GOD'S SIMPLE GENIUS SOLUTIONS
FOR WORLD PROBLEMS
(This page and facebook pages will be undergoing a major update in the near future with more videos embedded and more links to useful pages with practical day to day solutions that can help us make major leaps forward for God and social justice.)
The 1st SDA Social Justice Summit has been an incredible and inspiring conference with some incredibly insightful thinkers! Like so many godly movements in the past, it was put together by people who saw a problem, didn't know exactly how to solve everything or figure out all the details, but followed God's leading and partnered with other believers who God had also inspired. It was all put together in a shockingly short time, but was a reviving and rejuvenating experience for all who came. This can only happen when God is moving in many hearts! If you missed it, check out the archived videos that are available at Adventists for Social Justice and join that page for future updates and information as well as Adventists for Social Action!
There are many documentaries below to help understand the problems of injustice more accurately and practical action steps to take. In the links below you will see that both Christian experts AND many secular experts as well are agreeing that simple principles that God spoke about long ago are the most effective answers to solve modern problems. And the SDA church is the only one that is advocating many of the most important of the.m Some of the best secular documentaries are at this site. Great site to learn from! http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-top-100-films-for-action/.
Two of the most important for everyone to watch are these documentaries, since they deal with economic injustice and concentration of wealth and power, which Bible prophets warned strongly against in up to 2000 verses. Ellen White and American founders and many other scholars have also repeatedly warned against high concentrations of wealth since economic injustice destroys freedom and lives and is the core root foundation of most other social problems ranging from family breakdown to racism to poverty to environmental dangers and others. A great deal of research by scientists, economics and scholars agrees with what Ellen White said:
"In God's plan for Israel every family had a home on the land, with sufficient ground for tilling. Thus were provided both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life. And no devising of men has ever improved upon that plan. To the world's departure from it is owing, to a large degree, the poverty and wretchedness that exist today." {Welfare Ministry p. 195}
Start with the documentary "The Economics of Happiness": https://vimeo.com/163011560
اقتصاد شادی (The Economics of Happiness, Persian version) from The Economics of Happiness on Vimeo.
Many practical action ideas are shared often at the Economics of Happiness facebook page which you can join:
https://www.facebook.com/TheEconomicsofhappiness/?fref=nf
This one shows excerpts from many documentaries about how the US and Europe are working hard to take control of the resources of as many countries as they can, bent on worldwide domination (as prophecies in Revelation 13 have long predicted.
What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy - 2015 Edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdMWOjYuYwk
We all learned a lot from the conference and now we can share and start practicing the practical solutions we've heard and innovate more to change the world in our time as other godly people have throughout history by following God's principles. These principles are genius in their power, but most are simple to understand and follow (1 Cor. 25:27). The Bible says godly people protect the rights of the poor and abused (Proverbs 29:7) and obey God's truths in their own lives which is the essence of love (John 14:15, Rom 13:8-10). The Hebrew word for love, ahava, is based on the word “to give”. As Dr. Charles Knight preached, our needs/rights are important, but the essence of Christianity is improving the needs and equal rights of others too, especially the most oppressed, whether that be in our country or outside of it (Num. 15:15, Matt. 23:8, Phil. 2:4, Gal. 3:18, 1 Thess. 5:15).
We know that the Bible said there would be terrible times for many people in the end times due especially to greed of certain people and businessmen, pride, following immoral desires above truth, etc. as well as various deceptions (2 Tim. 3:1-5, Rev. 18:3,11,19, 2 Peter 2/3, etc.). But the weapons of our warfare are mighty (2 Corinthians 10:4). God said people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. It's true. But God repeatedly emphasized very simple but crucial principles at all levels of society from government to church to family to individual for our good and to beat deceptions. All of the terrible injustices that exist now derive from nations, corporations, churches/communities, the wealthy, middle class or poor individuals rejecting or ignoring simple principles of God. Science shows that sin and injustice of various kinds causes trillions of dollars of losses every year, which profits the elite, as well as much loss of freedom and injustice.
1) ENGAGE CHURCH IN SOCIAL JUSTICE: It's important to move beyond dependence, beyond independence into the highest level of living, interdependence based on God's truths. Solomon said, “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:12). Many academics say that the main aims of the 1% elite are to indoctrinate people to”forget all but self” and to separate and “atomize” people because then they are much easier to control and indoctrinate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VroxZbtbVHg),
Dr. Engdahl from Princeton said that the greatest fear of the elite 1% who are the source of most of the evil on the planet is love(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QROeJXiBqP0). If people love, that means less conflict and war, which produce huge profits for the elite. The labor activist Mother Jones wisely said, "We must be together. Our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing."
Dr. Woodberry's exhaustive research has found that Christian missionaries/churches have brought more freedom, human rights, democracy, education, printing to more countries than all other factors COMBINED. Even atheists like Dr. Cnaan have shown that every $1 invested in churches brings up to $5-$10 in return to the community! Another atheist, Dr. Walter Brock agree that churches are the greatest enemy of totalitarianism. While there are traitorous Judases and rash Peters at times in churches as Ellen White said, biblical churches spread freedom, health, happiness, wealth, power and more widely to everyone.
Ellen White says, “I have been instructed to refer our people to the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Read this chapter carefully and understand the kind of ministry that will bring life into the churches...When you meet suffering souls who need help, give it to them. When you find those who are hungry, feed them. In doing this you will be working in lines of Christ's ministry...All our praying and abstinence from food will avail nothing unless we resolutely lay hold of this work." Welfare Ministry, p. 29-30
2) LEARN THE TACTICS OF PROPAGANDA: South African activist Steve Biko said, “The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Both victims, but also some oppressors are victimized by propaganda. The atheist Edward Bernays was the father of American propaganda and worked with the government and corporations in very destructive ways to manipulate the minds of millions. He said that he wanted to remake the public mind according to his will, and not God's. And he used media as his main tool to do it. He said that with media he could change the minds of millions, but not always 1 (the few who aren't indoctrinated easily are those who know God's truths very well and trust Him). The Nazis were so impressed that they used his tactics as well. But the same tactics he used are now used by many corporations, governments and all over media in very damaging/lethal ways, but are called public relations and marketing now.
This SDA teacher, Scott Ritsema, gives a brilliant overview of propaganda that pervades much secular media:
See how many secular researchers are talking about many of the same problems at these links:
- The Engineering of Consent/Edward Bernays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgKqvpf1LYk
- Dr. Kroth from Santa Clara University reviews some propaganda that is pervasive in the media:"Propaganda and Manipulation: How mass media engineers and distorts our perceptions" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfo5gPG72KM, collectivepsych.com
- Many thoughts people think are implanted in their minds to align with corporations or politics. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-corporation/, http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-century-of-the-self/
3) HEALTH: Bad health habits kill ~38 million and poverty kills ~18 million per year. Health care costs ~$6.5 trillion a year now, much of it preventable. Just 5 preventable diseases will cost the world up to $47 trillion in the future. Health and poverty have numerous crucial connections. This is why Dr. King said “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.・ But SDAs emphasize Bible health principles that solve the vast majority of these problems. We have the answers. Science agrees that God's simple solutions like NEWSTART that we SDAs have long advocated are crucial answers. www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs355/en, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harvard_HE_GlobalEconomicBurdenNonCommunicableDiseases_2011.pdf, http://www.who.int/whr/2004/annex/topic/en/annex_2_en.pdf report
4) LAND: When people were being enslaved in Nehemiah 5, Nehemiah forced the wealthy to pay back interest and return land. In Acts 2/4 when the government wouldn't follow land justice, every member took care of his/her family’s needs/comforts and then gave and worked to help other church members become independent and self-sufficient. The most important biblical way to godly independence and resisting plutocracy is working to help every family have land or own their own home, esp. outside the cities. This is the best prevention of plutocracy and the abuse of human rights and a myriad of evils that come from it. Without this right, people's rights depend on the whims of the rich and powerful. Archer Torrey (grandson of R. A. Torrey, president of Moody Bible Institute) and head of a Korean seminary wrote:
"The United Nations has published a list of 30 "human rights". But, they omit the right to land, which is the basic human right given by God and clearly defined in the Bible. If the right to land were recognized, the other rights would follow automatically and would hardly need to be defined. As it is the UN's "human rights" are only the rights of slaves!" Archer Torrey, Jane Grey Torrey, Biblical Economics, p. 8.
You can see some of his book on google books. See a summary of his book here: http://www.landreform.org/be1.htm
The problem of economic injustice, the shrinking middle class and poverty are major long term threats to people in every country in the world now because many nations aren't following God's economic principles that He said would get rid of poverty if followed (Deut. 15:4). The Bible repeatedly speaks out and condemns great inequalities and hoarding as a great evil. It was one of the main sins of Sodom(Ezekiel 16:49). This film shows how destructive plutocracy has been throughout history: http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/plutocracy/.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said:
“We may have democracy in this country, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”
These sites summarizes some of the numerous injustices that result from economic inequality.
https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/cost-of-inequality-oxfam-mb180113.pdf
http://creation.com/darwins-critical-influence-on-the-ruthless-extremes-of-capitalism
5) POLITICS: Conservative “welfare for the rich” and liberal “government takes care of you” both subvert godly independence. David Stockman, Reagan’s chief budget advisor, and other experts agree that trickle down economics didn't work. It actually increased debts and siphoned trillions to the wealthy. Clinton's advocacy of NAFTA, free trade and more taxes so government can take care of people benefits corporations and also subverts biblical economic rights that promote independence. Clinton and Trump are proposing similar things now. http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/1/clinton_rice, www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-22/trump-tax-plan-turns-donald-trickle-down-king, www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/10/michael-hudson-on-parasitic-financial-capitalism.html
James Madison wrote that endless war is probably the greatest enemy of freedom. It kills many innocents on both sides, causes enormous public debts and also enormous growth of government power. Who pays? Taxpayers do. Who benefits? Mostly corporations and powerful people gain the profits that taxpayers paid for with blood and taxes. Both democrats and republicans have involved the nation in many very destructive wars. Should we keep supporting them?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/,
www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/03/adding-costs-hillary-clintons-wars,
http://www.alternet.org/world/americas-coup-machine-destroying-democracy-1953
We must respect each person's voting decision. But also look at what party matches the Bible's views of the role of government (which mostly deals with justice, protecting human rights, preventing poverty, dealing with crime, etc.) and support God's way instead of the popular way as the early church and our American founders did, pioneering democracy.
The Constitution Party is the only party I know of that understands the godly origins of human rights, opposes war, wants to drastically reduce taxes on the middle class/poor (and has an ethical and innovative way to do it, understands the importance of land rights some, and more. See more on this issue here:
http://questions.truth-is-life.org/vote.html
There are many other actions we can take. We just need to remember that as Ellen White urged, that almost every act of our lives and every dollar we spend goes toward benefiting God and people or towards oppressors and Satan. Keep learning and growing in knowledge and power. Make godly choices and pray for more wisdom to live more and more like Jesus did!
One of the more powerful daily choices we all have is how we spend our money. Watch 'Ethos; Time to Unslave Humanity", which talks about corporate and political domination and propaganda, but shows that they depend for their survival on people continuing to buy from them and vote to support them, based on fear of the 2 lesser evils. If many people stand up and make different choices, day by day, the tyranny they exert will collapse in time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWgwrLw-T0E and
Remember: “Godliness has value for all things, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.・ 1 Tim. 4:8
Make sure to connect to:
1) ASJ & ASA facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/282472782107504/, https://www.facebook.com/groups/252787221747/
2) See also: http://truth-is-life.org/jubileeeconomics.html
here.
3) You can contact Bryan Bissell for more ideas if you wish at bryan@truth-is-life.org, 423-313-3384. Again, this page will be updated in the near future links and videos soon. Tell your friend about www.truth-is-life.org/socialjustice.html.
May God inspire, bless and empower all of us!
Bryan Bissell