January/February 2000

The Artifice of Time and Liberty

My mother was not the obvious criminal type. She was conscientious, responsible, and kindly--an ideal housewife, mother, and citizen. But she held firm views when it came to raising her children, and she was not going to let just anyone push her around when it came to their welfare. Even if that anyone was the state educational department, which said that her children must be in school when they reached the age of six. From an application of Christian principles she was convinced, and my father agreed, that this was too young. My parents believed that I would be benefited emotionally and spiritually by another year of instruction and teaching at home.

David Koresh was not the first person to use the Bible's view of the end of the world as a springboard for his own personal agenda. Many bizarre interpretations of the Apocalypse and similar biblical books have abounded over the years. In the Middle Ages, for example, a number of groups in Western Europe, particularly in France, saw in the concept of the millennium a prediction that the end of the world would come around the year 1000. Considerably more bizarre was the movement in 1534 that declared that the city of M¸nster, Germany, was the New Jerusalem, the future golden city of biblical fame. The proponents of this view sought to establish their earthly utopia by the force of arms.

Editorial, April 1906. Vol.1, No 1.


Ahead lie the untested years of the new millennium. Liberty Magazine is time-tested and ready to address the defense of the religious liberty test in a dynamic new era. To mark the transition and to underscore the consistency of our position, we present the editorial from the first-ever Liberty, dated April 1906. Accompanying it are some position statements and excerpts from that first issue and a special undated issue of that first year.
--The Editors.


"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10).

As we approached the year 2000, there was much talk of fixing the Y2K problem. This preoccupation--in some cases obsession--with computers and the need to fix them in order to sail smoothly into the new century has perhaps obscured the watershed significance of the millennial date in regards to human relations. As we pass over into the third millennium, it is imperative for religious freedom to be looked after and "fixed" where necessary.

On December 10, 1948, 48 of the 58 member states of the United Nations voted the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 states that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."1

He pointed a gun at her head and as she stared down the cold barrel he asked her one question: "Do you believe in God?"

"Yes" would certainly mean death. "No" might save her life. She took a breath.

"Yes, I believe in God," replied the 17-year-old Christian.

"Why?" he asked. But before she could reply he shot her.