The State of the Church

"Of the Father's Love Begotten" is certainly a great hymn by objective measurement. It has stood the test of time, ascribed to Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413) and translated into English by John Mason Naele in the nineteenth century. The first stanza reads,

Of the Father's love begotten
ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending he,
Of the things that are, that have been,
and that future years shall see.

...This verse speaks of Jesus' Trinitarian generation and pre-existence, and of his being both origin and goal of all existence through time. These are wonderful biblical truths, but certainly not easily accessible to theologically unsophisticated worshipers...One who knows about Jesus' eternal generation and who has sung the hymn before will appreciate this text as a means of summing up the doctrine with poetic conciseness. But for the majority of worshipers who have not reached this point of maturity, the hymn states too many deep doctrines to fast to be truly edifying.

- John M. Frame, Contemporary Worship Music: A Biblical Defense, p. 116

The shallow state of the American church has thus become the justification for contemporary praise songs and music (the above was said in defense of singing "Shine, Jesus, Shine" in church) when it  should be the cause of repentance. If the people in our churches do not know the "deep doctrine" of Christ's eternality, what are these "worshipers" truly worshiping? If they do not know the true God, how can they even be called Christians? How can one believe on Him of whom they have not heard?

Now is not the time for shallowness, but for opening the lost book of the law and preaching Christ once more. The solution to the appalling state of the church is not contemporary Christian music, but an outpouring of the Spirit of God through genuine preaching of the Word of God. Let our voices then raise with praise for the one true and living God Who is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, Creator of heaven and earth. To the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, be all glory, honor and power for ever and ever.

The rise fo Public Education

For most of human history, parents had the primary responsibility for educating their own children, usually with help from an extended family or members of a small community. Today, governments have assumed much of the task, compelling education, and in some cases compelling attendance only at government-operated schools. Constitutional democracies recognize private schools and homeschooling as legitimate ways to meet the requirements of compulsory education laws, but the record is not always perfect. Moreover, even the most liberal democracies regulate private education. To the extent that they do so, elected representatives and bureaucrats decide how to educate other people’s children. This decision to compel and regulate education has the honorable purpose of producing law-abiding and productive citizens or, in old-fashioned terms, virtuous citizens. When individuals disagree on how to achieve such a goal, however, public efforts to control education can create havoc. This is especially true when a government imposes educational reforms that abandon fundamental and time-tested practices and impose radically innovative and untested ideas.

Patricia M. Lines, "Shackling the Imagination: Education for Virtue in Plato and Rousseau," Humanitas Volume XXII, Nos. 1 and 2, 2009. National Humanities Institute

Life of Washington Day 4

Brandywine Battlefield! Sorry these posts don't have commentary, but I don't have a lot of time so you will just have to look up information on these places...

 

This house was used by General George Washington as his headquarters.

This is a great sign.... Located at the Brandywine Battlefield Visitor Center.

Well, that's all for now. The rest of this day will have to come later.

A Look Back - LOW Tour Day 3

Happy Lord's Day! Between working and traveling, my blog has continued to suffer... In the last two weeks, I have traveled over 3,000 miles, been in 8 states and the District of Columbia, attended my grandmother's 90th birthday party, and worked nearly 60 hours in the last week on a book project.

On Thursday, I flew home to Indiana (via Atlanta) for my grandmothers 90th birthday. Only my oldest brother knew I was coming since he had to pick me up at the airport. I surprised my dad at his work and then my brother took me to my parent's house and let me in. In perfect timing, my mom was gone so we locked the house back up and my brother left. I set up my things on the kitchen table and patiently waited (by working on NCFIC things) for my mom to come back home. After a while, I decided to call and chat to see where she was at. We ended up talking for a while but I never let on that I was back home. She even asked about the weather down in Raleigh so I looked up the weather map and said it was 90 degrees. :-) I also threw in some comments about how it would have been fun to be at my grandmother's party. When she got home, she said that she needed to go, and I eagerly awaited the door opening. Needless to say, she was EXTREMELY surprised to see me in the dining room when she had thought the whole time I was in North Carolina during our conversation! It was a perfect deal and well worth the trip.

Atlanta

The return flight was rather interesting too. I had to fly through Detroit and from takeoff in Detroit to landing in Raleigh was only 1 hour and 13 minutes. Considering that that is a 15-16 hour drive by car, all I can say is, not bad!

Well, back to the LOW tour. First stop, Washington's crossing of the Delaware to attack the Hessians in Trenton, NJ.

This last picture is of a house that was there when Washington crossed the Delaware.