Volume 14, Number 1, September-October 2010 Our National
Problems Need Spiritual Solutions! by Norman Edwards with Tax Payers Party
letter by Gerald Van Sickle The debate among our politicians rages: What should our military do? What healthcare and retirement should our nation provide? What failing banks and businesses should be bailed out? What should be done about crime? What about disease epidemics? Who is going to pay for all of this? How and when will they pay? It does not take much reading of history to find nations generally prosper and grow when they are founded on fairness, morality and hard work. And when they turn inward with greed, selfishness and unfairness, they decline and are often destroyed. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible teaches God’s judgment of nations for their national sins: “And also the nation whom they serve I will judge...” (Gen 15:14). “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested" (Rev 15:4). There are many other verses in between. The judgment of
God upon nations is not based on some complex set of religious rites and laws
everyone has to know and follow. He does not judge nations simply because
their churches, temples, creeds and customs differ from Biblical teachings.
Indeed, He has judged many nations that never had a Bible. Our Father can
judge nations based upon the golden rule alone (Lev Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD (Gen 6:5-8). Noah, a righteous man, was protected from this judgment. The Bible conveys how God deals individually with those who whole-heartedly seek Him (Jer 29:13). As He protected Noah and his family, He promises to protect His own even in the middle of national disaster all around them (Pslm 91:2-10). For personal help in how to cope with the future, see our article Faith to Face the Future (Sept-Oct 2009). Even though he protects individually, God does not want His people to be ignorant of their nations sins. He protects people who “sigh and cry”—who are sad about their nation’s sins. Christ himself showed the attitude we should have toward an evil nation That on you [the leaders that killed Him] may come
all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel
to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the
temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come
upon this generation. O Jerusalem, God does not want us to go the one extreme of
participating in our national sins. Those who do will receive the nation’s
judgment (Rev 18:4). Nor does He want us to take the other extreme of
rejoicing in the destruction of nations for their sins (Ezk 33:11). We should
not be as Jonah, who was disappointed that the city of But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it (Jonah 3:8-10). The Ninevites did not convert to Jonah’s religion, begin
to worship in These are the things you shall do: Speak each man
the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice,
and peace; Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor;
And do not love a false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ Says the
LORD" (Zech Missing the Point Nearly all the issues being debated by politicians in our federal and state governments are missing the big picture that would save our nation from a national judgment by God. Most Republican and Democratic leaders are arguing relatively fine points of programs that we probably do not need at all. The typical piece of legislation proposed today increases government regulation, control and taxation to solve a problem that was either created by the government or is not the government’s responsibility. Governments often ignore serious issues for which our nation is likely to be judged by God. As just one concrete example, how do governments deal with the present epidemic of STDs (Sexually Transmissible Diseases) among teens? There approach is to provide birth control and disease barriers, education in the use of these things, more medical care and abortions for those who want it. The Bible, and nearly every other major religion would teach teens to wait until marriage for sex. But the Bible and religious instruction has long been banned from schools, and the present STD epidemic has been one result. Is our nation a secular nation, with separation of church and state? Not really. Our constitution simply states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. Our government is forbidden to set one religious denomination (establishment) above another; it does not require the removing of all religion from public life. Indeed the letters and laws of our founding fathers were full of references to God and the Bible. Schools should be free to teach a variety of religion chosen by the parents of the children in the school—just as an English class will compare and criticize the writings of many secular authors. All but a few modern religions would teach that teens should wait till marriage for sex, thereby avoiding the present plague of STDs. Instead of this happening, the State has essentially replaced God in our schools—fulfilling the words of Communist philosopher Leon Trotsky: “God is the State; the State is God”. Sure, our governments do not actually claim to be God, but when one examines the behaviors of school staff and students, that is what has taken place. If the government says we cannot talk about religion, we don’t talk about religion. If they say it is all right for teens to have sex, then it is all right. Even if all of our leaders were sincere atheists at heart, they should have the wisdom to see from a historical/sociological perspective that the young people in schools would be better off waiting for marriage to have sex. But they keep promoting their promiscuous agenda. The above is only one of many examples were the policies
of our powerful governments are bringing the judgment of God upon our nation.
While they try to ignore God, they cannot alter the fact that God judges
nations whether they want to be judged by Him or not! Just because they
choose to ignore the sources that show us our sin, does not mean we escape
the immediate consequences of sin or God’s ultimate judgment upon us. Are there good civil government leaders today who want to address the important issues and implement moral solutions to them? Yes! Do most Americans pay attention to them or even know about them? No! A few of those leaders are small voices in the big political parties. Others are in small, struggling parties, some are completely independent. Some promote just and moral principles from a Christian perspective; others use a secular perspective for much the same teaching. Either one would help us avoid the consequences of national sin and judgment. Many people today,
even Christians, are confused into thinking they must support the “lesser of
two evils” because they are the only ones that have a chance to win. The
result is still evil and we are not to join a multitude to do evil (Ex 23:2).
While their may be no leader who shares our religious or secular governing
beliefs exactly, some certainly represent the teachings of basic morality and
the Scriptures much better than others. It is not the purpose of secular
government to bring our nation to God—that is the purpose of the Church. But
it is the purpose of secular government to be just (Deut How we deal with ourselves, personally, is much different.
We are responsible to live by every word of God (Luke 4:4). We cannot expect
to bring about our own personal deliverance simply by promoting the right
people and laws. We must rely on our faith in our heavenly Father to protect
His children who serve Him (Mal 10 Legislative Goals — Supported by the Golden Rule and the Bible The following ten points were the guts of a support letter
sent by Gerald Van Sickle, chairman of the US Taxpayers Party of Michigan.
(known as the American Independent Party in Nearly all religions and even most atheists support the Golden Rule, so our secular government is without excuse. Our leaders should be able to see the justice in these principles. They should be able to enact the kind of laws they would want to have if they were an ordinary citizen. Citizens ought to vote for candidates who support these principles rather than voting for a smooth, well-presented candidate whom they think will win. Citizens participation in government should not be like sports or petty arguments where the main goal is to be on the winning side. It is about standing up for just and fair principles whether they win or lose a particular political contest. The scriptural teaching is also expounded because God shows us what is right and often shows us how to implement it. We might go astray with our own reasoning on the golden rule, but we will not go astray with God’s reasoning. We do not need to learn lessons by many years of human suffering when God already has shown us what to do. 1. PROLIFE—End the
Killing! 50 million Americans killed in abortion chambers because Democrats
and Republicans refuse to provide them the protection of the law! Golden Rule: How old are you? That many years ago, plus six months, you
were a fetus. You are glad your parents did not abort you. We should not
abort anyone else. We all think the law should protect children from being
killed by their parents. Newborn and pre-born babies both cannot legally
represent themselves, but they both have a constitutional right to “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Abortion ends that. We don’t want that
right terminated for us and we should not terminate it for anyone else. Bible Teaching: “You
shall not murder” (Ex 2. Return to the
American Values of Faith, Family, and Individual Responsibility — Put
morality back in our schools! Golden Rule: Most older people today feel their childhood schools were
better than the schools of today—both from an academic and a moral point of
view. People were happy to have grown up in a family with a mother and father
who had strong moral values. Those whose parents were not like this, wish
theirs were. Nobody likes neighbors who can’t be responsible for themselves,
but who always want somebody else or some government agency to provide for
them. Even people who claim to be atheists like to be treated like someone
special with a purpose in the universe, as opposed to 1 out of trillions of
other evolutionary happenstances competing for scarce planetary resources. We
were all better off when we had less government. We should want to give this
same opportunity to others, especially our young people. Bible
Teaching: This is the thinking that made the early 3. Protect American Golden Rule: We should stay out of
other nations when we are not invited, and they should stay out of our borders.
If Americans go to other countries and break their laws—including laws of
entry, we should expect consequences. People coming to our country should
expect the same thing. We expect to be rewarded if we obey the laws—so every
person who has applied for legal immigration to the Bible Teaching: God intended for nations to have
borders: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit
the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact
places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and
perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of
us” (Acts 4. Restoring
Manufacturing jobs to Golden Rule: We do not want millions of Americans working for low wages to
have our goods exported to another country. So we should not buy lots of
cheap goods made with near-slave labor from other countries. Placing an
import tariff on these products bringing their prices in line with those of
domestic items greatly reduces the amount of foreign goods sold here and
encourages other countries to pay a decent wage even when it increases the
cost of their product. (The Bible Teaching: Nations should be subject to their own
laws and under God. Multi-national trading corporations often evade most
national laws. God is opposed to large world-dominating trading empires (Gen
11; Rev 13; 18; 19), especially ones that are lawless (Matt 5. End judicial
tyranny—Restrict jurisdiction of federal courts. Remove out of control judges
who debase marriage, sanction
immorality, grab guns, and trample the Constitution. Golden Rule: Judges derive their authority to make judgments from the
Constitution, and they swear to uphold it. Yet they make many decisions
contrary to it. Furthermore, they make decisions against other people which
they would not want made against themselves. The Constitution empowers the
legislature to remove corrupt judges, but they almost never do. The
legislature makes itself immune to most of the unfair laws they pass, and the
judges do nothing. Both of these bodies, singularly and collectively, are not
treating others like they want to be treated. Bible Teaching: “You shall appoint judges and officers
in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your
tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. You shall not
pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe
blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. You shall
follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which
the LORD your God is giving you” (Deut 6. Reduce taxes—Limit
government to its constitutional functions! Golden Rule: The Executive and Legislative branches love to exercise the
power and spend the money the Constitution authorizes them to do. They should
be fair and use that power only for the functions this constitution authorizes.
Bible Teaching: The Bible warns us that placing too
much power in government will cause heavy taxation and oppression of the
people (1Sam 8). We do not need a strong central government (Lev 26:8), but
we want one because we see other nations have one (Deut 7. Implement a
self-sufficient energy policy—Providing energy is more important than
pandering to environmental extremists. Golden Rule: Many of the politicians and businesses that are crying the
loudest about global warming and environmental pollution live an extravagant
life style that uses many times the energy of the average world citizen. The
are not setting the example of personal conservation, but are demanding a
worldwide tax. Some of the same scientists that are so convinced we have global
warming were predicting a global ice age 30 years ago (see next issue). Bible
Teaching: While men are commanded to be good stewards of the earth (Gen 8. Improve road
maintenance and infrastructure—Set proper priorities. Golden Rule: Citizens form and pay taxes to governments to accomplish
things for the common good that they cannot do themselves, such as building
roads, railroads, utility systems, etc. Politicians frequently divert money
from these projects, to projects of their own. Politicians expect to be paid
their promised salary and benefits, they should spend the citizens money in
the way they promised Bible
Teaching: Roads should be built to important cities (Deut 19:3) The Bible
praises leaders for using their authority for important infrastructure:
Solomon built walled cities and an ocean-going fleet (1Ki 9:15-19; 26-28),
Hezekiah built a city water system (2Ki 20:20; 2Chr 32:30), Nehemiah
organized the repair of city walls (Neh 3); Gaius was a director of public
works (Rom 16:23, NIV). 9. Eliminate laws that
violate property rights! Golden Rule: When there is a dispute as to which city, county, state or
country a particular piece of land belongs to, politicians on both sides
fight hard to claim that piece of land for themselves. They should similarly
recognize the desire of their own
citizens to keep and control their own property. Bible Teaching: King Ahab knew he had no right to take
a citizen’s property, even though he wanted it (1Ki 21). So his wife, Jezebel,
made false charges against the citizen, the corrupt court put him to death,
and she took the property. Our governments work similarly today—and will be
judged like Jezebel if they do not repent. 10. End Racial
Discrimination—Equal Rights for every American and special privileges for
none! Golden Rule: This is so easy to understand, but people just do not do it.
For years, our governments had laws discriminating against minorities. Now, there
are laws discriminating against the majority. Nobody wants a less-than-equal
status at law, so governments should not collect data on people’s races or
treat them in any way differently based upon it. Bible
Teaching: “‘One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who
dwells with you" (Num These may not be the 10 most
important areas of government, but they are much more important than the
issues discussed by most legislators, today. These leaders must
realize that their authority is ultimately from God (John Download Full Issue in PDF: September-October 2010 Quick PDF (1 MB) September-October 2010 High-Quality PDF to Print (3.3 MB) Back to front page
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