BJ Not BK

 Joe has a great discussion going on over at Son of Liberty [link] as it relates to the Civil War.  I wanted to jump in but was moved instead to write this as a side note.

Let me first state that I have a large gap in my learning as it relates to the Civil War.  I have read the Red Bad of Courage, I have watched Gone With the Wind, I passed 7th grade, I have read the Gettysburg Address, I have heard Hand Williams Jr. sing "If the South would have won we'd have it made," and I once saw a Time Life commercial for a set of Civil War encyclopedias.  That is pretty much the extent of my Civil War history.  I can't provide dates of battles, recite long and moving passages from Generals and I have never been to nor participated in a battle reenactment.

 With that being said I believe I have all the authority I need to bring the heat.

The Civil War did nothing to end slavery.  While the debate rages on as to why the war was fought, what started the war, the results of the war and on an on and on I must say that the war did nothing to end slavery.  The physical abolition of enslaving one another was ended but man's heart was not freed by North vs. South.

Secular Humanism states that man is good.  Man is the end.  Reason is king and if we can just learn enough, if we can just educate enough, if we can just convince people enough then the world will be right, all will be well, peace will reign.  We live in a world where authority is looked upon as something negative and where the highest goal and the greatest right of mankind is total freedom which is a complete contradiction in terms.  There is no such thing as complete freedom just as there is no such thing as a free lunch or free love.  There is always an attachment, a tie, a cost.

Isn't it funny how Jesus never once preached about changing the government?  Abolishing slavery?  Removing the law?  Reforming the tax code?  Instead He preached to obey the government as it is ordained by God, if you are a slave then work as hard as you can for your master that you might win him over to Christ, if you are a master to lord over your people with love and compassion and when you are asked to pay taxes do so!

We have the notion that freedom from authority will bring happiness, peace, fulfillment.  

Ravi Zacharias once stated that we have freedoms in

technology - that man can fly across the globe in hours
industry - we can change jobs and skill sets
education - has freed our minds
electronics - have opened us up to new experiences
medicine-has freed us from sickness
chemistry-has freed us from our emotions
psychiatry- has freed us from our guilt
and Art - has freed us from our creativity

Yet today education has become a treadmill, drugs have enslaved us, anarchy reigns, laws have become repressive.

Doesn't sound much like freedom to me.

Social programs only cater to specific symptoms. The truth is that the origin of man's heart if black and no amount of social programs, political speeches, laws, classes, wars will ever free the enslaved mind and heart.  There is only one who can do that and that is Jesus Christ.

The Civil War did nothing to end slavery, in fact we are still enslaved to it today.  Just look at the hearts of those whose ancestors who were in bondage and those who put them in chains. 

No, only Christ can make heal, only Christ can change a man's heart, only Christ can make us new creations born from above. 

Only Christ can free us  "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  John 8:31-32