Nearly 145 years ago the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed by Congress abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude. It was a long time in coming, and most suppose it a thing of the past in the United States.
Yet, in this past year we have made great advances back into it! How could this be? How could such a forward looking and advanced society be heading back into what we once came out of?
The federal government, this past year, “printed” an unprecedented amount of money (that is not backed by any asset) for dubious reasons and is committed to implementing programs that cannot be funded by the current tax structure. Even those with the most basic of math abilities can see that this does not add up.
The only solution that remains for those that have now been forced to live under plans not of their choosing, is to now spend more time, money and effort working for their “master.” The question that then remains is, at what point in time do we actually quit being free and become slaves to a system that continues to demand more and more from everyone? At what point do we become “a person held in servitude” or “one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence”?
What should not be forgotten is that the majority of the people voted for and have chosen the leaders that we now have. This is what “we,” as a democratic nation, have asked for. “We” believe in this type of government and leadership, and this is what follows.
But, this is only a blip on the map of time, and certainly optimism and success will prevail! Wrong… and right!
Presently we are and have been setting ourselves up for cataclysmic failure. The economic slavery that we are coming under now is only a precursor to what is coming down the road. The real concern is that the next time it will not be under the “light” hand of our present governmental administration, but it will be from the heavy hand of a foreign entity… the beast power spoken of in the Bible.
That beast power will form out of the coalescing countries of the European Union which will soon refine itself into a core of 10 nations (or groups of nations) and will foist itself upon the world and in particular the descendants of Jacob (compare our free booklets, “Europe in Prophecy” and “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America”). The EU is already exerting economic pressures on the US and will continue do so to a greater extent. It will not stop there. In fact, this will serve as a platform for its rise to a military preeminence and an instrument of religious persecution. Through these devices, a more egregious slavery will come, an epoch alluded to as the time of Jacob’s trouble (compare our free booklet, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord”). It will be an event that is so terrible, that it is said “that none is like it” (Jeremiah 30:6-8).
We have seen a process here of one type of slavery leading to another. However, we started in the middle of the progression. The real beginning was with another slavery — one to sin and the father of it, Satan. Paul states in Romans 6:16, “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….” It is sin that ensnares and captures us, and we become slaves to it and to the wiles of the devil.
It is this brand of slavery that has led the people of this nation to push aside God as their leader. Those sold under sin have discarded Him and His ways and have opted once again to be led by man. In 1 Samuel 8:7-17 there is a parallel that we can see in our ancestors. In these verses God tells Samuel that it is Him that they have rejected. Samuel then goes on to elaborate many of the problems that would ensue with switching their trust and reliance to a man. And then note the last verse in this section: “…. And you will be his [the leader’s] servants.”
This course of action, being slaves to sin firstly and then slaves to the leader of their very own nation, continued to play out as they eventually became literal slaves to conquering peoples of surrounding nations.
Does this ring a bell? History is repeating itself! And prophecy, which is history written in advance, bears this out. Slavery can lead to slavery which can lead to slavery.
But the Good News is that God has made a path by which we can escape and avoid slavery. Through the death of Christ we can be released from a lifetime of bondage (compare Hebrews 2:14-15) and not have to return to this “yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1), whether physical or spiritual. The great news is that we NOW have this opportunity to be free of the shackles of a froward way of life. But there is the necessity of having “…obedience leading to righteousness” as the rest of Romans 6:16 finishes up stating. If we are willing to commit fully to pursuing God and the wonderful way of life that He has set before us (compare Deuteronomy 30:19), then we “may have life” and “have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Therefore, LET US CHOOSE FREEDOM!
