“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand” Psalm 149:6
When we think of congregational Psalm singing, if we ever think of Psalm singing at all, we usually have visions of nattily dressed folks singing four part harmony in a Sanctuary, completely unmolested from any serious distractions.
However, congregational Psalm singing has been practiced in other environments besides the safety of formal worship. During the English resistance to the tyranny of King Charles I the New Model Army, led by the Puritan Oliver Cromwell were known for their Psalm singing while going into battle. Cromwell’s Army was drawn largely, though not exclusively, from the Puritan population and being familiar with the Psalms they took those Psalms into battle. These men believed that they were God’s Army fighting God’s battle and so they advanced against the enemy singing the songs of Zion.
Imagine how this must have unnerved the enemy. You are one of the troops in the Cavalier Army, entrenched in a defensive position, and suddenly in the distance you begin to here the feint melody of Psalms wafting upon the morning breeze. As the minutes unroll the menacing voices carrying those awful sounds come closer and closer until you can see the terrible Army that is carrying those Psalms coming to disembowel you and your mates.
The troops that carried those Psalms with them into battle were men who had been so shaped by the Psalms that it was natural for them to carry those songs with them as they were wading into a conflict that could very well find them meeting their Creator and Redeemer. What better way to meet God then to be fighting His battles singing His songs?
It was not only Cromwell’s New Model Army that took up the Psalms in battle. We also know that the Covenanters in Scotland were known to sing God’s tunes while in battle.
Of course the idea of music in battle in not unique. However, the singing of Psalms in battle by the inheritors of the Reformation reminds us that the Psalms are not just for Sunday Morning finery. They are intended to put steel in men’s spines and comfort in their souls. The singing of Psalms in battle reminds us that God is known as the Lord of Hosts and that we are to be his infantry in the cause of righteousness.
The Church has lost her martial swagger and while this is no trope advocating Psalm singing battle to be entered into at the drop of helmet, it is a appeal to think again on the importance of singing the Psalms and on the reality that there will be times where we must literally fight and sing for the extension of God’s Kingdom.
The Psalms are beautiful and their beauty is found both in their ability to glorify God and in their ability to shape men in such a way that they would rather die singing God’s song book then surrender apologizing for their convictions.
The Jews are just as much Christianity’s enemies as the Muslim Moors were (are). They are an internal, less obvious threat, but none the less dangerous.
Giovanni de’ Medici had every privilege that wealth and good connections could obtain him. He became a cardinal as soon as he legally could (before, even) at 13 years old. Aaaand he was a typical 13 yr old and used all the privileges given to him for his own selfish desires. (a terrible cardinal) However, his power was still very wide spread, and he became a force to be reckoned with for Martin Luther in particular. He was also a successful military leader, leading the papal army to Florence in 1511. At 32 (33?) years old he became Pope Leo X. Immediately he was faced with the enormous financial debt upon the papacy from restoring the _______ (I didn’t catch the name of the building they were devoting their resources too). His solution was to sanction and promote indulgences, SELL the positions of importance in the church to the highest bidders, etc.
It was a phenomenally successful money raising scheme until Desiderius Erasmus, the leading intellect in the world, wrote some very well written articles on just how contrary to the Scriptures, and incongruous the church actions were, picking apart all the lies the papacy had been feeding the people concerning indulgences, confessions, etc. Right after that, this Augustinian monk came along and did the same thing by nailing the 95 theses to the door of the church of Wittenburg! And then the printing press came in the picture and the start of the reformation spread like wildfire- the 95 Theses written by Martin Luther became the most widely published article in the WORLD up to that point!
Erasmus wasn’t as much of a problem as Luther because he was never really openly reformed. He supported the reformation in the beginning, and never directly opposed it, but certainly looked out for his own well-being first. Sorta toeing the middle line- trying to stay neutral. It didn’t really work though; he never had many staunch friends (although he kept up a friendly correspondence with his old schoolmate Melanchthon (Luther’s close friend and partner) and he was friends with Martin Luther.) and he died full of regret for all that he had never accomplished, saying that he saw himself to be “the greatest coward of them all.”
Martin Luther, however, was a problem. He was a man of the people, learned, and never a coward. He had ardent faith- would brashly proclaim what he saw as truth at all opportunities no matter the cost. He was from a poor background, but profoundly gifted intellectually. He refused to back down and recant like he was asked to at the Diet of Worms, and was so much of a problem for Pope Leo X, and now the emperor, that he almost certainly would have met with harm had not his friend Frederick the Wise kidnapped him and taken him to Wartburg castle. He remained there for nearly a year.
btw, the reason the Emperor didn’t send an army to quench out the leading reformers and their followers by force was that his troops were already occupied with the Muslim Moors, in particular. Isn’t it funny how God works?
Charles V, another very powerful figure in that time, became convinced that Luther was right, and would not oppose him.
about an hour agoVictoria Faith Jagt
I like the new website, but i can’t find the Wednesday worldview class notes! So, here’s mine from this week. oh, and speaking of class, my apologies for not showing up at class today- with mom and dad gone, and just getting back in routine after the holidays, we both just forgot. Online streaming worked perfectly, though.
“David wrote about half the psalms.
Psalms of praise:
They can be personal or communion. There are two types of psalms, a declarative psalm of praise and a descriptive type of praise. There are three parts to the psalm of praise: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion.
-Introduction to praise
-A call or exhortation to sing or praise the Lord
-The naming of the group or person who should praise
-Mention of the mode of praise
-Development of the praise
-Conclusion or resolution
1. Let’s Praise! 2. Here’s Why. 3. Response to That.
Psalm 98 is a good poetry psalm…
Five Elements of a Psalm of Lament
-Invocation
-The Lament or complaint
-Petition
-Statement of confidence
-Vow to praise God
Times of distress is when we should be most grateful and remember what God has done. His sovereignty, his care over you, his faithfulness. It takes the focus from us and puts it back on God where it should be.
Early Christian Psalmody
Psalm 67
Before the reformation the Psalms were only read or chanted to the people- the reformation put the psalms in the hands and voices of the people.
Calvin = If it’s not in scripture it’s not to be done in the church. (No instruments or hymns)
Luther = If it’s not prohibited it can be done.
Psalms in the reformation – Luther
Hymns and psalm settings
Chorales for Congregational singing
Psalms in the Reformation – Calvin
1539,first edition, incomplete.
Clement Marot
1562, full version completed by Theodore Beza
Louis Beougeois.
Claude Goudimel, 1514-1572
Harmonized the Geneva Psalms and popularized them through.
English and Scottish Psalmters ……….
Psalms in America
-1’st book published: Bay psalm book
-1640, puritans of Massachusetts bay Colony
-First book printed in North America
-Did not include tunes, but recommended Ravenscroft’s 1621 Psalter
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
-Psalms of David imitated in the language of the New Testament
-“Joy to the World” (Psalm 98), “O God our Help in Ages Past” (Psalm 90)
Decline of Psalm singing = 19’th to 20’th century
“Knowledge of God and knowledge of self always go together.” – Calvin
-Why sing the Psalms?
Culture as a whole has become more man centered and it’s obvious when you see the psalms being forgotten and replaced by man centered “contemporary worship” songs.
-Communion of the Saints
-Inspired by the Holy Spirit – God’s word
-It’s appropriate to praise God with God’s words.
Radically God centered.
-Accurate depiction of the way things are.
-commanded in scripture
Purpose of singing the Psalms
-Rich indwelling of God’s word: it allows the word of God to dwell in us spiritually.
-teaching and admonishing on another in wisdom.
-Thankfullness
It teaches us how to deal with our emotions – fear, anger, despair, joy, love, weariness…
Our emotions and feelings should be led by your mind and God’s law.”
[Speaker is Greg Wilbur]
Previous Post is from Victoria Jagt.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 14
Lyric poetry – psalms that were sung.
The Psalms are made up of 5 different books.
Devices of poetry – imagery, metaphors, simile, personification, hyperbole, and apostrophe.
Psalms tend to repeat in different words. It will rhyme ideas as opposed to words.
Psalms is well-quoted in the New Testament.
Psalms of praise:
They are Theo-centric, a response to God’s worthiness; a completely selfless invocation. There are two kinds of praise psalms: Declarative and Descriptive. The first is narrative, “God did this and this”…speaking forth what God has done. The second says “this is who our God is and this is what our God can do”.
There are three separate parts of each psalm:
1)Introduction: a) a call or exhortation to sing to or praise the Lord b) the naming of the group or person who should be praised c) mention of the mode of praise
2)Development of the Praise: gives reasons why we should praise God
3)Conclusion or Resolution: sometimes a prayer
Psalms of Lament:
There are five separate parts of each psalm:
1)Invocation or Introductory cry to God – sometimes a complaint or petition
2)Lament or Complaint – “this is what is wrong”
3)Petition or Supplication – “this is what I need”
4)Statement of Confidence in God – “I know You can do this”
5)Vow to praise God or praise of God – “I will always praise you and thank You for Your blessings”
Psalms aren’t just about the pain or sorrow, but also to state God’s faithfulness. It’s not at all about the individual but 100% Theo-centric.
History of Psalm-singing
Early Christian Psalmody:
Luther – spoke highly of psalms. With the reformation there came about congregational singing, not just a group or choir. They also used hymns and instruments. Their idea was “if it’s not prohibited in Scripture it’s ok”.
Calvin – said “if it doesn’t say it or contain it in Scripture it shouldn’t be used”; no instruments or hymns. His Genevan Psalter 1rst edition in 1539 was incomplete. Clement Marot was asked to work on the Genevan Psalter. He died leaving it unfinished. In 1562 it was finished by Theodore Beza. Louis Bourgeois was a help in creating the music for the psalm book. Claude Goudimel (1514-1572) harmonized the Genevan Psalms. It helped popularize them throughout Europe.
English psalmody:
1562 – John Day published it in England. They had the same tunes but were slightly different words and now in English. The translated texts were by Sternhold and Hopkins. It was used for over 250 years with 600 editions.
American psalmody:
Bay Psalm Book – it was published in 1640. It didn’t rely on tunes but did recommend Ravenscroft’s 1621 Psalter. It was the first book published in North America.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) – wrote a book “Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament” in 1719. It didn’t copy word for word from the Psalms but also borrowed from the New Testament. An example of that is Joy to the World (Psalm 98) which has the idea of Christ coming.
Decline of Psalm-singing:
Personal devotional gospel songs came in and brought in self-centeredness. Not “Why sing the Psalms?” but “How can we better serve and worship God?” If we were to pray right, we would pray contrary to our hearts because we are selfish and sinners. We always want our best and our wants. Not my will, Lord, but Thine be done.
Communion of Saints – these songs have been sung for hundreds of years. When we sing Psalms we are singing with many generations.
What better way to praise God but with His own words? It is void of our selfish thoughts and feelings. It is an accurate form of devotion and worship to God. It’s commanded in Scripture to sing psalms. It allows the Word of God to dwell in us richly. It’s also a form of thankfulness.
The Psalms express a full range of feelings, reflections of the believing soul. John Calvin called the Psalter an anatomy of all parts of the soul because the Psalms contain a full range of human emotions. He went onto say, “there is not an emotion to which one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.” Everything we can think, all the things that we’re going through, all the situations, all the ups and downs of life are represented within the book of Psalms.
The Story of Christianity
Chapter 11 – Protestantism in France
Shifting Royal Politics
Protestantism was able to gain many followers in France, due to King Francis wavering on his position towards Protestantism. However, seasons of persecution in France led many into exile. Many found refuge in the Navarre court of Margaret of Angouleme. Although Francis’s son Henry II continued to persecute Protestants, the first French Protestant church was formally organized in 1555. French Protestants were called Huguenots. Religious skirmishes began after the massacre of Vassy in 1562, where a group of Huguenots were murdered while they were worshipping.
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day
On August 24, 1572, a plot was carried out against many Protestant noblemen who had been invited to the king’s house for a royal wedding. Some two thousand Huguenots died that night. The massacre was not limited to Paris, but spread throughout the land.
The War of the Three Henrys
When King Charles of France died, his brother Henry III took his place, and made peace with the Protestants when it was to his advantage. However, the firm Catholics in the kingdom disagreed heartily and began war with the Protestants, which Henry later joined against the Protestants. When Henry’s son died, leaving the Protestant King Henry of Navarre as the rightful heir to the throne, the Catholic house of Guise came forward with a document saying that Henry of Guise was descended from Charlemagne, and therefore the true heir. War broke out between the three parties. Henry of Guise finally captured Paris, and declared himself king. Guise was murdered by Henry III’s decree. After Henry III died, war continued as France did not want a Protestant king. Finally, Henry of Navarre changed his religion to Catholic so that they would accept him. He continued his loyalty and favor to the Huguenots however.
Chapter 12 – The Catholic Reformation
The Reformation of Spanish Catholicism
When Isabella became Queen of Castile, she began a program of reform. However, she did not seek doctrinal reform, but reform from the moral corruption. Because the pope wanted to stay in favor with the queen, he tolerated the changes she implemented. Isabella was a scholar and encouraged the printing of books throughout the land. The pope placed the Inquisition in the hands of Ferdinand and Isabella, and many Jews were exiled by Jimenez, Isabella’s confessor. After this, Jimenez tried to force the Moors in Granada to convert, but this ended in rebellion and bloodshed.
Polemics against Protestantism
Among the theologians who were against Protestantism were: John Eck, Robert Bellarmine, and Caesar Baronius.
New Orders
St. Teresa joined a Carmelite convent, and began having visions which she was first afraid of, then embraced. She was led out of the convent and founded another nearby where she practiced a more rigorous monastic life than the previous one. Because her nuns wore sandals instead of shoes, they were known as the Discalced (“Barefoot”) Carmelites. She eventually founded a male branch with the help of St. John of the Cross. She is on the official list of “Doctors of the Church”, one of only two women on the list.
St. Ignatius Loyola, being bedridden from a war wound, read devotional books and began to have visions. He eventually went on pilgrimage and went to Manresa to live as a hermit. He had similar struggles to Luther, in that he struggled with his sin and came to know the grace of God. He began to serve the church, and studied theology in Barcelona, Alcala, Salamanca, and Paris. In 1534, he went to Montserrat with a band of followers and they made solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the pope. Their original desire was to work with the Turks in the Holy Land, but by the time they got permission from the pope, they were faced with the Protestant threat. The Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, became the main offensive tool against Protestantism.
Papal Reformation
The two reform minded popes during this time were Adrian VI and Paul IV. They sought to cleanse the church from corruption, nepotism, and heresy.
The Council of Trent
Pope Paul III and Charles V were forced to respond to the theology which Protestants had questioned, and issue some decrees for church reform in December 1545 at the Council of Trent.
War Psalms from the Prince of Peace
Chapter 1 – Those Puzzling Prayers from the Psalms
The Psalms are a prayer book given to us by God. Calvin said that the Psalms are important for entering into “genuine and earnest prayer.” Forty-one percent of the time the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament, it is Psalms.
Chapter 2 – Are These Prayers the Oracles of God?
John J. Owen said of the psalms of imprecation, these “forms of expression are of such coldblooded and malignant cruelty, as to preclude entertaining the idea for a moment that they were inspired of God.” It is questioned today by those who wish to impose their own canon to Scripture, that the Psalms were not inspired. Men refuse to believe in the justice of God. However, we cannot impose our thoughts about God upon God’s thoughts about God. We see throughout the New Testament that the Psalms are accepted as God’s word. C.H. Spurgeon “Truly this is one of the hard places of Scripture, a passage which the soul trembles to read, yet as it is a Psalm unto God, and given by inspiration, it is not ours to sit in judgment upon it,, but to bow our ear to what God the Lord would speak to us therein.”
Chapter 3 – Who is Praying These Psalms?
Some sections of Psalms we feel uneasy about praying aloud because they speak of the author’s pure heart and righteousness. Can we take it upon ourselves to pray for our enemies to be destroyed by God? Jesus quotes the Psalms fifty-one times in the New Testament. In Hebrews, there are quotes from Jesus which are only found recorded in the Psalms. Clearly, the apostles believed that Christ was speaking in the Psalms.
E.W. Hengstenberg “It is precisely the most severe of these (vindictive Psalms) which are applied to Christ, and considered as spoken by him, and are therefore pronounced worthy of Him.”
Matthew says that David spoke by the Spirit. None of David’s psalms from before he was anointed are recorded in Scripture. David, the anointed one of God, is a prototype for Jesus Christ, the Anointed One. David speaks beyond his own understanding and experience and anticipates the Christ. The penitence psalms can be applied to Christ on the Cross, charged with the sin and guilt of his people and speaking as though it was His own sin and guilt. Corinthians says “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It is not a new concept that the Psalms are messianic in character. It is Christ who is praying the prayers of vengeance.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 7
Most people in the world today, including most people in the church, take for granted that the earth and universe are millions or even billions of years old. Even our public schools teach these vast ages.
Geology’s Early Beginnings:
Back in Greek times, People had noticed fossils in the rocks. Many believed that the fossils were the remains of creatures that were turned to stone, but many early Christians attributed them to Noah’s Flood. The debate was finally settled when Robert Hooke confirmed by microscopic analysis of fossil wood that fossils were the mineralized remains of former living creatures.
Niels Steensen, or Steno, a Dutch autonomist and geologist was one of the most important geological thinkers prior to 1750. In his book forerunner (1669) he expressed belief in a roughly 6,000-year-old Earth and that fossil-bearing rock strata were deposited by Noah’s Flood. Over the next century, several authors, including the English geologist John Woodward and the German geologist Johann Lehmann, wrote books essentially reinforcing that view.
In the 18th century, some French and Italian geologists rejected the Biblical account of the Flood and attributed the rock record to natural processes occurring over a long period of time. Several prominent Frenchmen also contributed to the idea of millions of years. A well respected scientist Comte de Buffon thought in his book Epochs of Nature (1779) that the earth was once like a hot molten ball that had cooled to reach its present state about 75,000 years.
Abraham Werner was a popular mineralogy professor in Germany. He believed that most of the crust of the earth had been precipitated chemically or mechanically by a slow receding global ocean over the course of about a million years. But Werner failed to take into account the fossils in the rocks.
Catastrophist-Uniformitarian Debate:
In the early 1800’s Georges Cuvier developed his catastrophist theory of Earth history. He believed that over the course of long untold ages of the earth history, many catastrophic floods regional or nearly global extent had destroyed and buried creatures in sediments. All but one of these catastrophes occurred before the creation of man.
A massive blow to catastrophism came during the years 1830 to 1833, when Charles Lyell, published his influential three-volume work Principles of geology. Reviving and augmenting the ideas of others. His theory was a radical uniformitarianism in which he insisted that only present-day processes of geological change at present-day rates of intensity and magnitude should be used to interpret the rock record of past geological activity. In other words, geological processes of change have been uniform throughout earth history. No continental or global catastrophic floods have ever occurred, insisted Lyell.
Lyell is often given too much credit for destroying faith in the Genesis Flood and the biblical timescale. Lyell’s work was the final blow for belief in the Flood.
Christian Responses To Old-Earth Geology:
A number of writers in Great Britain raised biblical, geological and philosophical arguments against the old-earth theories. Some were both ordained and scientifically well informed, as was common in those days. They believed that the biblical account of creation and Noah’s Flood explained the rock record far better than the old earth theories.
Other Christians in the 1800s quickly accepted the idea of millions of years and tried to fit all this time into Genesis, even though the uniformitarians and catastrophists were still debating and geology was in its infancy as a science. In1804 Thomas Chalmers began to preach that Christians should accept the millions of years; and in an 1814 review of Cuvier’s book, he proposed that all the time could fit between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Consequently, this “gap theory” became very popular.
The great Presbyterian theologian at Princeton Seminary Charles Hodge insisted that the age of the earth was not important. He favored the gap theory initially and switched to the day-age view later in life.
Compromise Unnecessary:
In the 1970s Derek Ager and others increasingly challenged Lyell’s assumptions and argued that much of the rock record shows evidence of rapid catastrophic erosion or sedimentation, drastically reducing the time involved in the formation of many geological deposits.
Disastrous Consequences Of Compromise:
The scriptural geologists of the early 19th century opposed old-earth geological theories not only because the theories reflected erroneous scientific reasoning and were contrary to Scripture, but also because they believed that Christian compromise with such theories would eventually have a catastrophic effect on the health of the church and her witness to a lost world.
Many opponents of the old-earth theories rightly understood that the historical portions of the Bible are foundational to the theological and moral teachings of Scripture.
It is time for the church, especially her leaders and scholars, to stop ignoring the age of the age of the earth and the scientific evidence that increasingly vindicates the Word of God. The Church must repent of her compromise with millions of years and once again believe and preach the literal truth of Genesis 1-11. It is time to take the church back to Genesis.
Psalm of praise:
Praise the Lord, the Father of His people
Sing songs of glory to our exalted King
Praise the Lord, His mercies are great
His love is evident daily
See the great work of His hand
The universe is His alone
All the people of the earth are God’s
Not one escapes His eye
To all the righteous His love will know
God’s blessings will be out-poured
For those who see their own glorious end
Will meet with rout and failure
He will crush their hopes and dreams
Their lives will result in ruin
He has saved His people from the snake
Their feet now placed on high
I will shout aloud my Father’s name
His lordship, love, and justice
His hand poured out to all His nations
With flowers, fruits, and vegetation
God’s truth is solid, standing forever
His grace is unmerited but abundant
Sing aloud, shout songs of honor
The Lord has redeemed His people
His faithfulness has been forever
Praise the Lord for eternity
Psalm of lament: psalm 6 O Lord do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in your hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, for i am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled; my soul also is greatly troubled; But You O Lord,– how long? Return, O Lord, Deliver me! Oh, save me for thy mercies sake! For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give you thanks? I am weary with my groaning, all night i make my bed swim; i drench my couch with my tears. My eyes waste away because of my grief; It grows old because of mine enemies. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.
Psalm 4 a Psalm of praise: Hear me when i call, o god of my righteousness! you have relieved me in my distress, Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. How long, O you sons of men, Will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? But know that the Lord has set apart for himself who is godly; the Lord will hear when i call to Him. Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart in your bed, and be still. Offer sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. There are many of us who say, “Who will show us any good?” Lord, lift up your countenance upon us. You have put gladness on my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will lie down in peace and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
“Sometimes… success is NOT measure. “Questions are halfway to knowledge.”
Lesson 35: Jan Comunius: Champion of Discipleship: An Obscure Reformation:
Jan Milic (1313-1374) [Pronounced Yan Milik]
Jerusalem Center
He believed that being a christian should effect far more than just the church life of the people. He established a center for the rehabilitation of the badly off “under class” people, like drug addicts, destitute, orphans, street thieves, etc. It was called the Jerusalem Center and was very successful. Many were converted to Christ through this program- they became good citizens as well.
Nazareth College
[God often brings reformation to pass through the educational means]
-Jan Hus
-Jerome of Prague
Four Articles of Prague:
-Primacy of God’s words. If God’s word takes center stage it changes Everything. All our thinking and emotions should be defined by God’s scripture.
-Centrality of the Sacraments
-Integrity of the clergy. It’s not just a respectable way to earn a living! Clergymen should be called by God and have true integrity and earnest zeal for God.
-Disciple of the Church (disciple as in orderly- not chastisement.)
Jan Comenius (1592-1670)
-Orphaned at 12 years old, his care was taken over by the village.
– His eagerness and ardent zeal for learning and for Christ’s church and word so impressed the town people that they agreed to pay for his education at Heidleburg, assuming he would return and pastor their village, Falnek. So he went, and faithfully returned to pastor them, marry his young wife and father a son. He was happy and content… then, calamity struck.
Battle of White Mountain
[The Moravian people made the king Ferdinand mad and since he was inclined to hate them anyways since they were prtestant and he was catholic, he flipped out and decided to kill of their entire race.)
Comenius’s wife and child were killed, and his dream, his life, and his home were all destroyed. He was 28 when that happened.
1620-1624
-The underground church
-plague and loss (1/2 his people died in the plague)
-Leading the Exile Community “he could easily have made use of his gifts and talents and abilities to go places and make a difference in the world, but no. He was faithful to his Moravian people.
1624-1650
Got an offer from Leszmo Parish, remained loyal to his people and said no.
-Moravian Ambassador
-Champion of discipleship
The Pansophic Collegium
-The great Commision of the Lord Jesus to His disciples mandates a going, teaching, baptizing, nation building church. – Jan Amos Comenius.
-Deuteronomy 6:4-5
-Education should be Theological, Literary, Didactic, Covenantal, Aesthetic, Ethical, and Historical, at the same time.
-Jurisdictional Sociology
-Preterist Eschatology
Collegium
-Intergrative Moral Philosophy
-He wanted to peak the curiosity and delight of the students, particularly when they were bored.
-Living books and evoctive rhetoric.
-“Questions are halfway to knowledge.” – Comenius
-Cross-disciplinary Apllication
Jan had followers far and wide… and devoted much of his time to leading and nurturing the community, and writing valuable religious articles.
Then, calamity struck once again in the form of Charles X’s invasion of the small, slowly recovering Moravian community. They numbered about a thousand at that point and he killed many of them and scattered the few that were left all over the country.
All Jan’s writing was burned, along with the small village community. Still…. he did not give up. He persevered and sought to Glorify God in the midst of travail and great sorrow.
-Amsterdam Covenant Community
He stayed with what was left of Moravian people and spent his time recovering his lost writings.
Lasting Legacy
– Extended the brethren schools.
-Van Prinsterer, d’Aubigne, Kuyper.
-Rebirth of Missions
-Battling fantasy literature and inspired Milton and many other writers imaginations.
Schaff, Rookmaker, Schaeffer.
He used his life for God’s Glory. Jan Amos Cominius was truly a great man.
Sometimes… success is NOT measure.
Psalm of lament:
Come close and hear me, Father
Attend to my cry
Hear the words I am speaking
Don’t turn me away, I beg
Your people lie in graves of stone
They have no breath
They are bound with chains of iron
Overruled by the oppressive hand of tyranny
Our earthly ruler hates You, Lord
His decrees are hate
The culture seeks to overthrow Your Law
Abolishing Your righteous Word
Throw off the heavy gloom of evil!
Cast them from power
Let them see the light no more
Except if it be Your light
God, our God is powerful and just
Underestimated by fools
I have placed my trust in You alone
To You my spirit cries aloud
My hope can rest securely in You
My trust if firm
O God, who could stray from Your courts?
From God’s open house of mercy
Every day of my life I will praise You
Your name high exalted
Your blessings to me abound richly
God’s name forever raised high
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 15
Jan Milic (1313-1374) had communication with Gerharde Groot and Jan Huss. He lived at Prague and established a center for the rehabilitation of street people: the homeless, druggies, thugs and prostitutes. They were all brought in and cared for at the Jerusalem Center. He also started the Nazareth College for the discipleship and education of the poor and for brigands. He had a small local church to have the Word simply and easily taught in the people’s language. This was the Bethlehem Chapel.
Over 100 churches in Moravia practiced a good Protestant view well in 1457. The four articles of Prague were written up. These would ultimately set them apart.
1) Primacy of Word – The Bible was sufficient to teach man his role in every area of life. The Bible should be preached, prayed, read, and sung. The Bible is the primacy of teaching material. It is the lawmaker and the guidebook.
2) Centrality of the Sacraments – The ordinary means of grace. It isn’t to give a new or glorious experience. Rather, it was to administer God’s sacrament to His people. Word and Sacrament are to go hand in hand.
3) Integrity of the clergy – Often, a role in the church was an easy means to be raised up to importance and material gain with not too much hard labor involved. Instead, they are to be wise, intelligent, and godly.
4) Discipline of the Church – The churches of God are called to be a covenant community. Accountability and discipline were needed in order to hold it together. Gentle correction is called for when there is error.
Jan Comenius (1592-1670) was orphaned at age 12 but already was seen as an adept and teachable boy. His village recommended him and paid for his travel to train at the University of Heidelberg. When he was done there, he became the pastor at Falnek, his previous village, and married a girl he had known since childhood. With her, he had a child. All of his dreams seemed to be coming true right before calamity struck. They were crushed in the destruction of the Moravians; even the citizens were brutally killed and raped as the army travelled to the Battle of White Mountain leaving behind them flattened towns. Jan came back from preaching to the troops to find his village burned to the ground and his wife and child killed. At age 28, he gathered survivors and led them off from exile camps to exile camps. Half of their group died when the plague struck again. In 1624-50 he established Leszmo parish in Southern Poland. Jan led, taught them, and became the unofficial Moravian ambassador, travelling all over to bring awareness of the loss of the Moravians. His parish flourished and grew to bring up covenantal faithfulness to the attending people. He came up with the idea of the Pansophic Collegium.
Pansophic Collegium – it was one primary way of discipline instituted by Jan Comenius. It was teaching, preaching, praying, baptizing, and building nations. “Sometimes adversity is more of a blessing than a blessing”. It loosens our grasp on the world and gives us a good reason to go forth and teach. It would create a new type of society, one that was jurisdictional, accountable by depending and checking on one another. It would create a cultural transformation. It was rooted in preterist eschatology, an ongoing, consummate and previous fulfillment of the prophesies. And it made all of Scripture immediately relevant.
Collegium – there needed to be a hub for which all knowledge could be focused on. They were not separate and sealed off. And so an integrative moral philosophy was introduced so that it was better connected. It was also not just boring and tedious, but it was written so you were trained with curiosity or delight. The teachers were to draw the students’ appetites out so that they wanted to learn and study. He gave them good books, living breathing books that drew them in, grabbing them firmly to shape their minds. Also, he promoted evocative rhetoric – it settles deep within your soul and is taught personally from the teacher to his (usually) small group of eager students. There should be conversation and questions asked. Jan Comenius said, “Questions are halfway to knowledge”.
1650-70 – Jan had many followers hanging on his words for education. Charles X invaded his exile camp to destroy the last shreds of the Moravian movement. Jan was lost in the whirlwind once again. His approach for education (1000 pages long) was lost in the burning. He set up a small militia to warn people of the troops who were wiping out towns again, essentially saving many lives. He went to Amsterdam to preach to his small covenant community, ignoring all requests from great kings and colleges. He began to piece back together his previous writing.
Comenius had a lasting legacy that extended to the Brethren schools, van Prinsterer, d’Aubigne, and Kuyper. He brought about a rebirth of literature, imagination, and missions. He shaped the thinking of Schaff, Rookmaker, and Schaeffer, Whitefield, Chalmers, and Carey. He also brought forward the idea that education was the ultimate disciple-maker.
He had suffered and lost so much, but never let that dismiss God’s grace. He saw it as the way to endure more, trust God more, and glorify God more.
Sometimes greatness doesn’t look like what the world calls greatness. Sometimes success is not measured in the standard ways that the world would measure it. If we ever needed evidence of that, all we have to do is look at the life and the calamities, the achievements and the griefs, the legacy and the sorrows of Jan Comenius. He was great, and he never knew it, which makes his greatness even greater.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 8
One result of compromising with our evolutionary culture is the view of creation called the “day-age” theory or “progressive creation.” It has received wide publicity in the past several years. Much of this publicity is due to the publications and lectures of astronomer Dr. Huge Ross. His views on how to interpret the book of Genesis won early endorsements from many well-known Christian leaders, churches, seminaries and Christian collages. His teachings seemingly allowed Christians to use the term “creationist” but still gave them supposed academic respectability in the eyes of the world by rejecting six literal days of creation and maintaining billions of years. But people began to suddenly realize how bankrupt those views are and removed their endorsement.
In Summary, Progressive Creation Teaches:
(1) The big bang origin of the universe occurred about 16 billion years ago.
(2) The days of creation were overlapping periods of millions and billions of years.
(3) Over millions of years, God created new species as others kept going extinct.
(4) The record of nature is just as perfect as the Word of God.
(5) Death, bloodshed and disease existed before Adam and Eve.
(6) Manlike creatures that behaved much like us existed before Adam and Eve but did not have a spirit and thus had no hope of salvation.
(7) The Genesis Flood was a local event.
(1) The Big Bang Origen Of The Universe:
Progressive creation teaches that the modern big bang theory of the origin of the universe is true and has been proven by scientific inquiry and observation.
They ignore the fact that God is omnipotent; He could make a fully functional universe ready for life right from the beginning, for with God nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26).
(2)The Days Of Creation In Genesis 1:
Progressive creationists claim that the days of creation in Genesis 1 represent long periods of time. In fact, Dr. Ross believes Day 3 of creation week lasted for more than 3 billion years
The text in Genesis 1 clearly states that God supernaturally created all that is in six actual days. The word for “day” in Genesis 1 obviously means an ordinary day of about 24 hours. It is qualified as a number, the phrase “evening and morning” and for Day 1, the words “light and darkness.”
We all have the same facts: the same living creatures, same DNA molecules, same fossils, same Grand Canyon, same moon, the same planets, ect. These are the facts; how old they are and what they mean are the interpretations of the facts. And what one believes about history will affect how one interprets these facts.
(3) The Order Of Creation:
Progressive creationists believe that God progressively created species on earth over billions of years, with new species replacing extinct ones, starting with simple organisms and culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve. Evolutionary theory holds that the first life forms were marine organisms, while the Bible says that God created land plants first. Reptiles are supposed to have predated birds, while Genesis says that birds came first. Evolutionists believe that land mammals came before whales, while the Bible teaches that God created whales first.
(4)The Sixty-Seventh Book Of The Bible:
Not everyone has been exposed to the sixty-six of the bible, but everyone on planet earth has been exposed to the sixty-seventh book, the book that God has written upon the heavens for everyone to read. And the Bible tells us it’s impossible for God to lie, so the record of nature must be just as perfect and reliable and truthful as the sixty-six books of the Bible that is part of the Word of God.
So how can sinful, fallible human beings in a sin-cursed universe say that their interpretation of the evidence is as perfect as God’s written revelation? Scientific assertions must use fallible assumptions and fallen reasoning, how can this be the Word of God.
In other words, Christians should build their thinking on the Bible, not on “science.”
Death and Disease Before Adam:
Progressive creationists believe the fossil record was formed from the millions of animals that lived and died before Adam and Eve were created. They accept the idea that there was death, bloodshed and disease before sin, which goes directly against the teaching of the Bible and dishonors the character of God.
God created a perfect world at the beginning. When he was finished, God stated that his creation was “very good.” The Bible makes it clear that man and all the animals were vegetations before the Fall. Plants were given to them for food.
It was clear that there was no sin in the world before Adam sinned, and thus no death.
Progressive creation denigrates the wisdom and goodness of God by suggesting that this was God’s method of creation.
Spiritless Hominids Before Creation:
Since evolutionary radiometric dating methods have dated certain humanlike fossils as older than Ross’s date for modern humans, he and other progressive creationists insist that these are fossils of pre-Adamic creatures that had no spirit, and thus no salvation. If they are given evolutionary dates of more than about 40,000 years as related to spiritless “hominids,” which the Bible does not mention. However, these same methods have been used to “date” the Australian Aborigines back at least 60,000, and others to over 1000,000 years. By Ross’s reasoning, none of these could be descendants of Adam and Eve. All people on earth are descendants of Adam.
Also, the fossil record cannot, by its very nature, conclusively reveal if a creature had a spirit or not, since spirits are not fossilized.
The Genesis Flood:
One important tenet of progressive creation is that the flood of Noah’s day was a local flood, limited to the Mesopotamian region.
But read Genesis 7:19-23, it says that everything on the earth was covered by the waters and that everyone and everything that was on the earth died, except for Noah and his family.
Also, many questions remain for those who teach that the Genesis Flood was only local. So if the Flood were local, God would have, by now, repeatedly broken his promise to never send such a flood again.
Conclusion:
It is true that whether one believes in six literal days does not ultimately affect one’s salvation, if one is truly born again.
After all, if the history in Genesis is not correct as written, how can one be sure the rest can be taken as written?
Sadly, being influenced by the world has led to the church no longer powerfully influencing the world.
So ultimately, the issue of a literal Genesis is about the authority of the Word of God versus the authority of the words of sinful men.
So why should Christians believe in six literal days of creation? Because of the words of Scripture (“In six days the lord made…”).
The real issue is one of authority; let us unashamedly stand upon God’s Word as our sole authority!
War Psalms from the Prince of Peace
Chapter 4 – Are Jesus’ Prayers Contradictory?
Is Jesus’ prayer on the cross to “forgive them” contradictory to the psalms which ask God to crush His enemies? On the cross, it is proper that Christ showed His goodwill and long-suffering with men. However, we need to remember Him both as a forgiving Savior, and an awesome judge. Jesus calls curses on the Pharisees in the New Testament. Even Paul, out of love for God’s cause, calls curses on those who hinder God’s truth going forth. However, we need to realize that there is no room for our personal vindications here; God says He will repay.
Chapter 5 – May we pray the Imprecatory Psalms?
Many of us do not think we need to learn how to pray, but how do we know how to pray? We must learn from Christ. In the Lord’s Prayer, we ought to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done.” “Can we truly utter this prayer without perceiving that our request involves the complete overthrow of Satan’s kingdom and all his followers?” We cannot pray for the doom of certain individuals (since we cannot know who is elect), yet we must pray for the overthrow of Satan’s kingdom, which is embodied in actual persons in history. Christian prayer is different from natural human emotions; it is not just expressing the needs of our heart, but finding the way to God and speaking to Him. We cannot do this by ourselves, but we need grace and Christ. First, we must learn to pray in Christ. To pray the imprecations of the psalms is to surrender all rights for vengeance to God. Second, God’s Word is the foundation. Even in the Old Testament, we see curses for those who do not obey God’s commandments. We must pray these psalms based on God’s prophetic Word of “everlasting destruction.” Third, conversion is the goal of our prayer. Sometimes, judgment of the sinner leads to repentance and turning to God, as Nebuchadnezzar. In the end, all will either be converted, or succumb to final judgment. Finally, the end purpose of all our prayer is that God may be glorified.
The Story of Christianity
Chapter 14 – An Age of Dogma and Doubt
There were two results to the ecclesiastical reform. First, theologians became increasingly academic and rigid; their goal became merely to defend and clarify what others had said before. “Dogma was often substituted for faith, and orthodoxy for love.” Second, rationalism began to take hold, for if doctrine produced nothing but quarrels and prejudice, than why could not natural reason, which was common to man, answer fundamental questions that all could agree on.
Isaac Newton and the Birth of Modern Science – 1645 to 1727
Isaac Newton was very entrepreneurial and inventive, even as a child. He would make kites customized to the weather conditions of that day, and then sell them to the other children!
His Uncle sent him to a school where he quickly outstripped the teachers… from there he went on to Granthon Grammer School. While he was NOT a A+ student the professors recognized his precocity, incredible talents, and potential and he was able to go on to Trinity College in 1661. He worked as a waiter to pay for his tuition, but he once again did not receive first form because he was somewhat bored with his classes and distracted by his interests in science and astronomy, and his inventions and discoveries.
At only seventeen he had the precocity (or gall) and the understanding to write a corrected version of Pascals mathematics [?] which simply astounded his tutors.
Next he earned his bachelors, in 1664, at only 21 years old. He virtually invented calculous… and became the youngest person in the world til that point to receive the master of arts and fellow and become a professor at Cambridge. He became a professor of mathematics in 1669.
He created the First edition of Principia in 1687… broke through and redefined mathematics completely and entirely.
Mathematical discoveries
Generalized Binomial Theorem
Algebra: the study of operations
Geometry: the study of forms
Calculus: the study of changes
At the same time as he is working his way through all this complex theoretical math he was studying optics:
Optics discoveries
Theory of the color spectrum
Planetary motion and heliocentrism
He had to experiment on an eye ball so he could understand something to do with optics and when a cows eye didn’t do the job he actually resorted to using his own eye… OW. He literally poked a needle in his eye, on purpose, for the sake of understanding.
Mechanics
Practical reflecting telescope
Principia Mathematica
Gravitation and the speed of sound
The Three Laws of Motion
Inertia
-An object at rest stays at rest
-An object in motion stays in motion
-Unfettered velocity remains constant
Momentum
-Bodies accelerate proportionally to force
-Bodies accelerate inversely to mass
-Force equals mass times acceleration.
Reaction
-Actions have equal and opposite reactions
-Reactions are equal in magnitude
-Reactions are opposite in reaction.
He created the theoretical idea for engines, basis for electronics and broadcasting of every sort… he revolutionized the WORLD. All one man. And almost all this before he turned 35 years. What an incredibly gifted man… he helped shape every single modern person’s worldview.
It is debatable that he laid the foundation for social, physiology, and other humanity sciences. He “ultimately reshaped the way we think” today. In 2012. Wow.
After the first 35 five years of his life he had finished most of his major discoveries and devoted the rest of his life to theology. From beginning to end his life was devoted to God’s law and Christ’s glory.
Worldview class notes.
Religion is inescapable. Education – a philosophy of education is a part of religion.
We cannot give our children to the schools for the majority of their young lives and expect a minimal dose of Sunday School once a week for perhaps an hour to make any real difference.
Humans are responsible for who we are who we will become. The state’s goal is to take our lives over and mold us to their agenda. (kinda of a blanket statement, but that’s really what it comes down to.) Christians are the ones who must see and resist this, and instead form and shape ourselves after Christ, devoting our lives to God’s glory.
So called ‘Christian’ colleges and school are even worse because your guard is down but the teaching and worldview taught is still humanist and anti-nomian.
Sarah Bacon
Week 16
History of Christendom – Lesson 36
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was raised as a “practical” orphan. His father died right before he was born and his mother remarried fast, leaving the child to be raised by the caretakers of the manor and going to live with her new and older husband. However, he came from solid yeoman stock and was raised well. His mother returned after his step-father died which caused a huge change to his life. Isaac Newton carved numerous clocks and mechanical feeding troughs, anything that would cause his chores and life to be easier for him.
Every one around him was basically illiterate. One of his uncles was a clergy so he had some books and a little knowledge. It was this relative that sponsored him to go to a little grammar school at age ten. He quickly out-learned all his teachers and was sent elsewhere. There he advanced at age 10-12 in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aristotle.
In 1655 he attended the Grantham Grammar school. He made an instrument that measured time, seasons, years, and predicted equinoxes and solstices. One of his teachers realized that Isaac was not a poor student, rather he was bored.
In 1661 he was sent to Trinity College. He got a 5 year degree for a Bachelor of Arts of mathematics in less than 3 years and only because the teachers kept delaying the oral exams.
In 1667 he earned his Master of Arts and Fellowship with his many theories.
In 1669 he became a professor of mathematics…the youngest to ever earn that title at Cambridge.
In 1687 his first book was published, radically changing science for all times. Principia developed a generalized binomial theorem, made it so Algebra was a study of operations, geometry was a study of mathematical forms not just the physical, and calculus was now a study of changes or relationships between changes. He taught there was more than what you could see, so mathematics was let loose. You were to think beyond the boundaries of what is possible.
He also developed theories of sound and light. He had a theory of the color spectrum and eventually determined planetary motion and heliocentrism. Also, Isaac Newton was able to create the practical reflecting telescope by experimenting on himself. He believed that sound had speed, but his biggest breakthrough was his understanding of the laws of motion.
1) Law of Inertia – an object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion, and unfettered velocity remains constant.
2) Laws of Momentum – bodies accelerate proportionally to force, bodies accelerate inversely to mass, and force equals mass times acceleration.
3) Law of Reaction – actions have equal and opposite reactions, reactions are equal in magnitude, and reactions are opposite in direction.
Isaac Newton
He was born on Christmas day in 1643. His father died and his mother remarried and left him to a caretaker. He had a very lonely childhood wile his mother was gone. But his mother’s remarried husband died and his mother moved back in when he was about four years old. At a very young age he had a very creative mind, and whittled a full sized and working water clock. At the age of 10 he was sent to a small grammar school but the teachers quickly found that he was much better then they were. He was then sent to another school were he took to reading many books. He then made a working sun clock that didn’t only tell the time, but also told the day, month, year, and even the longitude and latitude. He had bad grades but was a guinea at everything else. He received a sponsorship and went through a five year degree program that only took him three years. He went back to his home when the plague hit Cambridge. There he spent most of his time reading many books about mathematics. By 1689 he had received professor in mathematics. He was the youngest to ever get that. During his life he designed the reflecting telescope, by experimenting on his eye. But his greatest work he did in his life was his thesis of motion.
War Psalms of the Prince of Peace
Chapter 6 – How Can We Preach These Prayers?
A pastor must pass on the “war cry” to his flock.
There are 3 biblical motifs in the Psalms.
1. The covenant context
Blessings and curses get carried on to offspring. God relates to His people in a covenantal manner. Today, even the basics of covenant must be taught, as it is generally forgotten or rejected. God has fulfilled His covenant through history.
2. The Christological context
It is not enough to read the Psalms in terms of their own history, but also include our history—Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant.
3. The cultural context
We must learn to understand and interpret the Psalms as those first reading and singing them would have.
Applying the Psalms
A. The kingdom of God is at war
B. Traitors and deserters must be warned
C. Faithful warriors need encouragement
Chapter 7 – Marching to War in God’s Kingdom
Psalm 149: 6-9 says the glory of the saints is to carry out God’s judgment. Our weapons right now are our prayers and our preaching. 2 Corinthians 6:7 says that we are to declare the truth.
1. Prayer is spiritual warfare
2. We are to proclaim the Psalms not only praying them, but singing them
History of the Christian Church
Volume 6 – Chapter 5 – Reformers before the Reformation (First half of the chapter)
39. The Church in England in the Fourteenth Century
There was unrest among the lower classes concerning social inequalities. Due to the Black Plague killing many who were in the Church, men who were illiterate were allowed in as priests. Immorality and indulgence became more and more widespread. Two well-known men of the church in these times were Thomas Bradwardine and William of Wykeham. Bradwardine was called the “Profound doctor” for his learning and wisdom. He accused the Church of falling into Pelagianism and teaching free will. Wykeham received much money from his benefices and prebends, and is known for his saying, “Manners maketh man.”
40. John Wycliffe
In 1375, Wycliffe began to speak out against the Pope’s secular sovereignty. Fortunately, Wycliffe had many supporters and friends among churchmen and nobles, so he was protected for some time, before being sentenced to imprisonment by the Pope in 1377. In March, 1378, the Pope died and Wycliffe was free to begin preaching reform again. He wrote sermons, tracts, pamphlets, and other material. Wycliffe launched the “poor priests”, who were a group of Oxford graduates and laymen who became itinerate evangelists. In 1382, Bishop Courtenay persuaded a synod to condemn 24 of Wycliffe’s articles. Wycliffe died in 1384 after a paralytic stroke. In 1413, a synod ordered that his bones be exhumed and burned.
41. Wycliffe’s Teachings
Wycliffe was a realist as opposed to a nominalist. He also believed that proprietary right is limited by proper use, and that the priesthood ought to perform their duties using tithes, not land. Wycliffe was a bold champion of the laymen’s rights in the pulpit. Occasionally, his sermons seem contradictory to each other.
42. Wycliffe and the Scriptures
In Wycliffe’s treatise, The Truth of Scripture, he taught that Scripture was the supreme authority. Wycliffe challenged the tradition that the Scripture was only for the clergy. As Christ was free for all, so was the Bible. As Wycliffe knew no Hebrew or Greek, his translation of the Bible into English was from the Latin Vulgate. This was seen to the church as desecration to the sacred book. Many copies of his Bible spread throughout England, partly due to the rumor that Wycliffe’s version had been banned. Behind all of Wycliffe’s teaching was Christ. “It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the name of Christ appears on every page of his writings.”
“making the world safe for democracy” is a slogan that means that the person running with that slogan wants to have a foreign policy by spears.
If rootedness is a valuable thing for community and Christian community, then it is greatly in the states interest to uproot communities.The sense of adventuring was uncommon in tightly knit communities, because people considered it good to hear of far off lands, but would much rather stay rooted in their communities. The exception to it was when the people of Christendom felt the need for a pilgrimage, out of zeal for their salvation. missionaries would go out from their communities and recreate their communities in third world countries, showing that people never quite lose their rootedness even if they leave.
Under Henry the Navigator helped expand the known world, and invented many many instruments of navigation, with his zeal for expansion and reconquista. he found portugal, and established trade routes to them, and brazil, and many more places. unfortunately these places were taken by Jihad by the muslim scimitar, and churches and libraries were destroyed.
A school built by ? was filled with many men who were great cartographers, cosmographers, and more. in this school they were taught navigation and they learned about the best kinds of boats, the norse boats. they then discovered thast using multiple layers of sails provided increased stability, and the latine sail that was in the shape of a triangle. it was attached to a boom and moved according to the wind, as opposed to moving the whole boat. they experimented with different kinds of rudders, and keels. deeper keels provided more stability in big storms. increased storage capacity was needed as well. with that vessel finished, they discovered a new problem: the sailors could not navigate without stars, with heavy cloud cover they couldnt navigate. the compass was then invented, adjustable for latitude and longitude, it helped them keep their bearings after losing them.
Christopher Columbus used an astrolabe, and the formula and math he used is beyond the majority of peoples current education. beyond mine, thats for sure.
World views always always tend to be totalistic. if you block out Christianity, you block out philosophy. Marxism/Leninism is a world view largely close to Humanism, as their core principles are the same. Any world view is doomed to fail if it doesnt acknowledge God as the creator and Savior. most people hold Marxism as their world view without even understanding it.
Ownership is the rightful ability to dispossess the property.
Marx held that religion was just an opiate for the oppressed masses. He professed to be atheist, but if there is no God, then there is only us, and no ultimate purpose.
History of the Bible in English
Chapter 1 – The Beginnings of the English Bible
Before the Bible was translated to English, the Church’s Bible was the Latin Bible, commonly known as the Latin Vulgate. Instead of studying the Bible, the laymen would learn their gospel from the décor of the church buildings. Old English poems also told parts of Bible stories. As early as 700 AD, Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne in Dorset is said to have translated the Psalter into Old English. After this, there were several partial translations made by the Venerable Bede, the court of Alfred the Great, as well as various glosses. These translations were for scholars and monks, not for the laymen, however.
Chapter 2 – John Wycliffe and the English Bible
Wycliffe rethought all of society, and taught “dominion by grace”; meaning that each man is immediately responsible to God. He believed that each man ought then to know God’s word himself. It is doubtful that Wycliffe himself did the translation commonly attributed to him, but it was definitely done under his inspiration by his friends and colleagues. The first translation was word-for-word from the Latin Vulgate, which made it hard to read in English, but later revisions were more reader friendly. Wycliffe’s secretary, John Purvey wrote a 15 chapter General Prologue to his personal revision. There were severe penalties placed upon publishing the Bible at this time. It was seen as degrading to the Bible to publish it in the common language.
History of the Christian Church
Volume 6 – Chapter 5 – Reformers before the Reformation (Second half of the chapter)
43. The Lollards
The Lollards were those who followed Wycliffe’s teachings. Despite fierce persecution, their numbers grew until a chronicler was able to say that of every two men on the road, on was sure to be a Lollard. In 1401, the parliament passed a law for the burning of heretics. Many of the prominent figures among the Lollards recanted, but later returned to their old ways. Most of the political supporters also abjured. Most of the Lollards united in denying the material presence of Christ in the Eucharist, condemning pilgrimages, and condemning the worship of images.
44. John Huss of Bohemia
When spiritual reform moved to Bohemia, it first took the name of Wycliffism, and it was not for a while that it became called Hussitism. Due to Bohemians studying in English universities, and the University of Prague requiring their students to read English professors, close ties were formed between England and Bohemia. John Huss was born in 1369, and by 1398 had worked his way through his master of arts from the University of Prague and began to teach as a professor there. As early as 1402, Huss was known as a chief supporter of Wycliffism, along with Stanislaus of Znaim and Stephen Paletz. By 1405, a Prague synod condemned Wycliffism and forbade it from being taught. In 1410, Sbinko, the leader of the see in Prague, ordered Wycliff’s writings to be collected and burned. Two days after 200 manuscript copies of Wycliff’s writings were burned, Huss and the rest of the followers were sentenced to excommunication if they did not recant. Far from it, they continued to preach and fan the excitement coming from all classes. The Bohemian king gave orders that “Master Huss, our beloved and faithful chaplain, be allowed to preach the Word of God in peace,” yet the Church still tried to suppress Huss in vain. In 1411, Huss began to preach against the crusade which Pope John XXIII had launched and against the sale of indulgences to fund the religious war. King Wenzel had three lower class men burned for crying in open church that the pope’s two bulls announcing crusade and indulgences were lies. As Huss had the support of popular opinion, he was protected from the archbishop, the university, the clergy and the curia. In 1412, Wenzel induced Huss to leave the city for a time to calm the excitement. Huss traveled around and continued to preach, saying that to stop preaching would be disobedience to God. During this time, Huss wrote the most noted of all his writings, De ecclesia.
45. Huss at Constance
Sigismund, king of the Romans and heir of the Bohemian crown, summoned Huss to a council at Constance and promised him safe conduct. Huss wrote his will and went calmly and confidently to the council. Although Pope John XXIII commanded that no violence done to him, before he had been in Constance for a month, some pretext was found to arrest him and put him in prison for three months. It is not till the third month that he started communication with those outside. “In this correspondence four things are prominent: Huss’ reliance upon the king and his word of honor, his consuming desire to be heard in open council, the expectation of possible death and his trust in God.” Huss was transferred from prison to prison, and from commission to commission. He suffered starvation and sickness. Huss’s letters during this time show him setting his house in order and preparing for death. He was never allowed to make a public defense of his beliefs, as he had hoped to be able to do. In the beginning of July 1415, he was offered the chance to recant several times. On July 6th, Huss was brought to the cathedral and sentence was pronounced upon him. He was accused of following the heretical views of Wycliffe. Huss died at the stake praying and singing, “Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy upon me.”
46. Jerome of Prague
After Huss’s death, Jerome first denied that he had supported Huss and Wycliffe, but soon after confessed that he had done wrong in abandoning Huss. With that, he was imprisoned and burned at the stake a year after Huss’s death on the same spot. None of Jerome’s writings survived.
47. The Hussites
To the people, Huss and Jerome were looked upon as martyrs. There were riots in the streets upon the news of Huss’s death. As the Bohemian Hussites rallied to put down those among them who condemned Huss, Pope Martin V summoned Europe to crusade against Bohemia. “Five times the holy crusaders entered the land of Huss, and five times they were beaten back.” The moderate party of Hussites, called Pragers, Calixtines, or Utraquists gained the support of the University of Prague, and in 1420, the four articles of Prague were written, which demanded the free preaching of the Gospel, the distribution of the cup to the laity, the execution of punishment for mortal sins by the civil court, and the return of the clergy to the practice of Apostolic poverty. The Council of Basel invited the Hussites to begin negotiations, and 100 Hussites attended. The final agreement of four articles, known as the Campactata, was ratified by deputies of the council and of the Bohemian parties. Over the next few centuries, the Hussites continued to struggle to maintain their hold on Bohemia. An offshoot of the Hussites, called the Bohemian Brethren, is known for their missionary efforts all over the world.
Part of the cause for disunity in the church today is that we have hundreds and hundred of different versions of the bible, all for different purposes and kinds of people, instead of one solid standard for the scriptures.
In Martin Luther’s day, priests and most of the clergy did not know Latin that well, although their entire service was read in Latin. Priests could skip words if they stumbled, and the general populace would not know any better. When the printing press came about, people could read the bible for their own, in their own language.
When a person arises to a truth that is ground-shaking, a common response is for people to want to remain in their current condition, and try to silence this new idea. systems that depend on the prior mindset will try to shut down that truth, that idea, so that it can continue to function. Often, when one has an idea that is allowing them to climb up the ladder, they become power hungry and in order to keep moving up the ladder, will forsake their beliefs and do/say things they would never have, in order to keep their power and gain more. Allowing the people to have the bible in their native tongue was a threat to the power of the corrupt church, as they would lose control and thus money.
No man is not subject to the temptation of forsaking the truth in order to rise in power.
For Tindel, the book of Jonah was something he related to, because he was a preacher to an unbelieving people, the English.
2-8-12 Class Notes
King James of the King James bible was in fact a homosexual, and authorized the translation of the english bible, which is an ironic fact.
World View Section: Owning the means of productions means control. man inherently has a god or God of some sort, that is an inescapable fact. atheism says that they profess no god or God, but they want control over people like God. they never say it that way however, they always exercise it without admitting it. same with Marxism and Leninism.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 9
One player of the war of the worldviews is the intelligent design movement. ID has gained increasing recognition and publicity over the last several years at both local and national levels. It is especially well known in educational circles, where it has been heralded as an alternative to Darwinism/naturalism.
It can be defined as a theory which holds that certain features of living things were designed by an intelligent cause as opposed to being formed through purely natural means. But it does not name the intelligent cause, and it does not claim that everything is designed, thus allowing for evolution/natural causes to play a role.
William Paley (1743-1805) reasoned that if one walked across a field and came upon a watch, the assumption would be that there had to be a watchmaker, the complexity and purpose of the watch points to the fact that it is not the result of undirected, unintelligent causes, but the product of a designer.
In the last 100 years or so there has been an explosion of knowledge about the complexity of cells, DNA and microorganisms. Thus the need for a designer has become even greater. The ID theory uses scientific evidence drawn from biology, chemistry and physics.
Irreducible Complexity
The ID concept affirms that living things are designed and exhibit irreducible complexity. Some examples are the biochemistry of vision and the mammalian blood-clotting pathway. These biological pathways consist of many factors, and all the factors are necessary for the pathway to function properly. Thus evolution could not have formed these pathways. For example, if only three of the blood clotting factors were formed in an organism, blood would not clot, and thus the factors would not be kept because they are not currently useful to the organism. Evolution is goalless and purposeless; therefore, it does not keep the leftovers.
The question of whether or not a feature of a living organism displays design can be answered by using what is called an explanatory filter. The filter has three levels of explanation: 1. Necessary- did it have to happen? 2. Chance- did it happen by accident? 3. Design- did an intelligent agent cause it to happen?
For an example, consider the scenario of a woman falling. 1. Did she have to fall? No, but she did. 2. Was it an accident? 3. Or was she pushed?
1. The blood-clotting pathway is compatible; so it is not a necessity specified by natural phenomena. 2. It is complex because it is composed of many factors, thus the remote probability that it happened by chance. 3. The blood-clotting pathway does show design, referred to as specified complexity, because it is complex and has a high amount of information.
What The ID Movement Is And Is Not:
The ID theory focuses on what is designed rather than answering the questions of who, when, why and how.
The Id movement does not speak to the optimality of design because it does not attempt to explain all designs. Remember, only certain features are designed, and evolutionary processes are not ruled out. Since the movement is very careful not to associate itself with Christianity or any formal religion, some think it will stand a better chance of gaining acceptance as an alternative to Darwinism in the schools, because it does not violate the so-called separation of church and state.
ID is based on the presupposition that the supernatural does exist.
ID may serve as a useful tool in preliminary discussions about god and creation to gain an audience that might be turned off at the mention of the Bible.
However, the central problem with the ID movement is a divorce of the Creator from creation. The Creator and his creation cannot be separated; they reflect on each other. All other problems within the movement stem from this one.
Those within the ID movement claim their science is neutral. But science is not neutral because it works with hypotheses based on beliefs or presuppositions. It is ironic that they refuse to see this about there own science, considering that they claim the problem with Darwinism is the presupposition that nothing supernatural exists.
Although most within this movement claimed that design pointed to the God of the Bible, by divorcing general revelation from special revelation, they opened the door to other conclusions. In today’s culture, many are attracted to the ID movement because they can decide for themselves who the creator is, a Great Spirit, Brahman, Allah, God, etc.
Thus, they do not oppose an old age for the earth and allow Evolution to play a vital role once the designer formed the basics of life.
The ID movement’s belief in Evolution also allows them to distance themselves from the problem of evil in the natural world.
Without the framework of the Bible and the understanding that evil entered the world through man’s actions (Genesis 3), God appears sloppy and incompetent, if not down right vicious.
However, when we trust the Bible, we read that Jesus clearly conquered death by His Resurrection (Romans 6:3-10) and one day death will no longer reign (Revelation 21:4).
Our Creator And Redeemer:
Romans 1:20 states that all men know about God through His creation. However, just recognizing that there is a designer is only the first step. Colossians 1:15-20 and 1 Peter 3:3-6 point to the inexorable link between God’s role as Creator and Redeemer.
We must not separate the creation from its Creator; knowledge of God must come between both general and special revelation. It is only then that the entire truth about God and what is seen around us can be fully understood and used to help people understand the bad news in Genesis and the good news of Jesus Christ.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 18
William Tyndale (1494-1536) was nicknamed “God’s smuggler”. In his time, French was the language most commonly spoke in court. If you were going into the church as a profession, you would learn Latin. But slowly that even died out: no laymen knew Latin and 60% of priest/bishops didn’t understand Latin properly. In 1477, the printing press was introduced. William Tyndale grew up on Gloucestershire in a business oriented family. Workaday English was the language spoken. Tyndale was greatly influenced by John Wycliffe.
At Oxford, William Waynflete began a reform by breaking a group of college teachers and put them into different groupings with duties (undergraduate, graduate, professors etc.). William Tyndale attended in 1506 and had graduated in two years. He attained his B.A. in 1512 and his M.A. in 1515 at Magdalen Hall. He spoke 8 languages fluently. He felt education in general was lacking and began to work on repairing Cambridge and its Latin teaching course. He tutored two children of the Walsh family and greatly influenced them all.
William Tyndale was getting strong resistance for his reforming ideas. He went to Germany to Worms and met Martin Luther. In 1526 he produced a New Testament and in 1534 he made a revision. He used the printing press to spread his translation.
In 1526, different versions of the Bibles were being burned by the English government because the Bibles were in English. It was banned, which soon led to plenty of smuggling. Up until 1535 there was no one complete Bible. In 1537 there was the Great Bible Compromise by Tomas Matthew which had notes of commentary. In 1560 a Genevan Bible was produced by Calvin, Beza, and Knox.
William Tyndale sought to make the gospel easy to understand and absorb. It would eventually form and shape the people’s minds and worldviews. Tyndale was strangled at the stake, and then burned in 1536. Not only was he a gifted man who used his best for God, but he also worked hard. He advanced even though he wasn’t recognized.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 10
Some Evolutionists have stated that creationists cannot be rear scientists. Several years ago, the National Academy of scientists published a guide book entitled Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science. This guide book states that biblical Evolution is “the most important concept in modern biology, a concept essential to understanding key aspects of living things.”
Although evolutionists interpret the evidence in light of their belief in evolution, science works perfectly well without any connection to evolution.
Has any biological or medical research benefited from a belief in evolution? Not at all
It is because God created a logical, orderly universe and gave us the ability to reason and to be creative that technology is possible. How can a belief in evolution aid in the development of complex machines which are clearly intelligently designed? Technology has shown us that sophisticated machines require intelligent designers, not random chance. Science and technology are perfectly consistent with the Bible, but not with evolution.
Differing Assumptions:
The main difference between scientists who are creationists and those who are evolutionists is there starting assumptions. Both creationists and evolutionists use observation and experimentation to draw conclusions about nature. It involves repeatable experimentation and observations in the present. They are generally in agreement on these models. They agree on the nature of gravity, the composition of stars, the speed of light in a vacuum, the size of the solar system, the principals of electricity, etc. these things can be checked and tested in the present.
Although we can make educated guesses about the past and can make inferences from things like fossils and rocks, we cannot directly test our conclusions because we cannot repeat the past. Furthermore, since creationists and evolutionists have very different views of history, it is not surprising that they reconstruct past events very differently.
Ultimately, biblical creations accept the recorded history of the Bible as their starting point. Real science confirms the Bible.
Real Scientists:
Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who co-discovered calculus, formulated the laws of motion and gravity, computed the nature of planetary orbits, invented the reflecting telescope and made a number of discoveries in optics. Newton had profound knowledge of, and faith in, the Bible.
Even in the early 19th century when the idea of millions of years was developed, there were prominent Bible believing English scientists, such as chemists Andrew Ure (1778-1857) and John Murray (1786-1851), entomologist William Kirby (1759-1850), and geologist George Young (1777-1848). These and many other great scientists have believed the Bible as the infallible Word of God, and it was their Christian faith that was the driving motivation and intellectual fountain of their excellent scientific work.
Russ Humphreys, a Ph.D. physicist, has developed a model to compute the present strength of planetary magnetic fields, which enabled him to accurately predict the field strengths of the outer planets. Did a belief in the Bible hinder his research? Not at all. On the contrary, he was able to make these predictions because he started from the principles of Scripture. John Baumgardner, a Ph.D. geophysicist and biblical and biblical creationist, has a sophisticated computer model of catastrophic plat tectonics, which was reported in the journal Nature; the assumptions for this model are based on the global Flood recorded in Genesis.
Clearly creationists can be scientists. And this shouldn’t be surprising since the very basis for scientific research is biblical creation. This is not to say that noncreationists cannot be scientists. But, in a way, an evolutionist is being inconsistent when he or she does science. The universe is logical and orderly because its Creator is logical and has imposed order on the universe. God created our minds and gave us the ability and curiosity to study the universe. Why should there be laws of nature if there is no lawgiver? If our brains are the byproducts of random chance, why should we trust that their conclusions are accurate? But if our minds have been designed, and if the universe has been constructed by God, as the Bible teaches, then of course we should be able to study nature. Science is possible because the Bible is true.
History of the Bible in English
Chapter 3 – The English New Testament in Print
After the printing press was invented, it enjoyed much popularity. The first major work on it was the Latin Bible of 1456. The first Greek Testament to be published in 1516 and was prepared by Desiderus Erasmus. A revival of learning occurred with the now wide spread of books. William Tyndale’s translation was the first English translation to be printed in 1525. Tyndale studied at Magdalen Hall at Oxford, and Cambridge. Tyndale was convinced that ignorance of the Bible was widespread. As Luther gave the German people a New Testament in their own language, so Tyndale desired to England an English Bible. He sought to obtain an Episcopal license to be able to write an English translation. Though he could not get permission, he continued to work, and was able to print his New Testament in Germany in February 1526. Tyndale’s version was from Erasmus’s Greek text and was translated into good English.
Chapter 4 – Tyndale’s Later Years
Tyndale’s Bible began to be publically burned in October 1526 by Bishop Tonstall of London after it had reached England. Tonstall bought a large amount of the books to burn, but Tyndale simply used the money to print more. Many scholars denounced Tyndale’s version as heretic, yet embraced Erasmus’s Greek version. The only complaints which could legitimately be made of Tyndale are that he translated certain ecclesiastical terms by English words which lacked ecclesiastical associations, but those were straight from Erasmus. By 1530, Tyndale had completed and published the first five books of the Bible in English. Pirate printings of his New Testament were being changed and began to be sold on the market, mainly by Tyndale’s former associate George Joye. Tyndale wrote a revision of his New Testament and included a prologue which denounced those who altered or changed his translation and kept his name on it. Nine-tenths of the King James New Testament is from Tyndale’s translation. In May 1535, Tyndale was kidnapped and imprisoned by Emperor Charles V for religious, personal, and political means. In August, he was found guilty of heresy and was handed over to be executed.
Chapter 5 – The Complete English Bible Printed and Licensed
Miles Coverdale wrote a version known as the “Coverdale’s Bible” which was published in 1535. He also was involved in the Great Bible of 1539 and the Geneva Bible of 1560. Coverdale was first a Dominican monk, but left after being won over by the Reformation. When Coverdale’s Bible came out, it was the first complete printed Bible in English. He dedicated it to King Henry VIII, for it was believed that Henry held to the view that an authorized English translation should be made for the people. When Henry found out about Coverdale’s version, he had his bishops look over it, and when they could find no heresy in it, he sanctioned it, though not officially. It is likely that he sanctioned it because of Queen Anne Boleyn approval of the translation. Coverdale took his sources from Latin and German, for he was not a fluent Hebrew and Greek scholar. It is also likely that Coverdale took from Tyndale’s translation as well. Coverdale’s version was unique in that he published the Apocrypha as an appendix to the Old Testament. In 1537, permission was given to license both the Coverdale’s Bible and the Matthew’s Bible. The Matthew’s Bible was edited by John Rogers, but was mostly from Tyndale’s translation.
Chapter 6 – The Great Bible
As the King had given favor to the English Bible, it was widely circulated, even by bishops who did not believe in the Reformation principles. Because of the outspoken Protestant notes in both licensed translations, it was decided that another revision be made. The Great Bible was published in April 1539. It bore the title: “The Bible in English, that is to say the content of all the holy scripture, both of the old and new testament, truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrew and Greek texts, by the diligent study of diverse excellent learned men, expert in the foresaid tongues.” It was actually Coverdale’s revision of the Matthew’s Bible. In April 1540, Coverdale finished a second edition, which was appointed to the use of the churches. There were no controversial notes in the Great Bible; the only ones kept were those which made the meaning clearer to the reader.
Chapter 7 – The Elizabethan Bible
In 1549, with a new edition of the Great Bible, came the Book of Common Prayer. By this time, all church services for the general public were done in English, including the reading of Scripture. During the reign of Mary which began in 1553, many Protestants were executed and many Bibles were burned, but no steps were taken against the Great Bible. English exiles to Geneva worked on better translations. By 1560, the Geneva Bible was published, with addresses to Queen Elizabeth and to the readers. While there were complaints because the notes were unabashedly Calvinistic, they served to strengthen Protestantism and teach the people right doctrine. The Geneva Bible was embraced by the Calvinists and even those who despised Calvinism had to admit that it was an excellent translation. It was not accepted in English churches, but was embraced by the Scottish churches. Due to the now obvious faults with the Great Bible, a plan was made in 1561 to revise the Great Bible. The “Bishops’ Bible” was published in 1568, but was never formally recognized by Queen Elizabeth.
My notes are a little short today- I was listening too intently to have the concentration to write what I was thinking!
Lesson 39: Wednesday, February 15, 2012.
Shakespeare’s impact: Shakespeare played a huge role in creating the English language. Up to ten percent of the most commonly repeated and memorable language terms are from Shakespeare! Honestly, we can’t even begin to comprehend how formative this is to our thinking, how much this has shaped our culture today.
Compare the inanities of today’s pop culture music (Imma be imma be imma imma imma be) with Shakespeare’s work… and it’s no wonder that the next generations are each turning out to be more foolish than the last! People are being dumb-ed down… they are becoming stupid.
If you don’t have a solid Christian worldview embedded in your mind, you will inevitably be shaped and molded by the worldview you are saturated in. Humanism. Anti Christ religions of every sort. Just look at the aesthetics, media, music, movies, tv shows… they all have such obvious humanist agendas it’s not even funny! It’s sad.
About Shakespeare: 1564, the young Guilielmus Shakspar was born and christened.
Educated at Stratsford.
Married Anne Hathaway in 1582, she gave birth to twins.
His son Hamlet died… a heartbreaking loss for them.
In 1587 he joined London’s theatrical world.
1589 to 1612 he continued to work hard and diligently at his theatre career.
His diligence was rewarded with commercial and critical success, and he was able to afford a semi retirement to his old school town, Stratford.
He passed away on April 23. Merely “Will Shakespeare, gent.” was written of him and his great influential life… written in the parish register of the Holy Trinity.
WORLDVIEW: the role of the church is to give grace through the Word and sacrament. The role of the state is to administer justice through the law. NEVER confuse these roles!
The majesty of Shakespeare. Hamlet is one of the most written about plays there are. Shakespeare wrote many many plays, all dramas and comedies and philosophical moral plays. Shakespeare was a very intelligent man, and wrote up to that. in our day and age, our level of intelligence has gone down, and our literature and music and entertainment, our entire culture reflects that, including church life, with watered down, emotionally pious and sentimentalist sermons and theology, with no lasting value or answers. Shakespeare’s works were crafted out of words, and he made new ways and formulas for speech and the use of words, to cause emotion and thought.
Leninism seeks for the totality of the state over the whole world, and when they fail at this, they argue that it didnt work because it was not total enough. if a church is functioning in submission to the will of the god-state, then it has ceased to be the church, as it should be under God. Egalitarianism causes people to be all the same, leading to all people being equally worthless. A world view that degrades people down to matter begets a violent and suicidal world view, causing events like Columbine.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 11
Most people have heard of the account of Adam and Eve. According to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, these two people were the first humans from whom all others In the human race descended. Genesis also records the names of three of Adam and Eve’s many children, Cain, Abel, and Seth.
To challenge Christians’ faith in the Bible as an infallible revelation from God to humans, many skeptics have challenged the Bibles trustworthiness as a historical document by asking questions like, “Were did Cain find his wife?”
This question of Cain’s wife is one of the most-asked questions about the Christian faith and the Bibles reliability. In short, Genesis 5:4 states that Adam had “other sons and daughters”; thus, originally, brothers had to marry sisters.
The “Pragmatics” Aspect Of Opposing Gay Marriage, Some Cautions:
Some who defend marriage as union between one man and one woman claim that it can be shown that cultures that have not adhered to this doctrine have reaped all sorts of problems.
Say that a person used the argument that research has shown, for example, that the children of gay parents had a higher incidence of depression. Or the argument that since HIV kills people, it is vital that marriage is between a man and a woman. But note how such arguments have also been tried in the case of abortion and rejected by the culture.
The argument that abortion kills people is an important one because most people still accept the basic biblical prohibition against taking innocent human life. So we should ensure that people know that the baby is really human. But it is going to be enough in the long term, as even this prohibition cannot be absolute without the Bible.
The Morals Of The Majority:
Over the centuries in our Western nation, people almost universally accepted the belief that marriage was to be one man for one woman. In resent times, that once prevailing view has been shifting, and rapidly. For example, years ago, most Americans were not pro-abortion and did not want abortion legalized. But moral absolute regarding the sanctity of life has been dramatically tossed aside in resent times, so much so that even politicians who might be morally conservative in many areas have now moved to a pro-choice position and will not raise an objection to a woman’s “right to choose.”
So while the majority might agree on particular standards and laws today, they can be overturned by the next generation. What may appear to be absolute for one generation might not be absolute for another.
A shifting morality can be a slippery slope, to the point that one day society might determine that polygamy and sex between adults and children are not wrong, as long as most people believe that they are acceptable.
Without an absolute moral standard, people are free to make up their own morals.
Does The Church Have The Answer? :
The gay marriage issue has been headline news across North America and other continents. Even the acceptance of gay clergy has been widely noted in both secular and Christian media outlets.
While the majority of church leaders have been speaking against gay union and have been defending marriage as being between one man and one woman, many of these same church leaders have not been able to adequately defend their position.
So, why is it that we don’t see many Christian leaders giving the right sort of answers? We think it is because the majority of them have compromised with the ideas of millions of years of history, as well as evolutionary beliefs in astronomy, geology, and so on.
Gay Marriage, Is Evolution The Cause? :
It is accurate to say that the increasing acceptance of homosexual behavior and gay marriage has gone hand in hand with the popularity and acceptant of millions of years and evolutionary ideas. But this does not mean that every person who believes in millions of years/evolution accepts gay marriage or condones homosexual behavior.
People need to understand that homosexual behavior and the gay marriage controversy are ultimately not the problems in our culture, but are the symptoms of a much deeper problem. Even though it’s obvious from the Bible that homosexual behavior and gay marriage are an abomination, there is a foundational reason as to why there is an increasing acceptance of these ills in America and societies like it.
The increasing acceptance to homosexual behavior and gay marriage is a symptom of the loss of Biblical authority, and is primarily due to the compromise the church has made with the secular world’s teaching on origins.
Are People Born To A Homosexual Lifestyle? :
We don’t presume to offer a definitive answer as to what causes homosexual behavior. We can point out, however, that in a world that has experienced over 6,000 years of the curse, it is not difficult to argue that genetic factors accumulated over the millennia could lead to a predisposition toward arrogant behavior.
While all people sin and thus that is “natural,” it does not make the sinning correct or acceptable.
As indicated before, this world suffers from thousands of years of the curse, and in this fallen, decaying world, all kinds of genetic mistakes have been occurring. There is right and wrong apart from people’s opinions of what they might observe in nature and what it suggests to them, and what moral standard comes from God’s word.
Gay Marriage, What Is The Answer? :
Jesus the God-man did deal directly with the gay marriage issue, in the Bible’s New Testament, in Matthew 19:4-6.
Christ quoted directly from the book of Genesis as literal history, to explain the doctrine of marriage as being one man for one woman. Thus marriage cannot be a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.
Because Genesis is real history, Jesus dealt quite directly with the issue when he explained the doctrine of marriage.
Therefore, in Leviticus 18:22, Jesus deals directly with the homosexual issue, and thus the gay marriage issue. This is also true of Romans 1:26-27 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.
The Bible is the word of our Creator, and Genesis is literal history. Its science and history can be trusted.
God made the first man and woman, the first marriage. Thus, marriage can be only a man and a woman because we are accountable to the one who made marriage in the first place. And according to Scripture, one of the primary reasons for marriage is to produce godly offspring.
Unless the church and the culture return to the absolute authority beginning in Genesis, the battle against gay marriage will be ultimately lost.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 19
Shakespeare had a small vocabulary, but nevertheless we have gotten many of our phrases and words from him. Within 280 years, we have moved from music by Bach to music by the Black Eye Peas. When we reduce our words and language with our literature and music, we are degrading ourselves. As we ever improve our vocabulary and language we are increasing our godliness and becoming an ever “higher” being. It is sad when we read/listen to things that do not improve our minds but rather dumb us down to become mindless cogs.
There are 3 ways to approach the work of Shakespeare:
Contemporaneous: this is Shakespeare in his time and among the people in his era (what might these plays have meant in his time?).
Traditional: this is how he’s been passed down and how he wrote for his time (how has it come down to us?).
Contemporary: how we view him now and how we can use/study him (is there any use for him today?).
In his characters we see many different types of emotions and personalities, drawing in readers of all sorts. Shakespeare used sonnets, epics, and soliloquies; he shaped words and phrases to be memorable. These can produce a desired emotion. Shakespeare was exposed to different linguistics, great teaching in grammar, as well as Latin and logic. Even his tragedies had a sense of comic humor in them…they are full of grief and sadness because we live in such a fallen world with sin. Actors were always travelling and moving. Female roles were played by men. They would perform at fairs and markets, theatres, and noble courts. Theatre companies would work alongside guilds or make their own. Most of the plays were performed on thrust stages. Actors would often be among the audience to cause an interaction with them and making it more personal.
Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born right about the same time that the plague made its first sweep through. London was known for its birthrate so the death rate of the plague didn’t make such a huge difference. From 1520-1670 the population jumped to 6xs the amount before. There was a good life in London, good chances for employment. Shakespeare was born in the city of Stratford-upon-Avon with many dialects and a good education. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway and had children. In 1587 he began writing more steady and joined London’s theatrical world. He got a vested interest in the success of a group and began to receive a salary. Shakespeare received commercial and critical success, but also received a good deal of money so he “retired” to Stratford and continued his writing.
Works and dates published:
Richard III (1592-3)
The Comedy of Errors (1593)
Sonnets (1593-1609)
Romeo and Juliet (1595-6)
Henry V (1599) Hamlet (1600-1)
Othello (1604)
King Lear (1605)
Macbeth (1606)
The Tempest (1611)
Two Noble Kinsmen (1613)
Books on Shakespeare could fill this room. We don’t need to do anything to rescue Shakespeare – he’s still alive and well in his works – but because so much has accreted and piled up about Shakespeare since his death, it’s sometimes hard to get to the love of his works and to a true appreciation of who he was. So many times he’s put away into fancy English departments. We don’t think we can study him unless we’re either dramatists or we’re going to be English majors, but it’s my hope today that you’ll see that in the bowl of Shakespeare there is a drink for everyone.
Worldview notes:
Marxism
Sociology – With the controlling of contraception’s, abortions, and gay “marriages” it just shows ever more how the state is nothing but a tyrannical and overpowering state trying to be God. They attempt to make all families equal…they succeed in the fact that everyone is equally miserable. We are growing to a point where we cannot live without the state ruling us. One of the ways they do this is by taking away all our rights and possessions. In a Christian state people get where they are because of hard work, not blood or favoritism (if you shall not work you shall not eat).
Philosophy – Everything is matter…there is no mind but rather a brain. From this you get so dumbed down that you reach out to strike God and hit yourself instead. We see this with the self-hatred of suicide. We have strayed from a proper view of God and hence we have a flawed view of ourselves. In an unchristian culture there is always a little “t” truth…truth is subjective. Capital “T” Truth needs a transcendent God to exist. Christ said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Anything else and you always have a continual change of the meaning of truth with no stability. There is not absolute truth for them, its only opinion.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 12
In this ongoing war between creation and evolution, Christians are always looking for the strongest evidence for creation. This craving of evidence has led some Christians to be drawn to what we might call “flaky evidence.” Some so-called “evidence” for creation has been shown not to be reliable. Some of these are: supposed human and dinosaur footprints found together at the Paluxy River in Texas, a boat-like structure in the Ararat region as evidence for Noah’s Ark, and a dead “plesiosaur” caught near New Zealand.
Most well-meaning, informed creationists would agree in principal that things that are not carefully documented and researched should be used. What they really don’t understand, however, is that it’s not a matter of “their evidence vs. ours.”
Evidence:
Creationists and evolutionists, Christians and non-Christians, all have the same evidence, the same facts. The same earth, the same fossil layers, the same animals and plants, the same stars, the facts are all the same. The difference is in the way we all interpret the facts. We start with different presuppositions; these are things that are assumed to be true without being able to prove them. This becomes especially relevant when dealing with past events.
Past and Present:
It would be great to have a time machine so that we could know for sure about past events.
Christians of course, claim they do have, in a sense, a time machine. They have a book called the Bible, which claims to be the Word of God who has always been there and has revealed to us the major events of the past about which we need to know.
Evolutionists have certain beliefs about the past/present that they presuppose e.g., no God; so they build a different way of thinking to interpret the evidence of the present.
A Christian who understands these things can actually put on the evolutionist’s glasses and understand how they look at evidence. However, for a number of reasons, including spiritual ones, a non-Christian usually can’t put on the Christian’s glasses, unless they recognize the presuppositional nature of the battle and are thus beginning to question their own presuppositions.
Debate Terms:
Often people who don’t believe the Bible will say that they aren’t interested in hearing about the Bible.
If one agrees to a discussion without using the Bible as these people insist, then we have allowed them to set the terms of the debate. Once the Bible is eliminated from the argument, the Christians’ presuppositions are gone, leaving them unable to effectively give an alternative interpretation of the facts. Their opponents then have the upper hand as they still have their presuppositions.
A Christian cannot divorce the spiritual nature of the Bible from the battle itself. The Bible makes this very clear in Matthew 12:30 and in John 3:19.
Ultimately, God’s Word Convicts:
1 Peter 3:15 and other passages make it clear we are to use every argument we can to convince people of the truth, and 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says we are to refute error.
Even though our human arguments may be powerful, ultimately it is God’s Word that convicts and opens people to the truth.
Practical Application:
One can of course give numerous scientific examples, showing, for example, how the issue of sin and judgment is relevant to geology and fossil evidence.
Evolutionists believe in natural selection that is real science, as you observe it happening. Well, creationists also believe in natural selection. Evolutionists accept the science of genetics, well, so do creationists.
The scientific observations support the creationist interpretation that that the changes we see are not creating new information. The creationist account of history, based on the Bible, provides the correct basis to interpret the evidence of the present; and real science confirms the interpretation.
If Christians really understood that all evidence is actually interpreted on the basis of certain presuppositions, we wouldn’t be in the least bit intimidated by the evolutionists’ supposed “evidence.”
The various age-dating methods are also subject to interpretation. All dating methods suffer, in principal, from the same limitations, whether they use to support a young world or an old world.
Whenever you hear a news report that scientists have found another “missing link” or discovered a fossil “millions of years old,” try to think about the right questions that need to be asked to challenge the questions these scientists asked to get their interpretations.
The reason so many Christian professors have rejected the literal creation position is that they have blindly accepted the interpretation of evidence from the secular world, based on man’s fallible presuppositions about history. And don’t forget; as Christians we need to always build our thinking on the Word of One who has the answers to all of the questions that could ever be asked, the infinite Creator God. We should follow Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10, which teach that fear of the Lord is the begging of true wisdom and knowledge.
The Bottom Line:
The bottom line is that it’s not a matter of who has the better “facts on their side.” We need to understand that there are no such things as brute facts, all facts are interpreted.
But remember that, like Job (42:2-6), we need to understand that compared to God we know next to nothing.
Therefore, let’s not jump in a blind-faith way at the startling evidences we think we need to “prove” creation, trying to counter “their facts” with “our facts.”
And remember, it’s no good convincing people to believe in creation, without also leading them to believe and trust in the Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. God honors those who honor his word. We need to use God-honoring ways of reaching people with the truth of what life is all about.
Shakespeare was born in the time of the great plague. more died by starvation then by the plague. but after the plague was over the birthrate skyrocketed. so with the birth rate so high Shakespeare was always busy making new plays for the newer generation. He was born in strathborn. married Ann Hathaway and started having children. there were many who claimed that they were Shakespeare, a couple of them are Marlo Bacon and a man from stratford. during Shakespeare life he wrote about thirty-seven plays.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 20
The state in not the ultimate authority. Many kings from the past believed that their word was law. They were the highest form of authority, when in reality their rule is to be under the law of God. His word is the word of God. Someone always calls the shots, and efficiency of power was the model for the rule of the kings. When you take God out of the equation then you are going to automatically have a Mahat system, a tyrannical rule. In a Christian society everyone was accountable to someone else. Only God is absolute: the father is absolute in his family as long as he is subject to God; the ruler/king is absolute as long as he is subject to God; the elder or pastor is only absolute as long as he is subject to God.
Louis XIV (the Sun King) sought to nationalize all of France. The real French Revolution happened under a king, not the Japanese and in the 17th century, not the 18th.
Henry Tudor (reigned 1509-1547) married his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon. Their daughter who survived was Mary. Their marriage was an annulment under the premise that the marriage was illegal. By his second marriage to Anne Boleyn he had Elizabeth. With Jane Seymour he had Prince Edward who lived a life of illness. After she died in childbirth he remarried at three different points (after executing each of the previous wives); Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. After Henry VIII died, he was replaced with Edward IV for a few years before he was replaced with Lady Jane Grey who ruled for 9 days. “Bloody” Mary Tudor rose to the throne and was known for her killing of the Protestant as she was a passionate Catholic. Elizabeth, her step-sister overthrew her and put her in the Tower. After a time it was discovered that Mary was plotting to take the throne back, and so she was executed. In Scotland, once Elizabeth died, James I of Scotland became James VI of England. His son was Charles I, who had Charles II and James II. His daughter, Mary, married William (the Prince of Orange) who deposited James II and ruled with Mary. After William died, Anne, James II’s other daughter, rose to the throne.
Because of the Scottish Rebellion in 1638-1642, the short parliament was called together in 1640 but was dismissed because it wasn’t important enough. However, when it became a bigger issue the Long Parliament was called (1640-1653). There was a clash of ideology – the old biblical one with spheres of sovereignty and biblical accountability vs. the divine right of kings.
Divine Right Doctrine
“Kings are not bound to give an account of their actions but to God alone.” Charles I
Royal absolutism… the King is not subject to anyone- the people, the church, the aristocracy, the landholders, taxpayers,- since only God can judge a King, he is divine and it is wrong to even question his judgement or authority. Absolutarian totalitarian rule.
—
This was the rule, the motif, until the introduction of the Romans 13: A Servant Leader. The idea of chivalry and covenant came into play, and it was realized that everyone, even the king and government, had to be kept in check by some other sort of God given authority.
Only God is Absolute. No earthly king has such power.
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Worldview class
They call evil good and good evil… (Gays are a perfect example. Ditto abortion.)
“The ends justify the means” is a humanist anti christian worldview. Never believe it.
Rebecca Bacon
War of the Worldviews: Chapter 13
The history as recorded in the Bible has been attacked by our increasingly secular culture.
This limited viewpoint helps explain why there are so many questions about how the Bible can explain dinosaurs, fossils, death and suffering and many other topics that relate to our real world.
This chapter will outline the major events of the past, “the 7 C’s of History,” that are foundational to the Bibles important message and demonstrate how the Bible connects to the real world.
Creation:
God created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them in six normal-length days around 6,000 years ago. Life was perfect and not yet affected by the curse, death, violence, disease, sickness, thorns and fear had no part in the original creation.
His creation of all things in six days and rested on the seventh set a pattern for our week, which he designed for us to follow.
Since God has no beginning and no end and knows all (Psalm 147:5), it makes sense that God is the source of the information we see all around us.
In Genesis, God explains that he created things to reproduce after their “kinds.”
Corruption:
After God completed his perfect creation, He told Adam that he could eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8) except one, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam’s sin ushered death, sickness and sorrow into the once-perfect creation (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12). As a result, the world that we now live in is merely a decaying remnant, a corruption, of the beautiful, righteous world that Adam and Eve originally called home. The good news is that, rather than leave his precious handiwork without hope, God graciously promised to one day send a Redeemer who would buy back his people from the curse of sin (Genesis 3:15).
Catastrophe:
As the descendants of Adam and Eve married and filled the earth with offspring, their wickedness was great (Genesis 6:5). God judged their sin by sending a global Flood to destroy all men, animals, creatures that moved along the ground, and the birds in the air (Genesis 6:7). Noah, his family and land-dwelling representatives of the animal kingdom were saved from the watery catastrophe. In the Ark there was plenty of room in the huge vesicle for tens of thousands of animals, even dinosaurs. Noah actually needed only about 16,000 animals on the Ark to represent all the distinct kinds of land-dwelling animals.
The rainbows we experience today remind us of God’s promise never again to destroy the earth with water (Genesis 9:13-15).
Confusion:
After the Flood, God commanded Noah and his family, the only humans left in the world, and the animals to fill the earth (Genesis 8:17). However, the human race once again disobeyed God’s command and built a tower (Genesis 11:3-4). So, after about 100 years after the Flood waters retreated, God brought a confusion of language in place of the
common language the after the Flood waters retreated, God brought a confusion of language in place of the people shared, causing them to spread out over the earth. Languages gradually change; so when a group of people breaks up into several groups that no longer interact, after a few centuries they may each speak a different language.
The basic principals of genetics explain various shades of one skin color and how the distinct people groups came about because of the event at the Tower of Babel.
Christ:
God’s perfect creation was corrupted By Adam when he disobeyed God, ushering sin and death into the world. Because of Adams disobedience and because we have all sinned personally, we are all deserving of the death penalty and need a Savior (Romans 5:12).
God promised to one day send someone who would take away the penalty of sin which is death (Genesis 3:15; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23).
When God gave Moses the Law, people began to see that they could never measure up to God’s standard for perfection (Romans 3:20), if they broke any part of the Law, the result was the same as breaking all of it (James 2:10).
In line with God’s purpose and plan for everything, he sent his promised Savior at just the right time (Galatians 4:4).God sent his son, Jesus Christ, completely human and completely God.
While he spent over thirty years on Earth, he never once sinned, he did nothing wrong. He even confirmed the truth of Genesis by explaining that marriage is between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:3-6, quoting Genesis 1:24 and 2:24).
Cross:
Jesus is called the “Last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15:45. While Adam disobeyed God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit, Jesus fulfilled the Creator’s propose that hew die for the sin of the world.
Because God is perfectly holy, He must punish sin, either the sinner himself or a substitute to bear his wrath. Jesus bore God’s wrath for our sins by dyeing in our place on the Cross (Isaiah 5:12).The Lamb of God (John 1:29; Revelation 5:12) was sacrificed once for all (Hebrews7:27) so that all those that believed in him will be saved from the ultimate penalty for sin and will live with him forever.
But Jesus Christ rose three days after he was crucified, showing that he has power over all things, including death, the “last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26). As Paul wrote, “O death, where is your sting? O grave were is your victory? …
When we believe in Christ and understand what he has done for us, we are passed from death into life (John 5:24).
Historical events are known to be true because of reliable eyewitness accounts. Of course we know that both the Resurrection and creation in six days are true because God, who cannot lie, states it in His Word that these things happened.
The fact that the Bible’s is true should challenge people to seriously consider the Bible’s message of salvation that is based in this history.
Consummation:
Death has been around almost as long as humans have. Romans 8 tells that the whole of creation is suffering because of Adam’s sin.
God in his great mercy, has promised not to leave his creation in its sinful state. He has promised to remove, in the future the curse that he placed on his creation ( Revelation 22:3) and to make a new heaven and earth (2 Peter 3:13).
Those who have repented and believed in what Jesus did for them on the Cross can look forward to the consummation of God’s kingdom, this new heaven and earth, knowing they will enjoy God forever in a wonderful place.
A world view based on a proper understanding of the history of the world, as revealed in
the Bible, is what every Christian needs to combat our society’s evolutionary propaganda.
Parliament= speak into the Government.
King Henry the 8th was a king wanting all the power over all kings, queens, and the church itself. he pulled and pushed the church where every he wanted it to go.
“The king is not subject to aristocracy or the people to the church, tax payers, or land owners, his word is law.”
I found this on Lady Jane Grays death if your interested-
Jane and Lord Guildford Dudley were both charged with high treason, together with two of Dudley’s brothers and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Their trial, by a special commission, took place on 13 November 1553, at the Guildhall in the City of London. The commission was chaired by Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Other members included Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath. As was to be expected, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. Jane was found guilty of having signed a number of documents as “Jane the Queen”;[25] her sentence was to “be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases” (the traditional English punishment for treason committed by women).[26] However, the imperial ambassador reported to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, that her life was to be spared.[27]
The Protestant rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the younger in January 1554 sealed Jane’s fate, although she had nothing to do with it. Wyatt’s rebellion was as a revolt precipitated by Queen Mary’s planned marriage to the future Philip II of Spain. Jane’s father, the Duke of Suffolk, and his two brothers joined the rebellion, which caused the government to go through with the verdict against Jane and Guilford. Their execution was first scheduled for 9 February 1554, but was then postponed for three days so that Jane should get a chance to be converted to the Catholic faith. Mary sent her chaplain John Feckenham to Jane, who was initially not pleased about this.[28] Though she would not give in to his efforts “to save her soul”, she became friends with him and allowed him to accompany her to the scaffold.[29]
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, by the French painter Paul Delaroche, 1833
On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Guilford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying. Seeing her husband’s corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: “Oh, Guildford, Guildford”.[30] She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, and to be beheaded in a more private environment out of respect for her royal status.
According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, which formed the basis for Raphael Holinshed’s depiction, Jane gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold:
Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen’s highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day.[31]
She then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English,[31] and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. The executioner asked her forgiveness, which she granted him,[31] pleading: “I pray you dispatch me quickly.” Referring to her head, she asked, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?”, and the axeman answered: “No, madam.” She then blindfolded herself. Jane then failed to find the block with her hands, and cried, “What shall I do? Where is it?”[31] Probably Sir Thomas Brydges, the Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower, helped her find her way. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!”[31] She was then beheaded.
Jane and Guilford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. Jane’s father, Duke of Suffolk, was executed a week after Jane, on 19 February 1554. Her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, married her Master of the Horse and chamberlain, Adrian Stokes in March 1555 (not as often said, three weeks after the execution of the Duke of Suffolk).[32] She was fully pardoned by Mary and allowed to live at Court with her two surviving daughters. She died in 1559.
The seventeenth century was a century of grave controversy. We’ve already seen this to some degree as we looked at the Tudors and the Stuarts and the move toward civil war in what was once Merry Old England. but at the heart of the controversy were really two great men: friends and comrades, sharking both political and religious conviction. One of them was a poet, one of them was a soldier. one of them produced one of the greatest works of English literature, the other produced the model that would lay the foundations for the American experiment in liberty. The two men were Oliver Cromwell and John Milton.
Henry VIII of England was succeeded by his son, Edward VI, who rewrote the Book of Common Prayer in a Reformed mindset. Henry’s niece Lady Jane Grey ruled for 9 days after Edward. Bloody Mary took the throne after her and ruled for 5 years before succumbing to illness. Her half-sister Elizabeth I ascended to rule but never married or had children.
James V of Scotland left his throne to his 9 day old daughter, Mary Queen of Scots. Scotland was bound in a strong alliance with France at the time. After Mary, James VI took the throne with strong Calvinist roots, but was known for his unfaithfulness to the faith. He sought to unite England, Scotland, and France. Later in life he became James I of England. The Crown hated the Covenanters because they had a King above the king. What followed was the Scottish Rebellion (1638-42), the Short Parliament (1640), the Long Parliament (1640-53) and the Westminster Assembly (1643).
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
He was born to a royal family (his uncle was close to the king) and was trained at Cambridge. He then launched his Parliamentary career. He was known as a Champion of Popular Causes. Cromwell believed that Charles I had violated the bounds of his sphere of the Divine Right of Kings, and in opposition to that he raised an army (called the New Model Army) against the king. With courage and cunning he led them to many great victories even though his men had never fought as they were common farmers. Cromwell never meant for Charles I to die, but when it was found that he intended to launch a civil war against his own nation, he was deemed guilty by the courts and executed. Shortly after this, Oliver Cromwell was elected the Lord Protector.
John Milton (1608-1674)
He is most commonly known for his remarkable and controversial work of art “Paradise Lost”. He was raised in a well-to-do family and received private tutoring and then went on to study at Christ College Cambridge. After that, he stayed home to write poetry and independently study meticulously. He knew multiple languages and write in them all. He read and studied so much it is said he was the most learned man England ever produced. Milton traveled for 15 months, speaking and meeting with many great learned men, one of which was Galileo. After returning home, John Milton wrote many pointed and accusatory pamphlets. He was well known, but well hated…often a sign of a strong Reformer. His brother married into the royal family and stayed true to the king..always a sore spot for Milton. Soon, Milton became very handy to Parliament and was nominated the Royal Secretary, even though he was blind. From him, we see once again education is so very essential to a life well lived to the glory of God. His wife died leaving him with three daughters, one of whom was mentally ill. His second wife died in childbirth, the baby dying also. His third wife, however, cared for him for the rest of his life. John Milton dictated most of his book “Paradise Lost” to his second eldest daughter and it was published in 1667. We can see from his life that no matter what adversity may come our way, we remain true to God and He is faithful to bless us in every circumstance.
Sarah Bacon
Worldview class
Marxist Ethics:
As history moves forwards so does morality. Good and bad are determined by wether it advances Communism or the state. The state is the farmer and the people are the animals. If the animals is deemed sick or diseased then too bad for it. Fear is one large part of how they rule. They are not afraid of shedding blood to get their way. They believe the state has complete and total authority with the last word
Marxist Law:
Law is whatever the state says it is. This isn’t a huge deal different then their ethics. The state has the last word on anything and can make whatever law it chooses. The standard of “just” fluxuates as their mood changes.
Marxist Politics:
The complete world will be ruled under one authority or rule someday. Their goal is to get it under a New World Order. Communism will reign at that time. Everyone will be equal and the same with no distinctions. There will be unity but no diversity.
Marxist Theology:
The rich are wicked and the poor are righteous. This leads to a redistribution of power and wealth. The white Christian is seen as the mean bad person. We are constantly under attack because Christianity is seen as coming from the white people. Instead, we are daily pumped full of guilt and regret because of how cruel we can be (racism and sexism).
Lesson 41, 3/7/2012, Wednesday Class Notes.
Controversy in England: Cromwell and Milton
The 17’th century was a century of great controversy… at the heart of all this conflict were two men: Oliver Cromwell and John Milton.
Jenny with her stool… was she wrong or right?
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
Sonnet SVI to the Lord General Cromwell, by Milton
“Threatening to bind our sounds with secular change:
Help us to save free Conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their mar”
Oliver had no military training, but successfully raised up the “New Model Army” against Charles I. He was a man with fresh ideas and righteous zeal. He figured out what the common military weaknesses were and created a force specifically designed to exploit those weaknesses. His army had courage and cunning, and defeated Charles I completely. It became an unintended regicide.
He became Lord Protector and was even offered the Crown, although he turned that job down.
John Milton (1608-2674)
He wrote Paradise Lost and sowed the seed of controversy in a very controversial century. Milton was a pronounced and adamant Roundhead… the main adversaries of the Kings Calvary.
He was arguably one of the most learned men that ever lived in history… very very intelligent.
He championed one cause after another and became not only well known but also well hated. Even by his won King-loyal. Somewhere in this period of his life he lost his vision… became blind.
His first wife died and left him three daughters, then his second wife died in child labor, but then his third wife lived on to care for him and his daughters the rest of his life. Good woman.
Milton was shoved to the outside of politics- essentially exiled. During this period he dictated the writing of Paradise Lost a truly great master work.
God works in the midst of controversy.
Cromwell was born into a royal family, his father worked closely with the king and the courts. When Cromwell was older his father sent him off to Cambridge, he was soon known as a man of the people. when King Charles the first started taking over the church and making himself sovereign over Gods word, Cromwell decided to take a stand against him. he started to make whats known now as the new model arm. stunning victory after stunning victory Cromwell led him men to. Cromwell had never been a soldier but what won him the fights was how he thought outside the box. he was able to out thing and out manoover King Charles’s armys. King Charles was captured and sentenced to death. Cromwell was then made Lord protector because he didnt want to become king.
John Melton is known as only second to Shakespeare by his writing of poetry and his knowledge of the arts. he was known as very controversial. he was born into a well off family, his father is what we would be know as now as a banker. he started writing poetry after he came back from Cambridge. he had much knowledge of language and was very fluent in them. he traveled for 15 years. he was know as a conversationalist who was hated and love. he married into the royal family who hated him. he became blind from a tumor but his wife took care of him through it. he was praised by Parliament for all his work. his wife died in 1652. he remarried but she didn’t live long, only till 1657. he remarried for a third time, she looked after him. he died in 1674. his book he was writing at the time “Paradise lost”, after his death it was never out of print.
The West Minister Divine made the West Minister Catechism to set a standard to Christians during hard times. The long Parliament happened because king Charles the first wanted money for the war against the Scots. But at that time there was no Parliament because the king wanted full ruling power. But the king could not make the money that Parliament could collect. All of Parliament was made up of puritans, they agreed to Charles as long as he made a rule that never again could a king disband Parliament unless Parliament all agreed upon it.
When the West Minister Divine wrote the Confession they were not writing it for the people, they were writing it for the Nations. They wrote the Large Catechism which was a study guide for the bible, it was a question and answer. But for the younger children they were taught the shorter Catechism, which consisted of 107 questions and answers.
March 15-20 (lol), Lesson 37: “Henry the Navigator and the Fruits of Sagres”
The age of Exploration really begins with the crusades because the people would go off on pilgrimages or crusades they would come back with stories of exotic foods, lands, languages, and adventures, and it stirred in men the heart for adventure and all the pent up zeal of productive Christendom turned it’s attention to the far frontier.
In that day and age there was a real sense of rooted-ness… people loved the community and took great pride in their part of the world. They had little or no longing to venture beyond the bounds of what they knew as home.
The impulse to travel was often driven by theology. For example, sometimes there was felt a need to move on, literally, past the sinful life the person had led before, or after a dramatic conversion.
Oftentimes when people from these rooted towns went out into the world for one reason or another they would simply recreate what they left behind – build up homes, towns, and whole communities in that new country like whatever they had had back home. That wasn’t easy however. Christians had many enemies and hardships in foreign lands. It was more often disappointing and discouraging work to be a pilgrim or missionary in those days… sometimes fatal and always dangerous. But there was always light on the horizon and a better chance around the corner, so they persevered.
Henry the Navigator was born in 1394; he came from Portugal, Lisbon; one of the most remarkably unique kingdoms in all of Christendom. (In a good way. 😉
The fourth son of King John, Henry was born into very fortunate circumstances. He went on to coax nautical advancement into maternity [?] and helped Lisbon become the city where navigation centered in the future.
He was driven by a passion: to recover North Africa from the Muslim hoards and return it into the hands of Christians. It was all about “reconquista” once again.
1421- the Sagres School was established. He gathered together the greatest cartographers, pilots, navigators, ship-builders, geographers, cosmographers, astronomers, mathematicians, and mariners that the world had to offer. He amassed a great library and continued accumulating such a wealth of knowledge from every place possible.
He built a Molene observatory, and a hydro-graphic laboratory.
He created all this with the focus and the objectivity of an academician. He sponsored and colonized of innumerable isles and began the process of exploring down the coast of Africa. The Golden Coast.
His exploration were very successful because of the Sagres School, and his extraordinary advanced ships. One ship in particular was designed for explorations- The Caravel.
The Caravel, developed at the Sagres, became the primary tool for exploration for the next one hundred to one hundred fifty years and, in fact, provided the basis for virtually all navigational advances since that time.
It’s astonishing to think that one man founded and brought together such epic advances…
Fruits of Sagres
Bartolomeu Dias – 1481 – African Coastal Commander
1487: King John orders expedition.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 22
The Westminster Assembly met under the English Civil War and not during a time of leisure and comfort as often assumed. They were called together by Parliament not to reform the church or rewrite the church documents…rather, they were called upon to reform the nation. Everyone needed the same roots; multiculturalism does not work and they understood we need a similar or bonding religion, faith, or theology. However, by the end of the Westminster Assembly, it had no impact on England. There was more of an impact on Scotland and America.
There were different kinds of Puritans: Anglican and Separatist.
Anglican Puritans
Episcopalians and Anglo-Catholics – they were high church people who looked to the hierarchy of the church to guide them through life.
Articulists – they were concerned with the statement of faith and confessional subscription. They were of the lower church, standing with doctrine, belief, and practices.
Regularists – they believed in the regulative principle of practice and worship; whatever happens in church is to be strictly from Scripture…nothing more and nothing less is to be expressed at church.
Separatist Puritans (they believed in no national church)
Dissenters – they were also called Continuing Presbyterians.
Non-Conformists – they believed it was necessary to restore the 1st century church and habits.
Secessionists – they believed all confessional people needed to be done away with and every separate church needed to form their own form of leadership and discipline. These were mainly Baptists and Congregationalists.
The Scots weren’t happy with King Charles and his rule…they ended up rebelling, going up against the king and his bishops. Their motto was “No King but Jesus”. King Charles attempted to launch a war against the Scottish Covenanters. He recalled Parliament in 1638 to raise funds for war. However, the majority of Parliament was Puritans who promptly turned him down. They then started sending out bills, angering the king with their impudence. Shortly after this, they started the Grand Remonstrance – a decree saying the king could not dissolve Parliament unless they agreed.
The Divines (men who were a part of the Westminster Assembly)
Erastians: who believed the king had the final word over the church law.
Episcopalians: who believed there were separate spheres for church hierarchy that stood side by side but were not connected with any relationship.
Presbyterians: believed there were spheres for the family, church, and state…they were separate but connected with covenantalism. There are heads for each sphere, but all under God.
Independents: who believed there needed to be more rights for the congregation and the people…they were more concerned with the individual.
Scots: they were most concerned with the king’s interference with the church.
The Solemn League and Covenant was established to put forth they (the Scots and English) all believed in King Christ and were subject to His word and law. The Assembly lasted from 1643-49 and held approximately 1,163 meetings composed of 30 laymen and 121 clergymen. They were to reform, redraft, and rewrite the 39 articles and create a new book of church order. This was the first place where separation of church and state was ever mentioned. They worked to have a nation with a common foundation, common belief, common doctrine, and a common creed. This would in time, create a strong and rock solid people (culture or nation).
The 5 documents that came out of the Westminster Assembly
Form of Church Government – there is sphere sovereignty and this mapped out which spheres could and couldn’t do what.
Directory for Public Worship – state where Scripture gives allowances and restrictions. It was similar to the Book of Common Prayer.
Confession of Faith – it was filled with Scripture, listing 35 chapters dealing with teaching and instructing about basically everything that could ever come up. It was very wide ranging.
The Larger Catechism – this was detailed for the 10 commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and other church documents.
The Shorter Catechism – this was essentially the same as the Larger Catechism but it was made more simple and easier for children to understand.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 23
The great Puritan vision of an entirely transformed society, a society that was completely marked by the influence of the gospel, was balanced by a kind of realism. The Puritans recognized that there wasn’t a division between the call to personal holiness and the call to social action. There wasn’t a division between being a Christian and being a politician; those things could be wed together, and both done for the glory of God.
Puritanism was a reforming movement. Central to them was their form of worship. There is always a ripple effect to worldviews: how God is seen ripples to the form of worship which ripples out to a cult which ripples out to shape the culture. Puritanism was not one distinct group/movement and it had great influence upon numerous people and religions. So it could be defined as more of a grassroots movement. It had great influence on different religions including the Separatists (mainly pilgrims), Non-Conformists, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.
Some Myths about Puritans:
1) Puritans hated fun – they were serious about doctrine, Christ, and God’s calling in their life and they actually yielded much joy throughout their lives. They called for merriment rather often. Their serious about doctrine often portrayed them as a boring and lacking in fun type of people.
2) The Puritans were drab and unfashionable – they would only wear black and white to church on Sundays as a formality. They would wear the typical fashion of those days on all the weekdays however.
3) The Puritans hated sports and recreation – there was a book written in 1618 called the Declaration (or Book) of Sports. This was to tell what sports can be done on the Sabbath. The Puritans opposed this and said that other than Sunday it was perfectly fine and highly encouraged to be active in sports, excluding games of chance.
4) The Puritans were greedy workaholics – in fact, they discouraged excessive work for money and said that material gain on earth is worth nothing. They did, however, believe that we all need to wisely use God’s generous gifts.
5) The Puritans hated the arts – they did remove the “bells and smells” from their churches in order to get away from Catholicism and return to a Biblical sense of worship. Their lives were filled with music and craftsmanship.
6) The Puritans were a bunch of irrelevant old people – they were definitely not irrelevant and most were not old. On the contrary it was a very budding movement filled with zealous and energetic youth. Because of this they would be accused of being “young and inexperienced.”
7) The Puritans despised the physical world – they promoted God’s vibrant blessings; God gives us everything and we are to appreciate everything. They knew how to have fun and to give praise and glory to God.
8) Puritans were overly strict, intolerant, and legalistic – they weren’t always tolerating to be sure, but given the times they lived in, it was for good reason. They were greatly hated for their attempt at reformation.
Charles I with his Star Chamber was set into motion for the persecution of the Puritans. It was a place where they would be given no trial or hearing whatsoever and condemned to whatever fate the king decided. The Puritans refused to conform just for peace. Even the Parliament was dismissed and/or ignored just so that the Puritans could be persecuted and weeded out.
Puritan Ideals:
Well-ordered home, peaceful, father = shepherd, mother = caretaker, value of education and discipline, family worship, church attendance, active diligence, value of hard work revolving around Sabbath, serious and practical, and self discipline are all characteristics of a Puritan home.
Puritan Fruits:
They had a boom of productivity because they were hard-working. Cultures grew and they saw their destiny in light of God’s will for them. Puritans became the economic leaders in England and America. There was a huge emphasis on community life centered around parish life. Decentralized authority and a building on a series of covenantal relationships like guilds, school, family etc., was key for them. They valued accountability in an unofficial way within a natural boundary of the spheres.
They were future-oriented, looking ahead to how they could influence the generations to come. They were very rooted and grounded. They held a long-term commitment to any and all family members. Home life was the cornerstone and hub for the community.
Personal Piety:
Self-control and stability were great qualities of the Puritans. They balanced theory and practice well, but they were not overly pious to the point of seeking attention for their actions. They balanced the abstract and concrete, having both orthodoxy and orthopraxy. They didn’t just think, they also did…Puritans connected the inner and outer life and had a context for everything.
Education:
Puritans had extremely high expectations for learning and education. They built up libraries, publishing houses, and colleges. They would place the bar for learning too high so that students were continually seeking more education until they could achieve anything. In fact, Puritans were the ones who originally started Harvard.
Literature:
Puritans would study and listen to sermons the way we watch movies. They would saturate themselves completely in them, studying and focusing completely on them. This helped show them how grounded they were…they wouldn’t spend their extra time wasting it on frivolous things, but use it to study the character of God more thoroughly.
The Puritan movement was a very religious movement. Right doctrine was key in their lives and they had strong moral convictions. Continual reform was very normal in their eyes, and it needs to happen regularly because of the Fall.
(to be continued)
Cosmic Humanism:
Everything is spiritual or supernatural. But, if everything is spiritual then material is spiritual; if everything is material then spiritual is material. Being “green” is seen as there is a sense of “godness” in everything. Pantheism is everything is God. Panentheism is God is in everything. We are told to look within for who we really are. Reincarnation is promised and they push a mystic psychology. Horoscopes, tarot cards, and fortune tellers are all part of the mysticism. Animism, Gnosticism, Spiritism, Christian science, but especially Hinduism and Buddhism are all carriers of this Cosmic Humanism. The roots of this movement are thought to have started in the East with India, China, and Japan.
There were many Myths about Puritans. like having”no fun, they were thought to be sullen people. being unfashionable, not keeping up to the fashion, wrong. they were know as hating sports of any kind, but this is not true. Art was another myth, but this also is not true because the were very much in the way of art. they were also known as old fuddy dubbies. but there was also younger people too. they were seen as people of the church not the world, they despised the world. and finally the puritans were overly strict, intolerant, and too legalistic. these were all not true about Puritans. Sundays were set aside to only worship God, that is what Puritans believed.
Continued Puritan lecture:
You are always going to have an infallible god of some type. Puritans were visionary, protesting, and international. Puritans were always a minority which greatly fueled their zeal; to take on the world together even though they were constantly persecuted. It was a full body movement, with no leaders to pick off. If you wanted it to stop you would need to take them all out individually. Scripture was central and the question of authority was key. Education was very important to them, the correct schooling of their children for the future generations. Puritanism was a movement of politics and economics as they believed that God touched upon and ruled all areas of life.
They knew they each had specific rights and duties. They knew they were balanced, not that you “deserved” everything. It was their duty to follow and submit to Christ. It could be argued man has no rights, only God does and if God were to give rights it could only be found in Scripture.
Puritanism was balanced by a vision of realism and idealism.
Sarah Bacon
History of Christendom
Week 25
The American founders, from the earliest Pilgrims and Puritans all the way through to the patriots of the revolutionary age, believed that their task was to take the great legacy of Christendom and plant it in a new land, where it might flourish, unencumbered by the political machinations that had somehow begun to strangle that vision in the motherlands. As a result, the American experiment in liberty was one of decentralization and covenantal connection, where the ideas of chivalry reigned and where the distinction in the culture was so pronounced that visitors from Europe could hardly believe that these settlers were actually transplanted from the mother country.
The colonists came and set up, making their independent rules apart from a tyrannical ruler. They were all Calvinists so it could be said that John Calvin was the grandfather of America. The way they lived and settled was all due to their worldview. Population went from 102 down to 53. They came over in 1620, but by 1625 they had a printing press and had printed the Ainsworth Psalter. In 1635 the Boston Latin School was established. A year later, Harvard College was set up and started along with 14 publishers and 9 libraries.
There is a connection between liberty and well-read, also slavery and illiteracy/ignorance. If you read well, you will be intelligent and educated so you will not tolerate being held down and oppressed. Educated people are easy to lead but difficult to fool; they understand how essential unity is. Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are key to liberty. Smart thinkers press for reformation and true freedom with a future hope.
The classics are a Christian’s leadership legacy. We are called to read and take it a step further, to think about it conceptually and analytically in a new way. To read well is to read deep and wide. Deep into subjects and wide as in many authors and subjects. To read much of many. We think first presuppositionally and then holistically.
Our culture today:
Modern American culture is all about the least common denominator, making everyone equally dumbed down. One way they can do that is with “No Child Left Behind” which is really No Child Gets Ahead. They are kept as smart as the dumbest of them and so are dragged behind where they ought to be. This is socialism at its best.
Technology is good in its place, but when it gets in the way of good reading then it is a problem and a distraction. We are in a war where substance cannot stand up against the distractions of the moment.
Where we are going in this culture is sad…where there is an erosion of epistemology, a corruption of ontology and a subjugation of theology. Simply put: a decrease of knowledge, a mismanagement of living, and an enslavement of religion.
The worldview effect of the war on Christendom was the end of Parliament’s salutary neglect, the establishment of Parliament as king, the economics came first over the right of freedom, and forced submission to a tyrannical Mahat system.
Cosmic Humanism:
With Transcendentalism and Romanticism we see that because everyone is “god” then everyone is equal. We see this in the 1800’s with the war for the abolition of slavery. If someone is a slave then they are not equal with the slave-master. The Cosmic Humanist is pantheistic, subjective, and under positive law. The Secular Humanist is deistic, objective, and under natural law. Cosmic Humanists are focused on the inward and looking within. Their epistemology is intuition and mysticism. The humanist’s epistemology is reason and the Christian’s epistemology is revelation.
The ethics of a Cosmic Humanist is relativism…all is opinion and there is also situational ethics, that everyone has their own ethics with each situation. If everyone is God, then everyone should be able to create their own laws or ethics.
Biology for them is that man begins with a spark of divinity and throughout his life he is growing it more and more till he comes to see his goodness and at that point they are at the epitome of their divinity. It is a sudden leap of this revolutionary evolution to where we have the light bulb turned on and we are opened to our godness. We each have our own experience of awakening and our psychologist is our high priest to guide us to this great awakening.