Love: Which Laws Apply?

Once you buy into the idea that God requires His people to obey His laws, the next obvious question is: WHICH LAWS APPLY TODAY? or WHAT LAWS APPLY TO CHRISTIANS?

My approach:

KEEP ALL THE LAWS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.

After all, it’s good for you!

Let me say one simple sentence on the purpose of these laws:
TO BLESS PEOPLE AND SOCIETY.
The idea is simple: What forces cause society to disintegrate, and what forces cause society to perpetuate? Answer: HUMAN WILL, both individual and societal. It all starts in one place: HOW YOU CHOOSE TO ACT and HOW YOU STRUCTURE SOCIETY TO ACT AS A GROUP. The TWO opposites are:

1. GOVERNMENT regulation, or
2. SELF regulation

In order to accomplish either one, you need:

1. A STANDARD
2. HUMAN CHOICE
3. SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

All that remains is HUMAN INGENUITY AND SYNGERY. SELF-REGULATION is what this blog is all about. The opposite is GOVERNMENT regulation, which this blog rejects as God’s will for His people. Like Paul says:

8 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching … (1 Timothy 1)

The STANDARD is God’s law. Human choice is the VARIABLE in this equation. Why? Because YOU CAN’T CONTROL ANYBODY’S CHOICES AND ACTIONS. They have to control their own choices and actions. I believe that’s what it means to be “of age”. It’s when society (not your parents) begins to hold you accountable for the choices you make. Today it’s called LAW ENFORCEMENT. Human choice is the key to making or breaking a society. If you and everybody else chooses to obey the moral laws, then it’s easy to establish a sound social process. But if you don’t, then the inevitable occurs: pain and suffering.

The key to accomplishing effective control over human choice is PROGRAMMING YOUR CHILDREN WITH THE RIGHT STANDARD. There’s a LOT in the Bible on this. For example (the Jews call it “the Shema”):

¹ Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which YHWH your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, ² so that you and your son and your grandson might fear YHWH your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³ O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as YHWH , the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ Hear, O Israel! YHWH is our God, YHWH is one! ⁵ You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 4)

Paul says it like this (and other ways in other places):

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

Paul tells us how to do this on a social level too:

9 … that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10)

Paul gets that from Deuteronomy 30:

11 For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.

There are even Greek words in the NT that express this thought. But that’s the subject of another study. Suffice to say that child rearing in God’s law was supposed to be one of the most important jobs of adults. The reason: So the society could perpetuate itself by living according to the perfect standard of self-regulation: God’s Law.

If you doubt me on this, go to Exodus 20 and look at Commandments 5-9. Then get a newspaper and read some of the headlines. Then ask yourself this question:

WHICH COMMANDMENT IS BEING VIOLATED IN THIS NEWS PIECE?

Whichever news story has a commandment violation is a story that would not exist if the people who did the wrong were obeying that particular Commandment in God’s law. Go ahead, do it. You’ll see that NEARLY ALL OUR SOCIAL ILLS ARE CAUSED BY VIOLATING THE MORAL LAW.

Now compare the idea of child rearing with law enforcement. Raising children is PREVENTATIVE, while law enforcement is REACTIVE. Which is a better and smarter method of creating social order? Which costs more in the long run? Which method gives you more freedom, and which method restricts you the most? Which method brings greater happiness, and which method causes more fear? Which method reduces crime and which method breeds it?

Now think about the massive amounts of money and resources that go into a POLICE STATE (like America is today). Ask some of the old-timers what life was like in the early 1900’s, and how much money was spent on SOCIAL WELFARE, GOVERNMENT REGULATION and LEGAL FEES back then. Compare that with today. The numbers tell the story.

But maybe you will say we could use more man-made laws and a bigger law enforcement system to help society? Think of how stupid that really is! Instead, we need BETTER UPBRINGING OF OUR CHILDREN. Instead of spending taxpayers’ monies on law enforcement, we should be spending taxpayers’ monies on TRAINING PARENTS. So next time you hear a public official tell you they need more tax dollars to fund a law enforcement or social welfare program because of all our many social ills, you’ll know he doesn’t know ANYTHING about his job. His job is to ensure our society is ordered so that we have the freedom to be happy and healthy, both as people and as families. And that’s done by each person following GOD’S MORAL LAWS and by society dispensing JUSTICE when they are violated. The Bible has a term for that:

So David reigned over all Israel; and David administered justice and righteousness for all his people. (2 Samuel 8:15)

That idea occurs frequently in the Bible, and for good reason. WHAT GOOD IS A GOVERNMENT SYSTEM THAT DOESN’T GIVE YOU JUSTICE WHEN YOU GO TO COURT? WHAT GOOD IS A GOVERNMENT WHOSE MAN-MADE LAWS VIOLATE [GOD’S] MORAL LAWS? WHAT GOOD IS A GOVERNMENT WHOSE LAWS ARE A TRAP AND OPPRESSION ON HARD-WORKING MORAL PEOPLE INSTEAD OF PROTECTION FOR THEM?

The key to sound social process is establishing the foundation: TRUST. The only way you can do that is by everybody obeying the moral law on their own initiative, and in all situations. But if trust is compromised, then “you have need of many masters” to enforce good behavior (and restitution). But what always eventually happens with “many masters”? They too become corrupt. And due to the nature of their occupation, they become YOUR OPPRESSORS. Pretty slick system God designed into the fabric of creation, eh? It works just like He said in Deuteronomy 28-31: If you obey Him, you’ll be blessed; if you disobey Him, you’ll be cursed. IT’S ALL YOUR CHOICE. And it’s the SCIENCE of it. It’s like MATH. GOD PROGRAMMED THIS BLESSING/CURSING INTO CREATION. So why not read the ‘owner’s manual’ and start doing what it says? More on this in another blog entry.

The flip-side to “obeying all the laws you can” is:
1. Some laws are impossible to obey due to the absence of circumstances that make this possible, and
2. The NT talks about a “change in law” in Hebrews 7:12 (a reference to God’s Theocratic government system).

The other factor I take into consideration, regarding which laws to observe, is how Jesus interpreted God’s law and how he obeyed it. That’s the key to knowing which OT laws aren’t applicable today, by reason of them not being used in God’s future Theocracy. That’s also the key to knowing how Jesus applied the OT laws to God’s people.

For starters, let’s consider priorities. These are the priorities I set for myself. Make sure you understand that this is MY PERSONAL CHOICE AND ACTIVITY on how I learned and observed God’s Law. Yours may differ. Here’s my basic list:

1. The 10 Commandments (laws of social structure).
2. Holy Days (laws of Time).
3. Foods (laws of Physical Purity).
4. Ritual Purity (laws of Social Hygiene).
5. Family: leadership, marriage, child-rearing, hospitality, etc. (laws of Social Order).
6. Coin and Currency (laws of Equitable Exchange).
7. Restitution (laws of Personal and Social Accountability).
8. Government (laws of Social Consciousness and Public Trust).
9. Work (laws of Providing for Self and Family)
10. Inheritance and Retirement (laws of Honoring Parents)
11. Contract (laws of Social Agreement)
12. Land (laws of Real Property and Living Space)
13. And others.

I have to admit that I didn’t strictly do them all in that order. I did them as I learned them. Some of them were easy to learn and not so difficult to incorporate into my lifestyle. The first laws that were the easiest to learn and observe were the food laws. The holy days were also easy, except the Sabbath, because it ‘interfered’ with my job. But God helped me to eventually overcome that obstacle. Ritual purity laws were relatively easy to observe too. It’s just a matter of learning them because they apply only from time to time, not every day like the others.

Far as the 10 Commandments: I learned them a bit at a time while learning all the other laws. The reason is because some of them weren’t easy to understand until I got more tuned-in to the social aspects of life. So Sabbath observance – the 4th Commandment – was one of the first I observed, but the first two Commandments were (and still are) the most difficult. But I didn’t learn about them until much later in my pursuits.

So that’s the basic order I pursued when learning God’s law. I think it’s easiest to start with what interests you the most and what is the easiest to understand if you have no help and have to go it alone like I did. Also, it’s probably a good idea to incorporate them into your lifestyle in a way that’s most conducive to your abilities and station in life. That takes most of the hassle out of learning to obey God and live according to His requirements for Christians.

Before I got to the point of committing to obey God’s law, I did a LOT of study on them, because I wasn’t sure Christians were supposed to obey them. I was taught in every church I attended, as well as in Bible college, that “THE LAW IS NOT FOR TODAY!” They DRILLED that into our heads. Talk about PROPAGANDA?! The KEY that helped me sort out all my questions and drill through to the truth was something I had NOT learned in Bible college: STICK TO THE FACTS. So that’s what I did. And eventually the facts that I discovered far outweighed the propaganda that I learned from the religious establishment. So every time Christians ‘gave me hell’ for obeying God’s law, I just resorted to the FACTS and compared the FACTS with their ideas and demands. Guess what won every time? Yup: THE FACTS.

I found Sabbath observance to be the KEY to ‘sanctifying’ my time. By “sanctify” I mean “set apart”. IOW, I separated a certain time segment out of my week and dedicated it to God for the purpose of learning what’s important to God. I learned early on that Sabbath observance is the basis of all holy day observances. Sabbath observance is the key to keeping in touch with God, and not getting sucked into the vortex of COMMERCE (making a living, keeping a family, etc., like Jesus’ says here: Matthew 13:1-23). Keeping in touch with God and the resultant mindset that you acquire from learning God’s law and obeying it (Romans 12:1-2) is the KEY feature of Sabbath observance, besides RESTING, NOT EARNING A LIVING, and NOT DOING RELATED NORMAL DAILY ACTIVITIES.

The second of the 10 Commandments that I sought to observe was the 3rd Commandment: You shall not blaspheme. Actually, I really didn’t seek to observe it. I really started with #1 & #2, but that became too much work, so I dropped back to working on understanding #3. After a while I began to realize that the key to #3 is observing #1 & #2. But it took me a while to realize that. The reason is because of the massive brainwashing I got from church and society. But once the meaning came through, it was a ‘no-brainer’.

The blasphemy prohibition (#3) is one of the most misunderstood commandments in the Law. The reason is because people have made this commandment about WORDS instead of ACTIONS. People – especially church people – think that blaspheming means ‘cussing’ using God’s name. But when you look more closely at what the Bible says blaspheming is, you find it refers to people who CLAIM TO BE GOD’S PEOPLE, YET DISOBEY HIS LAW. I’m serious, no kidding. Check out this text (Numbers 15):

27 ‘Also if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one year old female goat for a sin offering. 28 The priest shall make atonement before YHWH for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be forgiven. 29 You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them. 30 But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming YHWH; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of YHWH and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’

Here’s an example of a specific law violation labeled as BLASPHEMY:

11 ‘You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. 12 You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19)

Where does “swearing falsely” occur in real life? Contracts, court proceedings, private agreements, warranties, marriage vows, etc. I’m sure you can think of many others if you give it a little thought. “Profane the name of your God” is the same thing as BLASPHEMY, just a different way of saying it. Bottom line: PERJURY IS BLASPHEMY. CONTRACT VIOLATIONS ARE BLASPHEMY. ADULTERY IS BLASPHEMY. So forth and so on. All such offenses are LAW BREAKING. CHRISTIANS WHO BREAK GOD’S LAW ARE BLASPHEMING. And as the apostle Paul says:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? (1 Corinthians 6:9) … and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)

You also find this concept in the prophets. Isaiah has a lot to say in condemnation of the national lawlessness, especially at the leadership level BY THE GOVERNMENT. It’s why YHWH drove Israel out of the “promised land”. They were habitual blasphemers as a nation, including the leadership. Basically, they didn’t obey God’s MORAL LAW as a nation, both by the common man and by the public officials. Take note in the above text the OPPOSITE of blasphemy: UNINTENTIONAL SIN.

Here’s a critical FACT: God intends His Theocratic kingdom to consist of ONLY people who work hard at learning His law and obeying it. He provides FORGIVENESS for their UNINTENTIONAL SINS (whether against God or one’s fellow man), but NEVER for INTENTIONAL sins. That means “willful sin” will NOT be forgiven (unless you’re an ‘influential’ rabbi with a ‘work-around’ for the rich and privileged of society … just kidding!).

The idea here is to create a society that is totally SELF-GOVERNING, which any nation will eventually become when it consists of people with intent to obey God’s law and who are also actively pursuing that goal. Eventually, they do not sin knowingly AT ALL because they observe God’s law completely and ‘naturally’. This is called “being perfect” in the Bible. This is how the political leaders presented themselves to the populace during 2nd Temple times. Whether or not that was true of all of them, or none of them, is for God to decide, because the common man had no idea what went on behind closed doors in the hallowed halls of government, like goes on today in America. But apparently Jesus knew, as he said:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23:25)

He’s condemning them for putting on appearances in public while living like the devil the rest of the time. Along these lines, there’s one thing I’ve observed over the years about upper level government bureaucrats, public officials, corporate officers and upper management, and rich people: It’s easy for them to DO WHATEVER THEIR HEART DESIRES. In a society where morality is RELATIVE and where “Christian virtue” is a thing of the past, they always take the path of least resistance: “fulfill the lusts of their flesh”. Note how Paul and Peter say it (written about 2000 years ago!):

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:3)

… he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:2)

We’ll talk about the meaning of “flesh” in another blog entry. It has quite a historical development!

There’s another side to BLASPHEMY, but it applies to those who do not believe in YHWH. The OT shows us one good example of ‘unbeliever’ blasphemy, but it applies to sovereigns. Apparently, when a sovereign gets to the pinnacle of their power, they grow arrogant against all ‘authority’ to the point that they BLASPHEME GOD. What appears to be happening is these rulers challenge God’s Authority. Can you IMAGINE?? Who is so powerful that they can CHALLENGE GOD? Who is so ABLE that they can ‘take-on’ the Great and Mighty Spirit they can’t see or ‘regulate’? I certainly can’t relate to it, but it exists nonetheless. Make sure you read the greater context of this Isaiah 37 text:

6 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says YHWH, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. … 23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!”

It appears to be a BIG MISTAKE for a government official to challenge the Almighty through bragging and then attacking God’s obedient people. We’ll leave it at that for the time being.

From a PRAGMATIC perspective, I found blasphemy to be the catch-all commandment for people who claim to be God’s children. It’s what ‘keeps you on your toes’ as a Christian. It’s your reminder that you have to be on the lookout to make sure you don’t violate God’s law when you get into any given situation in life. It’s your self-check to make sure you live so as not to get sucked into compromising situations that make you inadvertently or otherwise violate God’s law. Like Jesus instructed when praying:

And do not lead us into temptation [testing by being in compromising situations], but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:13)

Blasphemy also applies to the SOCIETY you live in, which reminds me of Yom Kippur. That’s the time of year when you ‘take inventory’ AS A NATION, to review whether or not the NATION has made progress in cleaning out the LAWLESSNESS that they perpetrate through their social institutions. Remember: YHWH destroyed Israel as a nation because they were nationally corrupt (as well as individually). So this MAINTENANCE Commandment equally applies to the GOVERNMENT and every other social unit, such as the MARRIAGE and FAMILY. So I view “do not blaspheme” as the MAINTENANCE COMMANDMENT for self-government on all levels of life. It’s also a “cause” for God’s “actions” when arrogant public officials “persecute” God’s people.

Part and parcel to Commandment #3 is what Jewish religion calls “TeSHuVA”. The English translation of that Hebrew word is REPENTANCE. Remember John the Baptist? He “preached repentance” to prepare his nation for the coming Messiah (Jesus). That was God’s NATIONAL requirement. God “rules” a RIGHTEOUS nation, not a corrupt oppressive bureaucracy. More on that in another blog entry. The fact is, repentance is the #1 thing that precedes becoming a citizen of God’s Theocracy. Every Jew knows what this is, and every thoughtful Christian should know it. But the fact remains, REPENTANCE is a KEY to becoming a Christian and to living the Christian life. Can you see why repentance is the key to obeying #3? In case you missed it: REPENTANCE IS YOUR CHOICE OF ADMITTING YOU WERE LIVING WRONG, AND IT’S YOUR ACT OF CHANGING YOUR BEHAVIOR TO COMPLY WITH GOD’S LAW. Repentance is one of the most misunderstood and neglected ideas and activities in the Christian world (besides LOVE!). More on repentance in another blog entry.

After getting the gist of the 3rd Commandment, I began looking more closely at Commandments #1 & #2. That’s when I started questioning EVERYTHING I was taught as a child and as a young adult. That’s when I began seeing how BAD the PROPAGANDA is in the USA. You get barraged with it at every turn: Education, entertainment, news media, “the authorities”, etc. Propaganda is EVERYWHERE! This is around the time I started digging into America’s founding documents to gain an understanding of American founding principles, American fundamental law, and the structure and process of American “free government”.

After some time, all this new knowledge (that was withheld from me growing up!) congealed into a ‘wakeup call’: The fact is, life here in America isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. In other words, WE’D BEEN LIED TO ALL OUR LIVES, and we sucked it down hook-line-and-sinker! But what do you expect? We were CHILDREN. How could we be expected to know any better? And how do you think God will judge the people who deliberately TOOK ADVANTAGE OF A NATION OF CHILDREN to CO-OPT them into OBEYING AND SERVING them in their NEFARIOUS schemes? Pretty bad, eh? All ‘conspiracy theories’ aside, I believe all of this is a well-planned and implemented PROPAGANDA MACHINE that ‘big money’ created and uses to control our minds at all levels of society. Can you imagine the planning and ‘engineering’ that goes into establishing such a sophisticated social mind-control ‘machine’? More on this in another blog entry.

Suffice to say, when I began attempting to whittle down and jettison my non-YHWH allegiances, that’s when life got difficult. And when I began attempting to obey ONLY God’s law is when social ‘challenges’ began for me. By “ONLY God’s law” I mean every applicable law I found in the Bible, PLUS all applicable American laws which do NOT violate God’s law. More on all that in another blog entry.

The next commandment I began working on understanding was the 5th: “Honor your father and mother”. I was taught that commandment had to do with “showing respect” in how you TALK TO adults, and how you OBEY ALL AUTHORITY. LOL … what a joke!! Turns-out the true interpretation of HONOR DAD AND MOM has mostly to do with CARING FOR THEM WHEN THEY GROW OLD AND CAN’T FEND FOR THEMSELVES. In other words, the 5th Commandment is THE Biblical mandate to PROVIDE RETIREMENT FOR YOUR PARENTS. But wait! How can you do THAT in America when everybody’s retirement is CONTROLLED BY FINANCIERS AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION? Good question! Answer: YOU CAN’T. More on this in another blog entry.

The next Commandments that began making sense to me were the 8th through 10th. These are the real tricky commandments, especially the 10th. They were tricky for me because of the BRAINWASHING I was raised with. When you’re taught to “obey the authorities”, you don’t question anything. And when you’re a ‘moral and dutiful citizen’, you don’t see the bad stuff that goes on in society, and that ‘leaders’ do. You just blindly meander through life trying to make ends meet, while trying to get a little enjoyment out of the process. On the flip side, if you’re a sociopath, you ram your way through society exploiting very opportunity you can find, and if you can’t find any, you make them happen! Well, sure enough, after a number of years of observing how things happen in the world, I came to believe that 7th Commandment violations are THE WORST OF ALL “The 10”, not only in this nation, but even more-so around the world.

The reason I say that is because THEFT is the most prevalent sin. And as such, DOES THE MOST DAMAGE to society and to people’s lives. It’s like one gigantic LIFE-SUCKING MACHINE that gradually and persistently sucks the life out of YOU and YOUR NATION. Think: “The Matrix”. You’re ‘plugged-in’, you’re being ‘harvested’, you’re totally brainwashed into the FANTASY that controls you, and you can’t do a THING about it. Pretty sinister, eh? Might that be one reason why Jesus called the devil “the father of lies” in John 8? And all of this happens through this thing called SOCIAL PROCESS. And get this: It’s all perfectly LEGAL!

Frederick Bastiat called this “legal plunder”. You can read about it in “The Law” found here: http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html. This ought to be ‘required reading’ in every high school. I’m sure George Washington would agree. So think about how this evil genius works: You can STEAL ALL YOU WANT as long as you’re hiding behind unseen societal schemes that are approved “by law”, and consequently by which nobody in particular is directly harming anybody in particular. It’s just one gigantic screwing of everybody ‘by little, and little’. ALL the damages that we and our society suffer happen INDIRECTLY. Try proving THAT in a “court of law”!

For example: INVESTORS OF CORPORATIONS steal their “employees’” labor day-in and day-out, by means of corporate policy and financial tax structure, and they ‘throw them a bone’ every pay period … just enough to keep them on the “treadmill to oblivion” (Merrill Jenkins), but not enough to enable them to be ‘independent’. These employees are taught to be grateful that they have a job and collect a regular paycheck. They’re basically forced to sign-off on being obedient to the corporate “employee manual” so if they do anything ‘wrong’, they get disciplined or ‘let go’. After all: They agreed, and it’s perfectly legal!

Talk about a FEAR-DRIVEN nation? Talk about EXTORTING one’s right to “engage in any of the common occupations of life” (yes, that’s what the American judges call it). In the final analysis, the INVESTORS get all that labor, as laundered through their corporate slave colony, while the poor schmuck employees live from paycheck-to-paycheck (except for upper management and corporate officers: the SLAVE DRIVERS of these modern plantations). It’s SYSTEMATIC THEFT OF HUMAN LABOR BY THE CORPORATE FINANCIAL MACHINE.

There are many other examples in modern society of systematic theft of people’s labor and life, such as government’s “hidden taxes” (not all, but MANY), marketing “costs” (which are passed on to the buyer), insurance (and all the other “socialist programs” of that ilk), FIAT MONEY, etc. … but we’ll talk more about that in another blog entry. After a LOT of study and analysis, I came to the conclusion that this type of social parasitic activity is caused by the take-over of society by a system called COMMERCE. More on this in another blog series. Remember that word: COMMERCE. God HATES it!

According to ancient authority, an interesting point I recently discovered about stealing is: LYING AND FRAUD ARE PART OF THEFT. In my naiveté as a young Christian, I surmised that lying and fraud were part of “do not bear false testimony” (#9). But FALSE TESTIMONY (#9) applies to THE COURTS and other official or legal proceedings. So lying and fraud are the FOUNDATION of THEFT. Think about it: What do sales people do ALL THE TIME before they take your money for stuff you really don’t need? How about POLITICIANS? They sell you “government benefits” (socialism) or “the public-private partnership” (fascism), or “public safety” (the police state), and then use it to bribe you into re-electing them so they can perpetrate more of that kind of grand theft on society. “Lawyer” means LIAR, period. If you’ve had any experience with them, you will know what I mean. It’s all about BILLABLE HOURS instead of RESULTS for their client. This is another gigantic subject for ETHICAL analysis. Ya know, I can’t make up this madness!

What about the medical professionals? Do you know even ONE DOCTOR who knows ANYTHING about the human body? I’m not talking about surgeons (but even today, good surgeons are hard to find!). Really now: Which doctor can you go to who will tell you the CAUSE of your ailment, and then sell you a non-invasive, non-destructive (no drugs used) solution that will ACTUALLY MAKE YOU HEALTHIER than you were before you got sick? Or which doctor can tell you the BIO-CHEMISTRY that’s going on when you’re sick, so he can BALANCE YOUR CHEMISTRY so you will get well and STAY well? LOL … doctors are a JOKE. “Calling dr. Jesus, calling dr. Jesus” … at this rate, you may as well believe in the NT GIFT OF HEALING! (1 Corinthians 12:9). What have you got to lose?

And how about that worthless college education you paid dearly for (and may still be in debt on!)? This kind of EXPLOITATION is common in lawless societies. It is one of the greatest causes of social collapse throughout human history. Read Bastiat and THINK ABOUT IT. He saw it in France in the early 1800’s, not too far from us today. So you can see how THEFT is one of THE MOST PREVALENT and BIGGEST commandment violations in the “civilized world”, especially at the levels of business, government, mass media, marketing, professional ‘services’, etc. LYING, LYING, LYING … it’s everywhere nowadays … and it’s PERFECTLY LEGAL! More on this in another blog entry.

Now let’s have a quick look at the prohibition against FALSE TESTIMONY, which applies to what we know as “legal proceedings”. This is self-explanatory. To see the myriad of violations in society, you merely need to go to court against the government, a rich man, or some large corporation. Better yet, take a look at what goes on in politics today. Check out the video footage of the recent congressional hearings. Who can make-up this garbage? I mean really! Honestly, do you think that the upper level government officials are going to greet Jesus (or Moses) at the “pearly gates” and be WELCOMED “into Heaven”?? LOL! Have a look at what Christ says in Matthew 18ff. Check out that rant. These people are the ones who create the “stumbling blocks” Christ is talking about. These “stumbling blocks” are SOCIAL PROCESS and the SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS that they’ve corrupted to become machines of exploitation which they use to suck the life out of ‘the masses’. More on all that in another blog series.

Back to “bearing false testimony”: If you’ve ever had the occasion to go to court against an adversary, and you kept your eyes open and didn’t hide behind a lawyer, you’ll personally know the FALSE TESTIMONY that goes on today, and the amount of it that people get away with IN COURT without getting punished. Try suing the insurance company for damages when you get into a car accident, or when your house gets blown-away in a tornado or hurricane, etc. See how much that costs to litigate, and how difficult that is to accomplish against such ‘foes’. THE RICH MAN has the market cornered on this whole schema. Just open your eyes to what really goes on in the world. And don’t be fooled by the mainstream media, because they LIE, LIE, LIE. They’re a part of the social propaganda machinery, a BIG part. More on this in another blog entry.

Then there’s the COVETING prohibition. This was a vague and nebulous commandment for me at first, because, as a WORKING CLASS PERSON who lives by the “work ethic”, I had difficulty wrapping my mind around what COVETING was. I needed some pragmatic real-life examples of COVETING in order to make sense out of it. But when I was “in religion”, since I had never had it done to me, nor did I do it myself, I had no idea what it was. After all: If I wanted something, I worked hard, saved my money, then went out and bought it. So what need is there to covet things when you can EARN THEM YOURSELF?

THEN I got involved with GOVERNMENT! You see, government is the biggest SOCIAL PARASITE that exists on the planet (and in all human history for that matter!). Whether government serves you or enslaves you, they EXIST and PERPETUATE their existence by TAKING YOUR MONEY, YOUR CHILDREN, AND YOUR RESOURCES. And you can’t say “NO!” to them either. (Try it and see what happens!) So when public officials want something that they don’t have the resources to “buy”, and which THE LAW PROHIBITS or otherwise does NOT grant them the POWER to exercise, they COVET. That means they SCHEME how to get it WRONGFULLY, secretly, by deceit, cooperatively, indirectly, BY FORCE, etc.

A prime example of this is found in the Bible, as done by Jezebel and her husband Ahab. Go read the historical account in 1 Kings 21 (in context). She ‘ set up’ Naboth with FALSE WITNESSES (there she goes, violating the 9th), EXECUTES the land-owner, and then EXPROPRIATES his land in a legal proceeding after the fact, all by means of LEGAL government coercion. And FOR WHAT? She wanted to flex her muscles to show her pouting hubby (Ahab) that the king could GET ANYTHING HE WANTED, even if it was ILLEGAL and otherwise ‘spent on his lusts’. HE HAD THE POWER, SO HE SHOULD USE IT! This is precisely what YHWH hated and prohibited for His people’s leaders. Read the historical account for yourself in 1 Kings 21. Don’t forget to take note of what the Prophet tells the perps. There are other examples in the Bible too. More on this in another blog entry.

Let’s look at a more modern example: Take a look at the American Presidential elections for the past three cycles. All the backbiting, slander, posturing, power-brokering, money-grubbing, media propaganda … just consider the MILLIONS spent on promotions. Bush got in BY JUDICIAL DECISION. HUH?!? What happened to “elections”?? Ron Paul got robbed of electoral votes by various commissioners of elections. Clinton and Obama got in by marketing and vote-rigging (Diebold machines). I mean REALLY! All because they COVETED the office of the Presidency.

Make no mistake about it: They were definitely NOT FIT for the Presidential office. No, it was because these stooges would do the bidding of their “idle rich” masters. That’s just one of a myriad of examples of COVETING done by government. Another prevalent example of COVETING is the use of “BLIGHTING LAND” to EXPROPRIATE it for government ‘use’, which amounts to BUSINESS. What about all the WARS the US has perpetrated around the world so the “idle rich” can COVET the resources of other nations? There’s one answer for all of that, which is the foundational principle of ALL government: IF I CAN’T DO IT, NEITHER CAN THE GOVERNMENT (all their powers are derived from “we the people”; read the “Declaration of Independence”). More on this in another blog entry. Meanwhile, you can get a very good summary of “founding principles” by reading Cleon Skousen’s book, “The 5000 Year Leap”. Excellent read!

I wonder what Mother Theresa would say about the vast amounts of money and other resources going to waste at the hands of government? Really: WHO COVETS, but those who do not EARN what they WANT. They’re just plain LAZY. Proverbs talks about them: SLUGGARDS. Look-up that word in Proverbs and see what I mean. Thing is, in an industrial society where everybody is DEPENDENT on centralized food and water sources, it’s easy for people to become SLUGGARDS and stay alive. How so? They can hide behind bureaucratic systems to get their welfare free-ride. And if they’re slick enough con-men, they can get into government offices and make a decent living for themselves (albeit at my expense!). However, NOT SO in an agrarian society. If you’re a SLUGGARD, you will STARVE TO DEATH (eventually). Agrarian families depend on their hard work and perpetual industriousness to provide their own food and shelter to keep themselves alive. Not so in industrial societies where everything is CENTRALIZED and “DISTRIBUTED”. Why not read the Communist Manifesto and see what the “enemy” says about all this?

So that’s essentially what coveting is. YOU WANT IT, YOU DON’T HAVE THE MEANS OR AUTHORITY TO HAVE IT, SO YOU SCHEME AND DO WRONG TO GET YOUR HANDS ON IT.

And finally, we come to the 7th Commandment. I have to admit, I didn’t pay much attention to “you shall not murder” because I really don’t have much to do with that one. WHO DOES?? (Besides the gangsta’s in the black-and-white movies!) But when considering the big picture: IN MY ROLE IN SUPPORTING SOCIETY, it became clear that WHEN I PAY CERTAIN KINDS OF TAXES AND EARN MY LIVING IN CERTAIN KINDS OF JOBS, I’M SUPPORTING MASS MURDER AND MASS DESTRUCTION. Yup, that’s right. When I support the modern American military, I’m supporting MASS MURDER AND MASS DESTRUCTION. Ever think about this? I have! Check out this quote from the 44th Congressional Record about who pays for all of that:

The millionaires pay only on what they eat, drink, wear, and on what they use, and this is true of the poorer citizens likewise. … The wealthy man makes no other contribution to the support of the Government; nothing for the army which protects his wealth; nothing for the judiciary which settles his property rights; nothing to the support of the administrative department of the Government which executes the law that insures the safety of his property. … the burdens of the Government should be at least partially shifted from the backs of the poor to those who can bear it; to divide these burdens between wealth and consumption; to divide them between the man who has nothing but his labor and the man who has incomes many times greater, derived from fortunes made by others; to compel the men who are wealthy … to divide the burdens of the Government with the people whose earnings are compelled to flow by legislation to increase the wealth of the favored beneficiaries ….

And when I learned that the vast majority of WARS that the US government has been involved in since its founding have been COMMERCE wars perpetrated by “investors” to PROTECT THEIR FOREIGN INTERESTS OVERSEAS, I began to wonder if ANY wars have been legitimate DEFENSIVE wars (the ONLY type which the federal Constitution provides authority to wage). Imagine contributing to MASS MURDER AND MASS DESTRUCTION so that RICH MEN can GET RICHER, while you or someone you love can get physically maimed, mentally disabled, your nation goes deep into debt, the ‘best and the brightest’ are eliminated from society, your children become fatherless, etc.; just so SOME SLUGGARD, GAME-PLAYING CON-MEN can benefit from confiscating another nation’s material resources and communications? For those who didn’t believe in “the devil” before now, one has to question their sanity, especially after considering the MAGNITUDE of the EVIL SCHEME that is involved in WARFARE at that level.

I’m talking about OFFENSIVE wars, not DEFENSIVE wars designed to PROTECT Americans’ “life, liberty and property”. These are the RICH MAN’S CONQUESTS OF FOREIGN LANDS for the purpose of amassing more riches to add to their already SWOLLEN PURSES. Learning about that was when I realized what the 7th Commandment meant.

At that point, I was ashamed to have had some part in supporting such a grievously evil system. Imagine: I violated “THOU SHALL NOT MURDER” by supporting oligarchy-controlled government. Scary, huh? One has to wonder what God will say to all of us who supported these war machines, when we stand before Him on Judgment Day Just ask yourself what life in America would be like if we did NOT wage any COMMERCE WARS, but instead used the “military” STRICTLY FOR DEFENSIVE PURPOSES? More on this in another blog entry. Any questions about whether or not you perpetrate “you shall not murder”, especially in a government “by the people and for the people”?

So that covers “God’s Law”, that is, the 10 Commandments. Can you see how SIMPLE these commandments are to understand, and how PRAGMATIC they are in daily life? Can you see how it may even be possible TO OBEY ALL OF THEM on a personal level? Establishing them on the SOCIETAL level is the real challenge. That is what the “public officials” are supposed to be doing. Ha! Imagine that? Has anybody ever told you that? Or have you ever thought about “the proper role of government” (Ezra Taft Benson) like that before? Give it a go and see where it leads in your mind, because that’s precisely what God’s Theocracy is all about, and what all His public officials will be like.

In the next blog we’ll look at some of the categories of law listed at the beginning of this blog entry.