Series: What is the truth? Romans 13 - The higher right to choose part 2

In colonial America, “The ordinary citizen, living on his farm, owned in fee-simple, untroubled by any relics of Feudalism, untaxed save by himself, saying his say to all the world in town meetings, had gained a new self-reliance. Wrestling with his soul and plow on week days, and the innumerable points of the minister’s sermon on Sundays and meeting days, he was becoming a tough nut for any imperial system to crack.”(18)

The welfare of the people was attended to by the people and for the people through the charity and hope of the people.(19) Churches were a part of this system of daily ministration as they were in the first century. This was the pure religion (20) of loving your neighbor as yourself.

“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” (21)
Romans 13 does not exclusively talk about God's government of freewill participation. In verse 4 we are warned “...if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to [execute] wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

Although God allowed that sin, He also warned the people as to what their punishment would be. Rulers who exercise authority would take the best fields, the first fruits, the sons and daughters of the people. They would make their instruments of war, sacrificing the sons of the people for their own benefit. They would appoint men to rule over them and judge them. When they complain about those who they elected the LORD will not hear them. “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.” 1 Samuel 8:18

Today, we are taught that it is a good thing to apply to and go under the authority of rulers who force the contributions and sacrifices of the people, even though when Saul did that he was called foolish by Samuel and a violator of the commandments of the LORD thy God. “And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.” 1 Samuel 13:13

David numbered the people in order to draft them into his military, but he later confessed he had sinned against God. Today, it is a common practice among those claiming to love God.(22) The people were not to return to the bondage of Egypt, nor were the kings to do anything that would return the people to that state.(23) When the people were in bondage, all the gold was in the government's treasury, they did not enjoy the beneficial interest of their land, and the people had to pay twenty percent of their earnings to the government.

That condition---where men had power over the choice of others--- always leads to corruption and abuse. When the government became corrupt and the people's burdens became great, they cried out for their freedom. Why would God send Moses to set the people free from that government and then send Jesus to set up a church to deliver them back into the same bondage? In fact, God has never desired that people go into bondage---and neither did Paul, John the Baptist, or Jesus.

From Abraham to Jesus, God has tried to lead people out of systems of government where the people lose their right to choose, their liberty. God desires that men be subject to a higher liberty, because all liberty is of God, and there is no liberty but of God. The right to choose was instituted by God so that man may grows in the virtue and name of God.

God has used the same plan over and over to help man find that liberty as free souls in His kingdom. When Moses and Jesus began to implement that path toward liberty, the people were often still required to pay their metaphorical “tale of bricks”. They knew the people needed to learn to love one another by being the social security for each other.

The people had sinned against God and coveted their neighbor's goods, desiring the benefits offered by governments who compelled contributions of neighbors, making the word of God to none effect.(24) According to Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus, before the people can be free they must learn to love their neighbor as themselves, by diligently tending to society's needs by charitable offerings. The punishment for the sin of sloth is that they shall be under tribute.

Herod had been sending missionaries to baptize people into his version of the “kingdom of Heaven”. “Herod’s scheme of initiation into a new form of Judaism was immensely successful. Jews everywhere were willing to join the worldwide society ... Entry was for members only; they had to show at the door an admission token in the form of a white stone from the river Jordan which the missionaries gave them at baptism. On the stone was written their new Jewish name.”(25) They were citizens entitled to the benefits of Corban. There were scribes and temple police to ensure that their contributions were paid in full.

John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord. He said if your neighbor had no coat and you had two, you should share. He, like Moses, gathered the people in voluntary congregations and orders of ten, hundreds, and thousands.

Christ would do the same. Exodus and Pentecost marked the redemption of the people.(26) “Redemption is deliverance from the power of an alien dominion and the enjoyment of the resulting freedom. It involves the idea of restoration to one who possesses a more fundamental right or interest. The best example of redemption in the Old Testament was the deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, from the dominion of the alien power in Egypt.”(27)

Those who professed Christ's Kingdom of Heaven were cast out of the system professed by Herod and the Pharisees. They were no longer eligible for the benefits of that Corban. The people who followed Christ and John had learned to do without the unrighteous mammon and were better prepared for liberty under the God of heaven. They could now choose when, who, and how they would serve one another.

“What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose; the right to create for yourself the alternative of choice. Without the responsibility and exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.”(28) Peter tells us that we will be made merchandise because we covet our neighbor's goods.(29) Does he mean we will be human resource?

If we apply for the benefits of benefactors who exercise authority, are we praying that they, by their power, take from our neighbor for our welfare? Is this the perfect law of liberty or the unrighteous mammon? Is this coveting of our neighbor's goods through the agency appointed by God or the agencies appointed by the people who rejected God?

Paul asks, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? ...” (2Co 6:16). Even in the Old Testament we are told that “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.” (Exodus 23:32). Have we made agreements by our applications, by our prayers to benefactors who exercise authority?

Do not make covenants with gods,(30) bow down to, nor serve them. Who are the gods many spoken of by Paul? The common Hebrew and Greek words translated gods or God were used at the time of Christ to address the magistrates and judges in court. Those gods ruled over the people. They administered the laws of the ruling elite. The Emperor held the political office of Apotheosis, “Appointer of gods”, not because of any superstitious belief in stone idols, but because he appointed the imperial judges throughout the Empire.

That same office exists today in the United States as well as most other governments where benefactors exercise authority one over the other. George Washington is honored with that same title of Apotheosis (31) in the painting by the same name seen in the Rotunda, the fresco on the interior of the Capital dome in Washington D.C..

In God's kingdom you have a right to be ruled by God in your heart and mind. You are the ruling judge of your choices. This is why Jesus said, “...Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (John 10:34) When people give up their right to choose in exchange for benefits they are conquered by their own avarice, lust, and desires. God hates the deeds of the Nicolaitan. Nike is the Greek word for conqueror and laos is a word for people. Balaam is from the Hebrew word ‘Baal’ meaning lord or possessor and ‘am’ references the people. Nicolaitan and Baalam are two different forms of the same idea. They are systems that make gods of men, subjecting other men to fealty and allegiance.

Nicolaitans “were charged with holding the error of Balaam, casting a stumbling block before the church of God by upholding the liberty of eating things sacrificed to idols as well as committing fornication.” They were snared by their own appetite for benefits at the expense of their neighbor. The people are devoured in the civic pot of their own flesh.(32)

“... if thou do that which is evil, be afraid...Wherefore ye must needs be subject...For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute [is due]; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. (Ro 13:4,7)

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 2 Peter 3:12. Some interpreter of the New Testament suggest that the word “elements” is referring to a future nuclear war.

The word “element is from the Greek stoicheion33 from stoicheo “to proceed ... in order”. The same words element is also used in Galatians 4:3, used in reference to bind “in bondage under the elements of the world.” This word “world” is defined “constitution, order, government.” And, in Galatians 4:9, we see, “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?"

The same words are seen in Colossians 2:20, “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,”In Colossians 2:8 we see the Greek word “ordinances” translated “traditions” of that same constitutional order. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” The word spoil means “to carry off booty.”

18 History of the U.S. Vol.1 James Truslow Adams, p. 176.
19 Then John Wycliffe introduced his translation of the Bible in 1382 with the words, “This Bible is for the Government of
the People, by the People, and for the People.”
20 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and]
to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27
21 Plutarch, 2000 years ago.
22 “And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned
greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very
foolishly.” 2 Samuel 24:10
23 Deuteronomy 17:15, 20.
24 “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition...” Mr 7:13
25 Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Barbara Thiering,
26 John 9:22 and 34, 35
27 Zondervan’s Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible.
28 Archibald Macleish (1882-1982) Assistant Secretary of State
29 “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time
30 The Covenants of the gods http://www.hisholychurch.net/study/gods/
31 “literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god“
32 “...This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border
of Israel...” Eze. 11:3, 11. Exodus 16:3; Proverbs 1:10, 33; Micah 3:1, 4; Zechariah 14:21

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