Freedom and Fulfillment 3
Chapter 3 - What You Choose
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One of the most obvious things to be learned from studying the Bible is that the Lord and his prophets give people choices and that the people will get what they choose. Moses said it this way, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God." (KJV Deuteronomy 11:26-28)
Is that harsh or unfair? Exactly the opposite. Most believers are happy with the idea of a deity whose plans include free will and justice. This is a plan designed to help us reach our divine potential.[i] According to Moses: The blessing is that you will get what you choose. The curse is that you will get what you choose.
About 370 years after Moses, there was a ruling judge and prophet named Samuel. When he was old, representatives of the people came to him and said, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations." So, Samuel asked God if he should give the people a king. The Lord said, "Hearken unto the voice of the people" but "protest solemnly unto them" and warn them of the negative consequences of allowing a king to rule over them. (1 Samuel 8:5-9)
Samuel warned the people that if they changed from a system of judges to a kingdom, they would lose substantial freedom and property. But the people begged for a king anyway. "And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king." (1 Samuel 8:19-22). Subsequent kings resulted in blessings and curses, depending on the choices that were made by the king and the people.
These scriptural accounts reveal that sublime leaders value freedom so highly that they allow us to choose, even if we choose poorly. They protect our freedom because they know that the only way we can learn from experience is by actually having it, and that the only way we can achieve our potential is by making choices and being accountable for those choices.
In personal or political matters, The Law of Cause and Effect and The Rule of Law require that you get what you choose. Generally speaking, if individuals make destructive choices, bad things happen to them and the people around them. If individuals make beneficial choices, good results usually follow. Likewise, if a population chooses a beneficial system of government and good leaders, they prosper. If people choose oppressive governments and leaders, they suffer.
Connecting historical insights with modern events helps verify that much of the suffering in the world could be avoided by making better choices. For example, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) seems to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan which is the location of a potential bio-warfare laboratory. After the outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made the choice to deny any involvement and appears to have actively concealed many things related to the virus. It's all very mysterious but we know that the CCP obscured the outbreak and resisted scientific assistance which helped make it possible for the virus to spread and become a worldwide pandemic. Significant suffering and death were almost certainty the direct result of, or at least exacerbated by, a socialist government whose choices do not reflect a belief in free will and is actively trying to dominate the world.
On the other hand, leaders in some parts of the world have attempted to utilize freedom-based solutions to overcome the COVID-19 crisis achieving significant success with therapeutics and monoclonal antibodies. Meanwhile, progressive leaders politicized the crisis using it as an excuse to diminish liberty and demand that we adopt systems of socialized medical care. In other words, they want to solve the crisis by administering greater doses of what helped cause it.
The centralization of power through denial of freewill and accountability creates much of the suffering in the world. Those who want more power always insist that we relieve the suffering they have caused by increasing the centralization of power and decreasing freedom. It's a vicious cycle that can be broken by choosing the blessing instead of the curse.