Freedom is Better

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  -Jesus

I love studying history and about the world today.  There is so much you can learn from those subjects, about people, life, and God.  If you take an honest look at the parts of the world which Christianity has not had an influence vs the places it has, you can see a distinct difference.  Freedom follows the gospel of Christ Jesus wherever it goes.  That does not mean there is an immediate change, but certainly freedom is inherent in Christianity.  This is manifested in certain ways.  Look at the history of the Church in all the places the Church has lived.  You see that there is not a steady state to things.  It appears chaotic and everything is always in flux.  Conventional wisdom these days says that the church was controlled by the Vatican up until the reformation, and that Christianity didn't change much before then.  This idea is wrong and shows clear ignorance of church history.  Christianity was always changing, reviving, corrupting, restoring, etc etc, ever since Jesus began the Church, even before the reformation.  Change and revival are distinctly attributes of Christianity in a way that no other religion can claim. 

Why is that?  It is because of our freedom.  We tolerate evil around us because we know that God gives everyone a choice.  It is not for the Christian to force others around him to be Christians or even to act like a Christian.  That's why there are revivals, because so many people turn from God at some point in their life since they have the freedom to do that.  Look at Islam, it is completely different.  They never have revivals where Islam is predominate, because they are never allowed to turn from God.  It's like the prodigal child.  He never could have come back to the father unless he had left the father in the first place.  We would never have revivals if most people constantly stayed faithful to God, but we do simply because God has given us the freedom to be unfaithful.  Sadly, many people will use and abuse that freedom, but thank God we have revivals!  And each time there is one we always learn something new, and something has become different.  The basic tenets of Christianity always stay the same, but things like doctrine, church structure, and church character are changed during those revival periods.  This is how the church has changed over the years, and it's all because of the freedom that God has granted. 

It has even affected the way we look at politics and economics.  Over the years we have learned and developed systems that incorporate a great deal of personal freedom.  The result of this is constant change, and change that results in prosperity over time.  We have depressions and economic booms because our system is capitalism.  If our system were communism, in which there is little freedom, things would always be the same and always less than prosperous.  Every honest economist will tell you that economic/business cycles are good for the overall growth of an economy.  When things are bad it flushes out the bad things and renews.  Desperate times are when things are invented, because of the necessity of new inventions.  Flux and change are the characteristics of the western world that has made it prosperous and powerful.  And none of that would be if not for freedom, which has been given by God.  Welcome to the wild wild west where everything is chaotic, very little is predictable, and only God controls things. 

I just want to encourage people to understand the differences there are between the people and places influenced by God and those not.  Take a look at the world through a biblical lens and you will be amazed at what you see, even seeing the undeniable acts of Almighty God.  No joke.