Too Big To Miss
by Rick Joyner
At this writing, the saga of Edward Snowden still dominates the news. There may have never been a more poignant example of how easily our media and our elected representatives can take their eyes off the ball and begin to major on minors. Snowden may be a traitor, or he may be a hero, but he is not the real story here. Chasing after the story of Snowden’s plight is like trying to swat a gnat when there is a lion in the room about to pounce.
No doubt Snowden revealed secret information illegally. That makes him a criminal, but the real issue is what he exposed: the truth that there has never been a more expansive and intrusive spying on its own citizens by a government in history, as ours is now doing to us.
What our government is guilty of is far worse than anything Snowden did, regardless of his motives. There has never been a more blatant and dangerous violation of our Constitution, Bill of Rights, or a more far-reaching abuse of power by the American Government in history. Pursuing Snowden for his crime may be appropriate, but we should have ten thousand agents going after the ones who did this to the American people for every one that is chasing Snowden.
“The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions.”This is a popular saying because it has so often proven true. Our Government is claiming that it only had the best of intentions for gathering almost unlimited information on every American—that it was done to protect us from terrorist attacks and criminals. Some have reasoned that if we are not terrorists or criminals, then we should have nothing to worry about. Really? This is the same rationale that every police state in history used to set up totalitarian control over its people.
Are these motives true? We have a growing mountain of evidence that this most basic violation of every American’s privacy is already being used for other sinister purposes, like suppressing political opposition and even destroying the businesses and wealth of those who support causes counter to the Administrations. This is tyranny at its most basic level and the foundation of every police state. If we buy into the good intentions excuse, we are the most naïve sheep ever led to the slaughter.
We have a long trail of evidence now proving that for several years the tactics of a police state have been slowly implemented in America. What is worse (and it does get worse) is that what Snowden brought to light is how our Government has built an apparatus for the most terrifying police state there has ever been. They not only have the power to see me typing these words right now, but they also have the power to watch you reading them. That is not paranoia; it is a fact that has been acknowledged. This is Orwellian prophecy fulfilled.
Why Is America Going So Meekly?
The whole world is outraged by what has come to light by our NSA domestic spying network. They became even more alarmed when they found out that it is not just American citizens whose communications and movements are being monitored, but their citizens too and even they themselves. It was disclosed that soon the NSA will have the capability of doing the same with almost everyone on the planet. The question most of the world is now asking is why are American citizens being so passive about this?
Why did our media and elected officials suddenly become so preoccupied with Snowden and suddenly stop protesting the NSA’s domestic spying? Did the NSA have something on them that they were able to hold over their heads? The fact that information obtained by the NSA is already being used in this way has been implied, and the evidence sure looks like it. However, even if it is not being done, it will be suspected from now on. What else could have gotten the media and our elected representatives off of an issue this big to focus everything on Snowden?
Even the left leaning Politico carried a story lamenting that Snowden’s greatest fear was coming to pass—that the greatest threat to our freedom, possibly ever, could be revealed and nothing would be done about it. Is this something that is too big to see, too big to believe?
Snowden broke his oath as an intelligence officer, and he broke the law by exposing classified information. This does make him a criminal. Being a criminal may discredit him in the eyes of most people, but Snowden may be the most noble, courageous criminal in U.S. history. He committed a crime and then openly exposed himself. He may well have done this to keep an even more sacred oath—to defend the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic. Regardless of his motives, what he did was to give us a chance to save our Republic.
The evidence points to Snowden having an awakening to what he and many others were being used by the Government to do, and he resolved to set it right. He claims he did what had to be done while there was still time to stop this most frightening tyranny. There are many factors that do not line up for Snowden to have done this as a traitor, or an agent of another government. Even so, the reason he did this is not the main issue here. The issue is what the NSA is doing.
What our Government is doing spying on Americans through the NSA is appalling. Yet when you combine it with the other cascading revelations about the use of the IRS, the FBI, and the DOJ to undermine or destroy political opponents, we must see that not only is the apparatus of the most terrible police state now in place, but the tactics of a police state are already being used.
The ACLU Joins Conservatives.This may be almost as shocking as what the NSA is doing to us, but it is true. The ACLU stood up boldly and quickly to declare that what the NSA is doing is the biggest violation of our Constitution ever, and they filed a suit against the Government. Right now the ACLU is demonstrating more courage, wisdom, and leadership in this crisis than even the Republican leadership in Congress.
All that our country was founded and built upon is at stake, and our fate will be decided over the next few months. We are now facing something much bigger than any Democratic or Republican Party issue. If this is allowed to stand, our Republic is doomed. We will soon be under the yoke of the most oppressive totalitarian state in history, made possible by our modern technology.
Another Revolution? It has now fallen upon us to do what our Founders did when they risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to throw off the yoke of the oppressor. The American Revolution was not a tax revolt as those who twist history would have us believe. The stifling and increasing taxation was number seventeen on their list of grievances. Far worse for the colonists were things like having their children kidnapped and made servants on British ships, having their property abused and even confiscated, and being treated like an occupied people by the British army. The things our own Government is doing to us now are worse.
The American Revolution is unique in history because it was begun and led by the wealthiest of the colonists, not the disenfranchised. This has not happened before or since. Those who signed the Declaration of Independence were the 1%. If you are prone to think they did this out of greed, not wanting to pay more taxes, there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They risked their fortunes, when they had something to risk, in the face of almost impossible odds. Many of them paid the price. Two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence knew that the moment they signed, they had lost everything because British forces were camped right next to their estates. They signed anyway.
All who signed the Declaration of Independence knew that if they did not win the war they were starting, they would all be hung as traitors. They did this while knowing they were starting a war against the most powerful army in the world, and they did not even yet have an army. No one in the world gave them a chance. They signed anyway. Then they endured five years of almost constant defeats, each year looking more hopeless than the last. Yet they fought on. We are again in need of such noble, resolute souls.
We cannot let what our Founders, and so many others who have sacrificed so much for us to have this freedom, be lost on our watch. It is now going to take the same kind of courage and fortitude to save the Republic as it took to found it. It is our time. Will we measure up?
The zeal with which our Government is going after Snowden should cause even the most naïve to be suspicious. Forcing the planes of other Heads of State to be grounded out of fear Snowden may be on them is not only extreme—it’s unprecedented. Snowden has obviously done all the harm that he can do, so why this obsession? Obviously, it is to make him an example to any others who might be considering blowing the whistle.
If it is proven that Snowden is a traitor or that he did this as an agent of a foreign government, then he must be tracked down and prosecuted. If he did it for the reasons he claims, and at this writing this seems to be the case, then he deserves the Medal of Freedom, not prosecution.
Are We The “Useful Idiots?” Marx detested liberals, calling them “useful idiots.” He knew they were so naïve and easily manipulated that they could be used until absolute power had been seized. Then the liberals and the intelligentsia would be the first to be snuffed out. That has been the case with every totalitarian power to date. Why would anyone continue to think it would be different this time?
Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results? How is it that those who are supposed to be the smartest get so fooled every time? We should be encouraged that the ACLU woke up so fast to this unprecedented threat. Liberals are actually the most at risk from totalitarian control, but like the Jews in the Holocaust going to the showers thinking they were actually going to get a shower, the same tragedy is repeated over and over.
Idealism is a drug that makes you feel good while it is killing you. There is no political party, group, or single American that is not at risk from what we now have hanging over us. Everything America was born for and stands for is now threatened. We have all been duped, but now we need to all wake up or we may never wake up.
Even if our government officials did have good intentions in setting up this all-powerful, all-seeing domestic spying apparatus, who is to guarantee that those who succeed them will have the same good intentions? This cannot be allowed to stand.
Even if this was done with the best of intentions, good intentions are no excuse for violating the Constitution. Every officer and elected official takes an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. Those who authorized and constructed the NSA spy apparatus have violated this oath, knowingly or unknowingly. We should give a pass to those who do what Snowden did—reveal that which so threatens our liberty and is in such obvious violation of the Constitution. Those who continue to defend this most blatant of all violations of the 4th Amendment against unlawful search and seizure are obvious enemies of all that America was built on and has stood for—and they are not just enemies of the people—this is a crime against humanity, not just America.
Our Loving Enemies. Last year the Russian newspaper Pravda published an article on the evidence that proved that freedom of the press no longer exists in America. Sometimes your enemies will tell you things your friends won’t, but you need to hear. Pravda may have been gloating, but they were right. It has been obvious for a long time that the mainstream media in America is, at the very least, inhibited. Yet this makes it look totally controlled. Even so, we have reason for hope.
A reason for hope is that now only about 35% of Americans get their news from the mainstream media, and that percentage is continuing to decrease. Blogs and alternative news sources are now where Americans are getting their information. The majority of Americans are smarter, more knowledgeable, and more resourceful than the present Administration or the mainstream media gives them credit for. Even so, alternative news sources are also under threat as the Government moves to tax internet use, which brings in the IRS. The KGB was right when it was disclosed that the KGB never thought of the CIA as their counterpart, but rather the IRS. They could see better than we could that the Government’s real power to control its citizens was the IRS. Lately, we have just begun to understand how right they were.
The abuses that have just been revealed about how the IRS was used to target this Administration’s political opponents are already looking like the tip of the iceberg. With Obamacare set to be managed by the IRS, it will put all of our records, health and financial, in their hands and in their control, with the authority to draw from our accounts without our permission. Might that explain why the head of the IRS visited the White House over 160 times in this Administration, three times more than even the most frequently visiting Cabinet member? We would have to be the most blind and naïve people of all time not to see the pattern of where this is headed.
Egypt—The New Leaders of The Free World? Without visible leadership, Egyptians have thrown off their yoke a second time in two years. Granted they are just entering a long and hard struggle for their freedom. It is likely that the struggle in Egypt will get much worse before it gets better. However, they are demonstrating the one crucial ingredient that is essential to gain and maintain freedom—courage.
It is a tell-tale revelation that the U.S. Administration is only grudgingly backing the new freedom movement (which is really the first one reawakened) and laments the overthrow of President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. We claim to be concerned about how this duly elected President was removed, but Morsi abdicated his legitimacy as a Constitutional President when he started unilaterally changing the Constitution, suspending the Egyptian Supreme Court, and taking other such unconstitutional actions.
Morsi put allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood mission of implementing Sharia above the Egyptian Constitution. So the people again did what our American Founding Fathers said every citizen and every American has the right and responsibility to do if our Government starts violating the Constitution. That was the stated reason for the Second Amendment—the right of American citizens to bear arms must not be infringed, so that the American people would keep in their hands the power to throw off the tyranny if our Government went awry.
I am not advocating forceful resistance yet, but our Government has gone awry and has built the most threatening instruments of tyranny ever devised. Can we trust anyone with that power, especially when they have already been proven to abuse it?
Our Government, with its checks and balances, was devised to protect us from what it is now starting to do to us. This is happening because you can have the best form of government, yet still have bad government, if you have weak or bad people in it. Those who now have the authority to bring the checks and balances have proven too weak or timid to use it.
At the end of the Book of Revelation, the cowardly are the first to be thrown into the lake of fire, even before murderers, deceivers, and those who have done all other manner of abominable acts. The Republican leadership in Congress has been so impotent and cowardly in standing against what is being done to us that it could very well be the cause of the end of the Republican Party, even if we are able to preserve the Republic.
Because of our present lack of principled, courageous, and resolute leadership, it may take the same kind of public uprising in America to throw off the yoke we are now being shackled with. We do not have time to cry over the vacuum of leadership. If we are to recover our Government that is “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” it just may be the best thing for the people to have to do it.
SOLUTION:
Americans, get ready to arise. Get ready for a second American Revolution to recover the principles and the freedoms won by the first one.
We must also know that, in such times as these, some of the greatest patriots will be branded traitors, and some of the worst traitors can be branded patriots. We must resolve now that we will not be swayed by how we are portrayed by our Government, by our media, or even by the majority of Americans. We must resolve to just do the right thing with the conviction that liberty is worth paying any price to preserve.
If we go down in history as traitors while trying to do the right thing, we can be comforted that it will all be straightened out at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Regardless of what men may think of us now, we must take a stand for what is right for the sake of what is right and for our children. We must not be the generation that lost what so many paid such a dear price to give us. We must do the right thing because it is the right thing, leaving the consequences to the One in whom we have put our trust.
If our Founding Fathers had lost The Revolutionary War, they would have been counted among history’s worst villains, and they would have been hung as traitors. That was the risk they took, and throughout most of the war, it looked like that was how it would end up. They stood for what they did because they knew it was right, not because they thought they would win. For five years it looked like they had little chance of actually winning. That is the kind of courage that eternal values stand on.
Right now our Government seems to be holding all the cards and all the power. However, we have divinely powerful weapons, such as truth, honor, integrity, and love—even love for those who may misunderstand what we are doing and for those we may have to fight against. Above all, we have such love for our King that we will never surrender or retreat.
Almost all of our present representatives in Government are proving that they are what the Lord called “hirelings.” The system has gone so awry that it promotes people of the lowest character into some of the highest positions. There are some true and noble souls still in Government, both as elected officials and bureaucrats, but they are rare. If we are to preserve our Republic, there must be a revolution in the way we choose our leaders and representatives.
For those who are in the Government who are of a different spirit, some will have to do what Snowden did—be a whistleblower. They will have to sound the alarm and be willing to take the heat. There will be heat because one cannot stand in the way of totalitarian control without repercussions.
For our part, let us not be so quick to judge them, but look at what they are exposing. The only thing that makes sense out of the Administration’s over-the-top pursuit of Snowden, who has likely already done all the damage he can do, is now to make an example of him to keep others in line who may be considering doing something similar. The present Administration has become known for being the most severe and brutal in dealing with whistleblowers, so it will take uncommon courage to do it. We should know not to pile on just because our Government and the media do. This is not to prematurely justify Snowden, as we do not yet know what his real motives were. However, what we do know is that a government that starts looking at its own citizens as the greatest threat has itself become our greatest threat. That is precisely what our Department of Homeland Security did when it put out the memo that the greatest terrorist threats to America come from Evangelical Christians who believe in the end-time prophecies of The Bible, Veterans, and Second Amendment groups. What should be to everyone’s shock is how they left off of this threat list the one group that has been responsible for almost every terrorist attack in the last half century—Islamic extremists!
We can’t look to those who are in Government at this time for leadership. However, that does not mean we do not have the kind of leadership available in America that we will need for the times to come. We must all take the leadership we can within our own circles and be ready to link up with others when the trumpet call is heard.
The Tipping Point. President Obama said that we would need to have the discussion about trading freedom for security. As we see in Scripture, even Caiaphas, the High Priest who condemned Jesus to death, can be used to prophesy. I think Obama prophesied when he said this. America is right now choosing between the security of a prison and freedom.
We can count on 30% of Americans to choose security. These will side with the Government and believe Government to be the answer to every problem. The majority of those in conventional media are in this 30%, so they can make it look like the majority. However, they are, in fact, the minority.
We can likewise count on 30% doubting everything the Government says or does and will, without even thinking, choose freedom over Government intrusion. Right now, even though everything the Government or Obama is doing is not wrong, it is far better to be skeptical of Government. We must stay on point to challenge the really big and really dangerous threats.
There are about 40% between these two camps that can go either way. This was the breakdown of Americans in 1776 and has remained about the same since. However, for now we must throw off the yoke of thinking in terms of getting the magical 51% majority needed to pass a bill or win an election. We don’t need a majority to save our country as much as we need courage.
This whole matter could be settled by a tiny minority, even 2% or less, on either side of the issue. Marx has been proven true that a tiny minority of the passionate can rule the majority who are indifferent. The great tipping points in history that have brought profound cultural change have consistently come from less than the square root of 1% of the population affected. That means that less than 100 people can profoundly impact and determine the course of a city of one million.
Maybe that is why the Lord made Gideon send away tens of thousands who wanted to fight with him, until he got down to just three hundred men. With God, three hundred were enough even in the face the massive army arrayed against them. The longer the odds, the better the Lord seems to like it.
Tolkien portrayed his vision of these times in The Lord of the Rings. In his prophecy, the evil that was coming out of the bowels of the earth was worse than the world had ever faced before. Those who were standing against the hordes from hell were few in number, but they resolved to fight in the face of almost certain death because it was the right thing to do. They fought well, but it took just two persevering hobbits to undo all of the power of the evil one.
You might be one of those hobbits. The smallest and seemingly most insignificant of our neighbors might be one. Therefore, let us treat everyone in the fight as heroes. As the last battle unfolded, the heroes were equally as shocked by those who turned out to be in the enemy’s camp as they were by some who turned out to be on their side.
Be open.We must keep it simple and just do the right thing. Even if we fail, we will be able to stand before our King without shame. It will be much better to take our stand and fail, than not to have stood. However, we can read the end of the story in our Book. We win in the end. It is time for boldness and courage. It is time for the righteous to arise.
