FREEDOM MATTERS
It’s not surprising that the U.S. Founding Fathers had freedom top of mind when they put together the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. They had fought a war of independence to free themselves from the shackles of their British overlords and the enshrined right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion was backed up by the right to bear arms, so that a tyrannous state could not subjugate its future citizens.
However, as I noted in last week’s newsletter, in quoting from a speech given by Ronald Reagan at the Republican Convention in 1964:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same…”
We in the West have been operating under an illusion. We thought that we were free and could freely express our opinions but suddenly “fact checkers” arose that were able to argue that gender is not binary, truth is subjective and that hate speech is anything that they disagree with. Governments have fallen into line and are in the process of enacting a variety of laws that target “misinformation” or “disinformation”, which no one can define. However, it does seem to be information that is critical of any government or U.N. policy or is in disagreement with the army of “experts” that have gained the inside running in the information wars.
During COVID lockdowns, which were more severe in parts of Australia than anywhere in the world and enforced with military style operations by the police, suddenly we realized that we had no “unalienable rights”. Our rights were whatever the government deigned to give us. What was more shocking still was that an experimental injection was deemed so essential that teachers could not continue teaching and that hospital workers could not keep on working unless they took an untested and potentially gene-altering “shot”. Also soldiers could not fight and builders could not build unless they lined up to doctors who were under the large thumb of the government. How could this happen and how can we go back to life as “normal”, when governments can simply invoke emergency biosecurity laws and enforce their will?
This shocking situation seems to have been relegated to the recesses of people’s concerns as we go about our lives. However, we need to keep the concept of freedom at the top of mind because if our freedoms are only what governments are prepared to give us, then we are slaves.
I have been thinking about freedom a lot over the past months and today was reminded of an important meeting that my wife and I had with a pastor on one of the Hebridean Islands off the coast of Scotland, some years earlier. In talking with him about the church in Scotland he reminded us of the martyrdom of many Scottish believers during the period around the Reformation. He said that in Scotland “the blood of the martyrs still cries out from the ground” as they died for freedom of faith. People have not died for their faith in vain and God hears the cry of the martyrs just has He heard the cries from His people in Egypt in 1,300 BC.
Let My People Go!
As I remembered the Scottish martyrs, I my mind was drawn to another people who 3,300 years ago had been enslaved in Egypt. God sent his reluctant servant Moses to tell Pharaoh to “Let My people go, that they may serve Me” (Exodus 8:1). This is the first confrontation between church and state about freedom of worship, and God had His way after the terrible catastrophe of the destruction of all the first-born in Egypt by God’s angel of death. The children of Israel were saved because the angel “passed over” their dwellings because of the blood of lambs being painted on the doorposts. Remarkably, this “Passover” pointed to a wonderful fulfilment 1,300 years later, with Jesus “the lamb of God” taking on the sins of the world in that Passover festival in Jerusalem that echoes down the ages to us today.
Freedom of religion, to worship God, is still a major battle today and there is a brutal response by Communist governments in North Korea and China and theocratic states like Iran and Saudi Arabia, where there is no freedom of worship but only subservience to the State. In the West, we thought that we had freedom to worship but Western governments showed their dictatorial hearts by banning church meetings during COVID because of supposed public health issues. Most churches meekly complied although some churches in California took legal action against the Californian government (at great financial cost) and won.
We are moving into a period when increasingly, the Christian faith will find itself at odds with the state. The question facing Christians will be: whom will I serve? It is not an easy question and most mainstream churches fell at the first hurdle during the COVID “pandemic”.
Freedom is at the heart of God’s character and we have the freedom to follow Him or reject Him. Of course, there are consequences for these decisions, like all choices in life. God has provided us with the opportunity to know and love Him and be with Him forever. Undoubtedly there is a cost – demonstrated clearly by the life of Jesus and His disciples, most of whom died untimely and terrible deaths, in the first century AD.
As I was doing research about freedom, I came across this quote from the Lexham Theological Workbook (Esau McCaulley, “Freedom,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).:
“Freedom is the state that emerges after God has acted to remove all hindrances—social, spiritual (sin and death), economic, and institutional—that block our creational purpose. This purpose is to know, love, worship, and enjoy God forever. This is a freedom that has been won for us by the death and resurrection of the Messiah. By the power of the Spirit, the Christian seeks to live into this freedom and to join with God in freeing others, while we await freedom’s full realization at Christ’s second coming (Rom 8:1–39).
Jesus and Freedom
It is hard to place ourselves in the mindset of the Jewish followers of Jesus in the first century AD, when He had a traveling and healing ministry that eventually moved from Galilee to Jerusalem just before his crucifixion. In the Gospel of John Chapter 8, Jesus has a complex debate with His Jewish audience who felt that “as Abraham’s children”, they already had it made. Jesus tells them that His purpose in coming to the earth was to bring freedom and in John’s account, he writes:
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (my emphasis)
They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36).
One of the most critical parts of Jesus’ mission was to bring “freedom to the captives” (all of us are captives of some sort) and to bring fullness of life. Undoubtedly, Satan’s intention is to bring captivity and enslavement and this spiritual battle will become increasingly clear in the days to come. Freedom and faith are intertwined and have been at the heart of many physical and spiritual struggles over the millennia. We need to take freedom seriously and understand that it is an “unalienable right” given by God and not something bestowed by government.
Freedom From Fascism
As I contemplated some of the challenges we face in relation to freedom over many months, I was delighted and surprised to find a provocative article Covid Theology in the Australian Church which was published by the US Brownstone Institute in February this year. The article was drawn to my attention by a friend and the post was written by Dr Michael J Sutton, a “political economist, professor, priest, pastor and publisher” - see this link to his articles. Dr Sutton, who is clearly not looking for any further church placements, wrote this in his article about the church’s response to COVID:
“By closing the church door to the unvaccinated, many were embracing a malicious apostasy that we have not seen since Franco. From July 2021 to mid-2022, vaccine passports were used in churches loyal to the state. What it meant was someone could go to church with the flu, hepatitis, syphilis, herpes, and early onset of Ebola, if they had their Covid Vaccination Certificate.
Australian churches were enticed to behave corruptly. To sweeten the deal, thousands of religious practitioners during the lockdowns received financial rewards from the state. It was the largest transfer of direct funds to the church in Australian history.
The Christian Church is one of the most corrupt institutions in the West. It has been bathing its emaciated body in the oils of tax exemptions and special treatment for over a century, and as a result is drowning in scandals, corruption, child abuse, and nepotism.”
Such plain and unambiguous writing is rare in our times and I followed up to find that Dr Sutton had written a book titled “Freedom From Fascism”.
The book is a great read and in my 5 star Amazon review I wrote:
“Michael Sutton is a brave and outspoken man who is much needed in these times when many have forgotten about the COVID tyranny and biosecurity overreach. As he indicates, in this provocative book, "It is impossible to be a Christian and let the government decide who has the right to hear the good news about God."
Michael also has written a number of other books and I am currently reading his interesting book Baby Race which deals with the complex issues around demographics and falling birth rates.
I decided that it would be interesting for my Sons of Issachar readers to have the opportunity to hear Dr Sutton and so in the last few days I interviewed him for this newsletter. Interestingly, Dr Sutton has just returned from Russia and so next week, I will be having a further interview about the situation in Russia at the moment. Dr Sutton has a website titled Freedom Matters Today which provides details of his books and he also does a podcast. Here is a link.
Interview with Dr Michael Sutton
Conclusions
Freedom isn’t free of course, and as President Reagan said, “..is never more than one generation away from extinction”. Those who have lived under Communist governments, know how fragile freedom is. In the West, we have forgotten and the fall of the Berlin Wall more than a generation ago in 1989, means that most of the current generation in their 20s and 30s know nothing of the fight for freedom. Governments by their nature seek to gain more control and power over us and we need to stand for the “unalienable right” of God-given freedom, because if we lose this, we have willingly become slaves.
ARTICLES THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION THIS WEEK
COVID-19 Vaccines
Almost daily, new information comes out about the damaging impacts of the “vaccines” and I thought that readers would want to know some of this material because there is pressure for people to get further jabs of the experimental mRNA product. Dr Naomi Wolf interviewed Ed Dowd about the “astonishing death rates” in the United Kingdom associated with the “vaccines”
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This is a 30 min interview and is worthwhile listening to. Ed Dowd wrote one of the best books about COVID vaccination – Cause Unknown.
An article published by the Centre for Research in Globalization noted that Ten Mice Used to Test the Newest Pfizer COVID Jab, the authors write:
“September 11, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced1 it had approved reformulated monovalent COVID shots by Pfizer and Moderna for the fall for use in individuals 12 years of age and older. But don’t be fooled. The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act liability shield for the COVID-19 vaccines will remain in place through Dec. 31, 2024.
So, “approved” or not, the manufacturers, distributors and providers that administer the shots still won’t be liable for injuries. The agency has also issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for use of the reformulated jabs in children aged 6 months to 11 years”.
They note that the reformulated vaccine has only been tested on 10 mice and that the reformulated vaccine already is obsolete, apart from the potential negative impacts on people’s health.
Another important article related to damaging impacts of COVID-19 vaccines was published as an open letter to the UK Medical Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
which is the UK regulatory body for drugs and vaccines and is the equivalent of the US FDA. The letter includes the following paragraph:
“Mr. McKernan reported the discovery of expression vectors for the mRNA vaccines remaining in the vials. The unexpected presence of the expression vector exceeds the stipulated guidelines set by both the EMA and the FDA. Mr. McKernan underscored the grave implications of this discovery, referencing potential risks such as interferon responses and the possible DNA integration into the genome.”
The “vaccines” are not just inert material and almost daily new adverse effects are being reported, many with long-term negative health consequences.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Treaty
James Roguski gave a fascinating interview in the last week about the activities of the WHO which I have written about before and the intentions to gain global control of pandemic declarations and then enforced regulations. The interview is more than one hour but is worthwhile listening to if you would like to gain further insights into the cunning work of the WHO to gain control of the international health system.
Here is the link to the interview on Rumble