THE HIGH COST OF FREEDOM

Glenn Armstrong, July 2006

I. INTRODUCTION:

Everybody knows that freedom is not free! However, no one knows how to add up the price of freedom in suffering, torture, loss of property, loss of life, dollars or even number of dead. The cost is incalculable, unrecorded and unfortunately of little concern to most people.

Our country benefits from a document that assures us freedom, liberty and the guaranteed right for personal opportunities. The same document limits government from taking providentially provided rights away from us.

This document did not come into existence without a price! Centuries of persecution from old world kingdom state that regulated religions and absolute despotism cause people to struggle for freedom. People everywhere and at all times cry for the right to freely believe and the right to freely live their lives in harmony with their beliefs, society and the state. This right has historically been called freedom of conscience.

Only God knows the price paid in suffering and death for the right of freedom of conscience. Be sure, He does know and He will not forget either the history of the persecutions or the persecutors! Part of the purpose of eternity is to justify the injustice of this world system. Without eternity and a God who is both compassionate and convicting, there would be no definition for the word, "justice".

I once talked to an old man who told me about stopping in the foyer of a public building to, once again, read a copy of The Declaration of Independence. As he read, a man from a foreign country came beside him and started reading the same document. As he read, he pronounced the words slowly and aloud. As he read, the words turned to tears and tears to sobbing. When he had finished he said, "Millions of my people have died through the centuries in an attempt to have one piece of paper like this one."

Millions are still dying all over the world in an attempt to obtain one such piece of paper that will provide freedom; a right given by God!

II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

The Constitution of the United States did not suddenly come into existence. There were great struggles in the old world throughout England, Germany, Italy, Holland, Scotland, Switzerland, France, etc., beginning as early as the 1300’s. These struggles contributed to the birth and formation of the United States as well as the religious-philosophical mind-set of freedom of conscience. This concept framed and formed our Declaration of Independence.

A. Moving Issue:

Many of the great movers of the historical past were men of God and Christians in particular. They were protestors and non-conformists. They protested against both the state and state churches and their abusive practices of seizing property, imprisonments, torture, laws of conformity, etc. These regulations were designed to keep people from enjoying the freedom of conscience -- the right to worship God in their own personal manners, study the scriptures and assemble without approval of either the state or state controlled churches. When these rights are taken away at any point in history, reaction movements are sure to follow. It must be observed that the same issues and rights are currently being confronted today by well over one-half of the population of the earth.

I preach to people each week that are still under state and religious controls. They are not permitted to assemble, worship freely or carry out the ordinances as instructed for the New Testament believing church. Their services are often interrupted, people arrested and in one situation just a month ago three young people were shot! Even "house churches" are being restricted and their assemblies broken up. Chinese believers recently asked for a meeting with our president to plea for help. Many of the Moslem countries still refuse the right for Christian worship, as does India and other countries.

I counted twenty-seven grievances listed by the men who framed our

Declaration of Independence. These abuses caused the separation from the control of King George III of Great Britain. Leaders now long forgotten had challenged these abuses for centuries.

B. Moving Men and Their Missions:

A few of the great leaders of the past who moved countries for Christ and who helped set the stage for freedom would include the following:

1. John Wycliff(1330-1384) was considered the first "star" of the reformation days. He was Oxford's leading theologian and philosopher. His book, Civil Dominion, in which he demonstrated that certain contradiction would takes place when the "ungodly" attempt to rule over temporal and spiritual matters and reject God's right to rule over the universe He created.

This book created great controversy by arguing that all lordships are to be granted by God, -- a right He will not grant to those who rebel against Him. Since the ungodly control the money and often already controlled the thrones, a compromise had to be achieved. He called for the rejection of ungodly rulers, but also for the rejection of much of the clergy that was as corrupt as the secular authorities.

Wycliff was unjustly blamed for the 1381 peasant's revolt that had caused the death of the archbishop of Canterbury, an opponent of Wycliff. His books, The Truth of Holy Scriptures and The Power of the Papacy, added to the reformation controversy. The followers of Wycliff were nicknamed the "Lollards" meaning "the mumblers".

Wycliff translated the Latin Vulgate into English and made the scriptures available to the common people in their language. He died in 1384 following a series of strokes. In 1415 the Council of Constance not only condemned John Hus to death, but also condemned 45 statements of Wycliff that were considered heresy. In 1428, to show open public hostility to Wycliff, his bones were dug up and burned to ashes that were then thrown into the Swift River.

2. John Huss (1374-1415) was a professor at the University of Prague as well as a theologian. He preached two sermons each day and was greatly influenced by the writings of Wycliff. He opposed the church/state theological errors of transubstantiation, sale of indulgences, images and was excommunicated by the pope for his teaching. He was banned by church law from preaching in the chapels and later burned at the stake for doing so.

3. Martin Luther (1483-1546) became a priest in 1507, started teaching at the University of Wittenberg, was awarded a Doctor of Theology in 1512, was excommunicated in 1520 and by posting the Diet of Worms on the Papacy at Rome in 1521 came under condemnation of the Catholic church. He lived in a violent age and was firmly convinced that the Holy Scriptures alone were the authority for doctrine, salvation and church instruction. He taught that God made salvation possible only by the substitutionary death of Christ and this was conferred upon all believers apart for the dispensing of grace by the church.

4. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) was educated in Vienna, entered the priesthood in Switzerland in1506 and wrote articles, Concerning Freedom and Sixty-seven Conclusions. He opposed the sale of mercenaries, celibacy, indulgence peddling, taught that the scriptures were the standard for theological truth, translated the Bible, and dissolved relations with church/state mandates. He was influenced by the ana-baptists who called for a complete separation of the church from apostate leadership as well as from the state controls. These early reformers were being forced into submission by repressive measures, fines, imprisonments, banishments and execution.

5. William Tyndale (1490s-1536) received his M.A. degree in 1515 and later became a student at Cambridge. It was at this time he became influenced with Protestant convictions. While teaching theology he complained that no one was permitted to look at the Bible until he had be "noselled" in heathen for eight to nine years and thus shut out of the cleansing power of the Scriptures. He was a private tutor to wealthy families and observed their total ignorance of the teachings of the Bible. His conviction was formed -- he would see that the "ploughman would sing a text of the scripture and the weaver would hum them to the tune of his shuttle."

Until Tyndale, the only English bible available was the Wycliff translation and that was clandestinely distributed by the Lollards and had never been printed. The church had banned the unauthorized translation of the Bible into English. One reason for the banning of translations was an attempt to stop the growth of Lutheranism in English. Tyndale found "no place in all England" to do his work of translating the Holy Scriptures into English. He left England in 1524 and sailed to Germany to translate the scriptures. He never returned. The New Testament was translated and printed in 1524. Only one copy survived an attempt of the opponents of the Reformation to destroy the printing company and all the copies of the New Testament printed in Cologne. That one copy was incomplete.

Tyndale's work moved to Worms and six thousand copies were printed the next year. Only two copies of that printing have survived. History explains why. They were purchased, confiscated and ceremoniously burned by the Church of England! His translations were banned and destroyed even under Henry VIII who despised the Protestants.

Tyndale continued working on his single goal of making the entire Bible available to any English speaking person. He was nearly completed in the translation of the Old Testament when he was betrayed by a, "friend", Henry Phillips, into the hands of his enemies. He was confined to prison for a year and a half before being strangled and burned at the stake on October 6, 1536. His last prayer was, "Lord open the king of England eyes.''

6. John Calvin (1509-1564), was born in France, educated in Paris, wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion and Commentaries on 49 books of the Scriptures. He was the first man in history of the Christian church to write "verse by verse" commentaries on the whole Bible. He became a Protestant while a student in Paris in 1533 and was forced to leave the city. He spent most of his life in exile from France and lived in Geneva. He helped reform the church and state by working in Geneva but was again forced out of that city. He returned to help lead the reformation in 1541.

Calvin was a scholar, preacher, teacher, pastor, reformer, theologian, church and community leader. From the middle of the sixteenth century to the end, it could be said that it was "Calvin's age of truth."

Calvin was a major mind in the reformation by changing the church, culture and the concept of the state's right to refuse to grant freedom of conscience. It can be said that all the great spiritual leaders in England, Scotland, France, Holland and early America were influenced by Calvin's mind, knowledge of scriptural truth, writings, convictions and civil leadership. In fact, Protestantism may not have survived, let alone flourished, without his valuable input to God and government. Leaders from all over Europe came to Geneva and learned from Calvin.

Calvin's theology, while so often misrepresented, still helped form the American culture as well as its churches. Much of American preaching, teaching and practice embody his understanding of the universal depravity of all humanity, the helplessness of self-redemption, the need for God to act on the unbeliever to give him redemptive faith and grace, God's ultimate right to rule over His creation, personal and national accountability to God, etc., still continue in the pulpits and class rooms of Christian institutions five hundred years later.

These are but a few of the men who assisted in forming the principles of our culture, churches, government, legal systems and the philosophy of human rights and freedom. Others would include: John Knox, John Owen, John Bunyan, George Fox, Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and many more who suffered and died and, "of whom the world was not worthy".

C. Moving Groups:

For a thousand years, following the formation of the Catholic Church with Constantine at its head in 313 AD, all religions assumed that civil peace was granted by the church in accordance to religious conformity over its people. The reformation did not change this concept, it just changed the church to which the people were expected to conform. Religion was assumed to be the cohesiveness that held the kingdoms together and any ripple of rebellion was dealt with in the most savage and severe manner. Christianity came to colonial America about the same time as the Protestant Reformation was taking place. In fact, Columbus considered himself as a special agent of God to bring the Catholic faith to a new world that just happened to be America instead of India.

1. Ana-baptist groups:The word "ana-baptist" was historically a general term used of many groups that re-baptized individuals upon their personal faith in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. These groups did not accept infant or even adult baptism when it was administered by the churches that taught baptism as a saving sacrament of the church and necessary for the distribution of grace toward one's salvation. While this expression was used in a derogatory manner, it became an identifying mark for many religious groups. Some were within the state churches and some were never identified with the Catholic or other protestant churches. Eventually the prefix "ana" was dropped and Baptist became an identifiable fellowship of believers in which each congregation was autonomous.

2. Various religious groups that historically contributed to the forming of the United States.

Many religious groups that played important roles in our early history were formed by followers of religious leaders of the old world. Some examples include:

a) The Hutterites were followers of Jacob Hutter, 1530, who came to America from Germany and Russia in the 1870's. Jacob Hutter was murdered in Austria in 1536.

b) The Mennonites were followers of Menno Simons (1483-1546), a former Roman Catholic priest who was baptized as a believer by an ana-baptist preacher in Holland. He became an early Dutch leader of "Radical Reformation". 'The Mennonites came to America in the middle 1600's from Germany and Switzerland and settled in what became Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, etc. One of their leaders, Jacob Amman, broke from the Mennonites who refused shunning and excommunication of their erring members and formed the Amish fellowship.

c) Anglican leaders who came to the colonies in the very early 1600's were part of the Church of England. These churches became the American Episcopal Church and settled mostly in Virginia. The came more for financial and developmental reasons than religious convictions. They also brought with them English Unitarianism, a base for liberal theology and a major problem to early colonial Biblical churches. (See Leaven of the Sadducees)

d. The Congregationalists were early settlers in Massachusetts. They were separatist with a congregational form of church government.

These early Puritans were the most influential religious group in early colonial America. Many of the early Reformed Churches were Swiss followers of the greatest reformer, John Calvin. Between 1630 and 1640 twenty thousand Congregationalists came to America. Their attempt was to establish a "theocratic" government based on Calvin's concept of biblical law. Their legalism went to the extent of hanging four Quakers.

e. The Quakers came to colonial America from England for religious freedom in 1638. This groups taught an "inner light" relationship with God and stressed listening to God personally rather than preachers, teachers and leaders. They were looking for world peace, simplicity, quality, moral purity and integrity through quiet faith. They were followers of George Fox (1624-1691) who looked for a place to produce spiritual truth and peace. They refused to attend the state church of England and insisted on freedom of speech and assembly. When Fox was taken into court, he advised the judge, "To tremble before the Word of the Lord". This caused the judge to call him a "quaker", the term that has lasted to this day. When the Quakers came to America they were persecuted and some accused as being witches and hung. William Penn made it safe for his fellow Quakers to live in America. They did not seek holiness as much as perfection. Their strictness cause even many of their own members to leave the group or form new friends meetings.

f. Lutheran believers came to America from Germany fleeing the Thirty Year War. They came for religious freedom and found a place of safety in Pennsylvania along with the Moravian, Amish, Brethren, Mennonites, Quakers, etc. The Lutheran rebellion against the Catholic Church is a well-documented history. However, the new world was better suited for a body of believers who insisted on the scriptures not the church being the final authority for faith and faith alone the essential factor for personal pardon for sin and salvation than the old world. The first Lutherans came mainly from Scandinavia and settled as early as 1619 at Hudson Bay. Others came later from Holland, 1623, and Sweden and Germany.

g. Presbyterian believers fled to America following the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658 that ended the Puritan rule. Other Presbyterians came from Scotland and Ireland in 1662 following economic problems and failed attempts to establish church control. The first general assembly of Presbyterians was founded in 1706 in Philadelphia. In 1710 they formulated the Westminster Confession of Faith. They denied any government power over the church and objected to all persecution of individuals because of their faith. Several early colleges and universities were established by this group for the purpose of training Biblical leaders, educators and preachers.

These and many other religious groups made major contributions to the political and theological concepts that found their way into the Declaration of Independence. The single common conviction of these groups was freedom of conscience.

III. EARLY ISSUES:

A. Parish Church Rulings: One issue of the early colonial church was a ruling by Parish Court to permit all members of a parish (old word for county) to determine who the minister should be for a local church. This made it possible for the church to in fact be ruled by the local government and unregenerate people to vote for the call of a pastor to a church they may never have attended. This legal procedure brought old world higher criticism into the very American churches which were formed to get away from theological liberalism.

B. Separation of Church and State: Attempts were made early in the colonial days to authorize certain churches to be the representative state religions. Baptist and others objected to any church being a state controlled belief system. Separation of church from the state has been stretched to mean something far different from its original purpose. The colonial leaders did not want the state to operate a church to which all people in the area were obligated to support with their presence, program and pocketbooks. It never was intended to mean that the state would limit the base, sphere or scope of the church or restrict its public testimony, as it is currently doing.

C. Unitarian Theological: Unitarian theology with its anti-Trinitarian views was an outgrowth of the rejection of the literal reading of the Bible. This group presented the unbiblical view of "salvation by character" in which no payment for sin was required and Christ was rejected as a divine substitutionary sacrifice. Rationalization replaced revelation. Very popular individuals embraced this form of theology in the colonial days resulting in many believers denying their Christian faith.

D. The Definition of Mankind: Not much has been written about the problems faced by the early colonial leaders and the common conception of the evolution of humanity. Many believed and practiced a non-biblical view that some species developed at different rates and even included groups of people that had not yet evolved into full humans. This view was common through history as early as the Greek and Roman atomists and make even more common later when Darwin documented the position of evolution by natural selection in his book, Origin of the Species, 1859. The sub-title of the book, which states his purpose in writing the book, was The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. For years he had believed that the actions of apes differed very little from a "naughty child" and his experiences with certain natives. He believed that some groups had evolved in a manner in which there was "a very little gulf between man and animals.

Many leaders of the colonial days saw little reason for treating the native American as much more than lower evolved animals. This was also true of other races of people. Theologically some taught that these people only became really human when they received a soul through baptism.

Evolution in practice was the direct cause of the vilest treatment of people and hundreds of thousands of unconsciousable deaths! Most leaders of the American colonies did not contribute as much as they should or could have done to correct this abuse.

E. Conformity Laws: Laws were passed that included heavy fines, imprisonment and public exile for people who did not attend and support the state approved church, who believed in personal salvation apart from church rituals and who obeyed the scriptures in believer's baptism -- even when, as some did, they went outside the country to be baptized.

F. Doctrinal Freedom: One major concern of the congregations that settled in America was the right to determine Christian doctrine based on "soul liberty", the ability to independently study the Holy Scriptures, pray, appeal to the ascended Lord as a personal priest in heaven, etc. They insisted that their beliefs were to be Bible based and not inherited traditions of early church fathers or political leaders.

G. Right to be a Dissenter: At least one out of ten people in England was a "dissenter". This included Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Quakers, etc. The Toleration Act , 1689, permitted individuals the freedom to believe differently from the state church, but still required them to pay taxes to the establishment.

It would take far more presentation than is the purpose of this paper to list everything that contributed to the forming of the Declaration of Independence. However, this is sufficient to arouse interest about the high cost of our freedom.