Ramon Arias | March 19, 2013
Do you know how dictators rise to power and from where they draw their strength? First of all they must have supporters, people who are attracted to their charisma and are open to believe their deceptive messianic promises. Secondly, this people will fight and become the instruments that go against all those who oppose their beloved leader.
The 20th century gave us some of the cruelest dictators in the history of the world. Hitler, Stalin, Khomeini, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Jong-Il, Mugabe and the list goes on and on. History shows these tyrannical leaders draw their power from the people. They know how to move the masses and mobilize them in order to accomplish their evil self-serving goals. They crave gathering masses into rallies. They feed their ego by moving the mob to admire and adulate them. It is through these big concentrations that they effectively send the message to their opponents to intimidate them. They know how to use the mobs to their advantage. The Latin phrase “mobile vulgus” means “the easy moveable crowd,” the mob. A deadly combination, a man with the wrong worldview and a mob who believes in getting something for nothing, it is this lethal combination that has destroyed empires and great nations.
When Jesus healed and fed the multitudes this was their reaction: “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself (John 6:14-15). Instead of taking advantage of people’s needs and ignorance he ran away to avoid being trapped into being made king for the wrong motives.
However, people were determined and pursued their goal: “On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.’” (John 6:22-27).
Jesus sets the mob straight, reminding them that they should not empower a man to rule over them in hope of creating a powerful state to take care of them. Jesus reminded them that each individual is responsible not only to provide for their own but by making the world a better place. They understood what Christ was telling them and the reasons they were in such a social mess, this is why they asked him:
“What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28). Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). They had to believe that Christ was the Messiah and the Savior of the world; he was to establish the Kingdom of God as the new world order through a new race of people who would be born again by the Spirit of God. Christians throughout the centuries keep losing sight of this truth and become enslaved to their own sinful passions.
The Christians, who came to America in the early 17th century, came with the vision of establishing a social order based upon God’s Word and in doing so the 13 colonies prospered in a great way until the English Parliament wanted to overtax them; in 1773 they had their Boston tea party. It was the beginning of a resistance that later became an insurrection and the birth of a new nation; United States of America. The Christians of the colonies refused to be subservient to state power.
It must be clearly understood that the founding fathers of this nation did not establish a democracy. On the contrary, the founders made it clear that they were against democracy and that the new nation should never become a democratic nation:
“[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” — James Madison
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” — John Adams
“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.” “The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” — Fisher Ames, Author of the House Language for the First Amendment
“They call it a democracy – a mobocracy in my opinion would be more proper.” — Dr. Benjamin Rush, Founding Father
“The biggest danger to our rights today is not from government acting against the will of the majority but from government which has become the mere instrument of that majority. Think about it. That’s where the abuse of power comes from. Not the tyranny of the King but the tyranny of the majority. Wrong will be done as much by an all-powerful people as by an all-powerful Prince.” — James Madison
Obama, empowered by the majority of voters, moved the mob by appealing to their emotions by promising to heal them (healthcare), to feed and take care of them (welfare) by means of redistribution of the wealth, meaning taking away from the productive society to give it to those who are looking for a king that will take care of them; America is in the path of self-destruction. Obama’s plan is to do away with the Republic of the founding fathers with the help of the mobocracy. His vision is to become the king of America and maybe even the world, after all in Germany he declared himself a citizen of the world.
Let us not forget that dictators come to power because initially the mob supports them. Dictators are excellent with the use of words even though they consistently lie and contradict what they say; they rely on the stupidity of the mob because they tell them what they want to hear.
The question is are Christians in America going to lie down quietly and be submissive like the German Christians in Adolf Hitler’s time? Or, will they choose to be like the colonist Christians who refused to be enslaved to the crown of England?
Jesus rejected the mob, he knew they were ignorant and were acting out of their stupidity. At the same time he wanted them to be focused on the One who rules and owns the earth; God Almighty, who is the only One worthy of our praise and adoration. It is He who has given the true blueprint for the human race to be restored to their greatness.
It is up to Christians in America to rise up and be the salt and light that will overpower the darkness that now threatens to blanket it from border to border. It will be a sad and tragic day if Christian America chooses instead to embrace darkness and continue to turn its back on God.