(The seal from a 1778 $20 bill from Georgia. The motto reads "Nemo me impune lacesset," i.e. "No one will provoke me with impunity.") Recently I was talking to a young lady in her early 20’s about Elon Musk’s tussle with Alameda county in CA over opening Tesla in spite of the corona virus shutdown. I asked her opinion and while not knowing who Musk is she said, “People are crazy”, to which I responded, ”Do you mean the citizens or the government?” She then aimlessly meandered into the position that people should obey government somewhat blindly. I tried to get her to commiserate with a business owner being told basically you can’t make money and you can’t work so basically you must go out of business. ‘But don’t worry we the wise and magnanimous overlords are here for you to hand you a check from newly created money which will devalue the currency, creating inflation’. She seemed somewhat sympathetic to their plight but when I asked her if she was a ‘give me liberty or give me death’ person or a ‘give me security and what liberties’ sort of person, she responded with a ‘give me food and I’m good’ motto. She then revealed that she wasn’t sure what the Bill of Rights exactly were, she had not heard of the ‘live free of die’, ‘don’t tread on me’ mottos or Patrick Henry’s famous quote ‘Give me liberty or give me death!’ I jokingly told her that I would design a flag for her that says ‘Don’t Count on Me’ and maybe have an earthworm on it or perhaps a leach would be more appropriate. I don’t know if she was shamed enough into educating herself but she did say she votes (criminal negligence?). I have to be sympathetic to her since I was also a victim of the public education system. But this brings up an interesting concept, that is, what responsibility does one have as a citizen? Not as a Christian per se, but as a citizen. We know from a biblical perspective the work of the law is in the conscience of all men and woman by God, to the extent that they become a law unto themselves accusing and excusing one another. (Rom.2:13-16) This is the basis of government. Of course people also have sin and lusts and pride operating in their flesh and minds and this can skew government to become destructive to life liberty and property, the very things it is designed to protect. And with this Christian perspective on human nature our founding fathers created a dynamic government incorporating a certain degree of democracy with the restraints of a constitution, that is, a republic. In a previous blog I mentioned the motivation by people who are ignorant of sin and human nature and or foolish, who want a stronger centralized government to ‘parent’ us. That they are like Israel of old demanding a king like the nations around them. We are demanding socialism like the nations around us. However when they were brought into the promised land God did not set up a king for them, instead they appeared to have a form of republic with the law given to Moses as the constitution and officials appointed by the tribes to govern them (Dt.1:12-18). The tribes more tightly governed themselves city to city, but the loose confederation of tribes would come together to defend one another and protect one another’s lives and property. When they were entering the land to receive their inheritance and driving out the sexually perverted, devil worshipping, child sacrificing nations (yes, they were- see Lev.18 and 20), Moses admonished the tribes of Gad and Reuben (Num.32) that they better not take their inheritance and then forget their brethren fighting for theirs and fail to assist them. Moses instructed them that they were to go armed to assist their brethren and then spoke these famous words “ But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.” (v32) Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (Jam.4:15) In Judges 20 we observe the record of how punishment was executed upon a tribe harboring wickedness. The tribes of Israel gathered against the tribe of Benjamin to punish men for sexual perversion and murder. The men of Israel felt the personal weight of obligation to remove this evil from among themselves even at the point of losing their lives enforcing it. We seem to have lost this sense of responsibility through prosperity. We enjoy the pleasures of this life to the sacrificing of our responsibility to our gallant ancestors and our innocent posterity to preserve freedom. ‘Let someone else do that, but don’t count on me.’ No longer is it 'give me liberty or death', the new motto is 'give me security or slavery'. “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” Maybe so in this generation and in these days while we live for the present gratification of the flesh and do not believe in the world to come. Death is to be feared above all else. (Acts 20:24) But our founders did say it was our responsibility- which is to bind our conscience to the obligation to preserve liberty. It is up to you personally to be your brother’s keeper. The Declaration of Independence states regarding our God given unalienable Rights “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” “…it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”. Our founders said again: “We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. -- Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.” This shame and infamy is resigned to Nazi Germany and the Soviet union for example. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn recounts his arrest along with millions of other citizens under the Stalin regime recalling “You aren’t gagged. You really can and really ought to cry out- to cry out that you are being arrested!...That arrests are being made on the strength of false denunciations! That millions are being subjected to silent reprisals!” And yet hardly anyone made a peep or mutter. No public stir or “bristle” to make the arrests more difficult. He mentions once when a woman screamed holding onto a street lamp and drew a crowd which flustered the young men attempting the arrest who quickly fled. (The Gulag Archipelago- the Vintage abridgment pg 11-12) For decades it continued Solzhenitsyn states, “How long all that dragged on! And how many millions there were! But the future call-up of 1937 didn’t bat an eyelid and found it all normal. They remained calm while society was being imprisoned. Their “outrage reason boiled” when their own fellowship began to be imprisoned.” (pg.244) Of course then it is usually too late. But a society with no courage, no spirit, and seduced with pleasures is ripe for enslavement.
It “is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.” Patrick Henry continued “Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it?” “Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” “Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
We have greater organizing power and information flow available to us than our founding generation. We can move in unison. What will we do? What if we took this responsibility upon ourselves personally to ensure liberty to our children? Regardless of your mediocrity it is up to you. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. 1 Cor.1:27-9 Let us operate under the Christian charge to evangelize the lost and the American citizen obligation to preserve liberty. Our liberties cannot be preserved by an anti-Christ generation, so we have a lot of work to do. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. (Mt.9:37)
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