I am very sorry for the lack of updates recently. We have had a VERY busy couple months with some major growth and the projects that go along with that growth (like trying to remodel our youth room to accommodate the increased numbers).
As part of my desire to counteract the misinformation our kids are being taught in our public schools I really felt led to teach about our nation's founding; what the founding fathers intended and what their vision for America was at the time of the Revolution and the forging of the U.S. Constitution.
I am teaching the material from a Biblical perspective and NOT a partisan or political party perspective -- paralleling the Word with the principles that make up our Constitution.
We started by looking at God working through Samuel to fulfill the wishes of His people for a physical king. What we looked at was the warnings that God gave His people in regard to man ruling man. It didn't take the kids long to realize all of the warnings He gave sounded very familiar in regards to politics today.
God never intended for man to rule man. However, He allowed His people to have what they so desired. And the results were just as God warned (the people being subject to the king's whims, your sons going to war for his causes, your income being taken in taxes, etc...)
When our founders set out to establish this country, the concepts were world-changing. When they stated in the Declaration of Independence that our rights came from our Creator, that was radical. In almost every society your rights came from the King and his whims. Those rights could be revoked or changed at any moment and were not dispensed in a uniform and impartial manner.
But God is no respecter of persons and He does not change. Rights that come from God are eternal and impartial.
Then we talked about the founders' vision for our society. They envisioned the central government having a VERY limited role in the lives of its citizens. They saw that society is made up of many pillars; among them family, church, local community, business, government and, of course, the individual. They saw that every aspect of society could be maintained through these pillars. They saw that each one of them was best-suited to handle a different aspect.
For example, welfare was best administered by those with the vision to do so. This would be namely the church. We are the ones charged by God to care for the sick, needy, widows and orphans. The problem they foresaw was that, when the wrong pillar of society is handling a problem, the job is not done correctly and the other pillars are weakened.
We have laws to, as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, protect us from the heartless (I am paraphrasing). He said that laws will never change the hearts of men. So, what pillar is equipped to change the hearts of men; to instill morals and virtue? Well, our founders felt that the family, church and community would do those things -- not the government.
One of the biggest problems we have created by not following the founders' advice is that, once things are out of balance, things are very difficult to correct. No one will let the government stop providing everything it does because it would be "heartless" to withdraw the support it is currently giving. Of course this is true because for generations it has been the source for help and by doing so it has weakened the very pillars that should be providing that support so that they cannot.
Finally, this week we talked about the concept of freedom. We looked at Genesis 2:16 where God tells Adam he is free to eat of ANY tree in the Garden. But if he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die. So God actually tells Adam he is free to eat of it, but there would be consequence if he did. This is the very definition of freedom. You have the freedom in America to pursue life, liberty and happiness. You also have the freedom to not pursue them. Either way, that freedom is really about personal responsibility.
Next week we'll continue on the concepts of freedom and the pillars of society.
