AMERICA'S GREATEST THREAT: GOD

April 30, 2015

America's greatest threat

By Chuck Baldwin

What is America's greatest threat? Some would say it is illegal immigration. Some would say the Muslim people. Some would say homosexual marriage. Some would say ISIS. But none of these are America's greatest threat.
At the expense of sounding preachy, America's greatest threat is GOD. Rightly did Benjamin Franklin say, "God governs in the affairs of men." And, rightly did Thomas Jefferson say, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever." Amen.
But the understanding of the Natural Law principles by which God governs in the affairs of men and upon which His justice and judgment are predicated is mostly lost to this generation of Americans – including America's pastors and Christians.

The life of Old Testament Israel's King David affords many illustrations of the principles that God has ordained for nations and governments. As a personal note, King David is my very favorite Bible character. My appetite for studying his life is insatiable. Unquestionably, he is one of the three greatest men of the Old Testament (Abraham and Moses are the other two). I can even say that David is my hero. With all of his faults and failures, God yet inspired the New Testament writer to say that David was "a man after mine own heart." He is a man after my heart, as well.
As with others in the Bible, Holy Writ is not shy about recording the misdeeds of God's servants, including King David. This is intended for our own "learning." We should earnestly seek to mimic the goodness of these men and avoid their sins. Perhaps no man of antiquity demonstrates the polar extremes of success and failure more so than David.

To my non-Christian friends, please bear with me: this column has an extremely relevant message to what is happening in our country.
When almost everybody broaches the subject of King David's failures, they almost always go immediately to the story of Bathsheba and Uriah. But, at the risk of inducing the ire of my fellow Christians, that was NOT David's greatest failure. It might have been his greatest personal failure as a MAN, but it was not his greatest failure as a KING. In fact, the vast majority of pastors and Christians have completely overlooked David's greatest failure. I dare say that the vast majority of you Christian folks who are reading this column right now have NEVER heard a message from the life of David regarding this tragic failure in David's life and the implication it has for our country today.

I preached a message last Sunday on this very subject to the people of Liberty Fellowship. You can find it here:
The Crime Of Aggression: The Curse Of A Nation And Collapse Of The Church

The failure to which I speak resulted in the deaths of 70,000 men in the nation of Israel. (That is at least seven times more than were killed in the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah.) This was the single greatest plague that God inflicted upon Old Testament Israel. Think about the inference of that fact for a few minutes.

Again, Jefferson rightly said, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever." God's justice didn't sleep in David's time; and it is not sleeping in our time, either.
The story is recorded in II Samuel 24. The chapter begins with these words, "And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel."

As a result of God's anger toward the people of Israel, he allowed their leader's heart to be overcome with an awful motivation. And, remember, this leader was King David: the man after God's own heart.
Ladies and gentlemen, America's problem is NOT Barack Obama, Muslims, liberals, etc. Our problem is US. WE are the problem. God's anger against the people (especially the Christian people) of this country has caused Him to give us evil leaders such as George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Harry Reid (and Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush, should either of them be elected).

The evil motivation to which King David succumbed is the same evil motivation that America's leaders are succumbing to today; and it portends America's GREATEST threat.
The above-referenced chapter records how David unlawfully numbered the people of Israel, the prophet's warning against it, King David's repentance, and God's judgment upon the nation. But, again, most pastors and Christians have completely overlooked this episode in David's life – and the significance of this crime to our nation today. As a result, America is teetering on the precipice of the same plague.

To help readers understand the terrible significance of David's sin, I here quote the famous scholars Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown commentary on the Bible published in 1871. This is the commentary that famed English pastor Charles Spurgeon said is the one commentary a minister should possess, if he could possess but one. They write:
"The act of numbering the people was not in itself sinful; for Moses did it by the express authority of God. But David acted not only independently of such order or sanction, but from motives unworthy of the delegated king of Israel; from pride and vainglory; from self-confidence and distrust of God; and, above all, from ambitious designs of conquest, in furtherance of which he was determined to force the people into military service, and to ascertain whether he could muster an army sufficient for the magnitude of the enterprises he contemplated. It was a breach of the constitution, an infringement of the liberties of the people, and opposed to that divine policy which required that Israel should continue a separate people."

Notice, this great sin of David included "ambitious designs of conquest." The legal name for this sin is "The Crime of Aggression." It is so grievous a sin, that God plagued Israel with the deaths of 70,000 men. And only David's awakening to this crime, and his humility in repenting of it, saved the nation from the deaths of untold more. Plus, this is David's last recorded act; he died soon after.
Ladies and gentlemen, The Crime of Aggression is currently America's greatest threat. Many of the lesser threats against our country (ISIS, for example) are the result of this great crime. And since it is extremely doubtful that any U.S. presidential candidate (with the exception of maybe Rand Paul) would issue a national "repentance" of the neocons' wars of aggression around the world, the same Death Angel that stood with sword drawn above Israel is doubtless standing above the United States as we speak.

Make no mistake about it: the neocons are governing America's foreign policy regardless of which political party is in control of the White House and Congress. And they have been in complete control ever since George H.W. Bush was President. And the vast majority of our congressmen and senators, as well as those who will be running for POTUS in 2016, are in lock-step, I mean LOCK-STEP, with the neocon agenda regarding foreign policy. And, sadly, so are most Christians and conservatives. It is also no hyperbole to say that FOX News is totally and absolutely nothing more than a propaganda ministry for the neocon foreign policy agenda.
To help put this issue in perspective, and to try and further help readers to understand the seriousness of what I am saying, I want to quote some excerpts from an attorney who is attempting to stop the neocons' Crime of Aggression via legal action and restore justice (GOD'S justice, I might add) to American government. I'm sure almost no one has heard anything about this case. The propaganda media is even more expert at NOT reporting news as they are propagandizing the news they do report.

Listen to attorney Inder Comar. He titles these remarks, "Saleh V Bush And Precedent For The Crime Of Aggression":
"First, some brief background about the case. In 2013, my client [Sundus Shaker Saleh], who is an Iraqi refugee, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco, California, in the Northern District of California, which is a federal court, alleging the crime of aggression. The defendants in that case are the six highest ranking Bush administration officials: George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz. So she is suing them in a civil case for her damages as a victim of the war, in much the same way that she would sue anybody for any cause of action.

"To make it very simple, if George Bush had hit her in a car, for example, there would be no controversy that she could sue him if she were injured. It's a similar type of claim that we're making: his conduct and his actions caused her monetary damage and under the American system, she has a right to seek her tort damages, her tort relief.
"The basis of the lawsuit in the United States is a very old law dating from 1789, the first year of our republic, known as the Alien Tort Claims Act. The first Congress in the United States passed this law to permit non-U.S. citizens – non-Americans – the ability to go to the United States courthouse and file claims against anybody for violations of international law. So you have to allege violations of international law in order to use this law.

"For about 200 years, people have used this law for piracy cases, for example. More recently, in the 1970s and 1980s, people started to use the Alien Tort Claims Act for claims of torture or for claims of crimes against humanity.
"In this case, we've alleged the 'supreme crime,' the crime of aggression, as Ms. Saleh's international law claim. What this suggests is that just as you could pursue a pirate under this law, or just as you could pursue a torturer under this law, you must be able to pursue those who commit the 'supreme crime' – the crime of aggression. In this case, she's pursuing the six people who caused the Iraq War. As we know from Nuremberg, you don't get to sue the soldiers who committed the aggression: they're not responsible. The people who are responsible are the leaders who caused the aggression. And those are the people who are giving the orders, who are planning and executing these crimes.

"We filed the lawsuit. The United States Department of Justice headed by President Obama moved to immunize these defendants soon thereafter. They requested that the federal court immunize them under domestic law, on the basis that these defendants were acting under the scope of their valid employment when they planned and waged the Iraq War.
"We fought that certification for more than a year and a half. But unfortunately, in December of last year, the District Court agreed that they were immune and immunized these defendants from further proceedings. We've since appealed that order, and right now that case is on appeal in the Federal Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.

"At the end of next month, we're due to submit a brief arguing a very specific point of law on appeal: whether or not a domestic immunity applies to allegations of aggression.
"Now for those of you who are familiar with Nuremberg, you may recall that this was the exact defense – or one of the defenses – raised by the German defendants. They argued that everything they had done was valid under German law and, as a result, they couldn't be held guilty for something like aggression.

"One of the things that we'll be raising in our brief next month is that that issue was decided already at Nuremberg: domestic defendants do not get to raise that as a defense.
"What I'd like to offer are some thoughts as to how we can take this battle now on the offensive and go into courthouses, go find venues where we can try and do our best. Ultimately, I think, we can convince judges that this is the law – and to not follow it would not only upset Nuremberg, it would validate the defenses made by the Nazi defendants, who argued that this type of law could never exist, that everything they did was completely legitimate, that they were simply following orders.

"If those things don't give you a chill, they ought to, because these are the exact defenses that the government is making in my case: that everything these defendants did was valid, that the court shouldn't scrutinize war making, because war making is outside the scope of what the sovereign can be liable for."
See the complete address here:

Historic: California District Court Lawsuit Against George W. Bush, Et Al For "Crime of Aggression" 

Folks, I hope you understand the significance of this case. For all intents and purposes, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, et al., are behaving EXACTLY as did Germany's National Socialists (Nazis). If the U.S. government prevails in this case, it will mean that the Nazis' defense at Nuremberg was RIGHT, and that the allied courts were WRONG to indict them.
Ask yourself, why would Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain viciously attack Rand Paul's foreign policy like they have? Graham and McCain went on national television last week and said that Rand's foreign policy was WORSE than Barack Obama's. 

Why would Republicans laud a liberal Democrat above a fellow Republican, not once, but over and over? Why? Because these men are governed by the same neocon (Nazi-like) agenda. Rand Paul is not. Democrat and Republican mean NOTHING. As long as he or she allows him or herself to be controlled by the neocon foreign policy, he or she will receive the approbation and support of the governing establishment. 

And, while what I am about to say is NOT an official endorsement, the ONLY candidate for President who, so far, is not willing to grovel before the neocon foreign policy agenda is Rand Paul. You can bet that the political and media establishments will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to keep Rand from obtaining the Republican nomination, because, to them, IT'S ALL ABOUT MAINTAINING NEOCON CONTROL OF AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY.

(The pressure on Rand Paul to capitulate his policy of non-aggression is massive. It will be a miracle if he can maintain his convictions on this matter. His dad, Ron Paul, was able to do it. I hope Rand can. I am earnestly praying for him.)
The Crime of Aggression was the crime that King David was guilty of planning in his heart in II Samuel 24. It was the crime that caused a divine plague of 70,000 deaths and the end of David's reign. It is the same crime that the vast majority of America's leaders are currently guilty of. And it is the same sin that a seeming majority of America's pastors and Christians are willing to tolerate and support.

Someone must see the Angel with sword drawn standing above America. Someone must be willing to call out our leaders for these crimes – as King David's personal chaplain was willing to do to him. This is one reason why King David was such a great man: not because he never failed, but, because the times when he did fail, he was willing to repent and take personal responsibility for his failure. And, remember, David's failure upon which we are currently focused was predicated upon the fact that God was angry with THE PEOPLE.
You can bet we are going to see NO REPENTANCE from the vast majority of America's political leaders or from the vast majority of those who want to be our next President. If the pastors of America don't call out the crimes of our nation's leaders, who will?

Right now, there is an attorney in the Ninth Circuit who is trying to do it. For the most part, he is a voice in the wilderness. And, no, I know nothing of his personal faith. It doesn't matter. This is a matter of Natural Law. This is a matter of national justice. And law and justice apply equally to ALL PEOPLE.
No wonder that King David's last words were: "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." (II Sam. 23:3)
People who love justice and who have the fear of God in their hearts are the kinds of people spiritually qualified to be a nation's leaders. Right now, the vast majority of our leaders have neither. And their almost universal endorsement of The Crime of Aggression proves it.
But, be not deceived: this national crime is bringing America to the brink of divine judgment, the likes of which this country has never seen. It happened to David's Israel; it happened to Caesar's Rome; it happened to Hitler's Germany; and it will happen to Bush/Clinton/Obama/Boehner/McConnell/Reid's America.

© Chuck Baldwin

My comments: Baldwin may be right in his assessment. However, this Sin is the result of UNBELIEF in God and His Word--that God Almighty is Sovereign over America and her affairs. The Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom and America, both in the Church, and certainly, outside of the Church, has lost the Fear of the Lord. Therefore, EVERYTHING that America does is UNWISE.