Lux Lucet

But for argument’s sake, let’s go with the Gamestop story as reported.  The bottom line is that the Robin Hood traders did nothing immoral or illegal.  You’re allowed to buy stock for whatever reason you wish to buy stock.  Even if Leon Cooperman doesn’t like it or the people who are doing the buying.

A second issue that I have with Cooperman’s argument is that he posits himself as some sort of victim, when he and other big foot Wall Street types have made ridiculous amounts over money, especially in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, because they themselves have been bailed out by the government and the Federal Reserve to the tune of trillions of dollars.  Given the highly secretive nature of the relationship between Washington, Wall Street and the Federal Reserve, it’s hard to say just how much any single entity or investor has benefitted from the financial largess heaped upon Wall Street over the past twelve years.  But let’s just say it’s a lot.  Probably a lot more than the sums officially acknowledged, which themselves are vast in size. 

For Coopeman, whose net worth is $3.2 billion, a man who has almost certainly himself benefited mightily from all the bailouts and money printing over the past decade plus, to go on CNBC and whine and complain about what he thinks a bunch of people are doing with their $600 government checks…well, that is rich indeed.   

Another example of recent ruling elite corruption is the 2020 presidential election.  In my opinion, it was obviously stolen, and stolen in broad daylight.  Only you’re not allowed to say that anywhere, at least in any mainstream publication, on any mainstream television show, or on any major social media outlet.

As it’s presented in the mainstream media, the absolute fairness and integrity of the 2020 presidential election is a truth to be believed, not a matter to be questioned. 

If one does dare question the integrity of the election, he is denounced as an insurrectionist and a dangerous person making baseless claims, all which have been thrown out of court.  Apparently, these people believe in a sort of infallibility of the judiciary. Which is laughable given the now long track record of appallingly unconstitutional and anti-Christian rulings being handed down from the courts. 

The fact is, the courts have consistently refused to look at the evidence, for one reason or another refusing to so much as even hear the cases.  One case in particular was galling to those of us who question the election, and that was the suit brought by the Attorney General of Texas, claiming that Pennsylvania had violate the Constitutions by allowing a judge to order the state to allow for the use of mail in ballots, which the state legislature had not permitted.  The Constitution makes it clear that state legislatures have full control of the election process in the respective states, not the judiciary. 

The Attorney Generals suit was joined by nineteen other stated Attorneys General and even Senator Ted Cruz had offered his services to argue the case before the Supreme Court. 

But the Supremes wouldn’t even hear the case.

On a Friday evening, they dismissed the case by saying the states had no standing to bring the suit. And that, as they say, was that. 

The Republicans never even got their day in court. 

But it didn’t stop there.

If you questioned the election results, chances are you were going to be booted off social media – even the President himself was cancelled – and unpersoned. 

Now, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act has been put forth in Congress, which essentially criminalizes unpopular opinions. 

Based on the language in the bill, it is specifically designed to go after “white supremacists,” a remarkably imprecise term, one which under the influence of the Critical Race Theory peddlers is often used almost as a substitute for white people in general.  In other words, if you’re a white person, especially if you’re a conservative or a Christian, you could well find yourself the target of this bill, regardless of whether you’re a law-abiding citizen.

This is the situation we’re facing as Americans in 2021.  And it’s not pretty.

A Lesson from Luther   

It’s tempting at times to think that what we’re facing is unprecedented in history and that our situation is unique.  Certainly, in some details our situation is different from what has taken place in the past.  But as Solomon put it, “there is no new thing under the sun.”

Martin Luther faced some of the same problems in his day that Americans in general, and American Christians in particular, are facing in 2021.  While contemporary Americans are faced with hostility from the establishment  – political, academic, financial and media – Luther faced the formidable power of the Roman Church-State, which had ruled Europe for a thousand years, and appeared prepared to rule uncontested for a thousand more.

In 1520, to further popularize his challenge to the ruling establishment in Rome, Luther published three treatises, one of which is titled “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.”  My edition of the 15120 treatises comments that it, “is an attack on the corruption of the [Roman Catholic] church and the abuses of its authority, bring to light many of the underlying reasons of the Reformation.” 

One of the best-known parts of the letter is where Luther mentions the “three walls” of the Romanists.  Writes Luther,

The Romanists have very cleverly built three walls around themselves.  Hitherto they have protected themselves by these walls in such a way that no one has been able to reform them.  As a result, the whole of Christendom has fallen abominably. 

In the first place, when pressed by the temporal power they have made decrees and declared that the temporal power had not jurisdiction over them, but that, on the contrary, the spiritual power is above the temporal. In the second place, when the attempt is made to reprove them with the Scriptures, they raise the objection that only the pope may interpret the Scriptures.  In the third place, if threatened with a council, their story is that no one may summon a council but the pope. 

It was a sort of heads I win, tails you lose proposition that Luther, and any other reform minded person in that day, was facing from Rome.

Sound familiar?

Just look at the examples from 2021 America cited above. We have an entrenched ruling class that has grown immensely rich and powerful through dishonest gain via money printing by the Federal Reserve – see “Andrew Huszar: Confession of a Quantitative Easer” where the man who ran Federal Reserve’s first Quantitative Easing (i.e. money printing) program admitted that his efforts were “a feast for Wall Street” but did not benefit most Americans – and the steady usurpation of the Constitution. 

Just like in Luther’s day where Rome controlled all the major organs of society – governments, universities and the churches – so too do American Christians face a situation where their enemies have charge of all the commanding heights of society – governments, schools and universities, most churches, the media, big business, the financial system, Hollywood.    

Luther in the 16^th century faced, as 21^st century American Christians face, a daunting task.  How is it possible to overcome so great a foe, seeing that they have all the power and we have little or none? 

From history, we know that Luther won his war against Rome.  What was his secret, and can Christians today learn from him? 

I know things look grim right now.  It seems that truth has been thrown to the ground and there is no one to pick it up. 

But growing up in pre-Reformation Europe, I’m sure things appeared that way at times to Martin Luther as well.  Yet he won in the end.

Luther’s secret, if we can call it that, was that he trusted not in his own strength, but in God. 

To my fellow believers who may be, as I find myself at times, in despair over the rampant evil of our day and deeply concerned about the future, I would answer, yes,  by all means we can learn from Luther.  And this is a topic we’ll explore further, Lord willing, in next week’s post.

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