The more one thinks one is free, the more one is deluded. There are no "freethinkers." There is no one who is the "captain of his soul." Everyone, except God, is a slave, and always will be a slave.

This elusive, esoteric truth has apparently escaped the grasp of many of the greatest philosophers, thinkers, seekers of enlightenment, illuminists and even Christians who study their Bible.

This universal and timeless truth is the ultimate paradigm from which true Christians can experience the maximum peace in its acceptance, as we rest in the Holy Spirit of God, in whom we live and move and have our being.

A slave is someone who is owned by another. A slave has no rights, owns no property, and is absolutely subject to the dictates of his master, or owner. A slave is someone who depends on his owner for his sustenance.

Everyone, without exception, is either a slave of sin and Satan or a slave of Christ (who is God). There is no middle ground. Within the group of slaves of Christ, there are those who are obedient slaves and there are those who are disobedient slaves.

Without comprehending and embracing this truth a Christian cannot experience the greatest amount of relative freedom that God will allow him to have. If one functions with the belief that one is free in any sense that he is not free, then to that extent he is deceived and in bondage to error. Truth is the only thing that sets one free from the bondage of false beliefs.

The vast majority of Christians, in these last days of apostasy (falling away from truth), are in much greater bondage to error than they ever suspected. This includes the most eminent pastors, teachers, authors and Bible scholars.

In order to be completely free, one would have to be accountable to no one, now, or in the future. But everyone is accountable to God, not only for one’s actions, but also for every word, thought, intention and motive.

Contrary to the false teaching that Christians will not be present during the Great White Throne Judgment, they most certainly will be on Jesus’ right and the unsaved will be on His left. Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him...and He will put the sheep [Christians] on His right, and the goats [unsaved] on His left (Mat. 25:31-33). "We will all stand before the judgment seat of God...So then each one of us [Christians] will give an account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:10, 12). "For we [Christians] must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10). "God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man" (Ecc. 3:17). "For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil" (Ecc. 12:14).

Christians on Jesus’ right will be those who have abided in Him and endured to the end. Their judgment will not be to determine whether or not they will enter the new heaven, but rather for receiving or losing eternal rewards. (Please read the article titled Eternal Rewards—Receiving and Losing.)

Sin was found in Lucifer who no longer wanted to be subject to God; he wanted to be like God, and arrogantly declared that he would be (Ezek. 28:15; Isa. 14:13-14). This is essentially the same thing that men say when they embrace the idea that they are free from the control of, or accountability to, God. "The fool says in his heart there is no God" (Ps. 14:1).

Many Christians have fallen into the same trap by believing that they are free in Christ to do virtually anything that is not explicitly prohibited in the Scriptures. Even so, they discount clear passages such as "the borrower is slave to the lender" and the command to "owe no man anything" and many others. Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?"

The man Christ Jesus himself became a slave (doulos) to God the Father (Phil. 2:7), not merely a servant or a bond-servant as some translators wrongly render the Greek word. Jesus said He only said and did that which the Father told Him, and He said as the Father sent Him, so He sends Christians.

Many Christians are like Satan and do not want to be completely subject to God, they declare that they are "free from legalism." The essence of Satan’s fall was that he no longer wanted to be a slave of God, but rather wanted to be free, like God. Satan became self-deceived about his inability to become free, and was delusional about freedom and his ultimate accountability to God.

Except for some vulgar or obscene words, there probably is no other word that has more repulsive connotations to worldlings and to Christians than "slave" or "slavery." This is especially the case in post-Civil War America. Well-intentioned abolitionists sacrificially served their cause without realizing how God himself views slavery as presented in the Bible. Nowhere in the Scriptures, Old Testament or New, does God condemn the ownership of slaves. It is not slavery with which He is displeased, but rather the mistreatment of slaves.

God commanded through the apostle Paul, "Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth...knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve" (Col. 3:22-24). Again, God commands Christian slaves, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh...as slaves of Christ..." (Eph. 6:5-6).

To Christian slave owners God commanded, "Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven" (Col. 4:1).

God commanded, "All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters [despotes, "an absolute ruler"] as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against" (1 Tim. 6:1).

To Christian slaves who had a Christian slave owner, God commanded, "Those who have believers as their masters [despotes] must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles" (1 Tim. 6:2).

Philemon was a Christian slave owner, one of which was Onesimus who escaped and was born again under Paul’s ministry. Paul wanted to keep the born-again slave to minister to the apostle while he was imprisoned in Rome. Paul, however, sent the runaway slave back to his master because, as Paul wrote, he did not want to keep Onesimus without Philemon’s consent (1:13-14).

To Titus, the apostle Paul wrote, "Urge slaves [doulos] to be subject to their own masters [despotes] in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect" (Titus 2:9).

God used the apostle Peter to command, "Household slaves [oiketes, The New Englishman’s Greek Concordance and Lexicon], be submissive to your masters [despotes], with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable...For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps" (1 Pet. 2:18-21).

The temporal significance of being a slave of man is virtually insignificant in light of eternal joy and peace for the obedient slave of Christ. The eternal destiny of an unsaved person who never repents and becomes born again, whether or not he is a slave of a human slaveholder, is eternal suffering in the Lake of Fire. So, the determining factor of one’s eternal destiny is whether or not one is a slave of Christ or a slave of sin and Satan, regardless of whether or not one happens also to be a slave of another human.

With the entire span of one’s physical life on this planet being like a vapor that appears and then vanishes, when compared to eternity it is totally insignificant whether one lived a life of illusory "freedom" or whether one lived a life of continual torture and enslavement by a despot. This is true whether one is a Christian or not.

In fact, according to many clear passages of Scripture, Christians are called to suffer, even as Christ suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21), "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12), "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Lk. 14:27). (Please read the article titled Persecution and Martyrdom—The New Testament Norm.)

There is no greater all-encompassing illusion than the belief that some people are free, including those in so-called "free societies" or democracies. Reality is, no man or angel or demon anywhere in the universe is truly free. Moreover, there never has been and never will be anyone in the universe who is free, except God.

The freedom for Christians, about which the Scriptures speak, in all cases, is only a relative freedom. Our freedom or liberty in Christ is freedom from sin and Satan. Our freedom is liberation from being a slave of sin and lies and Satan, who is the father of lies, in order to be a slave of Christ, who is the Truth personified. (Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.) Our liberation is from one enslavement to the other, which is far better.

It is truth that sets us free from the bondage of false doctrines, which are the doctrines of demons, in order that we may bring glory to Christ as His slave, rather than Satan’s slave. We are not our own, we were bought with a price, our body and spirit are God’s (1 Cor. 6:19-20 KJV).

The only way anyone can worship God is to worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). The extent to which you embrace false teaching is the extent to which you worship a figment of your imagination, and not God.

The idea of a democratic society being a "free society" is a false concept, even for those who acknowledge the restrictions of civil law. Likewise, as with the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, those signatories of that historic document were greatly deluded by holding "these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" [an exact quote].

In the famous speech in which Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death," he did not know that, while he may have received the latter, it was impossible to receive the former—nor could any of his admirers and cohorts in his audience, nor any of those who have repeated his demand, ever since.

President George W. Bush was politically motivated to claim that the reason extremist Muslims were at war with Americans was "because they hate our freedom." Of course, this is not true on, at least, two counts.

They do not hate Americans’ "freedom," but rather they hate their immoral influence on the relatively conservative Arab countries and don’t like Americans in their countries or their strong alliance with Zionist Jews.

Second, and most importantly, this claim by Mr. Bush is not true because Americans are not really free, anyway. (The purpose of this treatise is not to engender a political debate, or even a philosophical one, but rather to proclaim a profound and virtually unknown truth among Christians.) To know what God's view of democracy is, please read the article titled Democracy---A Scriptural Perspective.

Many Christians claim they are "free in Christ," but what does freedom in Christ really mean? As mentioned above, it means that you are free from sin and Satan to serve God as His slave rather than serving Satan as his slave. It means that we have been freed from the coming wrath of God when He destroys heaven, earth and the entire universe. It means we have been freed from the otherwise inevitable confinement to the Lake of Fire---if we abide in Christ and do not forsake or deny Him.

Paul said, "Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin...you became slaves of righteousness...so now present [yourselves] as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification...now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God" (Rom. 6:17-22).

The apostle wrote, "He who was called while free [not a slave to a human slaveholder], is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19-20; 7:22-23).

Freedom in Christ, for born-again Jews (an extremely small minority of all Jews), means, among other things, that they have been freed from the curse of the Mosaic Law (Gal. 3:10-13), which is for unsaved Jews only. The Law is a curse because, without grace from God, no Jew can keep the Law, and if one breaks the Law at one point one is guilty of breaking the entire Law (James 2:10).

One of the most important truths that many Christians despise is the truth of what grace really is. Most Christians believe that grace is either mercy, compassion, or merely unmerited favor of God. But grace is not mercy or compassion, and it is much more than unmerited favor. Grace is the God-given desire and power to do His will (Phil. 2:13; 2 Thess. 1:11; cf. Eph. 2:8). This is the underlying truth of Christianity laid on The Foundation, which is Jesus Christ.

Living under grace as born-again Christians and under the Mosaic Law as unsaved Jews, is the ultimate theological dichotomy which very few Christians understand. "The Law was given by Moses [to the Jews only], but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17).

God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud (Jam. 4:6). Without God, our Owner, enabling us we would have neither the desire nor the power to do His will.

This is the essential and sharply contrasting difference between the Old Testament saints under the Mosaic Law who could not keep it because they did not have the power to keep it, and the New Testament saints who can receive the desire and the power (grace) to keep the approximately 180 commandments of the new and better covenant.

The truth is, that all Christians are slaves, including all those in heaven as well as those on earth. Paul said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

Without Christ we can do nothing. Since He holds everything in the universe together by the word of His power, even unsaved people could not take a single breath of air without Jesus enabling them to do so (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17).

Rebellion against God or any God-ordained authority, such as a husband and a father of minor children, is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:23 KJV). Those who are living in such a state are deluded if they think thereby they have more freedom.

The most freedom one can have is the freedom from the tyranny of one’s own mind by knowing truth. Only Christians can know The Truth (Jesus), and only truth will set you free; that is, give you the most freedom possible, which will always be within the confines of enslavement to God, for those who are born again.

Christians are admonished to be transformed by the renewing of their mind, and to have the mind of Christ, as Paul and Sosthenes had (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:1; 2:16; 3:1), unlike the carnal Christians in the church in Corinth, whom Paul rebuked.

One of the most profound truths that sets one free is to know that one is a slave, that one is not truly free, and never will be. In acceptance there is contentment and peace.

If it is our lot to have only food and clothing we should therewith be content (1 Tim. 6:8; cf. Heb. 13:5 and Lk. 3:14). God is the only Source of the complete peace that transcends all understanding, that will guard one’s mind in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).

The apostle Paul had learned the secret of contentment (Phil. 4:11-12). True contentment is the state of not desiring something more or different, including the desires put in our heart by God. "Godliness with contentment is great gain" in contradistinction to the delusion believed by some Christians that "godliness is a means of financial gain" (1 Tim. 6:5-6 NIV).

Paul was content with the realization that he was enslaved to Christ, and that only through Him could he do anything. Paul, being one of the greatest slaves of Christ, realized that apart from Jesus he could do nothing (Jn. 15:5), that in Christ, who strengthened him, he could do all things (Phil. 4:13), and that we can receive nothing worthwhile unless it is given to us from God (Jn. 3:27).

Since truth is revealed by the One who is the Truth, the way in which one can know the most truth, while in this body, is to be a learner of truth, which is to say, to be a real disciple of Jesus, which one can only be by meeting the three conditions set forth in Luke 14, including verse 33, literally.

Sadly, some American veterans of wars who killed others supposedly to defend our "freedom" or to set others "free" from tyrants, come home and are overwhelmed by their horrific deeds which includes massive destruction of property and the collateral damage of non-combatant victims, that, to them, can no longer be justified. So, in a futile attempt to be set free from the tyranny of their own minds, they commit suicide, only to find that they have been plunged into the incomparable enslavement and loss of any freedom, whatsoever, in hell.

In the Scriptures those who have been born again are referred to as sons of God, joint-heirs with Christ, and friends of Christ. But to have a right perspective we need also to see that though Jesus treats us as friends, He is much more than a friend. He is our awesome God and Judge. And it behooves us, like Paul, Timothy, James, Peter, Jude and John, to grasp the all-important aspect of our relationship with Christ---that of being His slaves: "Paul, a slave [doulos] of God" (Titus 1:1); "Paul and Timothy, slaves [doulos] of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:1); "James, a slave [doulos] of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Jam. 1:1); "Simon Peter, a slave [doulos] of Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:1); "Jude, a slave [doulos] of Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:1); "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves [doulos], the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His slave [doulos] John" (Rev. 1:1).

Before Adam sinned he had more freedom than any other man that has ever lived. But, again, his freedom was relative. Even Adam’s limited "freedom" was within the confines of the Garden where the forbidden tree was the only restriction. Everything that Adam and Eve did before they sinned was in accordance with God's perfect will. If this is not true, the point at which they did the first act that was not God’s will would have been sin prior to their partaking of the forbidden fruit, which, of course, was the act resulting in the incomparable ruination of all mankind. No man ever sinned like Adam (Rom. 5:14).

A slave has no rights, and the possessions of which he is only a steward are owned by his master, and he does not worry about where his next meal is coming from. All his needs are supplied by his master. For the slave of Christ, Jesus said to be content with food and clothing (if that is your lot), and do not worry about what you will eat or drink or wear because your heavenly Father knows you need these things and you are much more valuable than the birds that He feeds.

An obedient slave only does the will of his master. The apostle Paul implores us to "present your bodies a living sacrifice." But many Christians today would rather enjoy their so-called "liberty" to do whatever is not explicitly prohibited by Scripture, doing that which is right in their own eyes. (Sad to say that most Christians, in these last days of apostasy, do things that are explicitly prohibited or commanded in the New Testament, e.g., "Owe no man anything," "Do not love the world or anything in the world," "You cannot serve God and money," "Wives submit to your husbands in everything," "Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it," "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other one to him," "Love your enemies," and many others.)

Much misapprehension of the truth that Christians are slaves of Christ could have been avoided if the translators of the King James Version had correctly translated the Greek noun doulos "slave" instead of "servant." The NASB, for example, renders doulos "slave" or "slaves" more than ninety times, and "servant" only once.

Even the NASB, however, was translated by scholars who were cognizant of the mind-set of American Christians which includes an abhorrence of slavery, and were not consistent with the translation of the Greek word doulos, which means "slave."

According to the NASB Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1981, in the NASB (referred to here only as an example), doulos, appears 130 times, but is rendered "slave" or "slaves" or "slave’s" only 98 times. The rest of the times the word is rendered "bond-servant," "bond-servants," "bondslave," "bondslaves," "servants," "men," or "women."

Further study of the usage of the word doulos (Strong’s number 1401) can be easily done by using a concordance. (This author uses several conservative Bible versions for study, because no Bible scholar or group of translators were completely faithful to the ancient manuscripts, notwithstanding the claims of KJV-Only Christians. For a more faithful, consistent, literal translation of the Greek word doulos which means "slave," see The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament of which Jay P. Green, Sr. was the General Editor and Translator.)

Some Bible translators of contemporary versions rarely, if ever, translate doulos "slave," as it should be. Sad to say, millions of Christians over the past 400 years have missed out on the blessing of knowing the truth revealed in this treatise because the translators of the venerable King James Version never once translated doulos "slave."

When Jesus said, "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you" (Jn. 15:15), He used an analogy here and was not in any way implying that we should not see the reality of being His slaves. A human slave owner does not take the time or effort to explain to his slaves what his purposes are, etc.

Jesus called His disciples "friends" because they had forsaken everything to become His learner (Lk. 18:28 NIV). Brethren become faithful friends to Jesus when they meet His conditions to become His disciple. (Please read the article titled God’s Ultimate Warning To Christians).

Indeed, we can be mutual friends with Jesus, but the relationship is so much more than that. He is our God whom we worship. The holiest men of God fell to the ground in fear and trembling when they encountered our unveiled, awesome Lord, including the apostle John who had walked with Him for three years (see Revelation 1:17).

Jesus said to the apostles, "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, "We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done" (Lk. 17:10, cf 17:5).

When Paul said to the Galatians in 4:7, "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through [the gracious act of] God" the overall context was dealing with those Christians who wanted to return to the enslavement of the Law rather than being a son of God. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14), not by the Mosaic Law.

Some of those Christians had been severed from Christ and had fallen from grace (Gal. 5:4) like the Messianic Jews of today who want to try to keep the Law rather than live totally by the New and better Covenant of Grace. Paul was trying to show those who had been deceived by the Judaizers that they were no longer slaves of man and the Law, but were sons and heirs of God. This in no way meant that they should think of themselves as being free and independent of God who bought them with a price.

To be dead to self and submitted to Christ in everything is the most freedom that anyone can have. Paul said, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20). The apostle wrote, "They which live should not...live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them" (2 Cor. 5:15).

This relative freedom is maximized, as a Christian, by becoming a disciple (learner) of Jesus and learning the many "deeper truths" (see 1 Cor. 2:10 NIV) of the New Testament and being obedient to the approximately 180 New Testament commandments. It is truth that will set us free from the bondage of error, Jesus being the Truth personified. How can Christians know very much scriptural truth if they are not learners of truth, having been taught by the Holy Spirit of the One who is the Truth?

Our Lord said you are His disciple (learner), "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and [then] you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (Jn. 8:31-32). Christians who do not love Jesus enough (with all their heart, soul, mind and strength) to meet the conditions to become his learner (disciple) will not know many of the truths of His Word, and, to that extent will not be set free from the bondage of error.

In the eternal New Heaven and New Earth, we, as God’s slaves (doulos), will serve Him with His holy angels who are our fellow slaves (sundoulos) (Rev. 22:3, 9).

One of the greatest freedoms one can experience and from which one can benefit is the freedom that comes from realizing that one is not truly free and there is no possibility of ever being free. Christians who abide in Christ and endure to the end will forever be the love-slave of an almighty God who loves us with an incomparable love. In fact, the only reason we have the ability to love God or anyone else, is because He loved us first (1 Jn. 4:19).

HOW TO CONTACT US