And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. (Isaiah 2:2)
The verse following the title, says, “And many people shall go and say, ‘Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:’ for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
The word “teach” is from the Hebrew word yarah, meaning to flow from, as in foundational teaching that comes from God. As we know, it’s the first of the two words comprising the name Jerusalem (yarah shalam). This second word, shalam, means peace, as in reciprocal security, of life, liberty, and property. These are the “ways” of the LORD spoken of above, teaching that peace can only come, exist, when there is a mutual acceptant of, and adherence to, not putting your neighbor’s life, liberty, or property (estate) under threat, no matter the degree. This last aspect meaning: no matter how much life he has (unborn, old age, or any other impairment), no matter how small the liberty, and no matter the value or quantity of his possessions, he alone has right to and over them. These are the ways of God, the law of nature and nature’s God, and the only way to peace.
This same law, its teaching, says there is evil existing in some men, who even when knowing these laws, will choose to violate them. It is for this reason, civilized societies, wherein men willingly abide by these laws, organize themselves, appoint officers (police and military) to protect and defend these rights from those with such evil intentions. The reality of these “defenses” is they’ve become more a response to crime once committed, with a focus on bringing the criminal to face justice by due process (also a right).
This brings us to our right to self-defense, which is, in fact, the only effective response to imminent threats to our life, liberty, or property.
Forgive me for a moment while I state another necessary foundational understanding: (our) governments are made of men in offices whose powers are enumerated and limited by/in Constitutions. As the Declaration of Independence says, “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent [a reciprocal agreement] of the governed.” Therefore, because governments are men, they cannot go beyond the powers granted them by our consent, and cannot put our rights under threat. They are men prohibited, limited, just as is any other man. In this, we understand the second amendment, intended for self-defense against men as individuals – and in government, if those with evil intent find their way into power and use government against us.
The law of self-defense also says, when there are alternatives to acting, processes of government protection from the threat (unless it is imminent and action an immediate necessity) we must legally use them. When other avenues of remedy don’t exist, a state of nature exists, and therefore the only defense is self. When the government becomes the perpetrator of the violation, a state of nature exists and there are left few options.
The Declaration of Independence itself spells out the solution, saying, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
The above says that two options are to “alter or abolish” governments that “becomes destructive to these ends.” The problem with our governments isn’t their form or the Constitutions that govern them. The problem is the people in office who ignore them and with intention violate their spirit and truth. The “new guards” we need are the old guards, good and moral people choosing good and moral people to fill the offices of government.
On this subject, John Adams said, “Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” His words are now seen true in the actions of the lawless in government, godless communist Democrats all.
These ideas of peace, the ways to achieve it, aren’t taught and aren’t given any value in modern culture. They are in fact the greatest of treasures, because through them only comes shalam. Those who find them enter heaven and the presence of God.
Isaiah 28
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue [words man is unable to understand, because truth has become as if a foreign language, by not being spoken] will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim [has risen up as great waters, His word, upon the enemies of David], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [The LORD has sent his word as great hailstones from heaven, where it was reserved in secret, frozen, until this time] that he may do his work, his strange work [strange only because God’s people have forgotten Him and His ways – therefore, as John 1:5 says, “the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not”]; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption [a complete end, which has now come], even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
Here again, is part of the post from 26 December 2019.
The time before these leftist’s ideas became the popular culture and destroyed our sound moral footing, is the time conservative should have more vigorously fought to preserve. It is the greatness to which we are and should be seeking to return. The proof we now see is that the ideas we surrendered cannot be improved upon, they are final, and as President Calvin Coolidge prophetically stated when realizing the decline away from them was underway, “all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn [has turned] to a barren scepter in our grasp.”
As often discussed here, the way back is teaching the same ideas, as solders knowing the enemy will and does resist us at every word. This aspect, fighting this war as soldiers whose only charge is vigilance, to accomplish this mission, is what Paul speaks to Timothy of in, 2 Timothy 4:5, the title.
Calvin Coolidge’s words on 5 July 1926 are speaking of the ideas written into our Declaration of Independence, upon which this nation was founded. This document says these are the station into which all men are entitled to live and be governed, in ways that secure their continuation, to us, and to our posterity.
One of the above groups seeks to destroy this state and return us to a more primitive time, in the name of progress toward communism and globalism, with them at the top and all others in misery. The other, conservatism, seeks to, through education and accepting reality, teach the laws of nature and nature’s God, which elevate men into achievement, and lifts, any who pursue it, into happiness.
Coolidge reminds us it is these better ideas that have produced our material prosperity, and not the reverse: our prosperity didn’t produce our ideas, nor should it. He says in closing his speech:
“No other theory [‘the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power’] is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create [the ideas of] our Declaration. [The ideas of] Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.”
If we are truly conservative, these are the ideas and ways, self-evident truths, we seek to conserve; not some diminished form or alternative replacements. They are those, the only way, by which we will and can “Make America Great Again.”
2 Timothy 3
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
10 But you have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the LORD delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
14 But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them;
15 And that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 4
1 I charge you therefore before God, and the LORD Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch you in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.
Friends, as we have heard from the LORD, the enemies now among us, our fellow countrymen, have been, and are, trying to destroy this nation by destroying the ideas and ways upon which it was founded. They thought they were there and became reckless in their exuberance. Thinking themselves the highest powers, in arrogance and hubris, their lies became openly apparent, and they destroyed themselves (the dead don’t know they are dead). This has been the rumor now shown to be true, proven as the domestic enemies among us, as Esau, sold their birthright for mere morsels. They have self-destructed, even while, from it, they were continuously warned away. “Who has believed our report [shmuw’ah]? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” Isaiah 53:1
Isaiah 52
1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for naught; and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the LORD God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, says the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Your God reigns!
8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Friends, it is time to shake the world.
Hebrews 12
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the LORD, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the LORD loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?
8 But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Isaiah 29
6 You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. [These verses are speaking of Abraham’s long sleep {his seed}, awakening and realizing they were deceived by their own stupefied minds.]
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep [see Exodus 15:12], and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the LORD said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid [see proverbs 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 1:19].
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught.
22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 But when he sees his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
Psalms 112
1 Praise you the LORD. Blessed is the man that fears the LORD, that delights greatly in his commandments.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endures forever.
4 Unto the upright there arises light [understanding] in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man shows favor, and lends: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
6 Surely he shall not be moved forever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.
9 He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn shall be exalted with honor.
10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
