RBV: Proverbs 13:6

"Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless,

But wickedness overthrows the sinner."

—Proverbs 13:6

This verse seems like a fairly straightforward statement of a truth repeated in various ways dozens, if not hundreds, of times throughout the book of Proverbs. Those who practice righteousness will ultimately succeed, while the sinfulness of the sinner will be his undoing. The way Solomon composes this proverb, however, brings out a few particular points.

First, the emphasis in the first half of the couplet is not necessarily on the godly man's success but on the fact that his practice of goodness shields him from adversity (compare Proverbs 2:11; 4:6; 13:3). A practitioner of God's way of life is protected by the fact that he does what is right. If a person does good things, avoiding what is evil, he will be drawn into adverse situations far less frequently than those who dance on the edge of the cliff.

For instance, the Christian who lives by the injunction found in the seventh commandment—"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14)—will not put himself or herself in tempting situations; and on the rare occasion that a temptation of that nature presents itself, he or she will, like Joseph, run in the other direction (Genesis 39:12). Such a person's righteousness—his right doing—guards him from the destruction that sin causes, and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We could also understand this to suggest that a person who walks uprightly shelters under the protection of God, who is pleased with those who practice righteousness (Colossians 1:10; Hebrews 13:16).

The second half of the verse communicates the exact opposite: He whose conduct is determined by sin is bound to fall into destruction. The sinful way of living offers the sinner no protection at all; the course of sin will run unchecked through his life all the way to death (see James 1:14-15)—provided that God Himself does not arrest it through His calling. This is the course of the world that we see every day on the street (Ephesians 2:1-3).

We can take this principle to the bank. Even though we see in various places in Scripture (for example, in Psalm 10), and even in our own experience, that the wicked seem to prosper, we can be assured that their prosperity is only temporary (Psalm 37). The evil that they do will catch up to them in time and begin to take its toll. The corrupt always pay the piper.

The Hebrew text contains a pair of technical oddities in this verse's second half, making it difficult to translate into English but bringing out a significant point. The oddities are that both nouns, "wickedness" and "sinner," are abstract nouns in the original. The NKJV translators, as in many translations, chose to render only one of them as abstract, "wickedness," and changing the other to a concrete noun, "sinner." Literally, though, this part of the verse should be read as "wickedness overthrows sinfulness."

The point this brings out shows just how pervasive sin is once committed. There is no such thing as a partial sinner; one is either righteous or sinful. In practicing sin, the sinner is perfectly wicked—he is sinfulness, nothing but sin, a mass of evil and corruption. James puts it another way, writing that if we break one commandment, we break them all (James 2:10-11). Jesus, speaking both to His disciples and to His audience of Jews, calls them "evil" (Matthew 7:11; 12:34). Paul writes of all humanity, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). James states the simple truth that we all stumble (James 3:2).

Each time we sin, then, we become evil and require the gracious forgiveness of God through the blood of Jesus Christ to become clean once again. The lesson in this proverb is to make it our practice to do what is right and good in God's eyes, and that will greatly diminish our chances of falling into sin and straining our relationship with God.

Death Is Not the End (Part Six)

In Part Five, we learned about the general resurrection, when tens of billions of people will rise from their graves to live as physical human beings under judgment, when they will have the opportunity for salvation. These people, from all ages and cultures that have existed on earth, will learn a great deal when they rise from their graves. Among the chief things that they will learn is the true way of life that God teaches in His Word, and they will be taught about God's mercy and grace. Unlike most of mankind today, they will have God's Spirit available to them so that they can believe, understand, and use the knowledge of God to grow and prepare to be members of His Family. They will be instructed to live as God meant man to live from the beginning. This time, they will have what it takes to lead successful, righteous lives.

What kind of life are they going to live? Speaking about this time through the prophet Isaiah, God helps us to see into the future:

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. . . . The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in [Jerusalem], nor the voice of crying. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. (Isaiah 65:17, 19-20)

From verse 20 comes the speculation that the Great White Throne Judgment period may be one hundred years long. If so, each resurrected individual—whether he had died as an innocent infant or an aged reprobate—will have one hundred years of living to prove to God that he is worthy of salvation and eternal life or of condemnation and eternal death in the Lake of Fire. What will such people do during this time?

They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. (Isaiah 65:21-23)

In essence, this judgment period will be an extension of the wonderful peace, bounty, and prosperity that will mark the Millennium as humanity's true Golden Age. In this world, people struggle throughout their lives to produce a living only to see it wiped out in calamity or taken by another to enjoy. In the age to come, windstorms will not hit just as the crops ripen; war will not erupt just as a person's house is finished; and a person on the brink of retirement will not have his nest egg stolen by a honey-tongued swindler. People will live long, fulfilling lives free of fear of disaster. They will truly be blessed.

"It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:24-25)

The people who rise in this resurrection will enjoy Millennial conditions with Christ and the firstfruits of God's Family living among them. Should a problem arise, even before they call for help, they will be answered. It is reminiscent of the time when Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, prayed for God's help, and while he was still speaking, God provided the answer to his prayer (Genesis 24:10-15). Quick responses like this will happen frequently during this period, allowing the people to see God working in their behalf, helping them come to salvation.

Thus, in the very best of conditions, they will live full and abundant lives apart from Satan's influence (he will already have been cast into the Lake of Fire; Revelation 20:10). What is more, they will have God's Spirit available them, just as the Tree of Life was available to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-9, 16-17). There will be no better environment for them to live and accept God's offer of salvation.

Is this not a better way to regard the death of those whom God has not yet called? We all have relatives who do not know the truth, and should they die uncalled, we do not need to grieve for them bitterly, as if they were forever lost. We can still grieve, since we will miss their company for the time being, but because God has made provision in His plan to take care of this "problem," we can accept their deaths with consolation and hope.

We have no need to worry, as some professing Christians do, that the billions across Africa and Asia who have never heard the name of Christ are lost. Far more people have lived on the earth and not heard the name of Christ than who have. This should not even worry us, for God has these supposedly forsaken people in the palm of His hand (see Isaiah 49:14-16). When the most advantageous time comes, He will call them all, and if we know our God, the vast majority of them will be saved, because He finishes what He begins (Isaiah 55:11).

In Psalm 68:20, David writes, "Our God is the God of salvation; and to God the LORD belong escapes from death." This verse can be understood to promise that He will help us "escape from death" if we are in a car accident. While it certainly covers that, escapes means "deliverances." In the context, it refers more to deliverance in terms of salvation than to saving us from physical harm.

Why do more people not believe this? He is the God of salvation; salvation is what He does! Notice Psalm 74:12: "For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." He saves! He saves people from eternal death, and He is doing that and will continue to do so by helping, instructing, and shaping His character in them. Death, brought upon man because of sin, is no barrier to the God of salvation. In fact, He makes use of sin and death to form the righteous character He desires His children to have.

Those who awake in the second resurrection will rise from their graves with new physical bodies of God's creation. They will awake without spot of disease, and they will be full of vigor. Those who have been lame or blind or retarded will no longer have such handicaps. Having rested in death and woken to a new life, they will take their first steps along the path to salvation.

Is This How to Fix a Broken Economy?

Forerunner, "WorldWatch," March-April 2009

Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, a key economic adviser to President Barack Obama, told a Congressional hearing in January that "the economy is broken." Does anyone else find this a bit extreme? The economy is certainly performing poorly but "broken"? It may be in recession, but the American economy has climbed out of recessions many times before, even a Great Depression.

Perhaps we need to start at the beginning and relearn what an economy is. Webster's Dictionary defines economy as "thrifty and efficient use of material resources: frugality in expenditures; also an instance or a means of economizing: saving." The fourth definition listed provides "the structure of economic life in a country, area, or period." Economics is "a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services." Blending these together, a sound economy would be "a thrifty and efficient structure and means of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in a country or area."

These days, such a thing sounds as rare as a dodo bird.

Most nations want to be peaceful and prosperous. Peace usually occurs when a nation has good relations with its neighbors and, in a dangerous, violent world, a strong enough military to deter any potential adversary. Prosperity also usually requires peaceful relations with neighboring countries along with the aforementioned "thrifty and efficient structure and means of production," etc. However, this seems not to be the aim of the United States under the Obama Administration, as it has not been the aim of a majority of European nations for more than a generation.

No, America no longer seeks to maintain its military and economic power as its prime directives, but according to the words and actions of the President, to be loved abroad and to achieve fairness at home. These are the goals, not of a confident, optimistic, growing nation, but of a guilt-ridden, self-absorbed, declining state whose rulers hope that righting all the perceived wrongs will grant them a measure of self-respect and an echo of the nation's former glory. As we are witnessing, such goals do nothing more than to earn further contempt internationally and a bottomless pit of debt domestically.

To these ends, the Obama administration has opted to compound former President George W. Bush's final mistake, as he put it, "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system." The young administration has abandoned the free market entirely, plunging the country into socialism at break-neck speed. Socialism is defined as "a system or condition of society in which the means of production and distribution are owned and controlled by the state." In Marxist theory, by the way, socialism is the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.

Thus, over the last few months, the nation has taken on trillions of dollars of debt to "rescue" banks and automobile manufacturers, to try to put millions of unemployed people back to work, to shore up the mess that government-mandated relaxed rules made of the housing industry, and finally, to reward liberal groups and constituents with billions of dollars of "pork" projects. In so doing, the President has become the de facto head of banks, financial institutions, mortgage lenders, and two of America's "Big Three" automakers. In addition—as he promised to do during the Presidential campaign—he is engaged in redistributing the nation's wealth, not along the lines of merit based on hard work and diligence, but by handpicking the winners and losers based on "righting past wrongs" and "evening the score" for the downtrodden.

Despite capitalism's downsides—greed, exploitation, competition—it is a far-superior economic system to socialism. Within the bounds of Christian ethics, it not only permits but also encourages growth and prosperity. For example, while the average American gave at least lip service to Judeo-Christian principles, capitalism was responsible for the growth of U.S. per capita gross domestic product from $1,048 in 1820 to $18,317 in 1989 (using real 1985 dollars). In other words, an individual in 1985 produced 17 times more for the economy than his ancestor in 1820—growth that was mirrored in income.

Because it is based on the ownership of property, capitalism functions properly only under conditions of individual liberty. With land comes the ability to produce a product—whether vegetation, livestock, lumber, ore, etc.—a craft, or a service based on those raw materials. The product, craft, or service can then be bartered or sold to someone who needs it. Using his own labor and talents, a person can succeed as much as he desires; he has the ability to choose his own level of effort and income. In this way, each individual has ownership and control over his destiny.

Yet, socialism demands that freedoms be curtailed or removed. While advocates of socialism extol it in terms of "equality" and "fairness," socialist societies are always governed by a ruling elite that accrues power, wealth, and privilege to itself. Everyone else is forced to share what little remains. Already, Americans' power and control—the choices and liberties of "We the people"—are disappearing quickly, and a command-and-control economy and its attendant nomenklatura are taking their places.
These political, bureaucratic, and corporate "names"—and their allies in media and entertainment—are manipulating the levers of power to regulate and control every facet of government, business, education, energy, healthcare, etc. Ultimately, beyond their personal, individual lusts for power, their goal is to erase sovereignty and join other nations in world government to fulfill their utopian dreams.

So, rather than fix our "broken" economy, they are using it to advance their agenda. Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, cynically told the Wall Street Journal Digital Network on November 19, 2008: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." If it can keep the American people in a perpetual state of crisis, there is no telling what radical change this administration can effect. With only a few months of power under its belt, it has time to turn the American way of life on its head.