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Separation of Church and State | Part II

Consider for a moment the questions we’ve asked thus far:

  • What is the Common Book of Prayer?
  • What is a Puritan?
  • Why did the British refer to the Revolutionary War as a “Presbyterian Rebellion?”
  • How many times did Congress call for a National Day of Prayer, Fasting and Humiliation?

The first two questions outline the way in which the Anglican Church was replacing the “Lord’s Prayer” with the “Common Book of Prayer” along with several other directives that positioned the monarchy over the Trinity. This lead to the Puritans wanting to “purify” the doctrine espoused by the Church of England and return to a biblically based approach to one’s relationship with Christ.

By the 1700s, the “Act of Uniformity” had been expanded to include mandates pertaining to church government – something very beligerent in the mind of a Presbyterian who subscribed to a Scriptural approach to elders and deacons as they are described in the New Testament.

Moreover, part of the “Common Book of Prayer” included prayers that were to be made for the king, which implied a form of political support regardless of that monarch’s character or conduct.1

This is what was meant by the “separation of church and state.”

The delegates that formed the Constitutional Convention were not attempting to facilitate a potentially godless society with the First Amendment. Rather, they were honoring the Authority of God’s Word by placing a limitation on the way the government could dictate the manner of your worship.

Congress could not tell you how to pray or fine you for not attending church on Sundays. There would be no legislation that dictated how a church’s government was to be structured.

But while the individual is free to choose how they worship God according to the dicates of their own conscience, the individual is not at liberty to reconfigure the Foundation upon which that right was based.

In a 2019 ruling, the Supreme Court emphasized the importance of context in determining meaning in defamation cases. They said that context is “a factor of considerable importance” and that the “…words complained of should not be fixed by technical, linguistically-precise dictionary definitions divorced from the context in which the statement was made. Nor should individual words be removed from their context and defined in isolation, before reconnecting them to the rest of the statement.2

If that ruling is to apply to the debate surrounding the separation of church and state, then you’re obligated to conclude the the Founding Fathers were not looking to limit Christianity’s influence on government as much as they were resolved to limit government’s influence on Christianity.

John Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli which was designed to ensure the militant Muslims that were preying on American ships that the US was not planning on invading Jerusalem. Part of that Treaty says:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries (Treaty of Tripoli).

Some will take the statement, “…America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion” to mean that the Declaration of Independence represents nothing more than a token acknowledgement of God and the sixteen Congressional proclamations calling for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting had no specific reference to Christ.

That’s just not the case.

Adams himself said:

The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which, that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their Address, or by me in my Answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities Sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.3

In 1789, James Madison, the architect behind the Bill of Rights, wrote a “Memonstrance and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments.” His goal was to discourage the use of tax dollars to financially support teachers of the Christian religion.

His point wasn’t to discredit Christianity or minimize its place in the public square. Again, it was a concerted resolve to avoid the sins of the Church of England in the way government was used to obligate people to process and revere God in a specific way, if they were to even worship God at all.

Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered.4

Again, while the individual is free to choose how they worship God according to the dicates of their own conscience, the individual is not at liberty to reconfigure the Foundation upon which that right was based.

While Madison is brilliant in his defense of not using public funds to finance religious education, bear in mind he was part of the group of men that wrote the following Congressional Proclamation:

The United States in Congress assembled, therefore do earnestly recommend, that Thursday the thrid of May next, beay be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous sidpleasure, and through the merits of our blessed Savior, obtain pardon and forgiveness…5

The Separation of Church and State was never designed to be used as a way to normalize Homosexuality or justify Partial Birth Abortion. The government of the United States, while it will not dictate how or to whom you pray, it will not be redefined in a way that removes the Divine Absolute that is both its heritage and its Foundation.

 

1. “Variations in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer”, “The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England (1662)”, http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Variations.htm, accessed June 13, 2023

2. “Supreme Court emphasizes importance of context in determining meaning in defamation cases”, https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2019/04/11/supreme-court-emphasises-importance-of-context-in-determining-meaning-in-defamation-cases/, Herbert Smith Freehills, April 11, 2019, accessed November 5, 2022

3. “John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 28 June 1813”, “Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0208, accessed November 5, 2022

4. “Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, [ca. 20 June] 1785”, “National Archives, Founders Online”, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0163, accessed June 13, 2023

5. To see an image of the Proclamation as its preserved in the Library of Congress, click here.

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Separation of Church and State | Part I

Nine times out of ten, when you hear someone play the “Separation of Church and State” card, they’re doing so believing that they’ve insulated themselves from having to defend their platform simply by declaring your position an illegal and inappropratiate assertion of your belief system…

Abortion.

Homosexuality.

It can be anything that is addressed specifically in Scripture. However clarifying the Bible can be in defining the difference between right and wrong, it is an unwelcome Presence in the mind of somone who prefers to declare themselves as their own moral absolute.

“You can’t force your beliefs on me…”

“Not everyone feels that way…”

(sarcastically) “You ever hear of the ‘Separation of Church and State?'”

It’s a signature tactic of the person who has something to hide as opposed to having something to say. By posing as a victim, they can sidestep any direct line of questioning because you can’t be critical of someone who’s in pain without immediately being labeled cruel and intolerant.

It’s brilliant.

There are several things wrong with their argument, though.

First of all, from a historical standpoint, they’re taking that phrase completely out of context and applying it in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with same sex marriage or taking the life of your baby before it’s born.

Secondly, what they’re attempting to do is philosophically impossible. Every government that’s ever been conceived by human kind has been based on a “church” of some sort. It’s here where you can see the true purpose of those who are asserting the “separation…” argument in that they’re not trying to “separate” anything as much as they’re attempting to establish a new god, a new church and a new morality.

But how do you refute what they’re saying? How can you “argue” if they’ve secured themselves behind a wall reinforced by the kind of pity that is due to someone who’s been wounded? How do you make your point if they’re not willing to listen and instead are just waiting for you to stop talking so they can proceed in telling you how intolerant you are?

What we’re going to do is unpack all this by posing a couple of questions that you can ask the person who’s pointing their philosophical pistol at you and compel them to make your point for you with the responses they’re logically obligated to give.

Here we go…

What is the Common Book of Prayer?

It’s part of the legislative package passed by Parliament in 1558 as part of the “Act of Uniformity” which Queen Elizabeth initiated as part of relieving the tension between Catholics and Protestants. It positioned her as the head of the church and imposed a collection of state-sanctioned directives that dictated the way you were to pray, how you were to condut a church service and even imposed a fine should you decide to not attend church on any given Sunday.1

What is a Puritan?

A Puritan is someone who wanted to “purify” the Anglican Church – the church created by Henry the VIII and then later legally mandated by his daughter Queen Elizabeth with the Act of Uniformity. They wanted to distance themselves from a doctrine that was dictated by the crown and instead based on the Authority of God’s Word. The Puritans were among the first settlers of the New World along with the Pilgrims who didn’t want to “purify” the Church of England as much as they wanted to remove themselves completely from having to answer to any government interference with one’s faith.

Why did the British refer to the Revolutionary War as a “Presbyterian Rebellion?”

In the aftermath of the Great Awakening, 75-80% of the colonies were actively involved in church.2 Preachers like George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards had successfully re-introduced the Truth of how one’s relationship with Christ was not facilitated by a liturgy or a religious institution, but was instead based solely on a personal decision to follow Him.

With that awareness came a new perspective on how one’s rights were not a king’s to dispense as much as they were God’s to guarantee.

It wasn’t just “taxation without representation,” it was the way the motherland was attempting to control church government, the way in which you to pray (which included a mandate to swear allegiance to the king) and a directive to ordain ministers, not according to the New Testament, but according to a format approved by the Church of England.

Many Americans were quoted as saying, “We have no governor but Jesus Christ.”3

This is why many redcoats and Englishmen were prone to refer to the Revolution as a Presbyterian Rebellion.4

How many times to Congress call for a National Day of Prayer, Fasting and Humiliation during the Revolutionary War?

Sixteen. And these were not generic “moments of silence.” These were specific admonishments to appeal to Christ for the forgiveness of sins and wisdom in the way the United States was to prosecute its war with England.5

Bear in mind too that the verbiage of these Proclamations were written by many who would later serve in the Constitutional Convention.

Tomorrow…Part II

1. “The Act of Uniformity” was conceived in 1558 and passed by Parliament in 1559. Its purpose was to regularize prayer, worship and the administration of sacraments in the Church of England. In addition, all persons had to attend Anglican worship services once a week or be fined 12 pence which amounted to about three days wages. (“Act of Uniformity 1558”, “Wikipedia”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Uniformity_1558, accessed May 20, 2023)

In 1662, the scope of “The Act of Uniformity” was enhanced to include the mandate that all ministers be ordained according to an Episcopal format and anyone who held an office within the church was to swear allegiance to the monarchy. (“Act of Uniformity 1662” “Wikipedia”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Uniformity_1662, accessed May 20, 2023 | “Act of Uniformity”, “Encyclopedia.com”, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/british-and-irish-history/act-uniformity, accessed May 20, 2023

2. “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic”, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel02.html, accessed April 5, 2023

3. “Directory of National Biography, Vol XXV”, Harris – Henry I, Smith, Elder and Company, London, 1891, p68 (also read “The Black Robe Regiment” to learn more about the Presbyterian element that was perceived by the British)

4. “Public Statutes at large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789 to March 3, 1845, Volume VI”, “https://books.google.com/books?id=Opt0L-PDdPAC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=%22that+the+duties+arising+and+due+to+the+United+States+upon+certain+stereotype+plates%22&source=bl&ots=p2xVUkIfub&sig=ACfU3U3N9AeyAcd_E0QqZfiXJlHQXbKGTA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjq8oSY0__9AhV6mWoFHduzBy0Q6AF6BAgDEAM#v=onepage&q=%22that%20the%20duties%20arising%20and%20due%20to%20the%20United%20States%20upon%20certain%20stereotype%20plates%22&f=false”, accessed March 28, 2023

5. To read a list of all sixteen proclamations as they’re documented in the Library of Congress, head out to http://muscularchristianityonline.com/forum/the-finish-line/

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Look With Confidence

Even human wrath will praise You; You will clothe Yourself with their remaining wrath.. (Ps 76:10)

Doctor John Witherspoon.

American Devotional Series

If you’ve been enjoying the last several posts, then you’ll enjoy the “American Devotional Series | Part One: The Revolutionary War!”

“The American Devotional Series” is designed to reinforce the way our Founders revered God as the Author of our Rights and Freedoms and how our history is frequently punctuated with bold and definitive references to Christ and the Power of God’s Word.

Click here to order it on Amazon!

He was a preacher born in Scotland in 1723. Briefly imprisoned during the Highlander uprising in 1745-1746, his was a strong and articulate voice recruited by Benjamin Rush in 1766 to preside over the then struggling College of New Jersey which would later become known as Princeton University.

The good doctor would publish The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, a sermon he preached at Princeton just two months before he signed the “Declaration of Independence.”

In his sermon, he elaborated on Psalm 76:10 by saying this:

The truth, then, asserted in this text, which I propose to illustrate and improve, is, That all the disorderly passions of men, whether exposing the innocent to private injury, or whether they are the arrows of divine judgment in public calamity, shall, in the end, be to the praise of God: Or, to apply it more particularly to the present state of the American colonies, and the plague of war, The ambition of mistaken princes, the cunning and cruelty of oppressive and corrupt ministers, and even the inhumanity of brutal soldiers, however dreadful, shall finally promote the glory of God, and in the meantime, while the storm continues, his mercy and kindness shall appear in prescribing bounds to their rage and fury.1

In other words, there is no Power or Plan that can succeed against the intended Purpose of God – even to the point where the most diabolical scheme, however unjust or forceful it might be – it will be Divinely routed in a way where the end result will ultimately translate to something good (Ps 78:34-35; Is 26:8-9).

This is what the Psalmist meant when he said that “Even human wrath will praise you.”

It’s because every nuance of the human experience is ultimately subordinate to His Will that you can engage every aspect of your life from a position of Strength. Witherspoon emphasized that point later in his sermon by saying, “If your cause is just—you may look with confidence to the Lord and intreat him to plead it as his own.”2

Whatever challenge you may be facing today, you can confront it with the confidence founded on the Power and Sovereignty of God.

“If your cause is just…”

…look with confidence to the Lord.

1. “1776: Witherspoon, Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men (Sermon)”, “Online Library of Liberty”, https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/1776-witherspoon-dominion-of-providence-over-the-passions-of-men-sermon, accessed January 23, 2023

2. Ibid

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All Men Are Created Equal

So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. (Gen 1:27)

 In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke dismantled the flawed philosophy supporting the idea that monarchs could justify their authority over their subjects by claiming to be Divinely superior to any human court or governing body.1

He said…

For Men being all the Workmanship of one Omnipotent, and infinitely wise Maker; All the Servants of one Sovereign Master, sent into the world by his order and about his business, they are his Property, whose Workmanship they are, made to last during His, not one another’s Pleasure.2

By saying that all men were the “…workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise maker,” he was stripping away the manufactured rank and title that some had asserted as a way to elevate themselves over their peers. Rather, we were to perceive ourselves as equals having been created by God in His Image for His Purpose and not our own.

John Locke

John Locke (1632–1704) was one of the greatest philosophers in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. Locke grew up and lived through one of the most extraordinary centuries of English political and intellectual history. It was a century in which conflicts between Crown and Parliament and the overlapping conflicts between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics swirled into civil war in the 1640s.4

Locke’s Second Treatise of Government was published in 1690 and would heavily influence the political philosophies of those who would go on to craft the “Declaration of Independence.” Some would argue that the Founders, “….succeeded admirably in condensing Locke’s fundamental argument into a few hundred words.”5

Locke had a profound impact on those tasked with crafting the “Declaration of Independence.” You can see both his verbiage and his thinking represented in the opening lines penned by Thomas Jefferson when he said: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.3

While many throughout history would sort men according to distinguished sounding titles and family crests, the United States built its argument on the platform that says our rights are not a king’s to dispense, but they are God’s to guarantee.

The fact that you and I are created in the image of God is what was used to ensure our Declaration resonated as a legitimate cause and not just a mere complaint.  And it’s because we bear His Likeness that this isn’t just another day and you’re not just another face in the crowd. Your life is more than your situation and you are more than your mistakes.

That’s the Reality of God and the beauty of grace.

We are not just existing, we are seen…

…and you weren’t merely “sorted…”

You were created.

Now go make a difference!

1. “Divine Right of Kings”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/divine-right-of-kings, accessed January 22, 2023

2. “The Project Gutenberg eBook of Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke”, Gutenberg.org, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htm, accessed January 22, 2023

3. (n.d.). Declaration of Independence: A Transcription. National Archives. Retrieved January 14, 2023, from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

4. “John Locke”, “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/#SecoTreaGove, accessed January 22, 2023

5. “The American Constitution, Its Origins and Development”, Alfred Hinsey Kelly, Winfred Audif Harbison, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 1963, p90

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Avenge Our Innocent Blood: Rev Jonas Clark

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,1

Those words penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow helped to immortalize the efforts of Paul Revere when he rode to Lexington, Massachusetts from Boston to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British were on the move and enroute to arrest them as well as impound the cannon, gunpowder and ammunition stockpiled in Concord.2

Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah in whose land they shed innocent blood. 20 But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21 I will pardon their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned, for the Lord dwells in Zion. (Joel 3:19-21)

Both Hancock and Adams were staying with the Reverend Jonas Clark.3 Clark’s home was familiar territory in that Hancock was the cousin of the young pastor’s wife.4 In addition, Clark was a passionate supporter of America’s quest for freedom. His sermons often referenced the tyranny represented by King George and how America’s pursuit of liberty was something that could be validated as a Biblically-based perspective.

You can hear that in the sermon he published the day after Revere completed his journey entitled, “The Fate of Bloodthirsty Oppressors, and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People.”

On the 19th of April, 1775, many of the minutemen that had squared off against His Majesty’s soldiers were members of Clark’s congregation. When the smoke had cleared, eight were dead and another ten were wounded.5

Pastor Clark’s text was Joel 3:19-21. He began by saying:

Next to the acknowledgement of the existence of a Deity, there is no one principle of greater importance in religion, than a realizing belief of the divine government and providence, to realize that God is Governor among the nations, that his government is wise and just, and that all our times and changes are in his hands…6

In other words, God is in charge. And it’s because of His Supervision that we can trust that His Justice will ultimately prevail, even when circumstances would suggest otherwise.

By referencing God’s Sovereignty, Clark wasn’t merely offering some general, pastoral comfort. He was reminding his congregation that however evil might be able to function despite the laws and ethics that would otherwise prevent it from happening, oppressors are ultimately defeated by God’s Divine Power and Justice.

In his sermon, Clark referred to the British as having shed innocent blood and calls them “sons of oppression and violence.”7 He then went on to say that the word spoken by the prophet Joel could be applied to the United States.

How far the prophecy before us, may be applicable, upon this solemn occasion, and with what degree of truth, or probability, it may be predicted, in consequence of the present unjust and unnatural war, “that Great-Britain shall be a desolation, and England be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of America, because they have shed INNOCENT BLOOD in their land: But America shall dwell forever, and this people from generation to generation. And the LORD himself will cleanse their blood, that he hath not already cleansed.” —How far (I say) this prophecy may be applicable, in the present interesting contest, and how far it may be accomplished in the issue thereof, God only knows, and time only can discover.—But of this we are certain, if we “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God upon us, we shall be exalted, in his due time:” and if we rightly improve his dealings, “accept the punishment of our sins” and religiously trust in his name, we shall see his salvation. 8

There are times when a church sanctuary functions as an Emergency Room, where wounds are treated, and victims are placed on the road to recovery through the restorative Power of the Holy Spirit (Ps 6:2; 34:18; Jn 14:27; Jas 5:16).

But there are other instances where it’s a Locker Room, where strategies are being rehearsed, mistakes are being addressed and players are being encouraged so they’re sufficiently equipped to take the field and make a difference (2 Sam 5:24; Dt 31:6; Mk 11:23; Jn 14:12).

In his sermon, Clark would not merely utter spiritual sounding condolences nor would he advocate for a forgiving disposition to be extended to the British. Rather, he would reinforce the Scriptural Substance upon which America’s resolve to be free was based and it was that Foundation that would provide both the courage and the endurance necessary to win the Revolutionary War.

There is a time for all things (Ecc 3:1). There is a time to weep (Ecc 3:4), there is a time to wait (Ps 27:14) and there is a time to win (Ex 17:15; Josh 6:5; Lk 10:19; 1 Jn 4:4).

Do not miss the victory that is yours to claim because you’re focused more on the way you would define your circumstance according to what you can do rather than the way God defines it based on what He can do.

1. “Paul Revere’s Ride”, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, https://poets.org/poem/paul-reveres-ride, accessed February 20, 2023
2. “The Real Story of Paul Revere’s Ride”, paulreverehouse.org, https://www.paulreverehouse.org/the-real-story/, accessed February 20, 2023
3. “Paul Revere’s Letter to Jeremy Belknap, ca. 1798 (abridged)”, “The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History”, https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/Revere%20to%20Belknap%20abridged.pdf, accessed February 20, 2023
4. “Jonas Clarke – The Pastor Who Fired the Shot Heard Around the World”, “Christian Heritage Fellowship”, https://christianheritagefellowship.com/the-pastor-who-fired-the-shot-heard-around-the-world/, accessed February 20, 2023
5. “The Battles of Lexington and Concord”, Isaac Merrill, “Digital History”, https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=129, accessed February 20, 2023
6. “Sermon – Battle of Lexington – 1776”, Wallbuilders, https://wallbuilders.com/sermon-battle-of-lexington-1776/, accessed February 20, 2023
7. Ibid
8. Ibid

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You Will Have Trouble

On the west side of the obelisk that serves as the grave marker for the Reverend James Caldwell, it reads:

Hannah, wife of the Rev. James Caldwell, and daughter of Johnathan Ogden, of Newark, was killed at Connecticut Farms by a shot from a British soldier, June 25th, 1780, cruelly sacrificed by the enemies of her husband and of her country.1

The popularity of Caldwell and his courage on the battlefield reads in a way where you can easily imagine that in the aftermath of his heroics, he would survive the war and go on to live happily ever after.

But that was not the case.

Not only would he lose his life as a result of an unwarranted gunshot fired by a sentinel who would later be tried and hung for murder,2 but just two weeks prior to the Battle of Springfield where Caldwell would utter the now famous words, “Put Watts into ‘em boys,” Caldwell would learn that his wife had been shot and killed by the British.3

As believers, we’re not exempt from heartache, sickness, death and anxiety. It’s part of the world we live in and pretending to be either immune or indifferent is neither healthy nor helpful.

The idea is not to ignore sin or its effects, but to remain focused on the One Who gives you the Power and Perspective needed to endure and overcome.

That’s what Jesus meant in John 16:33:

I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (Jn 16:33)

Neither your witness nor your success is defined according to the lack of difficulty you encounter, rather they’re determined by the extent to which you allow Him to shape your perspective (Rom 12:1-2), fortify your resolve (Phil 4:13) and empower your performance (Is 41:10).

However intimidating the sin of the world may be, remember you have working in and through you the One Who brought the sin of the world to its knees.

1. “The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution”, Benson J. Lossing, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, NY, 1851, p326
2. “Proceedings of the Historical Society, Volume I 1845 – 1846, The Office of the Daily Advertiser, Newark, NJ, 1847, p83-84 (https://books.google.com/books?id=NWVIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=Morgan&f=false)
3. “A Short History of the American Revolution”, Everett Titsworth Tomlinson, Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, NY, 1901, p286-287 (https://books.google.com/books?id=BhwTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=watts&f=false)

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Run, Don’t Walk

Originally from Pennsylvania where he helped his father fill the pulpits of several Lutheran churches scattered throughout the area that didn’t have a full-time pastor, Peter Muhlenberg accepted a pastorate in Virginia in 1772.

By 1774, the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain was at a breaking point. The people of Dunmore County saw in their new pastor, not only a capable parson, but an exceptional leader and they nominated him to represent them in the House of Burgesses. Among this group of delegates was Colonel George Washington, representing Fairfax County and Patrick Henry, who in 1775 would deliver the iconic speech that concluded with the words, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

The sessions continued through January of 1776 and it was then that the appointment of officers in the newly formed Continental Army were announced.

At 29 years of age, with very little military experience, Peter Muhlenberg was nevertheless appointed a Colonel and given a command.

While he had served briefly in the British army, his appointment was due more to his capacity to lead than it was his knowledge of military tactics.

It proved to be a good decision, however, in that by the end of war, Peter Muhlenberg was a Major General.

What makes this significant is that Muhlenberg didn’t just pray for the soldiers in the Continental Army, he became one. And he didn’t just encourage them in battle, he led them in combat.

He and his men would see action throughout the war. They would be with Washington at Valley Forge, and it would be Muhlenberg who would assist in keeping Cornwallis contained at Yorktown which would ultimately lead to the surrender of the British army.

Faith in the absence of action is considered to be “dead” according to James 2:17.

There is a time for all things, even a time for war (Ecc 3:8). Joshua had to defeat Jericho, David had to fight Goliath and God made certain that those in Israel who had not participated in the Conquest of the Promised Land would still have to contend with sinister nations in order that they may learn how to function in a combat situation (Jud 3:1-2).

Muhlenberg saw the holy task represented by standing in the gap between tyranny and the populace it would subjugate. He didn’t regulate Christ’s reference to a sword in the New Testament as a metaphor but as a reinforcement of the way in which God sometimes both condones and empowers violence in order to defeat evil.

Obedience is not always convenient and sometimes it requires a significant amount of courage (Josh 1:9).

There is a time for war and when that time comes, you want to take your cue from Muhlenberg and those like him in that you don’t keep your distance from the battle and call it piety…

Rather, you run to the battle line and call on Him.

“The Fighting Parson of the American Revolution: A Biography of General Peter Muhlenberg” Edward Hocker, Lawrence Knorr, Sunbury Press, Inc. Mechanicsburg, PA, 1936, 2019

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Daily Broadside | Will One of the Bidens Finally Go to Prison?

On Fox News’s program Sunday Morning Futures, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky), the Chair of the House Oversight Committee, declared that today, Wednesday, he and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) will hold a press conference to announce the results of their investigation into the Biden Crime Family.

“When you have the opportunity to see the evidence that the House Oversight Committee will produce with respect to the web of LLCs, with respect to the number of adversarial countries that this family influence-peddled in, and this is not just about the president’s son,” the lawmaker said.

“This is about the entire Biden family, including the president of the United States. So we believe there are a whole lot of tips that the IRS and the DOJ don’t know about because we don’t believe they’ve done a whole lot of digging in this, and we have.”

Comer said he and other lawmakers had heard reports that the Department of Justice might charge Hunter Biden in a way that would amount to a “slap on the wrist,” which the lawmaker asserted would be a “drop in the bucket” compared to what his committee uncovered on proof of wrongdoing.

“Wednesday will be a very big day for the American people in getting the facts presented to them so that they can know the truth, and then the Department of Justice can finally do what they should have done years ago,” Comer said.

So you should be watching for that presser today. I’m not going to get my hopes up, though. No matter what the Republicans come up with, I have zero confidence that either 1) they have the intestinal fortitude to press their case all the way to a conviction or 2) the DOJ will do what they should’ve been doing all along, which is prosecuting Hunter Biden and his morally vacuous father, Brandon, for their obvious crimes.

Matt Margolis over at PJ Media also reports on Comer:

“My message to the Department of Justice is very loud and clear. Do not indict Hunter Biden before Wednesday,” Comer told Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures.

“We know exactly what this family was doing,” he said. “We’re going to present to the American people all the information that we’ve received thus far pertaining to bank records. We’re going to disclose many of the different LLCs, many of the different transactions that all these different Biden family members have gotten from our adversaries around the world. We don’t believe this was just a coincidence that all these Biden family members were receiving money from these this Web of LLC into their personal bag.”

Comer added, “We believe this was done in exchange for something that then-Vice President Biden and now President Biden would have done. So this whistleblower is going to provide some very crucial information to our investigation. And we’ve given the FBI until May the 10th to produce this document, so the ball is in the FBI’s court with respect to this whistleblower.”

As The Epoch Times reports, “Comer subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify and to produce a whistleblower document that describes an alleged criminal scheme in which Biden, as vice president, received money from a foreign national in exchange for certain policy decisions.” The “exchange” of money for certain policy decisions? Apparently there’s a whistleblower who can provide some of the missing pieces — if the whistleblower doesn’t end up with missing pieces after being suicided.

What galls me is that the very thing the Left, the media, NeverTrump and the Democrats (but I repeat myself incessantly) accused Trump of being — a Russian stooge, a corrupt official offering quid pro quo to foreign leaders — is exactly what we knew Joe Biden is and was while the allegations against Trump were all false. And NOBODY HAS GONE TO PRISON FOR THEIR LIES.

The government has violated the social contract, the Constitution, and many of the laws supposedly governing the government. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and the Constitution was ratified by we, the people. The Constitution was written to limit the reach of the federal government. The officials inhabiting Washington D.C. are subject to the Constitution, which means that they’re subject to us. But that’s not the way it’s working now, is it?

In fact, the way it works is that those in charge ignore reports of corruption when it’s their side that does it or when there’s an election to win.

Explosive bribery allegations involving Joe Biden and foreign nationals were brought to the Department of Justice as early as 2018, two years before similar allegations against the president were made by the whistleblower now talking to the House Oversight Committee.

Bud Cummins, a former federal prosecutor, first reported the bribery allegations to then-New York US Attorney Geoff Berman on Oct. 4, 2018, in an email claiming he had evidence that Joe Biden had “exercised influence to protect” his son’s Ukrainian employer “in exchange for payments to Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, and Joe Biden.”

In the email obtained by John Solomon’s Just The News, Cummins said that Ukraine’s then-Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko wanted to travel to the United States to meet Berman, and could produce two “John Doe” witnesses to corroborate his claims about the Bidens.

But Berman never responded to the email.

An inconvenient truth, I suppose.

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Daily Broadside | Your Vaccine Compliance is Being Noted

It feels like the world is spinning off its axis, especially here in America. We’ve got a mentally incapacitated fool in the White House who is delivering a third term for B. Hussein Obama, selling off our national oil reserves, gifting billions of dollars of the world’s most advanced military equipment to Russia and China via Afghanistan, and denying his drug-addled, whoring son’s ties to Chinese and Ukrainian money; we have Chinese spy balloons hovering over our Minuteman missile silos, trains derailing and spewing toxic waste into the atmosphere and waterways, trans-mania corrupting impressionable children and women’s sports, reverse racism parading as some kind of virtue, a lawlessly open border that allows third world peasants to invade at will, kids who can’t read or do basic math being failed upward in what passes for “education,” homeless people living in our nation’s largest airport, talentless stroke victims being elected to national office, mass shootings every other day, and unelected bureaucrats demanding that we mask our kids even though masks are proven to be useless at stopping disease and are actively harmful for a child’s development.

Did I miss anything?

Why yes. Yes I did.

I forgot to mention that your government is now tracking you if you’re unvaccinated or only “partially” vaccinated against the Chinese Lung Pox.

  • The U.S. government has secretly been tracking those who didn’t get the COVID jab, or are only partially jabbed, through a previously unknown surveillance program designed by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  • The program was implemented on April 1, 2022, and adopted by most medical clinics and hospitals across the United States starting January 2023.
  • Under this program, doctors at clinics and hospitals have been instructed to ask patients about their vaccination status, which is then added to their electronic medical records as a diagnostic code, known as ICD-10 code, so that they can be tracked inside and outside of the medical system.
  • These new ICD-10 codes are part of the government’s plan to implement medical tyranny using vaccine passports and digital IDs.
  • The government is also tracking noncompliance with all other recommended vaccines using new ICD-10 codes, and has implemented codes to describe WHY you didn’t get a recommended vaccine. It’s also added a billable ICD code for “vaccine safety counseling.”

My emphasis.

Hmm. What could “vaccine safety counseling” mean? Perhaps attending a “reeducation camp” or a “struggle session”?

Even more chilling is that the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting, if not instigating, the surveillance program. As reported by Robert W Malone, MD, MS, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is now being leveraged to track vaccine compliance here in the United States.

This is important, as the WHO is authorizing the US government to modify the classification system to meet specific needs. The ICD classification system is run by the World Health Organization, not the US government.

In April 2022, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced a new set of codes relating to vaccination status that are cause for concern. These ICD codes are not based on a disease or illness, but are based on COVID-19 vaccination status. It took almost a year, but in January 2023 these codes became available to nearly every medical clinic and hospital in the USA. (Emphasis his.)

That’s Dr. Malone’s screenshot, but I added the highlighting and red underlining. He goes on to say:

Let me be even more specific, Code Number Z28.310 listed above is not a code for an illness or diagnosis, but rather for non-compliance of a medical procedure. This is an invasion of our right to privacy. There must be choice and that choice must be private. (Emphasis his.)

Once a person’s vaccination status is coded and uploaded into large data base, it can be accessed by government and private health insurers alike. The administrative state officers at the CDC have not made immunization status a reportable disease (yet) but immunization status is listed as one of the reasons for mandatory reporting. They are just one step away from being able to collect this information without your permission. Ergo: vaccine passports made easy.

Again, his emphasis.

This is straight up tyranny. There’s no other way to describe what is happening. There is a mad rush to force us all into compliance with a vaccine protocol that makes zero sense to impose now that COVID-19 is no longer a “pandemic.” Didn’t our illustrious Resident tell us on national television that it was over last September?

This is just one front in the war to destroy freedom and force us into compliance with what self-appointed Hitlers decide is good for us. Just in case you forgot, here’s a reminder that it’s not just WHO, it’s not just our government, but it’s organizations like the World Economic Forum, which published this gem in 2018.

You may snicker at what you think are ludicrous, brash assertions by people nobody has ever heard of and thoughts of “how do they think that’s gonna happen?” — but these “nobodies” are dead serious.

“You will own nothing and be happy.” Right. The government will decide whether you can rent that car or that apartment or that furniture or those clothes — based on whether you’ve been vaccinated or agree that you’re a white oppressor or are happy with your minimal income.

I can’t think of another time when our freedoms were under as grave a threat as they are now. The commies are hard at work and it’s paying off.

We will sooner or later have to decide whether we’ll live free or die trying.

Sorry to be a wet blanket on a Friday, but the crazy doesn’t stop.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | The Progressive Left Lives for Lies

Start of a new week but the same old predictable knee-jerk reactions from the progressive Left over another mass shooting, this time in Monterey Park, California on Saturday.

A gunman killed 10 people and injured 10 others at a Southern California ballroom dance studio Saturday amid Lunar New Year celebrations. 

Twenty to 30 minutes later, a man with a gun entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra but patrons wrestled the gun away from him, and he fled, authorities said.

Despite police not releasing the suspect’s identity or race, some liberals on Twitter were quick to pin the horror on white supremacy and anti-Asian hate before all the facts were known.

The usual suspects of course, including Chuckie Schumer and Adam Schiff-for-Brains, two of the most morally corrupt politicians in our government. They immediately pinned the blame on “bigotry” without knowing the identity or race of the suspect.

They are “heartbroken” and “sickened.” I’d believe that if they actually had a heart.

This is the Left: move immediately to “take the high ground” of condemnation by being the first out with a comment and imply that some kind of “hate crime” (is there any other kind?) has taken place. “With bigotry toward AAPI individuals as a possible motive” hedges Schiffty-Schiff, while Schumer goes full frontal with his assertion that, “We must stand up to bigotry and hate wherever they rear their ugly heads.”

Let me ask you something: if both of them raise the specter of “bigotry” and “hate,” who do you think they are implying does the bigotry and hating?

Here’s Francesca Hong to tell us:

Ah, yes, the bogeyman of “white supremacy” who “reign terror” or something.

Is this really so surprising when you think about the FBI, DOJ and what’s left of Brandon’s brain constantly telling us that the greatest threat in the United States is domestic terror and white supremacy?

No. No, it doesn’t.

But the joke’s on them. The suspected shooter turns out to be an elderly Asian man.

The driver of a white van who is the suspected shooter in Saturday’s Monterey Park mass shooting has been found dead from an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound after being cornered by authorities in Torrance on Sunday.

Police sandwiched the driver and van with tactical vehicles and bomb squad trucks after pursuing the driver into a shopping center and hearing a gunshot from inside the van, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in an update on Sunday evening.

After awaiting further support from SWAT, officers then moved in on the van to find one driver deceased, slumped over the steering wheel.

Authorities identified the suspect as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran.

So why do Schumer and Schiff jump to conclusions that make them look like the idiots they are? Because they are committed to a narrative that informs how they see the world, and they make their assumptions accordingly. Unfortunately, the narrative they love isn’t supported by the evidence.

Black on Asian violence has long been a problem. After listing several examples in an article about this pattern of violence, Heather MacDonald writes,

In fact, the suspects in all of these cases were black; the news reports rarely mentioned that detail. Had the suspects been white, their race would have led each news report, as it did for Robert Aaron Long. A former member of the Oakland police department’s robbery undercover suppression team tells me that this racial pattern of attack and its lack of coverage is longstanding. No one cares about Asian robbery victims, he says, “We used to follow around elderly Asians, waiting for the bad guys to start circling. This has been one of my long-term frustrations. They are pretending to care now but ironically blaming it on white supremacy”—even though the suspects in Asian robbery attacks are almost exclusively, in this cop’s experience, black.

It’s unreasonable to think that whites never commit any crimes against blacks or Asians. But it’s just as unreasonable to think that whites are the majority of perpetrators of such crimes. There’s just no evidence of it.

But that doesn’t stop the likes of Schumer, Schiff or any other Leftist from immediately pivoting to such lies when an opportunity presents itself.