America Is  Going Through A Revolution
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For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23 (KJV)
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.  1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV)
…This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.  …And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.  … He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 
1 Samuel 8:11,14,17-18 (KJV)
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Luke 6:41 (KJV)
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 (KJV)
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
 
The United States of America has never known a time of discord, turbulence, upheaval and distrust as it is experiencing in the year 2009.  The federal elections of November 2008 occurred in the midst of an impending economic disaster, brought into the office of the president a relatively unknown man and seemingly empowered a revolutionary movement that is bent upon using the economic turmoil to redefine and reshape the national government and culture.  Members of the new administration forewarned the nation of the revolutionary changes: Americans, said President Obama, should "discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis."  Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff stated: "Never allow a crisis to go to waste,".  The new secretary of state, Hillary Clinton concurred: "Never waste a good crisis."  Finally, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said: "Capitalism will be different."  The shock waves from the changes generated in the first two months of the new presidency, and the anticipated trauma of more to come, has created schisms within the culture that are finding new alliances and destroying many investment and retirement programs by a stock market that does not like such uncertainty.  Over the past century, the United States has had a relatively slow reshaping of the government and its processes from that which was conceived in the eighteenth century.  However, the new regime has seemingly cast aside all concerns about contending with the  creeping modification of the traditional role of the federal government as they are proceeding to radically bring into being their vision of what many believe to be a form of socialism, much like European models, if not Communism. 
 
While one can write volumes about the founding fathers, their goals for the new nation, the meaning of the Constitution and existing law, it is all irrelevant.  Those currently in power are determined to exercise their long-awaited opportunity to bring about a governmental transformation that will forever change the traditional balance of power between the federal, state, local and individual governments.  At the same time, these changes will totally alter the balance of freedom within the nation. 
 
Freedom can neither be destroyed nor created, but it can be shifted as to whether it is individually or centrally controlled.  The historical model for freedom in the United States has been that the individuals maintained a dominant control of the freedom over their lives and the various governmental units a minimal control.  What is frightening most people today is that the balance will be drastically torn away from the individual and bestowed upon the federal government.  The crux of the issue at hand is the model to be used for governing the United States and what impact that will have upon the citizens.   
 
Governmental models are based upon how the freedom balance is distributed.  It is more accurate to discuss the various governmental models according to who controls freedom and not in such terms as left-wing/ right-wing or liberal/conservative.  At one extreme, the individuals have full control of all freedom in what is known as a state of anarchy.  At the other extreme, the central government has virtually full control of all freedom in what is known as a dictatorship, which can take one of many forms; socialism, communism, fascism, Nazism or a monarchy.  Anarchy will soon give way to some form of communal government, and dictatorships generally result in some form of an oligarchy, as the central figure reaches out to associates for governing assistance.  Since the two extremes do not have long life-cycles, that leaves three major governmental models, starting with that which gives the most freedom to the governed and moving to the model in which the individual has the least freedom.  Those models are known as a republic, democracy and oligarchy.  Dr. James McHenry noted that at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a lady, "Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?"  To which Dr. Franklin replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."  At this point in time it appears that the United States will not be able to keep it, as the freedom control center shifts.
 
So much for where we are.  What is more important is to consider how did we get here in the hope that we might be able to better understand our plight and determine how best we can cope with what cometh.  There is an old Russian proverb: "Dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye; forget the past and you'll lost both eyes."  We must not forget either our past or our succeeding history, because in the past lies what it was that made us great and from the follow-on history we can learn why our nation's ascendancy has turned to an out-of-control spiraling dive.  There has been a body of belief in our nation for the past half-century that has been sounding a warning about an impending disaster.  Now that it appears to be upon us many are acting as if the entire scenario happened overnight and in a vacuum.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Those who were giving us the warning had a basis for their belief and they were correct.  As the United States turned its back on God and rejected those fundamentals that had been heralded as the cause for success, the culture triggered the very forces that would bring about its downfall by reveling in its overabundance of wealth, perversity and greed.  God cannot be mocked and godlessness will not bring a golden age.  
 
As the ideological division worsens, the media and political pundits are playing the blame game, in the hopes they can pin the tail on the other group's donkey.  In actuality, there is more than enough blame to go around. In the main, much of the framework for the economic crisis has been brought about by government intervention in the market process by either inserting the requirement for lenders to accommodate those who have not had acceptable credit ratings, not providing adequate oversight on the holding corporations that they formed to market mortgages, and to unduly restrict free-market actions.  I will not get into trying to do the job of pinning the tail on the donkey but I will point out that some of those who have the most guilt for initiating the economic catastrophe are the most vehement about blaming other people and trying to exact judgment upon them, all the time ignoring their own sins.  Maybe that is the true character of American politics and politicians in the 21st century. 
 
However, in the final analysis, we are all guilty.  As the Bible says, above, we have all sinned and fallen short.  Until I can stand before God and proclaim that I have done everything expected of me perfectly and I have perfectly left nothing undone I am a part of the problem.  Yes, it might have been wrong for so many people to vote for candidates who either were not qualified or did not have the best interests of America at heart.  But, did I do my part in trying to show those people how important moral character was in making their choices?  And, the list of what I did or did not do goes on.
 
Disasters are not unlike any other complex problem or issue.  There is almost always an underlying factor upon which layers of wrongful actions or incidents have been allowed to accumulate until an uncontrolled or unanticipated trigger ignites the catastrophe.  Such analysis can be applied to both man-made and natural tragedies.  This type of analysis revealed that the magnitude of the Katrina disaster was greatly enhanced because the diversion of funds resulted in levies not being constructed according to the prescribed design standards.  People building in areas with known histories of natural disasters enhance the devastation level of both hurricanes and floods.  The origin of most fires is often traceable to the failure to properly secure and protect the endangered area.  The isolation of the underlying causal factors is the needle-in-the-haystack that arson investigators and disaster survey teams seek when establishing the root cause.
 
The same scenario is true for the disaster that the United States is experiencing in 2009.  The biggest problem is that it has been identified as an economic disaster when in fact the economic situation is just one of the major symptoms of the true root cause, and that root cause is a godless culture where there is no accountability, responsibility, moral standards, acknowledgment of transcendent truth or fear of the God that their forefathers honored and to whom they attributed their success.  As with many disasters, this one has been a long time coming and an honest analysis of the many facets will reveal that there is a synergism of what many believe to be unconnected single-issues.  It is not an accident, it is a combining of eroded values that many have warned about, and it could be both irreversible and fatal for the American Republic.  America has experienced the following examples of degradation within the culture since it chose to remove godly, or biblical, principles from the procedures and goals of: the sanctity of life, education, legislation, law enforcement, judicial proceedings, social programs, economic activities, medicine and life style approval:
 
·          A historic loss of confidence in Americans personal world because their God has either been stolen or downsized. They have learned that their government cannot solve all of their problems and that their own personal efforts are insufficient to fulfill their daily needs.  All measurable confidence levels are at a record low.
 
·          The protection of the lives of the unborn has been cast aside as followers of the eugenics movement work to remove all legal restraints on the availability of abortions and to deny life-saving protection to those babies who are, either fortunately or unfortunately, able to escape death by a failed abortion.
 
·          Morality, ethics, personal accountability and accepting responsibility have all diminished because there is no longer a culturally accepted standard and every person has become a law unto their self.  Some of the highest-level governmental appointees are guilty of flaunting the very laws they are sworn to uphold and to pay the taxes they are charged to collect.
 
·          Judicial tyranny reigns as activist judges, with no regard for a higher authority, routinely strike down election results with which they do not agree, impose sanctions upon publicly disapproved conduct, and circumvent the constitutional method of creating law by either restricting or demanding that activities be conducted according to their fiat.
 
·          Open hostility towards those who advocate biblical or traditional standards in life-style conduct and restraint against the public display of immorality by the entertainment industry has become an acceptable practice.  Activists are striving to not only legalize homosexual conduct and marriage but to ban any criticism of that life-style, even when quoting biblical texts.
 
·          National economic ruin has been brought about by a succession of unethical business practices and governmental proceedings encouraged by excessive greed, immorality and thirst for power.  This has led to such things as: exorbitant compensation packages for industrial leaders; the falsification of economic performance; the commercialization of elected officials through the directing of contracts to family and friends, kick-backs from contractors, special favors from vested interest groups and the use of special pork-laden ear-marks to buy constituency support. The damage to individual savings and retirement accounts by such corporation fraud cases as Enron, MCI, Worldcom, and Tyco could only be surpassed by the government induced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs that encouraged unsupportable mortgages and lending practices.
 
·          Hypocrisy has become openly acceptable from those responsible for inappropriate actions by diverting attention from their own failings and publicly directing accusations against their opposition.
 
·         The American government school system has succeed in dumbing down America, destroying the faith of an untold number of students, removing all accounts of American History that reveal the writings of the founding fathers and the role of God and the Bible in the constitutional process by adopting the philosophy of its iconic guru, Dr. John Dewey and his New Social Order associates, such as William Kilpatrick, Harold Rugg and George Counts, aided by the politicized actions of its unionized adherents.  A June 9, 1952 issue of Time magazine article: Account Rendered, quoted Dewey: "In such a world…the philosopher (and, for that matter, the educator) has no alternative but to ignore the universe. Nor should he concern himself with God or the existence of absolutes. His target is man and society, where nothing is either good or bad, but only better or worse."  In spite of a world record per student expenditure, the American educational community is a failure in providing students with world-wide competitive skills.
1.       The American literacy rate fell from a census data reported 93% in 1840 to a level of 81% by Korean War army tests and 73% by 1973 Vietnam army tests.  In 2009, the U.S. Education Department released statistics that said more than 32 million, or about 14% of Americans are illiterate.
2.       Testing results released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the 2006 study data showed that American students ranked 21st out of 30 OECD observed nations.  They ranked only 25th out of 30 in math.  The American students even scored lower than students from such non-OECD nations as Russia, Azerbaijan, Slovenia and Estonia.
 
·         The political structure has turned against Capitalism and the Free-Market with ill-founded beliefs that the economic system breeds greed and an imbalance of wealth.  The critics are ignoring the fact that there is no historical record of any economic system that has done more to lift more people out of poverty and to permit them to have an improved life-style.  Those who condemn the system have failed to separate the failings of the unethical economic leaders from the inherent strength of the Free-Market System.  The launching of the Free-Market System is what has propelled the former communist nations out of poverty and into higher standards of living.  The anti-capitalists are blind to the history and prosperity of the western world that follows the spirit of the reformation and Calvin's basic tenets of Free-Market Capitalism: the value of hard work, personal property rights, capital investment, vocational integrity, risk taking and trusting God.  This was the basis of the Protestant Work Ethic, a disciplined life-style.  This work ethic was a foundational characteristic of the great success of the new nation, as described by deTocqueville.  
 
·         Patriotism has diminished and public criticism of the United States as an obese wastrel of energy, food, and resources, while ignoring the plight of the downtrodden has risen.  There is a movement to 'Europeanize' the United States and to 'sell-out' our history and freedoms by submitting to a one-world coinage, government and transnational law.
 
·         Judicial fiats have destroyed the sanctity of private property rights when any level of government deems that the taking of the property can lead to an increase of taxes through an alternate use.
 
·         Censorship has become acceptable through the enforcement of speech codes policed by purveyors of Political Correctness, Diversity and Multi-Culturalism.  This censorship destroys the open discussion of ideas, moral principles, life-style conduct and requires a tolerance code that accepts all forms of conduct to be equally acceptable.  True tolerance is the last virtue to leave a degenerate society.  
 
·         And, finally the last example that will end the era of the Great American Republic, a majority of voters, both legal and illegal, who have been conditioned to look to the government for the fulfillment of all of their needs.  Their contentment to support a government that allows them to live off of the fruits of the labor of a minority will not only create a one-party oligarchy but will eventually rob the entire nation of innovation, wealth, and the vestiges of individual freedom.
 
But, alas, as the great teacher, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:4, "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;".  We are where we are because of the poor choices that we have made.  But, all is not lost nor the news only bad for those who have placed their trust in the one true God.  They know that adversity will strengthen their faith and renew the church.  They also know that times such as these  provide unlimited opportunities for them to share both their faith with those who are bereft of any future hope and their wealth and resources with those who truly deserve Christian charity. 
 
The history of Israel of old is replete with accounts of God's chosen people living in prosperity, enjoying the fleshly pleasures of worshiping foreign idols and gods, falling into captivity, pleading for His forgiveness and finally receiving deliverance to their national status.  The same is true for America.  If we want to escape the impending disaster we must turn back to God and seek our original foundation.   The 27 December 1982 Newsweek magazine had a cover title of 'The Bible in America.'  The page 44 article, 'How The Bible Made America' stated: "…Historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution is our Founding document…"  An exhaustive study by Professors Donald Lutz and Charles Hyneman of some 15,000 American political writings published between 1760 and 1805 substantiates Newsweek's article.  The study revealed that over one-third of the quotations were from the Bible, more than any other source.  Turning back to God is the only source of victory.
 
Only time and God's providence hold the secret of whether America will follow a long line of despotic powers or rise again.