Yardmeat you are right with one exception..... as spelled out in the DOI and defined in the Bill of Rights very well, that when that government defies those natural laws over individual liberty granted by God. Do you deny that the founding of our Nation made it safe for the Gospel of Christ and it's further spread around the world?
Many, many Bible Scholars are non-Christian, including Paine and Jefferson This is a modern quibble. The Bible was fine with the word "religion." None of this changes the evil and anti-liberty teachings that are contained in the Bible.
Interesting accusation from one who blames God. Actually, in the last 45 years probably not a day has gone by I haven't either read or meditated on the memorized Word.
You need to brush up on some history. NO NATION ON THE PLANET respected those "natural laws" or individual liberty (which the Bible never really cares about anyway) when Paul stated that it is a sin to rebel against them. There was no exception clause. You can side with the DOI and the Bill of Rights or you can side with the book of Romans, but you can't do both.
And yet you say you've never encountered a church that defends the genocide and infanticide and slavery of the OT as being justified at the time? This strains credulity. Do you think those actions were justified?
Religion has taken on new meaning in this day and age. Catechism would be a good example of modern religion, However James defined it differently in his book. "Standfast therefore in the liberty where Christ has set us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. For we have been called unto liberty only use not liberty as an occasion to serve the flesh but by love, serve one another!" ........what choo talkin' about Willis?.
I'm intimately acquainted. It's my favorite verse and exactly the one I was thinking of. This is only talking about the liberty from sin. The US allows liberty TO sin. That's what I'm talking about Willis. There is no freedom of religion or freedom of speech in the Bible.
I rather like America. That's why I choose to stay here. As for the Bible, it has some good parts and some bad parts. Just like the Quran.
So you are unable to answer whether or not it was justified for God to order the murder of children, enslavement, and mass genocide in order to punish people for the crimes of their ancestors? Funny, that should be an easy one. The only difference between this philosophy and that of Hamas is the time difference.
"but by love, serve one another" "each must consider the needs of another as above his own"....those are two examples from scripture that provide the very essence of "individual liberty!"
Yes, you can extrapolate individual liberty from that . . . but then you have to figure out why Paul was okay with "haters of God" being executed. Plus, the OT also has the Golden Rule, but is explicitly fine with denying individual liberty. The authors of the Bible clearly never thought of loving others as requiring any kind of respect for individual liberty. And, based on your logic, we also have to call Islam a religion of peace and individual liberty, since they have similar kind verses.
And I encourage you to do the same with the Bible! Pull a Jefferson and mentally cut out all of the dung to preserve the pearls.
when our founders refer to God or the Creator, this is to whom they refer - guess that is "proof" we are a Deistic nation if anything...? http://www.tfd.com/deists deĀ·ism (dzm, d-) n. The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.
when a religion is good, it does not need a government to support it or force it on the people http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/history_of_the_separation_of_chu.htm "When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. - Benjamin Franklin: in letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780"
Nope if you can't state what you are talking about is probably because you are full of ****. It's not my burden to scour the entire thread because you want to play games
Influence of Christianity, no, because US was very much a culturally Christian nation. Some States even had mandatory church attendance. But influenced by the Gospel.....not so much.
I have stated explicitly what I'm talking about. Which you would know if you read the thread. When you tire of running away and hiding and making up pathetic excuses for your failures, here's a hint: the Amalekites
I'm not going searching through every single post you've made in this thread to try and figure it out. I will not placate your laziness I'm not reading the entire thread and I guess it's just not important what you said. Poor little victim might have to repeat something or or state which post you said something in at some point. Lol You're the one running away from a comment you made. I asked you about it and you clambed up. So my guess it's probably a stupid comment and you know it.