TRUE FREEDOM
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Celebrate Liberty! Famous Patriotic Speeches & Sermons (Oration)
George Washington Adams
(1801–1829)
George Washington Adams (GWA) came from a long line of patriots and was part of a distinguished American family. His grandfather was John Adams (signer of the Declaration of Independence and 2ndPresident) and his father was John Quincy Adams (6th President). George was named by his parents, obviously, for George Washington, a close friend of the Adams family.
The Christian Revelation—that mild and beautiful religion which has taught man his duties and his hopes—is the true source of human happiness. With its establishment commenced the course of improvement which succeeding ages and wonderful events have carried onward to our own age and time. The contemplation of the steps by which it has advanced affords much matter of instructive thought and many reasons for just admiration. America has done and is doing her share in the great work; and from the hour of the discovery up to the present moment has shown a proud example to the world.
Past history justifies the reflection that undertakings of magnitude are accomplished only through toil and suffering and perilous endurance. This vast continent, unknown for centuries, was discovered from the fortunate conjecture [foresight] of an enlightened mind; yet the history of its discoverer is a history of injuries—injuries during his life and neglect after his death.
Born in a republic, Christopher Columbus was brought up upon the bosom of the wave and fitted for the mighty object of his life. Having conceived that object, he imparted it first to the people of his native land. Censured by his own countrymen [the Portuguese] as a visionary projector, rejected by nation after nation to whom he had applied, Columbus persevered in his design with assiduity [diligence] and firmness truly admirable. At length the Spanish sovereigns [King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella] risked the experiment, furnished the daring navigator with a miserable squadron, and assisted him with slight encouragement; ill-appointed and badlymanned, he sailed to find a world!
Tried by the dangers of the ocean, distrusted by his men, conflicting twice with mutiny and rage, the promise was wrung from him that in three days if land were not discovered he would return to Spain. His life, his all was on the cast [gamble—that is, it all depended on the figurative throw or “cast” of the dice that he would discover land within three days]; but his own fortitude supported him. On the evening after he gave the promise, a distant light pierced the dark waste of waters; Columbus saw and marked the glimmering signal; it was a moment of intense interest; to his aspiring mind, another world was found! His triumph was complete; that little beam revived the fainting spirits of his crew and relumed [rekindled] the rays of hope.…
The discovery of America by Columbus in 1492—succeeded by that of a shorter passage to the East Indies in 1497 by Vasco de Gama—exposed to European avarice [greed] the sources of unlooked-for wealth. From their full fountains, the Indies poured the precious metals into Europe like a flood. With them went luxury and its concomitant [accompanying] vices, but with them went also the means of knowledge.… [T]he Reformation followed, and this … event, rousing men’s passions as its march went on, caused a continued emigration from the Old World to the New for other purposes than those of wealth and plunder till the poor Pilgrim crossed the deep waters to find a home where he might worship God as his own conscience taught and where he might be free from persecuting power.
The Reformation—emanating from Germany—passed into England, and owing to the fortunate conjuncture [circumstances] of the times was there established; but it was not in the intention of her “hard-ruled king” to part with his supremacy and hence arose wide differences of opinion. Tyrant power wielded the sword and used it bloodily, designing not to silence but to extirpate [totally exterminate] religious opposition, and the sanguinary [bloodthirsty] measures thence adopted hardened the non-conformists [e.g., Pilgrims, Puritans, etc.] in their faith. Persecution was opposed by bigotry, suffering was paralleled by obstinacy, till the temper [attitude] of the age grew cruel, unrelenting, merciless; men’s minds were soured and all parties assuming the rigorous rule of uniformity while they believed their own opinions right, held every departure from them heresy and sin.
In this state of things, our forefathers—tired of a fruitless struggle with the dominant power and harassed by domestic sorrows—sought an asylum here. Heaven seems to strengthen the human faculties proportionably to the obstacles to be encountered; obstacles multiplied before our fathers and were surmounted; Plymouth was settled and in the rock the tree of liberty was rooted. Bound by their religious covenant, the Pilgrims bound themselves by a political constitution. By a charter to the Plymouth Council under a royal grant based on discovery and implied conquest, they came hither, but their best title was afterwards acquired by purchase from the natives of the soil and subsequent efficient labor on the land.
Hardly had they completed the outline of their town before the indiscretion of their countrymen surrounded them with dangers.… [Settlers] unlike their Plymouth neighbors [the Pilgrims], and unrestrained by conscientious virtue, gave themselves up to wild licentiousness.… [and] plunged deeper into reckless dissipation [pleasure seeking]; [they] gathered the flowers of spring to wreath their garlands, and—like the victims of the Roman altars—knew not the fate that was impending over them; strange! …
The Pilgrims of Plymouth and the primitive settlers of New England came over to enjoy unmolested the exercise of a simple and unadulterated form of worship
FREE´DOM, n. A state of exemption from the power or control of another; liberty; exemption from slavery, servitude or confinement.
What is Liberty? Noah Webster says Liberty has many meanings:
1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty, when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty, when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty, when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.
2. Natural liberty, consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.
3. Civil liberty, is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty, so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty, not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. Civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty.
4. Political liberty, is sometimes used as synonymous with civil liberty. But it more properly designates the liberty of a nation, the freedom of a nation or state from all unjust abridgment of its rights and independence by another nation. Hence we often speak of the political liberties of Europe, or the nations of Europe.
5. Religious liberty, is the free right of adopting and enjoying opinions on religious subjects, and of worshiping the supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience, without external control.[1]
What are some other definitions of freedom that apply to each of us?
A. Freedom is the state that emerges after God has acted to remove all hindrances—social, spiritual (sin and death), economic, and institutional—that block our creational purpose.
B. This purpose is to know, love, worship, and enjoy God forever.
a. What is the chief aim of man?
b. Man’ s chief end is to glorify God, (1 Cor. 10:31, Rom. 11:36) and to enjoy him forever. (Ps. 73:25–28)
C. This is a freedom that has been won for us by the death and resurrection of the Messiah.
D. By the power of the Spirit, the Christian seeks to live into this freedom and to join with God in freeing others, while we await freedom’s full realization at Christ’s second coming (Rom 8:1–39
Old Testament Examples of Freedom (liberty)
A. The Hebrew term šālaḥ describes the act of sending people away with the intended result of their freedom. Ps 119:118
Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: For their deceit is falsehood.
a. Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: For their deceit is falsehood.
b. Salah means “Trodden down of make light of”
B. The adjective חָפְשִׁי (ḥāpšı̂) refers to a person who has been freed from either:
a. Slavery Ex 21:2
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
B. Taxes 1 Sam 17:25 “And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.”
c. The verb נקה (nāqâ) often designates a person’s freedom from an oath (e.g., Gen 24:8), but the term can also convey the idea of being innocent of accused crimes (Num 5:19).
New Testament Uses of Liberty
Nonetheless, there is a noticeable shift in focus to freedom from sin and death as accomplished through Christ
Galatians 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
A. His death has “loosed” or “released” (λύω, lyō) the believer from the bondage of sin.
B. The New Testament also uses Greek terms related to freedom to describe the believer’s “freedom” to marry.
(1 Cor 7:39).
The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
A. the New Testament depicts Jesus as a “new Moses” and his death and resurrection as a “new exodus” that saves believers from spiritual bondage.
B. Christ’s death and resurrection frees the believer from sin and the demands of the law
Gal 2:15–21 “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
Rev 1:5. “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Rev 1:5).
C. Only through Christ can believers experience true redemption and freedom
Gal 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
D. However, the NEW TESTAMENT emphasizes that the believer’s freedom is not for their own pleasure but instead for the purpose of loving God and their neighbor
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof: Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[1]Noah Webster, Noah Webster’s First Edition of An American Dictionary of the English Language.(Anaheim, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2006).