“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.” Job 8:21 I have never seen someone talk about the “Doctrine of Fun.” And if we Christians are honest, most of the… More
The Christian and the State PART 4 – The American Experiment
The King who thinks he is God… soon becomes the devil.
It would be hard to look at history and find reason to disbelieve that statement.
According to Romans chapter 13, the State is God’s servant and will be judged by Him. Hence rulers who take the mantle of leadership in government will undergo a strict judgment and should rule according to justice and not ego or selfish ambition.
This simple but powerful concept rushed into the once barbaric Roman Empire after Constantine legalized Christianity in A.D. 312. The faith quickly “infected” culture and politics and turned the blood lusting Roman world into modern Europe, a hot bed of human flourishing. For nearly a thousand years after Constantine christened Rome, apostles, scholars, priests and bureaucrats yearned to create a legal system that would be deemed just by the God of their bible. Kings were told that they would be judged according to their righteousness and so pressure mounted on them to be just and fair to their subjects. In A.D. 1215 the Magna Carta was born of this urge and the origins of radical concepts of freedom for the common man were born. Unheard of ideals such as separation of Church and State, the legal system being above the King himself, protection from unlawful imprisonment and unfair taxation were in their embryonic form in “the Great Charter.”
Continue reading “The Christian and the State PART 4 – The American Experiment”
The Christian and the State PART 3 – The State
Webster’s dictionary, in 1828, defined politics as follows:
“Science of government; that part of ethics which consists in the regulation and government of a nation or state, for the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity… …and the protection of its citizens… …with the preservation and improvement of their morals.” Continue reading “The Christian and the State PART 3 – The State”
Insects & Intelligent Design
Josh Shoemaker and Gary Braness have edited a book by several scientific contributors that looks at the insect world and its amazing design, complexity and beauty. They graciously sent me an advanced copy for my review. I highly recommend their work. You can purchase it on Amazon or at Lampion Press. The following blog post is based on their work.
As humans we often get lost in our own world forgetting that, in terms of sheer numbers, we are a minority of the Animal Kingdom. Tiny creatures make up the vast portions of the food chain and ecosystem, and far from being simple, they are themselves micro robots filled with genetic information and complex biological systems. Let us take a crash course in the study of the ocean of micro machines we call the insect world. Continue reading “Insects & Intelligent Design”
The Christian and the State PART 2 – Community
In Part 1 of this series on politics we looked at the importance of studying our history so we can know what has and has not worked in government. Our past also helps us understand who we are and where we are going. Now, in our second part, we will look at the structure of human relationships.
Job 25:2 states “…He establishes order…” and 1 Corinthians 14:33 says “…God is not a God of disorder…” One look at nature and we can see this to be true. A chicken egg, for example, has over 10,000 pores to allow the chick embryo to breath. At 19 days the chick starts pecking downwards towards the air space which contains 6 hours of oxygen. This is enough to allow it to rest and then wrestle the rest of the way through the outer shell and be born. Continue reading “The Christian and the State PART 2 – Community”
The Christian and the State PART 1 – HISTORY
In this series we will be answering two simple questions. First, what is the government supposed to look like in an ideal world? Second, what is the Christian’s relationship to the government? Before we can answer this we have to dust off our tools. One essential tool is history. The past is the key to the present and the future. Everything we have learned we have learned from the past. Our medical knowledge is built on past trial and error. Our airplanes are constructed with the help of past mechanical successes and failures. So why would we build our civilization without referring to the past? It would be disastrous in medicine and aviation, and it would be equally a disaster in politics.
“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other…”
– Isaiah 46:9-11 Continue reading “The Christian and the State PART 1 – HISTORY”
What Is Intersection All About?
Average Dude’s Translation of Galatians
the following is a translation of the letter to the Galatians by Paul into my own understanding. This is NOT an official translation of Scripture. It is the words and ideas of a non-theologian. An average dude that wanted to put what he read in the bible into his own words. Based on his own knowledge and experience. Please use it as a interesting side exercise in your bible study. Nothing more!
Chapter 1
Verses 1 – 5:
Greetings from me, Paul. I’m an apostle. That means I was not given a certificate by a bunch of men or from a government. No, being an apostle means much more than that. It means, as you all know, that God Himself chose me to deliver a message from Him to all humanity. Only a few people have this apostle-hood. I’m one of them. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Father have sent me to you. God the Father brought Jesus back to life after the gruesome crucifixion. Men can’t do that. Only God can. And He did. Also, remember that all the hard core Christians who are suffering for the Gospel message have supported me in coming to you and they approve of what I have to say.
Is The Old Testament Moral? Part 6
When God formed His nation in the desert — and eventually the Promised Land — He taught His people more than His Moral Law. He gave the Israelites guidelines for public sanitation and day-to-day economics. The book of Leviticus contains such an oddity of “old world” laws that the modern reader can be confused as to why they would be necessary. It is often a target of ridicule for non-Christians to quote Old Testament guidelines, making Judaism seem like so many other voodoo religions with superstitious rules. Continue reading “Is The Old Testament Moral? Part 6”
