And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, John 8:32.
For this post, I asked Brother Dale Morey of Liberty Behind Bars to write about the difference between being made free and being set free. Dale is midway through his last course to receive a doctorate in Christian Counseling. In his weekly ministration to the prisoners in the Allegany County, New York Correction Facility, he makes much out of the difference between those two words.
Dale can not have a license to counsel in the State of New York because he is a felon. That does not bother the many men and women who crowd in to hear him speak of the liberty in Christ Jesus. If there is anyone who would like to receive Dale's devotional letters that he mails to inmates around the state, contact him through the Liberty Behind Bars Facebook page. You can hear him preach at www.onesoulatatime.net under the Dale Morey tab.
Would you rather be “set free” or “made free”? Is there a difference?
My name is Dale Morey and I’ve been saved for almost 7 years. Jesus saved me from a life of crime, addiction, and gang life. For many years I was trapped in the revolving door of doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome. For many years I was continually “set free” from boys homes, mental hospitals, rehabs, jail, and prisons; only to return over and over again.
I started playing around with this thing called religion. My first book was a NIV (I will not honor it and call it a bible) and I would read it in prison. I was able to change a few outward things and would send verses home to my family members. I gained knowledge and tried to convince myself and others that the profession I made about being saved was real (as I made many, many professions previously). The Bible says in 1Corinthians 8:1 Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. I would even argue with people that I was really saved, but nothing inwardly ever changed. I would never admit that there was no internal witness that I was truly saved; and neither will anyone else admit this who read those other perverted books/bibles.
Jesus says in Matthew 23:25-28 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (bolded for emphasis). The void was still there like a black hole in my heart and I always knew something was missing. Again, I had been “set free” to do those things that I always had done.
In the NIV and many other perverted book/bibles, the book of John 8:32 it says, Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. In the King James Bible it says in John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (underlined for emphasis). Is there a difference in this “small word change? Does it really matter? The answer is yes! It makes a difference in any word change and it really does matter what word is used!
Here is the difference… in order for something to be “set free,” it must have already been in existence. For example, in order for me to set my glasses on the table, they must be in existence for me to do so. However, to “make free,” means that something that has not existed before has been newly created. The NIV promises to set you free to go out and continue to live your life just as you always have with no change. The King James Bible promises to give you something that you never had before; freedom. Jesus will make you free to live a new life that you never thought possible.
For the first time in my life, I have been made free from the jails, prisons, rehabs, mental hospitals and gangs. When a person is “set free,” there is no change. When a person has been “made free,” we can visibly see proof of what 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks of, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are (present tense) passed away; behold, all things are (present tense) become new (bold for emphasis). This is the process of Jesus making a person free.
I may not be able to prove the King James Bible to you through Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic dictionaries or lexicons; or man’s knowledge of these texts, but I can prove it to you through a changed life. God never instructed us to learn “the original languages” to understand His Word. What a cruel commandment that would be. God never made the KJV bible complex. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty (Genesis 3:1), so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him (the devil in Isaiah saying he will be LIKE the Most High, not the opposite, hence the other versions, churches, music etc.). If people would just take the King James Bible, the Word of God for what it says exactly and believe it, you will need nothing else.
Nowhere in the bible does it ever tell us to learn other languages in order to understand the bible. If so, men and women like me, and millions of others, including my children, would never be able to come to repentance, get saved; have understanding of Jesus and the life of Jesus formed in us (Romans 8:29) - if they had to know Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic and other things placed on them by man. We don’t have to take 100 different bibles to get the Word of God, God has preserved it perfectly just as we need it for today. All else are the foolish things of the world, James 4:3-10… Psalm 119:89 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name (underlined and bold for emphasis).
-Dale Morey
Liberty Behind Bars Ministry