Thoughts and Gleanings: Capitalism, God’S Natural Economic Order a Constitutional Republic, God’S Natural Governmental Order

By Ralph Beall

In this volume are the Bible answers to many of the questions some may have about some of the teachings in the Scriptures.

What is Gods desire and purpose in creation?
What is the gift of God the Father? Of God the Son? Of God the Holy Spirit?
What is the relationship of God, Satan, and man to one another?
Who is God the Holy Spirit, and what is his work?
Was Satan created?
Will mans soul/spirit exist forevermore?
What is the origin, the purpose, and the destiny of man?
What is sin? What is death, physical and spiritual?
Who is the source of all lies and all evil, wickedness, and sin?
Who is the source of all truth, logic, reason, and all that is good, righteous, and wise?
What is the cause of all sorrow, suffering, pain, sickness, and death?
Whose sins are washed away?
Can one be pleasing to God and be a soldier, a policeman?
Does God desire/approve of any person enslaving another?
Is man under any law from God today?
Is man shaped by nurture or nature?
What must one do to be saved, have his sins forgiven, and live forevermore in heaven with the godhead three?
What is the power of God that can save the soul to live forevermore in heaven?
What are the things which must shortly come to pass for the time is at hand and revealed by signs to the Apostle John by Jesus Christ? (Revelation 1:13)

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449780265

Ralph Beall

Ralph Beall lives in Keller, Texas. He is now in his eightieth year. His beloved wife, Norma, passed from this life in 1999. Since his youth, he has been a member of the Church of Christ, the church Jesus the Christ built that belongs to Christ. This is the church one reads about in the New Testament. The sincere Christian must come to “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). His parents and many others taught him the Bible and his interest developed. He also has had a lifelong interest in history, which leads one to a study of systems of governments, economics, education, and cultures, philosophies, and religions. In this work, he relates the Bible teachings covered to these areas as applicable.

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Copyright © 2013 Ralph D. Beall

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-8025-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8026-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900371

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/15/2013

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Dedication

History Is Precedent To The Present And The Future

Section 1: Illustrations And Charts

Section II: Personal Background

Section III: Culture

Section 1V: Poems

Section V: Inspirational And Doctrinal

Section VI: Thoughts And Gleanings:

Section VII: Special Studies:

Section VIII; Lessons

Section IX: Self-Defense And Murder

About The Author

Ralph,

I have just finished reading your history of the church, 1938-2008, Seventy Years of the Current Digression which pretty well covers my life in the church as a preacher…having studied the material previously and having seen it with my own eyes and having experienced it in my own work I can say with confidence that you have done a good job summarizing that history…sad to read and I go to bed tonight with tears…we see it today in the lives of our leading preachers and elders…few of our so-called prominent leaders in the brotherhood are aware of what is going on…you have hit the nail squarely on the head…where did you learn all this…

Carl G. Hecker

History is precedent to the present and future as arithmetic is to higher mathematics.

Ralph Beall

Foreword

The works in this volume have been written during the past twenty years. I began to write primarily for my own benefit, to clarify my thinking and organize my thoughts. This also made it easier to check my teachings and conclusions. My aim and desire was to always ascertain and teach truth. Writing on various subjects became my usual way to study the Bible and other subjects as well. Years ago I began to take notes much as a student does in a college course in Bible class and of the sermons delivered in the worship services of the church. When one sees and hears a speaker and writes down the pertinent points his mind does not wander and he is using one more of his senses that helps impress the lessons in his memory. As I near my eightieth year of life this exercise has helped to keep my mental faculties more alert. Most my age become painfully aware that their recall mechanism does not function as well as it did in earlier years.

Who can deny that most things that are written are written to be read? My hope is that someone, somewhere, sometime read and benefit from my efforts. Those of immediate concern are my family and friends.

I endeavor to give sufficient background so that the reader may have a better and more complete understanding of the subject being considered. Where applicable I have tried to properly relate the Bible teachings to the factual history leading up to and during the times of those to whom it was originally written. The geography, culture, economics, and governments of the time are also very important to understand the teaching of a particular context. If the message intended for those addressed are not understood it is less likely that the lessons for today can be properly understood and applied.

Each article was written as though to a new and different reader. The result is repetition when dealing with the same subject areas addressed. How often and in how many ways has God repeated the lessons, truths, principles in his word? Repetition is perhaps the greatest aid to learning. One believes and lives by what he has learned in some way. Not only should this volume be an inspiration to the sincere student of the Bible it is a source of much basic Bible teaching and answers many questions some may have about the teachings of the scriptures. My hope is that it may serve students of the Bible as an inspiration and reference.

The church of which I write is the church that Jesus the Christ built as promised, the church that belongs to him, the church that is described in the New Testament.

All Bible references are from the King James Version of 1611 except an occasional reference from the American Standard Version of 1901. To the Bible student this work may be used as a reference, i.e. Reading through the Bible in Chronological Sequence, The Attributes of God, Who is Jesus and The New Testament Church, et al).

To my readers I urge, Prove all things; hold fast that which is good (I Thessalonians 5:21). I welcome comments and questions from my readers. I may be contacted at my email address [e-mail].

Ralph Beall

Keller, Texas

2012

Acknowledgements

I owe the greatest debt for anything of value to be found in this work to my dearest friends Carl and Willadean Hecker. Carl was a gospel preacher for more than sixty years. I came to know the family in the early 1970’s and we have stayed in contact for these many years. For the past ten or more years Carl and I lived near one another and attended the same congregation of the church. During this time we fervently discussed many subjects and critiqued the writings of each other. Neither of us were politically correct nor one to compromise conviction. I valued his friendship and his knowledge, understanding and wisdom, especially of the scriptures. Though Carl passed on to his reward about three years ago I continue to see Willadean at church services and we regularly enjoy coffee together. I continue to be indebted to his family, daughters Carla, Linda, and son Danny and their families. I am fortunate that Carla and her husband, Jason, live very near and we attend the same congregation of the church in Roanoke, Texas. Her daughters, Paige and Layne, are like grandchildren to me. Linda and husband Gil Yoder, also a faithful gospel preacher live in the Houston area. Danny and wife, Celeste live in the Vernon, Texas area and continue faithful in Christ.

To the many teachers, secular and Bible, as well as to the faithful Christian brothers and sisters in Christ I have known and served with over the years I owe so very much and give thanks for my good fortune in knowing them. Oh, how great the value of true and faithful friends! Three of these due special thanks are Mike Haschke, Andy Boshers, and Ross Haffner faithful brethren in Christ, and regular teachers of his word in public worship and Bible classes, who have read and critiqued my writings. Ross is a full time gospel preacher. All are excellent scholars of the word of God, teach Bible classes, and Mike and Andy sometimes fill the pulpit. To my good friend, brother in Christ, and computer whiz, Jay Browne also goes my heartfelt thanks for his technical assistance. Also my thanks go to Tom Sarratt for his help with my sometimes uncooperative computer. To Rick and Lisa Rasor goes my thanks for their assistance in getting some of the older articles in shape to include in this work. Joey Davis, a faithful gospel preacher, has enlightened me on some of the teachings of the Bible with his clear and understandable preaching and teaching. He, as Ezra, reads in the Book and gives the sense of it.

To my son, Dale, I give thanks for his faithfulness to God over the years, this in the face of some very great trials, and for his love and care. The teaching and example of my faithful and loving Christian parents were the influence that saved me from a life of a more selfish purpose. My greatest and deepest thanks and gratitude deservedly go to my wife, Norma, for her loving help and support for forty seven years. She passed from this life more than a dozen years ago. She was that moderating and stabilizing influence in my life that was the greatest factor in any successes of my life.

Any errors in this work are mine and mine alone.

To God the glory now and forevermore,

Ralph Beall, 2012

Dedication

To the seeker of truth.

Seek and ye shall find … (Matthew 7:7).

RECOMMENDED SEQUENCE FOR READING THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE IN APPROXIMATE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Old Testament Books:

New Testament Books:

`*God is the author of all the books of the Bible. The writers are his authorized and inspired prophets. A prophet is one who speaks for God. God’s revelation to man, the Bible, was completed and ended before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The Gospels, to be read first, were written; Matthew 40-60 , Mark 45-60 , Luke 57-60, and John 40-65 AD.

**Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and the last message of God to his people before he sends the Messiah four hundred years later. It gives insight into the spiritual condition of the Jews and prophesies the coming of Jesus the Christ and his forerunner, John the Baptizer.

***All the events of the four Gospels took place during the Mosaic Age. The Law of Moses was fulfilled and ended when Christ gave his life on the cross; the Mosaic Age ends and the Christian Age begins and will last until the end of time. Also notice Christ and John preached only in Israel and Judah to the Jews.

4004-1491 B C-Patriarchal Age (Law of the Patriarchs [Fathers]) Creation to the giving of the Law of Moses. 1491 BC-30 AD –Mosaic (Jewish) Age (Law of Moses), giving of the Law of Moses to the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ. 30 AD-to the Last Day-Christian Age (Law of Christ)- crucifixion of Jesus the Christ to the end of time. Jesus was born in 4 or 5 BC. Few dates can be determined exactly.

It is helpful to have a chronology of at least the major events recorded in the Bible (the ages are divided into periods and events in each period in many study Bibles) and secular historical events. Knowing the circumstances of the times when the books being studied were written can a better understanding of most. Remember history is precedent to the present and future just as arithmetic is precedent to higher mathematics.

This writer recommends the use of the King James Version (1611) Bible be used in study and teachings supplemented by the American Version of 1903. The ASV should be used primarily for a more literal translation of some Greek words. Never pay attention to the notes found in most ASV versions as most are not accurate, not true. A student of the Bible should have the following study tools#:

1. Bible Dictionary such as Smith’s or Peloubet’s.

2. Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words

3. Young’s Analytical Concordance to KJV

4. A Greek English Interlinear such as Berry’s

5. A Bible Encyclopedia

6. Carefully chosen Commentaries*

7. Webster’s Dictionary

8. Commentaries and other writings of Guy N. Woods and Foy E. Wallace Jr.

9. A Bible Atlas and A World Atlas of Today

10. A Harmony of the Gospels

11. Clarke’s Commentaries (first four volumes of the Old Testament)

#Many of the these study aids such as Vine’s, Peloubet’s, and Smith’s are written by those not Members of the church (but generally good Bible Scholars) sometimes leave their purpose such as word definition and get off into commentary usually biased in their denominational belief. Prove all things. Adam Clarke was a Methodist but an excellent scholar. Knowing his bias, his commentary on the Old Testament (not the New) is very helpful. Use only the commentaries of Foy E. Wallace, Jr. and Arthur M. Ogden (The Avenging of the Apostles and Prophets, A commentary on Revelation-Ogden) in studying the Book of Revelation. Guy N. Woods commentaries on the Gospel of John, James, I & II Peter, I, II, & III John and Jude are very good. Always keep in mind all men are fallible. Young’s is a good concordance and his usually short and concise definitions of Bible words, Hebrew & Greek, are usually accurate. Another aid recommended is the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. He was one of the unbelieving Jews but was present with the Romans at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. His writings gives some insight into the times and motivations of the unbelieving Jews, the Romans, and the pagan nations of the time, all enemies of the church.

The serious student of the Bible should read, research all scriptures in context (Immediate-Paragraph, Near-Chapter, Far-Book, and Overall-The Bible).

HISTORY IS PRECEDENT TO THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

The wise man Solomon inspired of God wrote that there is no new thing under the sun, in this world, this universe (Eccles. 1:1-11). New physical truths are continually being discovered by man but this does not negate the statement of Solomon. In this reference he states that what has been shall be. Why are these statements true?

God has promised that his natural order will not change as long as he allows time to continue (Gen. 8:21-22). No man knows when this end shall come (II Pet. 3:1-18). God, his nature, his attributes, desire, and purpose never change. He is spirit, immutable and eternal. Satan, his nature, attributes, desire and purpose never change. He has free will and a forevermore existing spirit, a rebellious and fallen angel (Ps. 146:1-6, 148:1-5). Man, his nature, attributes, desires, and purpose never change. He too has free will and a forevermore existing spirit, his very being (Gen. 1:26-28). These truths assure that the cycles of nature will continue but also that history, the physical and spiritual experiences, affairs of men, will repeat.

One must logically conclude that to know and understand history equips man to better understand the present and have a view in principle of that which lies ahead before time ends. Know and learn from history or be doomed to repeat its recorded mistakes of those who have gone before. On the positive side man may learn from the successes of the past. The first and sure source of true history* is God’s revelation to his beloved creation man, the Bible.

*There have always been some who in their recording of history have revised the facts to suit their selfish and prideful purposes. There is much revisionist history being taught the students in the schools of this country and the world. Prove all things.

Section 1: Illustrations and Charts

(E)very house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God (Heb. 3:4).

"(T)he invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by (perceived through-ASV) the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead… (Romans 1:20).

Now faith is the substance (Assurance-ASV) of things hoped for, the evidence (a conviction-ASV) of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report (had witness borne to them-ASV). Through faith we understand we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Hebrews 11:1-3).

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork (Ps. 19:1).

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God (Ps. 53:1).

CREATION

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

When? – "In the beginning—" - Time,

Who? – "—God—" - Intelligence, Wisdom,

What? – "—created—" –Energy, Power, (His Word)

Where? – —the heavens and the earth. –Space and Matter.

How? – "By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the words of God, –" (Hebrews 11:3a) (II Peter 3:4) – He Spoke.

Why? – "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion-" (Genesis 1:26a).

For thus saith—the God that formed the earth and made it—to be inhabited:– (Isaiah 45:18)

–(B)ring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; everyone that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, yea, whom I have made (Isaiah 43:6b-7).

—(D)o all to the glory of God(I Corinthians 10:31b).

Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13b) – For man to live to His glory in faithful, loving worship and service.

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*The Israelites (II Corinthians 12:1-5) identified the three areas above the earth: The 1st Heaven (Atmosphere-Where the birds fly), the 2nd Heaven (Space-the place of the Heavenly Bodies), and the 3rd Heaven (Heaven-The dwelling place of God).

**Hades the heavenly place where all the departed souls of all men of all time reside until the end of time and the judgment.

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JESUS, THE CHRIST

THE GENEALOGIES

Adam to Noah, Genesis 5, I Chronicles 1-9

Noah’s Sons-Gen.10

Japheth - Gen. 10:2-5

Ham – Gen. 10:6-20

Shem – Gen. 10:21-31

Shem to Abram (Abraham) Genesis 11:10-32

Abraham’s Sons - Gen.25

Ishmael – Gen. 25:12-28

Isaac – Gen. 25:19-28

Isaac’s Sons – Gen. 36:29, 49

Esau (Edom) – Gen. 36; 1 Chr. 1:35-54

Jacob(Israel) – Gen. 29:31-35, 30;1-24, 35:10,18,23-26, 46:20, 48:20-22, 49:1-28; I Chr. 2:1-9; Rev. 7:1-8

Judah to David (King) – I Chr. 2, 3

David’s Sons – I Chr. 3:1-16

Solomon (King) to Joseph (Husband of Mary) - Matt. 1:1-16

Nathan to Mary (Mother of Jesus) – Lk. 3:23-28

JESUS, THE CHRIST – Luke 1:35

Lion of Judah

& Root of David – Is. 11:1, 10; Rev. 5:5; Heb. 7:14

King of Kings

& Lord of Lords – Gen49:10, II Sam. 7:12-13; Rev. 19:16; Micah 5:2; Ps. 132:11; John 7:42; Acts 13:22-23; Gen. 12:3, I Tim. 6:14-15

THE SON OF GOD, GOD THE SON – Matt. 1:20; John 3:16, 1:1-4; Luke 1:35

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JESUS, THE CHRIST & HIS CHURCH

(Matthew 16:16-18)

THE TWELVE TRIBES

TRIBE: Any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestry (The Random House College Dictionary).

Sons (Tribes) of Jacob (Israel)i

i Some scriptures where the sons or tribes are listed: Gen. 29:31-35, 30:1-24, 35:16-29, 46:8-27, 48:15-49:33; Exodus 1:1-5; I Chronicles 2:1-9:1; Ezekiel 48; Revelation 7:1-10. Called tribes of Jacob at Isaiah 49:6 and tribes of Israel at Ezekiel 37:19 and Psalm 78:55. Tribes numbered first at Numbers 1, 2, and 3 and second at Numbers 26 and 27. ii. Judah is the tribe of promise. Reuben the firstborn, Simeon, and Levi forfeited the Blessing and the Inheritance (double portion) of the firstborn because of sin. (Gen. 49:10; 34; 35:22)

ii Judah is the tribe of promise. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi forfeited the Blessing and the Inheritance (double portion) of the firstborn because of sin. (Gen. 49:10; 34; 35:22)

iii The tribes of Dan and Ephraim are not listed at Revelation 7:5-8. Joseph is listed there instead of Ephraim. Manasseh is listed, as is Levi.

iv Dinah, Jacobs only daughter, was born to Leah after Zebulon in Padan-Aram. (Gen. 30:21)

v The Descendants of the sons of Jacob inherited areas (cities in the case of the descendants of Levi) in the Promised Land in the name of that son except the descendants of Joseph. They inherited in the name of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. (Gen. 48:15-22; Josh. 13-21) See Joshua 11:2-21:45 for the division of the land by tribe. Joseph received inheritance of the firstborn.

vi Benjamin was born in Canaan in Ephrathah near Bethel. All the other sons were born in Padan-Aram. (Gen. 35:18-19)

vii Leah was the oldest daughter of Laban who was the grandson of Nahor and the brother of Jacob’s mother, Rebecca. (Gen. 29:10, 16) Nahor was Abraham’s brother. (Gen. 22:23)

viii Bilhah was the handmaid of Rachel. (Gen. 29:29, 30:1-8)

ix Zilpah was the handmaid of Leah. (Gen. 29:24, 30:9-13)

x Rachel, the beloved of Jacob, was the youngest daughter of Laban. (Gen. 29:6) Rachel died at the birth of Benjamin. (Gen. 35:16-20)

xi Joseph’s wife was an Egyptian, Asenath, who bore him two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, in Egypt. (Gen. 41:45-53, 46:20)

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This is a graphic lesson given by Joey Davis, a faithful gospel preacher.

Remember when two disagree one can be right, one can be wrong, both can be wrong but they both cannot be right. Go to the standard and prove all things.

The destiny of your soul depends on it.

Section II: Personal Background

A DIFFERENT TIME

(Kempner, Texas in the 1930"s)

Kempner, a small town-perhaps more accurately a small village- located in Central Texas on the banks of the Lampasas River, deep in the Hill Country, primarily farming and ranching area was my home from age five until I went away to college in 1948. Now is the early twenty-first century, then was the 1930’s, the depths of the Great Depression. Kempner was no different than thousands of others in the South and Southwest. Times were not much worse politically and economically then than before the last half of the 1800’s in these rural areas of the South and Southwest. These with few exceptions were economically depressed after the Civil War of the 1860’s and until World War II. The depression, revisionist history to the contrary, did not end until the start of the World War II when the country began to sell products to the combatants. No Roaring Twenties here.

Everyone knew everyone. Most in the area were poor – cash was scarce- though no one lacked the bare necessities. Cash money was hard to come by. Such rural agricultural areas were virtually self-sufficient. Most of the earlier pioneer survival tactics and practices were still known and practiced. Solomon wrote, Moreover the profit of the earth is for all; the king himself is served by the field (Eccles. 5:9). Most raised their own livestock and feed crops; butchered their cows, hogs, sheep, goats, and chickens- fresh at time of slaughter and cured and canned for later; kept milk cows for milk and butter and chickens for eggs; planted vegetable gardens and orchards- fresh in season and canned or dried for out of season; and hunted, fished, and harvested the game and fruits of the woods and streams. The livestock, fields, woods, and streams furnished so many things that most must purchase today.

There was no electricity, piped in natural gas, municipal water system. Heating and cooking was by fireplace, wood stove, and wood or kerosene heater. Lighting was by firelight, candle, kerosene lamp, kerosene lantern, and torch. Few could afford battery powered flashlights. Water came from streams, natural springs, wells and cisterns and carried by bucket or barrel, pumped by windmills or hand pumps, or drawn by rope, pulley, and bucket. Few homes boasted indoor running water. Outhouses were standard. Horses and mules were the motive power for faming and transportation for many. There were only one or two primitive tractors in the area. Some had automobiles, mostly older. Some had battery powered radios. Some even used wet celled batteries and recharged them by a roof-mounted wind charger. Few available products of the industrial revolution were affordable to most Kempner area residents.

The town consisted of two grocery stores, one with a hand powered gas pump; a barber shop owned by a farmer/barber and open only on Saturdays (haircuts were 25 cents); a cotton gin; one professional livestock trader, rancher; a Santa Fe Railroad Depot and dock and a house for a Section Foreman and his family; a local rural telephone office, Kempner Rural Telephone System with only one central operator; a United States post office with postmaster/clerk, one rural mail carrier, and one star route carrier who delivered rural mail and also delivered the mail for the Oakalla area to the Oakalla post office, twelve miles south on the Lampasas River. The Kempner School District consisted of a four classrooms and was governed by a board of three elected trustees. My father was a trustee for ten years and board president for nine of those years. Ten grades were taught by four teachers until about 1937 when the grades taught were reduced to eight and taught by two teachers using only two classrooms. Students in the higher grades attended Lampasas High School. Lampasas, the county seat of Lampasas County, was the nearest large town with a population between two thousand and three thousand. In addition, and most important, there were three churches in Kempner, Methodist, Baptist, and Church of Christ. My parents were members of the Kempner congregation of the Church of Christ. Most of the time, none of these churches could afford a full time preacher. The Church of Christ had a preacher for a two week gospel meeting covering three Sundays during each summer and held under a wooden tabernacle next to the church building. During this meeting there was preaching each night and an early evening class for the older children. There were no sermonettes at these meetings. There was always an annual community Christmas tree party at the school building or the Methodist or Baptist church building but never at the Church of Christ building.

The sources of employment/income was farming and ranching, either by the owners or share croppers (those who farmed and grazed the lands of the owner and paid him in shares of the crops harvested, usually one third, fourth, or fifth of specific crops), business owner, clerk, cotton gin worker (seasonal), livestock trader, railroad section foreman, railroad section hand, postmaster, mailman, telephone operator, school principal (who also taught), and school teacher.

Four grades in one classroom and teacher heated by a wood stove and served by an outhouse is a far cry from schools of today. There were advantages. A student who didn’t understand a certain subject in one year would have opportunity to hear and see it taught again the next year. Some would come to know and understand much of the subjects of the higher grades before they were promoted to those grades and the additional time simply enhanced and increased their knowledge and understanding.

In the Kempner School there was no library, only a very old and very large unabridged Webster’s Dictionary and a set, also very old, of the Encyclopedia Americana. The school principal would go every six weeks or so to the Lampasas County Library and borrow the books he wanted the students to read. They were always heavily weighted to history, biography, and autobiography. His choices were probably more educational than the choices the students might have made. Unfortunately some parents kept some of the older children out of school in the fall to help with the harvest.

Man is no different today than in the days of Adam, Abraham, Moses, or Paul the Apostle; no different than in the days of Charlemagne or George Washington. The men of Kempner or of today are no more or less intelligent; no different in desires, lusts, or pride, even those in Kempner in the 1930’s. The nature and attributes of man are no different now than when he was first created, made in the likeness and image of God. The only difference is the available store of knowledge, the recorded experiences and discovered truths of those who have lived before.

The New Testament was completed and recorded in the first century AD. Since then man has had the inspired, revealed, confirmed, inerrant, recorded, and complete Word of God, the Bible.

Man, except for some instinctive motivations, is born a pure soul and must learn to reason and everything else needed to successfully function in this world. Man believes what he is taught or learns in some way and lives by what he believes or else he is a hypocrite. All competent men act hypocritically at some time, all sin. Every man thinks, feels, concludes, and makes choices based on what he knows and believes. If his beliefs are based in truth/fact, his reasoning, conclusions, and actions can be proper, accurate, and correct. Proper reasoning, accurate conclusions, and correct actions cannot be based in falsehood.

What then was so different in Kempner, and many other areas of this country, in the 1930’s? There was no one known in the Kempner area at that time who professed to not believe in God. Everyone believed in the God of the Bible and that the Bible was his word, that he created man and this universe, and all things therein, for man’s physical habitation. The churches were morally conservative in belief and teaching as were the homes and schools. The home and family were sacrosanct. There was much less revisionist history taught in that day. The tenets of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were believed and the founding fathers were held in respect and honor. Love for country was taught in the schools and at home. Patriotism was expected and admired.

The proof of these conservative beliefs was in the practice. Gambling, drinking, carousing, fornicating, murder, lying, stealing, cheating, etc. were recognized as wrong, Divorce was shameful. Drugs and homosexuality were foreign to Kempner, something only in places like Chicago, New York, and Hollywood. As in every age and place, some did these things but never did they call them good and right. Even the old reprobates agreed. Wrong was not called right, sin was recognized as sin. There was no excuse for anyone growing up in Kempner not to know right from wrong.

Today gambling, drinking, abortion, euthanasia (mercy killing), suicide, homosexuality, cohabitation outside of marriage, divorce for any reason, and other sins and so termed in the word of God are legal in many jurisdictions. Gambling is defended as entertainment. Social drinking is just being hospitable and sociable. One drink is one drink drunk. Induced abortion (murder) is legal, a claimed right of the woman to control her body. Euthanasia is murder but is being promoted by the adherents of humanism, an evolutionary atheistic philosophy. Suicide is self murder and one who knowingly assists in a suicide is guilty of murder. The same humanists also are advocating assisted suicides. Homosexuality, an abomination to God, is termed just another lifestyle as is living together outside of marriage. The marriage vows are broken and marriages dissolved without stigma or shame. Many are supporting marriage between persons of the same sex. God ordained and instituted marriage; the family, one man and one woman for life. There is no difference between the drug alcohol, and cocaine and other such drugs. Their use is sin, but many support the legalization of some. The people have no shame; they have forgotten how to blush (Jer. 6:15, 8:12).

In Kempner in the 1930’s the able bodied men were expected to work, care for and protect their families, give a day’s work for a day’s pay, value for value. They were to be responsible and their word their bond. Debts were to be paid; bankruptcy was not an honorable option. Few could afford insurance. When fire or other catastrophe destroyed property, when death and sickness occurred, all differences were set aside and the community rallied to help. The barn that burned was rebuilt and the feeds and livestock destroyed were replaced so that the family could live until they could harvest the next crop. If an individual in some way damaged another he did all possible to make restoration, restitution. For example, if one accidentally ran over the gate to a neighbors pasture he would immediately take any actions and repairs needed to keep the neighbors livestock from leaving his pasture. People stopped to help; there was no passing by on the other side.

Indeed, Kempner in the 1930’s was a different time.* Responsibility and true happiness is not dependent on economics, governments, or any other of man’s institutions or inventions, but on believing and living by the perfect law of liberty, the Gospel of Christ. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32). [T]hy word is truth (John 17:17).

*When I went away to college in the fall of 1948 I had some introduction into a world quiet different than my rural Kempner. Until I passed through Dallas on the way to North Texas State Teachers College in Denton, Texas the largest towns I had seen were Temple, Austin, and San Antonio. Not only were there farms and ranches there were oil wells, other industry, and great hustle and bustle of commerce and industry in the Dallas area. There was relative peace and the world was rebuilding from the ravages of World War II and this country controlled the wealth of the world.

AN IRAQI EXPERIENCE

(Perhaps a more appropriate title: A Poor Naive Central Texas Farm Boy in the Middle East.)

In September 1951, at the ripe old age of nineteen and with a wife and infant son to support, I went to work for Walker-Neer Manufacturing Company, Inc., a small drilling equipment manufacturer located in Wichita Falls, Texas. Their primary products were percussion drilling rigs (Spudders), oil well completion rigs, well servicing rigs, and small rotary drilling rigs. The greater percentage of sales was to the oil industry, next the water well industry, and some for other purposes such as drilling for salt, sulfur, and other minerals. A drilling rig simply drills a hole in the ground. On the importation of Middle Eastern Oil in 1957 to the Port of Houston at $1.00 per barrel, the price of West Texas crude was $2.40 per barrel, resulted in the almost complete shutdown of the domestic oil industry. More and more sales were to foreign customers, primarily Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Walker-Neer had to compete with the giants of the industry, the two largest were Bucyrus-Erie and Star Manufacturing. One help to American manufactures was that almost everything of quality, and especially equipment, was manufactured in the U.S.A. America owned the wealth of the world at the end of World War II. The nations of Europe and many of the other nations of the world had been decimated during World War II and were left in debt and poverty with much of their productive ability destroyed. By implementing the Marshall Plan the US helped our allies and defeated enemies alike to rebuild. This aid helped to create demand and ready customers. Our government’s deficit spending under a democrat congress over the next several years assured an inflation of our currency and in this way the inflated dollars from our foreign customers recovered our aid and more. Excessive inflation steals from someone, primarily the frugal savers.

My first duties were as an office clerk, posting, payroll, and employee insurance benefits. I was paid two hundred and fifty dollar monthly. The hourly wage of a journeyman machinist was $1.95. I also, in my spare time, prepared individual income taxes and sold life insurance. With time I progressed with the company. After taking International Correspondence School courses in accounting and cost accounting I began to work in cost accounting and Repair Order invoicing. In the early 1960’s I moved to export sales, making quotations and handling the paperwork details of sales in hand.

In late 1965 my company contracted to sell and deliver four Model S-46 drilling rigs and all necessary tools, equipment, and supplies to the city of Baghdad. These rigs were purchased to drill water wells and were capable of drilling a hole of 4-6 to a depth of 6,000’ or a 12-15 hole to 2,000’. The attainable depth is determined by the total tool weight the rig can accommodate and the size of the hole to be drilled by the bit size of the tool string. The total of this sale was over $600,000, a very large sum for our small company.

Export sales, under our usual sales contract specified payment by a letter-of-credit from the purchaser opened in a US bank for the sales amount and payable on the bank’s receipt of clean-on-board bills-of-lading for the ordered product at the US port of export before a specified date. When we examined the completed contract with Baghdad it was discovered there was no provision for letter-of-credit payment. The only letter-of-credit was one to be opened by the seller and payable to the purchaser guaranteeing delivery by a specified date to the stores of the municipality of Baghdad in good working order.

It was assumed that I was familiar enough with the ins and outs of export sales to successfully accomplish this delivery and collection. This necessitated my travel to Iraq to clear the merchandise through customs at the Iraqi port at Basra and see to its transport and delivery to the municipality stores, a warehouse and storage yard in Baghdad. On delivery and demonstration of the good working order of the rigs and other accessory equipment I was to collect payment and have it converted by the Iraqi Central Bank from dinars to US dollars and transferred to the account of the company in The Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. I had never done any of these things before. My only experience was getting merchandise for export properly prepared and shipped from a US seaport, usually Houston, or on land to Mexico and presenting the necessary documentation to the bank in the US holding the funds, usually in the form of a Letter-of-Credit from the purchaser.

In an attitude of happy anticipation and great overconfidence I agreed to go to Iraq. I had never traveled further from my home in Kempner, Texas to a city larger than Temple, Texas before the age of twelve when I visited my uncle in San Antonio, Texas. Even in 1966 I had not traveled much farther north than Wichita Falls, Texas. Ignorance is bliss? This was not the most opportune time for me to be away from my family as my wife, Norma, and I were in the process of adopting two children, a brother and sister, Weldon, seven, and Linda, five. They had only been living with us for a few weeks. My older son, Dale, fourteen, was in the eight grade and I missed his graduation exercises that May.

The sales agent for the company for the areas of Europe, Africa and the Middle Eastern Countries was Lindqvist et Cie whose home office was in Paris, France and they had a branch office in Torino, Italy. The owners and principles were Mr. Lindqvist and his son-in-law, Tor Fellbom, both Swedish nationals, though the ancestry of Tor was Finnish. He spoke seven languages most of which he learned while a child during World War II in the streets of Copenhagen, Sweden. I only spoke Texanese. Tor was to accompany me to Iraq from Paris. Their sub-agent for the country of Iraq was Tijarat Agencies owned by Sheik Rahman al Amin, a former cabinet member in the Iraqi national government, and the former Lord Mayor of Baghdad whose name I cannot recall. Rahman Amin was very likeable and intelligent and I suspect a consummate Iraqi politician. I met the former mayor of Baghdad but he did not speak English so we never became well acquainted. The general manger of Tijarat Agencies was Marouf Arif, a big and broad faced half Arab and half Kurdish, a mean, intelligent, and worldly individual. He would have fit right in with the mafia. Rahman Amin told me they hired him a few years earlier when their company was having great difficulty in completing a contract to build some military housing in North Baghdad. Marouf saw the contract to completion in record time. I am sure he saw that some of those involved in the delay ended their stay in this life. He visited our offices in Wichita Falls in 1965 and while there desired and sought the companionship of black ladies of the night, a very unsavory character. When in Baghdad and while riding with Marouf I was to see him chase a pedestrian, who had the audacity to be crossing the street up on the sidewalk with his car with the horn blaring.

In 1966, the year of my Iraqi experience, casualties in the Vietnam War began to exceed one hundred per week killed in combat by April, the hippie generation was in full bloom, OPEC instead of the Texas Railroad Commission set world oil prices, the inflation rates in the US and most of the economies of the world continued to rise, international business was very competitive, and the cold war with the Soviet Union raged.

On March 26, 1966 I left my home in Iowa Park, Texas ten miles west of Wichita Falls expecting to return in thirty to forty days and boarded a Branniff flight at the Wichita Falls airport for Dallas, Texas and from there flew on an American Airlines flight to Washington D.C. This was necessary as I had also been tasked to visit the Uruguay Embassy to try and correct an error in the freight charges caused by a mistranslation of the purchase contract from Spanish to English on a purchase contract for a rig and accessories their government had ordered. I met with their commercial attaché and was able to get the error corrected. I took a taxi to and from their embassy. After completing my business I asked the taxi driver, a middle aged and rather plump black woman, what it might cost for a tour of some of the historical sites near the capital building. The price quoted was more than I was willing to pay so she stated that she had no immediate fares or plans and disconnected her meter and gave me a nice tour of the areas near the capital. How nice! She only charged me the fare from the embassy to my hotel. Yes, I gave her a generous tip. This expectation probably figured in her decision.

The next day I took a flight to New York City and checked into a hotel there as my flight for Paris was scheduled for the next afternoon, a Sunday. I was very pleased with this because I was a member of the church of Christ congregation in Iowa Park and the Elders there had asked me to visit, if possible, the congregation of the church in Huntington, New York where we were supporting a gospel preacher to work with them, a mission area for the church at this time. I was able to visit with the preacher and some of the members that Saturday afternoon and attend class and worship services the next morning. There were no extra charges made to my company for this short detour and actually resulted in some savings as they fed me on Saturday and Sunday. After worship services and lunch on Sunday I took a taxi to John F. Kennedy International Airport where I boarded my Air France flight for Paris.

On my arrival early the next morning, Monday, March 28, 1966 at the Paris airport, the Charles De Gaulle, I took an airport shuttle to my hotel. Being the experienced world traveler and in the hustle and bustle to collect my luggage and catch the shuttle I forgot to tip the baggage handler who was helping me to the shuttle. He made quiet an embarrassing (to me) scene before I realized what he was saying, He was speaking French. I hastily corrected my error. I soon learned that many of the French did not hold Americans in too high regard. They thought we should speak their language and resented the fact that English had replaced French as the international language of business and commerce. I found English spoken by many every where I went. In Iraq Arabic was the national language; however the great majority of those in business spoke English.

Later that day I visited the offices of Lindqvist et Cie located on the rue de el Opera with a direct view of the famous Opera House. There I met their engineer whose name I cannot recall (getting old is different). He advised that a customer located in Illiers, France who had purchased a Model S-33 to drill municipal, irrigation, and domestic water wells had a question concerning a component of the rig. I assured him I was no engineer, mechanic, or driller and doubted my competency to answer his question. He was undaunted by my disclaimer and insisted we visit him anyway so we drove to Illiers the next morning. I was pleased at the opportunity to be able to see and visit some of the French countryside and towns and villages. Much to my relief the customers question was simple and I was able to give answer. I asked to take a picture of him standing in front of the rig; however he refused me the picture. On consideration I supposed he wanted to be paid for a picture that might be used in our advertising or maybe he had something in his background that would cause him to not desire any pictures of him to be circulated.

Tor needed to complete some business in Paris so we were unable to depart for Baghdad until Thursday of that week. We left Paris on a Lufthansa flight for Beirut, Lebanon and were to connect there with an Iraqi Airlines flight to Baghdad; however our Lufthansa flight failed to arrive in time to make connection. Lufthansa put us up at a very nice Hotel in Beirut right on the shores of the beautiful Mediterranean. At this time Beirut had not suffered the later destructions of war and still was termed the Paris of the Middle East. We were able to view the Palestinian refugee camp located near the highway on the way into Beirut. It appeared to be very crowded and the living conditions extremely poor.

At Beirut I discovered my suitcase had been left at the Paris hotel. I called and they promised to arrange to have it forwarded to me at my hotel in Baghdad. I had to purchase socks and underwear in Baghdad and wear Tor’s shirts which were four miles too big. Again, this was the competent actions of an experienced world traveler. After we had checked through customs at the Beirut airport and were waiting for the shuttle that would take us to our hotel we heard a commotion and a man screaming, crying, and begging the Lebanese police who had taken him into custody to let him free. We later learned he was a Jordanian pharmacist passing through on his way to a convention of pharmacists in Egypt and that some five years earlier he was involved in an automobile accident in which some Lebanese were injured, perhaps killed. While awaiting his trial to settle his liability he fled the country and returned to Jordan with his wife and children. He was identified when the customs officials were processing his passport. The Lebanese who told us these details said he probably faced years of confinement, a very unpleasant experience in their prisons.

Tor and I boarded an Iraqi Airlines flight at the Beirut Airport for Baghdad on Friday, April the 1st, the second day of an annual four day Muslim religious holiday and all offices and most businesses were closed until the following Monday. Friday is the Muslim weekly holy day somewhat comparable to the Jewish Sabbath or Sunday observed by Christians. We arrived at the Baghdad airport shortly before noon. At the airport taxi stand two taxi drivers began to contest for our fare and almost tore my remaining suitcase (remember I had left one in Paris) apart. We stepped in and settled the argument and were finally delivered to our destination, the Baghdad Hotel on the banks of the Tigris River, a very modern and air conditioned hotel. There was very little air conditioning and refrigeration in Iraq at this time. The temperatures ranged from around 100 degrees in the very early spring to as much as 130 in the mid to late fall. There actually was no winter weather as we know it except in the northern mountains. The meats, mostly sheep, chickens, and fish, to feed the inhabitants of Baghdad were slaughtered or caught in the previous twenty-four hours and brought on pickup trucks, hundreds of them, very early every morning into the city. Western traffic rules were not observed there and every one used their horns instead of their brakes. Much the same was true of the Parisian drivers though the traffic there was almost silent in comparison to the ever nerve grating noise of the Baghdad traffic. From four o’clock in the morning until very late at night the traffic noise was horrendously loud. There was a Western Union office, Coca Cola, but very few other western brands and businesses. It was not long before my preconceived and romanticized perceptions (actually misconceptions) of the Middle East and particularly of the romantic, exotic Baghdad, had begun to fade. The Arabs have proven to be masters at political intrigue and strife. Unknowingly, I was soon to observe this at first hand. Truth will out but sometimes painfully.

The Baghdad Hotel catered especially to Europeans and Americans and served fairly decent European food except on Thursdays when they served what they called mixed grill. I am not sure what parts of the sheep were included therein but the unpleasant smell extended well beyond the kitchen and restaurant areas. There were some good local restaurants which I favored with my business on Thursdays. Some items on their menus were curry, very hot with pepper, and white fish, carp among others very well prepared and delicious. I also enjoyed the flat bread and their pickled vegetables. Because of the lack of refrigeration many varieties of vegetables were preserved by pickling. I managed to get fairly decent haircuts in the hotel barbershop operated by Armenian barbers.

Religions other than Islam were not welcome in the country though there was an Armenian Orthodox church in Baghdad and a hospital run by French Catholic nuns. I encountered no other religious group except at the embassy. I found very little concern with things spiritual among the embassy personnel. This was a time when I should have been fervently seeking the providential care of God. Solomon warned about the fate of those who were wise in their own conceits and sought to direct their own paths. I did pray. Prayers are only answered when we do our part, for example, we are taught by Jesus the Christ to pray for our daily bread but if we or someone does not work we do not eat.

On Monday April 3rd we met with Marouf and learned what had been done regarding our shipment up to that time. I had previously sent the bills-of-lading and other documents to Tijarat agencies. This proved to be a mistake. Marouf had already, without competitive bids, verbally let the contract to East-West Transport Company, owned by a Mr. Setrakian, an Armenian, for the transport of the equipment from Basra to the Baghdad stores and had given the bills-of-lading and other documents necessary for customs clearance to him and the remaining documents, invoices, etc. that I would need, were being held at Tijarat’s bank. As a bank check is an authorization to deliver cash to the payee on presentation so a bill-of-lading is in effect a check for the items shipped thereon and gives the right of possession on presentation to the carrier, a very valuable document. I advised him that we would not honor the contract with Setrakian and that we would let a contract by bid. This we later did and Setrakian won the contract. This did save a small amount from the contract Marouf had made with him but I doubt that the bids were actually competitive. I suspect collusion and bribery between Marouf and Setrakian. The Arabic word for bribery is baksheesh, a way of life in the Middle East. This did establish my authority and by the attitude of Marouf at this first meeting I felt it necessary to do so. We will later see other things occurring to further change his attitude toward me. I informed him that I would not be giving any bribes. This probably slowed my progress somewhat.

During this first week in Baghdad Rahman al Amin visited with Tor and me at our hotel. This was our first meeting and we had a pleasant conversation in the hotel garden. Rahman and I were to meet and talk there often. We also during this time met Bengt Anderssen, a Swede, who was also staying at the Baghdad Hotel. He was in Baghdad training Iraqi personnel in the operation of centrifuge equipment manufactured by his company, Alfalaval, a French company, furnished to Iraq to separate impurities from vegetable oils. Almost every evening on his return from work he would relax in the hotel garden and drink two bottles of beer. Yes, the hotel had a bar and catered to Westerners, though I observed many Iraqis patronizing the bar. Bengt’s usual comment on arrival in the garden was, Oooh, I am so shirsty. He was in his late forties and traveled extensively in the Middle East and other parts of the world for his company. We soon became friends and spent many evenings in pleasant conversation. He gave me helpful information and advice and became very concerned for my safety on learning of a certain confrontation to be related later between me and Marouf. An avid coin collector, Bengt had thousands of dollars in gold, silver, and other coins in his room. This was relatively safe as theft was rare in Iraq. By law the right hand of convicted thieves was cut off. Wherever he traveled he made contact with other collectors and they would trade. He called one he was trading with at that time in Baghdad the Snake. We went to the Zuk (Bazaar) where he bought a Roman coin minted in the time of Christ. The first coin shown Bengt was a counterfeit and he told the young vendor so. He was surprised with Bengt’s knowledge seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he had just been caught trying to sell Bengt a fake coin. He said, Come with me, I have the real thing. As we followed him up two flights of stairs to a dusty, musky room in the dank, dark old building behind his stall he turned and looked at me as I nervously looked around and said, You’re scared aren’t you, and laughed. I smiled weakly and replied, Yes. Baghdad was no longer that exotic, romantic place of Ali Babba and his Forty Thieves. Bengt bought the authentic coin for approximately $4.00 and it had a value on the international coin market of about $20.00. This was a way he used to defeat the confiscatory taxation of the Swedish Socialist government and accumulate wealth on which he and his wife, at home in Sweden, planned to retire.

Others staying at the hotel included a group working for Cole Engineering, an Oklahoma company. They arrived in Baghdad on April 14th. They operated seismic equipment used to map underground formations and a method used for locating oil and other mineral bearing formations. I became acquainted with some of them and