FREEDOM AND LIBERTY ARE NOT SYNONYMOUS

INDEPENDENCE  DAY!!!  How wonderful!! But our independence from tyranny meant certain dependence upon God!

Freedom and Liberty are not synonymous . . . They are used interchangeably many times, but the distinction is important and needs to be recognized.  Freedom is defined as ‘independence, the license to do as one wants, the permission to do as you please.’  If there is a source who can give you permission to have freedom, then they can necessarily take away that permission, and hence, that freedom.

Thomas Jefferson, speaking for the Founding Generation in the Declaration of Independence, stated that Liberty, second only to Life, is an unalienable right endowed by the Creator.  It is a part of you. It cannot be revoked.  Liberty provides for the protection of an individual’s rights, expressly because with it we have been endowed by our Creator with the capacity for self-government.

Freedom is something a government grants; Liberty is something we own that a government cannot take away.

Liberty is not license to do as one pleases, but a grave responsibility, a stewardship, a trust, to be guarded, held as sacred, and passed on as a legacy to future generations . . . not squandered.