yours to use your free will to exercise this because God doesn’t force anyone. This shows that God doesn’t condone false teachers or say yes to give them freedom, He knows they are around but says DO NOT HEARKEN! I thought maybe God allows these to preach error, until I concluded after prayer and discerning the whole counsel of God and correcting my thought that this is not the full truth, I believe this is what could sometimes make people think God is giving liberty to these teachers, but I believe the correct reason God allowed men’s hearts to be tried was not because He was giving liberty to these false teacher’s, but that He already knew what they had in their hearts, sin, wicked and unrepentant, so God never went against their free will but used these to show people that they either loved Him or they did not love Him by who they continued to heed. God never gave the liberty of error to be preached but that He used the evil men for a purpose.
We must never forget the repeated admonitions to beware of false teachers that come in sheep’s clothing, we are to rightly divide the Word, truth from error, judge righteous judgment and discern as by the Holy Spirit within us and leading us to Jesus Christ.
Following on with this matter, we see the Apostle Paul admonishing people to respect people in positions, to live at peace with all men as much as it lies with us, to live a quiet, sober life and not to go out of our way to cause offense, but in this he knew the Gospel would be an offense, a stumbling block to those that would not believe. He never encouraged us to obey man above God, rather the opposite. When religious men tell us to go against the Truth, we follow Jesus. God is the first and final authority in the life of a believer. The system of this world is opposed to Christ. Paul oftentimes found himself in prison, did he say go and fight for Religious Freedom so we have the right to preach or did He trust himself to the One Who knew best? He said the Gospel was led out to the furtherance as he was in chains so in this he rejoiced. Many standing for Religious Liberty are hindering the truth unawares. In Acts 4:18 – we see Peter and John before the Sanhedrin told to stop preaching in the Name of Jesus! Did this stop them? Did they go on a crusade for Religious Freedom? We see all these examples carried on preaching and teaching in the Name of Jesus, despite the governing authorities at that time. We do not get into this idea that our freedom to preach Jesus comes from man at the expense of allowing false religions to run wild, we look to God. When we look to Stephen being stoned in the bible, did he say stop this persecution and pick up stones and throw them back and say give me my Religious Liberty to speak? No, he trusted Himself to God. We need to just examine everything under the scope of scriptures. Yes, we are to live at peace with as many as we can but never at the expense of truth. We talk so much about voting for candidates in government that supposedly are for Christian rights. I heard so many people say they would vote for any that would advocate Religious Freedom so that we have the right to continue to preach the Gospel! I feel very sad that many do and did not understand their misplaced faith in this and not to be mean or unkind to anyone but the system is fighting for everyone’s right, for the homosexuals right, the abortionist right, the greedy person right, the Muslims right, the Catholics right, the Mormons right, the atheists right, the right to consume alcohol and drugs and cigarettes, the right they say every human being has, they do not call homosexuality sin, abortion murder, or if they do this, they do not call Catholicism a doctrine of demons, they do not call Islam a religion of hate, they may stand against terrorism but they fight for the right for this doctrine to be preached! Can you see how this will never work! It will bring a false peace to this world and a false unity, it will bring the world together and there will be none offended by it. This is not Jesus! He came with a sword, He came with truth, He came with ONE WAY! And He will come back to smash this world’s system to pieces at the Second Coming and every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ is Lord. He will Rule and Reign with a rod of iron. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Word made flesh and dwelt amongst us and will come back soon. He will never be defeated because He has won the victory once for all at Calvary and He rose again after three days. He made the way to the Father, there is no other. He is exclusive yet inclusive in that any can come. Think about it, there can’t be many right ways the world tells you, there is right and there is wrong, there is truth and there is error. Jesus loves us and died for our sins on the cross and can set you free and give you eternal life, this truth has been twisted by false teachers for thousands of years, but it remains standing. This truth has seen many martyred and families divided, it has seen people lose jobs, homes, children, livestock, lives but it remains the answer for the sin sick wicked heart to be changed. It is Liberty to live above the power of hate, sin, destruction, and evil, yet it is the most hated message by this world. It is Jesus that will always remain, He is love and I will leave you with this today, life and death are set before us, choose this day whom you are going to serve.
Thank you for those excellent points, sister Tammy. I pray that the listeners really took all that to heart. Now I want to read some statements from two of the speeches that were made at the Religious Liberty Summit as I mentioned earlier.
The first speech I want to discuss is by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He said, “A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom. There can be no doubt. This is no little matter. It must be confronted and defeated.” (Well, after everything you have said, sister Tammy, it should be overly obvious “religious freedom” is not a great tradition, but rather an affront to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ).
Continuing with the speech: “This President and this Department of Justice are determined to protect and even advance this magnificent heritage. Freedom of religion is indeed our “first freedom”—being the first listed right of our First Amendment.” (Well, speaking of Pres. Trump we remember that on this past National Day of Prayer, held on May 4, he signed an executive order he said would "defend freedom of religion and speech in America." At that time Pres. Trump said, "Freedom is not a gift from government. Freedom is a gift from God" (https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-delivers-remarks-department-justice-s-religious-liberty-summit). But, if freedom is a gift from God, and it is, then why does the government think it needs to get involved in ensuring it at all? I know we have all heard what man gives, man can take away. But, even more so we need to consider the fact that all people everywhere have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. And, I can just hear some people’s reactions to this, basically calling me crazy. But, that’s okay, just let me explain. If we can talk, we have freedom of speech and we have freedom to talk about Jesus. Now, of course, the consequences for doing so vary from country to country. But, I do not see anywhere in God’s Word where the Apostle Paul hesitated to open his mouth and use his freedom of speech to talk about Jesus. His focus was on gaining souls. The consequences, and there were consequences, did not stop him from preaching because he was truly dead in Christ; he had set his affections on things above; and, this world was not his home).
Back to the speech: “This has been a core American principle from the beginning. It is one of the reasons that this country was settled in the first place. The promise of freedom of conscience brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, the Catholics to Maryland, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, the Scot-Presbyterians to the middle colonies, and Roger Williams to Rhode Island.” (And, while it is true that some people came to escape religious persecution, just as many or more came for other reasons such as economic ones. You know, Americans grow up learning about the Pilgrims and that they sought religious freedom, but only 40 of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower were Pilgrims (https://www.history.com/topics/mayflower). The rest, whom they referred to as strangers, were allowed to travel on the Mayflower in order for the Pilgrims to raise enough money to finance the voyage. Here are some of the reasons the “strangers” wanted to travel to America: 1) Access to new land, which was in short supply in England, 2) A chance to build a better economic future for their families, 3) Getting away from their families and familiar expectations, and 4) Adventure, which was especially true with young men (https://ancestralfindings.com/mayflower-passengers-not-religious-reasons/). And, so with this example we can understand that economics was a driving force in settling this land and it continues to be on the hearts and minds of most Americans. Sadly, during the last presidential election cycle we saw many professing Christians so concerned with saving America and capitalism to the point of calling those who chose not to vote cowards and unchristian. These same ones wanted to convince potential voters that our “freedoms” of speech and religion were in danger. They wanted us to believe these “freedoms” were bled and died for by American patriots, but actually, most historians agree that the Revolution was a “tax revolt, first and foremost” (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2012/07/04/just-jesus-july-4th/). (And, then, Jeff Sessions casually mentioned Catholics settling Maryland like Catholicism was just another denomination within Christianity).
Continuing with Jeff Sessions’ remarks: “These concepts were placed into our Constitution and laws and formed a national consensus that has greatly militated against religious hostility and violence—and has helped us to this day to be one of the world’s most diverse religious people.” (But, wait a minute, we’re supposed to be a Christian nation! That’s the mantra we hear constantly. Supposedly this is why God has blessed us and will continue to do so. Many people seem to think if we just say God bless America He is obligated to do this because we are His people. But, the truth is, true believers in this nation and around the world are His people. He only ever dealt with one nation and that was Israel. But, somehow we can be one of the world’s most diverse religious people according to Jeff Sessions and still be a Christian nation. This really makes no sense at all).
Continuing with the speech: “There can be no doubt that we are stronger as a nation because of the contribution of religious Americans. Every day across America, they feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, educate our young people, and care for the sick. They do so not because the government tells them to, but because they want to. They do these things because of their faith.” (Now, these are good works and there is nothing wrong with churches doing these. However, the problem is for most of them these good works have replaced the preaching of the true gospel so they are now presenting a social gospel which absolutely does nothing for eternity. We have said many times believers will help when there is a need. But, the most urgent need is that people hear about Jesus and the repentance and forgiveness of sins).
Back to the speech: “But in recent years, the cultural climate in this country—and in the West more generally—has become less hospitable to people of faith. Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack. And it’s easy to see why. We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives. We’ve seen U.S. Senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips.” (All of these stories have been widely reported and we have seen the reaction on Facebook from those who would call themselves conservative Christians. Most have been up in arms concerning stories where bakers have lost their businesses, for example, because nobody had better infringe upon our rights! We’re Americans, after all! Or so, the talking points go. But, this is where people absolutely confuse being American with being Christian. You know, sister Tammy, there is no place in God’s Word where we are promised an easy time in this life or that we will never face persecution for our beliefs. Rather, we are told in John 16:33 that in this life we will have tribulations, but to be of good cheer because Christ has overcome this world. In addition, 2 Tim. 3:12 says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Sadly, most of those attending these seeker sensitive churches have been so influenced by the "Your Best Life Now" philosophy that they cannot even grasp the concept of persecution. They’re supposed to be the head and not the tail; they have some dream destiny to fulfill; they’re going to change the world. It’s just all so very sad because they will not be able to stand when true persecution comes).
Continuing with Jeff Sessions’ remarks: “First of all, we are aggressively and appropriately enforcing our civil rights laws, our hate crimes laws, and laws protecting churches and faith groups. In June, we filed suit against a town in New Jersey that had refused over and over again—for eight years—to let an Orthodox Jewish congregation buy land for a synagogue. And just last week we filed a brief in federal court supporting the case of a Hindu temple in Maryland that claimed to have suffered discrimination in its attempts to purchase land.” (Well, first of all concerning hate crimes laws, what happens when preaching true Christianity is considered a hate crime because we’ll say homosexuality is a sin, for example? You know, people just applaud rulings, and so forth, that they believe protect them right now, but they refuse to look down the road at what could happen. And, then, filing suits so that Jewish synagogues and Hindu temples may be built are examples of things we must do in this nation when we have government-enforced religious liberty. But, every believer should understand that Judaism and Hinduism are false religions and we cannot support the worship of false gods. You know, we have heard many quote the following phrase or something similar: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Many in this country hold to the fallacy that in order for us to maintain our freedoms as Christians we must tolerate all religions. But, realistically, that line of thinking says in order for us to have freedom to worship we will support someone else’s blasphemy of the one true God. And, this practice does not please God and in case anyone is confused I want to read a few scriptures which I refer to as the ancient Israelites practicing freedom of religion)…
1 Kings 11:4-8 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
Jer. 7:17-18 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Ezk. 20:30-31 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations? For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you.
(Now, I have already made it clear that God is not dealing with America as He dealt with Israel, but I am making the point that God is not pleased when people who claim to know Him worship other gods).
Well, that is all I want to say about Jeff Sessions’ speech and now I want to move on to discuss two points in the speech given by Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. The first point I want to discuss is the following statement he made: “I want to lay out some reasons why we who are Catholic and American want to promote our first freedom, that is religious freedom. I'd like to talk about the fact that we think we are called by Jesus Christ to inspire a culture. Let me say a few words about inspiring a culture. Some words about the Catholic teaching and the kind of political culture that we desire. The social teaching of the Catholic church offers a vision, a vision to all Americans of goodwill, whether they are Christians or not. The church teaches that religious liberty is rooted in the dignity of the human person. The human person has dignity because each is created in the image of God, and this means in part that each of us has the capacity to seek the truth about God.” (You know, sister Tammy, only people who have no clue about the history of Catholicism would sit and listen to this speech and buy into all this talk about religious liberty, and the dignity of the human person due to being created in the image of God. I would love to speak with Archbishop Kurtz and ask where was this liberty and the idea of the dignity of the human person during the Spanish Inquisition? During the centuries in which anywhere from 50 to 200 million people were killed (according to which source one reads) because they would not convert to Catholicism? And, I pray that people who are unaware of these facts will study history. I am going to include a link in the Facebook note that documents these numbers so people can read more about this if they so choose). (http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/827989/15116787/1321289366180/50+million+protestants+killed.pdf?token=pDBs2os%2FvvsFkSrDE2qdnsV%2Fxeg%3D).
Now, I would like to discuss the following statement he made. He said, “I'd like to briefly address the importance of our partnering with the government. You know, there are some who claim that faith-based organizations must give up our convictions when we partner with the government to provide much needed social services, but our country is much richer when we have public-private partnerships that work well. Faith-based organizations are some of the most trusted groups within our local communities. They often have very deep roots. To exclude a faith-based group from serving the public, whether it's feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, helping migrant and refugees, assisting people affected by the opioid crisis to find a road to recovery, excluding them makes no sense in a pluralistic society like ours.” (In response to these statements I want to show how sharing the true gospel of salvation has truly changed since the institution of these faith-based groups under George W. Bush. Now, as I said earlier we will always help others when we can, but once churches aligned with the government restrictions were placed on their activities). Here is some information from a document entitled “Partnering with the Federal Government: Some Do's and Don'ts for Faith-Based Organizations.”
If someone asks me about my faith, can I share it with them? If someone asks you about your personal faith while you are providing a government-funded service, you may answer briefly. But if you wish to have a longer discussion on matters of faith, you should set up a time to speak with that person later. In this way, you avoid using government funds for what might be taken to be an inherently religious activity, and the program is kept on track. But you also have an opportunity later to share your faith and explain why you do what you do. (Now, obviously since we are a religiously diverse society as Christians we wouldn’t want to see Hindus sharing their faith at a soup kitchen, for example. But, speaking specifically of Christian churches and groups, we can see how receiving government funding inhibits one from sharing their faith, so basically what is happening is the government is providing the food for the soup kitchen or whatever, but the people giving out the food are muzzled. It would be much better if a church wanted to help in a poor neighborhood and raised the funds themselves so they could have a time of preaching while they were giving out food).
We are a faith-based organization. Can Federal funds be used to pay the salary of a member of our staff? Yes, provided that this staff person is delivering the Federally-funded service and is not engaged in religious worship, instruction, or proselytization. The staff member may be a rabbi, priest, imam, or preacher, so long as he or she does not engage in these activities while being paid with public dollars. For example, a minister may teach an anger management seminar to ex-offenders as part of a Federal grant. But the minister must keep his or her teaching on the subject of anger management separate from his church duties and preaching responsibilities. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/fbci/guidance/partnering.html (So, again we see that someone who might have wanted to preach the true gospel is forced to use psychology in his presentation instead of the Word of God and that is obviously something a true preacher wouldn’t do. It is clear that the government has aided and abetted the presentation of a social gospel and these modern churches have bought into this program rather than sticking to the preaching of the gospel of salvation. Again, we will help when we can, but Jesus said you will always have the poor with you in Matt. 26:11. We know what matters for eternity and that is knowing the destination of our souls and the most important thing we can do is share this with others. And, then, Archbishop Kurtz refers to our society as a pluralistic one which is the absolute truth. But, people want to have it both ways. They want to call ours a Christian nation while tolerating false religions as we already discussed).
Next, as I said at the beginning, I want to mention something that has been posted on Facebook for the past few days and that is the Baphomet statue that was brought to the Arkansas Capitol for a "Rally for the First Amendment" from 1 to 3 p.m. on Aug. 16. The statue was brought there by a group called the Satanic Temple and they were contesting the placement of a 10 Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds. The rally was intended to bring together religious leaders of different faiths to discuss the importance of the First Amendment and its protection for religious pluralism as being essential to preserve American democracy. According to The Satanic Temple’s spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, “Freedom of Religion means that the government must not be allowed to endorse one religion over another or inhibit any religious voices from access to public forums in favor of another. By installing a Ten Commandments monument on their capitol grounds while rejecting other privately donated monuments of religious significance, the Arkansas State government has flagrantly violated a founding Constitutional principle, for which we call upon the people to rally with us to defend.” https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/07/30/satanic-temple-plans-arkansas-rally-at-capitol-with-emblematic-statue (And, according to the Constitution this spokesperson is absolutely right. As I said when I posted about the statue, this is a result of “freedom of religion” being the law of the land. Every foul, blasphemous spirit is allowed to mock God. You know, people don't seem to understand that when you tolerate every religion that means every evil, Satanic group can have a voice. People have thought so highly of "freedom of religion," but this is the result. So, again, so much for being a Christian nation.
People see the obvious evil of the statue, but not the evil inherent within the Constitution which allows the worship of false gods to begin with, all the while the nation calls itself Christian. You know, all the religions in the nation worshiping false gods such as Hinduism and Buddhism have the very same evil at their core as this Satanic Temple. People either worship the God of the Bible or they worship Satan. That’s it. So, it’s rather disingenuous that people are so upset about this statue and not upset about every mosque, synagogue, and so forth.
Well, that is all I have to say at this time, sister Tammy, except that I pray people would wake up the fact that God gives us our freedoms and anything man gives he can take away whenever he wants. So, we need to stop looking to man and look to God. You know, if the idea of man-made religious liberty worked we would see every church building full, but we rather see every entertainment venue full, whether it involves movies, sports, rock concerts, etc. We need to admit the fact that in the nations without man-made religious liberty, where Christianity is illegal or persecuted, there is a true appreciation for the things of the Lord. There are trials and tribulations, persecutions, yes, but when churches are burned, and believers lose their lives, more and more come to Christ. But, in this nation and others with “religious liberty” the societies grow more secular by the day).
I pray people will just seek out where they’re putting their allegiance, really. Is it to God or Satan because this is what it really comes down to. And, you know, speaking of the persecuted churches, I’ve been looking at a few of them in China and it just breaks your heart to see how far we are with this so-called religious freedom; where it has brought the church. And, you know, like the Apostle Paul, he would rejoice in his chains, and I think whichever situation that we’re in, not to advocate religious freedom, but if we have persecution or not, in a sense we should still be preaching the gospel. In every situation we’re in there’s always opportunity to preach Jesus. Again, I always find the gospel does flourish more when persecution arises so really we’re not to be fighting for something we already have in Christ. You know, freedom to speak the gospel doesn’t come from a man, doesn’t come from anywhere but through God, through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And, this is where we ought to be remaining as believers and keeping to the Word of God because there’s so much division caused by this. It’s ripped the body of Christ apart. And, at the end of it God would desire that people would repent. God hates division within the true body, let’s say that. But, those who continue to advocate this after learning the truth I think that then you’ve kind of chosen your path. We’ve all been in a place where we’ve been deceived by the culture, the world, by what we’ve been brought up with, ideas that we’ve been taught about history. A lot of it’s been twisted to Satan’s advantage, but the truth will set people free.