The Right to Choose
The right to choose what you believe and how you respond to what you believe was authorized by God in the Garden of Eden. There is an important principle to consider when issues of the Bible are discussed. It doesn’t matter whether you accept Adam and Eve as literal characters, what does matter is that you understand the intent of the lesson they bring. Man and woman were created with a free moral conscious able to decide for themselves what they will accept or reject as truth. The lesson here is that God’s eternal government is not Totalitarian. The truth is only relevant if there is a not-true alternative. God showed Eve all that was in the Garden for nourishment and to enjoy with one exception. In the center of the garden was a tree that produced poison fruit. God made sure that Eve knew what tree bore the fruit she was not to consume or even touch. “We can eat fruit from the trees in the garden but there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree, or you will die.”(Gen. 3:2-3) Eve was given a choice to either accept or reject the truth, she chose to reject the truth and suffered the grim consequences. All descendants of Adam’s race are designed with the same faculty as Eve. Joshua was no exception, after helping lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, he confirmed the God-given right to choose for yourself. “But maybe you don’t want to serve the Lord. You must choose for yourselves today. Today you must decide who you will serve. Or will you serve the gods of the Amorites who lived in this land? You must choose for yourselves. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15)
The right to choose requires two components, right and wrong information. One thing is for certain there can be only one source for truth. If the God of the Bible is the creator of all things then it stands to reason He is the source of truth. In today’s world, God’s Word is seldom used as the foundation for truth. Bogus counterfeits like science seek to replace God as the source of truth even though it's fraught with failure and hampered with conjecture. Godless ideologies absent of truth continually challenge God's sovereignty. “Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said.”(Col. 2:8) According to “New Atlas” four out of every five people worldwide live under oppressive governments. The way to control a populace is to control their choices. Totalitarian governments make your choices for you. Maybe you have noticed that even in today’s free societies all things are politicized, it’s the first step toward some form of totalitarian rule. Political infighting between parties will not solve the problem, the core of the polished apple has rotted. All parties are corrupted beyond fixing.
The right to choose is an eternal law not shaken by political policy or dictatorial mandates. Choosing right from wrong is the difference between life and death, freedom or bondage. Joshua got it right, “I don’t care what you think, I choose to believe God.” Eve got it wrong because she refused to believe God and chose to believe a lie. “The Man of Evil will use every kind of evil to fool those who are lost. They are lost because they refused to love the truth and be saved.”( 2 Thess. 2:10) Free moral agency is an individual responsibility not to be taken lightly.“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death”(Prov. 14:12) We are overwhelmed with bad information thanks to technical innovation. Too much wrong information can begin to seem like the right information. Today, more than at any other time in history we need to stand firm on the solid foundation of truth. One that we can trust to combat the lies. The Word of God is that foundation. For more about the truth read “Beam Me up Commander” it’s free.
