Not having a social security may seem like a novel or foreign concept to some. However, I know no other way of living.
Truman Lamb is the one that set my story in motion, as all great grandfathers do for their descendants. It began as a conflict between his convictions toward God and life and his oath and love for his wife in 1929.
It was during the heat of the great depression. My great-grandfather lived in Kansas City, Missouri. He ran a business raising poultry which suffered with the rest of the United States as the banks crashed. City ordinances enacted programs to offer assistance and jobs to the people through a welfare system and work force.
All one had to do was sign up. And many did, because it was desperate times.
But Truman Lamb was one of the very few who chose to not accept the government's charity. He strongly believed that he should "have no other gods before me {Yahweh/ God}" ( Exodus 20:3).
He believed that we were to have no league or covenant with other gods/ governments outside of our own God. It was one thing to respect them and obey them, it was another to sign a contract with them to serve them. (Judges 2). Because a number was entangled in it all he believed that it would eventually lead to the beast's mark. (Revelation 13:17-18).
People thought he was crazy — it wasn’t yet then an identification number, and wouldn’t be used as such for more than forty years until the 70s. He foresaw the future and knew it would be a number the government would use as a "mark of their ownership" and that someday it would be hard to "buy or sell" without it. People remembered their number in their heads and would use it with their hands to secure their place in a system that wasn't ordained by God's.
My great-grandfather's wife was not happy that he refused welfare assistance. She reported him to the local authorities. His business was threatened and he was threatened with jail-time and fines. But he never gave in or complied with their demands. Because there was no law against working without a social security number at the time, the authorities could not make good on any of their threats against him and his meager livelihood.
Was he nevertheless tempted to cave in? Of course. Food was scarce as was money, and the government seemed to offer everything for a reasonable trade. But he chose to trust God for his needs, and stayed true to his beliefs. Due to this and some of his other developing religious beliefs, he lost his first wife and married my great-grandmother Willa.
Truman and Willa Lamb had thirteen kids, and my grandfather, Stephen, was one of their children. My grandfather passed on his father’s faith to his children, bidding them to follow in Truman’s counterculture footsteps, to remain separated from the rulers of this land, and to love Yahweh with our entire heart, soul, and mind. We pledge allegiance to no other but God.
Not all of Truman’s children chose to remain out of the system, but my grandfather was one who refrained from securing himself to the "promises" of our government and struck out to be self-sufficient according to God's will.
My grandfather, Stephen Lamb, took the passage of the Rechabites in Jeremiah 35 to heart, and passed it on to his own children. It is a story of a grandfather warning his children that a war would come and that they needed to be prepared. The Rechabite grandfather commanded his descendants not to drink wine or plant vineyards or build houses, but to live in tents always ready to move when the time came to do so. Jeremiah put the children of this man to a test, which they passed. When a war came they survived as their grandfather had predicted "that you might live long in the days you sojourn".
My dad has always told us that we have two commandments passed on to us from our great-grandfather:
To never drink alcoholic beverages
To never get a social security number
Not every family member has obeyed these commandments, but those of us that have are blessed and live productive, respectful lives.
But my story isn't just from my father's side, but my mother's, too.
My maternal father was not raised in a Christian home, but when he discovered Jesus’ salvation he learned from various people that it was better to trust in God's provision than man's. He chose to not give his children social security numbers, and refused to buy any sort of insurance. He became a Naturopathic doctor and spread education for health that has saved many people physically and spiritually. He is still highly respected today in his field.
When my mom and dad married, I was the first born of a joint minority legacy. I have a unique tradition behind me, and I feel a special responsibility to preserver the family legacy.
I did not at first understand what it meant to be and live as I did until my mid-teens. My life was normal to me and I never questioned it for the longest time. In my future posts I'll share more on how I questioned and doubted the way I was born and raised, and how I eventually came to embrace it.
I'll also share what sort of birth certificate I have, how I got my ID and driver's license, how I got a passport, my beliefs on capitalism and what that means for income taxes, what it means to respect God's ordained rulers vs. our own government, and more.
For now, I'd like to hear YOUR story, whether you have a number or not and how you are living a life fully for God no matter the circumstances you were born into.
Share with me in the comments, or email me if you have a story you'd like to share personally with me, or if you have a story you'd like featured on this blog. My email is keturahskorner(at)gmail(dot)com.
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Really thought provoking. Looking forward to reading more. Fantastic picture too: I love that dress.