Anti Trust

Anti Trust

2/2/13

Anti-trust is a concept that breaks up a sole provider of a product and makes sure that other companies or groups can provide the same product at a competitive price.  This is not a new concept and for the most part works but it does not solve the issues of price wars and other divisions within the business community.  The same can be said of the world trying to split our lives from God and all the while limiting us by not allowing us to have choices in this manner.  Anti-trust works for the world but it is an eternal disaster for us as spiritual individuals.

In the early 1800s the main mode of transportation was by horse.  Many methods of travel came before the horse but until that occurred there was no question that the horse was the best way to get to another community or even across a part of the country.  The horse proved that it could perform several duties in the field of labor, including travel to different communities.  However, the amount of space that could be covered in a specific day was limited due to the limited speed that a horse could travel.  A better way had to be made since the growth of the country was occurring with rapidity.

This was when a group of people designed a mechanical engine and machine that would run on a certain kind of fuel and would not have to stop for hours at a time for rest.  The engine could be re-supplied quickly and within a few minutes or so the locomotive, or the iron horse, would be able to be back on its way towards its destination.  As the development of this machine furthered it was found that the engine could produce so much more energy that it could pull more weight than ever imagined.  Soon it was possible that this invention could move thousands of pounds of supplies to the people all across the country and it was considered one of the greatest ideological concepts when this invention was involved in connecting the entire country together at one certain point within our country.

With the continued growth of the country the demand for the train and all of the riches that it brought to each community became almost overwhelming to the manufacturers that built them.  For quite some time it was hard for the production lines to keep up with the demand but somehow the required productivity was met and the success of the railroad became the highest method of transportation for the country.

With the demand still increasing this meant that more railroad and terminal companies were popping up almost every day.  Every aspect of the railroad provided a demand, which in turn provided the need for another company to supply the necessities of the railroad and reciprocating communities.  New towns sprang up all across the country and as soon as the inhabitants established the town as a permanent settlement they too needed to have the railroad in order to survive.  With the steady growth of the country it was evident that as more companies appeared on the map that the competition between these companies would become fierce to sustain their current business.  When certain companies would run short of cash or supplies, another larger company would approach the owner and offer to buy him / her out and with the huge amount of cash offered, many of these small companies were immediately sold and placed under new management.

Some of these larger companies began to control huge areas of territory and some of their lines stretched into other states and regions of the country which then included all of the accessories that accompanied the industry.  Prices were set at a fixed rate and there was nothing that the smaller companies could do but to succumb to the high demands of these large companies’ prices or give up their stakes to their own companies to the larger companies.  The competition between the companies turned into communal arguments with then led into territorial wars that began to cost people their lives.  It was evident that something needed to be done concerning these conditions so the people decided to turn towards the government when it was obvious that no further resolution could be made between the companies.

The government then in turn passed a set of laws that would limit the amount of control and power that one company could have within a specific industry.  The railroad was one of the first industries to experience these set of laws and it helped out tremendously for the smaller railroad companies but it nothing but anger the larger companies who had to give up control of portions of their empire.  The laws were made of stone and deemed necessary by the majority of the business world and these laws are still in effect today and have prevented hundreds of companies from controlling the entire modern industrial world.

Now, there are people out there who will argue that these laws are vile and need to be abolished.  On the other hand there are people out there with the complete opposite view and would defend the laws and their meanings until the day they die.  Both sides have legitimate arguments and it could be easily become a consuming matter for any one company or type of industry to be involved amongst.  But as I stated before these laws are here to stay as long as the United States has these laws on the books, companies within each industry have the opportunity to work together but we all know that there will always be a definitive dissection within and in between the corporate settings.

So, since the line of progression had to be dealt with on a physical level, then there must be an example of where this type of activity can be applied to the spiritual aspects of our lives.  If you have asked that question then your answer would be yes.  How many of us understand that it is the job of our enemy to incorporate this same concept within our lives where God is concerned?  Not many of us have probably thought about this situation but it is a reality and it is being pushed upon our lives moment by moment.  This process is now accepted as a standard of practice within western society and has risen to the level of racism if one does not accept this belief by each person. 

There should be people out there that understand that the church is almost at a standstill, in almost every capacity.  This lack of action is visible every day when we read the news.  It does not matter what part of the world you talk about, the church is in the same condition.  What is so concerning about this situation is that the Church is blind to the fact of the attacks that are being conducted against it.  The church is being attacked on every side of the aisle, which in all actuality is the way it is supposed to be if the church is doing what it was commissioned to do.   But when the attacks are for reasons that normally a person would see coming from the world, then one must realize real quick that there is a huge problem within the hierarchy of the Church.

Our problem is that we have allowed our enemy to penetrate our boundaries enough that he has gained access to our ways of being.  He has infiltrated our minds enough that he is able to dictate our responses to worldly conditions by accepting a softer stance against his divisive tendencies.  The world is going to be divided this is a given and it was the church that was supposed to bring the world together under God and His laws.  Instead we have been infatuated with worldly laws and have incorporated them into our existence and then have brought that philosophy into the church. 

The world is not ours and it never will be.  It has been said that the world belongs to the father of lies so why would be embrace the world or its policies in any form or fashion?  That does not mean we draw a hard line between the world and the church and point our fingers at the people on the other side of the line.  We have done a wonderful job in doing that all throughout church history, but this act has been a driving force of the divisive nature or the anti-trust nature that our enemy has provided and pushed against the church.

The more division that the enemy can place between us the more the Church becomes a weaker vessel of promoting Jesus’ command of going out into the world.  A divided church cannot fight against the issues of spiritual authority nor can its light penetrate the darkness of the world.  A divided church is a defeated church and a glorified lie according to Biblical principles.  The spiritual anti-trust laws that the world has pushed on the church are having a devastating effect upon us.  And what is so frustrating is that we are sitting back and arguing amongst ourselves about how our image looks within our community.  Kind of sounds just like the approach the leaders of the Synagogues in Biblical times stood for and allowed, which provided for a legalistic and popular acceptance to the world governments.

It is important for us to recognize the fact that the world and its allies shall never compliment the church, no matter if the church agrees with the policies of the world.  It is a part of the spiritual anti-trust laws that our enemy puts into place that prevent this from occurring.  The people may say thank you to the church or “accept” them for what they are currently defending or standing up for but as soon as any true spiritual concepts return or show themselves the true nature of the anti-trust laws will enforce their rights and restrictions.  It is a progression that we are ignoring and allowing to surround our spiritual necks and we need to wake up and realize just how tight the spiritual anti-trust hands are around our throats.

Our enemy will slowly but continually put his anti-trust policies into the minds and hearts of the people of the world.  As people of God we need to be grounded in the word enough that when these policies are presented that we realize what is occurring and immediately implement God’s plan for humanity and defeat this momentous policy.  The only way we can complete this action is to understand and believe that God has a plan for each of our lives and that this plan has an enemy that wishes to see us destroyed. 

We can no longer afford to bicker over our petty doctrinal difference or cower to the other forces that challenge the authority that Jesus gave to the church. Jesus never attacked people He always confronted the religious leaders of the church.  Why?  It was because the leaders had allowed the enemy to enforce the spiritual anti-trust laws within the church and everything that God deemed it to be was made awash.  Since we are the church we must have the decency to accept that we have failed in our capacity of an affective church and also accept the fact that we have a lot of work to do quickly or the life as the church knows it will be terminated.

We also do not realize that when we allow these anti-trust laws to function within our lives we lose our individuality within the world.  Even though the world may seem more likely to succeed in the anti-trust laws our spiritual lives do not need to be splintered in any form, shape or size.  We have only one source of life and we need to be complete in Him even in the things that we cannot see or hear.  God’s Word was written for us and it was written about us.  We should learn from the past and the mistakes that we have made due to the fact that we have listened to the world’s views on things.  It does not mean that we need to argue with people but we do need to confront the spirit that influences them. 

It is time that we restore the vision that Jesus gave to us and to repent to God for losing the sight of the cross and everything that it means to our lives.  We need to restore our faith and values and give our lives back to God once again.  For if we continue to allow the spiritual anti-trust laws to be in effect within our walls, our division and effectiveness as a church within the world that we live in will become nil and eventually die within all of us.  Spiritual anti-trust has enough people fooled already and we do not need to include the church in this category.  Jesus loves the church, God loves the church and I love the church and our enemy does not no matter how he presents himself. 

DLB