Rejection of Responsibility Leading To Slavery/Kings

So I have just finished writing a series of articles laying out just some of the ways in which Mark Carney and the Liberals have been and continue to endanger Canada while enriching themselves. If you are interested in that series, you can follow this link to the first article. I have become loathe to write specifically about politics because that is a topic that too many people are discussing already. The problem is that, in my opinion, people are talking about the wrong aspects of the topic. So I have been forced to delve into it too often, and I am sure that I will do so again, and again...and again, much to my chagrin. Even this article will end up delving into the political, but at least it will be while arguing generalities of politics rather than being loaded with specifics.

The reason that talk of politics and talk of faith, which is what I prefer to discuss on this blog, are becoming so often intertwined is because we are in an age where people are not taking the practise of either one seriously, so there are cross ramifications reaching from faith into politics and from politics into faith. There was a time when Canada was a christian nation in more than its foundation alone, but now I would argue that we don't meet that description in virtually any way at all. We have abandoned God individually which has changed our social values. This change in social values has beget politicians that seek election based on their adherence to the new values, forgetting the roots of this nation and the people that built it. Forgetting our past is causing us as a civilization to abandon the values that this nation was founded upon. We may not have as overt a connection to God in the documents that founded this country as they do in America, but both our Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960 and our Constitution Act, 1982 contain phrasing that acknowledges God and His place in the governance of this nation.

The Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960, opens with the words, "The Parliament of Canada, affirming that the Canadian Nation is founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God, the dignity and worth of the human person and the position of the family in a society of free men and free institutions;". The Constitution Act, 1982 similarly opens with the words, " Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:". These are not vague references to some unnamed god nor can this be assumed to refer to any god of any religion. These documents refer to Yahweh, the One Living God of the Christian faith that this country, at the times of the drafting of these documents, recognized as the only God. If you are paying close attention to Canadian politics, it is clear that many who now hold office do not hold to these truths. The problem is that too many people are not paying attention and, by voting for these people, they are handing their responsibility to others without even hoping for the best, just expecting it.

If we go back to a time in the Bible before there were kings ruling over God's people we see that Israel operated as a theocracy. This means that the leaders of the people, who were appointed according to God's edicts, would take their concerns and questions to God and God would lead them. I don't know what this looked like for all of the leaders, but we do get a glimpse of it for specific leaders.

Abraham is considered the father of the nation of Israel, so we'll start with him. The Bible tells us that Abraham walked and talked with God and God made promises to Abraham about his offspring and the blessings to come. It seems as though Isaac, Abraham's only legitimate son, did not necessarily learn from his father about the value of nearness to God, and this failure lead to the same circumstances for Jacob, Isaac's son whom God chose to bless. It was only much later in life that Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, came to know and obey God's voice, though he had several interactions with God.

From here the story jumps forward about 400 years and we see Moses rise up as a new leader for Israel, and we know through many stories that Moses sought God's face earnestly and longed to obey Him. God spoke with Moses often and lead the nation of Israel through these conversations and the Law as was given to Moses.

Moses was followed by Joshua who had acted as Moses' assistant for many years and had witnessed Moses' relationship with God, so he had that as a template to follow, but after the death of Joshua and of the elders that had served with Joshua (Joshua 24:31), things started to go haywire.

People began to follow their own ways and God sent different judges at different times to rescue Israel from the repercussions of their choices. The Bible tells us only some stories about some of these judges. We don't know how close they were to God, but we do know that God called them specifically to their task and rescued Israel through them.

But eventually, Israel decided that they wanted a king like the nations around them. God saw this and had Samuel prophesy about what having an earthly king would look like for Israel: "So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. 11 He said, “This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. 15 He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. 18 Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”" (1 Samuel 8:10-20)

So the people of Israel chose to reject God as their leader and ruler and instead placed a fallible man above them all. And we have seen that every king that ruled over Israel failed over and over again, just as we have seen in this country that every man who has lead this country has made errors and carried his own weaknesses and failings into the office with him. Many have been at least nominally honourable men who wanted to serve the country, even if they also had a taste for power; lately, we have had narcissistic, self-seeking, idealistically driven men who have been less than honourable in charge and the country has suffered for it, but we have, as a nation, elected these men, which should be much to our shame, but we seem to be beyond that now and incapable of learning from our mistakes.

Under the Biblical theocracy, God oversaw all of the needs of the people as long as the people submitted themselves to Him as individuals and corporately. The individual submission was the basis of the corporate submission. When the people began to turn from God's edicts as individuals, we can see that the nation as a whole began to do the same. When personal responsibility was waived or discarded, it did not take long for the prosperity and security of the nation to suffer. Personal responsibility and faithfulness to God was the key to keeping Israel on track, and I argue that it is the same today for us as well.

I recently came across a video of a segment of a lecture as delivered by Jordan Peterson. In it, he talks about this very issue. Here is the link to the video, but there are certain parts of it that I felt are worth pulling out and examining.

Peterson talks to those who have not been taking responsibility for their own political situations. This can mean those who do not cast a vote when there is an election, or just as bad, those who cast a vote without having examined the claims and the history of the candidates and the parties. Quite frankly, I would rather have someone despise and forego their right to vote than have someone who goes to the voting booth and simply votes for the party that they or their family have always voted for. That kind of voting leads to tyrants ascending to and holding onto the throne of power regardless of whether or not they are intellectually or morally worthy of that office. 

Justin Trudeau was neither intellectually nor morally worthy of holding the office of the Prime Minister, but we left him there for nine years and he did immense damage while he was there. Now we have a man who is intellectually "worthy" of the office, but he is so morally corrupted that he uses his intellect to pull the wool over the eyes of those who elected him as he destroys this country to his own gain and our detriment. When this is mentioned to people, it does not make sense to someone who does not recognize that we live in a fallen world that is destined for a final judgment. They cannot fathom how a man could choose to destroy his own country for any reason. But for those who have read the back of the Good Book, we see what is coming and we can trace back from where we are going to where we are now.

Returning to Peterson's lecture, he states that, "It's like for all you decent citizens who abdicate political responsibility, you need to understand that that void will be filled by tyrants. Right? So it's either you or the tyrants. That's the option. And so if it's not you and you're wondering why there's a lot of tyrants, it's because it's not you." He is telling people that abdicating your right, your privilege and your responsibility to vote and to do so intelligently is creating an empty space that those who have nefarious intent are all too willing to occupy. We look around at the western democracies around the world and we wonder how so many countries are in such dire straights; how they got their migration, justice and economic policies so wrong that their countries have fallen so far from where they were just one or two generations ago. This is because there are nefarious actors in the world who have been working themselves into positions of influence and they have been placing their chosen puppets into top political positions in the most powerful countries around the world, which also happen to be the western democracies.

Western democracies that were all originally founded on Christian values, but which have abandoned those values over the years by taking their eyes off of the founder of their nations, God Himself. It has been God's hand of blessing on these nations that had lifted them to their positions of wealth, power and security, and now those who have always denied God have lied and worked their way into the halls of power of these once powerful nations and they are intentionally undermining them, overwhelming the population with people's of cultures that are absolutely contrary to the native population. These are tyrants with a mandate given to them by their true leaders to destroy the powerful nations so that a new leader can rise up and take control of them all, likely with promises of seats of power for those who deliver the nations into his hand. Little do they realize that he is more evil than all of them and he will absorb them all under his own authority.

Peterson continues and relates this abdication of responsibility to the story of the Israelites in the desert as they came to Moses to judge their disputes for them. In reference to Moses' conversation with his father-in-law, Peterson says, "This is not good for the Israelites. It's like they're trying to make you into another Pharaoh. They're abandoning the necessity to make responsible judgments for themselves. They're pushing it up the political hierarchy. They want to turn themselves into slaves and you into the king."

This eventually brings us to the book of 1 Samuel which we looked at earlier, which Peterson paraphrases by saying, "And God says, "Well, you know, those kings, they tend to turn into tyrants." And the Israelites say, "Well, as long as we get to be irresponsible, we don't care if we have a tyrant.""

Jordan Peterson is relating the abdication of taking personal responsibility in Israel to the failure to vote, and to vote intelligently, in our political systems today, and he may not be wrong. Far too often I think people are voting based on feelings rather than on any track record of a sitting government, or it is a popularity contest rather than a battle of ideas. People are too easily duped by a polished resume and flashy advertising. There is also the very real likelihood that people are voting for their own well-being rather than the well-being of the next generation and the nation as a whole. This didn't used to be the case. People used to consider the well being of the next generations, but somehow our selfishness has overcome our desires for the best for our children.

"Responsible citizens don't need a king. Why? Because they do the bloody work themselves. And what's the utility in that? Well, then you get to have a life." This plays out in so many ways, and it really comes to the fore when we consider that the church is supposed to be, and used to be, the centre of charity. If people were struggling they would go to the church and the church would help them. Somehow along the way, the church has stepped aside and allowed the government to take that role. Churches still run different programs or set aside funds to help when it's needed, but most people will first go running to the government.

I think I just realized why this is. The church had the ability to draw non-believers to Christ through the generosity shown to the lowly. God's love was shown through the actions of the church and people would be drawn to God. The devil couldn't have that, so he got the governments to take over looking after the social wellness of society as a whole. That way people would be drawn to their human  government rather than drawn to their Father God. It was a brilliant ploy that worked perfectly. 

People no longer take care of themselves but rely on government provided services instead. Community safety is handed over to police rather than community members watching out for each other. The sick and the elderly get shuffled off to hospitals and old age homes where the government covers the costs and the workload of caring for them. This is not to say that there isn't some value to these services. Dedicated and trained professionals have improved the odds of people surviving accident or illness and trained officers can better detain a violent person than I can myself. The problem arrives when we stop taking responsibility upon ourselves for our own neighbourhoods. We need to stop outsourcing our needs to others and to take responsibility back upon ourselves.

"Then you don't need a king. Then you're not under the thumb of a tyranny and you're not a slave. And what does it require? It requires the voluntary adoption of maximal responsibility. And what's the payoff? You get to be a man or a woman who's mature and integrated and contributing to the community in a meaningful way and bear the weight of bringing the order that is good into the world on your own shoulders. And what's the payoff for that? Well, you get to do it and it happens and you don't need a king and you're not a slave."

There is a lot of complaining about the upcoming generations, that they don't accept responsibility for themselves, but this is a taught trait. Nobody wants to make hard decisions and nobody wants to potentially face the negative outcome of those decisions if they make the wrong one, but doing so is the sign of maturity. And doing so provides a sense of inner strength and well being whether the decisions was right and you gain the successes of making that good decision, or if the decisions was wrong but you came through on the other side stronger and wiser than you were before.

"But there's more to it than that. It's the same as having an adventure, right? To take on that responsibility. That's what gives you value even in your own eyes. You know, that ability to take some of the burden of the world on your own shoulders, or maybe plenty of it, not only for you, but also for your wife or your husband and for your children and for your town and your community. Right? And you can see then that you are a locus of stability and positive transformation operating in the world. And there isn't anything that's more deeply meaningful than that."

"And what that means is a properly God-fearing, responsible citizenry is no longer under the heel of a tyrant and no longer prone to the hedonistic blandishments of the irresponsible slave". Which reality are we currently living under? Are we a nation of God-fearing, responsible citizens living freely, or are we now and increasingly more living under a tyrannical government that is constantly seeking to increase its control over the thoughts, actions and choices of the populace? Be honest now!

The west in general and Canada specifically have voted ourselves into a state in which the government is our nanny and we don't have to take responsibility for ourselves or our own actions. There is a massive social safety net that we can land on when we fail, so there is little need to push ourselves unless we actually have a personal drive. We also have become a nation where we are demanding that our personal weaknesses be recognized and addressed by the general public and where we want redress for perceived offences as perpetrated by the government or other individuals. This extends to protecting us from hurty words that we may come across on the internet, but people fail to recognize that asking for the government to censor the internet of things that hurt or scare us means that we are asking the government to control all of the messaging that we are seeing.

It makes me want to scream, "JUST GROW UP ALREADY!!" Adulting is tough and it comes with some bruises, but walking that path yourself is far more rewarding that having someone else cart you to the end.

There has developed an aversion to bettering ourselves or our own situation. Instead, the first inclination has become to run to the government to fix our problems for us. This is a de-evolution from what God has designed us for. We are always supposed to be striving upward, in our abilities, our station in life, our relationships and our faith walk.

Peterson refers to this self-betterment as a "journey to "up"", and he continues his discourse; "It's not a linear journey to "up". It's a punctuated journey because you end up in the desert. That's a consequence of your previous idiocy and refusal to learn. And you have to strive chaotically in that desert to put yourself back together. And you do that by organizing yourself properly psychologically and in the community and adopting the responsibility for your own destiny."

Canada, as a nation due to the state of the individual, is in the desert right now. We have relegated our own authority and given it to the governments to rule over us rather than to lead us, and as such, we are forced to follow the government as it races down the paths of it's own ideology rather than having a government that responds to the wishes of the people. We are having to strive chaotically right now, but we haven't yet told the government to get out our way. 

As Peterson puts it, we have ended up in the desert as "a consequence of [our] previous idiocy and refusal to learn". Canada, as a nation, had the opportunity to throw away the leftist notions of social justice and environmental crusading based on warm feelings and fuzzy "science", and we were oh, so close to doing the right thing, but then the left pulled the trap door on their hated leader and parachuted another man into his place, and the media did their job to boost his optics and suppress the optics of the one whom Canadians had been ready to choose. The left pulled the old bait and switch and Canada fell for it, and now we are still in the morass of living under a government that does not want Canadian success as much as it wants Canadian subservience.

We are made to be kings but we keep pushing ourselves down into the mud because we have forgotten who we are in Christ. We subject ourselves to those who present themselves as better than us and we acquiesce to this illusion, for reasons which I have not yet been able to fathom, though this does seem to be more an issue with those who live in central and eastern Canada than it is in the west. The more that we subject ourselves to the low integrity of self-styled kings, the more that we forget who we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do.

Canadians, westerners and Christians specifically need to stop degrading ourselves in the eyes of mere men. We are children of the King! We are not subject to earthly powers, especially to those that seek to keep us bowed and cowed to their ideologies; ideologies that are increasingly anti-God, and dare I use the phrase anti-Christ?

I refuse to bow down to ideologies that are anathema to God, and I choose to act whenever I can and I have discovered a path to do so, but I also want to always submit my plans to God. I had such a plan and I was working towards implementation of it this morning.

I have already spent part of my day compiling lists of the European Union Parliament members from Germany, France, Italy and Belgium and composing emails to these members to plead with them to continue to stand against Mark Carney's bid to bring Canada into Associate Membership with the E.U. But as I was working on that, I was also having a conversation with God about what I was doing, and I kept sensing that He wanted me to stop what I was working on. There may be an aspect of entering into danger and exposing myself even more to the forces that will eventually take over this world. There was also the sneaking suspicion as I observed the different parties that the E.U. members were a part of that my efforts would be ignored by many as contrary to their own goals, but as I continued to pray while I worked, I came to the conclusion that this membership is a necessary step towards setting the stage for the final act of earth's existence in it's current form.

Revelation tells us that there will be a one-world government and there are indications that it will be based on Islamic tenets. I will delve into that further in another article, but as we look at Europe right now, they are being subjected to Islam and Sharia Law at an ever increasing rate because the people and the governments refuse to put themselves in a position in which they may be called names like racist or Islamophobic, so they continue to be overwhelmed by illegal immigrants of Muslim descent who are terrorizing the citizens and forcing their way over the civilization. The civilizational collapse of Europe is in full swing right now and the people are too slow to rise up against it. The weaknesses of men who have rejected taking responsibility for themselves has lead to them being governed and even ruled by immoral men and women of questionable ethics and weak constitutions which is leading to the technological and theological pieces getting put in place for the Tribulation of the Bible.

North America has been somewhat sheltered from this thus far due to the oceanic barriers that surround us, but make no mistake, the progressive left has plans to race their agenda forward once they regain control of the American government structure, and our own progressive left Canadian government has been virtually unhindered in their progress for over 11 years already. The end is inevitable as it has been prophesied, though we have a say in where we stand when the end comes.

It is now time for me to repeat my warnings from several other articles; it is time for this nation to return to God. It begins individually as we choose to seek and obey God in all things, in all aspects of our lives. Nothing is to be withheld from Him and His will. As we do that, our society will change course and God will restore to us what we have lost; our faith, our security and our freedom. Our actions as individuals and as communities will move God to intervene for us, even if there is no change nationally. God can and does move in the lives of individuals and communities that commit themselves to Him even within nations that have rejected Him.

As we enter the final acts of this existence, we need to refocus our hearts on the only One that can carry us through, and it is still my hope and prayer that Canada and the United States will be among the nations that stand against the desires of the anti-Christ figure that is to come. Unfortunately, as things stand right now, I don't have a lot of hope for that. For it to happen, we need to embrace our position as children of the King, take responsibility for ourselves and refuse to submit ourselves to the rules of despots and dictators that will use the democratic processes to remove democracy from us.