Every few years there’s a fight in Congress over the debt ceiling. Of course, Democrats and the liberal-leaning media outlets mock the process, calling it nothing more than political theater or “holding the nation hostage”, but to be fair, there are a decent number of leading Republicans who view the process as nothing more than that, just an opportunity to get concessions or make a cheap political point. And there are a lot of bad arguments for raising the debt ceiling. We want to try to cut through that and focus on two main things:
First, debt is slavery and Scripture has a lot to say about it. As Americans, we have accepted the lie that we can be massively in debt and still be rich and enslaved to nothing. Those who truly believe this have chosen to follow a course that openly mocks the words of God and God will not be mocked.
And second, fights like the debt-ceiling fight are worth having. We aren’t arguing that the Republicans are shining beacons of righteousness (because they are not), but they are demonstrating something that the people of God seem to have forgotten. The nature of sin is to frame our wrong actions so they are seen as acceptable or even better, righteous. “We must raise the debt ceiling because we have committed to spending this money and we must be people of our word”. (Or President Biden’s tweet from last November, “ Love is love and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.”) One of the best ways to fight back against accepted sin is to force people to confront the truth that they have been suppressing. And we should do it in the places that God has put us. At our work, at church, at school board meetings, and anywhere we are being asked to be part of a process that is proclaiming a lie as the truth. That fight, which can be a very civil discussion, is always worth having.
Please join us as we discuss this important topic.
Listen to the audio version here: https://theconqueringtruth.com/2023/02/why-the-debt-ceiling-fight-is-worth-having-ep-108-audio/
Timecodes
00:00 Do We Need to Follow the Debt Limit?
03:00 Do We Need a Debt Limit?
06:07 Current US Debt
16:41 Enslaving Our Children
22:00 False Weights and Measures
26:40 Application to the Debt Ceiling
33:12 Is Our Yes Yes?
35:10 Holding Hostage and Speaker Debate
41:43 Government Shutdowns
44:41 When to Take a Stand
50:18 Lowering Credit Rating
53:33 Outtake
Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson