Winston Churchill defined the ultimate clash of civilizations as between “the governments that are owned by their people, and the governments that own their people.” We are in this war now. We are fighting for whether we will be slaves or free, whether we will be able to determine our own destiny, or if every major decision in our lives will be made for us by government.
Some people do prefer to have every decision made for them. This is why some who are released from prison will purposely commit a crime so they can go back to prison. The security in not having to make any decisions for themselves is actually preferable to freedom for some. There are some Americans who would rather have the government micro-manage their lives than take the responsibility to manage their own lives. Even so, there are far more Americans who will never live under such tyranny.
Government is not our enemy. Government is necessary. The issue is how big and controlling we allow it to be. Governments that grow beyond their effective boundaries are the worst enemy freedom has ever had. Our government is now approaching that point, and in some ways has gone past it. It is being determined now if we will continue to be a republic where the people are the ultimate sovereign and the government serves the people, or if we will revert back to another feudal system where the people exist for the government.
In our time, this is a primary distinction between globalism and nationalism. Globalism is a movement toward a world under one government and an ultimate authority to force the conformity of all people to what a few think our lives should be like. Counter to this philosophy are the nationalists who seek the freedom and independence of nations to choose their own course, and for the people to be served by their government rather than the other way around.
As covered in earlier Briefs, the first two successful colonies in North America both had the experience of how devastatingly ineffective it was for the people to just share a common garden. Both experienced the loss of half of their colonists to starvation each year until they decided to allow each individual to have their own plot of ground to cultivate. After this, no one starved again. There was such an abundance of food in just one year under this basic free enterprise that they began trading their excess to the Native Americans and exporting it to Europe. In just one year they went from starvation to abundance. That is the power of free enterprise. The starvation is the result of socialism and collectivism.
Every time in history that collectivism has been implemented, it has resulted in destroying productivity, while free enterprise has led to the most productive advances and prosperity ever recorded. God made man to be free, and we don’t function well without freedom. America arose to become the “leader of the free world” to stand against the tyranny of globalism and collectivism. This is a great privilege, but it is also a responsibility. It is a position from which we can never drop our guard. It might be easier to not be in this position of leadership, but it would not be better. As a nation, “easy” has never been the course we have chosen, and it will not be for the foreseeable future.
There are noble and appealing ideals in globalism, and there are some principles in nationalism that seem ignoble and self-centered. Extreme nationalism has also led to tyranny, just as even the best philosophies carried to extremes have become destructive and led to evil. However, history is a sure testimony that every time the seemingly noble and appealing ideals in globalism have been applied, they have resulted in ultimate bondage and totalitarian control, as well as depravity. When some of the principles of nationalism that seem so selfish have been applied, they have turned out for the greater good of all people. Why?
Idealism can be the worst enemy of what is good and true and just. Ideals can be good when rooted in reality and true human nature, but destructive when we base them on the unreality of what some think human nature should be. The same people who will cheer the most for the idea of sharing everything are usually the ones who won’t share, or work in the common garden, but expect everyone else to. Just check the charitable giving on the tax returns of today’s “progressives.”
Marxists often point to the first Christian church in Jerusalem as the first communists because they sold their property and had all things in common. To understand the biblical testimony, we must understand that not everything God’s people did that was recorded in Scripture was God’s will. He told us so we could look at the fruit of the actions before judging them. As we look at this practice of the first-century church in Jerusalem, one question we should ask is why this practice was not adopted by any other church? Then we have to wonder why years later other churches in the world are taking up offerings for “the poor in Jerusalem?” It seems to have been something that seemed like a good idea and started out well, but ultimately resulted in poverty, just as every other attempt at this in history has.
It is a basic theological principle that when there is an exception in Scripture, we do not base our doctrine on the exception, but on the weight of Scripture. However, that exception is there for a reason, and we should always be open to God calling us to follow the exception. It may have been God’s will for the Jerusalem church to sell everything and pool their resources to prepare for what was to come upon that city. It was reported that in 70 A.D., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, not a single Christian was lost because they had all left, having nothing to stay there for.
Like it or not, even in the kingdom we are told that “every man will eat the fruit of his own tree.” This is not about possessiveness or selfishness—it is about stewardship. God gave the first man the job to “tend the garden,” to be productive, and there is a deep need in us that is met when we create and produce.
A primary reason expressed by the Founders for being devoted to protecting private property was to comply with the teaching of the Parable of the Talents, which is all about stewardship. Everything ultimately belongs to God as we are told that the earth and all that it contains is His, but He has even given us our lives in stewardship. Our ownership/stewardship is temporary, but important for us to manage well.
According to this parable, the one who managed well was the one who multiplied what was entrusted to him and was therefore called “good and faithful.” The one who did not manage well was called a “wicked, evil slave” (see Matthew 25:21-26). This was from the teachings of George Whitefield, the primary preacher who ignited the First Great Awakening in America and set the spiritual DNA of the American Republic.
Before the colonizing of America, there was hardly a place on earth where you could spend your life building a business, acquiring and developing property, and not be in jeopardy of having the sovereign decide they wanted it and just take it from you. The American Republic was the first place since the establishment of Israel in their Promised Land that the government was not only forbidden from doing this, but required to protect people’s property, which was seen as a divine mandate of government.
Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their own will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated; whereas that obedience which is exacted on a few important but rare occasions only exhibits servitude at certain intervals and throws the burden of it upon a small number of men. It is in vain to summon a people who have been rendered so dependent on the central power to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity. ―Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
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© 2020 by Rick Joyner. All rights reserved.
