The priesthood of believers is not for other believers

The Protestant Reformation partially restored the New Covenant realization that all believers were considered part of the new Royal Priesthood (1 Pet 2:9)  in contrast to the Catholic dominated clergy system.  But as Frank Viola pointed out, the Protestant Reformers only restored the theological understanding of the priesthood of all believers, but not the ecclesiastical practice.  So all Protestant denominations make the theological declaration but continue the clergy-laity ecclessiology.  It is the assumption that house church gatherings are exercising the priesthood of all believers in their open-participatory format.   But as I have meditated on the idea, I think the house church advocates are missing it, too.

To understand what I mean, it will be helpful to reconsider the Mosaic priesthood in a short summation.  Prior to Moses, there was no priestly cast.  This system was established by God in the Mosaic Covenant that He made with Moses.  The family of Levi was set apart as the inheritance of Yahweh.   The families of Levi’s three sons, Gershom, Kohath and Merari, were given the the jobs of caring for the tabernacle, then later the temple.  Only the sons of the brother of Moses, Aaron, were given the distinction of being priests.

During this era before the coming of Christ, Israel had three significant functions that rarely overlapped: prophets, priests and kings.   Prophets were the voice of God to the people.  Priests were the voice of the people to God, and kings were arm of God over the people.  Saul lost his right to the throne because he had crossed the line and acted as a priest which was not in his authority.  Jesus was the first of the “Royal Priesthood” who fulfilled all three functions.

Aaron’s family, then, were given the function of interceding on behalf of the people.  The Levites were allowed to work in the outer court where the altar for animal sacrifice was placed, but they were not allowed into the Holy Place.  Only the priests were allowed into the Holy place of the tabernacle or temple where the show bread table, the menorah lamp, and the table of incense were kept.  Only Aaron, then one line of his sons,  was called the high priest and were allowed into the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was kept and the shekinah glory of God was manifested, and that was only once a year on Yom Kippor.

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple, or the two curtains which separated the two rooms of the Holy place from the Holy of Holies from one another, was torn in half (Matt. 27:51). According to Hebrews 10:19-20, that tearing of the veil signifies that all believers with the new birth can enter freely into the presence of God which is signified by the  Holy of Holies.  However, that does not mean all believers are now considered the high priest.  That distinction is given only to Jesus (Heb 3:1).  But this is the salient attribute of being called a “royal priesthood.”

What we have in Jesus as a “royal priesthood” are the same distinctions that He alone possessed.  Jesus is the only Jew who was all three functions of prophet, priest & king. As the first born of many brethren He has given the same capacity of function to all who abide in Him through the new birth.

So if all of us in Christ can now function in a priestly, prophetic and kingly authority,  it begs the question, “to whom?”  If we all can come boldly into the throne room (Heb 10:19), then why should we intercede for each other in a “priestly” fashion? If we all can hear God and speak on His behalf, then to whom do we prophetically speak?  If we are all kings under the King of Kings, then to whom do we exercise kingly authority?  Should we boss each other around?  Certainly there are some who try to do so.

The royal priesthood is summed up by Paul in these verses:

2 Cor 2:15-16
15    For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
16    To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? (KJV)

Like the Greek god Janus, we face two worlds.  To other believers we are savour of  death to self, but to the lost we are a savour of life.

House church advocates are definitely correct in their understanding of all the “one anothers” found in the New Testament epistles.  But do these “one anothers” fall under these three functions? Certainly we all need encouragement.  There are times when we do not hear God for various reasons and the Lord will have another brother or sister speak to us prophetically.  There are times when  the Lord will burden us to pray for other brothers and sisters which is a priestly function.  There are certainly times when we need mature leadership to help us which is a kingly function of another brother to another.

But, frankly, I do not believe that this is what is meant by “royal priesthood.”  The Protestant Reformers continued the clergy-laity divide in their practice of the ecclessiology.  They gave us the theological understanding still in the clergy-laity division.  And I believe that house church gatherings have reduced this division but they still apply the thinking in their fellowship in their focus on one another.  To other believers these functions of the royal priesthood only work when we function in self denial and humility as a savor of death.  For the life of Christ only flows through the body through humility which occurs when believers die daily.

I believe that the three functions of the Royal Priesthood, of prophet, priest, and king, is meant for the body of Christ towards the lost.  Our intercession is mostly for those who have no access yet to God not having accepted the gift of life through Christ.  We are to be the prophetic voice of God to the lost world who rejects Christ.  We are to use our kingly authority in the spirit realm against the principalities and powers of Satan’s kingdom.  As we die to self in our behavior towards the lost our words, intercession and spiritual authority bring the savour of life to those who remain dead in their sins and trespasses.

It is time that we take our eyes off our selves and look to the lost and dying world.  The royal priesthood is meant more for evangelism than it is for one another since all in Christ already have the fountain of life flowing through them.  The lost are the ones thirsty for a taste of that life.

Economic Volcano

I had made reference to the economic situation in Iceland in the  3 posts, beginning with “The Elephant in the Room” ,  followed by, “Integrity Amidst Corporate Evil“, then again with “Ethics or Morals“.   I never felt that I have done justice to the reason for mentioning Iceland in all those posts.

So, in this post, I want to share where I got my information so you can read on this further.  The main point, is that the 14 trillion dollar American debt is a fraud forced on the American people that does not belong to the American people and should not be paid.  Some of the debt is legitimate, but most is not.  The people of Iceland refused to pay a similar fraud foisted upon them, as well.

I first came across this story in an article by R.D Bradshaw who has been writing a series called, “The Goldsmiths” for the Gold Seek website.  Mr. Bradshaw has been explaining the actions of the banking cabal throughout this series.  The discussion on Iceland is found in his post # CXXXVII.  After reading so much about the banking/corporate control of nations through the economy that was discouraging, I found this lengthy post to be hopeful.

Mr. Bradshaw said:

Wikipedia and numerous internet sites have the backdrop on the Icelandic crisis.  It appears that the primary groundwork for the problem was laid back in the early 2000s as the money changers, who owned/controlled Iceland’s money and banks, moved to promote intense speculation with derivatives and risky loans by Iceland’s major banks—to include the Kaupthing, Landsbanki (called IceSaves in Britain and Holland) and Glitnir banks.  Iceland ran up huge debts to the big Rothschild Cabal banks in England, Holland, Germany and evidently other EU countries.  Apparently, the Cabal had encouraged some local British and Dutch banks/savers to put some money into at least the IceSaves bank whereby the Cabal money lending bosses could use this money to speculate in the financial markets.

He continues later in the article saying:

According to Wikipedia, Iceland’s banking collapse was the largest suffered by any country in economic history, relative to the size of its economy.  The Icelandic króna declined more than 35% against the euro from January to September 2008.  Inflation of consumer prices was running at 14%, and Iceland’s interest rates had been raised to 15.5% to deal with the high inflation.  With this state of crisis, the governing politicians started looking for ways to borrow money from Russia, the EU or the IMF to bail them out.

But as far as the Rothschild Cabal bankers in London and Holland, there would be no help unless and until Iceland agreed to tax her people heavily in order to pay off the losses to the big Rothschild Cabal banks.  Quite naturally, Iceland’s political leadership agreed to do just that very thing— pay off the banks and put the tax burden on the people of Iceland.  Of course, this solution was what was happening in the US (with TARP) and in the EU.  The Rothschild Cabal masters in London thought that Iceland would be another stupid pushover to bail out the Cabal banks.

A little further on he continues:

In a nutshell, the Rothschild ruled Britain demanded that Iceland pay off the banking losses of the Rothschild Cabal banks in the Icelandic crash which the Cabal caused.  Iceland said no.  So the Rothschild owned Britain defined Iceland as a terrorist state and seized property of the Icelandic bank(s) and possibly some other Icelandic assets in Britain to hold as a hostage with a demand that Iceland reimburse Britain for its pay offs to the big Rothschild Cabal banks/savers for their losses.

And the point that I found hopeful:

As best as I can determine, in what I have read, the small nation of Iceland allowed Rothschild relatives and agents into its country many years ago (just like Germany, Britain and the US all did).  Quickly, this Cabal of conspiratorial agents took over the Icelandic banks and money.  And, like in Britain, the US and much of Europe, the Cabal relatives and agents proceeded to speculate and gamble with Iceland’s money in risky loans and speculative derivatives.  When the Rothschild Cabal bosses in London launched their move to a deflationary depression in 2008, it caused a collapse in the risky loans and derivatives.  Just like the Cabal masters had the gall to demand that the United States, Britain and Europe tax their peoples to pay off the To-Big-To-Fail Cabal banks, they insisted that Iceland do the same thing.

But too bad for the Cabal bosses, the people of Iceland had the guts and courage to stand up to the Rothschild plutocratic bosses and say no way Jose.  Literally, the people of Iceland turned against their own elected rulers in Parliament.

His article is much more detailed than these few block quotes, and I encourage every thoughtful reader to take the time to read the whole article.  R.D. Bradshaw did not write further on the topic except for a discussion on the volcano that blew up shortly after this.  So I was delighted and surprised to hear a podcast on the topic.

I have recently become a subscriber to the Off the Grid newsletter which is a website, newsletter and podcast on ways to become independent of the corporate system that most Americans depend upon.  Independent of using the electrical grid, the police system, water systems, food production systems that are owned and run by large, often international, corporations.  These are Americans who see the handwriting on the wall and are preparing for an economic and industrial collapse of the United States.

Their podcast was badly recorded, difficult to listen to.  They always provide a written transcript of the podcast, which makes for greater clarity.  In this particular podcast, the hosts,  Brian Brawdy and Bill Heid, had invited Mr. Hank Brock, author of the forthcoming book, “The Last Dominos,” which is not in print at the time of this writing. The book is on world economics. In the interview, Bill asked Hank about the significance of Iceland.

Bill: Well, Hank, talk a little bit about sovereign debt as it affects nations we’ve got obviously you have the historical issues of years passed when you’re in the Great Depression here and some other incidents. But talk a little bit about Iceland because what happens when you wake up in the morning and one of these implosions actually affects you.  Right now it seems to me like it’s an abstraction Americans they get up, they watch the news, they may check their favorite website and there are just stories to the average guy until something happens, what happen in Iceland and what happens to someone who woke up in Iceland one morning?

Hank: Well Iceland could be a story of and should be a terrible or a warning of a future America.  In May 2008, Moody’s downgraded Iceland’s, the rating of the Iceland’s sovereign debt to krona and the number of its banks and that required no capital reserves, they went through the rating process, we don’t need to do that but it precipitated another rating downgrade which precipitated another rating downgrade, and then when the US had their problems in mid September 2008, Iceland’s three largest banks collapsed.  These banks had debts totaling 8 times the entire size of Iceland GDP.

Their capita was number 17 in the world in August 2008.  The government told the public at all of their accounts in these three largest banks that collapsed were insured.  Well 6 weeks later, the government had to admit that they had no way had the resources to cover all of the liabilities of these three banks that had collapsed and overnight the krona lost over 80% of its value.

That’s within a couple of days.  People want to sleep but basically woke up within a couple of days and discovered that their $100,000 bank account was worth 20 that their $4000, $5000 monthly paycheck had a purchasing power of $1000. There were still importing all of their goods at full cost, full price from Europe and elsewhere and they didn’t have that much the way of natural resources and natural self efficiency and overnight by November, we had the riots in the streets November 11, Iceland riot and riot in the streets and their GDP per capita dropped within 90 days from 17th in the world to 118th at the level of Peru.  And so now you have Iceland basically a third world nation, people trying to pay their bills and their expenses are still astronomical.

Bill: You wake in the morning and you find you have ash in your bank account instead of dollars.  Hank, you want to pick up because as we were talking about during the break there, I think that the average Americans just doesn’t realize that he’s in a similar position as someone living in Iceland and when that hits, it comes without a whole lot of notice and it changes your life forever because of you’ve got a thousand dollars in the bank and the next morning you’ve got 200 because of the default. You’ve got some decisions to make about how you’re going to live your life.

Most of the discussion was on the topic of his book on how the economic dominoes are falling.  The warning that Mr. Brock is giving us is that the collapse of the American banking system is close behind that of Iceland.  Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Brock have two different points on the topic that the Church needs to understand and be prepared for.  The debt is not ours and we should not submit to paying it.  It needs to be renounced by the American people and when the impact of this debt hits  the banks completely,  what ever savings you may have in the bank will become worthless if it is dependent upon the Federal Reserve system, of which all banks by law have to be a participant.

If  you wish to hear the edited version of their podcast,  you can do so here.

If you wish to hear the original unedited podcast by Off the Grid News, you can do so here.

Christians need to understand that God is no more the author of this situation than He was of the slavery imposed on Israel by Pharaoh.  He sent Moses as a deliverer of Israel because He heard the cry of His people (Exodus 3:7).  When the temple of Solomon’s was built, he prayed then prophesied,

If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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. (2 Chr 7:14 KJV)

Armed revolution would be a disaster, and would be welcomed by the government.  They could then dispense with the pretense that we are a constitutional republic and would function openly as a totalitarian regime.  Prayer and repentance is the answer.  Resistance to this debt will only succeed if it is led by the Holy Spirit.  Resistance in the flesh would be a failure, but not if God leads the way. Brethren, we need to pray.

Prophets are examples of organic authority

I read Neil Cole’s book, “Organic Church” when I first left the professional clergy system. It was and still is a great book. I like Neil’s writing style. He used many stories to illustrate the organic church experience. That was 5 years ago. I do not consider a gathering of believers as the organic church anymore. Neither in a house church setting nor at Starbucks. Organic church is not an activity. It is not a mission. It is simply all who are grafted into the life of Jesus Christ through the new birth regardless of what they do or where they are.

The organic church is not directed by people. It is the life of God Himself flowing through all His children.   This understanding of the organic church is shared by Frank Viola, Neil Cole, Wayne Jacobsen and many others.   Each of these authors have different priorities in understanding this concept.  For Frank Viola it is to see Christ glorified as head of the church in gatherings.  For  Wayne Jacobsen, it is helping individuals live by the leading of the Spirit.  For Neil Cole it is in organic church planting and mentoring.

Neil Cole's book

So it was with eager anticipation that I read his book, “Organic Leadership.”  There were parts of sublime inspiration, but most of it seemed mechanical and was somewhat boring to read.   The problem with this book, in my opinion, is that Neil tried to combine two books together that should have been two separate books.  The first book should have been a discussion on what an organic leader is and looks like.  It was in these parts that sublime writing occurred.  My wife and I were deeply touched in his illustration of his father-in-law as an example of an organic leader that touched his life.

The second part which should have been a different book was his strategy for mentoring organic leaders.  Combining this manual with his descriptions of organic leadership created an uneven read.  If he had separated the two topics as two volumes for the same book, those who want to know what they could do to help others become organic leaders would have been read with interest in the second volume.  But those who do not have such a call on their lives but still need help in recognizing organic leaders that God has brought into their lives would be content with reading only volume one.  But, alas, this is not how he wrote the book.

It is for those who need to recognize organic leaders, but are not called to mentoring others, that I write this post.    The Bible is full of examples of organic leaders and their characteristics.  In all these examples they are people who did not seek their own promotion, but were servants merely obeying God, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.  Organic authority has its weight, not in titles, but substance.  Jesus, as a man, may have been a rabbi, as some people contend.  I do not know.  But the Bible is clear that He was recognized as an organic leader by the substance of what He said and did, not by any claims that He made.

For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Matt 7:29 KJV)

In the film industry there are people called “heavies.”  The heavies are not necessarily famous, though, they may be, nor carry any titles, though they may have them.   Heavies are people of authority who get things done and know what they are talking about.  This is a secular example of organic authority.

In the Old Testament two sources provide good examples of organic leaders.  In the book of Judges when there were no titles, except for the Aaronic and Levitical priesthood, organic leaders were raised by God as judges  who delivered the Israelis  from enemies for a season.  In all these examples the men and women God used were not people seeking leadership.  They were raised up by God for a need, and leave the narrative when the need is met.  There is no indication that they were given any titles, even though the narrator calls them judges.   There were all just people recognized by their abilities in the times of need.

When the recognized leadership, that is the priesthood of Eli and his sons, followed by the abuses of Samuel’s sons, became unbearable to the Israelis, they cried out for kings like the other nations.   Apart from David and a few other good kings, the rest of the kings who had “titles of authority” were not organic leaders.  The organic leaders were the prophets that God raised up to speak to the kings and people.   They all came anonymously and disappeared in like fashion, unless they wrote down their prophecies which make the canon of scriptures.   The Bible indicates that there were multitudes of unknown prophets that God used organically to speak to Israel.  Elijah, for example, comes out of nowhere as an unknown person who speaks to Ahab.

The New Testament is completely organic, but because we view the document through the lens of 1500 years of church hierarchy, we tend to read into the text titles and church structure.   But the early church did not have this structure (that is the first generation of believers).  The ugly head of church structure tried to rise in the second century and finally ascended by the fourth century, but did not exist in the first century church.

I believe God does use some of our man made systems of mentoring, as Neil Cole describes in his book.  What I disagree with is the thought that we are the mentors.  We are used by The Mentor, who is Jesus Christ, but none of us are the mentors.  Only God disciples His children.  God uses His children in discipling other children, but that is only for a season.  As Paul told the Corinthians,

1 Cor 3:6-9
6    I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7    So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8    Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9    For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. (KJV)

And I believe that Neil Cole thinks this same way.  What he is sharing in his book are practical means of being used by God during that season.

For example, in my own life, I know of several men and women that God had used for a season as He discipled me.   As a brand new believer,  the man who led me to Christ, Igor, had a profound influence on my understanding of God.   Yet, what I took from him was not his thinking, but the many times I recognized Christ speaking through him.

After leaving his fellowship due to work and a move, God raised up another organic leader named Susan, who owned a Christian book store near where I lived.   I used to go to her store just to hang out because I was both hungry for literature on Christ and conversation with believers.  The Lord spoke through her in a crisis situation I went through.  Yet she was not trying to be the voice of God to me.  She was only speaking from a heart of compassion.

After I married my beloved wife, Linda, we had an organic pastor who did not bear any title other than being a Sunday School teacher at the congregation we attended.  Mike is an IRS agent and an accountant, but he is also a natural pastor who cares about people in truth.  Perhaps his accounting skills makes him aware of keeping account of other people.    Whereas the man who wore the title of pastor was no pastor at all, (his gift is as an administrator) God gave us pastoral care through Mike.  Mike never called himself a pastor.  He was merely a brother in Christ who cared.   But his organic authority was recognized by all, and he became a threat to the administrator that bore the title.  Mike left the congregation as did many others because of this rivalry.  Mike had a season in the life of my marriage, but his time in our life has passed on.   But our Pastor has never forsaken us nor left us.  We know we lack nothing because our Heavenly Father will raise up organic leaders in our lives when we need them.

Organic leadership is not something to try to obtain, it is the natural result of following Christ in truth.  Neither are we to decide who should be made into organic leaders.  That is the Lord’s work.  For men like Neil Cole, they are merely following the lead of the Lord in mentoring those whom He wants trained as leaders.  But it will be the Lord that ultimately raises them up as organic leaders when the time and need arise.  Neil’s book describes our co labor with the Lord in that preparation.  What matters for all of us as children becoming sons of God, is to recognize the organic leaders that God brings into our lives.  They will not announce themselves as organic leaders.  If they do, flee from them.  We recognize the leaders God brings to us because we know Jesus.  Those that are used by Jesus will have the voice of the Lord speaking through them.  If you do not see Jesus speaking through them, they are not organic leaders.  The more you press into Christ the easier it will be to see those who are His and those who are not.

Morals are not the same as ethics.

There is no difference between the meanings of the two words, ethics and morality from an etymological view. They are from two different languages: ethics being a Greek word, and morality being a Latin word, which means manner and customs of people. Ethics, however, carries the additional connotation of internal standards because of Aristotles’s philosophical treaties on ethics, “Nicomachean Ethics“.   Morals, on the other hand, tends to lean in meaning towards the mores of a people or the outward manners and customs of a people just as the word customs is the root to the word costume.

The technical distinctions aside, words have a predominant meaning by the current usage.  In deed, most words are used by people without regard to the etymological meaning.  For example, the word “blessed”  has moved beyond Christian usage and is used by people of all faiths to mean privileged and favored, with happy circumstances.   The etymology of blessed is uniquely Christian, however, because it literally means “blood-covered”  (bled-sion) and comes from Medieval Catholicism.  To be covered in the blood means to be in covenant with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consequently, such a covenant brings favor and privilege in happy circumstances.  But the word is used without any regard to its origin.

Likewise, I wish to elaborate on the deeper differences between our subconscious usage of the words “ethics” and “morality” which merit having two different words from two different languages grafted into English usage.   Ethics, in my opinion, leans more towards decisions of the conscience, whereas morals leans towards accepted public opinions and customs.  As such, ethics are expressions of God’s will, and morals are the expression of man’s will.

Good  and Evil

Many are confused by the dilemma of life on Earth which seems to be a mixture of good and evil, with evil predominating. If evil predominates then that implies that evil is greater than good. This is categorically wrong.  God is good and is greater than His creation, therefore, goodness is greater than evil because of God alone.  But even in creation goodness actually predominates and is greater than evil because the creation continues to function as God designed.  The sun rises and sets, the seasons continue, people are born, live and die.  Flowers bloom, birds sing, the stars shine.  The goodness of creation is everywhere.

But we are naturally anthropocentric, and look at mankind as the totality of creation.   But even with people, the vast majority are good.  I do not mean good in the theological sense of good, which has God as the standard,  but good in the sense that Jesus said that we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children (Luke 11: 13).   People live peacefully side by side all over the world.  The media works for Satanic goals, therefore is constantly showing stories of evil, but these stories are one in a million.  For every evil story one hears, there are a million good stories untold.  Goodness actually is the moral majority.  The mores of evil are the minority.

But whether the morals of the majority or the evil of the minority are viewed, all have the image of the goodness of God stamped upon them, and all have a conscience that is ethical. The conscience hardens and sears, but also can be softened and purged.

God’s Laws and Man’s Statutes

The laws of God are revealed in His creation, and are also called Natural Laws, as well as revealed  in the Bible. These laws come from His heart and are enforced by Him consistently. The statutes of men are agreements made by men and are subject to change and lack of enforcement. Ethics are expressions of the laws of God in our conscience whereas morals are the expressions of the statutes and agreements of men that change with whims of men.

The mystery of good and evil on Earth is summed up in this point: God made man in His image, which also includes His sovereign character.  In other words, God is autonomous and He gave autonomy to mankind.  Our ability to choose evil instead of good is an expression of the sovereign autonomy He gave us.  God does not repent, nor take back that which He has given.  He gave us the freedom to choose.  He orchestrates circumstances to help us choose right from wrong.  He even intervenes with judgment when we cry out to Him.  But what He wants is for us to make ethical decisions from our heart and conscience without our being swayed by His various forms of influence.

The challenge we have regarding distinguishing between ethics and morals is the natural tendency to equate current mores as ethics when they are contrary to the laws of God and are merely the statutes of men.  Because statutes are also called laws, the distinction is confused.  Think of the laws of God as being criminal felonies when violated and the statutes of men as being misdemeanors when disobeyed.  Felonies carry incarceration and death as penalties whereas misdemeanors are usually financial penalties of fines and fees paid.  This is changing in America today because misdemeanors are being penalized as felonies, thus confusing the distinction.

For example, taxation is a statute of men, not a law of God.  Yet the force of government can penalize citizens who do not pay taxes with incarceration, which is the realm of felonies, not misdemeanors.  And yet, abortion, which is the murder of the unborn, is felonious but has been made legal by the statutes of men.  It is an unlawful use of the statutes of men.  Statutory rape is an example of a statute that agrees with the laws of God.  A child may consent and willingly participate in sex with an adult, but that child does not comprehend her actions.  For the government to call it rape is accurate, for that adult is taking advantage of the naivete of the child.

The Power of Statutes

As I said in the beginning of this post, the laws of God are enforced by God, whereas the statutes of men are enforced by men. The power of statutes is the agreement and consent of men. God does not enforce the statutes of men. But God does expect us to fulfill our agreements. Therefore when we make vows, the agreement becomes an ethical issue from God’s point of view. Marriage vows are expected by God to be kept. We do not have to make the vow. Those who live together without commitment, in one sense, are more honorable when they break up then those who divorce having made vows to stay together. I say “in one sense” because marriage begins, not with the vow, but the consummation of intercourse. To leave a partner without vows and to have intercourse with another partner is fornication and a form of adultery which violates the laws of God. So the example, fails in these respects. But my point is in the power of agreement.

Societies, whether in marriage and families, or the larger context of communities and nations, only function by agreement. Amos said,

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3 KJV)

The context of this statement is Yahweh’s criticism of Israel’s disobedience, and His inability to stand by them because their actions disagree with His will.   Agreement is the power of community and is the basis of statutory laws.   If we do not agree, then our behavior will not go along with the assumed agreement, and the strength of the statute diminishes.  If we go along reluctantly, then the strength of government is still diminished.  This is seen in the authority of presidents.  When a president wins with the slim majority, his authority is weak and he is not taken seriously by other countries, nor his own citizens.  When a president has a landslide victory, then his authority is powerful because the nations of the world recognize the people behind the man.

Which shows that the power is still in the people not the government.   Governments that have weak authority try to buttress their authority by convincing the people that their statutes are equal with the laws of God.  This is only accomplished by confusion and getting a semblance of majority behavior, or morality, to back them up.  Hence the constant barrage of propaganda  through the news media, entertainment world, and educational systems to make their views seem like the majority view.

Morality is used by governments and evil people to take advantage of the majority.  But ethics are burned into the hearts of every person by God Himself.  Right and wrong still remains in our subconscious.  Because organized religion is another expression of the world system,  it discourages believers from trusting their own conscience and sense of right and wrong. Instead, believers are encouraged to lean on the “experts” and to trust their opinions instead of the witness of the Holy Spirit in their own hearts.  Consequently, convincing  Christians to believe that statutes are equal to the laws of God, buttresses the weak authority of evil governments.   When we stop believing the lies, and no longer agree with them, the power of evil statutes is undermine and can be changed.  Therefore, every effort is made by the perpetrators of evil statutes to convince everyone that these are ethical, not moral statutes.

The Federal Reserve

In my post, The Elephant in the Room, I tried to expose the unconstitutional and extremely unethical monetary system that the government agreed to with the international banking dynasties.  I followed that post with a plea to everyone to learn to trust their own sense of right and wrong in the post, Integrity Amidst Corporate Evil.  In this post I am calling everyone to action in refusing to participate in evil statutes.  The banking system is evil.  It is through this government statute that declares only the Federal Reserve Notes are legal tender and the government backing of the evil fractional reserve system which gave the banking dynasties the sanction and  protection of the government to loan fiat money to the government who then taxes the people to pay the interest on this money borrowed from the Federal Reserve.

Because one hundreds years have passed without opposition to this evil scheme, it is very difficult to extract one’s self from the system.  But this system is the basis of the Mark of the Beast which is coming, and every serious follower of Christ needs to get out of this system.    The power of the system lies in our consenting to it by using it.  As long as we use it, we are agreeing to the system.

Americans do not want to abandon the system because it has provided Americans with great wealth and a higher standard of living than any other nation on the planet.  Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Matt. 19:23-24).  Paul said, the love of money is the root of all evil and by it some have erred from the faith and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Tim. 6:10).  The standard of God for economic living is ethical more than quantitative.  Doing what is right is more important than having many things.  Elijah was fed by ravens and John the Baptist lived on honey and wild locusts.  Both were clothed in rough fur garments.  Our love of the creature comforts that this unethical system has created is the snare that dooms Americans to many sorrows to come.

On an individual basis do not borrow money from the banks unless you absolutely know how to pay it off quickly.  Instead seek financial aid from others who will not charge you usury.  Do not hoard their currency. Hold onto real assets instead. Do without and  exercise delayed gratification.

On a national basis, the citizens  of America need to refute and deny the 14 trillion dollar debt that has been created without the true consent of the people.  The debt does not belong to the American citizens and is the scam of professional politicians and the  international bankers (who also are the owners of the international corporations).   If we withdraw support by not participating in their systems and refuse to pay the claim of the debt upon us, the strength of the statutes of men fails, and governments can be transformed.  The more we speak up and stand against unethical statutes, the sooner others will come to the same realization.

God has given the responsibility to govern ourselves to us.  He is not the author of governments as organized religion tries to convince us.  Paying taxes is not an ethical issue, but a moral one.  Taxes are not from God, but men.   If we stand with God, He will stand with us.   If we stand with men, He lets men be our defense.  As Elisha told his servant, there are more of us than with them (2 Kings 6:16).  Be a person of integrity and ethics.  Do what is right and do not agree to the unethical monetary system and government that exists.  They are not from God. They are from men.

Making our job disconnected from the aftermath of the industry does not make us innocent.

Just Doing My Job

When I posted the last blog on the unethical monetary system that the government has forced upon us by federal law, I knew I was not finished on the topic. I addressed the theft of the Federal Reserve banking system of “loaning” money that they did not have and charging interest on non existent funds. My point was that we, the American people, do not owe this 14 trillion dollar debt, and that we should deny it and refuse to pay it. What I need to finish is our individual responsibility towards God to live ethically and not to participate in an unethical system, even though we are compelled by “law” to do so.

In a recent broadcast of the Katherine Albrecht show, Dr Marc Edwards shared how he had exposed the cover up of lead in the water of the Washington DC water supply by the CDC and EPA.     Dr. Albrecht asked him how they could try cover up the contamination of the water which poisons the people of DC?   His answer showed great compassion.   These bureaucracies are staffed with people whose jobs are compartmentalized and separated from one another.  Each person was just doing their job which did not reveal to them the big picture of the consequences of their job. His answer made me realize that atrocities over the world occur because of the multitude of people who are “just doing their jobs” without knowing what the ultimate consequence of their jobs are causing.

I had always wondered how a “Christian” nation such as Germany could allow the holocaust and World War II to devastate Europe.    There were notable exceptions, of course, such as the family of Anne Frank and Raoul Wallenberg, who defied the laws of the land by harboring and safeguarding Jews from the Nazi’s.   But the majority of Germans who called themselves Christians obeyed the “laws” of the land.   They may have objected to the atrocities that they knew about, but did nothing to resist it because they were not directly responsible for those atrocities.   Instead, they were good tax paying Germans who only were doing their jobs.   And from their point of view, their jobs were not harming anyone.

The bureaucrats of the CDC and EPA were not directly covering up the lead poisoning of the Washington DC water supply.  They were just doing their jobs, but they indirectly contributed to the cover up.   The German Christians of WWII were  not directly involved in the holocaust, but they contributed indirectly to the holocaust through their taxes and work in the armaments industries, and other manufacturing companies who supplied the Nazi’s with their armaments.

Likewise, as American Christians, we are indirectly responsible for the growing global government whose engine are the central banks of the nations owned and run by the international banking dynasties of the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Morgans, et al along with their international corporations who are actively seeking to undermine and destroy the sovereignty of the nations through a coming global currency.

The Judgment of God

There is a foolish trend amongst some believers who think that God does not judge believers nor nations.   The love of God (of which I know as a reality) is distorted into thinking that God does not judge anymore.   The scriptures plainly state that judgment begins in the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).  It also clearly states that God chastises those whom He loves (Heb. 12:5-11), which shows that judgment is part of the expression of His love.

Judgment in this life is only part of the judgment of God.  We all face God in judgment, whether saved (2 Cor 5:10) or unsaved (Rev 20:11), after death and must give an account of our lives before Him.   Little is taught on what that experience will be.  Most of what I have heard taught is simply the reiteration of Jesus in Luke 13 where He either says, “well done good and faithful servant” or “depart from me you workers of iniquity.”   This conclusion does not show the process.   The process is how we treated Him in His body (and all mankind) on Earth.

But a more revealing glimpse of the Judgment Seat of Christ, I believe, is found in the parable of 10 talents (Matt 25).  For those who were responsible with their talents He says again,

Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Matt 25:21 KJV)

But for the wicked servant He shows the folly of his logic.

Matt 25:24-28
24    Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25    And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26    His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27    Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28    Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.  (KJV)

In other words, Jesus will expose all our excuses for not doing that which was right.  He knows this servant had no intention of being responsible and was only making an excuse.   But even the servant knew what was right, and if he genuinely believed what he said, would have put the money where it could earn interest.  We should note that Jesus is referring to honest banking which is ethical, not the scam that we are all under today.

Heart and Conscience

This wicked servant still had a conscience and a knowledge of right and wrong in his heart, as we all do.  God is not going to judge us according to obeying the “laws” of the land, nor what your “pastor” may have told you.  He is going to judge us according to the knowledge of right and wrong that He placed in every heart, including the unregenerate.

Consider what Paul tells the Romans:

Rom 2:12-16
12    For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
13    (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14    For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15    Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
16    In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. (KJV)

This clearly states the Lord’s standard.  We are all without excuse.  If we do not have the regeneration, the law of God (unlike the law of men) is written in the hearts of all people.   Then those who live by the law (i.e., the law of Moses) and those of us in the regeneration who disregard the promptings of the Spirit through our heart and conscience, have no excuse at all.

We are to obey God and what is right and wrong regardless of the laws of men.   If those laws compel us to disobey the laws of God, we are not to obey those laws.  For most Christians,  they consider abortion to be a litmus test.   If the American government chose the Chinese route and made it a law that you had to abort your third child, many denominational Christians would see that was wrong and refuse to comply.  I have no doubt that many other denominational Christians would still comply with such a laws, justifying themselves the same way the German Christians had done with Hitler.    Nonetheless,  when our tax dollars are used to fund abortion, we are just as complicit as if we were aborting our own children now.

But my focus is on the unethical banking industry and monetary system that we are all forced to use.  How do we get out of this?  For one thing, do not borrow money from the banks nor use their credit system.  If you must, then pay the loan off as fast as possible,  There are other banks to consider. For example, before I came to Christ, I did not file taxes for a couple years.  The IRS contacted me and realized that I had no means to pay their assessment and penalties, so the file was shelved.  What I did not realize was that they were continuing to charge me interest on those tax years.  After I married my lovely wife, she (who has a strong sense of ethics) demanded that I get this resolved.  The Lord opened a door for me that I had not considered.  My employer.   She loaned me the money to pay off the IRS and only charged me a few hundred dollars interest.  She became an honest bank for me, who then deducted our agreed upon monthly repayment from my pay check.  The debt was paid in a year’s time.

The IRS and the Income Tax are just as unethical as the Federal Reserve, but resisting them requires a clear leading of the Holy Spirit, and is a dangerous path to go.  When Pharaoh decreed that the male babies of Israel should be killed at birth,  the mother of Moses did not challenge Pharaoh, but used wisdom in saving her child.  I am not charging the Church to take on the IRS or the Federal Reserve, unless you know the Holy Spirit is directing you to do so directly.  Instead, I am encouraging the Church to use wisdom and to get off the grid that supports these unethical systems.

We may not be directly involved with the holocaust of American sovereignty, but neither should we be indirectly responsible as the German Christians were for the Nazi holocaust.  We have to get off the government dole.  Stop using credit, and if possible, stop using the Federal Reserve Notes and monetary systems. This is not an easy thing to do since our nation has been entrenched in this system for over a hundred years.

The first step is to learn how to live by your conscience and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  They will lead you out.   But if you do not believe your own sense and have no root in your self, you will not follow.  My call is not outward activism, but inward transformation which will direct your outward activism.  Listen to your heart, and think for your self.

The Church needs to talk about this

The Elephant

No one seems to notice.  Or few seem to care.  It has been there for so long, it seems like it should be here, shouldn’t it?  After all, everyone uses it, so it must be the normal thing to use.  Why bring it up?  We have room.  We’ll just walk around it.

The purpose of this blog and website is to bring information to the body of Christ that will help believers truly walk in the freedom that Christ has given us all.  But sadly, we all walk in different kinds of bondage even though we have been given total freedom by the Lord.  Some forms of bondage are self imposed due to either ignorance or due to a root cause that is too deep in the heart to be understood by anyone but the Lord Himself.   Other types of bondage are forced upon us by other people and we do not have the ability to break those bonds in our own strength.   Then there are bonds that are forced upon us and have been on us so long that we forget that we are in bondage and are ignorant of the bondage.   This is the bondage I am addressing here.  This is the elephant in every American living room that is accepted and ignored as simply part of the furniture.  The elephant is the Federal Reserve banking system that is both unethical and unconstitutional that forces us to use their willfully inflationary monetary system through government decree.

Lawful Use of the Law

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; (1 Tim 1:8 KJV)

Christians in general do not understand what lawful and unlawful use of the law means.  For the most part the paid clergy system has convinced their congregations that all laws must be obeyed because God has “ordained” all governments.  This is a lie from the pit of Hell.  Paul is making a clear distinction in his letter to Timothy.  Laws can be used unlawfully.  The psalmist said:

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? (Ps 94:20 KJV)

Just because men declare something to be a law does not make it a law.   Laws have to be enforced.   The laws of nature are called laws because they constantly apply.  It is God who enforces the laws of nature, thus they are constant.  Likewise the moral laws of life that God has created, He enforces.  Thus, “Thou shalt not murder” is enforced by God through either justice He brings to Earth through other men, or death and the Lake of Fire.   Laws made up by men have to agree with the laws of God for God to enforce them.  If they are merely statutes of men,  and they violate or are in disharmony with His laws, He does not enforce them.

That means statutes of men must be enforced by men if they are to retain their status as laws.  Sometimes the laws of God have statutes of men and men do not enforce them, thus they are forgotten as laws at all.  In Texas a law remained on the books against homosexuality and sodomy, which was not being enforced by men.   When it was brought to the Supreme Court they declared the law unlawful.  No one did anything about it because it was not being enforced at all.  From the natural mind, it seemed that God was not enforcing this law either.  But countless homosexuals die of AIDS and other STDs.  Through these means, God is enforcing His own laws.

Laws regarding money are completely misunderstood by the Church, thus unlawful laws had been passed without objection, and enforcement of these laws were given draconian backing by the government since these unlawful laws benefited their schemes.  Like AIDs on the homosexual, we will see God enforce His laws regarding money with the collapse of the government in the future.  The natural laws cry out against a 14 trillion dollar debt of the government, and a collapse is on the horizon if change does not occur.

Honest Currency

There is honest currency and dishonest currency. The currency we have used in the last 100 years is blood money and dishonest.  Money is simple means of exchange.  There is nothing wrong with the honest system of money. It eliminates the need to barter with objects.  Thus my wool is exchanged for your wheat.  That is an honest and simple transaction. But this is an awkward way of getting things, so an alternative was sought out early in mankind’s history.

Gary North in his free e-book, “Honest Money” , points out that 5 characteristics are needed for objects to be used as money.

1. Divisibility
2. Portability
3. Durability
4. Recognizability
5. Scarcity (high value in relation to volume and weight)

Many things have been used for money through the centuries, but for these reasons precious metals quickly came into use as money world wide and were minted into coins. But it was not necessary for the metal to be minted as coins for it to have value.  Consider the pirate’s treasure chest, which was often full of other things besides coins – pearls, jewelry, etc.  The metal was easily recognized as valuable, thus the pirates could still use the non coin items as money, as well.  Americans have been using the cheap tokens for so long that we no longer consider the significance of the metal content of the coins since they are all copper (except the nickles) with cheap plating.   The silver dime was smaller than the nickle because silver metal has more value than nickle metal.  Copper, of course, is the cheapest metal which is why the penny was made from it.  Now all the coins are copper (except the nickle) so the coins are only tokens and have no intrinsic value.

Believers should understand how precious metals became precious in the first place.  It was not because everyone was a Smith who could hammer the metal into useful objects.  It was because of pagan superstition.   The sun was worshiped as a deity as was the moon.  It was believed that the spirits of these deities could inhabit objects that were of the same color.  Hence jewelry was fashioned out of gold and silver so the sun god could inhabit the gold and the moon goddess would inhabit the silver to protect the wearers.  Jewelry was not decorative as the primary reason for wearing it, but was considered to be protective amulets hosting the deities of their choice.  Christians need to realize that their protection is not found in gold and silver or any other monetary system, but by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is the only God that actually exists.  All the rest are either figments of their imagination or demons that are limited beings unlike God who is omnipotent.

The 5th listing is scarcity.  Value is linked to supply and demand.  If something is scarce, then its value increases. This is why precious metal had withstood the test of time as money.  There is only so much of it on the Earth. At least that is known and finding it is difficult.

Banking, is another convenience that has its place in lawful use of God with men.  Carrying gold in one’s pocket can be just as awkward and inconvenient as hauling wool around to trade it for the wheat.  In fact, Levi jeans still have the rivets in their pants construction which were added to withstand the weight of gold and silver in one’s pockets.  So, giving the money to someone for safe keeping, and their writing a receipt to prove the gold was in their safe keeping began the use of paper money.   Paper currency became recognized as money because it was backed by the gold  of which the holder of the note could redeem.  Paper money, even the first Federal Reserve Notes,  were redeemable for gold and silver until FDR, by executive order confiscated all American gold (except for coins, jewelry or industrial usage).

Furthermore, it is lawful for banks, who are holding your gold (not anymore, of course), to profit by that safekeeping in loaning your money out (if you agree to their holding your money in the first place), to make a profit then to pay you interest for the use of your money.  So, I want to make it clear that I am not addressing banking and money as the problem.  What I am addressing is the dishonest banking and money that we now have.

Dishonest Currency

Those early bankers, who had the safes for storing the precious metals were metal smiths who had already built vaults to protect their own precious metals that they used to fashion jewelry and other objects on their anvils. Some were given the task to create coins from those metals. They realized that they could add a cheaper metal, such as bronze to gold, and dilute the quality of the metal to make more coins.  The coins commissioned were debased in quality thus giving them “extra” or stolen coins that they could spend while the buying power of the coins remained the same until it was discovered that more coins were circulating than gold or silver allowed.  Thus they learned how to steal from those who entrusted the metals to them through inflation, that is, the creation of more money than metal content allowed.

It was not long before paper receipts were not redeemed for the metals as people accepted them as money.  They soon realized that they could inflate paper money easier than the metal coins by issuing more receipts than was backed by the gold and silver in their actual possession.  With this paper inflation they could loan out more money than they actually had and make huge profits in interest, by which they could then increase their actual metal supply, thus making themselves rich by stealing from not only their customers, but all who accepted their medium of exchange.

Because as a people we are woefully ignorant of the system, we do not see the unethical and dishonest nature of the scheme.  The fiat currency we are forced by government legislation to use is blood money, yet we do not recognize it as such because we still get the things we want by its use.  This makes us all participants in theft, albeit by force of law. Before the Federal Reserve Act was passed, people had a variety of banks that issued their own coins and paper currency to choose from.   States had their own money, which meant that when transactions had crossed state lines had  an exchange rate had to be determined to maintain equity in the transaction.  Even after the the law was passed it took time for people to accept the new law since the Federal Reserve was just another bank to them.  Since it was backed by gold and they were able to redeem their receipts for gold, they accepted the system set up by the major banking dynasties and the government.

But what they set up had a built in dishonesty to the system that no one questioned.  Fractional reserve banking is a ponzi scheme of multiplying non-existent money.  Through the scheme,  banks in the Federal Reserve system could inflate the money they loaned out 10 times the amount of what they had protected by force of law.  So if I put a thousand  dollars into a Federal Reserve bank, they could legally loan out $10,000 based upon my $1,000 deposit.  On top of that the Feds determined the base interest rate by which loans could be made.   They were given the power to inflate or deflate money at will.

Deflation

Inflation is not the only way theft by the bankers occurs. Deflation is the other side of the fiat coin. Credit is given by the inflated currency to get the borrower deep into debt. Then the Fed will squeeze credit to deflate the currency. If done drastically the borrower who has deep debt  based upon inflated the inflated rate now has to pay it with deflated currency, and will often default on the loan. The bank will then seize the collateral used to secure the loan, thus exchanging fiat currency for real assets. This is what happened during the Great Depression. It was deliberately created by the Feds so that the bankers could buy up homes and corporations for pennies on the dollar. This process has been used so often over the last 100 years we now live in a society composed of giant corporations owned by a handful of people with all the Mom and Pop businesses gobbled up by corporations backed by the banks through the Fed’s control of the inflation/deflation cycles.

But wait, there is more. The evil forced upon us by the Fed and the government is worse than this unlawful (but legal) banking system.  The US Constitution gives the power to coin money to the Federal government, which is not to be confused with the Federal Reserve which is a publicly owned corporation.  The way the politicians of  1913 set up the Federal Reserve Act, they delegated their constitutional responsibility to an NGO (non governmental organization – a term that did not exist back then).  In this delegation they arranged for the Feds to loan the fractionally reserved currency to the US government, paying the US Treasury the cost of printing the money for them.  So they pay for the ink and paper at pennies a sheet,  then sell those same sheets of paper to the government according to value printed on the face of the paper.  They do this by buying US Bonds, of which the government also promises to pay the Feds interest on those bonds.   The 14 trillion dollar debt that the US government owes is mostly to the Feds through this system, as well as other countries such as China from whom the US government borrows money.   Of course, the US Treasury could simply print their own fiat currency without this arrangement with the Feds, thus eliminating the interest charge and the debt.  So why don’t they?

Several reasons, but chiefly, all politicians want to spend money without accountability.  Before this system was set up, they had to go to the people and get permission to raise money.  This way they by pass the people completely. Unfortunately, there are many  in government who do not want the United States to exist and are going along with this scheme because they want to see a global government in its place.

Environmentalism and Global Fiat Currency

It is a mistake to assume that this is only happening in the United States. These banking dynasties – the Rothschilds, Morgans, Rockefellers, DuPonts, and so on – have managed to pull off this scheme in most of the known world putting most of the nations into debt to these families. A debt that is artificially created, thus is unlawfully created through legal technicalities.

Environmentalism is their brain child. Getting people to believe that there is a crisis in the planet that needs managing is more readily believed when real crisis can be created. I do not know, but I would not be surprised to learn that BP deliberately broke open the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico to increase the crisis. If they did not, it certainly plays into the environmental hysteria.

The Rothschilds are setting up a World Conservation Bank that will exist for the “protection” of the wilderness areas of the planet. Banks have to have a profit making mechanism, but this one will not. Instead it will be backed by the credit of the banking dynasties. Their intention is to build this bank up with soft currency as a means to set the ground up for global currency, then crash the bank into default. The nations who borrow the money to protect the wilderness lands of their territory will then have to immediately pay the creditors the debt. When they can not, then the dynasties will seize the land instead and gain ownership of most of the planet.

Reject Unlawful Debt

Recently the small population of Iceland was saddled with massive debt that their government and England orchestrated, which then demanded that the people pay back through exorbitant taxation. But they had a clue, and realized that the debt was fraudulently foisted upon them and refused to pay it. Then the volcano exploded and the story of their revolt was buried.

But the story gave me a spark of hope. The 14 trillion dollar debt is fraudulent and unlawful. We do not have to accept that debt both from a constitutional basis nor as creatures of God. The Church continues to be mesmerized by the paid clergy who are the unwitting (or knowingly) tools of the banksters. The entire system only works if we go along with it. There is no enforcement of God behind the system. So the clergy is an instrumental tool in convincing American Christians that we are honor bound to pay taxes and support the system. But that is a lie that twists scriptures to our own destruction. At best, the case can be made that we pay taxes to stay under the radar, but not because it is ordained by God. Being legal is not equal to being lawful, and the Church has been duped into thinking they are the same. We attend to legalities to steer clear of the Beast so the gospel may go forth, not because it is sanctioned by God. We are all, whether Christian or not, to obey the laws of God before the laws of men. They are not the same thing. When we face either the Judgment Seat of Christ, or the White Throne Judgment, we will be judged according to what God had put in our hearts regarding our knowledge of right and wrong, not according to governmental statutes.

Evil and deceit can only work with partial truth.  No one follows outright obvious lies unless their hearts are so hardened already they can not see it as a lie.  Sadly there are many alive today whose hearts are that hardened.  But the majority of people know right and wrong.  They can only sell their scam on people if it is dressed in some element of truth. Hence the insidiousness of this evil.  Our rights do not come from the constitution.  They come from God as the founding fathers acknowledged when they declared that “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are Created equal by God..”  No government has any authority to usurp right and wrong.  Nor does God stand behind any government that does so.  The scriptures are clear that God hates men who call evil good and good evil. If we do not speak out and refuse to use the fraud forced upon us, then God will bring a collapse to this nation.

The banking industry as it operates under the Federal Reserve system is unlawful. It is fraud that is forced upon the people by the government, but we do not have to use it. Neither are the American people obligated to pay this fraudulent 14 trillion dollar debt. It is not ours. It is a ponzi scheme set up by both the banking dynasties and the governments of the world (since it extends beyond the USA). I urge every believer to avoid, or at least, keep your banking at a minimum. Live debt free. As long as you are in debt, you are in bondage to the banks. The Federal Reserve Act must be thrown out for the unconstitutional and ungodly deceit that it is. Until then, do not put your trust in gold and silver, for we have the real Deity in our hearts. Follow Him and trust Him. Those who are led by Spirit will be the ones delivered from being crushed by the elephant.

A child of God is immature, but sons are responsible and inherit the kingdom.

Why There is Evil

“If God is good, why is there evil in the world?”  Frankly, I have never heard a good answer. But the answer is basic and foundational to our lives in Christ.  First, let me reaffirm that God does not create evil, nor does He do any evil (James 1:13).  Yet He takes full responsibility for the existence of evil.  He fulfilled His responsibility for allowing evil into His creation on Calvary.

Evil was a calculated consequence of giving life free will, and specifically mankind.  He counted the cost (Luke 14:28) of this calculation which is why He was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8).

Evil can be summed up in one word: selfishness.  The essence of godly love (agape) is selflessness: i.e., other centered. Whereas the essence of worldly love is self centered; i.e., what’s in it for me?

So, why is there evil?

Child of God or Son of God?

In an earlier post I made the point that being a child of God is not the same thing as being a son of God.  A child of God is anyone who is born again, but  sonship is  responsible maturity in one who is prepared to inherit the throne.  Jesus was the first child of God, but His sonship began with His public ministry when God said that this was His son in whom He was well pleased.  But it was not  fulfilled until He died on the cross.  This is why He cried on the cross, “It is finished”  (John 19:30).

8    Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9    And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Heb 5:8-9 KJV)

I am a  gymnastics coach.  I know that mastery of the skills are not possible until the athlete is prepared in strength, flexibility and courage.  This only comes by struggle.  As a coach I guide the athletes through a series of challenges that increases their abilities in all these areas.

Struggle is inherent in nature.  A butterfly can not leave the cocoon without the struggle of breaking the cocoon open.  Likewise for a chick in the egg.  If you cut the cocoon or break the egg to help the creature out, it will die.  The struggle is the process of increasing strength.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Cor 10:13 KJV)

Just as struggle can strengthen us physically,  it also strengthens us spiritually through our resolve.  Notice in the verse above that the amount of temptation brought to you is controlled by God.  He is not bringing the temptation, but He is using the temptation in our discipleship.  If we respond according to His Word, we overcome the temptation and avoid such temptation in the future.

13    For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14    But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Heb 5:13-14  KJV)

Maturity only comes through experience.  The heart is trained by experience.  Knowledge of what to do does not motivate the choices made.  Only when the heart has been tempered by the struggles of the past, will the choices made be godly.

Adam failed to become the son of God.  He passed the first test in discerning an appropriate mate (Gen. 2:18-23) but failed to discern the evil that had invaded the garden.  God did not want Adam to fail.  But he could only be the son of God in reality by  obeying the Lord.  If the love of God in Adam was complete, he would not have allowed Eve to eat the fruit.  But the imperfection of his love was revealed by his callous disregard for the death she was consuming.

Persecution Strengthens the Church

God does not cause persecution. If He did, it would be absurd for Jesus to ask Paul why he was persecuting Him (Acts 22:7). Yet it does provide a gauge for one’s progress into maturity.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Tim 3:12 KJV)

I have read on several occasions of saints in persecuted countries thanking God for the persecution because it refines the church and brings purity to the believers.  Evil will continue until the work of the Lord is finished.  His work is to strengthen us with struggle so we mature into true sonship.   Do not fear the evil in this world.  Rather, respond to it with godliness for God is working maturity into all of us.

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

This won’t last long because it is embedded. They may take this offline. But this video shows how much of a formula is used to conduct a church service. Does this bring you to God, or are people simply being manipulated in their feelings?

Business by Kingdom rules is for the King, not our selves

The Lord’s Business

I own a Christian gymnastics school.  The Lord moved me in this direction four years ago.  In that time I have done much meditation on both how to run a business and keeping my priorities right according to the Kingdom of God.  From the outset I understood that business is a worldly affair.  That does not mean Christians do not own businesses, but it does mean our priorities will be different.

As a citizen of the Kingdom, my responsibility is to build His kingdom, not my own.  The natural tendency in owning a business is to see it as your business and make every effort to build your business into your own kingdom.  But that is not the way of the King.  Everything belongs to Him.  He gives us stewardship over some things, but those things still are His.

It is noteworthy that in the parable of the talents (Matt 25), the rich ruler gave his servants the talents.  The servants did not take the talents from the rich ruler.  If we are engaged in a business that the Lord is not directing us into, we are stealing from the Lord and those to whom He intended to give that business.  Adam and Eve were guilty of the same crime.  All the fruit belonged to God, yet they were given the right to eat freely from all the fruit except from one tree.  When they ate that fruit, they stole it from God.  So, as believers, we are not to engage in just any business activity.  We are to pursue only that business that the Spirit has led us into.

Marketing the Kingdom Way

Marketing is of the world, but all the world belongs to God, therefore marketing belongs to God, too.    In the parable of the sower and the seed (Matt. 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8), the sower did not seem to care where the seed fell.  Some fell on the hard ground, some on the rocky soil, some amidst the weeds and others in good soil.   Solomon also tells us in Ecclesiastes to cast our bread on many waters (Ecc. 1:1),  so general advertisement is used by both the world and the kingdom.

When I first started my business, the Lord used the book, “Organic Church,” by Neil Cole to show me my marketing and business approach.  Neil pointed out that church organizations often spend far too much energy on the fringe elements in the congregation instead of focusing on the those who are serious about their walk with Christ.   I realized that I needed to focus my business efforts on those who were really interested in what I had to offer instead of trying to please and win the fringe  elements that were not going to stay anyway.

At this same time I began reading Seth Godin’s materials.   This is the same point he makes regarding Tribes.   It does not matter what you are into, there are a tribe of people who  will have that same interest if you can find them.  They are the ones to focus your energies upon, while letting the other seeds fall where they may.

In the organic church communities there is much talk about finding the man of peace for evangelism and church planting.  This idea is based upon the instructions of Jesus to the apostles in Luke 10.

Luke 10:5-7
5    And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
6    And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.
7    And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.  (KJV)

The general understanding of this passage is that the man of peace is a well connected person.  If this person believes the gospel, he will tell his friends that he is networked together with, and the gospel will spread.  If they stay there, more will be accomplished than if they tried door to door sales.

This is the heart of word of mouth advertising and reputation building in marketing. This is the kingdom way to market.  I have been amazed to watch my business grow with almost no advertising budget to speak of, simply because I have several moms who really believe in what I am doing.  They are telling their friends  and are bringing more kids to my gym without any other effort on my part than to do my best in coaching and sharing the lessons of Christ through gymnastics to their kids.

Wealth is not the Goal

It is easy to think that running business is so you can become rich.  Many believers are torn between the “prosperity message” and “poverty as holiness”, neither of which are correct.  The kingdom way is about trusting Christ in every circumstance and being content where you are  (Phil. 4:11,  1 Tim. 6:8,  Heb. 13:5).  If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto us (Matt. 6:33). The goal of running a business in the Kingdom is not wealth.  Wealth is a by product, not the end.    Abraham did not seek wealth.  He obeyed God and wealth was added throughout his life.    Solomon was asked what he wanted from God, and because he asked for wisdom, God granted him wealth and power. as well.   God has no problem with our being wealthy.  His concern is irresponsibility and faithlessness.   If we show ourselves faithful with little, we will be faithful with much, too (Luke 16:10).

Neither is wealth and indicator of our obedience.  Contentment is the indicator.  We all have seasons in our personal lives which will hold true in our businesses.  Paul said that he learned to be content whether he was abased or abounded (Phil. 4: 11 & 12). Abasement may come for many reasons but is in seasons.  Likewise prosperity has its season.  We do not govern our business activities according to the current economic climate, but according to the unchanging principals of God.  The Jews had prosperity in the land of Goshen while the plagues fell on Egypt.  God makes pockets of protection in stormy seas for those who abide with Him on the deck ( Matt 8).

Treasures in Heaven

The 20th century church has portrayed Christianity as only an insurance program for Heaven. Get that premium paid today and rest assured that you will have your mansion in the sky. It is regrettable that this attitude has been encouraged by organized religion. The Pearl of great price is already in the heart of every believer. It is not to be buried underground for a future day, but is now and forever.

It is interesting how gold came to be a medium of wealth. Even amongst conservatives today, gold is touted as the answer to the fiat money system of the Feds. Yet it came in value by an interesting path. In the post Flood days of the early families of Noah that spread out after the confusion of the tongues at Babel, pagan sun worshipers believed that the spirit of the sun would inhabit yellow objects. The wearing of gold jewelry was considered valuable because the sun spirit would inhabit the gold amulet around one’s neck or in one’s ears. Their confidence and value in gold was not the metal itself, but spirit that they believed inhabited the metal. Exchanging gold pieces was to exchange portions of that spirit. The more gold you had, the more the power of that spirit would indwell.

Christians and conservatives are looking at gold as their safety net today, but without understanding this backdrop. Believers running businesses based upon the leading of the King, have the real Spirit, and do not need the gold for the Spirit to inhabit. He inhabits our hearts, instead.

This is the only gold that God cares about. The hearts of men. If we are treating all people with the same value that Christ esteemed them (by dying on the cross for everyone, whether they accepted Him or not), we are gathering treasure in heaven. If we value people the way Jesus does, then He will prosper our businesses now and we will be gaining great treasure in heaven for later.

Jesus is the abundant life. If we abide in Him, we abide in the abundant life. That abundance is manifested in a multitude of ways, financial prosperity being simply one of them. So we run the business that God gives us according to His way, not the world’s. For we are given the business to build up His Kingdom, not ours. And in the end, He allows us to enjoy great harvest and the fruits of our labors.

Seeing and knowing what is right

Too many people do not trust their own senses.  Too many believers rely on the law instead of the leading of the Spirit in their lives.  We have been encouraged to not trust ourselves which results in rootlessness.  The political government encourages us to rely on them not ourselves.  The church government does the same.  The book of Judges is considered to be a time of anarchy by most in the Church.  The famous line that is quoted is,

In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6  KJV)

which is also repeated in Judges 21:25.  As I began my journey away from organized religion and began to question the role of governments both in the Church and politically, I wondered if we had misunderstood the book of Judges.  In 2008 I wrote my first blog on the topic .  No one responded to the topic, so I let it go.

However, the Lord has brought this back to my mind and I have been meditating upon it again.  I must confess at the outset that I am so influenced by the general negative opinion of the verse that it still seems like a negative statement.  But the facts of Scripture speak against that feeling  which shows how we are so easily influenced by other people’s opinions that it blinds us to the plain facts.

The influence of the world permeates every area of our thinking.  Christians think that more laws are the cure for society’s ills.  Recently I heard Jerry Tuma make a similar statement in his radio broadcast.  He recognized that the problem is government, and broadcast  the soundbite of Reagan’s famous saying:

“Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
—  Ronald Reagan

He was addressing the financial mess the government has got us in.  Yet he qualified his statement that he was not advocating the removal of government because that would bring anarchy.   On what basis does he make that claim?  Where in world history can this be shown?  It can not except in government transitions where one government is rivaling another.  He is assuming the worst in human nature.   A friend on Facebook said that the doctrine of Total Depravity in Calvinism promotes the assumption of the worst in people.

Anarchy suggests that the majority of people would be lawless.  Yet, the Bible tells us in Romans that both the knowledge of God and the laws of His creation are written in every heart, the conscience bearing witness.

Rom 2:14-15
14    (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law,
15    since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)  (NIV)

It is true that hardness of heart covers both that law and the conscience so the internal witness of right and wrong becomes unclear for the unregenerate, but the new birth strips that away and restores that internal clarity.

Yet, the truth is, the majority of people are not so hardened in heart that they are degenerate criminals. For thousands of years  societies have conducted themselves in an orderly fashion because everyone exercised the right of self defense,  bearing their own arms  (or using just their arms)  while political governments played a small part.  In fact, the existence of political governments shows that the majority of people do want to live orderly and lawfully.

It is the wish for power by those who want to lead governments to control others, when in truth, the majority do not need to be controlled.   This desire to control others is expressed not only in political governments, but church governments, and corporate governments.  People, in general, do not need to be controlled because God has given  self control as a gift  to all men, and all have a measure of self control.

To buttress its position of authority over other believers, organized religion has taught us that  “every man doing what was right in their own eyes”   was bad.  The assumption is that every man would live contrary to the laws of God and anarchy would reign. But that does not line up with the facts of Scriptures.

These are the facts:

• More evil was done under the kings than occurred during the time of Judges. For almost 400 years   they lived peacefully with  only 13 judges raised for leadership when needed, which is about every 30 years.   But from Saul to the Babylonian Captivity (432 years), wickedness ruled most of the time with only a few bright spots of good kings.   For the northern kingdom of Israel they had  19 kings of which the Bible declares all were evil.  The southern kingdom of Judah had 20 kings of which the Bible states that only 6 were good kings.  Of the 13 Judges  only Samson was considered bad, even though he succeeded in the end through no virtue of his own.
• Also, the Judges reigned in a temporary fashion.  In other words they only intervened when there was a need.  For the most part, the people  left on their own did that which was right.   This is an amazing comparison.
• God was not displeased with the time of the Judges.  There is no wrath of God in spewing them out from the land as there was for the two kingdoms.
• The prophets are only seen raised up during the time of the kingdoms because of their horrific evil.  There are no prophets raised to rebuke the Israelis during the time of the Judges.

To my surprise, I found out recently that the Jewish interpretation of that verse is in the positive, not the negative. Consider what this writer says.

The Talmud calls the Book of Judges, “the Book of the Straight.”

Why?

Because the ultimate goal of every Jew is to use his free will to work out what is wrong and right, using the Torah as a guide. And this is what happens in the Time of Judges.

In those days, there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his eyes. (Judges 21:25)

You might think that this verse sounds like a description of anarchy. But there was no anarchy; the vast majority of Jews were totally dedicated to Torah and were making decisions in the right way, and didn’t need someone tell them what to do. Indeed, that is the ideal situation. The tribes functioned as a loose confederation of states with strong central leadership arising only when the nation was threatened by an external enemy.

Of course, the lack of central authority following the death of Joshua did have negative consequence; a small minority, took it as a license to slip into idolatry and immorality. This happened largely because the Jews did not get rid of all of the Canaanites, as they were commanded to do, and the Canaanite pagan influence was felt.

SimpletoRemember.com Judaism Online

I don’t totally agree with this writer, however.   The Israelis were unregenerate with a temporary experience of God through the animal sacrifices.  If they had completely destroyed the Canaanites, they would still have drifted off track.  Even with the new birth, Christians still have free will and can choose to sin, and do sin.  Neither do I believe that they followed the Torah as this writer suggests.  Both times that verse is written in Judges, the Israelis were not obeying the Torah.  However, they were trying to do what was right.  The point of the verse is that their motivation was good, even though their execution failed.  And  this is my point, too.

We need to remember that God did not want human kings ruling Israel.

1 Sam 8:5-7
5    And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
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. (KJV)

God even warned the people through Samuel of all the evil that governments would create.

1 Sam 8:9-18
9    Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
10    Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.
11    He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.
12    Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
13    He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
14    He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
15    He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
16    Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.
17    He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
18    When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”  (NIV)

World history is replete with atrocities committed by the minority that controls governments.  The natural desire to gratify self with wealth and power is always abused by many of those who become government leaders.  The Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity should be a discouragement for creating governments.  If  individuals are totally depraved, then what happens to totally depraved people who are given power over other people?  They create wars for more power.  To quote  Reagan again:

People don’t start wars, governments do.
Ronald Reagan

By now the reader may think that I am an advocate for  abolishing  all political governments.  I am not.  I am only trying to challenge the reader’s assumptions about political and church governments.  The general belief is that all governments are ordained by God, therefore must exist and must be obeyed.  What is correct is that God has given us the right to create governments.    I address this in detail in my article, “By What Right Do Governments Exist?”

In a nutshell, God has two sets of laws.  His laws, and the right of people to make agreements in concordance with His laws, which are government laws.  His laws are summarized in the 10 Commandments and violations of such are considered felonies.  Agreements of men, called statutes,  are considered misdemeanors when violated.  Government laws that  violate God’s laws are null and void.  We are not required to keep such laws.   Two biblical examples are Daniel continuing to pray to Yahweh when ordered to pray to Nebuchadnezzar as a god, which caused him to be thrown into the lion’s den (Daniel 6:7-10) and the apostles,  when ordered not to teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 5:28). To which Peter and the apostles replied:

We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29 KJV)

Agreements of men can be very productive and beneficial to all society.   Everyone agrees that roads and the defense of our borders are benefits of good government.   So governments are not inherently wrong.  The temptation to abuse that  power, however, is always a problem.  What is ordained by God is the right of men to form governments.  Nowhere in the Bible are evil governments sanctioned by God, nor are we commanded to obey evil decrees.

I have always been amazed by the story of Phineas in Numbers 25.  The Israelis committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, sacrificing and worshiping Baal-Peor.  Yahweh brought a plague upon the Israelis for this.   Yahweh told Moses to kill the heads of Israel who joined the idolatry to stop the plague.  A Midianite woman was brought before Moses weeping .  Phineas grabbed a javelin and thrust her (and her Israeli lover) through the gut.  Moses did not tell him to do this.  Nor do we have any indication that God spoke to Phineas.  He just knew what was right.  The plague was stopped, and Yahweh commended Phineas for his actions and blessed him and his seed in an everlasting priesthood (Num. 25:10-13).   Phineas acted on his own, not under obedience to his government (Moses) leader.  God expects us to do what is right without needing to be told so.  We are required by God to do what is right in our own eyes.  This is not a statement of anarchy.  It is a statement of unity to the heart and spirit of Christ.

We the people know what is right and wrong.  No one will have an excuse at the Judgment Seat of God.  We are all held accountable to God on an individual basis.  God judges nations in this life and individuals at His Judgment Seat.   The unregenerate know right and wrong and are without excuse.  How much more the House of God in the regeneration?  We can trust our own senses as individual Christians. We have the Spirit that gives us right discernment and His Word for our conscience understanding.  Every man is to do what is right, and we can see what is right.