The Sudden Popularity of Socialism
There is no other system of government that is a bigger failure than Socialism. For every nation that has implemented a pure form of Socialism, the end result has always been financial disaster.
Leftists love to point to the European healthcare agencies as an example of how Socialism can work. Everyone in Norway has guaranteed healthcare coverage, but it is paid for by a market-based economy.
The current biggest example of why Socialism fails is the nation of Venezuela. It is the nation with the world’s largest oil supply. When Hugo Chávez kicked out all the Western Oil companies in 2007, Venezuela had seemed to have discovered the secret to prosperity. Chávez gave out cheap food, education, housing, and jobs. He neglected to reinvest in the nationalized oil company, and things quickly headed south.
When oil dropped below $30 in 2013, it became very difficult for the Venezuelan government to continue to hand out free goodies. Oil has recovered above $70; there has still been no relief for the Venezuelan people. That nation’s production of oil has gone from 3 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day, and it will likely drop to 1 million by the end of this year.
Inflation in Venezuela is now at 43,000 percent. Two years ago, the cost of a cup of coffee was 450 bolivars. It now costs 1 million for that same cup of coffee. The government keeps raising the minimum wage, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to matching inflation. Back in April, for instance, President Nicolas Maduro hiked the country’s minimum wage by 155%. Last week, he increased the minimum wage by 300%, but it only means that people would make the equivalent of $1 per month.
America is nowhere close to Venezuela, economically or politically. But much of the left today is headed in that direction, looking to “socialize” medicine, housing, education, you name it. They plan to pay for all these programs by making the “rich pay their fair share.”
In 2016, Bernie Sanders was successfully pushing the party to the left. He called for things like “Medicare for All,” free college tuition, and whopping hikes in the minimum-wage.
The surprise prime win by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shows that Democratic voters are signing on to hard-left candidates. DNC Chair Tom Perez has declared Ocasio-Cortez to be “The Future of Our Party.” She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has some very radical ideas:
Abolish business profits
Abolish prisons
Abolish cash bail
Abolish national borders
Abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency
It is very hard to run against someone who wants to play the role of Santa Claus to the voters. Ocasio-Cortez wants the federal government to pay off all student loans, and liberal media praise her like this is a brilliant suggestion. They should be asking her who is going to pick up the tab.
I think the biggest threat America faces from Socialism is the debt it naturally creates. In 1958, the US national debt was $276 billion. Today it is at $21.2 trillion, which is a 76.8-fold increase. According to the government’s CPI inflation calculator, something that cost $1 in 1958 should now cost $8.80. The massive increase in the money supply means that we should be paying $100 for a basic meal at a McDonalds’ restaurant.
I’ve written before that the problem with socialism, as the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put it, is that “you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Since we’ve already spent the income of the next generation, there is no “other people’s money” left. Faith in the dollar itself is the only thing that keeps the economy rolling.
With high deficit spending being a major problem of most nations, Satan is likely planning to crash the global economy so he can implement a one-world financial system. It is my hope that the rapture is what triggers this mess. Having warned the world of the consequence of reckless spending, I’ll have no regrets about missing the calamity.
“He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev 13:16-17).
–Todd
God’s Case for Eternal Security Part II
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Jas. 6:4-6).
Those who believe you can fall from grace (lose salvation once you are saved) often put forth that the above Scripture proves their case. They say the words “if they shall fall away” teaches there is the possibility of being saved, then falling away from salvation because of sinfulness. Yet, if the phrase, “if they shall fall away,” proves the case that salvation can be lost through sinfulness once one is under the grace of God through Christ’s shed blood on the cross of Calvary, how, then, can the person who falls away be restored through repentance? They ignore this Scripture’s plain teaching that no one could, if he fell from grace, come back into the salvation fold. These same people usually believe in God’s forgiveness of sin and that a sinner can be restored to the point of being resaved. Their use of this scripture to make their point that one can lose their salvation, therefore, makes no sense.
What Hebrews 6: 4-6 teaches, of course, is that it is impossible to lose your salvation. The thing that must be considered here is whether one, if he then lives in sin, without any desire to repent, was ever a born-again believer. Paul wrote, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (Rom. 6:1-2). Eternal security is not license to sin without severe consequences. God will discipline His children. In some cases, the heavenly Father will call home His disobedient children who will not heed His corrective measures. The Bible truth about those who claim to be “Christians,” yet who live “like the devil” with seemingly no consequences is: they are probably the children of another father –the Devil.
John, the great apostle, through divine inspiration, spoke to this Bible truth:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would (no doubt) have continued with us: but (they went out), that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 Jn. 2:19).
God’s Unbreakable Seal
Almighty God holds the saved within His all-powerful hand, Jesus said. It is stronger than any lamination process that could ever be devised. God’s seal cannot be broken under any circumstances. Paul wrote about Jesus and those who truly believe in Him for their salvation:
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14).
Paul wrote that a believer should strive never to disappoint or grieve God. But in the next thought he assures that the believer is eternally secure, no matter what:
“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
Christians Sin
The Lord explained, through John, the relationship of the born-again child of God to his or her heavenly Father when it comes to the matter of sin:
“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:6-9).
Some claim that once saved, a person can live in sinless perfection. Let’s see what God says about this:
“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 Jn. 1:10-2:4).
When Jesus Prays
When the Lord Jesus prays, the heavenly Father ALWAYS grants His Son’s prayer. Jesus prayed for the children of God –all children past, present, and future, saved through Christ’s precious shed blood:
“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them…Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (Jn. 17: 9-10; 20-26).
Paul wrote extensively about his own sinfulness –and he meant the sin he committed after his Damascus Road experience. He was saved, yet sinned, much to his sorrowful remorse. Read Romans 7, beginning with verse 14. He then wrote the following, telling us that we live above sin because we are seen by the heavenly Father through Christ Jesus, not through our flesh:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:1-17).
Jesus is the One who makes us free. If we are free in Him, we are free indeed! Eternally!
–Terry
–Terry