Biblical Landmarks

Archive for March, 2010

“The Old is deadly, because it can do nothing but involve the whole human race in a curse; the New is the instrument of life, because those who are freed from the curse it restores to favour with God.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 11, Section 14.

Did the title of this e-zine get your attention. I hope so. I discovered something recently by reading . . . John Calvin, in this case. I’m not sure he got it right on this occasion. In fact, I know he got it wrong.

If you are a Calvinist, this e-zine may offend you. I apologize if it does. It is not my intention to offend. It is my intention to try to understand and draw conclusions from what Calvin says.

And on this occasion, I do not agree with Calvin. Hence, the e-zine “Why I am not (always) a Calvinist.”

Calvin is at one of his weakest moments in this chapter of Book 2, when he deals with the relationship between Old Testament and New Testament. Calvin does not mince his words. He is no milquetoast when it comes to disagreeing with those who do not agree with his viewpoint, as evidenced in his polemics against the Anabaptists and Libertines.
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“No authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute standard by which to judge its activities” Dr. Francis Schaeffer, in “How Should We Then Live?”

Just when you think the economy is bad enough, forcing people out of work, a new danger emerges forcing people not only from their jobs but in some cases from their houses as well.

It has become an accepted belief around the world that the government–local, state and federal–can do whatever it likes. Unfortunately, it is not just a belief, but it happens in practice as well.

As a result people have been served condemnation notices on their properties in order that the properties might become available to other businesses in the community. Under the guise of better planning, people have had to give up the right to their land and home, and often their livelihood, as the law has been used to evict them off their property in order to make way for someone else.

Under the mistaken notion of eminent domain, authorities around the world treat property as if it were their own, thus making the idea of property ownership an impossible goal for many.
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