American Democracy And Christianity Series

American Democracy And Christianity Series

Figure 1: Declaration of
Independence

America declared her independence July 4, 1776! Then America fought wars to stay  independent and today is struggling with her identity.  This is a series on American Democracy.  I explore the emergence and establishment of the American Experiment as closely I could get to the Forefathers mindset.

I began this effort following the events of September 11th, 2001 serving on active duty often on late night watches. During this time, I began reading the Declaration of Independence; figure 1, the US Constitution, and the US Bill of Rights.   My initial interest was in understanding what I was defending.  After all, I was in the United States military. This lead me into a much deeper investigation due to the Forefathers deep connection with Christianity.

As I delved deeper into my studies there was no end to the rabbit hole. I swallowed the red pill and braced for the harsh reality. It took me into war fighting doctrines, moral systems, even into information theory and the sciences. As time progressed, I found myself deploying to Iraq and the fertile crescent where the Biblical narrative occurs in part. I was being exposed to a competitive belief system and it was important to understand who we were, what we were bringing to these people in a strange land. I needed a baseline from which to act properly. After all, the Global War on Terrorism was an asymmetric war underpinned by ideological beliefs counter to the American founding. This war was not a simple megalomaniac reaching out for a power grab, although many people tried to advance that understanding. GWOT is a war of conscience, more so than other wars, that strikes at the mind of every American citizen. GWOT has the potential to affect America's identity and introduces America to a much more dangerous kind of threat.

What I discovered was America is no longer the land that our forefathers intended. I wonder what we will become and have speculated some through my own research.  The bottom line up front is that while Democracy and Capitalism were primary instruments directly from the Bible that contributed to making America great, America was great for the most part because of the population's reliance on the Judeo-Christian God. This is the Original Intent as best as I could understand it.  Originally, I scripted a book for publishing but scrapped the idea and decided to adapt sections for blog postings.  I will slowly make additional posting as I adapt the works for the blog. This is where we came from, the way we were...

Introduction to American Democracy and Christianity

Odyssey to America

The Emergence of Human Rights in America

The Grievances and Cause for Revolution

The Biblical Foundations for Freedom

Principles written into the Founding Documents

Biblical Treatment of Slavery and Servitude

Morality of Capitalism, Part 1

Morality of Capitalism, Part 2

Supporting Posts

Farewell Letter of Pastor John Robinson

Information Theory Overview

Of Rebels and Radicals

Speculative Futures

Reflecting on the Character of Business and the Economy

Introduction to American Democracy and Christianity

American Democracy And The Judeo-Christian Bible Series

This is a series of posts of updated and adapted excepts from a book I began writing several years ago. The intent was to retrace the thinking of the American Forefathers in forming the founding documents and framing the government. The goal was to use common language and retraceable logic based on the Christian doctrine of the forefathers. This  post sets the background and stage for the future postings.

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity”, John Quincy Adams on July 4, 1821 (Federer, 1996, p. 18).

Jefferson declared that religion, "... deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support" (Federer, 1996, p. 334).

Beginnings

Figure 1: Earth and Moon

Humans live on an insignificant planet, in an insignificant solar system, on the edge of an insignificant galaxy amongst billions of galaxies in the vastness of space. The only sentient (having feelings and emotions) and intelligent (having reasoning ability) life known to exist is located in this insignificant place in the middle of nowhere, Figure 1, planet Earth. An oddity among creatures, human life is self-aware and given variety of revelations from plethora of deities who make claims that are self-truths. Humans must somehow vet these revelations and determine which ones possess self-evident truths or nature's truth. The general logic is that all gods are sovereign over the natural and the natural must therefore produce evidence consistent with the claims made by a deity. The American Forefathers assessed that Christianity was the most compelling revelation after having studied many moral and ethical systems of government. 

"The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind" Thomas Jefferson on March 23, 1801 (Federer, 1996, p. 324).

The Forefathers even assessed Islam among others and rejected the tenets of those belief systems.

James Kent, Chief Justice US Supreme Court in New York, wrote an opinion in an 1811 case The People vs Ruggles, "We are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon other doctrines or worship of those impostors [other religions]" (Federer, 1996, p. 348).  By impostors, Kent is referring to a Judeo-Christian view that other religions are designed or intended to deceive humans from accurate discernment of the Creator and Lord over human life. This notion is discussed in the Information Theory Overview.

The Judeo-Christian Bible is a revelation revealed to humankind which is one of the most discussed but not so accurately understood theologies today. The period following 1900 is known as Post-Modernism which is characterized by relativistic truths and a high degree of confidence in an unsupported personal belief that is somehow to be esteemed by others. In short, the right to an opinion. No such right is possible as having an opinion violates another's right to their opinion. No disagreements can be solved with the right to an opinion and no solutions are possible without violating the right to an opinion (Whyte, 2004, pp. 3-6. ).

This is opposite of the periods prior to 1900. During the Enlightenment, circa 1630 to 1804, there was a strong focus on the matters of Biblical knowledge and many debated the finer points in coffee houses through out Europe.   The Enlightenment gained the tag name the ‘Age of Reason’ due to the rationale or line of logic given in support of the arguments. An outcome of the Enlightenment was the influence the period had on the framers of the American Government and founding documents (Schmidt, 2006).

These coffee house debates refined the understanding of the Christian Doctrine and were unsettling to the leadership in Europe leading the large protestant populations coming to America to pursue their faith. As an outcome, most of Western civilizations has been formed based on the teachings, values, and principles found within the Bible. Christian doctrine professes the Bible to be the original source for the most basic tenants of war fighting doctrine, the rule of law, representative democracy or the republic, and human rights in addition to a host of other subjects.

The next post will begin to discuss early America and the emergence of a new form of government. 

References:

Federer, W. (1996). America's God and Country. William J Federer, Fame Publishing, ISBN: 1-880563-05-3

God. (2007). The geneva bible. (1560 E.D.). Hendrickson Publishers Inc: MA.

Schmidt, J. (2006). Making man in reason's image: the enlightenment and the birth of modern humanity. Barnes and Noble. ISBN-13: 9780641967221

Vattel, E. (1758). Law of nations or the principles of natural law in four books. (Electronic E.d.). Lonang Institute.

Warren, B., England, A. (2003). Holman illustrated bible dictionary: bible formation and canon. Holman Bible Publishers: Nashville.

Whyte, J. (2004).  Crimes against logic, McGraw-Hill: New York, ISBN 0-07-144643-5.

Biblical Sequence of Events: End-to-End

Biblical Sequence of Events: End-to-End

By

James T. Bogden

The purpose of this post is to set the background for additional posts on America's heritage. I needed an overarching sequence of events in order to discern the purpose and foundations for many of the topics and issues in coming posts. This is the reasoning and process I used in order to develop the sequence.

While serving in the military, I had transitioned from aerospace into information technology then into a specialty function cell with the ever changing military. While in the specialty function cell, I was boots-on-ground in Iraq. Our function was to bring democracy to Iraqis.

There are several forms of democracy of which the two major forms are parliamentary and representative democracy. The United States form of Democracy is representative or a republic. Whereas, the European form of democracy is parliamentary which does not have a system of checks and balances.  Democracy in the root form of a Republic originated from the Judeo-Christian Bible and has been the basis for the United States Government with all the underpinnings Judeo-Christian based. Although, the form attempted in Iraq was Parliamentary Democracy.

Iraq is mostly Muslim and the form of government promoted in Islam is the Caliphate or dictatorship. In fact, Osama Bin Laden declared the intent to establish a Caliphate from Spain to Indonesia. Bin Laden was to be the Caliph seated in Baghdad awaiting the development of the Islamic eschatology.

With this focus on theologies and the ideological war Bin Laden was waging to establish himself as the dictator, I was thrust deep into theologies, cosmologies, and philosophies hearing every kind of version of belief. The US Military even made attempts at secularizing the war and the Navy was using the tagline a "force for good" without moral clarity of the good for what or who.  This sounds more akin to Islam as Allah is greater. Greater than what or who? The Military failed to realize that secularism is a theology of its own as the US Supreme court has ruled in 1961, Torcaso vs Watkins,  that secular humanism, atheism, is a religion. The United States 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in 2005 that atheism is Constitutionally afforded treatment as a religious belief. Thus, these rulings based on the legal test provided extended to secularism as a whole.  The United States of America was founded as a Christian nation and on September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked for the cause of Islam and the propagation of their form of government.

Somehow, I had to discern the truth about Christianity, Islam, and others. While there is much more to this topic, I will focus only on the overarching Christian theology in this post. I will continue to refine this post and request that  you return for refinements or further clarification from time-to-time.

The Challenge

Over the years, I have listened to many understandings of the Bible and thoughts on the Christian religion or just religion in general. Most of the views came from a high degree of confidence in an unsupported personal belief rather than a logical and rational thought process based on evidence that can be reasonably followed. In this case scriptural evidence, the Bible. I learned upon investigation that most views were simply incorrect with fragments of the truth and very few seemed to be on target.  To me, the Christian religion was almost as though people were making it up and in many cases they were. Somewhere buried deep in all this was the accurate account from the Judeo-Christian God.  But first, I had to go through a process of learning the operative concepts and methods of accurate discernment. 

The universe, seemed to me, as order and structured filled with patterns, purpose, and meaning. C.S. Lewis viewed the universe as meaning drenched having layers of complexity upon complexity with God woven throughout the fabric of space-time.  Then as in common art, the universe should reflect something about its creator. Some religious circles call this the fingerprints of God.  I approached this problem of searching for the fingerprints as Leonardo Di Vinci would and applied the Di Vincian principle of 'sfumato' which is Italian for throwing everything up in smoke. Applying 'sfumato' countered the principle of condemnation without investigation or assuming that the truth was already known. This avoided incorrect foundations and misguided studies. I found on some occasions what I thought was true was not as a outcome of applying this principle.

Another principle employed was 'connessione' which is a realization of the interconnectedness of all things. In Biblical studies, the interconnectedness is considered taking into account the 'whole counsel of God'; Acts 20:27. God often explains things contextually but not always in the immediate surrounding text. The explanation could be a 1000 years later chronologically and in another book all together.  Applying the 'whole counsel of God' principle avoids dangling, unexplained, and/or tangential off shoots that do not seem to fit well into a symbiotic message and doctrine. The tools for this include a concordance, Bible Dictionaries, exegesis and/or commentaries from scholars and studied theologians alike.

There is also a concept of expositional constancy in which certain idioms, symbols, and associations carry the exact meaning where ever used.  For example, fire destroys, water cleanses, lamp stands are the churches, and the lamb is symbolic of Christ.

With these fundamental concepts and some others, I stepped back not one or two steps. In my minds eye, I stepped out of space-time all together to see creation, the universe, as best as I could from the Judeo-Christian God's perspective. What I learned was that most views were incorrect or incomplete. They accounted for time incorrectly, for example, by applying time to God who is both inside and outside of the time domain ubiquitously or applying time when God had not yet created it on the second 'day' of creation. What I saw was fascinating. 

Gaining Resolution

In the Bible, there are many ages and timelines of God's focus. Combining Biblical themes and events as well as secular world history for a complete timeline of history, the result is somewhat overwhelming. The Complete Biblical Timeline. If a serious Bible student, this can be helpful but my objective was to develop some sort of overarching timeline combined with event sequencing of a succinct theology; something a little more basic and had its message more clearly stated. There is the Biblical event sequence counting down to the Great Tribulation. There are ages or dispensations in which God's focus was on various aspects.  There is even a sequence of events for the maturity of the Church during the Church Age. None of these were complete of end-to-end explanation of the theology. Having this complete event sequence would illustrate the overall relationships and sequences of major events to the theme. This event sequence would reveal the overall account and purpose. After my research, I was able to discern the Pre-Millennial view which had the strongest support, Figure 1.

Figure 1: Pre-Millennial Threadline illustrating creation to the ascent as well as the dispensations. 

This is the high level theology. Unfortunately, many Christian religions often dispute the details but tend to agree on the overarching theme's focused on Christ. To sum up the Christianity in a classic elevator pitch one might remark as follows:

• A war broke out in heaven that resulted in evil being trapped in the World. The souls, Believers, were known before the foundations of time and were placed by God into embodiments within the world having their loyalty tested by evil before God reclaims the loyal ones and returns them home. The reclamation process involves the human recognizing their lost state and realizing the only way home is through acceptance of Jesus Christ who saves humans from a spiritual death. In the end, believers leave the current universe for a new one. The current universe is destroyed with the non-believers still in it having been raised from the dead in corporeal form and acknowledged God. 

The Biblical plot centers on Evil's attempts to distract, disrupt, deter, diminish, deny, and destroy human efforts from decoding the Biblical messages, becoming believers, and finding the narrow path home. Ultimately, evil seeks to thwart God's plan for each human. However, through faith in, acceptance, and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, human believers are able to overcome evil's efforts and return home. Evil is defeated and there is security in salvation. 

A Deeper Look

There are generally two approaches to the Bible and some others such as systemic theology. One approach of Dispensationalism and the other of approach is Covenantalism.  Dispensationalism is a successive revelation of God involving stewardship and a rule of life.  Covenantalism centers on God's promises and his revealed eternal plan in the scriptures.  In practice, there is a combination of the two that work in a symbiotic relationship of revelation. There is only one revelation in the Bible and that is Jesus Christ who is the focus of the Book of Revelation (note the singularity of Revelation). The dispensational approach was used in this post as a temporal progression is illustrated as opposed to promises that required deeper insight and did not easily support a progression of time.  Systemic Theology is a system of systems approach and an integrated message system that maintains internal consistency of the whole.

Conclusion

Given the overarching timeline, study can begin on various points delving deeper with the connection to the entire counsel of God. As one studies a new area, new knowledge will become revealed connecting back to an earlier section studied. One may find themselves returning repeatedly to earlier sections for additional study. 

The knowledge of the theology is a good thing but the personal relationship with Christ is the most important for the believer's to have access to heaven and God in the Christian religion. 

References: ( There are considerably more references and I will adding them)

Cargal, T., Chavalas, M., Edwards, J., Gooch, J., Handy, L., Keener, C., Landry, D., Lintz, R., Lyons, G., Mason, J., Merling, D., Morris, G., Wright, J. (1982). The chronological study bible. Thomas Nelson Publishers; Nashville.

Cabal, T. (2003). The apologetic study bible. Holman Bible Publishers; South Korea.

Chaffer, L., Walwood, J. (1974). Major bible themes: 52 vital doctrines of the scripture simplified and explained. Zondervan Publishing House; Grand Rapids.

Randall, K. (2003). Holman illustrated bible dictionary: jerusalem.  Holman bible publishers. Nashville. pp 889-898.

(1993). King James Bible commentary. Thomas Nelson Publishers; Nashville.

(1996). Life Application Study Bible: king james version. Tyndale House Publishers, inc; wheaton.