As children of the Reformers we know that God works all things after the counsel of His own will, and according to His will persecution and the blood of martyrs provides fertile ground for extending His kingdom. So well did our forefathers in the faith learn the lesson of religious tolerance that they embodied their belief as law in the first amendment.

Now we know the origin of religious tolerance has to do with recognizing that God alone has authority and power in the realm of conscience. So it follows that intolerance springs from the view that men have power over the conscience of other men. This wickedness is what leads to persecution. Crimes against the conscience are more grievous than crimes against the body.

   “God does not will that people should be oppressed…

First how do we know God’s will except from divine revelation? Where in the Bible does it say that God does not will that people should be oppressed?

If God’s will is that people should not be oppressed, then how is it that oppression exists? Does Mr. Cone believe that God is unable to accomplish His will?

Is this view of God consistent with how God reveals Himself in the Scriptures and in Jesus Christ? In the interview from which this quote is taken he makes no appeal to Biblical revelation to support his view. Mr. Cone’s authority is something other than Scripture.

In fact the children of Israel were oppressed in Egypt and again in the Babylonian Captivity.

In Babylon the captivity was a consequence of their disobedience to God’s Law…

      Her adversaries have become the master,
      Her enemies prosper;
      For the LORD has afflicted her
      Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
      Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. [Lamentations 1:5]

So the statement that God does not will that people should be oppressed is not supported in the Old Testament. Israel’s fall into disobedience and captivity provided the context for the New Covenant promises to be fulfilled in Messiah and His Church…

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. [Jeremiah 31:3]

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. [Ezekiel 36:26-27]

The New Covenant prophecies speak of an end of sins and bringing in everlasting righteousness. A new heart is promised along with a new life in the Spirit. These are internal changes in individual people.

In Egypt the people of God became the slaves of Pharaoh so that God could demonstrate His power and that His name might be declared in all the earth [Romans 9:17]. The apostle uses Pharaoh as part of his argument for the doctrine of the sovereignty of God even over the sins of men to accomplish His will.

God demonstrates this conclusively in the life of Joseph. Sold into slavery, he became an example for our instruction of one who learned obedience in his suffering. The Christian knows that suffering is the best teacher of grace…

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. [Hebrews 12:11]

Our pride must be crushed before God can raise us up. We must face our unrighteousness before we can experience the imputed righteousness of Christ…

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” [Mark 2:17]

I suspect that Mr. Cone’s doctrine of the Fall is unorthodox. He does not see man as ruined in sin and dependent on God’s grace for redemption. It follows then that he will deny the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of imputed righteousness.

The Bible really doesn’t mean that we are dead in sin and must be born again to see the kingdom because the kingdom is not really spiritual; it can be realized in the state through the social gospel. Let’s busy ourselves with helping the poor while working our way to heaven. Regeneration through the word and Spirit of truth is unheard of.

Our culture has its own version of gospel. This is the gospel of easy believism. It is non-judgmental because truth is relative. Don’t worry about Biblical Theology because doctrine is divisive and unhelpful. Don’t mention the bloody cross because substitutionary atonement is doctrine. Why do we need a cross or an empty tomb?

Don’t worry about self denial and repentance. This stuff is not important. Do you feel accepted is the question? Forget about the guilt of your sin. In the new gospel there is no guilt because there is no sin. You are accepted just the way you are.

Is this an indictment against modern sex education; or an indictment against the vain philosophy behind today’s sex education? By modern I mean sexuality void of morality, and by vain philosophy I mean naturalism.

We might say that naturalism is being used to teach young people a lawless and immoral behavior. Its fruits are not only sexual immorality and perversion at earlier ages but increased violence and hopelessness as pointed out by Mr. Rohrbough, father of slain Columbine student Daniel Rohrbough…

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/02/freespeech/main2057062.shtml

America’s public school youth as well as their parents have been robbed of the truth of who they are as image bearers of the Infinite and Personal I AM revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

In past generations this knowledge provided a real remedy for the destructive behaviors associated with all the flavors of what has become known as self identity crisis. Without this knowledge the generations are left exposed and vulnerable to the destruction of vain philosophies.

What is the worth of life and how do we measure the quality of life? Let us compare God’s judgment with that of men.

‘What will a man give in exchange for his soul and what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ These words of Christ give us an understanding of the infinite worth of the soul. There would be no abortion if men knew the truth of who they are as image bearers of the Infinite God.

‘He who is greatest among you will be your servant.’ Christ personified these words by defining what gives life its value. ‘I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many’.

Our religious and political liberty has it origin in the Reformation and Reformed Theology. Modernism wants to deny it and disparage it, but this is the historical record that cannot be denied.

Many think that we have outgrown the beliefs of our forefathers, and many more are ignorant of their beliefs except that which is disparaging, but the Reformed Theology is what made the statesmen and the common man alike love his liberty and his integrity.

What would the Constitution look like today if it were written by the ‘tolerant liberals’? There would be no Constitution, nor a Bill of Rights. We would have a rule of tyranny by the elites. They have no concept of the sovereignty of God and government of a free people because they have no concept of the source of liberty.

There are many examples of their intolerance and hypocrisy. That it exists is not the issue. What is the reason for the growing intolerance is the question of interest. Why are they so quick to point out the faults of others while blind to there own?

The modern liberal has a completely different world view than those who foundered and built this country. They are opposed to conservatism because the founding principles are anathema to them.

Our premise is that toleration must be learned from the experience of grace. In the parable of the unmerciful servant [Mathew 18:21-35], the servant was rebuked by his master when he refused to show mercy after mercy had been given to him, “Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’

The men of this world have no concept of divine mercy therefore as they move farther away from the influence of our forefathers they demonstrate less and less the ability of tolerating differing views.

They did not like to retain God in their knowledge so God have them over to their lusts; first to immorality, then perversion and then to reprobation unless you repent and believe the gospel…

ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2003) — Amino acids have been found in interstellar clouds and in meteorites – but with some enigmatic omissions and tantalizing similarities to life on Earth. Just why some amino acids are present in meteorites and others are absent, and why they seem to prefer the same "left-handed" molecular structure as Earth's living amino acids are questions that could unravel one of the most fundamental questions of science: Where and how did life begin?

"The bottom line is that you have these materials that come from space," says Steve Macko, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Macko refers specifically to eight of the amino acids found in a certain kind of meteorite – a carbonaceous chondrite. All eight amino acids are identical to those used by life on Earth. That could seem to point to a cosmic origin of these basic biological building blocks, says Macko. The case is bolstered by the fact that early Earth was bombarded with meteorites and the amino acid glycine has been detected on interstellar molecular clouds.

[The presupposition of Mr. Macko is that meteorites with amino acids have an extraterrestrial origin. What is their most likely origin given that they contain bio chemicals?]

Making the case for cosmic origins of Earth's amino acids even more compelling is the fact that all of the meteorite amino acids, except glycine, favor the "left-handed" molecular structure…that is also favored by life on Earth. The preference for left-handed amino acids was a necessary precondition for life, but just why life chose left (L-amino acids) over right (D-amino acids) is a mystery.

[Life has a free will to choose L or R amino acids? Wouldn’t random processes demand equal amounts of L & R acids?]

"Essentially all of your protein is made of L-amino acids," said Macko. "Why is that? We don't know. The curious thing is that if you go to a meteorite you find a predominance of the same thing."

Another unanswered question: Why have only eight of life's 20 amino acids been found in meteorites? Perhaps all the amino acids were there, but something about the history of the meteorites or the analytical processes used limited their presence or their detection, Macko speculates.

Only in recent years has the idea of amino acids from space affecting the start of life on Earth become a plausible hypothesis, explains Macko. Initially, amino acids were thought to have been created in the primordial atmosphere of early Earth. In a now famous experiment more than a half-century ago, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey showed that amino acids were synthesized by simply creating lightning-like electrical discharges through a fog of water, methane and ammonia – all of which were thought to be readily available in Earth's early years. The experiment was proof that amino acids, out of which all life's proteins are made, can be created by strictly physical-chemical processes, without the help of living organisms.

[There it is…the theory of biogenesis is debunked. Did the experiment create life? If life happens spontaneously without design, then surely we can create it in a controlled experiment. Right?]

Perhaps the most famous carbonaceous chondrite was the Murchison meteorite, which fragmented and fell in 1969 in and around the small town of Murchison, Victoria, about 70 miles north of Melbourne, Australia. Amino acids and other organic molecules were found in the Murchison meteorite. The mix of amino acids found in the Murchison Meteorite was similar to those produced in Miller-Urey type experiments. A chief difference, however, was seen by Mike Engel in his PhD research: Unlike the Miller-Urey experiment which produced equal amounts of the D and L amino acids, Murchison tended to have L amino acids predominate. The fact that the meteorite was seen falling and fragments were collected quickly minimized the chances that they were contaminated by Earth amino acids.

The Miller-Urey experiment, combined with the discovery of amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites and the detection of glycine in molecular clouds, raise compelling issues about the origin of life on Earth, and its possible existence elsewhere in the solar system and beyond.

Adapted from materials provided by Geological Society Of America.

We point out that God has left us two examples of His judgment against sin for our instruction. It is not that we have not been warned, but that we do not believe the warnings.

‘For if God … did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked … then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority’ [2 Peter 2:4-11].

The darwinites remain resolute in their beliefs even though the mathematician tells them there is no probability that life arose by chance. The scientist has shown that life always comes from life. The philosopher tells them that it is impossible for the personal to come from the impersonal. The geneticist demonstrates that there are bounds to the variation within species. The paleontologist cannot find the expected multitude of undisputed transitional fossils. These things do not deter them in their faith.

How is it that men are so quick to believe nonsense and to hold it so arrogantly? We are told that a great many of the most intelligent accept their theory. How could so many be so wrong?

We must appeal to the theologian to answer. He reminds us that such blind faith is to be expected because of the plague of plagues that infects all men. The doctrine of depravity powers our unbelief. It drives the atheist to believe a lie even though he lives in a world that denies his profession of faith.

The public schools have replaced Moses with Darwin. Rather than being taught the truth that they are image bearers of the God of creation, America’ young are indoctrinated with the vain philosophy that men are the product of the random and impersonal without design or purpose. Rather than unique in the creation of life as image bearers of the Creator, they are indoctrinated in the false religion that demeans them as nothing more than advanced apes.

Now when men are taught that they are descended from brute beasts and that there is no morality, then why do we expect to see them pursue self control?

Morality and self control are part of the natural law inherent in the heart of the image bearer. Abstinence education reinforces the natural law.

It is a common error in our day to separate the Bible from the Constitution. Without the Reformation and Great Awakening there would be no Constitution. We would still be under the tyranny of some king or pope. From the martyrs’ blood came the open Bible that freed men from the lawless church-states to pursue his dominion over the sciences, including the political science.

The framework of our Constitution includes the basic principles of representation and separation of powers. These things did not originate from the mind of men, but from revelation. The Bible is their origin.

Now the triumph of modern liberalism is that men think the Constitution stands alone. The eternal wisdom that inspired it is denied. So it has become subject to change based on the autonomous wisdom of men. Tyranny celebrates the death of liberty while the lawless think they are advocates of freedom.

In the book of the Law, Moses was instructed by the Lord God…

 “Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’ [Deuteronomy 1:13]

The political principles of representative government were taken from this text and applied to the first written constitution in America dated 1638 in Connecticut…

1. The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God’s own allowance.

2. The privilege of election which belongs unto the people must be exercised according to the blessed will and law of God.

3. Those that have power to appoint officers should also set the bounds of their authority.

Again we must look to the Scriptures…

'For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king…' [Isaiah 33:22]

In the New Testament Jesus Christ is called Judge and King and God the Lawgiver. Our forefathers understood that they were under the authority of God, and the Bible was their reference for truth to discover His will. They embodied these three divisions of power in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.