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P r o p h e t i c B r i e fAnatomy of a Nation in Decline

The Health Care Debate - Is Obama a Socialist?

Who or what is behind the ills facing America? A lot of people are convinced the government is to blame for the ills facing America, and some are prepared to take drastic steps. Four men were arrested outside of Atlanta in early November, 2011 for plotting to blow up government buildings. The men, aged 65 to 73, believed they should bomb and kill to bring attention to their concerns that America was going in the wrong direction. One was recorded by an informant as saying “There’s no way for us, as militiamen, to save this country…without doing something that’s highly illegal: murder. When it comes to saving the Constitution, that means some people gotta die."1 One of the conspirators posted a comment to an internet blog site that opposed Obama’s health care bill, writing “ObummerCare Bill won’t be forgiven…and will lead to tyranny of the worst order…and civil war.” In addition to bombing federal and state buildings, the men were also plotting to spread ricin across the city. Ricin is a toxin made from castor beans and is deadly if inhaled or ingested. They planned to release the ricin from a vehicle traveling north out of Atlanta on interstate 75 and would have passed less than two miles from my house. I’m glad they were caught before they could act.

These extremist actions may be rare, but the belief that government is the problem is becoming more widespread. A poll of likely voters found that 55% thought that “socialist” was an accurate way of describing Obama.2 Most cite his health care bill, as well as the wider government bail-out following the meltdown as their concern that America’s free enterprise system is being eroded or dismantled by liberal politicians. Government, they say, is the problem; and if we can just get (name your political party or presidential candidate here) into office, they can fix it and take America back to its place of power and prosperity. Is this true, or are there problems with this focus on the political? This week the Supreme Court is hearing arguments about the constitutionality of Obama’s health care bill.

There are two problems with a focus on the political. First, it is intellectually dishonest and factually incorrect to claim that one political party has brought America to the place of crisis it is currently in. When we consider the national debt, military policy and imperial overreach, catering to a self-indulgent constituency, a trade deficit that increases every year – these things have been endorsed by politicians going back a long time. The devolving of American life has truly been a bipartisan accomplishment that has unfolded over a period of many decades.

Nor could the government be cited as the only factor. Many other institutions have played a part in the declining health of the nation,

New Video Series

We are living in an unmatched time in the earth; a time when crisis is erupting through natural disasters, pol i t ica l destabi l izat ion, and economic meltdown.  

Politicians and religious leaders are all weighing in on these events, but they don’t seem to have the answers to a world in intense distress, and are rightly wondering:

What in the World is Going On?

In this series of Prophetic Briefs, Scott Webster addresses questions that are on people’s minds, and brings prophetic perspective to the events happening in the earth today, so that we can stand effectively in a day when so many things are falling apart.

View the full six episodes in the series “What in the World is Going On” at scottwebsterministries.org.

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Insight and Analysis for the 21st Century

1 Georgia Militia Plot, Atlanta Journal Constitution, http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/georgia-militia-plot-affidavit-1214918.html, accessed Nov 5, 20112 http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/230874/55-percent-likely-voters-find-socialist-accurate-label-obama, retrieved November 15, 2011

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including: a) a family structure that is fractured and which extracts an immeasurable cost on society in the form of more broken homes, individuals who are not as stable and healthy, less generational continuance, etc. b) a less rigorous educational system which leaves students largely unprepared to compete against international students in university c) big business and their quest for profits d) mass media that feeds the appetite of people for entertainment and dumbs them down with short sound bites of news rather than thorough treatment of issues e) lobbying efforts by major industries that influence legislation, and legislators who are susceptible to influence. We could even cite the church and our failure to be a strong Kingdom influence on wider society. The second problem with making political matters a primary focus, and our chief concern here, is that it implies that there is a political solution to the crisis when in fact there is not. There is no solution because God has ordained it to be so. It might help us to remove ourselves from the immediate political situation in America and look at a historic empire. As we assess the factors that led to its imperial Egypt’s ascent and decline we may be able to see the issue more objectively.

Was Pharaoh a Socialist?God prospered Egypt’s economy and made them the dominant empire of their day. He used his prophet Joseph to do so – the prophet interpreted the dreams about years of prosperity and then famine and told the king that all Egyptian farmers should be taxed an additional 20%. He also advocated that a brand new federal department should be created; government grew, not shrunk, under Joseph’s prophetic counsel to the political leaders. If we look at it from a natural standpoint we see a) a drastic increase in taxes b) a new federal department being created and more persons going on the government payroll c) government intervention into private business / farming d) a state directed food distribution program, etc. If we were standing there listening to Joseph advise Pharaoh it would have seemed undeniable that the nation was going socialistic.

If we had a farm by the Nile we might have protested the increased taxation as oppressive and socialistic. Others may have been violently

Isaiah 40:22-24 (NIV) “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff”

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Of course Pharaoh loved Joseph and responded f a v o r a b l y t o h i s p r o p h e t i c i n s i g h t b e c a u s e o f t h e prosperity it would bring to his nation. But a successive emperor who ruled 400 years later stubbornly opposed the word of the Lord through Moses . It is beyond r i d i c u l o u s t o t h i n k Mo s e s wou l d h a v e considered forming a p o l i t i c a l p a r t y i n opposition to Pharaoh, or lobbied to win seats in the upcoming election. He was a prophet sent by God to destroy the empire – his authority to interact with the systems of Egypt was spiritual, not political.

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opposed to Pharaoh’s new multicultural government in which a foreigner was given the second highest office in the federal government, a bureaucracy that just kept expanding. But in so doing we would have misperceived God’s real purpose. By focusing on immediate national issues we wouldn’t have been able to see that these developments were part of a much larger and far reaching Divine plan that transcended the nation of Egypt. That is the subtle nature of deception: from a political perspective we can be “right” – but in the process fail to see what God’s real intention is behind the political movements.

Sovereign Over the NationsGod gave Joseph tremendous favor. Pharaoh made him the highest ranking ruler in the entire empire, with the exception of the king himself. Joseph understood that his favor in Egypt was temporary and was based in Divine purpose. He knew that the political winds would change and his descendants would be oppressed and enslaved. He told his brothers “God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land” (Genesis 50:24), and he made them swear an oath to carry his bones from Egypt when God delivered them. Can you imagine Joseph, with all of his favor and influence, working to make Egypt into a Christian nation when God’s purpose was to use the migration of Israel into Egypt to enslave His people?

Of course Pharaoh loved Joseph and responded favorably to his prophetic insight because of the prosperity it would bring to his nation. But a successive emperor who ruled 400 years later stubbornly opposed the word of the Lord through Moses. It is beyond ridiculous to think Moses would have considered forming a political party in opposition to Pharaoh, or lobbied to win seats in the upcoming election. He was a prophet sent by God to destroy the empire – his authority to interact with the systems of Egypt was spiritual, not political.

Both prophets spoke for God, one to bring Israel down to Egypt to be enslaved, the other to bring them out as a strong nation 400 years later. Both extremes were ordained by the Lord, indicating we have to discern the Lord’s purpose for a nation at any given point in time. The fact that God wants to prosper a nation does not necessarily mean His purpose is simply to bless them. He used prosperity in Egypt to make them dominant, enslave the nations, and then God Himself broke the people out with supernatural power. What are some other implications of Joseph’s and Moses’ functionality in Egypt?

God raises nations up and brings them down according to His purpose. All nations are temporary and subject to God imposing His regulation into the earth. He guided an empire into a place of global strength and then dismantled it piece by piece. Whether in war or peace, prosperity or disaster, life or death – God rules over all and His will and redemptive purpose is accomplished in all because “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff” (Is 40:22-24).

Our role is to find out what God is doing and partner with Him in it. Moses prophesied economic disaster and successive plagues, and he participated with God in the brutal crushing of the social and family structures through

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the strategic genocide of the firstborn from every household. It was also through Moses that God annihilated Egypt’s entire military in the Red Sea. Joseph built the nation, fostering economic prosperity and adjusting immigration policy in order to posture Egypt as the dominant nation of the region. We have to know God’s purposes we must partner with God in order to bring those purposes into the earth on time. Therefore we must be void of political loyalties and partisan preferences, because God may be prospering an empire we think is oppressive, or He may bring down the empire in which we live.

We must reject political power as the basis for our influence in the nations. Joseph was a slave and an immigrant, a recently paroled ex-convict who had served time in the king’s prison for alleged sexual harassment in the workplace. He represented no constituency or voting bloc, nor was he one of the king’s largest financial contributors. The only power he had was the wisdom of God, and his resource to influence the nation was the prophetic insight given to him by God. On the other hand Moses was a prince groomed in Pharaoh’s court. He had training in politics, economics, the building of store cities and other skills necessary to sustain an empire. But it was only after God broke him and stripped him of his power, leaving him in the wilderness for forty years, that he was finally ready to go back to the palace and be useful to God. It is essential that we engage with and impact the political realm, but not from the platform of political power.

The Church must finally understand that the politicians don’t have the answers to the crisis. We must see above the partisan politics and look into the mind of God.

Implications and Considerations

· How have you been thinking about the challenges facing America – from a political or a spiritual standpoint? Was this article helpful to you to move to a more spiritual view? In what way?

· One aspect of seeing God as Sovereign over the nations is being delivered from the sense of dominance. As you read did you sense movement away from seeing the events in the U.S. as being dominant and defining?

· Both Joseph and Moses were both prophets, yet they interacted with the political realm. One fostered political and economic growth while the other crashed the economy and destroyed the empire. What did seeing this do to your sense of commitment to a particular political party?

This edition of the Prophetic Briefs is an excerpt taken from the soon to be published book entitled "What in the World is Going On?" by Scott Webster & Marlon Jameson.

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