Begin at the beginning
Tuesday, March 29th, 2005I began the Rudiments Handbook this week. The SDS is a great start but I need to truly transform my thinking and get a better grasp of what it means to think and reason according to the Word of God. The Handbook states four purposes (in my paraphrasing):
1) to implant the Christian idea of man and government, based on theimportance of individual character and internal government2)to inspire productivity and encourage diligence3) to gain freedom from pagan thinking and instill biblical reasoning4) to claim my heritage of the American Christian Republic and to take my place on the chain of Christianity, furthering the Gospel
There are weekly definitions and volumes of 4-R'ing to be done and I'm glad they label them in the margins for me to get in the habit.The questions are challenging. This week I am beginning at the beginning, dealing with the questions Noah Webster, the Father of American Education, says are critical to know before I can perform any rational reasoning. He says
1) to implant the Christian idea of man and government, based on theimportance of individual character and internal government2)to inspire productivity and encourage diligence3) to gain freedom from pagan thinking and instill biblical reasoning4) to claim my heritage of the American Christian Republic and to take my place on the chain of Christianity, furthering the Gospel
There are weekly definitions and volumes of 4-R'ing to be done and I'm glad they label them in the margins for me to get in the habit.The questions are challenging. This week I am beginning at the beginning, dealing with the questions Noah Webster, the Father of American Education, says are critical to know before I can perform any rational reasoning. He says
Now reasoning, unaided by revelation, cannot answer these questions. The
experience of the Pagan world has long since proven this point. Revelation alone
furnishes satisfactory information on these subjects....In all that regards
faith and practice, the scriptures furnish the principles, precepts and rules by
which you are to be guided....all rational hope of future happiness depends on
an exact conformity of conduct to the commands of God revealed in the sacred
oracles.
These questions are:
Who made me?
Why was I made?
What is my duty?
Why was I made?
What is my duty?
I will spend the week 4-R'ing and pondering these important questions. I really am asking the Holy Spirit to guide me into Truth, for as Scripture says the Spirit of the Lord brings liberty and knowledge of the Truth liberates.
I am beginning the Handbook while I wait for my first installment of the Pilgrim Institute's Rudiments Correspondence Course to arrive. (Yea!!) When that comes I'll dive right in.
P.s. If you have FACE's hist/geog curriculum guide you can use the 8th grade rudiments outline as a guide. It's really very helpful. Or you can go by the outline in Rose's A Guide to American Christian Education.
P.s. If you have FACE's hist/geog curriculum guide you can use the 8th grade rudiments outline as a guide. It's really very helpful. Or you can go by the outline in Rose's A Guide to American Christian Education.
