Posted on 11/24/2014 2:29:15 PM PST by Sean_Anthony
When a nation is not virtuous, and turns its back on God, the people of that country finds that liberty is elusive
Last Tuesday Night, at the end of the discussion during the Corona Constitution Class, I gave the folks an assignment. Read the Declaration of Independence, and notice how the grievances the colonists had with the British government are similar to the grievances many Americans have with today’s federal government.
One of the students sent me an email as he began to read.
He stated that as he began to read the Declaration of Independence, he came across Chuck Baldwin’s article, How Christians And Conservatives Are Helping To Destroy America, by Chuck Baldwin, November 20, 2014, and wanted me to comment on Baldwin’s assessment of how Christian Conservatives may erroneously want a Christian theocracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
If you have Netflix, view the movie “Monumental” by Kirk Cameron. Wonderful rebuke of the Founding-Fathers-as-Athiests meme.
They were all of the very same moral philosophy, though with different theologies and differing political ideas. However, they created a government which put the souls of the individual citizens in the forefront. They put religion into the free market where any religion would have the freedom to rise or fall by its own merit.
We do not have a theocracy, but we do have a government that they formed which takes moral truth as its most important founding stone.
That is the very essence of self government. A People bound by the Ten Commandments govern themselves. They do not need police and courts and over five hundred thousand laws, rules and regulations.
We tossed God and His laws to the curb. Now we reap what we sowed.
I look forward to the establishment of a “theocracy” on this earth, but it will NOT BE ESTABLISHED BY MEN. That is the fallacy of those who are of the reconstructionist and dominion theology persuasion, many of whom profess to be Christians and who are generally conservative.
The true theocracy is going to be set up when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to rule and reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years.
I want a government that acknowledges God but not a Theocracy. Theocracies are very dangerous. The founders knew that.
According to that, the Great Commission is going to be a failure.
And according to that, God is is going to fail at making Christ’s enemies his footstool.
Why is this moral truth?
Life - the way our Founders understood this complete concept actually goes deeply into Mosaic Law and the understanding of the Blessings and Curses inherent within the instruction given to Moses to choose life over death.
Liberty was understood by our Founders to be that inalienable ideal outlined by Mosaic Law and Aristotelean principles. God gives man liberty for man's benefit so that man can freely choose God through his will and intellect.
The pursuit of Happiness is a very deep concept that doesn't mean what most people think it is today. Happiness is the end result of living a virtuous life so that one will be ready to spend the rest of eternity with God.
There are plenty of other moral truths contained within our Founding documents.
Here’s a “Founding Document” than not many are even aware of:
http://unclejaque.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/the-forgotten-declaration-of-1775/
More specifically, regardless what FDR’s 10th Amendment-ignoring justices wanted everybody to think about “atheist” Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation,” the real Jefferson had noted the following. The Founding States had made the 10th Amendment to clarify that the states had reserved “government” power to regulate (cultivate) religious expression uniquely to themselves, regardless that they had also made the 1st Amendment to prohibit the feds from officially addressing religious issues altogether.
“3. Resolved that it is true as a general principle and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the constitution that ‘the powers not delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people’: and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, & were reserved, to the states or the people: that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed [emphasis added]; …” — Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions, 1798 .
But regardless that the states have the constitutional authority to regulate religion, the USA (the federal government as distinguished from the states) is arguably a religiously neutral nation under the Constitution, just like Switzerland is regarded as a politically neutral nation. And although Christians don’t like to hear it, this is probably why Congress, probably many Christians in Congress in those days, had included a provision in the Treaty of Tripoli which indicated that the United States is not a Christian nation.
Here’s other excerpts from Jefferson’s writings which reflect that foreign nations were to regard the United States differently from the states.
"I believe the States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government our foreign ones." --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823.
"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations." --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800.
And bear in mind that atheists are probably as cluess as Christians are about 10th Amendment-protected state power to address religious issues when atheists argue that USA is not a Christian nation.
That is very interesting. Thomas Jefferson also coined a first draft of the Declaration of Independence which contained a plea to get rid of slavery. He was told that it would be impossible to get all of the colonies on board with it so he had to cut out any reference to slavery. It was thought at the time that slavery would have to be dealt with later.
Nicely stated. America is a Christian nation; the Christian bible inspired and guided its founders by declaration. If allowed to be free, Christianity would always rise on its own merit -- Western Civilization is the product of people generally agreeing to adhere more or less to the Judeo-Christian ethic. Slavery in the west is outlawed, ownership of people is outlawed, expressly because of Christianity, ONLY Christianity.
Now the government stifles Christian freedom to, for example, peacefully and civilly reject -- or tolerate, whatever -- open homosexuality to whatever degree desired. Instead, government punishes people who tell open homosexuals, "Take your perverted game somewhere else or keep it to yourself. I don't want it around my kids."
American government has closed the "free market" in terms of religion because it has legally thwarted Christian freedom, on every level from charity (government has perverted charity and made welfare an amoral entitlement) to abortion (using tax dollars to pay for enabling murder in the womb).
All I know is that America is a Christian nation and the only way for it to survive is for its people and government to say, "These are the rules here and if your religion or your emotions don't like it, go find another country to live in. If you want sharia law, go install it in your own country."
Well, that’s what God’s Word says.
The Great Commission was Christ’s words to His true followers (true disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28:19-20]
All authority was given to Him by the Father, our Creator, in heaven and on earth.
The Great Commission was about proclaiming the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, telling people to repent of their sins so that they might be forgiven of them through faith in God’s only begotten (unique) Son, whom He provided as a perfect and sinless sacrifice on our behalf. God raised Him from the dead as He promised, so that all who believe in Him might also be raised up to walk in newness of life here on earth and later when He returns. It’s about a relationship with the living God through His living and beloved Son, not about a theocracy on earth.
His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet at the end of the 1000 year reign. The 1000 year reign is a theocracy; Jesus will usher in a reign of justice and righteousness on the earth and rule over the people of the earth.
The timing of His enemies being made His footstool is found in 1 Corinthians 15:23-26, in the context of the order of events of the First Resurrection (v. 20-28.
The order of the First Resurrection is:
1. Christ the first fruits, v. 23
2. Those who are Christ’s at His coming, v. 23
First Coming: Matthew 27:50-53; Second Coming: Rev., Dan., 1 Thess.
a. the Church (1 Thess. 4:13-18)
b. the 70th Week saints (Rev. 20:4)
c. the O.T. saints (Dan. 12:1-2)
d. the righteous Jews whom He gathers when He comes
(Matthew 24:31)
3. He reigns until all His enemies are under His feet, v. 25; the last enemy that will be abolished is death, v. 26.
4. Then the end when He delivers up the kingdom to the Father, v. 27-28.
The purpose of the Millennium (the 1000 Year Reign of Christ on this earth) is given in v. 25—to put all His enemies under His feet.
No mention of the Bible.
A satanic cult could come up with its own interpretation of life, liberty and happiness, directly opposed to the message of the Bible.
Aristotle’s writings make no reference of the Bible and vice versa.
That’s all post-Reformation heretical innovation.
For roughly 1,700 years that doctrine did not exist.
I would study the attainments of the Reformation honestly and at great length before I disagreed with them on eschatalogy, or even any other doctrinal subject, IMHO.
Being an American, the “Pilgrims” that came to America in 1620 are always a valuable group of Christians to study.
You’ll find no Christmas, no Easter, etc.
Which was what the Protestant Reformation was all about - reforming the Church to rid it of grave errors of doctrine and practice, and restoring Church doctrine to what it is expressed as in the Word of God.
It’s such a shame that we ignore those attainments, when so many people were martyred in achieving them.
You are clueless.
The Bible is not mentioned in the Constitution or the Declaration.
Can you provide quotes from the Constitution where it references the Bible ?
Nope, because any answer I give will not satisfy you. I don’t intend to dialogue with you any longer.
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