The above I think is a good example of where I see you conflating the ideas of 'freedom to follow Christ' with 'political freedom'. We both agree, inasmuch as neither of us are Calvinists, that God gives us the freedom to choose to follow Jesus and that we have the ability to daily choose Jesus and The Good or to choose sin.Robert wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 1:59 pmYes. I agree, but we still have to make that choice. This is why it is the narrow way.HondurasKeiser wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 12:59 pm Yes, one has the ability to freely choose those paths but the choices are not neutral. Choosing individual autonomy, to not submit, leads to death.
We have the right or freedom to choose. Our choices have consequences. That is what makes them matter. Taking the choice away from someone else is not honoring the gift of choice that God gives us. Thus forced socialism is counter to God's plan. Voluntary socialism to a God honoring structure honors God.
The freedom to choose is good. To choose autonomy though, to not choose submission is evil and the way of Satan.
Political freedom though, does not follow from this freedom to choose Jesus. The government exists to punish evildoers and constrain evil - inasmuch as it does this it fulfills its God-given ordination. It does not exist to set us free to choose evil - inasmuch as it enables the spread of evil by sanctioning more and more evil options it reneges on its God-given ordination.
The government cannot coerce us to follow Jesus. That, as we agree is an individual choice. It can restrain us though from doing evil. That doesn't make us good, or Christian; it does though keep us from doing evil that we otherwise, in a freer environment, might be enticed to do.
The restraining of evil is not Socialism. Socialism is an (understandable) economic and social critique of Individualism. If Individualism had not knocked over the pre-modern modes of being, it [Socialism] would never have arisen.