Declaration of Independence from Sin

Posted by: John

Hey everyone! I wanted to share this inspiration that hit me the morning of the 4th, in that semi-conscious haze in which many of my best ideas have originated. I admit that I borrowed liberally from the form of the Declaration of Independence and, where I thought necessary, borrowed direct quotes from Mr. Jefferson's masterpiece.

I have no idea what people will say about this. Agree with it, disagree with it, sign it? I'm prepared to be amazed by whatever happens.

Here's a question: what kinds of "abuses and usurpations” would you list here? Anything through which Satan has prevented you from experiencing the fullness of God’s blessings?

Okay, here goes. Enjoy!

-----------------------

The Declaration of Independence from Sin

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a unified people to come to their senses and to dissolve the spiritual bands which have connected them with another, thereby revoking one's previous enslavement to perdition and turning instead towards the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ;

and to assume the highly preferable station to which the universal laws of our God, the God revealed through Scripture alone, entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be incontrovertible: that all humans are created by a loving and just God and endowed by that same God with the ability to lay hold of certain unassailable rights, that among these are death to our old, sinful nature and Life in our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ; the Liberty to accept or reject His free gift of salvation (and to experience the attendant consequences); and the Pursuit of His will, through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

That to secure this irrevocable salvation, one Name under heaven is given among men, that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord, deriving His power from the eternal and inexhaustible source of all life in this Universe, Almighty God, who has revealed His nature through his infallible, inerrant Word, the Bible.

That whenever any form of Self-Government becomes counter-productive to these ends, it is the right of the people to completely obliterate it, replacing it with a new system of Self-Government, reliant not upon one's sinful nature but upon the perfect nature of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit - the One most equipped to meet our deepest needs and to protect us from gravest harm.

These systems of Self-Government should not be thrown off for light and transient causes, such as the color of the carpet or the style of worship at one's local church. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under the absolute despotism of the first rebel against God's holy writ, otherwise known as Satan, it is their right AND their duty to throw off such a sin-tainted system of Self-Government and pray for new guards for their eternal security.

The history of the present prince of this world is a history of intentional rebellion against a holy God and His perfect plan, having in direct object the eternal run of as many of those created in His image as demonically possible. To prove this, let the following facts be submitted to a clear-thinking audience.

He has blinded us to be completely comfortable in a lifestyle of sin (for ourselves and those around us), and cloaked a murderous message leading away from salvation to eternal suffering in the false garments of tolerance.

He has experienced increasing success in marginalizing those who would believe in God's promises as clearly and simply presented in Scripture, causing the unbelieving world to brand those striving to be conformed to God's image as "narrow-minded," or "fundamentalist."

He has diminished our views of the truth and authority of God’s Word, the Bible, so that many self-professed followers of Christ believe it is one of many divinely inspired works.

He has overseen the growth of technology and mass media to the extent that believers have increasingly less time to spend in careful contemplation of the Scriptures and in quiet communion with the unseen Savior.

Even worse, his machinations compel many who would follow the Lord's gentle leading to believe the Bible is somehow no longer relevant to their lives, though they have not yet taken the time to find out what it says for themselves - relying instead on someone else's individual and fallible interpretation of God's word as their own.

He has endeavored to redefine the sacred bonds of marriage, an institution given by God at the beginning of time to foreshadow the relationship between the risen Christ and His universal body of believers.

Understanding that few would find the narrow path to salvation, he has quartered large bodies of his minions among us, even in our churches, in the hopes that many would be led away by his injurious doctrines.

He has attempted to plunder our treasures in heaven (to no avail); he has ravaged the hearts and minds of our most outwardly devout leaders, causing grave injury to the cause of Christ by allowing those who claim earthly leadership in the evangelical community to stumble into sin.

His influence has caused us to repeat the sins of the Israelites who pleaded with God for a visible king, putting our faith in popularly elected officials to deliver us from the injustices of this world and not in the return of the risen Christ, the one true Messiah.

This same influence has caused us to misunderstand that God Himself is the origin of all knowledge, leading us to contrive a false dichotomy between knowledge and faith in God. We place our faith in the fallible conclusions derived from what some falsely call science and not trusting in God's revealed word, leading even the elect to attempt to reconcile Scripture to "science" instead of reconciling the wind-blown scientific "facts" of the day with Scripture.

This same influence has caused some of our best-intentioned theologians, in an attempt to make the message of the cross somehow more palatable to an unbelieving world (against the clear warnings of Scripture), to endeavor to create a god in their own image that those who remain blind to the ultimate truth of God's authority in this world and in their lives might find more acceptable.

He has instilled in us a sense of fear of the unfamiliar so deep that we have become unwilling to reach out to this lost and dying world to bring the lost into our church buildings, because many of them don’t look like we do.

He has caused us to dedicate our worship and efforts to the created earth, attributing nearly human qualities to this inanimate testament to God's glory and power (i.e., "Mother Earth"), thereby taking our focus away from the One who deserves and demands that worship, the Creator.

He has entangled us in the pursuit of temporal and transient worldly prosperity, instead of everlasting spiritual prosperity, causing us to store up treasures where they might rust and decay.

He has excited domestic insurrections within us, using his keen powers of observation to ensnare us in those temptations which cause us to turn away from our Savior most frequently, limiting our usefulness for the cause of Christ.

In every stage of these oppressions we have tried in our own strength to suppress our innate urges to follow his siren's song. Our repeated attempts have been met with repeated failures. This prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people who would be ruled by God and God alone.

We have warned our brethren who are in varied stages of surrender to Satan's power, but they too have been deaf to the voice of salvation and have refused to draw the breath of life that comes from one Source alone, the Godhead - three in one, Father, Son, and Spirit. We must, therefore, hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in this war for each eternal soul, in Peace and surrender to God Himself, friends and brethren in Christ, praying for God to open their eyes as He has opened ours by His grace, through His good pleasure, and for His glory alone.

We, therefore, the representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this world which groans under sin's oppressive burden, appealing to the supreme Judge of the world, do declare that we, individually as unique souls inhabited by the Holy Spirit and corporately as the universal body of believers in the risen Jesus Christ, are free and independent from the bondage of sin, absolved from all allegiance to Satan in his many deceptive forms, and that all connection between them and Beelzebub are totally dissolved, and that, as free and independent vessels of the Holy Spirit, we have power to levy war - within ourselves to remove even the slightest hint of ungodliness from every vestige of our being, and in the world, so that as many people as God wills would understand the true nature of their sinfulness, cry out to Him for mercy, and be saved.

And for support of this Declaration, relying solely on God's grace and His protection, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

--John Brown