day no. 16,796: glibertarianism

1 Samuel 8:5-7; 9-18

"Make us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, "Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them."

And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, "This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day."

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."

Libertarianism asserts that "all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose." — Libertarian Party Platform

This, however, is insanity. When people are left to their own devices, they pick princes and popes to reign over them. Libertarianism assumes that free people will take measures to secure their freedom, but more often than not, they look for opportunities to sell their responsibilities off. The lie of libertarianism is that men will choose freedom over slavery.

Numbers 14:1-4

And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

People pick access to onions over the freedom to farm their own. People choose State-sponsored tombstones over God-inscribed laws. People would rather be slaves of the State than servants of God.

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

God commands to our weakness and for the benefit of others. We have to be commanded to stay free because of our temptation to retreat to slavery. We have to be set free in the first place because we enslaved ourselves to sin. We have to be commanded to stay free because outside of Christ, we look for other yokes. Living in Christian liberty is a command of God to His people. This cannot be accomplished outside of Christ or without His Spirit's help. When Christians live in liberty, it benefits our neighbors. It paves the way for limited civil government which blesses everyone.

"We deny that secularism is in any way capable of providing the liberty and structure that it promises. The only way forward is through a return to mere Christendom." — New Saints Andrews College, Thirty Theses on Culture Building

Libertarians would have us believe that the desire for freedom is deeply embedded in each human heart, but the desire for bondage is hardwired into our wills. We prefer slavery to responsibility. People delegate their freedom to the führer. Society sends the Son to be crucified by Caesar. There is no spark of liberty in the hearts of men. There is only the desire to do what one thinks best and that is informed or influenced entirely by sin outside of Christ.

Furthermore, the man or system people pick to lead the parade is a man who, like them, has desires of his own and Samuel painstakingly laid out the kinds of things kings often have in mind. Libertarianism means that men are allowed to live according to their respective proclivities, but as we've already seen, most men choose chains; and those who don't choose crowns because they have no lack of ideas about what they think best for other people.

People want kings and kings want job security.

Libertarianism is, when all's said and done, quite glib; it is glibertarianism.

day no. 16,795: craft incompetency

Proverbs 22:29

Seest thou a man diligent in his business?

he shall stand before kings;

he shall not stand before mean men.

If you want to be good at something, you have to be willing to be bad at it. A certain amount of discontent is required to achieve greater results and a certain degree of humility is required in order to be worse than you wish in order to become better than you are.

Craft competency is not accomplished by the faint of heart. Overnight success is not without sleepless nights and setbacks. No one can rise like a rocket. Everyone must summit like a mountain climber submitting to the valleys that accompany the upward path to peaking. One can summit only if he submits to going down a slope or two, In order to increase one must decrease; in order to ascend, one must be willing to descend. The last shall be first and the hungry will be satisfied.

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Matthew 20:16

So the last shall be first, and the first last.

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

day no. 16,794: too confident to stray; too humble to strut

Nehemiah 6:10-14

Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

Nehemiah acknowledged that he was too important to run away from this important work. Too many people depended on him being dependable. He could not withdraw or turn tail. He was the head and if the head becomes a tail, the whole project is elbows and asses. But Nehemiah also acknowledged he was too unimportant to strut around. Too many men, being the head of a project, assume their gravitas carries over into other arenas. Nehemiah was too humble to enter where only God's anointed were permitted. He did not presume to be an authority there simply because he was an authority somewhere else. His legitimacy in the one sphere did not convey to any in the other.

Nehemiah 6:11

But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.”

Be both indispensable and humble. Do not abandon your duties or assume special status simply for doing them.

Luke 17:10

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

May God give us more men like Nehemiah. Men confident in Christ to do the work He has called them to do: committed to carrying out their assigned responsibilities to the very end as well as confident in Christ that they do not imagine themselves to be on par with Him. May we see the rise of good and godly men who take their work seriously by sticking to it and who take Christ's work seriously by depending entirely on it without imagining that they add anything to it.

When you know who you are, you know what you have to do and what you must leave to Someone else to do. You can only do what you can do, but you must do what only you can do.

day no. 16,793: the law of rise and fall

“The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply this, that the man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down. This rule may appear somewhat harsh, but in its general application and operation it is wise, just and beneficent. I know of no other rule which can be substituted for it without bringing social chaos.” — Frederick Douglass, Self-Made Man

There is no way to mandate fair treatment without allowing for fair consequences. You cannot substitute the law of sowing and reaping without inviting chaos. In other words, the rule of sowing and reaping is inescapable and attempting to sow its absence does not protect you from reaping its presence. The law of falling and rising is indomitable and those who refuse to acknowledge it will experience the fall without the rising.

Proverbs 24:16

The righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

It is not as though the righteous never fall, but that they never cease to rise again. The power of resurrection is present and they cannot stay down. Death cannot hold them. Sin cannot bind them. They may sin, but they repent. They may die, but they will rise.

Micah 7:8

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.

The children of light can find themselves in the valley of the shadow, but they are never without sight. When the world is dark, they still walk by faith.

day no. 16,792: a classic case of Christian Nationalism from the book of Acts

Acts 13:6-10

Afterward they preached from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bar–Jesus. He had attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, a man of considerable insight and understanding. The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer (as his name means in Greek), interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Saul and Barnabas said. He was trying to turn the governor away from the Christian faith. Then Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked the sorcerer in the eye and said, "You son of the Devil, full of every sort of trickery and villainy, enemy of all that is good, will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord?"

Sounds like a classic case for Christian nationalism.

The governor called upon Paul in order to hear the Christian faith articulated. The existing religious influencers of the kingdom took exception to this and tried to interfere. Paul responded by saying these efforts were fueled by hellfire and opposed the good will of God.

Governors hearing the Good News is part of God's plan. Discipling the nations includes those nation’s representatives. God desires all kinds of men to come to the knowledge of the Lord, governors included, and hearing without believing and doing is clarified by Christ as an unacceptable response to His claims.

Colossians 3:23-25

Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

Putting it all together, God desires governors to hear and believe His Word so that they might do it, not just in between their ears and at home, but with their hands and in their office at work. He is to be a godly employee and if he works for the state, he should serve the State and its people as though he were serving Christ, and this obligation is not amended or decreased by him being employed in the highest seat his State has to offer.

day no. 16,791: do not empathize with evil

"Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." — R.L. Dabney, On Dangerous Reading

(Not at all ignorant of evil, I learn to support the wretched.)

Those who begin by empathizing with villainy end up playing the part themselves.

Jeremiah 10:2

Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen.

One of the dangers of being entertained by evil is that you begin to empathize with evildoers.

"I am well aware that men are usually more influenced to evil by one bad example than they are towards good by ten good arguments." — R.L. Dabney, On Dangerous Reading

Due to our depraved nature, we are more easily attracted to shortcuts than we are to straight and narrows.

“Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.” — Francois Duc De La Rochefoucald

We are somewhat attracted to those who have persevered on the straight and narrow, but then we honor them by trying to find a shortcut to their kind of honor without their kind of sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 15:33

Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

You cannot regularly engage in communication with the corrupt without being conscripted into their misconduct.

Leviticus 18:3

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

Wisdom is not learning the ins and outs of evil, but studying the rights and wrongs of holiness. You can gain experiential knowledge of evil by doing it, but you lose spiritual knowledge by doing so. You cannot advance your insight into purity by spoiling it.

Leviticus 20:23

Ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

One does not have to dabble in devilry to be saved from it. The devil's schemes do not require us to obtain participation trophies in order to understand them. Sin is to be studied from the outside like a caged animal not from the inside by mimicking the mayhem.

Deuteronomy 12:30

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, "How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise."

You shall not go after other gods. You don't need first-hand experience of falling off a cliff to know not to do it. You may never know what it's "really" like to fall like that, but you will be free to know many other things because you didn’t. 

Ephesians 5:6-12

Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 

In his short article, Dabney goes as far to argue that, "Novel-reading is the murder of time." Dangerous reading (and to our purposes: watching, listening, etc...) is not, in his estimation, merely a waste of time, it is a slayer of days. Being entertained by evil is foolish for the sake of playing with poison, but it is also foolish for it steals time that could have been used in noodling on nourishment.

Ephesians 5:15-17

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Watch how you walk and watch out for those who prescribe perversion as a mandatory path to broad-mindedness as though a hole needed to be bigger in order to be holier.

day no. 16,790: known by their fruitiness

Matthew 12:33

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

Affirmative action is contrary to Christ. It demands fruitless trees be called by their bark instead of their bushels. It reverses Christ's command and requires test scores to take a back seat to color swatches.

Matthew 3:10

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Affirmative action contends that fruitfulness should not determine the merit of a tree. It argues that the axe should seek out certain colors instead of certain characteristics.

Jude 1:12

These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted.

Affirmative Action calls colored leaves Springtime. It is appalled by the lack of inclusion Spring has shown for tans, reds, and browns and seeks to call everything Spring since Autumn leaves are oppressed by a system that won't allow them to appear in April.

Uprooted trees are detached from reality. They are not grounded in God’s world anymore than they are in His Word. They are dead twice over; both for refusing to reproduce and for taking measures to cut themselves off from fruit bearing. An uprooted tree has received the fruit it has sought and reaped the seed it has refused to sow, but Affirmative Action insists on calling their fruitlessness an alternative fruit bearing style.

Hebrews 6:7-8

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Affirmative action is gay. It affirms futility and promotes sterility. It is a tree know by its fruitiness. It insists that nut trees and peach trees are the same or that crab apples and cherries should attract the same suitors. Affirmative Action calls the farmer a "thorn-phobe" and chides him for using his thistle whistle to point out unproductive plots.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” — some racist

We live in a land that considers the sentiment above to be the product of systemic white supremacy. That standard is now akin to a racist assault on sacred secularism. Affirmative Action insists that institutions should be compelled by the force of law to ignore character in favor of caricatures.

Ephesians 2:14-18

For Christ himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus balances the racial relational budgets. Any attempt to tax it into compliance will only produce an inheritance of racial vainglory and malice.

"I cannot possibly conceive fraternity legally enforced, without liberty being legally destroyed, and justice legally trampled under foot. Legal plunder has two roots: one of them, as we have already seen, is in human greed; the other is in misconceived philanthropy." — Frederic Bastiat, The Law