Romans 13:3 says, “For rulers are not a terror to good works,
but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is
good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:”
Jordan explains, “Violators have to be restrained by fear of
just retribution from the duly constituted authority. The just administration
and enforcement of the laws by the government is what gives stability and is a
terror to evil. That’s why it says, ‘Wilt thou then not be afraid of the
power?’
“That’s talking about natural law, common law. ‘We hold these
truths to be self-evident that man is endued with certain inalienable rights.’ The
Declaration of Independence understood that passage.
“But there are some things that the Creator gives … Government
is designed NOT to produce the good works but to give praise to the good works.
Not to be the good worker, not to do the good work, not to support the good
work, not to produce them . . . we’re not talking about some great monolithic
government doing it all for you.
“It’s talking about providing a system in which the good works
can be accomplished. And praise and honor built up.
“That’s why our forefathers said, ‘The government which governs
best is the government which governs least.’ It only steps in to be a terror to
the evil and provides an atmosphere of harmony so the good works can prosper.”
*****
Romans 13:4-5 goes on, “For he is the minister of God to thee
for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the
sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon
him that doeth evil.
[5] Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”
[5] Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”
Jordan says, “You see, this is God’s ordinance. When it says,
‘But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid,’ that’s that issue of capital
punishment from Genesis 9.
“Then it says, ‘But also for conscience sake.’ You see, you and
I as Believers should be motivated to avoid criminal behavior. Motivated to be
the best citizens that a country can have by our conscience. We’re to have a
system of norms and standards that’s formed by the sound doctrine in our souls.
“Because when we understand what God has established, no matter
how man would corrupt what God has established, we have that sound doctrine
operative that will respond that way.
“Satan’s policy and M.O. includes human good. You always want
to remember that. His attempt is to ‘solve’ problems apart from God, and every
attempt at solving the problems of mankind apart from God’s Word is only a
satanic delusion, whether it’s socialism, communism, internationalism,
capitalism, reformation, humanitarianism, welfare, government intervention,
government coercion, liberalism, conservativism, organized Christianity,
religion . . .
“Whatever it is, no matter how humanly good you might think it
would be, a satanic policy of evil is to use human good to solve men’s problems
apart from God. You’ve got to have the sound doctrine of God’s Word to be
successful.”
*****
A lot of people don’t know this but capitalism comes into play in Ecclesiastes 5:13 when Solomon observes, “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.”
Jordan explains, “This is a great American philosophy. You know
what the basic principle of capitalism is? You got to have money to make money,
and to make money you’ve got to spend money; you can’t hoard it up. Solomon
says if you want to be wise and not hurt by money, don’t just keep it stored
up.
*****
Ecclesiastes 6:2 presents an expression of socialism: “A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.”
*****
Look at my Dummies book on world history and you
get clued in quick as to how it happened that the vast majority of Christianity
took the Greeks’ allegorical approach to the Bible.
Under the heading Replacing Homer with the Bible is the summary, “Another reason why furious interpretations and counter-interpretations marked Christianity from the beginning: Look at the places where Christianity sprang up. Christianity filtered through a world marked by Hellenistic (Greek-like) traditions, by the Greek teachings that followed Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great’s empire.
“Early centers of the
Church included Alexandria, Egypt, which was a capital of Greek scholarship,
and Rome, where so many Hellenistic philosophies rubbed up against one another
for a long time. . . As Greek thought shifted to Christian thought, the Bible
took the place of Homer’s poems and the Greek-Roman pantheon as a general
context for philosophical questioning.”
*****
Jordan reminds, “Before the ink was dry on Paul’s epistles, efforts were under way to syncretize the truth he taught with Greek philosophy. The most influential school emphasizing this approach was Alexandria, Egypt. It’s the place where almost all of the corruptions of the Word of God available today originate from.”
World History for Dummies reports that around 255 BC, “Eratosthenes
becomes librarian at Alexandria, Egypt, in charge of the largest storehouse of
knowledge in the world.”
Under the subhead Putting philosophy to practical use, the
book states, “If you get the impression that Greeks after Alexander the Great
didn’t do anything but philosophize; remember that much of what came under the
broad heading of philosophy (Greek for love
of wisdom) had practical applications. Geometry, for example, came in handy
for surveying and building.
“Incredible buildings went up during the
Hellenistic Age. Among them was a fantastic marble lighthouse in the harbor of
Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria became a center for Greek-style learning. The
library there held 700,000 volumes.
“The librarian in charge
of that great storehouse of information was a Greek named Eratosthenes, who was
also a geographer. He worked out a formula for measuring the circumference of
the Earth, measuring shadows in Syene, Egypt, and in Alexandria at the same
time—at noon on the summer solstice.
“Then he used the
difference between the shadows, multiplied by the distance between the two
cities, to calculate the planet’s size. Another Greek at Alexandria reportedly
built some kind of steam engine, although nobody knew what to use it for. That
thread of knowledge would be picked up in England quite a few centuries later.”
No comments:
Post a Comment