Barry Hasan Durmaz

Hello, Maximus, 

I thought it better to reply by correspondence to your most recent text message. My motivation is to provide a meaningful reply to an emotional encounter with, Herodias.

Having been an employer myself, I can fully appreciate you coming to the defense of your loyal employee. I’m sure you are well aware of the maxim of business, “The customer is always right.” A lot of folks believe that, and I did, too.

However, after twenty-six years erecting and operating a business in Oregon, three years in business in Japan, and three years developing and managing the delivery service for Full Circle Farm, it is my observation, experience, and conclusion that the customer is not always right, nor is the proprietor always right—that would be to view them as a seeable lawgiver (idol). Rather, the truth (truth is a Person) is always right, and it is from that foundation I will share my view of reality.

What I know is that people are happy when all is well, money is in the bank, and one can do whatever one pleases to do with little to no regard for negative consequences. John Ray, the father of English natural history, said it like this, 

“In a calm sea every man is a pilot.”

The Source of Problems

Problems and pressure are good because they reveal what is hidden on the inside of people. In other words, we really don’t know each other until problems manifest.

Our nation is being revealed for the true character it has, which is gross immaturity and debased character.

But our nation is made of individuals like yourself, myself, and Herodias. Whatever is wrong in the nation did not begin there. The character and conduct of the nation begin in the home. It’s an irrefutable law that when violated, breaks those individuals who are breaking that law of character and conduct. Hence, there exists all the complaining, moaning, manipulation, force, and threat of force. 

In other words, as a student of history from the view that the one true God (Lawgiver) is ruling all things and overruling the deeds of wicked people, I know that not a single person is getting away with anything that is contrary to His character and nature as the Creator, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ—the same Lord in Whose authority America’s founders penned, covenanted and signed the Declaration of 1776 and the Constitution of 1787.

I am a lover of truth because truth never changes. That’s how vital truth is. Truth is reality. Any opposition to truth is fantasy, which leads to destruction.

Emotional Manipulations

I attempted to express condolences when Herodias told me some relatives had died recently. In doing so, I shared a little bit of truth, but she did not want to hear it; she was not comforted by truth, Maximus. Rather, she told me, “We are not going to have this conversation!”

That kind of response is not evidence of someone who is a lover of truth. It is evidence of someone who has emotional wounds and is led by emotion rather than solid reasoning. It’s actually worse than that, Maximus. A feeling-oriented person is being controlled by their belly as animals are—cravings, sensuality, impulses, etc.—in other words, an evil stronghold.

As a lover of truth, I embrace and walk in truth. When I walk into a room, there is more knowledgable love in that room. If there is no ear to hear what I have in the way of knowledgable love, I cannot help that person, but the unseen Lawgiver, Jesus Christ, can if she will cry out to Him. 

The shunning I experienced Thursday afternoon is evidence of a woman who is quick to believe the words of complete strangers at the Center for Disease Control. That’s what she told me. She places her trust in the CDC.

Enemies to the American Way of Life

The CDC and every single bureaucratic agency in America is an enemy to the American way of life of exercising liberty to govern oneself, Maximus. I don’t way that as a matter of intellectual pride or proposition only. I say that and everything I communicate (however imperfectly) as one whom it has cost much to secure the character I have as an American Christian man—a man who is independently dependent upon God (Lawgiver) for that which He requires of me.

I have made sacrifices to live the life I currently exercise, promote, and defend. It has cost me an acre of land, a house, a business, and friends to follow the perfect law of liberty. The things with which we are being mandated to comply are wholly un-American and unChristian, for without Christ and the good news of HIs government on His land America, there would be no America. 

Liberty of Conscience

From the vantage point I have, I see this little breakdown with Herodias as a wonderful opportunity to defend what is good about America—not what is wrong with everything, Maximus—and certainly not an opportunity to comply with enemies on our soil. 

What is good in America are people whose consciences have been liberated to hear truth. This is called liberty of conscience. The conscience that cannot bear to hear a different or contrary idea without convulsions is not American nor Christian. Rather, such convulsions are evidence of domestic enemies on our good land to the government of oneself.

The conscience is the witness of God in every person to discern good from evil; to accuse a person of their evil behavior and approve a person of their good behavior. In other words, the conscience represents the voice of God within us, and to go against that voice (i.e. violate one’s own conscience) is a lawless act—what the laws of nature’s God revealed in Holy Scripture call sin.

People who are not lovers of truth feel bad because of something they hear. They often flee into silence or retaliate against the messenger.

I’ve experienced retaliatory convulsions time and time again from people who have an outward appearance that they have power to control themselves. But when the sovereignty of the Lawgiver uses my life to speak or take some action that makes them feel awful, their convulsions reveal them for the powerlessness that is their true character.

This is what it looks like when people control their lives independently from the laws of nature’s God: they escape or attack. They are their own gods—nobody can bring a contrary idea to the ones they are coddling, which are enslaving them. They are in bondage to their own unbelief against the bearer of good news, Maximus. They are in control, not the one true God. This is idolatry and renders them in spiritual and relational death.

Such people are condemned by their consciences because they feel pain and misery. That is what Herodias demonstrated. However, I have life-altering good news of happiness and liberty for her and all who actually have been liberated to hear a good word.

I recently read the following quote: 

“…The wisdom of our age says guilt feelings are nearly always erroneous or hurtful; therefore we should switch them off….

“The conscience is generally seen by the modern world as a defect that robs people of their self-esteem. Far from being a defect or a disorder, however, our ability to sense our own guilt is a tremendous gift from God. He designed the conscience into the very framework of the human soul. It is the automatic warning system that tells us, ‘Pull up! Pull up!’ before we crash and burn.” —John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience, page 36. 

Refusing to Play the Pharisee

Here is an opportunity to gather all the employees of Liberty Tax Service for a time of learning perhaps for the first time what it means to be American. Being born in America makes one a citizen by the letter of the law, but not by the spirit of the law. Being born in America is good, but not the reality to shout about. But once you are here, there are impossibilities awaiting those who have never had an encounter with the Lord of liberty, the Lord of love. That is the government that is under attack by these malicious agencies and their representatives. Agencies and their representatives want to be your seeable (idol) lawgiver in rivalry to the unseen Lawgiver.

Yes, there is plenty of evil. But the hopeful and world-overcoming good news is that there is goodness from heaven above on the land to overcome the evil around us TODAY! Not tomorrow in the afterlife, but today is the day of salvation, victory, and vindication as it was in A.D. 30 with the resurrection of the Lawgiver and on July 4th, 1776 when self-governed American Christians wrote a declaration to the world that all men (not just Americans) are created equal, thus prevailing over a foreign enemy seven years later.

Called To Serve

My entire family is available in service to you, Maximus, and all the wonderful people who work for you. If anything I’ve written is attractive to your ears, then let us come together for a meeting of the minds to discover what is the liberty at your place of business, Liberty Tax. Is liberty only a symbol, or is there substance waiting to be revealed for those who are willing to dig below the surface?

That is how I see this episode with Herodias. As her employer, you have a wonderful opportunity to help a dear woman who is unable to keep her personal problems at home. She brings them to work. You didn’t hire her for her personal problems, but there they are, out in the open. That’s okay if the opportunity is seized to bring truth to people who have succumbed to lies, half-truths (still a lie), deception, fraud, manipulation, etc.

My life and family are here to serve those in need. The problem is most people don’t know their true need, only what they FEEL they need. Such is the reaction from Herodias.

My life and family are witnesses to what is good in America, and we will remain in that liberty wherein we have been made free. We have a duty to not be entangled with the yokes of bondage as so many are. The need is great, but the good news is that the Author of liberty always prepares a people called to Himself in a time of judgment so that when the wheels fall off the cart, those of us who have been in training and are experienced in the fight are prepared to serve those who are enslaved to their fear and unbelief.

When I deliver your food order, Maximus, I bring it inside and store it in your fridge—a courtesy to you. Until such a time that a more sure word can come to the ears of Madam Herodias, I suggest she come outside to pick up your order just as every customer does joyfully for this food that is medicine to the physical body. Conversely, I can leave your order in the outside fridge.

If Herodias wants to wear a mask, she has the right to do so. However, she has no right to demand it of me—a self-governed American Christian. I live according to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which liberates me to love Him and love my neighbor, Herodias. Against Christ and His law, there is no law. He trumps all laws of bureaucratic agencies. 

Lastly, I will leave you with credible information on the perpetration of this fraud from the good work by Peggy Hall at the HEALTHY AMERICAN: 

https://www.thehealthyamerican.org

I trust what I have shared here is received in the spirit in which I intend—the resurrection of the distinctly American Christian family as a government independent from all other families, businesses, churches, and state and federal bureaucracies. Though never in rebellion to them, my family is available to serve those in need in these times of the true pandemic—fear, unbelief, and condemnation.  

I am at your service, Maximus.

Be HE IS, I am, 

Barry H. Durmaz