True Freedom

RESURRECTION FREEDOM

By Harmony Grant


Passover arrives each year with the sunlit blossoms of spring, cleansed by rain. Jews in Israel mark out seven days, abstaining from work on the first and last. They eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs in memory of the hurried escape from Egypt. The Hebrews’ exodus from this land of slavery is a giant metaphor for a more personal flight: the liberation from sin that we each need more than anything else.

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground is a classic description of the human problem: We want to rebel. Russian rationalists said humans act in their own best interest, but the great writer disagreed. His story portrays a man driven by the need to assert himself, even destructively, for the perverse sake of Ego. Dostoevsky understood people well. We were created in the image of God, the great “I am.” From childhood, we want to assert ourselves and say, “I come first.” From this basic drive come the wars of the world, the injustice, and the spiritual poverty of our lives. Sin is the decision to act on our primal, I-come-first impulse.

When they asked, “What is our sin?” God said to the Hebrews, “You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me.” 1

This is how God defined sin. He didn’t cite human emotions, instincts, or personality faults. He condemned deliberate choices to rebel against His will, preferring our own way. Paul says we are slaves of sin when we obey its evil desires, not when we merely exist in a human body. 2

The distinction matters because many influential thinkers like John Calvin said our physical body, on its own, is corrupt and infected with sin. Calvin believed we can’t be truly holy as long as we exist in our physical bodies. But the Bible describes sin as a free, conscious decision made with our eternal wills. Scripture defines sin as rebellion against the known will of God. “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” 3

Would You Go to Heaven?

How can we be saved from this relentless drive of Ego, which causes us to hurt even those we love and sin against our Maker whose will is perfect? Christ!

When we put our whole trust (for the next life and this one) in Jesus, we are freed from sin. We trust His mercy to save us, not our good works; and we are filled with His Spirit that empowers us to stop willfully rebelling against Him. As God’s children, we daily die to desires that conflict with our Father’s will; we freely crucify the “flesh” when it tempts us to disobey. Through the gate of this private Calvary, we enter the greatest freedom a human can know: freedom from Ego and its relentless impulse to assert itself against God and others in pride. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law [of works] but under the grace [which accepts simple trust].” 4

In fact, Christ recreates our desires by filling us with His Spirit. He enables us to “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” 5 As Zacharias prophesied, Christ granted us “that we might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” 6 Scripture says Christ has “released us from our sins,” 7 and “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” 8 Jesus is described as coming to save us from, not in, our sin, as the “Lamb who takes away the sin of the world,” 9 and the “Son [who] cleanses us from all sin.” 10 Paul wrote that through Christ “God gives us the victory” 11 over sin.

Christ’s redemption makes it possible for us to be cleansed from the inside, from the fountainhead of human action: our will. Because of His death, we are no longer tethered to the imperfection of keeping an external law, “for Christ is the end of the law [of works] for righteousness to everyone who trusts.” 12

Rather, we follow a law of obedient trust written on our hearts. “He takes away the first [the external law of works] to establish the second [the internal law of faith]. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . .” 13 We enter a new covenant with God, in which the spirits of righteous men are “made perfect.” 14 It is written, “God has not called us for uncleanness, but for sanctification.” 15 For “through Him, everyone who trusts is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses.” 16

There are No “Sinning Saints”

Calvinist doctrine denies Christ complete power to renew us, teaching that although we must struggle to be holy and Christ-like, we still can’t live a consistently sinless life. But this idea is contradicted by Scripture that celebrates our new victory in Christ. “For if [animal sacrifices] sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ . . . cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” 17 Paul wrote that Christ died, not to merely cover our sins, but so “we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 18

“Having been set free from sin and enslaved to God,” Paul wrote, “you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 19 He commanded, “Keep yourself free from sin.” 20 A chapter later, Paul repeats, “Keep the commandment without stain or reproach.” 21 John added, “No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning.” 22 Peter wrote that we know we have been born again because we “have in obedience to the truth purified our souls.” 23

“How shall we who have died to sin still walk in it?” asked Paul, aghast at the idea of “sinning saints.” “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life . . . Our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” 24

Just as “Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again,” 25 so we are to live without sin, which is spiritual death. “For the death He died, He died for sin, once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin [once and for all], but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” 26

Paul wrote that in Christ, we are “new creations,” 27 and urged us to “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” 28 According to Paul, the new believer is “transformed;” 29 our alteration is so complete that we become “strangers and aliens on earth,” 30 unrecognizable, as different as darkness and light. 31 We grow inclined toward God, rather than self. Christ said, “[My disciples] are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You [Father] take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” 32

Of course, this does not mean we will be without temptation. Instead, like Christ, tempted in the wilderness, we are enabled to consistently conquer the temptation to rebel against God’s known will; for “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation.” 33 “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust,” 34 and “He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” 35 Indeed, “He Himself was tempted in all ways as we” 36 and “took on the very [human] nature” 37 we endure, “yet without sin.” 38

“And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 39

Christ is the great Redeemer, an astounding Creator who loves renewal and metamorphosis: of sunlight into energy, of caterpillars into butterflies, of eggs into eagles and heroic salmon—and of winter into blooming spring! If He causes such profound renaissance in nature, transforming tiny seeds to towering trees and blossoming their naked limbs, why would He do less with us, His children? Christ doesn’t create a double standard in our lives, where He is righteous but we are still evil. He does a thorough job, in which we are completely cleansed and “filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Him, to the glory and praise of God.” 40 Through Christ we “receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness,” 41 and present our bodies “as instruments of righteousness to God.” 42

When we abide in obedient trust, righteousness is imputed to us, just as it was reckoned to Abraham, 43 who is “the father of all who believe . . . that righteousness might be reckoned to them.” 44 Like Noah, we are “heir to the righteousness which is according to faith.” 45

As Christ described, we are each branches that must be connected to Him, the living vine. If we’re rooted in Him through trust and death to conscious rebellion against God’ s known will, then our veins run with the life sap of His “righteousness, which comes from God on the basis of trust.” 46 If we’re not connected, we’re dead. Good works and good intentions without trust in Him are lifeless as winter leaves scattered across a sidewalk. Nothing we do apart from Christ can make us righteous or fill us with the running sap of spiritual life. But when we are connected by simple obedient trust, we can be confident that we are both righteous and pleasing to God, filled to the core with His abundant, ceaseless, sweet energy, which is more beautiful than the bright tulips in any spring garden.



Endnotes:

1) Jer. 16:10-12 (2) Rom. 6:16 (3) James 4:17 (4) Rom. 6:14 (5) Eph. 4:24 (6) Luke 1:74, 75 (7) Rom. 1:5 (8) Heb. 9:26 (9) John 1:29 (10) 1 John 1:9 (11) 1 Cor. 15:56-58 (12) Rom. 10:4 (13) Heb. 10:9-10, 19-22 (14) Heb. 12:23 (15) 1 Thess. 4:7 (16) Acts 13:39 (17) Heb. 9:13-14 (18) 2 Cor. 5:21 (19) Rom. 6:22 (20) 1 Tim. 5:22 (21) 1 Tim. 6:14 (22) 1 John 3:6 (23) 1 Pet. 1:22-23 (24) Rom. 6:2-7 (25) Rom. 6:9 (26) Rom. 6:10-11 (27) 2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 6:15 (28) Eph. 4:24 (29) Rom. 12:2 (30) Heb. 11:13 (31) 1 John 2:9-10 (32) John 17:14-16 (33) 2 Pet. 2:9 (34) Ps. 103:14 ((35) Heb. 2:18 (36) Heb. 4:15 (37) Phil. 2:5-7 (38) Heb. 4:15 (39) 1 John 3:5-8 (40) Phil. 1:11 (41) Rom. 5:17 (42) Rom. 6:13 (43) Rom. 4:9 (44) Rom. 4:11 (45) Heb. 11:17 (46) Phil. 3:9


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Harmony Grant writes and edits for National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog group. Read more of her work at www.hisnamesake.blogspot.com. Contact her at harmony@truthtellers.org.

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Pushing for War in Iran - Why ???

Since the War on Terror was initiated against the people of Iraq, it appears that posturing is taking place with designs on the Oil Fields of Iran. You may want to take some time and review the extensive amount of documentation posted to the following links featuring factual and other documentation regarding the US Administration,s attempted medling in the affairs of yet another Sovereign nation.

www.infowars.com www.radioliberty.com www.youtube.com

www.video.google.com

Petro Dollar and Financial Terrorism

One of the best articles I have read concerning American Foreign Policy, the Mid-East and Global Financial Terrorism

Those who use dollars outside the US continuously pay a contribution to the US. It comes in the form of an inflation of 1.25 million dollars per minute. This is the result of the fast increase of the US foreign debt. Half of all USA's imports are simply added to the foreign debt and paid for by the foreign dollar holders through inflation.

Moreover these dollar holders do not seem to realize, that the dollar rate they are looking at, is nothing more than a dangerous facade. If they don’t understand what is still keeping it upright, the facade may hit them by surprise.

Meanwhile, well camouflaged, the dollar is at the center of several US’ conflicts.

World wide demand for dollars

Up to 1971, each US dollar represented a fixed amount of gold. The US disposed of enormous gold reserves, which covered the total value of all issued dollars. When foreign banks had more dollars than they wanted, they could exchange it into gold. That was the main reason why the dollar was accepted world wide.

In 1971 the gold guarantee for the dollar was lifted. In fact, this was an emergency move of President Nixon: the Vietnam War had cost more than the US could afford and more dollars had been printed than the gold reserves allowed. Since then, the value of the dollar is established by the law of offer and demand on the exchange markets.

In the early seventies the US still produced enough oil for its own consumption. To protect its own oil enterprises against foreign competition, oil imports were limited. In exchange for the lift of limitations, the OPEC countries promised they would only accept dollars for their oil. The dollar was the most used currency in the world trade. So nothing special?

Since 1971 everyone who wants to import oil, has to buy dollars first. That is where the fun starts for the US. Almost everybody needs oil, so everybody wants dollars.

Oil buyers from all over the world hand over their yens, crowns, francs and other currencies. They receive greenbacks in return. With those dollars they go and buy oil in the OPEC-countries. The OPEC-countries will spend the money again. Of course, they can do that in the US, but also in all other countries in the world. Everybody wants dollars, for everybody will need oil again.

Each country which purchases more than it sells, will see the value of its money diminish. If you can not do a lot with a currency, demand decreases and its exchange value goes down. But what is true for all other currencies, is not true for the US dollar. As long as the whole world needs dollars to purchase oil, there will always be demand.

Camouflaged conflicts

To keep the permanent demand for dollars going, oil sales must remain in dollars. That is why the US tries to keep as much influence as possible, as well on the US owned IPE and NYMEX world oil markets, as with the locals in power. By doing so the US secures its oil supply at the same time. Beyond that, lucrative contracts can be obtained from the local power, with which a maximum of benefits can be seized from the oil production.

But when the locals in power do not want to sell their oil in dollars anymore, the US has a problem. Then, the US-president will not explain how dependent the US is on the dollar demand. The conflict is always camouflaged. And to do so, always an emotional theme is chosen. In times gone by this was the danger for communists, today it is the danger for terrorists, fundamentalists and other popular bogies, like “the enemy has weapons of mass destruction” or “the enemy tries to make nukes.”

The fact that there is, rationally, not a single proof, does not matter. The emotions always win. Even the fact, that these accusations can be turned around and then can be proved, is noticed by hardly anyone. The US has weapons of mass destruction and has used them; the US has nukes and has used them, and even threatened with them still in 2000.

But once again, at the moment accusations are loaded with emotions humans switch off their intelligence. Reason is no argument for peace anymore. The theatre is only about the launched accusations. And because, as a result, only specialists of weapons of mass destruction or nukes are called upon to give their opinion, nearly nobody finds out what the conflict is really about.

Venezuela

In Venezuela, since many years, the US tries to pull down President Chavez, pretexting he is a dangerous communist. Chavez has nationalized the oil industry and has set up Barter-deals to export Venezuelan oil in exchange for medical care from Cuba and others. In Barter deals there is no necessity for dollars and the US has no profit from the oil trade.

Iraq

Until 1990 the US maintained lucrative commercial contacts with Saddam Hussein. He was a good ally. For instance, in 1980 he had tried to free the hostages at the US-embassy in Teheran.

But in 1989 Saddam accused Kuwait of flooding the oil market and making the oil price go down. The following year Saddam tried to annex Kuwait. It led to an immediate turn around of the attitude of the US. With the annexation Saddam would dispose of 20 percent of world oil reserves. The Iraqis were chased out of Kuwait by the US, with an alliance of 134 countries, and condemned to water and bread by a UN-embargo that lasted ten years.

Although the US sought a way to re-establish its influence in Iraq, Saddam’s switch to the Euro on November 6, 2000, would lead to the US invasion. The dollar sank away and in July 2002 the situation got that serious, that the IMF warned that the dollar might collapse. A few days later the plans for an attack were discussed at Downing Street. One month later Cheney proclaimed it was sure now, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. With this pretext the US invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003. The US switched back the oil trade into dollars on June 5, 2003.

There is a huge difference between trading Iraqi oil in euros and trading it in dollars. This will be explained below.

Iran

The US is in conflict with Iran, since it was thrown out of the country in 1979. According to the US, Iran is a dangerous country of fundamentalists.

The geographical position of Iran, between the Caspian Sea and the Indian Ocean, complicates US ambitions to control the rich reserves of oil and gas on the East side of the Caspian Sea. To transport this oil and gas to world markets without crossing neither Russia, nor Iran, pipelines had to be built through Afghanistan. Plans were made in the early nineties, but the pipelines are still not there.

Meanwhile the US tries to frustrate all competing projects of other countries.

Of course, this led to multiple conflicts of interest with Iran. George W. Bush would pretext the presence of Osama bin Laden to start a war against Afghanistan.

In 1999 Iran publicly stated it wanted to accept euros for its oil as well. Iran sells 30 percent of its oil production to Europe, the rest mainly to India an China and not a drip to the US, as a result of an embargo established by the US itself. In spite of Bush’s threatening tale, mentioning the country in his famous “axis of evil”, Iran started to sell its oil in euros from spring 2003.

After that, Iran wanted to establish its own oil-bourse, independent from the IPE and NYMEX. It would start on 20 March 2006. Considering the very weak health of the dollar at that time, a success of this bourse could have led to a catastrophe for the dollar and thus for he US. That is why tensions were very high at the beginning of 2006.

Finally the opening of the oil-bourse was postponed. After that Putin established an oil bourse in Russia as quickly as possible, which took away the interest of the Iranian oil bourse.

The US accuses Iran of wanting to make nukes. Because the US has not sufficient influence to switch back the oil trade into dollars, it probably hopes that the Iranian nuclear sites will be bombed once again so Iran would have to consume its oil instead of selling it in euros.

Moreover, a masterly plan has been conceived to take possession of the world market for nuclear fuel, in concert with a few other countries and using Iran as the pretext and the test case. With this plan the demand for dollars would be secured for a long time, even after the oil age.

Russia

Since 8 June 2006 Russia too has turned its back to the dollar. By selling the dollar surpluses to central banks, Putin took care that it had no influence on the dollar rate. However, the basis for the world wide dollar demand has decreased a lot. The US needs Russia for its plans to take possession of the world market for nuclear fuel, so a revenge by the US is unlikely.

Dollar economy

The dollar economy is not limited to the US. Oil reserves traded in dollars belong to it too. Also enterprises, banks and investments, anywhere in the world, belong to it when paid with dollars. They are like small islands of the dollar economy. Benefits and dividends are flowing back to the owners. The value of the investments is influenced by the rate of the dollar. Oil sellers, receiving their proceeds in dollars, are actors in the dollar-economy and usually behave like perfect representatives of the US’ interests. They consider this as their own interest.

Euro versus dollar

Since January 1993 the Euro is quoted. In July 2005 the rate is identical to what it was at its introduction: $1.22. The new currency has experienced quite some fluctuations during its short life. From the end of 1998 the Euro slides away, until the moment Saddam Hussein switches to the Euro in November 2000. Although the US switched the oil trade back into dollars in June 2003, the Euro continued its rise. Since spring 2003 Iran had started to sell oil in euros.

The Euro has become a small world currency. Between July 2004 and July 2005 the part of the dollar in world trade went down from 70 percent to 64 percent. A bit less then half of these 64 percent is related to US foreign trade. If the Euro wants to become as mighty as the dollar, it has still a long way to go.

In principle, the Euro contains the same risks as the dollar. As long as there would be a motor for a permanent demand for euros like, for instance, oil sales in euros, the Euro zone could make debts and let it increase indefinitely.

To avoid such debts, the Euro zone would have to export the equivalent of all euros needed outside its borders and keep the same amount in foreign currencies in their central bank. Why would they? The credit trick worked fine for the US during more than 30 years!

When oil producing countries would sell oil in two or three different currencies, like it has been considered in the past, this simply means that the three involved countries can do the same trick as the US does now. In the long run it would multiply the problem by three.

The only solution for this problem would be that oil selling countries accept all currencies on the market. Tehran has already taken into consideration to accept more than one currency and not just the Euro. Step by step.

By Rudo de Ruijter,
Independent Researcher
Netherlands, March 2007

The author can be contacted at www.courtfool.info

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