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.
If Christians in countries that persecute believers were given a choice of freedom or bondage, which do you think they would prefer? Even the apostle Paul preferred freedom, as he indicated in Acts 26:29 (NKJV, emphasis added):
And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.”
Chinese Christians prove it IS possible to live faithfully to God under Communism. Richard Wurmbrand also demonstrated it in Communist-controlled Romania. What we miss when we dismiss our form of government is that while it is possible to live faithfully in less-than-ideal conditions, those circumstances diminish the opportunity for the gospel. When tyranny arises, morality, justice, and freedom diminish. Listen to another Samuel Adams quote:
"Is it not High Time for the People of this Country explicitly to declare, whether they will be Freemen or Slaves? It is an important Question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more than any Thing in this Life. The Salvation of our Souls is interested in the Event: For wherever Tyranny is establish'd, Immorality of every Kind comes in like a Torrent. It is in the Interest of Tyrants to reduce the People to Ignorance and Vice."
If we are still asleep during this governmental crisis, we wonder about people like me who say we have lost our freedom. We might think can still go and come at will and choose how to spend our money, and to a degree, that is true. Do you remember the lockdown for COVID? Do you feel the inflationary pinch when you buy gas or groceries to survive? Have you watched as food processing plants and dairy barns have been destroyed? Are you seeing the millions of ILLEGALS who have crossed the borders? Did you witness the railway accidents that have polluted the land? Where were the environmentalists in those “accidents”? Someone told them to stand down, and they did. Did you hear about reluctant people whom employers forced to get an experimental COVID shot, and now many feel the side effects?
These are some of the obvious issues that we face from those who would restrict our liberties. We need to be privy to many behind-the-scenes activities which they carry out. But at least half of the nation is asleep and happy with the crumbs they get by their compliance to tyrants. It was the same in the days of our American Revolution. When the British government provoked Americans, about one-third stood up for proper God-based government and opposed the tyrant.
Satan employs a variety of enterprises to take away God-given freedoms. Under God, we can choose our destinies in this world and the world to come. The devil wants to remove our ability to choose and keep us locked down under his oppressive tyrannies. He uses the lusts of the eye and flesh and the pride of life in creative ways to coerce us into his control. The beloved apostle John warns us in 1 John 2:15-17 (NKJV):
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
I watched part of a podcast interview with Dr. Mark Sherwood recently. Dr. Sherwood and his wife are naturopathic physicians who treated thousands with COVID and had no fatalities. Sherwood also ran for governor of Oklahoma in our most recent election, losing to the incumbent. In the podcast interview, he described three “prisons” where we can find ourselves. I want to take these three and expand on them from my perspective.
The first of these is the prison of the BIG GOVERNMENT. Initially, the thirteen colonies became small countries or states that comprised America and united with a limited Federal government. Our Constitution defines what powers the states allowed the federal government to possess. The STATES were the dominant governments and controlled the federal.
All that changed with the Civil War, or better, the “War Between the States.” Abraham Lincoln seized power for the federal government, and the states became subservient. That trend continued, and now the monster the states created rules them. States are afraid to resist the federal government for fear of not receiving federal monies for various state needs. We have forgotten who is in charge of whom and whose money it is. What would happen if the states keep their money and use it at home rather than sending it to the feds?
Big Government wants us to depend on them for survival. One of the tenets of Marxism is to replace God with the government. In many Communist countries, the governments permit Christians to assemble for worship but are not allowed to practice their faith outside the walls of their government-approved church buildings. The government, not churches, feeds the poor, for instance.
This is a form of imprisonment. In jail, a person gets “three hots and a cot.” That is, three hot meals and a place to sleep, but they are also confined to their place of detention and the non-negotiable rules of the system. They are fed and housed, but they do not have freedom.
Our society is heading in the same direction. The government may provide our physical needs, but at what price? Those in power can decide who gets fed and how much they can have based on specific socio-political scores. “Toe the line, or you don’t eat.”
The second prison is that of BIG MEDICINE and BIG PHARMA. Our health is important to us, and certain medical groups want to be in charge. The primary ingredient to taking care of us is pharmaceutical drugs with all their side effects. Sometimes drugs are necessary to help us with various health issues. How many lives from past generations could have been saved if they had penicillin to cut down infection?
Pharmaceutical drugs have their downside, too. I’m sure you have watched TV commercials discussing certain drugs and their uses. Then, they list all potential detrimental issues resulting from taking them. Those lead to more drugs to offset the problems.
Someone told me that healthcare is the “keystone” of the Communist takeover. Everything rests on healthcare. Once they get that, they can control the other areas of life. That is why Obamacare was so important to them. The government controls who gets what medications and how we will be treated in times like the COVID PLAN-demic. Yes, the illness is actual, but nefarious men planned and released it on the world’s population. Particular medical doctors gave the government protocol that allegedly killed people while others, like the Sherwoods, healed people with healthy remedies.
I think about Daniel asking his keeper for healthy food instead of the Babylonian foods in Daniel 1. Once he and the others ate the proper foods, the Babylonians could see the difference. Medical officials want us to avoid eating a proper diet and having alternative medicines. They want us to be dependent on their drugs and protocols.
In 1961, the American Medical Association undertook an Operation Coffeecup Campaign, which included an LP recording titled: "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine," in which Reagan stated:
Now in our country, under our free enterprise system, we have seen medicine reach the greatest heights that it has in any country in the world. Today, the relationship between patient and doctor in this country is something to be envied in any place. The privacy, the care that is given to a person, the right to choose a doctor, and the right to go from one doctor to the other.
But let's also look from the other side at the freedom the doctor loses. A doctor would be reluctant to say this. Well, like you, I am only a patient, so I can say it on his behalf. The doctor begins to lose freedoms; it's like telling a lie, and one leads to another. First, you decide that the doctor can have so many patients. They are equally divided among the various doctors by the government. But then the doctors aren't equally divided geographically, so a doctor decides he wants to practice in one town, and the government has to say to him you can't live in that town. They already have enough doctors. You have to go someplace else. And from here, it is only a short step to dictating where he will go.
The third prison is BIG CHURCH. This one is near and dear to me since I spent forty-five years in church ministry. During my career, I worked for large (500+) and small (<100) churches. Today we have many megachurches, but the median church size is less than 100 in attendance.
George Barna surveyed American churches and found that a small percentage have a biblical worldview. Only a tiny number of preachers of the biblical worldview churches were willing to preach on current events even though they understood these to be biblical topics. The reasons they gave for not preaching contemporary issues were “nickels and noses” and protecting their jobs. Therefore, they claim neutrality and separation from government to “preach Jesus,” not politics.
According to a recent Chuck Baldwin article, the Tennessee Southern Baptist Convention has abandoned the Constitution’s Second Amendment and supports gun control with red flag confiscation laws. Months ago Baldwin also reported on a “Covid Covenant” a Seminary required of its Faculty, Staff, and Students in which all agreed to always obey the government.
What lesson did future Pastors learn from that ordeal, to obey God or men? By the way, how often have you heard churches weren’t supposed to get into politics? Remember, we only “preach Jesus.” Yet these groups jumped in with both feet on COVID, guns, and how about Ukraine? I guess it is okay when it fits the leftist agenda, but not when it fits the Founders’ vision for America.
If BIG CHURCH imprisons us, we let the Pastor do our Bible study and rely on his sermons instead of learning for ourselves. As a result, we stop thinking for ourselves and let the preacher think for us. Too often, in Big Church, parents let the Youth and Children’s Ministries raise their children, abdicating their God-given responsibility. Read Ephesians 6:1-4, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, and Proverbs 22:6.
The elders of one large church I know recently surveyed its youth group and found that most of their teens supported abortion and the practice of homosexuality. It could be that they do not hear the biblical perspective from their pastor, youth director, church leaders, or parents. They only hear the secular point of view from their schools and media.
God is about freedom, not servitude. We can choose slavery to sin or become free people in Christ. “Freedom is not free,” as the adage goes. Our freedom cost Jesus His life and veterans theirs. Freedom costs our daily efforts to know and uphold the word of God and our complementary Constitution.
French statesman Alexis de Tocqueville came to America with Gustave de Beaumont in 1831 for a nine-month tour to observe the American prison system, the people, and institutions. He was surprised at how Americans interwove religion and politics. He stated:
Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion - for who can search the human heart? - But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.
At the fiftieth anniversary of the Constitution, de Tocqueville wrote:
"In New England, every citizen receives the elementary notion of human knowledge; he is taught, moreover, the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution..."
How glorious our schools would be if they taught these topics today! I have an edition of a “Constitution Catechism,” which students studied years ago but not today. Most of us are ignorant of all these – by design.
Some Americans do not want to make the sacrifices necessary to keep (now regain) our republic, as Benjamin Franklin described to Mrs. Powel. Let them remove themselves from the work of patriots who insist on the liberty to incorporate the word of God into the nation’s life and reestablish our republic. Samuel Adams once again:
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom -- go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!"
The Psalmist reminds us that God controls nations from His throne above. He reigns RIGHT NOW! We are not waiting for some future event to usher in His sovereignty. He rules today. It is up to us to accept and honor His leadership instead of Satan’s.
I will conclude with hopeful passages from Psalm 2:1-6, 10-12 (NKJV):
Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 “Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.” . . .
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
Let’s Keep The Light of Genuine Freedom from Our Prisons Burning!
GodNAmerica@Gmail.com
