How Much Do You Have to Hate Someone Not to Proselytize?

Francis Schaeffer on the Origins of Relativism in the Church

Words to Remember

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Edmund Burke Quote #1

From "Speech Before the House of Commons in Support of William Dowdeswell's Amendment to the Address of Thanks," November 18, 1768:
There is no such thing as governing the whole body of the people, contrary to their inclinations. It is not votes and resolutions, it is not arms that govern a people.
If this is true--and I certainly am inclined to believe it--then we may think of the political history of the last fifty years or so as symptomatic. For too long, many of us have operated on the assumption that most Americans remember and cherish the United States as we long for it to be, as a constitutional republic under God, designed with the objective of protecting man's God-given rights. But if Burke is right, the gradual slide leftward has not been something done entirely against the will of the majority of the people in this country. It may have been done, perhaps, with a sly nod, weasel-words, and a wink, but not "contrary to the inclinations of the whole body of the people."

The task now before conservatives is to change the inclinations of our people, to recreate the state of the heart and spirit and the attitude of mind that prevailed in this country at the time of the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention, that resulted in what has been the greatest country this world has ever known. This means that we are going to have to have, if not another Great Awakening, more success in evangelism and discipleship.

I hope we're up to it. It's going to take a while. And frankly, it seems to me that way too many conservatives act as though evangelism and discipleship are the preacher's job.
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