Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Neither Here Nor There

  • Tim Challies has an interesting review of He Is Not Silent by Al Mohler
  • Voddie Baucham has some thought-provoking things to say about the election in How Evangelicals Could Win an Election and Lose the Culture. Towards the end he has a very astute comment: "The Gramscian Marxists know that their success is guaranteed regardless of who wins this one"
  • Lew Rockwell has some interesting thoughts provoked by the upcoming election in Learning About the State. Americans, no matter who you elect, please meet your long-term ruler, The State.
  • It has normally been assumed that PDF is a safe format. But watch out! PDF exploits seem to be on the rise! (HT: SlashdoT)

Now If Only Politicians Would Think Like This..



A few quotes from Thomas Jefferson:

"I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make partisans" --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:77

"Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites: peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness." --Thomas Jefferson to Henry Middleton, 1813. ME 13:202

"I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:438

"Freedom of the person under the protection of the habeas corpus I deem [one of the] essential principles of our government." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801. ME 3:322

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801. ME 3:321

"I do not believe war the most certain means of enforcing principles. Those peaceable coercions which are in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert and in time of peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect." --Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, 1801.

"The exercise of a free trade with all parts of the world [is] possessed by [a people] as of natural right, and [only through a] law of their own [can it be] taken away or abridged." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. (*) ME 1:189, Papers 1:123

"We had better have no treaty than a bad one." --Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1807. ME 1:467

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Monday, September 22, 2008

Baptist Catechism: Items 21 - 25

Q. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it (Rom. 5:12, to the end; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; James 1:14, 15; Mt. 15:19).

Q. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God (Gen. 3:8, 10, 24), are under his wrath and curse (Eph. 2:2, 3; Gal. 3:10), and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever (Lam. 3:39; Rom. 6:23; Mt. 25:41, 46).

Q. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life (Eph. 1:4, 5), did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer (Rom. 3:20-22; Gal. 3:21, 22).

Q. Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5, 6); who, being the eternal Son of God, became man (John 1:14; Gal. 4:4), and so was and continueth to be God and man in two distinct natures, and one person for ever (Rom. 9:5; Lk. 1:35; Col. 2:9; Heb. 7:24, 25).

Q. How did Christ, being the Son of God become man?
A. Christ the Son of God became man by taking to himself a true body (Heb. 2:14, 16; 10:5), and a reasonable soul (Mt. 26:38); being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her (Luke 1:27, 31, 34, 35, 42; Gal. 4:4), yet without sin (Heb. 4:15; 7:26).

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Baptist Catechism: Items 16 - 20

Q. Did our first parents continue in the state wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents being justify to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning a against God (Gen. 3:6, 7, 8, 13; Ecc. 7:29).

Q. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God (1 John 3:4).

Q. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A. The sin whereby our parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:12, 16, 17).

Q. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression (Gen. 2:16, 17; Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22).

Q. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery (Rom. 5:12).