Pro Rege Papers

Many people think that Christmas is a holiday that Christians stole from the pagans. They think that Christians copied the already present pagan holiday of the winter solstice and arbitrarily modified it to celebrate Christ’s birth. Though this type of adaptation is the case with many holidays that the Roman Catholic Church made up, (e.g. Halloween) it is not what happened with Christmas.

The origin of Christmas is related to the controversy in the 2nd Century Church over what day to celebrate Easter on. They knew in general that Jesus died during Passover, but they weren’t sure which week it was and whether to celebrate it always on a Sunday or not. It was also confusing because of the difference between the Jewish, Greek, and Roman calendars. They eventually decided in A.D. 325 on what we have today with the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the first day of spring. But before that, Christians were celebrating Jesus’ death and resurrection in late March and early April anyway.

To determine a date for celebrating the birth of Christ, early Christians borrowed from the Jewish idea that great people die on the same day that they are either born or conceived. As early as the 2nd century, some Christians were celebrating the birth of Jesus around the time of his death in March or April. This date got narrowed down to March 25 and switched to celebrating Jesus’ conception, which became the Feast of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel first appeared to Mary. Going a full term of nine months later from March 25, and we get December 25. (Note that early Christians and ancient Jews believed that life begins at conception.)

In ancient Rome, there were no pagan winter solstice celebrations that the Christians could be accused of copying until the year 274, when Emperor Aurelius started “The Birth of the Unconquered Sun” to celebrate the lengthening of days. Aurelius had been trying throughout his short reign to revive paganism, and this looks from the ancient documents like an attempt to overshadow a date that Christians were already celebrating something on. Thus we see that the pagans were copying the Christians, not the other way round.

There were Yule festivals in the Northern European tribes during the winter solstice, but they were not an influence on the Christians who were mostly in the Roman Empire at this time. When the Roman Empire did fall and Christians went out evangelizing in Northern Europe, they found the barbaric tribes burning Yule logs in the midst of the coldest, darkest time of year. Then the missionaries replaced the pagan Yule festivals with the Christian Christmas, and shared the light of Christ in the darkest time of the year.

We need to remember the true origin of Christmas in Christ’s birth and what it did for us. God the Son came to earth, took on a human nature, lived in a low condition, was put under the law, underwent the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death on the cross (Shorter Catechism Q. 27). Let us be thankful to Him in this season of rejoicing.

Hat tip: WORLD magazine, AiG.

On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln sent out a proclamation that a day in November should be set aside for thanks to God for the blessings that He had given to this country. It is hard to believe that Pres. Lincoln could be thankful in a time of gruesome civil war, but he pointed out that the country was bestowed with many blessings. They had abundant crops and plentiful industrial production that had kept the country afloat during battle. No enemies had attacked them at this time of weakness, either. This example of thankfulness shows us that we always have something to be grateful to God for, no matter what our situation.

Anyone who watches TV at all during Thanksgiving will hear the commentators remarking that we should be thankful. But the pressing question presents itself, “To whom are we thankful?” Many people today are thankful to themselves for their blessings, and attribute their prosperity to their own flesh. But are we really responsible for good weather? Are we really the cause of our good friends and family? Are we really the source of our good position or pay at work? No. All of those things are beyond man’s control, and in the hands of God. God upholds all things by his providence in his “holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.” (Shorter Catechism, Q. 11) Everything that comes about, good or bad, is the result of God’s work in creation. He is the One we are to be thankful to.

Abraham Lincoln and many other leaders in our nation’s history recognized this. Mr. Lincoln said in his proclamation, “no mortal hand hath worked out these great things.” We have a country with some of the greatest natural resources in the world, we have the highest per capita GDP of any nation, we don’t have foreign invaders at our borders or in our towns, we have a system of government that keeps us free from tyranny, we have many, many gifts that only the hand of God can give a country. We need to bend on our knees before the all-powerful God and thank Him for the blessings that he has given us.

(Psalm 100:4-5)

Some of the material for this article was taken from an editorial in World Magazine.

This is a topic that I’ve been wanting to write on for a while, and never got around to it. But some prodding came from an anonymous person’s comments on my previous post. He questioned the wisdom of getting involved in the North Korea situation, and apparently holds to isolationist views. You can see his three whole comments on my previous post, along with my complete resonse. I’m only going to post one of his statements that really brought up the question, with my answer (with the latter being larger of course):

I sincerely believe it is not the United State’s job to solve world affairs.

Nor do I. But this state of affairs has been forced upon us by the conditions that we live in today. I firmly believe that the United States should not go around as a police state in the world. However, there are certain cases nowadays (like the nuclear threat from North Korea) where we have to come in and make a stand, whether it’s diplomatically or militarily. Here are a few reasons why:

We were forced into WWII by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, and the threat of terrible Nazi domination of the world. After that, we were forced into the resulting Cold War because of the power vacuum in Europe and the USSR’s constant threat to blow everyone up, including us. Now that the USSR has fallen, we are left as the only superpower in the world, which leaves us with responsibilities and liabilities that we would not otherwise have if the above events did not happen.

You also have to consider the fact that in the world today we have nukes, long-range missiles and warships, massive armies that can be deployed quickly, and rogue nations with crazy leaders that can do serious damage to many nations, including us.

These two things, history and current technology, inhibit us from pursuing an isolationist policy in the world today.

our getting into other people’s affairs is a direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine was just that: the doctrine of a President that he followed that worked well in his day. I believe it is a good idea, but it is impractical in the world today, as I stated above. It is also just a certain foreign policy, not a law.

I think we should do something about North Korea before they become an even more serious threat, which is happening very fast. Not to mention that they already are a fairly serious threat.

I’d really appreciate feedback on these views.

On this day in 1929, the Federal Reserve raised the rediscount rates to stop the inflation that had been building up all during the ’20s. This was the start of the stock market crash that preceded the Great Depression.

In 1945, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. This was necessary, as the Japanese were thus far convinced that we only had one a-bomb. They would have continued the war even after the Hiroshima bombing, had we not shown them that we could destroy them without invading. This, in the end, saved millions of lives.

In 1974, Nixon resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford was signed in on the same day.

In 2006, the war between Israel and Hezbollah continued. Blogs continued to increase their influence, and one lone blogger, Althusius, continued writing on various subjects, arousing charges of bigotry from one Percival, and summarizing the events of history on August 9

As I explained in my post about the Great Depression, one of the major causes of the stock market crash, the bank closings, and the ensuing poverty was credit inflation. Rather, it was the credit contraction that Hoover ordered that started the cycle. But that came as a result of the huge credit expansion. Anyway, credit inflation was one of the major causes. This being the root source of the crash, you would think that government would take steps to restrict fractional reserve banking, the buying of stocks on margin, the inflationary practices of the Federal Reserve, etc. However the measures taken by the government following the crash were nothing like that. They were in entirely the wrong direction. Those measures sought to keep credit from contracting, and even sought to re-inflate the currency, as well as hinder private industry. In hindsight, the governmental response ended up prolonging the Depression.

Credit contraction helps prices and wages to readjust to the new conditions. It’s the first stage in an economic recovery. However, right after the crash at the end of 1929, the Federal Reserve raised rediscount rate on loans. Hoover also pushed through a banking loan corporation, which aided fractional reserve banks to reestablish their reserves. This, in effect tried to reinstate the cause of the stock market crash. These practices drove inflation back up, creating a temporary façade of recovery. But, the inevitable came again, and prices plunged.

More measures were taken by FDR, who took us off the gold standard and onto a government managed currency. Thus, the President could decide how much money was printed, and what price relation the dollar had to gold. FDR also established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Farm Credit Administration, and the Commodity Credit Corporation. All these agencies expanded credit further to slow down the contraction from running its course, which it eventually did in 1933.

The regulations imposed on private industry, as well as the free rein given to labor unions throughout Roosevelt’s administration served to keep the country in the state of economic doldrums.

The National Recovery Administration required industries to develop codes that the President would have to approve that would be binding on all companies in that industry. They also sought to reduce of all “unfair” competition by merging different businesses under the same rules. That was part of a collectivist agenda to destroy individuality and competition.

The National Labor Relations Board was set up; restricting the number of ways courts could issue injunctions against, or companies could act against, labor unions. It defined a series of crimes that companies could commit against their employees, such as prohibiting the organization of labor unions, preventing strikes, refusing to negotiate with strikers, etc.

Tax after tax was laid on companies and private citizens. All these things made life much harder for private industry, which prevented them from hiring more people or their stock from rising in value. As a result, the economic recession lasted well into the ‘40s. Yes, extensive government intervention in the economy doesn’t work.

The Depression was caused by a series of unwise practices and ideologies that came together at one point, and were sparked by a decision by Herbert Hoover that toppled the house of cards.

All during the ‘20s, the Federal Reserve kept on expanding credit under the influence of monetarism. Monetarism is the belief that money is actually demand itself. If producers make a large number of goods, and the demand for those goods is low, prices decline, and the producers of those goods find it hard to make ends meet. Monetarists said that to help these people, demand should be increased to match the number of goods produced. The way to do that, they said, was to print more money, in other words, inflate the currency. One of the easy and popular ways to do that was to expand credit capability for banks and other institutions.

The boom of the 1920s was largely due to the inflation throughout that period. Families were able to buy all sorts of things based on credit. Companies were able to take out loans to increase manufacturing capacity that would service the perceived extra demand. Construction increased, farms grew more, and the economy seemed to prosper.

Margin buying became very popular as a way to participate in the stock market. Margin buyers bought stock through the way of brokers. However they paid only a margin of the price of the stock to the brokers. The rest of the price was paid by loans. If the price of the stock increased greatly from when he bought it, the margin buyer could sell it and pay the rest of the buying cost, as well as the interest on the loan, and still make a handy profit. This was a highly speculative practice that more and more people were becoming attracted to. The stock market began to be built on shaky loans and promises of the future.

Hoover decided to slow down this practice of buying stocks on margin, so in early 1929 he ordered the Federal Reserve to cut down the supply of credit and increase the rediscount rate. This slowed down the boom, so that prices on the New York Stock Exchange started to fall. On October 24^th they came down to the level that margin buyers had bought them at. If the price went too far down below the level that the margin buyers bought the stock at, they would lose their investment, unless they could find the money.

This is where a practice called fractional reserve banking comes in. This way of banking loans out a lot of money, but keeps only a small number of the cash reserves necessary to back the loan in the bank.

As people withdrew money from the banks to pay the price of the stock, fractional reserve banks lost their reserves; they had to call in their loans to get back the money that the depositors had given them. The loaners couldn’t pay back the money, because it wasn’t there. The inflation had created a condition that looked like wealth, but wasn’t. Since the banks couldn’t pay back the money to the depositors, they had to close their doors. This caused a panic with other depositors, who tried to withdraw their savings as well. Thus banks began to close in staggering numbers. People lost their savings. Buyers then had to resort to selling their shares. This selling became rampant on October 24^th. As they sold, the price on the stock fell, so that it went below other buyers’ original levels, and the process kept on going on and on, so that the prices plunged into the core of the earth. A stock market crash ensued, which paved the way for the great Depression. Prices fell to unfathomable lows by November 13, 1929.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most dictatorial Presidents in the history of the United States. He expanded the powers of the executive branch so much, (in particular the office of President) that it was doubtful for a while if the Constitution still ruled the country. His illegal actions in office dwarf those of George W. Bush, even though the latter is often accused today of expanding government powers extensively, strengthening the executive, infringing on the rights of the people, etc. In FDR’s time; however, few people spoke up against the unconstitutionality of his actions. This criticism would have been helpful especially in the First Hundred Days, when most of the New Deal legislation was passed. Yes, the country was in the middle of the Great Depression, but people who were aware of what was going on should have spoken up.

FDR said in his inaugural address that he magically “read the temper of the people”; so that he knew they wanted change in the direction of socialism. The people wanted some solution after the stock market crash, but not change that would alter the course of the country dramatically.

FDR used the power of his landslide victory over Hoover to convince Congress to pass his socialistic measures, known as the “New Deal”. Congress met in an emergency session called by Roosevelt from March 9 to June 16 of 1933 to consider (in reality, pass) legislation drafted by FDR. This in itself was unconstitutional. The President does not have the power to initiate legislation. The House of Representatives has the responsibility to initiate tax laws, and both houses of Congress may draft any other type of bill. If both houses pass the bill, then it goes to the President. The President then vetoes it or signs it.

The very opposite happened during the First Hundred Days. The President, or aides under his supervision, wrote the bill, and it was sent to Congress for passage or rejection. In most cases, Congress passed it. H.L. Mencken, a satirist, recognized the unconstitutionality of what went on, even though he was a socialist himself. He added this to his mock “A Constitution for the New Deal”:

The Legislature of the United States shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Every bill shall be prepared under the direction of the President and transmitted to the two Houses at his order…No member shall propose any amendment to a bill without permission in writing from the President… In case any member shall doubt the wisdom of a bill he may apply to the President for light upon it, and thereafter he shall be counted as voting aye. In all cases a majority of members shall be counted as voting aye.

Though that is a little exaggerated, it paints the picture fairly well. Congress passed the first act of the New Deal by 73 to7.

The legislation of the New Deal was full of presidential “discretionary” authority that was not granted by any stretch of the imagination in the Constitution. The National Industrial Recovery Act contained many such phrases:

Upon application to the President…After the President shall have approved any such code, the provisions of such code shall be standards…The President may…prescribe and approve a code…The President may suspend or revoke any such license…etc.

FDR made the Presidential branch much too powerful in his time. He did it in relation to foreign and domestic affairs, the economy and the lives of his countrymen, as well as governmental and social issues.