Claire Wolf once asked “Is It Time, Yet?” People who actually take the time to read what she had to say will realize it was “time” a long time ago, in the moral sense. You don’t have to read between the lines to realize the underlying theme of all such writings: In order to keep God’s justice alive, you have to act on the Covenant of Noah quickly every time. When someone rises up who expresses a casual disregard for other humans, you must not allow them to live.
That was the meaning of Noah, and Jesus made it all the more clear when He spoke of loving your neighbor as yourself. In case you just can’t operate on that ANE epistemology, let me clarify. Jesus took pains to elaborate the meaning of “neighbor” so no one could weasel out of it — your fellow humans, all over the world, are your “neighbor” whenever they are in your neighborhood. It’s not about residential proximity, but proximity of time and place. We are designed by God to love and care about those with whom we spend time. The more time, the more active is our love. You have to condition yourself to keep from doing that. There is no excuse! If the person in question is the enemy of your nation (Judeans versus Samaritans, for example), they qualify as “neighbor” when they do you no harm. Bad blood is just Satan’s excuse to lead you into sin. The point remains: How are they acting now? You might be guarded, but peace is peace, and love is actively seeking the welfare of another.
So it’s equally obvious when someone means you harm, you aren’t supposed to tolerate that. That makes them “not your neighbor.” And while Jesus taught us to forgive 70×7 (meaning don’t bother counting), you and I know most people can’t rise to that, so Jesus left a more reachable standard, and left the Covenant of Noah in place. It won’t matter what excuse they use, anyone who seeks actively to reduce your welfare is your enemy. The justice of God under Noah is to stop such people from harming the community at large. Not just your own petty revenge; that’s not supported at all. No, it has to be a real danger.
What Claire makes utterly clear is that threat should have been punished the first time it reared its ugly head. The first time someone in government pay sought to increase government prerogatives at the expense of citizen welfare, that was the time to have shot them. That first restriction on firearm ownership was when the judges should have been shot, along with the bureaucrats who prompted them to rule against liberty. The first time a federal agent donned a weapon for enforcement purposes, the whole agency was a prime target. But we did nothing then, and we’ll surely do nothing now until it’s way too late. The moment that “public servant” steps across the line, when that person decides anyone under his care is less deserving than himself or any other government employee, he is in sin. He is at that moment unjust, and a threat to the community.
Have you seen the change? When I was wearing the accouterments of a policeman, along with that went the training which emphasized respecting those I policed. Yes, I am fully aware most of my fellow officers forgot that in the first five minutes after donning their official marks of authority, but the training was there, the ideal stood, of which we were often reminded. So when some idiot stood before me in flagrante delicto, highly agitated because they didn’t like getting caught doing wrong, and are fully prepared to argue up and down they did no wrong, I was still required to respect them enough to act in a fashion to defuse their tension. There were times I might not be able to do that, but it was my default line of action, and I was to always go back there when conditions changed to permit it. You won’t see that much today. Now, officers make no allowance whatsoever for your humanity. You will either comply servilely, or you will get hurt.
Let me be the first to tell you: In God’s justice under Noah, you can without sin execute such officers. We all know it won’t be so easy in terms of real world consequences, but if you can remain as calm as the officer should have been, and act with due deliberation and intelligence, with an eye to the real needs of the community you are obliged to serve, it is not a sin. Yes, you are a member of the community, and you have a duty before God to act in their welfare. It’s called, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That these things cannot be easily done, and it may well be a futile gesture, simply proves Claire’s point. We have waited far, far too long. Now things won’t improve until the whole thing is destroyed and we start from scratch. You and I bear the consequences of such a mess existing.
Don’t bother making brain-dead noises about the civil process of correcting government. It hasn’t been possible since the early 1800s in the US. The whole thing was stolen, and “the will of the people” was simply code language for manipulating the people through restricting information and spouting propaganda. Today’s government, at any level you choose, is wholly unlikely to respond appropriately to any call for redress of grievances. We have long been ruled by a class apart, folks who play by their own rules regardless what’s on paper, and surely regard you with contempt.
Yeah, it’s time; past time. It’s too late.
