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Meditations on the sovereign God 007
Oaths 9 – Does God Forget?
Oaths 9 – Does God Forget?
As mentioned in a previous post on Oaths (Oaths 2), the first colonists arriving on the shores of the American continent were Christians, some more explicit in their commitment to a biblical system of civil government than others. The forms of government ranged from that of the Puritans, who explicitly sought to set up a biblical commonwealth, to that of the Pilgrims, who also sought to set up a civil government on Christian principles, to the Virginia settlement, which simply sought to continue the political Christianity of Great Britain. The most compromised of versions would put modern, 21st century America to shame with respect to commitment to the true God of the bible.
Oaths 6 – Debating the Test Oath at the Constitutional Convention
Oaths 6 – Debating the Test Oath at the Constitutional Convention
So, you might ask, “Didn’t the Constitutional Convention have a point in stating that a religious test oath wouldn’t work?” Here’s a portion of the debate on the matter.
One of the arguments at the Convention was that religious test oaths are ineffectual.
“In one of his famous letters of ‘a Landholder,’ published in December, 1787, Oliver Ellsworth, a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention and later Chief Justice of this Court, included among his strong arguments against religious test oaths the following statement:
” ‘In short, test laws are utterly ineffectual; they are no security at all, because men of loose principles will, by an external compliance, evade them. If they exclude any persons, it will be honest men, men of principle, who will rather suffer an injury than act contrary to the dictates of their consciences. . . .’ ”
But was this a logical & consistent position to take in regard to an oath? What about an oath to the Constitution? Couldn’t we, no, don’t we have people today who fraudulently take an oath to uphold the US Constitution? And don’t we want to exclude “honest men” who don’t hold to faith in the bible & Christ?
Continue reading “Oaths 6 – Debating the Test Oath at the Constitutional Convention”
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Heresies, Liberals, & Galatians 5:20
Heresies, Galatians 5:20
The ESV fails dramatically in certain portions of the scripture, indicating either a deception that has crept into the conservative view of scripture or a purposeful attempt to subvert the scripture by a liberal or liberals among the Translation editors. The error as to one particular word in the list of the works of the flesh is a deadly error in that it relieves heretics of having their sin in the list of those works. And it works to the benefit of those who attack, undermine, and take over conservative denominations.
The Sovereign God 011
The Sovereign God 010
The Matrix – Post 1
The Matrix – Too Complex to Pin Down
The Matrix has been studied from so many perspectives, perhaps showing how brilliant the movie is. There’s really no telling what the beliefs of the movie’s makers are; there’s such a montage of meaning in it. Analyzing all the underlying meaning is daunting, but that is not my goal with movies. Because I want to edify my Christian faith when watching a movie, I’m always going to gravitate to the biblical meanings that were either intentionally or accidentally in the movie. I believe it appears in all aspects of life even in artistic works. I don’t contend that there are no other meanings; I just don’t see the need to go there. Reviewing it from a biblical perspective only is still daunting. In the Matrix are the obvious Christian messages and the not so obvious. But it’s odd for a movie to be so wrapped up into a worldview that so parallels the Christian or biblical worldview as The Matrix does. It will take several posts to get anywhere with this movie, so here are my initial thoughts. Continue reading “The Matrix – Post 1”