Whose Side are We On?
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As the commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.
Josh 5:13-15
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 ”Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (NIV)
Joshua asked the natural question when he encountered the angel of the Lord before beginning his campaign against the Ammorites. We ask the same question as the Church whether someone is liberal or conservative, pro-life or pro-abortion, for big government or free enterprise. But this is the wrong question for the Church to ask. It is the same mistake that Joshua made.
In the same chapter Joshua was commanded by God to circumcise the Israelis since a new generation had grown to replace the generation that died in the wilderness with Moses. The circumcision was the renewal of their covenant with God. They were now in covenant again. But they, like so many of us in the Church, thought that God was now on their side.
It is believed by many, and I am one, that this is a Christophany of Jesus before His incarnation. Jesus is the Captain of the Host. His reply set Joshua back on track: God is not serving Israel, but Israel is serving God. Jesus is not serving the Church, but we are serving Him.
Many who have left organized religion disdain to call themselves Christians. Instead they prefer, “Christ follower.” I don’t think it is necessary to drop the name Christian, but I do agree with their intention. We are not to follow organized religion, but only Jesus. Which means we do not take either the side of organized religion or the world. We follow Truth, of which Jesus is the source.
Health Care
I stepped away from organized religion after 20 years of it. For the last 5 years I have been following Christ to the people that He leads me to, or brings to me. Christian radio and media have become wearisome to me as I grate at hearing the underlying exaltation of the church system in every thing preachers say. Recently I began listening to the conservative talk shows on AM radio again. But I am finding that to be tedious, too.
The main topic of discussion is the health care legislation the Democrats are trying to force into law. The main objection is the inability of the federal government to handle 1 fifth of the US economy. I agree that this ought not to be so, but I marvel at how these pundits defend the insurance companies. I know many believers acknowledge that conservative radio pundits are not necessarily believers in Christ. Some are Jewish, some are Deists, while, no doubt, some are Christians. But when I talk to believers it is apparent that they tend to accept the conservative positions and points of argument. And, since it is the Republican party that is opposing the health care legislation, the Church tends to side with the Republicans.
Those who hold to health care reform (I speak of the public, not the politicians) have a legitimate grievance regarding the high cost of medical care and the difficulty of getting insurance coverage. Hence they are supporting these reforms.
But what neither side seems to understand is that the problem is not health care but insurance and banking practices that are unethical. We do not tend to think of insurance as banking, but in practical reality it is the same thing. Insurance companies use the premiums paid and loan out 10x or more of what they actually have to make great profit on the premiums paid to them. The very thing the bankers are doing. It is unethical and criminal, yet it is sanctioned by the laws of men through government even though it violates the laws of God.
Prov 16:11
11 Honest scales and balances are from the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making. (NIV)Prov 20:23
23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good. (KJV)Micah 6:11
11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? (KJV)
Loaning out more money than one has is an abomination to God. Yet this is how the banks and insurance companies operate with the sanction of government protection.
No Free Market
The conservatives tout the advantages of the free market. I happen to be in the Austrian school of economics and believe in the free market, too. However, to believe that we have a true free market is a faith in deception.
The insurance industry eliminates the free market in the medical world because it appeals to greed. For example, I went to a Christian dentist to get my teeth cleaned. Cleaning the teeth is a simple process of hand picking with a tool, flossing, and polishing with a small drill. This dentist had my teeth X-Rayed which can be helpful to see what might be missed by the eye. However, he used a 360 degree camera and charged me $2,000. Even though I had the dental insurance and only paid $20 out of pocket, I was outraged. He only charged that much because he could collect it from the insurance company. As a Christian dentist I found this to be an outrageous breach of ethics inappropriate to a “supposed” follower of Christ.
In another story of mine, I was rear-ended and had my bumper bent up out of shape. I went to a body shop to get an estimate of repair. His first quote was $1500. I told him that I only had liability insurance, not comprehensive. All I wanted was the bumper to be straightened out again. In that case, he said, only $200.
If there was no insurance coverage, the free market would function by what people could actually pay, not what is artificially paid by insurance companies.
Of course, in the medical field, malpractice lawsuits have put physicians on the defensive ordering many irrelevant tests to protect them from tort lawyers and greedy people seeking a cash bonanza at the doctor’s expense. However, there will be no tort reform as long as insurance companies function. If the doctors don’t have the money they will not be sued. No one tries to get blood from a turnip.
So who benefits the most by a government “take over” of health care? My money is on the insurance companies. Does anyone really believe that the government will become and insurance agency? The insurance companies will function as usual with the benefit of payment directly from the government for them to continue their unethical practices.
Conspiracies
Any one who embraces the idea of conspiracies is labeled a nut or fanatic. Yet anyone taking an honest look at history and life today has to see conspiracies taking place all the time all around us. People conspire on the job against co-workers; kids conspire to slander other kids in school; and assassinations throughout history have been conspiracies. Instead we are led to believe that a lone gunman shot Lincoln or Kennedy. Julius Caesar died of a conspiracy, why should we not think the same regarding Lincoln or Kennedy? We are social creatures. There is an obvious increase in success if others work together for a devious end. One man by himself can not orchestrate all that needs to be done to topple a public figure.
What makes accepting conspiracies so difficult for most people to believe is imagining conscious cooperation on a large scale. Christians and conservatives readily admit that a move towards a global government is well underway, yet refuse to believe that a conspiracy is causing this to happen.
People on a grand scale do not consciously cooperate with conspiracies. They are convinced that they function from a right understanding of what is going on. The conscious planners of global government do meet in the various international organizations (such as the CFR -Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Bildeberger’s and so on), but they manipulate the information to direct people’s choices. If you believe a tiger is jumping on you, you will run, even though you do not know the tiger is a film projection.
Here is the problem. How can we believe the “facts” we hear on radio, read on the internet, or hear from the government? “Facts” are used as irrefutable proof by everyone, yet no one but God actually knows the “facts”. “A verse taken out of context is a pretext,” is an oft quoted statement regarding Bible hermeneutics. A verse out of context is the same thing as a “fact” taken from a soundbite. The spirit, or point of a verse is only known by the overall context of the Scriptures, both in chapter and book as well as the Bible as a whole and by the character of God Himself. Likewise with our understanding of anything in life. The truth of “facts” are born out of track records as a context.
Yet even what we know as track records may not be truth. A study of history that goes beyond reading what a text book says, or another historian shares, reveals much that is not known or understood. That is to read the copies of original documents and to see such remnants of original artifacts and locations, shows that the condensed versions of history is often misleading and prejudiced for the author’s own agenda.
The banking dynasties and international corporations with the financial resources to fund and underwrite the media (as well as out right own them) sways media content for their own ends. What Christians and conservatives do not seem to realize is that these big money sources are financing both sides of the debate. I once read that Bloomberg media serves the banking interests just as the Washington Post and National Public Radio does. This is the Hegalian Dialectic at work: a thesis versus an anti-thesis equals a synthesis. In other words, put two opposites in conflict to create a desired compromise.
New World Order
A lengthy article was directed my way called, “Crashing Towards a New World Social Order 2012” by Global Research in the UK. The author begins with a discussion of capitalism beginning in the 17th century which displaced the land holding aristocracy of Europe. The capitalists were bankers who had the means to fund industrial growth for personal profit. Unlike the land holders they had no national loyalties. They began in Holland and funded the industrial revolution of England, then moved through the centuries to America and is now drifting towards China.
But capital growth, according to the article, is limited and running out, and had reached its limit in 1970. It was given an artificial stimulation with derivatives but is failing. The capitalists are now moving, according to him, towards a consumerism society only with them on top calling the shots.
Relevant to my point here is that he points out that with each change in era the past is demonized as history is edited to show how bad it was and how much better it is now. The article is worth reading by those with the time and understanding to read it.
Kingdom of God
But as I said to my friend who sent me the article, it lacks hope. It leaves out God and the free will of men who have ingenuity to overcome and work around these manipulated changes. Nor will it be a lasting change, for Jesus is coming back and will end these conspiracies of global control.
With “facts” being unreliable, how do we know the Truth? We don’t know. But we do know Jesus if we are participants in the new birth. He is our plumb-line of truth. For several posts I have been writing on the need to have root in one’s self. This root comes when one trusts one’s own senses and ability to think for one self. It is through this root in one’s self that Christ speaks to us. “Facts” may be given to us, but if it does not bear witness in our spirits, then those “facts” are not to be trusted or taken at face value.
God is not on our side. He is on the side of Jesus. Jesus is for us, but he serves God and is the commander of the army of the Lord. If we wish to know truth, then we must be on His side. If you are on His side, then you can trust the leading of His Spirit in knowing the truth and in knowing how to navigate through the political manipulations by the banking dynasties and others who are intent on establishing a global government and to change all societies into their own image.
