Freedom is What We’re Made For
A Surprising Look at God’s Law
July 1, 2015
BibleGateway
[This guest blogpost is by Dr. John Dickson (@johnpauldickson). He holds a PhD in history and is the founding director of the Centre for Public Christianity. Dr. Dickson is an Australian speaker, historian, minister (Anglican), husband, and father.
This post is adapted from his recent book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics (Zondervan, 2014).]
The Old Testament constantly describes its laws as “life,” “joy,” “blessing,” and true “freedom.” This will puzzle a modern reader, who is used to thinking of freedom as the power to choose any course of action. Surely “thou-shalt-not,” a phrase repeated endlessly in the Ten Commandments, is the epitome of restriction and authoritarianism.
Well, no! This confuses sentence grammar with practical reality.
Of course the Ten Commandments are stated negatively—for the simple reason that only a few things really are forbidden and pretty much everything else is there to be enjoyed.
BibleGateway
[This guest blogpost is by Dr. John Dickson (@johnpauldickson). He holds a PhD in history and is the founding director of the Centre for Public Christianity. Dr. Dickson is an Australian speaker, historian, minister (Anglican), husband, and father.
This post is adapted from his recent book A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics (Zondervan, 2014).]The Old Testament constantly describes its laws as “life,” “joy,” “blessing,” and true “freedom.” This will puzzle a modern reader, who is used to thinking of freedom as the power to choose any course of action. Surely “thou-shalt-not,” a phrase repeated endlessly in the Ten Commandments, is the epitome of restriction and authoritarianism.
Well, no! This confuses sentence grammar with practical reality.
Of course the Ten Commandments are stated negatively—for the simple reason that only a few things really are forbidden and pretty much everything else is there to be enjoyed.
