Recent events have made it inescapably plain that we are living in the times when prophecy is being fulfilled. Oh, perhaps I’d better make that clearer—I’m not speaking of Matthew 24, or any other canonical prophecy. No. I refer rather to the prophecies of the Great Ones of the last two centuries, the men who are enshrined as prophets in my very own, homemade pantheon. We are speaking, of course, about Groen van Prinsterer, Bobby-boy Dabney, and Herman Bavinck. To be sure, their prophecies, like Rushdoony’s after them, are anchored in the Bible’s teachings, but they share not in that authoritative certainty granted to seers such as Samuel and the other capital P Prophets. Nevertheless, I’m deeply grateful to God for having given the insight to these “Latter Rain men” so I was enabled to understand the times in which I am living.
(If you’d like a sampling of Dabney prophecy, read his “Women’s Rights Women,” or order my sermon set, “A Little Dabs’ll Do Ya” for a modest gift to the ministry, by writing to CraigBrann@gmail.com.)
But to be brief, two things appear to me to be rather plain. 1) The West has officially and fully changed religions. The God-based Bible-revealed religions have been rejected in their entirety, though the fact that there are some residual forms that appear here and there, like ghostly reminiscences, confuses quite a few. They need only to remember how Paul by the Spirit taught us that the Form can easily be professed while the Power is denied—absent for having been rejected. Hello! Congress opens in prayer and then passes one anti-Christian bill or bill-provision after another.
Because God actually did create the world, and actually did send His Son to be our Savior, reality has it that there can be no neutrality. To be neutral in regard to Christ (you might recall Him having said this same thing) is to be against Him. Thus, what we now have in place of our God-based, Bible-revealed religious foundation is, very simply, a rather unashamed and energetic anti-God and anti-Bible based religion, rooted in the atheism that made its debut in our hemisphere in 1789. Since people mistakenly believe religion consists only in certain positive assertions and ritual actions, they are easily fooled by anti-Christianity, thinking it is not really a religious rival. Serious mistake. It is as earnest and zealous as any religion in history. It was the first religion to appear in the Garden (where “religion” was NOT an add-on, but simply a true view of and response to reality) after the creation, introduced by none other than God’s and our archenemy.
We are not so naïve as to think that anti-Christianity will long be content to remain in an amorphous condition. The strategy calls first for the dismissal of the received faith in its society-wide expanse. As Christianity becomes more distant in our memory-and our having accepted the proposition in schools and courts and la-la-land that we NEVER were ‘a Christian nation’ has certainly facilitated Beelzebub’s plan—and therefore less likely to re-emerge to assert itself, the plan calls for widespread introduction of sundry ceremonies by which our allegiance to the State as the Only Savior will be certified and renewed. There is no question about this. All consistent religions are total in their claims, comprehensive in their scope and exhaustive in their perceived right to rule. It’s just that living under the True God’s reign means freedom, whereas living under similar claims issued by the State means bondage altogether. Which leads to…
2) Deuteronomy 28 will be played out nearly fully in our generation and the next. There is already quite a head start in place for the curses section. Until now, our matchless prosperity had hidden this fact. With the coming home to nest of the egalitarian chickens in the recent Wall Street fiasco, followed in hump-fast step by a federal takeover of everything, with no blinking of note recorded, we seem well on our way toward that period or estate in which the consequences of apostasies such as ours are felt.
In light of all this, I’ve been applying myself to thinking about what our most prudent choices might be if we eliminate resignation and despair from the list of viable ones. While I have several proposed strategies for Christians to consider, one occurred to me today that is particularly attractive. Let us help bring an end to Social Security. Here’s the thinking:
First, we all know Social Security (we call it Soy Sauce Security in my house as sort of a family joke after my family came to include five Asian children; ya get it?) is doomed, done for, kaput. We also know it grows exponentially as a percentage of federal budget. We also know the amount filtered through federal hands is a direct indicator of federal power. Thus, Social Security’s demise is one of the brightest goals any freedom-lover might envision.
The trouble is, terminating the program hastily would result in more misery than anyone would willingly choose to accept. But remember! Our Wall Street-owning feds are being positioned by several intertwined threads to find themselves unable to turn away from the reality of no tickee-no washee, or, no money/no programs. If Christians can introduce THE solution to this problem, they might find that they’ve retraced steps sufficiently to come to the definitive wrong turn standing in need of correction. Moreover, correcting this problem can potentially fix a host of related problems.
What is being suggested is that we provide the feds AND the general public with some Reality Therapy. Explain that our starting point must be, SS is ending. Period. No time for discussions. We’ve got 20 years left, MAYBE, if God is patient. IN THE MEANTIME…
Here’s where it gets interesting. We demonstrate that the ONLY viable solution is to recover the sense of familial responsibility wherein all children growing up now see themselves as headed toward the fulfilling of their universally expected responsibility to care for their aging parents. This would require the greatest immersion in a radical ethic (which just happens to be Biblical) that America as ever seen.
America would have to pledge total cooperation so that every grade in every school, every department of government echoed the same theme: Children are a blessing, a blessing appointed to one day return the favors and provide care for their parents.
3 Responses to Soy Sauce Security: An Alternative to Despair
-
Amen to the new Social Security!
Jeremiah 29 has good advice as well: Build houses, plant gardens and have LOTS of covenant children
In the Lamb,
John
-
Val W. Finnell, MD, MPH says:
Pastor Steve:
I am delighted that you are addressing the current fiscal crisis in the Social Security system. Your dedicated readers should also be aware that Medicare is also in deep trouble.
Medicare is currently in crisis with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities. To put this into perspective, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that a two-earner couple at age 65 in the year 2030 would be expected to receive approximately $960,000.00 in Social Security and Medicare benefits during their lifetimes. In the same report, the CBO states that the “total payments to retirees are expected to grow much faster under current law than either the total incomes of workers who pay Social Security and Medicare taxes or the revenues earmarked for those programs.”
Now here is where it gets interesting. Not only will we be faced with dwindling (if not nonexistent) Social Security pension prospects, but also affordable health care. If Medicare collapses, who will pay for health care? People are living much longer than they ever have, which results in greater morbidity as the population gets older.
So, I would add that in addition to advocating that children take care of their parents that the church needs to become involved in the following outreach ministries:
1. Home aides. Not for skilled medical care, but to assist adult children in the care of their aging parents. What a blessing such a ministry would be to people and what opportunities we would have to meet needs and share the gospel!
2. Hospice. The hospice movement is growing and the demand for hospice will be astronomical in the coming decades. The total U.S. population is expected to grow by 0.6 percent each year until 2020, but the elderly population will grow about three times as much. Those age 85 or older will grow at the fastest rate of 2.9% per year over the next 30 years (USDHHS 1990).
Having volunteered at a local hospice in the Washington, DC area I know of the profound impact hospice has on the patients as well as their family members.
3. Health and wellness ministry. There’s a great need here where preventive services can be offered to families to maintain and promote healthy living. Such a ministry will also help jettison a millennia of gnostic hostility towards the body. If Christians expect the eventual resurrection and glorification of the body, then our actions here on Earth should demonstrate our loving care for it.
This will be a time of enormous opportunity for the Church. The government cannot afford to take care of aging Americans. We should be ready to stand in the gap and show our resolve to demonstrate Christ’s love for our communities.
Val W. Finnell, MD, MPH
Schlisselized in 1999
Dabney-friendly site; please visit/comment.
John Lofton, Editor
TheAmericanView.com
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com