March 19, AD 2010
Frankly Speaking
Current Events Commentaries from a Biblical Perspective
by Frank
Allnutt
The Big Lie
The Big Lie is believed because it promises personal freedom.
What is this Big Lie?
Let me approach answering that by first citing a little history.
On December 11, last year, the movie “Invictus” was released. “Invictus” is Latin for “unconquered.” It apparently was thought to be an apt characterization of South African President Nelson Mandela in this biographical drama based on his life during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
But long before the movie and Nelson Mandela there was the concept of Invictus—of unconquerable self. As old as humanity itself, the concept is encapsulated in the 19th Century poem, “Invictus.” Here is an excerpt:
Invictus
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
—William Ernest Henley (1875)
Can we truly be master of our ship? Captain of our soul? Can freedom really be found in those lofty notions?
Tales of two kingdoms
The Bible teaches about two spiritual kingdoms—Satan’s domain of bondage and God’s kingdom of freedom. And every earthly kingdom is rooted in one or the other.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome that all earthly kingdoms—governments—are accountable to God: “there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Romans 13:1). Those who disregard this truth are part of Satan’s world system.
Snake bite
Long ago a snake in a pristine garden told a naked man that, by eating forbidden fruit in disobedience to God, he could find complete freedom. Where? In his own Kingdom of Self! He would become wise as God, and he would live independent of God and in complete autonomy!
Well, maybe you pride yourself as having more on the ball than a naked man talking to a snake in a garden. If so, that only reveals that you have more pride.
The Bible exposes the Kingdom of Self to be a fantasy. It was a Big Lie believed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and it’s a Big Lie today. People fall for the Big Lie because their self-pride is enticed by the allure of total personal freedom.
In the perceptive words of William Shakespeare, “all that glitters is not gold.” And that applies to the Kingdom of Self. It might look like the real thing, but it’s fools gold.
The single source of true freedom
True freedom cannot be derived from governmental laws, nor from the laws of nature, nor from the self-decreed laws of the mythical Kingdom of Self. True freedom comes only in and through Christ Jesus. “I am the truth,” He said (John 14:6), and “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
Jesus rescues those of us who place their faith in Him from the bondage to spiritual darkness, from bondage to Satan, from bondage to the old humanity, from bondage to sin, from bondage to the world order, and from bondage to the death penalty under God’s law for sin. And Jesus places us in the freedom of being in Himself, in the freedom of being in His spiritual light, in the freedom of the new humanity, in the freedom of His love, in the freedom of His Kingdom, and in the freedom of His grace.
Invictus to Convict Us
The poem Invictus simply regurgitates the ages old, anti-God, Satanic propaganda for god-aspiring self-sufficiency. The Big Lie promises that those who hold steadfast to being the master of their fate are unconquerable, impervious even to the scrolls of God’s Word. But the truth be known, those who swallow the Big Lie, hook, line and sinker, are captured and conquered by that crafty Angler of Old, the Devil himself.
God has a way of converting the Devil's traps into instruments that lead to freedom in Christ. So I pray that God will use the old fantasy of Invictus to Convict Us—of the truth. And that those who have pridefully perceived themselves as unconquerable masters of their fate might be conquered and thus set free by His love and mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Further reading:
Adam and Those Two Trees in Eden
In this probing yet easy-to-read, illustrated booklet, Frank Allnutt discusses scriptures that reveal the significance of those two trees in Eden, and how Adam's disobedience plunged the entire human race into spiritual darkness and enslavement to several "spiritual masters."
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©Copyright AD2010 Frank Allnutt. All rights reserved. Content herein may be quoted, subject to the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. Copyright Law.
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