STAND FAST IN THE LIBERTY OF JESUS CHRIST

Friends...The "Facts" indeed were submitted to a candid world, and the results were global, they were world shaking. The freedoms that our founders sought, and we have enjoyed are not to be taken lightly. They are to be guarded with the intensity with which they were earned. I spent 21 years of my adult life standing guard with my brothers in arms. I hold this day as a sacred holiday just as I held the freedoms and their protection as a sacred duty. I will be enjoying this incredible day of celebration with my two daughters Hannah and Annika. I wish to spend it as well with you all who read here, if not face to face then in the shared joy of LIBERTY. Such liberty that is not just the political liberty of a free nation, but that liberty that was bought with the price of the blood of our dear savior Jesus Christ. Go from this day with a determination to live in THAT liberty: "If Christ has made you free, you are FREE INDEED."

Galatians 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

In honor of Fathers Day, I put a picture of my four wonderful kids. These four people have been a tremendous blessing to me since their birth. God's true gift to a father is the love of his children. I will be on the road for fathers day visiting my own father in Eastern Kansas, so I will not be posting anything new this weekend, but I will try to put the next installment of the London Confession up when I get back.

Happy Fathers Day to all of you dads out there...count your blessings. For those of you who are not fathers, give thanks for the dad he has given you. At the very least thank God for the Father that your Heavenly Father is to us. He is all we need, even if we are without an earthly Father, our Father in Heaven is there for us at all times.

God bless you all

Jeff

LONDON CONFESSION OF 1644, ARTICLE V

[Yes, another photo from one of the trails I have hiked. This one is a hike that my daughter Rebekah did while she was visiting over the Christmas holiday this last year. It is a rock outcropping on the Waldo Canyon Trail.]

I am posting Article V without comment for the time being. Feel free to comment in the mean time. I would invite you to take the few bible references at the bottom and look for the language used in the bible reference in the article itself. I think you will be amazed at just how biblical the thinking was in that day. This biblical language came out of the people in their speech, their writings and their thoughts. They were deeply steeped in the vernacular and phraseology of scripture.
(See highlights)

All mankind being thus fallen, and become altogether dead in sins and trespasses, and subject to the eternal wrath of the great God by transgression; yet the elect, which God has(1) loved with an everlasting love, are(2) redeemed, quickened, and saved, not by themselves, neither by their own works, lest any man should boast himself, but wholly and only by God of(3) His free grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that as it is written he that rejoices, let him rejoice in the Lord.

1) Jer. 31:2
2) Gen 3:15; Eph. 1:3, 7; 2:4, 9; 1 Thes. 5:9; Acts 13:38
3) 1 Cor.5:21; Jer. 9:23, 24

WHY A CONFESSION?

Some may wonder why read study or discuss a creed confession or any other digest of biblical teachings. I believe that these historic documents divulge to us what our predecessors believed. It is instructive and even encouraging to see how their thought process worked. In the Baptist tradition; Baptists have not historically been a creedal nor a confessional denomination. But throughout history it has at times been necessary to identify what you believed so as to avoid persecution confusion or other misunderstanding. The London Baptist Confession of 1644 is no different. The Baptists at that time needed to identify how they viewed the scripture and declare where they stood. Below is a quote that, I think, very clearly defines the difference between a confession and a creed.

"A confession is voluntary and serves to inform, educate, and inspire; a creed is required and serves to discipline and exclude. A confession offers guidelines under the authority of Scripture; a creed tends to become binding authority, in subtle ways displacing the Bible."

H. Leon McBeth

The reason I like this particular confession is that the very words of the confession very closely mirror the words of scripture themselves. I would encourage any who are interested to look at the particular articles and the scripture references and see how closely the 1644 Baptists explanation were with the very words of scripture themselves.

LONDON CONFESSION OF 1644, ARTICLE IV

This forth article starts out with the glories of the creation. That God in the beginning created all things and declared them to be “Very Good”. That man himself was created in that beautiful image and likeness of God himself. In citing Ecclesiastes 7:29

“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”

We see the pattern from creation to the fall. “God hath made man upright…” But in his desire for self he has “…sought out many inventions.” It is the inventions of man that got us in trouble in the garden and that continued to this day to be our downfall. We invent a God after our own image rather than fall in worship to a god who transcends man. We invent a religion of works dependent on the will of man, and yet these 17th century Baptists knew full well that “Salvation is of the Lord”…and so they boldly proclaimed. We have a tendency to blame Adam for our sinful nature once we have come to accept that he stood in our place in the garden. But we would have done no better. As Ecc 7:29 states, “God hath made man upright”, the word for “Man” in that verse is the same root Hebrew word that is translated Adam. It is Adam who was made upright, had we been there to represent our self we could have fared no better. Since that day none have been created upright, but have been conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity. We are standing in peril of the judgment of the very sin that we want to deny. We must come to grips with that sin by way of repentance, agree with God about that sin and see that our nature is bound in sin until he looses it. At that time we can then find the satisfaction for that sin in the person of Jesus Christ who also stood in my stead and place when he died for those very sins that I could not pay for. He (the second Adam) has set in motion a new creation to restore to even better than the original the place of man in relationship to God. The fall is a tragic event that we cannot gloss over and must not take lightly. But it was an event that did not take God by surprise and he has more than satisfied the need for restoration and reconciliation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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ARTICLE IV

(1) In the beginning God made all things very good, created man after His own(2) image and likeness, filling him with all perfection of all natural excellency and uprightness, free from all sin.(3) But long he abode not in this honor, but by the (4) subtlety of the Serpent, which Satan used as his instrument, himself with his angels having sinned before and not(5) kept their first estate, but left their own habitation; first(6) Eve, then Adam being seduced did wittingly and willingly fall into disobedience and transgression of the Commandment of their great Creator, for the which death came upon all, and reigned over all, so that all since the Fall are conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity, and so by nature children of wrath, and servants of sin, subjects of(7) death, and all other calamities due to sin in this world and for ever, being considered in the state of nature, without relation to Christ.

1) Gen. 1; Col. 1:16; Heb. 11:3; Isa. 45:12
2) Gen. 1:26; 1 Cor. 15:45-46; Ecc. 7:29
3) Psa. 49:20
4) Gen. 3:1, 4, 5; 2 Cor. 11:3
5) 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; John 8:44
6) Gen. 3:1, 2, 6; 1 Tim. 2:14; Ecc. 7:29; Gal. 3:32
7) Rom. 5:12, 18, 19; 6:23; Eph. 2:3