Crony Capitalism & The Destruction of Economic Freedom in America

I have an aunt who is now in her later years, but something very disturbing happened to her when she was younger. Listen to her story.

My great aunt is an excellent baker and is renowned in the local community for her delicious cakes. I can taste one of those multi-layered red velvet cakes right now …  mmmm. Make you wanna slap ya mama  At some point, she decided to market her pastries to individual and businesses like local restaurants.  Then she hit a massive set back. Were there complaints about her cakes? Absolutely not. Were there suspicions about the cleanliness of her kitchen? Never. Was she losing money? Nope.  What then was threatening to devour her faster than a lion after a sick zebra?

A REGULATORY AGENCY.

A local bakery decided that they were going to close her business by using the law to do it. Instead of competing with better cakes and more competitive prices, they used the legal route. She used her own kitchen, which is a big no-no! This is why we and many others can’t sell food products.
Crony Capitalism at its best. If you can’t compete, then eliminate.

Providentially, she was able to continue because there was another large room in their home that could be converted into an additional separate kitchen. It wasn’t cheap because she had to purchase a whole gob of stuff, but she did it. Many cannot stomach the expense, so they just never open their doors to begin with, and this destroys home based businesses. Businesses that are built at home so that people can spend more time with their family.

What’s the solution?

First of all, call out this nonsense, and condemn it as evil. Second of all, if you want to own a home based business, look for a niche that is not as regulated … well not yet anyway.

Vanity of Vanities

A life apart from Christ is vain and without meaning. Why? At the end of the day, all die. However, in Christ lies the hope of what every man seeks: eternal life.

In The News: School Shooting in Ohio

Another tragedy speaks volumes as to the depravity of man and downfall of government education.  This morning yet another school shooting occured. Details were still sketchy.

I hope that this is a wake up call for parents to take their children out of government education. It has truly become an issue of life and death. As one who was living in Colorado during Columbine, I have vivid memories of what can happen. Therefore, take your kids out and educate them yourself.

In The News: Austere Measures in Greece

Greece has been slow to implement necessary cuts, which has exacerbated  its debt crisis.  However, in order to avoid bankruptcy, an agreement was made for Greece to make deep cuts, and this has caused considerable rioting.  This inevitably shows us that long term debt cannot go unchecked.  Without a doubt, a runaway credit card leads to financial disaster both personally and nationally.

How should we look at this as Christians?

God's Word is replete with commands of financial stewardship, and it is imperative that we live accordingly. The less debt we have, the less enslaved we are to another and the less likely we are subject to the whims of lenders.  As citizens of this country, we currently have the right to vote, so we have the ability to elect officials who take good financial management seriously.  If we refuse to elect those who will make hard financial decisions, we will reap the consequences and become like Greece.

Human Resource: Cog in a Machine

The term human resource makes man out to be a mere expendable machine. He is nothing more than a cog in a machine.  This mentality is why we immediately start asking people for something without even acknowledging their humanity (that is being made in the image of God). Instead of at least saying hello, we just rattle off a list of demands. No 'thank you' or 'you're welcome'.  After all, I don't say 'thank you' to my computer when it works, so, assuming that people are merely evolved machines, why should I acknowledge those more complex machines we call human beings?

When man abandoned the Biblical worldview, he left himself in a state of misery.  In his attempt to become liberated from God and live in autonomous indulgence, he diminished his value to nothing.  Before, he was created in the image of God; now he is but an expendable part that is worthless once it cannot produce any more. This is the end of evolution: a black hole of despair, which is the focal point of government education.

However, God does sit on the throne, and man does have value because he is made in the image God. Therefore, show respect to those around you by acknowledging their presence before giving them a laundry list of things you 'need' them to do.

In saying that, it is a reminder that our loyalty must be towards God, His Church, and our families first. All else tends to view man as a mere machine.  Truly, will your corporation or government employer be there for comfort when you are in ailing health or on your death bed?  No, so be careful where your highest loyalty and commitment lies.

Hebrew & The Greek New Testament

The Old Testament Hebrew (or the New Testament Greek/Old Testament Septuagint for that matter), often uses several different means to describe/command the same thing.  This demonstrates emphasis and not necessarily a sequence of things to do or particularly look for. It may show sequence, but, in prophetic literature, such constructions are often used to magnify a particular point and not many.

For example, Isaiah uses a litany of phrases when he commands the people to repent in light of God's coming judgement, for he may use many lines to say the same thing about how wretched the people are as opposed to how righteous God is.  This is important because emphasis occurs not only with the repetition of the same word like Holy, Holy, Holy, but it is also brought out by using different words and phrases when describing a particular event or a command to do something.  For this reason, word studies are useful but must be used with caution because 1) the word can be very interchangeable and/or 2) the writer is simply using several different words or phrases in a close context to magnify the situation.

A further issue arises in the realm of eschatology because some expositors tend to take a prophetic passage (which uses a tremendous amount of allegorical and figurative language) and parcel it out into a whole list of things to note versus seeing the list as an extended metaphor for the magnitude of an event that will indeed come about. For example, if speaking of judgment, said judgment is real and inevitable, yet the descriptions are often there to bring attention to the gravity of a situation and not necessarily provide elaborate details. However, when the prophet explicitly explains what the figurative language represents in detail (like Daniel often does), then the passage is not simply magnifying a situation; rather, a detailed list is also in mind. When comparing prophetic or poetic literature with narratives, the situation is different.  For example, when God gave Joshua a sequential plan to take out Ai, He meant for Joshua to follow this sequence of events, though narratives can use repetition and emphasis to magnify a point. Context is key. 

How does this relate to the Greek New Testament?  Most of the writers were either Jewish/Semitic or were heavily influenced by Jewish/Semitic thinkers. For this reason, understanding Hebrew provides critical insight into the mind of a Jewish thinker who is writing in Greek. Though he is writing in Greek, he will still think like a Semitic/Hebrew minded person. For example, when I speak or write in Spanish, it will still have an English taste because I am most trained to think in English syntax and grammar.  My Spanish will be correct, but it will contain a strong flavor of American English thought.  Such was the case in the First Century with the Greek New Testament, and this language relationship is predicated upon the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), which was translated into Greek from Hebrew just before the time of Christ.

Therefore, when I observe strong language, intentional repetition, or other Hebrew syntactical grammatical flavors in the Greek New Testament (which is usually hit upon in a well translated English version as well), I  take notice and become keenly aware of what the author intends to convey. That is when the hard work of linguistic study starts to pay off and become useful in exegesis, exposition, and ultimately application.

Kind vs Species

Noah's Ark has been a vessel of ridicule for quite some time. One popular caricature is the impossibility of Noah taking two of every species aboard the Ark.  This entire issue is laid to rest by simply reading the text. 

First of all, only the land animals were taken on the Ark. That solves most of the problems because much of the animal kingdom lives in the water. Besides, though many marine animals were buried in the Flood waters, a large number would have been able to survive and procreate, thus they would have not needed the Ark.

Second of all, the Bible doesn't use the word species; rather, it uses kind. To understand what that is, we have to go back to Genesis 1.  God created the kinds to multiply after themselves.  This implies a set order that then produces many variations from those original created kinds.  Created kinds would then best be understood at the genus or even family levels (ie dog/wolf kind, etc.).

As for dinosaurs, most were quite small, and Noah probably took juvenile representatives for the larger ones, which ensures longer procreation. However, because the climate was different after the Flood, their ability to multiply and adapt was likely limited.  Those that did survive for a time were probably hunted into extinction, while the rest died off because of the climate, disease, etc.

The real problem is not the Ark; it is rather a biased worldview that is exposed by the text itself. Man hates God and can only develop straw men, which only magnifies the holes in his arguments against the Bible.