Empire: How to Dragon-Speak Like The Beast with Lamblike Horns

the F35A stealth fighter in flight

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (Revelation 13:11)

What does the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Israel have in common? They all currently operate the most advanced Jet fighter in human history. The research alone of this fete of human engineering cost as much as the whole combined annual GDP of the continent of Africa, 1.7 trillion US Dollars. Granted it was spread over ten years, but if a country could spend a tenth of a continent's GDP merely on one weapons program, of which there are many, we may need to pause and reflect.

The State is Built for War

The greatest nations have been those which have demonstrated competency in marshalling vast resources and capabilities to accomplish various tasks of national interests. The word to note is competency. All nations may be great, but all nations have limitations. It goes without saying that the fewer the limitations the more competent the nation may aspire to be. But competent at what exactly? what is the national interest of every nation except to survive and thrive? From the time of Nimrod "the mighty hunter before the Lord" (Genesis 10:9) nations have invariably been born in competition to one another, and, the state was so created to enable nations to prosecute that competition.

Simply put, the state is built for war. There is nothing the state does best than that. The State is literally in its element when waging war since violence is hard-coded into its very nature and being...and this is not necessarily a bad thing. The state is the instrument used by government to secure the rights and liberties of the governed. Government is not the State. Government is as much a people as the governed are simply people; people who are set aside to make and enforce laws on behalf of the rest whom we then call the governed. But the state is an impersonal, ethereal and incorporeal creation of man in the expression of government that retains institutional memory. God made nations, man created the state. That human creation is designed for war and only. Even in peace, it seeks for war seeing that its main tenets are territorialism and imperialism.

This culminated in Nimrod's ambition -- the ambition not only for kingship, but for empire; not only the establishment of a kingdom of single government, but also the expansion of single government into widespread dominion. Thus arose the State: territorialism, and imperialism. Men were made subject to power merely because they happened to be in the territory claimed by the would-be monarch. This meant conquest and oppression; - Alonzo T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, pg xviii

The State Always Culminates in Empire

Having established the intrinsic nature of the idea that is The State, we have next to investigate where all this leads to. In the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, God has laid out elaborate descriptive warning of this thing we call the state. In Daniel we read of Babylon, then Persia, then Greece and finally Rome which is to rule till Christ returns to set up His kingdom and His government. These prophecies are a divine dissertation on the issue of government; and among the things God warns us is where this artificial creation we call 'the state' leads to. The apotheosis of 'the state' happens to be Empire. Empire is the expression of the aspiration to dominate and rule the whole world. Why do we find that repugnant? because sinful man is incapable of setting up just government over our whole species. Only "the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." (Revelation 5:5) "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:" (Isaiah 9:6) "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open." (Isaiah 22:22) "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;" (Revelation 3:7) because "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:7)

Empire: The Ultimate Nemesis to God's Government

God's government has one job, to secure the rights and liberties of all who are governed by Him. This means getting rid of the problem of sin. He has a plan, He's working it out. But when the state has matured into empire, the rights and liberties of individuals are bound to be under threat. Why is this? In order for a state to empire so to speak, it must speak like a dragon. Let me introduce you to the Norden Sight. We'll start from there next time.

The Norden Sight as used in a ww2 B17 Bomber