You Can’t Fight Evil from the Belly of the Beast

Eventually I will go through Revelation verse by verse in audio form with a podcast, but I thought I would mention chapter 12 and relate it to our modern situation. Revelation 12-13, if I am correct regarding the structure of the book, is the climax of the book. Here is where “the dragon” is described:

12:9  The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Chapter 13:1-4 then tells us what the dragon did:

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

This is John’s reusing of the various beasts in Daniel. This beast is drawn from the sea, and the sea in prophecy represents the Gentiles. So Satan is drawing out his servant, human government, to oppress the people. At the time Revelation was written this was Rome. Today it is a different government; it is the same oppression with a different face. 

As Paul tells us in Romans 8, Christians who are martyred do not struggle against human governments alone, but against the secret demons that influence them. He clarifies this in Ephesians 6.

 ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So how does this relate to Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party?  

It seems to me that both are making the same mistake. They think they can fight the beast from the inside. They will be co-opted. While Jesus expected us to be in the world, he did not expect us to be of the world. He expects us to be as self-reliant as we can. 

Jesus wants us to do something.  Revelation 18 tells us what He wants:

   Come out of her, my people,
   so that you will not share in her sins, 
   so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 
⁵ for her sins are piled up to heaven, 
   and God has remembered her crimes. 
⁶ Give back to her as she has given; 
   pay her back double for what she has done. 
   Pour her a double portion from her own cup. 
⁷ Give her as much torment and grief 
   as the glory and luxury she gave herself. 
In her heart she boasts, 
   ‘I sit enthroned as queen. 
I am not a widow;
   I will never mourn.’ 
⁸ Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: 
   death, mourning and famine. 
She will be consumed by fire, 
   for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

I am not advocating that we need to "go" someplace-there is really no place to go. Instead I am proposing that each of us individually leave the system as best we can. We need to be more self reliant to prepare for the troubling times ahead. Are you ready? 

US Military Bases

I do not see how anyone can look at this map and not conclude that America is overextended and is an empire. Of course, some of these light red countries have a very small number of troops to guard embassies. Even though we are "leaving" Iraq, we will maintain 16,000 "ambassadorial" staff there. 

 

I'm Not Dead Yet

Who can resist a good Monty Python reference? I know I can not. The biggest problem I see in participation in the coming elections is that the choice I will have is to vote for the clueless candidate or the truthless candidate. Of course, I do not want to leave out the possibility of a truthless/clueless candidate.

I just saw a debate on the Faux News Program "Cashin' In." Bloomberg had correctly porposed that the entire Bush tax cuts be allowed to expire. Our situation is so dire that we have little alternative. The talking heads did point out that there needed to be spending cuts. Even with the expiration of the cuts, we still need to cut 10 trillion from our budget over 10 years. Our leaders either do not understand this, or they are lying to get votes. The 80% of the populace that says they oppose cuts in Medicare and Social Security need better leaders to tell them the truth. 

While we are not dead yet, we only have a few short years until we are forced to undertake great austerity. I think that a little austerity now is better than great austerity and possible societal colapse later. 

Old Vs. Young

Naturally we want to help the older members of soceity. But people in thier 20's have a difficult situation forced on them by thier elders. They must save for their own retirement while paying for the retirment of thier grandparents. The generational compact has been broken. 

 

Tenth Amendment

I saw Robert Bork on some talk show over a decade ago. He was asked about the tenth amendment to the constitution. Here is the text of that amendment: 

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.

What Bork said shocked me. Let me paraphrase what he said. Bork basically said that judges ignored the tenth amendment because most governmental functions violated that amendment. This was before Justice Clarence Thomas' attempt to bring such matters to the front of the discussion again. 

Bork was right of course. No one has paid any attention to the constitution, as limited by the tenth amendment, since 1800, just a few years after its ratification.  

This issue goes back to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wanted to buy Louisiana from the French. Yet this was forbidden by the tenth amendment. He was troubled by this. Jefferson's solution—ignore the issue and hope it goes away.  It has. 

So today we have evolved a government that bases most of its actions and functions on illegality. No one cares.  

So our modern candidates for office are pledging themselves to take an oath to uphold the constitution, and then immediately break that oath. While the constitutional oath that the congress critters take is not explicitly stated in the constitution, an oath is constitutionally required. Here is the oath they currently take:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. 

Originally, and more in line with the constitutional requirement to take an oath, they said this: 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States."

Click here for an official discussion of the oath.  

The irony for me is that any time I vote for a candidate in a national election, I will be voting for a person, who on their first vote, will be breaking their solemn oath they just made—even Ron Paul. The more I think about our system, our modern Babylon, the less is my desire to participate.