Special Bulletin 01-2013

     Our democracy has been tested many times and has prevailed. This has many feeling secure about our present crises, but never before have we faced the two main issues our Founders warned we could not survive as a Republic. Our democracy is now failing because we removed the firewalls the Founders put in place to keep from happening what is now happening.

     This is a bigger issue than the debt and deficits. Those are just symptoms of a far worse problem. We are still trying to use Band-Aids for a cancer that is spreading throughout the body. We will not survive without radical surgery.

     As I write this, there is a debate going on about the merits of the deal reached between the President and the Congress to avoid going over “the fiscal cliff.” The fact is that the deal they reached was itself a leap over the cliff. Every solution our government is coming up with now to solve our problems is only exacerbating them. Where has this madness come from?

     Once you miss a turn and take the wrong road, it will never turn into the right road. The only way to get back on the right road is to go back to where you missed the turn. There is a road to a secure, free, and prosperous future for every American, but we cannot continue going the direction we are now going and last much longer as a free people.

     You can have the most perfect form of government, but still have bad government without good people in it. What has happened to us has not been the result of our form of government, but rather the removal of two main firewalls that our Founders put into place to prevent what is now happening to us. These firewalls were put in place to keep the kind of people out of the government who now have the reins of every aspect of our federal government. It is not likely that those people will vote for anything that would remove them from government nor keep their kind out in the future, so there must be another solution. Before addressing this, we need to consider the firewalls that have been torn down, and consider how they can be restored.

Firewall Number One         

     The Founders warned that our form of government could only survive in the hands of a religious and moral people. The first firewall that was breeched, and the most important one, was the promotion of the myth of the separation between church and state. This is not in the Constitution and never was even implied the way that this has been defined in recent times. In fact, the opposite is true.

     The First Amendment states simply that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The prohibiting of prayer in schools, public places, or at public events, or the displaying of religious statements or symbols is itself unconstitutional because they are prohibiting the free exercise of religion as declared by the First Amendment.

     The Constitution also declares in the Tenth Amendment that, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Many assume that federal law automatically trumps state laws, but that is not the case. State law trumps federal laws whenever they are in conflict with the exception of those powers specifically given to the federal government by the Constitution.

     Because the South used the “states’ rights” as justification for slavery, it is still hard to even use the term, but because of this, the federal government has trampled all over the state’s rights ever since. A pushback is going to come.

     Concerning the First Amendment, the states interpreted this to mean that only Congress was prohibited from establishing religion, which is obviously the case. This meant that the states could in fact establish religion, and many did. For example, for a time several states required one to be a Protestant to vote or hold public office. I’m not saying that was right, but in fact it was wrong as even these states came to understand, but it does show how the Founders interpreted the First Amendment with no protest from the federal government for well over a century. 

The Tyranny of the Minority

     I was watching Fox News when one of the anchors asked a guest if they were afraid that their position on a certain issue might offend someone. That revealed in a single sentence just how crazy political correctness has made us. One person can claim to be offended at something and rob millions of Americans of their most basic Constitutional rights. This has especially been the case with the free exercise of their religion, and Americans have passively let this happen with hardly a whimper. If we do not stand up to this tyranny now, our freedom will be lost forever.

     Religious sentiment in America has remained fairly consistent throughout our history. About 90 percent of Americans claim to believe in God, and about 80 percent claim to be Christians. Yet even elementary students can now curse their teachers and get away with it, but if they use the name of Jesus, or Christ, except as a curse, or talk about God, they can be suspended from school. How perverted is that? How unconstitutional is that? Is it not time for Christians to stand up and pushback? If we don’t do this soon, one of the greatest gifts that was given to us by our forefathers and mothers, religious liberty, will be lost forever.

     The damage to our country from this is the corresponding meltdown of morality and integrity. Morality and integrity is the glue that holds any people together, and this is the main reason why we are now falling apart.

Firewall Number Two

     The second crisis that the Founders warned that the Republic could not survive was when the people learned that they could vote for themselves the resources of the treasury. Entitlements and waste now has the federal Government spending almost twice as much as it takes in. The fiscal insanity of our present leaders was very much on display by the deal reached to avoid “the fiscal cliff.” The ultimate deal came out raising about forty-one dollars in new taxes for every one dollar of spending cuts according to The Congressional Budget Office. The President called this “a balanced approach.”

     What this deal truly was is an even greater strangling of the American economy that is already struggling to breathe. Taxes are resources taken straight out of the economy. The mentality of “taxing the rich” more is to take more from those who obviously know how to manage their resources and give it to a government that has become the most incompetent entity on the planet in managing its resources. Managed efficiently, our federal government should only be about one-fifth of its present size, doing five times as much work at least five times as fast. Managed efficiently, we could cut the federal budget by 50 – 70 percent without even touching entitlements.

     This is not to imply that there does not need to be entitlement reform, but no one on either side of the isle will even mention the 800-pound gorilla in the room—government incompetence, inefficiency, and waste. How did we get to this place? By the federal government trying to do things the Constitution never gave it authority to do, seeking to justify almost everything under the “commerce clause.” It will never be able to do these things well, but will just keep making a mess of them like they have been.

     In 2012, the International Monetary Fund released a report on the real debt of the United States that included future obligations, mostly   entitlements, and estimated it to be over one hundred trillion dollars. The conclusion was that America could tax all of its citizens one hundred percent of their income and it would not pay for our obligations. Yet, through programs such as Obamacare, we keep dramatically increasing the obligations.

     No other organization could get away with the foolishness of our federal government and survive, and it will not survive it much longer either. The only thing that has kept us from collapsing the entire system already has been our ability to just print more money, but that will catch up with us soon. If we keep going in the direction we are now headed, we will go through, at a minimum, the collapse of our currency. It will take the greatest national leader in our history to get us through that and restore the Republic. Right now there does not seem to be such a leader on the radar.

     Even so, we serve a King who can easily fix our biggest messes if we will turn to Him again. It would no doubt be easier if we did not have to go through an ultimate collapse, but even if we do, if we return to Him and call upon Him, He will save us. That is a promise sealed in canon Scripture.

The Greatest Victory

     The biggest victories come in the biggest battles. The greatest victories come against the greatest odds. I’m often asked if I plan to leave the country since it is so obviously heading for catastrophe. I have never given that a thought. I will not leave my post. I have been blessed to live in the greatest country during some of its greatest times, and I will not abandon it through what may be its hardest times. If it goes down, I intend to go down with it, and I will still be thankful to have been an American.

     As a Christian, the greatest fear that I have is to hear on that great Judgment Day that I was a watchman who did not sound the alarm or a shepherd who abandoned those I was trusted to watch over. To stand there on that day and hear, “Well done good and faithful servant,” is the main goal of my life. I think this should be the primary factor in all of our decisions. We have been given a charge to be salt and light. The greater the corruption and darkness, the more these are needed.

     Our Founders laid their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line for the country we were given. Throughout our history many have paid the full measure to preserve our liberty. We are again in need of those who will not just seek ways to preserve their fortunes, but know why they were entrusted with their fortunes and use them for a higher purpose. For those who are more concerned about their money than their country, I say let them go. They would only weaken us in the struggle now before us if they stayed.

Saving Democracy

     We are headed for martial law in America. What will follow will either be tyranny or a restoration of the Republic to the foundations that will not fail if we do not depart from them again. The critical issue will be who the marshal is.

     Another critical issue will be whether those who were commissioned as officers, whether in the army or in any force, who took a vow to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic, will keep their vow. Many, if not most, have to choose now between what is politically expedient and what is right. Soon many, and maybe all, will likely have to choose between what they vowed or treason against their country. To do the right thing will take extraordinary character, which those who would destroy us have been doing all they could to erode and have been very effective because the good have been silent. We need a lot of help from above to get through what we are now facing.

     Our federal government is not just dysfunctional, but everything it does now to try to fix our problems only makes them worse. The train wreck has already begun. At this point, maybe only the first few cars in the front of the train have left the track, but all the rest will get there very soon. We are now too far and going too fast to avoid the derailing. However, the train can be repaired, and we can get it back on the track. We can never give up.

     If the right leadership does not move decisively and fast when the rest of the train is derailed, democracy in America will be in jeopardy. If we have the right marshal, then this can be a reset—a Jubilee that restores our republic to the right foundations and sanity.

     Could Obama be the right marshal? As he is now I don’t think so. He is the one who hit the throttle to speed up as we entered the train wreck. However, as Christians we always keep in mind that the Lord can change people. The Lord took the radical terrorist, Saul of Tarsus, who was the greatest enemy of the faith and turned him into the great Apostle Paul, the greatest champion of the faith.

     To date, Obama has demonstrated the kind of leadership that is the foundation of tyranny, so I would never trust him without a radical change, but with God all things are possible. With a radical transformation like Paul went through, Obama could be in the best position of all to restore the Republic. I am not saying that he would have to become a raging conservative either, but he has aligned himself in many positions that the Lord calls “wickedness” in Scripture, and does at this time fulfill the definition of a wicked leader. Even so, every one of us would be the same without the grace that was given to us.

     Obama could be in the position to be the greatest President we’ve ever had or the worst traitor. It is very likely that he will get the chance to be one or the other. Obama is our President, and I accept and try my best to obey the biblical command to pray for our leaders, not prey on them. That being said, if what is being done to us is found to have been intentional by Obama, others in our government, the Federal Reserve, or anyone one else, it is the highest form of treason.

     Even if Obama became the greatest President we’ve ever had, what we are facing is beyond human remedy. One congressman admitted on the floor of the house just a few days ago that, “our real debt is eighty-six trillion dollars,” which is a little short of what the IMF said, but at least some are beginning to get honest. That’s a start, but we are in way over our heads, and only God can get us out of the box canyon we’ve entered. That is a good thing. If we look to man, there is no hope. If we look to God, we cannot help but to have more than hope—we can have faith.

Rebuilding the Firewalls

     Technically, America is not a democracy, but a republic. In a democracy, the people get to vote on what to do, but in a republic the people vote for representatives who decide what to do. The American Founding Fathers understood very well that democracy was impractical, so they formed a republic.

     The Founding Fathers feared the tyranny of the king, or the executive, as well as the tyranny of the mob, or the people unrestrained. They had witnessed firsthand the tyranny of a king, which was the reason for the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers had also witnessed the tyranny of the mob, or the people unrestrained, being made a very clear lesson for all by the French Revolution. They knew they had to establish a form of government that would resist tyranny from both directions—the government and the people.

     To accomplish this, they established firewalls in the Constitution that would protect against the excesses from the left or right, the top or bottom, and they did this brilliantly. It has only been since the breech of these firewalls that we began to experience tyranny from both directions, which has landed us where we are now.

     The House of Representatives were to be elected every two years in order to be the most direct representation of the people and was intended to be the main firewall to protect against the potential tyranny of the executive.

     The Senate, which was made up of senators appointed by the state governments, not elected by the people, was intended to be the firewall against the potential tyranny of the people. Senators were not to be accountable to voters so that they could hold back the excessive desires of the people, like voting for themselves the resources of the treasury.

     When the amendment was passed that made senators an elected position, this firewall was breeched and the fiscal slide began. We also had an almost wholesale trampling of the rights of the states by the federal government because the senators were no longer directly accountable to the state governments.

     No government made up of men will ever be perfect. No form of government on earth in this age will be perfect, which is why amendments to the Constitution were allowed. However, not all amendments were good ones, just as not all Supreme Court decisions were good ones. Some amendments need to be repealed, and some Supreme Court decisions need to be reconsidered. The Supreme Court has violated the Constitution as much any President or Congress.

     Even so, no government ever devised so wonderfully accounted for our often-flawed human nature, releasing the best in us, while restraining the worst in us, like the U.S. government did in its original form. There was hypocrisy in our leaders, including our Founders, that tolerated things like slavery, but that was not the fault of our form of government. In fact, it was at least partially the result of our form of government that made the correction of this hypocrisy inevitable.

     Abraham Lincoln said in 1858, “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.” You can have an economy without a government, but you cannot have a government without an economy. Presently, there is no leadership or will in the people to make the essential changes to avoid an ultimate collapse of our economic system. Until such leadership and will emerges, we must plan to end up where we are headed, and that is a meltdown of the value of our currency and the crashing of our economy. This will result in martial law, at least for a time. If we get the right marshal, they will get the train back on track. If we get the wrong one, we can still rejoice because the kingdom of God is near. For now, there are three important questions we need to be asking:

     What will this collapse look like?

     How can we prepare for it?

     How can the Republic be restored?

     These are questions we will address in following Bulletins. We will also address some of the issues raised in this Bulletin with a little more depth.

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