Imprisoned By The Big Three

Imprisoned by the Big Three

Prison is a reality in our culture and scripture. We know that some significant Bible characters experienced time in jail.

• Joseph in Egypt

• John the Baptist

• Paul and Silas in Philippi

• Jesus preached to the souls in prison (1 Peter 3:19) and identified with prisoners (Matthew 25)

• Moses and David experienced types of prisons in the wilderness

• The Jews in Babylonian Captivity

Years ago, enslaved people sang to lighten their load and give them a sense of hope.

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus!

Steal away, steal away home, I ain’t got long to stay here.

When the slaves sang this song in the cotton fields, they weren’t only singing about Jesus and eternity. They were craving their freedom.

The Bible shows us that we can be imprisoned and slaves to Satan and his evil ones. He can enslave us in our own sins and control our lives and destiny unless we break free from him. Paul writes about enslavement to sin and our desired freedom in Christ in a lengthy passage in Romans 6:15-23 (NKJV):

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The bondage of sin is real. Addicts display it in their drug abuse, sexual perversions, and numerous other transgressions that control them. As Paul wrote in Romans 6:16, we can present ourselves to the sin of any kind, and it becomes our master holding us in confinement. But God gives us a way out of that captivity to freedom in Christ. He wrote in Galatians 5:1 (NKJV):

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

A personal entanglement with sin leads to individual spiritual imprisonment, but national depravity also withholds freedom from its citizens. A terrifying thought would be to spend any time incarcerated with no freedom and subject to the demands of a corrupt government that does not know God. Our forefathers and mothers understood losing their freedom to a tyrant and likened it to being enslaved. Let me read a few quotes where they spoke out against involuntary imprisonment and slavery to an unjust government.

William Penn

Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants. And also:

It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.

Patrick Henry

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Samuel Adams

"If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them."

John Adams

“Let the pulpit resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear the dangers of thralldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence; in short, from civil and political slavery. Let us see delineated before us the true map of man.

I have had frustrating discussions with church leaders who insist that the American form of government does not matter. We can be Christians under Communism as well as a representative republic. The problem is that they have never experienced an atheistic government that wants to kill believers or, at the minimum, imprison them in work camps to punish them for trusting God instead of the government.

Many people who have immigrated to America from Communist countries see what is going on and fear we shall fall into the same trap and lose our liberty. Why can’t American Christians see that people are fleeing evil regimes to come to America? If Socialist and Communist governments were so successful, why aren’t the sympathizers going there? Venezuela would be a perfect place for those pro-Socialist Americans to live as average citizens and try out the system. What, no takers? Maybe there is something to living in a godless society that is not so appealing.