Baptist History from the Founding of America to the Present

There can be no doubt that the idea of freedom of conscience must be logically connected with freedom of speech, for whatever a man thinks in his heart he should be free to express. Thomas Jefferson did not write his own ideas into the First Amendment to the Constitution. He obtained these ideas of freedom of speech and religion from the true history of Christianity and western civilization as preserved by the independent, Bible-believing churches that have existed since the time of Christ.

True historians have recorded these facts as being an essential part of western history. One such example being the existence of a free-state in the ninth century called Teprice in Armenia which granted freedom of speech to all its citizens. Teprice was established by the Bible-believing Paulicians and lasted for 150 years. Although the Paulicians and other Bible-believing peoples were called many different names by their enemies, they all preserved the same basic, Biblical ideals of freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, and the autonomy of the local assembly of believers in Christ. These ideals were incorporated into the Constitution of the United States and are still maintained by the independent, Baptist churches of America to this day. 

Recommended Readings:
The Trail of Blood by J.M. Carroll
American Foundations Laid by the Baptists by Ted Alexander
The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller
The New Testament Church by David W. Cloud
These books can be obtained from any Christian Bookstore.

  God's Preservation of His Truth

The Truth is extremely important. Christians know that Jesus is the Truth as He taught us in John 14:6. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Unless we know the Truth, we are lost and cannot find our way. Jesus is the Living Word that is the Truth. Those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior by faith know the Truth.

Yet, even though a Christian knows the Truth, and can be highly educated in the Word of God, the devil can cause him to doubt. The Bible records that two great men of God, Thomas the Apostle and John the Baptist, had times when they were plagued with doubt. Jesus allayed John's fears in Matthew 11:2-6 by reminding him that God had come to earth to perform great miracles. Jesus displaced Thomas' doubt with faith when He revealed His nail and spear scarred but glorious risen body to Thomas in John 20:24-29. In these two stories, God demonstrates to us that He can overcome our doubts by reminding us of His loving sacrifice and His almighty power.

False religions such as the Roman Catholic Church, false scientists such as Charles Darwin, false Biblical scholars such as Westcott and Hort, and false church historians such as such as Vedder and Whitsitt have caused serious doubts about the almighty power of God to arise in Christian people since the completion of the written Word of God. The Gnostics, and all the other cults and deliberate deceptions,have been the work of satan since Jesus ascended to heaven.

Nevertheless, God has preserved the pure Truth of His Word from the time of the Apostles, through the Antioch church and the Baptist people, to the King James Bible that we hold in our hands. True historians have recorded the preservation of the pure Word of God as prophesied in Psalm 12:6-7. In addition, true historians have recorded that God has preserved His true New Testament churches through the efforts of the Baptist Christians, even despite terrible persecutions, from Pentecost to the present day. 

A careful study of the true history of Christianity, and of the world and true science for that matter, should dispell any doubts instilled into the hearts of Christians by the devil as to the eternal presence of the almighty power of God "throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." 

Recommended Readings:
The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller
American Foundations Laid by Baptists by Ted Alexander
The Trail of Blood by J.M. Carroll
The New Testament Church by David W. Cloud
These books can be ordered from any Christian Book Store. 

Commentary on Descartes

Rene Descartes began his philosophy by assuming that everything could be an illusion. He was trying to overcome extreme skepticism by finding if anything existed of which one could be certain. By his famous dictum, "I think, therefore I am," he concluded that the one certainty he had was that he existed. 

Later, he speculated that the mind interacts with the world through the pineal gland. But he forgot that the pineal gland, being but an object to the mind, could itself be but an illusion. Had he thought of that, he would have realized that his thoughts must be solipsistic, and he would have been forced to return to his skeptical position that everything could be an illusion.

However, whether everything is an illusion or not, one can still be certain that an experience in process is happening. The quanta of experience is happening. Light and darkness, shapes and mist, hard and soft, motion and stillness are happening whether these are illusory or real. This can only mean that the basis of all experience must be consciousness. Consciousness itself must be real whether everything else is illusory or real. All of the objects of consciousness may be an illusion, but consciousness itself has to be real.

At this point, consciousness realizes that consciousness can be conscious of itself, and that this self-consciousness is located to one position. Since consciousness itself must be real, then so must self-consciousness. Self-consciousness localizes consciousness to one particular set of experiences. In this way, one can be certain that one's self exists.

Nevertheless, everything except consciousness could be an illusion. But since there exists no known way to determine whether everything except consciousness is real or an illusion, then by default it really does not matter. One might as well accept everything as real because no method exists to test whether everything is real or an illusion.

The Reality of Consciousness

You hold a baseball in your hand. You see and feel the baseball in your hand. You are quite certain that the ball is real, and yet, you cannot be absolutely certain because the ball might be an hallucination. If so, then the ball cannot be real. Yet, whether the ball should be real or an illusion, you can be certain that you possess the sensations of seeing and feeling the ball. Physical objects can be real or illusory, but in either case, one's sensations of those objects must be real.

You have an operation on your brain. The doctors rig a mirror so that you can stay awake and observe the operation. You observe your own brain, but it is just a physical object like a baseball which may be real or an illusion. Yet, whether it is real or an illusion, you can be certain that you are having the sensations of observing your brain, real or illusory. 

Something must be producing these sensations. The only possible answer is that your consciousness must be producing these sensations. Furthermore, this consciousness must be outside of your brain because the sensations of your mind has to be real even though your brain may be an illusion. Thus, an argument can be made that the only existence of which one can be absolutely certain that it is real is a consciousness separate from the brain. 

If your brain were an illusion, it certainly could not be producing the sensations of it that you see. In other words, should your vision of your brain during your operation be an hallucination, you cannot be certain that your real physical brain is producing the hallucination since it also may be nothing but an illusion. The point is that it is always the physical that can be an illusion; never the subjective because something produces the undeniable sensations whether they are illusory or real, and that something has to be subjective.

One may object that their physical brain produces their sensations, but one can never be certain that one's physical brain is real because it, like any other physical object, could be an illusion. But one conclusion has to be absolutely certain, and that is that while an illusion itself will be unreal, the undeniable sensations of it must register on something because the sensations themselves can only be unavoidable, actual experiences. This something which registers undeniable sensations can only be a consciousness separate from brain activity.

A Comparison of Adam and Jesus

In Luke 3:38, the Bible clearly states that Adam "was the son of God." In Mark 14:61-62 and in John 10:36, Jesus openly declared Himself to be the "Son of God." What were the similarities and differences between these two men as being the sons of God? Both men came into the world being absolutely pure and innocent. Adam had a compassionate and self-sacrificial love for his wife Eve. Jesus had a compassionate and self-sacrificial love for all of mankind whom He came to save from their sins. John 3:16. God took a rib from Adam's side to create his wife. Genesis 2:21-22. A Roman soldier pierced Jesus' side with a spear as He hung on the cross from which blood and water flowed to purchase His Bride, the Church. I John 5:5-6; Acts 20:28.

Despite these similarities, striking differences also exist between these two men. Adam was created by God, and whatever God creates has to be less than God because it must exist outside of God as does the angels who are also called the sons of God. Job 38:7. However, Jesus has always existed as God. John 1:1, 14. Also, Jesus was born of a seed of God miraculously implanted into the womb of a virgin which made Him free from original sin. Luke 1:33-34; Matthew 1:20-23. This means Jesus directly inherited the Being of God Himself, and since God is Infinite, then Jesus had to be both God and man at the same time. Philippians 2:5-8. We finite Christians cannot understand this doctrine, but we accept it by faith. Adam, being less than God, was subject to falling into sin just as Lucifer did although he also was a son of God. Ezekiel 28:15. But Jesus could not sin because God cannot be tempted with evil. James 1:13. God is Holy, and so sin can have no effect on Him whatsoever. Although Luke 4:2 states that Jesus was "tempted of the devil," this simply means that the devil sought to destroy the Holiness of God by destroying Jesus the man. The devil knew that if he could ruin Jesus by causing Him to sin, then the devil could also destroy God's Holiness since the manhood of Jesus and the Being of His Father were wholly one. John 10:30.

The greatest and most awesome miracle that resulted from the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is that we believers can also be sons of God as equally accepted by the Father as He accepts His own Son. John 17:20-26; Galatians 4:4-7; I John 3:1-2.

Granny's Place poetry in prose

Granny wiggled a little as she settled her hefty body into her over padded easy chair. Granny enjoyed her comfort and rest as she read her hand-worn Bible, and her paperback romance novels stacked in jumbled piles around her chair. At times, she delighted in brief visits from her rowdy grandchildren, playing and throwing toys, running through the cluttered house, generally making a nuisance of themselves, and finally getting on Granny's nerves. When Granny had had enough, she called their parents and told them to come and take her grandchildren home. Yet, while they were there, she managed to find some time to gather each one to her ample lap, lay their pretty heads against her faded granny gown, fold her fleshy arms around their tender bodies with a gentle hug, whisper sweet love notes to their tiny ears, and allow love to bloom in that plush easy chair like the red roses in Granny's front yard.

The Boy Fisherman

 The small boy swung his line and hook, and dropped it into the placid pond, spreading tiny ripples over its velvet surface. His gaunt face looked up from under his torn straw hat at the wide water before him crowded all around with a thick growth of verdant trees and underbrush. Dragonflies flitted over the green water and only the soft croaking of unseen frogs broke the silence. The solitude of this peaceful scene made the boy feel as if he had entered a piece of paradise, that nothing could ever go wrong in the world again.

The ragged boy pulled the end of his line up just enough to make the line taut. He used no cork on his line. He caught fish by feeling with his skinny fingers. He could detect the slightest jerk on his line, and when he did; he snapped the end of his cane pole up just enough to set the hook in the fishes' mouth. Then, he just pulled the flopping fish out of the water and swung it to his thin hands. He collected his fish by transferring them to another line in the water tied to a wooden stake he had pushed into the moist, black earth.

Toward noon, the smiling boy pulled his long, shiny string of fish from the water, threw them over his bony shoulder, and ambled along a narrow trail toward home. He had caught mostly half pound sun perch and an occasional catfish.

The dark trail followed the curve of the pond for a stretch, and as the boy trod along; he happened to pass a splendid fisherman equipped with an expensive rod and reel and a fancy, red tackle box. The boy could not help but notice that this opulent fisherman had caught no fish.

"That's quite a string of fish you got there boy," exclaimed the well-dressed, portly fisherman. He grinned but the boy could see the envy in his eyes.

"You just have to know where to fish and what bait to use," the boy retorted.

A flash of anger crossed the fancy fisherman's face, but he did not respond. He simply turned his empty gaze back toward his line in the water.

With his back a little straighter and his head held a little higher, the boy quickened his step along the leaf-strewn path as it turned from the plentiful pond toward his cozy home. Only he and his Godly mother were left of their family in their small house by a winding country road. Some nights, he and his weary, but prayerful, mother had gone to bed without supper; but tonight, this scruffy boy would provide a lavish feast of fried fish, and Ma would also cook some French fries and hush puppies.