THE FIEFDOM CLIFF

From My Perspective - - -

The year-end panic pertains to a “fiscal cliff” and whether or not the way of life as it is known today will be vastly and greatly impacted tomorrow. There are those who believe it is a ploy to accomplish certain goals of the administration, such as (1) promote division among the “classes” within our nation by focusing on the “rich” (at best 2% of the population) and raising their taxes to 39.5% of reportable income; (2) minimize and marginalize the majority party in the House of Representatives by gendering strife and division among those with varying viewpoints (from centrist to conservative); and (3) by focusing on taxing the rich, it allows the administration to ignore curtailing spending and addressing the growing and unsustainable debt of the nation. There will be some compromises and, in most cases, they will be unprincipled and unconscionable.

It seems that several different things are occurring within the nation. In a subtle way, we may be gradually drifting toward the nation becoming a Fiefdom, namely, where a few gain control and are able to exert authority and influence in terms of direction and culture. It would become similar to Feudal Europe. At the outset, the goal and implementation of that goal is to actually produce a peasant class, namely, a culture where the government is the sole provider of a dependent portion of the populace. This will gradually progress until the peasantry begins to lose rights, freedoms and possessions. All too soon, they will become mere pawns in the fiefdom – but – they will realize what they have become – too late. This, in turn, will greatly impact the culture the populace thought they had as a birthright. Someone defined culture in this way: “culture defines who a person is, where they come from [in some cases], what they eat, what they wear, what they believe in.” What that doesn’t say is that a Fiefdom emerges, someone else will determine what you will eat, wear, believe in. The culture as we had come to accept it, namely, “the quality in a person or society in terms of what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits” will be eroded and greatly diminished to the point where fewer and fewer will have that privilege, and more and more will become increasingly dependent upon the few who will mete out in a begrudging manner to those who have become the peasantry within the dying culture and nation.

What can happen in a proportional way in this nation? In Genesis 30 through 50, one can read the Biblical narrative on the life of Joseph. The narrow focus in the Blog will be Genesis 41 and 42 when famine swept across the land and nations. In Genesis 41:36, Joseph had warned Pharaoh that a famine would take place and preparation needed to occur. Note: “This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.” Pharaoh concurred. We then read in Genesis 41:55-57, “When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph and do what he tells you. When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world.” The narrative continues that when the money people had was exhausted, they brought their farm animals as barter for food. All too soon, when all their possessions were expended, they were required to deed their land to the nation. Afterwards, they worked the land – not for themselves for personal gain – but for the state. Their labors were for the food the government would ration to them. They owned nothing.

Could this actually occur in our nation? Have you heard the phrase used – “the redistribution of wealth”? What do you think that means and who will it impact? The people who have wealth and possessions will have them gradually taken by the state, and those who have become dependent on the state will receive rations from the possessions of others.There is a solution, a starting place, especially for the remnant known as the people of God – the Lord commits Himself to a cure in II Chronicles 7:14, “if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways – then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.” Consider these things with me.