A New Voice of Freedom

Desire Probably when you read the title, Desire, you immediately thought of sexual desire. Though I suppose sexual desire is one of the strongest desires of the natural man, it is just one of innumerable other desires. In this podcast, I want to talk about desire itself.   On the one hand, desire is one of mankind’s greatest enemies; on the other hand, desire is one of mankind’s’ greatest gifts. I...

Repentance t o Salvation The feeling of true repentance is like listening to the rain on a tin roof, knowing that the earth is being baptized, that the dusty air is being cleansed, that flowers are being watered, that the leaves on the trees are being polished, and that all of nature is being refreshed. The mountain streams carry away the stagnant silt, the grass grows from brown to green, the thi...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part IV, “The Ax of Justice.” Part I is entitled “The Pledge,” in which Sir Gawain made a covenant with the Green Knight to come to his green chapel in a year’s time. Part II is entitled “The Quest,” in which Sir Gawain took the long and treacherous journey to find the Green Chapel. Part III, is entitled “The Three Temptations” in which Sir Gawain decided his final...

The Resurrection What better topic can we discuss during the Easter season than the resurrection. Even before [RM1] Christ, who is the “first fruits of them that slept, prophets, who saw the coming of the Lord, prophesied of the resurrection. In the Book of Job, we read. “25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin wo...

Virtues and Vices Pt A We equate virtue with goodness, righteousness, moral excellence, integrity, honesty, perfection, and purity. We equate vice with sinfulness, wickedness, baseness, immorality, evil, impurity, and licentiousness.  During the last podcasts we have tried to know Christ better through his titles. Another way to know Christ is through his virtues. In fact, it could be said that ev...

Titles of the Resurrected Christ Pt B Christ is the perfect model.  Known as “The Great I Am” because of his many titles, he holds the preeminent position in our lives. In the previous podcast we discussed the descriptions of the resurrected Christ given by John the Revelator.  In this podcast we will discuss the titles given by John the Revelator that define the Resurrected Christ.   5 And from J...

Descriptions of the Resurrected Christ Pt A In the Book of Revelation John who saw Christ in vision gives us many vivid descriptions of the glorified resurrected Lord.  In this podcast we would like to present those descriptions followed by a brief discussion. Let’s begin with Chapter 1:  12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part III, “The Three Temptations.” Part I is entitled “The Pledge,” in which Sir Gawain made a covenant with the Green Gawain takes the long and treacherous journey to find the Green Chapel. Part III, entitled “The Three Temptations, represents Sir Gawain’s final trials before meeting the Green Knight. The exquisite language, the parallelism, the knowledge of hunti...

T he Mission of the Mortal Messiah: Titles of the Mortal Messiah, Pt. B. No writer was more gifted than John the Beloved. John gives us this amazing introduction of Christ. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spak...

Heirs of Salvation Titles of the Mortal Christ Pt A Knowing Christ is the single most important thing we can learn on this earth. In John we read 20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20) Understanding the diffe...

Titles of the Premortal Christ Pt B The war against Lucifer continues on earth. Through our agency we determine whom we will follow, Christ or Satan. However, as in heaven, so on earth, there is only one way to win that battle. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (Revelation 12:11) Many of those who f...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II, “The Quest.” Welcome to Season Three of ‘A New Voice of Freedom.’  The Podcasts are taken from the four volumes ‘In Defense of Christianity’ written by Ronald Keith Messer. Podcast 72 is from a series called Poet’s Corner. The title is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2 Part I was entitled “The Pledge,” in which Sir Gawain makes a covenant with the Gr...

Letters of John to the Seven Churches Pt XI Laodicea This is the Seventh, or final, letter of John the Revelator to the Seven churches in Asia.  Since seven is considered to be a complete number, to understand the seven letters, we must read them as one letter. The letters are actually included in one long epic poem by John who was in prison on the Isle of Patmos. The entire purpose of the letters...

Titles of the Premortal Christ Pt A Linda and I are going to celebrate the Easter Season throughout the month of April by focusing primarily on the life of Christ. Today’s podcast will expand the theme introduced in Podcasts 45 and 46 entitled Titles of Christ. In those podcasts discussing the Letters of John to the Seven Churches in Asia, we introduced the titles of Christ given in the Book of Re...

Testimony, An Easter Message Yesterday Linda and I went to Dollywood to hear our favorite gospel singers, The Kingdom Heirs. It was cold and windy on the mountain, but the theater was warn and the Kingdom Heirs did not disappoint. After Dollywood we went to our favorite restaurant in Pidgeon Forge, The Mill.  After dinner we traveled the long way back to our cabin. I scanned the two FM stations on...

Commandments with a Promise In logic, one form of argument or problem solving is called a hypothetical syllogism. It is an If…then … statement. It takes the forms of “If P, then Q ” where P is the antecedent and q is the consequent, or P is the cause and Q is he effect. The hypothetical syllogism is how science validates or tests a hypothesis or theory or prediction. If P occurs and Q does not occ...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Part I “The Pledge”  Welcome again to a selection from Poet’s Corner. The subject of this podcast is from one of my all-time favorite stories from the King Arthur tales of the Knights of the Round Table. It tells the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The tale is from 14th Century England. Originally written in Middle English, the translation I use is by Jess...

Philadelphia  The letter to the Church of Philadelphia is the sixth letter of John. In the preface to each letter, Christ gives another title. To the Philadelphians he writes “7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.  The primary...

Government versus Christianity Welcome to Season Three of ‘A New Voice of Freedom.’  The Podcasts are taken from the four volumes ‘In Defense of Christianity’ written by Ronald Keith Messer. Podcast 65 is entitled “Christianity and Government.”  On the one hand, Christians are called hypocrites if they do not live the laws of Christ perfectly, making all Christians hypocrites because no one is per...

The Law of Liberty If we want liberty, we must return to the law of liberty. The law of liberty is defined by James in the Holy Bible: 10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. 12 So spea...

Racism Whoopi Goldberg, a very accomplished actress, now a successful talk show host, recently made the statement on television that the Holocaust was not about race.  Her statement astonished many and public outcry forced her to retract her statement, but it did not force her to retract her opinion. It merely silenced it. Her error was that she narrowly defined racism as prejudice only against bl...

Excelsior Welcome again to Poet’s Corner. Today’s podcast is a brief analysis of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem “Excelsior.” Perhaps we owe the meaning of the word “excelsior” to Longfellow for his poem fixed the word forever in our minds. It suggests onward and upward against all odds, ever ascending, aspiring, climbing.  The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine villa...

Sardis  The letter to the Church at Sardis is the fifth letter of John. The Saints of Sardis appear to be a very hard lot.  The introduction is rather gloomy: 1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. (Revelation 3:1) Unlike the first four...

Blind Faith The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  As a word faith has swollen over the centuries till it fills our consciousness.  The very mention of the word faith in some inspires reverence for God, in others contempt.  Linda will list a few synonyms from Rodale’s Synonym finder for faith or faithful. They all have a religious connotation: Belief, reliance, depen...

An Easter Message I suppose everyone’s family is unique. Most of us, perhaps, see our own family as a soap opera. and often view them as a divine embarrassment, mortified to show them to others yet proud as a peacock at all their foibles and wouldn’t want them to change. As a child I lived in quiet certitude and rebellious conformity. My parents were stable, predictable, embraced by an anonymous n...