Teats, Triggers, and Tyrants

I will not take a bull from your house, [ nor ] goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest [ is ] Mine, [ and ] the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field [ are ] Mine.      Psalm 50:9-11

Lest I be accused of pulling this Scripture out of context; the only real import this passage has on my topic here, is that all these things belong to God; not us, and certainly not some silly, puffed up tyrannical despot.

Commenting on the recent raw milk raid on some poor operation out in California that's only trying to make a better life for the next generation through healthier eating; a friend of mine stated, in almost enraged shock, 'my God; they're squeezing cow's teats, not triggers!' The recent raid, though almost laughable, is only a symptom of a looming, and seemingly irreversible ( without bloodshed ) problem; our federal government is playing God again! The banning, and even criminalizing of things as simply good for you as raw milk is like barely scraping the top of the iceberg that sank the Titanic! I mean, 'really'; when you think about all the good things that God has given to us, everything necessary for health and happiness; the federal government has, in their 'messianic complex', in their finite 'wisdom', deemed it necessary, because many people lack responsibility and the common sense God gave a horse, to say, 'here; we'll just ban it, or regulate the hell out of it', thus taking the burden of responsibility off of our shoulders, because we're just too stupid and senseless to know better! Well, needless to say, 'it don't work that way'! We're all still personally responsible before God, and even to each other, as the people of God.

'Jesus is Lord; Caesar is not!'

These words were spoken by the same good friend that I quoted earlier, and they're also from the same sermon, not surprisingly. Jesus is Lord, and 'Caesar', whatever shape or form he may take, is not! What does this really mean, besides, as Peter said, 'we ought to obey God, rather than men' ( Acts 5:29 ) While we must certainly disobey authority when 'it' commands us to do something contrary to the Law of God ( wow; chew on that one for awhile ), we are also given a certain set of duties by God, and these include many of the principles set down by our 'founding fathers' in the documents upon which this once-great country was founded. Many of the freedoms granted to us by our Creator, by divine right, but also set down in these founding documents, have been stomped on, obliterated, and just plain ripped from our 'cold, dead fingers'. Unfortunately; we can't lay all the blame on 'Caesar! Although most 'Christians' acknowledge, in word at least, the Lordship of Jesus, in action, many prove what they really think of their 'Lord', while they lay their 'crowns' at Caesars feet!

Jesus is Lord; Caesar is not!

Not that it would have done any good to remind them, but those agents who rushed that raw milk 'factory' had no real authority to shut them down. I say this without knowing the whole story, or even many details, but I can tell you how 'udderly' ridiculous it was! I mean, guns drawn to stop illegal 'production' of something that is doubtless worlds better for you than the pasteurized, processed stuff that the FDA has approved. For far too long, 'Christianity', while lauding Jesus as Lord, has bowed the knee to Caesar, acknowledging him, in action, anyway, as Lord, looking to him for our salvation; all, or mostly, because of a faulty, and even a misinterpretation of Scripture. 'Caesar' is NOT Lord! Jesus told Pilate 'You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin' ( John 19:11 ). Paul wrote to the Church at Rome ( and this is the passage that 'Christians' love to use, to excuse their false worship ), 'Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God'. These 'authorities', whether we like them or not, are ordained by God for the punishment, or chastening of His people, but to blindly follow just any 'authority' based on Romans 13 is almost ridiculous as, say, a raw milk raid.

What does truly belong to 'Caesar'? Maybe a better question would be, 'who is Caesar?'! "Caesar' is who we say he is, right? In this once-great country, this form of government 'of the people, by the people, for the people' has dictated that we the people should determine who our 'Caesar' should be. Do we then owe that 'Caesar' our allegiance? Excuse my French, but 'hell no!' We owe God, Jesus our Lord our allegiance, and only Him; He is a jealous God, after all! As a minister of God, for good; the Scriptures tell us how we are to treat those whom He has set over us, but when they cease to be a minister of good, and forget their place which God has granted them; then is when we must refuse to bow to them, and do all within our power to remove them from their exalted place of authority. Caesar does not own the cattle on a thousand hills; Jesus does, and therefore Caesar does not own the raw milk that comes from those cows; Jesus does, and he has entrusted that milk, among other things, to the stewardship of His people. Our cowardice, when it comes to rolling over and playing dead at 'Caesar's' command; needs to stop; and by the grace of God; His people are beginning to stand up, and say, 'hey; that's not yours ( Caesar's ); that belongs to our Lord, and to us, His people!' Jesus is Lord; Caesar is not!

Charles Haddon Shank