Tuesday, October 15, 2013
House Republicans Schedule Obama Impeachment Hearings (Satire)
Codewit World News ^ | 14 October 2013 | Agency Reporter
Posted on Monday, October 14, 2013 8:27:14 PM by Brown Deer
Republicans in the House of Representatives have scheduled impeachment proceedings against President Obama, claiming his inability to halt the federal government shutdown makes him unfit for office.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann introduced a resolution to impeach Obama this morning and referred the matter to the House Judiciary Committee. Senior aides close to judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte say hearings will begin Thursday.
"I think it's high time President Obama be held accountable for his crimes," explains Bachmann, "For two weeks now, vital government services have been disrupted, federal workers have gone without pay and national memorials have been closed - all because of the president's refusal to negotiate over Obamacare.
"This isn't just poor leadership. The Obama administration is corrupt to the core. The scandals surrounding the IRS, Benghazi, Fast in the Furious and Solyndra have shown us this cabal will do anything to stay in power.
"But in shutting down the government President Obama has committed economic treason against the United States of America, and he must be removed before it's too late. The Constitution provides us the mechanism of impeachment. It's time to end this dictatorial regime and return the presidency back to the American people."
The U.S. federal government shut down on October 1st after House Republicans refused to fund it unless President Obama agreed to repeal his signature healthcare reform the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
Although most polls show that a majority of Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, many in the Tea Party feel President Obama is at fault for not immediately acquiescing to their demands.
"The tipping point for me was closing the World War 2 memorial," says Republican Louie Gohmert, who voted for the bill which effectively shut down the government, "I can't believe Obama did that. I mean how dare he put politics ahead of our veterans.
"All this clown needs to do is repeal the most important law he ever passed, and then this will all be over. Why is that so hard? The Tea Party represents almost 22% of Americans. Only a dictator would refuse to give us everything we want. Obama should be more than impeached - he should be in jail."
Hearings in the judiciary committee are expected to last for two weeks, after which the committee will create specific impeachment charges and refer them to the full House. If a majority of House members vote to impeach the President, the matter is referred to the Senate, where the Democratic majority makes ultimate success unlikely.
"We probably won't be successful," admits Ted Cruz, one of the few Republicans in the Senate supporting the impeachment process,"But we have to try. This guy is worse than Hitler. We have to do something."
TOPICS: Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: impeachment
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Codewit World News ^ | 14 October 2013 | Agency Reporter
Posted on Monday, October 14, 2013 8:27:14 PM by Brown Deer
Republicans in the House of Representatives have scheduled impeachment proceedings against President Obama, claiming his inability to halt the federal government shutdown makes him unfit for office.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann introduced a resolution to impeach Obama this morning and referred the matter to the House Judiciary Committee. Senior aides close to judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte say hearings will begin Thursday.
"I think it's high time President Obama be held accountable for his crimes," explains Bachmann, "For two weeks now, vital government services have been disrupted, federal workers have gone without pay and national memorials have been closed - all because of the president's refusal to negotiate over Obamacare.
"This isn't just poor leadership. The Obama administration is corrupt to the core. The scandals surrounding the IRS, Benghazi, Fast in the Furious and Solyndra have shown us this cabal will do anything to stay in power.
"But in shutting down the government President Obama has committed economic treason against the United States of America, and he must be removed before it's too late. The Constitution provides us the mechanism of impeachment. It's time to end this dictatorial regime and return the presidency back to the American people."
The U.S. federal government shut down on October 1st after House Republicans refused to fund it unless President Obama agreed to repeal his signature healthcare reform the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
Although most polls show that a majority of Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, many in the Tea Party feel President Obama is at fault for not immediately acquiescing to their demands.
"The tipping point for me was closing the World War 2 memorial," says Republican Louie Gohmert, who voted for the bill which effectively shut down the government, "I can't believe Obama did that. I mean how dare he put politics ahead of our veterans.
"All this clown needs to do is repeal the most important law he ever passed, and then this will all be over. Why is that so hard? The Tea Party represents almost 22% of Americans. Only a dictator would refuse to give us everything we want. Obama should be more than impeached - he should be in jail."
Hearings in the judiciary committee are expected to last for two weeks, after which the committee will create specific impeachment charges and refer them to the full House. If a majority of House members vote to impeach the President, the matter is referred to the Senate, where the Democratic majority makes ultimate success unlikely.
"We probably won't be successful," admits Ted Cruz, one of the few Republicans in the Senate supporting the impeachment process,"But we have to try. This guy is worse than Hitler. We have to do something."
TOPICS: Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: impeachment
Support Free Republic.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dewhurst calls for Obama's impeachment
Impeachment. There's that word again directed at President Obama — and this time it's coming from Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
Dewhurst, a Republican who's drawn three primary rivals, called for Obama to be impeached over issues such as the administration's handling of the deadly attack last year on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the national health care law.
Dewhurst's comments were made during a recent Tarrant County Tea Party forum and were first reported on by Twitter by a reporter for the Texas Observer. The account was later confirmedby the Texas Tribune.
Dewhurst spokesman Travis Considine told the Texas Tribune that Dewhurst, a former CIA officer, feels "very strongly about the tragedy in Benghazi and has said that Congress should consider impeaching the president over the tragedy." Four Americans were killed in the attack, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
Considine added Dewhurst "also believes that President Obama should be held accountable for Washington's failure to secure the border and the gross overreach of the federal government under Obamacare."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who defeated Dewhurst in the GOP primary last year on the way to winning his Senate seat, conceded this summer there aren't enough votes in the U.S. Senate to impeach Obama.
Still, the subject has been mentioned by some House Republicans such as Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan and even Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who is an Obama friend.
Dewhurst, a Republican who's drawn three primary rivals, called for Obama to be impeached over issues such as the administration's handling of the deadly attack last year on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the national health care law.
Dewhurst's comments were made during a recent Tarrant County Tea Party forum and were first reported on by Twitter by a reporter for the Texas Observer. The account was later confirmedby the Texas Tribune.
Dewhurst spokesman Travis Considine told the Texas Tribune that Dewhurst, a former CIA officer, feels "very strongly about the tragedy in Benghazi and has said that Congress should consider impeaching the president over the tragedy." Four Americans were killed in the attack, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
Considine added Dewhurst "also believes that President Obama should be held accountable for Washington's failure to secure the border and the gross overreach of the federal government under Obamacare."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who defeated Dewhurst in the GOP primary last year on the way to winning his Senate seat, conceded this summer there aren't enough votes in the U.S. Senate to impeach Obama.
Still, the subject has been mentioned by some House Republicans such as Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan and even Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who is an Obama friend.
1 day left. No deal. Senate will not take any action prior to a vote by the House. House postponed the vote Posted on | October 15, 2013 | No Comments Washington Post House Republicans plan to take up revised budget plan on floor Fox News - 3 minutes ago Oct. 10, 2013: House Speaker John Boehner, joined by fellow Republicans, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
1 day left. No deal. Senate will not take any action prior to a vote by the House. House postponed the vote
Posted on | October 15, 2013 | No Comments
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Oct. 10, 2013: House Speaker John Boehner, joined by fellow
Republicans, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in
Washington.
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Lt. Gov of TX joins Congressmen Gohmert, Farenholt and many others in calling for impeachment of Obama Posted on | October 15, 2013 | 9 Comments http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/david-dewhurst-impeachment_n_4102010.html
King of Shambhala
Freewill, you mean the flies come to Obama because of him having anal sex? Say Obama gets fellatio preformed on him, (seeing that’s what they say that he likes, at the bathhouse Man’s Country) he’d smell of crap seeing the homosexual perfroming the fellation would have the smell of crap in his mouth so that smell would be on Obama’s dick. That smell would be what the flies go for. (…that smell would be what the flies go for, not Obama’s dick.)
Obama surely has more than fellatio.
They say he’s killed about four lovers and that is not about fellatio I presume.
In Obama’s homosexual poem “Pop” he has anal sex with his father.
Remember “Pop”? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8s8JiOmB7o
POP! PBS explores Obama Poem Which Suggests he had Sexual relations with his Grandfather!
Response to Shabazz story: I do not have any evidence which would prove Shabazz story. I got the birth certificate of Bari Shabazz, he was born in Jamaica, not NY.
Response to Shabazz story: I do not have any evidence which would prove Shabazz story. I got the birth certificate of Bari Shabazz, he was born in Jamaica, not NY.
Posted on | October 15, 2013 | No Comments
I am posting below a letter from one of my supporters. It is very similar to hundreds other letters regarding one Bari Shabazz.
As you know, I check leads and do not leave a stone unturned in getting to the truth, however I did not find any confirmation
of the story. I do not have any evidence which would prove Shabazz
story. I got the birth certificate of Bari Shabazz, who died in Hawaii,
he was born in Jamaica, not NY. I am not trying to evade supporters,
who write about it, but I just do not have links. I am posting the
letter below. If you have any evidence, send it to me, but so far there
is nothing. I can do only that much, but my supporters can check.
You are welcome to check the birth certificate of Bari Shabazz and
you may want to visit the family in Jamaica, which is listed in that
birth certificate. See Social Security application of Bari shabazz, it
shows him being born in Kingston Jamaica. I do not have anything else.
Dear Honorable and Talented Orly:
Check is in snail mail for you.
I am sending you the following information regarding what I believe
is the true story of usurper bho. It may not coincide exactly with
your investigations and current beliefs regarding the story of usurper
bho. Look at areas we can gain more truth. I believe Ann Newman is in
the bho White House or with other family members. The following is a
letter I sent to two of my close friends.
~~`
The media is complicit in a gigantic Government fraud.
Bari Soetoro/Barack Obama aka Bari Shabazz was born in the United States. However, Bari was not born in Hawaii.
When Bari Soetoro assumed the illegal name of Barack Hussein Obama
before he entered Harvard Law School, he needed to shed his real birth
name of Bari M. Shabazz. He waited until he became a politician in
Illinois before killing the name in 1994. Bari Shabazz is recorded as
dead with no witness to his death. Very clever but easy to uncover if
the media GAS. They do not want his real identity exposed. Not yet
anyway.
Martha Trowbridge originated much of the information relative to
bho’s birth name. His real name is Bari Malik Shabazz. Born NY on Oct
28, 1959. The Social Security Death Index
shows: “SHABAZZ, B M 28 Oct 1959 Aug 1994 (V) 34 (PE) (none specified)
New York 084-54-5926.” From this, we see that Bari, born 28 October 1959
died in August 1994. However, the “death” of Bari was only reported by
someone as indicated by (“V” or “Verified”) and that the person did not
present any valid death certificate (“P” or “Proof). We note that the
actual birth date of our man was in New York in October1959 not 1961.
We also note that his real SSN is 084-54-5926 and not the stolen number
042-68-4425 that he has been using as proven by the White House web site
when they displayed his 2009 IRS form
1040 revealing the stolen SSN. Surely members of the media must know
the complete history of our usurper but have kept it hidden and
obfuscated the truth with continuous disinformation like the phony
Hawaiian Birth Certificate.
If I had the time and capability, I would search the records for
travel from NY to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1965/1966 time frame, by a woman
and a young boy 4-5 years old. Such a trip would require the child to
have proof of birth and travel with the mother. So, Joann Newman and 5
year old Bari Shabazz would have had no difficulty in making that
journey using their real names as mother and child with birth
certificates. Then trace a trip from Jakarta to Honolulu by Ann
Newman/Ann Soetoro and child Barry Shabazz/Soetoro about 7-8 years
later. The US Passport DC office was penetrated and the responsible
officer murdered to cover up the important passports.
We know that Bari Shabazz was hospitalized in Hawaii when he had an automobile accident. He had been using the name Soetoro in Hawaii and at Occidental College. Because of the untimely serious accident he reverted back to his real name to preserve his Soetoro alias. Bari was at fault in the accident
and assigned a Trial date. Bari Fled Hawaii. He took off for the US
without facing the judge and remained a wanted felon until about 2008
when the Hawaii criminal records
were unexplainably expunged. Bari Shabazz became Barry Soetoro again
after fleeing Hawaii and later at Harvard was Barack H. Obama.
Ann Newman’s communist uncle Fred Newman worked in the Obama White House until two years ago. He disappeared and an Obituary
appeared in the NY Times fish wrap. He probably is not dead but is
alive and well in hiding. It makes one wonder where his mother Ann
Newman really is. She may be working in the White House and being her
son’s primary advisor. It is doubtful that she is dead. It is too easy
to list someone as dead and the media makes no check for accuracy of
such reports. Information from Bari and his cabal is considered truth
and to question its validity is heresy.
We have to be rid of Shabazz/Soetoro/Obama as usurper POTUS for being
a fraud and a traitor. Again, all that is necessary is for Congress or
the SCOTUS to consider the court cases against bho by Dr. Orly Taitz,
Esq., and have him arrested and jailed for his crimes which include
using a stolen Social Security Card number
042-68-4425, using a forged Hawaiian Birth Certificate, using a forged
Selective Service Card and using an illegal name. Dr. Orly Taitz Esq.
is the only active pursuer of truth and justice in America. She works
pro bono with little help or financial assistance. Lawless Courts keep rejecting and delaying Orly’s legal actions.
Too bad no one in Congress, Scotus, Federal Courts, Sheriffs and
District Attorneys have the courage and patriotism to expose and
prosecute this usurper.
Ed
Semper Fi
Back to Back We Face the Future!
Back to Back We Face the Future!
NAPOLITANO: The Obama administration has gone rogue
Before you rejoice that the government has seized an alleged terrorist in Libya who was indicted for planning the notorious 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, before you join the House of Representatives in a standing ovation for the Capitol Hill police who killed a woman whose car struck a White House fence and who then drove away at a high speed, and before you commend the New York Police Department
for quickly getting to the bottom of an alleged assault by a motorcycle
gang that tormented a young family on a city street, please give some
thought to the rule of law.
Last weekend, a team of Navy SEALs kidnapped a Libyan, Abu Anas al-Libi, off of a public street in Tripoli. The Navy men did not have a warrant for his arrest, did not have the permission of the local authorities or the Libyan government to carry out this kidnapping, and were unlawfully present bearing arms in public in Libya. Many of al-Libi’s alleged accomplices already had been arrested, prosecuted and convicted in the United States. The U.S. could have sought his extradition, as it did with some of them, had President Obama not bombed the American-friendly government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi out of existence, without a congressional declaration of war.
Obama apologists have praised this maneuver as a bloodless way to obtain justice without using drones to kill. (How low we have sunk when Mr. Obama can be praised for not executing someone with a drone.) Secretary of State John F. Kerry, acknowledging that al-Libi is innocent until proved guilty, has claimed that the rule of law was followed here because he will be brought to a civilian U.S. court for trial. Former George W. Bush administration Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey claimed that because the embassy bombings constituted an act of war, the kidnapping of al-Libi was a lawful wartime assault, and he should be tried before a military tribunal.
It borders on the ridiculous for Mr. Kerry to profess fidelity to the rule of law when this criminal gambit was anything but. Fact: We are not at war with Libya. Fact: We cannot lawfully — under international law, American law or Libyan law — engage in law enforcement or offensive operations in Libya without the express consent of the local and national authorities. Fact: As a defendant in federal court in the 2nd Circuit, al-Libi must be brought to a federal judge in New York City within 48 hours of his arrest.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for him in lower Manhattan, as the feds will “debrief” al-Libi aboard ship before turning him over to federal prosecutors for trial. One can only imagine what that debriefing will be like. It will no doubt consist of torture. That’s why the interrogation is being conducted on the high seas, where the government will claim it is free to disobey any federal law. That’s why the Geneva Conventions prohibit housing prisoners of war aboard ship.
What kind of government seeks venues in which it can break the law? One that has forgotten that every time Mr. Bush made his extraterritorial argument to the Supreme Court, it was rejected. Wherever the American government goes and whatever it does, it remains subject to the confines of the Constitution.
Not to worry, administration sources claim, the FBI won’t learn of whatever beans al-Libi spills while the CIA is simulating his drowning. Wrong again. While no federal court will admit evidence obtained under torture, the Patriot Act — that monstrosity that permits federal agents to write their own search warrants and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court judges to evade the Constitution — requires intelligence interrogators and law enforcement interrogators to share information — even the results of torture. So much for the presumption of innocence, the right to a lawyer, the right to remain silent, the right to be brought before a judge, and the rule of law.
The United States is a signatory to treaties that prohibit kidnapping, no matter the governmental need for the victim. Just ask Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, Italy, who was convicted in absentia a few years ago in Italy of kidnapping a Muslim imam there, and then was arrested on an international warrant in Panama this summer. Mr. Bush himself and others were convicted in absentia of war crimes by a court in Malaysia last year. Can you imagine the outcry if Mr. Bush or Mr. Lady were kidnapped off of American streets by foreign agents? How can it be lawful for the U.S. government to kidnap innocent foreigners, but not for foreign agents to kidnap guilty Americans?
Last weekend, a team of Navy SEALs kidnapped a Libyan, Abu Anas al-Libi, off of a public street in Tripoli. The Navy men did not have a warrant for his arrest, did not have the permission of the local authorities or the Libyan government to carry out this kidnapping, and were unlawfully present bearing arms in public in Libya. Many of al-Libi’s alleged accomplices already had been arrested, prosecuted and convicted in the United States. The U.S. could have sought his extradition, as it did with some of them, had President Obama not bombed the American-friendly government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi out of existence, without a congressional declaration of war.
Obama apologists have praised this maneuver as a bloodless way to obtain justice without using drones to kill. (How low we have sunk when Mr. Obama can be praised for not executing someone with a drone.) Secretary of State John F. Kerry, acknowledging that al-Libi is innocent until proved guilty, has claimed that the rule of law was followed here because he will be brought to a civilian U.S. court for trial. Former George W. Bush administration Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey claimed that because the embassy bombings constituted an act of war, the kidnapping of al-Libi was a lawful wartime assault, and he should be tried before a military tribunal.
It borders on the ridiculous for Mr. Kerry to profess fidelity to the rule of law when this criminal gambit was anything but. Fact: We are not at war with Libya. Fact: We cannot lawfully — under international law, American law or Libyan law — engage in law enforcement or offensive operations in Libya without the express consent of the local and national authorities. Fact: As a defendant in federal court in the 2nd Circuit, al-Libi must be brought to a federal judge in New York City within 48 hours of his arrest.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for him in lower Manhattan, as the feds will “debrief” al-Libi aboard ship before turning him over to federal prosecutors for trial. One can only imagine what that debriefing will be like. It will no doubt consist of torture. That’s why the interrogation is being conducted on the high seas, where the government will claim it is free to disobey any federal law. That’s why the Geneva Conventions prohibit housing prisoners of war aboard ship.
What kind of government seeks venues in which it can break the law? One that has forgotten that every time Mr. Bush made his extraterritorial argument to the Supreme Court, it was rejected. Wherever the American government goes and whatever it does, it remains subject to the confines of the Constitution.
Not to worry, administration sources claim, the FBI won’t learn of whatever beans al-Libi spills while the CIA is simulating his drowning. Wrong again. While no federal court will admit evidence obtained under torture, the Patriot Act — that monstrosity that permits federal agents to write their own search warrants and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court judges to evade the Constitution — requires intelligence interrogators and law enforcement interrogators to share information — even the results of torture. So much for the presumption of innocence, the right to a lawyer, the right to remain silent, the right to be brought before a judge, and the rule of law.
The United States is a signatory to treaties that prohibit kidnapping, no matter the governmental need for the victim. Just ask Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, Italy, who was convicted in absentia a few years ago in Italy of kidnapping a Muslim imam there, and then was arrested on an international warrant in Panama this summer. Mr. Bush himself and others were convicted in absentia of war crimes by a court in Malaysia last year. Can you imagine the outcry if Mr. Bush or Mr. Lady were kidnapped off of American streets by foreign agents? How can it be lawful for the U.S. government to kidnap innocent foreigners, but not for foreign agents to kidnap guilty Americans?
Bernie Sanders Explains How The Koch Brothers Are Keeping The Government Shut Down
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) explained on The Ed Show how the Koch
brothers are using threats and their money to keep the government shut
down.Video:
Sanders answered:
In many respects it is. What’s going on right now. We have seen some moderate, moderate conservative Republicans having the guts to stand up to Boehner and say,ok, we don’t like Obamacare, but you know what? We don’t think you should shut down the government. We are prepared to vote for a clean CR, Continuing Resolution.Citizens United is the Supreme Court decision that opened the door for billionaires like the Koch brothers to control the Republican members of Congress.
What’s happening now, as I understand it, is when moderate Republicans are saying that, or thinking about standing up to Boehner, the extreme right wing is coming around saying you do that, let me tell you what’s going to happen. We have the Koch brothers behind us. We have hundreds of millions of dollars behind us, and if you dare to support a Continuing Resolution, a clean CR. We’re gonna primary you. We have unbelievable sums of money to defeat you.
So what you are looking at now is what Citizens United is all about. And that is giving a handful of billionaires, the Koch brothers and others, incredible power to tell members of Congress what they can and can not do, very dangerous.
The Koch millions didn’t disappear from our political system after Obama was reelected in 2012. The government shutdown demonstrates that the Kochs and their fellow right wing billionaires are still fighting in defiance of the results of last year’s election. Moderate Republicans may say that they are willing to defy Boehner and vote for a clean CR, but many of these same Republicans aren’t willing to defy the Kochs. Until the Koch brothers are the other right wing billionaires are going to feel any pain, expect Republicans to refuse to open the government and raise the debt ceiling.
Democrats have to dig in and fight, because this battle isn’t about really spending, budgets, or even Obamacare. The confict isn’t even about who controls the government. What is at stake is the kind of government that the United States will have. Will democracy’s brightest star be a government for the many, or will it be a government dicatated by the wealthy few?
The government will eventually reopen, but what is to be determined is what kind of government it will be.
House postpones vote on bill to reopen govt. and avoid default
WASHINGTON — Time growing desperately short, House Republican
efforts to pass legislation averting a Treasury default and ending a
partial government shutdown collapsed Tuesday night, and one of the
country’s top ratings firms warned of a possible downgrade in the
nation’s creditworthiness.
The decision by Speaker John Boehner and the GOP leadership to pull a bill they had unveiled earlier in the day appeared to mark the end of what amounted to a daylong detour from separate negotiations in the Senate that had appeared on the verge of bearing fruit.
There was no immediate reaction from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, on next steps as divided government sought to extricate itself from yet another crisis.
As the day of secret meetings and frenzied maneuvering unfolded in all corners of the Capitol, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., stood on the Senate floor at midafternoon and declared, “We are 33 hours away from becoming a deadbeat nation, not paying its bills to its own people and other creditors.”
In New York, the Fitch rating agency warned that it was reviewing the government’s AAA credit rating for a possible downgrade, though no action was near. Fitch, one of the three leading U.S. credit-ratings agencies, said that “the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default.”
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 133 points after rising a day earlier when optimism spread that a deal might be at hand.
Under the revised bill prepared by House Republicans, the Treasury would be permitted to borrow normally until Feb. 7 and the government reopened with sufficient funds to carry it to Dec. 15.
Additionally, members of Congress, the president, vice president and thousands of aides would no longer be eligible to receive employer health care contributions from the government that employs them.
Before the bill seemed to lose steam later in the day, Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner said in a statement, “The House will vote tonight to reopen the government and avoid default.”
He said the legislation would “end Obamacare subsidies for elected officials and staff in Washington, D.C., and pressure Senate Democrats to accept more sensible” time frames for reopening the government and renewing Treasury’s borrowing authority.
Gone from the measure was a pair of provisions that had drawn objections, one a plan to delay a medical device tax created under the new health care law known as Obamacare. The other would have imposed tougher income verification standards on individuals and families seeking subsidies for care under the law.
Democrats had viewed both as concessions to Republicans, and deemed their inclusion as a violation of Obama’s vow not to pay a “ransom” to the GOP for passing essential funding and borrowing measures.
Even with the changes, it was unclear whether Boehner and the GOP leadership had the votes to pass their measure.
Heritage Action, a group with close tea party ties, announced it would oppose the measure because “it will do absolutely nothing to help Americans who are negatively impacted by Obamacare.” It said it would include the vote in its determinations next year on which candidates to support in the midterm elections.
The day’s events prompted an outbreak of partisan rhetoric, mixed with urgent warnings that both the U.S. and global economies could suffer severe damage quickly unless Congress acted by Thursday.
Even something of an appeal for heavenly aid was thrown in, as Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida led House Republicans in a rendition of “Amazing Grace” at the beginning of a rank-and-file meeting called to discuss a way out of the impasse.
Speaking with reporters, Boehner said, “I have made clear for months and months that the idea of default is wrong and we shouldn’t get anywhere close to it.”
But the first measure the leadership produced evidently came up short on votes, and the White House trashed it as an attempt to “appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place. “
Democrats jumped on Boehner and the plan he produced.
In unusually personal remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Ohio Republican had “once again tried to preserve his role at the expense of the country.”
That was a reference to a rebellious rank and file in the House, who routinely seek to push Boehner and the rest of the leadership to the right. A group met Monday night with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who last summer played a public role in a campaign to demand defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial government shutdown.
The Democratic attacks were too much for some Republicans who have been among those most vocal in calling for a bipartisan solution to the impasse.
“It’s piling on and it’s not right,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said of the response from the Democrats. “To categorically reject what the House and the speaker are doing — and I think he’s pretty courageous in what he’s doing — in my view is not serving the American people.”
The House had been effectively sidelined in recent days as Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell engaged in intense negotiations to reopen the government and raise the debt limit.
That changed emphatically when details began circulating of some of the elements of the terms under discussion.
In addition to ending the shutdown and raising the debt limit, the two Senate leaders were considering a plan to delay a $63-per-person fee that the health care overhaul would impose on anyone who receives health care coverage under an employer-provided plan.
Some Republicans balked, complaining that was a concession to labor unions who are among the Democrats’ most loyal political supporters.
Many unions have announced their opposition to the fee, but so, too, have businesses.
Reid and McConnell also have been discussing provisions to give federal agencies flexibility in adjusting to across-the-board spending cuts imposed under legislation that Obama signed in 2011.
Another element of their negotiations would call for House-Senate negotiations on a possible deficit reduction measure to take the place of the across-the-board cuts.
The twin crises began more than three weeks ago, when some lawmakers in the House insisted on seeking the defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial shutdown of the government.
The White House refused, and the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected legislation to achieve the GOP goal, as well as subsequent legislation that contained scaled-back concessions on the health care overhaul.
The partial shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, swiftly merged with the approaching debt crisis.
According to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, unless Congress acts by Oct. 17, the government will lose its ability to borrow, and would be required to meet its obligations relying only on cash on hand and incoming tax receipts.
While it was unclear how long that would suffice, the date stood as a deadline. The closer it approached, the more urgent became the pleas of businesses and bankers in this country as well as officials overseas for the United States to put its finances into order.
Whatever the outcome, the all-out assault on Obamacare that became a tea party rallying cry last summer was long gone, repulsed by the president and his Democratic allies in Congress.
Instead, Republican disapproval ratings have plummeted in public opinion polls in the past two weeks, vindicating warnings from Boehner, McConnell and other party elders that the original strategy of threatening to shut down the government in hopes of wiping out the overhaul was badly flawed.
“We got ourselves in a ditch,” McCain said. “And we got to stop digging.”
Beyond Washington, Fitch Ratings said it expected to conclude its review of the nation’s top credit rating within six months.
Fitch said it expected the debt limit to be raised soon but added, “The political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default.” Fitch is one of the three leading U.S. credit ratings agencies, along with Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.
The decision by Speaker John Boehner and the GOP leadership to pull a bill they had unveiled earlier in the day appeared to mark the end of what amounted to a daylong detour from separate negotiations in the Senate that had appeared on the verge of bearing fruit.
There was no immediate reaction from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, on next steps as divided government sought to extricate itself from yet another crisis.
As the day of secret meetings and frenzied maneuvering unfolded in all corners of the Capitol, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., stood on the Senate floor at midafternoon and declared, “We are 33 hours away from becoming a deadbeat nation, not paying its bills to its own people and other creditors.”
In New York, the Fitch rating agency warned that it was reviewing the government’s AAA credit rating for a possible downgrade, though no action was near. Fitch, one of the three leading U.S. credit-ratings agencies, said that “the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default.”
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 133 points after rising a day earlier when optimism spread that a deal might be at hand.
Under the revised bill prepared by House Republicans, the Treasury would be permitted to borrow normally until Feb. 7 and the government reopened with sufficient funds to carry it to Dec. 15.
Additionally, members of Congress, the president, vice president and thousands of aides would no longer be eligible to receive employer health care contributions from the government that employs them.
Before the bill seemed to lose steam later in the day, Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner said in a statement, “The House will vote tonight to reopen the government and avoid default.”
He said the legislation would “end Obamacare subsidies for elected officials and staff in Washington, D.C., and pressure Senate Democrats to accept more sensible” time frames for reopening the government and renewing Treasury’s borrowing authority.
Gone from the measure was a pair of provisions that had drawn objections, one a plan to delay a medical device tax created under the new health care law known as Obamacare. The other would have imposed tougher income verification standards on individuals and families seeking subsidies for care under the law.
Democrats had viewed both as concessions to Republicans, and deemed their inclusion as a violation of Obama’s vow not to pay a “ransom” to the GOP for passing essential funding and borrowing measures.
Even with the changes, it was unclear whether Boehner and the GOP leadership had the votes to pass their measure.
Heritage Action, a group with close tea party ties, announced it would oppose the measure because “it will do absolutely nothing to help Americans who are negatively impacted by Obamacare.” It said it would include the vote in its determinations next year on which candidates to support in the midterm elections.
The day’s events prompted an outbreak of partisan rhetoric, mixed with urgent warnings that both the U.S. and global economies could suffer severe damage quickly unless Congress acted by Thursday.
Even something of an appeal for heavenly aid was thrown in, as Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida led House Republicans in a rendition of “Amazing Grace” at the beginning of a rank-and-file meeting called to discuss a way out of the impasse.
Speaking with reporters, Boehner said, “I have made clear for months and months that the idea of default is wrong and we shouldn’t get anywhere close to it.”
But the first measure the leadership produced evidently came up short on votes, and the White House trashed it as an attempt to “appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place. “
Democrats jumped on Boehner and the plan he produced.
In unusually personal remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Ohio Republican had “once again tried to preserve his role at the expense of the country.”
That was a reference to a rebellious rank and file in the House, who routinely seek to push Boehner and the rest of the leadership to the right. A group met Monday night with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who last summer played a public role in a campaign to demand defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial government shutdown.
The Democratic attacks were too much for some Republicans who have been among those most vocal in calling for a bipartisan solution to the impasse.
“It’s piling on and it’s not right,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said of the response from the Democrats. “To categorically reject what the House and the speaker are doing — and I think he’s pretty courageous in what he’s doing — in my view is not serving the American people.”
The House had been effectively sidelined in recent days as Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell engaged in intense negotiations to reopen the government and raise the debt limit.
That changed emphatically when details began circulating of some of the elements of the terms under discussion.
In addition to ending the shutdown and raising the debt limit, the two Senate leaders were considering a plan to delay a $63-per-person fee that the health care overhaul would impose on anyone who receives health care coverage under an employer-provided plan.
Some Republicans balked, complaining that was a concession to labor unions who are among the Democrats’ most loyal political supporters.
Many unions have announced their opposition to the fee, but so, too, have businesses.
Reid and McConnell also have been discussing provisions to give federal agencies flexibility in adjusting to across-the-board spending cuts imposed under legislation that Obama signed in 2011.
Another element of their negotiations would call for House-Senate negotiations on a possible deficit reduction measure to take the place of the across-the-board cuts.
The twin crises began more than three weeks ago, when some lawmakers in the House insisted on seeking the defunding of Obamacare as the price for preventing a partial shutdown of the government.
The White House refused, and the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected legislation to achieve the GOP goal, as well as subsequent legislation that contained scaled-back concessions on the health care overhaul.
The partial shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, swiftly merged with the approaching debt crisis.
According to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, unless Congress acts by Oct. 17, the government will lose its ability to borrow, and would be required to meet its obligations relying only on cash on hand and incoming tax receipts.
While it was unclear how long that would suffice, the date stood as a deadline. The closer it approached, the more urgent became the pleas of businesses and bankers in this country as well as officials overseas for the United States to put its finances into order.
Whatever the outcome, the all-out assault on Obamacare that became a tea party rallying cry last summer was long gone, repulsed by the president and his Democratic allies in Congress.
Instead, Republican disapproval ratings have plummeted in public opinion polls in the past two weeks, vindicating warnings from Boehner, McConnell and other party elders that the original strategy of threatening to shut down the government in hopes of wiping out the overhaul was badly flawed.
“We got ourselves in a ditch,” McCain said. “And we got to stop digging.”
Beyond Washington, Fitch Ratings said it expected to conclude its review of the nation’s top credit rating within six months.
Fitch said it expected the debt limit to be raised soon but added, “The political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default.” Fitch is one of the three leading U.S. credit ratings agencies, along with Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.
I
hope you’re sitting down for this shocking news: it looks like the
Senate GOP is on the verge of folding in the current government
shutdown/debt ceiling standoff. Folding like a Texas Hold ‘Em shark
with off-suit 2 and 8. Folding like a glove-compartment road map.
Folding like discount lawn furniture. And finally, folding like the skin
on Aunt Ruth’s chins.
I realize that the unexpected nature of this news will have caused some of you to spew coffee all over your computer monitor in horror. Gather yourself; wipe everything down; and, we’ll move on when you’re ready.
The GOP sees its poll numbers. The only thing it knows to do in the face of such things is cave. Cave like wicker chairs at a strategy session between Michael Moore and Chris Christie. Cave like… You get the picture.
Maybe, like me, you held out a glimmer of hope that a couple of men with actual spines in Congress might inspire those who should have spines to grown one. But it turns out that the old Poor Richard saying is still true: Once a squish-bomb, always a squish-bomb. And I’m reminded of the new nugget of wisdom about “payback.” You know: It’s a Primary.
Until then, though, it’s time for Christian citizens to realize that we don’t really need them. We already possess the power to defund Obamacare. It’s already part of the rules.
As Dr. Joel McDurmon of The American Vision documents, the Orwellian Affordable Care Act allows certain opt-outs, including the well-publicized feature that allows Muslims to simply decide to have nothing to do with Obamacare. It does not, as everyone knows by now, allow Christians to make the same decision.
However, what it does allow is for people to opt out of Obamcare for religious reasons, as long as they are members of health care cost sharing ministries.
McDurmon writes:
I have visited the ministry’s website, and highly recommend you do so if you are a Christian wondering what in the world to do. Be sure to download the free PDF. It’s a couple dozen pages and does a good job of explaining exactly how the system works. It’s not like health insurance. No insurance company is involved at all. But you do need to read up on it, as there are some small qualifications involved. These however are of the sort that will not stand in the way of the average Christian joining.
That’s all well-and-good. I’m thinking it is the way my own family will go, and I will be recommending it to the congregation I serve. I’d much rather send health care money to my brothers and sisters who need it, than to the government, specifically to the IRS.
Now, I’d like to take this a step further than Dr. McDurmon did. (Which may well be stupid, since he is very smart.) Here’s my suggestion: If we all (meaning Christian Americans) signed up for this, or a similar sharing ministry, Obamacare would crumble. There are enough of us in the nation, even today. If we all opted out like this, and most of us are people who hold jobs and pay taxes, then the money supply for Obamacare goes right out the window. They think they need young, healthy singles to pay into the system or the whole thing’s a wash. Well, imagine if 25% or so of the whole employed population opted out!
I understand that Obamacare may never get off the ground, and may go down in history as the technological equivalent of the Hindenburg. (“Oh, the humanity!”) And there may still be a barrage of court challenges. And the unions may succeed in delaying the individual mandate for a while. I’m rooting for any and all of this.
However, as I argue in my book, Resistance to Tyrants, Christian patriots must not only decry that which government does poorly, or unlawfully. We must be ready to supply alternative solutions for problems. Those solutions need to be Bible-based.
We can’t whine about the government’s ham-fisted attempts at educating children without declaring, showing and exemplifying the better way that we learned from God in Scripture, for instance. Similarly, our resistance to socialized medicine will ring hollow in the ears of our fellow citizens if they don’t also see us blazing a better trail. (Or, rather, returning to the old paths, successfully.)
Right now, from where you sit, you are a couple of clicks away from showing that you have learned not to put your trust in kings and princes of the earth; and that you are ready and able to do your patriotic part to defund Obamacare.
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/10/christians-legal-ability-defund-obamacare-right-now/#ReMmlzz6XptWSqSg.99
I realize that the unexpected nature of this news will have caused some of you to spew coffee all over your computer monitor in horror. Gather yourself; wipe everything down; and, we’ll move on when you’re ready.
The GOP sees its poll numbers. The only thing it knows to do in the face of such things is cave. Cave like wicker chairs at a strategy session between Michael Moore and Chris Christie. Cave like… You get the picture.
Maybe, like me, you held out a glimmer of hope that a couple of men with actual spines in Congress might inspire those who should have spines to grown one. But it turns out that the old Poor Richard saying is still true: Once a squish-bomb, always a squish-bomb. And I’m reminded of the new nugget of wisdom about “payback.” You know: It’s a Primary.
Until then, though, it’s time for Christian citizens to realize that we don’t really need them. We already possess the power to defund Obamacare. It’s already part of the rules.
As Dr. Joel McDurmon of The American Vision documents, the Orwellian Affordable Care Act allows certain opt-outs, including the well-publicized feature that allows Muslims to simply decide to have nothing to do with Obamacare. It does not, as everyone knows by now, allow Christians to make the same decision.
However, what it does allow is for people to opt out of Obamcare for religious reasons, as long as they are members of health care cost sharing ministries.
McDurmon writes:
Many people are still not aware that health care sharing ministries like the one run by my friends at Samaritan Ministries lobbied and debated with Congress hard during the 2009 fight over ObamaCare. As a result of their efforts, and the nature and track record of the ministry, they earned an exemption from the individual mandate in ObamaCare for members of the sharing ministry.Let me repeat one sentence from that again: “Long story short, join Samaritan Ministries and you are exempt from ObamaCare’s individual mandate.”
Long story short, join Samaritan Ministries and you are exempt from ObamaCare’s individual mandate.
And this comes among the many other advantages of Samaritan, including the facts that sharing costs are in most cases much lower than insurance premiums, and that no money whatsoever ever funds or helps fund abortions, other planned-parenthood activities, or a variety of other sinful lifestyle consequences.
I have visited the ministry’s website, and highly recommend you do so if you are a Christian wondering what in the world to do. Be sure to download the free PDF. It’s a couple dozen pages and does a good job of explaining exactly how the system works. It’s not like health insurance. No insurance company is involved at all. But you do need to read up on it, as there are some small qualifications involved. These however are of the sort that will not stand in the way of the average Christian joining.
That’s all well-and-good. I’m thinking it is the way my own family will go, and I will be recommending it to the congregation I serve. I’d much rather send health care money to my brothers and sisters who need it, than to the government, specifically to the IRS.
Now, I’d like to take this a step further than Dr. McDurmon did. (Which may well be stupid, since he is very smart.) Here’s my suggestion: If we all (meaning Christian Americans) signed up for this, or a similar sharing ministry, Obamacare would crumble. There are enough of us in the nation, even today. If we all opted out like this, and most of us are people who hold jobs and pay taxes, then the money supply for Obamacare goes right out the window. They think they need young, healthy singles to pay into the system or the whole thing’s a wash. Well, imagine if 25% or so of the whole employed population opted out!
I understand that Obamacare may never get off the ground, and may go down in history as the technological equivalent of the Hindenburg. (“Oh, the humanity!”) And there may still be a barrage of court challenges. And the unions may succeed in delaying the individual mandate for a while. I’m rooting for any and all of this.
However, as I argue in my book, Resistance to Tyrants, Christian patriots must not only decry that which government does poorly, or unlawfully. We must be ready to supply alternative solutions for problems. Those solutions need to be Bible-based.
We can’t whine about the government’s ham-fisted attempts at educating children without declaring, showing and exemplifying the better way that we learned from God in Scripture, for instance. Similarly, our resistance to socialized medicine will ring hollow in the ears of our fellow citizens if they don’t also see us blazing a better trail. (Or, rather, returning to the old paths, successfully.)
Right now, from where you sit, you are a couple of clicks away from showing that you have learned not to put your trust in kings and princes of the earth; and that you are ready and able to do your patriotic part to defund Obamacare.
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/10/christians-legal-ability-defund-obamacare-right-now/#ReMmlzz6XptWSqSg.99
I
hope you’re sitting down for this shocking news: it looks like the
Senate GOP is on the verge of folding in the current government
shutdown/debt ceiling standoff. Folding like a Texas Hold ‘Em shark
with off-suit 2 and 8. Folding like a glove-compartment road map.
Folding like discount lawn furniture. And finally, folding like the skin
on Aunt Ruth’s chins.
I realize that the unexpected nature of this news will have caused some of you to spew coffee all over your computer monitor in horror. Gather yourself; wipe everything down; and, we’ll move on when you’re ready.
The GOP sees its poll numbers. The only thing it knows to do in the face of such things is cave. Cave like wicker chairs at a strategy session between Michael Moore and Chris Christie. Cave like… You get the picture.
Maybe, like me, you held out a glimmer of hope that a couple of men with actual spines in Congress might inspire those who should have spines to grown one. But it turns out that the old Poor Richard saying is still true: Once a squish-bomb, always a squish-bomb. And I’m reminded of the new nugget of wisdom about “payback.” You know: It’s a Primary.
Until then, though, it’s time for Christian citizens to realize that we don’t really need them. We already possess the power to defund Obamacare. It’s already part of the rules.
As Dr. Joel McDurmon of The American Vision documents, the Orwellian Affordable Care Act allows certain opt-outs, including the well-publicized feature that allows Muslims to simply decide to have nothing to do with Obamacare. It does not, as everyone knows by now, allow Christians to make the same decision.
However, what it does allow is for people to opt out of Obamcare for religious reasons, as long as they are members of health care cost sharing ministries.
McDurmon writes:
I have visited the ministry’s website, and highly recommend you do so if you are a Christian wondering what in the world to do. Be sure to download the free PDF. It’s a couple dozen pages and does a good job of explaining exactly how the system works. It’s not like health insurance. No insurance company is involved at all. But you do need to read up on it, as there are some small qualifications involved. These however are of the sort that will not stand in the way of the average Christian joining.
That’s all well-and-good. I’m thinking it is the way my own family will go, and I will be recommending it to the congregation I serve. I’d much rather send health care money to my brothers and sisters who need it, than to the government, specifically to the IRS.
Now, I’d like to take this a step further than Dr. McDurmon did. (Which may well be stupid, since he is very smart.) Here’s my suggestion: If we all (meaning Christian Americans) signed up for this, or a similar sharing ministry, Obamacare would crumble. There are enough of us in the nation, even today. If we all opted out like this, and most of us are people who hold jobs and pay taxes, then the money supply for Obamacare goes right out the window. They think they need young, healthy singles to pay into the system or the whole thing’s a wash. Well, imagine if 25% or so of the whole employed population opted out!
I understand that Obamacare may never get off the ground, and may go down in history as the technological equivalent of the Hindenburg. (“Oh, the humanity!”) And there may still be a barrage of court challenges. And the unions may succeed in delaying the individual mandate for a while. I’m rooting for any and all of this.
However, as I argue in my book, Resistance to Tyrants, Christian patriots must not only decry that which government does poorly, or unlawfully. We must be ready to supply alternative solutions for problems. Those solutions need to be Bible-based.
We can’t whine about the government’s ham-fisted attempts at educating children without declaring, showing and exemplifying the better way that we learned from God in Scripture, for instance. Similarly, our resistance to socialized medicine will ring hollow in the ears of our fellow citizens if they don’t also see us blazing a better trail. (Or, rather, returning to the old paths, successfully.)
Right now, from where you sit, you are a couple of clicks away from showing that you have learned not to put your trust in kings and princes of the earth; and that you are ready and able to do your patriotic part to defund Obamacare.
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/10/christians-legal-ability-defund-obamacare-right-now/#ReMmlzz6XptWSqSg.99
I realize that the unexpected nature of this news will have caused some of you to spew coffee all over your computer monitor in horror. Gather yourself; wipe everything down; and, we’ll move on when you’re ready.
The GOP sees its poll numbers. The only thing it knows to do in the face of such things is cave. Cave like wicker chairs at a strategy session between Michael Moore and Chris Christie. Cave like… You get the picture.
Maybe, like me, you held out a glimmer of hope that a couple of men with actual spines in Congress might inspire those who should have spines to grown one. But it turns out that the old Poor Richard saying is still true: Once a squish-bomb, always a squish-bomb. And I’m reminded of the new nugget of wisdom about “payback.” You know: It’s a Primary.
Until then, though, it’s time for Christian citizens to realize that we don’t really need them. We already possess the power to defund Obamacare. It’s already part of the rules.
As Dr. Joel McDurmon of The American Vision documents, the Orwellian Affordable Care Act allows certain opt-outs, including the well-publicized feature that allows Muslims to simply decide to have nothing to do with Obamacare. It does not, as everyone knows by now, allow Christians to make the same decision.
However, what it does allow is for people to opt out of Obamcare for religious reasons, as long as they are members of health care cost sharing ministries.
McDurmon writes:
Many people are still not aware that health care sharing ministries like the one run by my friends at Samaritan Ministries lobbied and debated with Congress hard during the 2009 fight over ObamaCare. As a result of their efforts, and the nature and track record of the ministry, they earned an exemption from the individual mandate in ObamaCare for members of the sharing ministry.Let me repeat one sentence from that again: “Long story short, join Samaritan Ministries and you are exempt from ObamaCare’s individual mandate.”
Long story short, join Samaritan Ministries and you are exempt from ObamaCare’s individual mandate.
And this comes among the many other advantages of Samaritan, including the facts that sharing costs are in most cases much lower than insurance premiums, and that no money whatsoever ever funds or helps fund abortions, other planned-parenthood activities, or a variety of other sinful lifestyle consequences.
I have visited the ministry’s website, and highly recommend you do so if you are a Christian wondering what in the world to do. Be sure to download the free PDF. It’s a couple dozen pages and does a good job of explaining exactly how the system works. It’s not like health insurance. No insurance company is involved at all. But you do need to read up on it, as there are some small qualifications involved. These however are of the sort that will not stand in the way of the average Christian joining.
That’s all well-and-good. I’m thinking it is the way my own family will go, and I will be recommending it to the congregation I serve. I’d much rather send health care money to my brothers and sisters who need it, than to the government, specifically to the IRS.
Now, I’d like to take this a step further than Dr. McDurmon did. (Which may well be stupid, since he is very smart.) Here’s my suggestion: If we all (meaning Christian Americans) signed up for this, or a similar sharing ministry, Obamacare would crumble. There are enough of us in the nation, even today. If we all opted out like this, and most of us are people who hold jobs and pay taxes, then the money supply for Obamacare goes right out the window. They think they need young, healthy singles to pay into the system or the whole thing’s a wash. Well, imagine if 25% or so of the whole employed population opted out!
I understand that Obamacare may never get off the ground, and may go down in history as the technological equivalent of the Hindenburg. (“Oh, the humanity!”) And there may still be a barrage of court challenges. And the unions may succeed in delaying the individual mandate for a while. I’m rooting for any and all of this.
However, as I argue in my book, Resistance to Tyrants, Christian patriots must not only decry that which government does poorly, or unlawfully. We must be ready to supply alternative solutions for problems. Those solutions need to be Bible-based.
We can’t whine about the government’s ham-fisted attempts at educating children without declaring, showing and exemplifying the better way that we learned from God in Scripture, for instance. Similarly, our resistance to socialized medicine will ring hollow in the ears of our fellow citizens if they don’t also see us blazing a better trail. (Or, rather, returning to the old paths, successfully.)
Right now, from where you sit, you are a couple of clicks away from showing that you have learned not to put your trust in kings and princes of the earth; and that you are ready and able to do your patriotic part to defund Obamacare.
Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/10/christians-legal-ability-defund-obamacare-right-now/#ReMmlzz6XptWSqSg.99
2 Thessalonians 1
(1) The first part of the epistle, in which he rejoices that through the grace of God, they have bravely sustained all the assaults of their enemies. And in this he strengthens and encourages them, moreover showing with what gifts they must mainly fight, that is, with faith and charity, which must daily increase.1:5 2 [Which is] a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
(a) That whereas it grew up before, it does also receive some increase every day more and more.
(2) He shows the source of all true comfort, that is, that in afflictions which we suffer from the wicked for righteousness sake, we may behold as it were in a mirror the testimony of that judgment to come, the end of which is most acceptable to us, and most severe to his enemies.1:6 3 Seeing [it is] a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
(3) A proof: God is just, and therefore he will worthily punish the unjust, and will do away the miseries of his people.1:7 And to you who are troubled rest 4 with us, 5 when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
(4) He strengthens and encourages them also along the way by this means, that the condition both of this present state and the state to come, is common to him with them. (5) A most glorious description of the second coming of Christ, to be set against all the miseries of the godly, and the triumphs of the wicked.1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them 6 that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
(6) There is no knowledge of God to salvation, without the Gospel of Christ.1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (7 because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
(7) They are considered as children of God by the faith which they have in the Gospel, which is preached to them by the apostles.1:11 8 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of b [this] calling, and fulfil c all the good pleasure of [his] goodness, and the d work of faith with power:
(8) Seeing that we have the mark set before us, it remains that we go to it. And we go to it, by certain degrees of causes: first by the free love and good pleasure of God, by virtue of which all other inferior causes work: from there proceeds the free calling to Christ, and from calling, faith, upon which follows both the glorifying of Christ in us and us in Christ.
(b) By "calling" he does not mean the very act of calling, but that self same thing to which we are called, which is the glory of that heavenly kingdom.
(c) Which he determined long ago, only upon his gracious and merciful goodness towards you.
(d) So then, faith is an excellent work of God in us: and we plainly see here that the apostle leaves nothing to free will, to make it something which God works through, as the papists dream.
Daniel 7
Verses 1-8 The date of this chapter places it before ch. 5, which was in the last year of Belshazzar, and ch. 6, which was in the first of Darius; for Daniel had those visions in the first year of Belshazzar, when the captivity of the Jews in Babylon was drawing near a period. Belshazzar’s name here is, in the original, spelt differently from what it used to be; before it was Bel-she-azar—Bel is he that treasures up riches. But this is Bel-eshe-zar—Bel is on fire by the enemy. Bel was the god of the Chaldeans; he had prospered, but is now to be consumed.We have, in these verses, Daniel’s vision of the four monarchies that were oppressive to the Jews. Observe,I. The circumstances of this vision. Daniel had interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and now he is himself honoured with similar divine discoveries (v. 1): He had visions of his head upon his bed, when he was asleep; so God sometimes revealed himself and his mind to the children of men, when deep sleep fell upon them (Job. 33:15 ); for when we are most retired from the world, and taken off from the things of sense, we are most fit for communion with God. But when he was awake he wrote the dream for his own use, lest he should forget it as a dream which passes away; and he told the sum of the matters to his brethren the Jews for their use, and gave it to them in writing, that it might be communicated to those at a distance and preserved for their children after them, who shall see these things accomplished. The Jews, misunderstanding some of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, flattered themselves with hopes that, after their return to their own land, they should enjoy a complete and uninterrupted tranquility; but that they might not so deceive themselves, and their calamities be made doubly grievous by the disappointment, God by this prophet lets them know that they shall have tribulation: those promises of their prosperity were to be accomplished in the spiritual blessings of the kingdom of grace; as Christ has told his disciples they must expect persecution, and the promises they depend upon will be accomplished in the eternal blessings of the kingdom of glory. Daniel both wrote these things and spoke them, to intimate that the church should be taught both by the scriptures and by ministers’ preaching, both by the written word and by word of mouth; and ministers in their preaching are to tell the sum of the matters that are written.II. The vision itself, which foretels the revolutions of government in those nations which the church of the Jews, for the following ages, was to be under the influence of. 1. He observed the four winds to strive upon the great sea, v. 2. They strove which should blow strongest, and, at length, blow alone. This represents the contests among princes for empire, and the shakings of the nations by these contests, to which those mighty monarchies, which he was now to have a prospect of, owed their rise. One wind from any point of the compass, if it blow hard, will cause a great commotion in the sea; but what a tumult must needs be raised when the four winds strive for mastery! This is it which the kings of the nations are contending for in their wars, which are as noisy and violent as the battle of the winds; but how is the poor sea tossed and torn, how terrible are its concussions, and how violent its convulsions, while the winds are at strife which shall have the sole power of troubling it! Note, This world is like a stormy tempestuous sea; thanks to the proud ambitious winds that vex it. He saw four great beasts come up from the sea, from the troubled waters, in which aspiring minds love to fish. The monarchs and monarchies are represented by beasts, because too often it is by brutish rage and tyranny that they are raised and supported. These beasts were diverse one from another (v. 3), of different shapes, to denote the different genius and complexion of the nations in whose hands they were lodged. (1.) The first beast was like a lion, v. 4. This was the Chaldean monarchy, that was fierce and strong, and made the kings absolute. This lion had eagle’s wings, with which to fly upon the prey, denoting the wonderful speed that Nebuchadnezzar made in his conquest of kingdoms. But Daniel soon sees the wings plucked, a full stop put to the career of their victorious arms. Divers countries that had been tributaries to them revolt from them, and make head against them; so that this monstrous animal, this winged lion, is made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart is given to it. It has lost the heart of a lion, which it had been famous for (one of our English kings was called Caeur de Lion—Lion-heart ), has lost its courage and become feeble and faint, dreading every thing and daring nothing; they are put in fear, and made to know themselves to be but men. Sometimes the valour of a nation strangely sinks, and it becomes cowardly and effeminate, so that what was the head of the nations in an age or two becomes the tail. (2.) The second beast was like a bear, v. 5. This was the Persian monarchy, less strong and generous than the former, but no less ravenous. This bear raised up itself on one side against the lion, and soon mastered it. It raised up one dominion; so some read it. Persia and Media, which in Nebuchadnezzar’s image were the two arms in one breast, now set up a joint government. This bear had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth, the remains of those nations it had devoured, which were the marks of its voraciousness, and yet an indication that though it had devoured much it could not devour all; some ribs still stuck in the teeth of it, which it could not conquer. Whereupon it was said to it, "Arise, devour much flesh; let alone the bones, the ribs, that cannot be conquered, and set upon that which will be an easier prey.’’ The princes will stir up both the kings and the people to push on their conquests, and let nothing stand before them. Note, Conquests, unjustly made, are but like those of the beasts of prey, and in this much worse, that the beasts prey not upon those of their own kind, as wicked and unreasonable men do. (3.) The third beast was like a leopard, v. 6. This was the Grecian monarchy, founded by Alexander the Great, active, crafty, and cruel, like a leopard. He had four wings of a fowl; the lion seems to have had but two wings; but the leopard had four, for though Nebuchadnezzar made great despatch in his conquests Alexander made much greater. In six years’ time he gained the whole empire of Persia, a great part besides of Asia, made himself master of Syria, Egypt, India, and other nations. This beast had four heads; upon Alexander’s death his conquests were divided among his four chief captains; Seleucus Nicanor had Asia the Great; Perdiccas, and after him Antigonus, had Asia the Less; Cassander had Macedonia; and Ptolemeus had Egypt. Dominion was given to this beast; it was given of God, from whom alone promotion comes. (4.) The fourth beast was more fierce, and formidable, and mischievous, than any of them, unlike any of the other, nor is there any among the beasts of prey to which it might be compared, v. 7. The learned are not agreed concerning this anonymous beast; some make it to be the Roman empire, which, when it was in its glory, comprehended ten kingdoms, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain, Sarmatia, Pannonia, Asia, Greece, and Egypt; and then the little horn which rose by the fall of three of the other horns (v. 8) they make to be the Turkish empire, which rose in the room of Asia, Greece, and Egypt. Others make this fourth beast to be the kingdom of Syria, the family of the Seleucidae, which was very cruel and oppressive to the people of the Jews, as we find in Josephus and the history of the Maccabees. And herein that empire was diverse from those which went before, that none of the preceding powers compelled the Jews to renounce their religion, but the kings of Syria did, and used them barbarously. Their armies and commanders were the great iron teeth with which they devoured and broke in pieces the people of God, and they trampled upon the residue of them. The ten horns are then supposed to be ten kings that reigned successively in Syria; and then the little horn is Antiochus Epiphanes, the last of the ten, who by one means or other undermined three of the kings, and got the government. He was a man of great ingenuity, and therefore is said to have eyes like the eyes of a man; and he was very bold and daring, had a mouth speaking great things. We shall meet with him again in these prophecies.
Verses 9-14 Whether we understand the fourth beast to signify the Syrian empire, or the Roman, or the former as the figure of the latter, it is plain that these verses are intended for the comfort and support of the people of God in reference to the persecutions they were likely to sustain both from the one and from the other, and from all their proud enemies in every age; for it is written for their learning on whom the ends of the world have come, that they also, through patience and comfort of this scripture, might have hope. Three things are here discovered that are very encouraging:—I. That there is a judgment to come, and God is the Judge. Now men have their day, and every pretender thinks he should have his day, and struggles for it. But he that sits in heaven laughs at them, for he sees that his day is coming, Ps. 37:13 . I beheld (v. 9) till the thrones were cast down, not only the thrones of these beasts, but all rule, authority, power, that are set up in opposition to the kingdom of God among men (1 Co. 15:24 ): such are the thrones of the kingdoms of the world, in comparison with God’s kingdom; those that see them set up need but wait awhile, and they will see them cast down. I beheld till thrones were set up (so it may as well be read), Christ’s throne and the throne of his Father. One of the rabbin confesses that these thrones are set up, one for God, another for the Son of David. It is the judgment that is here set, v. 10. Now, 1. This is intended to proclaim God’s wise and righteous government of the world by his providence; and an unspeakable satisfaction it gives to all good men, in the midst of the convulsions and revolutions of states and kingdoms, that the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all (Ps. 103:19 ), that verily there is a God that judges in the earth, Ps. 58:11 . Perhaps it points at the destruction brought by the providence of God upon the empire of Syria, or that of Rome, for their tyrannizing over the people of God. But, 3. It seems principally designed to describe the last judgment, for though it follow not immediately upon the dominion of the fourth beast, nay, though it be yet to come, perhaps many ages to come, yet it was intended that in every age the people of God should encourage themselves, under their troubles, with the belief and prospect of it. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it, Jude. 14, . Does the mouth of the enemy speak great things, v. 8. Here are far greater things which the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Many of the New-Testament predictions of the judgment to come have a plain allusion to this vision, especially St John’s vision of it, Rev. 20:11, Rev. 20:12 . (1.) The Judge is the Ancient of days himself, God the Father, the glory of whose presence is here described. He is called the Ancient of days, because he is God from everlasting to everlasting. Among men we reckon that with the ancient is wisdom, and days shall speak; shall not all flesh then be silent before him who is the Ancient of days? The glory of the Judge is here set forth by his garment, which was white as snow, denoting his splendour and purity in all the administrations of his justice; and the hair of his head clean and white, as the pure wool, that, as the white and hoary head, he may appear venerable. (2.) The throne is very formidable. It is like the fiery flame, dreadful to the wicked that shall be summoned before it. And the throne being movable upon wheels, or at least the chariot in which he rode the circuit, the wheels thereof are as burning fire, to devour the adversaries; for our God is a consuming fire, and with him are everlasting burnings, Isa. 33:14 . This is enlarged upon, v. 10. As to all his faithful friends there proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb a pure river of water of life (Rev. 22:1 ), so to all his implacable enemies there issues and comes forth from his throne a fiery stream, a stream of brimstone (Isa. 30:33 ), a fire that shall devour before him. He is a swift witness, and his word a word upon the wheels. (3.) The attendants are numerous and very splendid. The Shechinah is always attended with angels; it is so here (v. 10): Thousand thousands minister to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him. It is his glory that he has such attendants, but much more his glory that he neither needs them nor can be benefited by them. See how numerous the heavenly hosts are (there are thousands of angels), and how obsequious they are—they stand before God, ready to go on his errands and to take the first intimation of his will and pleasure. They will particularly be employed as ministers of his justice in the last judgment day, when the Son of man shall come, and all the holy angels with him. Enoch prophesied that the Lord should come with his holy myriads. (4.) The process is fair and unexceptionable: The judgment is set, publicly and openly, that all may have recourse to it; and the books are opened. As in courts of judgment among men the proceedings are in writing and upon record, which is laid open when the cause comes to a hearing, the examination of witnesses is produced, and affidavits are read, to clear the matter of fact, and the statute and common-law books are consulted to find out what is the law, so, in the judgment of the great day, the equity of the sentence will be as incontestably evident as if there were books opened to justify it.II. That the proud and cruel enemies of the church of God will certainly be reckoned with and brought down in due time, v. 11, v. 12. This is here represented to us, 1. In the destroying of the fourth beast. God’s quarrel with this beast is because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke, bidding defiance to Heaven, and triumphing over all that is sacred; this provokes God more than any thing, for the enemy to behave himself proudly, Deu. 32:27 . Therefore Pharaoh must be humbled, because he has said, Who is the Lord? and has said, I will pursue, I will overtake. Enoch foretold that therefore the Lord would come to judge the world, that he might convince all that are ungodly of their hard speeches, Jude. 15, . Note, Great words are but idle words, for which men must give account in the great day. And see what becomes of this beast that talks so big: He is slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. The Syrian empire, after Antiochus, was destroyed. He himself died of a miserable disease, his family was rooted out, the kingdom wasted by the Parthians and Armenians, and at length made a province of the Roman empire by Pompey. And the Roman empire itself (if we take that for the fourth beast), after it began to persecute Christianity, declined and wasted away, and the body of it was destroyed. So shall all thy enemies perish, O Lord! and be slain before thee. 2. In the diminishing and weakening of the other three beasts (v. 12): They had their dominion taken away, and so were disabled from doing the mischiefs they had done to the church and people of God; but a prolonging in life was given them, for a time and a season, a set time, the bounds of which they could not pass. The power of the foregoing kingdoms was quite broken, but the people of them still remained in a mean, weak, and low condition. We may allude to this in describing the remainders of sin in the hearts of good people; they have corruptions in them, the lives of which are prolonged, so that they are not perfectly free from sin, but the dominion of them is taken away, so that sin does not reign in their mortal bodies. And thus God deals with his church’s enemies; sometimes he breaks the teeth of them (Ps. 3:7 ), when he does not break the neck of them, crushes the persecution, but reprieves the persecutors, that they may have space to repent. And it is fit that God, in doing his own work, should take his own time and way.III. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up, and kept up, in the world, in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness. Let the heathen rage and fret as long as they please, God will set his King upon his holy hill of Zion. Daniel sees this in vision, and comforts himself and his friends with the prospect of it. This is the same with Nebuchadnezzar’s foresight of the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which broke in pieces the image; but in this vision there is much more of pure gospel than in that. 1. The Messiah is here called the Son of man—one like unto the Son of man; for he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, was found in fashion as a man. I saw one like unto the Son of man, one exactly agreeing with the idea formed in the divine counsels of him that in the fulness of time was to be the Mediator between God and man. He is like unto the son of man, but is indeed the Son of God. Our Savior seems plainly to refer to this vision when he says (Jn. 5:27 ) that the Father has therefore given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man, and because he is the person whom Daniel saw in vision, to whom a kingdom and dominion were to be given. 2. He is said to come with the clouds of heaven. Some refer this to his incarnation; he descended in the clouds of heaven, came into the world unseen, as the glory of the Lord took possession of the temple in a cloud. The empires of the world were beasts that rose out of the sea; but Christ’s kingdom is from above: he is the Lord from heaven. I think it is rather to be referred to his ascension; when he returned to the Father the eye of his disciples followed him, till a cloud received him out of their sight, Acts. 1:9 . He made that cloud his chariot, wherein he rode triumphantly to the upper world. He comes swiftly, irresistibly, and comes in state, for he comes with the clouds of heaven. 3. He is here represented as having a mighty interest in Heaven. When the cloud received him out of the sight of his disciples, it is worth while to enquire (as the sons of the prophets concerning Elijah in a like case) whither it carried him, where it lodged him; and here we are told, abundantly to our satisfaction, that he came to the Ancient of days; for he ascended to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God (Jn. 20:17 ); from him he came forth, and to him he returns, to be glorified with him, and to sit down at his right hand. It was with a great deal of pleasure that he said, Now I go to him that sent me. But was he welcome? Yes, not doubt, he was, for they brought him near before him; he was introduced into his Father’s presence, with the attendance and adorations of all the angels of God, Heb. 1:6 . God caused him to draw near and approach to him, as an advocate and undertaker for us (Jer. 30:21 ), that we through him might be made nigh. By this solemn near approach which he made to the Ancient of days it appears that the Father accepted the sacrifice he offered, and the satisfaction he made, and was entirely well pleased with all he had done. He was brought near, as our high priest, who for us enters within the veil, and as our forerunner, 4. He is here represented as having a mighty influence upon this earth, v. 14. When he went to be glorified with his Father he had a power given him over all flesh, Jn. 17:2, Jn. 17:5 . With the prospect of this Daniel and his friends are here comforted, that not only the dominion of the church’s enemies shall be taken away (v. 12), but the church’s head and best friend shall have the dominion given him; to him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Phil. 2:9, Phil. 2:10 . To him are given glory and a kingdom, and they are given by him who has an unquestionable right to give them, which, some think with an eye to these words, our Savior teaches us to acknowledge in the close of the Lord’s prayer, For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. It is here foretold that the kingdom of the exalted Redeemer shall be, (1.) A universal kingdom, the only universal monarchy, whatever others have pretended to, or aimed at: All people, nations, and languages, shall fear him, and be under his jurisdiction, either as his willing subjects or as his conquered captives, to be either ruled or overruled by him. One way or other, the kingdoms of the world shall all become his kingdoms. (2.) An everlasting kingdom. His dominion shall not pass away to any successor, much less to any invader, and his kingdom is that which shall bot be destroyed. Even the gates of hell, or the infernal powers and policies, shall not prevail against it. The church shall continue militant to the end of time, and triumphant to the endless ages of eternity.
Verses 15-28 Here we have, I. The deep impressions which these visions made upon the prophet. God in them put honour upon him, and gave him satisfaction, yet not without a great allay of pain and perplexity (v. 15): I Daniel was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my body. The word here used for the body properly signifies a sheath or scabbard, for the body is no more to the soul; that is the weapon; it is that which we are principally to take care of. The visions of my head troubled me, an again (v. 28), my cogitations much troubled me. The manner in which these things were discovered to him quite overwhelmed him, and put his thoughts so much to the stretch that his spirits failed him, and the trance he was in tired him and made him faint. The things themselves that were discovered amazed and astonished him, and put him into a confusion, till by degrees he recollected and conquered himself, and set the comforts of the vision over against the terrors of it.II. His earnest desire to understand the meaning of them (v. 16): I came near to one of those that stood by, to one of the angels that appeared attending the Son of man in his glory, and asked him the truth (the true intent and meaning) of all this. Note, It is a very desirable thing to take the right and full sense of what we see and hear from God; and those that would know must ask by faithful and fervent prayer and by accomplishing a diligent search. III. The key that was given him, to let him into the understanding of this vision. The angel told him, and told him so plainly that he made him know the interpretation of the thing, and so made him somewhat more easy.1. The great beasts are great kings and their kingdoms, great monarchs and their monarchies, which shall arise out of the earth, as those beasts did out of the sea, v. 17. They are but terraefilii—from beneath; they savour of the earth, and their foundation is in the dust; they are of the earth earthy, and they are written in the dust, and to the dust they shall return.2. Daniel pretty well understands the first three beasts, but concerning the fourth he desires to be better informed, because it differed so much from the rest, and was exceedingly dreadful, and not only so, but very mischievous, or it devoured and broke in pieces, v. 19. Perhaps it was this that put Daniel into such a fright, and this part of the visions of his head troubled him more than any of the rest. But especially he desired to know what the little horn was, that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, and whose countenance was more fearless and formidable than that of any of his fellows, v. 20. And this he was most inquisitive about because it was this horn that made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, v. 21. While no more is intimated than that the children of men make war with one another, and prevail against one another, the prophet does not show himself so much concerned (let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth, and be dashed in pieces one against another); but when they make war with the saints, when the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, are broken as earthen pitchers, it is time to ask, "What is the meaning of this? Will the Lord cast off his people? Will he suffer their enemies to trample upon them and triumph over them? What is this same horn that shall prevail so far against the saints?’’ To this his interpreter answers (v. 23-25) that this fourth beast is a fourth kingdom, that shall devour the whole earth, or (as it may be read) the whole land. That the ten horns are ten kings, and the little horn is another king that shall subdue three kings, and shall be very abusive to God and his people, shall act, (1.) Very impiously towards God. He shall speak great words against the Most High, setting him, and his authority and justice, at defiance. (2.) Very imperiously towards the people of God. He shall wear out the saints of the Most High; he will not cut them off at once, but wear them out by long oppressions and a constant course of hardships put upon them, ruining their estates and weakening their families. The design of Satan has been to wear out the saints of the Most High, that they may be no more in remembrance; but the attempt is vain, for while the world stands God will have a church in it. He shall think to change times and laws, to abolish all the ordinances and institutions of religion, and to bring every body to say and do just as he would have them. He shall trample upon laws and customs, human and divine. Diruit, aedificut, mutat quadrata rotundis—He pulls down, he builds, he changes square into round, as if he meant to alter even the ordinances of heaven themselves. And in these daring attempts he shall for a time prosper and have success; they shall be given into his hand until time, times, and half a time (that is, for three years and a half), that famous prophetical measure of time which we meet with in the Revelation, which is sometimes called forty-two months, sometimes 1260 days, which come all to one. But at the end of that time the judgment shall sit and take away his dominion (v. 26), which he expounds (v. 11) of the beast being slain and his body destroyed. And (as Mr. Mede reads v. 12) as to the rest of the beast, the ten horns, especially the little ruffling horn (as he calls it), they had their dominion taken away. Now the question is, Who is this enemy, whose rise, reign, and ruin, are foretold? Interpreters are not agreed. Some will have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Seleucidae, and the little horn to be Antiochus, and show the accomplishment of all this in the history of the Maccabees; so Junius, Piscator, Polanus, Broughton, and many others: but others will have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Romans, and the little horn to be Julius Caesar, and the succeeding emperors (says Calvin), the antichrist, the papal kingdom (says Mr. Joseph Mede), that wicked one, which, as this little horn, is to be consumed by the brightness of Christ’s second coming. The pope assumes a power to change times and laws, potestas autokratorike —an absolute and despotic power, as he calls it. Others make the little horn to be the Turkish empire; so Luther, Vatablus, and others. Now I cannot prove either side to be wrong; and therefore, since prophecies sometimes have many fulfillings, and we ought to give scripture its full latitude (in this as in many other controversies), I am willing to allow that they are both in the right, and that this prophecy has primary reference to the Syrian empire, and was intended for the encouragement of the Jews who suffered under Antiochus, that they might see even these melancholy times foretold, but might foresee a glorious issue of them at last, and the final overthrow of their proud oppressors; and, which is best of all, might foresee, not long after, the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the world, with the hopes of which it was usual with the former prophets to comfort the people of God in their distresses. But yet it has a further reference, and foretels the like persecuting power and rage in Rome heathen, and no less in Rome papal, against the Christian religion, that was in Antiochus against the pious Jews and their religion. And St. John, in his visions and prophecies, which point primarily at Rome, has plain reference, in many particulars, to these visions of Daniel.3. He has a joyful prospect given him of the prevalency of God’s kingdom among men, and its victory over all opposition at last. And it is very observable that in the midst of the predictions of the force and fury of the enemies this is brought in abruptly (v. 18and again v. 22), before it comes, in the course of the vision, to be interpreted, v. 26, v. 27. And this also refers, (1.) To the prosperous days of the Jewish church, after it had weathered the storm under Antiochus, and the power which the Maccabees obtained over their enemies. (2.) To the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the world by the preaching of his gospel. For judgment Christ comes into this world, to rule by his Spirit, and to make all his saints kings and priests to their God. (3.) To the second coming of Jesus Christ, when the saints shall judge the world, shall sit down with him on his throne and triumph in the complete downfall of the devil’s kingdom. Let us see what is here foretold. [1.] The Ancient of days shall come, v. 22. God shall judge the world by his Son, to whom he has committed all judgment, and, as an earnest of that, he comes for the deliverance of his oppressed people, comes for the setting up of his kingdom in the world. [2.] The judgment shall sit, v. 26. God will make it appear that he judges in the earth, and will, both in wisdom and in equity, plead his people’s righteous cause. At the great day he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained. [3.] The dominion of the enemy shall be taken away, v. 26. All Christ’s enemies shall be made his footstool, and shall be consumed and destroyed to the end: these were the apostle uses concerning the man of sin, 2 Th. 2:8 . He shall be consumed with the spirit of Christ’s mouth and destroyed with the brightness of his coming. [4.] Judgment is given to the saints of the Most High. The apostles are entrusted with the preaching of a gospel by which the world shall be judged. All the saints by their faith and obedience condemn an unbelieving disobedient world; in Christ their head they shall judge the world, shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, Mt. 19:28 . See what reason we have to honour those that fear the Lord; how mean and despicable soever the saints now appear in the eye of the world, and how much contempt soever is poured upon them; they are the saints of the Most High; they are near and dear to God, and he owns them for his, and judgment is given to them. [5.] That which is most insisted upon is that the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, v. 18. And again (v. 22), The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. And again (v. 27), The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Far be it from us to infer hence that dominion is founded on grace, or that this will warrant any, under pretence of saintship, to usurp kingship. No; Christ’s kingdom is not of this world; but this intimates the spiritual dominion of the saints over their own lusts and corruptions, their victories over Satan and his temptations, and the triumphs of the martyrs over death and its terrors. It likewise promises that the gospel kingdom shall be set up, a kingdom of grace, the privileges and comforts of which now, under the heavens, shall be the earnest and first-fruits of the kingdom of glory in the heavens. When the empire became Christian, and princes used their power for the defence and advancement of Christianity, then the saints possessed the kingdom. The saints rule by the Spirit’s ruling in them (and this is the victory overcoming the world, even their faith) and by making the kingdoms of this world to become Christ’s kingdom. But the full accomplishment of this will be in the everlasting happiness of the saints, the kingdom that cannot be moved, which we, according to his promise, look for (that is the greatness of the kingdom), the crown of glory that fades not away—that is the everlasting kingdom. See what an emphasis is laid upon this (v. 18): The saints shall possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever; and the reason is because he whose saints they are is the Most High and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, v. 27. He is so, and therefore theirs shall be so. Because I live, you shall live also, Jn. 14:19 . His kingdom is theirs; they reckon themselves exalted in his exaltation, and desire no greater honour and satisfaction to themselves than that all dominions should serve and obey him, as they shall do, v. 27. They shall either be brought into subjection to his golden sceptre or brought to destruction by his iron rod.Daniel, in the close, when he ends that matter, tells us what impressions this vision made upon him; it overwhelmed his spirits to such a degree that his countenance was changed, and it made him look pale; but he kept the matter in his heart. Note, The heart must be the treasury and store-house of divine things; there we must hide God’s word, as the Virgin Mary kept the sayings of Christ, Lu. 2:51 . Daniel kept the matter in his heart, with a design, not to keep it from the church, but to keep it for the church, that what he had received from the Lord he might fully and faithfully deliver to the people. Note, It concerns God’s prophets and ministers to treasure up the things of God in their minds, and there to digest them well. If we would have God’s word ready in our mouths when we have occasion for it, we must keep it in our hearts at all times.
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