Social Security: Food for Thought

I have seen since the 1990's that the Social Security program was unworkable and only a tax for my generation, that we would receive little if any benefit from it. I expect it was somewhat intuitive as it seemed like an attempt to produce perpetual motion, a violation of the law of conservation of matter and energy.

I mention all of this because of a quote I saw recently:

"Social Security is an unfunded pay-as-you-go system, fundamentally flawed and analogous in design to illegal pyramid schemes. Government accounting creates the illusion of a trust fund, but in fact, excess receipts are spent immediately. The government’s own actuaries predict the system will be bankrupt by 2030, but Social Security could face financial crisis as early as 2014. Moreover, Social Security’s relatively poor rate of return makes the program an increasingly worse investment for today’s young worker. ... The system design itself is fundamentally flawed and cannot be repaired. It must instead be replaced by one derived from free markets and operated by free citizenry making individual economic decisions in their own self-interest. ... Reform is long overdue. If we fail to act soon, our children will either inherit a bankrupt system or be forced to pay an impossibly high level of taxes. Only private pensions with individual property rights to accumulate fund balances can create a secure pension system. Chile, which privatized its system in 1981, provides evidence of such a system’s effectiveness."
-- Karl Borden
Professor of financial economics at University of Nebraska
Source: The CATO Project on Social Security, DISMANTLING THE PYRAMID: THE WHY AND HOW OF PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY, August 14, 1995.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Karl.Borden.Quote.D8F7

Chapter 27 of Proverbs comes to mind, more specifically verses 23-27:

Pro 27:23-27 ESV
(23)  Know well the condition of your flocks,
and give attention to your herds,
(24)  for riches do not last forever;
and does a crown endure to all generations?
(25)  When the grass is gone and the new growth appears
and the vegetation of the mountains is gathered,
(26)  the lambs will provide your clothing,
and the goats the price of a field.
(27)  There will be enough goats' milk for your food,
for the food of your household and maintenance for your girls.

We need to recognize that it is God who provides for us and WE are the stewards of that which He provides. We are responsible for the management of HIS resources.

Be blessed, Be a blessing.

BE

Book Review: What He Must Be...

As a father raising children to become God-fearing, responsible adults, I have often wanted a manual, a play book for how to prepare my children for courtship, for selecting the God-fearing mate that has been prepared for them.  I have read a number books related to this subject and I find "What He Must Be: ...if he wants to marry my daughter" by Voddie Baucham, Jr. to be the easiest to read on the subject while compromising on nothing.  His thinking parallels that of Phil Lancaster in "Family Man, Family Leader," who I believe does a more through examination of the subject.  Yet, Mr. Baucham has produced a more direct book with more potential to change the way Christian fathers lead their families through the courtship process.  In the end I wholeheartedly endorse both books. I am more likely to hand any man "What He Must Be", and "Family Man, Family Leader" to those who are deeper thinkers.

Throughout the book, Mr. Baucham uses well researched statistics, numerous personal antidotes (which as particular value as he illustrates how God has saved his marriage from the troubled backgrounds of both he and his wife). More importantly he clearly illustrates the how God's Word applies to the institution of marriage.

Multigenerational Vision

Mr. Baucham writes not with the purpose of helping a man chose a daughter's mate. Nor is it about prearranged marriages. Instead he writes to help his readers learn what to look for in suitors and that daughters might be discerning about those who come calling, instead of allowing momentary, physical impulses to make life long decisions. He writes to encourage partnership between daughter and parents in the decision making process. He also writes to recognize our dependence on God.

Mr. Baucham recognizes the purpose of marriage is to bring glory to God, to produce Godly offspring, and the decisions we make in this regard have lasting influence over generations. 

Ministry of Marriage

Mr. Baucham drives home the various aspects of the ministry that is to be accomplished through marriage: transformation of the culture, spiritual health and growth, training future leaders, illustrating God's relationship with the church. Baucham further explains that marriage is the preferred state, and expected state at some time in the future of our children and that they need to be prepared to be a minister in their marriage and family.

A Father's Role

Mr. Baucham defines the role fathers have to fulfill by looking at Old testament patriarchy and what he calls Gospel patriarchy. The bottom line is fathers have a responsibility to protect and provide for their families both physically and spiritually. This includes, yet is not limited to, seeing that their children are situated well in marriages that bless the children.

He must be

Voddie Baucham spends a chapter on each of the essential qualities a candidate must have.  With each of these he provides details on why these are requirements and what they should look like. Among these are:

• Follower of Christ
• Prepared to Lead
• Lead like Christ (Ephesians 5)
• Committed to Children
  

A qualified candidate must also practice the four P's as Voddie Baucham calls them: provide Protection (physical of course, but more importantly spiritual protection from living a holy life); provision (employment, work ethic, and vision); prophet and priest.

Mr. Baucham spends an entire chapter focusing on the father's responsibility to protect in the courtship process. Just what does he maintain needs to be protected? Our Daughter's purity, her heart, her focus (the specific calling God has for her life), her future spouse (from errors made from settling for less) and her hope (that there is a man who is worthy).

Can't Find One... Build One

This chapter was the most influential of those in the book in my life. I was reminded that my role as a gospel patriarch is to be more than a protector of my daughter. I came to recognize that whether or not a courtship ends in the marriage of my daughter, the young man who seeks her should leave encouraged, blessed and built up, better prepared for his future role as a gospel patriarch.

In regards to communicating the need for preparing for proper courtship (on the part of the son and daughter) and the qualities desired in a man, I cannot recommend "What He Must Be: ...if he wants to marry my daughter" by Voddie Baucham, Jr. highly enough. In fact, this is likely to become one of the books I hand out to dads I encounter in my journey to eternity, to encourage them in preparing their children for marriage.

Next Review:
Radical, by David Platt

Current Reading:
Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Crazy Love, Francis Chan

Sarah Palin and 'Neanderthals'

Once it again it becomes painfully clear that Feminism has become entrenched in the ranks of conservatives. Sarah Palin has made it clear that she believes working outside the home is a more noble task than staying home and rearing Godly offspring, passing on the faith to the next generation and encouraging them to do so with their children.

"It kind of seems, Geraldine, that some things haven't changed," Palin said. "There are still the Neanderthals out there who pick on the petty, little, superficial, meaningless things – like looks, like whether you can or can't work outside of the home if you have small children – all those type of things where I would so hope that at some point those Neanderthals will evolve into something a bit more with it, a bit more modern, and a bit more understanding that, yeah, women can accomplish much."
--Palin blasts 'Neanderthals,' defends Democrat woman

Mrs. Palin implies here that working in the home, rearing Godly children, is less of an accomplishment than say, running for office, being a brain surgeon... and perhaps even working at a fast food restaurant. It disappoints me that it is necessary to resort to name calling, appealing to modern culture and stigmatizing rather than addressing issues with reason and reference to the scriptures.

Are women forbidden to work outside the home?
No, a quick look at Proverbs 31 clearly indicates that this is not necessarily the case.

However, this does not give a blanket affirmation that working outside the home is the best option. One must examine the roles of men and women as presented in God's Word, if we are to function as intended. We should be looking for what is normative in God's eyes, not the exceptions which we than seek to be the new normative.

Gen 2:20-22 ESV
(20) The man gave names
to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
(21) So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,
and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
(22) And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man
he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

In this narrative it is clear that God has created with clear intention. There is an order, and woman was separated from man, for man, to help him accomplish God's intended purpose through them. Just as man's purpose is to fulfill God's will, the woman is to assist the man in fulfilling what God has given him to do.

This is also not an isolated, misinterpretation. Consider Jesus words:

Mat 19:3-6 ESV
(3) And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking,
"Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?"
(4) He answered,
"Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
(5) and said,
'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?
(6) So they are no longer two but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together,
let not man separate."

While this passage speaks to divorce, Jesus makes the foundation of his statement the historical reality of the Genesis account.

The issue at hand is "Will we recognize, accept and obey God's Word as given to us, or not?"

I've been the 'Mr. Mom' for 8-10 years of our marriage; homeschooling, child rearing and keeping house. I know first hand the joys, struggles and most importantly the value of raising Godly children. I also recognize how much against my nature it was to fulfill that role, and that I only did it out of the necessity of love for my God, my wife and my children. Even now we are dealing with the aftermath of this situation.

1Co 6:12 ESV
(12) "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful.
"All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything.

These words of Paul speak to how one eats, specifically to how a believer should eat, yet clearly have application to a broader range of topics related to the example of how a believer behaves. The bottom line for the believer is to be obedient to God's design, purpose and HIS Word.

Respectfully, Mrs. Palin, your accessment of raising children and assisting your man to achieve God's purposes is highly inaccurate, as there is no higher calling for a woman.
--
BE

A Tree with a Rotten Core

"The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life.
If a nation’s spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development.
A tree with a rotten core
cannot stand."
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(1918-2008) Russian novelist, Soviet dissident, imprisoned for 8 years for critizing Stalin in a personal letter, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1970
Source: National Review article (Sept. 23, 1991, p.24)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Alexander.Solzhenitsyn.Quote.CF81

 

I need to take time to read again, especially books like this man’s biography.  I have heard quotes from him and each time I am impressed with his depth of insight into the nature of man and government.

BE

The Answer for Today's Issues

Browsing the news this morning I ran across this article "Renewed Hearts vs. Renewed Ballot Boxes" by Jan Markell (I also happen to listen to her podcast on a regular basis).  Miss Markell shares what I have believed and shared for years, that the only real anwser to the issues we face today (yesterday and tomorrow) is the transformation of human hearts, turning away from sin and toward God through Jesus Christ.

If only we would listen and take the message to heart.

BE

Radioactive Decay Rates Are NOT FIXED

Apparently a connection has been found that indicates radioactivity rates change based seasonally, i.e. on the Earth's relationship with the Sun.  The implications of this is profound.

We have been brainwashed by evolution to believe that the rate of decay is constant, and as a result the Earth is millions, if not billions of years old.  If the rates fluctuate, then it is clearly possible that radioactive dating methods are not as accurate as assumed.

For more details see the article:  The Sun Alters Radioactive Decay Rates

BE

The Second Amendment and John Adams

When I read these quotes, I had to share them.  So many think that the Second Amendment is a right for the states, or like the NRA, it is about hunting.

This could not be further from the truth.  Consider the words of John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers, was from Boston when the British army was used to disarm the citizens of Boston:

"Arms in the hands of individual citizens
may be used at individual discretion
for the defence of the country,
the over-throw of tyranny,
or in private self-defense."
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source: A DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, at 475, (Philadelphia 1788)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/John.Adams.Quote.7D51

"Resistance to sudden violence,
for the preservation not only of my person,
my limbs and life,
but of my property,
is an indisputable right of nature
which I have never surrendered
to the public by the compact of society,
and which perhaps,
I could not surrender if I would.
Nor is there anything in the common law of England ... inconsistent with that right."
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source: BOSTON GAZETTE, September 5, 1763, The Works of John Adams, p.438 (Charles F. Adams ed., 1851).
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/John.Adams.Quote.7B8A

How much more clear can it be regarding what those who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were thinking when it was written.

Consider also the words of George Washington regarding the nature of government.

Until the return of Jesus the Messiah, we must be vigilant in protecting protecting the rights of the people.

BE