Remembering July 4, 1776

On this day, the american colonies, won their freedom from british rule.

Those who fought against british rule were armed as they believed it was necessary to protect themselves.

The main reason for fighting was that the british government was passing laws that those in the colonies had no say in.

"Taxation Without Representation"

A lot of those that came to the new world, did so because of religious persecution. They were mainly christians.

The freedom from british rule enabled those in the new world to set up their own government, which would have within it, wisdom gained from fighting british rule.

The governments power was split up, so that no one person had all the authority.

The law giving americans the right to bear arms was, primarily, to defend themselves against the government itself.

Just in case their fail safes were breached, and the government became oppressive, just like the british government they fought to free themselves from.

And one more thing that was put in place, was the separation of church and state.

The government was not to opprose religious liberty.

Part of this was allowed churches to not pay taxes, as taxes would become a way for the government to impose their desires upon the religious.

This was to be a new age of freedom.

Today, we celebrate that new age of freedom that was won so many years ago.

We should also take a look around and see that we have also left a lot of those freedoms behind.

The right to bear arms to protect oneself from not only robbers but the government, is being stripped more and more.

There are calls for churches to pay taxes and for the government to force those who are religious to do what the government says.

Many laws are being passed without representation. And when the majority speaks up, their voice is denied by unelected officials.

It seems that the United States of America has actually turned into the very thing that those people fought for so many years ago..... Old British Rule

Happy 4th of July to my friends and family

I hope the bbqs and fire works don't distract you from the signifance of what's been going on

Creeds & Confessions

Throughout the history of the church of Christ Jesus, from time to time, believers would create what are known as creeds or confessions.

These were created in order to give a summary (usually), of the core beliefs of the faith or denomination.

This means that whoever doesnt believe these things are not in the faith, or part of that denomination.

Some take the form of a long list of doctrinal statements.

These are mainly used for denominational boundaries, and can be quite in-depth.

Creeds and confessions are ultimately a tool that condenses the theological truths and commands that are found all throughout the bible.

So, although they are not infallable, meaning that they aren't perfect and may contain errors, they are helpful to ground one in the basics of sound christian doctrine as well as the doctrine of individual churches and denominations.

Churches, and individual believers. who are more doctrinally minded use the agreeing or disagreeing of creeds and confessions in order to identify which "stripe" of christianity other believers are in.

However, if someone is ignorant of creeds and confessions, they may find themselves feelingva bit ostracised from a number of theological groups, even if they agree on many points.

At the same time, the reason for examining creeds and confessions shouldn't be for acceptance. At least, not primarily.

It's to expand ones understanding of scripture, doctrine, the faith, ultimately God, through the scholarship of the many believers who came before us, building on the foundation laid down by the prophets and apostle, where Christ is the corner stone.

To that end. We will be taking a look at some creeds and confessions over the next few days.

Maranatha

State of the Union

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the long absence of posts (as if anybody reads this lonely blog in the far corner of the interwebs).

I've been really busy with work and family.

Currently looking to do some audio blogs as well.

There are loads of things that i want to blog about, but usually don't have the time and/or energy to write about it.

Whereas, if i was just talking, it would be much easier.

Obviously, i'd still write blogs, but anything that would be really long to read, you can listen to instead.

Hopefully i can get on this sooner rather than later.

There's also the matter of updating the book on tithing, and I have another book that i've had on the back burner for awhile.

A lot of things in my head that I want to get out.

Watch this space.

Maranatha

Twitter Thoughts

If this was a christian nation, three things wouldnt exist.

Sperm donor facilities. Abortion clinics. Churches that teach countrary to scripture.

Closet Atheist

Before I started to follow Christ, I was an atheist.

Back then I hardly ever talked about religion.

On occassion I was forced to attend a church service of some kind or another (JW, RC, etc), but it was never because I believed in God or I felt I had a need of some kind.

Usually it was due to having an aquaintence and wanting to please them somewhat.

My morals were based on nothing but how I felt at any given time and not wanting to get into "trouble" of some sort or another.

I didn't consider getting into "trouble" as doing something "wrong" but i recognised that as much "freedom" as I believed I had, those who had some kind of authority over me would cause my life to become annoying, at least temporarily.

So not getting into "trouble", was simply for convenience sake.

Of course, getting into "trouble" always depended on whether you got caught or not, and I was pretty good at not getting caught.

From the outside, many adults would call me a good kid.

However, if they knew the many things I did and wanted to do but didn't, they definitely would change their opinion of me. But there were never any intentional soul searching questions posed to me.

My atheism formed my outlook on life, which to me, made life worthless.

There became no reason to do anything. And anything that was done, was simply due to social concern. Whether i'll be annoyed with the resulting "fallout" of those who know of whatever I did.

The reason i'm saying these things is because there a number of people within the visible church who fit that description.

They are in church, participating in church, confessing Christ, not because of a deep conviction of their sins and the realisation that Christ has indeed paid for their sins and calls them to repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of those sins.

No. The reasoning behind their actions are socially driven. Due to the expectations of their family and friends or even a sense of belonging and fellowship, they confess Christ and seem to be following after Him, when in reality, they are really closet atheists.

One would wonder how it is that people can leave Christ tor become atheists or agnostics.

Did these people not have an encounter with Christ? Did they not feel the weight of their sins while at the foot of the cross?

No, They didn't.

We must make sure that the gospel is preached to those both outside and inside the four walls of the church building.

After all, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Twitter Thoughts

If nothing can seperate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39), and His love is made manifest in that Christ died in order to pay for our sins (John 3:16), then our salvation is secured in Him.

Twitter Thoughts

Just as knowing that AIDS exist doesn't stop millions of people from having unprotected sex with strangers, simply knowing God exists doesn't cause a person to turn from their sin