A situation once arose in the Bible where the choice of the majority then, compared with Trump’s nomination now, makes it look like the Pope really running for President.
Then, the majority voted to dispense with the time-wasting erosion of their freedoms, and to just hand over all their freedoms in a single day.
Through His prophet Samuel, God warned the people how dumb that was. God even equated the election (Deuteronomy 1:13) of imperfect humans with worship of God, and the preference for stronger central government with rejection of God. (1 Samuel 8:7) But after the choice of the people was informed and they still demanded a dictatorship, God did not force them to continue in freedom, but allowed them their beloved tyranny.
However, God used the influence He still had left to mitigate the damage in two ways: He nominated their first dictator, and He made the dictator subject to a Constitution. (1 Samuel 10:25) What other king in the whole world was ever subject to any law higher than his own?
One problem today is that the choice of the majority is not well informed. We have “Mainstream Media” determined to inform. Trump’s greatest contribution has been to trick media into reporting more conservative information than they would like, though it has been at his expense because what makes him irresistible to media is his apparent waffling on positions, his verbal fisticuffs and insults, and his outrageous framing of goals. ie. making Mexico pay for the wall.
God has obviously been at work through Hillary’s health and Wikileaks to compel the public to pay more attention than they have for a long time, and to provide them plenty to ponder.
#NeverTrumpers provide a service, in informing the public of the work ahead to mitigate the damage of a President Trump. But they try to be more pure than God, to reject the informed choice of the majority. It is statesmanship to tell the truth to a public in denial. But it trashes whatever political influence with the majority that remains to you, to delegitimize their right to choose their own leaders.
And it is unbiblical. It is an anti-Biblical, false “purity” to withdraw from people and from choices involving people because people are far from angels. This morning in Sunday School a man said he is so pure, he will only vote for Jesus. But 1 Samuel 8:7 says our election of fallen humans to lead us is one way we worship God, and to refuse that difficult process is to reject God. Why God wants humans to get along with each other, and to be subject to each other, yet to retain God-given rights that limit human authority, is a worthy topic of Bible study. For a start, see www.Saltshaker.US.
What patriotic conservative Christians ought to be outraged about is not Trump’s John Wayneish methods of dragging unwilling media to the facts, but our own role in dealing him the lousy hand that left him with no more refined, polite, gracious alternative. It is the ultimate hypocrisy for us to facilitate a Devil-leaning Mainstream Media with our heretical non-involvement theologies and the unwillingness of conservatives to cooperate to provide the local news needs met by our media, because we are too “pure” to associate with each other, and then to blame Trump because marketing methods that can still bridle the monster we created can’t be too refined, polite, and informed.
If America survives – if Freedom survives – it will be because we conservative Christians stop blaming the only kinds of leaders that can survive our apathy, division, and noninvolvement heresies, and work together to build the information networks that will displace godless media.
That was a summary of this article. Below are the details and evidence.
What happened 3,068 years ago, as told in 1 Samuel 8-10.
Just under 400 years after Israel went from slavery to being the freest nation on Earth, they demanded their own dictator (king) “like all the nations.” 1 Samuel 8:5.
A king who will “fight our battles”, they ignorantly said! V. 20.
Just like Democrats today want a more dictatorial government to take care of our social responsibilities for us that individuals and churches used to provide, as if somehow that will relieve us of the of those responsibilities while making them more efficient!
And just like we Republicans today had hoped for a respectable candidate worthy of fighting our political battles for us so we can stay home and watch reruns on our smart phones.
Mitigating the damage. Not to understate the importance of selecting well. But our mistake is putting our emphasis on the the merits and flaws of the candidates, and on the continuing responsibility of all patriotic citizens, we elect, to remain on the battlefield. The best commander can’t fight the enemy without a lot of good soldiers, and the worst commander’s bad decisions can be mitigated by good fighting. The Republican goal is supposedly to the power of the federal government and the presidency anyway, shifting more of the responsibility for governing us back onto ourselves. So the fear of a bad president actually provides the incentive for us to do what we say want anyway: mobilize to reduce the reach of government. To get all citizens more involved.
God responded to the people’s idiot choice by using His waning influence with the people to minimize the harm by subjecting the new king to law higher than himself – like a Constitution. 1 Samuel 10:25. God made the king subject to all the laws of Moses, and the king, at that point, accepted that condition to his authority.
Similarly, we ought to use our influence, however challenged it has become, to educate the majority about what they have chosen, and to find ways to minimize the harm, if Trump becomes the nation’s choice, or if Hillary does! Concerns about the damage expected after November 8 need to be channeled to building Salt-shakers ready to mitigate the damage.
Just how dumb they were then.
Overlooked by Bible teachers today is how much like our own freedom today, freedom under Moses was. The comparison underlines how stupid Israel was, then, to give it all up. And consequently, how relevant God’s response to that stupidity is to #NeverTrump.
Until King Saul, Israelites elected their leaders, according to Deuteronomy 1:13, a fact historically confirmed by Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3, Chapter 4, Section 1. “[the leaders were] such as the whole multitude have tried, and do approve of, as being good and righteous men”. A footnote by the translator in 1828 adds: “This manner of electing the judges and officers of the Israelites by the testimonies [campaign endorsements] and suffrages [votes] of the people, before they were ordained by God, or by Moses, deserves to be carefully noted, because it was the pattern of the like manner of the choice and ordination of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, in the Christian church.”
The laws given by Moses are the skeleton of our Rule of Law today, a fact confirmed by comparing the categories of laws then and now with appropriate adjustments for changed technology today, as Jesus points out in His Parable of the Bottles, Matthew 9:17. Moses’ laws were like ours in many fundamental ways, like jury trials with sequestered witnesses, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion up to the point where one’s religion leads one to criminal action. Crime, and incitement to crime, was prosecutable then as now. (See my documentary at www.1620.US.)
Is four centuries the natural limit to Freedom? The timeline then and now is unnerving.
It was 394 years, then, from freedom to dictatorship. In 1446 BC Moses presented God’s Laws and the people ratified them. The people did not only vote for their judges, they voted for God to be their God. Five times! Exodus 19:8, 24:3, 7, Deuteronomy 5:27, 26:17. And one more time with the following generation: Joshua 24:22. This vote was no rubber stamp but a real vote, because God had expressed genuine reluctance to assume jurisdiction over the people until they voted.
In 1052 BC the people demanded an end to their freedom and ratified Saul as their king.
It has been 396 years, as of this November 11, from the time the Separatists (Pilgrims), based on their Bible studies, created the freest government on the planet. Every adult had an equal vote, which happened nowhere else in the world. Even women voted: my own 12th generation grandmother, Elizabeth Warren, (older and wiser than the Elizabeth Warren in the news today) voted when her husband Richard died, leaving her Head of Household with seven children. There was complete freedom of speech even to criticize their religious and political leaders, a right burned into their Catechism with Scripture support, and enabled by Sunday afternoon forums they called “Sabbath Afternoon Prophesying Services”, named after the “open mike” forums called “prophesying” (whose emphasis was not telling the future according to verse 3) described in 1 Corinthians 14.
The Separatists even practiced complete Freedom of Religion: there was no pressure to agree with or to support any view. No voting rights, property rights, political rights, or rights of self expression depended on anyone’s profession of faith. The Protestant majority even selected a Catholic for their military leader. In fact, the Separatists even promoted all these freedoms for everyone even though they were not the majority and technically could always be outvoted!
The only requirement on unbelievers was communication with the whole group, which was physically vital since they were 50 souls surrounded by thousands of Native Americans whom they needed to interact with wisely. So attendance at public meetings of the tiny group was required for all. But at those meetings, all had a voice. (See my documentary at www.1620.US.)
How much freedom will Americans vote to throw away November 8? Has Freedom’s time run out now, as then? Will we choose more wisely than Israel did?
Informed Choice. God told Samuel to warn the people how foolish their choice was, but once their choice was informed, to give them the tyranny they demanded.
Why? Because God won’t force good on us. He wants it to be our choice. God won’t drag anyone into Heaven, either. God wouldn’t even bind Israel to His Laws until they had “voted” to “ratify” Him as their God. (See passages above.) “Choice” is very, very sacred to God. And just to make sure our choices mean something, He does not separate our choices from their consequences.
Today it is far from certain that the choice of the majority has been informed. Trump correctly blames “mainstream media” for keeping Americans ignorant and pliable. In fact Trump’s very faults have proved surprisingly effective in tricking a very unwilling media into reporting more conservative information than they have for decades, though at Trump’s expense.
When it comes to informing voters, Trump has done remarkably well with the very bad hand we have dealt him. Yes, I said we: we conservative, Bible believing Christian Republicans. I want to explain later what idiot theologies have caused Trump’s coarse media strategy to be the most effective option and what we can do better in the future, but for now here is how Trump has worked with his options:
Trump’s coarse, bigoted language is “news” to “mainstream”, Hillary-contributing reporters. When he reverses his positions, and hints that he will change them but does not, reporters just can’t stay home! His astonishing promises like getting Mexico to pay for a “wall” are just too sensational not to print!
I don’t sense that Trump’s supporters actually care if Mexico pays for it, or are even sure Trump really means it. I take that campaign promise as the kind of bravado, hyperbole, or even humor, that Trump throws in to draw mainstream reporters to an issue like flies to stink. As a long time TV star, he has a good sense of what it takes to build “ratings”.
As a reporter in a panel discussion of reporters on National Public Radio explained a few days ago, “Trump is like a train wreck in slow motion. It is so interesting to watch.” Even for an “unbiased” reporter who contributes to Hillary.
Surely the #NeverTrump movement itself keeps Democratic reporters focused on Republican issues! So the whole 2016 Presidential Circus has kept average apathetic Americans more engaged in politics than America has seen for awhile.
Understanding how God is using all these elements to inform voters about what they are about to choose is way over my head, but it seems very clear that God is up to something big. A serious loss of freedom is on the ballot November 8, and God is making sure as many people as He can rouse understand what they are about to do.
Trump is no worry-free leader. #NeverTrumpers are very useful in alerting us to the work ahead under President Trump.
There is even a website that tracks the number of days, hours, and minutes since the last time Trump threatened a critic with a lawsuit. But think about it: if Trump merely says a critic is wrong, how is that news to enemy media? The criticism of him is “news”, but his defense against the criticism is not?! Ask any conservative in the media if that isn’t Mainstream Media 101. But threatening a lawsuit is “news” to them. (Although Trump has been threatening lawsuits since long before he was a conservative.)
Bob Quasius of CafeConLecheRepublicans says “A good example is his flip flopping on tax cuts. Democrats paraded Trump as an economic expert who trashed Reagan’s tax cuts, but now he brags about his tax cut plan as Reaganesque. See my new piece.” Quasius’ video link is to where Trump actually testified as an “expert witness” before Congress during Reagan’s term, against Reagan’s tax cuts.
That was about 30 years ago. So he changed his mind in 30 years. Of course, by comparison, Hillary’s Soviet tax plan has been consistently Stalinesque since she was in the womb.
On abortion, Trump has had a remarkable conversion in only one year. Quasius: “Let’s also not forget Trump said he supported partial birth abortion and is ‘very pro-choice.’ Trump also recently refused to support defunding Planned Parenthood.”
Well, that was just a year ago. On September 16, a month ago, he was ready to defund Planned Barrenhood while Hillary was, like, the opposite. In the final televised debate Trump hammered Hillary repeatedly for seeing no problem with abortion right until the day of birth. Prolifers are thrilled. They are satisfied with what Trump says changed his mind.
Of course, Hillary is every baby killer’s dream come true. Prolifers foresee that she will be worse than Obama for the unborn. (Thanks to prolifer Mike Bray for the last two links.)
The Greatest Danger troubles almost no one. The thing that scares me most about Trump, scares me about every candidate: willingness to increase national tracking to levels pictured in George Orwell’s “1984” and in Revelation’s Mark of the Beast. I refer, of course, to the universal support of almost every candidate for a national requirement that every American employer check every employee through E-Verify.
This is where the fact that some of Trump’s positions are like nailing down water might be a good thing. This is also where no party has met its responsibility to explain this issue to voters. This may also be part of God’s plan to save us American conservative Christians along with everyone else, from our own willful ignorance. God may well be at work using Trump to save American Christians from the greatest sin of all human history – the only sin of which the Bible says that everyone who commits it will go to Hell. At least, if we choose to commit it, God wants our choice to be informed.
The last Republican alternative to Trump to drop out was Ted Cruz.
I spoke with Senator Ted Cruz several times when he came to Des Moines.
He already knew that the “experts” who say more immigration hurts citizens economically (taking jobs, lowering wages, increasing national debt) have no credentials in economics – they are Undocumented Economists. He also nodded in agreement when I said the research of real economists unanimously shows that a lot more legal immigration, if we would allow it, would improve citizen’s wages, job quality, and national debt. I nevertheless handed him a postcard with links to this evidence which he apparently didn’t need.
So why won’t he object when an unqualified witness, who would not be allowed to testify in any court, testifies before his Senate Judiciary Committee about the economic impact of immigration? (And not just one unqualified witness, but out of 39 witnesses about an immigration bill titled in part “economic opportunity”, only two had a degree in economics.) He wouldn’t say.
When Cruz spoke at his showing of a Christian film, and in a Des Moines church, I showed him afterwards a postcard with several Scriptures showing God’s judgment for not allowing immigrants as much economic freedom as we expect God to give ourselves. On the other side was links to articles about E-verify: about its failure to meet its own stated goals, and how it meets all the elements of the physical description of the Mark of the Beast in Revelation 13 except for the identification with “666”. If everyone will go to Hell who takes the mark, I asked him, what will happen to those who vote to fast-track its deployment?
As if he accepted my premise but thought his concern about too many immigrants outweighed the harm of taking the Mark, he answered simply that without E-verify, we can’t identify and deport “illegals”.
A Christian heart too hard to turn back from the only sin of which God says everyone who does it will go to Hell, is truly frightening. What has Christian America become? Cruz is hardly the only Bible believing conservative Republican Christian to not let a mere trifle like the Wrath of God stand in the way of a Position.
Warnings of the Mark of the Beast by prophecy teachers has declined as the technology has matured.
50 years ago, before personal computers, before RFID chips, before bar codes, Gospel radio was full of warnings of the Mark of the Beast. Soon they were all saying RFID chips must surely be The Mark. Prophecy preachers are still, unfortunately, saying that, even though chips can’t even be placed in foreheads because they can’t be close to bone.
Now, with technology that satisfies every physical element of Revelation 13, and majorities of every political party anxious to deploy it across America, the radio prophets are silent.
I wrote to Jan Markell about the similarities of E-verify to the Mark of the Beast. She wrote back, “What do you want me to do about it?” I was puzzled by the question, since the obvious answer, it seemed to me, was “warn people”. But I wrote back with some ideas and never heard back. I search for “e-verify” on her website shows zero returns.
I wrote to Southwest Radio Church a couple of times about it. I told them how, 50 years ago, I listened to their broadcasts which were full of Mark of the Beast updates every week. I referred them to my own studies. I never heard back. A search for “e-verify” on their website shows zero.
I spoke with David Reagan about it when he spoke at a Jan Markell conference. I asked him about the irony that it is primarily Bible believing conservative Christians demanding to fast track Mark of the Beast technology, for the purpose of deporting immigrants. He became angry, not that he thought I was wrong about E-Verify and the Mark, but that I would question a measure needed to limit immigration. The search on his website? Zero.
Irwin Baxter has said a little bit. A search for “e-verify” at endtime.com shows that over three years ago he reposted part of a post by Congressman Ron Paul. After an overview of the law and the technology Paul said “Regardless of one’s views on immigration, the idea that we should have to ask permission from the federal government before taking a job ought to be offensive to all Americans. Under this system, many Americans will be denied the opportunity for work. The E-Verify database will falsely identify thousands as “ineligible,” forcing many to lose job opportunities while challenging government computer inaccuracies. E-Verify will also impose additional compliance costs on American businesses, at a time when they are struggling with Obamacare implementation and other regulations….The database will contain photographs taken from passport files and state driver’s licenses. The law gives federal bureaucrats broad discretion in adding other ‘biometric’ identifiers to the database. It also gives the bureaucracy broad authority to determine what features the ‘tamper proof’ card should contain.”
Five years ago he reposted an article that said of E-verify, “This effort to number every person and to determine what they can do and where they can go by this number was so close to the mark of the beast described in the Bible that people wanted no part of it. It was apparent that the Real ID would ultimately be required to hold a job, thus controlling a person’s ability to buy or sell. In the end, E-Verify would produce the very same result as the Real ID.” (November 30, 2011)
The search turned up nothing comparing the elements of the Revelation 13 prophecy and of E-verify. The arguments raised were not Biblical but secular.
Baxter’s reposting of RFID updates has been more frequent – one every few months.
I googled “mark of the beast” “e-verify” on October 29, 2016. Four of the top five results were to my own articles and videos. Here are the top 10 returns, to illustrate the silence of today’s prophecy teachers about E-verify:
First: my article: “E-verify too close to Mark of the Beast for comfort”.
Second: my video. Mark of the Beast, E-Verify.
Third: An interesting post, not sponsored by the website it was on, to which apparently no one has responded in 3 years. But it correctly notes that the phrase in Revelation 13:16, “in their foreheads” can just as faithfully be translated “based on their foreheads”. It also correctly notes that the excuse for E-Verify – to deport immigrants – is hardly the moral high ground, or Biblical. He also notes that cameras loaded with Facial Recognition software are way more useful for national tracking than a chip, since faces can be read by cameras hundreds of feet away, or even by drones, compared with chip readers which must be a yard away. Writing in 2013, he says “States such as Florida, specifically Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties have already installed facial recognition tracking cameras in intersections that are capable of reading your facial biometrics through the windshield of your moving car, then querying them against the DMV database and tracking your position. The FBI just received a $3billion dollar grant to install these cameras around the nation.”
Fourth: post of my same article at Causes.com.
Fifth: Another of my posts at Causes.com, with a one hour video discussion with a pastor and others.
Sixth: a blog that foresees the RFID chip as the “Mark of the Beast” but observes, as a side note: “a national ID, without which nobody will be federally approved for employment (or, as it says in the book of Revelation 13:17, ‘that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark…’). It is called ‘E-Verify’ and incredibly not only has bipartisan support among lawmakers but enthusiastic approval from notable Christian leaders (funded by George Soros, no less).”
Seventh: Yahoo Answers is asked: “Is e-verify the Mark of the Beast?” The “best answer”: “I don’t think its the mark but I do believe it is a precursor to it. It is getting people used to the idea. The mark won’t come till after the rapture.” The other answers are silly, nonresponsive to the question, or frivolous.
Eighth: A copy of the IRS employer’s I-9 form.
Ninth: A file infected with a trojan virus which my virus program blocked.
Tenth: An article about how social security numbers are used worldwide for international tracking through the International Social Security Association. It shows laws in section 666 of Part D of Subchapter IV of Chapter 7 of Title 42 of the US. Code, that are justified mostly to collect child support. But as the article points out, “Child support as used in this section is only one of hundreds of excuses for the implementation of these standards.”
SSN’s (Social Security Numbers) have to be recorded on every kind of license: for marriage, driving, work, or sports, and all those records, from city and county governments, go into a central state database which other states can access. Also for divorce, and you don’t get out of it even if you die. This is found in (a)(13). Not only is your state authorized to revoke any or all these licenses if your child support gets behind, but also your passport. But even if you could escape the country, most other countries will send you back.
The database of each state is regulated by 42 U.S.C. § 654a. Automated data processing.
A “state directory of new hires” is a database of everyone who gets a job, with their name, address, employer’s name, and SSN. Employers have to turn over this information whenever they hire somebody.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Although the SSN system is certainly the part of the Mark without which no man can buy or sell, it isn’t the part that positively links the record about you to your physical body. Much less in such a way that there is no hiding from the record – no false identities – unless you can figure out how to trick the record itself. Which many have done, although that is a dangerous game to play and will get a lot more dangerous.
Trump trumps the alternatives. My NeverTrump train of thought derailed when I started to answer a poll that began “Was Trump your first choice among the Republican candidates?” Well, that was easy. Obviously, no!
But the followup question knocked me off my caboose: “Who WAS your first choice?”
I thought about the positions against immigration of all of them.
Ted Cruz was the worst, tragically, considering his amazing ability and grasp of every other issue. Marco Rubio, perhaps Huckabee, were the friendliest to immigrants, though I was frustrated as I gave them information they told me they didn’t know and appreciated, yet which they would not allow to refine their positions.
Huckabee has been the most resistant to the farthest-from-reality anti-immigration rhetoric. He has avoided a commitment to E-verify. But when I talked to him he seems to draw his facts from the same well poisoned by Undocumented Economists.
Rubio had the friendliest rhetoric toward immigrants, and he has taken many arrows for it from my fellow Bible-believing conservative Christian Republicans. His parents were immigrants. But he is absolutely committed to a national E-verify mandate. Incredulously, “Rubio denies immigration reform would grow E-verify into a national database of SSN’s and biometrics”!!
I had great hope for Rubio, because when I talked to him about the Undocumented status of the “economists” driving national immigration discussion, he said “No, I didn’t know that”, and he provided me contact information so I could follow up with him as he studied the links on the postcard I gave him. Unfortunately nothing came of that.
Unfortunately Trump’s website also promises a national E-verify mandate. The two things that make Trump’s vow less scary than the vow of the rest of the Republican candidates are (1) he demonstrates less commitment to his positions than other politicians, allowing them to blow in the conservative winds; and (2) he demonstrates far less understanding of how to get his policies through Congress than other politicians.
Trump is given to strategic changes of mind. By contrast, Cruz, for example, is not only absolutely committed to Hell for immigrants, and apparently will not be influenced by mere reality, but he knows exactly how to move Washington to make it happen.
How to Slay the Mainstream Media Monster: cleaning up after Nov. 8
Tags: Hillary NeverTrump Ted Cruz
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