Liberty Is An Act Of Faith In God
“And now, after having vainly inflicted upon the social body so many systems, let them end where they ought to have begun—reject all systems, and try liberty—liberty, which is an act of faith in God and in His work” (The Law by Frédéric Bastiat, 2007, p46).
The above is the last sentence of Bastiat’s The Law written in 1850. It’s interesting to me that socialism seems to be primarily atheistic or agnostic. But liberty seems to be primarily Christian.
If you believe the universe is a machine that is hoping to grind you up, then of course you’d believe that liberty won’t work. Liberty would just free the machine to do its grinding.
If, on the other hand, you believe there is a benevolent God, then you’d believe that liberty opens one up to the abundance of His gifts.
This is where I part ways with the libertarian, though. The libertarian trusts in liberty above all, with or without God and the Gospel. But there can’t be liberty without the Gospel.
Without the Gospel, we turn God’s gifts into idols and those idols become harsh masters. But with the Gospel, we can truly be set free to enjoy God and His gifts.
What do you think?
Joseph