Reading the quote online, I was reminded of this blog entry of
mine from February, 2005:
Last week, London-born Islamic terrorist Richard Reid, a.k.a.,
"The Shoe Bomber,"
was
sentenced to 80 years in prison for his attempt to ignite explosives in his
shoe aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December of
2001.
Reid admitted being guilty in statements to the court but
reaffirmed his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and Islam, declaring, "I think
I ought not apologize for my actions; I am at war with your country."
The
formal response from U.S. District Court Judge William Young was a stinging,
impassioned condemnation of the terrorist and terrorism in general that read,
in part:
"See
that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America. That flag
will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom.
You know it always will. It seems to me you hate the one thing that is most precious
- you hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live
as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we
individually choose. Here, in this society, the very winds carry freedom. They
carry it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual
freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom so that everyone
can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and
discretely."
Reading
the judge's words, I had to think of how God, as the Supreme Judge of all the
earth (Gen. 18:25), similarly regards justice and freedom. We all have this
same gift of freedom to believe or not believe in Him and one day the unsaved will
stand before God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to answer for their sins at
the Great White Throne of Judgment. Believers, on the other hand, will escape
this judgment by the fact their sins were dealt with on the Cross and they are
"justified from all things." (Acts 13:39)
"It
is called a 'white' throne because its dazzling brilliance will not, like human
courts, be sullied by partiality, dishonesty or cruelty - it will be a throne
of perfect and absolute justice," writes now-deceased Bible
scholar C.R. Stam about this upcoming event. "The throne is called 'great'
evidently because of the vastness of its jurisdiction. There the billions of
earth's unsaved will be gathered, from every age of history and every nation of
the world. Here, at last, sinners will find themselves exposed to the searching
gaze of Him who is 'of purer eyes than to behold evil' and who 'canst not look
on iniquity'. At first it may appear that there are no witnesses but the Great
Witness is on the throne. A second is in every man's heart, a third in every
neighbor's face, and all the evidence is in the 'books'.
"Indeed,
the books will be opened so that each man may see for himself what he
did and acknowledge the judgment to be just."
*****
In
a recent sermon, Richard Jordan of Shorewood Bible Church (www.graceimpact.org),
explained that the very reason Jesus Christ came to earth as our Redeemer has
to do with "demonstrating to creation in real-life terms the freedom and
the liberty that love and the life of love can produce."
"God
loves freedom so much that He literally, as it were, risked His own eternal
plan on the altar of freedom because love has to be freely given and freely
received - it cannot have the element of coercion," says Jordan, referring
to God's intention from "eternity past" to have creation exalt His
honor and glory through its exalting of His Son as Redeemer.
"You
see God is going to accomplish His purpose, but He allows freedom to you and me
- men, mankind - to disagree with His purpose and not to join Him in it. The
Word of God is a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. For people who believe it,
it will be life and for people who reject it, it will be death. What makes it
that is the choice of the hearer - the response of the hearer."
Indeed, when Jesus Christ Himself says in Luke 12:57, "Yea,
and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" He's pointing to
the fact that our freedom is our responsibility, just as is our faculty of
judgment or discernment of faith to know what's going on and believe in it.
A basic principle of God's justice and an infallible rule of the
King James Bible is you get what you're seeking for. If you come to the Book
wanting the truth from it, you get truth. Judgment is based on what a person
seeks after.
(new article tomorrow)
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