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Thomas Jefferson said,

“Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion.”

(January 16, 1786, in a bill written by the Committee on Religion, Virginia Assembly. H.A. Washington, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson  9 vols. (Jackson: 1859); Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), pp. 192-193.)

Why did Thomas Jefferson so plainly say that no one has a right to try to force anyone else to think a certain way?  Trying to force others to think your way will only stir up fighting.  This is why dictators like Lenin, or Hitler, quickly changed what and how children were being taught in the schools of Russia and Germany.  They knew, as they took power, they would be able to hold the population with force for only a brief time.  Therefore they wanted to train up a generation who thought the way they did so they could continue their socialistic policies in the nation.  What they didn’t count on was the effect of the sin root in man—both in themselves and in others.  They thought the selfishness in man was caused by injustices in the world.  They sought to right those by establishing justice as they saw it.  However, they were deceived and didn’t realize that their own judgment was not perfect.  They rejected the Word of God, so they didn’t believe the Bible’s words that said,

“There’s not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”

(Ecclesiastes 7:20)

They rejected the truth the Bible teaches that we need a standard outside ourselves to really know what is just.  Only a perfect person can know what perfect justice is.  Only Jesus, “the just One,” (Acts 7:52) is capable of knowing when a law is perfect.  Because Lenin, Hitler, and other dictators reject the Bible as being the truth, their great utopian visions of a perfect world under their rule can never become reality.  Their highest visions always crash and burn in the midst of the chaos of internal fighting.

The issues we face today are still the same.  We will either accept the truth that only God knows the truth, and has revealed it in the Bible:  Or we will be deceived to think we know the truth apart from God.  And whether it be education, business, or government, those institutions only work in practice if they operate by the truth.  If they don’t operate by the truth, a few people get temporary freedom and prosperity, most live under the oppression of that few.  Ultimately, all wind up in chaos.  Only the truth produces liberty in this world as well as the next.

This is why religious liberty is the foundation of all liberties.  The search for truth about every area of life is the most important work we do in this world.  Jesus said,

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

(John 8:32)

If our hearts are honest, we will find God, our Creator, through His Son Jesus Christ.  Thus, we will find liberty, for;

“…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

(2 Corinthians 3:17, emphasis added)

All other liberties flow out of religious liberty.  Since all wisdom flows from God, only when we have the liberty to think with God can we find the truth about a particular subject.

In the past, America had known the greatest amount of liberty of any nation in history.  But Mr. Obama’s administration has attacked more religious liberties than any Administration ever.  Only by removing this administration does our liberty have a chance of surviving.

But you can’t change it if you aren’t registered to vote.  And October 9th is the last day you can register if you are to vote on November 6th.  Will you protect your children’s religious liberty?  Will you go register—and then go vote on November 6th?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—
and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson this has been Think About It.