Copyright 2018 Daniel J. Pilla. All rights reserved.
No part of this material may be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the author and publisher, except for purposes of review with appropriate attribution.
Cover design by: Yvonne Parks, BOOKRALLY
Contents design by: Allan Nygren, Mosaic Productions
My special thanks to Scott MacPherson for his keen editorial eye, and the team at Printopya for their fine proofreading prowess.
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Tyndale House Publishers and Zondervan. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.
Printed in the United States of America
First edition: April 2018
ISBN: 978-1-884367-11-3
NewType Publishing
www.newtypepublishing.com
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
Isaiah 58:6-10 (NIV)
In Loving Memory of
Foreword
To say that America is in the midst of a culture war would be an enormous understatement. The evidence can be seen in every newscast, on the cover of every newspaper, and in the very lifestyles of her citizens. I believe that just about everyone would agree that America is changing fast, and that she is not the same America she once was.
But is she changing for the better? Many believe she is going in the wrong direction, especially spiritually.
In dealing with this conflict, the finger of blame is pointed in various directions, depending on who is pointing the finger. Blame is often focused on government (too much or not enough), the economy (too much control or not enough freedom), and our public schools (schools are deteriorating or kids need to spend more time there). For solutions, we often clamor for government to spend more money on social issues. But a lack of money is not the reason that a solution to the spiritual decline in our country eludes us. Untold billions of dollars have been spent to find answers to vexing social problems, all with little or no apparent meaningful impact.
Can America be saved? Is it too late? There are many books available that advertise possible solutions, yet the problems persist and even grow worse.
In his latest book, Salt and Light, Dan Pilla takes a completely different approach to dealing with todays social and economic problems, one you probably will not hear on CNN or see on the display rack at your local book store. In Salt and Light, Dan lays out a surprisingly simple formula for dealing with Americas spiritual crisis. Even better, the formula has been proven over generations to successfully lead people to prosperity and to bring peace to the land.
I know you will ask, If the answer is that easy, and if it has a long history of a proven track record, why is it not discussed among Americas elite? Thats the billion-dollar question, and Dan lays out the answer in shocking clarity, along with the formula for carrying the solution into practice.
Having spent his entire adult life battling the IRS as a tax litigator, Dan understands how to uncover hidden clues and present detailed facts that lead to favorable resolutions in very complex tax collection cases. He brings that skill and experience to bear in dealing with what is perhaps Americas greatest challenge ever: her future spiritual condition. In his typical methodical, building-block approach to presenting evidence and advancing arguments, Dan lays out who the guilty party is and exactly what we can do to reverse the dangerous path we are on.
Between the fascinating historical details and the moving personal stories Dan uses to build his case, once I started reading Salt and Light, I just could not put this book down. It is a must-read for all of America!
Gary Keesee
Pastor, Faith Life Church, Columbus, OH
Author and host of Fixing the Money Thing
CEO and founder, Forward Financial Group Inc.
CHAPTER 1
Sudden Death
Imagine that youre standing at a street corner about to cross. You are with a friend and the two of you are chatting while waiting for the light to change. The light soon turns green and you both step off the curb into the street.
Your friend was looking to his right at you as he stepped off the curb to cross. Because of that, he did not see the car coming straight at him, from his blind spot on his left side. But you see the car because you are looking exactly in that direction.
As the car is barreling toward your unwary friend, you have a decision to make. What do you do? Do you alert your friendWatch out! Do you grab his shoulder and pull him back? Or do you do nothing but hope he sees the car in time to get out of the way?
I rather expect that not a single person reading this thinks he would do nothing. Each of us thinks he would do something to stop a friend from walking right into the path of an oncoming car that he did not and could not see.
That scenario reminds me of my friend Tom. Tom and I worked together from 1979 to November 6, 2000. From 1996 to November 6, 2000, we worked side by side in the same office building in White Bear Lake that we built as partners in 1996. On November 6, 2000, the day before the presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, Tom and I sat in my office chatting about the election in particular, politics in general, and the upcoming event we were both to participate in.
You see, later that week Tom and I were supposed to meet in Las Vegas for a seminar that I was conducting as part of my Tax Freedom Institute. The Tax Freedom Institute (TFI) is an association of tax professionalsattorneys, CPAs and Enrolled Agentsfocused on the defense of taxpayers rights and IRS problems resolution. Tom was a charter member of the organization that I started in 1993. Our convention in Las Vegas was an annual event that Tom attended every year since TFIs inception.
I met Tom in 1979. He was an attorney in Minneapolis at the time with a small private practice that focused on criminal defense. He worked a wide range of state criminal cases. I was a very young tax practitioner working on a wide range of civil IRS defense cases. At that time, I had no background or experience in criminal law, and Tom had no experience with the IRS.