Biblical Concourse of Home Universities

Biblical Thinking Students: Even Secular Higher Education Learning is Changing...

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Biblical Thinking Students: Even Secular Higher Education Learning is Changing...: Many people (Christian and non-Christian) are finding that traditional college isn't worth the time or money or compromise of Christian ethi...

If Engineers Were to Rethink Higher Ed’s Future

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:10:00 +0000

September 27, 2011, 10:27 pm, Chronicle of Higher Education

By Jeffrey Selingo

Atlanta — Walk into a college president’s office these days, and you’ll probably find a degree hanging on the wall from one of three academic disciplines: education, social sciences, or the humanities and fine arts. Some 70 percent of college leaders completed their studies in one of those fields, according to the American Council on Education.You’re unlikely to discover many engineering degrees. Just 2 percent of college presidents are engineers.

Yet, when we think of solving complex problems, we normally turn to engineers to help us figure out solutions. And higher education right now is facing some tough issues: rising costs; low completion rates; and delivery systems, curricula, and teaching methods that show their age.

So what if engineers tackled those problems using their reasoning skills and tested various solutions through simulations? Perhaps then we would truly design a university of the future.

That’s the basic idea behind Georgia Tech’s new Center for 21st Century Universities. The center is officially described as a “living laboratory for fundamental change in higher education,” but its director, Rich DeMillo, describes it in terms we can all understand: higher education’s version of the Silicon Valley “garage.” DeMillo knows that concept well, having come from Hewlett-Packard, where he was chief technology officer (he’s also a former Georgia Tech dean).

Applying the garage mentality to innovation in higher ed is an intriguing concept, and as DeMillo described it to me over breakfast on Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus on Tuesday, I realized how few college leaders adopt its principles. Take, for example, a university’s strategic plan. Such documents come and go with presidents, and the proposals in every new one are rarely tested in small ways before leaders try to scale them across the campus. After all, presidents have little time to make a mark before moving on to their next job.

In a garage, “the rules are different,” DeMillo explained to me. “Universities are set up to hit near-term goals. Few are thinking about what the university should look like years down the road.”
DeMillo already has a number of projects in the pipeline, including a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and a TechBurst competition where students create short, shareable videos on particular concepts, and the university as a whole is thinking of others. One favorite of Georgia Tech’s president, Bud Peterson, is X-College, which would allow students to essentially design their own degree programs focused on “grand challenges” facing society. It would also allow faculty members to experiment with learning techniques and the semester calendar itself. In keeping with the test-and-learn philosophy, Peterson wants it to start small, perhaps with 50 honors students next fall.
Georgia Tech’s center offers a unique opportunity to experiment in an industry not known for taking risks. At a kickoff event for the center on Tuesday, I moderated a wide-ranging discussion with some leading thinkers on the future of higher ed, and among my questions was this: If you had a chance to run this center, what one project would you put on its agenda?
Among the ideas I found most interesting:

Public research on the common questions. One way for public universities to reassert their relevance is to focus on public research on big common questions facing society.

Create incubators. It’s difficult for policy makers and campus leaders to get their heads around abstract concepts of the future. Bring ideas to life in small ways, and show how they can work.

Improve social engagement. So-called softer skills are more important than ever as technology limits face-to-face interaction. Figure out ways to embed leadership, social, and global skills in everyday curricula.

Interactive learning. Remove teachers from being the center of all knowledge. Learning no longer happens with the teacher in front of a roomful of students taking notes. Find richer, more active ways of learning.

Stop teaching subjects. Teach students how to diagnose problems starting in kindergarten and then give them the knowledge to get better at it. Helping students solve problems teaches them how to think.

Revamp the college admissions process and office. Jonathan Cole, a former provost of Columbia University, said the smartest people on a campus should work in admissions, and that includes faculty members. “They need to get involved in who is living in this house,” he said. Right now, admissions is too tied to test scores, and “we’re getting boring, one-dimensional students,” he said.
So if you had a chance to run this center, what ideas would you put on its agenda?

Young Home School Author, Hadassah, From Beulah, North Dakota Releases First-time Novel

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:46:00 +0000

Beulah, North Dakota, August 22^nd, 2011

Makala Kopp, also known by her pen name, Hadassah, graduated from high school during her junior year at the age of 17 with a story on her fingertips and a message burning in her heart. Instead of heading off to college like most young people, Hadassah dedicated the following year to writing. Now, two years later she is self-published author. Her motivation in writing “Called and Chosen” is simple. “Are you aware that the One who walks with me and converses with me everyday longs for and pursues your heart?”

Called and Chosen tells the story of Eden Vanette who is living out her life as a young musician, artist, and businesswoman in New York City when she discovers adoption papers validating her Jewish heritage. With this discovery comes a letter from her birth mother telling Eden she’s been “chosen,” but for what?

Feeling betrayed by her family and plagued by mysterious dreams, Eden leaves family and friends, traveling to Israel to make sense of her mother’s letter. In the land of her forefathers, Eden meets her grandfather, whose secrets help her discover more than just her identity. And what about Micah, the kind, attractive young man who works at her grandfather’s winery?

Then one night, dangerous Arab fanatics murder Eden’s grandfather, plundering and destroying his villa and vineyard. They take Eden hostage, believing her to be the “chosen one” spoken of in ancient prophecy. Their motive? To destroy her and the ancient treasure they believe she holds. Beaten and fearing for her life, Eden comes to understand the mystery of being a “chosen one.” But will she live to pass on her knowledge—the ancient treasure?

Interwoven with mystery, intrigue, and romance, this tale of unshakable love and undeniable truth will make you wonder: have you also been “chosen?”

https://www.winepressbooks.com/product.asp?pid=3372

Theonomy in the Middle Ages

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:42:00 +0000

By Marc Clauson

Abstract:

Prevailing wisdom among political theorists and historians classifies most, if not all, of the medieval theorists of law as advocating some form of natural law. While not denying the natural law strain in these writers, this paper seeks to show, using Thomas Aquinas as a representative example, that this assessment may be overstated if not outright distorted.

The alternative proposed is that Aquinas was a Theonomist, that is, that his commitment with respect to legal theory was more toward law derived directly from the Christian Scriptures rather than the natural law theory. Theonomy is the name given to a modern movement which seeks to apply biblical law of the Mosaic civil code to political ethics and, practically, to society, through legislation. Several definitions of Theonomy are possible, based on a historical analysis of the legal thought of the Middle Ages through the recent period.

One such defintion, known as "general equity" theory, asserts that the Mosaic judicial laws are valid and binding on the magistrate, not in exhaustive detail, as some Theonomists avow, but in their general principles. Neverthless, it is the Mosaic law that is applied and not natural law. This paper seeks to prove that this general equity theory of Theonomy was held by Thomas Aquinas. Moreover this was, it is shown, his prevailing theory of law, with natural law being secondary.

Read entire article

Government Courses for Home School and Home College

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:07:00 +0000

Christian home schooled and home college students interested in influencing governments and politics are encouraged to take one or more of these courses as part of their curriculum. Let Dr. Bartlett know if you take one of these courses so that your homework can be customized to the your state government context and support moving home school legislation forward in 2013 and beyond.

GOV 101 - Comparative Views of Government
This class introduces students to the different views regarding how governments should be established. Students must read the required readings and produce an outline of the important points they gleaned from the readings which they will turn in for part of their grade. Students will also need to dialogue with the professor about the readings once they are assigned. They will then be required to write a comprehensive term paper in which they will compare and contrast the various schools of governance by answering a question posed by the instructor.

Instructor Professor Dr. Hector Falcon
Format: Correspondence
Course Fee: $75/credit 4 Credit hours $300.

GOV 201 - Biblical Principles of Civil Government
This class introduces students to biblical principles of civil government. Students will produce an outline of the major ideas they glean from the readings which they will turn in for part of their grade. They will also need to dialogue with the professor and answer questions as they progress through their reading assignments. Students will then be required to write a final comprehensive paper in which they will write about the ideas they have gleaned in order to answer a question given by the instructor.

Instructor: Professor Dr. Hector Falcon
Format: Correspondence
Course Fee: $75/credit 4 Credit hours $300.

GOV 220 - Calvin and Government
In this class students will be introduced to Calvin’s ideas related to governance. They will outline important ideas they derived from the readings and turn them in for part of their grade. Student will also dialogue with the professor about their readings and be required to complete a comprehensive final paper that utilizes the ideas they have gleaned to answer an exam question given by the instructor.

Instructor: Professor Dr. Hector Falcon
Format: Correspondence
Course Fee: $225. (3 Credit Hours @ $75/hr

GOV 220 - America's Constitutional Republic
Students will be introduced to America’s constitutional form of government. They will be required to turn in an outline of ideas they have gleaned from their readings for part of their grade. They will also be required to dialogue with the professor about their readings and write a final comprehensive paper in which they will incorporate the ideas they gleaned from the readings to answer an exam question given by the instructor.

Instructor: Professor Dr. Hector Falcon
Format: Correspondence
Course Fee: $300. (4 Credit Hours @ $75/hr

GOV 240 - The Theology Of The State
This course deals with an in-depth study and analysis of God's Truth over against Statist Religion and power.

Requirements: Each student must show an in-depth understanding of the material presented and must be able to accurately discuss and apply the details of the material in written format.
Instructor: ProfessorRev. Dr. Paul Michael Raymond
Format: Correspondence Course Fee: $225. (3 Credit Hours @ $75/hr)

GOV 310 - Statesmanship: Government Law and the Constitution
Course Materials: A series of political and legal lectures will be the primary source of learning along with readings on statesmanship principles.

Instructor: Rev. Dr. Paul Michael Raymond
Format: Correspondence Course Fee: $225. (3 Credit Hours @ $75/hr)

GOV 340 - General Equity of the Judicial Laws
This course explores the historical usage and biblical meaning of the General Equity of the Mosaic Judicial Laws. This will include a review of the development of these doctrines from the Reformers to the Westminster Assembly, with special attention to source documents. Topics discussed with include the three-fold division of the Law (Moral, Ceremonial and Judicial), the classes of Judicial Laws, the Westminster Confession of Faith, Establishmentarianism, the Magistrate as Keeper of Both Tables of the Law, the usage of the term “General Equity” by Reformed Divines, and the modern applicability of the Mosaic Judicial Laws.

Course Materials: A series of lectures will be the primary source of learning along with supplemental readings.
Instructor: Prof. Adam Brink
Format: Correspondence Course Fee: $225. (3 Credit Hours @ $75/hr)

GOV 360 - Reformation and Resistance
This course explores the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the American Declaration of Independence, and theory of civil resistance. Far from being the product of the Enlightenment, the American theory of civil resistance is the direct heir of the Reformation. In this course, we review the source documents which inspired or were directly borrowed from to formulate the Declaration of Independence. The main source document is the Holy Bible, from which the Reformers derived their doctrines of a) righteous rule, b) the definition of tyranny, and c) the right to defy tyranny. After Scripture, we review various influential documents from the Reformation which applied the Bible's teaching, from sources as varied as German Lutherans, Scottish Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, English Puritans, French Huguenots, and English Marian Exiles. This course is critical in re-establishing the foundations of the Reformed doctrine of civil resistance, and applying it to our current political crises.

Course Materials: A series of lectures will be the primary source of learning along with supplemental readings.
Instructor: Prof. Adam Brink
Format: Correspondence Course Fee: $225. (3 Credit Hours @ $75/hr)

ENROLL VIA NEW GENVEVA CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (HTTP://NEWGENEVA.US)

The Two Kingdoms: Of the Ungodly Power and of the Cowardly Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:14:00 +0000

By Bojidar Marinov | Published: July 6, 2011, American Vision

When a few weeks ago the Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli spoke to a group of 250 pastors assuring them that the churches are not only permitted but also expected to speak on political issues, and thus encouraged the pastors to give “guidance on issues that fall in the political world,” he didn’t do anything the Reformed theological tradition disapproves of. To the contrary, by doing that, Cuccinelli followed in the footsteps of those government magistrates in the Bible of whom Calvin says that are praised for “taking care that religion flourished under them in purity and safety.” Indeed, if the church is instructed to speak to governors and kings (Matt.10:18), then every governor or king that encourages the church to speak to him and advise him in his policies is obedient to his Biblical mandate in his calling before God. Whatever Cuccinelli’s personal reasons for his encouragement to pastors could be, his call must be praised highly by the church as an example for Biblically obedient magistrates, and the pastors must be strongly admonished to take Cuccinelli’s advice.

But no, some supposedly “Reformed” authors wouldn’t agree with Calvin, and wouldn’t agree with Jesus’ commandment for us to speak before governors and kings. In an article with the disparaging title, “When Churches Play at Politics,” Peter Wehner disagrees that the pastors should accept Cuccinelli’s encouragement – and Christ’s commandment, for that matter – to instruct governors. While we will return to his specific arguments later, it is helpful to note at the beginning that he summarizes his position with the words of Tim Keller, a prominent PCA pastor: “The church as the church ought to be less concerned about speaking to politics and more concerned about service.”

Now, Tim Keller’s views of social theory, economics, and politics deserve a more thorough treatment. But this statement of him is very important since it very well exhibits the basic position of the Two-Kingdom Theology: The radical separation between the sacred and the secular, between the “spiritual” concerns of the church and the “political” ministry of the state. This dualistic fragmentation of life has been plaguing the church and its theology for the last two centuries, leading to the disintegration of the Christian civilization created by our forefathers; and the taking over of the West by the secularists who create no such division in their own ideologies and religions.

What will the results be if we accept Keller’s statement as authoritative? Can we really separate between politics and service as he recommends? And who determines what “politics” is and what “service” is? Tim Keller and others like him are eager to limit the pastors’ political involvement but they are not as willing to limit the politicians’ “service” involvement. Thus the pastors are limited but the politicians are not, and therefore it is the politicians that are free to determine what is “politics” and what is “service.” Like I pointed out before, in such a situation we should expect to see the politicians gradually expanding the definition of politics to include what traditionally has been service. Our modern history has many examples of this. Education used to be a service provided by the church; today it is politics from beginning to end – laws, federal and state agencies, regulations, teachers’ unions, etc. Care for the elderly was traditionally Christian service, today it is politics – Social Security, Medicare, regulations and tax rules for retirement accounts, inheritance issues, etc. Care for the poor has always been the responsibility of the families and of the church – as the Bible clearly states in both the Old and the New Testaments – and today welfare is the largest financial commitment of the modern civil governments, as well the major topic in all political campaigns, legislature sessions, and political debates. Regulation of relationships between employers and employees, debtors and creditors, was the topic of many sermons in the colonial era and the early U.S. History; today these economic issues are entirely within the jurisdiction of the state.

So where do we stop? And how can the pastors oppose this absorption of everything by the state? Keller doesn’t say; neither does Wehner. They do not seem to notice the trend; or if they do notice it, they do not seem concerned about it. One could make a conclusion they welcome the march to statism. Eager to limit the pastors to their “spiritual” calling, they do not seem as eager to limit the politicians to their “secular” calling. Socialism wins by default in the outworking of such a theology in practice.

Wehner himself adds another argument against the pastors’ political involvement: Their lack of competence or insight. This is a serious issue, we must admit. But then Wehner’s conclusion is again in favor of the statist solution: If the pastors are incompetent, then the state’s “experts” should take over. Again, he claims, the pastors must remain limited and restrained, and the state reign supreme over all.

But why are pastors incompetent in the first place? Aren’t most pastors the product of the multitude of seminaries that teach the Two-Kingdom doctrine? Aren’t the seminaries supposed to teach the pastors to apply the Word of God to every area of life? What stops the seminaries from doing that? Isn’t it the same Two-Kingdom Theology that says at the very outset that pastors shouldn’t be concerned with politics but with “service”?

Wehner puts the buggy before the horse. He uses the incompetence of the pastors to justify his position that the pastors shouldn’t get involved in politics. The truth is, the incompetence of those pastors is the very product of Wehner’s theology taught in the seminaries. No seminary offers courses on political science, Biblical economics, Biblical philosophy of history, Biblical view of welfare, employer-employee relations, war, etc. No seminary teaches a comprehensive worldview to make the pastors competent to talk about any issue in our modern society from a Biblical perspective. The seminaries stand on the same foundation Wehner stands on: Churches should not “play at politics,” i.e. pastors should be silent on political issues. When seminaries believe that, we shouldn’t expect them to teach their students anything that smacks of politics in our modern world, and therefore the seminary graduates will remain incompetent to give the Biblical principles and inside to those areas of life that are “politics.” Pastors indeed are incompetent. And Wehner and others like him bear the responsibility for it.

Ironically, Wehner’s complaints against the incompetence of pastors don’t speak well of his friend Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Mohler’s own words, “the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world.” Albert Mohler has trained thousands of pastors, directly and through his influence over other seminaries. And those thousands of pastors are exactly the pastors that Wehner talks about: incompetent and without insight when it comes to comprehensive view of life. Wehner is completely right: very little insight and wisdom comes from those pastors trained by Mohler – and in fact, from the pastors of any other denomination in general. What stops Mohler, with his influence and knowledge, from training those pastors to be competent?

The answer is: His theology. Mohler is one of the most prominent defenders of the Two-Kingdom Theology. The same theology that calls for the radical separation between sacred and worldly, spiritual and political, nature and grace, the Law of God and the “natural” law. Mohler’s theology forces him to produce incompetent pastors, devoid of any knowledge about the application of the Bible to all of life, because all of life is not under the directions of the Bible in the first place. Mohler doesn’t believe Christians can offer anything more than just vague “influence” in the society; and he insist they should restrain from any control or power over government or cultural decisions and policies.

This is especially visible in an interview that Mohler himself took of Peter Wehner about Wehner’s book, City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era. A significant part of the interview is devoted to the Two-Kingoms view that there is no such thing as a Christian culture. Mohler asks the question, “You are not really suggesting that there can be a creation of Christian culture.” And Wehner replies:

I don’t think we can create a Christian culture. I think part of that frankly is grounded in scripture itself and Christ said that the world hated me and the world will hate you.

The two then continue to bash the view that we must create a Christian culture; they offer only what they call a Christian “influence on the culture.” They know they can not separate from the culture but they want to be faithful to their preferred theology of the two kingdoms. So, just like Keller, they place a very specific limit on Christians (“Do not create a Christian culture”) but they do not place such limit on the non-Christians. Non-Christians in government and in other vocations are free to do as they please, create pagan culture with everything it entails – government, economics, science, family, entertainment, literature, law, etc. – on the basis of their own ideologies and religions. But Christians are barred from doing such a thing. At the most, Christians are allowed to only “influence” that culture already created by pagans.

But wait, what are they going to “influence” it toward? “Influence” means “sway, make one change direction.” If Mohler and Wehner have no Christian culture to offer as an alternative, to what direction do they want to influence the prevailing pagan culture? Do they expect Christians to sway the pagan culture to a better pagan culture? On what foundation should this “influence” be based if Christians don’t have a culture to start with? Should they beat something with nothing? If Christians have no culture to offer, then they have no cultural solutions to offer, then by default they will be incompetent and with no insight to participate in the culture. If “the world will hate you” means what Mohler and Wehner want it to mean – no Christian culture – then why should it mean Christian cultural “influence” at all? Will a Christ-hating world be more willing to accept Christian cultural “influence” than Christian culture? If that hatred means that a Christian must shy from building a Christian culture, why not mean that a Christian must shy from anything cultural at all, including cultural influence?

Thus by default, a pastor trained by Mohler and by the seminaries influenced by Mohler will have to be uneducated and untrained and incompetent about the world. He has no other choice but retreat. He will have to focus on “service,” but only “service” as defined by the government bureaucrats, i.e. everything that is still not taken by the state. His Two-Kingdom Theology will discourage any cultural endeavor he might have – and of course, the very seminaries that trained him won’t offer him any training in cultural endeavors. By default, the government and the cultural leadership must be left in the hands of non-Christians. Not only Mohler and his theology discourage Christians from cultural and political leadership, they also actively promote non-Christian – i.e. ungodly – power over the society and over Christians themselves, and over their churches. Peter Wehner’s complaint against Cuccinelli, and Albert Mohler’s theology of the Two Kingdoms are in effect the religion of statism dressed in religious and theological garb. The two kingdoms of that theology are the ever expanding kingdom of unlimited ungodly statist power, and the ever shrinking kingdom of Christian cowardly retreat, incompetence, and lack of insight and wisdom. Wehner’s observations about the pastors’ incompetence are correct; he only misses the fact that that incompetence is the fruit of his own theology, and of the theology of his theological friends.

So, Cuccinelli is right, pastors must speak up on political issues. But we also need to understand that as long as the seminaries are captured by professors who refuse to preach the comprehensive Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the church will remain incompetent and unable to speak. As long as the seminaries’ theology encourages the cowardly retreat from our obligation to build a Christian culture in obedience to the Great Commission, our land will be under the oppression of ungodly powers. Competence comes only from the Word of God, and from a theology that submits everything under Christ and His Kingdom. Christians must stop listening to Wehner and his theological accomplices and accept their comprehensive responsibilities in the Kingdom of Christ.

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Author: Bojidar Marinov

A Reformed missionary to his native Bulgaria for over 10 years, Bojidar preaches and teaches doctrines of the Reformation and a comprehensive Biblical worldview. Having founded Bulgarian Reformation Ministries in 2001, he and his team have translated over 30,000 pages of Christian literature about the application of the Law of God in every area of man’s life and society, and published those translations online for free. He has been active in the formation of the Libertarian movement in Bulgaria, a co-founder of the Bulgarian Society for Individual Liberty and its first chairman. If you would like Bojidar to speak to your church, homeschool group or other organization, contact him through his website: http://www.bulgarianreformation.org/

Uncollege & Theil Foundation Inspiring Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 13:48:00 +0000

Notice at Uncollege.org that the unschooling method of home schooling is equally applicable to college studies. Over the years, there has been several good websites by uncolleging students which they used to keep their learning organized and displayed. Though uncollege.org doesn't promote Christian education, the founder has been speaking at home school conventions around the country, and the methods of uncollege can be used to learn anything. There was a good and simple example of a student curriculum vita linked to uncollege.org. Dale Stephens is the 19 year old founder of uncollege.org and has received a grant for $100,000 to develop the concept further from the Theil Foundation.

The Theil Foundation encourages young people to challenge the authority of the present and familiar with $100,000 grants to students under 20 years old. Here are a few of the interesting projects that might inspire other home college methods (e.g., Biblical Concourse of Home Universities) and students to realistically think high tech and outside the box.

1. Extend the human lifespan for a few more centuries and commercializing anti-aging research. .

2. Make affordable scientific instruments using open source hardware systems such as liquid chromotography.

3. Molecular spintronics fabrication to therapeutic drug design and synthetic biology to build a diagnostic biosenser.

4. Developing peer-based recruiting processes.

5. Create technologies which help people self-organize to solve social problems such as inflation.

6. Decentralize banking in poor countries with mobile financial services.

7. Create a tool for teachers to create and share lessons online by students and other teachers.

8. Mobile apps for the 21st century classroom.

9. More efficient motor for electric vehicles.

10. Solar panel rotation systems for optimizing energy usage for small villages.

College and Alternatives

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:28:00 +0000

By Jim Bartlett

New York Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto explained how corporations, foundations, psychologists and education professionals designed the public school system to mass produce a pliable workforce for global corporations. They purposely teach people not to think for themselves and to follow anti-Christian social orders according to Mr. Gatto in his books Dumbing Us Down, The Underground History of American Public Education, and Weapons of Mass Instruction.

If getting pliable followers, not Christian cultural leaders, into the corporate workforce is the goal of school and college accreditation structures and content, then Christians need to understand and evaluate the effects of institutional college education on their families, church and culture.

Getting into college should not be the goal of home education, but glorifying God in the means, purposes, details, and ends of both the college and or career education. Many home school families are finding or creating alternatives to conventional secular and Christian higher education to better serve God and their family goals.

Below are are a few references that have been helpful to home educating families when advising their sons and daughters on college and career decisions.

The North Dakota Guide to Home School High School contains information that may help with your college planning. That document is linked HERE.

A convenient list of many occupations is linked HERE.

For information on..
CHRISTIAN COLLEGES

A guide to 111 traditional Christian colleges is linked HERE.

CHRISTIAN ALTERNATIVES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

REFERENCES ON COLLEGE EDUCATION

Freefall of the American University by Jim Nelson Black
Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth by Ben Shapiro
Success without College by Linda Lee
The Case Against College by Caroline Bird
The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges & Universities from their Christian Churches by James Burtchaell
The Snare of College Accreditation by James Bartlett
For Most People College is a Waste of Time in Wall Street Journal
The Dorm Key Ritual by Gary North
The Crisis and Politics of Higher Education by Larry Arnn

VIDEO REFERENCES

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed by Ben Stein

Christian Classical Education

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Sun, 29 May 2011 21:34:00 +0000

By Dennis Woods

By way of introduction, I wrote the book on how the classics –the great books –stack up against the Bible. Some have referred to my book, Keys To The Classics, as the "Christian Cliffs Notes" and today it forms the heart of the classical studies program at King's Way Classical Academy.

So what makes classical, Christian education so special? Informal research conducted by the Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon has revealed that the two most important items missing in the government school curriculum are 1) training in skills of logical thinking, and 2) the ability to communicate the results of critical analysis in debate, speech and the written word.

The dialectic and rhetoric components of the classical trivium speak directly to these deficiencies. With a classical education your children are given the priceless gifts of ability to think for themselves and then communicate their thoughts with power and persuasiveness.

A classical Christian education can serve as a “finishing processl” for home school students and a Biblical “inoculation” for public school students. The classical core subjects are:

LATIN: The best way to build a powerful vocabulary – after the Bible, and a key predictor of success in life.
LOGIC: Critical thinking skills give your children overwhelming advantage in the workplace – and in life.
RHETORIC: Make your child a force to be reckoned with in the political arena and on the job.
GREAT BOOKS: Analyzing the classics in light of Scripture grounds your student in the Biblical worldview.

How can we best obey the command to love God with all our minds and not end up like those with an empty head and a happy heart? A classical Christian education helps provide both a happy heart and a level head.

Classical was the educational model that prevailed for centuries, prior to the late1800s. That was when John Dewey foisted his disastrous Progressive Education system on American schools. There can be no true knowledge apart from the Author of all knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). Public schools and secular education in home schools pretend neutrality, but Jesus said, "he who is not with me is against me."

Dennis Woods is the Headmaster of Kings Way Classical Academy. King's Way Classical Academy recently unveiled its new junior high and "high school diploma" programs for only $500 annual tuition fee. For more information about Classical Christian Education visit http://KingsWayClassicalAcademy.com or call (888)-714-5741.

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Fri, 20 May 2011 21:49:00 +0000

The Great Christian College Compromise: New survey shows America’s Christian colleges abandoning their biblical foundations

PETERSBURG, Ky., May 2, 2011 – Ken Ham , Warner University president Dr. Greg Hall, and renowned researcher Britt Beemer take a penetrating look at how Christian colleges have compromised their beliefs in an eye-opening book releasing May 2 from Master Books, “Already Compromised: Christian Colleges Took a Test on the State of Their Faith and The Final Exam is In.”
Surveys have consistently shown that many Christian colleges are compromising on biblical principles by their answers to basic questions about the authority of the Bible. Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and the acclaimed Creation Museum , issues a clarion call to parents everywhere who are contemplating sending their teenager to a Christian college:
“Knowing that compromise (to one degree or another) awaits our kids, we had to contend with where to send them and try to prepare them for battle and encourage them to keep their guard up,” states the book.
Beemer’s America’s Research Group (ARG) surveyed schools associated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), a group of more than 90 colleges that require all of their professors to sign a personal statement of faith. Other respondents were from schools that were “religiously affiliated” through an association with a religious denomination. Over 300 leaders at Christian colleges participated in the survey.
“We are not questioning anyone’s faith or Christian commitment at these colleges. We are examining what is being taught on important issues like biblical inerrancy, especially when it comes to Genesis,” Ham says. “Many of these schools claim to teach the ‘inerrant Word of God,’ yet gloss over the first book of the Bible as mere allegory.”
In conducting the survey, the authors used open-ended and close-ended questions so answers could be compared. They also looked at various statements of faith from churches, Christian colleges, etc., through an internet search, and found that most statements of faith had a very general statement (if any) on creation.
“Such general statements can sadly lead to the door of compromise being opened and eventually lead a college, church, etc., down the liberal path,” the book says.
While the survey did bring out some surprising results, “24 percent of the 312 people surveyed answered every question correctly … and these are the ‘good guys!’ These are the institutions that require testimonies of faith from their professors or have strong religious affiliations,” the book says.
Many Christian parents mistakenly assume that if they send their children to a self-described Christian college, they are protecting their children’s faith from non-biblical ideas such as evolution, and providing their children with a more morally nurturing environment, the book states.
Hall explains that parents are sending their students into the schools assuming that they are going to be faith-nurturing and truth-affirming institutions. He says that in reality many of the schools discredit faith, discredit the Bible, and break kids down rather than build them up. Many young people who have attended such Christian colleges leave the Christian faith as a result. Just as the previous book by Ham and Beemer (“Already Gone”) explored, young people are leaving the church in droves (many over biblical authority issues), and Christian colleges are contributing to this exodus.
“There are good Christian schools out there and we feel they are better than secular alternatives by far. But these issues of compromise have to be addressed,” the book concludes.
In the end, Ham and Hall call for students and parents to get involved and become aware of what is being taught on campus and to ask probing questions of school officials and professors about biblical inerrancy. The newly launched companion website for “Already Compromised”—www.CreationColleges.org—can help as well.
You can order Already Compromised on the AiG online store.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

Background on Modern Britsh Royalty - Eugenic and Nazi Worldview

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:36:00 +0000

It is well documented that Prince Philip’s sister, Sophia, was married to Christopher of Hesse-Cassel, an SS colonel who named his eldest son Karl Adolf in Hitler’s honour. Indeed, all four of Philip’s sisters married high-ranking Nazis. The prospect of the former Nazis and Nazi sympathisers attending his 1947 wedding to the future Queen of England meant he was allowed to invite only two guests.
Two years ago, more revelations of Philip’s Nazi links emerged in a book that featured never before published photographs of Philip aged 16 at the 1937 funeral of his elder sister Cecile, flanked by relatives in SS and Brownshirt uniforms.
Another picture shows his youngest sister, Sophia, sitting opposite Hitler at the wedding of Hermann and Emmy Goering. Philip was forced to concede that his family found Hitler’s attempts to restore Germany’s power and prestige ‘attractive’ and admitted they had ‘inhibitions about the Jews’.
Philip also helped start the World Wildlife Fund in 1961 with former Nazi SS Officer Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who is closely affiliated with the founders of the Bilderberg international power group, and Sir Julian Huxley, Aldous Huxley’s brother, who was also the President of the British Eugenics Society.

The entire article is from Ref. http://www.infowars.com/modern-british-royalty-eugenicists-nazis-and-neo-feudalists/

Christian Reconstruction Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:48:00 +0000

This is the best description of the tenets of Christian Reconstruction, as espoused by Dr. R. J. Rushdoony, is found in his "Christian Manifesto".

Sovereignty is an attribute of God alone, not of man nor the state. God alone is Lord or Sovereign over all things; over state, school, family, vocations, society and all things else.
The Bible is given as the common law of men and nations and was for most of U. S. History the common law, as Justice Story declared.
Salvation is not by politics, education, the church, or any agency or person other than Jesus Christ our Lord.
The myth of Machiavelli, that, by state control at the top, bad men can make a good society is at the root of our cultural crisis and growing collapse. A good omelet cannot be made with bad eggs. Truly redeemed men are necessary for a good society.²
Civil rulers who rule without the Lord and His law word are, as Augustine said, no different than a mafia, only more powerful.
The state is not the government, but one form of government among many, others being the self-government of the Christian man, the family, the school, the church, vocations and society. The state is civil government, a ministry of justice.
For the state to equate itself with government is tyranny and evil.
The Christian man is the only true free man in all the world, and he is called to exercise dominion over all the earth.
Humanism is the way of death and is the essence of original sin, or man trying to be his own god.
All men, things, and institutions must serve God, or be judged by Him.

"It is urgently important that we think now of Christian reconstruction, but our thinking cannot be idle talk: it must be both Biblical and also practically applied in our daily life. There are many people ready to eliminate statism, but they have nothing but wishing to replace it. How then will independent schools, private welfare, and individual initiative deal with the vast complex of our social problems? Already most of our Christian conservative causes, and Christian schools, are continually short of funds. What is the answer?
"In any advanced social order, social financing is a major public necessity. The social order cannot exist without a vast network of social institutions which require financing and support. If a Christian concept of social financing is lacking, then the state moves in quickly to supply the lack and gain the social control which results. Social financing means social power."³

^1. R. J. Rushdoony, Chalcedon Report No. 225, “A Christian Manifesto,” April 1984 (c.f., Roots of Reconstruction, p. 1114f).
^2. This is not to suggest that Rushdoony endorsed simply replacing “bad men” with “godly men” at the top of a state-run society. Rushdoony’s concept of theocracy was not a centralized form of power in the hands of clerical leaders. He wrote, “Few things are more commonly misunderstood than the nature and meaning of theocracy. It is commonly assumed to be a dictatorial rule by self-appointed men who claim to rule for God. In reality, theocracy in Biblical law is the closest thing to a radical libertarianism that can be had” (Roots of Reconstruction, p. 63).
^3. R. J. Rushdoony, Roots of Reconstruction (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1991), 605.
From: http://chalcedon.edu/topics/christian-reconstruction/

The Regulative Principle of Family

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:14:00 +0000

The Regulative Principle of Family
by Lisa Moyer, Home School Graduate from Geneva Illinois
April 12, 2011

The regulative principle is most often applied to formal worship. It is used to determine the format of church services, allowing only those things that God has authorized for worship, including prayer, reading of the Word, preaching, singing, and the sacraments. The regulative principle is in essence a call for “sola Scriptura,” or Scripture alone. It defends the Bible as complete and authoritative. In the same way water is everything needed to quench thirst, so God's Word is all that is needed for godly life and righteousness. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV). The regulative principle applies to the family in a significant way. It is important to understand what the regulative principle is, how it applies to family, and the impacts of this application.

The Bible, and what can be deduced from its principles, is to regulate our lives. It even gives instruction for how to carry out seemingly neutral activities. The law which God provides in the Bible is comprehensive, lacking no clarity or thoroughness. No bright idea from mankind can in any way enhance or add to His completely sufficient statutes. Dr. Joe Morecraft writes, “Biblical law is so perfect and comprehensive...that any alteration, supplementation, or amendment of would be an arrogant assault by sinful man on the majestic sovereignty of the triune God” (Morecraft, 79).

The “alteration” Morecraft refers to can be adding regulations to the Bible or excluding parts of Scripture from application. Although worship is often regulated by more specific regulations in the Bible, all of life is to be lived according to His principles. The heart and foundation of the regulative principle, that Scripture must not be added to or taken from, applies to everything. Because this is its core, it is a principle that effects all areas of life and institutions, including the family.

The “regulative principle of family” is especially significant as the family is the foundational unit of society. Thomas Manton noted the significance of the family:

“Religion was first hatched in families, and there the devil seeketh to crush it; the families of the Patriarchs were all the Churches God had in the world for the time; and therefore, (I suppose,) when Cain went out from Adam's family, he is said to go out from the face of the Lord, Gen. 4:16. Now, the devil knoweth that this is a blow at the root, and a ready way to prevent the succession of Churches: if he can subvert families, other societies and communities will not long flourish and subsist with any power and vigor; for there is the stock from whence they are supplied both for the present and future” (Manton).

The ways this application takes effect are numerous, but one of the most foundational is that of training children. Scripture contains all the instructions needed for raising a family and educating children. Of course, this is not to say that no textbooks are needed for learning math or that work experience is not helpful for building character. For example, rather than the idea that the Bible teaches the historical events that occurred in 1861, it is the concept that God has revealed how we are to view, interpret, and respond to history. God has showed that the education of children is a responsibility delegated to parents. In the same way that God's worship has never been delegated to human authority, so the training of sons and daughters has never been delegated to any institution outside the family.

The book of Proverbs illustrates the instruction and wisdom that passes from a father directly to his children. “Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know understanding” (Proverbs 4:1). In Deuteronomy 4:10, the Lord says: “Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.” He says again, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:6). To apply the heart of the regulative principle to the training of children is to not add to or take away from the clear responsibility given to parents for their children's training.

The impacts of applying the regulative principle to families and the discipleship of sons and daughters are significant. The way a child is educated influences their entire life, especially the religious perspective their education takes on. Robert Booth commented, “It is not a matter of whether our children will be taught religion in school; it is only a matter of which religion they will be taught.” Rather than taking away from the Word of God by transferring the distinctly religious education of children to the state, God's revelation shows that mothers and fathers are given the role of their children's education.

Parents are to ensure that their children receive a Biblical worldview, knowledge of God, and the truth of the Scriptures. While outside mentors, teachers, or resources may be helpful in assisting the development of understanding in children, the responsibility continues to rest on the mother and father. To expect an age-segregated children's Sunday school class, for instance, to teach one's son all he needs to know about the Bible and how it is to be lived out, would be shifting the role of parent to a Sunday school teacher. Since God has never presented a teacher with the obligation He gives to parents, it would be altering His Word to make that transfer ourselves. Parents are to be involved in teaching their children truths of Scripture.

Another implication is that education would involve discipleship. Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines “disciple” as, “To teach; to train, or bring up.” As God has given parents the role of teaching their children the Lord's commands, education involves more than a memorization of facts. It is an unceasing passing on of the Christian faith (Deuteronomy 4). This affects the religious perspective that children are educated with. Scott Brown writes, “[John] Calvin recognized the supreme importance of the father's role in the discipleship of children... In contrast to our own age where parents are content to systematically outsource their children's education, Calvin knew that it was the primary responsibility of the home” (Brown, 179). More than a knowledge of subject matter, the Lord requires that parents teach their children to “keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you” (Deuteronomy 4:40). Discipleship, or training in God’s Word, is a necessary part of education.

Although the regulative principle is typically applied to worship only, the regulative principle in essence is to not take away from or add to God's Word. It is a principle that calls us to look to God’s Word alone for how we are to live our lives. The impact it has when applied to the family is important as it addresses the responsibility for education. Greg Price wrote, ”Is God’s Word adequate and complete in giving to man all that man needs to know as to how he must please God? Absolutely...” The Bible shows us everything we need to live a life pleasing to Him, which includes the responsibility of education.

Works Cited

Booth, Robert. "Schools are Religious." Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. 31 Mar 2011.

Brown, Scott. Family Reformation: The Legacy of Sola Scriptura in Calvin's Geneva. Wake Forest, VA: Merchant Adventures, 2009.

Manton, Thomas. "Mr. Thomas Manton's Epistle to the Reader." Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. 31 Mar 2011.

Morecraft, Joe. How God Wants Us to Worship Him: A Defense of the Bible as the Only Standard for Modern Worship. San Antonio, TX: The Vision Forum, 2004.

Price, Greg. "The Regulative Principle of Worship." Foundation for Reformation. 7 Apr 2011.

Linked In or Reputation Based Networks Could Replace Accreditation and Degrees

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:19:00 +0000

The debate video below has some helpful points on self learning at the college level. It is interesting that accreditation and degrees could also be replaced with LinkedIn Profiles and other relationship based networks. The idea of peer based open transparent accreditation is simply proving what you know with a portfolio and references. The accreditation portion of the video begins at 39:40. The lady speaking is Anya Kamenetz who wrote the book titled, "DYI U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education." Neither of the speakers are Christians, the second speaker is defending the tradiational university model.

How Should the University Evolve?, part 1 of 2 from BLSCI on Vimeo.

Loving Your Wife

noreply@blogger.com (Sam'sson) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:12:00 +0000

Here's few suggestions for loving your wife. See if she agrees.

Spend time with her
Pray with her
Pray for her
Lead her in family worship
Read to her
Listen to her talk, saying uh-huh at least once every 5 min
Talk to her – except when she’s talking.
Go first when you’ve arrived late and the only open seats are in the front row
Fix her appliances
Labor for her food, clothing, and shelter
Be the first to seek forgiveness when estranged
Instruct her in the Scriptures
Study her – her likes & dislikes, strengths & weaknesses
Dwell with her in an understanding way
Hold her
Sleep with her
Make decisions
Make decisions in her best interest
Walk between her and the road
Defend her good name and honor
Laugh with her, never at her.
Have a vision
Communicate your vision to her
Utilize her talents
Don’t push her buttons
Buy her gifts
Encourage her
Thank her for her labors
Clean your plate – even the mistakes
Kiss her on first arriving home
Kiss her goodbye
Buy her the best tools
Ensure she takes care of herself
Protect her
Confide in her
Seek her advice
Fire the people that need fired
Cover her faults
Teach her graciously
Preserve her authority
Uphold her lawful government
Correct her unwise government
Confess your sins against her
Lead her with wisdom
Rule with diligence
Be jealous of her time & love
Put your dirty laundry in the laundry – if it always misses, buy her a bigger basket
Desire her body
Receive her attention and affection
Change the flat tire on her car
Open her car door
Tell her you love her
Smile at her
Walk hand in hand in public
Praise her labor
Delight in all that is her
Be the HUSBANDman of her garden

A Case for Calculus on the Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:26:00 +0000

For those of you who like mathematics, consider how calculus could benefit any small farm or business. It would improve the quality and profitability of the operations. On our farm, we could watch more details, collect more data, understand the data more thoroughly with algebraic equations, and then optimize the variables for cost and quality with simple calculus. A slow implementation of these ideas is reasonable and also a beautiful implementation of the Biblical view of mathematics, diligence, and excellence.

The inventor of Calculus, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) home schooled himself in math under a mentor after becoming a lawyer. The driving force behind his work was his view that God made the world in the best way it could have been made. Voltaire wrote a popular cartoon which criticized Leibniz on this optimism, focusing on the pain and suffering in the world. In his book titled, Theodicy, Leibniz wrote on the goodness of God, the freedom of man and the origin of evil, and the conformity of faith with reason. He was “incapable of looking at the objects of any special enquiry without seeing them as aspects or parts of one intelligible universe.” Leibniz thought of God as a mathematician. “He conceives God in the creation of the world like a mathematician who is solving a minimum problem – the question being to determine among an infinite number of possible worlds, that for which the sum of necessary evil is a minimum.”

Leibniz never married and was busy making major contributions to the world of mathematics, physics, social science and theology, but he wasn’t perfect. He wrote, “I cannot tell you how extraordinarily distracted and spread out I am. I am trying to find various things in the archives; I look at old papers and hunt up unpublished documents. From these I hope to shed some light on the history of the [House of] Brunswick. I receive and answer a huge number of letters. At the same time, I have so many mathematical results, philosophical thoughts, and other literary innovations that should not be allowed to vanish that I often do not know where to begin.” Sounds like a home school and perhaps a sign of greatness!

So just how could calculus be helpful on a small farm or any business, and worth studying? Here is a simple example. Based on our farm data, for us to grow x broiler chickens, it costs C = $862 + $6.67x. The derivative of this equation (the slope of the line) shows that the feed and labor cost for each additional boiler chicken is $6.67. That was calculus.

Business profit equals the income minus the costs or P(x) = I(x) – C(x) = $10x – ($862 +$6.67x). Since this is a linear equation, increasing sales and lowering costs are the ways to maximize profits. Looking at the slope of this line, dP(x)/dx = $10-$6.67 = $3.33. This is the business income per chicken after all expenses including labor are paid. That was calculus again. Collecting more precise data would require non-linear equations, which then could be optimized using simple calculus techniques. Unknowns (U) and acts of God (A) can be factored into the equations using Proverbs 16:9 “A man’s heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps” (U+A).

How much more money might be earned or saved if we did use calculus on the farm? I estimate the increase in earnings is the difference between the linear equation and non-linear equation of y = x and y = x^1.05In practical terms, that would lead us to sell 800 chickens where we would have sold 600 or 1400 chickens where we would have sold 1000 chickens, with the corresponding increased profit. In other terms, the breakeven point for a course in calculus would be equal to the business profit from 129 chickens, which would take two months to raise by a hired hand, with a return on investment over 5 years of $6000, at 1400 broilers per year, as compared to the profit earned without applying calculus. Therefore, it is a financial advantage to learn and apply calculus to every day business, just as we would expect, since God created the universe with mathematical order and it is our honour to search that out and put that knowledge to work.

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2

"Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe." Galileo Galilei

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Col 1:15-17

I mentioned the profitability of calculus to my chicken farming 18 year old son and he thought that it would be worth hiring an industrial engineer to do the calculus for him! A good idea, but not as satisfying as thinking some of God’s mathematical thoughts after him, experiencing a touch of His excellence, and seeing the increase result from His hand. Perhaps this deeper appreciation is like the difference between buying eggs and producing your own eggs. The gain is also in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of how to acknowledge God in more of the details.

James Bartlett is the Executive Director of the North Dakota Home School Association and the Biblical Concourse of Home Universities. He teaches “Calculus That Only Christians Can Do” for the Concourse, the New Geneva Christian Leadership Academy, and the Newton Institute for the Reformation of Science and Engineering. He and his wife Lynn home school three boys and home college one son on a small farm in the Turtle Mountains. They can be reached at 701-263-4574. Lynn blogs about their family activities at http://NDHomekeeper.blogspot.com

noreply@blogger.com (Sam'sson) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:51:00 +0000

In the summer of 1969 Professor Percy Graves, a close friend and student of Professor Ludwig von Mises, gave a series of 7 lectures in Buenos Aires to overflow crowds at the Centro de Estudios sobre la Libertad on the dollar crisis. One of those lecutures dealt with the specifics of the 1929 Depression in some detail. Apparently there were Argentinians concerned enough about that crisis that they were willing to invest 7 nights of their life so as not to repeat that economic calamity in their country.

Would that Americans were so inclined.

The great irony is that if one changed 1929 to 2009 and added 80 years to the other dates, Professor Graves could have given the same lecture today word for word and been right on the mark. The only difference at this point is that we don't yet have the diaries and papers of the key players of the 2009 crisis.

The biggest and most dangerous misunderstanding regarding both of these economic crises is that they somehow represent a failure of the free market instead of the failure of government management of the economy.

Mises was once asked by a graduate student at his University of New York seminar what he thought the government should do during a depression. Mises replied in his quiet manner by presenting his free market position in a few well chosen words. Aghast, the student replied, "You mean the government should do nothing?"
Mises leaned back as he frequently did and said, "Yes, but I mean the government should start doing nothing much sooner."

You can download a transcript of the entire lecture at Understanding the Dollar Crisis

Third Party Voting & The Lesser of Two Evils

noreply@blogger.com (Sam'sson) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:16:00 +0000

The intramural debate among Christians over third party candidates is underway once again. When I first voted outside the Demoblican party, I don’t remember any serious discussions about such things among Christians. Their response to my third party comments, if there was any at all, was simply, “Huh ???”

But over the 6 intervening presidential election cycles the debate has matured considerably. Now I hear Christians contemplating complicated electioneering strategies (like switching parties to vote for the other party’s worst candidate in the primary in the hope they will win the nomination and set up an easier race in the fall) or asserting that a vote for a good third party candidate is really a vote for the worst candidate. To which my response was, “Huh???”

So in an effort to catch up to my more articulate brothers and sisters on this quadrenially important topic, I sat down yesterday, after spending the day painting a large sign for my favorite candidate which will be mounted on the main traffic artery through our town, and tried to improve my contribution to this discussion.

On voting for the candidate who can’t win …

Elections are not a horse race where voters try to pick the winning ticket.

Elections are a wheelbarrow race where voters make the winner.

Not voting for a good candidate because he is not expected to win is giving up before the
wheelbarrow race is over.

Choosing the lesser-of-two-evils over a good candidate because no else is voting for him is being controlled by peer pressure like a junior high socialite.

On voting for the lesser of two evils …

If you vote for the lesser of two evils for President, you’ll always have an evil President.
You can’t expect God to provide you with a good President when you vote for an evil one any more than you can expect God to provide you with daily bread when you sleep all day instead of working.

Voting for the lesser of two evils disobeys the admonition in Exodus 18:21 to choose good men (i.e. able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness) to exercise civil rule.
A vote for the lesser of two evils is doing evil in the hope of stopping evil.
A vote for the lesser of two evils is a wasted vote in getting a good candidate elected.
Voting for the lesser of two evils in the hope of avoiding a greater evil is like stealing food in order not to starve.
Defining an election in terms of the lesser of two evils is like falling for the false dilemma of values clarification exercises where 5 people are stranded in a lifeboat with supplies for 4 and thinking that one person should be thrown overboard (regrettably, of course) in order to keep the other 4 alive.
Voting for a good candidate instead of the lesser of two evils is not a vote for the greater of two evils, anymore than keeping 5 stranded people on a lifeboat for 4 is choosing to kill 5 people.

A vote for a good candidate is, as should be obvious, simply a vote for a good candidate.

Of course, I suspect the real issue is that lesser-of-two-evil voters do not really believe they are choosing the lesser to two evils. They believe they are choosing a basically good candidate who, while qualified for office, is simply not everything they might desire in an ideal candidate. ...
Read more

Faith and the Banking Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Should bad private banking decisions be paid for with your tax dollars? According to a recent Rasmussen survey, 25% of Americans think so. Does the Bible, as the timeless, cultureless, foundation of absolute truth and pure wisdom, have any insights regarding money and banking, debt and taxes that might help us know what is right and wrong in this situation? It sure does, here is a taste of these insights:
Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15) does apply to the situation where the government takes from one taxpayer and gives it to benefit someone else, such as private bankers, and is condemned as stealing and wrong.

Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow (Deut 28:12) is a promised blessing to people and nations who obey God. The Federal Reserve System has been creating money as debt since 1914, when congress transferred the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof to the FRS (US Constitution, Article 1:8). North Dakota also stopped using constitutional (biblical) money when it left Article 1:10, “No state shall.. make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. As a result of not obeying God (or the Constitution) in our monetary policy, we now have a group of independent international bankers manipulating the value of our money using “confidence” rather than real tangible value. When the bankers print 10% more money, inflation goes up by 10%. Real inflation is now at 12% and aimed toward 16% in 9 months based on the M3 money supply. Inflation is a hidden tax and is stealing our economic liberty.

This is an abomination to the Lord according to Proverbs 11:1 which states that A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. The price for a pound of chicken would only vary according to the market forces, not the unjust devaluing of our currency in the Biblically and Constitutionally sound money system that we once had.

Forced taxation at a rate more than voluntary giving to God (i.e.,tithe of 10%, Malachi 3:8) finances the government to usurp the role of God and the church in areas such as helping those in need. Using tax money to bail out international banks means there will be less money for charitable giving, as well as less capital to grow businesses.

Reading the timeless wisdom of the Bible in light of current affairs can both help find the root of our finanical problems and point to a solution, even if those solutions can only be implemented slowly and incrementally. At least we can know what is right and wrong as we watch the present financial circus!

I Smell a Rat - Documentary Video on the US Constitution

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:15:00 +0000

PRE-RELEASE SALE – Save 15%! "I Smell a Rat – An anti-Federalist Interpretation of American History". Challenges Christian Constitution Thesis.

This long-awaited documentary on the anti-Federalist/Bible Covenant interpretation of United States history and Constitution is only about a month away from release. This documentary is a bombshell. Produced by a team of Evangelical Christians, it seeks to demonstrate that historical revisionism is a more serious problem among Christian authors than among secularists.

Readers of most contemporary authors on American Christian history are in for a shock. The video challenges almost everything they've been taught about the meaning of American history. The documentary takes issue with the “baptized Federalism” which is common to many, if not most of today’s “Christian America” authors. Too often strong Christians have allowed their patriotism to cloud their biblical discernment on this vital issue.

Approximately 35 minutes in run time, this DVD challenges the prevailing opinion among Christians that the U.S. Constitution represents the epitome of biblical civil government. It explores why Patrick Henry and other strong Christians of the founding era opposed ratification of the Constitution so vigorously. The legendary Patrick Henry argued almost single-handedly against ratification for 23 days in the Virginia Ratifying Convention. Many of his prophetic warnings have transpired: an imperial Supreme Court, two levels of oppressive taxation, a bloody civil war.

Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is expensive. Ignorance is deadly.

And now another anti-Federalist prediction fulfilled – Muslims in the U.S. Congress and maybe our next President. Discover why Patrick Henry explained his rejection of James Madison's invitation to the Constitutional Convention with the pithy retort, "I smelt a rat." What was the rat that Patrick Henry "smelt"? Get the truth now -- don't let them pull the wool over your eyes one more minute! Includes interviews with radio personality Larry Pratt, author Dr. George Grant, Author Dennis Woods, and Dr Bartlett of the ND Home School Association and Biblical Concourse.

Order before December 10th and save 15% off the $17.50 retail price -- only $14.85 with free shipping. Mail check or money order to the Biblical Concourse, 1854 107th St NE, Bottineau, ND 58318. Makes a great Christmas gift and or home school/college reference.

FREE BONUS DVD: The book Discipling the Nations – The Government Upon His Shoulder analyzes the theme of the Ismellarat documentary in great detail. Dr. George Grant has stated that, “Dennis Woods has done us all a great service by writing this balanced, comprehensive, easy-to-understand, and intensely practical handbook to the subject of civil government from a Christian perspective.”

Purchase a copy of the Ismellarat documentary ($14.85) and Discipling the Nations for $19.20 (reduced 20%) and you'll get a second copy of the DVD absolutely free!

A Minority View Walter Williams Colleges' intellectual thuggery

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:39:00 +0000

A Minority View Walter Williams Colleges' intellectual thuggery

By Walter Williams, Ph.D. [a black professor]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58176

Wednesday, October 17,

The average taxpayer and parents who foot the bill know little about the rot on many college campuses. "Indoctrinate U" is a recently released documentary, written and directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, that captures the tip of a disgusting iceberg. The trailer for "Indoctrinate U" can be seen online.

"Indoctrinate U" starts out with an interview of professor David Clemens, at Monterey Peninsula College, who reads an administrative directive regarding new course proposals: "Include a description of how course topics are treated to develop a knowledge and understanding of race, class, and gender issues." Clemens is fighting the directive, which applies not just to sociology classes but math, physics, ornamental horticulture and other classes whose subject material has nothing to do with race, class and gender issues.

Professor Noel Ignatiev, of the Massachusetts School of Art, explains that his concern is to do away with whiteness. Why? "Because whiteness is a form of racial oppression." Ignatiev adds, "There cannot be a white race without the phenomenon of white supremacy." What's blackness? According to Ignatiev, "Blackness is an identity that can be plausibly argued to arise out of a resistance to oppression." Bucknell professor Geoff Schneider agrees, saying, "A lot of our students, I think, are unconsciously racist." Both Ignatiev and Schneider are white.

(Column continues below)

The College of William & Mary and Tufts and Brown universities established racially segregated student orientations. At some universities, students are provided with racially segregated housing, and at others they are treated to racially separate graduation ceremonies.

Under the ruse of ending harassment, a number of universities have established speech codes. Bowdoin College has banned jokes and stories "experienced by others as harassing." Brown University has banned "verbal behavior" that "produces feelings of impotence, anger or disenfranchisement" whether "unintentional or intentional." University of Connecticut has outlawed "inappropriately directed laughter." Colby College has banned any speech that could lead to a loss of self-esteem. "Suggestive looks" are banned at Bryn Mawr College and "unwelcomed flirtations" at Haverford College. Fortunately for students, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, has waged a successful war against such speech codes.

Central Connecticut State College set up a panel to discuss slavery reparations. All seven speakers, invited by the school, supported the idea. Professor Jay Bergman questioned the lack of diversity on the panel. In response, two members of the African Studies department published a letter criticizing Bergman, saying, "The protests against reparations stand on the same platform that produced apartheid, Hitler and the KKK." Such a response, as professor Bergman says, is nothing less than intellectual thuggery.

For universities such as Columbia and Yale, military recruiters are unwelcome, but they welcome terrorists such as Columbia University's invitation to Col. Moammar Gadhafi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yale admitted former Taliban spokesman Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi as a student, despite his fourth-grade education and high school equivalency degree.

On other campuses, such as Lehigh, Central Michigan, Arizona, Holy Cross and California Berkeley universities, administrators banned students, staff and faculty from showing signs of patriotism after the 9/11 attacks. On some campuses, display of the American flag was banned; the Pledge of Allegiance and singing patriotic songs were banned out of fear of possibly offending foreign students.

Several university officials refused to be interviewed for the documentary. They wanted to keep their campus policies under wraps, not only from reporters but parents as well. When college admissions officials make their recruitment visits, they don't tell parents that their children will learn "whiteness is a form of racial oppression," or that they sponsor racially segregated orientations, dorms and graduation ceremonies. Parents and prospective students are kept in the dark.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has published "Choosing the Right College," to which I've written the introduction. The guide provides a wealth of information to help parents and students choose the right college.

Mortimer Adler - A Transformational Marxist

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:04:00 +0000

Mortimer Adler is known by many as the author of "How to Read a Book" (1940) which he coauthored with Charles Van Doren. It is considered the classic guide to intelligent reading. I have read the book recently and was recommending it as helpful preparation for home based college studies. My reasons, and the reasons other Biblical minded people recommend this book is based on its practical ideas for getting the most information and learning out of a book. "How to Read a Book" also includes a list of the classic works considered the foundation of western civilizations, which is helpful to the Christian toward understanding our times.

Last Friday, Dean Gotcher (AuthorityResearch.com) and his wife Karen were having supper at our home when I mention this as a book that I found helpful. Dean then pointed out that Mortimer Alder is a Transformational Marxist, which I later learned is a "slow march through the institutions" as a strategy for changing the world, popularized by Marxist Antonio Gramsi.

Dean also pointed out that Mortimer Adler founded the Aspen Institute

According to the Apen Institute website: Paepcke created what is now the Aspen Institute. He was a trustee of the University of Chicago, and his participation in its Great Books seminar, led by philosopher Mortimer Adler, inspired the Institute's Executive Seminar. The seminar is a forum based on the writings of great thinkers of the past and present. Through reading and discussing selections from the works of classic and modern writers, leaders better understand the human challenges facing the organizations and communities they serve. "The Executive Seminar was not intended to make a corporate treasurer a more skilled corporate treasurer," said Paepcke, "but to help a leader gain access to his or her own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and more self-fulfilling."

Understanding the history of western civilization does give people the tools to help transform society, toward their preferred worldview. Mortimer Adler apparently viewed having a Great Books understanding of western civilization as important for slowly implementing Marxism. Many Christians today see some of that same historical body of knowledge as valuable for Biblically discerning the times clearly enough to implement Biblical truths where errors have dominated.

I therefore see a need for someone, perhaps a home school or home college student interested in writing and worldview issues, to analyze "How to Read a Book" to discover and list any of its Marxist features and redeem the value of the book by taking its thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

Here is the entire book free online: How to Read a Book

Regarding the Tension between Home Schoolers and Public Schoolers

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:31:00 +0000

Home schooled parents and children sometimes feel a tension or unspoken resentment when in the presence of public schooled parents or children. If words were put to the thoughts occurring, the public schooled parents and children think: “You poor home schoolers just don’t know what you are missing with all the academic and social opportunities that are free at the local school! Your children are going to be social misfits and not be able to get good jobs. Who are you to think you can provide a real education when you haven’t even been to teacher’s college? You say you want freedom to teach your children, so you must be hiding something evil, because I’ve heard about child abuse and besides there is no other reason you could have for wanting such freedom.”

On the other hand, home schoolers may think with regard to their public school counterparts: “I am better than you because home schoolers do better on achievement tests. My son is smarter than your son and my school choice is better than your choice because my son is graduating from high school and starting college at age 16. We are also better than you because we are spending more time with our family.”

If you are familiar with 2 Corinthians 10:12, then you can see the root of the problem already.

For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. 2 Corinthians 10:12

Both sides with the above thoughts are guilty of the sin of comparison. The Bible does direct parents to home educate and all the statistics demonstrate the good fruit of home schooling in the areas of academic performance, and social behavior as well as success in college and careers. This success confirms the value of the underlying Biblical truths and the constitutional liberty understood by the founders of our country. However, this knowledge when coupled with comparisons and pride is destructive to individuals, families, churches and society, as evidenced in this tension and unspoken resentment between home schoolers and public schoolers.

Knowledge that is not thought, spoken, and presented through the Holy Spirit, in a loving context with the beauty of personal testimony (as gold in settings of silver) defaults to prideful comparisons and results in strife.

We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 1 Corinthians 8:1

By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Proverbs 25:11

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. 1 Peter 4:11a

With pride revealed as a cause of the tension between public schoolers and home schoolers, then the first step toward resolving this tension becomes personal repentance and humility before God. The truth is that one’s educational choice does not make one person better than another. In fact, the truth is that we are equal in God’s eyes and have nothing to boast about except our infirmities and Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The philosophies operating in the government school system are satanic at the root and destroying our country, which is an expected curse on a nation which has forsaken God. This has happened repeatedly in history as illustrated in 1 Kings and 2 Kings. It is the responsibility of Christians to understand our times, speak this truth in love, expect persecution if living godly, make disciples to Christ, and pray for Christians to awake to righteousness, which will necessitate home or Christian schools and an exodus from the public schools.

Home schoolers don’t need to compromise their convictions, they simply need to let Christ live through them, mind their own business and watch God answer their prayers. There will always be a tension and unspoken resentment between God and Satan as well as those following them and their agendas. As Dean Gotcher (AuthorityResearch.com) pointed out, the natural desire for peace between people with conflicting positions is understood by social engineers and is being deliberately used as a technique to lead Christians to compromise.

There will be true peace only when all people are in Christ. In the meantime, we have a secret to personal peace in the midst of the cultural conflict. That secret is to simply reckon our selves dead to the sin of comparison or other evil thoughts. The tension between home schoolers and public schoolers in the churches or the legislatures won’t bother any such “dead” homeschoolers as they teach and live the truth in love and allow their light to shine.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:11

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

The Brotherhood of Darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Biblical Concourse) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:46:00 +0000

"The Brotherhood of Darkness: The True Story Behind the Murder on the Orient Express" Dr. Stanley Monteith. It is impossible to understand the unfolding of world events without the information contained in this video. What was the origin of the Council on Foreign Relations, and what is its relationship to Freemasonry, Theosophy, Socialism and Communism? This video is felt by many researchers to be the best single source of information on the movements working to create a New World Order. No researcher, or seeker for the truth should be without a copy of this highly acclaimed presentation.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2866704516923817439&q=The+Brotherhood+of+Darkness Google Video

The Ron Paul epiphany

noreply@blogger.com (Dr Bartlett) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:08:00 +0000

Posted: September 10, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Vox Day
© 2007
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57545

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Judging by the sounds of the laughter of the other Republican candidates directed at their rival, Ron Paul has now reached the second of Mohandas K. Ghandi's four stages. It is still unlikely that he will win the nomination of a party which has proven it doesn't deserve him, but it is far less unlikely than it was back when Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain were still considered "electable" by most political observers. The candidates, never a particularly bright lot, may be laughing, but as the neocons and party leaders turn to Fred Thompson in desperation, more intelligent observers are not.

Why is there so much cheering for Ron Paul?

– Andy McCarthy, National Review, Sept. 5, 2007

The reason there is so much cheering for Ron Paul is that he is the only Republican who has staked out popular positions on the two most significant issues of the 2008 election cycle. He is anti-occupation and pro-border control. No amount of Bush administration spin is going to change the fact that "the surge" is strategically irrelevant, that the neocon's Democratic World Revolution is a total failure and that Mexico is being allowed to invade the United States. In short, Ron Paul is the only Republican whose positions on the two primary issues are different than Hillary Clinton's stance on them, and, more importantly, are more credible and more popular than Hillary Clinton's. He is the only Republican whose nomination can realistically be considered a potential impediment to what otherwise looks like a Democratic landslide.

The Gay Old Party's leadership, which is far more interested in propositioning interns and policemen than the Constitution, hates Ron Paul and quite rightly feels threatened by him. But their incessant spreading of fear, uncertainty and doubt regarding his candidacy is no more believable than a Microsoft treatise on Linux. In fact, I surmise that most of the top Republicans would prefer a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton presidency to a Paul one. This may be why they have drafted the sluggish, uncharismatic Thompson; Giuliani, Romney and McCain are so obviously unelectable that none of them can even manage to put themselves in a position to get run over by Hillary in November.

When a thousand Republicans are in a room and one man of the eight on the stage takes a sharply minority viewpoint on a dramatic issue and half the room seems to cheer him, something's going on.

– Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 7, 2007

What's going on is the same as in 1976 and 1980, the Republican peasantry is rebelling against the choices that their lords and masters have laid before them. This is not merely a threat to the Republican leadership, but to the very concept of the bifactional ruling party that rules America in a "bipartisan" spirit. Ron Paul threatens the notion of politics as a team sport; his focus on actual constitutional principles makes him equally appealing to anti-occupation, pro-border Democrats as to anti-occupation, pro-border Republicans. That's why he is the only candidate in either party whose support ranges from devout Christian conservatives to gay, peacenik Ralph Nader fans.

Between now and November 2008, many Americans will experience the Ron Paul epiphany, in which the scales will fall from their eyes, and they will suddenly realize that they do not want the nation to continue in the direction that George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Fred Thompson, Hussein Osama and Rudy McRomney all intend on taking it. At this point, a 1976 scenario looks far more likely than a 1980 one, but then, few pundits thought Ron Paul would still require consideration at this point in the campaign.

The choice is simple. If you want to live under an EU-style regime that is intent on invading and occupying other countries in the name of democracy for the forseeable future, vote for any of the so-called major candidates. It doesn't matter which one. There is no significant difference between President Bush and Sen. Clinton, or between Sen. Thompson and Sen. Obama. If, on the other hand, you wish to live in a nation where the United States government is governed by the Constitution, you had better support Ron Paul. This may be your only opportunity, for it is entirely possible that this will be the last time such a choice is presented to you.