Questions about our new nationality and its political consequences
QUESTION: I'm confused. Preachers tell me that I follow God (YHWH) when I do what the world's leaders tell me what to do, but I know there's something wrong with that line of logic... clear me up, please!
ANSWER:
Yes, you fall into the in-personam jurisdiction of a ruler if you either make an agreement, such as a driver's license or passport application, or if you break the Law of YHWH.
To the degree that you have do any of these things, you DO need to obey those who have lawful power over you.
Romans 13
To keep order in a worldly society and world of sinful people, rules and consequences must be put in place and enforced or else there will be anarchy.
YHWH knows that people who step over certain lines must be stopped and punished.
But you do not fall into the juridiction of worldly leaders except by agreement or by sinning.
(Just power is derived from the consent of the governed.)
So make every effort to gain your freedom and to stay free.
QUESTION: Preachers tell me that I should participate in government, because Christians are the most honest and the most capable of leading and judging the people. What's wrong with that logic?
ANSWER:
Yes, you are to participate in A government.
Not the governments of the world-system, but the government of the Kingdom of YHWH.
26 "Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.
27 "And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. (Matthew 20:25-28 )'
So, clearly, we are not to be rulers of the gentiles (nations).
So Romans 13 isn't talking about us bearing the sword by participating in the worldly government.
(I therefore can't elect leaders to wield the sword in my place.
Since Yahshuah doesn't give us the power to rule the nations, we can't delegate that power to a leader (whom we supposedly 'elect') to wield the sword on our behalf.)
This is what popular religious culture does not want to accept, because religion fattens itself at the trough of war.
The rule of the ungodly is not our business.
Romans 13 and 1st Peter 3 do not contain optimism about the rosy final outcome of rule-by-violence.
If the Kingdom could have been brought-in by the sword, David and Solomon would have established the Kingdom.
That's because the "sword" produces short-term order, but ultimately, the military-industrial-complex produces, not the Kingdom of YHWH, but the world-system, filled with WMD's, arms-races, slavery, fear, and oppression.
Which is why all throughout the Bible YHWH is always destroying nations.
If the nations had behaved like the Kingdom of Yah, these empires wouldn't always be collapsing as the American Empire is now.
That was Pharaoh's job at the time.
Ruling by terror is never the job of children of Yah, though.
This is because those who kill with the sword are generally destined to perish. (See Ezekiel 33-35, Revelation 13)
QUESTION: Jesus' doesn't ever say, "If another country invades one of your cities, give him another one too".
So are Jesus' words meaningless to the worldly nations?
ANSWER:
Worldly nations can benefit greatly by following Yahshuah's words.
Jesus doesn't say to the nations, "Repel invaders by force to protect your children."
Surprisingly, he says to the Jews, who were in fact UNDER ENEMY OCCUPATION and were 40 years later totally destroyed, to
These are direct commands to not resist invaders. If the Jews had followed this advice they probably would have survived.
QUESTION: So should we ask and expect (worldly) government to live by Jesus' words?
ANSWER:
No. Yahshuah's words should be applied to his disciples.
YHWH's expectations of YOU and ME as children of the Kingdom of God are different from the reality of his purpose for the 'World System.'
Swines can be expected to trample the pearls of the wisdom preserved by centuries of Christ's peaceful martyrs (from whom our brothers, the Amish, descended), who were killed by the pagan governments, the Protestants, and the Catholics, often specifically because they followed Christ's literal peacemaking instructions to the letter.
You will wear out your heart if you try to spread the gospel of peace to those who reject it and say they have the true way, while aligning themselves with the powers of darkness instead of trusting in Yahweh.
QUESTION: Since we were a part of the evil system, do we have a continuing obligation to seek to 'change the world- to 'make it a better place'?
ANSWER:
The holocausts of the worldly nations are so wicked and mass-murderous as to demand the immediate, extended repentance in sackcloth and ashes of all their citizens.
But we can't repent for them, nor can we force them to repent.
We can send out broken-hearted apology for our previous association with the bloodshed.
Then we get down to figuring out how to live amidst a system in which all property, labor, and children have been pledged as surety on the to pay the monstrous war-debt.
We have been called out of our previous national association, like people rowing away from a sinking ship.
1Peter2:9 is literal political speech, not just a metaphor.
As we begin to associate our political identity with the Kingdom, we repent from saying "we" in reference refer to covert U.S. CIA foreign policy.
Did we bankroll people like Saddam Hussein?
No, when his empire was being built [in part] by the CIA with illegal drug money, we didn't even know Saddam's name.
So some of the blood washes off of our hands just by ceasing to admit guilt by saying we belong to the earthly nation surrounding us.
Though it surrounds us, it does not include us.
We are an enclave: a sovereign foreign power landlocked by pagan nations.
Not even the most impassioned plea could drag us back into the world of debt, fear, worldly religion, media deception, and slavery that is typical of the national military-industrial-political-religious complex and its bent theology, spread through the culture, the television, the religious and political leaders.
Let us call each other higher and higher out of the 'world system' that YHWH says he hates.
Isaiah 48:20 Go ye forth of Babylon
Isaiah 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of YHVH.
Jeremiah 51:6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon...
Jeremiah 51:45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of YHVH.
2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of YHWH with idols?
for ye are the temple of the living God;
as YHWH hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith YHWH, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
Revelation 18:4 Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
"Friendship with the world is hatred toward Elohim."- Yahshuah
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NOTES:
The Babylon ->Persian->Greek->Roman->Washington connection is more than metaphorical. (One clue, this text you are reading is encoded in Roman characters.)
GOP Congressman Calls for Nuking Syria 3/01/05
In Washington, Republican Congressman (and church group member) Sam Johnson of Texas has recommended to President Bush that the U.S. consider attacking Syria with nuclear weapons.
Johnson recently told a church gathering, "Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore."
