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“The Scriptures”
The Scriptures, of course, were "the Old Testament" as we think of them today. Paul was telling Timothy to continue being a Theonomist.
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Timothy 1:5
5When
I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.
2
Timothy 3:14-17
14 But
continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; |
• This was the view of Jesus toward "the Scriptures" (the Old Testament):
Matthew
21:42
Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvellous in our eyes?
Matthew
22:29
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Matthew
26:54
But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Matthew
26:56
But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.
Mark
12:10
And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:
Mark
12:24
And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
Mark
14:49
I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
Mark
15:28
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
Luke
4:21
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luke
24:27
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke
24:32
And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
Luke
24:45
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
John
2:22
When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
John
5:39
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
John
7:38
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John
7:42
Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?
John
10:35
If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
John
13:18
I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
John
17:12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture
might be fulfilled.
John
19:24
They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment
among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
John
19:28
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
John
19:36
For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
John
19:37
And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
John
20:9
For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
• The Apostles shared this view:
Acts
1:16
Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took
Jesus.
Acts
8:32
The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
Acts
8:35
Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
Acts
17:2
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Acts
17:11
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Acts
18:24
And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
Acts
18:28
For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
Romans
1:2
(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
Romans
4:3
For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Romans
9:17
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all
the earth.
Romans
10:11
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Romans
11:2
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,
Romans
15:4
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans
16:26
But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
1
Corinthians 15:3
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1
Corinthians 15:4
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Galatians
3:8
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Galatians
3:22
But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Galatians
4:30
Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
1
Timothy 5:18
For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
2
Timothy 3:15
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2
Timothy 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
James
2:8
If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
James
2:23
And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
James
4:5
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
1
Peter 2:6
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
2 Peter 3:16
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the
other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Peter (and other Christians in the Apostolic age) knew which "books" of the Bible were actually "Scriptures." The Word of God is "self-attesting." This knowledge of "the canon" existed before any church council acknowledged what the early Christians already knew.
The Scriptures are not just paper and ink. They are the voice of God. They are living and powerful.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Isaiah 55:11
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting
down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
Deuteronomy 32:2
2 Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
Matthew 24:35
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Luke 8:11-16
11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest
they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time
of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no
fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
16 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.
John 6:63
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Romans 10:17
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 3:6-9
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he
who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in
truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Hebrews 6:7
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
James 1:18
18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
1 Peter 1:23
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
Ephesians 1:9-11
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according
to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
But we must be doers of the Word, not hearers only.
James 1:22; Romans 2:13
The Word of God is the Sword of the Lord.
It is more powerful than the coercive weapons of the State.
Ephesians 6:17
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
Isaiah 49:2
And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me.”
Revelation 1:16
He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
Revelation 2:16
Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Revelation 19:15
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Revelation 19:21
And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God.
I believe Jesus is the Word made flesh.
I worship God's Word.
I worship the Jesus of Scripture (not a Jesus of my own imagination).
The word "Scripture" (Greek: γραφη) means "something written" (Latin scrīptūra, writing). What is written is the Word of God.
I worship the Word of God.
God gave to humanity His Word in written form.
Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (from the Latin, caro, flesh); the Bible is the Word of God
inscriptured (Latin scrīptūra, writing).
I worship the Word of God.
I worship the incarnate Word; I worship the inscriptured Word.
I do not have direct sensory access to the flesh of the incarnate Word.
I do not have direct sensory access to the "autographa" of the inscriptured Word.
The "powers that be" conspired to put the incarnate Word to death.
Governments have always attempted to erase all copies of the inscriptured Word.
Nevertheless, both the incarnate Word and the inscriptured Word are still living.
I worship the Word of God.
This link shows how the New Testament Scriptures speak of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Princeton Theologian B.B. Warfield observes that the Scriptures treat the Scriptures "as if they were God":
Galatians. 3:8, "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed" (Gen. xii. 1-3);
Romans 9:17, "The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up" (Ex. ix. 16).
It was not, however, the Scripture (which did not exist at the time) that, foreseeing God's purposes of grace in the future, spoke these precious words to Abraham, but God Himself in His own person: it was not the not-yet-existent Scripture that made this announcement to Pharaoh, but God Himself through the mouth of His prophet Moses.
In other passages, God is spoken of as if He were the Scriptures:
Matthew 19:4, 5, "And he answered and said, Have ye not read that He which made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain shall become one flesh?" (Gen. ii. 24);
Hebrews 3:7, "Wherefore, even as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye shall hear his voice," etc. (Ps. xcv. 7);
Acts 4:24, 25, "Thou art God, who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things" (Ps. ii. 1);
Acts 13:34, 35, "He that raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, . . . hath spoken in this wise, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David" (Isa. lv. 3); "because He saith also in another [Psalm], Thou wilt not give thy holy one to see corruption" (Ps. xvi. 10);
Hebrews 1:6, "And when He again bringeth in the first born into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship him" (Deut. xxxii. 43); "and of the angels He saith, Who maketh his angels wings, and his ministers a flame of fire" (Ps. civ. 4); "but of the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," etc., (Ps. xlv. 7) and, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning," etc. (Ps. cii. 26).
It is not God, however, in whose mouth these sayings are placed in the text of the Old Testament: they are the words of others, recorded in the text of Scripture as spoken to or of God.
We must learn how to worship God's Word.
Many Christians downplay the Scriptures. They say they would rather have a "relationship" with Jesus. They only want to worship "the name of Jesus."
But the Scripture says that God "has magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name" (Psalm 138:2).
It turns out they don't like the Bible because it has lots of commands, while their own version of Jesus is much nicer.
God's "Name" is in a sense a Word for God. A divine Word. An authoritative Word.
I believe in God. There are a lot of people in churches on Sunday morning who say "I believe in God," but what evidence is there of this on Monday through Saturday?
The Westminster Confession and Catechisms set forth a "Calvinist" theology. Many people hate that term. If I were to describe what I think God is like, they would say they don't believe in that kind of God. And they're even more offended that I try to impress this "Calvinist" theology into every area of my life, including Monday through Saturday.
I believe God is the creator. The Bible says God created everything there is, probably no more than 10,000 years ago. (Yikes! A "creationist!" A "fundamentalist!")There is an unbridgeable gap between the Creator and the creature (Romans 1:25).
Before the Creator created all that is, the Creator knew the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 21:6, 13). God knows the future because God created it. The future has already been created. This is called "predestination," meaning the the destination of the creation was designed and set in motion before ("pre") it was even created. The path of every molecule and sub-atomic particle in the universe was set in motion, and is carefully and lovingly conducted by God through history to its predestined end. The thoughts I think and the feelings I feel are wave-particles of energy and chemicals that travel across the synapses of my brain and through my heart and "reins." All predestined by God. Some say my belief makes man a "robot." But God did not create man as a robot. You and I both know that we are not "robots." God created man in His Image. That means when I think and plan, when I paint a picture or compose a symphony, when I build a log cabin or a skyscraper that can house 25,000 people, I am engaged in the wonder-filled task of exercising dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28), something animals do not do.
No matter how glorious I think man is, by virtue of his being created in the Image of God, there are those who feel that my conception of God "violates" human "free will."
"Arminians" call me a "Calvinist." They don't want me in their churches.That's a place to transition to the second of my propositions. I believe that if you believe in "free will," you do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
If you believe in "free will," or that God cannot "violate" man's "free will," then you cannot logically believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
The words in the Bible were written by the hands of human beings, but I believe the Bible is the Word of God. God speaks through those human words. This says something about the words, something about the human authors of the Bible, as well as something about the God.
God wrote the Bible using "human pens." God made their hands move the way He wanted them to move. In the Bible, the will of God is sovereign over the will of man. 1 Peter 1:21 says
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Of course, it was the "will" of Moses and Isaiah and Paul and other authors to write down words. Moses wrote what God told him to write, but perhaps Moses would say he wrote those words "of my own free will." Nobody pointed a gun at Moses' head and forced him to write. But what Peter says is controversial. Even though Moses and other Biblical authors freely wrote the words they intended to write, God was doing something through them and the words they wrote. They did not write those words solely by their own "free will." Their hands moved the way God willed them to move.
It's true, we can tell the differences between the words Moses wrote, the words Luke wrote, the words John wrote, and the words Paul wrote. They all had their own individual personalities and writing styles. But the men who wrote the words of Scripture had their lives — their parents, training, and life experiences — all orchestrated by God so that — guided by the Holy Spirit — they would write the exact words that God wanted to be written so that God could communicate exactly what He wanted to communicate to the human race. Their words are God's words. God's will trumps their will. Paul told Timothy that God "breathed out" His words through these human authors (2 Timothy 3:16, [theópneustos (Strong's #2315, from 2316 /theós, "God" and 4154 /pnéō, "breathe out"]).
To say that the Bible is the Word of God is to say that God's will is sovereign over the will of man. Some people find this deeply offensive. God made the mouths of Moses, David, and Isaiah speak the words God wanted spoken. God made the hands of Matthew, Paul, and John write the words God wanted written.
I don't use the term "free will," because secular philosophers use that term to suggest that if there is a god, such a god doesn't know what's going on, and is constantly being surprised at what the will of man does. So I would never say that I have "free will" and can do something that will catch God off-guard. God knows what I think and what I feel and what I will do because He predestined it all. But I am not a rock, or an insect, or an animal, or a robot. I am a human being created in the Image of God. Amazing.Some will say that since God predestines even sin, and then punishes sinners for the sin God predestined them to commit, it would be better if sinners had never been born. They had no "free will." They had no choice. "That's not fair." And if it's not "fair," it can't be true. But Mark 14:21 says exactly that: God predestined Jesus to be sinfully put to death:
"The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”
That's pretty scary. Judas had no choice in whether he would be born. God created Judas without asking Judas for permission, and predestined Judas to commit a terrible sin (John 19:11).
But Judas was created in the Image of God. All sinners are created in the Image of God. And in the end, every knee will bow and every sinner will admit that God's Judgment is fair (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11). All sinners will say "I admit. I sinned." All sinners will admit that God is just. Even though He predestined them to sin (Romans 9; Isaiah 10).
I said I believe the Bible is the Word of God. That means I worship the Bible. That alarms nearly every church I know.
The Bible claims to be the Word of God. It claims that God speaks to human beings. It claims that God used human beings the way I am using a keyboard as I write this.
Let's consider first the claim that God speaks, and the Bible is God speaking to us.
Imagine that a UFO lands on the White House lawn, and an extraterrestrial being hands the President a Peace Treaty. The ET says, "Read this Treaty. It tells you how to cure cancer, end war, obtain free energy, eliminate the threat of global warming, and extend lifespans by hundreds of years. If you agree to abide by its terms, our race will help your race. If you do not agree, we will destroy you. We will wait right here for your answer."
Network television will have their cameras at the White House 24/7. Commentators will be speculating endlessly about what the extraterrestrial Treaty says, and whether or not the President will accept their terms. People will cancel vacations and having children, breathlessly waiting for the decision, knowing their entire future hangs in the balance.
If there are any ET's in the universe, they were created by the God of the Bible. His Word is more important than the word of any ET. But we spend more time watching CNN or FoxNews than we spend listening to the Bible, even though the news channels aren't covering anything as interesting as a UFO on the White House lawn. For some, "news" doesn't get our attention as much as sports, soaps, or celebrities.
All the while, we have a book from the Creator of the universe sitting un-read on a shelf next to the Flat Screen TV.
What the heck is wrong with us?
The Bible is a Peace Treaty that God is willing to enter into with those who have been in rebellion against Him. The Treaty calls for unconditional surrender on our part.
Why you should
I advocate sweeping radical social changes in church, in politics, in family, and in every area of life. My proposals are based on the belief that the Bible is the Word of God and a blueprint for all human action.
From time to time I am asked about the appropriateness of mixing Christianity and politics. Many Americans mistakenly believe that the Constitution makes it illegal (or at least inappropriate) to endorse the true religion rather than false religions, and certainly inappropriate (or even illegal) to promote the true religion.
These assumptions are myths, as the links above demonstrate. America was established as a Christian nation, on the belief that God had communicated His Word in the Bible.
In the early 1600's, public schools were formed in America to make sure everyone knew the Bible. Review the history here. Since America was a Protestant nation, America agreed with the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation, "Sola Scriptura."
The purpose of this webpage is to explain why I believe the Bible is not just another book, but is the Word of God.
Greater minds than mine have come to this conclusion. Among them, Simon Greenleaf, a founder of the Harvard Law School, as well as nearly every Signer of the Constitution. They gave us an "Experiment in Liberty" that produced the most prosperous and admired nation in history. Their experiment was replaced in the 20th century with a secular experiment in government central planning, which has brought poverty and mass death wherever it was tried. Some of the Founders toyed with deistic and "Enlightenment" ideas against the Bible, but if they were here today, they would see where these ideas have led us, and would whole-heartedly repudiate them.
What did America's Founding Fathers mean when they spoke of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God?"
They were talking about the Bible.
John Locke (1632-1704) was a Christian philosopher who had a great influence in America. He said:
[T]he Law of Nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men's actions must . . . be conformable to the Law of Nature, i.e., to the will of God.
[L]aws human must be made according to the general laws of Nature, and without contradiction to any positive law of Scripture, otherwise they are ill made.
Locke, Two Treatises on Government, Bk II sec 135. (quoting Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 1.iii, § 9 )
William Blackstone (1723-1780) was cited more frequently than Locke by America's Founding Fathers. In 1810 Thomas Jefferson wryly commented that American lawyers used Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England with the same dedication and reverence that Muslims used the Koran.
Blackstone described the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God in a chapter in his Commentaries entitled, "Of the Nature of Laws in General." An excerpt is found here. Among the highlights:
Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. And consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should, in all points, conform to his Maker's will.
This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.
This law of nature, being coeval [existing at the same time - ed.] with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original. The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity [happiness].
Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. [more]
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Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835: “They [the 17th-century Christian Colonials] exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now presents to the world is to be found [in perfect fulfillment of Deuteronomy 4:5-8,3 demonstrating the continuing veracity of Yahweh’s moral law and its accompanying blessings, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14].
“Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650. The legislators of Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ … copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.…”4
John Clark Ridpath, History of the United States, 1874: “In June of 1639 the leading men of New Haven held a convention in a barn, and formally adopted the Bible as the constitution of the State. Everything was strictly conformed to the religious standard. The government was called the House of Wisdom…. None but church members were admitted to the rights of citizenship.”5
William Holmes McGuffey, McGuffey’s Sixth Eclectic Reader, 1879: “Their form of government was as strictly theocratical insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil authority among them distinct from ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Whenever a few of them settled a town, they immediately gathered themselves into a church; and their elders were magistrates, and their code of laws was the Pentateuch…. God was their King; and they regarded him as truly and literally so….”6
Public schools were originally created to teach everyone the Bible. America's Founding Fathers believed a Bible-based education was "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind."
I agree with influential Americans of centuries past rather than the pretend-Americans of today.
In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville made these observations concerning American civilization and the Bible.
At the extreme borders of the Confederate States, upon the confines of society and of the wilderness, a population of bold adventurers have taken up their abode, who pierce the solitudes of the American woods, and seek a country there, in order to escape that poverty which awaited them in their native provinces. As soon as the pioneer arrives upon the spot which is to serve him for a retreat, he fells a few trees and builds a loghouse. Nothing can offer a more miserable aspect than these isolated dwellings. The traveller who approaches one of them towards nightfall, sees the flicker of the hearth-flame through the chinks in the walls; and at night, if the wind rises, he hears the roof of boughs shake to and fro in the midst of the great forest trees. Who would not suppose that this poor hut is the asylum of rudeness and ignorance? Yet no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling which shelters him. Everything about him is primitive and unformed, but he is himself the result of the labor and the experience of eighteen centuries. He wears the dress, and he speaks the language of cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious of the future, and ready for argument upon the present; he is, in short, a highly civilized being, who consents, for a time, to inhabit the backwoods, and who penetrates into the wilds of the New World with the Bible, an axe, and a file of newspapers.
Democracy in America, Part I., Chapter XVII: Principal Causes Maintaining The Democratic Republic—Part III
This is true even if you don't believe that it is the very Word of God, but just a human document.
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There are three reasons I believe the Bible is the Word of God.
First, I like the story.
I like the idea of being created in the Image of God.
I like the idea of loving one's enemies rather than taking vengeance on them.
I like the idea of God becoming man to reconcile man to Himself.
I like the idea of beating swords into plowshares and everyone dwelling safely under his own Vine & Fig Tree.
I like the idea of the Prince of Peace reigning around the world.
If I look at myself, the world around me, and the history of the world through the lens of the Bible, it makes sense in an attractive way.
But a nice story is just a fairy tale if it's not really true. How do I know the Bible is the Word of a true and trustworthy God?
One reason I believe the Bible is because unbelief is horrifying.
I don't like the idea of being created by random, meaningless, impersonal forces of "nature," that make me fundamentally no different than a rat or a pig.
I don't like the idea that there's no significance to one randomly-mutated collection of chemicals raping, stabbing, and killing another randomly-mutated collection of chemicals. Or an entire nation of evolved chemicals.
I don't like the idea of the military-industrial complex killing millions of human beings to protect overseas corporate investments.
I don't like the idea of a world where everyone thinks he's his own god, and all these would-be gods plunging the world into violence and chaos.
If the Bible is the Word of God, I have a good reason for believing that man has value. If the Bible is false, the idea that randomly-mutated conglomerations of chemicals have value is a fairy tale.
Of course, if you want to rape and kill whenever you feel like it, denying the inspiration of the Bible is a necessary first step in avoiding cognitive dissonance. The next step is to reduce absolutes to personal preference:
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Birth or Abortion?
Nurture or Torture?
It's all just a matter of personal taste.
I've never heard an argument against the Bible that is compelling enough for me to reject the Bible and embrace the alternative of meaninglessness. In fact, my
Second reason for believing in the Bible is that it is demonstrably a miraculous book.
Most of the arguments against the Bible share common traits with one of the most common: "The Telephone Game" argument.
At a party, the first participant in "the Telephone Game" will whisper a sentence to the person in the next chair, who whispers the message to the person in the next chair, and so on around the circle. The final person in the "phone chain" reveals the message, which is compared with the first participant's real message. The two are found to be totally different, and everybody laughs.
As the argument goes, this is like the transmission of the Bible over the centuries. Nobody involved in copying the Holy Scriptures took it all that seriously, they whimsically changed words, sentences, or paragraphs to suit their fancy, and the Bible we have today bears no resemblance whatsoever to what Moses, Isaiah, Matthew (or whoever started the chain) had in mind.
This argument can be made to sound very educated and sophisticated, but it is pathetic and juvenile.
Here is some information on the actual transmission of the Biblical text.
In 1912, Frederic Kenyon was knighted Sir Frederic Kenyon for his service as Director and Head Librarian of the British Museum. He describes how the Jews meticulously copied the Old Testament:
Besides recording varieties of reading, tradition, or conjecture, the Massoretes undertook a number of calculations which do not enter into the ordinary sphere of textual criticism. They numbered the verses, words, and letters of every book. They calculated the middle word and the middle letter of each. The enumerated verses which contained all the letters of the alphabet, or a certain number of them; and so on. These trivialities, as we may rightly consider them, had yet the effect of securing minute attention to the precise transmission of the text; and they are but an excessive manifestation of a respect for the sacred Scriptures which in itself deserves nothing but praise. The Massoretes were indeed anxious that not one jot nor tittle, not one smallest letter nor one tiny part of a letter, of the Law should pass away or be lost.
In Kenyon's day, the oldest copy of the Old Testament was a copy from the 10th century after Christ. But in 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, and they contained a complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, dating over one thousand years earlier than that 10th century copy. The results astonished the scholarly world. Gleason Archer, in comparing the manuscript variations of the Hebrew text with pre-Christian literature such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, states that it is amazing that the Hebrew text does not have the phenomenon of discrepancy and MS change of other literature of the same age: "Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A. D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible" with the exception of minor variations in spelling, on a par with the British "colour" and the American "color." "Even those Dead Sea fragments of Deuteronomy and Samuel which point to a different manuscript family from that which underlies our received Hebrew text do not indicate any differences in doctrine or teaching. They do not affect the message of revelation in the slightest."
In other words, the Old Testament we have today is virtually letter-for-letter the same Old Testament Jesus had in His day. And the copy of Isaiah that Jesus read from (Luke 4) was virtually letter-for-letter the same as the one Isaiah himself wrote. Ditto for the Proverbs of Solomon, the Psalms of David, and the books of Moses.
All this about the Bible being filled with corruptions and changes is the polar opposite of reality. There is no ancient manuscript evidence to support this view; all the evidence is against this view.
This proves that atheists live in a world of fantasy. Some atheists believe the Bible is unreliable because that's what they've been taught, and they want to be respected by those who told them. But there are some atheists who are bad people and are just making this stuff up. The ones who start these rumors about the Bible have a completely different conception of history than historical reality, and a completely different view of religious people than reality. If an atheist -- knowing even one-tenth as much about the Biblical manuscripts as the Director and Head Librarian of the British Museum -- makes up the story that the Bible is untrustworthy and unreliably transmitted through the centuries, then he is a liar who probably hates God and doesn't want to love his neighbor, refrain from stealing, or be faithful to his wife. You would be wise not to listen to such people.
Here's an analogy that better represents the analysis of different copies of an ancient manuscript. Suppose you won the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Everyone wants your winning apple strudel recipe. So you hand-write a copy. Then another. Then another. You end up making 50 copies of your recipe. Then you lose it. You call all your friends and tell them you lost the recipe, and request that they give back the copy you made for them. When you get the copies, you discover that on a couple of copies you made minor mistakes. On one copy you put "2 Tbs" instead of "2 tsp." On another recipe you wrote "20 minutes at 350°" instead of "30 minutes at 350°." But since all the other copies had the correct item, it's easy to see which copy had the mistake. This is the science of "textual criticism."
"Textual Criticism" is how, in God's Providence, we can learn what God wants us to learn, and what the original authors of the books of the Bible wrote.
There are thousands of copies of the New Testament, some copied only decades after the original. There are only a handful of copies of the History of Herodotus (B.C. 488-428), and they are centuries older than the long-lost originals. F. F. Bruce notes,
Yet no classical scholar would listen to an argument that the authenticity of Herodotus or Thucydides is in doubt because the earliest manuscripts of their works which are of any use to us are over 1,300 years later than the originals.
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"Textual Criticism" looks at actual texts and compares them. This is very different from "Higher Criticism," which presupposes that there is no God who communicates with people created in His Image, and speculates that the entire Bible evolved in a meaningless universe -- even though there are no actual texts supporting this view -- much like Darwin speculated that species evolved -- even though all the transitional forms were missing from the record. (And still are.)
The Third reason I believe the Bible is the Word of God goes back to the first reason, relating to the story: I believe the story-tellers. There are two reasons I believe them.
First, they appear to be people of integrity. Simon Greenleaf, a co-founder of the Harvard Law School and the greatest authority on the law of evidence in the 19th century, said that if the New Testament were to be subjected to the Anglo-American laws of evidence in a court of law, the resurrection of Christ would be an established fact. The witnesses (the authors of the Gospels, for example) are credible witnesses.
It has been said, "History is written by the conquerors." The Old Testament is different. It is obviously not written by biased Jews who only wanted Israel to look good. The Old Testament is in a sense the most "anti-semitic" book ever written. It paints a picture of a group of people who were chosen by God and given every favor, and still rebelled and failed. They are portrayed as history's most faithless losers. And yet their story was meticulously and faithfully copied over and over by those very same folks.
This is because they believed the Bible was the Word of God, not just the word of some man.
But one element of the story these credible witnesses report is that God moved them to speak and to write exactly what God wanted written. That's their testimony. I believe it. I believe it because I like the idea of living in a universe that's lovingly controlled by a personal and sovereign God. There are no credible reasons given by atheists why I should not accept this entire worldview.
Peaceful and loving people want the Bible to be true. Rational people believe the Bible is the Word of God.
Most people -- especially those who deny that He is God incarnate -- will say that Jesus Christ was "a great religious teacher." But they lie. They really HATE Jesus Christ. If you were to quote some of His more offensive lines, and attribute them to Jerry Falwell or some other well-known controversial Christian figure, that figure would be accused of bigotry, hate-crimes, and delusional behavior.
What would be the value of your life if you lived in Germany in the years 1935-1945, and the only thing you had to say about Adolph Hitler was "He's a really talented public speaker." You did not challenge his rise to power. You did not criticize his evil reign. The only thing your children and grandchildren know about you and what you thought about Hitler, National Socialism, anti-semitism, and genocidal totalitarianism was that Hitler was "a great public speaker."
Or suppose you lived in Calcutta, India, and like most others, ignored the lepers and the dying. Your only comment about Mother Teresa is that she kept her sari "appropriately laundered."
To deny that Jesus was God and affirm that He was "a good teacher," is as irrational and morally vapid as the assessments of Hitler and Mother Teresa above. If Mother Teresa claimed to be God she would be reduced from a Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian to a nut-case. Indeed, she (rightfully) would have been denied the Nobel Prize. If Hitler were to claim to be God he would be elevated from dictator to anti-Christ.
So why let Jesus off the hook?
The Jews of Jesus' day were not dumb. The Jews executed Jesus because He claimed to be the Christ, the Anointed Messiah, equal with God. If Jesus was not equal with God, then He was nuts. Whatever other nice things He said, things that might sound good on a Hallmark® Card, If Jesus was not who He said He was, then He was a liar or a lunatic.
A few atheists have logically concluded that Jesus Christ was evil, not good. They see Him as a mere man who claimed to be God.
Jesus predicted His own assassination, and said that all His claims would be verified by His resurrection from the dead. If you are willing to exercise your human abilities to study history, evaluate evidence, and reach conclusions, you will conclude that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead, that His claims are true, and that the Bible is reliable. One of the architects of the Harvard Law School, whose 3-volume treatise on the Law of Evidence was the standard authority on the subject for generations, investigated the historical records which we call the Gospels, and concluded that Christ's Resurrection was an historical fact and could be proven so in any court of law. More here.
Any court, that is, which is Christian. A court that refuses to accept the claims of Christ is a court which is committing suicide. Christianity is the necessary presupposition of justice, the foundation of the very concept of "proof." The Bible is the chronicle of human rebellion against logic, facts, proof, reason, justice, and life itself.
Is Bible "outdated?"
Modern Americans have been trained to believe the Bible is "outdated" or "primitive." The modern world, by comparison, is "sophisticated," "scientific" and "secure." Who would ever want to go back to the world of the Bible?
It only takes a little thought to realize that "the modern world" is not all it's cracked up to be, and the world of the Bible -- the world of Vine & Fig Tree -- may have much to teach us. It is the "experts" of the modern world who have taught us to pooh-pooh the Bible.
They are wrong.
They say we can't believe in miracles. They are wrong.
They say Biblical Morality is "harsh" and the God of the Old Testament is "cruel." They are wrong.
The Issue Is Authority - "We Will Not Have This Man Rule Over Us!" (Luke 19:14)
The Failure of Non-Christian Ethics
Are we being "Judgmental?" Yes, definitely!
From Moses to Malachi, the Bible sets forth an unchanging standard of Justice, Mercy, and Faith (Matthew 23:23). When faithfully taught and obeyed, observance of Biblical Law mends the torn fabric of life. Bringing our lives under the total jurisdiction of the Bible is the key to social renewal, not reforming the lives of others through the impersonal violence of statist bureaucratic regulation. Biblical Law is God's pattern for peace, justice, and harmony.
Can you be a Christian if you don't “worship” God?
Can you “worship” God if you don't worship the Bible?
The Word of God is Divine. Not the paper and ink. The Word.
The Gospel Message is a Word from God. Every Word of God is Law.
As we explain the "Vine & Fig Tree" vision, there are many non-Christians who are attracted by the vision of a decentralized society which beats its "swords into plowshares." But as we examine with searching detail the words of the Prophet Micah, many of them will ask,
Why bother trying to understand the Bible and some peasant religious nut who lived three thousand years ago? I am "modern" and "scientific" and I have no interest in church or religion. Please don't give me the Bible. What do I need with the Bible?
This is a question everyone asks. And I do mean everyone. Not just those who are actively working to brainwash Christians and prop up their "New World Order" military
dictatorship, but church-going Catholics and Protestants too. Even Evangelicals and Fundamentalists — for all
their Bible-thumping — are a product of their culture, and our culture is at war with Micah.
And Isaiah.
And Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
Our culture is at war with the Bible.
Most "Bible-believing Christians" are part of this culture. They are not aware of the fact that Jesus wants His followers to be "extremists."
So Third, we want to convince atheists and non-Christians that they should seriously consider the Bible.
Vine & Fig Tree is a movement in solidarity with Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, and millions of working-class families who have given their lives to protect copies of the Scriptures from the violent institutions of church and state, attempting to live that revelation out in their homes and in the world. This is part of what we refer to as Patriarchy.
It goes back to the book of Genesis, the Patriarch Abraham, and ultimately back to the Creation of the World.
If you're an atheist or if you're a modern Christian who believes the Fundamentalists are totally out to lunch on their view of the Bible, then this page is for you. You won't be convinced in the 15k that makes up this web page, but hopefully the dialogue can get started. I hope you email your comments to me at "KevinCraig @ KevinCraig.us."
There are two accounts of the Creation and Purpose of Man competing for your loyalty.
THE BIBLE SAYS that the human race was created by a loving, Infinite-Personal God, Who placed Man into a beautiful Garden to live in families and take care of the planet.
MODERN SCIENTIFIC DEMOCRACY SEZ there is no God, except as you decide to create him/her/it. Man is the random mutation of genetic material, emerging without purpose and without meaning from a "primordial soup" of chemicals and energy. Marriage and families are "oppressive," and the planet is to be (a) worshipped [the "left"] or (b) exploited, "for tomorrow we die" [the "right"].
What are the results? What has "modern" actually delivered?
These words come to mind:
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* violent * superficial * selfish * materialistic * conflict * secular * |
People everywhere feel it:
Something's not right.
People everywhere feel powerless:
What can be done? To whom can we turn?
Who are our heroes? Where are true leaders?
People everywhere feel lost:
Are there no absolutes?
Are there no values worth living for — worth dying for?
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THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD |
The Christmas Conspiracy — as seen in Micah's Vine & Fig Tree prophecy — is a movement which self-consciously defends the Bible as an infallible revelation of the hope, values, and love of God. The "Enlightened" Empire of the Status Quo is at war with the Bible and with followers of Christ who for centuries have believed it to be the Word of God.
The Christian Patriarch accepts as bedrock fact the Bible's historical chronicle of
Eden vs. Empire
Patriarchy vs. Politics
The Kingdom of God vs. the kingdom of Caesar
To ignore these choices is to choose to die at the hand of the Status Quo.
But can I trust the Bible?
And, really now, PATRIARCHY!?!
I answer: Can we trust those who say we can't trust the Bible?
I'll say it again: I can't convince you to become a Fundamentalist in one web page. All I can do is infect you with a desire to rethink your opposition to the Bible, and indicate my own willingness to continue to dialogue with you.
Let's take one of the most controversial issues surrounding the Bible: Creationism vs. Evolutionism. I'm a six-day Creationist.
You take the Bible literally?
You believe the world was created in six days?!?
What are you, some kind of obscurantist?
DON'T YOU LISTEN TO SCIENCE?
It is precisely because my eyes are wide open to what "scientists" have done to us that I reject their lies. I find it far more comfortable to side with peasants who stood against powerful, violent Empires — quite apart from any faith that God used them as mouthpieces of His revelation to us.
Anyone who's honest will admit that scientists were not "forced" to abandon Creationism by "the facts." Evolution was a "scientific"-sounding philosophical rationalization for a hatred of the Bible which resulted from an unwillingness to submit to its Authority. It is simply not a case of "The Facts" vs. the Faith. The issue is ethics, not knowledge. The unwillingness of scientists and philosophers to bridle their wills under the Standard of God's Commandments resulted in the "Military-Industrial Complex," the technocratic institutionalization of violence; the quest for god-like power.
What do I think of when I hear the word "science"?
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* The Atomic Bomb * monosodium glutamate * smog * MTV * HMO's * |
Pretty impressive.
But it's not the inventions; it's the ideology. It's the religious values upon which modern science is built.
Yes, religious.
The powerful and well-trained minds of the military leaders and politicians who plan their wars and turn the wheels of their war machine in an unmovable path toward death and destruction are dominated by a view of the world — indeed, of the entire universe — which is self-consciously at war with reality — God's reality as it is described to us by God through Jesus and the Prophets.
Scientists want all the world to believe as they do, to accept their view of the universe — its origin, nature and destiny — and, having accepted this view, to place our trust in them as those who understand best the path to health, prosperity, safety, security — in short, to salvation.
Everybody wants "salvation." Call it "the good life," or "the American Dream." The question is, How do you get it? Modern science says, "Better living through chemistry." Politicians have learned the lesson: Salvation comes through the barrel of a gun. Urban twelve-year olds carry machine guns in pursuit of this faith. The structures of our society teach Salvation through Power. Members of The Christmas Conspiracy are committed to resisting their propaganda.
There are some people today who consider themselves "radicals" or "resisters." They have not resisted as they should have. Most people in the "Peace Movement" believe that the universe is as the President and his generals and scientists describe it. Conservatives listen dutifully to the prophets of the Empire, and spend great sums of money to send their children to their seminaries (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc.).
The priesthood of the Bush/Clinton regime — in their white coats or silk ties, working in their university degree-lined offices — has convinced nearly everyone that Jesus and the Prophets of God are hopelessly misinformed concerning reality. Rather than accepting their Word as an Absolute Authority, we have been taught to choose for ourselves. We are all "liberals" now, not "Fundamentalists."
The simple fact is that there are two competing religions here: Biblical Christianity, and an idolatry which we might call "neo-Baalism."
We must understand these two religions, see that they are in complete opposition, discern which one leads to life, and then begin to live in terms of the one we choose.
Who believes in Neo-Baalism? |
Who believes in Creationism? |
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The Apostle James says,
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:26-27
As a conservative Bible-thumper, it took me a while to realize that True Religion is not a mind full of facts and crafty arguments ready for rapid deployment in a theological debate. I still believe that we ought to strive for "doctrinal purity," but the ultimate goal is to be "unspotted" from the Empires of the world. A bridled tongue and compassion for the weak are among the Christ-like character traits we must develop. The Apostle Paul says that when we develop these traits, we will not be "carried about" by the Modern World, by defenders of the Status Quo, which is founded on "the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting."[12]
I want my children to choose Micah's religion, not Caesar's. I want them to look forward to a day — indeed, to make today the day — we beat swords into plowshares. I want them to resist those who hypnotize us all into forging spears for killing instead of hooks for pruning. I want to see them live in terms of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision. I am naive if I expect them to be indoctrinated in this vision in any institutional church or Empire-run school.
To the extent our thinking has not been clarified, and as we are not consistent with our foundational principles, we will not experience the harmony that God intends for us and described through the words of the prophet Micah.
We have already seen this in the 20th century. We have seen it, but we refuse to see it. Over 200 million people have been deliberately killed in this century alone; a greater percentage of the population than any previous century. The century of atheism is the century of mass death. Evolutionism means Genocide.
But modern man seeks the Tempter's fantasy: "to be as gods" (Genesis 3:5). Anything is better than admitting that God is God and we are not. Even death.
All they that hate Me, love death. Proverbs 8:36
And so I write with a sense of urgency.
And yet I don't write all I could because I don't have the strength to face the battle. When a known adulterer and crack user becomes President and tells a nation that "I didn't inhale," and when the nation can apathetically view televised scenes of the government bringing tanks against Waco, Texas citizens whose only "crime" is non-conforming thought, we are only days away from the time when those same viewers will hear the televised call to take up arms against any and all who will not confess that man is god and the State is his savior.
Jesus said His followers must be willing to "take up your cross." In our day He would have said, "take up your firing squad."
I am ready.
Are you?
Is Modernism a Force for Peace?
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,
that I have set before you
life and death
blessing and cursing
T H E R E F O R E C H O O S E L I F E
that both you and your children may live;
that you may love the LORD your God,
that you may obey His voice,
and that you may cling to Him,
for He is your life and the length of your days.
Deuteronomy 30:19
Vine & Fig Tree
is my choice; the Bible, not the Status Quo.Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:14-15
(9) Just as our nation has apostatized from the theology and cultural vision of the
Puritans. [Return to text]
(10) We'll be discussing "Baalism" later on. It was an ancient religion
which most scientists in our day believe. [Return to text]
(12) Ephesians 4:14. [Return to text]
"Our object should not be to have scripture on our side but to be on the side of scripture; and however dear any sentiment may have become by being long entertained, so soon as it is seen to be contrary to the Bible, we must be prepared to abandon it without hesitation."
William Symington
