From One We Can Judge The Rest

No one knows for sure, but I will say God cannot be mocked, and this "zombie-like" economy we have - a false economy - cannot continue to go on forever, because God, very much so is being openly and fearlessly mocked. It seems, no one fears Him! One could fairly and accurately say that no society in all the world's history fears him, and they're correct in saying so, but considering the wickedness of our generation, if it ever where met by the judgment of Christ as he descended from Heaven, I venture to say we would see people try to justify themselves right before His face (if such a thing were possible).

Namely, we have become irrespective in practice of the second table of God's law, and in effect, irrespective of God himself, for the second table necessarily corresponds with the first table (God's law is not dichotomous). And, when that happens as history shows, nations will lead themselves to the open grave of "fallen-nations-past" to mock their predecessors demise, only to feel God now kicking them over the edge. Now, I say God must not be mocked because everything we have is a gift from Him. Therefore, we should be faithful stewards with these material gifts. And, yes that means all of us, both Christian and anti-Christian, for the rain falls on both the just and unjust alike, does it not? And furthermore, where does that rain come from?, who gives it power to fall from the sky?

However, I ask you, can anybody detect at least a majority of leaders or citizens running the government, the financial sector, or the household, after the pattern of how we should run our homes? There are many who do, I'm certain, but for the most part, do we not see gross corruption in government, finance, and consumers at all levels, the likes of which are only found in decadent nations before they implode? This is because we hate God's law. And, as we are irrespective of God's law, it only naturally leads to us becoming over litigious, lovers of self, power, and mammon, desperately hoarding what will be consumed by fire.

It is evidenced in Scripture (for example; just read the prophecies of Daniel), and in the annals of mankind that decadent nations fall, and usually the fall is quick, certain and irrevocable. What is most insidious about this death is that it is a willfully unforeseen suicide. Yes!; that's right, we willingly kill ourselves in ignorance! And, it's unforeseeable because nations, at this stage are willfully ignorant, purposefully blind, cognitively dissonant, or in our case "irrationally exuberant" to the realities of the world around them. Future and current nations can always look back with 20/20 hindsight, just as we do now, and say, "How could the world allow itself to become so financially dependent on the economy of American?" Or, "Why would anyone in America ever think that switching from the gold standard to a fiat money system (i.e. money backed by aether) was a good idea?" Yet we are unable (or unwilling) to see the fate which is about to meet us. Furthermore, an accumulated analysis of all the various fallen systems of either government, economy, or household, due mainly to arrogance and decadence, could never give us any definitive insight, or render a predictive formula so that we could see the ends coming from far away due to the "problems" overwhelming complexity. We can barely predict the next days weather correctly let alone predict something with so many variables as is encompassed by an intertwined world economy.

Even if someone can see the the fate of their nation or their future from a long way off, they might not be able to see any hope if the vision is rather dismal. Some of us are already experiencing the reality of a collapsed economy, and upon looking at the fundamentals of everything in the markets, the outlook is nothing but dreadfully dismal for the world. And, in my own Christian walk, I can't even begin to count how many arrows of outrageous fortune I have received in the past six months. I constantly fight, and ask God in prayer to keep me faithful in spite of everything I see, in spite of myself! So many times in the past six months I have given in to the feeling that God has been judging me, that I must not be doing something right. It hurts me to no end! I mean, God hates me! right?

But His Word tells me something else! His word tells me to look at my Savior on the cross; He is the one being judged, He is the one who God pours His wrath upon, He is the one that God hates, and not for anything He has done, but on account of what I have done on His behalf. His Word tells me I must accept the reality at present; that I am as righteous as God is, that I am in effect His Son, that I possess the entire Universe, that the Angels are at my beckon command, and that God enjoys my company and I His, and not for anything I have done, but on account of believing what He has done on my behalf! His Word also tells me this world is perishing, and that I shouldn't store up for myself treasures here, which moth and rust destroy, but to keep my hope in Kingdom come, to keep my hope in Christ who is the way to the Kingdom and my true Treasure, to trust in His Word of Truth which the Holy Spirit works eternal life through, to glory in suffering just as Jesus was glorified as "the Son of Man". And to believe all this in spite of what I see, in spite of what I think I know, in spite of the fact that I do not see the glory that is with me in Christ, that I do not experience being present in His Kingdom, and nor do I feel His Holy Spirit interceding on my behalf. With all that said, God wants me stop trying to feel Him and ultimately resign my entire self, body and soul, to the fact that God loves me even when I'm convinced He hates me.

Just as the rain falls on the just and unjust alike, so does misery. Be comforted in heart that God knows our sufferings, He has counted every tear, He has consumed the cup of wrath to the dregs and has died in the damnation reserved for people with a wicked and evil conscience all for the sake of those that don't love Him, for people who, in spite of knowing about salvation in Christ, still hate Him. We, who are utterly incapable of loving Him without a spiritual regeneration by the Holy Spirit, who still wrestle with the flesh because of faulty senses and our natural love for whispering, malcontented devils, also love Him, although we in our flesh still hate Him. This is the essence of the biblical maxim "Simul Iustus et Peccator" (both saint and sinner at the saint time), and yet, God still loves us. Let us give thanks for this amazing blessing in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

With labor day approaching, I began wondering where this holiday began in the first place. I've also been thinking about those who do not have a job, like myself, are feeling about an overwhelmingly dry jobs market. And, in summation, what does our employment status mean in relationship to our Christian faith. Oh, and did I ever tell you what a scatter brain I can be? (Sheesh!)


A Brief History of Labor Day:

Looking at this holiday, I began to wonder why America, a predominantly capitalistic nation, would celebrate a day solely dedicated to its labor force. It would seem more befitting for us to have a holiday honoring the small business owner, considering that they comprise 70% of the compacity within the entire U.S. labor market. (I'm just saying that without them there are no jobs available to 70% of U.S. workers, and maybe we should give them the honor as opposed to the American worker, yet, I digress.) So, it occurred to me that this may be rooted in socialism, and upon researching further, it appears my suspicions were warranted.

I will let a pro-socialist explain it in her own words:

Remember the socialist origins of Labor Day!

12:02 pm September 4, 2009, by ctucker

For those of you heading off to celebrate the three-day weekend — and for those of you just heading to the backyard barbecue grill –— here’s a little reminder of the origins of Labor Day and the labor movement that it represents.

Though the first U.S. Labor Day was celebrated in New York City in 1882, President Glover Cleveland instituted the first national commemoration as an act of penance.

In 1894, Pullman porters called a wildcat strike against the railroads to protest a pay cut — a strike which eventually involved about 250,000 workers in 27 states. (Among the leaders of the strike was Eugene V. Debs, an actual, card-carrying socialist.) Several workers were killed by soldiers, and Cleveland put reconciling with trades unions at the top of his agenda. He rushed through Congress a bill making Labor Day a national holiday.

So, as you’re enjoying your barbecue and cold beer, your baseball and your Labor Day sales, just remember that the labor movement brought you the eight-hour day, the five-day work week and institutionalized vacations. And remember the socialist whose actions helped bring about Labor Day!

There is the "official" unemployment numbers released every month (which currently states we are at 9.7% unemployment), but what is released does not account for the individuals who's unemployment benefits have been exhausted, and also under the shadow of a poor jobs market, have given up the search for employment. This is what is called a "shadow stat", i.e. something purposely hidden. The real rate is estimated at 16.8%!

Now, I for one can anecdotally confirm that the state of employment "out there" is rough. It seems the only businesses hiring are in extremely specialized fields like medicine, etc., or, high turn-over jobs like telemarketing, etc. For many people in my situation right now, out of the two said job realms, I would only qualify for the high-turnover ones. So, to take one would definitely be a step down from what I was doing before. This trend is becoming legion, even among those employed who would be more than agreeable to a pay reduction than face a lay-off. The sole reason for this is because of the dire jobs market, and what other people they know, who happen to be unemployed, are telling them. Folks, it's scary out there!

(Just as an aside, there's an interesting article on Veith's blog regarding the vocation of the unemployed.)

I read an interesting article written by Mark Kolden on Gustaf Wingren's book Luther on Vocation. I haven't personally read it but it sounds like an interesting read.

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It would seem that there is about 13.7 million people unemployed in America at the moment giving us a current unemployment rate of 8.6% (which is sure to go up). A sad number indeed.

Well, you can say it's 13.7 million and one now, as I reluctantly join the ranks of the jobless.

I was laid-off due to lack of work on 5-8-09, and I'm afraid the company I once worked for is in serious danger of crumbling like a sand-castle against wave after wave of economic despair.

It seems the economy may be on the up-swing, and that's a good thing for our 401k's, our pensions, our jobs, our country, etc. Now, Time will tell whether this is the real-deal or a "dead-cat-bounce"/"bear-market-rally" choose your favorite term, but the problems that got us in this mess in the first place have still yet never been fixed.

I heard one profound statement and a great analogy on the radio recently regarding our economic troubles, one was on Hugh Hewitt's radio show and the other on Glenn Beck's, both of which made by economic historians fluent in what exactly happened during the New-Deal.

Hewitt's guest (sorry, I don't recall the name), said that basically the fed's a con-man (the "con" in con-man stands for confidence). What a con-man does is builds confidence in his mark so that he willingly hands over his loot to the crook as opposed to the crook stealing it against his will. Similarly, the government is printing money out of thin air, pumping it into the banks so as to re-inflate the burst balloon of our economy. If you put enough air (money) into that broken balloon it will loosely inflate creating the illusion that things are getting better, all the while the air is escaping into the void outside of it. This inspires confidence in the private sector. As long as the American public, economically speaking, is fat and dumb, we'll generally be happy and forget about the woes of yesteryear and what brought about those woes to begin with. Before long there is loads of money from the private sector flowing into the balloon, however the balloon no longer has the structural integrity to hold that much air and the original hole gets bigger. The balloon deflates a bit. Everyone notices, panics, and before you know it the private sector cuts off the air supply by hanging on to their money causing the balloon to deflate. Then the cycle starts again and again, except with each occurrence the economy must inflate the balloon with more air then before. And, ultimately in the end nothing gets fixed, especially when the real fix is to get rid of the balloon system to begin with, but to do such a thing would require pain and sacrifice. This leads me to the next example.

Beck's guest (once again I don't recall, but I do recall the book he wrote; A New Deal or Raw Deal?) was posed a question by a caller that went something like this,

The basic gist was that the same problems we are dealing with now are just previous generations pushing the problem off to future ones (sound familiar?). What is required is pain and sacrifice to rebuild a more stable economy based SOLELY on capitalist principles, not any capitalism mixed with socialism like we have now. However, we, the public, are adverse to personal sacrifice, so essentially it'll be pushed out and on a generation that is going to be forced to deal with it because the balloon is so badly damaged it can't possibly be blown up again. The sad part, is by that time it may be to late, because not only will investors from our country never want to do business in America again, but neither will any other country, for the global economy will see what a sham our economy has become. It's not plainly visible now, some are starting to see it, but in the future it will be as transparent as ever when these cycles of rest and unrest become more and more frequent, when we won't be able to hide behind short memories and long spans of prosperity.

You know, one experiment in socialism back in the 1930's and we are still paying for it, and in the end it may bring about the end of our great nation. So what's the solution now? More Socialism? Really? It's so frustrating to be caught between a lazy and dumb what-have-you-done-for-me-lately society, and an incompetent government. Yet, I digress!

I've been interested since my lay-off on what are some of the possible economic futures on the horizon, and the prospect is not good. In my next posts I will list some articles to further buttress my assessment. I'll warn you, some of it is really bleak!

The best thing for anyone is to look to the Lord and trust that he knows exactly what he's doing in times like this. I truly believe God is chastening us as a nation for the fraudulent and unfair economic system we have (among our many other politically endorsed sins). We, as in all things, need to repent of our covetous desires and unjust ways as a nation. I'll leave you with a prayer: