Reflections on God … Man … Life
The age-old controversy over free will continues to plague us. I have very settled views on the matter. Some of what I believe on this is enunciated quite well by C. S. Lewis in a couple of his works. For instance, in The Problem of Pain, he zeroes in on the one who is truly accountable for evil entering into this world: Man is now a horror to God and to himself and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not… Read more »
The United States has had an attorney general ever since George Washington’s administration. The role of the attorney general always has been to enforce the laws of the United States and prosecute those who break the laws. The goal, from the start, was to provide even-handed justice, without showing favoritism or partiality to one’s political party. Of course, not all attorney generals carried out that task with great honor, particularly during times of highly partisan political warfare. Yet the aim… Read more »
Anyone remember something called the Arab Spring? That was as inaccurate a name as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China. There was no voluntary union of Russia and the nations it subjugated, and they certainly weren’t republics—representation and the rule of law were both negated. In China, the people aren’t really running anything, but it sounds nice to call it the People’s Republic. And again, it’s not really a republic. Neither was the Arab Spring… Read more »
I write a lot about civil government, but the basis for civil government is found in the government of God, in how He directs, guides, and controls the universe He has created. Charles Finney demonstrates, in his Systematic Theology, the two very different types of government that exist within God’s creation, distinct because His various creations are distinct: All government is, and must be, either moral or physical. . . . Physical government is control, exercised by a law of… Read more »
C. S. Lewis can often take a Scriptural principle and, just by the shading of his words, help us see it in a new light. And he’s always very practical when doing so. On the difficulty of forgiving others, for instance, he reminds us why it is essential that we do so: To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we… Read more »
How ironic is it that we take this week to celebrate American independence while we’re closer to utter dependence on the government than at any other time in our history? We’ve had other eras where government overreach was achieved—think Wilson, FDR, and LBJ—and the fruit of those years has been with us ever since, yet never have we witnessed such a concerted effort to subjugate the American people as that which has occurred during the reign of Obama. As someone… Read more »
During this Independence Week, I think it highly appropriate to mention I recently finished reading Booker T. Washington’ s fascinating autobiography Up From Slavery. As with the Coolidge biography I noted on Monday, I had given a thumbs-up to Washington’s personal reflections in an earlier blog. Now, having completed reading his thoughts on life and how God wants us to live it, I can enthusiastically endorse it unconditionally. Washington was an impressive man. His devotion to the principle of self-government… Read more »