Bastiat's The Law and Two Trees: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:59, 6 April 2023

Claude Frederic Bastiat

Bastiat wrote in his treatise, The Law, "Self-preservation and self-development are common aspirations among all people. And if everyone enjoyed the unrestricted use of his faculties and the free disposition of the fruits of his labor, social progress would be ceaseless, uninterrupted, and unfailing.

But there is also another tendency that is common among people. When they can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others. This is no rash accusation. Nor does it come from a gloomy and uncharitable spirit. The annals of history bear witness to the truth of it: the incessant wars, mass migrations, religious persecutions, universal slavery, dishonesty in commerce, and monopolies. This fatal desire has its origin in the very nature of man — in that primitive, universal, and insuppressible instinct that impels him to satisfy his desires with the least possible pain."

Bastiat nails it pretty well.

Broader paradigm

However, Bastiat also stumbles a bit too, as we all do. Bastiat in his reliance on the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", i.e. our brains and our free will choice to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, only sees mankind at this physical level or on "this frequency" where our five senses may perceive a limited reality.

If we were to accept existence in spiritual, quantum, terms a more inclusive reality may be accounted for. Bastiat fails to grasp the "Tree of Life" "Tree of the Knowledge" paradigm. We were intended, by our Creator, to rise above those baser, primal instincts that Bastiat labels the "nature of man".

Man's true "spiritual nature" is totally ignored by Bastiat, and many other scholars, and not seeing or having our true "spiritual nature" or "spiritual potential" revealed to us is mostly our own faults. If we only focus on the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", and it becomes our only source, then the "Tree of Life" withers and dies within us.

Bastiat is right on when he writes about the "covetousness" in all our hearts and how we "kill", "steal" and "covet", breaking three of God the Father and Creator's commandments, by using our own created governments to take from our neighbors what we are unwilling to provide for ourselves.

Law Treaties

Bastiat wrote in his treatise, The Law: (Our distinctions in [brackets])

“It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law [the law of nature and nature's God] into an instrument of plunder. What are the consequences of such a perversion? It would require volumes to describe them all. Thus we must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking. In the first place, it erases from everyone’s conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless the [civil] laws are respected to a certain degree. The safest way to make [civil] laws respected is to make them respectable. When [civil] law and morality [an aspect of natural law, which is written on our hearts our souls] contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect of the [civil] law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them. The nature of law [the law of nature and nature's God, written on our hearts, if we will listen] is to maintain justice. This is so much the case that, in the minds of people, [civil] law and justice [natural law] are one and the same thing. There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything [civilly] lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are “just” because the [civil] law makes them so. Thus, in order to make plunder appear just and sacred to many consciences, it is only necessary for the [civil] law to decree and sanction it. Slavery, restrictions, and monopoly find defenders not only among those who profit from them but also among those who suffer from them.”

“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”

Focusing on changing the primal instincts of man's flesh is going in the wrong direction. The Messiah put it as trying to get "figs from a thorn bush" and "a dog always returns to its vomit and a pig to the mire". This is played out in our daily lives in one way by "voting", which is basically a belief that if only the "right man or woman", (a clean pig, i.e. a candidate for office cleans up pretty good to get elected) were in the office then things would change, but as soon as the candidate is elected, its back to the mire.

Whole source

The real answers lie in turning around and returning to the true source, which is the Tree of Life and God's form of government and law. But we have strayed so far from the Tree of Life that we don't even think or know there is a real choice. Rather we believe that the Kingdom or government of God is only for when we die and go to heaven - but not here now, at hand, in the flesh, today. This is the most Satanic of all doctrines, but that is what people are fed in the non-profit, tax-exempt organizations of the State that people erroneously call "churches". People are fed the lie that God ordains these man-made governments. No, He doesn't. He only Ordains His own government and allows all the others in order to keep free will choice alive. Man's created governments are for the "wicked and unrighteous", which simply means people that freely choose to go their own way and choose to kill, steal and covet.

Again, this is where Bastiat fails to see the truth. There is a choice. A freewill choice we can all make. But it first requires letting go of all the customs and traditions that we cling to and becoming like a little child again so the Tree of Life can once again begin to grow within us.

As long as we continue to cling to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and we decided what is right and wrong, we will continue to follow our "basic human nature" and try to make laws that impose our sense of right and wrong upon our neighbors. We will continue to kill, steal and covet our neighbor's labor, time and property to provide what we are selfishly unwilling to provide for ourselves.

God the Father has His Way and Law and we are not to add to it or take away from it. His Way and Law are perfect, but as long as we think "we know better and can decide for ourselves" we will continue to feel the sting of death, the loss of rights, the pain and suffering of consequences we have imposed on ourselves, by our free will choices, for breaking and rejecting the natural laws of God the Father and Creator.

Jesus once said we should be tending to the Weightier matters so it might be a good test to ask yourself if you are tending to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.

"Follow me!" —Jesus the Christ.

One of the most important things to do is to become involved in a network of Charitable Practices. Everyone should want to join a Living Network of Love and Charity.

If you think you have a calling to be a Minister of God or you might want to dedicate your life to Christ as an Ordained Minister of His Holy Church, contact us to start the process of discipleship and become the benefactors who exercise only love, NOT authority.^[1]

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Frédéric Bastiat Quotes

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." Frederic Bastiat

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone." Frederic Bastiat

"Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property." Frederic Bastiat

"When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will." Frederic Bastiat

"Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism - including, of course, legal despotism?" Frederic Bastiat

"In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so?" Frederic Bastiat

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain." Frederic Bastiat, The Law 1850

" The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." Frederic Bastiat

"If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?" Frederic Bastiat, The Law

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frédéric Bastiat

"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place." Frederic Bastiat, The Law

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Footnotes

↑ Matthew 20:25-26 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mark 10:42-43 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:
Luke 22:25-26 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.

About the author

Brother Gregory
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