April 2009 - Forum Update
OldDog wrote two letters April which from my perspective hit the nail right on the head. These letters follow:
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From OldDog:
Since most of you rely on the monopolized media industry for your information, it may come as a surprise to know that what we have and are seeing is global banking institutions looting developing countries, central banks, plundering foreign exchange reserves, undermining national governments, destabilizing entire national economies, and promoting instability and unrest throughout the world. Over the years, a massive concentration of financial power has taken place in the hands of these global players as a means of finally installing a Global Currency and the New World Order as a reality. All that is left for us is to understand that and accept a global oligarchy as our masters. A revolution is out of the question, as very soon our money, property, food, water, pharmaceuticals, employment, weapons and ammunition, communications, transportation, and all forms of information, will be manufactured and distributed by global corporations as they see fit. There will be no place to go or hide, and no possibility of resistance, as your friends and relatives will be reporting your every move and comments. If all of this sounds impossible, purchase a copy of the Black Book of Communism, and watch as history repeats itself here in America.
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From OldDog:
The blueprint for restructuring the world, and global economic revitalization, is called UN Local Agenda 21. This plan calls for a complete reorganization of local governments based on intrusive data gathering, mapping plans, and personally identifiable information or gossip, called anecdotal data. The UN Declaration at Rio is based on the theory of communitarianism, and supposedly promotes sensible solutions to the conflicts posed by too many individual rights and not enough community rights. Communitarians insist there must be a new effort to shore up the moral, social, and political environment. They balance the rights of individuals against the health and safety of the community at large, and contend that individual rights can only be protected by taking some away. The communitarian Third Way, and its theory of Reinvented Government, destroys the American legal principles for protecting individuals from the community, and has proven itself to be a form of global fascism that gives control of all economic activity to a global corporatocracy, and world governance by a non-elected global oligarchy of Bankers. The founder of the Communitarian Network (Amitai Etzioni), was praised by the Clintons, Bushes, and Obamas, for helping to achieve a New Communitarian Vision for America.
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If you wish to comment or respond to the above two letters, please do so directly to OldDog at: wethepeople@anationbeguiled.com
March 2009 - Forum Update
Mary wrote the CONSTITUTION FORUM and similar to Carol's contribution in February, took issue with January's article, "God, the Bible, and Christianity". Our exchange in regard to this article follows:
From Mary:
A friend of mine told me about your article, "God, the Bible, and Christianity" so I went to your website to read it. I was impressed with the website and after reading some of your political writings, I have to admit I am in agreement with many of the things you say. However, when I read your article I was shocked and concerned because I believe you are traveling down a path which will take you straight to hell.
The Bible is God's holy book and to think that it contains falsehoods and inconsistencies is an affront to God. God is perfect and to claim His Bible is not is blasphemy. The Old Testament is called the "Preparation" because it paves the way for the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Old and New Testaments are both important and necessary parts of the Bible. For you to deny the Old Testament is tantamount to denying Jesus Christ and there are serious consequences for doing this.
I truly feel sorry for you because you are so misinformed and because if you do not see the error of your ways soon, you will spend eternity in hell apart from God. I will pray that someday you wake up because unless you do, you will be condemned.
Yours in Christ,
Mary
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From the Constitution Forum:
Dear Mary:
"For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14)
If you really read the articles concerning religion on my website, I fail to see how you can be so quick to condemn me. Obviously, my reason and arguments have fallen upon deaf ears and this being the case I am faced with clarifying myself again. Perhaps this is my lot in life and I willingly accept it because by so doing, perhaps one more soul will be saved.
My main point is that there is a hierarchy of truth in the Bible and by this I mean that some things written in the Bible are more important than others. As Christians, we should sort out these truths so we can walk with Jesus and be saved. Obviously, you disagree and subscribe to the curious notion that everything written in the Bible is of equal importance because it all comes from God. I say "curious" not because this is not a popular misconception, but because it runs counter to what is clearly established in the New Testament. But I am getting ahead of myself here.
The most important statements in the New Testament are ones where Jesus establishes the pillars of Christianity. For example when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me" he was providing us with an inviolate truth of His new religion. Everything else in the Bible is subordinate to this truth and exists to support it. Jesus Christ is God and by following Him and only Him will we be saved. There are no qualifications or reservations here and this statement is unequivocal. Therefore, the statements made by Jesus which establish the pillars of Christianity comprise the 1st level of truth in the Bible. From this follows that the 2nd level of truth in the Bible is other statements made by Jesus which tell us how to follow Him and those made by the Apostles which clarify and support the 1st levels of truth. For example when John in 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not parish, but have eternal life", we are reading a 2nd level truth which we can accept with absolute certainty because John's words are another way of saying what has been established by Jesus.
At this point, I think you are following me and in case you have reservations about what I just said then, consider this. Jesus was not only the Master, He is God. This being the case, what ever Jesus says is more important than what is said by His Apostles. To hold otherwise places the Apostles on equal footing with God and doing so is absurd. Therefore, there is a hierarchy of truth in the Bible and to think otherwise it is a serious affront to Jesus. To put this in another way, Jesus told us to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) while, in contrast, the Old Testament advises to give a life for life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21:32,24). Are we supposed to believe that both are true and the latter is on par with the former? What Jesus is telling us is not only far more important than what Moses is telling us, it is also directly contradicts and entirely replaces what Moses is telling. Whose advice are we supposed to follow? If you said Moses or both, then you are not a Christian and also are not playing with a full deck of cards. I hope we are in agreement here and assuming this is the case, I think is safe to say that where we really disagree is in how we are supposed to follow Jesus.
We follow Jesus by reading what He says and making our lives mirror His. As pointed out above, these lessons, combined with supporting statements by the Apostles, are the 2nd level of truth in the Bible. And knowing this, it should be apparent what comprises the 3rd level of truth in the Bible. The 3rd Level of truth is comprised of everything said about God, Jesus, and the right way to live by the Apostles which does not fall into the two levels of truth which precede it. However, it should be kept in mind that the Apostles where men and being men they viewed the world from their own point of view. Therefore, their offerings must be filtered through what Jesus said and understood in this context. The 4th level of truth in the Bible is everything else that is true, but again, these things must be able to withstand scrutiny in light of what we know from the higher levels of truth. Finally, we come to the 5th level of truth which is everything else in the Bible which is irrelevant or not true. And yes, there are things in the Bible that are irrelevant and not true. I won't go into this to any depth, but let it suffice to say that taking an eye for an eye is not true for Christians and the story about Noah and his flood is also not true. Unfortunately, the only thing we are able to learn about God from the story of Noah is that He is a brutal and petty tyrant. If you want confirmation of this, go back and re-read my article but this time, do it with and open mind.
Have I lost you? Let me try and get you back on track by way of examples. Jesus Christ said He is the way. That's it! If you are a Christian then Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. Therefore, when John says that if you believe in Jesus Christ you will have eternal life you can believe in this statement without reservation because this is just another way of saying that Jesus Christ is the way. Get it? Let's take another example. At the last supper, Jesus established another pillar of Christianity by establishing a New Covenant with all of mankind. The New Covenant is not just a rework of the Old because it establishes an entirely new religion totally different from Judaism. This is confirmed by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 9:13 where he says, "When He (God) said a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." We can accept Paul's words with great conviction because we know that Jesus established a New Covenant and this being the case, if we hang onto the Old Covenant, we have necessarily rejected the New and by so doing have rejected Christ and Christianity. This truth is inviolate and fundamental. The problem is that this is lost upon Fundamentalist Christians and by hanging on to the Old Covenant by believing it is on par with the New they are grievously violating a pillar of Christianity and succumbing to the wiles of Satan.
Let's take one more example which I am sure is near and dear to your heart because it is one most Fundamentalist Christians hang their hat upon to justify holding onto the teachings of the Old Testament. In 2nd Timothy he says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". This is a heavy statement because it is being made by an Apostle and appears to be a 2nd level truth of the Bible. Unfortunately, the statement also seems to give license to resurrecting Old Testament teachings and puts them on equal footing with those from the New Testament. Complicating this situation and adding to our problem is that Jesus Himself referred to the Old Testament in his sermons and lessons.
We are now faced with a contradiction. The Apostle Paul put the Old Covenant to rest by telling us that is growing old and ready to disappear and Timothy resurrects it by telling us that the Old Testament is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. What's a good Christian supposed to believe?
That answer to the above question is, use your brain and think. Jesus did not live in a vacuum and was as much a product of His times as everyone else. He often taught in parables to teach lessons and similarly, He used stories and passages from the Old Testament because they were accepted and fervently believed by the people He was dealing with. The point is, because Jesus used these stories and passages to teach lessons, this does not imply or mean that were true. Where does this lead us? When Timothy made his statement he was not wrong or being contradictory, but merely telling us what he knew was true. Jesus used the Old Testament in his lessons and Timothy was merely telling us that this was the case. Timothy's use of the word "profitable" confirms this interpretation. Profitable in this instance means useful and being useful does not imply that what is useful is necessarily the truth. A similar line of reasoning applies to "by inspiration of God". The person providing the scripture was certainly inspired, but it was not God, the entity, who specifically did the inspiring. How can any other interpretation be valid? If these interpretations are not true, then we are faced with the task of turning the other cheek at the same time we take the eye out of a person who took out ours. Does such foolishness make sense?
Jesus Christ was Jewish and his followers called him Rabbi. Do you really think that if early on in His ministry Jesus told his followers that He was not a Jew and that through His teachings He would replace those of the prophets who came before Him, He would have gotten very far? To be sure, if he had been this foolish, He would have been ridiculed and stoned to death as a heretic. Indeed, in Matthew 5:17 Jesus tells us to "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill". However, what Jesus failed to add to His statement is that by fulfilling the law (prophesy), the law (the Old Covenant) would be changed forever. And indeed, when He established His New Covenant at the very end of His Ministry during the last supper, this is exactly what He did (change the law by fulfilling it). Get it? If you are a Christian you do. Jews of today are descendants of people who didn't get it back then. My perceptions are that your zeal to find God has clouded your mind and led you down a path were you have inadvertently joined these people.
In any case, the point I am trying to make is that taking Timothy's statement at face value resurrects the Old Covenant at the expense of the New and this means doing so is absurd and at cross purposes with the New Covenant. If it is at cross purposes with the New, then it is repugnant to it and as Christians we are obligated to either re-evaluate our thinking or simply reject such offending passages our of hand. To not do so is to run the risk of falling into error and losing our Christianity. To be a Christian one has to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and this means we accept His New Covenant with ever fiber of our beings and reject anything which is contrary to it. In keeping with this, many lessons and teachings within the Old Testament no longer have any meaning or validity for Christians. For example, Christians do not tithe and tithing does not make one a better Christian. Tithing is an Old Testament responsibility which is no longer valid or binding for us. In 2nd Corinthians 9:7, the Apostle Paul says, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver." Yet, despite the words of the Apostle Paul and despite the New Covenant, many Fundamentalist Christians go on believing that by tithing they will find greater favor with God when in truth such a belief is offensive to God. God does not want or need your money, other people do. If you give to your church because you have to, you are obeying the law (the Old Covenant). When you give because you want to help others or your church, you are giving because you love God, your church, and your fellow men in keeping with the New Covenant. What manner of fool thinks that God wants us to quantify our love and express it as an obligation? Not one who is a Christian!
Mary, I know you love God and wrote me in sincerity and with the best of intentions but being sincere and having good intentions is not enough. God gave you a mind for a purpose and you must use your mind to truly know and find Him. Just because you were brought up to believe that something is true and just because everyone around you says it is true, does not necessarily mean that it is. "For many are called, but few are chosen!" The reason for this is that there are many pitfalls in finding the one true path and one of the biggest pitfalls is the Old Testament. Jesus Christ was a Jew and a Rabbi, and He lived His life from this perspective. But do not let this cloud or detract from the fact that His primary purposes for coming into the world was to save us from sin and establish a new religion through a New Covenant with all of mankind. When it comes to Bible, believing more is not better and does not serve God.
There are many things in the Old Testament which are true, but there is also much which is not. If we grab onto that which is not true, especially the things which do not stand the test of reason, we are not demonstrating a stronger love for God, but instead, clouding and muddying the message that Jesus brought to us. Everything in the Bible, while written by God inspired men, is not necessarily the word of God. Furthermore, the New Testament is complete unto itself and there is nothing what-so-ever in the Old Testament which add anything to it including the much revered Ten Commandments. This is not say we have license to disobey them, but instead we shun sins such as these because we love God, follow Jesus, and love our fellow men as we do ourselves. To accept the Old Covenant as binding in any way demonstrates that you fail to understand the meaning and intent of the New Covenant and this being the case, you are not really a Christian. Calling yourself a Christian does not make you one. Knowing and understanding Jesus and living by the message He brought to us does.
Please consider my words carefully. Your sole hangs in the balance and this is true no matter how many people tell you otherwise.
Sincerely,
Alan Adaschik
February
Carol wrote and took issue with January's article, "God, the Bible, and Christianity. Our exchange follows:
From Carol:
2nd Timothy 3:16 - "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God..." This is the Scripture which you claim does not exist in your article.
Your view of the OT and NT is misguided. The NT is the fulfillment of the OT. They go together and the OT is just as important today as it was before the NT, as Jesus Himself showed as He quoted it often! Jesus also kept all the Jewish feasts. He said, "I did not come to destroy the law (OT), or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." Matthew 5:17
I don't think you have read the Bible at all, to see what it really DOES say. By what you write, you claim the Bible says just the opposite of what it really DOES say ! Be careful, God puts a curse on those who do this. Revelation 22:18,19 - read it.
You have totally re-defined "Christianity". You judge who is and who is not a 'Christian'. But that is God's job not yours. You make the enemy those who believe in the Bible. This is a new cult that has crept up beginning in the 1960's and has blossomed today.
God does not lie or tell stories and the prophets of old were too reverent of God to do it either. The people of today who claim to be "Christians" would be wise to have some of this reverence! Every event DID actually happen and if you kept up with the real independent scientists who are actually doing something, you'd know that they have found solid evidence of all those events. This modernist view you have is typical of these end days. For your own sake read 2nd Thessolonians 2:11,12.
God is NEVER "tolerant" of any type of evil or sin. You need to read the NT! In the NT God is the Great Judge! Yes He is forgiving to the REPENTENT, but He is also the Great Judge! God never accepts evil or sin no matter who tries to make it appear that way in this new world agenda. God is the same God of the OT and the NT. The only difference is the NT is under a new dispensation (grace) where animal sacrifices are no longer needed to cover man's sin, since Jesus was the Sacrifice for all, and once and for all.
And remember the mountains and terrain we see today did not necessarily exist back then as it does now. Earth goes through changes; volcanoes create new territories and take away others all through history.
People today have one basic flaw - they refuse to see any other time in history as being any different then what we know it as today and this is their downfall. Earth was NOT the same today as it was back then. Earth changes constantly.
The Bible IS the Word of God - it is God speaking to us. Translations from the original may have a word here and there that could have been more accurate, but the original texts tell us what they really are. The English language is very limited in expression. WE have only one word to cover or describe something, whereas other languages have several words that have totally different indications that are used in the original Greek and Hebrew. This is why God ordered us to "search the Scriptures". The REAL Scriptures, not those made up in different modern translations by man. Man has agendas. I suggest you do so before you write more. You are way off base in your article. God, nor His prophets "made up stories". Your soul is way too important to them for that kind of nonsense.
And while you are reading, also read the Constitution - NO WHERE does it have anything about the separation of church and state! It does not even hint at it! But it DOES say that government cannot restrict in any way, the freedom to worship or speak. That phrase "separation of church and state" is only part of a sentence written in Jefferson's letter to answer the question to a minister who was asking about it. And if you read the ENTIRE SENTENCE you will see it says just the opposite of what that phrase has been used for by the Liberals.
IF you knew of our Founders and our own true history, you'd know that none of them would EVER say anything like that, as they themselves were strong Christians who established this nation in order to spread the Christian gospel - America was founded as a Christian church relocation project! They escaped Europe because of the taxes and Christian persecution. They stated so many times. They had the government fund printing of Bibles to hand out to the Indians and military. They also held church in government offices on Sundays. Washington rode his horse 40 miles one way (80 miles round trip) - twice - morning and evening - to go to church. These men could teach today's politicians a thing or two about being real Christian leaders! They could teach all so-called 'Christians" of today a thing or two about being real dedicated Christians!
Carol
Minister, Author, Counselor, Constitutionalist, American Historian
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From the Constitution Forum:
Dear Carol:
Indeed, 2nd Timothy 3:16 does say that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..." From my perspective, this does not in any way refute what I stated in my article. There is no doubt that the men who wrote the bible were inspired by God, but being God inspired does not necessarily mean that God played a direct role in dictating what they wrote. Your conclusion is reading far more into scripture than what these words actually say. Yes, Fundamentalists want to believe that God himself wrote the Bible through men, but as I pointed out in my article, they have no basis for this belief and so believing puts them into an unavoidable conflict with the New Covenant. It also confuses the issue in regard to what is required of a follower of Christ. For example, many Christians wrongfully believe that tithing, an Old Testament Levitical requirement, is a Christian responsibility. Nothing could be further from the truth yet Christian ministers perpetuate this misconception in defiance of the New Covenant because of the revenue it brings into their churches.
The New Testament is not a fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ came into the world in fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy and to establish a New Covenant with mankind which was also foretold by Old Testament prophets, but this is as far as it goes and in no way should these facts be considered a fulfillment or confirmation of the entire Old Testament. Because one aspect of the Old Testament is true does not necessarily mean that the rest is true. To so conclude is a breach of reason and common sense.
Jesus observed the Jewish feasts because he was Jewish. He remained Jewish until the last full day of His life. Jesus established His New Covenant at the last supper and the world was changed forever. At this point, for Christians, the Old covenant became history. Why do you fail to acknowledge the wonderful thing Jesus did for us?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, "I did not come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill...." In no way does this quote imply that we should hang on to Old Covenant despite the New. To be sure, Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophesy and by fulfilling it, the Old Covenant was replaced in its entirety. Replacing the Old Covenant is not the same as destroying it, but beyond any question or doubt, it was replaced. Why do want to resurrect what God has replaced? Do you really believe that the New Covenant only modified the Old and both are still operative? Are Christians still bound by Jewish Levitical Law? If you answered yes to both these questions, then why do you call yourself a Christian?
I am not saying the opposite of what the Bible says and I am not redefining Christianity. You and your fellow Fundamentalists are doing this because you fail to understand the true meaning and import of the New Covenant and the words of our Savior Jesus Christ. Nothing you have said thus far in your letter or anything you have quoted in the Bible contradicts or refutes anything I said or concluded in my article. You are reading far too much into the quotes you cited and they do not support or uphold what you wrongfully chosen to believe. This is the key problem which Fundamentalist Christians have. They believe so strongly in what they want to believe, nothing can shake them from what they have latched onto even when they are wrong. Being dogmatic and unreasonable does not serve God.
I agree with you that God does not lie or tell stories and that the prophets of old truly were reverent men inspired by God. They also truly believed the stories they recorded were true, but what they wrote down were stories. Moses wrote Genesis, but was not a witness to the events described in this part of the Bible because he was not born when they occurred. Do you really think that God sat down with Moses and dictated the Book of Genesis to Him? If indeed this was the case, why didn't Moses tell us this? The only reasonable explanation for Genesis is that it is comprised of stories handed down to Moses and having no better explanation for what he found in the world, he believed the stories and wrote them down for posterity. And yes, some of the events in these stories did actually happen, but not all of them and surly not in the way Moses describes. You claim there is solid evidence for all these events. The evidence you are talking about, in all likelihood, is on par with that provided to us by creationists. It is only evidence to those who believe it is before they examine it. Does the phrase "wishful thinking" come to mind here? Please stop and think why you wishfully think away the purpose for which Jesus Christ came into the world.
I have never said that God is tolerant of evil or sin. What I said was that God is tolerant of people. God has an infinite capacity for forgiveness so long as those who have sinned sincerely repent. God loves all of us even if we are sinners. It is the sinning that is repugnant to Him.
I have clearly established that the God described in the Old Testament is not the same as the one described in the New. I then went on to use this fact to demonstrate that the real God could not have had a direct hand in writing both the Old and New Testaments because the two descriptions are so contradictory. Clearly, you disagree? This is your prerogative but your disagreement amounts to nothing unless you can provide justification for what you are saying. This you have failed to do. Are you a prophet whose statements we should accept without justification because they are God inspired?
We now come to the biggest sore point I have with Christian Fundamentalists: their contention that the sole purpose of the New Covenant was to substitute the blood of Christ for the blood of animals in sacrifice for our sins. What pure unadulterated bull dung! Truly, Jesus Christ came into the world to atone for the sins of man which made animal sacrifice unnecessary, but this is only a part of what He accomplished. The primary purpose of the New Covenant was not to save the lives of animals. Instead, its purpose was to save mankind and Jesus accomplished this by establishing an entirely new religion; a religion which provided mankind with redemption and a path to salvation. Do you really believe that the sum total of the New Covenant is that we should continue to be Jews, the only difference being that we no longer kill our livestock. How absurd! This kind of thinking is repugnant to the New Covenant, repugnant to Christianity and God has reserved a special place in hell for those who perpetuate this absurdity.
It is true that, through time, the earth changes in radical ways, but the time we are talking about between now and the alleged flood is several thousand years; not the eons it takes to build mountains. Ten thousand years ago, the peak of Mount Everest was only a few feet lower than it is today, so the demographics of the flood as presented in my article is accurate.
The Bible is more than the word of God. It is a book of events some of which are true and some of which are not. The word of God can be found in the Bible if we seek and look for it. But if we make the blanket assumption that everything in the Bible is true, we have fallen into a trap that will prevent us from finding and knowing the one true God. This is a failing of Fundamentalist Christians and this is why they will never truly be Christian. There is a hierarchy of truth in the Bible. To truly know and find God, we must begin with the higher truths and work down. As we do, inevitably we will come across things which seem to conflict with these higher truths. When this occurs, it is incumbent upon us to re-evaluate our interpretation of what these things mean. If this is not possible, then we should ignore what troubles us and move on. By latching on to everything they find in the Bible, Fundamentalist Christians are letting unimportant things cloud their view of the higher truths. This is a grave error on their part because it is a stumbling block to salvation. The truly tragic aspect of this situation is the by evangelizing their beliefs, they are leading other people away from God.
God is waiting for us at the end of the journey described above and when we find Him, there are no conflicts between God, His magnificent creation (the Universe), and us. Can the Fundamentalists make this claim for what they believe? Of course not! They have conjured up a religion which can only be accepted by those who succumb to emotion and willingly submit to what is best described as brainwashing. People should not have to give up their minds to find God, but this is what Fundamentalists do and they wear this mistake like a badge of honor.
In a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut dated January 1, 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
Apparently, not only did Thomas Jefferson believe the words "make no law respecting an establishment of religion" meant that there was a wall of separation between church and state, but so did most of the members of the Danbury Baptist Association. Furthermore, so believing has nothing to do with liberalism because such thinking is a bedrock principle of conservatism. The Founders, for the most part, were devout and religious men who believed that other men in the guise of a government should not interfere with how they exercised their religion. A government is nothing more than a group of men who have been entrusted with a frightful power over us. It is this frightful power which is coveted by Fundamentalist Christians and they covet it to such a degree that they would destroy Christianity to obtain it. For this they will be condemned and the tragedy is that they are taking so many gullible people to hell with them.
Sincerely,
Alan Adaschik
Citizen
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From Carol:
Not all of the OT has been fulfilled as yet. The entire end time scene is in the OT. You need to read Daniel, Isaiah, Amos, Obadiah, and Jeremiah. All end time prophecy in them.
Jesus said He did not come to destroy the law (OT).
You want to throw the OT away completely by the sounds of it. The Ten Commandments are still in effect (OT). God never took those away or any of His other social laws. Only modernists have done that and made it out like God changes to suit their agendas.
But what's the use, you believe the Bible is full of fairy tales instead of the Holy Word of God. One day when you face Him (as everyone will) you will see that every word was written by God's direction.
The only thing that I see was changed was the tithe. OT tithe was 10%, but NT "tithe" is the best portion one can do. Sometimes that would be more then 10%; sometimes less.
I disagree that at the Last Supper was when Jesus "gave the new mission/dispensation"; the change happened when Jesus overcame death and was ascended into heaven. Jesus was the perfect and final 'once for all' Sacrifice for our sin. No more animal sacrifices.
The Holy Spirit is to reveal the Words of God to us, not OUR common sense and reason. You leave out the most important thing of all = FAITH and obedience to God! Not once in the Bible does it ever say to use our common sense or reason in relationship to God's Word or to Him.
God's ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts, so human common sense and reason should not enter into the relationship we are each to have with the Lord. (Is 55:8,9)
There is a way that SEEMS right unto man, but the end thereof is death (Spiritual death). Prov.16:25! Man seems to have this 'thing' that he can just make his own rules and take God's place. But he will never see God's heaven that way. God's heaven = His rules.
Sincerely,
Carol
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From the Constitution Forum:
Dear Carol:
I will respond to you paragraph by paragraph.
Thank you for your thoughts provided in response to my last E-Mail to you. Unfortunately, my perceptions are that you understood very little of what I wrote. Typically, we are reaching an impasse. I am trying to reason with you and you feel threatened so you fall back upon platitudes which sound good, but are of very little import or substance.
I don't care if all of the Old Testament has been fulfilled yet. According to the Apostle Paul it is growing old and ready to disappear. As a Christian, all I need to read is the New Testament. There is nothing in the Old Testament that has any value for me and this includes the Ten Commandments. Apparently, what you have no capability of understanding is the Jesus Christ did away with all the rules and commandments of the Old Testament. In order to be saved all I have to do is follow Him. I do not need the Ten Commandments. I do not need Daniel, Isaiah, Amos, Obadiah, and Jeremiah. All I need is Jesus.
Jesus did not come into the world to destroy the law. He came into the world to fulfill it and by so doing changed the law forever. And by changing the law forever, the Old Testament is growing old and will disappear. Why do you keep hanging onto something that Jesus Christ has told you to let go of? No, I do not want to throw the entire Old Testament away. I just want it to disappear not because I have any choice in the matter, but because this is what Jesus wants. God never took away anything. He just wants you to be a good person because you love him, not because He has told you what to do. Don't you see the difference? If you obey the law because you fear punishment, there is no love for God involved. How wonderful, obey the law and your crops will grow and that's the end of it. How about; love God and you will be welcome in His house forever. Doesn't this have a nicer ring to it? Obey the law and you are Jewish. Love God and you are Christian. Get it? Of course not! Like the Pharisees of old you love the law and your doings more than you love God.
I believe we can find the Holy word of God in the Bible, but yes, we have to read through a whole lot of fairy tales to do so. The God of the Old Testament directs. The God of the New Testament leads.
At the last supper Jesus blessed the bread and wine and had everyone partake thereof to establish His New Covenant. How can someone who calls themselves a historian and a Christian not know this?
True! Nowhere in the Bible does it say that common sense and reason should be the basis of our relationship with the Lord. However, it is also true that nowhere in the Bible does it say that we should throw our brains into the toilet to find God. God gave to us three great and wonderful gifts; a mind, body, and soul. Do you really believe that God would give us a mind and then expect us to not use it to know and find him? This is absurd! Faith is nothing more than trusting God to be everything that He promised. God does not want your obedience, he wants your love. If you do not understand this, then you are not a Christian.
God's ways are our ways and if we are going to be saved we must learn to make our thoughts mirror His. The God you worship, apparently, is like the New World Order. They operate in secret and decide what is best for us. Our lot in life is to be blindly loyal because they know what is best. How sick and depraved! I won't accept such a sad state of affairs from my fellow man and as a Christian, nor will I accept it from God.
In conclusion, the basis of Judaism is following a set of written rules so as to find favor with God. The basis of Christianity is being a good person because you love Jesus and want to become like Him. Everything you have written tells me that you are more Jewish than Christian.
I will pray for your immortal soul and hope that someday you wake up.
Sincerely,
Alan Adaschik
Citizen
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