Who should have the bomb?

On April 6, 2009, the President of the United States, on foreign soil, declared the following:

The basic bargain is sound: Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament; countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them.

Who should have the bomb? According to our President, no one should have the bomb. Just like no one should have guns. No one should drive an SUV. No one should use cocaine. No one should be disrespectful to his mother. No one should put gum under his chair.

This is so sophomoric it's insulting to the intellect. It's so naive it's painful to the soul. President Obama assumes if we really really want to we can "all get along". This is his philosophy and this is why his policies will fail. He does not understand fallen human nature.

Ronald Reagan did know something about human nature which prompted his famous quote, "Trust, but verify." Apparently, "doveryai, no proveryai" was a favorite phrase of the founder of the Soviet secret police as well. If so, both men understood human nature well and came to the same conclusion: humans can't be trusted. Especially powerful human beings.

Fallen human nature is the source of all our discontent. To assume that human nature can be tamed simply by the desire to change it is the zenith of not paying attention to our own issues or the people around us. No matter the method (save one), it has never worked, ever, in the history of mankind.

Fallen humans can only be changed by two things and only one of them is permanent: death. First, gut-busting suffering does change people's character in one of two directions; they either become better people or they become spiteful people. But this is not permanent change. Even changed human beings are still human and can become animals under the right circumstances.

At the very least human nature must be bridled. But, real, permanent change can only come from the rebirth experience offered by faith in Jesus Christ. Through this we literally become a new creation in Christ. Even so, the same sufferings, long term disciplines, and a thorough renewing of the mind through the Word of God are required to fully experience the joys of transformation that result from being "born again." Complete reliance on the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity since the born again human is still human and will remain human until Jesus comes back.

Our Founding Fathers understood human nature and tried their best to form a government that took fallen human nature into account. John Adams wrote the following in 1798:

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -- October 11th

James Madison said:

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity...to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]

Benjamin Franklin provides another insight:

“God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel” –Constitutional Convention of 1787 | original manuscript of this speech

Former US Ambassador, John Bolton, made the following observation about President Obama during his recent interview with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News: (entire interview)

I was shocked at how poor his knowledge of history is. If he thinks tensions between Europe and the United States are of recent vintage, particularly during the Bush administration, he really needs some additional schooling.

If you go back to the time of the Revolution, there have been differences between Europeans and Americans very reminiscent of things we've seen in more recent years. If you read the diaries and letters of the British and American top political and military leaders in World War II, they were at each other's throats. Lord Allenbrook, the British commander, didn't think Dwight Eisenhower was fit to be Supreme Commander or Americans were fit to fight.

This goes back and forth all the time. The idea that, suddenly, he's going to change this as a matter of attitude is itself a form of arrogance on his part.

Who should have the bomb? It's naive to say that no one should have it; nations already have it! Human nature demands that if someone else has something we should have it too. Didn't we learn anything in kindergarten?

President Obama's entire philosophy is broken. He's telling everyone to share everything equally but then telling others they shouldn't have the bomb. He's telling the rich to pay more but telling the poor they don't need to pay anything. He gives unplayable DVD's to the Prime Minister of England, an iPod to the Her Majesty the Queen, and expects to be respected as a peer on the world stage.

Please pray for your President and those who advise him. He came into office with a complete lack of understanding of the nature of fallen man and really believes that we can all reach down deep and be "different". He also believes, however, that until we all "change" (i.e. think like him) he'll have to use the force of government to make sure we behave the way he thinks we should. This is the very thing our Founding Fathers knew would happen if we, as a nation, dismissed God to the ash heap of unbelief. They knew that if we did not subject ourselves to the rule of God then we would be ruled by tyrants.

They were very wise indeed.