By: Dale Weckbacher
Revelation 21:2
Then I, John, saw the
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband.
NKJV
As John was reaching the end of his life and nearing the end
of writing the Book of Revelation, God gives him a vision of the Holy City, the
New Jerusalem coming down. We can only
imagine what a beautiful sight it must have been but the good news is that each
of us who make Jesus our savior has the opportunity to see this shining city
when Our Heavenly Father establishes his Kingdom here on earth.
If you are reading this and have not made Jesus your Lord
and Savior, I recommend you pause and pray this prayer,
Lord Jesus, I know I
have sinned. I know you came to earth
and suffered the death penalty for my sin so I can have eternal life. I also know you arose from the grave. I ask you to forgive me of my sin and I make
you Lord of my life.
If you prayed this prayer, you are now a child of God and
will see the vision John saw in Revelation 21:2 when God establishes His
Kingdom here on earth. When times are
tough and it seems there is no hope, you can now close your eyes and imagine
the vision you will see that day. I know
for me this seems to make the day better and I hope it does the same for
you.
I live in Arizona and even though I have not done so for
many years, my wife, and I used to make an annual trip to Nogales Mexico to do
some shopping. There is also a Nogales
Arizona and there is a definite contrast between these similarly named cities
only divided by a border. When on the
Mexico side of Nogales looking over the border at how people live in the United
States, I know why they would want to come here.
However, just as one cannot enter the New Jerusalem without
a relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, there are laws for those
desiring to enter the United States and enjoy the opportunities it
presents. Unfortunately, the recent
executive amnesty ordered by President Obama demonstrates his belief that the
nation’s immigration laws are unfair to those living in poverty south of the
border. As such, he believes that as a
compassionate nation, the United States somehow has an obligation to open up
its borders and let everyone come in.
On the surface, this may seem like a compassionate thing to
do but just as the Trojan horse looked beautiful on the surface, this executive
amnesty presents many problems.
1)
Massive tax refunds to newly amnestied illegal
immigrants – The national debt of the United States continues to grow with no
end in sight. (1)
The expanding debt however is a symptom of an even greater problem out of
control spending and failure to operate with a balanced budget. Every year that the government outspends its
revenue, the deficit grows. Add to this
out of control spending, newly amnestied individuals, many of whom will earn
incomes low enough to qualify for massive Earned Income Tax Credits, and we
will see deficits rise at an even faster rate.
(2)
2)
Increased competition for a shrinking universe
of jobs - The February unemployment rate was 5.5%. This is the lowest rate for the U3
unemployment since May of 2008. (3) If we are to look at this number alone, it
would appear more and more people are finding jobs, and the economy is
booming. However, to get a true picture
of the state of the labor market we must also look at the labor participation
rate for this number is an indicator of how many able bodied people in the
nation are working. Unfortunately, this
number has been continuing to decline. (4) Since the U3
unemployment rate does not include those who have been out of work so long that
they have exhausted their unemployment benefits, we would expect to
mathematically see a decline in the unemployment rate accompanying a prolonged reduction
in the labor participation rate.
3)
Amnestied individuals will not be encouraged to
assimilate into society – illegal immigrants are overwhelming our culture. These individuals have little interest in
assimilating into the culture of the United States and instead are beginning to
transform it. I moved with my parents in
1964 into the west side of Phoenix Arizona.
I still live only a few miles from the home in which I grew up. During that time I have seen my community
transform from a middle class suburban community into a community that resembles
what I saw when traveling to Nogales.
Left unchecked, Obama’s executive amnesty promises to accelerate this
transformation of the culture. We must
wonder if this is part of the fundamental transformation candidate Obama ran on
in 2008.
Just as Net Neutrality appeared good on the surface, amnesty
appears like a compassionate thing to do for those living in abject poverty
south of our border. However, simply
opening up the border and letting anyone in will only serve to transform the
United States into an impoverished third world nation similar to Mexico. The compassionate thing to do for those
living in poverty in Mexico are to assist them in coming to this country
legally and then helping them assimilate into our culture of prosperity so they
too can enjoy the American dream as our ancestors did.
1. Brown, Kirby. U.S. federal debt continues to
grow. www.deseretnews.com. [Online] Deseret News, July 4, 2014. [Cited:
March 10, 2014.] http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865606073/US-federal-debt-continues-to-grow.html?pg=all.
2. Frum, David.
The Cost of Amnesty. m.theatlantic.com. [Online] The Atlantic, December
4, 2014. [Cited: March 10, 2015.] http://m.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/the-cost-of-amnesty-obama-executive-order-earned-income-tax-credit/383405/.
3. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject. data.bls.gov.
[Online] united States Department of Labor, March 10, 2015. [Cited: March
10, 2015.] http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000.
4. —. Databases, Tables
& Calculators by Subject. a.bls.gov. [Online] United States
Department of Labor, March 10, 2015. [Cited: March 10, 2015.]
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000.
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