Liberation
The term "liberation" can be applied on three levels:
Muzorewa:
Ferguson:
Each generation must experience the liberation in its own life experience. The flight of the Israelites is the bitter experience of slavery, of being held in contempt, a deep alienation and the sense of rejection, of feeling that there is no escape from the vicious circle of violence and fear and hate, of not knowing whether life is worth living at all. Without really experiencing this, it is not possible to understand what the liberation of Exodus meant. The freedom from the slavery of Egypt in times of old should remind us of freedom of mankind as a process as understand where that process is for our last generation. Egypt becomes a paradigm for liberation. What needs to be brought out in Christan writing is the redemptive source of history from a God-centric point of view: the liberation of man from the oppressive powers from the point of view of liberation through spiritual means. If it was left up to Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, it never would have happened, it was God through Moses that led them out.
Christianity is not just another religion, it is a way of life that has transformed body, soul, mind and spirit into a god-centric point of view through spiritual means. This transformation is something that cannot be denied from those that have undergone it, nor can we merely seek to find answers based upon the thoughts of our own understanding. That transformation will be Jesus actually living His life through us and putting his spiritual laws and desires into our hearts for the benefit of others, not just ourselves. Do you have faith? Now find the Spirit. Then bring the oppressed and the powerless into the liberty equation of your life without compromise. Don't wait. Many of you have yet to discover that liberation is key to the redemptive process. More around this world will practice this until the Lord puts His enemies at His feet. We need that new consciousness in re-discovering those truths which have been given to us already from the beginning. Aligning with a purpose is a great and noble task. We are doing that in re-building the waste places, restoring the temple of God but as David teaches us, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
Liberation is the setting free of man from self, sin, death, and oppression. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom is a spiritual truth that liberates man and the faith in this truth is the instrument of liberation. In these last days, this belief is the liberating condition that sets man free from the mark of the beast by breaking the bonds of delusion.
Liberation viewed as a process of liberty, social justice and love sees the liberation movements of the third world as a direct result of avarice, exploitation, oppression and arrogant domination of the north. If there is violence in the area, it is the straining of liberation in the struggle of the poor to be free of the whole process of economic oppression. General David Sharp, former US Marine Commandant made the statement in 1966 that, I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these [Third World] nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own... And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans.
Liberation embraces the whole process of opposition to all forms of colonial oppression.
Another discovery: We are not liberated until we liberate others. So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. Giving them freedom, we free ourselves. And they are free to grow in their own way. The whole technique of liberation requires that the individual shall find out the truth for himself. Simply to tell it is not convincing. Instead he should be asked to experiment. And the word of the desert prophet, Amos, will resound in men's hearts as a word of God, a word of judgment and a word of liberation - a word which is strong and encouraging. It sounds like the wind of the desert, the roaring of the lion, and still has power to awaken us, after 2800 years.
[133, 151, 172, 189, 190, 241, 270, 224, 125]
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