ClaytonB
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- Oct 30, 2011
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This is a MUST-WATCH:
If you want to understand the true historical roots of American freedom, you need to watch this documentary. While America was founded on the principles of general peace and religious freedom of all to worship according to their own conscience, the foundation of these principles was never "secularism", nor did the generations of Americans leading up to 1776 understand religious liberty as having anything to do with secularism at all. No, the spiritual, ideological, and social foundation of religious liberty is the Bible itself. God permits men to be free to rebel against him, and the Christian magistrate who attempts to substitute compulsion for conscience makes a mockery of God himself. While this did happen on occasion within the colonies (later, the 13 States), it was rare and was generally followed up by reforms against it. Why? Because the vast bulk of the early settlers of New England were religious fugitives themselves -- Baptists, anabaptists, Presbyterians from England where it was not welcome, and all manner of Protestants from various Catholic regions of Europe, to name a few. New England was a collection of colonies of widely varying (and sometimes conflicting) branches of the church, but they all held a couple things in common: a common faith in Jesus Christ as the risen Savior, and a common commitment to freedom of conscience, in submission to God's Word.
These key ingredients have largely been forgotten in American polity and all the most outrageous absurdities of Clown World can be traced back to this root-cause. If you want a free country, if you want a country where it is possible to have a rational debate in the public square, if you want a country where there is a minimum level of civility and law & order in the public space, if you want a country of peace and prosperity, the answer is to get back to our original roots. God is on the side of freedom. God is on the side of law & order. God is on the side of peace and prosperity. "Against these things there is no law" (Gal. 5:23b) Yes, this entails repentance of sin. Yes, this entails getting our own lives in order first-and-foremost, before whining about all the other evil sinners. Yes, this entails not only spiritual pain, but also material persecution. Yes, all of those things are hard. But they are worth it because they also bring eternal life. Those aspects of America that are redeemable are also eternal. If we repent, if we turn back to God, he may yet spare America herself from destruction, thus preserving the beauty of our once-great culture forever. But there is no shortcut. There is no easy way out of this. It must be done the right way, or no way.
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1)
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Corinthians 3:17)
LAND OF THE FREE
If you want to understand the true historical roots of American freedom, you need to watch this documentary. While America was founded on the principles of general peace and religious freedom of all to worship according to their own conscience, the foundation of these principles was never "secularism", nor did the generations of Americans leading up to 1776 understand religious liberty as having anything to do with secularism at all. No, the spiritual, ideological, and social foundation of religious liberty is the Bible itself. God permits men to be free to rebel against him, and the Christian magistrate who attempts to substitute compulsion for conscience makes a mockery of God himself. While this did happen on occasion within the colonies (later, the 13 States), it was rare and was generally followed up by reforms against it. Why? Because the vast bulk of the early settlers of New England were religious fugitives themselves -- Baptists, anabaptists, Presbyterians from England where it was not welcome, and all manner of Protestants from various Catholic regions of Europe, to name a few. New England was a collection of colonies of widely varying (and sometimes conflicting) branches of the church, but they all held a couple things in common: a common faith in Jesus Christ as the risen Savior, and a common commitment to freedom of conscience, in submission to God's Word.
These key ingredients have largely been forgotten in American polity and all the most outrageous absurdities of Clown World can be traced back to this root-cause. If you want a free country, if you want a country where it is possible to have a rational debate in the public square, if you want a country where there is a minimum level of civility and law & order in the public space, if you want a country of peace and prosperity, the answer is to get back to our original roots. God is on the side of freedom. God is on the side of law & order. God is on the side of peace and prosperity. "Against these things there is no law" (Gal. 5:23b) Yes, this entails repentance of sin. Yes, this entails getting our own lives in order first-and-foremost, before whining about all the other evil sinners. Yes, this entails not only spiritual pain, but also material persecution. Yes, all of those things are hard. But they are worth it because they also bring eternal life. Those aspects of America that are redeemable are also eternal. If we repent, if we turn back to God, he may yet spare America herself from destruction, thus preserving the beauty of our once-great culture forever. But there is no shortcut. There is no easy way out of this. It must be done the right way, or no way.
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1)
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Corinthians 3:17)
LAND OF THE FREE
