“In God We Trust”
“In God We Trust” — Being exposed to this statement and the Bible
during my childhood of Lutheran schooling, set a sure path for my
beliefs into adulthood. Today’s government attempts to broadcast this
statement in prayer, declaration, proclamation and even our currency
bears this decree. But how can the government officials proclaim this
nation’s collective trust in God, when they are trying to take His place
by destroying the rights with which He endowed us?
The government collectively views right and wrong different from the
way religion regards right and wrong. Governments are subject to
political biases; while religion, even though not immune from political
prejudice, sets certain standards for right and wrong that are
objectively unchangeable. Among those principles and values are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the very concepts GUARANTEED by
our Bill of Rights, and the very values that are INFRINGED upon and
destroyed by our government. If we recall our Bill of Rights, these
liberties ultimately didn’t come from the Constitution—even though they
are guaranteed by that sacred document—they came from the Creator of
right and wrong, GOD.
God created the demonic states in our world; he couldn’t expect us to stand back and fall victim to them.
It is comical that government officials, acting as a self-proclaimed
“godly” authority, haven’t seen the connection between the statement “In
God We Trust” and the right to self-defense. Man created government to
protect our rights, not to infringe upon them; and yet, our government
officials proclaim the United States to be a godly nation, while at the
same time infringing upon the very rights set by God.
Several ideologies were set within the religion based on the
interpretation of our rights. Many believe that the Fifth Commandment,
Thou shalt not kill, means plainly what is written; in truth, this
statement confirms the right to self-defense, as it was
originally written as “Thou shalt not murder”, murder being defined as
the taking of an innocent life. This commandment is not written as “thou
shalt not kill in self-defense”, but it’s meaning is clear when
combined Lutheran with God’s view of human life as sacred.
It is written in many pages of the Bible that the People of God
killed, maimed, destroyed, speared, slaughtered and the like which
proves that citizens have been armed since God brought them out of
bondage in Egypt. Martin Luther wrote an analysis of the fifth
commandment stating, “Therefore it is here forbidden to every one to be
angry, except those (as we said) who are in the place of God, that is,
parents and the government.” However, we still have the right to protect
ourselves from others’ anger to preserve life. The Bible states,
“Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death.
However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen,
he is to flee to a place I will designate. But if a man schemes and
kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him
to death. (NIV, Exodus 21: 12-14). God proclaims, that if in
self-defense a killing takes place with no prior plan for killing—God
giving the right for it to happen, then he will determine the
fate of that individual. It is presumed that God would protect those who
defend themselves and their lives and not see them punished. On the
contrary, if anyone harms a person deliberately, God will take their
life and do with it what he wishes.
And yet we live under the rule of government officials who still
proclaim, “In God We Trust”. If that statement was spoken in truth, the
Bill of Rights – rights that come from God – would still be intact, and
not continuously changed and violated by the government. God created the
demonic states in our world; he couldn’t expect us to stand back and
fall victim to them. And while many may claim the phrase, “turn the
other cheek”, suggests that we turn our back on the protection we have
fought for and have a right and duty to. If we turn our backs on our
rights, especially the right to self-defense, then we have turned our
backs on life and God. God wouldn’t have armed his people if he wanted
them to “turn the other cheek”.
The government and citizens must realize that the reality
of evil will never change, and we are pre-destined to live with what
God created.
Evil will reign on earth so long as we are alive. Murder is wrong,
defending yourself, your property and your family is not. If this
defense is aggressive, it’s still defense and we have been programmed to
kill the enemy that wishes harm upon us or others. If we stand by
allowing the government to control what rights we have as citizens and
children of God, then we have been corrupted by the very government that
was supposed to “protect” us. We become confused on what is right and
wrong due to constant indoctrination of our ever changing authorities,
but we need to uphold the principle that self-defense is our right to
preserve the life that God created.
Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher of the late 19th century,
stated in The Gay Science, s. 4 (Walter Kaufmann trans.), “What is new,
however, is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow
the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is
good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts,
digging deep and getting them to bear fruit – the farmers of the spirit.
But eventually all the land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil
must come again and again.”
This quotation examines the idea stated above that evil will never
decease. The government and citizens must realize that the reality of
evil will never change, and we are pre-destined to live with what God
created. The earth may fade away but our motto, “In God We Trust”, must
persevere to battle the evil and let us protect ourselves by keeping our
rights supreme and superior to governments’ proclamations.
— Maria M. D’Amato
