Where Is Your Faith?

Dear Friends:

I consider myself to be a patriotic American. I believe that the United States of America is “one nation under God.” However, I also believe (and the facts clearly demonstrate) that the America we know today is not the America that our founding fathers envisioned. Moreover, it is my belief that if America continues down the path it is presently on, it will no longer be the land of the free and the brave, but rather, the land of the oppressed and the poor.

Many patriotic Americans today place a lot of faith in the ability of government to provide “everything from education to health care.” If you are one of those people, I would ask you to consider this question: Where should government secure the resources necessary to carry out such provision?

Our Creator has endowed us “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. … That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,…” [Declaration of Independence].

What is Liberty? Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines liberty as a) the quality or state of being free; b) the power to do as one pleases; c) freedom from physical restraint; d) freedom from arbitrary or despotic control; e) the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges; or f) the power of choice.

Where is liberty when it becomes a criminal act NOT to purchase health insurance? Where is liberty when it becomes a criminal act NOT to participate in the Social Security system? Where is liberty when truancy laws compel attendance at government controlled and sanctioned schools? (And don’t think that most private schools are not controlled and regulated by the government.) Where is liberty when 40% to 50% of the fruits of my labor is forcibly confiscated through unfair and tyrannical tax laws? And for what? To give to some unknown person who is most likely intentionally living off the system? Why is it NOT a law that: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” [II Thessalonians 3:10]? I dare say that if paying taxes were optional, very few taxes would be collected. (Wouldn’t this mean that the majority is AGAINST civil government’s provision of entitlements?) If we were allowed to vote with our pocketbooks, the government would be very different from what it is today.

Our Creator created three governmental institutions in order to assist us in “getting along one with another.” These institutions are 1) family government; 2) church government; and 3) civil government. Each institution is charged with certain responsibilities and granted certain authority. For example, family government (symbolized by the rod of discipline) is charged with the responsibility of education and welfare. Church government (symbolized by the keys to the kingdom) is responsible for administering the sacraments and the welfare of widows and orphans (those with no family). Civil government (symbolized by the sword of justice) is charged with punishing law breakers. This distribution of responsibilities and authorities insures a system of checks and balances so that one institution does not infringe on the authority of another institution. The best application of this three institution ordering of society is the story of the Israelites trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. Our founding fathers were intimately familiar with this story and clearly understood the relationship between the three governing institutions.

In order to insure the success of this three institution ordering of society, the individual citizen must practice self-government (or self-discipline or self-control) and insist that the individual institutions maintain the division of responsibilities. For our constitutional republic form of civil government, this self-government occurs at the ballot box. Americans voluntarily gave up individual self-government, and hence their liberty, when they discovered that they can vote themselves benefits from the public treasury. From that point on, the majority has always, and will always, elect the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury. They changed the eighth commandment from “You shall not steal” to “You shall not steal except by majority vote.” The result is that the federal government will collapse due to irresponsible fiscal policy.

Have you ever heard someone remark “Why should I work when the government will pay me money when I don’t work?”

Or, have you heard a teenage girl say “If I have another baby, I can get more money from the government!”

Why does the government pay a farmer to NOT grow crops, and then pay that same farmer a subsidy based upon how much his crops produce?

What about the utter failure of government’s ability to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina!!

All these examples, and more, conclusively demonstrate the inherent ineptness of government to provide for its citizens. (Incidentally, the church and other non-governmental entities were much more efficient in providing for and responding to the needs of Katrina victims.)

Furthermore, we should consider the fact that “Less than 25 percent of all the tax dollars allocated to fight poverty at every level of government reaches the poor. The other 75 percent goes to pay overhead” [See Ronald H. Nash, Why the Left is Not Right: The Religious Left – Who They Are and What They Believe (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1996), 183]. Couple this gross inefficiency in distribution with the inherent ineptness of government to provide, and you have a recipe for certain disaster. The government must be stopped before it destroys America.

Our Creator did not grant civil government the authority to “provide.” Indeed, Paul tells us that the sole primary function of civil government is to “bring punishment on the wrongdoer” where wrong is defined by our Creator, and not by man with his self-righteous laws [See Romans 14:1-7]. When civil government usurps the responsibilities of family and church, it essentially steps into the shoes of our Creator. When civil government makes its own laws, it is in essence declaring itself to be like God determining right from wrong. (Seems like that is what Adam and Eve attempted and consequently were evicted from the Garden of Eden – there is nothing new under the sun.)

So, I guess the main issue is whether to put our faith in our Creator, or in government. But, even the liberty to choose where to put one’s faith is gradually being taken away by government and its manmade laws. Man actually believes that he can design a system of laws that are better than the system our Creator has designed. Can we be any more arrogant!

Consider that in 1980, the United States of America was the largest CREDITOR nation in the world. Thirty years later, the United States became the largest DEBTOR nation in the world.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14 sets forth the blessings our Creator promised to bestow upon a nation as a reward for obedience to His laws. In part, Moses said “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom” (emphasis added).

Deuteronomy 28:15-68 sets forth the punishment for refusing to obey our Creator’s laws. In part, it reads “The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail” (emphasis added).

I encourage you to read and ponder over Deuteronomy 28. Clearly, America has been the recipient of many blessings because of our obedience to our Creator’s laws. However, it is also clear that in recent years America has begun to evict our Creator from our land. As a nation, we have rejected our Creator and His commands. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 paints a vivid picture of our future. We must heed the words of II Chronicles 7:13-14 ­– “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Where do you stand? Who’s side are you on? You cannot straddle the fence. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” [Matthew 6:24; see also Luke 16:13].

The words of Joshua are applicable, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” [Joshua 24:14-15].

Respectfully,
Mark