Maybe Babylon is as a symbol of “false worship” in seminary textbooks and in many old Christian writings, but the Bible itself, indeed The Revelation of Jesus Christ (as given to John) overrules. 

In Rev. 17 and 18 you can find the interpretation of who the Whore of Babylon actually is, “that great city”, and it says “wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness”. 

The Vatican is a sucking parasite and does not make anybody rich. This Babylon does. And in her is the blood of all that were slain upon the earth. 

That’s a good description of a “great city” that enriches kings all around the planet with its dollars and its foreign spending, and moves merchandise trade around the earth with the international medium of exchange (the dollar) and its multinational monsters. 

The woman sitteth upon the seven kings, “five are fallen”, as described in Daniel, that is, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. “One is” would be Rome. “One is yet to come”, that would be the last superpower on Earth before the time of the Beast, as described in Rev. 17 because who else? The Roman Catholic Church is not so powerful, hah, somebody just engineered a coup d’etat to finally install the Jesuit socialist in power at the Vatican. 

The most fitting entity for Rev. 17 today is either Washington D. C. or New York, but most likely the latter because of so much talk of trade and merchandise. And it sits on the seventh mountain, the seventh world kingdom, and that would be the United States of America.  

The Jesuit is ‘preparing the flock” to be sheared and butchered by the Beast, so he could be the False Prophet of Rev. 13. 

Get ready, to be ready, to meet your maker, after the November elections and the inauguration it is going to be a wild, wild, ride. The enemies of the “everyday man” are now saying it is time for “the elites to rise up against the masses”. Maybe when Trump said “the gloves are off”, he was talking about those “elites”  themselves.

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Immediately AFTER the Tribulation of those days

From a Christian that still believes in a pre-tribulation rapture:

[“pre-tribber”:] God is not a wife beater!

—
[my response] Tell that to the 100s of 1000s of witnesses who shed blood in the first centuries, or the tens of millions of victims of Satan’s Communist regimes of the 20th century and this one.

[pre-tribber:] My response: Sure, I tell them when I get to heaven and see them. And they’ll agree with me because in all of that bloodshed of the martyrs, it was man who persecuted them with his wrath. Not God. But in the time of Jacob’s trouble (the Biblical term for the 7 year period) it is God who pours out His wrath on men. Just read Revelation. It is Jesus who is breaking the seals, summoning the trumpets, and pouring the vials. The spotless and pure body of Christ cannot be beat up by God. So, yeah, God is not a wife beater. Even the martyrs would say, “Amen!”

—
You’re the one who protested that God is not a wife beater as if he would not allow his children to suffer persecution in this life. Since when has he saved his people from all natural disasters, or even all the consequences of the natural disasters that we call “acts of God”?

I never said the saints would be the target of the Tribulation, but Jesus indeed did say (Mat. 24)

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.-Matthew 5:45

God saved Noah and his family through the time of the Flood, not from the Flood.

Saints of God since the beginning of time have suffered cancer, floods, drought, accidents, falls, drowning of boats and ships, plagues, freezing, attacks by beasts, anything you can name for sure. I’ve known some saints myself who are with the Lord after such experiences.

AND GOD’S WORD PROMISES THAT THE SAINTS WILL SUFFER UNDER THE ANTICRHIST REIGN:

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.–Revelation 13:7

I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;-Daniel 7:21

And after Jesus gave the signs of the end, and spoke of the Tribulation in Matthew 24, he went on to Matthew 24:33, where he said in this PRIVATE class to his DISCIPLES ONLY (See verse 1)

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.-Matt 24:33

When YE shall see ALL these things…

And then he warns against false prophets. In my view that includes Cyrus Scofield, the Bible perversions of Darby, and who hated the Bible and preferred the “better” interpretations. It includes many filthy lucre covetous televangelists, it includes the Vatican usurper and their own Virgin vision-seers. And the Word does warn that in the last days there will be those who protest in the end that they cast out devils, and healed in the Lord’s name and He never knew them.

Jesus said “By their fruits ye shall know them”. The Pharisees were oh so holy and rebuked Jesus and the disciples for violating the minor points of the law and their own traditions. They strain at gnats and swallow camels.

I suggest you follow Jesus’ admonition in Luke 9:50 “And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.” Which was the Lord’s response to verse 49 “And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.”

“He shall be saved out of it” (Jer 30:7) is not enough to say it is a gathering together and catching up in the clouds, especially since that would contradict the promises that the saints will be on the earth during the Antichrist rule and his persecution and that he will overcome them. It rains on the just and on the unjust just like it rained 40 days and nights upon the Ark, while Noah and family were protected from the Flood, “saved out of it”.

And now a specific number of days that refers to the three and a half years of the Tribulation after the Beast breaks the “holy covenant” in Daniel 9:27.

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.+ – Daniel 7:25

Ben Carson, Gun Control and the Holocaust

The CNN interviewer asked Ben Carson about gun control:

“But just to clarify, if there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would 6 million Jews have been slaughtered?”

Liberty Upward mentions his book: “In Carson’s new book “A Perfect Union,” Carson writes that “through a combination of removing guns and disseminating propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.” (From Liberty Upward )

What a gotcha question, so they could set him up for Holocaust industry for potshots.

Did Carson remember to mention the Warsaw uprising? That’s where the Jews in that ghetto held off the Nazis for days in a full-scale battle?

He could have mentioned that the first gun control proposal in the U.S. Congress after WW2 was modeled almost word for word on the Nazi gun control laws.

 

What a gotcha question, so they could set him up for Holocaust industry for potshots.

Did Carson remember to mention the Warsaw uprising? That’s where the Jews in that ghetto held off the Nazis for days in a full-scale battle?

He could have mentioned that the first gun control proposal in the U.S. Congress after WW2 was modeled almost word for word on the Nazi gun control laws.

Jesus had his disciples carry weapons for self-defense in the Garden of Gethsemane where he knew he would be betrayed.

In another lesson for Christians, though, he was not a warmonger. He had already refused his attempted coronation after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, when he also told us why some people vote for their favorite candidate: not because you saw a miracle, he told them, but “because your bellies were full.” He had also declared that the greatest in God’s kingdom (already “within you”) would be the least among us and a servant to the rest, in a role reversal.

 

 

Taxation is tribute, tribute is theft

Both dominant USG political parties are socialist, because their platforms and practice both make the basic assumption that all your money belongs to them to do with as they see fit, and they will let you keep enough to live another day to continue to “pay tribute”. This is the life of serfs and lords of the manor. Organized grand theft.

I never, not once, I NEVER agreed to ANY such “social contract” WHATSOEVER.

There is no government on Earth today that did not arrive to it by conquest. Today’s “lords” pretend to be more benevolent but they still have the warfare-welfare state to sell.

All the wars in the Middle East have a pivot point in Jerusalem. USG lined up to lay its reputation on the line, along with the sons of serfs, in support of Israel, which is a creation of what were called Zionists before WW2. Truman and other lords of the manor threw reports of Irgun atrocities in the trash and recognized Israel immediately.

Meantime, the Federal Reserve continues its counterfeit money operation. Fiat money makes it easier to wage war, so we have a runaway government waging unconstitutional wars with unconstitutional money. What they can’t get by taxing us out of house and home (in many cases literally) they get by robbing us in the greatest theft scheme of history, currency devaluation. They call it “inflation” so it doesn’t sound so bad.

When Krugman of the NYT says a little bit of inflation is good, he’s quoting Keynes, whose ideas corrupted the conversation and made most economists stupid. What neither Keynes or Krugman will admit publicly is that inflation is a direct theft of value from what “purchasing power” the “little people” have.

But politicians loved him. Durban said quipped “Keynesianism is dead” at the presser for so-called “Sequestration”. Sequestration had absolutely ZERO cuts to the budget over the previous year. So when USG complained about having to cut services, they were lying when they said it was stingy Republicans are blah blah. But the Republican Party is no better, they did the same thing to finance the wars too.

I told everybody in 2008 that Obama would do the same things Bush did. And I am so sorry that Obama did not only that but much much more than Bush could have hoped for.

Jesus came to set at liberty those who are captive, give comfort to the poor, heal the sick, and most importantly save our souls. In Matthew 17 he exposes all taxation schemes as “tribute” extorted (stolen) by conquering looters. In saying “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar and unto God what is God’s” he was referring to the fact that Caesar and all extortionists (see Matthew 17) do not own anything legitimately. Romans 13 is no excuse for Caesar-loving 501c3 loving pastors, because if any government does not meet its requirements it means it deserves nothing.

Bible believers, followers of Christ, bane of tyrants, have laid down their own lives spreading the gospel of love and freedom

This is my reply to a vicious slur against Christ and against the Bible found here and all to common even among liberty-minded writers sometimes. Keep in mind that even self-described atheist Rothbard recognized that many religiously inclined believers were often better defenders of freedom than fellow atheists. Ron Paul is a good example.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/danger-religious-fundamentalists-just-muslisms.html

This article is worse than a cruel slur. The biggest victims of the abuses of the Roman persecutions, the Inquisitions, Roman Catholic armies. Papal decrees, Muslim fatwas, and holy wars have been  BIBLE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANS who have been the ones who paid with their own blood not only in their efforts to share eternal life and love and freedom found in Christ from guilt, sin, death and hell.

And you forgot to mention that the Popes put the BIBLE as the number one BANNED BOOK. Libraries should be pushing the BIBLE as history’s number one book banned by religious tyrants. John Knox is one who was a priest who first found out there was such a book when he saw it in their banned list.

From St. Patrick’s “crusade” against Irish and British slavery (“Is it our fault we are born Irish?”), to David Livingston’s and William WIlberforce’s campaigns against slavery, through the Christian abolitionists’ attacks on slavery, Christians have taken the beatings for people like the ones who taught the writer of this historical ignorance.

I too was deceived by the lies they taught me in the anti-Christian “secular” godless government indoctrination centers K-12 and then Ivy League professors who promoted the ideology of the biggest regimes on the earth of history that said the same things and tried to “cure” their societies and bring freedom FROM religion. 

Beware because when the voracious anti-Christian propagandists take control, the ones in clear and present danger will be the ones closest to their power and ideology. Stalin first had all his Politburo friends murdered, then he went after the fellow socialist Mensheviks and other socialists, and then of course the Christians. 

Like Christ said, what is whispered in secret will be shouted from the rooftops, and nothing and no one can stop the truth, shared with the love of Jesus Christ. 

Look at this great breach of logic. And they say this is “reason”, “enlightenment”??!

How can anybody say it’s all the same?

Jesus Christ laid down his OWN life for unbelievers to spread the message of the God of love, Muhammad laid down the life of unbelievers to spread his message of Allah.

The earliest Christians laid down THEIR OWN lives to spread the gospel of the God of love, while the early followers of Islam laid down the lives of resistors in North Africa and Arabia and Turkey and southern Europe to spread their message. 

Impostors and tyrants and rulers use any excuse they can use to justify power: atheism, the Pharisees with the laws of Moses, the money changers in the Temple, the evil kings of Israel, the wicked priests Ezekiel exposed in Ezekiel 8 that worshipped the sun in secret and kept idols to devils within.

With Christians came opposition to such tyrants. The Amish and the Puritans simply refused to cooperate with the Anglican mandates. The threat to appoint Anglican bishops over the colonies, known for “drawing-and-quartering” punishments, added fuel to the fire of the American Revolutionary War. Oh yeah, and the greatest scientists of history, including the greatest one, Isaac Newton, a young-Earth creationist. 90 percent of the founding members of the first society founded for the study of science, the Royal Society, were Puritans. 

Around the world, Christians shamed the world into ending child sacrifices, cannibalism, gladiator spectacles, slavery, and all manner of evils. They began the institutions of universities, orphanages, charities, clinics then hospitals, reflected to this day in names like Red Cross. 

Even Charles Darwin, of  “The Origin of Species and… the Preservation of Favoured Races”, once wrote a scathing rebuke to critics of missionaries, defending them and their influence. He told how world travelers like himself on the high seas, when they came to the shore of a South Pacific island, breathed a great sigh of relief when they saw the cross atop a steeple, knowing that the missionaries were here and instead of becoming somebody’s dinner they would be dining in peace with new friends. 

And today’s strongest and loudest anti-slavery crusaders are Christians, and it is Christians who are setting fire to spread the strongest message of freedom today, the anarcho-capitalist message, because THAT is what the Bible teaches, starting from Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself, and Thou Shalt Not Steal, and Neither Do I Condemn Thee.

And the biggest call against tyranny of all is coming, and Bible-believers have been leading the charge for almost 2,000 years. The Mark of the Beast looks more than ever to be the embedded chip, that will be required by a new tyranny and one-world government. They might not even declare themselves as a government, but it will be required to buy or sell, and “really bad” penalties will apply to the freedom-minded. Many resisters will not be Christians. 

But there is a reason the present world rulers hate Christianity. They will be one strong element in those who stand firm in their faith, like in North Korea right now (see helpinghandskorea.com) and in Muslim nations.

Some of them who are prepared will feed and clothe you when you realize what’s happening. But that’s okay.

I once believed the lies myself. Welcome to the love of the truth. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. 

 

Evidence-based Christianity

I’m one Bible believer who got there through science, history, facts, reasoning and logic. The tautological circle is true of many Christians who don’t think much, and much Christian evangelical media. But even they are allowing the evidence-based arguments. Christianity is the one related by way of historical events. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”, not tautologies. “Global cooling is part of global warming” is a tautology. You should put “scientists” in there. Michael Crichton did. See his essay “Aliens cause Global Warming”, from a talk at Cal Tech, where he totally demolished “Drake’s equation”, the blind-faith basis for SETI. Thomas Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions” should have convinced them to “Question everything”, which they don’t.

History has hundreds who sought evidence against Christianity and ended up as believers, including thousands of scientists today who renounced Darwinism based on science. An archaeologist once set out to falsify the Bible by checking on the place names in Acts and dug them all up. The Jewish rabbis showed Alexander the prophecy that Greece would trounce Persia and conquer shockingly fast and then his empire divided to four. As happened. And that was after he fulfilled other prophecy by throwing the old Tyre literally into the sea.

A student once challenged atheist Harvard dean of Law Simon Greanleaf to apply his own rule (no conclusions without first considering the evidence) That in turn is held up by the evidence of history, archaeology, and logic, and the rules of historical evidence as detailed by the atheist-turned-Christian Simon Greanleaf, author of “Testimony of the Evangelists”. To this day a man’s dying testimony has weight, and to die for it proves belief. An archaeologists looking to disprove Acts, for example, excavated so much of it he became a believer. Lew Wallace is another one. Isaac Newton said the fact that (true) science is reliable shows design. It was his version of the “anthropic principle”, in the NON-circular definition of it.

It’s much more fact-based than Darwinism, for sure. That’s where the lack of evidence of “punctuation” in fossils (and only equilibrium) is offered as evidence for “punctuated equilibrium”. Mendel’s experiments were ignored at length and DNA made it so incredible a co-discoverer postulated aliens.

Answers to quotes by famous atheists and agnostics

“We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.” -Gene Roddenberry

My reply ==> We must question the irrational logic of someone admitting to being a faulty human, who then fails to wonder why an omniscient and omnipotent God would create him, as if it made no sense to him. Of course it makes no sense to him, as he does not want to consider the answers to this question that he would know exist if he were to only have an open mind.

We must question the intellectual honesty of someone who wants to blame a Creator for his own decision to be faulty in his logic.

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” -Edward Gibbon

My reply ==> An amazingly historically ignorant comment coming from such a historian, who must know that all of the major areas of study of modern science were men much wiser than he, and who believed in the Creator God as a fact of reality not always concomitant with what the ignorant know as “religion”. Let us see who is wiser among: Gibbons, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Michael Faraday, Johann Kepler, Blaise Pascal, Robert Boyle…

So does Gibbon determine truth by a majority vote of the smarter-than-thou elite, selected by degree of hubris? Sounds kind of “useful” for such an arrogant class.

Speaking of the wise, take it from the wisest man who ever lived, outside of Jesus Christ:
Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise
Isaiah 5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” -Epicurus

This from one of those brilliant idol-worshipping scholars of ancient Greece? No wonder they believed in pagan gods that were no better than men, said women were lower than men but higher than slaves. They were so smart. Just like today’s version of the same intellectual smugness:

Acts 17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.
21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” Albert Einstein

That sounds like the common protestation that “I’m not so bad”, or the very wrong commonly cited myth that “All people are basically good”. Look at toddlers in a day care. Some bigger ones walk around biting the others (I know two toddlers personally that were bitten, hard, unprovoked, while they were toddlers in day care). Some are born aggressive, others not so much. Jacob and Esau fought in the womb; Jacob emerged grabbing at Esau’s feet.

The best universal guide for ethical behavior does not need so much of any of what Einstein said. It’s a universal rule that has been expressed in many different ways everywhere even outside of Judeo-Christian philosophies, and that is expressed in the libertarian refrain, known as the non-aggression principle:

See the best definition at http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Principle_of_non-aggression:

…an ethical stance which asserts that “aggression” is inherently illegitimate. “Aggression” is defined as the “initiation” of physical force against persons or property, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property. In contrast to pacifism, the non-aggression principle does not preclude violent self-defense. The principle is a deontological (or rule-based) ethical stance.

This much can be expected and indeed required of everyone. As a college student, my first disillusion with Marxism was a realization that came to me one day while musing on the issue of how to change the world for better, and wrestling with the self-contradictions of a dictatorship and the proletariat and the idea that a state would just fade away.

The idea that burst into my head was this: If you cannot trust a man, or group of men, to govern themselves, how can you trust them to govern other people? Of course some people you cannot trust with either situation, to either govern themselves or to govern others, and this is one of the biggest questions people have. Such questions have their answers, for those who seek them or accept them.

There is a much stronger ethic required of Christians, however. One of the Ten Commandments orders us to “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. No, you don’t have to “love yourself first”, that is the opposite of the principle, because “no man yet ever hated his own flesh”.

Jesus made it stronger still in the Golden Rule, paraphrased as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

The non-aggression principle, for example, says you have no right to steal from the poor. The Christian ethic says, take care of the poor that come across your path. That also means you don’t steal from others to do it, because the only legitimate source you have for helping others is what’s your own. In other words, Help the poor with your own money, not somebody else’s money.

Okay? If you don’t want anyone to steal from you, then don’t steal from others. Taking without the owner’s permission is stealing. To “steal”: “to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch”. from http://dictionary.reference.com/.

Andrew Napolitano clarified that last point. If you don’t have the right to steal from your neighbor, you cannot designate any representative to steal from your neighbor either.

NOW THE SECOND ISSUE FROM THE EINSTEIN QUOTE:
THE WAY OF MAN IS ALREADY THE “POOR WAY”

“….Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” -Albert Einstein

The elephant in the logical room that Einstein missed is the fact that all men everywhere are already “restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death”. Is Einstein saying that he needs neither government nor self-defense to prevent attacks or theft by his neighbors? In the places where people are most conscious of posthumous rewards and punishments, of course, we already know that those selfsame places are where you have less need to lock your doors.

Did Einstein’s actions match his words? No he did not. Because he was visiting in the United States when Hitler came to power in Germany, and Hitler did not go back. Instead, he opted to live in a society where the regime did not embrace such a philosophy. For when the atheist has power, he does not believe in having to answer for his actions here or there, so self-delusion drives them to force everyone else into their box.

 

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Efficiency and government

This topic started a short comment of mine on another’s blog:

http://uldissprogis.com/2014/01/08/physics-proves-that-inefficiency-is-immoral/

http://uldissprogis.com/2014/01/08/it-is-immoral-to-be-inefficient/

He replied on one of my posts. Following the quote is my reaction..

https://trutherator.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/cops-knew-carey-no-terrorist-family-lawyer-arrested-day-after-call-to-doj-to-investigate-cops/#comments:

I am more interested in making individual humans operating efficiently in their lives with a moral code that promotes efficiency with an efficient language, efficient education, and ultimately an efficient political system which gives a dam about biodiversity, its preservation, and expansion. Nature punishes the inefficient animals and plants and it is time for humans also to reflect this natural moral natural law in the way that they behave towards each other and the wilderness. am more interested in making individual humans operating efficiently in their lives with a moral code that promotes efficiency with an efficient language, efficient education, and ultimately an efficient political system which gives a dam about biodiversity, its preservation, and expansion. Nature punishes the inefficient animals and plants and it is time for humans also to reflect this natural moral natural law in the way that they behave towards each other and the wilderness.

I applaud your interest in helping people become more efficient in their lives and a moral code that incorporates such a goal. I think it should be obvious that in no way did my comments mean that inefficiency is acceptable either as a goal or a moral good.

In fact almost all of your blog posts share and promote laudable ideas that are good for people, a commendable effort. I’m sorry our first real interactions were on this small difference.

Let me illustrate with the big picture view of governments. I see in your most recent post from today that you advocate ratcheting down the power of states to a local level closer to the people. Now THAT is a good idea, but it would be better to advocate (for the same reasons you express and other reasons).

Governments are notoriously the most inefficient institutions for any specified purpose, and that includes some of the most noble purposes.

I recommend reading up on Austrian Economics as a way of more fully grasping that idea, if you haven’t already. The Mises Institute (www.mises.org) is a good source for learning more about it. Keynsesians don’t have a clue about how economics works.

Now, I’ll step into a little bit of hyperbole here (kind of like calling inefficiency as “immoral”) and I’ll say that Keynesian economics is “immoral” in the sense that it advocates theft as a way to do good. As if government is justified by the fact that its power does indeed come out of the barrel of a gun, like Obama’s Information and Regulation Czar said, quoting Mao Tse Tung. Only he said it like Mao as a general principle.

I have learned as a born-again Christian that the most powerful force in the world is love, and the love of Christ is the testament to the fact.

Now, the fact that government is an inefficient way to do anything it purports to do is not by itself make it immoral per se. The “immorality” of government comes from the fact that it steals from its subjects and forces people (at the point of the gun of the law) to do things or not do things whether they like it or not.

This principle is more clear if you just replace the word “government” with the word “your neighbors”. The Good Samaritan was “neighbor” to the victim of highway robbery, because he took resources from his own purse to help the man. He did not wait for some rich man to come by to steal from him.

In this sense, the resources that government steals from the productive to give to (whoever else), is immoral. The ruling position, based on force, is a temptation to do all kinds of good things, but in the end it exposes the truth of the old adage, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It takes a special strength of innate character to avoid the temptations of power, The fact that the Ron Paul’s are such a rarity in Congress (or else lobbyists would have nothing to do) is a demonstration.

I do not agree with some of C. S. Lewis’ most important assertions (that he thought were minor I think) ideas, but one truth he said was this:

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good
of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may
at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good
will torment us without end for they do so with the approval
of their own conscience.”

It think it’s horrendous the way that in recent decades in the prosperity after World War II, Americans have been some of the most wasteful people in the world.

But their government has done tremendous harm in the name of doing good. The temptations of power result in a lot of immorality, and now, as the Bible says about those who have little conscience, “They declare their sin, they hide it not”.

By far the biggest waste is war, though. The welfare-warfare state builds up this oppressive monster. “Cities are a festering sore on the body politic” said one famous historian, and he was right.

The corruption factor is seen in the application to taxation. “Taxation is theft” said Murray Rothbard.

Jesus even explained this to his disciples. When you ask 90% of Christian pastors about taxes, they’ll point to Jesus’ retort to the Pharisees asking whether it was “lawful” (under the Torah, of course, not the Roman) to pay taxes, and he said ” Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.” (Luke 20:25).

We all know (or should know) that “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”.

But elsewhere he taught something more to his disciples. In Matthew 17:24-27, when they came collecting taxes from Jesus’ band, he taught them with questions what he thought about questions.

25 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?

26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

That’s right, they take “taxes” from you at the point of the gun of the law, but they don’t pay them.

Find an emotional expression of this, in an outburst, of all places, in the European Parliament:
http://www.libertariannews.org/2013/11/23/european-parliament-quotes-rothbard-warns-of-civil-unrest/

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Christians and government, Romans 13, taxes, and Caesar

What so many Christians get wrong is that they think government helping the poor is the same as a person helping the poor. They don’t consider that taxes are theft, misinterpret Jesus’ response to Pharisees about Caesar’s image on a coin and Romans 13. And misapply the laws of Moses.

They also forget that Caesar was divinity by government decree, and the coin was idolatry. The question was about taxes, but he wisely told them to pay to Caesar whatever actually belonged to him. But “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”.

Plus in Matthew 17, where Jesus did indeed pay taxes, he told the disciples that it was a form of involuntary servitude, to paraphrase, by reminded them in a question that the kings and nobles and the people who tell you how much to pay up, do not put that burden on their own children. “Then are the children [of your taxman] free”.

They also forget that Romans 13 does not apply when any government does not meet the description as “God’s sword” to stop evil.

The anti-government campaigns of the earliest Christians against infanticide (by adoption), against gladiator battles (Saint Telemachus), refusing the decree to recognize Caesar as a god, against slavery (St. Patrick in Ireland), against aristocratic abuse (appeals in the Magna Carta to a divine natural law above kings), all these things are applications of the Christian Golden Rule.

The corollary subset of the Golden Rule known as the non-aggression principle is a natural law that binds all mankind, something that the growth in the libertarian movement today recognizes.  Christians have been slow to recognize this but they are increasing in numbers. Their main obstacle to understanding is that Pharisees and control freaks and unbelievers are diluting the application of the law of love,along with the dilution of the message of salvation.

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Christ was not Communist, or a Crony Capitalist Either, BUT…

This is a shout-out to
http://politicallyunclassifiable.blogspot.com/2013/10/christ-was-not-communistbut-he-wasnt.html

…which the author says is an answer to:
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2013/07/christ-was-not-a-communist/

The truth is, they both seem to be wrong. The “Orthodoxy Today” seems reluctant to take the Biblical truths that they do glimpse to its proper conclusions. The “answer to it” also misses the logical conclusions from scripture.

I’ll say right out what they both miss are the implications of two principles, also enshrined in the Ten Commandments, and expanded by Jesus Christ himself. For the purposes of addressing government-enforced redistribution, take your pick: Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and the Golden Rule, often paraphrased as Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The confusion for most people today stems from a strong “tradition of men” that in their minds has confused their thinking. Confused mine in times past.

What confuses them is automatically thinking of government as an inescapable necessity, without actually thinking very much about the premise itself.

you cannot reform the physical, absent fear, without reforming the spiritual. [sic]

That’s true but is a dance around the issue. Granted it is a dance begun by the orthodoxytoday essay, but there is also truth that the difference between “spirit” and “flesh” is a Biblical one.

There are precedents for a certain amount of govt. intervention and
controls and the charity of the OT was MANDATORY, the third year
tithe went to the poor, the edges of croplands were not to be harvested
but left for the poor, ditto going over one’s fruit trees more than once,
and the tither on the third year was required to make an accounting to
the elders and public to be sure he had in fact done this.

Yes, this is true, but please note the important part that relates to the role of any government in this picture. The “charity” of the Old Testament was mandatory, a commandment to the lawful believers. I like to mention this as an example of the many things in the actual laws of Moses that show that it was very much favorable to the poor, the innocent, the unfairly accused, and so on.

The description there of the “third-year accounting” is a bit more than is in the passages. I have read through the whole Torah, but don’t have it memorized and had to search for the “third year” passage. It is there, but the “‘accounting” is to GOD HIMSELF, not an earthly governmental intermediary, not even the priests, although I will grant that the whole chapter might lend itself to such an interpretation, though “thus saith the Bible” is too strong for it. But this is a quibble next to the important point here.

Those with lands and harvests were indeed commanded to leave some behind, enough for the poor that would come and pick it up behind them.

Punishment to enforce? risk of loss of God‘s protection and famine,
disease and foreign invasion as a result.

Yes, that’s right, but again, God did not order some earthly group to carry this out. In fact, David said his enemies were “God’s sword”, because they were used by God to carry out his judgments.

In fact, today in current events we see God using the enemies of the body of Christ, and the enemies of those who invoke his name (not always the same people), using them to enforce judgments against his house. “Judgment must begin in the house of God:” (1 Peter 4:17).

Now, another question is, just what DOES help the poor? Sure, there
is an issue of proper use of funds by govt. but the same is true of
private charitable organizations. Discernment is necessary. But if
everyone on food stamps or SSI suddenly had to depend on churches
and Salvation Army, you can count on it those systems would go
bankrupt.

No you can NOT “count on it those systems would go bankrupt”. You have no way of knowing that, you cannot say that with any certainty except for the indoctrination we’ve been subjected to in the recent generations of the rise of the welfare state.

In fact, history needs a revision to counter the revision we’ve been taught. Editors revise manuscripts to make them better, and history books need editors that know their facts better in some cases, and are more intellectually honest in other cases, and in more instances, editors and writers that are just not so lazy.

The abuses of child labor in the 18th century, for example, that we learned about, were actually the ones mostly committed by government child centers.

And the real problem when you look closely, is not so much big govt., as big business that OWNS the govt. and runs it.)

But the problem when business “owns” the government is the fact that a government uses force, using the threat of confiscations and prison against its victims. If a government official sells the services of such force, then I see there are two problems that have nothing to do with what the business does, and another problem with what the business does. That’s three.

One, the government official is selling the service of force against others. If force is not involved, the business would have no need for government intervention. That means legislators too.

Two, the fact that a government can force its subjects to obey under penalty of several means of coercion.

Three, the business pays for these coercions, with the exception of the tit-for-tat type corruption that government officials or politicians threaten, so as to extort “campaign contributions”. This is known as “rent-seeking”. It is a way to benefit from the monopoly of force inflicted upon the rest of us through the use of force.

In fact, I have read cases studies of legislators proposing legislation that will reduce revenues for a particular company or industry, then “campaign contributions” are made to those legislators and they get visits by the lobbyists and the legislation goes away.

Bill Gates and Microsoft gave almost nothing to political campaigns before the anti-trust trials, for example, but were very generous afterward…

Another problem is the repeal of the parts of Glass-Steagall

That was a favor to certain interests, for sure.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

The problem with the welfare state, the problem with any government giving anything at all to anybody, is that for a government to give anything, it has to rob it from somebody else.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

Christians that follow Christ truly do have an obligation to help the poor. In fact, everyone should. But you cannot saying you are helping the poor if you rob your neighbor to help another neighbor. You are just making yourself feel better.

The same thing applies whether you get a Mafia boss to do it, Theft Incorporated, or your local mayor or governor or president. It does not matter if you get a mob of 51% of the population in your area to vote for somebody to hire armed men to rob some of the people so as to give other people the proceeds.

Even if you vote for yourself to be among the “victims”, it does no good, because you are an accessory to the theft where the victims are the unwilling “donors” who are not donors but victims of theft now.

At this point many readers coming across this as a new concept are getting mental protests that government is necessary for lots of things. I thought so too at first, but it is a discussion to have.

BIBLICALLY

There was mention of the laws of Moses and mandates for the poor. Note that when the people of Israel asked for a real government, though, God told Samuel that they had rejected God, not Samuel.

1 Samuel 8:6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.

7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

Now we all are taught in Sunday School or by preachers that Jesus said “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s”, when he was asked about taxes by the Pharisees and Sadducees that sought to trick him into condemning himself or making himself unpopular.

But let us see what Jesus really thought about anybody who imposed any taxes on anybody…

Matthew 17:24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?

25 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?

26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

27 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

The kings of the earth (those who tell the rest of us to pay taxes) do not pay those taxes themselves, and do not impose them on their own children, but on “strangers”.

And don’t forget what he did to the people that controlled the currency exchanges of the day, and their false balances. Imagine what he would to to the Fed:

John 2:14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:

15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;

Imagine what he will eventually do upon his return to those “kings” that have robbed the poor and middle class with their fiat currency and money devaluation, and the false balance of a fiat currency, and through their devious legislation passed with a false balance (lies) of saying it’s for the poor but are not.

Better they leave us alone. Government is just a bigger Mafia than the rest of them. Sometimes it’s a kinder, gentler Mafia but whenever they tell you they want to help you, reach for your pocketbook. (And whatever you have to defend yourself with).

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