Daily Java: For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. (1 Peter 2:15-17)
I wrote the other day that I am a libertarian. I believe in liberty in Christ.
But I am not a libertine. The online dictionary I use all the time, http://dictionary.reference.com, defines libertine as:
Noun: a person who is morally or sexually unrestrained, esp. a dissolute man; a profligate; rake.
Adjective: free of moral, esp. sexual, restraint; dissolute; licentious.
That I am definitely not.
I believe in a pretty strict moral code and believe that the innate knowledge and desire to be moral comes from God and is present in everybody. Only those who desire greatly to get rid of God become libertines.
A libertarian is onewho, again in dictionary.com’s definition is:
–noun: a person who advocates liberty, esp. with regard to thought or conduct.; a person who maintains the doctrine of free will.
–adjective: advocating liberty or conforming to principles of liberty; maintaining the doctrine of free will.
That I am. I believe in liberty, not in hedonism. I also believe that we are not determined to do something because of some divine plan. That is determinism. I believe in free will and the fact that, along with God, I am free.
The downside of that is that I am also free to skip blithely into hell if I want to. Choice does, after all, carry responsibilities.
As the scripture that I used before says: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17).
I believe in freedom, not license. After all, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, Jesus said.
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