National Debt and the Bible Posted on July 13, 2011 by Jerry Time goes by fast! It is now several decades since I helped Mr. Dave Balsiger find good Scripture references for an Election Guide he was preparing to publish. He had a number of critical issues listed, and I helped him select appropriate Scripture for each. One of the topics was the NATIONAL DEBT. Shortly after the Guide was published, I heard it reviewed by Forest Boyd, news commentator on the SRN News, then aired over the Moody Broadcasting Network. Mr. Boyd had just one comment. He said, “I don’t think the Bible has anything to say about the National Debt.” Goes to show what is oftentimes the case–he did not read the evidence I gave from the Bible before he formed his opinion. Or, he retained his mistaken opinion even after being shown the evidence. Here is the evidence: Deuteronomy 28:12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. Deu 28:13 And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: If the nation will follow the principles stated in God’s Word, the Bible, it will prosper and have no problem related to debt. Otherwise: Deu 28:43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. Deu 28:44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. Now try to tell me that the Bible does not address the issue of the national debt! Clearly it does. And what has now happened to us exactly fits what the Bible says would happen if we persist in not following the principles in the Bible, God’s Word. Some might wish to argue that those threats and promises were made to the nation of Israel under the Law, so they do not apply to us. But consider this verse from Psalm 9:17, Psa 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Psalm 9:17 does NOT say “and all the tribes of Israel that forget God.” It says nations, and that includes us. If we as individuals and as a nation learn what is God’s will as it is taught in the Bible, and do all that we can to abide by that will, we too will be blessed. If we do the contrary, we will be cursed. Clearly, in the Bible, national debt is a curse. We have gotten ourselves into this mess because of a failure on all parties’ part to tell the truth. We have been living a lie. Right now, this very day, President Obama and administration officials are using lies as scare tactics to force Congress to give in and authorize raising the debt ceiling. Administration officials and media reporters all are telling us that not to raise the debt ceiling will result in our defaulting on our debt obligations and the consequent lowering of the country’s credit rating. That is a flat-out lie. The Constitution and its Amendments and existing federal law stipulate that before anything else is paid, interest on our debt gets paid first. There is enough continuing tax revenue even in this down economy to keep those payments up even if we do not raise the debt ceiling. What this nation most needs, besides getting back to God and His Word, is a real shake-up and shake-out of the financial system. The banking establishment, justly called the “banksters,” have been robbing us blind to line their own pockets. The very large banks knowingly made loans to people during the housing bubble, people they did not verify as to whether they could pay back the debt. Banksters thought it did not matter. Houses were going up on an ever rising spiral in value. They knew it was a “bubble,” but there were profits to be made. Then when the bubble was about to burst, the “banksters” howled that they were “too big to fail.” Anyone who has read The Secret of Jekyl Island knows that the “banksters” have used this ploy before, the exact words. Currently, if banking institutions kept honest books using honest accounting methods, the large banks in this country would certainly be shown to be insolvent. We will never solve our economic problem by delaying tactics. We can’t keep “kicking the can down the road.” The problem needs to be addressed carefully now. The lies must stop. We might yet have just a ghost of a chance to at least control the deflation of the current debt bubble. If we keep delaying, it is likely that we will have an uncontrollable outright collapse of the entire financial system and economy. If you violate the “law of gravity” you will likely suffer some painful damage. If you violate the laws of mathematics, you will be in serious trouble. I trust the Federal Reserve Chairman and the Treasury Secretary are losing much sleep these nights. Of all people, they must know mathematics is against them, and the longer they delay adopting painful and stringent measures to halt the process now underway, the more painful will be the damage when the final tipping point is reached. Their current strategies are clearly a failure. Papering over the problem does nothing to solve it, but exacerbate it. We need to re-instate the Glass–Steagall Act immediately. Banks have no business engaging in risky investments backed on our dime. That caused the first Great Depression. It is now at the heart of this one. We need to provide American manufacturers and companies in general a “level playing field.” No company should be allowed to export labor to other countries to exploit the wage differential between our country and countries whose wages amount to slave labor. How to do it? Insist on true reciprocity. If a nation like China wishes to sell products made there to us, they can only do so under the same privileges and conditions that they allow us to sell products to them. We need to reverse the flight of jobs via so-called “outsourcing” from this country. How to do that? Simple. Grant companies who bring those jobs back, and those companies that have kept jobs here, a very major tax break–like freedom from any corporate taxes for companies that restore jobs to or keep jobs in America. What is called “Free Trade” is not Free Trade at all. It does not currently require reciprocity. It must. It allows wage arbitrage and environmental regulation arbitrage. If a company finds it saves lots of money to take advantage of slave labor, require them to pay a hefty import tariff to equalize the effect. If a company wants to pollute foreign countries, make them pay more than the equivalent saved in tariff. Simply don’t let wrong-doing be profitable. If we brought back fairness and equality (or maybe, established it for the first time), and by granting tax advantages for those who do what is right, perhaps then companies could afford to pay a genuine living wage and reverse the downward spiral we’ve seen in employment. The Bible clearly tells us that “the way of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15) and “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). It also says: 2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. This promise, of course, applies directly to Israel. But its principles apply to us. Until very recently it was my understanding that this verse really did not apply to us. But after repeated queries and challenges from my dear wife, I decided I had better study this out again and settle the issue once and for all. I think I spent the whole day studying the cross references to this verse, starting with those given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible. That day I greatly expanded the number of cross references given for this passage in those two Bible study reference sources. I am now fully convinced by Scripture itself that this promise in God’s Word is for us too. Here are those newly-expanded cross references for 2 Chronicles 7:14, 14. If. Ge +4:7. On this text, Thomas Scott, in Scott’s Commentary, remarks: In the best state of nations favored with revelation, there has hitherto been a succession of prosperity, ingratitude, corrections, repentance, forgiveness, renewed mercies and prosperity, and renewed ingratitude and forgetfulness of God. Yet the Lord delights in those places where his ordinances are maintained and attended on, in some measure of purity and consistency. But in cases of apostasy, or general profaneness, or hypocrisy, he will glorify his justice by tremendous judgments upon those, who have thus abused his mercies, and forfeited their privileges, making them a warning to others, if not an infamy among the heathen. Let us then stand in awe of him; watch against all sin; and copy the examples of the most approved of his saints, in the brightest parts of their characters (vol. ii. p. 472, American edition, 1864). Surely the principles behind the blessings (Dt 28:1-14) and cursings (Dt 28:15-68) given to the nation of Israel are in force among not only Israel but the nations of the world, extending to the curse of mounting national debt and economic decline (Dt 28:44). This passage provides God’s recipe for genuine revival. That revival must start with serious attention to continuing systematic, personal, real Bible study (See the Notes at 2 K 12:13 and He 6:9). my people. Some questions have been raised about the applicability of this verse: are these promises only for natural, that is, national Israel, or are they valid for us today? The following Cross References should settle the issue once and for all. Is 63:19. 65:1. Ac 15:17. Ro +*15:4. Ep 2:12. 1 P **2:9, 10. Re 1:5, 6. which are called by my name. Heb. upon whom my name is called. 2 Ch 6:33mg. Nu +*6:27. Dt 28:10. Is 63:19mg. Je *15:16mg. humble. T#1366. 2 Ch *6:37-39. 12:6, 7, 12. *33:12, 13, 18, 19, %23. *34:27. Le *26:40, 41. Dt *4:29, 30. *30:1-6. Jg 20:26n. 1 K 21:27-29. 2 K 22:18, 19. 1 Ch 17:16. 29:14. Jb 7:7, 18. 40:3-5. 42:5, 6. Ps 9:12. 22:6. *25:9. 34:18. +35:13. 42:5. 51:17. Ec 5:2. Is 57:15. 66:2. Je 1:6. 45:3. La 3:20. Ezk *33:11. Da %5:22. +**10:12. Jl 2:13. Mi +*6:8. Zc *12:10. Mt 8:8. Lk *18:13. 22:41, 42. 2 C *7:10. Ja *4:9, 10. 1 P 5:6. and pray. T#1388. 2 Ch 20:9. Dt 4:29-31. 2 K 20:1-5. Ps 17:1. *145:18, 19. Is **26:8, 9. 58:9. Je **29:13. Ho 7:14. Mt 23:14. Mk *11:23, 24. Lk 22:44. Jn 11:33. Ac 9:11. 1 T **2:1-4. He *10:22. seek my face. FS22A4, Ge +19:13. T#1386. 1 Ch 16:11. **28:9. Jb 8:5, 6. Ps +**9:10. 27:4, 8. Pr 2:4-6. 8:17. Is *26:9. 45:19. **55:6, 7. *56:6, 7. Je *29:13. 50:4, 5. La 3:40, 41. Ho 5:6, 7, *15. Am 5:4-6. Mt 7:7, 8. Lk *11:9, 10. He *11:6. turn from. The mercies of God to sinners are communicated in a manner suited to impress all who receive them, with the most profound reverence of his majesty, justice, and holiness (Ge +**18:25n); thus leading them to unite humble confidence with fear of offending so holy a God. Especially, whoever beholds, with true faith, the divine Savior agonizing and dying for man’s sin, will, by that view, find his godly sorrow enlarged (2 C 7:10), his hatred of sin increased (Ps 119:104), his soul made more watchful, and his life more holy: and they are speculating hypocrites, who profess to expect salvation by the cross of Christ, while the world has their hearts, and sin is allowed in their habitual conduct (Scott, references added). T#607. 2 K 17:13. Ps 34:18. 51:17. 147:3. Pr *28:13. Is *55:6, 7. 59:20. *66:2. Je +35:15. Ezk 18:27-30. Ho *6:1-3. Jl *2:12, 13. Zc 1:3. Mt 5:3, 4. Lk +13:3. *15:21-23. Ho 5:15. Ac 3:19-21. Ja +4:10 (T#357). then will I hear. The Lord’s ready answers to our prayers should animate us to repeat, with deeper reverence and more lively gratitude, our praises of his mercy (Scott). 2 Ch 6:27, 30, 39. Ps 91:15. Is *30:18. +*65:24. Je *33:3. Zc *13:9. Jn 15:7. Re *3:20. forgive their sin. The most endearing displays of the love of God, rightly understood, speak terror to hypocrites and presumptuous offenders (2 C 5:11); but the most tremendous discoveries of his righteous vengeance need not discourage the upright, humble believer. Every token of his favor should enlarge our hearts in his service: and those who are inspired with zeal for his glory, and who taste the joy of his salvation, will never think too much time or expense can be bestowed in communion with him and his saints, provided other duties be not neglected (Scott). Ex 34:7. Ps +**103:3. Is *1:18. 43:25. 44:22. 59:1, 2. Je +*31:34. Ho **5:15. *6:1. Zp 3:15. Mt 9:2. Lk 24:47. Ac +**3:19-21. +*10:36, 43. Ja 5:15. 1 J **1:7, 9. heal their land. T#1640. 2 Ch 6:28-31. *30:20. Ex +*15:26. Nu 14:11-13, 19. 2 S 24:15-17. Ps 60:2. Is 11:6. 27:6. 30:26. *35:1. 53:5. Je 8:22. *33:6. 51:9. Am +*9:13-15. Ml 4:2. Mt +*19:28. Ac +**3:19. Ro +*8:19, 21. Re +*22:3. You will not likely find this number of cross references given for this passage anywhere else. You will surely be blessed in your study of God’s Word if you take the time to look up these passages carefully in your own Bible. I have found it helps to have one Bible open to this verse (2 Chronicles 7:14), while I use a smaller Bible to turn to each of the references. If you have access to a Bible program such as the e-Sword program, freely available for download at e-sword.net, it may be easier to type the references in one at a time to read the corresponding verse. Feel free to make full use of these references in your personal Bible study or ministry, but remember that they are under copyright, so they must not be used in commercial publications without written permission from the copyright holder. source:realbiblestudy
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:25:33 +0000
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