Picture: David was anointed as king to replace Saul. He was set to play the harp as therapy for Saul, but had to escape to save his life. He prophesied that Christ was God’s Messiah (anointed), he was killed, but God raised him from the dead and installed him as his Messiah at his right hand in heaven.

In the Psalms, many testified to their faith in God, and the psalmist Asaph prophesied that God would stand in the “assembly of the gods” and render judgment.

Moses told the people that they were to be children of God, so that through his instruction and training they would grow up to be “gods”. But Moses foresaw that they would rebel, so that they would lose their land and be taken away. When they were then allowed to return to their land by God’s grace, they were to be circumcised on heart.

God had Samuel anoint David as king, even so he had to flee from Saul and his army, but it was in this way that he took refuge in the Lord and asked Him to save him from the enemy and then it happened that the enemy was judged and lost in battle and that was his salvation. We see this time and again in the Old Testament and that hope is expressed in their prayers as well.

Asaph was a psalmist in David’s time and he said that God stands in the “assembly of gods” and holds judgment, and that is precisely what happened with David and he made many prophecies about the Messiah.

Psalm.82,1  A psalm of Asaph.

God stands in the assembly of El;

in the midst of the gods he renders judgment.

2 He says, “How long will you make unjust legal decisions

and show favoritism to the wicked? (Selah)

3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless.

Vindicate the oppressed and suffering. 

4 Rescue the poor and needy.

Deliver them from the power of the wicked. 

5 They neither know nor understand.

They stumble around in the dark,

while all the foundations of the earth crumble.

6 I thought, ‘You are gods;

all of you are sons of the Most High.’

7 Yet you will die like mortals;

you will fall like all the other rulers.”

8 Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth!

For you own all the nations.

Salms.95,3 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.

Let us shout out praises to our Protector who delivers us.

2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving.

Let us shout out to him in celebration.

3 For the Lord is a great God,

a great king who is superior to all gods.

.

Psalme.136,1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his loyal love endures.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods,

for his loyal love endures. 

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his loyal love endures. 

4 To the one who performs magnificent, amazing deeds all by himself,

for his loyal love endures.

The people of Israel fell away from the Lord their God, so their land was taken and they were taken away to Babylon. But they were allowed to return to their land, as prophesied. Thus the God of Israel showed that he was the true God.

Isaiah.41,21 “Present your argument,” says the Lord.

“Produce your evidence,” says Jacob’s King.

22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!

Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles,

so we may examine them and see how they were fulfilled.

Or decree for us some future events! 

23 Predict how future events will turn out,

so we might know you are gods.

Yes, do something good or something bad, 

so we might be frightened and in awe.

24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;

the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.

25 I have stirred up one out of the north and he advances,

one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name.

He steps on rulers as if they were clay,

like a potter treading the clay. 

26 Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know?

Who announced it ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’?

Indeed, none of them decreed it.

Indeed, none of them announced it.

Indeed, no one heard you say anything! 

27 I first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’

I sent a herald to Jerusalem.

28 I look, but there is no one,

among them there is no one who serves as an adviser

that I might ask questions and receive answers. 

29 Look, all of them are nothing,

their accomplishments are nonexistent;

their metal images lack any real substance.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believd in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And he stood i the council of gods, and judged.

Joel prophesied that God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh, but then he also prophesied about a day of judgment.

Joel.2,27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel.

I am the Lord your God; there is no other.

My people will never again be put to shame. 

An Outpouring of the Spirit

28 (3:1) “After all of this

I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your elderly will have prophetic dreams;

your young men will see visions. 

29 Even on male and female servants

I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 

30 I will produce portents both in the sky and on the earth—

blood, fire, and columns of smoke. 

31 The sunlight will be turned to darkness

and the moon to the color of blood,

before the day of the Lord comes—

that great and terrible day! 

32 It will so happen that 

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive,

just as the Lord has promised;

the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.

This judgment day (the Lord’s day) was primarily that Christ died on the cross for the sin of the whole world and with his death judged the sin in the flesh.

The sin in the flesh can simply be said to be that they tried to idolize themselves with their fleshly nature. It was by eating from the tree of knowledge, the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil, so they tried to idolize themselves with their knowledge of good and evil, a moral philosophical knowledge, that is.

After the fall, Adam and Eve noticed that God was walking in the garden, so they hid from him with a bad conscience, with the attitude, that is, that the love relationship between them was something that God should have anything to do with. But God called Adam and there was a court settlement, Adam was sentenced to death, he was dust and to dust he would return. God is spirit, but Adam was dust and was not like God anyway.

But Christ died on the cross instead of us, God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heaven, to be our high priest with the Father, our savior king and king of kings. When we accept Christ by faith, we receive the salvation that God gives us in him and then we will see it as if we were crucified and died with him and in baptism buried with him, there we are also resurrected with him by the saving power of God who raised him from the dead.

But we have the same bodies, unless he has healed us for illness. visible or invisible, the same biology, the same genes, unless he has healed us for a hereditary disease. How can we then have received a new nature? It is like with the wheat grain, when it is pollinated, it gets a new nature, which is different from the rest of the plant. The pollination here is a symbol of the new nature Jesus gives us from heaven, he is the bread of life who came down from heaven to give life to the world, the Word he has spoken to us is spirit and life. God harvests the grain and takes care of it, but it is different with the chaff, these are those who have not received in faith and have not received a new nature.

Luk.3,15 Folket gjekk no i venting, og alle tenkte med seg at Johannes kanskje var Messias.  16 Då tok han til ords og sa til dei alle: «Eg døyper dykk med vatn. Men det kjem ein som er sterkare enn eg. Eg er ikkje eingong verdig til å løysa sandalreima hans. Han skal døypa dykk med Heilag Ande og eld.  17 Han har kasteskufla i handa, og han skal reinsa kornet på treskjevollen og samla kveiten i løa si. Men agnene skal han brenna med eld som aldri sloknar.»

The Foolish Shepherd again. The Pope?!

The Foolish Shepherd was shepherding the sheep for the sheep merchants and then he claimed that the Lord had called him to the service, but then he sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. So Christ died on the cross, but then he paid the price for us with his own blood, so that we should belong to him. He is the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep, to save them. Those who had come before him were thieves and robbers who had come to steal and kill and destroy, but he had come to give them life and abundance. He let them out, but then the wolf came and ravaged and scattered them, but he gave his life to save them. But since he rose from the dead, he was still able to shepherd them (John 10:1…).

Then he called Paul to be an apostle and he shephered them for a long time, but when his ministry came to an end, he foresaw that ravenous wolves would come among them.

Act.20,28 Watchout for yourselves and for allthe flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. 29 I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Even from amongyour own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did notstop warning each one of you with tears. 32 And now I entrustyou to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among allthose who are sanctified. 33 I have desired no one’s silver orgold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs and the needs of those who werewith me. 35 By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessedto give than to receive.’”

Then it was already the Foolish Shepherd who presented himself for service again.

Sak.11,15 Again the Lord said to me, “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 Indeed, I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not take heed of the sheep headed to slaughter, will not seek the scattered, and will notheal the injured. Moreover, he will not nourish the one that is healthy, but instead will eat the meat of the fat sheep and tear off their hooves. 

17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd

who abandons the flock!

May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye!

May his arm wither completely away

and his right eye become completely blind!”

A shepherd who did not shepherd the sheep, but who was there to parasitize them.

And a few hundred years later, the Catholic Church decided that Christ was so strict that ordinary people could not pray to him directly, they had to go through the pope, priests and saints. Thus, this appeared as a worldly power as a replacement for Christ, as the head of his church, as a derailment from walking the path to the Father and a replacement for growing up to Christ as the head of the church that is his bride. It was contrary to the good news that everyone who accepted Christ gave him the right to become children of God, it was against the freedom of the children of God, because a child can then come to his father with his needs. Christ had paid the price for us with his own blood, so that we should belong to him and may relate to God as his children (Romans 8,15).  But this was the Foolish Shepherd who shepherded the slaughter sheep for the sheep merchants. It was made clear by the sale of indulgences.

And haven’t you heard that Jesus taught the people to pray and then he began like this: “Our Father, who are in heaven…” And he said that we should not call anyone else our father instead of him.

Matt.23, 8 But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher and youare all brothers. 9 And call no one your ‘father’ on earth, for youhave one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11 The greatestamong you will be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himselfwill be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

It would fit well with the first commandment, that we should have no other god. But “pope” comes from the Latin word “papa” and means father. So he comes to replace the Father that Jesus spoke of, the one who is in heaven. That makes the rest of the “Lord’s Prayer” pretty meaningless.

Science, the mechanistic worldview, the rationalists and the liberalists.

Thomism was a synthesis between Christianity and Aristotelianism and the Catholic Church accepted it as its philosophy. Aristotle is called the “father of logic”, but he made the mistake of applying logic to visible nature, instead of applying it to ideas, and it was this that came into conflict with modern science, which began with astronomy and physics. Both Galileo and Newton believed in Christianity, but on the basis of Newton’s mechanics and Democritus’ atomic theory, Thomas Hobbes came up with the mechanistic worldview, which claimed that our thoughts and communication between people were also mechanical determinism.

Descartes adhered to the classical dualism between spirit and matter and his philosophical method he called methodological doubt, where he asks not only what is reasonable to doubt, but what is possible to doubt. The surest statement he was left with at that time was “I think, therefore I am”. It was impossible to doubt that. Then he imagined an invisible God who thought and existed even though he himself no longer did. This then fits with the Bible’s message that God has revealed his salvation to us in Christ. We can put it this way, that Descartes was conscious and then he imagined that there is a consciousness that exists even though he himself does not.

A professor of biology uses peaceful methods in the subject and may well use polemics (polemos is Greek and means war) in discussion otherwise. The methods are peaceful, even though the theory of evolution is included in the subject and according to it, life is a struggle for existence and it is a struggle for life and death, there can be short-term drama and long periods that seem peaceful. This is how it is for humans too. His methods are peaceful, because there is a psychophysical dualism (Descartes) or parallelism (Leibnitz).

According to Pascal, in the Christian faith we have a good starting point to think from and we are free to choose it. In general, it is a question of what is worth believing and thinking about and then making good choices. So the rationalists were right.

This as an opposition to the mechanistic worldview, which claims that our thoughts are also mechanically determined and therefore we do not have free will. Then came electromagnetism and quantum physics and that is probably what makes them now talk about a physicalist view of humanity instead, still as an opposition to dualism. Many “scholars” still claim that we do not have free will, free will is incomprehensible to them, despite the fact that it is the reality. But in quantum physics there is a dualism between particles and the wave function. And now they speculate about what the wave function is and what consciousness is, if it is related.

Empiricism (experiential science) was opposed to rationalism and became the scientific view of liberalism. Liberalism accepted religious freedom, also for Christians. But liberalism initially only applied to a learned and wealthy upper class. Thus, this again became like the Worthless Shepherd who herded the slaughter sheep for the sheep dealers.

The same applied to the philosophical movement Kant – Hegel – Marx. Kant and Hegel’s philosophy entered Protestant theology, but with Marxism, communism was supposed to take its place, and their methods were not peaceful.

When Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, it was as if Mount Zion was lifted up, so we still meet him there.

The Jews are still waiting for the Messiah to come and stand on the Mount of Olives, as prophesied in Zech.14, but we who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, believe that he has already done so. Charismatic Christians are busy waiting for Jesus to come back and take them home to heaven, first he raises those who have died in faith in him, then both they and those who are alive and waiting for him are transformed so that they have a heavenly body, like him and then they go home to heaven with him and will always be with him. There is a wedding in heaven, the bride is the new Jerusalem, which comes down to the new earth. But then there are many who believe that he will come back once more, after this, together with his saints, so then they will be with him. Then he will come and stand on the Mount of Olives and fulfill the prophecy in Zechariah 14 and restore the kingdom of Israel, so then the millennium empire will come (John 20, Acts 1:4-12, Amos 9:11, Acts 15:5-19). But when Jesus ascended to heaven, it was as if the temple mountain was lifted up (Isaiah 2:2, Micah 4:1) and since he sent us the Holy Spirit from heaven, it is as if we meet him up there.

Heb.12,22 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly 23 and congregationof the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something betterthan Abel’s does.

25 Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them onearth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven? 

Jesus has heard my prayer and made my prayer service the priestly service of the new covenant. And so I will seek the Lord in solitude like Elijah in the wilderness.

Elijah lived at a time when the king of Israel, Ahab, had fallen away from the Lord and was worshipping Baal and leading the people of Israel into apostasy and persecuting and killing God’s prophets. Elijah prayed that it would not rain, even though rain was considered a blessing and was used as a symbol of spiritual blessing. Of course, he himself had the spiritual blessing as well. Then he went up to Carmel and asked for both fire and rain from heaven and received an answer to his prayer, as a witness that the Lord is God.

Jak.5,17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would notrain and there was no rain on the land for three years and sixmonths! 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

Since I will seek God in solitude, like Elijah, I can probably aim for something similar, where both fire and rain from heaven are symbols of the spiritual blessing. Yes, remember that John the Baptist was to go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah and he prepared the way for Christ, he said that Jesus is the Messiah, he is the one who has the bride and he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

Joh.1,29 On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man whois greater than I am, because he existed before me.’ 31 I did notrecognize him, but I came baptizing with water so that he could be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending like a dovefrom heaven, and it remained on him. 33 And I did notrecognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with watersaid to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descendingand remaining—this is the one who baptizes with the HolySpirit.’ 34 I have both seen and testified that this man is the Chosen One of God.”

Joh.3,27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testifythat I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but rather, ‘I have been sentbefore him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete. 30 He must become more important while I become less important.”

I have asked Jesus to give me a saved woman as my wife and when he saves her, he saves her as his bride. How can she then be my bride? Because he died in my place and is the last Adam, who for us has become a life-giving spirit, so he loves her as his bride through me. He makes both me and her alive and raises us to life in communion with himself and the Father. There is a meeting on Mount Zion to compare with the meeting on Carmel, but now Mount Zion is lifted up, so it is only for those who are called and chosen to be part of the marriage of the Lamb.

Joh.Op.19,5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: 

“Praise our God

all you his servants,

and all you who fear him,

both the small and the great!” 

6 Then I heard what sounded like the voice of a vast throng, likethe roar of many waters and like loud crashes of thunder. They were shouting:

“Hallelujah! 

For the Lord our God, the All-Powerful, reigns! 

7 Let us rejoice and exult

and give him glory,

because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come,

and his bride has made herself ready. 

8 She was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen”(for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints).

9 Then the angel said to me, “Write the following: Blessed are those who are invited to the banquet at the wedding celebration of the Lamb!” He also said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 

This means that it is something we can experience already now, yes, because we preach the gospel as an invitation to the wedding of the Lamb. How can anyone claim that we and they cannot come and be part of it as well?

This does not mean that I believe the resurrection has already happened, but we look forward to Jesus coming back and raising those who have died in faith in him and taking them and us home to heaven. Then we celebrate the wedding in heaven, Jesus’ bride is the New Jerusalem that comes down on the new earth. He went to prepare a place for us, so that we may be where he is.

Joh.14,1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God;believe also in me. 2 There are many dwelling places in myFather’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. 3 And if I go andmake ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. 4 And you knowthe way where I am going.”

5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. Howcan we know the way?” 6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except throughme. 7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. Andfrom now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Since we are attuned to it, we walk this path and experience that he comes to meet us.

Joh.14,15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16 Then Iwill ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to bewith you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannotaccept because it does not see him or know him. But you knowhim because he resides with you and will be in you. 

18 “I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. 19 In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. 20 You will know at thattime that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 The person who has my commandments and obeys them isthe one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved bymy Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” 

22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happenedthat you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, andmy Father will love him, and we will come to him and take upresidence with him. 24 The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. 

25 “I have spoken these things while staying with you. 26 Butthe Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in myname, will teach you everything and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.

Jesus will slay the Lawless One with the breath of His mouth. How then? He breathed on His disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit.

Joh.20,21So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.” 22 And after he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit to be one body and then he uses us as members of his body. So he destroys the lawless one with the breath of his mouth. The lawless one idolizes himself with his fleshly nature, so he resists the Spirit. But we are to use the equipment that Jesus gives us by his Spirit and overcome together with him.

Ef.6,10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but againstthe rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of thisdarkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. 13For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having doneeverything, to stand. 14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace, 16 and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish allthe flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God). 18 With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and petitions forall the saints. 19 Pray for me also, that I may be given the right words when I begin to speak—that I may confidently make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may be able to speak boldlyas I ought to speak.

The praise in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, Republican politics?

King Jehoshaphat of Judah first cooperated with King Ahab of Israel, but then he turned more and more to the Lord. He learned that enemy armies were coming against him and then he called the people together to pray to the Lord. He received an answer to his prayer, that they should not be afraid, but go against the enemy, and the Lord would fight for them. Therefore, they prioritized praising the Lord.

2.Krøn.20,12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless againstthis huge army that attacks us. We don’t know what we should do; we look to you for help.”

13 All the men of Judah were standing before the Lord, along with their infants, wives, and children. 14 Then in the midst of the assembly, the Lord’s Spirit came upon Jachaziel son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph. 15 He said: “Pay attention, allyou people of Judah, residents of Jerusalem, and KingJehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Don’t be afraidand don’t panic because of this huge army! For the battle is notyours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them asthey come up the Ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the ravine in front of the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will notfight in this battle. Take your positions, stand, and watch the Lord deliver you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! Tomorrow march out toward them; the Lord is withyou!’”

18 Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face toward the ground, and all the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord and worshiped him. 19 Then some Levites, from the Kohathites and Korahites, got up and loudlypraised the Lord God of Israel.

20 Early the next morning they marched out to the wildernessof Tekoa. When they were ready to march, Jehoshaphat stood up and said: “Listen to me, you people of Judah and residents of Jerusalem! Trust in the Lord your God and you will be safe!Trust in the message of his prophets and you will win.” 21 He met with the people and appointed musicians to play before the Lord and praise his majestic splendor. As they marchedahead of the warriors they said: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his loyal love endures.”

22 When they began to shout and praise, the Lord suddenly attacked the Ammonites, Moabites, and men from Mount Seirwho were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 23 The Ammonites and Moabites attacked the men from Mount Seirand annihilated them. When they had finished off the men of Seir, they attacked and destroyed one another. 24 When the men of Judah arrived at the observation post overlooking the wilderness and looked at the huge army, they saw dead bodieson the ground; there were no survivors. 25 Jehoshaphat and his men went to gather the plunder; they found a huge amount of supplies, clothing, and valuable items. They carried awayeverything they could. There was so much plunder, it tookthem three days to haul it off.

26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, where they praised the Lord. So that place is called the Valley of Berachah to this very day.

Joel.3,1 (4:1) “For look! In those days and at that time

I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem.

2 Then I will gather all the nations

and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

I will enter into judgment against them there

concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance,

whom they scattered among the nations.

They partitioned my land, 

3 and they cast lots for my people.

They traded a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.

With Keynes’s economic policies, we achieved constructive cooperation with the United States.

John Maynard Keynes is considered to be a social liberal and that means freedom, freedom of expression, human rights and thus democracy for ordinary people too. Good and correct public education was needed to achieve this and I claim that Christianity was central and important in this. It is in contrast to the rulers trying to gain power with their idols and idolize themselves, but that is precisely what happened with fascism, Nazism and communism. But Hitler’s economic policy was a demonstration that Keynes’s economic policy worked. Since then, the Marshall Plan demonstrated it throughout Western Europe and the USA. The Gerhardsen government and the labor movement demonstrated it in Norway with a moderate class struggle.

With the help of investments and technological expertise from the USA, we got started with an oil adventure in the North Sea and gradually we developed Norwegian expertise and Norwegian investments as well.

It was important for the state to establish itself as the owner of natural resources, so was the expansion to a 200 nm economic zone, it was also important for the management of fish resources. That is exactly how important state power was, in other words.

In the 1980s, inflation became a problem for Keynes’s economic policy, so the question is to what extent it was due to excessive wage competition, Kåre Willock criticized that it led to high inflation. Since then, “the oil fund” has become another example of Keynes’s economic policy working well.

The oil fund: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmcDAzuJUww

We should say to ourselves that this has been a good policy, so that we continue with a good economic policy. And tell other people and nations about it too, as a good example.

I think we must thank God for that, because on the foundation of the gospel we have been given peace with God and peace between people and nations, so that we have been able to think and work constructively.

The battle for the dollar and the world economy.

Elisabet Holvik believed that the “Trump tariff” was necessary because they have a trade deficit and large government debt, 1/3 of which should soon have to be refinanced. This would fit well with Keynes’ economic policy, but now it applies not only to the country’s internal economic policy, but also to the world economy.

https://www.nettavisen.no/okonomi/norsk-sjefokonom-forsvarer-trumps-toll-tiltak/s/5-95-2366688

In this video, she says that it appears that Trump has succeeded with his policies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8Kr1HLOnE .

41 min into this video: The oil crisis in 1973 led to increased oil prices and thus inflation. But there was another problem. After the war, there was a productivity increase, but this stopped and that was the reason why inflation got out of control in the 1970s. There was stagflation, it did not help to stimulate growth more by the state spending more money, cf. Keynes.