The Conflict

Daniel 12

8 And I heard, but I understood not. And I said,

My Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for these

words are closed and sealed till the time of the

end.

10 Many shall be purified, and be made white, and

be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and

none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise

shall understand.
(Darby OT)


Reading about Patrick Henry, the early american

patriot, is almost like reading fiction. Given

the condition we're in today, who would be

willing to say,'Give me liberty or give me

death'? You have to realize just how radical

that statement was at the time. The king in

England didn't share Henry's enthusiasm for

liberty.


Yet, the concept of liberty is the notion that

was shared between the hebrew captives mentioned

in the book of Daniel. They were not willing to

sacrifice the liberty to serve their G-d.


There are certain Jews whom thou hast appointed

over the administration of the province of

Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: these

men, O king, regard thee not; they serve not thy

gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast

set up. Daniel 3:12.


They knew that worship is the essence of life,

and that worship is exclusive in the sense that

it can only recognize one object of merit. The

union that people share with their Creator, is

described in scripture as the same type of union

that a person shares with a spouse. The

metaphor of the marriage union is applied over

and over in the pages of scripture, to illustrate

the union that the descendents of Abraham share

with the Almighty. It's called a covenant

relationship. In order to honor that union, in

worship as in marriage, there must be a sense of

fidelity to the covenant. When the civil

authorities fail to recognize the concept of

liberty in the excercise of good conscience, not

as an excuse to rebel against social order, but

as the freedom to maintain order in worship and a

clear conscience, then the authorities have

overstepped the bounds of their position. They

are not to regulate conscience, but provide the

discipline to maintain social order. Liberty

works best in a lawful, orderly society.


So, given these requirements, it seems that the

conflict is much the same as always. Liberty is

at odds with tyranny. Daniel and his hebrew

friends saw that it was better to maintain

fidelity to G-d's covenant and a clear conscience

than to surrender to the tyranny of any man; even

the king. I submit, that as you look around, you

will see that the conflict rages on. There are

still tyrants, and there are still those few who

wish to remain faithful to their G-d, who has

established all law and order, in the fabric of

this physical universe and in the construction of

the eternal universe (whatever it is). The

Creator has provided liberty even to the extent

that men may choose to rebel even against his

established law and order, in an effort to

celebrate their bondage to vice.


I'm leaning toward the opinion that this lies at

the root of the problem that we're in today, that

people don't really want liberty, they prefer

slavery. This isn't anything new, really. It's

been what I observe for most or all of my life,

and the record of history illustrates the same

habitual human behavior. What I mean to say is

that there isn't a true love of liberty. There

are things that we want and there's what we like,

and then there are the issues of the heart, those

things that we love. Those early Americans, like

Henry, were people who loved liberty. The other

side of that is that they genuinely despised the

alternatives. That's what love means. It's more

than an indifference to alternatives; love

inspires passion. I'm not too sure where

passions lie given what I see going on around me,

but it's certain that there isn't much love lost

on liberty.


What we see across the broad spectrum of social

activity, is a lack of passion except for those

vices that promote degenerate living. If you

have the stomach for it, just watch MTV. Yeah.

That sewerage that your kids pump into their

imagination all day long. Looks to me like it's

a demo of a glittery brand of servitude rather

than promoting the virtue of liberty. Bow down

to that bling!


The major source of conflict is the same as

always. The believer holds a dual-citizenship,

and the ultimate allegiance is to the eternal

rather than the temporal. For the unbeliever,

there is only the temporal, so there is no choice

as to the focus of their allegiance. Since

worship is the essence of life, the conflict is

rooted deeply in human nature. Double-speak

can't change the reality of this conflict.


In any case, we find in Daniel 12 that down at

the end of the road, there is going to be a

showdown that will settle the conflict once and

for all. When eternity begins, Liberty will win,

tyranny will end. Until then, there will always

be the conflict.


'...there shall be a time of distress, such as

never was since there was a nation until that

time.

And at that time thy people shall be delivered,

every one that is found written in the book...'
Daniel 12:1