In a letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813, John Adams wrote:The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite...And what were these general principles? I answer, the general principles of Christianity, in which all these sects were united: And the general principles of English and American liberty, in which all those young men united, and which had united all parties in America in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her independence.
Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial, mundane system.....From IN GOD WE STILL TRUST, by Dr. Richard G. Lee
I believe that this beautiful trust in God which did keep our "young gentlemen" united and of sound principles, is slipping away with the subtle yet existent removal of God from American life. And now that young men are anything but united, I wonder about America's independence. As an aside, I wanted to mention that I find it interesting that Adams mentioned human nature because I believe half of this country has so little confidence in human nature and even wants to change it via legislation.
The general principles of Christianity, however, are eternal...in this life and our lives beyond.......thank God.
I wonder how America fits in with that belief. What do you think?
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away." Luke 21:33
By the way...did you know that Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence? Amazing.
Have a beautiful Sunday of praise and reflection.
Z
24 comments:
God IS eternal, immutable Principle. He is also Life, Truth, Love, Intelligence, Character and Spirit.
God is the Personification, Embodiment, and Perfect Expression of all these things which in Truth are synonymous and interchangeable.
God IS all, and He is IN all.
God is Light and in Him is no darkness.
NOTHING can separate us from the Love which is God -- Almighty -- Eternal -- Unchanging.
"Be ye, therefore, perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
"It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness."
That was put so succinctly, Z.
Christianity, in full flourish, is all about selflessness, in a different way than Buddhism.
The selflessness of Christianity puts others ahead of ourselves.
This leads to a unity based on a Rock.
Look at the headlines on any given day now. Look what abandoning Christian principles has wrought!
"Christianity, in full flourish, is all about selflessness ..."
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That's why the Gospels are incompatible with laissez-faire capitalism and why contemporary Christianity ignores the Gospels.
FT..a good blog post! THanks!
Ed...on "THE" Rock! :-) Very different than Buddhism, yes.
AOW, no kidding!!
Ducky, you're confused, but I understand that.
Giving comes from the heart, not from legislation. I don't know a Christian who doesn't help in myriad ways with friends, wounded warriors, Easter Seals, etc...their own families..etc.
That is the gospel...at least a part of it.
Jefferson and Adams corresponded frequently after returning to private life. They died hours apart in separate cities.
It is said that some of Jefferson's last words were "at least we still have Adams."
beamish, it was more like "Thomas Jefferson still lives~!" but he'd died a few hours earlier.
Imagine them both dying, like I said in the post, on July 4th of the same year, which just happened to be the anniversary of the Declaration?
There are many kinds of "miracles" like this in American early history...when God was such a part of our cloth.
I got the story backwards. Ah, not enough coffee yet.
Jefferson, as a Deist, edited out "miracles" in his own Bible, seeking to concentrate on the ethics and philosophy that remained. I think he got the gist of it right. I wonder how our Constitution would have turned out if he had had a hand in writing more than the amendments added later in the Bill of Rights.
Z - As John Adams lay dying his final words were 'Thomas Jefferson lives' - not knowing that Jefferson
had already died.
James Monroe also died on July 4th a few years after.
beamish, I think he got it wrong.
If the Bible is God's inerrant word, who's going to go messin' with it?
I warned my sister when she went to Monticello not to buy his bibles...
Is being a Deist "getting it right?"
Imagine editing the Bible? man.
Sue...I had mentioned the whole situation in my post, but thanks for clearing up the exact quote...and adding that Madison died on the 4th of July, too.
Some might call that coincidence........
I don't.
It does take a sort of intellectual arrogance to take a classical work like the Bible and remove the parts you don't like. I don't think Jefferson did it for anyone but himself. There is no "Thomas Jefferson Version" of the Bible in wide publication.
Our downfall will be that so many have neglected God, or replaced him with some human or human organization. I do fear for this nation in that sense.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
beamish...thanks, I thought you'd agree on the arrogance! xx
And yes, it was just for himself, though they do sell it at Monticello for interest, I guess.
And, of course, there are people who don't think God has the ability to do the miraculous so that'd suit them.
Heck, there are pastors now, I'm hearing, who don't believe in Christ's divinity and are still actively sermonizing and ministering to congregations!
Right Truth; you could do a graph showing when we started to kick God out and when things started going downhill in our country, couldn't you. .. I believe the downhill would start at almost the same time...red and blue graph lines plummeting down together!
Ducky represents my beef against some christians, especially catholics, who justified redistribution of wealth, socialism and even communism based on their understanding of the Bible. They forgot God gave us first free will and freedom, not the ability to rob via a government the fruits of the labor of the ones using their free will to produce something.
Ducky is always selfless obviously. And if you are not, you are obviously a profiteering devil.
Earth would be hell if everybody was denying his own needs all the time.
Frogburger
FrogBurger..."Earth would be hell..."
That's the whole point; you got it. We are not to give until we have nothing left; where would that leave us all?
There's so much that can be said on this subject and it's so sad that people like Ducky believe the way they do. Actually, I don't give a hoot what they think, just don't spew your misinformation as if THAT's "Gospel".
Z: I've seen that graph.
It shows the year God was kicked out of schools and the rise of out of wedlock births, drug use, divorce.
All were fairly flat before that.
ED! you've SEEN a graph like that? I've talked about wanting to DO one because I've never seen it.
I would love to see that....I've always thought it would be almost exactly on the same graph line..down, down, down...
coincidence?
Ya, sure :-) (not!_)
the Revolution motto-
No King But King Jesus--
Carol-CS
It is my understand that, above all with regard to religion, he feared a theocracy. If my understanding, Jefferson was absolutely correct on that one.
Duck,
Jesus did not discuss government except to say:
"My kingdom is not of this world" and "Render unto Caesar's the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's."
"Love thy neighbor as thyself" is not a constitution for governance.
Carol, is that right? I'd never heard that.
AOW..good points there, thanks
I think the prohibition against covetousness pretty much kicks the legs out from beneath Ducky's "Bible preaches socialism" nonsense.
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