Get Used to Living in Zion

I don’t mean for the title to be misleading. I am not referring to Zionism—the movement of Jews to a homeland of Israel. The word Zion is used in a lot of ways in our scriptures (the standard canonized scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I’m picking out a few that will apply to what I’m writing about today: “the pure in heart,” “the cause of Zion,” and in the geographical sense somewhat, “all of North and South America.”

from the Bible Dictionary, here

To lay the groundwork: I wrote a couple of months ago (toward the bottom of this post) about the 42 months during which “the beast” reigned over the saints. And I speculated that these 42 months could coincide with the likely illegal administration of Joe Biden, or whoever was pulling the strings during his administration. As it turned out, he stepped down from the race for reelection exactly 42 months after his inauguration.

I just called the Biden administration illegal. While I'm not
writing about that today, this new graphic is additional evidence.
Found here and here.

So, in that sense, “the saints” were the good people of America who were living under the tyranny of “the beast”; i.e., the sea beast of Revelation 13, or the worldwide cabal, secret combinations, worldwide Deep State, Whore of All the Earth, or whatever symbolic name you want to apply to that entity. I posited that, with the conclusion of those 42 months, the beast would still be dangerous, in its death throes, but would be losing power. And then last week I wrote about the propaganda beast—the land beast of Revelation 13, which supports and gives the illusion of power to the sea beast—that it was losing power also.

And then we see the election. The sea beast is significantly disempowered by the election of Donald Trump to a second term.

I have been looking toward this election all year, trying to imagine what would happen going forward from the election, depending on various outcome scenarios. I couldn’t see beyond it. If the cabal won, America was essentially doomed. But I was hopeful that wouldn’t be the case—because of what I was seeing symbolically. But if Trump won, wouldn’t the sea beast and the propaganda beast stir up a lot of trouble, maybe riots or violence? I didn’t know. I couldn’t imagine that they would concede peacefully and allow the incoming administration to uncover all their secret works of darkness. I still can’t see them allowing that. And yet, at this point, two days after the historic landslide election, the results are so clear that accusations of cheating to get this result are meaningless. So protests have no basis of complaint.

In fact, the losing side, rather than self-reflection, is saying things like, “America is more fascist than we had realized.”

For those who feel sad that their team lost this election, I’m not without sympathy. I remember consoling myself with Philippians 4:8 after the 2012 election: “whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Thinking on the demise of the country was too devastating to contemplate. I was in mourning. Turning to lovely things (like Christmas music) helped me get through. Essentially, I turned to God for comfort, as I do, and life went on. I suggest the same for those mourning today, but I’m guessing that’s not their natural go-to.

It turned out reports of the demise of our constitutional republic were premature. We had some temporary improvement from 2017-2020. Then we’ve been hanging on by a thread, as it were, on limited life support. America might now be waking up from its near-death coma.

But those voters who have listened to the propaganda, that has been telling them a Trump victory was the end of life as we know it, and the beginning of fascist tyranny (which they didn’t recognize under Biden) are mourning what they think is a serious blow. In a year or two, many of them may come to realize, hey, things aren’t as bad as we were told. This may especially be the case if the propaganda beast is indeed weakening. They may start getting information from sources of truth, and that could make all the difference for them.

So what do I mean about getting used to living in Zion?

Maybe "shining city upon a hill" is another way of 
describing a Zion society, and it can be America.
Gif image found here

We are told to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We know this is coming. We don’t know precisely when. But soon—whatever soon means.

There’s so much to fear about the run-up to the Second Coming: earthquakes, fires, floods, famine, disease, wars. All of which we have seen, in case you hadn’t noticed. To those who keep saying, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” maybe what we have been seeing has been something.

I have wondered a couple of things. First, why the warnings from ancient prophets if there is no way to avoid the tribulations? And second, how are we to prepare the world for the Savior to come and live among us, if we’re too hampered by tyranny to make free choices to benefit ourselves and others?

I expect the tribulations will continue. But with each one, there will be people who turn to God for support in those times. And—this is important—they will find Zion. They will find people living in a way that shows their love for one another. People step up to help those in trouble, and to get them to more spiritually solid ground—as well as housed and fed and comforted until they can become self-sufficient again.

During the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, we saw glimpses of Zion—people stepping up to help those in need. These Zion people sometimes had to do it despite being hindered by the government.

Elon Musk provided Starlink service to people who had lost their communications. But they weren’t allowed into some areas—the areas with the most need—without names and contact information of the people they were going to see. Well, it kind of defeats the purpose of going in to reach those people who can’t tell you who they are—because they have no communications to let you know who they are!

Glenn Beck experienced frustration with FEMA and other government agencies, who were following directions, but hadn’t thought of ways to actually get food and water and supplies to the people who couldn’t get to their in-town centers—because they lost transportation, bridges, and roads, and couldn’t get to those places. People had to do the jobs that government couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

And, even without natural disasters, people are struggling to pay for groceries and gas for their cars. These things were called “malaise” under Obama (as with Carter a generation earlier), and were considered permanent. Then we found out they weren’t permanent; we just needed better policies. So we had better days under Trump—until the pandemic allowed the sea beast to exert control over the people in ways that were more frightening than the illness (which was easily treatable at home, if they hadn’t outlawed such treatments). Then things turned bad again under Biden. But now we know those things don’t have to be permanent.

It will take some work to build Zion. But I think we can actually do it.

Another way of talking about this is building civilization, which I’ve written about. On the Spherical Model website, I describe civilization this way:

The Social Sphere of the Spherical Model

What Does Civilization Look Like?

In the northern circle that is the goal—Civilization—families typically remain intact, and children are raised in loving homes, with caring parents who guide their education and training, dedicating somewhere between 18 and 25 years for that child to reach adulthood, and who then remain interested in their children’s success for the rest of their lives.

Civilized people live peaceably among their neighbors, helping rather than taking advantage of one another, abiding by laws enacted to protect property and safety—with honesty and honor. Civilized people live in peace with other civilized people; countries and cultures coexist in appreciation, without fear.

There is a thriving free-enterprise economy. Poverty is meaningless; even though there will always be a lowest earning 10% defined as poor, in a civilized society these lowest earners have comfortable shelter and adequate food and clothing—and there’s the possibility of rising, or at least for future generations to rise.

Creativity abounds; enlightening arts and literature exceed expectations. Architecture and infrastructure improve; innovation and invention are the rule.

People feel free to choose their work, their home, their family practices, their friendships and associations. And they generally self-restrain before they infringe on the rights and freedoms of others. Where there are questions about those limits, laws are in place to help clarify boundaries of civilized behavior. When someone willingly infringes on the rights or safety of another, the law functions to protect that victim as well as society from further uncivilized behavior from the offender.

America is set up to be such a civilization—to be a Zion.

The losing candidate, if you’ll recall, declared herself against Zion. It was at a rally shortly before the election. She was praising her favorite “right” of abortion, and two people in the crowd called out “Jesus is Lord” and “Christ is King.” And she went off script—one of the only times—and quipped, “You’re at the wrong rally. You must want the smaller rally down the street.” She is anti-Zion, anti-civilization—she is anti-Christ.

So how do we get to become Zion? We follow the rules for civilization. Again, this is from the Civilization article on the website. There are two rules:

1.     Not all religious societies are civilized (according to my definition), but every civilized society is a religious society. This absolutely does not mean state-sponsored religion or lack of religious freedom; in fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of religion is essential, and the flourishing of religion in general must be encouraged.

2.     The family is the basic unit of civilized society. Whatever threatens the family threatens civilization. So preserving and protecting the family is paramount in laws and social expectations in a civilized society.

 

There’s a fair amount more detail for each of these, which we won’t fully cover here today. For those of my faith, you might look at this as moving from savagery a telestial society (telestial referring to the brightness of the stars at a distance), which is a fallen world, to a civilized, terrestrial world (referring to the relative brightness of the moon, which is much brighter in the sky than a star). If we can get portions of the world—maybe even whole countries, but at least many communities—to be of that higher level, that would be a place Christ would visit. We want to eventually become celestial (comparative brightness of the sun)—where God dwells. But that can come later. Terrestrial, as I understand it, will be the nature of the world during Christ’s millennial reign.

The Ten Commandments, at
the Texas State Capitol

How do we become terrestrial—or civilized—now, while the world itself is still telestial? By living by those two rules. The kind of religion may still vary widely. But it will require being accountable to a higher being for your behavior in this life. And it will require living a certain way. We need to live by the Ten Commandments. We can summarize these with these five things: Honor God, family, life, truth, and property.

·        We honor God: We put God first, and recognize our adherence to His law will affect our afterlife beyond this life.

·        We honor family: We have family loyalty and fidelity. This requires, by the way, no sex outside of man-woman marriage—no arguments about that. Family is how civilization gets passed from generation to generation. Family, as defined by God, is the basic unit of civilization.

·        We value life: We value our own life and the lives of all others. We would take human life only in self-defense situations, which includes defensive war, and in protection of society from someone who has murdered. In a just, civilized society, those exceptions become more and more rare.

·        We value truth: We do not lie, or bear false witness; truth is sacred to us.

·        We value property: We do not steal or even covet, which means wanting what belongs to another—not just wanting something like theirs, but actually wanting to deprive them for your own satisfaction.

The only thing not specified there to love your neighbor. The Savior summarized all the law and the prophets (the sum of what became Old Testament scripture outlining the law and then the teachings of the prophets) as to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself.

His is an even higher way—which we’ll have an easier time choosing from a terrestrial (civilized) society than from a telestial (savage) society. He asks us to control even our thoughts and feelings. There are summaries of what this behavior entails in places like I Corinthians 13, where the apostle Paul describes charity, the pure love of Christ: kind, not envious, not self-important or self-aggrandizing, not unseemly, not selfish, not easily provoked, no evil thinking, no rejoicing in iniquity, but rejoicing in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. This love never fails.

A government leader can’t make such a society happen. But such a leader can get out of the way of a free and righteous people. If we return to our Constitution, and limit government to those specified things that protect our life, liberty, and property, the rest is up to us.

Maybe this was the plan all along—to give an example of Zion to the world. Then people can self-select based on whether they love God or not. Those who choose Zion get to live a much better life—more like living in the Garden of Eden eventually—than those who choose symbolic Babylon, or the savage, telestial world.

As Trump might eventually say: “Come to Zion—but do it legally.”

There’s more celebration of the victory I’d like to write about, for the sake of history. But this will do as my first impression.

Start with Ourselves

During weeks like this, when the news is covering mainly one horrible event, it can wear on a person.

One response is, as Mr. Rogers’ mother advised, to look for the helpers. And there have been many. Stories of heroes, in Las Vegas, who acted instinctively to do what would help others—those are the stories that really tell who we are as a people. Here’s one.

Johnathan Smith, hero
image from CNN

The less helpful response is to insist that anyone who doesn’t believe in taking all the guns from all the law-abiding citizens lacks compassion. And I feel the urge to respond. If pinned down, these gun haters aren’t against all guns; they’re against anyone but the government having them. Because they won’t be against police and military having them—unless they’re in favor of dying defenseless. So, they’re really just against non-government citizens having weapons to defend themselves. I’d like to know why they suddenly trust the government so much.

There’s talk of outlawing the bump stock, apparently used in the Las Vegas shooting to make a semi-automatic rifle fire almost like an automatic rifle. Fully automatic weapons are already outlawed. The NRA is not against outlawing the bump stock. Most shooting ranges already forbid them. If a person isn’t trained in rapid fire—the kind of training you might get in the military—it’s easy to lose control and shoot the ceiling or anything (or possibly anyone) within range.

So there’s a good chance there will be some agreement on this. At the very least there may be some control over where such items can be owned or used, since they make a legal weapon into what is essentially an illegal weapon.

I don’t know how the debate will go. What I expect, though, is that when a murderer doesn’t have access to one way of killing, he will find another.

What we really need is a better way to identify the kind of mind and heart willing to mass murder. I don’t know if that’s possible. Isn’t that the idea of the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report? I don’t think things went well when interventions pre-empted actions.

Even better would be creating minds and hearts that don’t go so far awry.

Scarlett Lewis, the mom of one of the Sandy Hook Elementary victims, says that gun control isn’t the answer; misuse of guns is a symptom of a larger societal problem. She suggests teaching young people social and emotional learning. A program she promotes focuses on five points: how to have positive and healthy relationships, deep connections, coping skills, resilience and compassion.

Lewis believes we can see the end of these killings, if we teach every child how to cope with anger, how to be compassionate, and how to love.

Getting out of savagery and up to civilization is a simple but not easy process. We live in a fallen world, with too much evil. A lot will still go wrong. But we can start with ourselves, and with helping and encouraging those around us. The basics include those things that get us beyond our selfishness, the things we get from the Ten Commandments: honor God, life, family, property, and truth. A person who follows this path doesn’t plan and carry out savage atrocities.

During the LDS General Conference last weekend, Elder M.Russell Ballard said this:

We need to embrace God’s children compassionately and eliminate any prejudice, including racism, sexism, and nationalism. Let it be said that we truly believe the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ are for every child of God.

I testify that “the trek continues,” and I invite you to stay on the gospel path as you continue pressing forward by reaching out to all of God’s children in love and compassion, that we may unitedly make our hearts pure and our hands clean to receive the “multiplicity of blessings” awaiting all who truly love our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son.

MLK's Ten Commandments

It’s Martin Luther King Day today. Yesterday I came across a Wallbuilders post in honor of the day. David Barton of Wallbuilders pointed out that he was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  There are schools that remove the “Reverend” title out of some misguided idea that mentioning a historical person’s religious affiliation is somehow “establishing” a national religion.

Ten Commandments of Nonviolence
image from here

If that is true of some school—yet another reason to homeschool.

But David Barton went on to share Martin Luther King’s Ten Commandments for those joining him in the nonviolent movement. If we share nothing more about the man today, these Ten Commandments of nonviolence ought to be repeated.

1.       MEDITATE daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.

2.       REMEMBER always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation—not victory.

3.       WALK and TALK in the manner of love, for God is love.

4.       PRAY daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.

5.       SACRIFICE personal wishes in order that all men might be free.

6.       OBSERVE with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.

7.       SEEK to perform regular service for others and for the world.

8.       REFRAIN from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.

9.       STRIVE to be in good spiritual and bodily health.

10.   FOLLOW the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration.

So, the tenth is directly related to the movement, at that time, in a particular city, so we may not need that right now. And the second is worded as time and place specific as well, but the idea of seeking justice and reconciliation rather than some nebulous idea of victory is still valid.

Not everyone is Christian. Nevertheless, I believe it is true that meditating on the teachings and life of Jesus. The remaining commandments are a pretty good description of what a regular person might work on to be more Christlike—to live a more truly civilized life.

There’s a lot in there about love—even when love isn’t offered in return—and about being kind, courteous, self-restrained, and selfless toward others.

The list I use most often to describe civilized behavior is the summary of the original Ten Commandments: honor God, family, life,property, and truth.

And another good list comes from the description of charity, the pure love of Christ, in I Corinthians 13:

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is    not puffed up,

 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 8 Charity never faileth

I love the King James English language, but if you need a quick translation, the list is

·         Long suffering

·         Not envious

·         Not self-centered, no over-inflated ego

·         Well-mannered (courteous, kind, modest)

·         Not self-serving

·         Controlled temper

·         Controlled thoughts to avoid evil

·         No joy in doing bad, but joy in finding truth

·         Tolerant and long-suffering

·         Positive, believing, and hopeful

·         Enduring in goodness through life

As Peter taught, “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). In the Book of Mormon, Nephi taught the same principle, that God “inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).

The required bahaviors of civilized behavior—leading to the comforts and joys of true civilization—apply to everyone. Live that way, among others who live that way, and you can fully enjoy civilization.

Live that way even when not among others who live that way—and work, as Rev. Martin Luther King did, to persuade others to live that way as well.

That is still a movement to get behind.

The Cruelty Trademark

I’ve been re-reading a couple of classic youth novels for book club, and I’m reminded that, in order to become a classic, a piece of literature needs to touch our desire to  understand and strive for what is right, just, and civilized.

Black Beauty was published in 1877. It’s the story of a horse’s life—told from the point of view of the horse, in England when horses were necessary for most transportation. Horses are servants to humans, nothing to be done about that. But there’s so much about the way they’re treated that determines whether they can be a good servant.

Nineteenth Century England is somewhat far off, and yet there’s some wisdom that transcends.

While Black Beauty is still at his first master Squire Gordon’s, he is cared for by a good and skilled stable master named John, and his assistant James. John has come upon a scene of a young man trying to force his pony to jump a fence that is too high. The pony keeps refusing, and eventually tips the boy into a thorn hedge. John, rather than helping the boy out, allows him to learn from the scratches, and then lets the father know what has happened—letting them stop worrying after the riderless pony has arrived home, and letting them know the pony was not at fault. The father sees the need to do some teaching with his son.

Back home, John tells the incident to James, and James remembers an incident with that boy at school. James had found the boy catching flies, pulling off their wings, and enjoying watching the resulting torture. James had whopped him, and then explained himself to the school master.

“Of course I said fair and square at once what I had done, and why; then I showed the master the poor flies, some crushed and some crawling about helpless, and I showed him the wings on the window sill. I never saw him so angry before; but as Bill was still howling and whining, like the coward that he was, he did not give him any more punishment of that kind, but set him up on a stool for the rest of the afternoon, and said that he should not go out to play for that week. Then he talked to all the boys very seriously about cruelty, and said how hard-hearted and cowardly it was to hurt the weak and the helpless; but what stuck in my mind was this: he said that cruelty was the devil’s own trade-mark, and if we saw anyone who took pleasure in cruelty we might know who he belonged to, for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end. On the other hand, where we saw people who love their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God’s mark, for ‘God is Love’” (p. 59).

I’m thinking this is much different from a likely teacher’s response today. A no tolerance policy for fighting wouldn’t even wait for an explanation; the protector against cruelty would be punished.

I have no fondness for flies and feel no compunction about using a flyswatter if they enter my home, but that’s different from inflicting torture. There are studies and statistics showing that adult predators were often cruel to animals and small creatures as children. Black Beauty is fiction. But somehow that long ago society knew animal cruelty was wrong way before the studies.

Also, today the teacher would hardly be allowed to mention the devil and God as his reasoning against cruelty.

And yet this paragraph is rather satisfying for a lover of civilization.

Later in the story, James, the assistant, moves on to a new job, and is replaced with a 14-year-old boy who needs an opportunity to learn a trade. There is an instance when Joe, the new boy, is getting along well, and is riding Black Beauty on an errand. They pass a brick field, where a man is beating his horses to pull his overladen cart out of mud. Joe calls to him to stop. He points out that the wheels are too stuck, and beating the horses won’t help them move the cart. Joe offers to help unload some of the bricks. The man—angry and drunk—tells him to mind his own business, and continues whipping the horses.

Joe goes to the house near the brickyard and finds the brickyard owner and tells him what is happening. The man thanks him. Later he has him testify to a magistrate. And young Joe does it all bravely.

When Joe gets home, John notices he is upset and has Joe tell him what happened. Then he says,

Right, Joe! You did right, my now, whether the fellow gets a summons or not. Many folks would have ridden by and said ‘twas not their business to interfere. Now, I say, that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody’s business to interfere when they see it; you did right my boy (p.88).

There are things we know about being civilized. We need people with a desire to be good. And we still have some innate understanding of what that looks like.

As we’re reminded in the Ten Commandments, we need to honor God, life, family, property, and truth. And we have additional lists like this one in I Corinthians 13, reminding us what pure love entails: being long suffering, kind, not envious, not thinking oneself above others, not unseemly (crude, inappropriate, coarse), not self-serving, slow to anger, avoiding evil thought, no joy in vice, but finding joy in truth.

And, one of my favorites, an admonition from Paul, Philippians 4:8, reminds us what to fill our minds with:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Do we have a taste, a preference, for these things? Isn’t it better to strive for civilization—with good, kind, humble, truthful people—rather than savage people, who are unkind, quick to anger, vengeful, prideful, evil thinking liars?

And isn’t it better to be with civilized people who value life, liberty, and property for themselves and others, rather than live among those who seek to take away life, liberty, and property from those who disagree with them, or those who live differently, or those they dislike for whatever reason?

We suffered yet another savage tragedy this weekend. There can be no sympathy for the perpetrator who killed as many as fifty people in Orlando, Florida. He is dead, after a three-hour standoff. He was an Islamist terrorist.

Orlando tribute
photo from here

There is something particularly savage about mass murdering and claiming it’s for your religion.

Religion is our search for how to live the best possible life. We can share our religions, but we cannot force others to believe.

Religions can and do define what behaviors qualify as good enough for belonging, for calling oneself by that religion’s name. But the power ends before coercion. Before force. Before physical punishment. The ultimate punishment a religion has a right to inflict is excommunication—removing one’s name from the membership. That is for serious wrongdoing, and usually for the unrepentant continuing wrongdoer.

No religion has authority to physically punish its members. And no religion has a right to condemn and mete out punishment on nonbelievers. A so-called religion that condones these things is a usurper of political authority masquerading as a religion.

I suspect there’s a lot I do not want in my lifestyle that the victims this weekend chose for theirs. It was a gay bar; I don’t drink alcohol, and I don’t have sex outside of marriage. I’m like a lot of religious people.

But the idea that anyone would murder them is abhorrent. Murder is far deeper into savagery than anything those victims might have been doing. That should be so obvious that everyone who can be comfortable living in civilization must see this truth.

I do not know anyone who wishes for the death of people whose lifestyle is different. I do not know anyone who hates people whose lifestyle is different—even though we get defined as haters simply for not agreeing to embrace and approve of things that are antithetical to our religious beliefs.

There is nothing civilized about terrorism. There is no excuse for it. It is a delight in cruelty and killing that most of us can hardly imagine—even though in this country we’ve now faced 86 terrorist incidents since 9/11/2001. Almost without exception, the terrorist plots we face are Islamist. Their behavior has the mark of the devil, who is “a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end.” They lack “God’s mark, for ‘God is Love.’”

Terrorism can’t be condoned, given excuse, or tolerated. It needs to be prosecuted, prevented, and wiped out. Every tool at our disposal should be used, especially common sense.

If someone is Muslim, I’m afraid they will continue to be burdened with the necessity of proclaiming their difference from radicals who condone terrorism. We civilized people will continue to honor them and embrace them as they do so. But it is unfortunately true that the terrorists trying to murder us do it in the name of Islam.

The failure of this administration to acknowledge this basic fact is hurting all of us—including the peaceful Muslims.

If we are less safe from terrorists, then we have greater need to defend ourselves. Yet this administration blames our right to defend ourselves with arms, while avoiding identifying the terrorists’ beliefs.

Armed security at that gun-free nightclub might have helped. And people were prevented by law from arming themselves at many of the terrorist tragedies worldwide.

It cannot be about disarming law-abiding citizens; it must be about disarming terrorist plotters. You do that by identifying them. Our civilization is at stake.

Source of Morality

Last week, following the Democrat presidential debate, Glenn Beck called in to his radio show (he was out that day) to comment. He opined that what Bernie Sanders is proclaiming is what is moral. It isn’t what is really moral, but what people with a totally skewed worldview might think is moral.

That got me thinking. I’ve noticed, among friends who are non-religious but still decent people, they seek morality. They try being vegan—to avoid eating what was alive as an animal. They might volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. While rejecting God’s word as a way to a moral life, they nevertheless seek to be moral, finding their own definitions—and sometimes proselytizing their “discovered morality” to others who don’t yet agree with them.

I propose that it is normal for people to want to be good, to think of themselves as good. They can define that according to what God has revealed as good. But if they reject that, they leave a vacuum they must fill with something. Sometimes what they fill it with will align with what God tells us is good, sometimes neutral. Sometimes they’re just plain wrong.

Another thing necessary for figuring out what is moral is a standard, or authority. If God is not the authority, then the vacuum left is filled by something else: the person’s own gut feelings, the popular culture—or the government.

What we saw at the Democrat debate was morality as defined by those who think the authority is government. And it’s circular; government must do what the people think is moral, and the people must agree with government’s definitions of moral.

I thought it might be useful to draw a comparison between God’s definition of morality and the counterfeit Government-is-god version of morality. If we can trust that those who disagree with us want to be good and right, and we can use language that recognizes the search for morality, we might persuade away from the big-government ideas that lead inevitably to tyranny, poverty, and savagery—which moral people do not want.

This thought exercise in the chart isn’t yet how to word things to the lost morality thinkers, but it is on the way. If we can see the real next to the counterfeit, then maybe we can think of ways to lead others to the real.

God’s Revealed Morality	Government-as-god Morality
God is the authority of what is moral and good. He lets us know what that is, in written word that has been used and handed down for millennia, and agreed upon by civilizations.	Government is the authority of what is moral and good. What government says is good is different now than it was a decade ago, and will likely be quite different a decade from now.
God grants human beings inalienable rights.	Government grants human beings what it chooses, and removes those “rights” and privileges as it sees fit.
God grants us life, and determines timing of birth and death. God prohibits us from taking innocent life.	Government decides whose life is or is not worth protecting. Government places greater value on criminal life and possibly animal life than it does innocent unborn human life or innocent elderly or infirm.
God is no respecter of persons; i.e., He invites all races and nations of people to come unto Him and follow His law in order to live their best life.	Government chooses whom to favor, and may favor one ethnicity or gender or class over another as it chooses.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; God gives mankind the resources and responsibilities to live well on the earth, allowing His children to prosper from their work and effort.	Government insists that man is a danger to the earth, and should curtail any activities or enterprises that the government deems to be dangerous to the environment, even if those restrictions unduly harm the poor, or prevent inventions that could solve cleanliness issues.
God plans for each child to be raised by a loving mother and father, to teach the child God’s morality and bring him/her up to be productive and contributing to society, so parents have the sacred right and responsibility to see to the care and upbringing of their children.	Government claims to know what is best for children; it will insist on government institutions for inculcating government ideas, and will override parental rights as it chooses.
God is concerned about economic inequality if some of his children are starving and in need while others fail to care and offer help, because voluntary helping, individual to individual, can help both the giver and the receiver.	Government is concerned about economic inequality regardless of cause, and takes by force from some to give to others, as it sees fit, regardless of how this might harm both the giver and the receiver.
God allows, and considers it a responsibility, to defend self, family, and home. So good citizens have a right to arm themselves.	Government claims that citizens should not be allowed to own weapons, because some people might use them improperly.
God requires allegiance to Him first, followed by family, community, and government.	Government requires allegiance to government first, followed by community as higher government allows, then family as government dictates, and to religion as far as government is willing to tolerate.
God joined our first parents in marriage and commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth—to care for their offspring and bring them up to adulthood in love and security.	Government decides that marriage is a current agreement between any two people in a sexual relationship, without any connection to permanence, exclusivity, or parenting; and government may decide on a different definition at any time in the future, regardless of the effect on families and children.
God expects His children to respect property ownership, to care for what is theirs, but never to take what is not theirs.	Government decides who owns what, and whether to allow ownership to continue, or to confiscate from a current owner to claim for government or to bestow on a new owner.
When God asks for charity, it is one person freely giving something he has, or his time, attention, or work to benefit another of God’s children.	When government asks for charity, it is coerced by taxation, confiscation, or regulation and requirement.
God’s laws are short and simple: there are ten clearly worded basic requirements respecting God, family, life, honesty, and property ownership, plus some advisory details about how to implement them. He has made them relatively easy to understand and obey. He will judge fairly and mercifully.	Government’s laws are lengthy, complex, unintelligible, and often obscure, so as to make them almost impossible to obey, which gives government the power to prosecute at will almost anyone it might target. Government may judge arbitrarily and inconsistently.