All one has to do is look through history at the so-called "great" empires. What happens to these great empires?
Egypt?
Babylon?
Persia?
Rome?
Regardless of which empire is viewed, they all end in complete failure - every single time, without exception.
Sooner or later these empires become dominated by greed, corruption, oppression, moral failure, violence, economic collapse and an array of related failures. Every time. No exceptions.
Take a look at 1 Samuel - as the people of Israel begged God to give them a human king:
As Samuel "prayed to the Lord" (1 Samuel 8:6) regarding the people requesting a human king, God reflected:
"And the Lord told him: 'Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king" (1 Samuel 8:7)
This is a key point. The "people" reject God and then request to be led by another human. Mistake # 1, and it's a whopper.
Sadly, does this sound familiar?
God elaborates:
"Now listen to them; but warn solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do." (1 Samuel 8:9)
"This is what the king who will reign over you will do:
He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses...Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive trees and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day" (1 Samuel 8:10-18)
And how did the people respond?
"But the people refused to listen to Samuel. 'No!' they said, 'We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles."
"When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered 'Listen to them and give them a king'". (1 Samuel 8:19-21)
So God gave the people their wishes, despite his warnings.
Is it any different today?
Look at the state of the world today: Wars, persecution, torture, economic failure, greed, corruption, lies, slander, oppression, thievery, imprisionment, etc. Everything that God warned against has been revealed throughout the generations, and today we see more evidence of this than ever before.
Today's news confirms exactly what God predicted, and the first story profiles the state of California as a perfect example of the failure of human government:
Is it too late to save the Golden State?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, some 40,000 new laws take effect across the 50 States effective January 1, 2012. California leads the nation is passing arguably the most absurd of these laws. The Assembly, State Senate and Governor Jerry Brown defy comprehension.
Among the thousands of California laws passed in 2011, California leads the pack of States with its composite head in the toilet mentality. Here are a few of the inane laws
For perspective on the absurdity that typically surrounds human government - take a look at these ridiculous laws.
It's All Over But The Voting
Below is a long article but the brief quotes below say it all:
The Republican and media Establishments have joined hands in an attempt to lead America buoyantly, triumphantly off the cliff into the bottomless pit of civilizational dissolution.
The Republican Establishment, its media supporters, and the liberal media that also has an investment in politics as usual—and in avoiding the danger presented by a genuine conservative Republican—will control the official story, and the nature of the coverage, of this primary campaign.
European Health Care: Economic Malpractice
Any reasonable person does not take satisfaction in the failure and destruction of another. This is especially true when the other is innocent of any wrongdoing or lack of judgment.
Yet sometimes, epic failure can constructively serve as an example of what not to do. If the individual states of our nation are a laboratory of democracy, then the states of Europe are the laboratory of socialism. What we are witness to in Greece, and eventually in Spain, Italy, and possibly France, is the painful death of the welfare state.
Employment is shrinking, and tax revenues are falling. Internally, the socialist cash-machine is running empty as other people's money dries up. It is all happening just as reader of American Thinker foresaw.
The welfare state's demise, long inevitable, will be painful and ugly, and it will harshly impact the weakest and the most innocent of the population. After all, the welfare state defies the laws of economics and the laws of mathematics. Take notice as the liberal and socialist agitators and pundits shake their collectivized fists at the sky and curse the gods without any noticeable change. The facts on the ground will do what they will, despite rhetoric or political pontifications coming from any quarter.
Back in May 2010, bluegrasspundit made mention of the total hypocrisy of the left with regard to ObamaCare.
After shilling for ObamaCare for months, the New York Times is now telling Greece getting out of the health care marketplace would allow health care costs to come down. The hypocrisy of the left is simple astounding.
What is also important to make note of is that these socialized countries do not have the traditional bogeyman that leftists point their finger at: a revenue-hungry military. The Greek military is small to the point of insignificance. The same is true with Spain, Italy, and most others on the continent. Their defensive needs were being functionally met and subsidized by the United States.
A recent article by the NY Times makes for overwhelming evidence of the disruption and pain this transformation causes to the innocent and the disadvantaged. While the article is slanted politically, it is worth reading in its entirety; the reader must realize that this will happen in other European nations, and eventually here in the U.S. should we be so foolish as to follow their example.
At public hospitals, doctors report shortages of all kinds of supplies, from toilet paper to catheters to syringes. Computerized equipment has gone unrepaired and is no longer in use. Nurses are handling four times the patients they should, and wait times for operations -- even cancer surgeries -- have grown longer.
Access to drugs has also been affected, as some drug manufacturers, owed tens of millions of dollars, are no longer willing to supply Greek hospitals. At the same time pharmacists, afraid that the government might not reimburse them, are asking for cash payments, even from those with insurance.
Again, EPIC FAILURE.
Our Growing Police State
Along the way a massive security infrastructure and bureaucracy was created. The Patriot Act authorized the broad use of enhanced surveillance techniques and intelligence gathering while including domestic terrorism under the scope of the intelligence services.
And we now have a Department of Homeland Security that employs over 216,000. The Transportation Security Agency consists of over 58,000 of those employees. The Border Patrol is of equivalent size, while ICE employs approximately 20,500. In an address delivered by retired General Barry McCaffrey, he emphasized the real dangers of the War on Drugs and an out of control border.
The criminal networks have become ever more sophisticated and now act as paramilitaries, destabilizing one of our most important allies. And yet the inward directed nature of much of our security establishment does nothing to address real and present dangers.
In the meantime, corruption and cronyism have risen to a level not seen since the 1870's.
Nat Hentoff has written extensively on the assault on civil liberties and on due process starting with many of the measures of the Bush Administration. This accelerated, according to Mr. Hentoff, under President Obama, who has concentrated power in the White House to an extraordinary degree. By avoiding Congressional approval and his own Executive Branch through the appointment of "czars" ranging from the auto industry to regulation to ethics to climate to consumer affairs, the president has subverted the separation of powers repeatedly in an imperial presidency that is unparalleled.
Our government has built an anti-Constitutional framework that can and will eventually be turned against our citizens. On one side we have our civil/criminal system, and the other the growing power of Orwellian dysfunction. Think about it.
Rosen: Who Is Obama Kidding?
These myriad departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions, committees, services, panels, etc., regulate and seek to control, to one degree or another, most every element of our personal lives and businesses. While government is a necessary part of our society, by its very nature and its monopoly power in most of its functions, it is inherently inefficient, bureaucratic and political. Where government or a quasi-governmental undertaking does have to compete with the private sector (like the U.S. Postal Service), its inefficiencies and excessive costs are readily apparent. It all constitutes an overhead cost on our economy that's essential to limit.
You Won't Believe How Corrupt, Lazy And Stinking Rich Our Congress Have Become
If our founding fathers could see the cesspool that the U.S. Congress has become today, they would roll over in their graves.
Members of Congress only "work" a little over a third of the days on the calendar. The rest of the time they have off.
It is no wonder why so many members of Congress are involved in so much corruption
Many members of Congress also use their positions of power and the information they learn during the course of their duties to become fabulously wealthy.
At a time when incomes nationally are actually declining, our Congress critters are becoming stinking rich at a staggering pace. Yes, politics in America has always been a game that is funded and played by wealthy individuals, but things have gotten so extreme that it is hard to argue that average Americans have any control over Congress at all at this point.
Over the past couple of decades, the "wealth gap" between members of Congress and average Americans has grown to ridiculous proportions. Things have gotten so bad that now even the New York Times is reporting on these things....
Most members of Congress do not care about you. What they do care about is taking care of their political careers and taking care of their big donors. As noted earlier, it takes enormous amounts of money to win national elections in America, and most members of Congress are not about to do anything that will threaten the gravy train.
Our system is fundamentally broken. It is time to quit pretending.
Also see:
Soros Group Merges With White House
2011: The Year The Wheels Fell Off
There are actually many many more links that could be provided, but the ones above sufficiently make the point.
Human government is a failure and it always has been.
What has this to do with biblical prophecy?
Jesus will finally end human government when He returns at the end of the Tribulation - a 7-year period which will offer the very worst that human government has to offer.
The statue of Daniel 2, which reflects four of the most potent and powerful examples of human government has a fate - a fate that is symbolic of all human government. In a symbolic gesture, we can see once again what God thinks of human government as we see the fate of the statue:
"Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces...and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace." (Daniel 2:35)
In other words, gone forever. "Swept away without leaving a trace". Thank God for that.
And what happens upon the formal ending of human government?
"...the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever." (Daniel 2:44)
At the time of the second coming, Jesus will establish His reign on earth, and we will never see human government again. Amen to that.
Only Jesus is worthy to reign over man; the history of man's rule on earth should provide ample proof of that fact.
But the time for human government is rapidly drawing to a close.
As we progress down the statue of Daniel 2, from head to toes, we progress through a representation of human government, as shown by the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, The Greek Empire and finally, the Roman Empire. Given this, we are currently at the feet - feet made of Iron and Clay which represents the dysfunctional diversity of the revived Roman Empire (aka the EU).
The only remaining stage, according to this statue, is the "toes" stage, which represents the final "10 Kings" aspect of human government - a stage which will produce the antichrist and usher in the Tribulation - and that time, the countdown begins for the final 7 year period. This will reveal the true nature of human government with all of its failures.
Fortunately, this story has a wonderful ending - Jesus has given us assurances of that fact.
When Jesus returns - He will establish His kingdom and the contrast to human government couldn't be more dramatic.
"Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom..." (Daniel 7:27)
And for eternity, following this period, we will see an even greater manifestation of God's rule as contrasted with man's rule:
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them. and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:3-4)
AMEN.
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