I am truly optimistic about our society.  Everything around us is SHOUTING for us to focus on the corruption, graft, lies … (evil!) around us.  Though not living in denial of reality, I am choosing to focus upon those things that are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely.

American citizens are in a war for the soul of their nation and her founding principles.  In war, battles are often won by those who refuse to give up!  I believe God is not asking, “How many times were you knocked down?”   I believe He is asking, “Did you get up the last time?”

Remember – Various media attempt to picture you in a society that is unlike much of the rest of the nation.  We should respond by highlighting America’s exceptionalism and her virtues.  Use the positive as a foundation for sudden and relentless reform!!!

I agree – It appears unlikely that our ship-of-state stays afloat, much less gets repaired and restored WITHOUT an outpouring of the Holy Spirit across America.

BUT

Let us not be caught with our eyes focused upon the situation exclusive of God’s hand in human events.

• Are there indeed Americans humbly admitting to God that we deserve justice over mercy – Yes, I believe there are.
• Are there American individuals and groups in prayer for our nation? — Yes, I believe there are.
• Are there Americans honestly seeking the Lord’s specific direction for their actions? – Yes, I believe there are.
• Are there Americans turning from their individual besetting sins in an effort to see God’s hand at work?  – Yes, I believe there are.

Does 2^nd Chronicles 7:14 (above) apply today?  –

• Yes, I believe our corporate prayers will be heard.
• Yes, I believe our individual and corporate sins will be forgiven.
• Yes, I believe the gracious Lord will indeed heal our land!!!

Why do I believe so unlikely (appearing) future?  I respond, “How big is your God?”

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Moses, in the wilderness, interceded for his people, “Lord, If you wipe is out in the wilderness, It will make you look like an intolerant god, to the watching Egyptians (the world).”  And God repented.  Proving that He prefers mercy over justice when there is proper prayer.  The Bible book of Judges offers many similar examples.

America is the first civil government in all of human history to have been purposely founded upon sound Biblical principles.  If the failure of her citizens to honor those principles is, allowed to cause our national failure – The world will assume that Biblical principles of Christian Self-Government are not sufficient to sustain civil government.  All that the Hand of God has invested in America, as an illustration to the world, will be lost!!!

“Forbid it Almighty God.  I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” [Patrick Henry – 1776]

Ben Gilmore
[Contact Ben]

Part 1:

Part 2:

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It is so easy to get caught up in trivia and miss focusing upon the critical thing(s). If we go into hyper-inflation and trucks and trains no longer deliver goods, we won’t even be able to buy condoms!

The critical focus of the current issue — The president does not have the authority to dictate what can be supplied by stores or insurance companies. His authority and that of his administration is limited by the U.S. Constitution.

The members of Congress and the Supreme Court are failing in their oaths to protect and preserve that Constitution by not yanking on his leash!

One authoritative step outside those limits becomes tyranny. Accepting such tyranny makes slaves of free men. He was “hired” to work within the predefined limits of the job.

The Tea Party freshmen elected in 2010 were not given a vote in their congressional leadership (Speaker John Bohner). Yet he took office because of the majority they created. As a result, they were “neutered” in many respects, by politicians more interested in status quo than “sudden and relentless reform!” ( To quote Gov. Sarah Palin).

Many folks say they are tired of “endless political bickering.” It appears to me they, and most bickering politicians, miss the critical point. America is in the final stages of a decades-long battle between liberty and slavery.

Forget “Politics is the art of compromise”. Liberty and slavery cannot exist at the same time! There is no compromise with slavery!

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John Locke [1632 – 1704] had a profound impact upon America, as Colonial pastors preached the truths in his writings.

“… [W]hat state all Men are naturally in, and that is, a State of perfect Freedom, to order their Actions, and dispose of their Possessions, and Persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the Will of any other man.”

The earth is a stage, upon which God has placed man, to act out his destiny. If you were the only one on the “stage”, you would discover that God had abundantly supplied everything you needed to sustain your life – “A state of Perfect freedom”.

“The State of Nature has a Law of Nature to govern it, which obliges everyone : And Reason, which is that Law, teaches all Mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty or Possessions.”

Another English writer, William Blackstone [1723 – 1780] , “Father of the Legal profession”, wrote of this Law of Nature in “Commentaries”.

“He [God] laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that free will is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport (i.e. “design or meaning”)of those laws.”

Blackstone continues to define another set of laws – “Revealed Law”.

“The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man’s felicity. (i.e. “great happiness”) … Yet undoubtedly the revealed law is of infinitely more authenticity than … natural law.”

Blackstone makes the point that “Natural Law” and “Revealed Law” will never be in conflict, because they come from the same source (God). One more quote from John Locke, that our forefathers understood well.

“For Men being all the Workmanship of one Omnipotent and infinitely wise Maker : whose Workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another’s Pleasure”

Lastly, consider the “Declaration of Independence”:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…”

This is a time for every American to set aside bickering and pride. Each of us has a different task to perform in defense of our corporate liberty. No doubt, each task will come with a price. One requiring a change in priorities.

There is no place on the fence. Choose your side and prepare to battle for the soul of America.

For His-story & Government
Ben Gilmore

[Contact Ben]

This is a 3 video playlist. Total play time: Just over 26 minutes.

Direct Link to this playlist on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0527562FE985C98E

The Website: http://www.monumentalmovie.com/

Fascinating dynamic: A “company” appointed by the crown and granted land in Virginia oppresses it’s people horribly only to find that the only way the people would prosper was if they were given their own land.

The worldview discussion possible from this article is… Astounding.

From Mises.org:

Murray N. Rothbard

The result of this communism was what we might expect: each individual gained only a negligible amount of goods from his own exertions — since the fruit of all these went into the common store — and hence had little incentive to work, or to exercise initiative or ingenuity under the difficult conditions in Virginia. And this lack of incentive was doubly reinforced by the fact that the colonist was assured, regardless of how much or how well he worked, of an equal share of goods from the common store. Under such conditions, with the motor of incentive gone from each individual, even the menace of death and starvation for the group as a whole — and even a veritable reign of terror by the governors — could not provide the necessary spur for each particular man.  [Read More]

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you think?

Some thoughts on “the last best hope of mankind.”

Source

Perry is basically quoting Ronald Reagan and Reagan was saying a variant of something that Abraham Lincoln had said. (http://ask.metafilter.com/60189/Whats-the-origin-of-the-phrase-last-best-hope-for and http://reagan2020.us/speeches/City_Upon_A_Hill.asp).

I can see why it would sound arrogant to someone from another nation. I also see that many Americans might say such words in ignorance without really knowing what they mean.

But it would be worthwhile to study the history behind them.

The Reformation in Europe created a new way to see the world, and some of the best seeds of this new way floated on boats over the pond to start the early American colonies. The European Christian Reformation saw it’s greatest fruitfulness in the fields that it planted in North America!

Those seeds grew in the U.S.A. until those ideas floated back across the pond and improved life in Europe as well. Those ideas have now been written into constitutions around the world and influenced many nations on earth.

Source

Those ideas created a nation that along with the U.K. told Hitler exactly where he could stick his Fascist Tyranny. That same nation led the way in telling the Soviets what do do with Marxist Tyranny!

That same nation poured out it’s blood on European shores preserving liberty and self-government for much of the continent that birthed the Reformation’s ideas!

What I am getting at is this. An American could say “America is the last best hope of mankind” in an arrogant way, and an American could also say it in a way that is simply historically true.

I don’t believe that the United States is the only nation that God can use. I don’t believe that the United States is anywhere near perfect. I don’t believe that an American is somehow a greater person by virtue of where he was born than someone of another nationality.

However, there are a feisty band of Americans standing against socialist tyranny in a way that Europe has mostly abandoned. (Not completely, but mostly).

When I look around the globe (and I’ve been to many places on it) I don’t see any other nation that has a realistic chance of being a pillar for liberty and law like the United States has been and could be again. At least not for another 100 years.

Queen Esther (Source)

Like Queen Esther, Americans could pass this opportunity by and God will raise up another; but there will be heaps of global suffering in the meantime.

Whatever Barack Obama’s personal intentions are (who but God can judge the heart?) his worldview and policies are leading America towards the same World Socialism that Europe and much of the rest of the world has already embraced. If America succumbs we are in trouble.

This is why the Tea Party Movement is a good thing. This is why the Homeschool Movement is a good thing. This is why a rebirth of enthusiasm for returning to Constitutional Foundations is a good thing.

I would urge my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are offended by American Arrogance (and there definitely is Arrogance and Ignorance on many things) to FORGIVE US and PRAY for REVIVAL in America! Pray that America will rise up and fulfill it’s role. Pray that the Arrogance won’t be so great that God has to allow destruction!

If America fails God will eventually raise up another, but I don’t want to know what life will be like on planet earth in the meantime. Ronald Reagan once talked about “a thousand years of darkness.” This is a REAL HISTORICAL POSSIBILITY! In fact, the Protestant Reformation ended what was in many ways “a thousand years of darkness!”

But this remains true for the time being: America really is the last best hope of mankind.

I hope now you have some context for that quote.

Yes. Errrr. Well. Sort of. You do unless Muslims might be violent if you speak.

From BigGovernment.com:

“Dearborn, Michigan has become a Sharia enclave, much like those populating many European countries. The city of Dearborn, Michigan denied a permit Wednesday for Qur’an-burning Pastor Terry Jones’ planned protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday.

“Islamic supremacists were handed a victory for their violent intimidation and threats. City spokeswoman Mary Laundroche said that Jones’ permit had been denied for ‘public safety reasons.’ In other words, they’re afraid Muslims will riot. And so the rights of free Americans have to be curtailed.

“Terry Jones burned a Qur’an. So what? What happened to the freedom of assembly, the freedom of speech, and the freedom of expression? Terry Jones is prohibited from rallying in Michigan for fear of Islamic violence. Is that how far down the Sharia rabbit hole we have gone? Why is it that any time American law comes into conflict with Islamic law, it is American law that has to give way?”

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