I've had this thought bouncing around in my little cranium for some time now; "Just as sin is control, so software freedom is salvation." Huh? You may say.

Well let me expand this a bit. Sin is defined as "estrangement from God", and "that which separates us from God", and the act of doing that which separates us from God. Now I'm not going to get into a theological debate about whether or not sin exists. Read Romans chapter 1-7 should you which to see a biblical, judeo-christian view of what sin really is. Suffice it to say, that it is not so much about us, but about God, and how he desires to have fellowship with us, but our sin denies this fellowship, as He is holy; totally without sin, and cannot fellowship in what is sinful.

A new revelation for me is that sin is control: that is it has power over us to control us ,and keep us under its influence. Just examine your own life to see how it is that you do the very things that make you miserable, the things that you don't really want to do.

The "good news" is that through the sacrifice God made in Jesus, He has conquered that sin for us, so that we are the victors in the battle against it. Therefore that control is broken, as we learn to understand and walk in the grace that he has given us in His sacrifice. This is called "salvation".

Ok, so what has this to do with software freedom?

Look at the fact that various proprietary and closed software manufacturers restrict what you can do with what they sell you. Including the fact that you cannot change it if it doesn't work for you. You may only use it according to their terms and conditions, whereas they are not providing you with anything for their side of the contract. They deny that choice is a good thing through the anti-competitive actions they take, and rules they make. Some even go so far as telling you what hardware you are allowed to run your software on. Through all of their marketing blurb, and the actions they take, one can quickly see that their first interest is NOT the customer, as they say, but rather the shareholder.

On the other hand, the GNU/Linux movement has given us freedom, and this according to the very principles of the holy and loving God that died for us. We are free to appropriate that software for ourselves. We are free to share with others (and we should). We are free to use that software for the benefit of mankind. We are free to change the software if we wish, as the source code is available and open.

In conclusion, it is easy to liken the freedom of salvation to the freedom of GNU/Linux.

Spread the gospel, being effective witnesses unto the ends of the Earth!