We first heard part of this hymn in English (or at least part of it) when our family watched a movie adaptation of Dickens’ Nicolas Nickleby. The glorious Biblical hope of the chorus is amplified if you read the words (below) in English while listening to it sung in Tamil (a language of Southeast Asia)

“God is working His purpose out as year succeeds to year;” (1894) this hymn is penned by Arthur Campbell Ainger, England. (1841 – 1919) Music was composed and scored by Martin Fallas Shaw, England. (1875 – 1958) This video is performed my St. Mark’s Church Choir (Mukuperi, Tamil Nadu) for their church century year.

God is working his purpose out
as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

From utmost east to utmost west,
wherever foot hath trod,
by the mouth of many messengers
goes forth the voice of God;
give ear to me, ye continents,
ye isles, give ear to me,
that earth may filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

What can we do to work God’s work,
to prosper and increase
the brotherhood of all mankind–
the reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time–
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

March we forth in the strength of God,
with the banner of Christ unfurled,
that the light of the glorious gospel of truth
may shine throughout the world:
fight we the fight with sorrow and sin
to set their captives free,
that earth may filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

All we can do is nothing worth
unless God blessed the deed;
vainly we hope for the harvest-tide
till God gives life to the seed;
yet nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

 

---

Words: Arthur Campbell Aigner (1841-1919), 1894

MIDI: Benson (Millicent D. Kingham, 1866-1927)

What a man with a Confederate flag and a black son has learned from the King who reigns over all nations and races and how it speaks to the cultural divides of our time.

Part 1:A movie date to relax in the middle of a heated pro-life political campaign unexpectedly prompts thoughts about reconciliation and reformation. American Vision’s excellent review of “The Help”:

“You wanna go see The Help?”, my wife Christy asked when I called .

“Sure,” I replied in a very reluctant tone, that my beloved bride of 25 years immediately understood to mean “No”. I had driven 400 miles  across rural Mississippi that day campaigning for the Personhood Amendment and was headed home when she called.

I had much on my mind, and just wanted to hang out with my family at our house. However, I knew Christy had spent an equal number of hours sewing wedding, bridesmaids, and flower girl dresses for some friends who had traveled 200 miles; which also meant three extra people for her to take care of on top of managing nine people in a small three bedroom house and preparing for the homeschooling year. She needed a break, so I texted her back and told her to be ready to go when I got there.

I was skeptical about The Help on a number of fronts:
“Chick Flick”?Politically correct?Another opportunity to slam Mississippi?Too much foul language?

But, armed with a positive review from Gary Demar, and love for my wife, I “bit the bullet” and went and am very thankful that I did. The acting and the story were phenomenal. There was indeed too much objectionable (and wholly unnecessary) content. However, the message was very compelling.The story of a Southern aristocratic girl turned reporter telling the stories of black maids in early 1960′s Mississippi could have gone in many different directions. But the theme reflected a Biblical theme that is at the heart of Personhood Mississippiand many other pro-life/orphan care ministries we’ve been involved with:

“Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” – Proverbs 31:8-9 (in other words, speak up for those who are oppressed, but cannot speak for themselves)Providential Timing for Us and Mississippi; America

The release and our viewing of this movie could not have been more Providentially timed for us, for Mississippi & the Mid South, and for our nation in general:

1) For me, personally: because I Ricardo Davis, Bob Bibee, and I have been talking about the topic of this movie, the need for Biblical reconciliation in Mississippi, and how this relates to the Personhood campaign/ pro-life activism for months. Ricardo and I have been discussing the need to publish a series of articles on this subject since I offended a fellow pro-life activist and Brother in Christ with something I wrote a number of years ago that was taken out of the context of the rest of my life & writings since (more on this below).

2) For Mississippi: because the Mississippi Democratic Party just nominated a black man (Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny Dupree) for governor. As the left wing “news” blog Huffington Post notes, this is the first time since Reconstruction that a black man has been a major party candidate for governor in Mississipi (they likely will not note that Dupree is a pro-life Democrat who says he supports the Personhood Amendment- LR)

We would hope that the fall campaign will be about issues, and be indicative of the claim that we are living in “post racial America”; and that hope is amplified by the fact that neither Mayor Dupree nor his GOP opponent Lt Gov Phil Bryant have even hinted at making race an issue (both being bright men who care about our state). However, the media and political climate that we are in means that other forces will try to dredge up the past as presented in The Help, make the fall campaign about race; and create a racial divide for their own political benefit/opportunistic agendas that will be bad for our state and people.

And all of this is coming at the same time that we are campaigning for the passage of Amendment 26 – the Personhood Amendment – which seeks to end abortion and ensure equal justice before the law for all human beings regardless of their race, gender, handicaps, size, age, location, developmental stage, or method of reproduction from biological beginning until natural death.

From the beginning, Personhood Mississippi has received endorsements and support leaders of the Democratic, Republican, Constitution Parties, and independents; black and white; rich and poor; male and female. Mississippians of all classes, races, and political parties are pro-life. And we hope to make our campaign broad based and a reconciling force in the church & culture in the midst of a divisive environment. We hope the same sort of outside forces that have pushed abortion & other social ills down our throats, and are seeking to defeat the Personhood Amendment will not be successful in creating racial tension and division in our state.

3) For the Mid South and the rest of the country, the release of The Help is uniquely timed, as we see Christians coming together here in the Mid South and across the country to dialogue, pray for our nation, and get involved to fight social ills — while at the same time there are growing racial problems in the broader culture, from the shocking story of a black man beaten then run over and dragged to death in Jackson by a group of suburban white teens:

to the black flash mobs attacking at random any white person in sight across Northern Cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Milwakee

It seems the best efforts of great minds and well meaning individuals and organizations from across the racial, political, and religious spectrum to effect reconciliation have not produced the hoped for era of color blind utopia. Quite the contrary, it seems that again “the thoughts of men are continually evil”, and that every wicked, violent thing that we can imagine to do to each other, we do. As a man who loves my state & country; a father of both black and white children; and as a follower of Jesus Christ I find this very troubling.

Attempting to improve our society apart from Christ has always and will always prove to be disastrous. We cannot guilt or good intention our salvation in the culture any more than we can as individuals. We who are followers of Christ have been given a ministry of reconciliation (II Cor 5:18). However, we cannot be reconciled to other men or call them to be reconciled around nothing or around vague, humanitarian concepts. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the SECOND great command. Closely related and flowing from the first (the second “like unto it”), but never sufficient when divorced from “Love the Lord your God”. We must ourselves be reconciled to Christ. We must call other men to be reconciled to Christ. And HE will reconcile men to each other.

Reconciliation, Truth, and Politics: Why Another Discussion, Why Now, and Why Me?

1. So, why this discussion (again), what qualifies me to speak to it, and why now?

   I have been working on this piece for at least three months. Ricardo and I have had lengthy discussions about this topic through the years, and he as encouraged me to put this into an article exhorting me:
   To “deal with the biblical foundation of justice and how sin is not just an individual phenomenon but also a cultural one“;
   to show: “how an inconsistent Christianity produces and enables sin in a culture and how it blinds and ignores the rot in light of past or present ‘successes‘” ;
   And, finally to: “describe what we have today:  godless/lawless (as in void of the authority of the Word of God) beliefs that have even impacted the witness of the church in spite of the ‘progress’ of racial reconciliation; and lay out a biblical blueprint for how to move forward.“
   

   * Ricardo promised to serve as editor, counselor, and contribute to this ambitious (and scary) project as it moves forward and he is being held to that,

   - What qualifies me uniquely to speak to this issue is that I am a Southerner who has written extensively at times about states rights, defended the Southern view of the War between the States, and who has been involved with many “right wing” groups and who has been vilified and misrepresented for such; while, on the other hand, we are a “transracial” family. We have children with different pigmentation (“brown” and “pink” is what one of my little girls call it). During and after the adoption process we had strained relations with people to whom we had been very close; and we have been on the receiving end of racial hatred by both blacks and whites.

   - So why now? The beginnings of this article were prompted by an offense against a Brother in Christ and fellow pro-life activist to whom I had to apologize and ask forgiveness. But the writing of this article NOW also had to do with The Help; the possibility of a racially divisive election; and the hope that by working with Christians (black and white) across Mississippi on the Personhood Amendment, to fight abortion, and on the foundational issues of fatherlessness, family breakdown, immorality, and violence in our state, we might rally around Christ and the Gospel (not good intentions or guilt), and that He would be the catalyst for healing, reconciliation, and reformation in our state.

   Offense and Repentance

Several years ago, I wrote an article highly critical of a civil rights leader and challenging the claim that he was pro-life. The article was factual, but was not written in a Christ-honoring fashion. Rather, unnecessary and divisive language was used that, instead of causing the reader to think and making my point forcefully — as I intended — tore down, offended and dishonored the Lord.

A Brother and co-laborer for the Gospel and the cause of life came across this writing and took offense.
I reread the article with older, more mature eyes that were now part of a “nonwhite” family and saw the problem. I removed the article and repented to this brother/ asked forgiveness.

My friend and brother Ricardo Davis (there goes that name again) suggested that I edit and share the non-personal parts of this apology with a broader audience in hopes that what had been meant for evil would be used for good by God. Here is an edited version of said apology: ********************************“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” — Matthew 5:23-24Dear _________,I am writing in hopes of getting a time set up for a phone conversation when it’s convenient for you or in person (preferably) when you’re in Mississippi to discuss an article I wrote a few years back that I understand offended you. The article in question has been removed, but the offense remains and I would like an opportunity to make things right.As a brother in Christ and a co-laborer in many of the same Kingdom fights, I want to apologize without qualification and to ask your forgiveness for any offense given . But I would like an opportunity to explain my motivation and get down to the “heart of the matter” face to face.As the father of a black son, I am grateful that he will grow up in a world where he is not treated like a second class citizen or non person. And, as a follower of Christ I am grateful that we are in many ways moving past the racialism of the past. My concern was and is with the means and methods, and the mixing of Christianity with anti-christian philosophies and approaches.

However, I confess that I may be guilty of  “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” – in this case the appearance of being dismissive of the injustices upon a group of fellow Americans by attacking the leaders who stood against those injustices even though some of them may have had theological, philosophical, or moral errors.

I have at times been guilty of intemperance and have often written things in stronger language than I should have. The article in question is a case in point. In an effort to expose for thought and discussion some overlooked and ignored information, I am afraid that I have eviscerated the memory of a man who accomplished much. And, worse, I have may have given the impression that the injustices his movement stood against were illegitimate. Or I might have even given the impression that I agreed with the segregationist view — which if you knew me, my family, and my church, you would know this is ridiculous.

To some degree, the article I wrote does have the same “radical” feel in terms of communication that a “showing pictures of aborted babies” has – by thoroughly discrediting the man one is left with the larger question of his motivations and his leadership of the civil rights movement.The anti-Christian left have built a movement upon dealing with injustice, albeit in an unrighteous manner.  This is largely because the Church (particularly here in the South) has failed in “loving their neighbor as themselves.”A friend recently recommended that I  re-read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail“  to get a sense of the “bigger picture”.  I think this is wise counsel and I will do so.Ultimately, I think the application of the Greatest Commandment requires a Southern repentance, yet the moral and theological problems  were prescient of the issues the Black community is dealing with today on a larger scale and likewise requires repentance in the Black culture.The goal of the church should not be to continue to prop up the myths & idols of our culture, but neither should it be to tear down & incite mob action. But, rather to discipline the nations to bow to the happy, just rule of the King of kings.Yours in ChristLes Riley

******************************

***************
The Good Samaritan and Ancestor Worship

Which at last brings us to the to concluding points of what will be, God willing, at least a three part series (possibly with some input from others).

We must recognize and acknowledge that sin has a cultural and horizontal aspect to it as well as a personal one. Sin individually separates us from God. It twists and corrupts everything we touch and do, to the point that God tells us that even our hearts are so desperately wicked that we cannot even know how thoroughly corrupted we are. If we cannot recognize how much sin has impacted us and how our thinking must be continually transformed and brought under the rule of Christ – how can we hope to recognize sinful attitudes and actions that flow from long standing, but culturally accepted/ ingrained “norms” that produce sinful attitudes and actions towards our neighbors — even by people who are otherwise moral or even godly?

I think the reality of this is illustrated in Jesus’ relaying the familiar story of the “Good Samaritan”. After telling them to love their neighbors, our Lord was challenged with the self justifying question of “who is my neighbor?” He showed the contrast between the respectable and revered religious leaders (the Priest and the Levite) who left the injured man in the ditch and the Samaritan who truly loved his neighbor by concrete action.

The choice of the characters in the story was of no less importance in driving the point home than the story itself. The two religious figures were the elite people of the elite race, while the very name Samaritan would make the Jewish listener recoil in the same way that “Jew” would to a Nazi, or “Gypsy” to some Europeans, or “Colored” to a white racist in the 50′s or “Tutsi” to a Hutu in Rwanda in 1994.

Yet the good deeds of the Samaritan were an act of “true religion” (James 1:27), while the indifference of the religious leaders of the “pure race” of God showed them to be hypocrites who didn’t love God at all. They had not loved their neighbors. They had allowed pride, idolatry, and a flesh-based, man-made system to grow and prosper in their culture and it produced sinful attitudes and actions (or inaction) towards their neighbor – a crime victim in a ditch.What does this have to do with the topic at hand?
“We and our fathers have sinned”
“Honor Thy father and thy mother”
“Remove not the ancient landmark”
“Stand in the ways and see, and find the good old path. And when you find that way, walk that way and you will find peace and rest for your soul”
“Follow me as I follow Christ.”I love history and I revere the great men and women of the faith who have gone before me. Both the saints we read about in God’s Word, and those giants who have laid a path for us in the two millenniums since can teach us much.
Our generation is full of arrogance and pride that disdains these men and women, and thinks of ourselves more highly than we ought.

The culture — secular and church — and lifestyle that we currently are a part of has been so corrupted by Darwinism, Marxism, Feminism, Humanism, Materialism, Hedonism and hundreds of other  anti-Christ philosophies and theologies that it is almost impossible to overstate the mess we are in.

In response, we rightly look to God’s Word and to the works He has done in and through His people in days of old. In the process we discover great men, deeds, and eras in “the city of man” who are worth looking up to and emulating.

But there is a danger here. It is the danger of going from revering history and honoring great men, to falling into ancestor worship, idolatry, and “substituting the traditions of men for the Law of God”.We must recognize that there is only One who is worthy of following and looking to without question. Only One who is “without spot or blemish”, who has “clean hands and a pure heart, who has not sworn deceitfully nor lifted up His soul to vanity” — our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
All other men in the Bible and since have feet of clay and glaring sins. They were men of like passions as us. They were tempted and failed. They needed a Savior. They, like us, are among those who have “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. They are among the “none” that the Bible refers to when it says there is “none righteous, no not one.”

So, when we look to heroes of the past, we must be careful to not fall into idolatrous patterns. When we look at great eras, we must seek to learn from them, and take what is good from them, but not make the mistake of forgetting that there is no “utopian” period in the past. We are looking forward to a city whose builder and maker is God; longing, praying, and laboring for a day when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

In doing so, we can consistently admire and seek to emulate great men while recognizing that they were men of their times and they had sinful and wrong ideas about things that impacted the way thy lived just as we do. Their worldview and actions were shaped by the world around them as well as the Word.

If we can recognize that father Abraham, the “friend of God” whose faith is held up throughout the Old Testament, by Christ, and in the epistles, was guilty of grave sins at times and practiced cultural norms that we would now consider wrong; then we can, likewise, say that the way blacks in the South were treated was sinful and the cultural attitudes towards race were at best misguided and at times evil and violent, while still recognizing that there were great and godly men who hardly have an equal in our day. Or we can say that racial segregation and race based chattel slavery were wrong while still acknowledging that there is much in traditional Southern culture that was vastly superior to what we have now, and that the Southern view of states rights and home rule are more Constitutional and Biblical than the centralized system we now labor beneath.

On the other hand, if our hearts can leap at the Psalms written and deeds of faith and valor by King David, “a man after God’s own heart” who was a type of Christ, upon whose throne Christ will reign, and yet we do not excuse, but rather grieve over, his horrible sins of adultery and murder; then, can we not admire the work that civil rights workers did without pretending that they were not sinful men and women?

If we recognize that Joseph was used by God to protect his family from starvation– and therefore preserve the line of Abraham which eventually produced our Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, through whom all the nations of the earth are blessed — yet see that Joseph’s labors in Egypt and his family moving there laid the groundwork for tyranny and 400 years of slavery; then can we not say that we are grateful for the labors and self sacrifice of those who fought for the abolition of slavery and the recognition of the personhood/ equal rights of black people, while acknowledging that there were political opportunists, Unitarians, and communists within these movement(s) and on the outside who used the movement to advance an agenda that had nothing to do with equal rights and freedom?

If not, we are not only guilty of making idols out of men, traditions, and eras, but we will never be able to move forward and honestly address the divisions that still exist and resulting evils of our own day.

Judges and Thinking More Highly of Ourselves than We Ought
In closing this longer than intended first installment, I feel compelled to address (briefly) the other ditch we must avoid if we are to make progress in our day.More often than not, the problem this generation  — that is plagued by ignorance, puffed up by pride, and guided by an evolutionary worldview — faces when trying to learn from the past (like when we see a movie like The Help, or read about some historical account of a church bombing or lynching) is NOT that we are blinded by reverence for the past and its people. No, our problem is that we look at events like this and are smugly convinced that we have “moved beyond” such attitudes and action.

We are convinced that we are smarter, or wiser, or that because of our technology and education that we could never push a Jew into a gas oven; or hang a black man from a rope for looking at a white woman. Or we think that because we live in the prosperous West and get teary-eyed when we hear someone talking about “racial reconciliation” that we could never take a machete’ and hack up our neighbors because they were Tutsi instead of Hutu like us.

We are fools and we are lying to ourselves if we believe this for at least three reasons:

1) My family has been reading through the book of Judges lately. It is shocking to see the foolish, circular pattern that is repeated throughout the book.

God’s people were brought out of bondage. Then they fell into sin and idolatry. Then they were conquered and tyrannized, Then they repented and cried out to God. Then God raised up a deliverer and brought them out of bondage. Then they got comfortable, sinned and were placed in bondage again.

The wrong thing to get from this is “they sure were stooooopid! How could they do that? I would never do that”. The fact is we are exactly the sort of people who could and would do the same thing apart from the grace of God. We are the same sort of people as Peter, who after boldly declaring he would NEVER deny Christ even if the others did, turned and angrily denied he ever knew Christ three times on the night of our Lord’s betrayal (just as the Jesus told him he would).Our generation can, will, and has been guilty of the same sins we “tsk tsk” previous generations about, because:

2) There is indeed nothing new under the sun as wise Solomon told us.
We do not have to look to the fifties or the 1800′s or to Rwanda or Eastern Europe to find racial tension, strife, violence, and genocide.
A quick perusing of the news from our own country (or merely clicking on the links/ videos above) will show that these problems are present and prevalent in our own day.

3) And, lastly, how dare we look down our noses at other times and other places when all the cultural evils — from abortion to human trafficking to 70% illegitimacy and on and on and on? Do we not have a huge “log in our own eye” — not only on these issues, but also in the area of “race” as detailed above?

Let us, instead, of looking to the past with admiration or with disdain; or looking to ourselves and the failed worldly wisdom of our day, let us “look to Christ” ,”not lean on our own understanding”, but “take every thought captive” and let us be “transformed by the renewing of our minds, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service”

God’s Word tells us what the foundation for reconciliation is, and how justice would work:  what individuals, families, churches, businesses, and civil government should do.  Since we have rejected Christ and His Word in all of these areas,  today live in a  time when our godless/lawless  beliefs have even impacted the witness of the church in spite of the “progress” of racial reconciliation.The path will not be clear or easy but the starting point is plain.Coming:
Part II: The Source of the Ongoing Racial Divide and Cultural Rot: False Solutions; and Opportunists

Part III. The Real Solution: Repentance and Faith; Love and Obedience.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” – Romans 1:22

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” – Proverbs 14:12
Bertrand Russell was a leading intellectual, genius mathematician, and author of over a thousand works. He spent a large portion of his life in studied, hostile opposition to Christ & Christianity. He believed the hope for the world laid in socialism, evolutionary human advancement, throwing off of morals/ family in favor of free love, and modern, secular education.

But from this statement it is clear that his life was one of dissatisfaction and sorrow:

“Through the long years
I sought peace;
I found ecstasy,
I found anguish,
I found madness,
I found solitary pain
That gnaws the heart,
But peace I did not find”
– Bertrand Russell, Autobiography

“¹Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
²The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
³Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
⁴He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
⁵Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
⁶Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
⁷I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
⁸Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
⁹Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
¹⁰Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
¹¹Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
¹²Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” – Psalm 2

“Now thanks [be] unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one [we are] the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who [is] sufficient for these things?” — II Cor 2:14-16

“As the apple is not the cause of the apple tree, but a fruit of it: even so good works are not the cause of our salvation, but a sign and a fruit of the same.” ~ Daniel Cawdrey (1588–1664)

A few years back my sister and teenage nephew (her son) from Atlanta came by our house on their way to Memphis to visit for an afternoon. Christy baby sat him when he was little, but we had not seen them more than once a year or so through the years since then.

When I got home from work, everyone was sitting on the porch. I got home from work and stepped out of the truck one of the kids shouted “Daddy’s home!” and they all came running out to excitedly greet me.

My nephew had a shocked, but very happy expression on his face and said:
“I’ve never seen anything like that. It was like something on TV.”

When he left he said he wanted to spend more time with us, because he really liked being around our family. This has re-opened a relationship with him that we pray will bear Gospel fruit.

I thought of this scene when I heard the sermon below from Paul Washer — very balanced, challenging sermon.
If you are boasting in anything except Christ it will lay your pride in your family, your standards, your homeschooling, your children, etc in the dung heap where it belongs.
On the other hand, if you are of the opinion that “preaching Christ and Him crucified” and NOTHING ELSE means that it doesn’t matter how we live/ apply/ what our family looks like, be prepared to have your views challenged:

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The story of John Eliot’s life (c. 1604 – 21 May 1690) is fascinating and encouraging. It also challenges the presumptions of many arguments against things like theonomy/ reconstruction, multi-generational family ministry, and racial reconciliation.

Likewise, Eliot’s amazing life demonstrates that zealous evangelism to bring the Gospel of Christ to unreached people and cultural dominion to bring every sphere under the happy rule of King Jesus are not incompatible nor mutually exclusive. And, lastly, Eliot is yet another example that debunks the boast of the Racialist and the charge of the modern egalitarian humanists that Christians from centuries past did not seek reconciliation of the races.

* He was also far from perfect in his theology & actions — showing that we God can use imperfect vessels for His Kingdom work and also that we should look to Christ (not men) following men as they follow Christ*

So who was John Eliot and what did he do?

John Eliot  “was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians. His efforts earned him the designation “the Indian apostle.” He was a pastor; missionary; theologian; educator; author; Bible translator; political/ civil theorist who put his theories on the application of God’s Law to society into practice; a husband and father of six; a man with a multigenerational Christian legacy whose son, grandson, and great grandson followed him in the ministry & in a broad reaching impact; and, lastly, he was a man who sought integration and reconciliation of the races over 300 years ago.

Eliot was born, raised and educated in post-Reformation England. After a brief stint as a teacher in a Christian School in Essex, Eliot moved to Boston, Mass. to become teaching elder at the church at “at the First Church in Roxbury. In that town he founded the Roxbury Latin School in 1645. From 1649 to 1674, he was assisted in the Roxbury ministry by Samuel Danforth” Eliot along with two other pastors are credited with publishing the first book ever published in the English colonies Bay Psalm Book; he participated in the examination & excommunication of Anne Hutchenson. Missionary Work

Eliot was used by God in the conversion of many Indians. As part of this work, Eliot translated the Bible into the Native language and published it in 1663 — making him the first publisher of a Bible translation in America. Which means, that he first had to convert their spoken language into written form and teach them to read. Quite an undertaking in and of itself. After their conversion, Eliot organized these Indian tribes into 14 self governing villages all governed by God’s Law.

Theonomic, Christocentric Political Theory Applied

As a guide to governance, Eliot wrote The Christian Commonwealth: or, The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ, in all likelihood “the first book on politics written by an American and also the first book to be banned by an American government.” Written in 1840, The Christian Commonwealth advocated the decentralized, democratially based, limited form of government — with God’s Word as the standard — laid out in the book of Exodus. The book was published in England in 1859 under the Commonwealth rule of Cromwell.

Books Burned; Villages Destroyed  by Tyrannical Government & Racist Settlers

Since the book advocated a republican form of government and Eliot asserted that “Christ is the only right Heir of the Crown of England,” once Charles II took the throne, Eliot’s book was not well thought of by the government. It advocated a decentralized, representative, limited government that (rightly) placed both citizen and ruler under the authority of Christ. All known copies of the work save two were rounded up and burned.

* Thankfully, this work (or at least part of it) has been published electronically by the University of Nebraska (although their view of Eliot’s work and theory is less than approving)

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/19/

Likewise, Charles II wanted his law — not the Law of God — to be the only authority and monarchy — not self governing villages — to be the only system of government. Therefore, the 14 Native American villages were dissolved. These “Praying Indians” as they were called were persecuted, rounded up and confined, and eventually caught between the warring factions of the English government and other tribes. Even though they swore their loyalty to England, they were eventually exiled to an island and confined there -starving and mistreated.

God’s Law provided these people with liberty & prosperity — the rule of a secular government (even one from a “Christianesque” culture) produced tyranny, persecution, and poverty.

More on Eliot the Author, Publisher, and Educator

John Eliot had published the first Bible translation in North America; the first book published in the colonies – the Bay Psalm Book; an academic curriculum to teach the Native population a written language “The Indian Grammar Begun”; and a work on the spread of Christianity and the coming of the Gospel among the Indians — Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England, in the Year 1670.

By producing the Christian Commonwealth,  Eliot also had the distinction of being the author and publisher of not only the first book of political theory originating from America, it became the first book ever banned by an American government.

Though set back by a drastic change in government, persecution & censure, and the attacks on Christian Indians he brought the Gospel to, Eliot’s work as an educator and Gospel minister continued.

Eliot the Racial Reconciler

Through his labors in education, Eliot had not forgotten the Indians. In 1689 John Eliot donated 75 acres (300,000 m²) of land in Jamaica Plain to support the Eliot School, founded in 1676. Under the donation, the school was required to accept both Negros and Indians without prejudice, a great exception for the time. Even though it has lost it’s Christian foundations (like most of New England) the school survives to this day as The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts.

Family Life and Multigenerational Christian Patriarch

Often times, I am disappointed to learn that men who accomplished great things for the Kingdom like Eliot did are negligent in their family lives and their Gospel/ cultural work dies with them. This does not appear to be the case with Eliot.

Although there are not many details about his home life available it is known that his legacy as a Gospel minister and cultural leader lasted at least four generations.

John Eliot’s wife was the former Hanna Mumford. They had six children, five girls and one boy, but only one of the children lived, the boy. Their son, John Eliot, Jr., was the first pastor of First Church in Newton, while his son, Joseph Eliot, was a pastor in Guilford, Connecticut, and was himself father of Jared Eliot, a noted agriculture writer and pastor.

Quite a Life, Indeed. But what can we learn from it?

As noted at the beginning of this article, the life and work of John Eliot undermines many of the myths and presuppositions that modern day Evangelical & neo-reformed Christians as well as the detractors and heretics try to use against Christianity.

Just a few closing thoughts:

– Theonomy & Christian Reconstruction may be new labels, but they are not at all new ideas. They are Biblical and the proponents of these ideas stand on the shoulders of a long line of Christian forefathers — Biblical heros, Reformers, Puritans, Missionaries, Pastors, etc

– This is but one area we have applied our modern lens to history & the Scriptures. A man centered Gospel and a sepratist mentality may be the widely accepted view, but it is based on the growth of hyper-pietism and radical individualism. Not a balanced look at history or a thorough study & right application of God’s word.

– For instance, arguments from silence are often made against the patriarchy/ family reformation/ multigenerational vision crowd. “We don’t see the reformers, puritans, etc spending all their time talking about family/ gender roles/ children/ Christian education” goes the argument. Ignoring the fact that things like feminism in the church, a 50% divorce rate, and the majority of children from Christian homes being educated in non Christian schools & immersed in anti-christian culture (leading to most of them abandoning the faith) would have been unheard of in earlier days.

We must apply the Gospel to our culture and fight the battles of our own day.

– Likewise, as a reaction against the highly partisan/ politicized religious right and an evangelical culture that eshews self examination while accepting the most shaky profession we have often overreacted and thrown the baby out with the bath water.

We make introspective self-absorbed Christians in the pew that are no use to the world. And we relegate the Gospel & the Gospel minister to the realm of saving & sanctifying individuals. This truncated Gospel and Spiritual only Kingdom finds its roots in neither the Scripture, nor in history. It produces a useless, defeated Church that sees every defeat as a proof of victory.

John Eliot, like Samuel Rutherford, Amy Carmichael, David Livingstone, and many other missionaries, pastors, reformers, and Gospel preachers did not believe or live the false dichotomy that: we EITHER preach the Gospel and call on men to repent and believe while urging them to know Christ personally, experientialy OR we impact the culture, apply God’s Word to government/ politics/ , education, family etc; care for orphans/ speak for the unborn/the slave/ etc.

They understood and lived that the Great Commission and the two Great Commands meant we do BOTH/ AND.

– Lastly, the racial reconciliation that Eliot worked for (like the first interracial marriage in America, 400 years ago) tear down the myth that both Marxist who hate Christianity & seek to tear it down and so-called Kinists who try to twist our Christian roots for their own proud, racist agenda. That is, the idea that Christians seeking to apply Galatians 3:28 and loving our neighbors is a  modern innovation.

Let us take up the baton, learn from those who went before us, and labor to be used as Christ does even greater things still in our time.

Just when you thought it was safe to write “R.I.P” over Christian Europe . . .

Bojidor Marinov is a Hungarian born Reformed Missionary to Eastern Europe – he posted the following comments and article on his Facebook page today and I thought it was worth sharing:

“Hungary voted their new constitution: Christian, family-friendly, anti-sodomy, pro-life. Like I said before, Europe is far from spiritually dead, she just needs the real thing.” – B. Marinov

http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/hungarys-new-constitution-family-friendly-hostile-gays-news-503455″ target=”_blank”>http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/hungarys-new-constitution-family-friendly-hostile-gays-news-503455

Hungary’s new constitution: Family friendly, hostile to gays
Published: 24 March 2011

Its authors may have dubbed it “a constitution for the 21st Century” but the final text of the new Hungarian constitution, due to be adopted next month, appears to be a eulogy to the country’s Christian roots and past greatness.

Christianity appears to be the driving force behind the new Hungarian constitution, which stipulates that marriage is a union between man and woman, and under which parents can receive tax rebates and vote on behalf of their underage children.

Its authors partly wrote it on an iPad and dubbed it “a constitution for the 21st Century,” but the actual text of the new Hungarian constitution, obtained by EurActiv, seems quite different.

In the constitution’s preamble, the title “The Basic Law of Hungary” is followed by the subtitle “God Bless Hungarians,” the first sentence of the Hungarian anthem and a reference to the many Hungarians who became citizens of neighbouring countries following the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. . . .

. . .

However, as minors are not entitled to vote, their parents will have multiple votes in Hungary, infringing equal suffrage.

Interestingly, if each child brings an additional vote, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his wife will be entitled to vote at least six times for Orbán (they have five children, one of whom is already above 18 years of age so in theory he could vote for somebody else). It is not clear how divorced parents will be able to share out the extra votes.

“A normal family works as a community,” Szájer argued. The new constitution also introduced a legal obligation for parents to take care of their children, as well for adults to take care of their ageing parents, he explained.

Article M of the constitution reads that “Hungary protects the institution of marriage between man and woman, a matrimonial relationship voluntarily established, as well as the family as the basis for the survival of the nation”.

Asked by EurActiv how he could call a constitution that fails to award family rights to homosexuals a “21st Century constitution,” Szájer said there was no EU legislation or requirement in this field.

“It also depends how we interpret the 21st Century. I don’t think that the traditional concept of marriage has changed just because we came into another millennium,” he said.

Another text of the new constitution appears to ban abortion. It reads: “Human dignity is inviolable. Everyone has the right to life and human dignity. The life of a foetus will be protected from conception.“

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

Possibly the best $5.00 I ever spent was for a used copy of Dr. George Grant’s The Christian Almanac. It has two pages for every day of the year:
a daily Bible reading to read through the Bible in a year; a list of important events in Christian & Western history on one page; and on the facing page a longer, more detailed entry. This book is well worn at our house with several members reading it each day as part of their routine and the rest of us thumbing through & reading several entries periodically. Always fascinating information and usually Dr Grant adds helpful insights on how this event shaped our world . . .

The Nov 16 article is particularly “good”:

“Michael Higgins was an Irish Catholic immigrant who fancied himself a radical free thinker and a freewheeling skeptic. As a youngster he had enlisted in General William Sherman’s notorious Twelfth New York Calvary and proudly participated in the nefarious campaign that ravaged the South across Tennessee, through Atlanta, and to the sea — a campaign that began on this day (Nov 16 – LR) in 1864. He achieved notable infamy among his peers when he was honored by his commander for special treachery in fiercely subduing the captive population.
Not surprisingly, that cruel and inhuman experience apparently hardened and embittered him. Genocide is not easily forgotten by either victims or perpetrators. His criminal inhumanity resulted in a kind of spiritual calamity from which he, like so many others of his region, never fully recovered. Afterward he was pathetically stunted, unable to maintain a modicum of normalcy in his life or relations.

He worked sporadically as a stonemason and a tombstone carver, but was either unwilling or unable to provide adequately for his large family. His wife, Anne Purcell, was a second-generation American from a strict Irish-Catholic family. She was frail and sickly, but utterly devoted to her unstable and unpredictable husband, as well as their ever growing brood of children.
The family suffered from cold, privation, and hunger. That was the common lot of thousands of other families in 19th Century America. But the Higgins also suffered grievously from scorn, shame, and isolation — because of Michael’s sullen improvedence.
And like many a man who is proudly progressive in public, he was repressively remonstrant at home. He regularly thrashed his sons to “make men of them.”  And he treated his wife and daughters as “virtual slaves”. And when he drank — which was whenever he could afford it — his volatile presence was even more oppressive than normal.

The Higgins not only had to endure grave social and material lack, they were spiritually deprived as well. As a confirmed skeptic, Michael mocked the sincere religious devotion of most of his neighbors. He openly embraced radicalism, socialism, and atheism. And he had little toleration for the modicum of morality that his poor wife tried to instill in the lives of their hapless children.
One day, for instance, his youngest daughter was on her knees saying the Lord’s Prayer, she came to the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread,” and her father snidely cut her off.
“Who were you talking to?!?” he demanded.
“To God” she replied innocently.
“Well then, tell me, is God a baker?”
With no little consternation she said, “No, of course not. But, He makes the rain, the sunshine, and all the things which make the wheat, which makes the bread.”
After a thoughtful pause her father rejoined, “Well, well, so that’s the idea. Then why didn’t you just say so? Always say what you mean, my daughter, it is much better.”

That girl would grow up to be the infamous Margret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood and patron of the global abortion holocaust.
(for more on Planned Parenthood – check out Live Action’s web site — LR)
If it is true that “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world” it is equally true that “The hand that wrecks the cradle, ruins the world”

**********
Wow.

If you have not yet made plans, please pre-register and make plans to attend.

Personhood Mississippi along with Together for Adoption and Psalm 2:12 will be sponsoring a conference on Abortion, Adoption, and the crisis of Fatherlessness at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi on Friday and Saturday, January 21-22nd, 2011 AD.

There will be speakers discussing how the Gospel applies to all of life and how it is the solution to what ails our society.

Also, there will be practical information from the speakers and various organizations with booths about:

• Adoption and orphan care (the world has 150 million orphans: this is a crisis ignored by the church in our generation)
• How to effectively stop abortion & fight social blights like child trafficking
• The crisis of multi-generational fatherlessness (Mississippi is the most religious state in America, yet has one of the highest teen pregnancy & illegitimacy rates: what are the roots & fruits of this crisis in American culture?)
• Why Government is part of the problem and simply passing more laws or electing the right people can’t fix things
• A Biblical approach to restoring manhood, rebuilding families & communities

Location & Time

Belhaven University Center for the Arts
835 Riverside Drive
Jackson, Mississippi 39202
United States

(click here for directions)

Friday & Saturday, January 21-22nd, 2011 AD

Schedule

Friday night : The Gospel, Abortion, the Global Orphan Crisis & Fatherlessness

5:30 PM – Doors open for registration & book shopping
7:00-7:20 PM – Les Riley: “Welcome/Personhood Mississippi: A Gospel Centered Approach to Pro-Life Politics“
7:20-8:05 PM – Dan Cruver: “Acquainted with Grief: Jesus, Adoption and Orphan Care “
8:05-8:25 PM – Break/Book Shopping/Coffee
8:35-9:00 PM – Anthony Mathenia: “Foundational Failure and the Fatherhood of God”
9:00 – 10:00 Coffee/Fellowship/Q&A with vendors & speakers

Saturday : The Gospel & Defending the Fatherless

7:00-9:00 AM

• Option 1: Prayer meeting at Mississippi’s last abortion clinic with Les Riley, Ricardo Davis, Lee Yancey & Rebecca Kiessling

• Option 2: Presentation and Q & A Breakfast with Anthony Mathenia, Dan Cruver & Tony Merida about Adoption, Financing, Race, & other issues. Belhaven Cafeteria

9:30-10:00 AM - Les Riley: “Welcome/Seeing the Big Picture (Matt 28)“
10:00 to 10:45 AM - Ricardo Davis:”None Dare Call it Genocide“
10:45 to 11:15 AM – Break/Book Shopping
11:15 to 12:00 – Rebecca Kiessling: “Conceived in Rape, Targeted for Abortion, Adopted & Adopter for Christ“
12:00 to 1:00 Break for Lunch/Book Shopping
1:00 to 1:30 PM -Lee Yancey – “The Costs & Cure for Fatherlessness”

1:30 to 2:00 Break/ Book Shopping
* Breakout session for CPC directors with Judy McLaughlin of Life Choices Memphis
2:15 to 3:00 Dan Cruver - “Gospel-Centered Orphan Care and the High Priestly Ministry of Jesus“
3:00 to 3:45 PM - Tony Merida- “How To Lead A Church To Do Orphan Care“
3:45 to 4:30 – Panel Discussion/ Q&A -“Practical Considerations/Applying What You Have Heard” (Ricardo Davis moderating)
4:30 to 5:00 Anthony Mathenia: “Closing Comments/The Right Source of Hope and the Right Source of Motivation for You & the Orphan”

I got an email the other day from a former Republican candidate for the legislature, conservative member of a moderate Republican official’s staff, and Personhood supporter.

He wanted to know the difference between the Constitution and Libertarian Parties in a few sentences. This article is a good starting point.

Even though it is written by a Libertarian instead of a CP guy and I don’t accept all of his presuppositions or agree with all of his conclusions I think he does an adequate job of laying out the differences.

Libertarian vs Constitution Parties

Psalm 40:5 has been on my mind & heart much lately.

“Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” – KJV

When we think of the words “can’t be numbered” only a handful of things can come to mind of which this would not be an overstatement. The stars in the heavens. The sand on all the seashores.

But, even these are inaccurate if not qualified by saying they cannot be numbered BY MAN. There is a limit to the number – albeit a great number – of the grains of sand. One man might not be able to count them in a lifetime, much less say something about every one. But God knows this number.

The universe is thought of as endless . But, it has an edge. It had a beginning. It will have an end. The stars in the therein may seem infinite not only in their number, but in their variety & power. But they have a Creator Who knows the number, Who knows all their names. Who comprehends without effort their makeup – down to the tiniest sub-atomic particle that cannot be seen & how the trillions of them that it takes to make up one star ware held together. He holds them together. He placed everyone of them where they are at His appointed time. They will be there until the day that He has decreed that they are no longer needed. Then they will be removed.

The furthest stars in parts of the universe we cannot imagine exist and the tiniest atoms that make up a single grain of sand have a purpose:
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” – Colossians 1:16-17

They exist by the power of Christ & for the glory of Christ.

One day God will set them all aside like an old rag:
“And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” – Hebrews 1:12

One day the stars & suns will no longer be needed:
“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Rev. 21:23

So even those things that we think of as limitless & without number, actually can be & have been numbered.

But there is one thing that cannot be numbered or recounted if we had an eternity of eternities to do so:
The works of God & the thoughts of God towards His people in Christ.

These thoughts have occupied much of my prayer & meditation time in the last few weeks while we were in yet another hectic season in Rileyville – an ACLU challenge to Personhood; new, more vigorous opposition to the sidewalk ministry at the Memphis abortion clinics; moving & adding a room on a house; renting/ buying a farm; more waiting on direction and openings work & finance wise; worriesome health problems for Christy getting worse; Spiritual needs of our children; another courtship/ betrothal that I was not expecting; a grandbaby on the way (!); new families to meet at church; the problems & opportunities with Caitlyn, Stephen, & Isabelle who might need to come back to stay with us; an abortion & adoption conference planned for January that is really slow coming together and really needing some help with; upcoming political campaigns and many decisions to make related to them; and so on and so on. . . .

In the midst of all this, it would be quite easy to focus on what we can see; all we need to do; all our worries; all the opportunities; many distractions – most of them good things. But all of them together are not enough to keep us going. They cannot fill or comfort.

We much look to Jesus – alone – the Author and Finisher of our faith. We must look up – not around or we would despair.

Which is why this verse has been so precious to me of late. What great hope and comfort is wrapped up in Christ! How it stirs the true child of God to know that when it says that God’s works and thoughts are “beyond reckoning” and more than can be named or numbered, this is fully displayed and poured out on us in & through Christ.

In this we have great motivation to run harder towards Him and for Him.

God works all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Wherever we are; whatever our circumstances; whether we are in the midst of a fight for the Kingdom or in a fight with sin & self (or both at the same time); whatever our weakness or need; whatever our failures that would lead us to despair; whatever our blessings & victories that might lead us to pride & presumption; we know that God is doing all things perfectly, without fail for the eternal glory of the Son and the eternal good of His people.

“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church” – Eph 1:18-22

*******************************************

Then, this afternoon, my dear brother Jerry Hunter came by after church. As we discussed the sermon and the glories of Christ, several Psalms came up, so we pulled out the Treasury of David and read/ talked about some of what the “Prince of Preachers” wrote about some of these Psalms.

After Jerry left, Christy & the “big kids” left to go to a couple of special meetings with Andrew & Pam Davies. I stayed home with the three little ones to give mom a break since we are going to be having services every night for the next two weeks.

So, I looked of Volume 1 of Spuregeon’s Treasury and to see what he had to say about this verse that has been so helpful of late – and I was not disappointed:

Psalm 40:5-
“Many, O Lord my God are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done”

Creation, providence and redemption teem with wonders as the sea with life. Our special attention is called by this passage to the marvels which cluster around the cross and flash from it.

The accomplished redemption achieves many ends and compasses a variety of designs; the outgoings of the atonement are not to be reckoned up, the influences of the cross reach further than the beams of the sun. Wonders of grace beyond all enumeration take their rise from the cross; adoption, pardon, justification, and a long chain of godlike miracles of love proceed from it.

Note that our Lord here speaks of the Lord as “my God”. The man Christ Jesus claimed for Himself and us a covenant relationship with Jehovah. Let our interest in our God be our peculiar treasure.

“and Thy thoughts which are us-ward”.

The divine thoughts march with divine acts, for it is not according to God’s wisdom to act without deliberation and counsel. All the divine thoughts are good and gracious towards His elect. God’s thoughts of love are very many, very wonderful, very practical!

Muse on them, dear reader; no sweeter subject ever occupied your mind. God’s thoughts of you are many, let not yours be few in return.

“They cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee”

Their sum is so great as to forbid alike analysis and numeration. Human minds fail to measure, or to arrange in order, the Lord’s ways and thoughts; and it must always be so for He hath said, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”No maze to lose oneself in like the labyrinth of love. How sweet to be outdone, overcome and overwhelmed by the astonishing grace of the Lord our God!

“If I would declare and speak of them,”

and surely this should be the occupation of my tongue at all seasonable opportunities,

“they are more than can be numbered,”

far beyond all human arithmetic they are multiplied; thoughts from all eternity, thoughts of my fall, my restoration, my redemption, my conversion, my pardon, my upholding, my perfecting, my eternal reward; the list is too long for writing, and the value of the mercies too great for estimation.

Yet, if we cannot show forth all the works of the Lord, let us not make this an excuse for silence; for our Lord, who in this is our best example often spake of the tender thoughts of the great Father.

**************************
Wow!

“Hallelujah, what a Saviour!”