Friday, December 28, 2012

Thank God for Principled Prohibitionists

If the 18th Amendment was required in order to grant the Federal government the authority to regulate alcohol because the Constitution did not previously enumerate such authority, how can it be said that the Federal government has the constitutional authority to regulate firearms when the Constitution specifically restricts it from doing so? The 18th Amendment and its repeal stand forever engraved into our nation's history as a reminder that the powers of our federal government are limited to those enumerated in its Constitution. In contrast to the enumeration of powers brought about by the 18th amendment, and its subsequent removal of those powers by its repeal, the 2nd Amendment remains, un-repealed, and rather than granting a specific power to the federal government, it makes the certain activity of regulating the private ownership of firearms off limits to it.



You might make the claim that since the Constitution mentions the regulation of a militia, and grants the Federal Government certain authorities with regards to establishing a navy and armies, that the Constitution does in fact grant the Federal government the authority to regulate firearms. This may be true, but that authority would be specifically limited to its own internal use for those enumerated functions, and the "shall not be infringed" clause of the second amendment would clearly put regulations affecting individual arms ownership out of the scope of federal constitutional power.

You might argue that the Supreme Court has rendered several opinions validating the authority of the Federal government to regulate firearms. Even if you understand the opinions of the court, you should take into consideration that the Supreme Court is itself a part of the Federal government, the justices, while often educated and intelligent, are also afforded their status more by nature of their political connectivity than by their constitutional objectivity. Besides, there are many constitutional scholars, many who are more educated and intelligent than any Supreme Court Justice, whose opinions are just as worthy of our attention. This all beside the fact that with just a basic understanding of natural law and a prima facie reading of the Constitution, a reasonable person can easily discern the proper constitutional role of the Federal government, with no help from any other outside expertise. The opinions of the court are just that, opinions, and as they relate to the scope of their own power are somewhat irrelevant, and assuredly suspect, particularly when those opinions violate the natural rights of individuals.

Sadly, the simple answer to the question of where our government is deriving its authority is that we no longer live under a government that consists of and is restricted to the powers enumerated by the Constitution. The government that we are currently being subjected to derives its powers solely by the force of political will and the use or threat of violence, with no cause or pause to consider principle, enumerated or not. If this is the case, then we should have no moral objection to ignoring the rules put forth by politicians who swear an oath to uphold the Constitution but act openly in defiance of it. Most of the general population, having never sworn an oath to the constitution, are surely under no moral obligation to obey these dictates, and those that have are in fact especially obligated to ignore them. At least with the 18th amendment we could argue that the rule of law was sought out, and due process applied, albeit foolishly. An appeal to principle, even a bad one, at least speaks to some kind of integrity.

From an economic perspective, the 18th amendment was a tragedy of misguided and ignorant good intentions. Its passage brought to fruition the realities and dangers of government intervention in the free market. However from a perspective of constitutionally granted authority, the 18th amendment serves as a smoking gun. That a government that didn’t have the power to regulate alcohol without amending that document where its powers are defined, also does not have the power to create regulations on anything else, particularly those regulations its constitution specifically forbids. That is, unless we resign ourselves to the reality that our current government consists of something other than what its constitution enumerates all together.
-Originally posted on the Daily Paul.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Planning your death experience.


Even if the experience of death is simply a chemical reaction that lasts just a few seconds but where your consciencness is suspended in a state where it can no longer experience time and the perception of those few seconds seems eternal (which seems to be a common occurrence in many near death type experiences), you must have a rational belief in a life after death or in a power over death in order to experience those few seconds in a way that your mind does not come to the conclusion that there is no way out. If death comes upon you and your mind realizes it and loses hope of being revived or has no hope of a resurrection, then eventually the experience will be recognized as an illusion and as that happens your perception of a distinct self will soon begin to disintegrate as there will be no other thing outside of your own conscience control to validate your separate existence, which would be like hell, I'm sure. Only by the actual belief in a resurrection will your rational mind retain the hope necessary to experience the dying process as a temporary transition with an expectation of coming out of it in a real sense and thus maintaining the integrity of your self awareness. A well founded and thoroughly examined belief in Jesus Christ offers an objective and rational hope in such a resurrection.

If you have not "worked out your your salvation with fear and trembling" then any irrationality in your belief structure may serve as a fatal blow to your minds hope of being resurrected.  The Bible also teaches that if a person has "become enlightened" but then falls away from belief, that it is impossible for them to be saved.  Could this be because your mind now has a rational objection to Jesus Christ, the proof of the resurrection?

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

Hebrews 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 

The thoughts that fill your mind now, while you are living, will be the entire means available to you by which to navigate the physical process of death.  If there is anything real to seek in death, the only way you will be able to distiguish it from a hallucination of your dying brain, will be to have familiar knowledge of it prior to dying.  If Christ appears to you in death, your prior knowledge of him will be the means by which you recognize and interact with him.  If you have doubt, your mind will determine that He is an illusion and will not interact with Him in a real way, and He won't be able to lead you to His ressurection.

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

I forgive God of His sins against me

Hebrews 5:1 Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins. 2And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses. 3That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.

The sacrifice of Christ also reconciled God's sins against me. Yes, God has sinned against me. He has acted against my will, he has allowed or even committed tragedies that offend my sense of right and wrong, He demands righteousness from me that I do not desire to obey, in general He stands other and above me, and I find myself His offended enemy.

Colossians 1:21This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Although His sin against me is universally irrelevant, inconsequential, and even my voicing them as "sins" may be silly and probably is in fact insane or at least ignorant, the sting of the offense still embitters me against Him. However, I believe that God is lovingly concerned with my perceived encroachment by Him upon my person, the person He created me to be, no matter how ignorant or irrational I may be.

Job 9: 32 “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. 33 If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, 34 someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. 35 Then I would speak up without fear of him,  but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

Through Christ, even though He was not truly guilty of anything apart from offending my ignorant perception, God still seeks to be fully reconciled to me, and I forgive Him.  He became sin and sacrificed himself for the sin that he became, once and for all, I receive all of it.  He receives my forgiveness, even as His truth chisels away at my own ignorance.
Hebrews 7:27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

It might seem pointless, even heretical.  You might be saying, "You're crazy Dax, God doesn't need to be forgiven, He hasn't sinned, you are just misunderstanding Him, seeing Him wrong".  And my answer is "So what?" I am still angry, my ignorance to His ways has created a chasm between us and I still need for Him to be reconciled to me, and I need to forgive Him.  If he shows me the full truth later, I will receive it, but as it stands, I know I need to be forgiven, but I also need to forgive God in order that my relationship with Him be fully reconciled.  He not only allows for me to do this, but He has provided for it through Christ's ministry of reconciliation.  Reconciliation is a two way street, an exchange of equal value, if not in reality, at least in the minds of the parties to the reconciliation   In fact the Greek word for "reconciliation" in the text below is a monetary word meaning something like "exchange of equal value".

2 Corinthians 5:18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

How great is the love of God that He does not dismiss my offense, even though it is worthy of dismissal  even ridicule, instead he honors it. Much like a father apologizing for having to correct his child, he does so, not because his actions toward the child were in any way wrong, but because of his love he is concerned with recognizing the individuality of his child, and maintaining the relationship.

Understanding this aspect of Grace, and of the the ministry of Christ in not only working to reconcile me to God, but also God to me, has helped me to see that when I have brought an offense to another person, even if their offense is unfounded, even if they completely misunderstood me, even if they are acting out of total ignorance, or out of spite, God has still provided the example for me to take the offense seriously and work and sacrifice to see that it is forgiven and that the relationship reconciled.