Welcome to Rare Jewel Magazine!
Rare Jewel Magazine is inspired by Proverbs 20:15, "Lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel."
Thank you for joining us as we journey down a path to educate ourselves about the important issues of our day, with special emphasis on analyzing these issues in light of the Christian principles our Founding Fathers built into the foundation of the United States of America. The Great Experiment undertaken by our Founding Fathers worked, in a huge way. Our nation has become the most prosperous and free society in all of history. But do we understand why? Do we understand the impact that today's critical issues will have on our country's foundation and our future potential?
Romans 1:18-25 certainly speaks of the time in which we now live, "Men who suppress the truth...although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...they exchanged the truth of God for a lie." Similarly, we read in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
The issues are confusing and the thought of being able to make a difference is often overwhelming. Rare Jewel Magazine will help you cut through the misinformation to form accurate conclusions based on facts. We are dedicated to helping you understand the truth about our nation's heritage. We will provide you with practical knowledge so you can articulate in a clear manner the facts about controversial topics such as separation of church and state, judicial activism, abortion, same-sex unions, Creation versus Evolution, public education, and more. We desire to help you make a difference in your circle of influence and play a role in restoring our nation's Christian heritage.
We Want to Hear From You
Let us know how well we are doing in providing you the information you need to be an empowered citizen, armed with knowledge about our nation's true heritage and the important issues of our day. Please send us an email with your thoughts and comments. If you wish to "sound-off" on any topic, or comment on an article, address your email to letters@rarejewelmag.com. We will select the best "Reader-to-Reader" comments for publication.
Warm Regards,
Tim & Janette Ewing
tim@rarejewelmag.com
janette@rarejewelmag.com
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Publisher's Letter: A Little Sleep, A Little Slumber
by Tim Ewing, Publisher/Editorial Director
In the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 34) we read about Judah's King Josiah and his massive restoration project on a building that held huge historical significance for his people, the temple of the Lord (originally built by King Solomon). The King gave money to fund the project, hire carpenters, builders, masons, and to purchase dressed stone and timber for joists and beams "that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin" (v. 11).
During the work effort, Judah's high priest "found the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been given through Moses" (v. 14). The Book was immediately brought to Josiah and read aloud. "When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes" (v. 19). We find in verse 27 that Josiah's "heart was responsive" and that he "humbled and wept in [God's] presence". This is the reaction of a man who suddenly realized that his nation's very important heritage and foundation had shamefully become a forgotten past. He immediately led his countrymen to renew their relationship with God, instituted dramatic reforms, and returned their culture to the original foundation that had been established for their nation.
I remember as a youth that I was so astonished at how the Israelites could have lost the Book of the Law. How could such an important book have been disregarded for so long that its very existence was forgotten? These descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had such a rich heritage including many awesome displays of God's power and divine intervention to establish and prosper them. Less than 400 years had passed from the time of David until Josiah. How could a nation with so many heroes of faith, who were so dedicated in their devotion to God (e.g. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah, David), discard so easily their heritage, their foundation, and the value system upon which their nation was founded?
Is the United States of America really any different than the Israelites of Josiah's day? Where is the emphasis on gaining knowledge of our own heritage, of our founding value-systems, of understanding why our nation has become the most prosperous and free society of all time? Who takes the time to read the writings of our Founding Fathers or to make an effort to understand their original intent inherent in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Who even reads these documents, let alone studies their meaning and context?
More astonishing than the Israelites who abandoned their rich heritage over a 400-year period is that our own country has done the same thing in just 200 years! We have abandoned our roots. It is no longer a priority to instill in our children and grandchildren (and ourselves!) knowledge of our nation's true history. What do we remember about the courageous acts of our Founding Fathers: their words, their selfless commitment to posterity, their reliance on God during the Revolutionary War and Constitutional Conventions, and their purposeful infusion of Christian principles into the government of our nation? Perhaps Josiah's response is in order. We could use some weeping and humbleness before God.
We should be distraught about the degradation of our nation's Christian roots, and equally troubled about the loss-and often outright rejection-of our Founders' vision of a very limited federal government, their emphasis on promoting a strong moral ethic among the citizenry, and their commitment to self-sacrifice for the benefit of future generations.
Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV), "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them."
In the Bible God continually exhorts us to "remember" our heritage and His active intervention in our lives and all nations. If we forget to keep our eyes on Him, then we forget from whose Hand we receive our benefits. A good place to begin our recollection is to read how our Founders felt about God's Divine intervention in establishing America (see "Precious Gems").
Endeavor to learn our nation's history, including our original form of government, and how these relate to the important issues of our day, (e.g. abortion, marriage, public education, our bankrupt federal government). It will take hard work and great commitment; restoration projects always do. Remember-and do your part to help restore the Christian heritage of our great nation. As monarch, Josiah was responsible to lead his nation. In our democratic republic, "We the People" own the responsibility to lead our nation. Consider wise Solomon's warning:
"I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man" (Proverbs 24:30-34, NIV).
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Reining in the Federal Judiciary
by Nathan Paul Mehrens
Nathan Paul Mehrens, Esq. is General Counsel for a conservative watchdog organization located in the Washington, DC area. Nathan practices primarily in the area of 1st Amendment law specific to free speech in campaigns.
"The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scarecrow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one."
This prophetic statement by Thomas Jefferson in 1821 could have been made today-as fact. Jefferson, concerned about increasing federal judicial power, would be horrified today. Jefferson's ideal of limited judicial power is a faint memory of a bygone era. Modern intellectuals know Jefferson more for a misunderstanding of his explanation that government wasn't to control religion, creating the misnomer "separation of church and state", than for strong views that courts are not the forum to create policy. (read the complete article)
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A Federal Judiciary in Crisis
by David Barton
David Barton is the Founder and President of WallBuilders, a national pro-family organization which distributes historical, legal, and statistical information.WallBuilders seeks to energize the grassroots today to rebuild that which makes America strong-its constitutional, moral, and religious foundations.
This year's federal elections should be viewed through no other light than what a presidential or a senatorial candidate will do with judges. Do citizens want judges who believe in the Constitution and its unique American values, or do they want judges who rely on international precedents? They need to vote for a president and senators accordingly. (read the complete article)
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In His Own Words: Chief Justice Roy Moore
by Chief Justice Roy Moore
Moore received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1969 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and served as a Captain in the U. S. Army in Vietnam. He completed his law degree in 1977 at the University of Alabama School of Law. He is married to wife, Kayla, and they have four children. Moore was elected the 28th Chief Justice to the Alabama Supreme Court in November of 2000 where he gained national attention when he refused to obey an unlawful order to remove the 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument that he had placed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building, six months after taking office.
In the United States there are people up to something right under your noses, and you don't know it. There are people that are going to take away the rights and freedoms that we enjoy in this country if we don't do something about it. You say, "What can be wrong? We've got everything we need here; we've been blessed." We certainly have been blessed. God has richly blessed this nation, but if we don't wake up to what this nation is about, we are going to lose it.
It is time for citizens to wake up to what the U.S. Constitution is all about-to understand it is about limitation of power, not the seizure of power. We are seeing the Federal Judiciary come into your homes, into your communities, and say, "You can't do this anymore because it acknowledges God." What is wrong with the acknowledgement of God in a country founded upon the acknowledgement of God? (read the complete article)
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A Modern-Day Daniel: Chief Justice Moore
by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq.
Douglas W. Phillips is a constitutional attorney, the president of Vision Forum Ministries, and the founder and director of the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy, which for five years has been responsible for training law students, judges, pastors, and attorneys in biblical principles of jurisprudence and statesmanship.
The American legal establishment has strange priorities. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way covenant keepers and covenant breakers are treated by the political elites within the system. When a former President of the United States shattered his marriage covenant, disgraced his office, and broke at least two of the Ten Commandments by committing adultery in the oval office and then bearing false witness to the people of the United States, the most trusted and high ranking legislators in our nation found him not guilty of crimes sufficient to remove him from office. When Chief Justice Roy Moore defended all ten of the Ten Commandments, he was charged with ethical violations. (read the complete article)
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Required Reading: Original Intent: The Courts, The Constitution, and Religion
Author: David Barton
Published: 2000 by WallBuilder Press, Aledo, Tx.
"On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." ? Thomas Jefferson (June 12, 1823; letter to Supreme Court Justice William Johnson).
"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it." ? Justice James Wilson
Barton's approach in writing Original Intent was to document all his data and base his conclusions on original-source material. Rather than rely on contemporary "authorities" who speak and write about the Founders, Barton pursued the practice of "best evidence." He lets the Founders speak for themselves by referencing almost 1,400 citations from over 400 different works. This allows the skeptical reader to avail him/herself of the opportunity to confirm both the accuracy of the quotes used throughout the book and the context in which they were originally made. (read the complete article)
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The Rule of Law vs. The Rules of Law
by Matt Chancey
Matt Chancey works as a public relations manager for a technology company in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he lives with his wife and five children. Matt has been involved in politics since he was a teenager and teaches civics classes for homeschoolers, focusing on the duty of Christians to participate in local, state, and national government.
When Chief Justice Roy Moore stood before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, he was charged with several violations of judicial ethics. All the violations centered on Moore's refusal to comply with a federal court order to remove a monument honoring the Ten Commandments from his judicial building in Montgomery. The Chief Justice's defense was that he disobeyed an "unlawful" order by the federal courts. Since the Chief Justice swore an oath to defend the law, he could not obey an order that he believed violated the law. But the Court of the Judiciary was not in the least concerned with "why" Moore rejected the federal court order. The Court was chiefly concerned with the fact that Moore violated the "established rules of law," which the Court interpreted to mean the abject subservience of state courts to federal courts. (read the complete article)
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The Inevitability of Inseparability: Church and State
by Virginia C. Armstrong, Ph.D.
Dr. Armstrong is the president of the Blackstone Institute and National Chairman of Eagle Forum's Court Watch. She writes and speaks widely on the Constitution, jurisprudence, and Christian apologetics.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." -United States Constitution, First Amendment
During the last two years, America's federal courts have rendered a spate of unprecedented, unconstitutional decisions. Courts have rejected the Pledge of Allegiance, the public display of the Ten Commandments, and state sodomy laws. Other federal courts are considering challenges to the new federal partial-birth abortion ban. The first ever serious challenge to the Supreme Court's 1973 decision Roe v. Wade is pending before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. At the heart of all these controversies is the clash between the Judeo-Christian and Humanistic worldviews, each of which rests on a set of religious principles. This fundamental clash has, however, been obscured by the deceptive argument of Humanists that Judeo-Christian values must be excised from public policy in order to avoid violation of the "separation of church and state" requirement. Major truths about this separation "myth" are summarized here. (read the complete article)
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Should Christians Get Involved?
by Jeff Myers, Ph.D.
Dr. Myers is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts at Bryan College and President of the Myers Institute for Leadership and Communication, which equips future leaders to have a culture-shaping influence.
Maybe you don't trust the government. Maybe you just aren't interested in civic concerns. But beware! Your lack of interest could lead to a vicious cycle:
- If you aren't interested, you won't get involved.
- If you don't get involved, your interests are not represented.
- Because you are not represented, you have no voice.
- Because you have no voice, you lose interest and you lose even more trust.
And on and on it goes, until you become politically irrelevant. It's not just a failure to vote that is the problem. When was the last time you picked up a newspaper to study a political issue? Or wrote a letter to an elected official or to the newspaper editor? As Christians, we must constantly ask ourselves, "Are we doing everything we can to exercise our rights and privileges as citizens?" (read the complete article)
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Precious Gems: Founding Fathers Acknowledge God's Divine Intervention in America
"The Declaration of Independence was a dual declaration: a Declaration of Independence from Britain and a Declaration of Dependence on God." [1]
July 4, 1776: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." - Last line of the Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776: Thomas Jefferson proposed a seal to characterize the spirit of our new nation: "The children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night."
November 1, 1777: Congress approved this national proclamation: "Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to Him for benefits received and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of...[to offer] humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot [our sins] out of remembrance...and to prosper the means of religion."
October 18, 1780, after Benedict Arnold's traitorous plan was exposed, Congress distributed this proclamation throughout the Colonies: "Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, amidst the vicissitudes [changes] and calamities of war, to bestow blessings on the people of these States which call for their devout and thankful acknowledgments, more especially in the late remarkable interposition of his watchful providence in rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief and the army from imminent dangers at the moment when treason was ripened for execution....It is therefore recommended to the several States...a day of public thanksgiving and prayer; that all the people may assemble on that day to celebrate the praises of our Divine Benefactor; to confess our unworthiness of the least of his favors, and to offer our fervent supplications to the God of all grace...to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth."
October 24, 1781: After the British troops laid down their arms upon losing the decisive Battle of Yorktown, Congress set aside time to honor God for the victory: "Congress will at two o'clock this day go in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church and return thanks to Almighty God for crowning the allied arms of the United States and France with success by the surrender of the whole British Army under command of the Earl Cornwallis."
October 18, 1783: Upon hearing that the formal peace treaty with Great Britain was signed, Congress distributed this proclamation among the states: "Whereas it hath pleased the Supreme Ruler of all human events to dispose the hearts of the late belligerent powers to put a period to the effusion of human blood by proclaiming a cessation of all hostilities by sea and land....And whereas in the progress of a contest on which the most essential rights of human nature depended, the interposition [act of intervention] of Divine Providence in our favor hath been most abundantly and most graciously manifested, and the citizens of these United States have every reason for praise and gratitude to the God of their salvation. Impressed, therefore with an exalted sense of the blessings by which we are surrounded and of our entire dependence on that Almighty Being from whose goodness and bounty they are derived, the United States in Congress assembled, do recommend it to the several States...a day of public thanksgiving that all the people may then assemble to celebrate with grateful hearts and united voices the praises of their Supreme and all bountiful Benefactor for his numberless favors and mercies...and above all that he hath been pleased to continue to us the light of the blessed Gospel and secured to us in the fullest extent the rights of conscience in faith and worship."
Endnotes:
[1] Quote from David Barton, in: David Barton, Original Intent: The Courts, The Constitution, and Religion, 3rd Edition (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 2000), 100. Note: all quotes in this article are found on pages 100 ? 110. Bold italics used for emphasis.
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