If you distributed all of America’s wealth equally to the people, how long would it be before it ended up right back in the hands of the rich and wealthy? 10 years, or less.
If you give a house to someone who can’t afford to maintain the house, the house will quickly end up in ruins.
And what is true of a house, is true of everything of value. I worked at a Cadillac dealership. People would come in who were clearly, and obviously too poor to own a Cadillac. In 5 years, they would have that car turned to junk.
——————— UPDATE—————-
Some people appeared confused about what my point is.
The point I am making with this picture, is that people have this idea that wealth is static. That wealth can just be moved around like houses and hotels on a monopoly game.
So if you just take some wealth from a rich guy, and give it to the poor guy, then poor guy will have wealth now.
But that isn’t how wealth works. Wealth is always dynamic. It is constantly being created and destroyed. It is constantly declining, or being built up.
If you take an expensive car, and give it to a poor person who doesn’t have the means or the desire to maintain that car, it will end up a junk pile.
If you take a house, and give it to someone who can’t, or won’t take care of that house, it will end up a junk pile.
This is unavoidable.
As for the picture, this is Detroit. Rich people packed up and left their homes abandoned. Poor and homeless people moved into those vacant homes. But they couldn’t afford to maintain them. So they were destroyed.
I’ve found the above commentary to be very true. Poor people act in ways that keep them poor. Wealthy people aren’t just lucky (usually). They behaved in a way that made them rich and if you took their money away, they would regain their wealth because they do the things that are necessary to become wealthy. Of course there are exceptions.
I’ve been a landlord for the last 20 years. I’ve told my children that God won’t entrust most of my renters with ever owning a house, because they treat my houses (a domicile that God has entrusted them with) like garbage. Everything we have has been entrusted to us by God and we are to take care of it. If we do a good job, He will entrust us with more. We are to use it not for selfish reasons but to glorify God. If you can’t take care of something, whether with your DIY skills or by having the means to pay someone else, you better sell it or give it up and find something that you’re able to afford and maintain.
That title is the most provocative chapter title from a great book by Stephen Perks. It is free as both a pdf or audio. It’s short and says so many of the things I’ve been thinking.
One of the most important things he points out is that Jesus said we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That isn’t just personal piety. It’s seeking to build God’s kingdom and seeking justice. We aren’t to seek first to plant churches or go to church every Sunday or invite people to church or spend tons of time around the church or have our lives revolve around church. “Church” isn’t even the biblical word for the 501c3 corporations or Sunday morning event. “Church” is the body of Christ–all believers make up the church. Almost nothing about the Sunday morning deal is in the Bible. We’re not commanded to do anything on Sunday morning or any other particular day. We’re to love other people and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Here’s a meme I saw on Facebook recently.
I don’t know who Brian Suave is, but this was reposted by a pastor. Of course, a pastor wants people to build their lives around the church. That’s a cult as far as I’m concerned. Stephen Perks calls it a mystery cult. The mystery is in opposition to building God’s kingdom. I’ve experienced it and it’s almost always true, at least 99% of the time.
We are supposed to do some of those things as far as serving others and building God’s kingdom, but there is simply nothing in Scripture about doing anything like the meme says.
The church as we know it is good for nothing but being thrown out and trampled as it is salt that has lost its savor. It is failed and salt that’s lost it’s savor cannot be restored but can only be thrown out.
Nick Perez says something to think about for sure:
“The greatest among you will be your servant.”
~Jesus
The Satanic State (executive governments from Washington, DC on down to your local City Hall) is the greatest servant in the culture. This is how the Church lost the culture. Did you think the devil is dumb?
How do we reverse it? I used to think a big part was by petitioning the Satanic State to abolish abortion. Give it a shot if you want, and prove the devil right, because he thinks we’re dumb. So how do we reverse it? Start a local business. Serve your community. Feed the poor. Evangelize. Educate. Be the greatest servant.
The American church has lots its saltiness. My former church in particular is completely without savor.
I used to go downtown and witness to the bar crowd on Friday or Saturday night. We did Way-of-the-Master style witnessing and we had a seven foot tall wooden cross we carried. People would come up and ask us why we’re standing on the sidewalk with a cross. That was a great way to start a conversation.
I tried over and over for a long time to get people from my church to go with me and the one other guy that was coming. I taught an evangelism class and about 10-15 people attended. I was only able to get three or four different people to come, one time each. One guy was called some dirty name (I can’t remember what it was) and that seemed to really hurt him or make him think it was dangerous. One guy who came thought we were doing it wrong but he wasn’t willing to show us the right way either. The assistant pastor said we were doing it wrong. He said we should offer people free coffee, and the cups could have a Bible message, but we shouldn’t preach.
Occasionally, there would be heavy metal concerts on a Friday night at the Eagles club and mostly teenagers attended. I thought it was really good, because the kids were somewhat hostile to start out, but a lot of them asked really deep questions and we had a lot of good conversations. One of the guys in the band didn’t like that the kids would leave the concert and go outside to talk to us. His dad was a pastor, and he asked my pastor to get us to stop witnessing at the concerts. My pastor told him to contact us. We ended up meeting him and had a long conversation where he told us we were evangelizing all wrong. His arguments were the typical weak arguments, and easy to answer. I was surprised at the time that a pastor openly opposed the preaching of the gospel.
For the first several weeks we were going downtown, we were harassed by the cops until an experienced officer threatened to arrest us. The lady who had called the cops said she didn’t want to press charges, so we didn’t get arrested. We got a lawyer from Liberty Counsel to write a letter to the Police, city council and city attorney, and the chief of police wrote a memo telling them not to mess with us if there was no report of an actual crime. The cops had no idea what basic constitutional rights were. Apparently not many Christians are into free speech.
One bar was particularly confrontational with us. They were having a wet t-shirt contest and they sarcastically invited us. I told the pastor and asked for help. I thought it was important that there be a Christian presence, but of course, no one would come. I ended up going alone as my usual gospel partner couldn’t come until later in the evening. An older guy walked up to me, and said, “You’re moving or I’m going to move you.” I said something like, “This is a public sidewalk. I’m not moving.” I really should have seen it coming, but I guess I didn’t take his threat seriously. He hit me near my eye with his cane. I ended up with a black eye.
I say all that to point out that the church in America has lost its saltiness. They have no gumption to stand up for what’s right. They clearly don’t believe in the power of the gospel or the effectiveness of God’s Word to confront the culture. America is rotting because the church cowers in fear and the vast majority believes things will only get worse and we will eventually be defeated before Christ’s return.
I was a premillennialist for most of the time this was happening, but I was being schizophrenic. I believed the Bible passages that say the gospel is powerful enough to change lives at least and change the culture if Christians could step up and spread the good news. Unfortunately, most Christians are consistent with their premillennialism and think they’re going to be defeated so they shrink back into the four walls of the church.
I’m now a postmillennialist who believes that the gospel will spread and more and more people will be saved. God’s Word will be applied more and more consistently to every area of life and culture and God will bless our obedience. God’s kingdom will grow like a mustard seed into a great tree.
The pastor at my former church was the only one who never really openly opposed us. But he never did much of anything to help either. His sermons are 55 minutes long every week, and even the members of the congregation who attend weekly are shockingly immature and unable to apply Scripture to life. Ongoing attempts I’ve made to help them apply Scripture to various topics has been vehemently opposed. I was kicked out of the church Facebook group. One lady’s only comeback to my arguments was that I have beady eyes. Others have accused me of being provocative and argumentative. I’ll concede to those, but I deny that I’ve done anything sinful. They certainly haven’t come up with any persuasive responses to my arguments.
Whatever sin or cultural battles that are to come, I predict that that church and the vast majority of other churches in this country will sit out entirely. They haven’t done squat. They’ve accomplished nearly nothing for the kingdom of God. They have only been defeated and they will continue to become less and less relevant. They are salt that’s lost its saltiness and are worthy of nothing more than to be thrown out and trampled.
I have no doubt that I could do many things better. I would love to be shown what I can do better. I would love to look up to men who have won great battles and have advanced the kingdom of God. I know of some, but very few, and none personally. Most of the men I know personally are losers who plan to go on losing. They expect to be locked up in a ghetto and they’re just fine with their ghetto. They’ll go on a retreat, even though they’ve never been on the advance. They’ll have a pot luck and their wives will put up the decorations for the ghetto Christmas party.
I went to get a physical three months ago today. I’ve been a little overweight most of my adulthood. I’m in my mid-40s and I’ve mostly eaten whatever I want my whole life without much consideration. I’ve always been very healthy with very few medical problems and not taking any prescription medication.
At the physical, my blood pressure was a little high. The doctor recommended the DASH diet, which involves eating low salt, whole grains, limiting egg yolks and deep fried food. They wanted me to come back in a month, and I did. During that month, by just trying to eat less and eliminate Pepsi, I lost about 12 pounds. I hoped that would drop my blood pressure, but it didn’t, and the doctor prescribed blood pressure medicine. I don’t want to be on a prescription, so I never filled it, and was going to lose more weight.
A week or two after that appointment, we met with a family friend who has lost some weight and I mentioned my high blood pressure. She was adamant that I start doing the keto diet. She said the doctors’ diet is wrong (no surprise). She gave me several Youtube videos and channels to watch.
Keto is nearly the opposite of what the doctors, and probably your mother recommended. You can eat lots of eggs, fatty meat, deep fried (but in the correct oil without flour breading) meat. I’ve lost an additional 20 pounds or so on keto. They also recommend intermittent fasting, which means skipping breakfast. (You don’t have to skip breakfast necessarily, you can eat whatever times you want as long as you eat within an eight-hour window.) But you can eat until you’re full for two meals a day. Eating meat seems to help you stay satisfied longer and not feeling a need to constantly snack.
It took a week or two to really get into it for me. It was hard for a while to skip breakfast, and not have bread and some sugary sauces. But so far, I’d say it’s been fairly easy to get used to. I would have thought I was addicted to sugar or at least Pepsi, and I was able to stop that nearly cold turkey. It took about a month or six weeks, but my blood pressure has gone back to the healthy range of about 120/70 down from about 143/90.
Things I like to eat are deep fried buffalo chicken wings in coconut oil, ribeye with butter on it. I like chicken thighs deep fried, baked or grilled. One thing I’ve realized lately that I’m looking forward to trying is making salad dressing at home. You can’t have store-bought dressing because they all seem to use soybean oil. But you can pretty much have as much dressing as you want as long as it’s made with the proper oil.
Sometimes if there are doubts about whether I will be able to get full on the meat that has been prepared for a family meal, I can add some pepperoni or quickly cook up some sausage or hard-boiled eggs.
This is a diet that I think I can stick with for a long time. I’m not hungry all the time. Even though I’ve lost 35 pounds, and some girth, I don’t think I look that different. Originally, I thought I’d need to get from 310 pounds to 250 pounds, and I’d be good, but I’m more than half way to my goal. So maybe the goal will have to be lowered, I don’t know.
I’ll give some links to some of my favorite youtube channels, but this diet helps with so many different issues, including blood pressure, gout, prostate problems, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cancer, skin problems, plantar fasciitis, mental problems, etc.
This guy is good. He’s a doctor and you can search his channel for whatever specific thing you might be wondering about, and he probably has more than one video on it: Dr. Ken Berry.
I’ll keep you up to date on my weight loss progress. I’m excited to continue the diet rather than craving the old things. I still somewhat tempted on occasion to eat some of those things, but my health is more important and I’m certainly not dying with out them.
My dad had gout for about the last 20 years of his life. He tried all kinds of things to treat it and nothing seemed to work. I’m a little bit sad that he was never able to try this diet. I’m also a little bit frustrated that doctors are still recommending the exact wrong diet for high blood pressure. That frustrates me, but I’m not surprised.
I’m so thankful my friend spoke up and told me about all of this. I hope it helps you as well. You might be able to get away with eating junk for a while, but as you get older, there will be consequences. I think this is part of the dominion mandate.
The IRS designation for churches is in section 501c3 and specifies that for churches to maintain a tax-free status, they can’t discuss certain topics. Having the government dictate to a church what they can talk about is outrageous and unacceptable. Here’s what Nicholas Perez has to say about it.
“By definition, it is impossible for the Church to make any such Covenant. Our Covenant is in Christ, and we as a body cannot possibly make a Covenant with Christ’s enemy that would violate that. What “local churches” do, on the other hand is irrelevant, and has been for a long time. We need to ‘come out from among them (local churches) and be ye separate,’ saith the Lord.”
This meme comes from a progressive Christian facebook group, which I’m not a member of. There are true and false items on both lists, and I wanted to provide some biblical references where I can. We’ll keep score and see which side wins in the end. The contest is between hipster Progressive team and Bible belt Nominal Christian team.
• Was Jesus white? I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time in a Mormon church recently during some homeschool events. They have pictures all over their church of the guy on the left. It is annoying when people depict Jesus as a blonde or darker blonde white guy. He was clearly Jewish. I’m sure he looked a lot more like the guy on the right. See Matthew 1, for the genealogy of Jesus and it says he’s a descendant of Abraham and David. He’s of Jewish lineage, clearly. One point for Progressive side.
• Was Jesus a Christian? This is a confusing point. Not sure what they’re going for, but it’s technically true. Christian means follower of Christ. He gave us Christiantity. Two to zip Progressives.
• Was Jesus patriotic? Not in the way we think of it with pledging to Chinese-manufactured fabric. I believe Jesus gave us the basis for theocratic anarchy–no rulers, but justice according to His law. That is the system of the Old Testament and Christ taught that as well. The greatest among you will be a servant–not some elected official that has his finger on the nuclear button (Matt 23:11). Three to zip Progressives.
• Justice through retribution or restoration? I’m not sure what they mean. The Old Testament law gives the proper punishments for various sins, including the death penalty. Jesus endorsed the death penalty for rebellious sons (Mark 7:10). The penalty for stealing was for the thief to repay his victims plus an additional amount. No point awarded to either team as they both are terrible on this point.
• Died for your sins? This one is true. (Romans 5:8: “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”) Point for Nominal team.
• Send sinners to hell? This one is true. (Matt 23:41ff: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”) Make it 3-2: point for Nominals.
• Condemns sinners? This one is true. See the above. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). He didn’t come to condemn sinners, because they’re condemned already (John 3:16-18). The Nominals win, score is tied.
• Endorses church and state? I’ve already said that Jesus was a theocratic anarchist, so He didn’t endorse the state. Did He endorse the church? The church is believers, so He endorsed that. However, I think “church” as we think of it today is apostate, and so far gone that we’d be better off without it, so I see the point of Progressives here. They take back the lead 4 to 3.
• Is Jesus a king? Not only is He a king, He’s the King of kings (Revelation 19:16). Easy point for the Nominals. Tied back up at 4.
• Upholds traditional family unit? He does, big time. He forbids homosexuality and expects husbands and wife to remain faithful. Mark 10:6-9 says, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Another easy point for the Nominals, who take the lead for the first time at 5 to 4.
• Endorses holy war? I think the Nominals actually do believe this, as I did at one point, especially after 9/11. But, war is to be defensive as was the teaching in the Old Testament. No one can be compelled to fight in a war they don’t believe in, and there are rules for how wars can be fought. Point for the progressives. Tied back up at 5 to 5.
• The first 3 items on the historical Jesus side have been covered, and are true, and therefore go to Progressives. It’s now 8 to 5.
• Justice through restoration? I’ve covered this as well and I’m not sure exactly what they mean, but knowing progressives, they are opposed to the type of justice Jesus taught, and the Nominals are also opposed, so I’m awarding no points here.
• Killed by church and state? The church is the body of Christ, which didn’t really exist at the time of Jesus’ death, but I know what they mean. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to them and change “church” to “organized religion”, and give the Progressives this point. He was clearly killed by the state at the insistence of the Jewish authorities. 9 to 5 Progressives.
• Friend of sinners and outcasts? Yes. Jesus came for the sick, not for the healthy (Mark 2:17). Again, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. We’re all sinners, but it’s the proud sinner who is self-righteous that God opposes. I’d say progressives fit the proud sinner description better than the Nominals. Even though this point is technically true, and is on the Historical Jesus side, it’s the Progressives who need to examine themselves on this, so I’m giving this point to the Nominals, making the score 9 to 6.
• Liberates the oppressed? Absolutely He does. He liberates us not only spiritually, but as His Kingdom grows, we have been and will continue to be liberated physically. It is those who help orphans, widows, the sick and imprisoned who will go to heaven (Matt 25:34-40). 10 to 6 Progressives.
• Critiques religious people? Yes. Matthew 23 and Revelation 2-4. Judgment begins in the house of the Lord. 11 to 6 Progressives.
• Subverts Empire? Yes. Jesus was an anarchist. The Pharisees would try to trick Him, but He would give parables that were subversive, even though not outright subversive. The Christian system will undermine empire and tyrannical government. Romans 13:3-4 is dynamite laid at the foundation of tyrannical government. 12 to 6 Progressives.
• Homeless man and child refugee? Yes. Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). And Matthew 2:13ff talk about Jesus’ family fleeing to Egypt. All humans ought to be able to relocate to where they are safe, and where they can best fulfill the dominion mandate. Make it 13 to 6 Progressives.
• Had half-siblings? I don’t think this is right. Did Jesus’ body have Joseph’s DNA? I don’t know. Did He have Mary’s DNA? I don’t know. But Jesus’ genealogy lists His physical father as Joseph (Matthew 1:16). I don’t think I’d call his siblings half siblings. Point for the Nominals: 13 to 7.
• Was Jesus non-violent? I’m going to give this one to the Nominals, but when you say someone is violent, you’re usually talking about a crazy person or at least out-of-control person. God is definitely not out-of-control. He sends people to hell. He sent the Israelites to kill entire cultures. And Jesus Himself overturned the tables of the money changers. But He also said whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword. As individuals, we are to be generally non-violent, but with the potential to be violent in a defensive manner. Meekness is power under control. Meekness isn’t a rejection of power or violence, but having the power and ability under control.
Final score is 13 to 8 for the Progressives. But that is just because the American church is in desperate need of help and restoration. Progressives are generally slightly worse off than Nominals, but they can definitely make some arguments against the Nominals. The problem is they don’t really believe Scripture is God’s Word, so they have serious epistemology problems.
As I’ve gotten involved in various Christian organizations or causes, there inevitably comes disagreement and eventually a split of some kind. You have to choose which fork in the road to take, and the number of people you find yourself among are about half of what they were. Eventually, there’s another fork and another and another. Maybe not among the same group, but in different ways, you’re growing more and more specific in your beliefs, and you may eventually find yourself among a very small group.
This has always troubled me. But my friend has this to say:
“There’s rarely if ever such a thing as perfect unity between creatures who learn discursively, so we should not be under any unrealistic illusions of unity. What we can expect are alliances and sharply defined unity and division with everyone we enjoy fellowship with. This requires effort and charity, but it is worth the investment and necessary.
Division is necessary, but it does not necessarily mean we are ultimately divided. Paul said that without division, we’d never know what is right or wrong. I love and am united with sincere Christians who believe fascist propaganda. Ultimately, we are united, in Christ, but on their idolatrous, fearful error, we are divided. The ultimate unity, in spite of division is what the world will look on and admire. As iron sharpens iron through debate and friction, it produces deeper and more meaningful unity.
False unity: ignoring of division, and neglecting iron sharpening iron is not admirable. It requires no effort. It’s lazy, and there is no love in it. I despise the “agree to disagree” attitude. It’s not Christian.”
The good news is you are learning from different people and organizations, and eventually, you don’t need them anymore. You still need fellowship, but you don’t have to be taught about a certain topic any longer. Hopefully, as we get older and more mature and you find that the group you identify with is smaller and smaller, you have unity on important topics with local Christians. Even though they may not know as much as you, and they occasionally say things you disagree with, you can teach them what you’ve learned. Maybe they’ll come to agree and maybe they won’t, but you have unity on the important doctrines of the faith.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how Christians can’t expect the culture to change without first living consistently with what we say, and with what the Bible teaches.
How can we begrudge anyone a government subsidized Obamacare plan while we receive government money for our kids’ schooling, Social Security, etc.? If we all rejected the old socialistic programs we benefit from, maybe the Lord would see fit to end Obamacare.
There’s a free summer lunch program at the public high school. I know people who take their kids there. I wouldn’t say they’re rich, but they’re upper middle class or middle class, and they are conservative Republican types. Why do they accept a government handout? I don’t get it.
Bojidar’s quote I posted was a good example. Christians don’t stand up to a tyrannical pastor. How in the world are they going to stand up to a tyrannical magistrate who has much more power over us?
One aspect of God’s judgment on this country seems to be that there are few manly Christian men. They don’t go out to do evangelism. They don’t do anything of consequence. They just warm pews, and suffer through a feminine sermon on marriage advice. I pray that I would be a manly, Godly man.
In fact, I came up with a corny rhyme, but it’s just to sad to use much: “There are no men to resist like there were in ’76.”
I enjoy discussing Christianity in the comments of Youtube videos. On one video about gun rights, an atheist posted about how God shouldn’t be brought into conversations about rights.
I responded to him and we had a fairly long conversation that was already over, when another guy posted a couple comments saying this video wasn’t the place for this type of discussion. Here’s how I responded:
You said, “Why are we not all focusing on our countries second amendment issues right now?”
1. Laws are based on morality.
2. Morality is based on religion.
3. Laws that have been passed in this country are still based on a morality and a religion–just not Christianity, because of a radical and false interpretation of separation of church and state.
4. Yet The rights found in the constitution are a result of Christianity.
5. The religion being practiced by our government today (secularism) is antithetical to Christianity.
6. Therefore the laws based on that false religion will be antithetical to the rights derived from Christianity.
So just hoping to find common ground with atheists (or any non-Christian) and work together is not really going to solve the problem. We need to return this country to its Christian roots to have any hope of maintaining our rights.
Besides that, why do you care what we talk about?
Working for the Secession of Fremont County from the Union
