We arrived here at 3:25 pm this afternoon (Sunday) and so far it’s been great!  Galena, Lydia, Anya, Greta, Peter, and I went down and climbed the big dune almost immediately.  The weather’s just about perfect. Here are three pics from day one:

Len & Luus

The above photo I took at the top of the dune.

Dog. What an original title!

The above Galena took either on the way to the dune or on the way back.

Me

Expect more posts in the coming week, probably Thursday and Friday.

Well, I haven’t posted for more the month, but that’s no more than customary…

I just now finished sending in my first assignment to my tutor for my English course from the Telos Institute International (http://www.telos.edu/), which I completed the finishing touches on tonight while listening to loud music (Sanctus Real, Owl City, and High Valley) with Lydia. =)

Anyway, along with my siblings (Galena: http://galena.avlux.org, and Lydia: http://blog.lydiarts.com), I’m very excited about the week coast trip that we’re leaving for tomorrow afternoon after Church and the fellowship meal.

Fun times!

P.S. I’ll try to get some picture posts/buzzs (http://www.google.com/profiles/karl.luft#buzz) in while I’m down there.  See y’alls at the Church Camp on Tuesday and Wednesday!

Here are some of the best barely-edited photos I took today of a very young Red Winged Blackbird.

This one (above) is my favorite I think…

And no, I wasn’t using my iPhone to take these…

Tell me what you all think!

During this past week the weather has been beautiful, so today I wen out to try to take some photos depicting the beauty.  With the intent of capturing pics of some of the wildlife that lives down in our swamp/marsh area, I went down our private drive suitably armed (or not) with my iPhone… I know, the pics obviously won’t be that high quality, but they’re fairly good for what they were taken with.

Anyway, to the pictures:

After taking some pictures of the swamp above (which is, by the way, deeper than it looks), I became slightly more ambitious.  I saw two red-wing blackbirds (male and female) landing/re landing on a certain group of rushes, where, I soon saw (or rather heard) their nest because of the loud peeping noises proceeding from it.  Going back up to the house, I sealed my iPhone into a plastic bag, and then that bag into another bag.  Thus prepared, I came back and waded towards the clump of rushes through thigh-to-waist deep water/mud.  Yeah… it was a little gross.  After looking about a bit, I finally found the nest.

These are the results:

As you can imagine, the parents of these two birdlings were not sitting idly by sipping tea while I was capturing these snapshots of their young–in fact, there was quite a commotion.  On one of the many times the parents flitted to and fro above me, apparently the chick-thingies thought they were being brought food and stretched their own necks accordingly:

OK. That is that. Lets pop along to some more peaceful photos of Flora…

I suppose the above cannot be classified as flora or fauna, but oh well…

The lower goat pasture…

The Barn.

(Above is the Chicken Coop.)

Again, I apologize for the poor-ish quality of the pics…

P.S. Due to request, I have added a page of my full Thesis paper, which can be viewed here.

Please feel free to comment at the page if you have any questions/comments.

In this chapter, Mr. Hughes states that discipline is a mandatory element in the life of anyone who is or wishes to be a follower of God.  To illustrate the point he wishes to make, he compares the righteouss discipline which we should be setting ourselves unto, to the discipline that any great athlete or sports player must set themselves unto in order to gain any level of skill.  He says that we need to have a sort of “spiritual sweat” just as people physically disciplining themselves would have a physical sweat, in order live our lives as the Lord wants us to.  Kent Hughes used a scripture–1 Timothy 4:7–to narrow in on what he was trying to say.  The verse states that we are to “train [ourselves] to be godly”, with train meaning literally in the original language to gymnasticize or exercise with no clothes on.  Just so, we should throw aside all cumbersome “spiritual clothes” that may be keeping us back from a total alliegiance to the Lord, be they what they may–a sin that we’ve committed which we haven’t confessed, a bitterness towards someone, what have you.  If we do not exercise with a spiritual sweat, throwing all aside and committing ourselves totally to God, then we will grow farther and farther from the Lord instead of closer and closer to Him.

As I said, I might post more on some of the other chapter of the book as I read on.  So far I’ve read 6 of the 19 chapters, which include discussions on different disciplines such as Purity, Fatherhood, Friendship, the Mind, and much, much more.

Here are a few of the best photos (by Galena) from yesterday at the Koch’s house.

HA! This is what’s called revenge… (Jessica’s the one getting soaked by Caleb).  Again, I say HA!

Hmm… I kinda forget how this happened. (Photo Credit: Lydia)

The great adventurers and explorers!

Meditating

Josh was doing a poor imitation of my meditation skills.  The girls were just eating straw…

This one’s… interesting.

uh… Same caption here.  Only more so… heh.

Here I go back to my previous meditations, Josh tries to think but nothing happens, Lydia and Heidi stare into the distant part of the field, and Andra gets mad.

More goofy faces.

Notice how we’re all in sync… nice. That wasn’t even planned.

As I said before, all photo credit to Galena.  There still might be more pics coming…

(Press image to visit Tour Picture Gallery)

My family recently purchased a European Online Virtual Tour pass, and so far it has been great.

From the Circus Maximus to the Coliseum, from the Forum to the Appian way, from the catacombs to the Pantheon, from Rome to Pompeii to Milan to Geneva, and on on, each of these videos has been both entertaining, interesting, and knowledge-teaching.

At the end of each day, a “Wrap Up” video is posted, emphasizing with context, etc. the ultimate message of the study course–that the “Gates of Hell will Never Prevail against the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The speakers in this tour are four: Historians Dr. Joe Morecraft III and Bill Potter, Architect Colin Gunn, and Founder of the seller of this product (VFM) Doug Phillips, Esq.

If you visit the link at the bottom of the page, you will see info on where the Tour goes for each day, how much a pass costs, the Photo gallery, and what you get with you purchase of a pass.

Another cool plus: if you send in your questions to them with the email address provided upon registration, they will seek to answer your questions in a video the next day.

I have found each video very informing on the different topics presented: Rome’s fall–when and why, Pompeii’s destruction–the judgement of God, et cetera.

You will learn things which you never new before, and which are not presented in any modern day history books.  So far I’ve been very impressed with the virtual tour, and I’ll probably be posting my notes in the future.

Go to this link for more info: http://europeanonlinetour.org

Thank you Dad for your—

Diligence in your work and in the business, and also in your Spiritual life–Scripture reading, prayer for the family and the Church, and leading family worship.

Perseverance in all that you have had to do: work projects that haven’t always had easy or simple solutions, and more importantly training up your children in the way they should go; in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Love to your wife, and us your children, doing things with your sons, playing and reading stories to the young children, disciplining us in love so that we would learn to obey Him.

Humbleness in seeking forgiveness when you have wronged anyone.

Encouragement to everyone in our household: when people work with you, you have always encouraged and built up instead of tearing down; seeking to help us have fun and a good attitude while we worked.

Thank you Dad, for all that you have done.  I thank the Lord that you have lived 50 years to be with us, to train us, to love and encourage us.  I pray that you will have many more good years to live in the future.

As you can see, I’ve changed my theme, and, for the sake of future generations, I took a screenshot of my blog and have posted it below…

So, what do you think? This theme? New theme? The old theme?

In other news, I’ve got a couple of pages, which can be seen at the top of the page, or in the side bar.  Screenshots:

Press the images in each individual page for links…

Why all of This Matters

Scripture is ultimately the only thing, which can or should define how we think, act, and believe in this fallen world.  We see then—looking at scripture and what it says rather than what is said by man–that, contrary to what is taught in State-funded schools, and in this nation as a whole, God created these dominions and they are accountable to Him and Him alone.

The reason why a correct understanding of this is important, is that if a government or governments do not acknowledge the God who created it or them, then they have no standard for good, evil, or any other form of morality.  Once that becomes the case, and truth is defined merely by the whim of those in power, then the government can do practically whatever it wants.  Anything can go – genocide, abortion, euthanasia, what have you.  Once there is no standard for moral law then the government will do anything they wish to fulfill their ends and to satisfy their personal agenda, and the culture will ultimately collapse into itself in a state of unbridled chaos, which will only be followed by great death and destruction.

The only way we can regain this understanding, which has been lost, is to return to a regular study and practice of the fundamental truths found in Scripture.  It’s all there—everything we need to know about godly and righteous practice is in God’s Holy Word.  The solution to the problem can only be found in the Lord and His Word.  Once that Word is embraced in society as a whole, then none of those things—abortion, euthanasia, murder—none of them will be prevalent in a society when the Word of God is uppermost in peoples thoughts, informing faith and practice.

Work Cited

Holy Bible. Harper Collins Publishers, 2002.

Moore, Roy. So Help Me God. Nashville: Boadmand & Holman Publishers, n.d.

Rushdoony, Rousas John. The Institute of Biblical Law, Vol. 2 Law and Society. Chalcedon, 2003.

– This Independent Republic. New York: Ross House Books, 2002.

U.S. Constitution Online. USConstitution.net. 2010 йил 27-January <http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html >.

Bibliography

About.com: Agnosticism / Atheism. Separation of Church and State Myth: is it in the Constitution. 25 February 2010 <http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/phrase.htm>.

All About History. Separation of Church And State. 25 February 2010 <http://www.allabouthistory.org/separation-of-church-and-state.htm>.

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Ed. John T. McNeill. New York, 1960. 2 vols.

Holy Bible. Harper Collins Publishers, 2002.

Hutson, John. A Wall of Separation. 27 January 2010 <http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danbury.html>.

Jefferson, Thomas. Jefferson’s Letter to Danbury Baptists (June 1998: DRAFT). <http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpost.html.>.

—. Jefferson’s Letter to Danbury Baptists (June: 1998). 27 January 2010.

Milton, John. A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes. 27 January 2010 <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/civil_power/index.shtml>.

Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party. Separation of Church and State. 25 February 2010 <http://www.theocracywatch.org/separation_church_state2.htm>.

Rushdoony, Rousas John. The Institute of Biblical Law, Vol. 2 Law and Society. Chalcedon, 2003.

—. This Independent Republic. New York: Ross House Books, 2002.

U.S. Constitution Online. USConstitution.net. 27 January 2010 <http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html >.

Wikipedia. “Roy Moore -” Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. 28 January 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore .>.

—. “United States Declaration of Independence -” Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. 27 January 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence>.

Wilson, Douglas. From the Church Drinking Fountain. 27 January 2010 <http://www.dougwils.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6948%3AFrom-the-Church-Drinking-Fountain&catid=136%3Adualism-is-bad-juju&Itemid=1 . >.

Scripture Should Matter more to us than Civil Laws.

Why do people wish to completely remove God from any public life?  The answer is plain and simple: man is fallen, and because of that he does not wish any accountability to hold in check that sin which, because of the fall, comes naturally to everyone.  No matter what type of government is created by persons, because that government is created by persons who are fallen and have a sin nature, that government will have flaws.   Such the same is the case with our government and our Constitution.  Even with the best form of government and governing, it will only be as good as the people who run it, with the ultimate example being that of the Old Covenant.  God designed that government himself, yet the people fell into sin and apostasy time after time, as is seen in the book of Judges and others, because that was naturally what they did on account of their sin nature. Our Constitution, as a secular document, is then filled, like everything else created by mortal man, with flaws, and even contradictions as are shown in the First Amendment, especially in how it is interpreted today.

The First Amendment to our Constitution reads that,

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (U.S. Constitution Online)

The people who wish for God to be taken out of State government, normally focus on that first section—“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”, and (in the case of Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was spoken of earlier) try to tell people that they can “practice their religion in private”, and not “force it on other people.”  The only problem is that the LORD commands us to worship Him and praise Him in every aspect of life and to declare the Gospel to all peoples, even if we happen to be an authority in the State realm.  There lies the contradiction in the Constitution—it cannot support all religions, or any one religion for that matter, and still support no religions.  The government is made up of people, and therefore the religion of the government will be the religion of the majority of the people making up the government, be it atheism, or anything else.  What it ultimately comes down to is that you cannot have a nation that allows both the Christian religion, and the religion of Islam, which advocates ji’hadic holy war.

We need, then, to look past the State for our standard.  We need to look to the Word of God.  The LORD is our Creator, as well as the institutor of all jurisdictional spheres, including State. (Romans 13:1 [ESV])  Therefore, He has higher claim on our allegiance than do any civil officials, judges, rulers, or laws.  There cannot be any such thing as a conflict of duty in this case, for ours is to God alone.  What there is of our duty to Civil government, is not duty to Civil government at all, but rather a sub-duty of our one duty to our Lord and Creator.  That is not to say that we do not show all due honor, respect, and obedience to Civil Government.  No indeed, we must render to “Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” but we are also called to “render to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22;21 [ESV]), and that due obedience which we owe to the Civil sphere only goes as far as it does not prevent us from obeying the Master of both us and that same Civil sphere.  If we are then told to disobey God for the sake of obeying the federal government, we should refuse as we have a higher authority to Whom we are also accountable—that is the Lord.  We are commanded in Matthew 10:28 to “not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul [, but] rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

An example of one of those who stood firm for what was right is former Chief Justice of Alabama Roy Moore.  He, in order to acknowledge God and the moral foundation of our law as he saw it, set up a monument to the Ten Commandments in his Court.  Instead of taking it immediately down, as federal officials commanded him, he refused saying, not only that it was his biblical duty, but also his constitutional duty to leave it up as the First Amendment, the Constitution of Alabama, and everything else he had read commanded him. (Moore, 4)  Ultimately Judge Moore was removed from office because he defied the courts, which is a sign of how far we as a nation have fallen from the foundation of our moral law in the Christian faith, reaching back to the Puritans and beyond.

All of this—the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the civil laws—does not ultimately really matter.  The only thing that we should truly be concerned with is whether our laws and how we are acting, as a nation and as individuals, is reflecting (or not reflecting) the precedent which we are supposed to follow in Scripture.  The First Amendment, although it, according to the secularists, allows for a State to set up a monument to the Ten Commandments, also allows for the freedom of Muslims to exercise ji’had and holy terrorism on us as a country.  You see that the Amendment, and how it is interpreted today is stock-full of contradictions and non-sequiturs.  We cannot, as Christians, do what the nation wants us to do: practicing our religion in our “personal lives” yet having a “neutral” attitude when we conduct civil affairs.  We cannot as Christians do that, because the LORD commands us to follow Him and obey Him in every area of life.  As we have seen His commands are supreme, His commands are to be followed, His commands are much higher on the accountability scale than those of any civil official, be he who he may.  The nation does, as a government practice hypocrisy, saying that everyone has freedom of religion, but not allowing any religion other than that which they teach—statist pluralism.

What the Real Separation Should be Like

As we see in Romans 13, that the State bears the sword (Romans 13:4 [ESV]), and their responsibility is to discipline civil offenders and to repress civil offences.  In contrast, the Church government is in place for the purpose of disciplining ecclesial offenders (via excommunication, exhortation, et cetera) and repressing ecclesial offences (as well, of course, as shepherding and leading the flock).  In dissimilarity to that view is the one that states that the Church and the State should have no contact, and the members of (for example) the Church should not exhort or judge the members of the State sphere in any way.  Indeed, the secularists say that the State should be a completely secular entity, one that is supposedly “neutral.”  However, our Lord Christ Jesus states in Matthew 12:30 that “whoever is not with me is against me” (ESV), and therefore there can be no such thing as neutrality.  This view, also, does not stand up to the test of consistency, for if it went both ways (the State not being able to punish civil offenders in the church) then members of the ecclesial realm would be immune to punishment for any civil offence.

In his book on America, This Independent Republic, Rousas John Rushdoony documents the three points of Calvinism, the reformed Christian standpoint, on Sphere Law.  The first of these states that, —

“(…) Wherever God reigns, there is the Kingdom—and God should reign  everywhere.  Hence, man can serve God everywhere, and the Kingdom of God includes every area of life, and every institution, which obeys His commandments. Thus, Church, civil government, (…) every realm under God’s law is an area of Kingdom activity.” (138)

The different Scriptures that were cited earlier reinforce this.  The Kingdom of God is everywhere, for “God is the God of all flesh.” (Jeremiah 32:27 [ESV])  Thus the civil sphere is under God’s law and can be exhorted or judged by people who, although not in the civil realm, i.e. in authority in that realm, are still in authority over the people in that State jurisdiction because those people are also in other jurisdictional spheres, such as Family or Church.

These four different spheres are not completely and utterly separate institutions that are mutually exclusive.  Most people are in each of those four different realms (those being Self, Family, Church, and State).  In addition to this, the different realms are not in a succeeding order, i.e. there isn’t a “first place”, “second place”, “third place”, and “fourth place.”  They each have different authorities, which control different things, and those authorities are meant to be exercised on every person under those authorities.  For instance, the President of the U.S. could be excommunicated from the Church for doing something worthy of that in an unworthy and rebellious manner, and of course this works vice versa—a member of the Church who performs a civil offence can be arrested and punished accordingly.  The Church Government is in place in order to discipline ecclesial offenders, just as the Civil Government is in place in order to punish civil criminals.  The true meaning of the Separation of Church and State is not that there cannot be, or are not, inter-sphere/jurisdiction relationships or morals, but that there is no switching of the holders of that accountability.  A jurisdictional realm cannot encroach on another realm’s authority.

There are many Scripture passages that support that the two realms, Church and State (although this applies to all), should not be completely isolated from each other.  In 1 Kings, Elijah, the prophet of God, confronts the evil king of Israel on account of his wrongdoing, saying that there would be a punishment from the LORD. (1 Kings 16:31; 17:1 [ESV])  In the book of Haggai, one of the Minor Prophets, the Lord commands him (Haggai) to exhort Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel the governor of Judah concerning how they had failed to rebuild the Temple of God. (Haggai 1:3-8 [ESV])  This same thing is also seen throughout some of the other books of the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures.  In Mark, John the Baptist exhorts Herod regarding how he had immorally taken Herodias, his brother Phillip’s wife (Mark 6:18 [ESV]), and in Acts Paul reasons with King Agrippa in regards to Christianity. (Acts 26 [ESV])  As we see, the biblical precedent for separation between the governments is vastly, even radically, different from how it is viewed by those who wish to push God and all other spiritual accountability out of public life in the United States, and sadly even by our nation as a whole and its government.

Biblical Understanding of the Separation

What Holy Scripture has to say should ultimately govern what we, as Christians, understand about the Separation of Church and State or any other issue having to do with life.  As we go to Scripture, then, to find what its standard is for this matter, we see that God does indeed establish these jurisdictions, as it says in Romans 13—“There is no authority apart from God, and those that exist have been instituted by Him (….)” (Romans 13:1 [ESV])—, and that they are both accountable to Him.

We see in God’s Word, again and again, that God does not deal kindly with those who disobey his law, but indeed he does deal with them—not discriminating with his judgment on account of the fact that someone is in the civil realm or not.  In 1 Samuel 13, God rejects Saul, the king (head of the State sphere) whom he anointed over Israel.  The reason that the LORD did this was because Saul had presumed to sacrifice to God, which was only lawful for the Priests (those of the Church sphere) to carry out. (“Independent Republic”, 136)  God held this ruler of the State jurisdiction accountable, because this ruler disobeyed Him.  We see this again and again throughout Scripture.  Almost the same situation is found in 2 Chronicles 26, where King Uzziah goes into the temple to burn incense.  The end result is that he is struck with a leprous disease and isolated, with the kingdom being taken from him and given to his son, just as the kingdom was taken from his earlier predecessor, Saul. (2 Chronicles 26:16, 19, 21 [ESV])

What was given in practical examples in Chronicles and Samuel is bolstered with general commands to all nations in the Psalms.  God commands that the heads of the State “serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:8, 11 [ESV]), demanding that they embrace Him and Him only lest they be destroyed. (Psalm 2:12 [ESV])  In Psalm 148, everyone is ordered to praise the LORD, including the “kings of the earth and all peoples; [the] princes and all rulers of the earth.” (Psalm 148:1, 11 [ESV])  Finally, we see in Jeremiah 32:27 that “God is the God of all flesh, and all people” (ESV), thus being in a place of authority over them and demanding their allegiance.

This will be the first in a series of posts, which will contain my Thesis Paper which I wrote for Gileskirk this year.

The Separation of Church and State: Is God the Ruler of Both?

Gileskirk American Culture, 4/29/10

Karl von der Luft

Outline

THESIS: There is a separation between the governmental spheres of Church and State, but both are still accountable to the God who made them.

1. When looking at Scripture we see that God institutes these two jurisdictions in His Word, and that the two jurisdictions are accountable to Him.

• Romans 13 reveals that God commands His people to submit to the government, for there is no authority apart from Him and He has instituted those that exist.
• Psalm 148 commands that all people praise the LORD, including the kings of the earth.
• Jeremiah 32 says, “God is the God of all flesh, and all people.”

1. The real separation should be between the governments of the spheres, not between the individuals in the spheres.

• The job of the State government is to discipline civil offenders and repress civil offfences.
• The job of the Church government is to discipline ecclesial offenders and repress ecclesial offences.
• Scripture has many examples of God’s people exhorting the State because of its various ecclesial offences.

1. Even if our Constitution does give ground to the idea that there should be no “religion” brought by individuals into the realm of civil governance, that does not overrule what God commands us in His Word.

• If the Constitution does not allow for us to acknowledge God in the civil realm, then the Constitution contradicts itself for the First Amendment grants us freedom of religion and God commands us to serve Him in every aspect of life.
• God is our supreme Ruler and Judge — He is the One by/to Whom we will ultimately be held answerable.

1. So we see that God does indeed institute these jurisdictional spheres, and that He does indeed hold them accountable. to His Word and to His law.

• This is important because if a government does not acknowledge the God Who created it/them, then they have no standard for good, evil, morality, or any law/legislation other than themselves.  The result is tyranny.
• The solution to that is to go back to the Word of God, ultimately, for the knowledge you need to govern all of life and faith and practice.

Introduction

It was the 12^th of November, A.D. 2003.  Former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Stewart Moore, stood for questioning before an ethics panel.  Why was he there?  Because he had refused to disavow his God, affirming that he would keep the monument to the Ten Commandments, which he had placed in the Alabama Court building.  Moore told the panel, “(…) without an acknowledgement of God, I cannot do my duty.  I must acknowledge God.  It says so in the Constitution of Alabama.  It says so in the first Amendment. (….)” (Moore, 4)  The Attorney General, Bill Pryor, who was questioning him, however, did not seem to care what the reasons were for Moore’s acknowledgement of God, but simply whether or not he would do it again if he was ordered not to by a federal judge or other official. (Moore, 3-4)  Moore stood for the liberties enumerated in our Constitution, but more importantly he stood for not only what he believed was right but for what is right – the truths outlined in God’s Word: that we are accountable to Him above all others.  Moore’s defending attorney, Herb Titus, said, “these plaintiffs are part of a movement that feels God must be censored from the public square.  Individual rights are from God.  If they take God out of the equation, the all-powerful State is all that remains.” (Moore, 183)  The people who say that God cannot be acknowledged by or in the State are ultimately pushing for a state-god.  They wish the government to be in the ultimate position of power, beyond which there is no appeal.

There are several views on what the different spheres or jurisdictions in this world are, but system addressed here will be what Dr. George Grant, in his Gileskirk Curriculum, has said and used.  This view holds that there are four main jurisdictions or spheres in life: State, Church, Family, and Self, and that these are established in the Holy Scriptures.  R.J. Rushdoony agrees with this as well, as can be seen by reading several of his works, including the Institutes of Biblical Law and This Independent Republic.  The State realm, in many of the ancient pagan cultures such as Egypt or Sparta, was all of these spheres of life (barring Self) in one, becoming, as was mentioned earlier, the “god” of the people and the “supreme and primary organization of life.” (“Institutes of Biblical Law 2”, 110)  In contrast to that, the nation of Israel, being the chosen people of God, had, not an opposite, but dissimilar order of things, while they remained faithful to the Law.  While obeying what God had commanded, they had a distinct separation between the offices of priest (equivalent to Church) and the offices of king and governor (equivalent to State). (“Independent Republic”, 136)  Currently, like many pagan nations of old, a lot of federal activity is violating God-given jurisdictional bounds.  The State is encroaching upon the spheres of Family and Church and their lawful authority.  Contrary to what is being propounded and acted upon in the Civil Sphere, the Church and the State, although separate institutions with separate governments, were created by God and are both accountable to Him as their supreme Ruler, Judge, and Institutor.

NOTE: I had a little trouble formatting in the Outline, so all of the “1″s you see are actually “1″, “2″, “3″, “4″, et cetera.

I’m posting here my notes/outline for the Declamation I gave for my Thesis paper.  You’ll probably see references to the Powerpoint presentation slides I used, so to see all of those go here.  For those of you who wish to read my full paper, I’ll be posting that in sections over the next couple of days.

I chose to write my paper on the Separation of Church and State, and what the correct view on that is.

I have, in my paper, three main sub-divisions of that main topic, and those are The Biblical Understanding of it—“What does Scripture say?”, a discussion of what the real separation should look like in practical application, and a discussion of the fact that Scripture should have more bearing with us, as Christians, than do civil laws.

BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING

I had several passages that I used in my paper—you see here a few of them…

In Romans 13 we see, beyond a doubt, that God has in fact instituted these different jurisdictions and that they are in fact

accountable to him.  We see in Scripture that God does not deal kindly with those who disobey his law, but indeed he doesdeal with them—not discriminating his judgment on account of the fact that someone is in the civil sphere or not.

In 1 Samuel 13, God rejects Saul, the king of Israel whom He anointed, because Saul assumed the priestly offices, sacrificing to the Lord.  In a similar instance documented in 2 Chronicles, King Uzziah was actually struck with leprosy for growing proud and presuming to violate the same jurisdictional laws.

What is seen in practical examples in 1 Samuel and 2 Chronicles is given in general commands in the Psalms.  I put down Psalms 2 and 148, but I am sure there are a score of others.  God commands that the heads of the State “serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:8, 11) demanding that they embrace Him and Him only lest they be destroyed (vs. 12).  In Psalm 148, likewise, everyone is ordered to praise the LORD in succession, including the “kings of the earth and all people; [the] princes and all rulers of the earth.” (Psalm 148:1, 11)

Finally, we see in Jeremiah 32:27 that “God is the God of all flesh and all people”, thus being in a place of authority over them and demanding their alleigiance.

THE REAL SEPARATION

As we see in Romans 13, the State bears the sword (vs. 4), and their responsibility in bearing that sword is to discipline civil offenders and to repress civil offences.  In contrast, the job of the Church government is to discipline ecclesial offenders and to repress offences in it’s jurisdiction.

In dissimilarity to that view is the one that states that the Church and State should have no contact, and the members of each realm should not exhort, rebuke, or discipline the members of the other realm in any way.  Not only is that not biblical, but it also does not stand up to the test of consistency.  Matthew 12:30 states that, in Christ Jesus’ words, “he who is not with me is against me”, and therefore there can be no “neutrality.”  Also, if this view were to be put both ways (the State could not exhort, discipline its members in the ecclesial sphere) then the members of the Church jurisdiction would be immune of punishment for any civil offence.

The true meaning of the Separation of Church and State is not that there cannot be (or are not) inter-sphere/jurisdiction relationships or morals, but that there is not switching of the holders of that accountability.

There are, in fact, many examples in Scripture that support the idea of interjurisdictionary exhortation.  In 1 Kings, Elijah confronts Ahab of Israel on account of his wrong doing, saying that there would be a punishment from the LORD. (1 Kings 16:31; 17:1)  In the book of Haggai, the prophet exhorts Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel the governor of Judah concerning how they had failed to rebuild the Temple of God. (Haggai 1:3-8)  In Mark, John the Baptists rebukes Herod because he had immorally taken his brother’s wife (Mark 6:18), and in Acts 26 Paul reasons with King Agrippa in regards to Christianity.  So you can see, the biblical precedent for separation between governments is vastly, even radically, different from how it is viewed by those who wish to push God and all accountability out of public life, and sadly even by our nation as a whole and its government.

SCRIPTURE AS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CIVIL LAWS

Why do people want to completely remove God from any public life? The answer is simple enough—because Man is fallen and, while still perishing in the flesh, does not want any accountability to check the fulfilling of the desires of the flesh.  No matter what type of government is created by Man, then, it will have flaws because the men who created it have flaws themselves.  Such is true of our government and our Constitution.  Even with the best form of government and governing, it will only be as good as the people who are in it, with the ultimate example being that of the Old Covenant.  God designed the governing system, yet the people fell into sin and apostasy time and time again because of their sin natures.  Our Constitution is then, filled with flaws and even contradictions like everything else created by mortal man.

We need, than, to look past the State for our standard.  We need to look to the Word of God.  The LORD is our Creator, as well as the institutor of all spheres (including State).  Therefore, He has the higher claim on our allegiance than do any civil officials, judges, rulers, or laws.  There cannot be any such thing as a conflict of duty in this case, for ours is to God alone.  What there is of our duty to the Civil government, is not duty to Civil government at all, but rather a sub-duty of our one duty to our Lord.

Therefore if the First Amendment says, as some say it does; I don’t agree, but for the sake of discussion, that Congress cannot establish a religion and that the State should be secular and “neutral”, than we should not just “take that in” because Scripture states the opposite!  God’s commands are much higher on the accountability scale that those of any civil official, be he who he may.  Besides the fact that this view on the First Amendment is contrary to Scripture, it is also not possible to fulfill consistently.  You cannot have a secular State that supports no religions, yet all religions.  The religion of Christianity cannot live side by side peaceably with the religion of Islam, which advocates ji’hadic holy war.  It just doesn’t work that well.

WHY ALL OF THIS MATTERS

So why does all of this matter?  The answer is fairly simple: if you don’t have a standard, than anything can go.  If you don’t have an ultimate standard to determine all moral and ethical law, than the government, or anyone else can do anything—abortion, euthanasia, murder, and genocide—all of these things are the result of a state-god with no appeal beyond itself.  The only way to regain a correct understanding is to judge everything by the truly ultimate standard: God’s Word.

Events goin’ lately have been numerous, so I though I’d give a general overview of what’s been going on.

Gileskirk:

Apart from the regular lectures, tests, literature and history posts, et cetera, I’ve been working on this:

Other School:

Algebra, Piano, Science, Art etc. etc. etc.

Learning Programming:

ruby…

Church Events:

Macro groups, Micro groups, fellowship luncheons, Men’s Forums, Congregational Meetings, Morning Church, Evening Church, (till lately) Choir, etc. etc. etc.

Cycling:

I have reached the (grand) total of 732.57 (miles, not inches).

Birthdays:

Mine was about a month ago, and Peter’s within the week. (Pictures of that: http://galena.avlux.org)

Reading:

For edification (Doug Wilson, Richard Baxter, etc. etc.) and for leisure (Wodehouse , etc.)

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll try to post more soon… like before next month.

Ok, so about 2 1/2 years ago Victor accidently dropped his 1st generation iPhone “face first” in a puddle. Thus begins our story. He soon purchased the newer generation model, and all was blissful ignorance for aforesaid aproximent 2.5 earth-circling-around-the-suns. Recently, however, I started collecting any “broken electronics” that I could get my handson–broken cell-phones, broken palms, broken computers, et cetera. My highest aspiration was Victor’s dropped-in-puddle iPhone which had been sitting comfortably in a box since said tragic accident. Finally my wish was granted: I was given the iPhone to mess around with–it was mine, my own, my precious! . For several days my broken-electronics stockpile grew, until last Sunday night when I gave most of it away. Why the sudden change of heart, a curious reader might ask? Well, quite simply I didn’t want them anymore. I had something better then something broken–a working iPhone. The same night I had, on a whim, tried plugging it in to my iPod charger. It worked, quite amazingly. So yes, I am posting from my iPhone via the Wordpress App.

In this book Dr. George Grant tells the “untold story of Christopher Columbus”, dispelling, with true facts, the popular myths of the racist white man who caused genocide, rape, etc. etc. among the poor little brown Indians.  Grant tells the true story, and relates, as he usually does — with plenty of adjectives and adverbs –, the real motivations and incentives which were the driving force behind what this great man accomplished in his life, those being evangelism (fulfilling the Great Commission), gold (financing an attack on Islam), and anti-ji’had (a rear-flanking crusade on the moslem-held Holy Land). Easy reading; an excellent narrative and an engaging story; well researched; and, of course, a moral philosophy lesson on how this applies to our own lives and how we should be living them, being what God wants us to be and doing what He wants us to do.

“Mere Christianity is C. S. Lewis’ forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief.  First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books –The case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality – Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis sees as the fundamental truths of the religion.”-Mere Christianity-

Although it is not always spot-on theologically, Mere Christianity’s counsel concerning how the Christian life should be lived is not to be despised.  Offering a very Bahnsenisc apologetic (although ironically before the time of Bahnsen), C.S. Lewis gives his take on the various “Christian virtues”, how they should be applied, taking on Christ completely instead of just in part, the trinity, social morality, and much more.  This book will be well worth the read for Christians, but especially those who have not yet accepted him.

C.S. Lewis was born in 1898 and died in 1963. He served in World War I, and wrote over 30 books during his 64 year life, including The Screwtape Letters, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Till We Have Faces.