Declaration of Independence
Freedom from My Own Bondage
04/July/2010 07:00 Filed in: Oikos
Thoughts | Web News
Two hundred and
thirty-four years ago today, the seed of the United
States of America was sown when our founders signed
the Declaration of Independence. The national
holiday still continues to be celebrated as the
concept of individual freedom.
Those who give speeches today will phrase their remarks along two philosophical paradigms. The first is, “I am free because I can do what I want.” The other is, “I am free because I am protected from the tyranny of others.” Both of those concepts are present in the Declaration of Independence, but today we have pretty much redefined those freedom concepts in terms of selfish materialism.
As a founding principle, personal freedom was defined basically as I am free to be what I was created to be and no wrongly appropriated divine right of some foreign authority has any jurisdiction on my ability to pursue that goal. Today we have dumbed-down that concept to mean I am free to what makes me feel good about myself and I should receive external rewards to help me achieve those ends.
Those rewards might be a trophy, or pay just for showing up on a somewhat regular basis, or receiving a right to something such as healthcare, a pension, or other security, simply because I did nothing or very little to deserve those rewards. In other words, I have substituted my personal divine will, into, and over the lives of others.
However there is another underlying principle within the American Declaration that was part of the founding genre that we no longer are willing to understand. The principle came from a natural or common understanding of the human condition that resurfaced during the Reformation and that principle was and understanding of the human will to sin. Martin Luther’s most famous written work is entitled, “The Bondage of the Will.”
What we are no longer willing to believe is that the greatest freedom a human being can obtain in this life is to be free from the bondage to my own selfish desires. That is the central theme of historic Christianity. Succinctly stated, that means the sinless life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the propitiatory and justifying sacrifice that absolutely provides the freedom for me to pursue the eternal personality I was created by God to be.
In the broadest concept possible, we all seek security to the maximum extent. The external imputed righteousness of Christ gives me eternal security and in the process allows me to accept temporal security in this life on a more transient basis. In other words, I don’t need to secure my own security and future, because I know the source of my security and know He directs my future.
Over the last few weeks I have heard again in various forums that the decline in American excellence began when we took the Ten Commandments and prayer out of our schools. I have a good friend that states the school decline was just the simple result of taking the Ten Commandments and true prayer out of our churches — years earlier.
What this really means is we like to blame all the problems we face today on those bad guys, the greedy, the selfish, the exploiters, the them. Who is never blamed in the American religion is the church that has become a cloister of the Pharisees. As such, not only has that been responsible for the faux creation of a political righteousness, it has also created physical divide between the enlightened Christians in contrast with the enlightened sinful heathens.
Instead of stating, “There by the grace of God, go I.” the proper response should be, “There by the grace of God alone, can I find true freedom from my personal bondage.” That is a much different and more humble message, than, “I don’t, do this and that, because I can,” but rather, “Any ability I have to do anything other than the wickedly perverse, is nothing but a gift of God’s grace.”
On this Independence Day, this Sunday, what this means is that the focus should be on the redemption and justification found in Jesus Christ alone, and not the national debt, socialism, and a whole host of good or bad things. If the focus of Christians is on Christ alone, then God will provide the power to change the culture, just as he did during the Reformation.
That Reformation time was not without turmoil, it was truly a revolution of human understanding. The same can be said of the American revolution. The result of the American revolution was freedom from the bondage of the culture to a foreign monarch, but the more profound result was the freedom of the individual to more deeply appreciate the gift of life provided to all from the God of nature, who is the same eternal personality as the God of the Bible.
So today, most people in America will celebrate the concept to be free to do what we want to do. The really blessed will be those who understand that true freedom, is to not be in bondage to your personal desires, but rather to make your life a gift to others, by God’s grace.
Those who give speeches today will phrase their remarks along two philosophical paradigms. The first is, “I am free because I can do what I want.” The other is, “I am free because I am protected from the tyranny of others.” Both of those concepts are present in the Declaration of Independence, but today we have pretty much redefined those freedom concepts in terms of selfish materialism.
As a founding principle, personal freedom was defined basically as I am free to be what I was created to be and no wrongly appropriated divine right of some foreign authority has any jurisdiction on my ability to pursue that goal. Today we have dumbed-down that concept to mean I am free to what makes me feel good about myself and I should receive external rewards to help me achieve those ends.
Those rewards might be a trophy, or pay just for showing up on a somewhat regular basis, or receiving a right to something such as healthcare, a pension, or other security, simply because I did nothing or very little to deserve those rewards. In other words, I have substituted my personal divine will, into, and over the lives of others.
However there is another underlying principle within the American Declaration that was part of the founding genre that we no longer are willing to understand. The principle came from a natural or common understanding of the human condition that resurfaced during the Reformation and that principle was and understanding of the human will to sin. Martin Luther’s most famous written work is entitled, “The Bondage of the Will.”
What we are no longer willing to believe is that the greatest freedom a human being can obtain in this life is to be free from the bondage to my own selfish desires. That is the central theme of historic Christianity. Succinctly stated, that means the sinless life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the propitiatory and justifying sacrifice that absolutely provides the freedom for me to pursue the eternal personality I was created by God to be.
In the broadest concept possible, we all seek security to the maximum extent. The external imputed righteousness of Christ gives me eternal security and in the process allows me to accept temporal security in this life on a more transient basis. In other words, I don’t need to secure my own security and future, because I know the source of my security and know He directs my future.
Over the last few weeks I have heard again in various forums that the decline in American excellence began when we took the Ten Commandments and prayer out of our schools. I have a good friend that states the school decline was just the simple result of taking the Ten Commandments and true prayer out of our churches — years earlier.
What this really means is we like to blame all the problems we face today on those bad guys, the greedy, the selfish, the exploiters, the them. Who is never blamed in the American religion is the church that has become a cloister of the Pharisees. As such, not only has that been responsible for the faux creation of a political righteousness, it has also created physical divide between the enlightened Christians in contrast with the enlightened sinful heathens.
Instead of stating, “There by the grace of God, go I.” the proper response should be, “There by the grace of God alone, can I find true freedom from my personal bondage.” That is a much different and more humble message, than, “I don’t, do this and that, because I can,” but rather, “Any ability I have to do anything other than the wickedly perverse, is nothing but a gift of God’s grace.”
On this Independence Day, this Sunday, what this means is that the focus should be on the redemption and justification found in Jesus Christ alone, and not the national debt, socialism, and a whole host of good or bad things. If the focus of Christians is on Christ alone, then God will provide the power to change the culture, just as he did during the Reformation.
That Reformation time was not without turmoil, it was truly a revolution of human understanding. The same can be said of the American revolution. The result of the American revolution was freedom from the bondage of the culture to a foreign monarch, but the more profound result was the freedom of the individual to more deeply appreciate the gift of life provided to all from the God of nature, who is the same eternal personality as the God of the Bible.
So today, most people in America will celebrate the concept to be free to do what we want to do. The really blessed will be those who understand that true freedom, is to not be in bondage to your personal desires, but rather to make your life a gift to others, by God’s grace.
Why Me? Divine Providence
07/April/2010 12:08 Filed in: Weekly
Column
Last week we closed the
Sheep to Wolves article with the signature
paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
If you would like to know the succinct answer on why the United States finds itself in its present predicament, a new version of those thoughts would go somewhat as follows:
With a firm reliance on the my personal virtue of unfettered greed, I will do whatever necessary to get ahead according to my definition of success, giving no thought at all to the pain and suffering I might cause other people, or the world in which I live.
Furthermore, to accomplish my goals as rapidly as possible, with the least personal risk, I will work for a large global corporation, institution, or government that shares my values.
Turn on the television to the lame stream media and you will hear that capitalism no longer works, so we need to replace it with diverse government programs that will solve capitalism’s problems.
These pundits have a religious bias that they alone think that they can fix something broken, with something better in their own eyes. When in reality their solution is worse than the broken predecessor. Welcome to the world of ObamaCare.
Turn on Fox News and you will hear pundits say that the solution is to get back to the messiah-ship of Ronald Reagan and that the free markets of personal and corporate greed will solve all the problems that the progressive bureaucratic regulators are using to try to keep us all from getting rich by the principles of trickle down economics.
The fact of the matter, little money and virtually no real wealth trickles down to the folks, through either big government, or big business, or big labor. Furthermore if any of them can figure out a way to get some of the little they let go of, back, they will do that with as much conniving as possible.
Read More...
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
If you would like to know the succinct answer on why the United States finds itself in its present predicament, a new version of those thoughts would go somewhat as follows:
With a firm reliance on the my personal virtue of unfettered greed, I will do whatever necessary to get ahead according to my definition of success, giving no thought at all to the pain and suffering I might cause other people, or the world in which I live.
Furthermore, to accomplish my goals as rapidly as possible, with the least personal risk, I will work for a large global corporation, institution, or government that shares my values.
Turn on the television to the lame stream media and you will hear that capitalism no longer works, so we need to replace it with diverse government programs that will solve capitalism’s problems.
These pundits have a religious bias that they alone think that they can fix something broken, with something better in their own eyes. When in reality their solution is worse than the broken predecessor. Welcome to the world of ObamaCare.
Turn on Fox News and you will hear pundits say that the solution is to get back to the messiah-ship of Ronald Reagan and that the free markets of personal and corporate greed will solve all the problems that the progressive bureaucratic regulators are using to try to keep us all from getting rich by the principles of trickle down economics.
The fact of the matter, little money and virtually no real wealth trickles down to the folks, through either big government, or big business, or big labor. Furthermore if any of them can figure out a way to get some of the little they let go of, back, they will do that with as much conniving as possible.
Read More...
Why Me? Sheep to wolves
31/March/2010 12:19 Filed in: Weekly
Column
Sheep: What a stupid animal,
so nondescript we really don’t know if you are
talking about a sheep, or a herd of sheep.
Wolf: A complex community forming wild dog that hunts with strength and cunning. Wolves form a community so socially complex that the pack has served as the survival model for indigenous people groups.
Left to our own wants and desires, we all evolve from a complex community of wolves into isolated, wayward, and lonely sheep.
We begin to wrap up this “Why Me?” series this week, moving from the historical context of what got us into this mess, to what we can do to move from our fears into a world in which our fears are suppressed, because of the vision of an external responsibility that in some unknown way, gives reason to all the chaos that surrounds our world.
When I was stationed in Germany during the rise of the environmental movement, without a television, I had time to read a lot of books. My educational training outside the military at that time was in secondary education and sciences. The focus of that training was in terrestrial ecology and chemistry.
Reading the environmental books that were then available I quickly became disillusioned with the whole process. Virtually all of the books began with the premise that the world was going to hell, time was of the essence that we do something about it, and then the writer appended a couple of simplistic chapters about their preliminary thoughts, that might lead to a change in the current direction.
What I have learned in the passing of time is that this type of bloviating is truly the American genre of communication, not only in writing, but also in speeches and preaching.
Did you know that before he began any speech Adolph Hitler would come to the stage, gaze into and through the crowd for two full minutes before he uttered a word? This was preceded by at least a half an hour of appropriate music to get the crowd ready for de fuehrer.
The question I have never bothered to research, did Hitler gain his speaking prowess by adapting the style of American revivalist preachers of the Second Great Awakening?
Read More...
Wolf: A complex community forming wild dog that hunts with strength and cunning. Wolves form a community so socially complex that the pack has served as the survival model for indigenous people groups.
Left to our own wants and desires, we all evolve from a complex community of wolves into isolated, wayward, and lonely sheep.
We begin to wrap up this “Why Me?” series this week, moving from the historical context of what got us into this mess, to what we can do to move from our fears into a world in which our fears are suppressed, because of the vision of an external responsibility that in some unknown way, gives reason to all the chaos that surrounds our world.
When I was stationed in Germany during the rise of the environmental movement, without a television, I had time to read a lot of books. My educational training outside the military at that time was in secondary education and sciences. The focus of that training was in terrestrial ecology and chemistry.
Reading the environmental books that were then available I quickly became disillusioned with the whole process. Virtually all of the books began with the premise that the world was going to hell, time was of the essence that we do something about it, and then the writer appended a couple of simplistic chapters about their preliminary thoughts, that might lead to a change in the current direction.
What I have learned in the passing of time is that this type of bloviating is truly the American genre of communication, not only in writing, but also in speeches and preaching.
Did you know that before he began any speech Adolph Hitler would come to the stage, gaze into and through the crowd for two full minutes before he uttered a word? This was preceded by at least a half an hour of appropriate music to get the crowd ready for de fuehrer.
The question I have never bothered to research, did Hitler gain his speaking prowess by adapting the style of American revivalist preachers of the Second Great Awakening?
Read More...