Thoughts From Founding Brothers

by | Jun 26, 2008 | Presidential History

Recently I finished reading Joseph P. Ellis’ Founding Brothers. It is an excellent look into some of the most fundamental relationships and issues that shaped our country in its formative years. Here are a few excerpts I found interesting from the book: What in retrospect has the look of a foreordained unfolding of God’s will was in reality an improvisational affair in which sheer chance, pure luck – both good and bad – and specific decisions made in the crucible of specific military and political crises determined the outcome (5). So is Ellis’ attempt to rub deity out of the nation’s historic beginnings. Obviously, Ellis is not writing from a biblical perspective. Instead, he chastises the Founder’s religious outlook from a purely secular world-view. Here’s how I think this should be re-written: What in retrospect has the look of sheer chance, pure luck – both good and bad – and specific decisions made in the crucible of specific military and political crises was in reality a foreordained unfolding of God’s will that determined the outcome. Ah – the very look of God’s providence every time. Regarding Aaron Burr: His grandfather, the great theologian Jonathan Edwards, had once said that we were all depraved creatures, mere spiders hanging precariously over a never-ending fire. But Burr’s entire life had been a sermon on the capacity of the sagacious spider to lift himself out of hellish difficulties and spin webs that trapped others (21). Compare this to Ian Murray’s account from his biography of Jonathan Edwards: “In a career as a soldier, lawyer, and politician – becoming Vice President of the United...

Don’t Bother Asking About the Gospel

by | Jun 25, 2008 | Culture, Presidential History

Don’t bother wasting time discussing the gospel – that’s the sense you get when reading the quotes from the more liberally aligned Obama supporters who express their regret that more weighty issues were not dealt with during a recent meeting with the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.  It seems however, that Obama took the time to answer gospel oriented questions – whether you agree or disagree with his answers. Pastors Focus On Faith, Morals In Private Meeting –...

In Memory

by | May 26, 2008 | Culture

Here’s a reminder of what the privileges we have in our country have cost us in terms of lost American lives in battle: 4,079 Americans have died since the 2003 Iraq War began. 58,169 Americans were killed in the Vietnam conflict. 33,741 Americans died in the Korean conflict. 405,400 Americans were killed in World War II. 115,000 Americans died in World War I. We thank God for all we have and remember today the practical and political freedom we enjoy as a nation, due to the ultimate patriotic sacrifice. We also pause to remember that personal, spiritual and ultimate freedom cam at a much higher cost – the cost of God’s Son to be the propitiation for our sin. Jesus Christ made the ultimate of all sacrifices to bring peace in a battle we could never win against an enemy who actually loved us enough to forgive us through the death of His own Son. While we were still sinners, our enemy, who also was our maker, sent Christ to earth to live the only life the Father would accept and die the only death that could satisfy the Father’s offended glory, so that we might have the benefits of a righteousness not our own. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians...