Socialist: What To Expect

Before purchasing a car, it is wise to check the performance of other cars like the one you are considering. You can expect the same performance as they.

Before choosing the form of government to support, it is wise to check the performance of other countries that have used that model. Currently many Americans are favorably considering socialism. Examples of how it has worked abound, all with the same result.

Venezuela is a current example of socialism having ruined a once proud country. It was oil-rich when the socialist Nicolas Manduro came to power. Today it is in free fall. Everything is scarce, even the country’s electric system is failing. Children are fed from garbage dumps. Persons are eating their pets. That is Exhibit A of socialism.

Argentina was once one of the 10 richest counties in the world. Enter Juan Peron advocating what he called “national socialism.” He transformed the government. Presently Argentina ranks 25th among nations in GDP. Are we sure we want that to happen here?

Parallel columns are a good way to make comparisons and there are two good models to consider.

After World War II Germany was divided into two sectors. East Germany had imposed on it a socialist form of government. West Germany adopted a capitalistic form of government. Socialist East Germany built a double wall to keep its people from exiting into West Germany. They shot people who tried to cross over. Conditions were so bad people did try to cross from the East to the West. Finally socialism proved to be such a failure the walls fell.

Another example is Korea. The North being socialist and the South having a much more capitalistic form of government. The GDP in the South is $23,838. That of the North is 3.6 percent of that of the South. Food scarcity is such that there are reports of guards being stationed in cemeteries to prevent bodies being dug up for food.

America currently enjoys a free market system which allows for private ownership and individual productivity. It is far superior to socialism. How then is that system being threatened by a destructive inferior form of government? Simply by offering what it can’t produce, “free stuff.” It is a means of buying votes.

Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is reputed to have said, “We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have communism.”

Dangling an example of a successful socialist state is also an enticement. Denmark is heralded as an illustration. That, according to Prime Minister Lars Lekke Rasmussen of Denmark, is a misrepresentation stating: “I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a Socialist planned economy.”

Without Denmark as a model of successful socialism there is no good example. Every model is a demonstration of a failed government. If America were to venture into socialism no better result can be expected. The models are consistent. To expect a different result is foolish.

“Free” is the cheese in the trap, and to some that is so enticing they don’t see the trap.

Learning can be achieved academically or by personal experience. Let’s pray we learn academically, not experientially to our detriment.

Make America Great Again!

Make America Great Again!

“When was America ever great?” was the critical question asked by former Attorney General Eric Holder. A host echoes the same sentiment. It never was, if you interpret “great” as meaning perfect. However, if it is understood that “great” is a relative term, it applies. Great, compared with what?

Great is a trope, a metaphorical expression, indicating not that it is perfect, but that compared with others countries it excels. Consider, in what other country would you have preferred to be born and live? Given the choice of America, had you rather have been born in the country of your ancestors and still be living there? The option of moving to the land of your forefathers is open.

America certainly had and has imperfections. The era of abhorrent slavery is perhaps America’s nadir of imperfection. The concept is repulsive, inhumane. Bottom line, it was a repugnant sin.

In answering when America was great consider our emergence as a nation when our forefathers pledged their lives, their liberties, and their sacred honor to bring about its birth. That means they were willing to make even the ultimate sacrifice to give us the freedom we enjoy today. It was great when our predecessors composed a constitution that permits our present right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was a great day when they adopted the Bill of Rights that citizens from all nations would love to have. It was great the day Martin Luther King Jr. helped open the eyes of the nation to a new day of greatness.

It would be an even greater nation if people would stop making disparaging statements that make some people feel there is nothing good in our past and that being an American is not a good thing. Those who do feel that way are at liberty to renounce their citizenship and move, OR stay here and work civilly within the law to improve it, not to radicalize it.

It is embarrassing to acknowledge America has had some lamentably dark days now looked upon sorrowfully and in contrition. Rather than getting caught up on and exploiting those days let’s learn from them and move on in our efforts to make America greater today.

For the people of Europe, Africa, and the Orient, America was great the day Americans freed them from enslaving ideologies imposed by tyrants. America was great during the era after World War II when America helped those nations recover by offering such aid as the Marshal Plan.

America was great the day, rather the freezing night, when George Washington and his mostly barefooted soldiers crossed the Delaware and marched through the snow to win a decisive battle at Trenton against all odds, helping gain our freedom.

It was a great day when Americans raised the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima at the expense of 6,000 Americans who died and 17,000 who were wounded.

It was a great day slavery was abolished in America. We appropriately reflect on that day, but add to it the millions of people globally American efforts have resulted in setting multiple millions of people free from oppressive despots.

Those were among the ultima Thule days when America reached the highest degree of greatness. There is no nation comparable in good deeds. Consider the benevolence, generosity, charity, amity, humanitarians, and philanthropy. No other country has as much. That alone has made America great.

One God

The Shema
The opening verses of Genesis 1 it is stated, “And God said,” “God saw,” “God made,” “God created.” The plural “God,” ELOHIM is used with singular verbs. Each time the compound name, JEHOVAH ELOHIM, is used Jehovah is singular yet is linked with the plural, ELOHIM, indicating a divine unity.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and thou shalt love the LORD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might.” Deuteronomy 6: 4, 5

This among Jews is called the “Shema,” meaning to hear.

A literal translation of verse 4 would read:
“Hear, O Israel: Jehovah [singular] our Gods [plural] is Jehovah ECHAD (echad = a unity).

The Hebrew actually says “our Gods” (plural). The Hebrew plural for “our Gods” is ELOHENU, from ELOHIM which is the plural of ELOAH.

The Hebrew word, ECHAD is used: “Jehovah our Gods is Jehovah ECHAD.” Admittedly it is right to translate it as “Jehovah our Gods is ONE Jehovah,” so long as we understand that ECHAD means “one” collectively or unitedly, not one as an absolute digit. That adjective, ECHAD, derives from ACHAD which means to unify or to collect together. In the Old Testament, I find that it occurs well over SIX HUNDRED TIMES, so we easily can ascertain its common use and meaning.

The Hebrew language has an alternative word for “one,” i.e., YACHID which does not often occur in our Old Testament, but is the word used whenever an only one is meant. When a compound “one” is meant to be emphasized, ECHAD is the word used as in the Shema.

What the Shema actually says is literally, “HEAR, O ISRAEL, JEHOVAH OUR GODS IS JEHOVAH A UNITY.”

In the “Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith,” which is meant to be the standard guide for all Jews, Jewish scholars who framed it changed ECHAD in Deuteronomy 6 to YACHID which means one and only one. Thus completely changing the meaning of the Scripture.

In the “Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire,” sanctioned by the late Chief Rabbi, Dr. N.M. Adler, YACHID is used of the eternal one, whereas the Tenakh (the Old Testament) never uses that word of Jehovah.

In the prophetic passage of Zechariah 14:9, twice in one verse the collective unit, ECHAD, is used of Jehovah as being a compound or collective “one.” “And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth. In that day there shall be ONE Jehovah, and His Name ONE.”

Most Jews think Christians are tri-theists, worshiping a trinity of deities of whom two are not truly God. Not so, we are as monotheistic as the most orthodox Jew, we worship the same eternal Jehovah and that our Trinitarian worship of Jehovah we own originally to their own Jewish Scriptures.

Free Will

“God’s greatest gift to man in all the bounty He was moved to make throughout creation – the one gift the most close to His goodness and the one He calls most precious – is free will.”
Dante Alighieri in “Paradiso”

This is a simple succinct insight into a view of the “FREE WILL” of human beings as noted in Ephesians 1.
As they have done for centuries scholars continue to debate the issue. This is not an attempt to make such an important and complex issue seem simple. It is a brief insight into one aspect of the issue.

In a debate every point has a counterpoint. This is an attempt to make a point, not to deal with the counterpoint.
As a strategic sidebar to this issue God’s sovereignty must be acknowledged. His priority and preeminence is unimpeachable. What follows is predicated on the concept that God in His sovereign will determined to give human beings a free will. This is, “according to the good pleasure of His will” Ephesians 1: 5.

The issue was determined “before the foundation of the world” Ephesians 1: 4. Prior to the “cosmos” (KATABOLES) being created how, upon sinning, human beings could be redeemed was determined. God “predestined,” that is, He predetermined the destiny of individual humans. (Don’t stop here.)

Predestined translates the Greek word PROORIZO, which was a surveyor’s term meaning to “mark out a boundary.”

In the shaping of America surveyors went through a region of the South and marked off a boundary and designated all within that boundary as “Georgia.” All living within the boundary were Georgians.

Before the dawning of creation God marked out a boundary and said all who voluntarily enter it should be saved. That boundary is noted several times in Ephesians 1 as being “in Him,”

“In Him,” “in Christ,” “in Him,” and in verses 11 – 13 as, “in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

Those within the boundary of Christ are predestined to share His destiny. They are those who “first trusted in Christ,”those who “having believed” in Him should be saved.

Man’s ability to “trust,” that is, choose is attested to by the Scriptures that follow .
God in His sovereignty allows human beings the choice.
By God’s grace we determine the action. God determines the results.
God decrees. Man decides.

Throughout the Bible God is depicted as choosing. Being sovereign He obviously has a free will to choose who and what He pleases.

Starting with Adam and Eve, who chose between eating or not eating of the tree in the midst of the garden, human beings have been making choices. They would not have had this free will were it not given them by our sovereign loving God.
A classic example of free will is the charge given by Joshua to Israel, “…choose for yourselves this day who you will serve….” The people responded “…we will serve the Lord….” Joshua 24: 15 & 21 Meaning, we will of our own free will serve the Lord.

Logic makes it clear man has a God given free will. That logic is based on the fact that biblically and currently human beings make choices, therefore it can be concluded from this that man has the ability to chose.

God is sovereign. Again it deserves to be said, man would not have free will had not God acting in His free will, given it to him.

God in His grace and by His sovereign will elected, that is chose, to give man the right and ability to choose. Man therefore is a free moral agent responsible for his choices. The following Scripture passages show this principle to be logical.

Deuteronomy 30:19
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

2 Samuel 24:12
“Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the LORD: I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.’”

1 Chronicles 21:11
So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Choose for yourself,’”

I Kings 18:23
“Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.

2 Kings 10:3
“…choose the best qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”

Job 9:14
“How then can I answer Him,
And choose my words to reason with Him?”

Job 15:5
“For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
And you choose the tongue of the crafty.”

Job 34:4
“Let us choose justice for ourselves;
Let us know among ourselves what is good”

Job 34:33
“Should He repay it according to your terms,
Just because you disavow it?
You must choose, and not I;
Therefore speak what you know.”

Psalm. 65:4
“Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.”

Proverbs 1:29
“they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the LORD…”

Proverbs 3:31
“Do not envy the oppressor,
And choose none of his ways;”

Proverbs 12:26
“The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray.”

Isaiah 7:15
“Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good….”

Isaiah 7:16
“For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.”

Isaiah 56:4
For thus says the LORD:
‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,’”

Philippians 1:22
“But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.”

Luke 10: 42 “Mary hath chosen the good part….”

To “decide” is to chose as the king of Israel said, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” I Kings20: 40

“Bachar,” translated “chose” and its derivatives are used for: men choosing wives (Ge 6:2); Lot choosing the cities of the Plain (Ge 13:11); often of kings and generals choosing soldiers for their prowess (e.g. Ex 17:9; Jos 8:3; 1Sa 13:2; 2Sa 10:9; 17:1). The most important uses of bachar are these: of Israel choosing a king (1Sa 8:18; 12:13); of moral and religious choice: choosing Yahweh as God (Jos 24:15,22), or other gods (Jud 5:8; 10:14); the way of truth (Ps 119:30); to refuse the evil and choose the good (Isa 7:15,16); compare David’s choice of evils (2Sa 24:12).

Paul testified before Agrippa of the heavenly vision given him: “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.” Acts 26: 19. He had a choice and chose to obey.

To accept a thing indicates there was an alternative not accepted. This requires a choice. Accept, acceptable, acceptably, acceptance, acceptation, accepted, accepts, and accepting are listed 64 times in the Bible. Each act required a choice.

To “determine” a thing, a selection has to be made requiring a choice. “Determined” appears 30 times in the Bible.

To judge is to choose. Repetitiously persons in the Bible are said to have judged. Thus, they had to make a choice.

In all of these and more instances persons used their God given gray matter to exercise their will freely.

This and nothing else detracts from God’s sovereign will. He is free and able to do whatever He chooses. These and many other verses depict human beings as making choices. They would not have that ability were it not given them by our sovereign God.

It is the reader’s choice as to whether or not to chose this concept. The alternative is that things are arbitrarily imposed on persons by God. Conditions in the world make it impossible to believe their happening is the design and desire of our sovereign, righteous, and loving God.

Our Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus has been appropriately celebrated, but it leaves a lingering question. Jesus’ resurrection is spoken of as the “first fruit,” meaning there is more to come. That “more” is the incredible teaching that every dead believer will one day be resurrected.

Eusebius of Caesarea wrote of a time when Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. In an effort to refute the resurrection, the Romans left the corpses of a large number of Christians unburied for some time before burning them and scattering their ashes in the Rhone River. As their ashes were washed away a boastful Roman said, “Now let us see if they will rise again!”

Perhaps science has now given us a hint indicating how God may do it.

As a chaplain for Holland America Cruise Line, I met a most interesting Swiss scientist who had worked on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project, the largest atom smasher in the world. It is the biggest experimental facility ever built. Located under parts of France and Switzerland the LHC consists of a 16.777 mile ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of atomic particles.

He indicated it was so complex and powerful it was feared by some it might destroy the earth.

Put on your diving helmet because here is where the results go very deep. They identified a new particle sub-atom particle called Ds3, a meson; a type of unstable particle consisting of one quark and one antiquark. In the likelihood there is anyone who does not know what a quark or antiquark is, I sure didn’t, they are the most basic building blocks of matter that make up protons and neutrons. They are held together by a strong interaction, a force, that is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. This is called entanglement.

Long ago Einstein conceived of such a possibility as, “the spooky part.”

Let me say an explanation of resurrection cannot be explained by a mathematical formula or scientific theory, but a glimpse of a potential explanation can be gained. The God factor is the ultimate answer.

Scientists sent pairs of entangled Ds3 photons through a network of fiber-optic tubes to locations approximately seven miles apart, north and south. At this distance the behavior of one particle correlated with the behavior of the other. When compared the paths of each member of the pair they were the symmetrical. Though the particles had many paths they could have traveled through the tubes, what one particle did the other did. By some means the particles communicated with each other affecting the movement of the other from some distance.

This is the process of entanglement. It ties together the most fundamental particles composing reality. A conclusion was that when photons, electrons, atoms interact they are tied together sharing a single “experience,” losing the separate existence.

Thus, though the Romans scattered the atoms, all the Ds3 relationship of the body stayed in touch. The reconstruction of the resurrection body would begin with Ds3 gathering the atoms which constituted the body parts.

This explanation of entanglement and resurrection is far too simple. No one will ever know the mechanical means that results in the resurrection, but this affords a hint. By whatever means Jesus’ acclaim stands:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live.” John 11: 25