A word about . . . The freedom loophole and the baptist takeover of the world: Jeremiah 34:8-22 and Galatians 5:1,13-16a

Abstract

What happens when the fundamental “baptist”1 interpretation of freedom, once thought to be a radical notion, becomes largely mainstreamed and included in the constitutions of most Western democracies? What happens when, in relation to the church and the state, free-church baptist polity largely dictates the worldview of most, if not all, other Christian traditions, even if it has not yet influenced the very doctrinal and theological structures of those mainstream denominations? What happens when the four “fragile freedoms” of baptist life (soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom and religious freedom) are undermined by fellow-baptists and others who decry such freedom as too radical, “a figment of some infidel’s imagination,” or an ungodly paean to a “woke” culture gone mad? This article addresses those questions in the context of two “emancipation proclamations” in Scripture, that of the prophet Jeremiah (34:8-9) to King Zedekiah and of Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians (5:1,13-16a). Still other historical moments of the “baptist” faith-heritage underscore such biblical liberties further undoing any notion that being “woke” in the current cultural and political setting is a new concept at all. Indeed, it is this very old, already “woke,” biblical “baptist” worldview that holds out the greatest promise for Christian witness in the twenty-first century and beyond.