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Step Three: Creating and Preserving Freedom - How to Build it From Nothing
Mathematician Robert Axelrod's Research Has the Answer - From the Bible
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is a stumbling block for some who read the Bible because they think it conflicts with Jesus' teaching to turn the other cheek. These folks fail to comprehend that the "eye for an eye" principle is a guideline for a nation's legal system, not for the conduct of individual believers. Secular mathematician Robert Axelrod understood the difference, however. Axelrod designed a tournament played on computer that examined the characteristics and effectiveness of different strategies for dealing with individuals who failed to cooperate in situations where honest cooperation was essential to maximize human productivity. Maximizing human productivity - both wealth and non-pecuniary "utility" - is the true function of God's moral rules. God's rules teach us how to work together to maximize both our wealth and happiness under the conditions of scarcity that characterize our temporal existence. Scarcity just means you can't have everything you want, getting one thing requires giving up something else. Axelrod's tournament produced an amazing result, published in his classic book The Evolution of Cooperation. Axelrod discovered that there was no strategy for dealing with people who fail to cooperate - who break moral rules - that was more effective than "an eye for an eye." More importantly, a cluster of individuals following this strategy can successfully invade a population following a different strategy - say where dishonesty is the norm - and convert that population to following "an eye for eye." But Which Rules are Enforced Determine the Outcome Axelrod's research explains why freedom could slowly evolve during the middle ages even under kings. As kings increasingly enforced God's moral rules - a process that began with the Magna Carta - national incomes rose and people began to realize the connection between free society and man's welfare. The science of economics was born. But Axelrod's research assumed that the "eye for an eye" strategy was applied to punish breaches of the moral rules - failures to cooperate. It did not model what happens to society when evil is called good - when the law itself is used to steal or to protect moral violations. As we've pointed out, this is what is happening in America today. There is no right to lie - even about sex - because God's rules prohibit both lying and adultery, and what we call "rights" are the freedoms that are created when man's law enforces God's laws. Yet the very highest level of our government - our federal lawmakers - do not understand this truth. When Man's Law Punishes Good, Evil Spreads More Rapidly We have already demonstrated (in Part Two) that following God's laws requires a real sacrifice, though the ultimate earthly benefit of following God's rules exceeds the cost. We have also pointed out that because this benefit is delayed in time and does not accrue completely to the individual, the more immediate benefit of sin is a powerful incentive to break moral rules unless the individual believes in the certainty of eternal punishment and, as a Christian, has God working within him to dampen the desire to sin. When man's law punishes good and rewards evil, it greatly increases the incentive to sin. Because most Americans no longer believe in God nor understand how God's rules create freedom, prosperity, and happiness, our government is increasingly changing our law to reward evil. Only a monumental change in the hearts of most Americans can reverse this trend and restore freedom.	Original Intent teaches the right standard for the First Amendment - and shows how far we've fallen. Most Christians today don't understand it is the Word that convicts, not anything we can say or do. Share Jesus will teach you how God planned for you to witness.
What MUST be Done: At this point, we hope we have demonstrated three facts: 1) Freedom comes when man's law follows God's law 2) Only people who believe in God will follow his law, and 3) The shape of man's law - regardless of the form of government, monarchy, republic, or democracy - depends on what citizens believe is right and wrong, as demonstrated by how they use their time, treasure, and even what they are are willing to die for THESE TRUTHS DICTATE THAT ONLY THOSE OF US WHO KNOW GOD AND UNDERSTAND HOW GOD'S RULES CREATE FREEDOM HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REBUILD FREEDOM!!! Here's what we MUST do: 1. Urge Christians to pray for God to open the hearts of non-Christians to the Word. 2. Urge Christians to start showing the love they are supposed to have for others by witnessing to them as the Spirit leads. 3. Help Christians to equip themselves to witness by having the right verses committed to memory so they know exactly where to open the word, and read books to once again learn how to witness, especially to groups like Muslims who are flooding into America. 4. Urge Christians to pray to give them and other Christians wisdom to understand what God's Word requires of man's laws. If individuals can't steal, why can elected leaders use the tax code to take property at gunpoint from those who have worked to earn it and give it to whomever they please? 5. Urge Christians to show the Lord their faith is not dead by working to bring other citizens to a right understanding of God's Word so that man's laws can be turned back toward God. 6. Help Christians to equip themselves for this task by reading the works of the men who first articulated how God's Word produces freedom, wealth, happiness, and peace when man's law is in conformance with Word. Not a gospel of prosperity, just Deut. 28. Because all governments derive their authority from their citizens, the majority always rules. Only a nation where a majority of citizens are Christians who rightly understand God's word can achieve Freedom, Prosperity, Happiness, and Peace.

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