Filed under: Nature's God

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

This proclamation set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving.  It sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise."

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By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

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A Conservative's Tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev

That the God of creation is man’s benefactor is so foundational it cannot be arrived at by any other proposition.  It is the basic principle upon which all other principles follow.  When man chooses to walk according to God’s benevolent law, he learns of the power that is God’s alone and by which God grants him victory over evil.

Those who persist in the fantasy of revisionist morality (moral relativism) and a central government that compromises the people’s right to be fully informed have, in fact, ignored the irreversible laws of creation’s nature.  When liberal majorities on the Supreme Court and secular educators fail to uphold the God-honoring predicate of the US Constitution, they are, in effect, empowering atheistic revisionism that preys on societies.

At a United Nations forum, December 7, 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, atheist leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, repudiated the atheistic dogma shared by Karl Marx and Charles Darwin.  Reflecting upon the disintegration of the secular (progressive) system, Gorbachev said:  “The compelling necessity of the principle of freedom of choice is … clear to us.  The failure to recognize this … is fraught with very dire consequences ... Freedom of choice is a universal principle to which there should be no exceptions.  We have not come to the conclusion of the immutability of this principle simply through good motives.  We have been led to it through impartial analysis of the objective processes of our time.  This objective fact presupposes respect for other people’s views“ (George P. Schultz, Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, Turmoil and Triumph, New York:  Macmillan, 1993, p. 1107).

Failure to acknowledge the benevolent laws of God and conform to moral truth guarantees harmful consequences.  Gorbachev tried to prevent its collapse by relaxing socialistic rule.  To do this, he adopted perestroika and glasnost (which allowed the people to be informed and free to communicate) and property rights, but socialism had gone too far.  Beginning in 1989, the puppet Communist governments in captive countries controlled by the Soviets were overthrown by the people.  The Soviet Union fell apart when captive countries quit sending them the revenue required to keep the socialist economy afloat.

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Writing of perestroika, Gorbachev’s wife Raisa said:  “Our society has set out on the path of renewal and of demolishing totalitarianism and the obsolete command system of administering the country” (Raisa Gorbachev, Reminiscences and Reflections, Harper Collins, 1991, p. 174).

Whether or not Gorbachev realized it, the Soviet empire was being forced to acknowledge that those who reject the “sovereignty of man under God over government” run into the immutable laws of creation’s nature.  Those laws support life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  In contrast, the vacillating laws of man lead to exploitation, cultural decay, poverty, and tyranny.  When God’s benevolent provision is rejected in any particular, the rejecter bears the price of that sin against himself and the will of God.  

 

Fantasy vs. Reality

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In the middle of a hillside surrounded by beautiful homes was a swampland that absorbed the surface water coming down from the properties above. This swampy area was filled with dirt and resulted in serious flooding below it. The goal of the neighbors living below was to solve the problem without an expensive lawsuit. The developer of the swampland was confronted with the truth. Knowing the historic consequences of rejecting truth, the developer agreed with reality. At considerable expense, he provided a large trench to collect and reroute the water away from the development. His acknowledgment of the timeless laws of creation’s nature caused him to solve the problem and avoid the consequences that come when truth is rejected.

Policies consistent with the truth provide significant benefits for states and nations as well.

Ideas for decision making have one of two origins—either materialistic and mortal or a basis upon reality of everlasting truth, according to God’s design.  The Word of the God of creation and creation’s nature has strangely disappeared from the lexicon of public education.  Conversely, those who persist in the fantasy of revisionist morality (moral relativism) and a central government that compromises the people’s right to be fully informed have, in fact, ignored the irreversible laws of creation’s nature.

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William Blackstone

1723-1780

Author of Commentaries on the Laws of England

 

William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England were used by Abraham Lincoln and by students of law into the 1920s.  Blackstone said: “Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws [principles] of his Creator …  These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil … This law of nature dictated by God Himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other.  It is binding over the entire globe, in all countries, and at all times:  no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.”

 (William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765, 38-40)

 

 

Yesterday's Foundation for Today's Liberty

From the beginning, Judeo-Christian principles have been the

foundation for American public dialogue and government policy. They

serve as the solid basis for political activism in support of a better

socioeconomic environment. Found in American homes, truth from

the Hebrew Christian Bible has enabled individual liberty to prevail

over secular empires because it is a practical message about reality from

man’s Creator.

 

In their quest for liberty, Americans focused upon the conspicuously

self-evident “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” It is the governing

character of these principles (laws), such as humility, the Golden Rule,

and the Ten Commandments, that leads to success. This is the sure

foundation upon which man’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness” rests. Called “virtue” by America’s Founding Fathers, the

impartial and divine element frees man to do what is right. “Where the

Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17).

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Posterous theme by Cory Watilo