Ever made Chocolate Chip cookies and forgot to add the flour?  What did you get?   Let’s see…

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

And after baking for 11 minutes @ 375F…it will end up being a gooey sweet greasy slime with brown splotches.  Not the kind of treat that crunches and goes neatly into the lunchbox for school tomorrow.

Likewise, the Liberty that we have enjoyed in the United States is the result of a carefully formulated recipe, whose ingredients are all essential to the end product:  Liberty.

If a presidential candidate or political party offers you Liberty that is not baked with the right ingredients, it’s not the liberty you had in mind – not the kind we have historically had in the USA.  If you’re not careful, you might end up with the “gooey sweet greasy slime”  that will make you sick, and then you’ll dream of the Liberty you once had.

What are the ingredients to the Liberty we have enjoyed?

• Faith –  …in the God of the Bible and in Jesus Christ, who was sent to Earth to set man free.
• Morality –  an internal characteristic. Morality means the “heart is right.” To achieve morality, the heart must be transformed according to the Word of God.
• Law – There must be some degree of order in society and order is established by a set of laws. Laws must be based on God’s law. They protect and promote goodness and punish and prevent evil. Hence, law must be morally just. The law applies equally to everyone. Laws must be fair and equitable. Punishment, for example, must be in set in fair relation to the offense. Finally, society should be merciful, just as God offers mercy and grace.
• Education – Parents should educate and train their children in morality and religion so that they will grow up to be responsible citizens, capable of maintaining a free and ordered society.  The Ten Commandments form the framework on which our behavior is underpinned – but the heart of behavior is motivated by the active work of the Holy Spirit, which follows the greatest commandments:
  • “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’.

Democracy is not Liberty.  The term “democracy” originates from the Greek: δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) “rule of the people”.  And this can mean that the majority tells the minority what to do.  We feel the effects of “democracy” without Liberty in the United States now, because our people and elected government have forgotten how to carefully mix the ingredients that result in Liberty.  Watch out – the recipe they are making is a foul one.

If democracy is all we want, why did the Pilgrims flee Britain?  Why are the Russians really still lacking Liberty even though they have “democracy”?  Neither democracy nor capitalism are key ingredients of the recipe that makes Liberty.

For more great insight into this topic, see this review of Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure

So what can we do about this situation our nation is in?  Bob Tolliver offers some ideas…

Without a Law higher than man’s law, liberty becomes anarchy.  That’s why all nations who reject God’s law have people that are oppressed – oppression is the only way to maintain control of a Godless society.  And as noted above, democracy can be oppressive too.

Liberty is an essence of the freedom Jesus offers society, which many have never felt before.  This freedom from oppression is at the heart of what America once had in contrast with almost every other nation in the world.

To learn more about the law in today’s society, read here.