BFM: Religious Liberty/Personal Liberty

Introduction

In our nation, liberty is the talk of the town. Our nation was founded upon liberty and freedom from the grip of Great Britain. We love to talk about our freedom today. We have so much freedom that we cannot imagine a world any differently! We know that other nations do not share this freedom. They are restricted in what they can say, where they can go and what they are allowed to do. They cannot study certain things. They cannot listen to certain things and they cannot say some things publically. Our nation has so much freedom and we often take this freedom for granted.

What we are going to do tonight is see what the BFM states regarding Religious liberty and discuss what Scripture has to say about both religious and personal liberty. The thing that we must keep in mind whenever it comes to personal liberty is that it is not about what we “cannot” do, but rather glorifying God and living Christlike. One of the reasons that people don’t like talking about personal liberties in the Church today is because it can sound like your freedom is being restricted and you are being told that you can’t do certain things even though they are not wrong. What we must do, and what we are going to do tonight, is see that liberty is not just about what we can do, but what we should do. What we always should do is point people towards Jesus Christ, even if that means not doing something that we “can” do.

The BFM has this to say about Religious liberty:

“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”

Genesis 1:27 NASB95

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Acts 4

Acts 4:19–20 NASB95

19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 5:29 NASB95

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Background of Religious Liberty

Religious Liberty has always been a very important matter for Baptists. From the very formation of the baptist faith, the baptist church assumed that the Holy Spirit was the one behind the new birth. Because of this, the Church is only comprised of those who are born again and only believers are baptized. It is the Spirit’s sword, not the government’s, that makes a Christian. Therefore, a New Testament Church is not one that is bribed by governmental authority. The 2000 BFM continues this idea with its first sentence where it boldly states that God alone is the Lord of the conscience. This article strongly implies that creeds enforced by a civil power are unwarranted and outside the bounds of legitimate government. “The states has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind.”

We live in a climate where many different religious beliefs are practiced openly and many are celebrated. The Christian faith has transitioned from the most commonly practiced faith in America to a faith that is still practiced but is far less common across our nation.

Historically speaking, the Baptist faith has been a very loyal faith when it comes to the government. In our current situation today, we know that the government is a very divisive entity for many people and we know that the relationship between church and state has changed drastically over the years. In the early church, the government of the day (Romans) persecuted the church heavily. After 325 AD (for the most part) and the legalization of Christianity, Christians were tolerated and even given special benefits compared to other religions. The Roman Catholic Church brought “church and state” to a completely different level as the Pope became the main religious and governmental leader of the entire continent of Europe. After the protestant reformation, though, something changed. Baptists have advocated religious liberty and freedom for all people - Jews, Muslims, other Christians and all other people. This is the background of the Baptist faith when it comes to religious liberty. Not only do we advocate liberty for ourselves but we advocate it for all religions.

This is important for us to note as we study religious liberty because we must note how important it is that we advocate all religious liberties when it comes to our government. We cannot just advocate for our government to promote and support Christian liberty, as much as we would like to, because we affirm the fact that religious liberty is an inalienable right granted by God to all people. We cannot force people to be Christians. We can, though, promote religious liberty in our government and share the name of Jesus Christ with those whom we come into contact with. Do you see the difficulty here? We want the liberty to practice Christianity, but the liberty that we need to do this also enables non-Christians to practice their beliefs in America.

How a Christian handles Religious Liberty

Many governmental officials claim to be Christians, don’t they? I am not one to know who is genuine or not, but we do know that we are able to look at the fruit a person bears and test it against Scripture to see if it matches up or not. Unfortunately, many people in the political sphere love to claim to be a “christian” as long as it means that they get a couple extra votes in an election, however their lives do not match up with what Jesus said or what the Bible teaches.

So, how should a Christian handle Religious liberty?

1st, we must base everything upon the Lordship of God, as the BFM tells us to do. We must vote and act upon what the Word of God says, not what someone tells us to do. Scripture calls us to obey our elected officials, and we should do this, however first and foremost we must obey the Word.

2nd, we must acknowledge that there is a separation of Church and State. In the first couple centuries after the legalization of Christianity, there were a great deal of economic benefits of being a Christian. You could be elected to public office more likely with the label of being a Christian. You could gain extra business by attending a church and there were even some tax benefits of being a Christian instead of a pagan in the Roman empire. You can see the slippery slope that this brings, can you not? What happened in the church was that people joined churches and “claimed” to be Christians so that they got economic and political advantage over their pagan counterparts. If you look around the rest of the world today, you would see that this is the opposite of what is happening. Being a Christian in many places results in oppression and persecution, not economic advantage. The main place where there can be economic advantage and political advancement is in the West. We must realize this and be careful. The separation between Church and State is a good thing. There will come a day whenever Christ returns and there will not be a separation between Church and State, but in the mean time this is the situation that we find ourselves in.

3rd, God has given the Government specific duties. This is why we pray for our leaders and our president. We pray that God would give them leadership and wisdom as they make decisions. We see in the BFM that we are not supposed to resort to the government to carry on our work. We are called to advance the Gospel, we must not think that the government will do this for us. What we can hope and pray for, though, is that the government will defend our religious liberties.

4th, the BFM gives us a couple of limitations for the government: 1) The government is not to grant favored status to any church group or denomination. Again, we might wish that this would be different, but in the grand scheme of things, this is good. 2) The state must not impose penalties for religious opinions. This is something that we must be mindful of and defend. We know that there will come a time where we will be persecuted for our faith. We must recognize this and understand that we also have this freedom. Even though we know from that we are correct, we must support religious freedom. This is another difficult thing for us, is it not? How can we know that we are right and support religious freedom for people who are inherently wrong? We know that Jesus can save anyone, anywhere at anytime. We must pray that the Gospel transforms lives and that we are faithful to share it with as many people as we can!

5th, The Government grant citizens the right to practice their faith. The 1st amendment of the Constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly and the freedom of speech. Other Christians around the world would kill for the opportunities that we Christians have in our country. They spend hours each day wondering if today will be their last day, yet they continue to share the Gospel with others. In America, we have the ability to share the Gospel with others yet we take our liberty for granted all too often.

We must choose to use our liberties to share the name of Jesus! We must not use things like governmental coercion to make converts, rather we advocate religious persuasion. We pray that the Spirit opens the eyes of the lost rather than the government forcing people to attend a church.

Why Personal Liberty matters

This is not a part of the BFM, but personal liberty is extremely important for Christians to realize and think about in our lives today. Paul talks about personal liberty in and . In , he says:

1 Corinthians 8:7–13 NASB95

7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

This message makes zero sense to our world. We have the freedom to do a choice, to eat specific food, to drink or to wear certain clothing, however the message from Paul is that our liberty must never be used in such a way that we become a stumbling block to another Christian. We are given liberty to be servants of others, not to simply indulge in our preferences of make our lives easier. Christian liberty requires understanding this principle and producing a Biblical balance.

We ought to not please ourselves because even Christ did not please Himself as Paul states in . If we live with this mindset then everything else settles into place. We should desire to imitate Christ. You might be thinking, what does Jesus have to do with what I eat, drink or wear? It boils down to this. Christian Liberty is not about secular freedom or demanding the “rights” that we have! A Christian realizes that before God, we are sinners. We have many privileges that other people simply do not have. With privileges, though, comes responsibility. We must be sensitive to those in our church and in other churches that are weaker in certain areas than we are.

For example, if a friend of ours struggles with alcoholism and you invite him over to your house and you begin drinking in moderation in front of him - have you sinned? Biblically speaking, no. However, if you cause him to stumble into sin, then you have in fact sinned yourself. Where does this line end, though? This is why exercising our personal Christian liberties are extremely difficult. We must realize that it is not about pushing the boundaries of what we can and can’t get away with, Biblically, without sinning. If that is our mindset then we missed the boat from the get-go. However, it is about living a life that does not cause our brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble into sin. If we care about our brothers and sisters, the last thing that we would ever want to do is to bring in unnecessary temptation, even if what we are doing is not a sin. Does this mean that you might experience some inconvenience around your brothers and sisters? Perhaps. Does it mean that you can’t do certain things ever? Of course not! It means that you love your Savior and your Christian family enough to realize that what ultimately matters is not your comfort or preference but encouraging one another to be Christlike.

Calvin put it like this, “we restrain the exercise of our freedom for the sake of weak believers, but not when we are faced with Pharisees who demand that we conform to what is unscriptural” There is balance in using our Christian liberties. As a strong Christian, you must not boast or tempt a weak brother or sister into doing something that violates their conscience. Conversely, if you are a weak Christian, you must not think that strong Christians are wicked or lesser than yourself. It’s not about legalism when it comes to liberty. There are gray areas and if they do not violate your conscience, then you can take part in them. If they do, then you should tell your brother or sister of this.

As a church, we must strive to point one another towards Christ, not drag one another towards sin. Maybe that means that we have to act differently or dress differently, but if it is in the name of the Gospel - so be it!

Conclusion

Liberty is a very controversial subject in our world and in the Church today. Many people do not want any restrictions to what they can and can’t do because they want to be completely free. The problem when this is the mindset of people in the Church, though, is that we have a higher responsibility and as Paul tells us in , we cannot cause our brothers and sisters to stumble into temptation. Our calling is bigger than ourselves, it is all about Jesus Christ and expanding the Kingdom and Exalting His name. Whenever we approach our lives in this manner, things like eating, drinking, wearing certain clothing, watching certain shows and using specific words is no longer about us not being able to do some things but instead about encouraging one another to be more Christlike. You do not have to drink in order to have the liberty to do so. You do not have to wear tight clothing in order to have the liberty to do so. What matters is building one another up rather than causing us to stumble. Whenever we realize this, we are able to live a changed life and bring about growth in the lives of our friends and family.

We must pray for our fellow Christians and those who are in leadership positions in our nation. We must pray that they continue to protect Religious liberties in our country but we must be ready to continue to share the name of Jesus Christ with those around us if there comes a time where that becomes illegal - just as Christians are doing around the world as we speak! Let us pray for boldness to live this way and pray for those around the world who are currently facing persecution for sharing the Gospel.

Let’s pray