Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

• Galatians 5:1

“A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.”

• C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

At the point when I wrote this, it was before election day, but it would be scheduled afterwards.  Did we elect tyranny?  While one candidate may be a tyrant in the board room, the other candidate treated us as if we were stupid, and those were the votes he went after – thus wishing to be elected by those who would accept tyranny.  Thus, this post stands regardless of who won in each election in the USA, local, state, or national. The nation has lost its focus on God, lost its focus on truth and reality. We have either sold our souls or we have delayed it with the newly elected candidates. Why do I say this? I have read the minor prophets, studying them in Sunday school at the moment, and we are doing everything, and more, that Israel and Judah did before their countries became enslaved by others. Okay, I guess that statement makes me the crazy guy holding up the sign, “Repent! The End is Near!!” But that does not mean the end of time, although…

I know that I was not the only one to see what was going on, but it puzzles me.  Why has a new generation of voters arisen who want to give away their freedom in order to be indulged?  I got “free” tuition and books in college, on an Army ROTC scholarship, paying back Uncle Sam with four years in the Army.  Nothing is free, at least nothing that is worthwhile.  Salvation is free, in that you cannot buy your way into Heaven, but it takes a total commitment to the Lord.

And how did we get to this apathy?  This C. S. Lewis quote is a major part of it, I think.  We are in a Post-Truth Era.  Politicians have always lied, but the past generations could think, reason, sift through the lies and find truth.  If you listen carefully to a few speeches, the politician will often contradict themselves.  Joe Biden was pathetic during the campaign.  If you know how things worked, nothing that he said made any sense – a jumble of contradictions, but people loved hearing the lies because they wanted his lies rather than reality.

Yet, anything of lasting value is objective.  It does not change.

So, in giving up objective truth, lasting value, and our freedom, which is it?  Does the nation wish to be tormented by tyranny?  Or does the nation wish to be enslaved?  Both will be the ultimate outcome.  Maybe not for a few years…

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

• Hebrews 13:8

That statement from Hebrews is true, whether we have any freedom left is another subject.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.