A New Voice of Freedom

Season 1 Podcast 34 Saved by Grace, Judged by Works  Few arguments among Christians are more superfluous than the argument regarding grace vs. works.  I would put the argument this way: If works were all that we needed to save us, then why do we need Christ?   As usual, the inimitable Paul comes directly to the point: (Ephesians 2:5-9) 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together w...

Acts 17:21-28  21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) 22  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom...

Season 1 Podcast 33, “Managing One’s Spiritual Environment.” Welcome to Season 1 “A New Voice of Freedom,” written by Ronald Keith Messer. This Podcast is taken from a series of Books written under the banner of “In Defense of Christianity.” Podcast 33 is entitled “Managing One’s Spiritual Environment.” Socrates said, “I honor and love you: but why do you who are citizens of the great and mighty n...

God loves his children of every race and nation of the world.  Being children of God, we are all born with the spirit of Christ.  He endows all of us with his gifts and blessings.  No nation, religion, race, or culture has a corner on goodness or virtue.  We all have the potential to develop the virtues of Christ.

“Honour Thy Father and thy Mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God Giveth thee.”    “Father” and “Mother,” “Husband” and “Wife,” “Man” and “Woman” are sacred titles, whose holy office was ordained in the very beginning.  There is almost no language that can describe the feelings of a child to his mother or a mother to her child.  Marriage is defined as a sacred union...

"...whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8)

Everything on earth is orchestrated that we may also ultimately have a fullness of truth and light.  We are choosing now which path we will take—the path to a fullness of truth and light or the path to darkness and captivity.  It is a continuum.  On the high end, the celestial glory, compared to the sun, where the Father and the Son dwell, is all light and all truth.  On the low end, where Satan d...

To have freedom in the mortal world, one must obey conditional laws.  The more laws one obeys, the greater the truth and light.  The greater the truth and light, the greater the freedom.  Growth in light continues beyond this life and into the eternities. What we learn here will aid our spirits there.  The more we learn here, the greater the advantage we will have there. Truth will be added to tru...

 Season 1 Podcast 29 A New Voice of Freedom, “Keys of Death and Hell.”   In Revelation 1:18 we read,  “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”  In Revelation 21:4 we read,  “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more p...

The single greatest quest we can make on this earth is the quest for truth.  The only way we can be kept from evil is by seeking truth. To understand truth, we must understand law.  By keeping the commandments of God, we are on the path of truth.  Searching for truth is a spiritual journey as much as a temporal journey that we all must take alone.  

Season 1 Podcast 28, A New Voice of Freedom, Argument for the Existence of God, “Opposition, Agency, and Justice.” As a rule, we don’t like opposition.  We don’t like people or obstacles or opposing forces to stand in our way. How we deal with opposition, particularly in social and governmental affairs, is what separates those who prefer tyranny from those who prefer agency.    But what would happ...

Season 1 Podcast 27, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” When we speak of liberty, we naturally assume that we all agree on the meaning of the word.  The idea of liberty trips off the tongue as easily as the idea of truth.  Everyone likes the idea of liberty or freedom or freewill or agency or truth, but not everyone likes the actualization of liberty, freedom, freewill, agency or truth. One could easily...

A free nation that wishes to survive cannot be silent on the issue of adultery or sexual licentiousness.  If society doesn’t have the courage to address licentiousness, then it must have the wisdom to address the consequences. We protect people against fast foods, preservatives, and saccharine.  We put labels on cigarette packs, pickle jars, and tapioca pudding, but we expose our children to porno...

Season 1 Podcast 26, “Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.” It is unthinkable today, in our frenetic society, to have a national day of rest once a week where the working world just stops, and we contemplate spiritual things.  But for the first two hundred years of our history, keeping the Sabbath Day Holy was actually part of our American culture.   In the South, when I was a child, we had the Sunday Bl...

Taking the Lord’s name in vain is a form of mocking God and trampling God under one’s feet.  The worst sins begin in very small steps.  “Love the Lord Thy God with All Thy Heart” is the first great commandment.  You cannot take the Lord’s name in vain and be reverent at the same time.  Showing irreverence toward God who freely sacrificed his life for us is a grave offence.  

Season 1 Podcast 25, “Easter Message.” Surely there is nothing greater in our lives than the ability to repent of our sins, and the promise that we shall be forgiven for them.  What suffering Christ went through cannot be imagined by mortal man.  He suffered the pains, the sins, the sorrows, and the sicknesses of all mankind.  Christ satisfied the full demands of the law of justice. The primary su...

“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing upon the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting the petitioning of a governmental redress of grievances.”   The arrogance of politicians, ru...

Season 1 Podcast 24, “Science and Freewill.” In his book, The Grand Design , Stephen Hawking wrote, “Since people live in the universe and interact with the other objects in it, scientific determinism must hold for people as well.” Scientific determinism refers to the forces of nature that dictate our behavior. Many scientists believe in biological or genetic determinism, environmental determinism...

Through our works, we demonstrate our faith in Christ.  Through our faith, we have claim to grace; and through grace we are saved. All three, faith, works, and grace, are necessary, but none of itself is sufficient or agency would be lost, and the two great commandments unsatisfied.  Agency is always preserved.  At the heart of all laws look for the law of agency.  

We must stand united behind the Constitution and Bill of Rights; freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom to believe, to preach, and to practice the absolute values that made this country great. Unless we reverse our course and return to the vision of our Founding Fathers, I fear for our future.  

Only in the kingdom of God can there be immortality and eternal life because only there is law complete and unopposed.  In the kingdom of God there can be no sin, no entropy, no death, no divagation, no conditions, no change, no evil, no chaos, no disorder, and no variation.  In God’s kingdom order is perfect.  To understand that, however, we had to come to earth where there is a balance between o...

Truth is not in just one place.  Truth is in everything touched by Christ.  Truth is found in part in every religion, every nation, and every culture. God will give us all the truths we are willing to accept.  The wicked filter out the truth and receive only that which is pleasing to the ear.

Season 1 Podcast 21, “Gifts of the Spirit.” There is no deficit that God cannot make up, no sorrow that God cannot heal, no tears that God cannot dry.  To those who are given more, more is expected.  God’s grace is a match for all mortal deficiencies.  Remember the widow’s mite. In the eternities, our weaknesses here will be viewed as gifts given to us to make us stronger; our strengths here will...

Season 1 Podcast 20, “My Burden is Light.”  The text today is taken from Matthew Chapter 11, verses 28-30: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  The last three verses of Matthew Chapter 11 are...

Everything is subject to what Shakespeare calls “the corrupted currents of this world.” We associate conscience, not with moral absolutes, but with our evolving perceptions of good and evil.  Conscience is inextricably connected to agency.  We have the agency to redirect our conscience.  If we trade the absolute moral values of God for the relative ethical system of political correctness, then, be...