Independence, Dependence and Interdependence

On Thursday of this week, July 4, 2013, the United States celebrated Independence Day.

On July 4, 1776, 56 bold, freedom-loving men signed the famous Declaration of Independence.

Have you ever wondered what happened to those men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five men were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the war.

Another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships from the Revolutionary War.

The United States has been known as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but those freedoms are quickly eroding from us and we're becoming a military kind of state, a police state, a totalitarian form of government, and it seems that no one really cares.

One survey that I saw in which they asked people to tweet or whatever it was, the reasons why they loved the Fourth of July, the only reason that was given that even came close to any kind of thing that meant something was spending time with my family. One of the big answers was watching the Rangers play. So it has a wide range. It has nothing to do really about what it means and what that day is about or what this nation is about or what our worldview should be and how concerned we should be with regard to what's happening to us our soldiers have gone to war for decades under the banner of securing freedom really for the peoples of the world so we have intervened in two world wars in Germany and Europe both times in Germany defeating the forces in Europe and I did in world war two those Japan and allies the title of the sermon today is independence dependence and interdependence I want you to be able to get this sermon and understand it I want you to be able to understand what's happening to this nation I want you to be able to understand what's happening in the world some might think well some person somebody else might have a better handle on this than we do I don't think they do they do not know the truth they do not know the answers to the great questions of life they don't really understand prophecy I think we have the best handle on it of anybody is our understanding of it perfect no not by a long shot we see through a glass dimly darkly as Paul writes in first Corinthians 12 no 13 so let's define our terms independence the state of not having to rely on outside sources for sustenance I'm independent I don't have to depend on anybody else self-sustaining freedom from control freedom from dependence freedom from dependence on another person organization or the state dependent the state of relying on someone or something to meet certain needs as in the case of a family member who is supported financially by another especially one living in the same house so I'm dependent upon my parents I was dependent upon my parents basically for the first 18 years of my life the only real income I ever learned I earned until I graduated my school was my senior year I drove a school bus of course today people can't believe at 17 I was wheeling a big international school bus loaded with 50 kids today you would probably shutter it a 17 year old doing that but that was pretty common during that time in the 50s that the seniors senior men would oftentimes drive the school bus so dependent on a family member a nation-state organization institution that must rely on resources outside their boundaries and systems to sustain itself so you're a dependent state without the aid from x y or z you would not make it Korea North Korea for example without the aid of China and other nations and even though they are the rogue state that they are we have still sent them much aid millions have starved to death there over the past several decades and I'm sure there are some starving to death as we speak here today see God is not a respecter of persons sometimes it's it's hard for us who live in such an environment and enjoy what we enjoy to even remotely identify with what is happening in the rest of the world and then interdependent relying on mutual assistance support cooperation or interaction among constituent parts or members in the vernacular we say we depend on each other so independent dependent interdependent God and Jesus Christ are the only two beings that have inherent immortality abiding within them and in that sense are truly independent look at John gospel of John 5 26 chapter 5 verse 26 the gospel of John chapter 5 verse 26 or as the father had life in himself existing in eternity as we heard in the opening prayer we do not exist at this present time in eternity but we have abiding within us if we have God's holy spirit we have the eternal spirit abiding in us that spirit that has existed in eternity for as the father had life in himself so has he given to the son have life in himself and upon resurrection when we are resurrected as glorious radiant spirit beings we too will have that inherent life abiding within us now we have the earnest of the spirit we can quench the spirit we can fall away we can commit the unpardonable sin on the other hand the whole creation and living creatures depends upon God for their sustenance look at acts chapter 17 acts chapter 17 acts 17 is where Paul goes to Athens and in certain place in Athens where the philosophers and the religiously oriented ones would gather and debate the various issues of the day the apostle Paul goes and he confronts them we're not reading the whole thing but in acts 1724 God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwells not in temples made with hands one time he placed his presence in Solomon's temple and one time he placed his presence the tabernacle in the wilderness before that but now he's placed his presence in each one of us and we are the temple of the living God God that made the world all things there in verse 25 neither is worship with man's hands as though he needed anything seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things we're dependent upon God for all things every good and give perfect gift comes down from the father of love it gives comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no wearableness neither shadow of turning and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation now we look in Hebrews chapter 1 Hebrews chapter 1 that this universe this world our being we are sustained by God and Jesus Christ we are not independent in that sense in Hebrews 1 verse 1 God who at different times and in different ways spoken times passing the fathers by the prophets had them these last days spoken unto us by a son the living word of God which we hold in our laps who being the brightness of his glory in the express image of his person upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sin sat down on the right hand the majesty on high and human beings can experience some degree of independence but all human beings are dependent and interdependent in order for a nation to be independent it must possess all the resources necessary to sustain life for its people now there was a time if you go back to the time of somewhere around the American Revolution you could say that North America and especially that southern part the United States possessing all the great natural resources that it did Atlantic Ocean on the east Pacific Ocean on the west the Gulf of Mexico to the south great rivers and streams rich fertile land all kinds of natural resources of course they did not have the means of exchange a commercial system yet developed which the British had developed and to a large degree of course we copied what the British had but in a sense of course we had people living here what we call Native Americans who were to a large degree independent of outside help they lived off the land but as time went on and more and more inventions came to pass and the industrial revolution and eventually the jet age the space age satellites internet changed the world to where the world is now so interdependent and so locked together that what affects one affects affects the other there's no place to hide there are smart bombs you can anchor your ship somewhere off the coast the east coast of the United States and you can target a hotel in downtown New York and you can blast the daylights out of it as we did during the Gulf War and also the war with Iraq where we had ships in the Persian Gulf that would hurl missiles into downtown Baghdad and pinpoint a certain place there bunker buster bombs that can unearth things that are several feet deep in the ground many areas of the world possess the necessary resources to sustain life with food, clothing, water, shelter, just the absolute necessities but you would be living sort of a stone age kind of existence with what you would call a very low level of quality of life so as time went on commerce trade developed among the nations and nations began to be dependent upon each other and interdependent for their livelihood in order to be independent you have to have a cultivatable land a favorable climate or food supply from the seas we have a group of people that are somewhat independent still but not totally in the modern world at one time the Eskimos living where they live were able to basically live off the seas and off the land the united states possesses more of the necessities for a high standard of living than any nation on the face of the earth thus the us could be the most independent nation on earth and at one time perhaps we were yet with each passing day we become more and more dependent and interdependent we lost our independence a long time ago as a nation now we have lost and are losing our freedoms and big brother is watching and listening to everything we do Orwell's 1984 I think he wrote it in 1948 but 1984 and the things that are in Orwell's 1984 again he wrote it somewhat as a science fiction sort of a novel but it is so prophetic it it lays out line by line basically what is happening in our world today so our nation has basically lost its independence and so has the other nations or so have the other nations and now we have lost many of our freedoms and I might ask I might also add we have lost we have lost our self-respect and innocence it took five years of bloody battle with the British King George III's troops in order for the Continental Army under the direction of George Washington for America the United States to gain independence and that with the aid of the French without the aid of the French it would be very doubtful that the US Continental Forces could have won the war the French provided armaments and monies the founding fathers left one legacy not celebrated on independence day but which affects us all it's the national debt the United States went into the red the first time in 1790 when it assumed 75 million in the war debts of the Continental Congress Alexander Hamilton the first Treasury of the Secretary's first Secretary of the Treasury said a national debt if not excessive will be to us a national blessing of course that's proven not to be the case and as I mentioned in one of the news articles in recent weeks we now have a trade deficit with Mexico and the Mexicans are pouring over the border into the US every day trying to get out of there since then the nation has only been debt-free for a period of about two years 1834 1835 that was during the presidency of Andrew Jackson of Tennessee after the war Washington and his aide Alexander Hamilton knew that the 13 states while politically independent were dependent to some degree upon Europe for the necessities of national life some of the basic things that you might need wheat corn various greens clothing many of the necessities of life because we did not yet have an agricultural system or manufacturing system to provide all of that thing all of those things at the continental convention in i'm sorry at the constitutional convention in 1787 both Washington and Hamilton were determined to make America's political independence permanent and to begin to cut the umbilical cord from Europe in the constitution that came out of the convention the states were prohibited from imposing any tariffs on the products of other states so interstate commerce thus creating the greatest common market in history the united states of america the 50 states can freely trade with each other and a tremendous amount of that goes on but now we have advocated free trade with all the other nations regardless of their pay scale regardless of their social structure regardless of human rights regardless of whether it's prison labor or child labor and we have outsourced many of our jobs to the rest of the world the u.s government was empowered to raise revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign goods but explicitly denied the power to impose taxes on the incomes of american citizens there was no income tax in the early years of the united states of america now the president politicians cry free trade free market system supply and demand economics claiming that self-regulating markets are ways to economic prosperity and so where is this led after the passage of naphtha after the passage of so many free trade agreements the united states now has a trade deficit with virtually every country that they do business with globalization and world community are the watchwords of the day the nations of the world have returned to the tower of babel english is the language of babylon with over 70 percent of the world's business conducted in english the japanese businessman the chinese businessman the german businessman most of them can speak english well enough to function in the world of trade and commerce most americans are not aware of and if aware have not accepted the reality of globalization and in fact most don't even care some of the interviews that in questions that they have from time to time and asking people who have college degrees just at random on the streets of america some of the most basic questions that you could imagine they do not have a clue as to what the answer is it's it's it's surreal it's it's surreal it's hard to understand in simplest terms globalization means that the world's economies are linked together they are interdependent the elite have created a system in which the nations are dependent and interdependent on each other the elite people who control banking commerce and trade the politicians and military are their pawns and they have developed a a system i don't know if you'd call it a system it is it is a philosophy it is a belief that the earth is and all the peoples of it are like an organism organic has to do with life like in organic chemistry organic chemistry studies the chemical compounds that come from living plants and animals of course they may be dead but at one time they were alive and so they viewed the the world as an organism and every part of an organism you could use the analogy of the human body like paul uses in first corinthians 12 that every part of the body has a part to play the environment the physical environment has a part to play and everything alive has a part to play and the goal is to make all of these parts work harmoniously together in order to do that you need to give up independence and become dependent and interdependent now you think that what happens in this world with regard to the way the world is going and the structure of the world and all of that just happens by happenstance it just sort of falls out that way don't you know that there are think tanks and people who are planning these things and developing programs and strategies to put them into action this article here interdependence is the end of independence though rarely stated and frequently denied the concept of interdependent nations implies the end of national independence or sovereignty and cooperation finally requires that the people of all nations face up to an admission that may not come easy cooperation by definition connotes interdependence increasing interdependence between nations regions must then translate as a decrease in independence nations cannot be interdependent without each of them giving up some or at least acknowledging limits to its own independence interdependence is totalitarian next statement he makes here Bertrand Russell a strong proponent of world government and all around elitist wrote in his 1952 book titled the impact of science on society that the inevitable result of society based on an organic philosophy can only result in totalitarianism the most obvious and inescapable effect of scientific technique is that it makes society more organic in the sense of increasing the interdependence of its various parts totalitarianism has a theory as well as a practice as a practice it means that a certain group having by one means or another sees the apparatus of power especially armaments and police proceed to exploit their advantageous position to the utmost by regulating everything in the way that gives them the maximum of control over others but as a theory it is something different it is the doctrine that the state or the nation or the community is capable of a good of a good different from that of individual in other words the state can do it better and not consisting of anything that individuals think or feel this doctrine was especially advocated by hagel hagel was a german philosopher the author the one who came up with and formalized the theory of the dialectic hagel who glorified the state and thought that a community should be as organic as possible in other words the whole organism so the theory is that you get the whole world working together in harmonious way with every part doing its part now within we talk about this to some degree in the body of christ with every part doing its part fitly framed together as a spiritual organism and that's good but when you extrapolate organic and organism to the world are you going to bring all the nations of the world together are you going to make every person a cog in this machine and it really becomes sort of a robotic machine giving up individual freedom for that of the state russia tried it communists tried it hitler tried it to some degree all of those efforts have failed but here we go again the definition of globalization globalization is the name for the process of increasing the connectivity and interdependence of the world's markets and businesses so you want a volkswagen they advertise they have some cute advertisements just sign on the line and drive away that's the power of german engineering the electronics were made in the east in japan sometimes the motor oftentimes the motor in mexico it is assembled in mexico it is brought to the united states it's sold as a german vehicle to marvel the power of german engineering one of the largest nissan plants in the world is located just north of jackson mississippi near just north of jackson mississippi near where wanda's sister lives in canton mississippi you drive along the road it seems you go for miles and here's this nissan plant out there and they talk about made in america but the plan but the parts for that whatever the vehicle is they specialize in pickups and suvs parts come from all over the world this process is speeded up dramatically in the last two decades as technological advances make it easier for people to travel communicate and do business internationally two major recent driving forces are advances in telecommunications and the rise of the internet in general as the economies become more connected to other economies they have increased opportunity but also increased competition thus as globalization becomes a more and more common feature of world economies powerful pro-globalization and anti-globalization lobbies have arisen in the meantime americans are taxed and controlled more and more with each passing date we have become a dependent nation we have borrowed from china and japan to the point that we're awash in red ink with the government taking and talking about defaulting on its debts the truth is we all know that the national debt will never be paid cannot pay the national debt we borrow from china to buy chinese goods we go to walmart we go to loaves we go to home depot the challenge would be can you find a product that is made in america china and japan hold billions in us reserve currencies technically we are at the mercy of foreign lenders so why doesn't the us collapse in on itself that is the case that's the great 64 000 question maybe the answer lies in this story it is the story the monkey tale from africa it's very pertinent to the world's financial system the tale tells of how the native hunters there use a special jar to catch wild monkeys when a monkey sees a hunter approaching the monkey instinctively climbs up the nearest tree the hunter then places an earthen jar at the base of the tree along with a handful of rice inside the jar then he walks away and hides nearby eventually the monkey climbs down from the tree and curiosity takes over she smells the rice inside the jar and instinctively shoves her hand inside to grab a handful of rice the hunter who is watching this scene immediately walks toward his captive the monkey sees the hunter coming but she discovers or he that he she cannot pull her hand out from the heavy jar while her fist is holding the rice she cannot put these two facts together as the hunter gets closer and closer the monkey struggles frantically trying to escape but in vain the monkey cannot escape because the monkey will not let go of the rice in the end the result is quite predictable the monkey is captured along with the original handful of rice in the jar didn't cost a hunter anything for the nation's corporations and individuals struggling to survive the rice is the credit or money that is loaned to them by the world bank or the bank great banks of the world you want to let go you want to get out of debt but the system is designed by the elite to enslave the world and so they have and the peoples of the world have been enslaved without single shot being fired and we don't even realize that apparently we still think that the enslavement to large is going to come from some kind of military action which eventually it will still there is no independent nation today no not one the nation is the world make up one giant common market oh yes there are so-called underground economies the chinese are trying to make the one the reserve currency of the world and with some nations like iran they are trading in gold or ones instead of dollars but if china cannot trade with the u.s.

and europe millions of chinese would face starvation within a few short months don't kid yourself china is far from being independent they are they cannot sustain themselves without trade commerce with the other nations they have 1.3 billion people in some areas they are struggling even now to feed their people the leaders would be facing what morrissey and the muslim brotherhood just faced in Egypt oh yes there are wars there are rumors of war people are dying but the real battles as to who will control the world's gold is being waged every day in the world's great financial markets the age old adage of he who controls the gold makes the rules as is true today as it ever was so who is the author of this system?

Satan the devil, of course.

As we look at our world today we must never forget that spiritual warfare is being waged in high places back in Ephesians chapter 6 Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places what is Satan's ultimate goal? What is the motive?

To be worshipped, to destroy the plan of God, and to destroy you, to prevent you, me, anybody else from ever being in the kingdom of God. Satan has not been deterred from his insatiable quest to be worshipped, to thwart the plan of God, become the object of worship with the ultimate goal of destroying humankind. His plan continues to move along, seemingly unabated, but never forget that Satan can only do what God allows him to do. You look at Colossians, forward to page or two, G.E.P.C. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Colossians 1 verse 13 who had delivered us, that is God the Father, from the power of darkness had translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. And in a sense, we're living in the flesh, in the kingdom of God, the church of God is the kingdom of God, an embryo, in whom we have redemption, buying back through his blood, the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sin, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him are all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, that includes Lucifer, who became the devil, and one-third of the angels who went with him. Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

They're all dependent upon God. It seems that God placed a hedgerow around the United States for several decades, while the U.S. enjoyed a modicum of independence. But greed, jealousy, lust for power, is a very powerful seductress. So we go now to 1 Timothy, forward a few more pages, chapter 6, verse 6. I would encourage you to spend a good bit of time in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

Verse 10, but godliness with contentment is great gain, but oh no, we can't be content.

We made a million this year. We want to make two million next year. How can we make two million?

How can we bring more profit to our shareholders? Well, our main cost, our main overhead, is labor.

So if we can get cheaper labor.

You know, one of the things that we did to ourselves as far as the laborers, you know, I grew up on a farm following a mule. My daddy worked at a door mill, basically took his eyesight. He had eyesight that was so amazing you would not believe it.

And they would still be paying a dollar an hour or less until the unions came.

Oh, many now, and some say, we don't want any unions. Well, then the unions, they went too far. Came to the point in the 50s and 60s that steel workers in Pennsylvania and auto workers in Michigan were making more than PhDs in physics.

And so you got the backside and a backlash against unions. Of course, Walmart does everything it can possibly do to prevent unions. They can have part-time employees and pay them as low as they can, and so on it goes. And yet Sean Hannity and many others will get up and praise how wonderful it is.

That free market capitalism headed by Walmart.

In verse 7, for we brought nothing into this world, it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment, let us be there with content.

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all evil, while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things, follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith.

Lay hold on eternal life. Don't let it go. Cling to it. Cling to it. Stick to it.

For until you are also called and have professed a good profession before many witnesses, I give you charge in the sight of God who quickens all things or make all things alive, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontus Pilate witnessed a good confession, that you keep this commandment without spot, unrebucible until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible makes it clear that in the last days the rich will be oppressing the poor, and the cries of the oppressed is one of the elements that moves God to action.

Just as it moved God to action to deliver Israel from Egypt, it is very clear.

James chapter 5. Go to now, you rich man, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Oh yeah, the day of reckoning and the day of judgment is coming. Your riches are corrupted, your garments from moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries, and the cries of them which have reaped or entered into the ears of the eternal of Sibboleth, those who are oppressed, those who have been kept down.

You have lived in pleasure on the earth, have been wanton, you've nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter, you have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the eternal draws nigh.

Satan appeals to greed, jealousy, the lust of power that is inherent in human nature to seduce the sons of men. Many of the men who set out to make the world a better place are driven by good intentions. But apart from God, all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. You read Matthew 7, which says, in that day many will come unto me and say, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out devils and done many great works in your name? And I will say unto them, Apart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Satan hates sovereign and independent nations and individuals.

The greatest drive motivation need in the human psyche is that of survival.

Humans will do almost anything to survive, including it is reported that in the Roman siege of Jerusalem, 6970 AD, that some of them actually killed their children for food, including cannibalism to survive. When people get hungry enough and desperate enough they will rise up and revolt. The greatest control factor that the beast power will employ will be control over human necessities. You look at Revelation chapter 13.

Revelation chapter 13.

In the time that lies ahead of us, you talk about faith, you talk about trust, and drawing near to God you will have to have it.

In Revelation 13.16 he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads that no man might buy or sell.

You can't buy or sell. I mean, the goods might be there, but you can't buy unless you have the mark of the beast. So, of course, it's going to take great trust and faith in God to provide, to be able to survive in that kind of time, 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. Over the millennium centuries we have seen and we have heard of wars and rumors of war, kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation, but of all these wars, little did it do to return the people to the Tower of Babel. What I'm saying is that there have been many despots to arise, many totalitarian despotic dictatorial rulers, who have tried to bring the nations under his control. Hitler, for example.

But it didn't work.

In some ways wars and rumors of war fanned the flames of nationalism and patriotism.

Of course, now it's very difficult in America to fan the flames of nationalism and patriotism.

But they were fanned in World War I and World War II, and people saying they marched and they did all kinds of things in the name of patriotism and nationalism.

But people didn't return to the Tower of Babel. So how do you get people to return to the Tower of Babel? Perhaps some insight can be gleaned from the motivation of the people to build the first tower. So let's go to Genesis 11. Genesis chapter 11. The backdrop for Genesis 11 is actually in Genesis 10. So let's look at Genesis 10 first.

Genesis 10, generations of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japeth.

And then it lists the sons of Japeth, the sons of Gomer, sons of Javen.

Verse 5, By these were the isles of the Gentiles, the nations divided into their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations.

Sons of Ham, they're listed, and one of Ham's sons, Cush, begat Nimrod.

He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the eternal, for it is said even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the eternal. In other words, he set himself up in the place of God, the mighty hunter before, over God as he sought to be.

In the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Eretz, Akkad, Kalna, in the land of Shinar, modern-day Iraq, Babylon. Out of the land went forth Asher, built Nineveh, and the city of Rehiboth and Kalah.

God had told them to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and he had given all of these families, some 70 families, inheritances on the face of the earth as recorded there in the rest of chapter 10, and told them to go out and colonize the earth.

And you look at chapter 11 verse 1, the whole earth was of one language and of one speech, and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, modern-day Babylon, or modern-day Iraq, and they said, one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. They had brick for stone and slime for mortar. They said, go and let us build us a city and tower whose top may reach unto heaven. Let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the whole face of the earth. So it was in rebellion against God of his command.

And God saw what was happening there. He said in verse 6, the people of the people is as one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. So let's go down, and they're confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the eternals scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. God is the author of family. He is the author of nations. He is the one that set their bound and habitation. Man has tried to get back to the Tower of Babel ever since, and now with the kind of communication and transportation that is available, and with the power of the militaries around the world, basically you can enforce, and you can make people do whatever they you want them to do in the name of, if you're going to survive, you're going to have to depend on us. At that point, God made them choose independence.

Verse 8, so the Lord scattered them abroad from there upon the face of the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did their confound the language of all the earth, and from there did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth. So God is the author of sovereign nations, as we read in Acts 17, from one blood he made all the nations. Noah's three sons, they came from Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japen. In order to bring the peoples of the world back to the Tower of Babel, Satan has to make the peoples of the world dependent and interdependent.

So how do you make the peoples of the world dependent and interdependent?

Simple through economic globalization and dependency on fossil fuels.

And the next big step is to control the world's food supply.

Of course, to say this is simple in one sense, but many factors have to come to bear in making the world into a so-called global community. So once again, from the human perspective, the great motivating factors are greed, jealousy, the lust for power. The great motivating factor for Satan the devil is to be worshipped, to thwart the plan of God, and to destroy humankind.

We look at some of the things that happened back in the 70s.

We had the energy crisis, the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. Remember Jimmy Carter saying that the energy crisis was a moral equivalent to war and the speed limits on our highways.

We crept along on highways at 55 miles an hour. So why didn't you find alternative energy sources then? Why have so many U.S. corporations outsourced or manufactured into foreign nations?

Why have they even outsourced service and technical support to foreign countries?

What is the great motivating factor in outsourcing? Answer the profit margin and control of the labor force. You will buckle under and do what we say, or you will starve to death. And yet we have those so gullible as to think there is a free lunch. And they will blindly go to the ballot box and vote for the politician that promises them the most free lunches. Free lunches always leads to servitude. That is not to say that one should not help someone who is in need. And we've seen the generosity of the people in this congregation as they have helped so many people in time of need.

But we're talking about here a system that is designed to enslave people, not help not helping people as they need. The Bible clearly teaches that to love in word and in deed.

The world is not the way it seems. The fences have been whitewashed. So here's the Federal Reserve printing money. A billion, Jay, even almost two trillion. And the banks hoard much of that money. And it's some opportune time to dump it out here. And prices skyrocket. Inflation such as we have in interest rates under Jimmy Carter. I once had a little CD in a bank down in Tyler during the Carter administration. It earned 18 percent. My little savings account in J.P. Morgan now, you know how much interest I get? .05. Five one-hundredths of one percent is what I get on that savings account at Chase. Let's look at Ezekiel 13. Ezekiel 13.

Verse 1, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, that prophesy, and say, you unto them, that prophesy out of their own hearts, hear the word of the Eternal. Thus says the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have nothing. Have seen nothing. O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. You have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord says, The Lord has not sent them, and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have you not seen a vain vision, and have you not spoken a lying divination, whereas you say, The Lord says it, albeit I have not said it. Verse 10, because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace, and there was no peace, and one built up a wall, and lo, others dobbed it with untempered mortar. Say unto them which dobbed it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall.

There shall be an overflowing shower, O great, and great hailstone shall fall, and a storm and wind shall render. God says in verse 14, I will break down the wall that you've dobbed with untempered mortar. You whitewashed the fence. You made it appear one way, but really it's another way. The world is not as it seems. And, brother, we need to wake up to every fact that we possibly can and understand from which comes our help. Who are the movers and the shakers promoting global government, you ask? Obviously, it is the international bankers who are the heavyweights behind the push of global government. Remember, one cannot create a global economy without a global government to manage and control it. In a letter written to Colonel E.

Mandel House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, quote, The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S.

since the days of Andrew Jackson. Old Hickory did his best to rid the United States from the death grip that the international bankers were beginning to exert on this country.

He may have been the last president to actually oppose the bankers in discussing the bank renewal bill with a delegation of bankers in 1832, Jackson said. Now, parenthetically, I pause here.

When the government was being formed after the Revolutionary War and the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, who had been one of Washington's generals, was well-skilled in finance.

Hamilton was an admirer of the European system, and there, especially that of Britain and the National Bank, developed a national bank, a bank controlled by the government.

Hamilton might have eventually been president, but he was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr.

And so there was a charter for this national bank, and it came time 1832 when Jackson was president to renew this charter. This is quoting what Jackson said, quote, Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you. When you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin 10,000 families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin. Should I let you go on, you will ruin 50,000 families, and that would be my sin. Your idea of vipers and thieves. I intend to route you out, and by the eternal God, I will route you out. And that last bit of back to Jackson was no longer president. Unfortunately, the international bankers proved themselves to be too formidable. And in 1913, with the collaboration of President Woodrow Wilson, the bankers were given charge over America's financial system, and they created the Federal Reserve, which is not federal. It is a consortium of private banks. Why have they created an independent central banking system to control the financial system of the U.S.? And they have the audacity to call it the Federal Reserve. The U.S. government, all the money that goes into circulation from the government is borrowed from the Federal Reserve at whatever the going prime rate is. So it is borrowed into circulation. The Constitution said that only the government shall be able to coin and print money.

This is why we can't forgive our national debt. We didn't borrow it from ourselves.

We borrowed it from the Federal Reserve, yet we printed the so-called U.S. Treasury notes.

So we have come to that point in time in which the world has become dependent and interdependent, and national sovereignty has gone by the boards. When it came time for action against Saddam Hussein in the what's called the First Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, George Bush Sr. got on television, made a speech, I heard the speech, that we now have a great opportunity to forge a new world order.

But before the United States took action against Saddam Hussein in Kuwait, he had to have a resolution passed by the United Nations, which eventually he secured. And the same thing happened with George Bush Jr. when they went to war against Iraq, a resolution from the UN, and then allied support. And so we are in a situation in which, on the one hand, we still have many, many freedoms in this country, and I really appreciate being able to live in this country. Just think what a blessing it is, as we heard earlier today, opening prayer, sermonette, song leader, all of that, how wonderful it is in this country. Brethren, you need to understand that things are not the way they appear to be.

And God has, Jesus Christ said, watch and pray always that you may be able worthy to escape all these things that come on the face of the earth. Now, I watch some of you as we are talking during announcements and going over the world news. For some of you, it's as if you go tilt and the ball, the pinball, is dropped into the trough. I hope you don't go tilt. Maybe you've already read it at home. I had a fellow down in Houston who really tried to get me while I was passing there to stop printing the world news and saying anything about it. We don't want to know what's going on. We just want to be encouraged and uplifted. Well, if you are not informed and educated with regard to what is going on in the world, how can you make intelligent decisions about your life?

How can you plan? How can you help your children? Your children are now in a laboratory that is designed to control their minds so that they become accepting of all the various things that is out there by the so-called progressives, which includes same-sex marriage, homosexuality, and all kinds of vices, abortion. You could go on and on, but it's a way of thinking.

In talking with David Gothels, who visited me on Friday a week ago, he is a high school teacher in the state of Washington near Tacoma.

He recently legalized marijuana and also same-sex marriage in the state of Washington.

He said, you would not believe the drug problem. You would not believe, he said, even with my peers, my faculty associates, that their thinking is just different. He says, take for example their pets, they elevate their pets to the point of they are humans or human-like.

And you hear more and more about the, I'm all for treating pets in the very best way that we can, but pets are not humans. The oak tree out there, whatever, a pine tree, is not human. It doesn't possess. It was made for human consumption. And so were many of the animals.

Yahweh, as it says in Genesis 18, visited Abraham, a theophany, a God appearance, and what did Abraham do? They killed the fatted calf, and they had a meal, or the apostles fishing, and they brought the fish in, and they had fish on the shore of the lake, and on and on it goes.

But we are living in a time in which the goal is to mind control and shape people into a dogma that views the whole world as an universe, as an organism, and that you have to get in step and in line with this, or you're cast out. You witness what happened to Paula Deen. Paula Deen, maybe she made a mistake, she misspoke, or she not only misspoke, maybe, but can she repent?

I don't know. Can she salvage her reputation, her career? In a course of two weeks, she's gone.

Other politicians have faced the same thing with just misspeak. That's it.

So we're living in this kind of laboratory in which the goal is to control and to get you to think in a way that is contrary to the Word of God. So, brother, I hope that you are really attuned to what is happening, and you try to understand it, and you try to to build that kind of relationship with God and with your wife and your husband and your children and everyone so that you are not deceived by any of these devices that go on. And we have just barely scratched the surface with regard to what is really going on in this world. And our only hope is in God. And we have on our coin in God we trust our currency.

But if we're going to make it, that has to become a reality in our lives.