The idea of freedom is at one and the same time, a ubiquitous and a nebulous concept. Here in America the word gets thrown around frequently with such oft-quoted phrases as “freedom is not free” or “land of the free”. Yet what exactly do we mean when we speak of freedom? The answer to that question will depend on the society, culture, experience, and ideas of the person responding. Here I want to take up one particular idea that I was exposed to this week: the idea of freedom as escape from the power of suggestion.
When asked to define freedom, a common answer in America will likely be something along the lines of “the ability to make one’s own decisions.” This begs the question, however, of what was prevents us from making our own decisions in the first place. Looking past the temporal (matters of government, political oppression, etc.) we find that freedom is the spiritual ability to choose right over wrong.
This connection may not be obvious. To elucidate it we return again to the idea of decision. If there are decisions to be made, there must be advocates for both positions, else the positions would never exist in the first place. And if an advocate for a position exists, that advocate wants us, as the decision-makers, to choose their position. This want translates into a suggestion, expressed in any of a variety of forms, that we should choose that position.
Let us look to an example. It is apparent that a child is not free in the same way that an adult’s mind is. This is because the child is still susceptible to the power of suggestion. Imagine that the child wants to play with some toy that is currently unavailable. Rather than tell the child they cannot have the toy, you may instead suggest that the child play with another toy. (Here the child is the advocate for one position, while also acting as the decision maker, and you are the advocate for the other.) Quite often the child will conform to your suggestion and change his or her position. Because you hold the power of suggestion, you have control over the child, who is thus not free.
We now to another example, this time from the Bible. Genesis 3:4-5:
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
It is clear that the serpent holds the power of suggestion in the story of the Fall. He desires that Eve take of the fruit and thus suggests that the consequences will be other than she believes. By thus suggesting, the serpent is infringing upon Eve’s freedom.
After the fall, humankind was not free, because it was susceptible to this suggestion. We find in Romans 1:18-21 the description of this:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Though God made his presence self-evident to men, men did not recognize God. Instead, men chose to submit to the power of suggestion and recognize themselves as the end of all things.
What then happens through Christ’s salvation? “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galations 5:1). Our freedom in Christ is to be directed towards a purpose. We are able to pursue this purpose because freedom in Christ is spiritual removal from under the influence of the power of suggestion. By God’s grace we are no longer of this world, nor beholden to the world.
Now, taken away from the power of suggestion found in the world, we are able to perceive what God “made plain”. This perception allows us to choose right over wrong. Thus, freedom is the spiritual ability to choose right over wrong.
At this point, we find that freedom is not at all the “ability to make one’s own decisions”. We fool ourselves if we think that this ability is ever granted to us. In this world we are subject to the power of suggestion and thus unable to make our own decisions. And once free of such suggestion, there is only one decision we can make. Freedom is not the ability to make our own decisions, but the ability to choose the only correct decision. And this freedom is only attained when we have escaped from the power of suggestion.
Tags: freedom, suggestion
