In such a time as this, God had a man. He usually does. His name was Samson, born to a very pious couple who had been without a child a long time.

I think Samson was impressed with himself, forgetting that his incredible strength came from God. He did not delineate between what God did and what he did. At one time he killed a thousand Philistine soldiers with the jawbone of an ass. All the attendant publicity and talk made the Philistine leader think about the danger to his regime from ass jawbones. Tyrants sleep restlessly when their slaves are armed with ass jawbones, pitchforks, clubs, ball bats, knives, or guns. Some tyrants in Washington are resting uneasily at this time in fear of whistleblowers, leaked emails, subpoena servers, and House Congressional Hearings.

The Philistine tyrants had already forbidden the Jews from owning any weapons and even forced them to have a Philistine sharpen their plows! Having to get the enemy to sharpen the plows was mainly to debase, disparage, and demoralize the Jewish population. Of course, totalitarians always prohibit weapons in the hands of citizens to keep them “on the reservation” without any means of gaining their freedom. And tyrants love to keep the hoi polloi in line.

After Samson’s famous, fabulous, and fearsome victory using the only weapon available, the jawbone of an ass, I assume the Philistine strongman made ass jawbones illegal. Maybe he started with a national register of all ass jawbones. After Samson’s incredible victory over the slave masters, I assume every Jewish home acquired a trusty, tried, and true jawbone of an ass for protection. The slaves were arming themselves! When that happens, tyrants don’t sleep well and have constant heartburn.

Jawbones are dangerous as proved by a thousand military funerals so the government needed to know where all ass jawbones were located. In the event of an uprising, all jawbones could be quickly confiscated. No doubt, there was also a movement to register the jawbones of mules, horses, cows, camels, etc., since they can be easily modified to become deadly assault weapons although not as deadly as the jawbone of an ass.

Of course, there had to be a “cooling off period” before any purchase of an ass jawbone could be concluded. Any Jew could slip into Gaza and purchase a jawbone and go on a killing spree, such as Samson did; however, the officials could frustrate that possibility. They could continue the weapons ban by making a purchaser wait indefinitely for his jawbone.

The more radical leftists thought that registering of ass jawbones did not go far enough so it was suggested that anyone with a jawbone be required to get a permit to possess one and an additional permit to carry. Questions must be answered: why do you need a jawbone? How large is your jawbone? How many jawbones do you possess? Do you keep your jawbone in a secure place? Are there children in the home?

Of course, anyone possessing a jawbone must purchase liability insurance at 100,000 shekels per jawbone.

More intrusive legislation would be considered that would negate the registering and permit requirements: no citizen can be trusted with any jawbone so every jawbone in the land will be confiscated starting Monday morning. That may seem to be a little hasty but not really since a thousand children could have been killed instead of soldiers. Always for the sake of children.

After hearing Obama, Holder, Reid, Pelosi, and Company use silly, senseless, and specious arguments to pitch, promote, and propagate gun control (confiscation), I am convinced that Samson is not the only person to use the jawbone of an ass to attempt to kill off opponents. Since Samson’s day, the jawbone of an ass has been very effective, especially is that true in Washington, D.C.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.

I affirm that the U.S. has great power but its authority is limited. Obama needs to be taught that lesson which seems to have escaped him in his Muslim school. But then, Muslims don’t believe in separation of church/mosque and state. They believe that the mosque is over the state! Christians know the church is not over the state–God is! However, neither Obama, nor the U.S. Supreme Court, nor Congress, even with 100% vote, has authority over the church of the living God. We will see if some major Christian leaders have the courage to teach Obama and other tyrants that lesson.

James Madison wrote, “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.” The First Amendment forbids any interference in religion. “Congress shall make no law.” What is it about the word no that Obama and his lackeys don’t understand? No still means no. And any entity of government trying to force religious institutions or religious people to march to its music is a rape of the Bill of Rights.

It is commendable that some religious colleges, seminaries, hospitals, etc., are fighting ObamaCare in the courts, and they may win; however, what will they do if the end result is that they must obey the court to provide abortion for their employees? If those religious leaders have any biblical convictions, they will tell the courts and the government that they have no choice but to disobey. That means a one million dollar plus fine per day which they cannot pay and should not pay even if they had unlimited funds.

Refusing to obey a court order means their doors will be closed and their leaders imprisoned for contempt of court. And, of course, they would be “guilty” of contempt! What else could one expect? Catholics have gone on record that they will not obey the law; what about Protestant and Baptist leaders? It is one thing to fight an issue in court, and another thing to say, “We will not bend or bow and are willing to burn if necessary, but we will not obey the law to facilitate the killing of innocent babies.”

Many of those religious leaders will finally capitulate to the evil command of Obama, and will plead their defense on what they call, “biblical grounds.” But they will have to twist the Bible like a pretzel to justify their cowardice. Some will decide that life does not begin at conception so abortion in the early months is not killing a baby; it is more like removing a mole, wart, or tumor. Sounds almost noble! You can justify anything if you play with it long enough.

Others will tell us that while they believe it is wrong, they must obey the government as the Bible teaches in Romans, chapter 13. Other pragmatic leaders will say, “Look, I don’t like it but if the government puts us out of business and some of us go to jail, then we will not be able to continue our ministry. After all, one has to be practical.” No, one does not have to be practical. One has to do right, not what is practical, profitable, or pleasing. Moreover, if the college and seminary presidents go to prison, they can have a new ministry with an abundance of people who need to hear the Gospel message. Those college presidents can write their autobiographies titled, From President to Prison: To God be the Glory! Now, that is noble.

Algernon Sidney in 1683 was beheaded by King Charles II for declaring that there is no divine right of kings to rule over a nation. He said that no man had a right to rule unless he had the consent of the people. He was right. Obama thinks he is a king, but he is more like a court jester.

Sitting Bull surrendered at Fort Buford in July of 1881 and declared, “I wish to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle, and this day have given it to you.” There is a time to do that, but not when it comes to Christian principles and obedience to God. I will not be the first or the last to “surrender my rifle (of obedience to God).”

The fight goes on and good people will be going to prison to satisfy the Marxist doctrine of a tin-pot dictator in the Oval Office.

A second group of Christians refused to burn incense, but they bribed officials to procure the necessary certificates! What a warped sense of values: “No, I won’t bow to Caesar, but I’ll bribe his officials to say I bowed to him.” I suppose they were among the modern Evangelicals and Fundamentalists who believe that “preaching the Bible is the most important thing in the world.” No, “preaching the Bible” is not the most important thing; obeying it is! You can preach the Bible without obeying it, but you can’t obey it without preaching it. If obeying the Bible is not top priority, then any compromise can be justified. However, that second group did manage to keep breathing between seizures of guilt.

A third group of Christian simply refused to obey Caesar and surrender the lordship of Christ. They didn’t bow, they didn’t bribe, and they didn’t breathe–for very long. They quietly went to their deaths and the churches grew stronger.

That was another day, another issue, but the tyrants living then were similar to those living and “reigning” today in the U.S. White House. Tyrants don’t like principled people refusing to bow to their commands. The major issue with tyrants is control–total control. A similar issue is gathering steam as I write: ObamaCare includes forcing Christian churches, schools, hospitals, and businesses to provide abortion coverage in health insurance.

Recently, Hobby Lobby lost their case for an exception to the federal edict because it was a business, not a religious organization. But then, the First Amendment does not refer to “church” or “school” but to “religion.” That can mean organizations or individuals. The family that owns Hobby Lobby is highly dedicated and will face fines of over one million dollars per day if they refuse to burn incense to “little Caesar” and disobey their Bible convictions.

ObamaCare demands that any business or philanthropic organization (including churches and Christian schools) with fifty or more employees must cover contraception and abortions in their health plans or be fined into submission by the White House Caesar. It’s interesting and noteworthy that he would not have been elected had it not been for “Christians”!

Some Catholic bishops have gone on record stating their non-compliance, “We will not obey that law.” Non-thinkers, even some church members, retort that those religious leaders must think they are above the law and expect special privileges. The fact is they are above that law since it is obviously contrary to the First Amendment. Those Catholic bishops are to be commended for their courage, commitment, and convictions.

Some non-Catholic universities have made the same commitment, but only a few. Where do many other famous schools and denominations stand? Many of them are good at talking, some at balking, and only a few at walking. Even Fundamentalist schools that have walked the walked are strangely silent. They have been willing, more than willing, to lecture others on “taking a stand” and “paying any price,” and always “doing right, whatever the cost.” Where are they on this issue? Will they “come out from among them” and close their ministries rather than comply?

Major American Evangelical and Fundamentalist universities and seminaries are silent. Are they willing to defy, disregard, and disobey the feds in order to stay true to their convictions? Of course, if they have real convictions, they have no choice but to obey God rather than man–even the man in the White House. But are those institutions willing to lose everything by standing for biblical commands? We will probably see some incredible mental gymnastics from Christian leaders and some will even twist Bible teaching like a pretzel to justify obeying Obama.

In addition to Catholic churches and schools, Louisiana College (Southern Baptist) in Pineville, Louisiana, Geneva College, Wheaton, and a few others are challenging the law. Question: will they refuse to obey “Caesar” to the very end or will they “make an accommodation”? Another question: what will Evangelical and Fundamentalist schools do? My opinion? Most will cave like a house of cards.

Christians were told by Caesar: “You can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ if you also say that ‘Caesar gives you permission to say Jesus is Lord.” They replied that Caesar owed every breath to Christ and bravely went to their deaths. Christians today have to decide in every area of life if Jesus Christ is truly Lord. The cost of accepting Christ as Lord is higher and higher each year.

We will see if the Roman Catholics show more courage, character, commitment, and convictions than some Fundamentalists and Evangelicals!