The six chapters that comprise this booklet were originally printed as weekly articles in The Southern Watchman, from August 15 to September 19, 1905.
They are remarkable in that they present Religious Liberty (or freedom) as something which is inherent in the nature of God, and which He always gives to man, even though man may choose to use his freedom contrary to God’s will.
Contents
- Religious Liberty: The Gift of God
- God is the Author of Freedom
- Religious Liberty for Unbelievers
- Religious Liberty in the Gospel
- Religious Liberty in the Church
- Religious Liberty in the Nation
The principles Jones brings out are so far-reaching, that if followed to their logical conclusion they would lay the foundation for the new understanding of God’s character, that sin and not God is the destroyer, which principles Fred Wright presented 1974 in the book, Behold Your God.
For example, from Chapter 1:
…when God has made every creature perfectly free to choose to serve Him, and in that, free to choose not to serve Him—when that creature exercises his choice in the way not to serve God, even then God only loves him: for God is only love.
The only disposition that God has toward him is to love him, and by every possible means to win him yet to the choice to love Him and serve Him. That is God, and that is religious liberty.
And from Chapter 4:
Thus from the beginning to the end, from the creation of the first creature until the destruction of the last creature that shall ever exist, man is upon the foundation of absolute freedom; free to use his freedom in such way as he chooses.
And through it all God presents Himself in every possible way that even He can, to persuade the man to see and walk in the right way; to use his choice as he should.
When against it all, the man uses his choice in the wrong way, he gets at last simply what he has chosen, and he himself is the only one responsible for it. And that is freedom, that is religious liberty.
In short, freedom means that God does not interfere with man’s choice (other than to continually try to save him). Man receives what he chooses. If he chooses Christ, he receives eternal life. If he chooses sin, then sin pays him the wages of eternal death.
These principles of freedom that Jones brings out reveal that the light which was given to Waggoner and Jones, was the beginning of the revelation of God’s character, the light that should lighten the whole world, as prophesied in Revelation 18:1, and Isaiah 60. 26p
Updated Dec 2022: New ePDF formatting rules applied.
