Plainer Words since 1968
April 26, 2014
PLAINER WORDS ONLINE … NATION and STATE ( 1 )
A NATION
Understanding Israel and the broader Middle East requires understanding the difference between a “nation” and a “state;” these two words are often used interchangeably.
There is a significant difference.
A “Nation” arises from a family, a clan, or a tribe descended from a common ancestor. “Webster’s 1828 Dictionary,” in part of its definition, says, “Nation, as its etymology imports, originally denoted a family or race of men descended from a common progenitor, like a tribe or a clan.”
In the Fall of 1949, as a Freshman, I had an elective class at Southern Methodist University, “Political Science.” It was taught by a very prominent Professor in those days by the name--James Claunch, PhD. Dr. Claunch began the Semester with his definition of “Nation.” According to my notes from long ago, he stated that “A Nation is a people who share a territory, a heritage, an ethnicity, a culture, folkways, values, language, and a common system of beliefs.”
From time-to-time, when I thought about this, what would come to my mind were the American Indians. They were organized under a tribal structure. Understanding the meaning of a nation in earlier times, we see why the American Indians were identified as Nations, such as, the Cherokee Nation, the Seminole Nation, Choctaw Nation, the Creek Nation, or the Chickasaw Nation. The leaders of an Indian Nation were men who had earned their leadership position by years of good judgment, skill in settling of disputes, honesty, good behavior, sobriety, ruled his own house well, not greedy, and due to bravery in battle. Who could ask for better leaders? His life’s record was an open-book for all to see. He did not have to fabricate accomplishments on his resume.
The Chief was their leader by consent of the tribe (i.e., the nation). Some refer to these as “Tribal Nations.”
A STATE
The best and shortest definition I have heard of a “State” is -- the political apparatus who runs the government. Or, it could be said that a State, in the traditional sense, is the political apparatus that governs the territory.
The Tribal Nations did not have the political apparatus as that of a State. A State has a king, or emperor, or president, or an elected political class whose chief function is to make war. This enriches those who are clients of the State. From this fact, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned America to “Beware of the Military Industrial Complex.” The “War Machine” is the greatest generator of graft, bribes, and profits. War creates an immeasurable “Slush Fund” for the Ruling Class.
The State has a Bureaucrat Class, formed by political appointment. In the State, the Bureaucrat Class runs the political government—it is the Apparatus. A Nation is not encumbered with the apparatus which dilutes the liberty of the people. The goal of the apparatchiks is power. They are ever on the alert to increase the power of Government. Its appetite for power is insatiable.
The Bureaucrat Class enjoys every perk imaginable. In addition to these perks, they are ever on the lookout for all the money they can misappropriate (i.e., steal) by means of graft, gifts (for favors), kick-backs, bribes, or outright theft. Many of their operations are criminal-enterprises. Those who are part of this apparatus refer to their vocation as “Public-Service.” This is a hoax. Some of us believe this lie—I don’t!
The apparatchiks handle the day-to-day operations of the Government—over time, they become the Ruling Class. America’s Ruling Class have the following things in common. They speak the language; have the tastes, styles, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. They are the apparatus of the State. By definition, the State lies, cheats, and steals. The State has no resources of its own, only those it appropriates from its citizens. The citizens are forced to pay the State’s bills and accept its “services.” No one person, or business may compete with the Government of the State.
A Nation operates without an entrenched bureaucracy. A Nation would not, and does not, tolerate a Class of Mediocrity which is, without a doubt, what our Ruling Class is.
A Nation does not put up with the vice, corruption, scandals, lies, and acts of aggression. The Political Class loathes Nations who are a confederation of tribes. President George Herbert Walker Bush claimed that if a State (like America) goes to war against a Tribal Nation, they find that it is almost impossible to defeat it. President Bush made fun of the Tribal Nations; especially, Afghanistan. His contempt was based upon the fact there is no “Central Government” that ruled overall of the Nation. Tribal Nations were part of the past, as Bush complained; they are made-up of backward people out of the 18th and 19th Century. To defeat a Tribal Nation, most of the tribes have to be individually defeated and surrender.
Afghanistan has never been defeated. The British tried to defeat this Tribal Nation but, finally, gave up since it proved to be futile.
An example is in America; the white-man and his Government tried to conquer the American Indian for 200 years. This was especially true when railroads were given Government incentives to build the trans-continental railways. The American State won battles but never got all of the Tribes to surrender. The Plains Indians were targeted by the U.S. Government for extermination. It was decided that their extermination was the only way to be rid of them. When a Central Government surrenders in a war, it is surrender for all the factions within the State; not so with a Tribal Nation.
There were over twenty Plains Indian Tribes from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Some of them were the Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Comanche, Kiowa, Lakota, Plains Apache, and Tonkawa. In order to rid the country of these tribes, it would take mass murder of men, women, and children.
A consolidated Government, consisting of the political apparatus, was an eighteenth-century European idea. It went by the name as—Nationalism. The British Empire exported the idea throughout the world, that being; a Nation should have its own State. It appears, today, that the U.S.A. has taken this mantle of the British Empire—the sun never sets on the American Empire.
Today’s Israel is a young State. No traces of the tribal existence exist, today, as it did in Old Testament Time, under the Judges or its Kings. This State asserts that it is the re-birth of God’s Israel. It may have the name of Israel but is definitely not the fulfillment of Prophecy! It is the work of an organization called—Zionism—founded by Theodor Herzl. It was in August 1897 in Basle, Switzerland that the well-known Viennese newspaper commentator, Theodore Herzl, stood up to deliver his talk in German (the official language of the Congress) to the gathering of 197 delegates from local Zionist organizations in Eastern and Western Europe, from North America, from Algeria and from Palestine. He was dressed in formal attire, as were the other representatives and members of the press. This meeting was the founding of the modern Zionist organization.
Herzl was from a well-to-do family. He called himself a Jew. He was not religious; in all probability, he was either an agnostic or an atheist. But, he wanted the Jews to have a stake in the land of Palestine, thus, getting a homeland for the down-trodden Jews of Europe.
The history of the Zionist Movement clearly shows that today’s State of Israel was the work and contrivance of the Zionists and their friends (mostly Fundamentalist Christians). The creation of this Israel was, clearly, not the work or providence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unbiased studies show that many of those “Jews” responsible for the founding were, in fact, terrorists.
Many Christian leaders have bought into a gigantic hoax, believing that the Jews in Palestine are the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And, that the Jews are the rightful heirs to this tiny bit of geography in the Middle East. These people are not God’s Chosen People. It is common knowledge that they cannot trace their genealogy back 4,000 years to Abraham.
Otis Q. Sellers wrote in the December 10, 1982 issue of SEED & BREAD that there were about 160 steps of descent of Abraham’s seed until the year of 1982. Then, he asked, “Is there a body of people who can say, ‘We are direct descendants of Abraham, through Isaac, and Jacob, and as such we are heirs of all that God promised to them.’”
Not one single “Jew,” alive today, can prove that he is what he claims to be—a Jew.
I have never questioned anyone who said, “He was a Jew.” I have known many. Some were in the business world in which I was part of for many years. A few were men who I played professional baseball with. The one who was the closest Jewish friend I had was a well known Christian Evangelist, Nathan Scharff, who many of you knew. I never thought to discuss this with him. I wish I would have. It would not have offended him. He was, truly, a gracious Christian.
Neither you or I trace our genealogy back 4,000 years. As an example, the Ballinger Genealogy is presented in a work of a diligent lady who spent most of her adult years tracing our genealogy. Her book is titled, “Three Centuries of Ballingers in America.” It is 595 Pages in length.
The progenitor of the American Ballingers was one by the name of Henry Ballinger, born in 1660. He came to America from England in 1678 on a boat named the “Kent”—he came with a boat load of Quakers and landed in Philadelphia. Our family can trace our roots back only 354 years, much less than Israelite genealogy of 4,000 years. In those 354 years, there is a predominate mixture of Scot-Irish, and English (probably a few others). Legend has it that one of Henry Ballinger’s ancestors was a French Huguenot named Boulanger.
I will venture to say that many families who don’t know their genealogy, nor could they care less. From my studies, it would seem like many of Israel’s Dispersion were the result of being taken captive by invading armies. Some of those were dispersed because of their desire to move to more business friendly nations
This was only said to point out that the records of Israelite’s genealogy were destroyed in 70 A.D when Titus, the Roman General, sacked Jerusalem and dismantled the Temple Complex and destroyed the Genealogical Records of the Israelites. Since that time, the true bloodlines of Abraham, through Isaac, and Jacob are known only by God.
With the future manifestation of the Pre-Millennial Kingdom of God (2 Tim 4:1), the Lord Jesus Christ will began to sort out who are the rightful Heirs to the Promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (God renamed him “Israel”). The Lord Jesus Christ can identify them instantly, but it will take a while for them to be brought out of their graves and the counties wherein they are dwelling and transported to the “wilderness of the people” (Ezek. 20:35). The blood-line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be assembled according to their tribes. The place is called “the wilderness of the people.” It will be the place where Moses gathered his people around Mt.Sinai (Ex.19:18). It will be here that the Lord Jesus pleads with them “face-to-face.”
”And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 20:34-36).
The Lord Jesus will cause all of those, gathered together, in the “wilderness of the people” “to pass under the rod,” and He “will bring them into the bond of the (New) Covenant” (Ezek. 20: 37). Passing under the rod will reveal who are the rebels, and they will be purged and will not be permitted entrance into the Promised Land. They will be exiled to “Outer Darkness; …there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 23:13).
The Israelites who will be purged to “Outer Darkness” will, from time-to-time, get glimpses of the Three Patriarchs having supper in the Pre-Millennial Kingdom, along with those who come from the east and west:
“And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the (purged) children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:11-12)
The rebels will weep and gnash their teeth when they see what could have been.
(To Be Continued)
Copyright© 2014 by Thomas L. Ballinger
Tom L. Ballinger
1031 Wilson Rd.
Lancaster, Texas 75416
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