C Rev1v9to11 God commissions book

_ God commissions John to write what he sees in a book and to send it to the seven assemblies located in Asia.

Rev 1:9-11 NKJV  I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.  (10)  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,  (11)  saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."

_ It seemed best to add a fair amount of interpretation in the translation below instead of being overly literal.  Most of the additions and changes to traditional translation make implied meanings obvious in English. Brackets are used to designate unfamiliar or novel choices in translation and interpretation. Comments below attempt to explain rather than prove choices, particularly those bracketed.

Rev 1:9-11 jba  I, your brother John, am a partner in the tribulation, and kingdom and endurance of Christ Jesus. I was in the island called Patmos for the Word of God, and for the witness of Jesus Christ.  (10)  I was in [ a special spiritual state] on [a Lordian Day.] And I heard behind me a great voice, sounding like a trumpet.  (11)  The voice said, [] "What you see, write in a scroll, and send it to seven assemblies [], to those at Ephesus, at Smyrna, at Pergamos, at Thyatira, at Sardis, at Philadelphia, and at Laodicea."

1:9.1  I, your brother John, The use of "brother" to address Gentile Christians is interesting. In those epistles directed toward Jewish assemblies and in parts of Romans (see Rom 7.1) fellow descendants of Jacob is often meant. But our Lord has broken down the wall of separation (see Eph 2.11-22). And begotten again Gentile Christians are now members of the Body of Jesus Christ, a Jew, the root and branch of Israel, as well as of Jesse.

1:9.2  am a partner in the tribulation, and kingdom and endurance of Christ Jesus. Three aspects of our Lord and of His Body, the Assembly, are in view. The three are: Suffering Servant, King of Israel, and Son of God. A fourth aspect, Son of Man, is missing although it is a focus of the books of Luke and Paul, and is represented by the third cherub of Rev 4.7. "Partner" here primarily refers to John's office as the last of the Twelve, those who continued our Lord's office as Apostle to Israel during the first forty years of the Assembly.

1:9.3  I was in the island called Patmos  Tradition tells us that John had been exiled by Roman officials. God had provided this man with a closeness to our Lord (John 13.23-24) and His mother (John 19.26-27), an important apostolic ministry, a long life, and a probable enforced semi-retirement so that he would be a fully fit channel for the recording of this book of Revelation.

1:9.4  for the Word of God, and for the witness of Jesus Christ.  This is the overall aim of God working through John to accomplish His purpose. See Rom 1.9; 8.28; Eph 2.10. Our Lord is viewed in this book as the LORD God Almighty (Rev 1.8). His spoken words as recorded by John may be considered both the words of God and the testimony of the Faithful Witness.

1:10.1  I was in [a special spiritual state] on a [Lordian Day]. John's spiritual state is similar to the special meditative psychological states of modern science. But being in the Last Adam, John is more a life giving spirit than a living soul or psyche. See 1 Cor 15.45, John 7.38.

1:10.2  And I heard behind me a great voice, sounding like a trumpet.  The speaker seems to be our Lord. In 1 Thess 4.16 there is a similar description of our Lord's voice when He returns to take His Assembly to heaven.  Important transitions are also announced in a great voice like a trumpet in two places in this book. Here, Rev 1.10, the completion of Scripture is commissioned. In Rev 4.1 the end of the apostolic era is about to take place. There is a parallel between these three trumpet like voice announcements during the time of the Assembly on earth and the seven trumpets during the time of Israel's revivification during the Tribulation. See Rev 8:2-11:15

1:11.1  The voice said, [] "What you [perceive], write in a scroll,  A Revelation is given spiritually by God to Christ, to both Head and Body. See Rev 1.1. John, a member of that Body, perceives that Revelation spiritually, in a special spiritual state, with an inner spiritual eye and an inner spiritual ear. John's written record serves as a guide to other members of the Body so that they too may spiritually perceive what is freely available to them in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The omitted phrases are not found here in the Byzantine form text. They are important and are found elsewhere in the book in places which make their meaning clearer. See Rev 1.8; 21.6; 22.13.

1:11.2  and send it to seven assemblies [], Another unneeded duplication is omitted in the Byzantine form text.

1:11.3  to those at Ephesus, at Smyrna, at Pergamos, at Thyatira, at Sardis, at Philadelphia, and at Laodicea."  In this book "assembly" seems to primarily have the sense of all the begotten again Christians in a community. The word also has the sense of a regular meeting of begotten again Christians. See Rom 16.5; Col 4:15; etc.  A messenger taking the scroll to the seven assemblies could land at Ephesus and proceed along a road to the other six communities in the order given. Interestingly, Colossae is the next town on the road after Laodicea. This is perhaps a hint that there is special post-apostolic application in Paul's epistle to that assembly.

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C Rev1v4to8 To all assemblies

_ The seven assemblies located in Asia (a Roman province in Asia Minor) are prominent in the first chapters of the book of Revelation.  The seven represent all Christian assemblies. Seven is the number representing earthly completeness as twelve represents heavenly completeness. All members of the universal Assembly who do not gather regularly in local assembly meetings are also included. There is an eternal spiritual connection with our Lord, the Head of the Body. Like the ancient civil assemblies of the citizens of the Greek city states, Christian assemblies and the universal Assembly are properly composed of citizens, those properly recorded in Heaven as citizens there. See Heb 12.23.  The Christian assembly meetings include others. Distinction is not made. Even when there is voluntary and/or disciplinary separation.  The tares and wheat grow together until the harvest. See Matt 13.24-30,36-43.

Rev 1:4-8 NKJV  John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,  (5)  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,  (6)  and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.  (7)  Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.  (8)  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

_ It seemed best to add a fair amount of interpretation in the translation below instead of being overly literal.  Most of the additions and changes to traditional translation make implied meanings obvious in English. Brackets are used to designate unfamiliar or novel choices in translation and interpretation. Comments below attempt to explain rather than prove choices, particularly those bracketed.

Rev 1:4-8 jba  John to the seven assemblies located in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from [God, the King] who is, and who was, [even the One] coming, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne;  (5)  [even] from Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To [the One] [loving] us [who washes] us from our sins [by] His blood,  (6)  and made us kings and priests to God, even His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen!  (7)  "Behold! He is coming with clouds!" and "Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced" Him, and all the tribes of the earth "will wail on account of Him." Yes! Amen! Dan. 7:13; Zech. 12:10  (8)  "[I AM] the Alpha and the Omega []," says, "the LORD God, [the One] who is, and who was, even the One coming, the Almighty."

1:4.1  John to the seven assemblies located in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, The names of the seven and the command to write are in Rev 1:11. "Grace" and "peace" were common greetings among Gentiles and Jews, respectively. The combination is common in biblical epistles. The rest of this five verse epistle heading is uncommon. The Temple is viewed as destroyed and now the way into the holiest place in the heavenly tabernacle is manifest. The spiritual environment of the Assembly has become radically different. See Heb 9:8; Rev 1:10-20- versus Rev 4.

1:4.2  from [God, the King] who is, and who was, [even the One] coming, The Son is clearly in view here. The Byzantine form text has "God" without the article. (See John 1:1: "the Word was God".) The "is - was - coming" phrase is repeated in Rev 4:8 where it is applied to the One on the throne.

1:4.3  and from the seven spirits which are before His throne; The seven are seen before the throne in Rev 4:5. They may be viewed as a spiritual connection between Christ and His Assembly. See also Rev 1.12-13,20; 5.6.

1:5.1  [even] from Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, "Even" is a frequent translation of the Greek word. Greene uses it here in his LITV on free E-Sword. Rev 1.2 tells us that the book contains testimony from this "Fathful Witness". Heb 12.23 tells us that those in Christ are the Assembly of the first born ones, who have a spiritual presence in heaven and whose names are registered there. As first born ones, they have a double inheritance. They are part of the new creation both here in the old one (1 Cor 5.17) and in the creation to come.

1:5.2  and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. This affirms the translation in Rev 1.4 .2 above and is amplified in 1 Tim 6.15 and later in this book.

1:5.3  To [the One] [loving] us [who washes] us from our sins [by] His blood, The Greek present participle is translated as an English present participle. The Greek aorist participle is translated as a present indicative. These seem to be good default practices. The Greek "in" with the dative is translated in an instrumental rather than a locative sense. This seems appropriate here. See 1 John 1.7.

1:6.1  and who made us kings and priests to God, even His Father.  We read about being priests in 1 Peter 2.5 and elsewhere. Being kings is new, although it is predicted in Rom 5.17 And Heb 12.28. The Father served as God to the Son during His incarnation and to a lesser extent afterwards. The Father is also, in different senses, Father and God to those in Christ. See John 20.17.

1:6.2  To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen!  This verse has two, and the next verse four, exclamatory statements. They are so marked. Those placed in responsible offices ascribe proper glory and power to the One who placed them there. The statement is akin to "Holiness to the LORD," as inscribed on the gold plate on the turban of the high priest in the Temple.  See Exo 28.36-38.  This praise is also the proper response to the continual love He provides and the continual cleansing from the effects of sin by His blood. See 1:5.3 above.

1:7.1  "Behold! He is coming with clouds!" Old testament passages are quoted in this verse. References are at the end of the verse, 1:7.4 below. "Behold!" is an interjection that frequently, as here, has the meaning, "Look with an inner spiritual eye and discern". The clouds that accompanied His coming at the time of writing (and that continue to obscure His new post-apostolic spiritual presence amongst us) are transparent to the inner spiritual eye that is "single" or "simple". (Or perhaps mercifully translucent when the believer's discernment is obscured by tradition.) See Luke 11.34-35; John 14.23.

1:7.2  and "Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced" Him, This verse portion and the next seem to primarily refer to the still future event predicted in Rev 6.15-17. All men are guilty of piercing Him. All are sinners. All are predisposed to judge as the High Priest and Pilate did. And to follow proper crucifixion military procedure as the soldier did. But "eye" is singular. And there is an application of "see" to those with a begotten again spiritual eye that pierces the clouds accompanying His spiritual return.

1:7.3  and all the tribes of the earth "will wail on account of Him."  John uses "tribes" instead of "nations". The latter word is often used to mean "Gentiles". Here Israel is included.

1:7.4  Yes! Amen! Dan. 7:13; Zech. 12:10  The dual exclamations that begin and end this verse are testimony to its importance. The quoted prophecies are modified in this verse to give them a new application in a still future wailing of desperation - Rev 6:15-17. As unmodified, the wailing is one of mourning and a fulfillment is in John 19.34 with Luke 23.48. In both cases, the sincere repentance of some seems indicated.

1:8.1  "[I AM] the Alpha and the Omega [],"  John is recording the testimony of Jesus, the Faithful Witness. See Rev 1.2,5; 21.6; 22.13. Jesus is proclaiming the completeness and fullness of his office as the Word of God. He is vouching for the accuracy of each letter of inspired writing at the time of the completion of scripture. Jesus speaks in terms of New Testament Greek letters here. He spoke of Old Testament Hebrew and Aramaic letters in Matt 5.18. See also In Two Cities: [Rom 3:1-2] Inspiration of Bible http://bit.ly/1u7yX7N  "I AM" is all caps to show that our Lord is using the sacred Name often rendered Jehovah and also represented in scripture as: "LORD", "GOD", and "I AM THAT I AM". See our Lord's prior use of "I AM" in Mark 14.61-65; John 14.6; 18.6. (The beginning and ending phrase is not in the Byzantine form text.)

1:8.2  says, the LORD God,  John again applies the sacred Name to Jesus in a phrase frequent in the Old Testament. The preceding and succeeding verse portions affirm that the Son is in view.

1:8.3  "[the One] who is, and who was, even the One coming, The statements in this verse portion are identical to those in the Rev 1.4 .2 portion above where the attribution to the Son is clear.

1:8.4  the Almighty."  Another common title of the God of the Old Testament is here applied to our Lord. The Rev 1.8 Name and titles of portions .2 and .4 are joined in verses Rev 4.8; 15.3; 16.7; 21.22. Gen 17.1 contains the Name and titles and also "I am" ("I AM" in the Septuagint.).

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C Rev1v1to3 Our book

Rev 1:1-3 NKJV  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,  (2)  who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.  (3)  Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

_ It seemed best to add a fair amount of interpretation in the translation below instead of being overly literal.  Most of the additions and changes to traditional translation make implied meanings obvious in English. Brackets are used to designate unfamiliar or novel choices in translation and interpretation. Comments below attempt to explain rather than prove choices, particularly those bracketed.

Rev 1:1-3 jba  A revelation [belonging to] Jesus Christ. God gave it to Jesus [in order that His Body might] show to His [servant Israel] [certain] things which must soon occur. [God] explained [these things]. He sends [instruction] by His [selected angels] to His servant, John.  (2)  John herein records what he heard, including the spoken word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. John also records descriptions of the many things that he saw.  (3)  Happy is the one publicly reading and those hearing the words of this prophecy, and remembering the things written in it; for the time is near.

1:1.1 A revelation [belonging to] Jesus Christ. The next phrase shows that the sense of the usual "of" is ownership, not source or description. God gave a revelation to Jesus.

1:1.2 God gave it to Jesus [in order that His Body might] show  Paul tells us that Christian believers are members of the Body of Christ. John, through the visions recorded in this book shows us that believers are members of the Body of Christ. (In Rev 1:13-17 Head and Body of Christ are clearly differentiated. Rev 12:5 does not distinguish between the Christ child and the Assembly as caught up to God.) The Body receives a revelation given by God to Jesus spiritually as well as through John’s description. Rev 1.3 describes how the Body "shows" this revelation.

1:1.3 to His [servant Israel] John is one of the Twelve. He is an apostle to Israel, particularly to the faithful remnant. The urgent message in this book is to those begotten again under the law. The Temple is about to be destroyed and Jews killed and scattered. The time of valid testimony under the law is ending. It is time for those of faithful Israel to fully accept the Gospel. This book is particularly directed at faithful Jews who are in contact with the Assembly. (The Gentiles, as usual, receive the crumbs which fall from the table and the food which the children rejected.) The term "servants" does not seem to be applied to the generality of Christians during the first forty years of the Assembly. Scripture does apply it to "Israel, my servant".

1:1.4 [certain] things which must soon occur.  The "certain things" are those which are explained to John by "selected angels". Rev 17:10 establishes the urgency. The writing of the book and the destruction of the Temple occur during the reign of Vespasian. The end of the apostolic era, and of valid testimony under the law and the death of John, appear to take place with the death of the Emperor Titus. At this later time the beginning of the post-apostolic era takes place as depicted in Rev 21:9-22:11. The urgency of full acceptance of the Gospel before this time is made plain. A sovereign God will convert the faithful remnant in time. John is a chief instrument in this.

1:1.5 [God] explained [these things]. The Greek verb does not have an object. Tradition has inserted "it" for smoothness and has, without valid reason, thus made the explaining refer to this book as a whole. A plural object is equally acceptable to Greek grammar and makes a lot more sense. The awkwardness of a revelation given from God to Our Lord to an angel to John ought to warn us that tradition may well have obscured the Word.

1:1.6 He sends [instruction] by His [selected angels] The Greek word translated "sends" is related to the word "apostle". It is not just a simple sending. It includes the commissioning of a particular messenger. "Angel" is singular in the Greek and it is possible that one angel is in view. But it seems better to view the construction as the method by which God explains, and two angels seems to make a better fit.

1:1.7 to His servant, John.  Apostles and others appointed to special offices by God are generally referred to as His servants. The generality of Christians in the first forty years are not.

1:2.1 John herein records what he heard, including the spoken word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. This translation makes explicit much that is implied. Both God and Jesus clearly speak many times during the visions.

1:2.2 John also records descriptions of the many things that he saw. John provides a written record of this revelation. But members of the Body of Christ also see and hear spiritually a revelation given to Christ by God.

1:3.1 Happy is the one publicly reading, and those hearing the words of this prophecy, The primary meaning is the reading of John’s communication in the local assembly. The later repeating of the words is also in view.

1:3.2 and remembering the things written in it; Tradition is often captive to the error of the Galatians and translates (or interprets) "guard" or "keep" as "do" or "obey". We are to first remember the words of God. Then repeat, meditate on, and/or memorize them. The spirit of the life that is in Christ Jesus accomplishes the rest. See Joshua 1:8, Romans 8:1-4.

1:3.3 for the time is near. The need for an urgent response is peculiar to the faithful remnant of Israel. But the transition from apostolic to post-apostolic times is an enormous blessing to the entire Assembly. The availability of the complete Bible to almost all believers is so common a blessing today that it escapes notice. We no longer know in part and prophecy in part. We grow into the Head. Etc.

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Joh8v31to32 Lefties lie bigtime

John 8:31-32 KJV  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;  (32)  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The godlessness and lawlessness of the American left are apparent to the believer.

American Thinker | Articles: Liberals Wage War on the Truth http://bit.ly/1vvgge5

By Trevor Thomas

When it comes to political “wars,” in spite of the meme perpetrated by most liberals, no one is more hawkish than modern liberals and the political party that they own, the Democrat Party. By and large since the 1960s, their efforts are summed up by one succinct and extremely accurate appellation: a war on the truth.

In the history of our nation, only the pro-slavery Democrats of the 19th century rival the political deception employed by today’s liberals that lead the modern Democrat Party. Support of everything from abortion, to gender perversions, homosexuality, pornography, a redefinition of marriage, wicked climate policies, and an enslaving welfare state have made today’s Democrat Party little more than a modern-day Mephistopheles. Instead of magic to lure their Faustian targets, today’s Democrats employ, among other things, bribery, class warfare, fear, greed, lust, propaganda, scientism, vengeance, and violence.

This is really unsurprising. When your politics regularly conflict with absolute truth, constant deception is required. The evidence is, of course, all around us. This is especially the case given that we are in the midst of another election season. Take note of the political ads run by Democrats. How long before we get to meet the next Julia or Pajama Boy? How many times will we get to hear about, if elected, what Democrats will do in order to give out more goodies from the government? Where will the next fraudulent statistics in the “War on Women” originate?

How much “linguistic limbo” will Democrats perform in order blandly to describe their embracing of the “right” to kill children in the womb? (Or they simply video their abortions and tell us that everything is “super great!”) What deceit will liberals [not] use to explain or embrace the fiscal and medical disaster that is Obamacare? How many times will we get to hear the phrase “marriage equality” (knowing full well that the liberal position on marriage also “discriminates”)?

How far away will Democrats attempt to run from what they really are in order to keep themselves in power? Liberals all over the country are running from Obama and their own party in an attempt to win elections. As most who are following this election season know well, Democrats are going so far as to avoid the label “Democrat” or even admit that they voted for Obama.

In Kansas, Greg Orman is a Democrat running as an Independent. He has shamelessly refused to say with which party he would caucus if elected. “Truth makes the Devil blush,” wrote the English historian Thomas Fuller. As liberalism has created a culture that is nearly bereft of shame, today’s Democrats rarely blush, even as they mock their wheelchair-bound opponents. This usually happens only when someone becomes a political liability (as did the Democrat candidate that Orman replaced) and not because some proper moral standard has been violated.

If Orman does win, as theWall Street Journal notes, he will most certainly owe his election to Washington Democrats. Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes squirmed like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar as she attempted to avoid revealing to the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board whether she voted for Obama in the last presidential election. Mary Landrieu and Michelle Nunn have played similar games as they try to win U.S. Senate seats in conservative states.

Given how far our culture has fallen morally, getting elected in the United States these days is much more challenging when you are accountable to absolute truths. As I noted earlier this year, because their moral bar is so low and easily adjusted to whatever is politically popular, liberals today generally have an easier time “playing politics” than conservatives -- especially Christian conservatives.

When asked recently how to break the stalemate in the culture war that divides American conservatives and liberals, Catholic scholar George Weigel replied, “When you have a gnostic philosophy that ignores the very fabric of reality -- and it is wed to a coercive state -- it’s hard to know where to go.”

Ignoring “the very fabric of reality” is a frequent practice of modern liberals. Liberalism is so far removed from truth and reality that many liberals today can’t even acknowledge explicit evil when confronted with it. Ben Affleck has plenty of company among his fellow leftists when it comes to denying the rotten fruit of Islam. As the recent exchange with fellow liberal Bill Maher illustrated, many American liberals, in the name of the supreme virtue of liberalism – tolerance -- will eagerly and angrily deny lesser virtues of their “faith.”

“Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions,” wrote G.K. Chesterton. A “man without convictions” who frequently “ignores the very fabric of reality” and who is enthusiastically “wed to a coercive state” is an apt description of modern liberals, but not perfect. In spite of what they themselves might think -- lost in their fallacy that is today’s tolerance -- liberals are not completely tolerant, and thus not devoid of convictions.

The convictions of modern liberalism are numerous and growing: Abortion, homosexuality, hook-ups, same-sex marriage, gender confusion, man-made global warming, universal healthcare, income redistribution, and whatever is the next perversion or deceit that will strike at the heart of biblical truths.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident” helped launch the American Revolution. If America is to remain, we need a spiritual revolution bringing us back to those truths that were once so “self-evident.”

Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.

www.trevorgrantthomas.com

Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World http://amzn.to/1sfHgud

tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com [My emphasis and links.]

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Psa20v7 Reagan read Hayek

Psa 20:7 KJV  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

American Thinker | Articles: 30 Years of Nobelity: What Hayek Means to Me http://bit.ly/1sDzko6

By Christopher Chantrill

In this year's Nobel season we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Friedrich Hayek's Nobel Prize for Economics. So it's a good time, in the dog days of the Worst President Ever, to think about what Hayek means to us.

That's beyond the obvious point that if liberals had read and understood one word of Hayek they wouldn't be cowering in the utter meltdown that we know as the failed Obama presidency. Oh, the shame of it.

I can't remember exactly when I first heard of Hayek, but it must have been from reading the Wall Street Journal's edit page in the early to mid-1970s during its Golden Age under Bob Bartley. All I know is that in 1976 I got a copy of Mises' Human Action for my birthday.

We now know that the “amiable dunce” Ronald Reagan had also read his Hayek and his Mises, and it showed. We only know that he read them because after he died people discovered that his copies had been heavily annotated by Ronaldus Magnus himself.

Economist Mark Skousen celebrates Hayek as a macroeconomist of the Austrian business cycle, but I have always looked to him as a political philosophe

r.

As a political philosopher, Hayek had one Big Idea. It was that the socialist/Fabian/Progressive project would end in tears because, as he wrote, the man in Whitehall could never know anything close to the aggregate knowledge about the economy communicated in prices by millions of producers and consumers.

In its attempt to impose their will over the economy, Hayek wrote in 1944, the “socialists of all parties” would herd their nations down The Road to Serfdom.

In 1960, when he published The Constitution of Liberty, Hayek sharpened his analysis. He pointed out that the powers and responsibilities of the administrative state could never be defined and detailed by legislation. The task of the central planner was too complicated; he had to have the flexibility to issue administrative regulations to deal with the day to day contingencies of directing economic traffic. But administrative flexibility is the very definition of arbitrary political power, so the central administrator is bound to violate the rule of law and reduce human freedom. Fifty years later, the rollout of ObamaCare confirmed his view in every particular.

Hayek's Law Legislation and Liberty was a three-volume expansion of The Constitution of Liberty and was published between 1973 and 1979 when Hayek was in his seventies. It ends with chapters on “A Model Constitution” and “The Containment of Power and the Dethronement of Politics.”

But Hayek still wasn't finished. In 1978 (at the age of 79!) he wanted to stage a grand debate with the socialists, but in the end satisfied himself with The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism published in 1988.  Here is the money paragraph in Chapter Five: “The Fatal Conceit.”

[I]t was found that decentralized control over resources, control through several property, leads to the generation and use of more information than is possible under central direction. Order and control extending beyond the immediate purview of any central authority could be attained by central direction only if, contrary to fact, these local managers who could gauge visible and potential resources were also currently informed of the constantly changing relative importance of such resources, and could communicate full and accurate details about this to some central planning authority in time for it to tell them what to do in the light of all the other, different, concrete information it has received from other regional and local managers...

And so on. And on. In other words: That super-centralized administrative monster ObamaCare will crash and burn. It was always going to crash and burn. Because Hayek.

You can see the problem with Hayek. He cannot, for all the world, condense his Big Idea into a catchphrase that could change the world.  But we can honor his memory by doing his catchphrasing for him.

“Socialism cannot work because it cannot compute prices.” That was Ludwig von Mises in 1920.

“Central administration is a Road to Serfdom because it always violates the rule of law.”

“Human society is the product of human action, not of human design.”

“The market has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.”

“Responsible individualism and free exchange create prosperity and freedom; administrative collectivism corrodes into poverty and domination.”

“The administrative state is a mechanism, but human society is an organism.”

Maybe you can do better.

And maybe there's a young liberal student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, right now, that's furtively turning the pages of The Road to Serfdom at a local bookstore, and hoping that nobody will notice him.

Maybe in another 30 years we'll know him as the Democrat that saved liberalism from itself.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also see his American Manifesto and get his Road to the Middle Class.

Related Notes

Articles: Liberals Have Got What They Asked For

Liberals Have Got What They Asked For By Christopher Chantrill If you want to know why everything is going wrong for Obama and the Democrats, from Obamacare to Ukraine, the answer is simple. Liberals ...

I2C 141014aa Psa20v7 Reagan read Hayek | I2C | 141014 1557 | 

Rom3v1to2 Inspiration of Bible

Rom 3:1-2 KJV  What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?  (2)  Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Biblical Israel was entrusted with the spoken words of God. This verse does not distinguish between the inspired accuracy of the original writers and the inspired accuracy of later copyists and editors. The calling of God includes the effectual special spiritual capacity to fulfill that calling according to His purpose. And His purpose is that the posterity of Israel would have His original spoken words intact. And that we Gentiles, like the Syrophenician woman of Mark 7.26, might have the crumbs that fell from the table and the food that the children rejected.

Exo 19:8 KJV  And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.

Originally all Israel pledged to do all that their God, Jehovah would directly tell them to do.

(Those words later spoken directly to Israel at Sinai have a special character in explicitly defining sin to Israel as did the spoken instruction to Adam. See Rom 5.13-14, Luke 18.20.)

Exo 20:19 KJV  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

Israel was terrified by the direct hearing of the word of God. So the covenant was modified so that the spoken word would come by way of mediators, first Moses and then the prophets and writers of the Old Testament.

Deu 29:14-15 KJV  Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;  (15)  But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

The covenant was made equally with those at Sinai and with their descendants. Equal accuracy of the words is maintained by precise, inerrant, inspired writing, copying and editing.

Eph 4:11 KJV  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Those special spiritual offices established at the beginning of the Assembly also provided inspired writing under the law. At the beginning there were no Gentiles. Inspired copying and editing were also provided as long as there was valid living testimony under the law. That is, as long as there were members of the faithful remnant, those begotten again under the law (John 3.3), who had not yet become members of the Body of Christ (Rom 12.1).

1Co 9:20-21 KJV  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;  (21)  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

Paul here affirms the transitional nature of the first forty years of the Assembly. There were two groups of saved persons, the true Israel and the true Assembly. There is also a parallel with the first forty years of Israel under Moses (1Cor 10.1-6). The first forty years in each case are markedly different than the later history.

Luk 16:31 KJV  And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

A great task of the apostles, particularly John, was to tell those who believed Moses that they should accept the better covenant. When all these had been brought in, this task of the apostles, under the law, would be complete.

Rev 6:8 KJV  And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

This vision may well represent the spiritual extinction of Israel between the time of the apostles and the future removal of the Assembly from the earth.

From religious history we know that the only branch of first century Judaism that lasted beyond 200 ad is Christianity. The work of the great rabbi, Akiba, at about that time, and his successors, documents the radical change in the religion of those calling themselves Jews.

Eze 37:10 KJV  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

This vision represents the spiritual revivification of Israel at the beginning of the Tribulation.

During the period in which Isael is spiritually dead the special spiritual inspiration of writing, copying, and editing is ceased. It is part of the covenant with a spiritually living Israel, and that life and that covenant are suspended.

It is Providence working through natural means that has kept Scripture from significant error during this time.

The availability of the complete written revelation and the spirit of the life that is in Christ Jesus nullify the effects of these minor errors and ambiguities.

I2C 141013aa Rom3v1to2 Inspiration of Bible | I2C | 141013 1521 |