Letter From Dan Preston
November 5, 2021
Greetings and Happy Sabbath! I hope this note finds everyone doing well and staying warm.
As mentioned last week, we are postponing our discussion of our next booklet "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy" until December. In the mean time, please continue reading this week in chapter three "From Empire to Exile."
Freedom of choice
This past week contained Election day. Although it wasn't a 'big' election like the presidential one last year or even a mid-term election, it was still a reminder of the democratic system we have here in the United States.
The subject of voting has been somewhat controversial over the years in church, although it need not be. Whether you choose to vote or not is a personal choice. But as Christians, we must not put our faith in any human or human form of government above God. Nor can we allow political opinions to creep into church and become divisive.
That being said, I certainly do appreciate the fact we live in a country that has the freedoms we do. There's no other country on Earth I'd rather be a citizen of, yet...
Citizenship
What do I mean by that? Ultimately, our citizenship lies elsewhere. "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ," (Philippians 3:20 NKJV). The day will come when Jesus Christ brings the kingdom of heaven to Earth. When that kingdom arrives, it's the one I want to be a citizen of!
Governing documents
Of course, any nation or kingdom has a set of documents it is governed by. For the Kingdom of God, no doubt, it will be based from the Bible. So, if we were to create a 'bill of rights' that we, as citizens of the Kingdom of God would have, what might it look like?
- Freedom from sin
- Freedom from our adversary, Satan the devil
- Freedom from carnal nature
- ???
It's a bit of a silly exercise and I'm sure we could probably come up with many others 'rights', but hopefully it helps make a point: The freedoms we hold today are insignificant in comparison to the freedoms we look forward to!
In the mean time
Until then, lets use the freedoms we have today to further our citizenship in heaven. Use the freedom of assembly to come to services each week. Utilize the freedom of press to read and learn from the Bible. And of course, use the freedom of speech to help preach the the good news of the coming Kingdom of God!
