Unto. I appreciate the response. And I understand your goals for this forum.
And in a sense, I have always thought that too much digging into other things besides the care for those in the LRC or who have come out and need help finding their way in what seems a foreign land is a way to displace our true usefulness.
But as long as this topic is going to be discussed, it should be discussed, not danced around.
I went back through some of the earliest posts in the thread and what is happening now was happening then. I will quote a little from a post (no names — I am not calling integrity or intentions into question)
Quote:
The perspective I held about the founding of America, one that I was taught in school, has changed significantly over the last few years.
(The fact is that none of us human beings can say with certainty that we have the correct perspective on historical matters. We weren’t there in the early years of America's history and no one from that era remains that can answer our questions. Our only source of information is written materials. And, as is true with knowing the Bible, we should do our own research, homework, etc. to see if the things we have heard are so.)
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And I agree with this. The "history" of the founding of the country is both sound and unclear. We know the main stories, but not "the rest of the story." And we never will.
But while we may not be able to declare certainty about the intents or all facts surrounding the founding of the nation, we can assess the claims of special satuts with God against the scripture. No, the name America will not be found one way or the other. But we can reasonably determine whether the promises and conditions were unique to Israel, or an open formula for anyone to use later on. And at least part of that assessment will surround whether it was Israel that proposed a basis for gaining favored-nation status, or God specifically chose them for a purpose and put rules upon them — rules, it might be seen in hindsight, that were designed to cure them of the problem of taking on the religions of the nations around them, and the people who still lived among them from former nations.
And if we actually conclude that the formula is open for claiming by another (like the US) then there might be a basis for viewing the warnings against the apostasy and idolatry of the children of Israel and applying them to us.
So, as cold have been suggested by the writer above, we should turn to our Bibles (rather than to the book of Cahn). What does scripture actually say on the subject?
But since it appears that the book of Cahn has spoken on at least some of the premises, it behooves someone who has read it to provide the basis. Not just jump to the conclusions that would follow if the basis was correct. When the thread was started over a year ago, one of the persons supporting this position declined. Another did not have the time (and I believe that to be true). But the refusal remains. There is no discussion without something to discuss. At this point, we are bantering over presumptions. And that is on both sides.