Chapter 5
Joshua’s Altar
Part
3 Fear, Faith and Foolishness
Pride
before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Pr 16:18
Cain would not walk by faith according
to the direction of God, but sought the city-state to supply him with
the social security he lacked under God. In order to seduce others to
join his government of men over men, he appealed to the spirit of
Cain in every man’s heart. Having abandoned faith in God and
His ways, the people chose good and evil for themselves and continued
in their own ways, which led to more corruption and sin.
Abraham faltered during a famine and
left the path of faith and returned to Egypt. The refugees from Egypt
in their faithless fear built their golden calf to bind the people in
a scheme of the common purse, which was an abandonment of God’s
way. In the days of Samuel, The Nation of Israel called for a king
and, eventually, returned to the bondage of Egypt under a succession
of the ruling elite. When Christ came, He preached again the kingdom.
Some men followed His gospel of liberty from the sin that had
followed man from generation to generation, and some men continued to
sin.
… when
they said, Give us a king to judge us… the LORD said … they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them. 1 Sa 8:7
The people took pride in their new
government. Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and God found the people's or
Israel's ways corrupt. They did not want the people bound together by
poverty of wantonness, the fear of faithlessness, and the
entanglement of a sworn and contracted allegiance to men. God wants
men to be bound together by the light chains of faith, hope, and
charity, the true covenant of His Law of Love.
They
have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they
have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have
sacrificed thereunto, and said, These [be] thy gods, O Israel, which
have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:8
It is never the apparent affluence,
nor the dominant institutions created by the hands of men, that makes
man great. “We estimate men as great not by their wealth but by
their virtue.” It is the spirit by which men move that engenders them to sin or
salvation. The nature of the contrivances, schemes and institutions
of men are the evidence of what is already written on their hearts
and minds, the evidence of their faith.
If
men turn from the virtue and wisdom of God, they turn also from His
ways and from God himself. They reject His laws and make new ones for
their neighbors.
And
they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their
fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and
they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen
that [were] round about them, [concerning] whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 2 Kings 17:15
History continues to be filled with
stories and examples of men turning from the ways of God to the ways
and benefits of man-made systems. Men bind themselves in many ways,
in all sorts of secular religions, city-states, kingdoms,
democracies, monetary systems, corporate entities, and institutions.
Through all sorts of contracts, compacts, constitutions, and
covenants, men apply for comfort and the illusion of peace and
promises.
And
many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. 2 Peter 2:2
Rather than seeking the Truth of God’s
kingdom on earth, men heed not his prophetic warnings and follow
after their own pernicious ways.
When
thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before
thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [be] a man given to
appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful
meat. Proverbs 23
From the beginning, many have faltered
in the path of righteousness and, by the voice of the people, they have cried out for someone to stand in the place of God as a
ruling judge. They have looked to systems of compulsion and prayed
for the benefits they offer rather than simply follow God in faith,
hope, and charity.
…voice
of the people… Nay; but we will have a king over us; 1 Sa. 8
Warnings of the prophets and the
sayings of the wise fill volumes of books, often unread or
misunderstood in today’s modern society. The land, the lives,
the gold and silver, wealth or inheritance of each man and woman and
their children have been entrusted to others. The people no longer
own the beneficial interest of their lands and labors. They must pay tribute annually for their “use”. Men and women
are in the service of governments who exercise authority and compel
the taking of a portion of their labor each year as it was in the
days of the bondage of Egypt. People desire the apparent benefit from
this gain and usury. They apply, beseeching the common purse modern
City-State, for the civil and social security supplied by the
compelled contributions of their neighbor.
According to the 1995 “Who pays
what and when?” report of the Congressional Budget Office, there has been a steady
rise in the Estimated Lifetime Net Tax Rates during the 20th
century. Actual tax rates are higher since net tax rate is the actual tax rate
less “government payments, such as those for Social Security or
welfare”.
The net tax rate was 24 percent in
1900 with an actual tax rate of 28 percent, but Social Security and
many other public entitlements were non-existent at that time and,
therefore, were not yet being subtracted. Also, during the early part
of that century, there was no income tax on ‘wages and
salaries’. Wages and salaries were not income but
compensation. To tax the labor of an individual was unconstitutional without his
consent, but with the offer of Social Security and other tax-funded
lucrative entitlements this all began to change.
When government transfers in the form
of paid benefits began to increase, the net tax rate continued to rise. In 1980, even with the
subtraction of benefit payments, which were at an all-time high, the
net tax rate had reached 37 percent. The actual tax rate on labor
income alone was an unprecedented 51 percent. “But to enjoy the
now-prevailing rate of purchases in relation to income, future
generations would have to pay lifetime net taxes at a rate of 78
percent. That is more than twice the rate for today's newborns.”
If benefit payments remained the same
at 13 percent and government expenditures did not increase, the
actual tax rates would exceed 90 percent over the life of the
taxpayer. But the report goes on to say, “the General
Accounting Office estimates that, with no change in policy, the
federal deficit would exceed 20 percent of gross domestic output in
2025, and the federal debt would exceed 200 percent. (The
corresponding figures in 1994 were 2 percent and 53 percent.)
Similarly, the Social Security and Health Care Financing
Administrations project that current policy would exhaust the trust
funds for Social Security and Medicare.”
The use of phrases like “Policy
changes, tough choice, and fiscal responsibility” have been
heard through the centuries. The Budget Office suggests, “Most
people expect Policymakers to make the tough choices needed to put
the nation's fiscal house in order.” This rhetoric is not new.
Millenniums of repetitious history have shown this to be a false hope
and a vain dream. When you offer men appointments of power, then men
who desire power seek those offices. When you maintain the
responsibility of dominion and only offer offices of service, the
seats of governance remain occupied by servants.
The houses that men construct for
themselves depends on either the love of charity in its contributors
or upon the covetous nature of their own hearts. Each man makes his
choice and then plays or pays his part. Every man loves his neighbor
as himself or covets his neighbor goods by application and
participation. That which is needed to fulfill the hopes and desires
of the citizenry is given freely or taken by the agents of the
people. Though many cry “LORD, LORD” in the vestibule of
their religious institutions, their deeds betray the repository of
their true faith and homage. The people do not love their neighbor, but covet their goods of their
house. The name of the Lord is but vanity in their mouths.
Woe
to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may
set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of
evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many
people, and hast sinned [against] thy soul. For the stone shall cry
out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Woe
to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by
iniquity! Behold, [is it] not of the LORD of
hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people
shall weary themselves for very vanity? Habakkuk 2:9-13
People are looking everywhere but to
God. The most powerful governments in the world are the ones that
offer insecure, faithless people social security at a vain and
usurious price. People do not trust in God but in the governments
that they make for themselves.
Because
my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and
they have caused them to stumble in their ways [from] the ancient
paths, to walk in paths, [in] a way not cast up; Jer 18:15
Over and over, it is vanity, pride,
and arrogance that turns men from the path of our Father in heaven.
They claim that they pray to God in Heaven while they apply to the
gods that men have chosen for themselves. The gods of the gentiles
distribute the grace of their benefits amongst proud people, but
those benefactors guarantee their treasury’s bounty ultimately
at the point of a gun, contrary to the sayings of Jesus.
… testify
in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in
the vanity of their mind, Eph 4:17
The ruling elite and the powers behind
them cause millions to labor as human resources and send millions of
their sons to fight and die in the name of patriotism, where the
State is your Father. The voice of the people has chosen a new
benefactor,
a new father and new gods. The people become weaker and the powers of the world grow hungry for
more authority and control. The masses become more frightened and are
assured that they cannot afford freedom and that liberty is a danger.
They are told they need stronger and stronger governments to maintain
their safety and comforts.
These
institutions that have replaced the charitable altars of God deceive
and placate the people until the weight of their own chains consume
them in debt, despotism, and death.
Abraham
exited the systems of civil powers and saw that it was proper to set
up another system. In that godly order men relied upon the daily
exercise of charity, hope, and faith.
Moses led the
people out of bondage and taught these same godly ways to called-out
ministers who served the people.
Jesus
redeemed the people from Herod’s compulsory Corban and the
altars of the world order of Rome. What was this world of Rome where
Jesus walked the earth and preached His kingdom of God at hand?
For
though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth,
(as there be gods many, and lords many,) 1 Corinthians 8:5
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Thy Kingdom Comes
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