Lessons From History: Are We The New Rome?

Money and Capitalism

CORPORATE GREED

People today like to think of themselves as generally compassionate, we seem to desire a more compassionate and equitable society. There is general concern today that a small group of individuals and corporations are trying to aggregate all the available resources and money to themselves (which can be a concern in areas where particular resources are limited). Our concern is, that if some people have too much money, there wont be enough for others, which inevitably leads to monetary inequities creating widespread need. These feelings are then justified as we see corporations and individuals making sometimes seemingly obscene profits.

The basic assumption that contributes to this concern today is that money is tied to resources (similar to commodities) and therefore it is limited (after all gold and silver were used monetarily since the beginning of time – and these commodities are limited). The problem (with this general assumption) is, money is not exactly like other commodities, it is similar in many ways, (and is subject to the laws of supply and demand, which we will get into at another time) but also it is very different. Commodities are generally something we consume or use, where money on the other hand is something we use as a means of trade or exchange and gets its value from our human ingenuity and labor.

To grapple with the nature of money, we need to drill down a little deeper into the underling assumption we have about money, asking what exactly is it and how does it work in society?

MONEY AND TRADE

To understand money we need to go back to the very basics of trade.

Basically people start the trade process by producing something or performing a service that can be traded to get what we want or need. We trade those products or services created by our labor for someone else’s products created by their labor. Generally the harder a person works, the more and more products or services he creates that can be traded to get more of what he wants or needs.

Because “pure” trade or barter would be difficult as we try to find the right person to trade with (to get exactly what we wanted for exactly what they wanted), we use a little “voucher” called money.  Now imagine what would happen if you  found a guy who had what you needed, but he didn’t want what you had to trade (or felt what you had wasn’t of equal value because his product took much more labor than yours) you then might have to find a third party who might be willing to make a three way trade. Money, as labor (in compact tradable voucher form) solves this very basic “trade” problem.

Money simply helps make bartering or trade (in the truest sense of the word) for goods and services we produce a lot easier. Trade transactions between individuals would be a lot more difficult if we didn’t have these little “vouchers” called money which we use today to trade what we produce.

To sum it up, money is essentially labor in “compact” tradable form. Throughout history all sorts of things have been used as money, the ancients used precious stones as well as gold and silver, in early colonial America; tobacco, in prisons; cigarettes, in black markets in the old Soviet Union; vodka. Money simply gets its trade value from our human labor. So we see that money is not limited like most commodities; it is actually created and gets its trade value by individual and collective “human action“ (BTW that’s the name of Von Mises’s magnum opus http://mises.org/). Today national collective “human action” is measured in terms of money and called GNP or Gross National “Product“, which reflects the gross national output of our human labor.

THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

The law of supply and demand is pretty well understood today, basically when there is an abundance of goods (supply) and there are very few buyers, the prices will fall because sellers of those goods will have to bid down their prices to compete for those few buyers causing prices to retreat and go down.

When there is a lack of goods and there are many buyers, demand is created to get those goods (supply). In this environment sellers  will hold out for the best price as the many buyers “bid up “and compete for the shortage of goods so that costs rise.

To sum it up in an example it basically works like this:

There are 100 apples and only 20 buyers = prices will fall
There are 100 apples and 200 buyers = prices will rise

CAPITALISM AND THE DIVISION OF LABOR

Moving on to the principle of “the division of labor“, Adam Smith described it best (my partial abridgment) :

To take an example, therefore, of an item of slight worth or importance to manufacture; one in which the division of labor is easily understood, the trade of the needle pin-maker; a workman not educated to this business (which the division of labor has made this a particular trade), nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (the machinery also being an invention of the same division of labor), could hardly, perhaps, with his utmost ability, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty. The way which this business is now done as a peculiar trade, is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater parts are also peculiar trades.

One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head (to make the head requires two or three distinct operations), to zinc coat the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper (for distribution). The important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, to which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them. I have seen a small manufactory of this kind where ten men only were employed, and where some of them consequently performed two or three distinct operations. But though they were very poor, yet acquainted with the necessary machinery, they could, when they exerted themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day.

In a pound there are upwards of four thousand pins of a middle size. Those ten persons, therefore, could make among them nearly of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be considered as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all worked separately and independently, and without any of them having been educated in this peculiar business, they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day; certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth part of what they are at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations 1776

So we see capitalism isn’t like the oil, to use the example of a lava lamp, where a very few rich elite capitalists are on one side trying to tip the lamp so that the oil will collect to their side (so that all the resources are aggregated to them). No, instead think of capitalism as investment of start up resources working along side the principal the division of labor (which is the engine of prosperity),  combining to produce an ever increasing abundance of lower cost (in terms of man hours) goods and services, thus increasing the value and buying power of our money (by the law of supply and demand) so we can purchase more and more things we want and need.

Think of the area of agriculture; the old fashion way in which agriculture was done, it took a lot of lot of sweat and hard work to get food out of the ground. Food being more scarce (because it was very labor intensive) kept costs high in terms of labor time. The labor intensity of working this way did not leave you a lot of time to be productive or create anything else thus creating shortages in other area’s. Contrasting to modernity, by using investment to purchase technology and using creativity (by the division of labor principle), we can create an abundance of food in a lot less time in terms of man hours. This “created abundance” drives the price down (by the law of supply and demand) making it available to all (including the poor) at much lower prices. Because food created this way costs less in terms of man hours we are freed up spend more time being productive in other areas creating abundance in those other area’s as well. Using my illustration of the lava lamp, we’re adding more and more and more oil to the lamp creating abundance through our creativity an ingenuity, this is the beauty of capitalism it creates abundance.

Another examples of this is in the cell phone industry. I am old enough to remember when cell phones first came out and how bulky and expensive they were both to purchase and to operate, but over the course of the last let’s say 15 years the prices have come way down. The same is true with the Japanese auto industry through the 70s and early 80s, they continually found ways to increase productivity and produce better and better cars holding costs down and undercutting their American counterparts who because of managerial ineptness, lack of vision, and the comfortableness of their laborers via union contracts, are in the struggle to change and get better in order to survive to keep up.

CORPORATIONS, CAPITALISM, THE DIVISION OF LABOR, AND EXCESSIVE REGULATIONS

Now when it comes to those rascally corporations (or individual owners we used to call “robber barons”), they do this division of labor thing very, very well. They continually find creative and innovative ways to produce goods and services at cheaper and cheaper rates so they can undercut their competition thus creating abundance in the process. The whole time technology is going to continually to be driven by creative people who have ideas. Corporations are going to compete for those people as well (or human resources) with incentives like high-paying jobs and good benefit packages. Not only are corporations going to compete for them, but for the people who have the technological skills or task specific skills related to their industry, thus raising the standard of living for those people as well. A secondary result is that corporations produce thousands of jobs, both by hiring needed people, and by thousands of secondary jobs spawned through smaller businesses and corporations needed by them to produce their product or services. Corporations when they make more and more money, have to continually reinvest it in order to keep up with their competition. They need to buy the current technology (or company) to keep up. That technology is often tied to smaller innovative companies or individuals who are at the cutting edge of their particular field. Corporations pay millions (sometimes billions) of dollars to either buy up or buy the smaller companies product or service that creates good paying jobs in both cases as well.

Also keep in mind, even when the upper management of a company and high paid executives gets paid hordes of money, they eventual spend it back into the economy (whether they do it or their posterity does later) creating even more secondary jobs like luxury goods and services (the money eventually does have a “trickle down” effect spawning other good paying jobs and industries). Keep in mind also, typically those who have hordes of money don’t like to keep it idle, they find “investments” that works the money right back into the system. These “investors” generally look for places to make their money “work” by investing in bright ideas and technology which continues the abundance creating process along. These  same investors also invest internationally for the same purpose, triggering the start of prosperity in those countries.  (This even happens when they send their money offshore for sheltering to tax havens: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/in-praise-of-tax-havens/ ). This same cycle is exactly what happened early on in America. We borrowed money in the form of investment, to purchased the current technology of the time (which was created by the division of labor as well) from the Europeans and started the process here. Everywhere capitalism goes it creates this effect, think of the Asian markets today like Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and China. Capitalism working via the free market, is in other words the goose that lays the golden egg!

Excessive government regulations often hinder the abundance creating process much more than they help. They often hinder by creating hurdles and limits to the abundance generating potential of the free market. Licensing laws, labor regulations, minimum wage legislation, unemployment taxes, social security taxes, union standards, federal health and safety regulations, racial quotas, anti-discrimination legislation, environmental regulations, and a well-nigh endless host of others laws, fees, prohibitions, limitations, regulations, and specifications gum up the works and choke the goose by giving it all sorts of hurdles to overcome just to lay her golden eggs.

To summarize, capitalism when it is most free, works to employ man’s creative and competitive human nature to create prosperity and increase the standard of living for everyone.  If you best want to increase the standard of living for everyone than the freer the market is, the better the mechanism (or goose) is to produce an ever lower cost abundance of goods and services available to all .

GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED THEFT

Now here’s the real kicker; I contend that much of our financial problems come from greedy politicians who seek to maintain their stranglehold on power.  With all this productivity and the increase of better goods and services at lower and lower costs (thus increasing the buying power of your money) you might start to think, hmmm if I put my money away, let’s say over the forty years of a technological explosion (where the price of goods and services continue to go down and down and down) my money should increase in value over that time (giving me more buying power). I’d say Yes! Yes! your thinking correctly. And under free circumstances you would normally be right!

So the question naturally arises, why does it seem that things are getting worse or that prices remain stagnant? (As long as I remember, standard television prices have generally seemed to remained flat over the course of 50 years:  http://www.tvhistory.tv/tv-prices.htm ). The reason that we generally haven’t seen our money have more buying power* (so that our dollar is buying more and more lower cost goods and services that come into the economy as a result of capitalism an the division of labor), is because THE GOVERNMENT has been basically printing money (by borrowing on the future) spending more and more. Many times politicians buy power and money to themselves (with this money), through cronyism, kickbacks, special favors and the purchasing of votes via welfare, agricultural subsidies, union favoritism, funding of special interest groups, corporate special interest groups, and pork barreling just to name a few.

By slow manipulation the US Government has been injecting this money into the economy, stealing the increase by controlled inflation! (there are other factors to it like the manipulation of interest rates and the whole fractional reserve lending system protected by the Federal Reserve as well)  Think of the Weimar Republic (WR) ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic#Economic_problems ) and the inflationary problems it created by first borrowing and then printing and spending more and more money. If you had a lot of money in the bank then, lets say 50,000 German marks, it eventually became worthless because it was no longer  just tied to “human labor” as we have mentioned above, but to government interventionism and the toying with the money supply. This policy wiped out the poor and middle class in a short amount of time. The  WR ultimately became a legal counter fitter devaluing the value of the currency (money). We really should be able to place our money in the bank and over the course of  many years its buying power should increase, especially during an explosion of technology. Think of how that principal alone would encourage a savings culture instead of debt culture which is one of our root problems today (debt is a form of slavery).

Keynesian/interventionist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics) government controlled inflation (controlled by Federal Reserve system)  (for more on the FR see the link below) has tried to work to flatten out the effects of government created hyper inflation. The out-of-control government spending since at least the 1960s (and to a lesser degree back to the turn of the 20th century) has been a means to neutralize capitalism’s multiplying cost saving effect and make it virtually invisible to the common working man. It’s an insidious means of stealing the people’s wealth which they created through their hard work and ingenuity. This policy will eventually reach a critical mass and wipe out the poor and middle class over the course of time here as well.

To summarize, Government controlled inflation over the last few generations has actually worked to neutralize capitalism’s multiplying cost saving effect, thus stealing the peoples increase (more buying power with our dollars).

CAPITALISM AND COMPASSION

Ultimately I believe the kind of capitalism I have sought to explain here, when it works most free from government monetary manipulation, excessive regulations, and socialism’s insatiable appetite for confiscatory taxes (collected taxes which often rewards political loyalty, idleness, and laziness, taking from the producer to give to the non-producer)  is the most compassionate system. Especially when it comes to people who can’t take care of themselves and the people who are truly poor. In a truly free market there is so much abundance (in this kind of free capitalistic society) that is very easy for people to give to individuals and nations in need (it‘s easier to give out of abundance than need). Besides compassion is always better left to those in society who truly care, the family, the extended family, the church, local charities, and capitalistic philanthropists who can discern true need from laziness and the abuses inevitably created by a socialistic system of giveaways thereby lessening collective productivity which creates need and lack that “trickles down” inevitably to the poor. (Free market compassion always works best when there is sound money and taxes are very low, this allows those who care  most to take care of those who are truly needy)

You might ask should we give to those in need anyway, even when we lack? Of course we should, but taking into consideration the propensity of man to be self-serving and self-interested (this is his nature) it makes it a lot easier for him to part with his abundance rather than his lack (especially in times of desperation). America when she practiced this kind of capitalism best (however imperfectly) has proved this kind of compassion,  often by being the leader in feeding the third world.

Lar

*except in some area’s like communication – think of how much a phone call was in those old black-and-white movies.

For more on the Federal Reserve, its history,  how it works, and how it cooperates with government to create inflation, see this excellent 42min video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6507136891691870450

Gay Fascism

Chris Ortiz at Chalcedon had this video from Canada posted.

This is ultimately where “Hate Crime” laws lead, the silencing of Christians and Preachers even in their pulpits:

Muslim Europe? (Less Than A Generation Away)

Who will have control Europe’s nuclear weapons?

Tapping Your Cell Phone

George Washington’s Faith and Religious Beliefs

Athanasius on the Incarnation

The Logos, Athanasius teaches, is the image of the living, only true God. Man is the image of the Logos. In communion with him consist the original holiness and blessedness of paradise. Man fell by his own will, and thus came to need redemption. Evil is not a substance of itself, not matter, as the Greeks suppose, nor does it come from the Creator of all things. It is an abuse of freedom on the part of man, and consists in selfishness or self-love, and in the dominion of the sensuous principle over the reason. Sin, as apostasy from God, begets idolatry. Once alienated from God and plunged into finiteness and sensuousness, men deified the powers of nature, or mortal men, or even carnal lusts, as in Aphrodite. The inevitable consequence of sin is death and corruption. The Logos, however, did not forsake men. He gave them the law and the prophets to prepare them for salvation. At last he himself became man, neutralized in human nature the power of sin and death, restored the divine image, uniting us with God and imparting to us his imperishable life. The possibility and legitimacy of the incarnation lie in the original relation of the Logos to the world, which was created and is upheld by him. The incarnation, however, does not suspend the universal reign of the Logos. While he was in man, he was at the same time everywhere active and reposing in the bosom of the Father. The necessity of the incarnation to salvation follows from the fact, that the corruption had entered into human nature itself, and thus must be overcome within that nature. An external redemption, as by preaching God, could profit nothing. “For this reason the Saviour assumed humanity, that man, united with life, might not remain mortal and in death, but imbibing immortality might by the resurrection be immortal. The outward preaching of redemption would have to be continually repeated, and yet death would abide in man.”. The object of the incarnation is, negatively, the annihilation of sin and death; positively, the communication of righteousness and life and the deification of man. The miracles of Christ are the proof of his original dominion over nature, and lead men from nature-worship to the worship of God. The death of Jesus was necessary to the blotting out of sin and to the demonstration of his life-power in the resurrection, whereby also the death of believers is now no longer punishment, but a transition to resurrection and glory.—This speculative analysis of the incarnation Athanasius supports by referring to the continuous moral effects of Christianity, which is doing great things every day, calling man from idolatry, magic, and sorceries to the worship of the true God, obliterating sinful and irrational lusts, taming the wild manners of barbarians, inciting to a holy walk, turning the natural fear of death into rejoicing, and lifting the eye of man from earth to heaven, from mortality to resurrection and eternal glory. The benefits of the incarnation are incalculable, like the waves of the sea pursuing one another in constant succession.

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume III: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 311-590

“Saving” Christianity… from Christianity itself?

Ravi Zacharias, Al Mohler, and R.C. Sproul on post modernism and the Emergent Church.

Along with the issues that Ravi, Al, and R.C. make,  at the very heart of the Church’s embrace of post-modernism is the fact that Christians in this generation do not want to carry “their cross”.  The Gospel (which first calls men to repentance) and biblical Christianity is simply too offensive – it brings the promised persecution and tribulation (Matt 13:23) today in the form of ridicule, scorn, and mockery.

With the introduction of post-modernism into Christian theology, a convenient way to eliminate the offensiveness of the gospel message and biblical Christianity has been found.  If you eliminate “truth” itself or make it unknowable (as Emergent folks do) than the need to stand for anything conveniently disappears. The offensiveness of biblical Christianity can be taken away and thus save Christianity and make it less offensive to today’s culture. The Emergent Church and I dare say an ever increasing element within evangelicalism today, is hell bound on “saving” Christianity – from Christianity itself.

The world is becoming increasingly hostile to traditional biblical Christianity, to those who claim they know truth, and those who use offensive biblical words like, sin, repent, wrath, wickedness, abomination and hell. The Emergent Church and this ever increasing element within evangelicalism that I speak of, is seeking to move away and to distance itself from traditional Christianity and from those who hold to it, because they are embarrassed.  They are more and more embarrassed by traditional Christians who continue to call men to repent and believe the gospel. They are embarrassed by a biblical Christianity which divides the the world between the righteous and the wicked (Matt 10:34). They are embarrassed of those who who would speak authoritatively about objective truth in a world given to radical post-modern skepticism.

I recently heard one of these evangelical leaders say that they are trying to “restore the reputation of Christ” in the community. Maybe I’m wrong, but when he said it, I couldn’t help but think he was trying to “restore the reputation of Christ” among unbelievers by telling them Christianity is not what people like me (a traditional christian) say it is. He’s embarrassed of Christians like me who make (in his opinion) Christianity offensive. If I am right, than he and others like him too are trying to save Christianity – from Christianity itself.

As comfortable north American Christians we need to be reminded that Christ himself calls us to partake in his suffering. We, just as Christians of old are called to carry “our cross” – we too are called to suffer “for righteousness sake” (Matt 5:10-11). Suffering usually comes when we preach and stand for the “truth” of God and of His Christ in this wicked and perverse generation.

Let us let us not shrink from our cross but embrace it, let us remember the words of Christ: “he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt 10:38). Does the one who bore the cross on our behalf deserve any less from us?

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“Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.” Luke 6:22-23

Founding Father Elias Boudinot on the Demise of a People

“Good government generally begins in the family,
and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.”

Elias Boudinot (1740 – 1821)

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Elias Boudinot is one of many of America’s forgotten “founding fathers”. He served as President of the Continental Congress (1782 -1783), the Director of the United States Mint (1795 – 1805), was the first lawyer admitted to the Supreme Court bar, was a trustee of Princeton University, founded the American Bible Society (which is still with us), and supported missions and missionary work.

Boudinot of New Jersey of Huguenot descent,was a devout Presbyterian, who wrote the tract “The Age of Revelation” in response to Thomas Paine’s “The Age of Reason”.

His tract “The Age of Revelation” can be found here

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As we look at the American landscape today we can see beyond a shadow of a doubt that Boudino’s words have proved true.

Yet, his words also tell us that if the demise of a people originates in “the government of the family” and it’s “moral character”, then certainly the converse is true as well. We must remember that the key to rebuilding the “moral character” of a people, begins in the same place, in the home and with “the government of the family”.

The Dangerous Rise of Sexual Politics

Martin Luther wrote:

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Today the battle that rages and is being waged today, is at the very heart of the institution which is foundational to all the other institutions, to the church, the state, and the social order .

The battle in this generation is over the family itself.

I believe this very issue is the mother of all battles for the Church today. Godly Christians in this generation must understand exactly how that battle is being waged, in order to defeat it. The Christian Church today MUST must understand how we are being attacked and than lead the way in rebuilding a godly Christian family culture in each and every local Church. She must teach and disciple one family at a time.

This article by Stephen Baskerville at the Howard Center is long, but it is a must read.  Baskerville has zeroed-in on the real nature, size, and scope of the battle that this generation faces. And it is inevitable that if we lose this battle, we will inevitably loose every other battle we are fighting, and western civilization itself will be lost forever.

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“All politics is on one level sexual politics.” — George Gilder, 1986

Four decades into the boldest social experiment ever undertaken in the Western democracies, the full impact of what was once quaintly known as “women’s liberation” is at last becoming clear.  The political class of both the Left and Right have colluded to limit the debate to a series of innocuous controversies: job discrimination, equal pay, affirmative action.  Only abortion has any depth, and that debate has been mired in stalemate.

Meanwhile, beneath the political radar screen, the real consequences are finally emerging: a massive restructuring of the social order, demographic trends that threaten the very survival of Western civilization, and perhaps least noticed, an exponential growth in the size and power of the state — the state at its most bureaucratic and tyrannical.

Feminism has now positioned itself as the vanguard of the Left, shifting the political discourse from the economic and racial to the social and increasingly the sexual.  What was once a socialistic assault on property and enterprise has become a social and sexual attack on the family, marriage, and masculinity.  This marks a truly new kind of politics, the most personal and thus potentially the most total politics ever devised: the politics of private life and sexual relations.  Read on

The Anti-Family Anti-Parent Ajenda of the UN (The United Nations)

These two articles point out how hostile the UN is to the traditional family:

United Nations Population Fund Leader Says Family Breakdown is a Triumph for Human Rights…

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MEXICO CITY, February 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A leader in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has declared that the breakdown of traditional families, far from being a “crisis,” is actually a triumph for human rights.

Speaking at a colloquium held last month at Colegio Mexico in Mexico City, UNFPA representative Arie Hoekman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent instead the triumph of “human rights” against “patriarchy.”

“In the eyes of conservative forces, these changes mean that the family is in crisis,” he said. “In crisis?  More than a crisis, we are in the presence of a weakening of the patriarchal structure, as a result of the disappearance of the economic base that sustains it and because of the rise of new values centered in the recognition of fundamental human rights.”  Read on

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United Nations’ threat: No more parental rights Expert: Pact would ban spankings, homeschooling if children object…

A United Nations human rights treaty that could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families’ religion is on America’s doorstep, a legal expert warns.

Michael Farris of Purcellville, Va., is president of ParentalRights.org, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association and chancellor of Patrick Henry College. He told WND that under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC, every decision a parent makes can be reviewed by the government to determine whether it is in the child’s best interest.

“It’s definitely on our doorstep,” he said. “The left wants to make the Obama-Clinton era permanent. Treaties are a way to make it as permanent as stuff gets. It is very difficult to extract yourself from a treaty once you begin it. If they can put all of their left-wing socialist policies into treaty form, we’re stuck with it even if they lose the next election.” Read on

WSJ: A Dutch court imports Saudi blasphemy norms to Europe

The latest twist in the clash between Western values and the Muslim world took place yesterday in the Netherlands, where a court ordered the prosecution of lawmaker and provocateur Geert Wilders for inciting violence. The Dutch MP and leader of the Freedom Party, which opposes Muslim immigration into Holland, will stand trial soon for his harsh criticism of Islam.  Read on

But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death.” Proverbs 8:36 NKJV

Messianic Leaders…

Hitler holds a fascination for us because his dictatorship enjoyed such wide support of the people.  Perhaps never in history was a dictator so well liked.  He had the rare gift of motivating a nation to want to follow him.  Communist leaders such as Lenin or Mao Tse-tung arose to power through revolutions that cost millions of lives; consequently they were hated by the masses.  Hitler attracted not only the support of the middle class but also of the university students and professors.  For example, psychologist Carl Jung grew intoxicated with “the mighty phenomenon of national Socialism at which the whole world gazes in astonishment.”

Hitler arose in Germany at a time when the nation was a democracy.  He obtained his power legitimately, if unfairly.  The nation was waiting for him, eager to accept a demagogue who appeared to have the talent needed to lead her out of the abyss.  The people yearned for a leader who would do for them what democracy could not.

Erwin W. Lutzer in Hitler’s Cross

Atheist: I truly believe Africa needs God

This is an amazing article by an atheist (it’s amazing because it comes from an atheist) who admits that Christian evangelism  and conversion, and the Christian worldview it brings to an entire culture is exactly what Africa needs…

You’ll find the article here

This atheist only admits what I have said in the past:

Christianity raised so much of this world out of her ethical debauchery and paganism.  First hand missionary account’s through-out history tell us the same thing. Un-regenerate humanity prizes its Pyramids and Temples – Aztec, Mayan, and Egyptian just to name a few, yet so many of them are monuments to human debauchery, human slavery, and or human sacrifice.

It has been Jesus Christ who has taught men how to live!

Christianity has a long and wonderful history of charity, mercy, compassion, taking care and feeding the poor and destitute, taking in orphans, visiting prisoners and teaching cannibals, not to eat their neighbor!

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace the only hope for this poor fallen world

And of the increase of His government and His kingdom there shall be no end!

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And for all you smart mouth atheists who will undoubtedly make rude and foolish comments, next time you feel like being an evangelist for your atheism instead of picking on simple minded Christians, why don’t you  start your missionary adventure face-to-face with a tribe of cannibals like so many Christians missionaries have in the past…           Also by the way, next time you get sick, try going to St. Atheist Memorial Hospital…

Meditation on Psalm 110:1-8

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways.

You have commanded us keep Your precepts diligently. Oh that my ways where directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments.

I will praise you with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments. I will keep Your statutes: Oh, do not for sake meet utterly! NKJV

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Prayer:

Holy Father, how I love the wisdom that is found in your holy law, I pray that you would help me to walk according to your law. It is my desire to obey you with my whole heart.

Your law teaches me what holiness is, it is beautiful and I desired it, to live holy. I desire this so that I might not sin against you, that I might not be a hypocrite and blaspheme your beautiful holy name.

Oh Lord Jesus, precious Savior, you have said: if we love thee, obey your commandments. I pray that would grant me the grace necessary to keep your commandments as an expression of my love to you, all the days of my life.

Amen

The Pink KKK: Coming to A Neighborhood Church Near You

World Net Daily: Lesbians, condoms go wild in attack on Christian church

Homosexual activist groups (This group is called “Bash Back”) are multiplying and are moving out into the heartland, Lansing Michigan is a town with a population of 300,000.

James White On The Election

The Federal Government has taken the place of God

….the Federal Government has taken the place of God. It has arrogated to itself the privilege of defining what is right and wrong, good and evil. When God is not acknowledged, man becomes the sovereign. When man becomes the definer of liberty, liberty is lost.

Thus we find that we have lost what our forefathers called liberty. We have grown up in a world where no one truly “owns” property (you may think you own it, but try not paying your property taxes one year and you will see who really owns your land).

Further, we do not have liberty to use our property in lawful ways. “Environmental” laws limit the freedom of use as well. We can kill our unborn children, but are forbidden to cut down a tree on our own property without a permit. The Federal Government as if it was God, asserts a pre-eminent claim on the earth and the fullness thereof. One peculiarly blatant expression of this is “eminent domain.” Whatever and whenever the Government desires the use of your land, it claims the prerogative to it. God destroyed Ahab for doing what the modern Government does every year.

We are no longer free to exercise our gifts and talents. More and more the Federal Government limits how and when and where we may labor. Licensing laws, labor regulations, minimum wage legislation, unemployment taxes, social security taxes, union standards, federal health and safety regulations, racial quotas, anti-discrimination legislation, environmental regulations, and a well-nigh endless host of others laws, fees, prohibitions, limitations, regulations, and specifications, severely restrict the exercise of God-given gifts and abilities.

(A zillion little bureaucracy’s bind us hand and foot)

Need I mention that by means of the income tax, the Federal Government has claimed the right to the fruit of our labors. By it, the Federal government exalts itself over God (by claiming more than God does in the tithe).

In recent years we have seen how this is in fact a claim on all the livelihood of an individual. Tax exemptions are now viewed as “subsidies.” The argument is, to be granted a tax exemption is the same as being given a subsidy. The implication is that all your income belongs to the National Government and the Government could take it all should it so desire, but by means of tax exemptions, it graciously allows you to keep some of your earnings.

In education: certification, accreditation, and educational standards set by Federal bureaucrats continue to limit educational freedom. The Government continues to view the children as belonging to itself by asserting a “compelling interest” in this or that aspect of our children’s upbringing.

Freedom of religion has come to mean “freedom to believe whatever you want, so long as you do not act in a way contrary to public policy.” Practically this means, our freedom of religion has been confined to the space between our ears.

We have now lived to see what our Founding Fathers thought impossible in this land. The Congress regularly legislates immorality, lines its own pockets, makes decisions based upon self- interest rather than upon what is right and best and then brags about its public-spirited generosity and compassion. We live in a country where the Constitution has no more real authority than the Royal Family in England. We like to be able to refer to it and trot it out on patriotic occasions, but we have no desire to take it seriously and find those who would suggest that we should, fearfully flatheaded.

We live in a land in which the people expect the government to protect them and provide for them and secure their futures. We have not freed the slaves, we have simply extended the plantation. Now, we are all slaves, captives to our liberators. We think we are free only because we have never known true freedom.

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From Steve Wilkins in The Great Civil War Debate available on DVD

God and Man at Table Are Sat Down

O, welcome, all ye noble saints of old
As now before your very eyes unfold
The wonders all so long ago foretold.
God and man at table are sat down.

Worship in the presence of the Lord
With joyful songs and hearts in one accord.
And let our Host at table be adored.
God and man at table are sat down.

Elders, martyrs, all are falling down;
Prophets, patriarchs are gath’ring round.
What angels longed to see now man has found:
God and man at table are sat down.

Beggars, lame, and harlots also here;
Repentant publicans are drawing near.
Wayward sons come home without a fear.
God and man at table are sat down.

Who is this who spreads the vic’try feast?
Who is this who makes our warring cease?
Jesus, Risen Savior, Prince of Peace.
God and man at table are sat down.

When at last this earth shall pass away,
When Jesus and his Bride are one to stay,
The feast of love is just begun that day.
God and man at table are sat down.

A Liberal “Supermajority”

A filibuster proof liberal supermajority is a scary prospect as mentioned in this article in the Wall Street Journal Titled “A Liberal Supermajority: Get ready for ‘change’ we haven’t seen since 1965 or 1933″

One thing they do not mention is the threat this “supermajority” would also pose to the homeschooling movement.

Few remember that In 1994 with a Democrat in the oval office and a majority in the senate and the house, Democrats were very close (save a Republican filibuster) to taking away the vast majority of parents’ rights to legally teach their own children and thus destroy the home school movement, which was and still is thier intention (liberals want compleate totalitarian control of the cultural, ideological, and ethical education of the next generation).

Another issue they failed to address is the threat posed to religious liberty that hate crime legislation and laws that protect homosexuals at the expense of religious freedom of conscience (like the “bathroom bill” just recently passed in Colorado) which will be implemented and used (as they have been in other western nations) to persecute Bible believing Christians.

It is my feeling that if Mr Obama is elected and gets this “supermajority”, the Church of Jesus Christ in America is in for a bit of shaking and purifying as God sifts the wheat from the chaff in the Church in this generation. the “free” America that you and I grew up in with its religious freedom may never be the same again…

Pray for the Peace of the “Israel of God”… (Gal 6:15-16)