Why Some People Want to Stick it to the Rich

Dear Friends:

The rich often get a bum rap. Liberals are incensed when it is suggested that “the rich” get any type of tax reduction even though the top 50% of wage earners pay 96% of all income taxes. Since they spend more money, the rich also pay a disproportionate amount in sales, property, entertainment, and excise taxes. Without the rich, most people would not have jobs.

Remember when computers were huge and could only perform a few simple tasks, mostly word processing. The floppy disks were the size of dinner plates and held very little data (360K). And they costs around $7,500. Almost overnight, computer prices dropped and performance levels increased dramatically.

The first portable computer built by Compaq was the size of a sewing machine, but it was a vast improvement over what was then available. The hard disk capacity was 10 megabytes. Today’s laptops have multi-gigabyte drives, super thin monitors, built-in modems, CD/DVD drives that can play music and movies, and much more, all in a 2 to 4 pound package.

The first cell phones were the size of a small suitcase. You needed a shoulder strap to carry it. Now they are smaller than a half-pack of cigarettes. They are so cheap to own and operate that many people have given up using conventional (land-line) phone service.

What made these performance gains and price reductions possible? People with lots of money purchased the first high-priced machines. They had the financial ability to lay out “excess” capital for what most people would consider luxury items. What used to be luxury items – cell phones – are now so cheap that even homeless people can afford them.

The research and development costs of any new technology are enormous. That’s why the initial entry of new products into the market is expensive. But over time, when costs are recouped and production increases, costs and prices fall. The first CD players cost hundreds of dollars. They now sell for under $10. DVD players sell for under $50. This price reduction has led to the end of higher priced and mechanically inferior VHS players and tapes. The spending by rich people fuels the market for future goods at lower prices which benefits everybody.

Slamming the rich by contending that they should pay more in taxes to equalize income is the sin of envy. Envy is not the same as jealousy or covetousness. The covetous person says, “I wish I had what he has, and I’m miserable that I don’t have it.” Envy is quantitatively different. “I’d like to have what he has, but I know I can never get it. Nobody should be allowed to have it or at least that much of it. I’ll work to destroy it. Maybe I can get the government to make it illegal to own or too expensive to keep.” This is why the Bible describes envy as “rottenness of the bones” (Proverbs 14:30).

Societies that struggle to exist economically are infected with envy. Prosperity in others infuriates the envier and moves him to destroy what he does not have and will not work to get. Western enviers are more sophisticated. We don’t burn a villager’s crops or sabotage his wells. We run for political office or vote for those who do so we can stick it to the rich in the name of “tax fairness.” The long-term result is the destruction of the prosperous man’s ability and incentive to create wealth. In the end, the destroyed crops, the poisoned well, the high taxes hurt all of us. With no “excess” capital, there is no one to buy those initially expensive goods that make life easier for all of us. So, instead of envying the rich man, thank him and work to be like him.

Cain was the first envier. He could have offered a sacrifice equal to that of Abel or offered a sacrifice that was from a pure heart. Instead, he murdered his brother for his success. It didn’t make Cain any more successful, but I suppose, for the moment, the act gave him satisfaction. Envy appears again in Genesis when the Philistines envied the prosperity of Isaac:

Now Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth (Genesis 26:12-15).

The Philistines could have dug their own wells and inquired of Isaac to learn the methods of success. Instead, they destroyed his property to bring him down to their standard of living. Of course, with Isaac’s wells sabotaged, a drought would affect Isaac and the Philistines. But enviers don’t think ahead. They only care about dragging the successful down to their level of incompetence.

Modern-day economic theory feeds off the sin of envy. The first step is to promise the citizenry that they will get some of the largess of the rich. When that only goes so far, legislators will make it more difficult for the prosperous to remain prosperous. Obstacles will be put up to stifle their success, all in the name of equality. We’ve seen it happen before. The Communists had to build a wall around East Berlin to keep the industrious from fleeing the politics of envy.

Respectfully,

Mark

Heal the Nation? Heal the Church First!

Dear Friends:

Many people and organizations including our own are calling for a political revival back to the form of government that our Founding Fathers established. However, when examining the history of God’s people in His Word, it has become clearly obvious that before we can ask God to heal our land that we first need to heal the Church.

By Church, I am referring to the 77% of Americans that identified themselves as Christians in a Gallup Poll released April 10, 2009. (Sadly, that figure has dropped from the 91% in 1948.) If the three-fourths of the American population actually lived a true Christian life, our nation would not be suffering the wrath of God that we are currently under. If these Christians lived their lives like 77% of Muslims or Buddhists, or Sikhs, or other religions do, we would still be the Christian nation that our Founders established it to be.

Unfortunately, the Church in America has been silent and inactive in the political arena for the past 60 years. Its silence has allowed the vocal minorities to be heard and push through legislation after legislation that has undermined and replaced the Word of God with the immoral and hedonistic desires of a godless few.

In addition to allowing this godless minority to take control of our nation, now we have a leadership that is not only ignoring the words, writings and intent of our Founding Fathers, but is looking to other nations that do not have the same Christian foundation that America has, to be our examples to follow and this is not the first time in history this has happened. In II Kings 17:15 we read, They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them.

Obama has used the examples of Canada and Europe to help justify his efforts to turn America into a socialistic nation. Once again, when we turn to God’s Word, we see that God even warns us about how foolish it is to look to these other nations in I Corinthians 1:20, Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

And when our leaders ignore God’s warnings, we see that God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, (II Thessalonians 2:11) and They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart, (Ephesians 4:18).

The consequences of a nation turning from God to the wicked ways of man results in God’s wrath and judgment. If you don’t believe that the United States of America is currently under God’s judgment, then I strongly urge you to read Romans 1:18-32. Three times it says that because we do this, God turns us over to that. My fellow American, what I read in the last half of Romans 1 describes our nation in every way.

A gentleman who served in the U.S. Marine Corp was stationed overseas for 4 years and then returned to a duty post in the Washington D.C. area. When he returned to the U.S., he was shocked to see how far it had declined in morality and godliness. He observed that we had become a nation of lust, perversion, and hedonism unlike anything he had seen overseas and it saddened him to his very heart to realize that this is what he had been defending with his life.

Psalm 11:3 tell us that if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Our foundations are being destroyed and replaced with a godless socialist foundation that has a 100% failure rate everywhere else it has been tried in the world. It was tried in Soviet Russia and it failed. It was tried in China and it failed. It was tried in Poland and it failed. It was tried in North Korea and it failed, and the list goes on.

People every day say that it is too late and that things have gone too far and that one or two people cannot change anything. Yet, George Washington lost every battle that he fought in and lead troops in until he crossed the Delaware River and captured the Hessian troops and eventually won the Revolutionary War. Like Winston Churchill, Washington never gave in and never gave up.

We may have lost some battles, but we have not lost the war. However, in order to win the war to save America from the complete destruction of the current political machine, the Church or the people, need to follow the instructions of 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Humble. Pray. Seek. Turn. Four steps to healing the Church and our nation.

Humble. Have you ever read about a small shepherd boy named David? He wasn’t tall in stature and considered himself least among his father’s sons. He sought not fortune or fame, but because he regularly humbled himself before God, God raised him up to be one of the greatest kings of all time.

Pray. George Müller established an orphanage in England in the middle 1800’s. Time after time, Müller would sit the children down to the table for a meal when he knew he had no food to feed them nor any funds to purchase food for them. Never-the-less, he would sit them down and lift up a prayer to God thanking Him for their blessings and for providing for them and time and time again, by the time he finished praying, someone would be at the door of the orphanage with enough food to go around. Müller was a true man of prayer and his biography is a testimony as to the power of prayer, especially when offered by someone that has humbled themselves before the Lord.

Seek. Jehoshaphat did not seek out the false gods and idols of those around him, but sought after God. In return, God blessed the kingdom of Judah under Jehoshaphat’s rule. (II Chronicles 17:3-5)

Turn. Not long after Jesus had been crucified and had risen from the grave, a Pharisee by the name of Saul set out to find and destroy those that professed a faith in Jesus as the Messiah. However, on the road to Damascus, Saul was blinded by a vision from God and he turned from his ways of persecution to become Paul, one of the greatest apostles of Jesus Christ.

As a people, a Church and a nation, we need to humble ourselves like David, pray like George Müller, seek God’s ways like Jehoshaphat and turn from our wicked ways like Paul. Then and only then can we have any hope of God healing our land and returning it to the Christian nation of our Founding Fathers.

If we don’t humble ourselves, pray and seek after God and turn from our wicked ways, then our children will be asking us the same thing that God asked the people in the time of Jeremiah, what wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? (Jeremiah 2:5)

Respectfully,
Mark

The Commandments of Love

Dear Friends:

How many times have you heard that the Ten Commandments are no longer necessary today? Or that since Christ said that He came to “fulfill the law” (Matthew 5:17), Christians are not obligated to them any longer. Or that the Ten Commandments were given to Israel, not modern America. The list could go on. Many Christians, unaware as they are of the Old Testament, make all sorts of bizarre remarks to avoid facing up to the fact that God’s law still applies today. The pertinent question has been phrased many different ways, but essentially it is this: “If not God’s law, which law? And if not God’s law, why not?” In other words, if God’s law has been set aside, which one do we put in its place? And, if we claim that God’s law is no longer binding on individuals, where do we get our biblical justification for claiming this? The answers have been many and varied, but they have seldom been convincing.

One of the immediate problems facing today’s Christian seeking answers to this question is the constant focus and lip-service given in the modern church to “grace.” It is a common misconception that “grace” is somehow at odds with “law.” In our modern age of fuzzy definitions, grace has come to mean the opposite of law, in the same way that love is the opposite of hate. But the opposite of law is “lawlessness,” or “anarchy,” or, “every man doing what is right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). And since, according to the Bible, grace is “not getting what we deserve,” the opposite of grace is “getting what we rightfully deserve;” in this case, the opposite of grace would be God sending us to hell for our sins.

Some modern teachers even go so far as to speak of the “god” of the Old Testament as one of law and demands, while the “god” of the New Testament is the warm and cuddly one of grace and cupcakes. In a well-intentioned (I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt) attempt to reconcile what they believe to be contradictory concepts (i.e. law and grace), they end up splitting the Bible in two, ripping the historical context and foundation of the New Testament right out from underneath it. The Old Testament is absolutely essential to a proper understanding of the New and the centrality of God’s law is essential to a proper understanding of the Old. It is our sin – the breaking of God’s law – that sends us to hell, not the law itself. It was God’s grace, evident throughout both the Old and New Testament, that sent Christ to stand in our place – the sinless for the sinful, the innocent for the guilty. Grace was God’s plan all along, as Genesis 3:15 makes abundantly clear. St. Augustine said it well: “The New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed.” The Bible is a whole, it cannot be separated.

But what about the Ten Commandments? How do these seemingly ancient laws, given to a group of desert nomads 3500 years ago apply to our modern situation of airplanes, personal computers, and indoor plumbing? Hasn’t life become extremely more complex and difficult than it was for the wandering Israelites? Well, no it hasn’t. Life has always been complex and difficult since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden. It is the sin in man’s heart that makes life difficult, not his tools or technology (or lack thereof). God knew that life for all generations could be summed up quite easily in ten “words.” In fact, Jesus even summarized the Ten down to Two: “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). What could be simpler than two laws? Surely man can memorize and obey two simple laws, right? The entire history of mankind indicates quite clearly that he cannot.

The Ten Commandments should never be viewed as a stone tablet of God’s “dos and don’ts,” but as an eternal revelation of His love. Most Christians have trouble understanding this because the word “love” – much like grace and law – has come to mean something entirely different in our culture than what it means in the Bible. Love is obedience and commitment. Love – as defined by Paul in I Corinthians 13 – is patient and kind and is not arrogant. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Most importantly, it never fails. This is what Christians should be thinking when they say that “God is love.” Love is not lawless, love is lawful. Love is doing what God commands. Jesus said if we love Him, we will obey His commandments (John 14:15). Love is trusting that God knows best and that His Word is truth. Love is the Ten Commandments.

Christ taught often about and continuously challenged his first-century listeners to think through the implications of the Ten Commandments. His Sermon on the Mount is a classic example of using the Ten Commandments as a sermon illustration, driving home the point that the law has always been about the heart not mere actions. Jesus not only condemned the legalism of the Pharisees with His sermon, but also a surface level understanding of the Commandments. The point of the law has always been to drive us to Christ.

If we recognize that we must first look to Christ when we hear the Law’s condemnation of our sin, we will receive the greatest hope and assurance knowing that our standing before God is secure. We are declared righteous in God’s sight by faith alone in Christ alone by God’s grace alone. Through Christ and the Spirit, however, we are enabled to fulfill the law. Because of who we are in Christ, we can manifest the righteousness of the Law.

Confusion about the relationship of the Christian to the law is certainly evident in most churches and denominations. It is high time that Christians stopped swallowing the sugar-coated pill of being “under grace, not law” and took time to do their own study of what the Bible teaches about the subject.

Respectfully,
Mark

Our last, best hope to resist government tyranny

Dear Friends:

The federal constitution establishes a central government of limited powers. They are outlined in Article 1, Section 8, and there are 17 of them. You can count them.

These 17 powers represent the sum total of the powers delegated to the central government by the individual states. These are the only powers Congress has. If a power is not on that list, Congress is forbidden by the supreme law of the land from taking any action whatsoever.

We must never forget that the federal government is the creation of the states, not the other way round. Congress has only the powers the states allow it to have, not the reverse.

We are so accustomed to thinking that the states can only do what the federal government permits them to do that we have turned the republic bequeathed to us by the Founders on its head. The creator has become the slave, and the slave its master.

You can look in vain through that list of 17 powers for any mention of the right to take over the entire American health care industry. It’s not there. Congress can establish Post Offices, and build roads for the delivery of the mail, and it can even punish pirates. But what it cannot do is to run the nation’s entire system of medical care.

Thus what Congress did in passing the monstrous Health Care bill, will not only bankrupt America, it is flatly and unequivocally unconstitutional. Plus, it is hated by a majority of the American people. Something is being crammed down our throats that makes us gag and vomit.

The last remedy left – other than bloodshed – is the 10th Amendment, which reserves to the states any power not delegated to the federal government. The central government is exercising a power that it does not have, and can only exercise by usurping that power from the states.

State governments can legitimately and constitutionally decide not to cooperate with the central government on the legal ground that Congress has transgressed the boundaries marked out in our founding document. The central government is trespassing on the sovereign territory of the states, and the states have every right to throw them off their property.

Trespassers can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Squatters can be evicted. If they won’t leave, they can be tossed. And in the worst case scenario, if they won’t surrender peacefully, they can be shot.

The Democrat governor of Idaho, back in 1979, informed the central government that the border of the state was closed to federal trains carrying nuclear waste destined for the Gem State. He didn’t ask, he told. He didn’t make a request, he issued an order. He exercised his 10th Amendment rights and stared down the federal government. Pointing to the state line, he essentially said, “This far and no farther.” And the central government blinked.

Idaho and Virginia have shown the way. Both states have enacted laws that prohibit residents of their states from being forced against their will to buy health insurance. Three dozen other states have similar legislation in the pipeline.

State governments represent our last, best hope to avoid the ugly prospect of insurrection and complete chaos. Our elected representatives at the state level have the constitutional authority to stand up against the tyranny of the central government on our behalf. And they must.

The American people simply will not stand for what President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are trying to do to us. Freedom is in our DNA because we are a Christian nation by heritage and tradition. One slogan of the American revolution was a Bible verse: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Corinthians 3:17). That Spirit of Liberty still burns in the hearts of Americans and we will resist oppression until the day we die.

State governments have now, practically overnight, become vastly more important than the federal government. They represent our last line of lawful, orderly defense against tyranny. What hope remains of recapturing our liberty rests with our elected officials at the state level. It’s time to compel them to exercise their constitutional powers and throw off the yoke of the authoritarian beast that the central government has become.

Will they rise to the challenge of the hour? If they do not, then all will be lost.

Respectfully,
Mark