our having gained “knowledge of good and evil,” Human liberty must also be characterized by certain “boundaries” or “limits,” which are set by what we call “rules, laws, regulations, or statutes.”
Such “regulations” or “laws” guide, instruct, inform, or direct our choices when we must decide the types of actions or kinds of behaviors we can freely engage in.
However, such actions, deeds, works, or behaviors allow us to engage within “a range of freedom” that must conform to those regulated prescriptions or proscriptions, “as applicable by law.”
“Laws” must safeguard our liberty while simultaneously determining “the range of behaviors” we can freely and deliberately engage in; that is, according to their prescribed boundaries and limits that encompass their “ranges of freedom.”
We have the God-given inalienable “right to own property;” but there are regulated ways that frame our ability to acquire property, justly, peacefully, rightly, and lawfully; that is, without injury or harm to other Human Beings.
“Thou shalt not steal” is the foundation upon which lawful ownership of property is erected. Property can be a free gift to a person, as granted by the owner of that specific property. Property can also be lawfully earned through labor or work for which wages are paid. Property can be inherited from other Human Beings with whom we have certain specific relations, as willed by the owners, or as prescribed by legal determination in a court of law. “Property” can also be lawfully, justly, and peacefully acquired through purchases or sales, or auctions, etc. . .., according to price or cost agreements between sellers and buyers, sums of which, we broadly or generally refer to, as “the Economy.” There is always “a right way” to acquire or obtain property, without injury or harm to anyone. Hence why established “laws” must allow equal access to all Human Beings in a society to the numerous lawfully prescribed ways in which “property” can be justly, rightly, and peacefully acquired.
For Scriptures command that: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein; for He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers.” (Psalms 24:1).
“The earth and everything therein is the Lord’s,” because we all die eventually, to leave it all behind. “You can’t take it with you!” “No U-haul behind a hearse!” (Luke 12:15). In short, we can’t “put the Planet in our pockets” and “stake a claim” on it as “ours.” By the grace of God who gives us life and liberty: We’re “only passing through!”
But, at the same time, we’re no longer driven by wickedness that causes us to do evil, for as we are under grace, consciousness of sin through knowledge of good and evil is annulled, in order to bring righteousness through faith.
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14).
We act freely regarding both “genetically wired needs,” e.g., we can freely choose when to eat, and “socially necessitated responses” to situations we encounter as we live in society, and on the Earth.
“Society,” is, first and foremost, a “shared spiritual environment.” Animals don’t “make laws.” But Human society is governed by those “rules, laws, regulations, or statutes” that guide or direct which actions we can take towards each other, towards things in society, and/or during specific situational events, in order to fulfill our needs, or satisfy our desires, without harm or injury to no one, e.g., when it is raining or snowing, we have the freedom of choice in deciding which garments we’ll wear that protect us from the rain or the cold snow; or “with goodwill to all and with malice towards none,” we can freely choose to befriend another Human Being or not, without making him or her into “an enemy;” or we can freely decide to deliberately join “an open organization” or “private organization,” in accordance with its lawfully, justly, peacefully and freely determined, “prescribed rules, policies, regulations, or procedures,” to sum of which, we refer, as “Freedom of Association,” e.g., trade unions; local church congregations; political parties, etc. . .
Abraham Lincoln, before he became President of the United States in 1861, gave a speech before the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, on January 27, 1838, during which, he said:
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
God gave us Life and Liberty so that we can engage in “the pursuit of Happiness” in lawful and peaceable ways that edify the beneficent “goods and services” we’ve accumulated thus far in Human history for our “general welfare.” We’re one of the most powerful countries in the world, militarily speaking; and thus, no external enemy can invade America to forcefully or violently subdue its population into political bondage or cultural slavery. Therefore, Mr. Lincoln, does “have a point!” WE THE PEOPLE, each and every individual Person living freely in our society is responsible and accountable for every event that takes place therein, thereby impacting other individuals in our society, e.g., crimes of violence, abuse, theft, or murder — barring natural phenomena like tornadoes and hurricanes; unpredictable disasters, like fires and floods; or accidents due to Human error during unforeseen circumstances or unknown conditions, like car accidents or plane crashes during a snow storm, or during some other forms of “non-directed events” that “take a Human toll.”
However, many times, in many situations or “frames of circumstances,” e.g., which offered job or position to accept; which road or route to take for a certain specific destination, etc. . ., our choices are seldom “error-free,” due to our “fallen nature.”
Many factors may input into our freedom of will, during a decision-making process, depending on the parameters or conditions encountered during the deliberate decision-making processes guiding us in making that specific exercise of “free choice.”
In addition, God did not change His relationship to us only, but also to the earthly physical environment in which we live. The very ground upon which the Serpent is to crawl all the days of its life is “accursed” by our Creator! (Genesis 3:17).
However, because God’s love for us is pure, holy, sinless, and righteous, due to our sinfulness He has only changed the conditions within which or under which we can rightfully “commune with Him.” (Hebrews 10:18–25).
God had to have a “plan of salvation” in order to restore our free, righteous, and holy relationships with Him. For then, God could perform “miracles” with our Faith, because His love surpasses or transcends “the strict and just tenor” required of His wrathful holiness. We are to trust In God by faith and are saved by faith and not by works; we are not under the Law but under grace, so that no one can boast because of their works. (Ephesians 2:8–10).
But, only Jesus, is the author and finisher or “perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1–2).
“Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations), before Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls into being things that do not exist yet as though they did already.” (Romans 4:16–17).
Therefore, here is the crux of our predicament or “Human condition:” We are sinful by nature, on the one hand, and on the other, the Earth itself, or our physical-material, or ecological environment itself, is
