Ten Commandments Day
Legislating Morality
.....
Sunday, May 7, 2006 marked the first annual celebration of the Ten Commandments Day, as declared by a special commission of Christian and Jewish leaders. This impressive company, representing a broad array of religious backgrounds, has sought to inspire a national discussion on this most important issue (see their web site; TheTenCommandmentsDay.com).
The commemorative pin the Commission is offering, depicts the two tables of stone upon which the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) were written. Why were these ten laws written on two tablets and not just one? The answer is fascinating, meaningful and of great interest, even to us Americans who do not share their belief in the Bible.
Consider with us, no matter your religious or political beliefs, the desirability of living in a land where the second tablet (the 5th - 10th Commandments) are the basis for a prosperous, happy and free society. These laws would guarantee safety, decency, and a right relationship with one another as there would be no stealing, disrespect of parents, murder, taking of another man’s wife, stealing, or lying. Would any of us desire to live in a land where these activities were considered acceptable?
On the contrary, history is filled with lessons regarding the intolerance and cruelty that is the natural result of enforcing, by the rule of law, the first tablet (1st - 4th Commandments). These four commandments direct us to consider a right relationship with God and yet, when enforced by a government, have throughout history repeatedly led to persecution and oppression of the severest kind.
Though not sharing the religious faith of the sponsors of the national Ten Commandments Day celebration, we stand with them, in desiring a decent and moral society based on the second tablet of commandments.
Stephen
Post-Protestant America
The United States of America has entered its post-Protestant phase of development. If events continue as they have, it will soon enter its Roman phase. Our country began as an experiment in a particular kind of liberty. It wasn't to be a secular democracy with an atheistic state government; it was to be a Protestant Republic. The first settlers entered into a solemn covenant with God, believing that a rejection of the terms of the covenant meant rejection by God. They saw themselves as the chosen people, the Israel of God. America was to be a Protestant island in a Catholic sea.
These Puritans understood the critical nature of their enterprise. The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, John Winthrop, solemnly warned, "But if our hearts shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee pass over this vast Sea to possesse it" (original wording).
The Puritans had crossed the "vast Sea" to escape Romanism, not to escape Christian morality and faith. On the contrary, they wanted to practice their reformed Christianity free from the predation of popes and councils. At first, they had no concept of religious toleration, and were unwilling to give others what they sought for themselves. But in Puritanism were the seeds of liberty as well as the truths found in the Bible Alone. The Puritans opened the way to the religious freedoms we enjoy today, freedom for every sort of belief, including Roman Catholicism. As the radical Puritan Roger Williams argued, only free churches can be pure churches. It is this version of the Puritan spirit that has prevailed in America for more than two hundred years.
Notwithstanding Winthrop's warning, America has turned away from the worship of the true God. There may be much church going and praying in the land, but we must understand that our nation no longer knows the source of its political and religious liberty. It can no longer distinguish between truth and error, between Christ and Anti-Christ. We are gradually allowing Romanism to assume the place of Protestantism as the fundamental moral compass of the land.
No prominent Protestant leader today dares express the slightest reservations about Catholicism. In fact, the opposite is true. Every prominent Protestant now praises Catholicism. The notion of anti-Catholicism is seen as backward and ignorant. This change is a stunning development and a triumph for everything Roman. To all appearances America has decided to, figuratively speaking, re-enter the Mayflower and set sail back to Europe. The cost of this denial of Protestantism will be incalculable. And unfortunately, most Americans don't see what's coming.
When William Rehnquist's family sought to use Washington's Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle for his recent funeral services, the Associated Press reported on the fact that it is unusual for a Protestant service to be held in a Catholic church. Rehnquist was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In telling the story, the AP focused on Vatican II's "Decree on Ecumenism, which opened Catholicism to such cooperation with non-Catholics" and observed that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick "will be present to welcome the Protestant worshippers."
Nothing about this situation is especially noteworthy except for one small truth, which looms large upon examination. According to the authoritative web site "Catholic Answers," Protestantism is merely one of the last "great heresies" of the Christian era. It is listed with Arianism, Gnosticism, Pelagianism, and Iconoclasm as movements which run contrary to truth as defined by the authority of the Church. The editors of the web site describe Protestantism as belief in the principles of "By Scripture Alone" and "By Faith Alone." Protestantism also involves an unacceptable rejection of papal infallibility. In the eyes of Rome, this very day, every Protestant in America is a heretic. But more importantly, America as a nation is heretical because America was founded on principles condemned by Rome. Rome has never been shy about its willingness to destroy both heretical persons as well as heretical nations. The Church's history is a vivid panorama of repression and murder.
If Rome had done exactly as it pleased, the Pilgrim Fathers would never have set foot in the New World; indeed, they would have been wiped off the face of the earth. "Americanism" would have been strangled in its cradle. Every American, of whatever religion, creed, or philosophy, must recognize that fact. This terrible truth should clearly indicate that what Rome could not do in the past, it will do in the future.
Marcus Sheffield
More Spotlight Articles......
..
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||
 |
|
||||||||||