“Where two rights concur, the more ancient shall be preferred.”
The System
(God’s Plan for Man)
vs.
The System
(Man’s plan for Man)
“So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good.” (Genesis 1:27, 31 & 2:1)
The Bible tells us that God created the Heavens and the Earth, setting the Solar system and stars and galaxies into motion. He established a system by which the Law of Nature is bound. It was a System of a Divine Order, a System into which man was created and placed. In that System, man had certain restrictions, obligations and benefits.
“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Ge. 2:15,17)
Man was unsatisfied with this Godly System and he defied God. When God called to man, man blamed God and the woman God had given him for his own transgression of the Law of God.
“And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:12)
So, the Godly System made for man was supplanted by the act of man. Man had chosen another way that was not the way of the LORD. Consequently, this act against God’s will, as well as man’s lack of repentance, changed the position of man in the System of God, along with changing those things that man had been given dominion over.
“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:16, 19)
Man would not follow in the way of the Lord’s System, but chose rather to go his own way according to his own imagination.
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24)
Man found himself discontented with his own way and its results and sought other ways to make his lot better and more propitious. These new ways led to power and oppression, maliciousness and murder, when it did not include turning to God in repentance and humility.
“And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.” (Genesis 4:17)
These cities were civil groups which devised many cunning ways to bind the loyalty of its members for the protection of its members and rulers. The clever and charismatic leaders that could seize and maintain control of the public were served by those who were subject to their authority. They became the rulers of the people and their way became law. The benefits and powers of the offices these rulers granted enticed greedy, proud, and coveting men. They aspired to the protection, profit, and prestige such offices bestowed.
“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:12)
The flood and disasters came and went, but men, who were willing to give up God’s way for their own way, multiplied upon the earth. Men continued to create civil systems to achieve their ambitions and fulfill the hopes of their own imagination. Many looked to these binding organizations of man’s ingenuity to protect themselves from the acts of their sinful brothers, as well as the plagues that befell their errant lives. They trusted in their own devices and institutions to ward off threats of flood and famine, poverty and privation, catastrophe and cataclysm.
“He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the hunter before the LORD.” (Genesis 10:9)
In Genesis 10:9, the word “hunter” is from the Hebrew word tsayid, which is more often translated “provision, food, food-supply, or victuals”. The word paniym is translated “before” in the sense of “face” or “in the face of”, “before” or “in front of”. So, it could be said that “Nimrod was a mighty provider before the LORD or in front of the Lord”.
“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.” (Genesis 11:4, 6)
To reap the benefits of belonging to a city or city state or civil authority, a person had to support it, serve it, succor it. They were, and their status was, changed by their association. They were unified as if one; they were employed and converted as they were reborn into their civil state or status with certain privileges and obligations.
Men are made slaves. It is a forced condition. Servants are also made, but consent at one point is required. By their own act of consent, servants may become bonded servants, slaves, subjects, and then call themselves citizens. They often justify the act by allegedly hopeless circumstances, even though their circumstances were merely the results of their previous misguided actions.
“Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from [one] end of the borders of Egypt even to the [other] end thereof.” (Genesis 47:19 21)
Did he move them to towns and cities? No, they only moved to a civil status of subjection and service. They still tilled the soil and planted the seeds. They did not own their land or labor, but had settled for a mere legal title.
“Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, [here is] seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.” (Genesis 47:23)
There was a difference, a change, a conversion. They labored, not just for themselves or for the service of God, but also for the Pharaoh who now had the power to tax their labor, their increase, their income. He took a part of their service for himself. It was sort of a civil tithing.
“And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth [part] unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” (Genesis 47:24, 25)
Often, men sold themselves to tyrants so that they might enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season or the treasures of the great cities or because they were fearing the wrath of the king. Sometimes, the tyrants were there from the beginning; sometimes, they grew out of their well-fed vanity. As man’s faith in the works of his own hands grew, so did his power and pomposity, his victuals and vanity, his cartel and contempt. He defied God’s place as Ruler and proceeded to create his own systems in the world to make a name for himself.
Supple knees, Feed arrogance and are the proud man’s fees.
This feeding of the vanity and arrogance of want-to-be rulers has built an empire of Canaanites in the form of bureaucratic administrative tribunals. Too many, too often, have bent their knees to the powers that would be kings and rulers of man. History is filled with such examples. Less numerous, but more noteworthy, are those rare and gracious moments where men would not bow their heads, their will, or their service to any usurping, enticing, or assuring power except to the Lord God.
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw [he was] a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:23, 27)
Art thou less a slave because thy master loves and caresses thee?
In the days of Joseph’s famine, the people had given their gold, their animals, their land, and themselves in exchange for provisions so that they would not die. So, what did they use for money in everyday business transactions? They used a small stone or clay scarab given out by the Pharaoh’s treasury. The priests were not sold under the Pharaoh nor their lands. The priest had their own land and a stipends from the Pharaoh. They grew wealthy while others toiled. They had vast stores of grain which they also used as money, but the scarabs were more portable. In their temples, “granaries were included… priests became bankers through the loan of seed grain. In many societies, the main temple and dependent structures were the most important buildings, although many smaller, often isolated, temples existed as well.” Their temples were the center of business, as well as the depository of records and contracts.
“Give me control over a nation’s currency and I care not who makes its laws”
The High Priests knew the arts of the temple, which was also the central bank. They had control of the flow of currency. However, it was the greed and envy of Joseph’s brothers that had brought all of Israel under the power of Pharaoh and at the mercy of the priests of Egypt.
“Pride before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Pr 16:18)
God had chosen his people from the seed of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and led them out of Egypt. He would be their God and Ruler, but they did not have the faith of their forefathers nor of Moses. They feared for their lives and sought strength in their own numbers and bound themselves together by sacrificing the dowers of their wives and the inheritance of their sons to the golden calf.
“And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which [are] in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring [them] unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which [were] in their ears, and brought [them] unto Aaron. And he received [them] at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These [be] thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 32:2, 4)
It was not mere superstition that motivated them, but a practicality stimulated by fear and a lack of faith. The people literally deposited their gold, as well as other goods, sacrificed the right to it, and took, in turn, some sort of exchangeable token. The gold was poured into a large statue for all to see. The wealth of the community was melted together. No one person could leave in the face of an enemy or trouble without leaving behind the golden idol. His scarabs or tokens were worthless except at his community. The priests of the temple kept track of all the complexities of this monetary system and, of course, the profits from interest and usury.
“Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! said I, still thou art a bitter draught.”
“They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped 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)
The people took pride in their scheme, though it was not a new one, but God found their way corrupt. He wanted them bound together in love, faith and virtue.
“We estimate men as great not by their wealth but by their virtue.”
“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 of men. Men bind themselves in as many ways. In all sorts of secular religions, city states, kingdoms, democracies, monetary systems, and corporate entities through all sorts of contracts, compacts, constitutions, and covenants. Warnings of the prophets and the sayings of the wise fill volumes of books often unread in today’s modern society, where “Coke is the real thing,” “Ford has a better idea,” and “Anacin gives fast relief.” But our gold, wealth, and the inheritance of our children has been entrusted to others, our lands we no longer own, our labor is in the service of another, people profit and gain from usury, and we beseech the government to supply our needs and security and “we pray to the court” for justice, instead of God, LORD of lords.
“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 richest companies and the most autocratic governments in the world are the ones that offer insecure, faithless people security at a vain price.
“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 the LORD.
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,” (Eph 4:17)
In March 1775, a young Lawyer rode into Culpeper, Virginia on a lean horse. At the whipping post, he saw a man’s shirt removed, his arms tied together and as he watched he saw him whipped with a leather and wire whip, until the bones of his rib cage showed. When the young lawyer asked what the man had done, he was told that he was a fundamentalist preacher who had refused to take a license. Even after they put him in jail with all of his friends he continued to say, “I will not take a license no matter what you do.” The young lawyer who witnessed the lashing was so moved he wrote a speech, and a few days later he delivered it before the Virginia assembly. He said, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains of slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
The seventeenth century Americans came here looking for the religious and civil freedoms that were all but totally gone from Europe and the land of the Anglo-Saxon. They did not gain their freedom by the so-called Revolution, but had earned it by perseverance, hard work, and the grace of God.
“All men are freemen or slaves.”
The freedom, for which early pilgrims were willing to suffer deprivation, hardship, and even death to obtain and maintain, has all but vanished in today’s comfortable, complacent, and civil society.
“Men often applaud an imitation, and hiss the real thing.” -Aesop.
This modern society is democratic with each man sharing in the ruling class. As the leaders of old who fell prey to their own bloated vanity, so the people of a democracy are no less immune. Each man today can wield the headsman’s ax and lop off the rights of his neighbor both in this country and other countries with a check on a ballot, secretly, safely, securely from the inner sanctum of our voting booth. Is that not the privilege and right of the people in the richest nation, the strongest nation, the greatest nation, the vainest nation under a god?
“Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense.” (Job 15:31)
God created a system, consisting of a man and a woman and their children, under Himself only. He warned against covenants with strangers to His ways, he warned against kings, and He forbade us to put other gods, rulers, and judges over us and before him. He told us that, if we turned from Him, from His way and from His truths, we would be delivered into bondage and the hands of tyrants.
“For what nation [is there so] great, who [hath] God [so] nigh unto them, as the LORD our God [is] in all [things that] we call upon him [for]? And what nation [is there so] great, that hath statutes and judgments [so] righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;” (Deuteronomy 4:7, 9)
U.S. and State laws are changing frequently. God’s laws are constant. Neither the Ten Commandments nor any part of the word of God are allowed in public schools. Like heathen institutions, they preach that government is ruler of the earth and that God, if there is one, only resides in an ethereal heaven or the imaginations of the religious. God said, “teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” Governments often say, “We will teach thy sons.”
“Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do [them], that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.” (De 4:1)
Like those slaves in the captivity of Egypt, no man in the United States possesses his own land, having only a legal title. A legal title, whether of labor, land, or limousines “is complete and perfect so far as regards the apparent [illusory] right of ownership and possession, but which carries no beneficial interest in the property, another person being equitably entitled thereto; in either case, the antithesis of ‘equitable title.’” An equitable title is a right in the party, the beneficial interest of one person whom equity regards as the real owner, although the legal title is vested in another.
“According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, …” (Ezekiel 39:24 25)
“Merely being native born within the territorial boundaries of the United States of America does not make such an inhabitant a Citizen of the United States subject to the jurisdiction of the Fourteenth Amendment.” It is the application for its benefits, gratuities, and protection that subjects the individual as a person.
“Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” (Galatians 4:8, 9)
Why do we turn always to government for salvation from the difficulties of this life? Why do we look to them to do that which God would do for us in faith or has commanded us to do for ourselves?
God is reason. “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” George Washington.
“For when they speak great swelling [words] of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, [through much] wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollution’s of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:18, 22)
Many will say that government does good, that it cares for the elderly, the poor, the sick, the indigent and protects the weak, the innocent, the helpless. Yes, it may do some of these things, but “You are not to do evil that good may come of it.” Government does not do these things with its own money, out of the charity of its own heart, but with the money it collects from your neighbor. The key word here is “collects”. It collects by force or the threat of force. “If those are better who are led by love, those are the greater number who are led by fear.” A nation that does not rely on the voluntary charity of its people will not have nor deserve any charity.
Government does not give true gifts or charity. “A gift is said to be pure and simple when no condition or qualification is annexed.”
The U.S. Government says that it was ordained to “establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” But it has gone farther in its offers than in its duties and obligations that were required it.
The U.S. Government has also acted, “to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provisions for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children,...., to raise revenue, and for other purposes.”
What are these other purposes?
Government also finances, promotes, and facilitates the abortion and death of millions of children. It encourages and finances, with tax money, fetal research. Once, when I was referred to as a human resource, I jokingly commented , “I hope they don’t decide to drill.” Today, they do drill and stripmine unborn fetuses from the wombs of our daughters to obtain their organs and tissues.
The stories of government involvement in dictatorial, autocratic, and totalitarian regimes with known and repeated human rights violations are common. Financial aid, military aid, and the blood of your young men has gone to support, defend, and bolster governments that have defied and trampled on the principles that Christ taught to the world.
In the original American Republics, as in the theocratic Republic of ancient Israel, citizenship of the individual freeman depended upon his ownership of land in fee-simple as an estate, but “in the United States ‘it is a political obligation’ depending not on ownership of land, but on the enjoyment of the protection of government; and it ‘binds the citizen to the observance of all laws’ of his sovereign.”
“Freeman; the possessors of allodial lands.”
If being a citizen in the United States ‘binds the citizen to the observance of all laws’ of his sovereign, I can only ask, “who is the sovereign of those citizens?” Judging by the treatment the word of God receives in public institutions, to say nothing of their abandonment of the ways of the Lord, I can only speculate that the citizens of the United States have put another Sovereign before the God, creator of Heaven and Earth.
In a democracy, there are no equals, because all men must obey the majority, the mob. And, “When people have to obey other people’s orders, equality is out of the question.” For a government of the people, by the people, and for the people to not perish from the earth, they would have to bow their knees to Him Who created it, for all else would be vanity.
“Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all [is] vanity.” (Ec 12:8)
If we bind ourselves with words and deeds to the things of these worldly, secular, man-made governments, then how can we bind ourselves also to God?
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18.)
Man has entrusted, in faith, his wealth and riches, his labor and service, his land and property, his rights, loyalty and fidelity in a government-instituted cestui que trusts, which excludes God.
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24 )
Men were told to “hear the word of God, and keep it.” Men were told to keep the land and to possess it, but men have not kept it. Men have made covenants when they were warned repeatedly not to, for only with God thy covenants shall be made. Men have trusted stranger and set aside the gifts of God.
“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 23:1, 3)
Have you been a man or woman of appetite and ate at the table of would-be rulers and gone under their authority, eating of their provisions? Does the government you serve grant you gifts paid for by the wealth of your brother?
“When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take [them]: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;” (Isa 57:13)
If you serve man-made judges and call upon the civil authority to save you, then you may find them inadequate to save you when the going gets rough.
“Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good [things] in possession.” (Pr 28:10)
Does the evil way include finding security in coveting your neighbors goods?
Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, [is the government you serve made by men like the cities of Cain, Nimrod and Pharaoh?] and shed blood:[ the unborn are destroyed and the poor in foreign lands are destroyed and hear on this country.] and shall ye possess the land? [So, it is only natural that you do not own your land] Ye stand upon your sword, [You don’t defend the helpless and the oppressed] ye work abomination, [Are you the bride of Christ or fornicated with another king.] and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife.
Do we defile our citizenship as the bride of Christ]: and shall ye possess the land?
“They [are] vanity, [and] the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.” (Jer 10:15)
Footnotes
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