Thursday, May 12, 2016

 PLYMOUTH ROCK
ON VIDEO-
.God’s choice
.Mayflower
.John Robinson
.Scrooby believers
.William Bradford
.Objections
.All creation waits
.John Locke
.King James [bible]
.Puritans
.Geneva bible 1st
.Virginia colony- 1607
.Plymouth- 1620
.Cape Cod
[Past posts- verses below]

NEW STUFF- As I cover some history from the 16th/17th centuries- a significant event came from the religious controversy over the Puritans [separatists] disagreement with the Church of England.
After the death of queen Elizabeth of England- she had no direct heir to the throne- and the son of Mary- queen of Scots- became the new king of England.
James the 1st took the crown- and the Puritans had hoped that he would compromise with them.
They disagreed with the role of Bishops in the church and other ‘Catholic’ beliefs.
Though England broke from Rome- it was mainly in the area of the papacy- they were in reality a ‘Catholic’ church- with no pope [or the King of England replaced the Pope].
So- the Puritans wanted more reform- sort of like what was taking place in Germany under Martin Luther.
But James rejected the appeals of the Puritans- and gave them only one request- a new English version of the bible.
The King James Version [1611] became the favorite bible for Protestants for many years [even till this day].
Yet- it was actually not the ‘original’ Protestant bible.
The first one was the Geneva bible- put together by the reformers.
So- some of the Puritans who had already started their own churches [one in Scrooby England] fled England- and went to Holland.
The pastor of the Scrooby church- John Robinson- stayed in the Netherlands for a few years, but then decided to go back to England.
In 1620- they agreed to leave England once again- and sail to the ‘new world’.
The English already established a colony in Virginia in 1607- and their goal was to arrive in Virginia and hopefully have the freedom to worship God according to their conscience.
They left on the Mayflower- with some other merchants and adventurers.
It was a daring journey to say the least.
And instead of landing in Virginia- because of bad weather- they hit Cape Cod instead.
Before coming ashore- they made a ‘deal’- called the Mayflower Compact.
It was a sort of Democratic agreement that would govern the new colony.
The new colony was founded in what is now called Plymouth Massachusetts.
William Bradford became the governor of the new colony- and was only a teen when he first left England with the Scrooby believers.
The area in England where they left from- was called Plymouth [Devon- North England].
So the new colony was named Plymouth.
PAST POSTS-
. JOHN LOCKE-
Locke taught that each man has individual rights- and he empowers government- an elected designated body- to have rule-
Yet- that government exists solely for the benefit of the people- and when/if that government ‘forgets’ this- the people have a right/duty to revolt.
Locke’s ideas were formed at a time when his own government experienced a sort of revolution [1600’s- England].
The people revolted against monarchy- and replaced it with a sort of Democratic Parliament-
Referred to as the bloodless revolution or the glorious revolution.
The king [or today- queen] would still play a role- like a figurehead- but the power was in the people- willingly given over to a Parliament.
The political ideas of Locke influenced our founding fathers- and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are in parts almost word for word taken from the writings of Locke.
Locke believed in natural law- that morality was indeed a universal reality [some scholars/thinkers will say that Locke does not fully embrace the Christian concept of natural/moral law].
He taught that  knowledge comes from man’s experience- the things he interacts with thru the 5 senses.
That man is not born with innate ideas [like the early Greek thinkers said] but his mind is a Tabula Rasa- or blank slate at birth.
This is an Empirical understanding of knowledge.
Locke also believed in the concept of the separation of church and state- this idea was not unique to our founding fathers- no- they got it right out of the writings of Locke [his parents were Puritans- and they obviously influenced their son].
Locke’s political views were-
Individualistic-
Egalitarian-
Contractual [social compact]-
These ideas differed from the early Greek thinkers [especially Aristotle] who held to a naturalistic view- meaning that nature itself ‘intended’ for certain individuals to have rule over others [the smarter should have rule over the ‘less smart’- and of course Aristotle saw himself in the more nobler crowd!]
Locke also believed in religious toleration- a view held by most in the Western world today.
He saw the Right to private property- as a natural right.
He believed that denial of the existence of God would lead to anarchy in the long run.
He believed that the cosmological argument for the existence of God was valid [called teleology].



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Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John.
[parts]
(1394) THE TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY? In John 12 the Greeks come to Jesus disciples and want a meeting with Jesus, the Greeks are those who prided themselves in their wisdom. Jesus basically brushes them off and refuses to cow tow to the elites. He responds ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone’ in essence- you guys ‘abide alone’ [no meeting with me] until you take up the Cross and follow me. This week [yesterday] the news has been reporting the Texas school book story. Basically every few years Texas school board members go thru the process of what the books for the state should include; basic guidelines and stuff. Texas is the nation’s number one purchaser of textbooks, so the theory is if Texas ‘conservatives’ get their way, then the rest of the nation gets stuck having to buy books that are tainted with backwoods idiots who imposed their views on the rest of the ‘Greek’ [intellectual world]. Do our schoolbooks in general steer away from the religious history and statements of many of the founding fathers? Yes. Do our schoolbooks in general avoid/edit out religious statements from their coverage of the founding documents. Yes. Why? There is a basic mistake made by many of the publishers of schoolbooks that say ‘if we show religious content, then we are violating the separation of church and state idea’. The problem with  this approach is they have left out a large portion of  history while trying to produce a product that will be accepted in both ‘liberal’ and conservative states. If you read the founding documents in their entirety [Mayflower Compact, etc.] they read like a ‘church covenant’ that any Christian community could adopt. Yet when the history books show quotes and portions of the documents, they never quote these sections, why? Because of what I just showed you. This has happened time and time again over many years until we have gotten to the point where many public school children are really not learning an accurate history of the country. The well meaning [but grossly misinformed] opponents simply do not know this. They see the struggle as one between ‘those darn Christian ignoramuses’ versus the enlightened crowd, they are really the ones who have no idea what they are talking about. Now, are we- quote ‘a Christian nation’? Not really. At least not in the way that some Protestant preachers claim. During the founding of our country you had the mindset of the European enlightenment affecting much of western society. Lines were being drawn that pitted a humanist form of belief in God [Deism] against the classical Christian view. Some of our founding fathers did adhere to a Deistic view. Deism said ‘we do not need tradition or religion to inform us of human value and dignity, we can hold to these principles by virtue of our human nobility and intelligence’ that is they believed these truths to be self evident, sort of like the current theme from some of the more popular atheists ‘do good for goodness sake’ [which by the way, fails in the long run- too much to explain right now]. Now, with this background, when our founding documents say ‘we hold these truths to be SELF EVIDENT’ this term smacks of the fact that some of our fathers did indeed reject the classical Christian view. So what does this show us? That some of the founders purposefully included language that would veer away from the Christian view. But you will never understand or learn this simple thing that I just showed you, if we continue to expunge from the record all the religious statements and views of the fathers! So the point is, when these so called enlightened ones try and approach teaching from a biased view, a view that they often don’t realize is biased, they do more harm than good to their cause. The Greeks said ‘we are willing to hear Jesus, let’s set up an appointment’ they went further than most of the liberals on the Texas school board.





(1387) FOR THE FATHER HAS LIFE IN HIMSELF, AND HAS GIVEN TO THE SON TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF; AND HAS GIVEN HIM AUTHORITIY TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT ALSO- In John chapter 5 one of the statements that irks the religious leaders is Jesus calling God his father- thus making himself equal with God. Those who doubt the deity of Christ should look at the way the religious leaders viewed him, they knew that he claimed
[parts]
JOHN LOCKE-
Locke taught that each man has individual rights- and he empowers government- an elected designated body- to have rule-
Yet- that government exists solely for the benefit of the people- and when/if that government ‘forgets’ this- the people have a right/duty to revolt.
Locke’s ideas were formed at a time when his own government experienced a sort of revolution [1600’s- England].
The people revolted against monarchy- and replaced it with a sort of Democratic Parliament-
Referred to as the bloodless revolution or the glorious revolution.
The king [or today- queen] would still play a role- like a figurehead- but the power was in the people- willingly given over to a Parliament.
The political ideas of Locke influenced our founding fathers- and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are in parts almost word for word taken from the writings of Locke.
Locke believed in natural law- that morality was indeed a universal reality [some scholars/thinkers will say that Locke does not fully embrace the Christian concept of natural/moral law].
He taught that  knowledge comes from man’s experience- the things he interacts with thru the 5 senses.
That man is not born with innate ideas [like the early Greek thinkers said] but his mind is a Tabula Rasa- or blank slate at birth.
This is an Empirical understanding of knowledge.
Locke also believed in the concept of the separation of church and state- this idea was not unique to our founding fathers- no- they got it right out of the writings of Locke [his parents were Puritans- and they obviously influenced their son].
Locke’s political views were-
Individualistic-
Egalitarian-
Contractual [social compact]-
These ideas differed from the early Greek thinkers [especially Aristotle] who held to a naturalistic view- meaning that nature itself ‘intended’ for certain individuals to have rule over others [the smarter should have rule over the ‘less smart’- and of course Aristotle saw himself in the more nobler crowd!]
Locke also believed in religious toleration- a view held by most in the Western world today.
He saw the Right to private property- as a natural right.
He believed that denial of the existence of God would lead to anarchy in the long run.
He believed that the cosmological argument for the existence of God was valid [called teleology].


While I was outside praying this morning- I didn’t see many stars. Over the years- when you’re outside between 2-5 am- you do see lots of them-
Many shooting stars over the years.
A few years ago- for the first time- I saw a nova [the death of a star].
Today I noticed one- huge star [thought it was a planet at first- it was bright- big- I’ve seen the red planet many times- Venus or one of the others- I’m not familiar with the names].
But today- the bright ‘planet’- which I saw for a while- went out.
Now- I kept watching for a while- thinking ‘This couldn’t be another nova’.
I’m pretty sure it was.
Now- I’m Leary when I mention this stuff.
Why?
Because people already think I’m nuts-
And look- I’m a smart guy- so I do leave that option open- to be honest.
But I quoted Acts chapter 2 on the video yesterday- read it last night.
And the famous prophecy that Peter quotes [Joel] does say there will be signs in the heaven before that ‘great and notable day’ [judgment].
‘John- what do you think t means’?
I’m not sure- but look- many of us say ‘we believe in the bible’- but do we- I mean ‘really’.
We read events- to be honest- harsh stuff- like when Peter executed judgment on some early believers- simply because they fudged the numbers on the sale of their property- and made it look like they were giving all the money for the offering-
Peter says ‘why did you lie to the Holy Spirit’- and they dropped dead!
Now- do you believe stuff like that happens or not?
I mean they were Christians even.
 I posted the picture to facebook a little while ago- that was the Psalm I read today.
Acts 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Acts 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Acts 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

VERSES-
. Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
[ I mentioned on the video- if you read this in context- Paul is more than likely talking about us ‘being raised to life’ now.
Meaning it can apply to the actual bodily resurrection at the 2nd coming-
But more than likely he’s referring to us now- being ‘dead to sin- and alive/raised to God’.
Paul teaches the same concept in Ephesians]
Ephesians 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

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