Inflation is Theft
Category Archives: Law and Faith
Politics and Principles III
The Folly of Pragmatism
The Law and Laws: A Biblical Overview
The above article is something worth reading if you are interested in understanding the use of the Law in Scripture and how it applies to us today. Here is an excerpt:
I. Introduction
Paul says in Romans 7:14 that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.†Our attitude towards God’s law ought to mimic the Apostle Paul’s positive attitude. A very important interpretive principle should guide and direct our understanding and our application of God’s law to our lives and the lives of others, a principle that is often neglected or dismissed in this day and age: the principle of periodicity.
The Princeton scholar, Geerhardus Vos, summed this up well at the beginning of his book on Biblical Theology by stating:
- The method of Biblical Theology is in the main determined by the principle of historic progression. Hence the division of the course of revelation into certain periods. Whatever may be the modern tendency towards eliminating the principle of periodicity from historical science, it remains certain that God in the unfolding of revelation has regularly employed this principle. From this it follows that the periods should not be determined at random, or according to subjective preference, but in strict agreement with the lines of cleavage drawn by revelation itself. The Bible is, as it were, conscious of its own organism; it feels, what we cannot always say of ourselves, its own anatomy. The principle of successive Berith-makings (Covenant-makings), as marking the introduction of new periods, plays a large role in this, and should be carefully heeded.
Therefore, one of the foundational principles of correctly interpreting the Scriptures is that one respects and listens to the covenantal context of any given passage in Scripture when the meaning is being interpreted and application is made. To better understand the law, one must apply the principle of periodicity in studying the function of the law in the pre-fall, post-fall, and New Testament eras.
II. The Principle of Periodicity and the Pre-Fall era
First, in the Garden of Eden, Adam was under a covenant of works: there was law. The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) states, “God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience . . .†(19.1). In that garden the tree of life and the testing tree of the knowledge of good and evil contained the seeds of the gospel. The tree of life was essentially a symbol of the best life that awaited Adam if he were to pass his probation in that garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signified the law because it was given as a “trial of obedience and by sin (no less than that) [was] made the occasion of death and the minister of condemnation.”
Recognizing the role and application of the law as conditioned by the covenantal context is especially important in the differences evidenced between the pre-fall situation and that situation following the fall of mankind. For example, works play a fundamentally different role in the pre-fall covenant, a covenant of works, than they do in the post-fall covenantal period, in the covenant of grace. In the pre-fall covenant, works function as a condition of acquiring life; in the post-fall covenant they follow the act of justification and demonstrate that one has life in the Son.
Let’s now turn our attention to the periods after the fall…
American News Media: “Americans are Stupid”
If there’s anything that I come away with tonight regarding the third and final Presidential debate, it is this: The national news media outlets have told, more clearly than ever, that the American people are stupid and scared and that they will end up electing the candidate who can speak with the most eloquence and stay the calmest during a debate.
“As long as you look ‘presidential’ then we think you are going to win!”
That is basically what I heard every single news outlet and media pundit say tonight after the debate. But are they right? Is the fact that so many of us are facing uncertain times and wondering about job security and retirement going to dictate that the majority of States elect a president who presents himself the best and talks a good talk and says he walks a good walk?
Honestly, I don’t know… I’m sitting here writing this and I’m wondering how so many people could be in favor of giving all three sectors of elected government over to the control of the Democratic party this coming November? I’m sitting here wondering if I will actually be able to blog about these things in just a few years time if the Internet becomes regulated and our freedom of speech is taken away from us by an unchecked liberal ideology that “scared” people decided to give control of their lives over to one early November day in 2008?
The liberals in this world are not interested in free speech unless it benefits them. They are not interested in freedom unless it’s the way they say things should be. This is why an Obama Presidency will be one of the most uncertain times that America will have ever had to face. If the Senate and the Congress decide to roll out all the party favors with a Democratic President who will sign things into being… what it there to stop this country from having its foundation of freedom destroyed and the most socialistic laws implemented in its history? Remember, the Constitution is only a force if you have “checks and balances.” But when all the means are controlled by one ideological center that wants to enforce its rule of law on everyone… then no old piece of paper will make a difference anymore than rotting crap will be avoided by people who could care less about cleaning it up.
Well, enough of my lamenting… Because I do have hope… And it’s NOT in this country called America. I have hope that one day, no matter what may come in the near future to American politics, I will inherit a New Heavens and a New Earth where righteousness dwells and suffering and sin are no more! Through the power of God’s Spirit I can accept whatever His sovereign hand will bring me and I can press forward toward the upward goal of knowing Christ Jesus, the true Lord and Ruler of this world! Because of His Kingdom and His Rule at the right hand of the living God, I can rest in His promise that He is making all things new. Even though I may one day lose my freedoms that have been so good to have in this amazing country, I will still bless the name of Yahweh and I will always proclaim… Maranatha, Lord Jesus! Maranatha!
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,
Glenn Jones
Politics and Principles II
Are Bailouts Compassionate?
Tyranny of the Majority?
Remember to tell the government and everyone else in this “Democracy” (actually a Republic) to STOP stealing from you and I. This is really evil stuff that the Government (Republicans and Democrats) continue to do to us. How long O, Lord? How long?
Culture News: Connecticut Judges Mandate Same-Sex Marriage
The Washington Post reports:
The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage yesterday, ruling that it “discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation” in violation of the state constitution.
The 4 to 3 ruling made Connecticut the nation’s third state to legalize gay marriage through the courts, joining Massachusetts and California.
While the case was pending in a trial court, the Connecticut legislature passed a law in 2005 that permitted same-sex couples to enter into civil unions that grant essentially the same rights available to married couples. But the law defined marriage as “the union of one man and one woman,” and the focus of the case shifted to whether this stipulation was permissible under the state constitution.
“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote in the majority opinion. “To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.”
Under Connecticut’s constitution, therefore, “same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry,” Palmer wrote. [Continue Reading…]
Go here for some good commentary on the event.
Culture News: Colorado’s Bible ban faces court challenge
FAITH UNDER FIRE
Colorado’s Bible ban faces court challenge
Dems combine to banish ‘anti-gay discrimination’
Posted: October 08, 2008By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
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Tim Gill, the secretive Colorado software multi-millionaire and behind-the-scenes “gay” activist who has boasted of his strategy to buy up campaigns for pro-homosexual candidates, soon may be learning he cannot buy the First Amendment.
Gill, whose strategic campaign donations in 2004 largely are credited with turning the GOP majority in the Colorado statehouse into a Democratic bastion and whose work in 2006 helped install Democrat Bill Ritter, a vigorously pro-abortion campaigner, in the governor’s office, has been blamed by Christian organizations for the success of a new Colorado law that bans the Bible in the state.
But the Christian Family Alliance of Colorado and Liberty Counsel are teaming up on a soon-to-be-filed lawsuit expected to highlight the apparent First Amendment violations of SB200, the state law that bans references to homosexuals that could be perceived as “discriminatory” and raises the issue of whether the law applies to the Bible’s label of homosexuality as an “abomination.”
Politics and Principles
Here are two thought provoking videos from RC Sproul, Jr. regarding Politics and Principles. Please leave your comments if you have any. Enjoy!
Little Devils and Little Devils
Sphere Sovereignty
Christian Converts from Islam: Landmark Decision in UK
From the ACLJ:
An immigration court of appeals in the United Kingdom has, for the first time, recognized the plight of Syrian Evangelical Christians with Muslim backgrounds seeking asylum in the United Kingdom.
In this precedent-setting victory, the European Centre for Law and Justice (the ECLJ, based in Strasbourg, France) represented the young couple (whose identity is being withheld to protect their safety) who was granted refugee status in the U.K. The court recognized that if the couple returned to Syria – the country of origin of the husband – they would face very real physical threats, possibly resulting in their deaths. The court granted the appeal on both asylum and human rights grounds.
The couple, former adherents of Islam, converted to Evangelical Christianity (the husband in 2003 and the wife in 2005) and thereafter became open witnesses of the Christian faith to Muslims through Internet chat rooms.
As a result of their conversion, which is deemed apostasy under Sharia law and subject to death, the couple began receiving death threats including a video of a beheading. The husband’s family told him that if he did not return to Islam, the family would move against him and ”wash their shame” – a phrase that he was told meant he would be put to death.
In its landmark decision, the court recognized that a true commitment to Evangelical Christianity requires evangelism, and that the circumstances of such converts to Evangelicalism in the Muslim world do pose a serious threat to life.
This is a significant and groundbreaking decision that clearly puts the focus on the fact that many converts to Christianity from Islam face real danger, including the ultimate penalty of death. This important decision will not go unnoticed in the international arena, and we’re delighted that it provides protection for Christian converts who are at great risk because of their faith and their desire to share it.
”This is truly a landmark day in the United Kingdom as a nation awakens to the ever-growing threat of radical Islam and the plight of Christians in the Middle East,” said Roger Kiska, Legal Counsel of the ECLJ. ”I couldn’t be happier with the decision and the role that the ECLJ played in the case.”
The ECLJ worked closely with the ACLJ on this issue. The organizations provided legal advice and support throughout the case, as well as the only key expert testimony at the hearing on the threat posed to converts from Islam in Syria.
The ACLJ also enlisted the assistance of six members of the U.S. Congress who sent a letter to the U.K. appeals court in August urging asylum for the couple. They asked the appeals court to protect the couple, acknowledging that they ”would face severe religious persecution as a result of their conversion from Islam to Christianity.”
The letter also recognized the couple faced a ”credible threat,” and that their lives were in danger. The letter concluded:
”….based upon the United Kingdom’s strong history of protecting religious refugees, we strongly urge the government of the United Kingdom to spare (the couple) and grant religious asylum in this case.”
Nova is fear mongering
Tonight, I just finished watching the PBS Nova special on the Dover School Board controversy over Intelligent Design and Evolution. It is called “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” if you want to search for it online.
The most amazing thing about the whole show was the glaring BIAS that Nova had for the whole controversy and the very good, but extremely BAD, acting that they portrayed in the trial reenactments at the courthouse where the controversy took place most noticeably. In other words, Nova made the Intelligent Design proponents look like goof balls and the Evolutionary proponents look like saints and eloquent speakers who had everything figured out to a tee.
This is just plain silly. And Nova knows that the controversy is so much bigger than this. So much so that they had to make the Intelligent Design viewpoint look like inconsistent, Muslim terrorists in order to make their case (and make themselves feel better). 🙂
In the end, they still did nothing but preach to the choir and try to make the uninformed members of the choir feel more fear and worry about the whole situation than they already felt before the broadcast.
If Nova really wants the respect of non-Evolutionary sympathisers and proponents… then they are just going to have to do a better job in the future. Nova needs to stop their fear mongering and start talking about important things… like the reason why Evolution has been around as popular science for ONLY 150 years and not longer. The point being… yes, Evolution has helped us understand some things better. But it’s search for the “origin” of species, ad infinitum, will never come to a concrete answer because the history records show that God created all creatures according to their OWN KIND. This implies that the links between animals is not a tree of common descent, but a web of common structures built by their Creator God who sought to reveal His glory in and through the whole creation.
In my opinion, the more important topic of study is Baraminology, the study of animal kinds. This field of science that studied animals WITHOUT respect to “common descent” theories of Evolution. This is the type of tried and true science that has been done for millennia, seeking to understand God’s creation that reveals more about Him and His goodness, greatness, and power. The honest truth is that all the great scientists of old who made great advancements and achievements and who helped us better understand the world we live in today… they all believed in a Creator God and sought to think His thoughts after Him and discover the glory of His creation.
Nova’s problem is not its failure to see the fallacies within Evolutionary theory. Instead, Nova’s problem is its failure to glorify God in all things. If Nova desired to think God’s thoughts after Him and to understand His creation in order to better understand and enjoy God… well… things would be a whole lot different now wouldn’t they? 🙂
Enough of the commentary. Enjoy your week and seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will become clear in their own time.
In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,
