Another thread here on BF has recently revisited the question of "legalization" of polygyny, and raised a number of related, and perhaps even confusing, issues.
While I might argue that (given what has been apparently done to the Constitution in general) such efforts are a "waste of time", that is hardly a real issue. After all, free people should be free to do with their own time as they choose.
It's helpful to know what it means to be "free", of course.
So there is a far bigger issue. While I frequently quote any number of Scriptures that bear on this topic (from Yeshua's teaching about "two masters", and "render unto Caesar that which is his" -- so whose are YOU? -- to Joshua's earlier admonition to "choose this day...Whom you will serve")...
...sometimes I get the impression that people don't seem to see "what could be the harm" of accepting Caesar's "blessing" (or 'recognition') for their marriage, or accepting an apparently harmless "benefit" from the State, or acknowledging even an unconstitutional "power" to "define" something (like 'marriage') -- where NO such power is given under our law!
I hope that a real, and very current, example may help.
First a bit of history.
Remember the "Prohibition" of alcohol? (The "18th Amendment", and the "implementing legislation" called the "Volstead Act" of 1920.) To prohibit the consumption of something that was NOT an "enumerated power" in the Constitution (Art. I, Sec. 8, etc) literally once required an Amendment AND an "act of Congress"! Have you ever wondered why not only prohibition, but regulation (FDA, etc) of other things no longer requires that same little 'legal' nicety? (Ditto something as blatantly obvious as firearm prohibition, which, coincidentally, came shortly thereafter, for similar rationale.)
The answer ('jurisdiction', "choice of law", "presumption", "private law", and so on) seems far more complex than it should be; this is by design. (After all, if you are legally incompetent to "represent yourself", you thus need someone Better Than You to handle it for you...)
But ultimately it boils down to a choice. In Whom do we REALLY "trust"? (By your fruits, it shall be seen.)
Back to current events:
Colorado recently passed a referendum "legalizing" so-called "medical marijuana". Some folks see this as a great step toward "freedom", since now they can once again get something that last year they could NOT. (But they forget history: their fathers COULD get "any green herb" or other thing that a free people could once grow in their own garden. What happened, again?)
All they have to do now is go get yet another "license".*
And this "license" (from "Caesar") is a bit unique. It is DIFFERENT from most other licenses, like those to SELL liquor, for example. This one explicitly licenses the PURCHASER. Call it "just another step" down the well-worn path!
No problem, you say? (To which I point out, as did Jefferson and Madison, that every "usurpation of liberty" is done in steps, small steps even, so that what were once "Rights" are eventually converted into "privileges", subject to regulation by your master -- whether you recognize him as such or not. Ask your legal representative what that means. :twisted: )
Now -- look up something called "Codex Alimentarius".
Medical marijuana -- SURPRISE! -- is yet another "Trojan horse", a "gift" that ultimately costs far more than the promised blessing from that false master will ever deliver. **
Presumably well-meaning people have once again been fooled. Thinking that they are expanding "freedom" by "legalizing" something that cannot Lawfully be prohibited to begin with - they blindly play into the hands of the very Beast they claim to fight.
Believe me when I say that soon (VERY soon, in fact) you will find that echinacea, ginger, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, garlic, essential oils, and virtually any so-called 'herb' or 'dietary supplement' you can name will be licensed, regulated, taxed, and ultimately prohibited,(yes, even in "your" own garden) by the same insidious process, and "for your own good", by your 'master' in Washington, DC.
The fact that no such power is enumerated in that quaint old parchment document is, of course, immaterial. The strictures in the Bill of Rights, and the Bible, don't matter at all - for the same reason. The fact that the very act of prohibiting a once-free people from growing their own herbs, their own food, or choosing how to handle their own health is itself prohibited in all those "laws" is equally immaterial.
Why? Freedom of choice, of contract. Both of our sets of "Supreme Law" documents guarantee that choice. YHVH Himself (see Deuteronomy 30:15-20) has made it repeatedly clear, and Yeshua taught it, directly and through many parables.
"Friendship with the world is enmity with God," and those who choose to serve the prince of this world, and prefer his blessings to those of the Father, "already have their reward".
I sometimes joke that this world is an "open Book test". The choice is ours to make. Choose wisely.
----------------------------
* More than one, actually. Purveyors ALSO require a license, of course!
** Consider James Madison's advice:
Whether one is "fer or agin' " the use of pot is not even remotely the issue, of course. The question is Who we serve, and why we so often fail to recognize, as Madison warned, the principles involved in that "usurpation of power" by another master. William Penn said it this way, "Those who will not serve God will serve tyrants."
While I might argue that (given what has been apparently done to the Constitution in general) such efforts are a "waste of time", that is hardly a real issue. After all, free people should be free to do with their own time as they choose.
It's helpful to know what it means to be "free", of course.
So there is a far bigger issue. While I frequently quote any number of Scriptures that bear on this topic (from Yeshua's teaching about "two masters", and "render unto Caesar that which is his" -- so whose are YOU? -- to Joshua's earlier admonition to "choose this day...Whom you will serve")...
...sometimes I get the impression that people don't seem to see "what could be the harm" of accepting Caesar's "blessing" (or 'recognition') for their marriage, or accepting an apparently harmless "benefit" from the State, or acknowledging even an unconstitutional "power" to "define" something (like 'marriage') -- where NO such power is given under our law!
I hope that a real, and very current, example may help.
First a bit of history.
Remember the "Prohibition" of alcohol? (The "18th Amendment", and the "implementing legislation" called the "Volstead Act" of 1920.) To prohibit the consumption of something that was NOT an "enumerated power" in the Constitution (Art. I, Sec. 8, etc) literally once required an Amendment AND an "act of Congress"! Have you ever wondered why not only prohibition, but regulation (FDA, etc) of other things no longer requires that same little 'legal' nicety? (Ditto something as blatantly obvious as firearm prohibition, which, coincidentally, came shortly thereafter, for similar rationale.)
The answer ('jurisdiction', "choice of law", "presumption", "private law", and so on) seems far more complex than it should be; this is by design. (After all, if you are legally incompetent to "represent yourself", you thus need someone Better Than You to handle it for you...)
But ultimately it boils down to a choice. In Whom do we REALLY "trust"? (By your fruits, it shall be seen.)
Back to current events:
Colorado recently passed a referendum "legalizing" so-called "medical marijuana". Some folks see this as a great step toward "freedom", since now they can once again get something that last year they could NOT. (But they forget history: their fathers COULD get "any green herb" or other thing that a free people could once grow in their own garden. What happened, again?)
All they have to do now is go get yet another "license".*
And this "license" (from "Caesar") is a bit unique. It is DIFFERENT from most other licenses, like those to SELL liquor, for example. This one explicitly licenses the PURCHASER. Call it "just another step" down the well-worn path!
No problem, you say? (To which I point out, as did Jefferson and Madison, that every "usurpation of liberty" is done in steps, small steps even, so that what were once "Rights" are eventually converted into "privileges", subject to regulation by your master -- whether you recognize him as such or not. Ask your legal representative what that means. :twisted: )
Now -- look up something called "Codex Alimentarius".
Medical marijuana -- SURPRISE! -- is yet another "Trojan horse", a "gift" that ultimately costs far more than the promised blessing from that false master will ever deliver. **
Presumably well-meaning people have once again been fooled. Thinking that they are expanding "freedom" by "legalizing" something that cannot Lawfully be prohibited to begin with - they blindly play into the hands of the very Beast they claim to fight.
Believe me when I say that soon (VERY soon, in fact) you will find that echinacea, ginger, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, garlic, essential oils, and virtually any so-called 'herb' or 'dietary supplement' you can name will be licensed, regulated, taxed, and ultimately prohibited,(yes, even in "your" own garden) by the same insidious process, and "for your own good", by your 'master' in Washington, DC.
The fact that no such power is enumerated in that quaint old parchment document is, of course, immaterial. The strictures in the Bill of Rights, and the Bible, don't matter at all - for the same reason. The fact that the very act of prohibiting a once-free people from growing their own herbs, their own food, or choosing how to handle their own health is itself prohibited in all those "laws" is equally immaterial.
Why? Freedom of choice, of contract. Both of our sets of "Supreme Law" documents guarantee that choice. YHVH Himself (see Deuteronomy 30:15-20) has made it repeatedly clear, and Yeshua taught it, directly and through many parables.
"Friendship with the world is enmity with God," and those who choose to serve the prince of this world, and prefer his blessings to those of the Father, "already have their reward".
I sometimes joke that this world is an "open Book test". The choice is ours to make. Choose wisely.
----------------------------
* More than one, actually. Purveyors ALSO require a license, of course!
** Consider James Madison's advice:
Whether one is "fer or agin' " the use of pot is not even remotely the issue, of course. The question is Who we serve, and why we so often fail to recognize, as Madison warned, the principles involved in that "usurpation of power" by another master. William Penn said it this way, "Those who will not serve God will serve tyrants."
