1992 Issue 3 - Sermons on Zechariah: Oil and Light - Counsel of Chalcedon
1992 Issue 10 - Book Review: The South Was Right - Counsel of Chalcedon
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Transcript of 1992 Issue 10 - Book Review: The South Was Right - Counsel of Chalcedon
7/27/2019 1992 Issue 10 - Book Review: The South Was Right - Counsel of Chalcedon
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coVenants prior to Christ
were
marked
by antidpation and administered
by
foreshadows of the Savior,
while
the
jjlJ6Dment
or substance came in
peISOn
and redemptive work of Christ, who
established the New Covenant today in
the imemational church of
Christ.
(ro
BE
CONI1NUED)
Further Investigation
For further swdies regarding God or
covenant theology on
tape
-
especially
"The
Distinctives of
the
Reformed Faith"
--
write foracatalog from
CovenantTape
Minisny,24198Ash
Court,
Auburn,
CA
95603.
To receive Dr.Bahnsen
's
free
monthly
newsletter, Penpoint, write
to
Southern
California Center for Christian Studies,
P. O. Box
18021,
Irvine, CA
92713.
yron Snapp
ook Review
During the recent upheaval within
theformerSovietUnionmanywondered
i
Russia,
their largest state, would take
actionagainstthemuchsmaUerdi.s9mting
states. How would world opinionhave
reactedifthe Russianmilitary hadmoved
into
Georgia
or the Uktaine and opened .
fire on the dissidents?
This
possibility
caused me
to
thinkaboutan
event
on our
own. oil a little over a
centUlyago.
The War
Between the States gives
us
thisscenario. TheSouthernstatesthought
they had every right to
secede
from the
Union and establish their own country
''theConfederateStatesofAmerica. They
put their
beliefs
into actions.
The
Union
took the position
th t
individual
states
couldnotseCede fromthe Union Putting
theirbeliefs imo action, they invaded the
South. Theyviewedtheconflictasadvil
war.
The South saw it as one nation
invading another nation without any
warrant for so
doing.
The South Was ight
by James R
Kennedy
and Walter
D. Kenny
(land
and
Land
,
P.O
.
Box 1921
Baton
Rouge,
La. 70821 Ph. (504)344-1059 $19.95
$2.00 shipping and handling 210 pp.,
including addendum and
index
hb.)
providesuswith
excellemmaterial
tonot
only more correctly interpret
our own
history, but to also have a better
understanding of current events both
here and abroad.
The
authors show the
reader
that
much of he history taught regarding the
WarBetWeen the
States is
a myth. They
believeithasbeenwrittenfromaNorthem.
perspective. Did
the South
fight
the War
to preserve slavery? The authors
point
out that
"75%
to 90% of
the Coufederate
soldiers and sailors were NOT slave
owners"Cp
.16). Was
the
SoUthbetter
off
as a result of losing the War?
Many
students are taught that this is
true.
Yet
we
must look at the facts:
..
one year
after
the
War the
state
of
Mississippi
allotted one fifth of it's revenues
for
the
purchase of artificial anns and
legs
...it
wasnotuntil1951 thatthe taxable assets
of the state of Georgia surpassed the
value
of
1860"(p.18).
Examining the 1980 census the
authors report that 'The
U.S.
Census
Bureau
found
thatthepovertyrateforthe
South was 20% higher than the nation
as
a
whole. All
the
states
with the
highest
poverty evelswerein theSouth,whereas,
a of the states with the lowest
poverty
rates
were in the North"(p. 20).
The
authors believe
this
poverty is traceable
totheimpoverisbmentofthesouthduring
and after the War.
KennedyandKennycontend that the
Northwasinvolvedinslaveryandheavily
involved in the slave rrade. They point
outthattheNorthernersenslavedIndians
andprolitablyshippedthemtoCaribbean
islands.
"The Yankee slave commerce
was to continue legally until 1808 and
illegally until the War for Southern
Independence" (p.35). You may
well
be
surprised to learn of the first
state
that
6
THE
COUNSEL
of
ChaIcedon November,
992
attempted to prohibit the importation of
slaves as
well
as
how
slaves were
freed
in
the North
Northern acrocities upon the South
during the War
are recoumed.
These
atrodties continued in a
different way
following the War.
The
North set the
tenns by
which
Southernstates
could be
readmitted
to
the
Union.
The
authors
remind us that
this was the "same Union
from which the North had previously
s id we could
not
withdraw "
(p.80).
Local
governmental
power began
to
be
replaced increasingly by a powerful
centralgovernment. We continue
to
see
this
growth of power and its · esults
throughout society
today.
The
authors contend that
the
South
w s right in
its
stand and it's fight. But
neither
the
authors nor this
reviewer
support Southew
slavery
.
The
warwas
not fought over slavery. It was fought
over
the issue ofsovereignty. Does such
sovereignty
rest in individual states by
the consent of the
governed,
or
does
it
rest in a powerful central government?
The North's victory
paved
the way
for a
strong central gOvernment. .
Ahigblightofthisveryreadablebook
is the
amount of
research
that
is made
available
to
the
reader. Although many
quotations
are given, hviU
ouIymention
aquote ofAbraham UncoIn in the 1847
Congressional Record "Any people
whatever have
a right to
abolish
the
existinggovemment
andform anew
one
that suits
them better"
(p.145).
Addendum sections include the
Constitution
of
the Confederate States
of
America and
it's comparison
with the
U.S .SenateandDavis' inaugural
address
as President of the Confederate State of
America.
TheauthorstracetheSouth'sposition
on
secession
to John Milton and John
Locke.
1
believe this
is a
drawback to the
book. Actually the understanding of
civil
govemmE;ll.t and the governedmust
be traced back to the triune God. While
a
development
ofthis thought
is
beyond
7/27/2019 1992 Issue 10 - Book Review: The South Was Right - Counsel of Chalcedon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/1992-issue-10-book-review-the-south-was-right-counsel-of-chalcedon 2/2
the scope of
his
review, somespacemust
be given to this
concept.
Within the Trinity we have the
solution of the problem regarding the
importance of the one and the many.
God
is
one
God, yet He exists in three
persons. Narurnllywe cannot
saywhich
member of the
God
head is most
important.
U
members
are equal.
Yet
each member of the Godhead has an
important
role
in
salvation. The Father
elects a
people
to be
saved. The
eternal
Son took on human i1esh and lived and
died to redeem the
elect.
The
Holy Spirit
opens the sinners hean to the
Gospel
andappliessalvationtoourlife.Applying
this
to
dvil government
one cannot
say
that the
cenlml
government
is
most
important or
that
local government
is
most important.
U.s.
Civil
government,
as
a result of Christian iniluence,
is
a
covenantalgovernmeru.
Themanystates
representing
the
dtizens within
them,
freely entered into a covenantal
relationship with a central government
giving,
by
means of
the
Constirution,
certainpowers to
the
centralgovernment
When
those
powers
were
abused the
states understood that
having
freely
entered into the relationship they
could
withdraw from tas aresult ofthe
central
government
encroaching
on
the powers
ofthe state, thus breaking the covenantal
relationship. Bytheirrefusaltoallowthis
action to occur unhindered the North
was
insisting that the Union,
(the
One)
is
all important.
Thus
a failure to properly
understand the relationship between the
one
and the many
has
resulted in
an
acquiescenceto theruledofaevergrowing
central
govemment.
In proposing a remedy the authors
rightly point out the imponance of
becoming
involved
in
ocal
government.
Ibelieve they
are
right in stating that
too
much emphasis isplaced on the national
level
to
the neglect of the local political
contests.
However their remedy
is
too
man-<:entered.
Regarding the South's
economic
development
they write,
We
must look
to ourselves
for oureconomic
salvation: (p.137) I
do
not believe we
can trace all ofour economic woes
to
the
War Between the
States.
We in the South
as well as
those in the North are inmany
instances covenant
breakers with God.
For
example
we have abortion
clinics.
Pornography exists in the South.
Deuteronomy 28 clearly teaches that a
nation cannot
continually
sin against
God without sever economic
consequences.
The book's drawbacks do not hinder
it from being avaluable resource
for the
discerning reading. I profited much
from the authors' research and believe
you will
also .n
Royer Schultz
ook Review
JohnEidsmoe,
Columbus andCortez
Conquerors orChrist(GreenForest,AR:
New Leaf Press, 1992) $9.95. 304 pp.
Index.
Endnotes.
Columbus and Cortez is
an
excellent
andtimelyworkforthe5OOthanniversary
of Columbus'
voyage.
Heavy
attacks
on
Columbusandhislegacybythepolitically
correct have badly distorted the
real
explorer. nd as
Eidsmoe
shows,
such
attacks are actually thinly veiled
challenges
to
the
Westem
tradition and,
in particular, to Christianity.
Columbus and Cortez will help set
the record straight Eidsmoe discusses
the motivations of
European
explorers
and conquerors, drawing on passages in
theirjournalsthathistorianseitherignore
or radically reinterpret.
He
is also candid
about the problems and inconsistencies
of the
Spanish,
showing that
they
were
sinnersand hadvaried
motivation,
such
as
wealth, fame, and power. But he
correctly insists that their Christian
convictions
mustalso be taken seriously.
The
book begins with excellent
background chapters on the Norseman
and Islam. Eidsmoe describesthefaith of
new convert Leif Ericsson who,
commissionedby the king of Norway to
evangelize Greenland, stumbled unto
America. The struggle between
Christianity and paganism within the
Viking
community is
fascinating, as is
the history of
the
church in Greenland.
Find out what Greenlanders used in
place
of wine in communion and the
unique
way Mrs
. Eric the Red tried to
conven her husband.
The
mainchallenge to Christianity at
the time ofColumbus' birth was Islam,
an
aggressive,
militaristic religion
pledged
to world domination. In 1492 Spain
scored a decisive victory of
Mohammadanism, taking the Moorish
stronghold at Granada, and became the
bastion of
ctUSading
Christianity.
Columbus' voyage
was
inspired by
this crusading spirit. Sailing west in
1492,
he hoped to outllank Muslims in
the east. He earmarked gold discovered
on
the
voyage for recapturingJerusalem.
A devout Christian, Columbus was
concerned about the spirirual condition
of "Indians" In the Caribbean and
encouraged
their
evangelization.
MostinterestingisthewayColumbuS
saw his work
fitting
into God's plan. He
believed
that the Lord had shown him
the way
to
America.
He
made much of
hisname, Christopher(mearting"Christ
bearer"),andbelievedhisvoyagesfulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah (e.g., Is 49:6).
Eidsmoe does anexcellent jobofshowing
Columbusasasincereandcourageous-
iftanenandsomewhat driven-Medieval
Christian.
Cortez
was
the
same
type
of man.
Despite his reputation
as
a blood-thirsty
conquistador, Conez
evangelized
and
sought friendly relations with the tribes
he encountered. His conquest
was
successful largely because he made
alliances with oppressed Indians who
CONrlNUEDON P GE 4
November,
992
THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon 7