Taking Year-End Inventory

Doug Phillips, son of Republican/ConstitutionParty patriarch Howard Phillips, has posted a wonderful year-end checklist. After you finish it, you can use it in reverse to make New Year's Resolutions. Then continue taking inventory.

Day 4: Defeating the Enemies

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . .

Wait a minute . . . isn't that supposed to be "calling birds?" I'd better stick to the program -- "The 12 Days of Liberty: How Christmas brought Liberty to the Modern World." We're on Day 4.

We’ve been learning that the meaning of “salvation” in the Christmas story means more than "going to heaven when you die." Jesus’ name comes from the Hebrew word for “salvation,” yasha, as the angel announced:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21

Scholars give us this definition of the Hebrew word for "salvation":

Yasha and its derivatives are used 353 times. The root meaning . . . is “make wide” or make sufficient: this root is in contrast to sarar, “narrow,” which means “be restricted” or “cause distress.” To move from distress to safety requires deliverance. [T]he majority of references to salvation speak of Yahweh granting deliverance from real enemies and out of real catastrophes. That which is wide connotes freedom from distress and the ability to pursue one’s own objectives. Thus salvation is not merely a momentary victory on the battlefield; it is also the safety and security necessary to maintain life unafraid of numerous dangers.
John E. Hartley, “yasha,” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Vol 1, pp. 414-15

Yesterday we started looking at the prophecy of John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, in Luke 1, who was filled with the Holy Spirit after John was born, and prophesied, saying:

68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

We’re looking at several themes in Zechariah’s prophecy. We looked at the first two yesterday:
• The House of David
• His Holy Prophets
Today we’ll continue with:
• Saved from our Enemies
• His Holy Covenant to Abraham
In coming days we'll get to:
• Serving in Holiness and Righteousness
• The Way of Peace

“Saved from our Enemies”
Zecharias’ prophecy is a major stumbling block for many Christians. It seems like Jesus the Messiah did not do what Zecharias (and other Old Testament prophets) said the Messiah would do. Certainly the unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ day would agree that Jesus failed as a Messiah.

It seems very likely that Zecharias, like most Jews of his day, considered the Roman occupation forces to be the “enemies” of Israel. Zecharias seems to be prophesying an end to the Roman occupation. He says one of the effects of Christmas––the birth of the Messiah––is

That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
Luke 1:71,74

The idea of Israelites not being under foreign occupation goes back hundreds of years, to previous occupations, and is a major theme of the Old Testament, beginning at least back in Deuteronomy 28. Not just a “major theme,” it is at the heart of the Biblical word for “salvation,” as we have seen.

Let’s look at some of the references to “salvation” (yasha) as “being delivered from enemies”:

Numbers 10:9
“When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.

Deuteronomy 20:4
for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’

Deuteronomy 33:29
Happy are you, O Israel!
Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord,
The shield of your help
And the sword of your majesty!
Your enemies shall submit to you,
And you shall tread down their high places.”

Judges 2:16,18
Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.

1 Samuel 2:1
And Hannah prayed and said:
”My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My horn is exalted in the Lord.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

1 Samuel 4:3
And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.”

1 Samuel 25:26
Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal.

2 Samuel 3:18
Now then, do it! For the Lord has spoken of David, saying, ‘By the hand of My servant David, I will save My people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and the hand of all their enemies.’”

2 Samuel 22:4
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Psalm 3:7
Arise, O Lord;
Save me, O my God!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.

Psalm 18:3
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Psalm 106:10
He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

Psalm 138:7
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.

Being "saved from our enemies" is surely a part of the salvation (yasha) that Jesus (yeshua) was to bring.

But Jesus told Zecharias’ countrymen to love their Roman enemies.
This was a stunning shift in thinking.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed this thinking head on:

38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: 41 If a Roman soldier forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles.[1]
43 You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.” 44 But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. 45 Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. 46 If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors [2] love their friends. 47 If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? 48 But you must always act like your Father in heaven.
Notes:
[1] Under Roman occupation law, a Roman soldier had the right to force an Israelite to carry the soldier's military pack as far as one mile.
[2] These were usually Jewish people who paid the Romans for the right to collect taxes. These "tax farmers" were hated by other Jews who thought of them as traitors to their country and to their religion. See chap. 7 in TREASURE AND DOMINION: An Economic Commentary on Luke by Gary North.

These were shocking statements to Jews in Roman-occupied Palestine. Rome’s military occupation of Israel was constantly in the minds of that generation. Loving these enemies rather than seeking vengeance against them was a big leap. Statements like this dashed the hopes of many disciples that Jesus might be the Messianic King (John 6:66).

But there was an even greater shift in Jesus’ teaching as He approached the hour of His execution: Zecharias’ countrymen -- not the Romans oppressors -- became the “enemies” and Jesus said their enemies would triumph over them! This was in fact part of the Old Covenant which wasn’t emphasized as much as the good part about being "saved from our enemies." But it was there all along: Israel would not be saved from her enemies:

Deuteronomy 28
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue (yasha) them.
45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:[3]
[3] The Jewish historian Josephus records that during the 42-month siege by the Romans, some Israelites, cut off from trade, resorted to cannibalism before they were destroyed. (Wars, 6.3.4)

Jesus said that these prophecies were going to be fulfilled against “this generation”:

Matthew 23
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Luke 19:41-44
41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city [Jerusalem] and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus was prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem when Roman armies put the city under a siege that would take place shortly before the year A.D. 70.

Luke 21
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Revelation 11:1-2
1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.

These are the months from A.D. 67-70, when Israel was destroyed by Roman armies (see Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13).

So what about Zecharias’ prophecy? What happened to the angels' announcement to the shepherds: "Peace on Earth"? Why is it Israel was not saved from her enemies? All of this is a far cry from the salvation that Yeshua the Messiah was supposed to bring.

Here’s another incredible shift: Not only would Israel not be saved from her enemies, Israel herself became the “enemies.” Israel rejected her Messiah, and became the real enemy of the faithful. In numerous parables and sermons, Jesus indicted faithless Israel:

Luke 19
11 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. 12 Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’
24 “And he said to those who stood by, 26 ‘I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’”

Matthew 21
33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
’The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the LORD’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

True Israel, it turns out, was the remnant that believed in Jesus as the Messiah. And soon this remnant would grow to include believing Gentiles who would be grafted into True Israel, while unbelieving Israel would be cut off as the enemies of God:

Romans 11:28
Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

Matthew 10:36
and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’

Philippians 3:18
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

Jesus created a New Israel, suitable for a New Covenant:

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Galatians 6:15
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

Ephesians 2:15
having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,

1 Corinthians 5:7
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

Galatians 6:16
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Romans 9:6,8
But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

So believers in Jesus, both Jew and Gentile, are the New Israel, under the New Covenant.

You’re still asking, “So who are the enemies of the New Israel, and how does Jesus save us from our enemies? When's armageddon when all the bad guys get fried?”

Before answering this question, let’s look at this idea of the old and new Israel.

Zecharias said that one of the reasons Jesus came that first Christmas was so

71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to
our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,

We need to learn more about

His Holy Covenant to Abraham
The Scofield Bible says that God’s promise to Abraham was “unconditional,” and no matter how evil unbelieving Israel became, even if they murder their own Messiah, they would still be entitled to be saved from their enemies and possess the land of Palestine. This is why the formation of Israel in 1948 by Great Britain and “The Anglo-American Establishment" is important to Scofield and his theological descendants.

Jesus and the prophets disagree with Scofield, and Israel was repeatedly warned that if Israel did not repent, they would be “cut off” and dispossessed of the land. Matthew 23-24 is a terrifying indictment of unbelieving Israel.

The old Israel under the Old Covenant was a failure.

Hebrews 8:8
Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The salvation promised to Abraham, like all of God’s promises, beginning in the Garden of Eden, was conditioned on Israel's obedience to God. God’s promise to Abraham died, as it were, with old faithless Israel, and was resurrected in the New Covenant with a New Israel. The perfect obedience of Christ is imputed (credited) to the accounts of those who believe in Him, and they become the true spiritual descendants of Abraham, the true Israel.

Galatians 3:7
Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:9
So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Galatians 3:14
. . . that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:28-29
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. {29} And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 4:28
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

Romans 4:13
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

Romans 9:8
That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

1 Peter 1:23
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

Galatians 6:16
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

The promise to the New Israel is not just the land between the Tigris and Euphrates, but the entire planet:

Psalm 2:8
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; Hebrews 5:5)

Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Acts 1:8
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Romans 4:16
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

There are some Christians, believing the “dispensational” truths of the Scofield Bible, who say that Gentiles are not a part of the New Covenant. That covenant is reserved for the genetic descendants of Abraham only, and the New Covenant with Israel will not come into effect until a future restoration of genetic Abrahamites into the land of Palestine.

If you believe the Christmas Child is the promised Messiah, then you are a part of the New Covenant spoken of in the Bible, and you have no need to wait for a restoration of unbelieving Israelites to a plot of land in the Middle East. Christians are the seed of Abraham, and our inheritance is the entire world.

The question now is, how do we, the True Israel, take possession of the entire world? And further, why do we still have "enemies" to contend with?

We’ll answer those questions in more detail tomorrow. (We're only on Day 4!) But think about what we've already seen. The Jews alive at the first Christmas focused on the Roman occupation of Palestine. They wanted to be delivered from these enemies by a Messiah riding on a white horse who would blast all the Romans and give Israel control of the land. But being delivered from enemies is a by-product of submission to God's Commandments. And the promise of "salvation" is not just deliverance from temporary enemies. It's broader and more long term. Remember the definition of "salvation" includes these ideas:

That which is wide connotes freedom from distress and the ability to pursue one’s own objectives. Thus salvation is not merely a momentary victory on the battlefield; it is also the safety and security necessary to maintain life unafraid of numerous dangers.

When the angel announced the message of Christmas:

“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
Luke 2:14

much more was intended than a momentary respite from Roman oppression. The idea -- as we'll see over the next 8 days -- is an enduring libertarian civilization.

Day 3: The Birth of the Anti-King

On a routine trip to the doctor today I found the front office staff all wearing festive "Happy New Year" party hats. Probably most Americans have already forgotten about Christmas, unless they're still picking tinsel and glitter out of the carpet. Only a handful of people are observing "The 12 Days of Christmas," and nobody is trying to draw parallels between Christmas and libertarianism.

Except us, of course. And instead of using this "Third Day of Christmas" to talk about "three french hens," we're going to talk about an Anarchist King.

Speaking of doctors, we're going to begin looking at a prophecy recorded in Dr. Luke's Gospel, that of John the Baptist's father, Zechariah. Here is how Luke records the announcement of the birth of John:

Luke 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. 8 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah was obviously a devout Jew, even a priest. Six months later, when John was born, Zechariah was filled with the Spirit and prophesied of the new King, Jesus:

Luke 1
68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Zechariah, familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures, sees in that first Christmas the fulfillment of those themes and promises. In the next couple of days we're going to focus on these:
• "The House of David"
• "His Holy Prophets"
• "Saved from our Enemies"
• "His Holy Covenant to Abraham"
• "Serving in Holiness and Righteousness"
• "The Way of Peace"
Together these themes give us a picture of the libertarian Kingdom of Christ, a Kingdom rejected by the religious leaders at the time of the first Christmas, just as their ancestors rejected it in the days of Samuel, and as "premillennialists" of the "Religious Right" reject it today.

This Kingdom is not a purely "spiritual" or "private" Kingdom, as Herod understood, as evidenced by his attempt to assassinate Jesus the Child-King. If King Jesus has His way, it's the end of business-as-usual for all earthly kings. Jesus is not a king like all the other kings. But He claims jurisdiction over the same social, political, military, and economic issues that earthly kings, presidents, prime minsters, and dictators-for-life claim to manage "for the people."

"The House of David"
At the first Christmas, the religious leaders and the people were expecting the arrival of the Messiah, but they were not expecting a Messiah who would also be a “suffering servant.” The concept of Christ’s Kingship was completely misunderstood by the Jews in His day, and is widely misunderstood in our day. Many in our day hold the same anti-Scriptural views that were held by those in Christ’s day, who rejected the Christ of the prophets and desired instead a rival Emperor and an army of armed shock-troops to violently overthrow the Roman Empire and an army of bureaucrats to establish another top-down empire––with themselves at the top, of course. They really didn’t want an end to all injustice and oppression; they hoped that the oppressors (Rome) and the oppressed (Israel) would simply change places. They wanted to do to their conquerors as their conquerors had done to them. And they wanted a king much like those of the demonic empires that had dominated human history up to that time. When they attempted to make Jesus the kind of king that would rule them from an earthly throne, He fled them (John 6:15).

From the beginning, God accommodated the hard hearts of Israel. They never wanted the kind of King God promised to be (Isaiah 33:22). They wanted a king “like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8), and God gave them a better king than they deserved. But when it came time for them to choose the man who would be king, they did not even choose David himself:

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 8 So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”
1 Samuel 16:7-8

And in the eyes of those living at the first Christmas, Jesus was even less kingly than David:

He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isaiah 53:2-3

But Jesus was the King promised by God's prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus was the heir of David’s Throne.

Read those two sentences again. They are truly momentous. Quite possibly, a majority of Christians today don’t believe this to be the true message of Christmas.

The Angel told Mary:

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:32-33

This is a reference to many prophecies in the Old Testament. One of the most important issues in Christian thought today is whether Jesus fulfilled these promises. Stated another way, Did the Jews correctly interpret the Old Testament prophets when they rejected Christ as their King? They expected a certain type of king. Were their expectations Scriptural? Millions of Christians today have these same expectations.

Christ’s Kingship Foretold
King David was told that his was not true Kingship; rather, one of his descendants would be established as the True King:

11 And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. 14 And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.
1 Chronicles 17:11-14; see also 2 Samuel 7:12,13

The Psalmist sang,

The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
Psalm 132:11

This descendant is also called the Branch, a stem out of the root of Jesse (David’s father):

5 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“ That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness.
Jeremiah 23:5-6

“For thus says the Lord: ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; 18 nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.’” Jeremiah 33:17-18

That last prophecy is very important. The Protestant Reformation emphasized a neglected Scriptural doctrine called “The Priesthood of All Believers.” In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, with its sacerdotal priesthood and sacraments, the Reformation returned to the New Testament declaration that all believers are a new priesthood, building a new House, that is, a new Temple:

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
”The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10)

This whole concept was rejected by the guardians of the old temple, those who carried out the old sacrifices. They preferred “The Priesthood of Some Believers.”

Here’s the million-dollar Christmas question (and it really is worth millions of dollars, if only because best-selling fiction is based on the wrong answer): Is Jesus the final High Priest, are believers a “House,” a spiritual temple, and was Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary the final shedding of propitiatory blood in human history? Millions of Christians have bought millions of copies of books on prophecy which suggest that God is going to re-build the Old Testament temple and re-establish Levitical animal sacrifices. What does this say about the sufficiency of Christ’s work?

Obviously these are “leading questions,” and if you’re uncomfortable with where they lead, that’s understandable. But please accept the challenge to rethink your answers like the Bereans did, searching the Scriptures daily to find out the most Biblical answer (Acts 17:11).

The Protestant Reformers and the authors of the Westminster Confession believed that the Babe born in Bethlehem was this prophesied King. The most famous of all Christmas Carols and oratorios proclaim the Kingship of Jesus.

6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
Romans 1:2-32

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”
Revelation 22:16

Most of the New Testament was written by Jewish writers to a Jewish audience, and all this talk about "the House of David" is driving home the claim that Jesus is the promised New King David.

"His Holy Prophets"
We have two very different views of the Kingdom of God in conflict. The Jewish majority always had a distorted view of the Kingdom. But there was always a remnant that was faithful. The prophets spoke for this remnant, looking forward to Christmas in Jesus’ day (John 8:56; Matt 13:17; Heb 11:13). Again, this is not how the Jews of Jesus’ day saw it. They rejected a Kingdom which made progress by suffering and peace-without-strength,

which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.
Acts 3:21,24

The New Testament quotes the Old Testament prophets over and over again. Nothing could be clearer than the attempt by the writers of the New Testament to claim that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies about Davidic Kingship.
The most frequently-quoted prophecy in the New Testament is Psalm 110:

1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. 4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is not only the Christmas King, but also Priest. How can Christians believe that Christ is their Priest without also believing that He is their King? In fact, the very word “Christ” means “anointed King.” "Jesus Christ" is not a name like "Bob Smith." It's a title: Jesus the King. Is Jesus really the Christ, the Messiah, the world-ruler? According to the New Testament writers, yes.

“But Jesus is not on David’s throne in Jerusalem,” some will say. “And what about His enemies, like Osama bin Laden? Surely it’s obvious that Jesus will not really be the Christ until He comes again in great glory.”

This question is huge. It is not only an important theological question, but it has significant impact on our nation’s foreign policy, which has been influenced by tens of millions of voters who hold certain ideas about prophecy and the Middle East. Billions of dollars and billions of lives, literally, are at stake in understanding the Biblical answer to these questions.

Let’s first look at how the New Testament answers these questions. If nothing else, the New Testament answer is consistent, but not necessarily clear to those who have been raised hearing another answer.

Jesus is everywhere in the New Testament spoken of as the Christ, that is, the King spoken of by the prophets. This is the central theme of Christmas.
The Wise Men from the east knew this:

saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
Matthew 2:2

The Angel told Mary,

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
Luke 1:32

Zecharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:

And has raised up a horn [symbol of a powerful ruler] of salvation for us In the house of His servant David,
Luke 1:69

The shepherds were told

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11

His disciples believed that Jesus was the One foretold by the Prophets, and Jesus did not tell them they were wrong:

Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
John 1:49

In fact, Jesus often criticized the disciples for not believing everything that was said about Him:

50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Jesus was willing to ride into Jerusalem and perpetuate this belief:

saying: “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Luke 19:38

“Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
Matthew 21:5, Zechariah 9:9

took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
The King of Israel!”
John 12:13

Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord!Hosanna in the highest!”
Mark 11:10

Jesus outraged the Jewish leadership with His Kingly claims to being the Christ, which they saw as blasphemous:

And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” 64 Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. And I say to you, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! 66 What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
Matthew 26:63-66, and Mark 14:62, Luke 22:69

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
John 18:37

Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”
Acts 17:7

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.
1 Corinthians 15:25

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 1:17

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
Hebrews 8:1

But His Kingdom does not derive its power from the political machinery of the old world, He does not administer justice from any earthly throne in the capitol of any nation, nor does He claim any one nation as “His nation” (John 18:35-36). This is probably what confuses many people. They believe that if Jesus is going to “rule,” He must be physically located in Washington, D.C., or on a literal throne in Jerusalem. That's where real power is wielded, after all.

It should have been obvious to everyone who had read the Old Testament that Christ’s Kingship would be very very different from the kingship that began in 1 Samuel 8, and in fact, it was obvious, but the politically-minded, unspiritual, power-hungry Jewish hierarchy suppressed this knowledge and eventually assassinated the Christmas Child. Because of this self-deception, the people of Jesus’ day did not understand how kingship could be exercised without resorting to intimidation, violence, and coercion, and it was necessary to repeat continually that this Jesus, born of a peasant virgin, was indeed the Christ, the Son of David, the Promised King (Matthew 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-32; 21:9,15; Matthew 22:42-45 + Mark 12:35-37; Mark 10:47-48; 11:10; Luke 1:32,69; 18:38-39; 20:41-47; John 7:41-42; Acts 13:23; 15:15-16; Romans 1:3-4; 2 Timothy 2:8; Hebrews 12:2; Revelation 3:7; 5:5; 22:16).

Christ’s accession to the Davidic throne is at the heart of the Christmas message, and was at the heart of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. When David prophesied of the coming King Who would sit on his throne, he had in mind the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ to the heavenly throne, which is called “the right hand of power” (Mark 14:62), and not to any finite, earthly throne in Jerusalem –– or in Washington D.C. As Peter explained:

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ. . . . This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself,
“The LORD said unto my Lord,
sit thou on my right hand
until I make thy foes thy footstool.”
Therefore, let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Acts 2:29-36

The writers of the New Testament wanted to make sure it was clear to their readers that Jesus was the Christ foretold by the Old Testament prophets.

That the Messiah now sits at the right hand of God (the position of True Power and Might) is claimed of Jesus again and again in the New Testament (Matthew 26:64; Mark 16:19; Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3-13; 8:1; 10:22; 12:2). This is clearly the fulfillment of Psalm 110, and is said to be so in Peter’s sermon on Pentecost.
The very term “Christ” means “Anointed King,” and for His co-conspirators to claim that Jesus was the Christ was a dangerous political act (Acts 17:7). Can any true Christian claim that Jesus is not the Christ, the Anointed King?

“But what about Osama and the commies?” you ask, still unconvinced. “Isn’t the ‘millennial reign of Christ’ a time without troubles, responsibilities, challenges, or enemies of any kind?”

We’ll look at that question on the 4th day of "The 12 Days of Liberty." We’ll also look at these other themes from Zechariah's prophecy:
• "His Holy Covenant to Abraham"
• "The Way of Peace"
• “Serving in Holiness and Righteousness.”
We'll see that Christmas means working today for a global libertarianism.

Day 2: I'm Dreaming of a Large Christmas

On this second day of "The 12 Days of Liberty," we're going to look at one of the most misunderstood aspects of Christmas and Liberty: the meaning of the word "salvation."

When the angel announced the meaning of Christmas to Joseph, the angel said Jesus would save us from something. From what?

Most people give the answer: "From hell."

But this is what the angel said

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins
(Matthew 1:21)

This is actually a very different concept than being saved "from hell."

Imagine a man who needs to be saved from his sins. At one time he was viewed as a success by all who knew him. After college, he earned an MBA and got on the executive fast-track at a Fortune 500 company. He has a nice home, a Lexus and a Hummer. But recently he has developed a compulsion to shoplift. He also can’t control his desire to visit prostitutes. Because of his arrests for shoplifting and prostitution, he has recently lost his job. As a result of the widespread publicity of his compulsions and arrests, he is rapidly losing the respect of his friends, neighbors, and now even his family. His wife is ready to leave him. His children are embarrassed by him, and they have begun “acting out” in school, with grades plummeting and frequent suspensions for discipline problems. He is watching his entire life crumble in front of him. But he can’t stop the shoplifting and the prostitutes. He says “Wal-Mart is a huge multi-billion dollar corporation; what’s a few hundred dollars worth of junk from China?” He also says, “A man has natural desires, and my wife doesn’t respect me anymore.” But in spite of this talk, he’s miserable, and kicks himself whenever he shoplifts, even when he “gets away with it.”

The evangelist on TV tells him that if he accepts Jesus into his heart, he can be saved from hell, and when he dies he will go straight to heaven. “Yeah,” he says to himself, “after living the next 40 years in hell.”

He doesn’t just want to be saved from hell, he wants to be saved from his sins.

How many families experience “hell on earth” because of the drunkenness, infidelity, domestic abuse, and financial anguish caused by “addictions” to drugs, sex, shopping, gambling, and power, while their church pastor drones on about “salvation” and going to heaven?

Must this misery continue till we die?
Why keep on living? Let’s all go to heaven NOW!!

This is wrong. There is an answer to earthly misery. Christmas is the answer.

A previous generation knew these “addictions” were sinful and their painful consequences wrong. Today’s relativist generation is not even sure Adolph Hitler was wrong (“He was acting according to his own standards”), but previous generations knew these things were wrong, and a measure of consolation could be obtained by trusting in God to bring repentance in the life of the adulterer, abuser, or alcoholic, even if repentance never came. Moral standards give hope. But today we have lost touch with God’s standard of holiness, and “dysfunctional” behavior is assumed to be normal, and is sometimes protected by law as an “alternative life style.” Many people today live their entire lives engulfed in a sense of meaninglessness and moral confusion. This weakened state leaves them vulnerable prey for the politically powerful.

The Bible promises more than “heaven.” In fact the Bible says very little about heaven, and far more about being “saved from our sins” in this life. These promises are summed up in the term “sanctification.”

Webster (1828 edition) defined “salvation” as, “The redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to eternal death, and the conferring on him everlasting happiness.”

The vast majority of verses in the Bible which talk about "salvation" are talking about a libertarian society, in which people are free from their addictions to sin, and as a result, free from the initiation of force by others -- especially "the government."

When the Angel announced that the Christ (the word means "Messiah") who was to be born on the first Christmas would save us from our sins, and be named JESUS, the angel was being redundant. “Jesus” means “God will save.” The name comes from the Hebrew word yasha. John E. Hartley, in the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament Vol 1, pp. 414-15, says this about “yasha,”

Yasha and its derivatives are used 353 times. The root meaning . . . is “make wide” or make sufficient: this root is in contrast to sarar, “narrow,” which means “be restricted” or “cause distress.” To move from distress to safety requires deliverance. [T]he majority of references to salvation speak of Yahweh granting deliverance from real enemies and out of real catastrophes. That which is wide connotes freedom from distress and the ability to pursue one’s own objectives. Thus salvation is not merely a momentary victory on the battlefield; it is also the safety and security necessary to maintain life unafraid of numerous dangers.

We will be studying this definition during "The 12 Days of Liberty." It is most important to get a truly Biblical definition of “salvation” -- and its connection with Liberty -- into our heads.

Let’s begin with the idea that the Hebrew word for “salvation” means “make wide” or “large.” There are many verses that say this, and yet most Christians are completely unaware of the idea that a fundamental meaning of “salvation” means “being put into a wide open space.”

But let’s not take Prof. Hartley’s word for it. Let’s be like the Bereans, who studied the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11). You may want to look at some of these passages in their context in your own Bible.

(Psalm 118:5) I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.

(2 Samuel 22:20) He brought me forth also into a large place: He delivered me, because He delighted in me.

(Genesis 26:22) He moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

(Hosea 4:16) For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: can now the Lord feed them as a lamb in a large place?

(Psalm 31:8) and hast not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; Thou hast set my feet in a broad place.

(Psalm 18:19) He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

(Psalm 66:12) Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

(Psalm 69:35) For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

In the Bible, people who truly understand the meaning of Christmas are shown to be concerned about living in a “large” land. Of course, in a more agrarian society, “large” is better, as far as land goes. But when God promises to save us by putting us into a “large land,” it’s clear that more is included than going to heaven after living for decades in a narrow land before we up and die. What is the modern equivalent of a “large land?” It varies from person to person, but it includes some form of economic and political prosperity. “Liberty” and “large” are Biblical concepts we are not familiar enough with. Let’s review them and put them in our brains, so that as we read the Bible we will be more aware of them.

Exodus 3:8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

Leviticus 25:10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

Judges 18:10 When you go, you will come to a secure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

1 Chronicles 4:40 And they found rich, good pasture, and the land was broad, quiet, and peaceful; for some Hamites formerly lived there.

Nehemiah 7:4 Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt.

Nehemiah 9:35 For they have not served You in their kingdom, Or in the many good things that You gave them, Or in the large and rich land which You set before them; Nor did they turn from their wicked works.

Psalm 119:45 And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.

Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Jeremiah 34:8 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:

Jeremiah 34:15-17 Then you recently turned and did what was right in My sight—every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor; and you made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name. 16 Then you turned around and profaned My name, and every one of you brought back his male and female slaves, whom you had set at liberty, at their pleasure, and brought them back into subjection, to be your male and female slaves.’
17 “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you,’ says the LORD—’to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

James 1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 2:12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

For a people to enjoy liberty in a "large place," they must have been "saved from their sins." America's Founding Fathers understood this. In one of the most important addresses in the history of America, George Washington reminded the nation:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity.

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.

In a very important sense, we no longer have to dream of a "large Christmas," a Christmas of liberty. Throughout the Christmas story, a decidedly un-libertarian government looms large, crushing the weak with an iron hand, compelling Joseph and the pregnant Mary to hike to Bethlehem from their home town for the imperial census (Luke 2:1-7;), and killing all the babies (Matthew 2:16-18) in an attempt to kill a rival king (Matthew 2:3). The corruption and violence of a government that claimed to be divine would shock us if we could visit that age. We have become accustomed to living under a government that at least professes the ideal of "Liberty Under God."

Adherents of the religion of Secular Humanism want us to believe that everything good about America came from the minds of the Caesars and their court philosophers. But Greece and Rome gave us little -- except bad examples. These ancient empires were dominated by irrationalism and occultism. Karl Popper devoted the first volume of The Open Society and Its Enemies to an analysis of Plato as a mystic and a totalitarian. As many as a third of the residents of Athens were slaves. Most of the rest, while legally "free," knew nothing of liberty as we know it. War was a way of life.

John Lofton has compiled some telling quotations from scholars in a previous -- more Christian -- century. What follows is from his essay:

And make no mistake about it. Regardless of what you’ve heard regarding the alleged greatness of the ancient, Greco-Roman, pre-Christian world, there was no real, true freedom and/or liberty during this era. None. In his book The Ancient City: A Study On The Religion, Laws And Institutions Of Greece And Rome (1889), Fustel de Coulanges spells out in detail the darkness of this Christless world:

The citizen was subordinate in everything, and without any reserve, to the city; he belonged to it body and soul. The [pagan] religion which produced the State, and the State which supported [this] religion, sustained each other; these two powers formed a power almost superhuman, to which the body and soul were equally enslaved. There was nothing independent in man; his body belonged to the State and was devoted to its defense.

For example, Aristotle and Plato incorporated into their ideal codes the command that a deformed baby son was to be put to death. And in his “Laws,” Plato says (and this sounds very familiar today): “Parents ought not to be free to send or not to send their children to the masters to whom the city has chosen [for their education]; for the children belong less to their parents than to the city.” And in ancient Athens, a man could be put on trial and convicted for something called “incivism,” that is being insufficiently affectionate toward the State! Coulanges says (emphasis mine):

The ancients, therefore, knew neither liberty in private life, liberty in education, nor religious liberty. The human person counted for very little against that holy and almost divine authority called the country or the State…. It is a singular error, among all human errors, to believe that in the ancient cities men enjoyed liberty. They had not even the idea of it.

Commenting on our Lord’s God/Caesar distinction, Coulanges says:

It is the first time that God and the state are so clearly distinguished. For Caesar at that period was still the pontifex maximus, the chief and the principal organ of the Roman religion; he was the guardian and the interpreter of beliefs. He held the worship and the dogmas in his hands. Even his person was sacred and divine, for it was a peculiarity of the policy of the emperors that, wishing to recover the attributes of ancient royalty, they were careful not to forget the divine character which antiquity had attached to the king-pontiffs and to the priest-founders. But now Christ breaks the alliance which paganism and the empire wished to renew. He proclaims that religion is no longer the State, and that to obey Caesar is no longer the same thing as to obey God.

Christianity … separates what all antiquity had confounded…. It was the source whence individual liberty flowed…. The first duty no longer consisted in giving one’s time, one’s strength, one’s life to the State … all the virtues were no longer comprised in patriotism, for the soul no longer had a country. Man felt that he had other obligations besides that of living and dying for the city. Christianity … placed God, the family, the human individual above country, the neighbor above the city.

Because of this hideous tyranny, it is no surprise that self-murder (suicide) was so rampant in the ancient world. As Dr. Gerhard Uhlhorn tells us in his The Conflict Of Christianity With Heathenism (1899):

Heathenism ended in barrenness and sheer despair, and at last the only comfort was that men are free to leave this miserable world by suicide. Patet exitus! The way out of this life stands open! That is the last consolation of expiring heathenism.

And he quotes Seneca, who said that “the aim of all philosophy is to despise life,” as saying, concerning the suicide option:

Seest thou yon steep height? Thence is the descent to freedom. Seest thou yon sea, yon river, yon well? Freedom sits there in the depths. Seest thou yon low, withered tree? There freedom hangs. Seest thou thy neck, thy throat, thy heart? They are ways of escape from bondage.

To which Dr. Uhihorn adds:

Can the bankruptcy of Heathenism be more plainly declared than in these words…? With what power then must have come the preaching of this word: "Christ is risen! The wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

And in a little noticed and seldom quoted passage from Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville says:

The most profound and capacious minds of Rome and Greece ... tried to prove that slavery was in the order of nature and that it would always exist. Nay, more, everything shows that those of the ancients who had been slaves before they became free, many of whom have left us excellent writings, themselves regarded servitude in no other light.

All the great writers of antiquity belonged to the aristocracy of masters, or at least they saw that aristocracy established and expanded before their eyes. Their mind, after it had expanded itself in several directions, was barred from further progress in this one; and the advent of Jesus Christ upon earth was required to teach that all members of the human race are by nature equal and alike.

The historian Arnold Toynbee saw, accurately, the great failing of the ancient Greeks, that they “saw in Man, ‘the Lord of Creation,’ and worshipped him as an idol instead of God.” And this rejection of the true God —- which similarly threatens modern Western civilization —- led to Hellenism’s breakdown and disintegration. Rejecting Gibbon, Toynbee says neither Christians nor barbarians destroyed the Roman Empire; they merely walked over a corpse.

And in his book Religious Origins of the American Revolution (Scholars Press, 1976), Page Smith points out:

The American Revolution might thus be said to have started, in a sense, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. It received a substantial part its theological and philosophical underpinnings from John Calvin’s Institutes Of The Christian Religion and much of its social history from the Puritan Revolution of 1640- 1660, and, perhaps, less obviously, from the Glorious Revolution of 1689.

Put another way, the American Revolution is inconceivable in the absence of that context of ideas which have constituted radical Christianity. The leaders of the Revolution in every colony were imbued with the precepts of the Reformed faith.

Indeed, he adds, in early America, the Reformation

left its mark on every aspect of the personal and social life of the faithful. In the family, in education, in business activity, in work, in community and, ultimately, in politics, the consequences of the Reformation were determinative for American history.

As remote or repugnant as Puritanism may be to some, Smith says “it is essential that we understand that the Reformation in its full power was one of the great emancipations of history.” He says the passage in the book of Micah about “every man…under his vine and under his fig tree” was “the most potent expression of the colonist’s determination to be independent whatever the cost,…having substantial control over his own affairs. No theme was more constantly reiterated by writers and speakers in the era of the Revolution.”

* * *

Tomorrow we'll begin looking at this idea of salvation-as-liberty in the prophecy of John the Baptist's father Zacharias.

Day 1: Incarnation and Liberty

On this first day of Christmas and "The 12 Days of Liberty," let's consider the Incarnation of God as Man. It is the central meaning of Christmas. It is the foundation of Liberty in the Western world.

The story of Christmas and Liberty begins not 2,000 years ago, but much earlier than that. John's Gospel starts out with these words:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

This is what makes Christmas the most important event in the history of the human race. The Creator of everything that exists became a human being.

This man was also a King. The Prophet Micah foretold this Divine King:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”

The Prophet Isaiah also spoke of the King born a child on Christmas:

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

The Creator who became a Child, the God who became our King, is the reason we should

give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or "archists" or "the powers that be." All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the true Archist, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

We've translated the Greek word arche as "archist" to bring out an important point that's never brought out during "the holiday season": The Christmas Child is the True King, the Lord and Ruler of Nations; all others are usurpers.

At the first Christmas, the emperors of the ancient world all claimed to be gods. They were divine mediators between man and the heavens, linking the two in a chain of Being. In the story of the tribute money, in which Jesus uttered those famous words, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," Jesus exposed the archist idolatry of the religious leaders of His day, who would later shout, "We have no king but Caesar!" Rushdoony, following Ethelbert Stauffer, notes the idolatrous nature of the imperial tax coin, the denarius:

These men used the coins of Tiberius which carried a "bust of Tiberius in Olympian nakedness, adorned with the laurel wreath, the sign of divinity." The inscription read, "Emperor Tiberius August Son of the August God," on the one side, and "Pontifex Maximus" or "High Priest" on the other. The symbols also included the emperor's mother, Julia Augusta (Livia) sitting on the throne of the gods, holding the Olympian sceptre in her right hand, and, in her left, the olive branch to signify that "she was the earthly incarnation of the heavenly Pax." The Coins thus had a religious significance. Israel was in a certain sense serving other gods by being subject to Rome and to Roman currency. The point made by implication by His enemies, that tribute to Caesar had religious overtones, was almost confirmed by Jesus, even as He proved their own submission to Caesar.
quoting Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955), p. 124f.

They were making the same error their forefathers had, when they asked for a king "like all the nations." God told Samuel, "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them."

The desire to be or to have "archists" is a rejection of God and of His Christ.

The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the LORD and against His Christ.
Acts 4:26; Psalm 2

Jesus told His disciples, who were arguing among themselves as to who would be the greatest in the coming Messianic Kingdom:

You know that those who are considered rulers (Greek: "archists") over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

Those who understand the true meaning of Christmas reject the seductive call of the archists. The are servants, not archists; they are an-archists.

Only the Christmas Child gets to be King.

In A.D. 451, about the time the Roman Empire was collapsing, leaders of the church gathered to set forth the meaning of the first few verses of John's Gospel. The Council of Chalcedon declared that Jesus was "perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, truly God and truly man, in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation." R. J. Rushdoony explains the significance of this Council:

Chalcedon established the Christian foundation of Western culture and made possible the development of liberty. Chalcedon handed statism its major defeat in man’s history.

The problem centered on the definition of the two natures of Christ and their union. Behind the problem stood the resurgence of Hellenic philosophy in Christian guise and the claims of the State to be the divine order on earth, to be the incarnation of divinity in history. The Hellenic faith held to a radically different concept of being than did Biblical faith. The Christian distinction between the uncreated being of God and he created being of man and the universe placed an infinite gulf between the two, a gulf unbridgeable by nature and bridged only by grace, by grace unto salvation and by grace permitting a union or community of life, not of substance. For the Greeks, as for non-Christian religions generally, all being is one undivided being; the differences in being are of degree, not of kind. In this great chain of being, it is a question of place on the scale or ladder of being, whereas for Christian faith the difference is one of divine and uncreated being as against created and mortal being.

In terms of this Greek perspective, salvation is not an act of grace but rather of self-deification. Moreover, the central institution in history becomes the State, because the State as the highest point of power in history manifests the nascent or incarnate divinity of being either in the body politic, the rulers, or in their offices. In various forms, this faith was the substructure of all pagan statism. Thus, the issue very literally was one between Christ and Caesar.

The problem was God or man, Christ or the State, who is man’s savior, and how is divinity incarnated?

The Council of Chalcedon met in 451 to deal with the issue as it came to focus at the critical point, in Christology. If the two natures of Christ were confused, it meant that the door was opened to the divinizing of human nature; man and the State were then potentially divine. If the human nature of Christ were reduced or denied, His role as man’s incarnate savior was reduced or denied, and man’s savior again became the State. If Christ’s deity were reduced, then His saving power was nullified. If His humanity and deity were not in true union, the incarnation was then not real, and the distance between God and man remained as great as ever.

Western culture has been largely a product of Chalcedon, and the continuing crises in both church and State reflect their departures from or rebellions against Chalcedon.

The attempt of statist theology to divinize nature was declared to be anathema, but so was the attempt of statist theology to diminish the reality of the incarnation. To the degree that the reality of the incarnation was diminished, to that degree the State again asserted its claim to total lordship over man and society as the savior and redeemer thereof.

Chalcedon, first of all, separated Christian faith sharply from the Greek and pagan concepts of nature and being. It made clear that Christianity and all other religions and philosophies could not be brought together. The natural does not ascend to the divine or to the supernatural. The bridge is gulfed only by revelation and by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Salvation therefore is not of man nor by means of man’s politics, or by any other effort of man.

Second, Chalcedon prevented human institutions from professing to be incarnations of the deity and able to unite the two worlds in their existence. The State was reduced to a human order, under God, and it was denied its age-old claim to divinity for the body politic, the ruler, or the offices.

Chalcedon thus placed a double roadblock against man’s mystical pretensions.. By asserting the unique incarnation, without confusion or change of the two natures, first, personal mysticism was barred, and, second, collective mysticism was barred also. Neither the person nor the State could, by its works, experience, or upward growth or evolution unite with and become absorbed into the Godhead. The uniqueness of the incarnation was a preventative, and the insistence that there was neither change of the two natures, or confusion of them in Christ’s unique incarnation meant that no church or State could validly claim that, as Christ’s humanity, they had entered into His deity also. Had Chalcedon’s definition not been made the test of orthodoxy, then humanism could have validly utilized the incarnation, with theological sanction, to introduce Christ’s people, whether as church, State, school, or individuals, into this change of nature from humanity into divinity. To be a Christian in the fullest sense would have meant deification; participation in the sacrament of communion would have meant participation in more than the new humanity of Jesus Christ, together with the blessing of access in Him to God the Father. Instead, the sacrament would become participation in Christ’s deity. Man would eat God to become God. Humanism and paganism would then triumph over Biblical Christianity.

As long as the old pagan view of being prevailed, the State could be the divine-human order. Divinity then became so greatly immanent or incarnate in the State that there was no appeal beyond the State. The State was, at least for its day, the final order. In this scheme of things, man was simply a political animal, a social animal: he was definable in terms of the group, the body politic. Man had no true transcendence nor any ground of appeal against the State. In this condition, liberty was non-existent. Permission from the State to exercise certain areas of activities could exist, but not a liberty apart from and beyond the State grounded in man’s creation by God.

The Declaration of Independence is Chalcedonian in this respect, denying that our rights come from the State, and affirming that they come from God. Tomorrow we will see that this concept of "liberty" did not exist among the ancient empires of the world.

The prophet Daniel had revealed to the king of Babylon the future of four great empires: the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman. Daniel said that in the days of the Roman Empire, a Rock would crush it to powder, "and the Stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth," meaning, "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed." The Kingdom of Christ was exercised by His followers who challenged the divinity of the emperor, "saying that there is another king, one Jesus."

Those who carry the true meaning of Christmas in our day are "libertarians." Not necessarily every member of any political party, but those who reject the idolatry of human empires.

The relationship between the incarnation and liberty, and the conflict between Christmas and imperialism, is often lost in the tinsel and glitter of the season. If I haven't explained the relationship very well, please use the comment section to force me to clarify. Your comments and questions greatly aid the communication of these important principles.