Posted on 09/20/2013 4:29:03 AM PDT by spirited irish
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22).
And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit." (Rev. 9:1)
In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who,
"Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ."
John identifies antichrists, in this case clergy who serve the devil rather than Christ, sequentially. First, like Bultmann, Teilhard de Chardin, Robert Funk, Paul Tillich, and John Shelby Spong, they specifically deny the living, personal Holy Trinity in favor of Gnostic pagan, immanent or Eastern pantheist conceptions. Though God the Father Almighty in three Persons upholds the souls of men and maintains life and creation, His substance is not within nature (space-time dimension) as pantheism maintains, but outside of it. Sinful men live within nature and are burdened by time and mortality; God is not.
Second, the specific denial of the Father logically negates Jesus the Christ, the Word who was in the beginning (John 1), was with God, and is God from the creation of all things (1 John 1). In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus is the Angel who spoke mouth to mouth to Moses (Num. 12:6-9; John 9:20) and at sundry times and in many ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all (Hebrews 1:1) Jesus the Christ is the incarnate Son of God who is the life and light of men, who by His shed blood on the Cross died for the remission of all sins and bestowed the privilege of adoption on all who put their faith in Him.
Therefore, to deny the Holy Father is to logically deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, hence,
every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist . . . and even now already is it in the world (1 John 4:3).
According to Peter (2 Peter 2:1), falling stars will work among the faithful, teaching damnable heresies that deny the Lord, cause the fall of men into unbelief, and bring destruction upon themselves:
The natural parents of modern unbelief turn out to have been the guardians of belief. Many thinking people came at last to realize that it was religion, not science or social change that gave birth to unbelief. Having made God more and more like man---intellectually, morally, emotionally---the shapers of religion made it feasible to abandon God, to believe simply in man. (James Turner of the University of Michigan in American Babylon, Richard John Neuhaus, p. 95)
Falling Stars and Damnable Heresy
Almost thirty years ago, two well-respected social science scholars, William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark found themselves alarmed by what they saw as a rising tide of irrationalism, superstition and occultism---channeling cults, spirit familiars, necromancers, Wiccans, Satanists, Luciferians, goddess worshippers, 'gay' shamans, Hermetic magicians and other occult madness at every level of society, particularly within the most influential--- Hollywood, academia and the highest corridors of political power.
Like many scientists, they were equally concerned by Christian opposition to naturalistic evolution. As is common in the science community, they assumed the cause of these social pathologies was somehow due to fundamentalism, their term for authentic Christian theism as opposed to liberalized Christianity. Yet to their credit, the research they undertook to discover the cause was conducted both scientifically and with great integrity. What they found was so startling it caused them to re-evaluate their attitude toward authentic Christian theism. Their findings led them to say:
"It would be a mistake to conclude that fundamentalists oppose all science (when in reality they but oppose) a single theory (that) directly contradicts the bible. But it would be an equally great mistake to conclude that religious liberals and the irreligious possess superior minds of great rationality, to see them as modern personalities who have no need of the supernatural or any propensity to believe unscientific superstitions. On the contrary...they are much more likely to accept the new superstitions. It is the fundamentalists who appear most virtuous according to scientific standards when we examine the cults and pseudo-sciences proliferating in our society today." ("Superstitions, Old and New," The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. IV, No. 4; summer, 1980)
In more detail they observed that authentic born again Christians are far less likely to accept cults and pseudoscientific beliefs while the irreligious and liberalized Christians (i.e., progressive Catholics, Protestant emergent, NAR, word faith, prosperity gospel) are open to unscientific notions. In fact, these two groups are most disposed toward occultism.
As Bainbridge and Stark admitted, evolution directly contradicts the Bible, beginning with the Genesis account of creation ex nihilo. This means that evolution is the antithesis of the Genesis account. For this reason, discerning Christians refuse to submit to the evolutionary thinking that has swept Western and American society. Nor do they accept the evolutionary theism brought into the whole body of the Church by weak, tepid, indecisive, or apostate clergy.
Over eighty years ago, Rev. C. Leopold Clarke wrote that priests who embrace evolution (evolutionary theists) are apostates from the Truth as it is in Jesus. (1 John2:2) Rev. Clarke, a lecturer at a London Bible college, discerned that evolution is the antithesis to the Revelation of God in the Deity of Jesus Christ, thus it is the greatest and most active agent of moral and spiritual disintegration:
It is a battering-ram of unbelief---a sapping and mining operation that intends to blow Religion sky-high. The one thing which the human mind demands in its conception of God, is that, being Almighty, He works sovereignly and miraculously---and this is the thing with which Evolution dispenses .Already a tremendous effect, on a wide scale has been produced by the impact of this teaching---an effect which can only be likened to the collapse of foundations (Evolution and the Break-Up of Christendom, Philip Bell, creation.com, Nov. 27, 2012)
The faith of the Christian Church and of the average Christian has had, and still has, its foundation as much in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis, the book of beginnings revealed mouth to mouth by the Angel to Moses, as in that of the person and deity of Jesus Christ. But how horrible a travesty of the sacred office of the Christian Ministry to see church leaders more eager to be abreast of the times, than earnestly contending for the Faith once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). It is high time, said Rev. Clarke, that the Church,
. separated herself from the humiliating entanglement attending her desire to be thought up to date What, after all, have custodians of Divine Revelation to do making terms with speculative Biology, which has .no message of comfort or help to the soul? (ibid)
The primary tactic employed by priests eager to accommodate themselves and the Church to modern science and evolutionary thinking is predictable. It is the argument that evolution is entirely compatible with the Bible when we see Genesis, especially the first three chapters, in a non-literal, non-historical context. This is the argument embraced and advanced by mega-church pastor Timothy J. Keller.
With a position paper Keller published with the theistic evolutionary organization Bio Logos he joined the ranks of falling stars (Catholic and Protestant priests) stretching back to the Renaissance. Their slippery-slide into apostasy began when they gave into the temptation to embrace a non-literal, non-historical view of Genesis. (A response to Timothy Kellers Creation, Evolution and Christian Laypeople, Lita Cosner, Sept. 9, 2010, creation.com)
This is not a heresy unique to modern times. The early Church Fathers dealt with this damnable heresy as well, counting it among the heretical tendencies of the Origenists. Fourth-century Fathers such as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Ephraim the Syrian, all of whom wrote commentaries on Genesis, specifically warned against treating Genesis as an unhistorical myth or allegory. John Chrysostom strongly warned against paying heed to these heretics,
let us stop up our hearing against them, and let us believe the Divine Scripture, and following what is written in it, let us strive to preserve in our souls sound dogmas. (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, Fr. Seraphim Rose, p. 31)
As St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, higher theological, spiritual meaning is founded upon humble, simple faith in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis and one cannot apprehend rightly the Scriptures without believing in the historical reality of the events and people they describe. (ibid, Seraphim Rose, p. 40)
In the integral worldview teachings of the Fathers, neither the literal nor historical meaning of the Revelations of the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Angel who spoke to Moses, can be regarded as expendable. There are at least four critically important reasons why. First, to reduce the Revelation of God to allegory and myth is to contradict and usurp the authority of God, ultimately deny the deity of Jesus Christ; twist, distort, add to and subtract from the entire Bible and finally, to imperil the salvation of believers.
Scenarios commonly proposed by modern Origenists posit a cleverly disguised pantheist/immanent nature deity subject to the space-time dimension and forces of evolution. But as noted previously, it is sinful man who carries the burden of time, not God. This is a crucial point, for when evolutionary theists add millions and billions of zeros (time) to God they have transferred their own limitations onto Him. They have limited God and made Him over in their own image. This is not only idolatrous but satanic.
Additionally, evolution inverts creation. In place of Gods good creation from which men fell there is an evolutionary escalator starting at the bottom with matter, then progressing upward toward life, then up and through the life and death of millions of evolved creatures that preceded humans by millions of years until at long last an apish humanoid emerges into which a deity that is always in a state of becoming (evolving) places a soul.
Evolution amputates the entire historical precedent from the Gospel and makes Jesus Christ unnecessary as the atheist Frank Zindler enthusiastically points out:
The most devastating thing that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve, there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a saviour. And I submit that puts Jesus into the ranks of the unemployed. I think evolution absolutely is the death knell of Christianity. (Atheism vs. Christianity, 1996, Lita Cosner, creation.com, June 13, 2013)
None of this was lost on Darwins bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1985). Huxley was thoroughly familiar with the Bible, thus he understood that if Genesis is not the authoritative Word of God, is not historical and literal despite its symbolic and poetic elements, then the entirety of Scripture becomes a collection of fairytales resulting in tragic downward spiraling consequences as the Catholic Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation makes clear in part:
By denying the historical truth of the first chapters of Genesis, theistic evolutionism has fostered a preoccupation with natural causes almost to the exclusion of supernatural ones. By denying the several supernatural creative acts of God in Genesis, and by downplaying the importance of the supernatural activity of Satan, theistic evolutionists slip into a naturalistic mentality which seeks to explain everything in terms of natural causes. Once this mentality takes hold, it is easy for men to regard the concept of spiritual warfare as a holdover from the days of primitive superstition. Diabolical activity is reduced to material or psychological causes. The devil and his demons come to be seen as irrelevant. Soon hell joins the devil and his demons in the category of antiquated concepts. And the theistic evolutionist easily makes the fatal mistake of thinking that he has nothing more to fear from the devil and his angels. According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome, there is a tremendous increase in diabolical activity and influence in the formerly Christian world. And yet most of the bishops of Europe no longer believe in the existence of evil spirits .To the Fathers of the Church who believed in the truth of Genesis, this would be incredible. But in view of the almost universal acceptance of theistic evolution, it is hardly surprising. (The Difference it makes: The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation, Hugh Owen, kolbecenter.org)
Huxley had zero respect for modern Origenists and received enormous pleasure from heaping piles of hot coals and burning contempt upon them, thereby exposing their shallow-reasoning, hypocrisy, timidity, fear of non-acceptance, and unfaithfulness. With sarcasm dripping from his words he quipped,
I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the ten words were not written by Gods hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Romewhat is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands? (Darwins Bulldog---Thomas Huxley, Russell Grigg, creation.com, Oct. 14, 2008)
Pouring more contempt on them he asked,
When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that "the Flood came and destroyed them all," did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the narrative mentions Noahs wife, and his sons wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an illustration of Gods methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of Wolf when there is no wolf? If Jonahs three days residence in the whale is not an admitted reality, how could it warrant belief in the coming resurrection? Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his hearers to beware of great political and social changes, lest they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and did the deeds attributed to him? (ibid)
Concerning Matthew 19:5:
If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a type or allegory, what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology? (ibid)
And concerning Cor. 15:21-22:
If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive type, comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Pauls dialectic? (ibid)
After much thought, C.S. Lewis concluded that evolution is the central, most radical lie at the center of a vast network of lies within which modern Westerners are entangled while Rev. Clarke identifies the central lie as the Gospel of another Spirit. The fiendish aim of this Spirit is to help men lose God, not find Him, and by contradicting the Divine Redeemer, compromising Priests are serving this Spirit and its diabolical purposes. To contradict the Divine Redeemer is the very essence of unfaithfulness, and that it should be done while reverence is professed,
. is an illustration of the intellectual and moral topsy-turvydom of Modernism He whom God hath sent speaketh the Words of God, claimed Christ of Himself (John 3:34), and no assumption of error can hold water in the face of that declaration, without blasphemy. Evolutionary theists are serving the devil, therefore no considerations of Christian charity, of tolerance, of policy, can exonerate Christian leaders or Churches who fail to condemn and to sever themselves from compromising, cowardly, shilly-shallying priests---the falling stars who challenge the Divine Authority of Jesus Christ. (ibid)
The rebuttals, warnings and counsels of the Fathers against listening to Origenists (and their modern evolutionary counterparts) indicates that the spirit of antichrist operating through modern rationalistic criticism of the Revelation of God is not a heresy unique to our times but was inveighed against by early Church Fathers.
From the scholarly writings of the Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr. Seraphim Rose, to the incisive analysis, rebuttals and warnings of the Catholic Kolbe Center, creation.com, Creation Research Institute, Rev. Clarke, and many other stalwart defenders of the faith once delivered, all are a clear, compelling call to the whole body of the Church to hold fast to the traditional doctrine of creation as it was handed down from the Apostles, for as God spoke and Jesus is the Living Word incarnate, it is incumbent upon the faithful to submit their wills to the Divine Will and Authority of God rather than to the damnable heresy proffered by falling stars eager to embrace naturalistic science and the devil's antithesis--- evolution. But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord,
you have your choice: choose this day that which pleases you, whom you would rather serve
.but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15
Historically, people of Jesus time assumed the king called "god" was King David.
That's your opinion of Revelation 1:8.
Some people disagree.
Does that make them, in your opinion, "God Damned Heretics"?
Remember, on this thread, yours truly BroJoeK is called a "God Damned Heretic" because I point out that the New Testament contains no explicit Trinitarian language.
Nearly all our "top tier" Founders would also accept such an observation, including: Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison & Hamilton.
That's because their Christianity was influenced by Enlightenment Age ideas of theism/deism, Unitarianism and/or Freemasonry.
I cite as proof of this thesis the fact that not only the New Testament, but also most of our Founders' writings, contain no explicitly Trinitarian language.
Yes, they were all believers, but they did not believe exactly as you do, and so I am here asking that their beliefs be treated with forbearance and respect, especially on Free Republic News/Activism threads.
Yeah, they are still at it, but are being egged on as well. I wish this site had a “bozo” function where you can ignore the posts of certain posters. But I understand why the site owner does not do that.
Granted, however the historical evidence strongly suggests that virtually all the "top tier" Founders were to more-or-less degree influenced by Enlightenment ideas.
That many Americans later rejected such ideas does not negate what our Founders believed when they first declared independence and later wrote the Constitution.
redleghunter: "The contention that George Washington did not write much about Jesus Christ is a weak pillar to lean on.
We do have as historical record the prayer book GW used quite often."
But nobody is leaning on that pillar.
The question on the table here is not whether Washington believed in Jesus Christ -- he obviously did -- but whether Washington accepted the full-blown Trinitarian explanation of Jesus.
In historical fact, there's no evidence Washington did, nor did most other Founders, indeed the opposite.
Let us again clearly note a striking exception: Washington's close friend John Jay, our first Chief Justice.
My purpose here is to defend our Founders, in that interval between Awakenings, when Enlightenment ideas (i.e., Freedom of Religion) supported their efforts to declare independence and craft a new Constitution.
Will you grant such ideas forbearance and respect, here on Free Republic?
Sorry, but I didn't "get" that whole discussion on "traps".
Can you explain it?
BJK response: As always when you try to get inside my head, Ms boop, you get wrong -- most often exactly the opposite of truth.
In this case, I am here defending, amongst others, our Founders' religious beliefs against Ms irish's charge of "Damnable Heresy" and Kevmo's of being "God Damned Heretics".
If you think that is mere "divertissement" then you clearly don't yet "grasp" what's going on here.
Your frequent claims to the contrary notwithstanding, my own views correspond closely with those of most "top tier" founders, including Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison & Hamilton.
Yes, others had more traditional religious views, notably John Jay, but Ms irish's charge of "Damnable Heresy" she lays specifically at Enlightenment Age thinkers -- and that necessarily includes our Founders.
betty boop: "So he has been working overtime to depict spirited as an object of ridicule."
So now Ms irish, the charger of "Damnable Heresy", is the object of ridicule?
No, boop, she is the originator or ridicule.
If anything, she is only receiving back, in the mildest possible form, what she first dished out.
betty boop: "Doesn't seem very "Christian" to me..."
So calling yours truly, BroJoeK a "God Damned Heretic": that's 100% Christian, while reporting how ridiculous that is: that's not?
So who, pray tell us, has the most warped idea of what exactly "Christian" means?
betty boop: "For my part, I see very clearly the reasons for spirited's alarm.
I share her concerns."
Sure, in effect, you and Ms irish are reporting a multi-alarm fire, but when you throw in the Enlightenment Age thinking of our Founders, then you are giving the Fire Department the fire's wrong address.
Metaphorically, your alarm is putting out a fire that's not there, while the real fire burns-on unhindered.
Check #2541. Apparently there was, and still may be some sort of trap set. Not sure exactly what the nature of it is, but it seems to involve other Freepers who are “monitoring” my posts. From the sound of it there was no small amount of effort put into it, so it doesn’t seem likely it would be abandoned if it could still be used.
I think we have reached the point where you just like to repeat refuted statements. I posted three times the list of the Declaration signers and their Church affiliation. I conceded 4 of the 55 may be of your persuasion (whatever really that is) and the others were members of churches which had confessions of orthodox Protestant beliefs. Other than Carrol who was Roman Catholic, the remaining 51 signers were from churches which shared the Westminster Confession.
From the Westminster Confession, which is the confession of the majority of the Founders' churches:
CHAPTER II. Of God, and of the Holy Trinity.
I. There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and withal most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty.
II. God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them; he is the alone foundation of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth. In his sight all things are open and manifest; his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature; so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain. He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands. To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them.
III. In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
It is not paranoia if they are really after you:)
Oh I forgot. You only commented on the 2nd Great Awakening. The 1st Great Awakening which I posted twice started in the 1730s and was the key element which caused the Enlightenment movement to be of little effect on colonial America.
The poster is purposely twisting whatever is posted to him/her/it in order to fabricate a schism between conservatives and the founding principles of this dying being murdered Republic. Apparently someone connected to the current demonic regime has determined that separating conservatives from the Founders' values will divide sufficiently to allow the liars to prevent their removal from power. Dissonance serves the agenda ...
And just who is it that you think is coming back to this earth?
Indeed, FR no doubt started as a political forum. No doubt I have seen many agendas on the RF. I rarely go to the political discussions forums.
1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Indeed, it is clear Who is Coming back in Revelation chapter 1 and that is “the Alpha and Omega” which is the Same in Isaiah 44, and there it is clearly YHWH, and in Revelation 1 it is clearly Jesus Christ, therefore YHWH is the God of Israel, and therefore Jesus Christ is YHWH.
We do need to see what heretical apostasy is being promoted in order to stand against the assault of Satans perversion of Gods word.
That's a very long sentence, but it seems to say you think I want Kevmo to take back his accusation of "God Damned Heretic", right?
No, I don't expect Kevmo to ever "take back" his words.
What I do hope for is simple acknowledgement from people like yourself that those words are inappropriate, especially here in a News/Activism thread.
boatbums: "Do you think it is possible to be respectful of contrary views and still be able to call heretical views what they are - heresy?
Or do you think truth is really relative and there IS no absolute truth?"
FRiend, we are speaking here of orthodox versus un-orthodox religious beliefs.
Calling people of certain beliefs "un-orthodox" is equivalent to calling some dark-skinned individuals "African American" -- it is in no way hateful or murderous.
Calling un-orthodox people "God Damned Heretics" is equivalent to calling some dark-skinned people the "N-word."
In both terms there is historical hatred and even murderousness manifested.
So, they are inappropriate, especially on a Free Republic News/Activism thread.
boatbums: "It appears to me that your objection is to anyone having a right to call you a heretic and, by extension, any of the Founders who might have held views similar to yours, yet, there is a basis for being able to determine orthodoxy and, by contrast, heresy."
Terms like "orthodox" and "un-orthodox" are perfectly acceptable in any discussion.
Historically the accusation of "heresy" like "blasphemy" in Jesus time, was a threat of murder.
Even today, terms like "Damnable Heresy" (from spirited irish) and "God Damned Heretic" (from Kevmo) can only speak of a hatred bordering on the same murderousness faced by Jesus and many since.
boatbums: "Would you be so vocal against this right if a Muslim came onto the forum and decried the same treatment because he states Jesus was NOT the Son of God but only a prophet of God excelled by Mohamed?
Could you bring yourself to call that heresy and the one who spoke it a heretic?
Or would you insist that his ideas also be given respect and forbearance?"
By definition of the word "heresy", those professing different religions are unbelievers, not "heretics".
My request for forbearance and respect applies specifically to religious views of our Founders, and by extension, those we today call "restorationists".
These beliefs can be summarized with the phrase: Divinity of Christ, Unity of God.
My reasons should be obvious: if we reject our Founders' religious perspectives, then we are at least part-way to rejecting the Constitution they produced.
So I defend their religious beliefs in order to protect their constitution.
Is that not clear and obvious?
So your hypothetical question, involving somebody of a different religion defending our Founders' Constitution based on their different religion, well... it makes no sense.
boatbums: "Can anything qualify as heresy in your book?"
"Heresy" is simply a nasty way of saying "un-orthodox".
Compare: the "N-word" versus "African American".
Broadly speaking distinctions between "orthodox" and "un-orthodox" are well known.
People who today call themselves "restorationists" are clearly un-orthodox.
Likewise, many of our own Founders were "un-orthodox" in their religious views.
boatbums: "I may have missed it, but I don't recall you actually defining who or what you believe Jesus to be.
If, according to you, he is not Almighty God incarnate, then who is he?
Is he a created being, like an angel?
Please be specific - we like that here."
First, I'm here trying to defend our Founders' religious beliefs, along with those we now call "restorationists", all of which I more-or-less equate to my own.
Of course, I speak for nobody and no denomination except myself.
But I think that all of those people would tell you pretty much the same as I do, which is: whatever the New Testament says clearly, unequivocally about Jesus I accept as "gospel".
I don't necessarily reject your Trinitarian theology as right-for-you, but it seems to me more than what the NT actually says, and since God is utterly impossible for humans to define -- beyond His self-definition as "I AM" -- the trinity seems both unnecessary and unwarranted.
In short: let the New Testament be sufficient unto itself, without imposing later theology on it.
Yes, I agree that is "un-orthodox", but how it could possibly qualify as, or deserve the name, "God Damned Heresy" escapes me.
Yes, still waiting as well.
I'm saying that your listing is incomplete.
If you look up each individual in the "top tier" of our Founders -- Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamiltion -- you'll find that all of them were, as I've said here before, to a more-or-less degree influenced by Enlightenment Age ideas on theism/deism, Unitarian and/or Freemasonry.
All of those men are considered Christians, yet none (so far as I know) ever expressed a belief in full-blown Trinitarian theology.
Surely, George Washington himself was typical of our Founders.
Here is a discussion of his religious beliefs.
That's why I'm here defending them against possible claims of "Damnable Heresy".
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