http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/sg45-97.htm

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Originally posted by Manuel

The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self-created screen. It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers, and EVERY agency created for the public protection. It squirms in the jaws of darkness and thus is the better able to clutch the reins of government, secure enactment of the legislation favorable to corrupt business, violate the law with impunity, smother the press and reach into the courts.

To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that AT THE HEAD of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the INTERNATIONAL bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control BOTH parties, write political platforms, make cats paws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business. They connive at CENTRALIZATION of government on the theory that a small group of hand-picked, privately controlled individuals in power can be more easily handled than a larger group among whom there will most likely be men sincerely interested in public welfare. These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. [New York City Mayor John Hylan, as reported in the New York times.]

"We know the powers that are defying the people. Our Government is in the hands of pirates. [Skull and Bones] All the power of politics, and of Congress, and of the administration is under the control of the moneyed interests. The adversary has the force of capital, thousands of millions of which are in his hand. He will grasp the knife of law, which he has so often wielded in his interest. He will lay hold of his forces in the legislature. He will make use of his forces in the press, which are always waiting for the wink, which is as good as a nod to a blind horse. Political rings are managed by skillful and unscrupulous political gamblers, who possess the 'machine' by which the populace are at once CONTROLLED AND CRUSHED." [New York Times editor John Swinton in his book, "A Momentous Question: The Respective Attitudes of Labor and Capital."]

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson..." [Franklin D. Roosevelt in a letter to Col. Edward Mandell House 1933.]

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Originally posted by LeeI don't receive my freedom from the hacks in office,therefore I am under no obligation to the government to perform. I have no liability with government

The last paragraph from the linked (http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/sg45-97.htm) article by John MacArthur reads:

"2. Suppose the government you lived under suddenly denied you all the social and political freedoms you now enjoy. How would you respond? Look up the following verses: Romans 13:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-3; Titus 3:1-2; 1 Peter 2:12-17. Based on the instruction of Scripture, how should your response to the government that gives you freedom differ from the one that denies you freedom? Please be obedient to God's Word by being obedient to your government."

I didn't read all the article. But I did read enough to question the agenda of the writer.

First of all, John errs in assuming our freedoms come from government instead of our Creator. This is the typical stand of the extreme left wing of politics.

(Acts 5:29 KJV) Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

I agree that we should obey our government in all things that are in line with obeying God. But to imply that our freedoms come from our government is close to having another god before the True God or setting up government as an object of idol worship.

Bro Lee

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Originally posted by Jay Scott

I cringe when people say it, BUUUT, is it for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. What I mean by that, is it possible for one to see a garden overflowing with juicy, ripe watermelon and think it's a patch of thistles and thorns?

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