While I was away recently, it was "Bastille Day" in France, in commemoration and celebration of the storming of the Bastille prison by an intemperate mob in Paris on July 14th 1789 - the climax of twelve years leading to the French Revolution. A motto which grew out of that period of French history is "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" - a saying which is still inscribed on all the coins of the realm in France. A notable aspect of all political revolutions is the idea that human action can produce freedom, equality and brotherhood. However, even the secular writer, George Orwell, showed the fundamental foolishness of that idea in his brilliant satire "Animal Farm", where we see the initial declaration by the revolutionaries that "all animals are equal" quickly becoming amended to "all animals are equal... but some are more equal than others"!

The question still remains: Are freedom, equality and brotherhood possible in any way during our lives on this planet? The "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" adopted by the National Assembly during the French Revolution on August 26, 1789 stated in Article 4 that "Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others". But that is not really what human liberty is about. True freedom must surely always be about freedom "from" rather than freedom "to". If freedom is seen solely in terms of the freedom to act in any way that one wishes then it becomes reduced merely to a doctrine of selfishness. True freedom involves the reality of liberation FROM something. (In any case, one so often finds hypocrisy among those who claim to uphold such an idea of human liberty because they also vehemently defend the right to slaughter unborn children with abortion!).

The big problem with all such declarations of human rights is that they leave God and His Law out of the picture. They concentrate on human rights to the total exclusion of divine sovereignty. In an article on the historical development of the idea of "human rights" in Encyclopaedia Britannica, the author significantly shows that there was a major shift which took place from seeing "natural law as duties to natural law as rights" between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, centring especially on the Renaissance period. The Enlightenment period in Europe took hold of this and fashioned it into various Bills of Rights which were at the heart of a number of political revolutions. Frankly we now have a situation in which "rights" are seen as infinitely more important than duties. In fact, the idea of "duty" today -- whether to God, to nation, or to neighbour -- appears so politically incorrect and outstandingly old-fashioned that it is guaranteed to extract incredulous guffaws whenever it is mentioned! People today are only interested in their "rights" rather than their "duties".

However, any human system of law should not concentrate on what human beings should be free to do but on what God requires of His human creation. The idea that people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" (US Declaration of Independence) completely ignores the reality of the Fall (a classic freemasonic humanistic oversight!), and also undermines the fact that human beings have not been created for the purpose of "Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", but to enjoy God and glorify HIM forever.

This obsession with human rights over and above human duties is nothing less than institutionalised self-centeredness. In spite of the token Deistic mention of a Creator and God-given inalienable rights, the reality is that God and His sovereignty have been taken out of the equation by the instigators of the American revolution. And its sister revolution in France is no different. Article 3 of the French revolutionary "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" made the completely mistaken assertion that "The source of all sovereignty lies essentially in the Nation. No corporate body, no individual may exercise any authority that does not expressly emanate from it". However, the Bible plainly states: "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God" (Romans 13:1). True authority does not emanate from the people but from God. This is a truth which is almost completely ignored today, as much in the churches as in the world. Just as governmental authority does not have its source in the nation but in God, so also ecclesiastical authority does not reside in the church but in God (a fact that most churches today appear to ignore). In many ways, what people call "democracy" is nothing less than the rejection of God and the deification of Man.

At this point I could wax lyrical at some length about the extent of the occult freemasonic "democratic" connections between France and the USA. What people fail to realise is the fact that humanistic revolutionary notions concerning "La Liberté" are of occult illuminati origins -- going back into Rosicrucianism before the European reformation, as people dreamed of being free from the "tyranny" of religion (Christianity in particular) and the idea of divinely ordained government. Although many may not realise it, there was massive involvement of freemasonry in both the French and American revolutions (which were intimately connected, as the French assisted the Americans in their revolution). Most Americans today just will not accept that their country is founded on freemasonic humanism and is, in fact, a Masonic experiment. The statue of Liberty itself -- the ultimate symbol of the American revolution and the freedom it allegedly stands for -- is a freemasonic project from start to finish, financed by freemasons from France and America and sculpted by French freemasonic initiate Frederic Bartholdi (1834-1904), who was initiated into freemasonry at the age of forty. The torch in Lady Liberty's hand is the Luciferic light "enlightening the world". The laying of the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty on August 5th 1884 was a totally Masonic ceremony convened by William A. Brodie, Grand Master of Masons in New York. The picture below depicts the commemorative plaque laid by freemasons 100 years after the original stone-laying ceremony).

Ninety-one years before the laying of the Statue of Liberty, the laying of the cornerstone of the United States Capitol on September 18th 1793 was also a freemasonic affair, with George Washington and other attending dignitaries in full Masonic regalia. The picture below depicts the Cornerstone laying ceremony.

Another picture (below) shows George Washington in full Masonic regalia surrounded by potent Masonic symbols, including an all-seeing eye as capstone to a pyramid above his head.

According to Greek historian Plutarch (46-120), in his work on Isis and Osiris, the main god of Egypt (the religious source of much of the mythology of Freemasonry) was represented by the symbol of an eye. According to A.E. Waite's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, the all-seeing eye is a symbol of "when the eye of the soul is opened and God is known of the heart". This mystical occult Freemasonic symbol is at the centre of the making of the New World Order envisaged by Rosicrucians and Freemasons for centuries. This symbol -- designed by Freemasons in 1782 -- is now the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States of America and is found on one-dollar U.S. notes over the "Novus Ordo Seclorum". Once again, we see that the U.S.A. is not a Christian country at all -- and never has been. It is instead a Masonic experiment from start to finish, designed to effect the envisaged utopia dreamed of by all occultists in fulfilment of the desire of their father Satan to build his pretended kingdom on earth.

A great deal more could be said about all these occult connections with political revolutions; but it is doubtful that many will care to listen. Some may even want to string me up for saying these 'seditious' things! I'm serious! This is an emotive issue -- striking at the heart of a cauldron-full of misplaced patriotism. We could bring it right through to the present day, as America is about to be duped again into thinking that the election of George W. Bush will mark a significant change from Bill Clinton and a swing toward conservatism in the US. What a deception! George Bush senior has groomed his son well for this job. I remember having a conversation with my good friend Peter Watson a number of years ago when George Bush senior (a New World Order man through-and-through) went out of the White House without a whimper as he knew it was his turn to roll over. (Remember his luciferian "Thousand Points of Light" statement in the Benjamin Franklin Ballroom in Philadelphia, PA on April 8th 1997? And Ben Franklin was one freemason-and-a-half too!). Peter and I said then that if we were betting men, we'd put money on Bush senior grooming his son to become a future New World Order lackey at the White House. It matters not a jot whether a Democrat or Republican is in the Presidency. The outcome of elections are merely the result of social manipulation. "Democracy" is simply the freedom of the people to vote for their next dictator (who is actually only a figurehead for those who really rule)! Of course, Americans are very proud of their country; which is why they cannot accept these things. But their country is not at all what it may seem to them. National pride so easily enshrouds truth. I could say more on this -- a great deal more -- a whole book's-worth more! But that would be a digression from the immediate subject of freedom. Another time, maybe...

But I will say this: No matter how much one puts into establishing freedom by the bullet or even by the ballot, it simply cannot be achieved in this world. This is the great utopian delusion which lies at the heart of all humanistic illuminism. While one does not want to see dictatorships at work in the world, the fact is that true human freedom is determined neither by governments nor by revolutions. One can be emancipated from the worst political dictator and yet still fail to be free. Conversely, one can be a captive in the world's darkest dungeon and yet be totally at liberty. How is that possible? Because true freedom consists not in physical liberty but in spiritual liberty. Such liberty comes only through knowing the truth and acting upon it. There is no greater liberating force than that; and it has one source only - in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Believing in and following the Lord Jesus Christ is the only action which brings liberty. As He said: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

Christ's public ministry was dedicated to the total liberation of human beings, as He announced when He began to preach: "[God] has anointed me...to proclaim liberty to the captives" (Luke 4:18). Just what was the "liberty" which Christ proclaimed? Was Jesus a political activist, or was he a good Communist, as was claimed recently by Fidel Castro? Did Jesus offer liberty from cruel human tyrants? From famine? From poverty? Not at all. It was freedom from the state of bondage to sin in which all human beings find themselves (John 8:34-36, 41-44), freedom from domination by the fallen angel Satan (1 John 3:8; Mark 3:27), and freedom from every aspect of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). That is the kind of freedom which is offered by Christ - which lasts not only in this life but for all eternity. This is a truly revolutionary freedom - infinitely transcending anything which governments or guerrilla leaders can offer.

Thus we can now understand the true meaning of Liberté. In the coming weeks, we shall look at the true meanings of Égalité and Fraternité - equality and brotherhood (or perhaps we should say "fellowship" in these politically correct, anti-discriminatory times!). We will discover that in these areas too, only Jesus Christ can offer a lasting, in-depth solution to the problems which people think they can solve merely through political action. "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36)!