The Earth is Flat!!...? No it’s round. I'm sure. I think...

**Research & this Blog ongoing...

The Earth is Flat!!...? No it’s round.Where's my alchemist?

 February 13, 1633: Astronomer Galileo on trial for saying Earth revolved around the sun

April 12, 1633: Galileo is convicted of heresy On April 12, 1633, chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculani da Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/galileo-is-convicted-of-heresy

October 31, 1992: After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right It took the Catholic Church 350 years to admit they were wrong...

IF renewable energy / Green New Deal is bogus, how long will it take the world to admit it? 

Can it ever?

Why eco-leftists are suddenly turning on Michael Moore??
https://nypost.com/2020/05/02/why-eco-leftists-are-suddenly-turning-on-michael-moore/    

The Earth is Flat!!...? No it’s round.

February 13, 1633: Astronomer Galileo on trial for saying Earth revolved around the sun

April 12, 1633: Galileo is convicted of heresy

On April 12, 1633, chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculani da Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/galileo-is-convicted-of-heresy

October 31, 1992: After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right

It took the Catholic Church 350 years to admit they were wrong,

IF renewable energy / Green New Deal is bogus, how long will it take the world to admit it?

Can it ever?

Why eco-leftists are suddenly turning on Michael Moore
https://nypost.com/2020/05/02/why-eco-leftists-are-suddenly-turning-on-michael-moore/

“The environmental movement has basically become a religion, or rather a kind of hybrid between religion and political ideology.”

Thilo Spahl: “You founded Greenpeace 40 years ago; today you fight Greenpeace. What went wrong in the meantime?”

Patrick Moore: “Much has gone wrong over the years. In summary: when Greenpeace started, it was not just about the environment, but also about the people. ‘Green’ stood for the environment and ‘Peace’ for ending the threat of global nuclear war and the destruction of human civilisation.
Over the years, Greenpeace drifted to where the organisation now characterises people as the enemies of the earth. This is a very different approach and not one I wanted to join. Human beings are part of the earth.”

Environmentalism has become a religion—2014
Patrick Moore, founder of Greenpeace
https://www.spiked-online.com/2014/05/19/environmentalism-has-become-a-religion/

“What we have been calling green, renewable energy and industrial civilization are one and the same thing - desperate measures not to save the planet but to save our way of life,"

Planet of the Humans—2020
Jeff Gibbs // Michael Moore
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE

Michael Moore Just Declared War on the Climate Movement

“What we’re trying to get across is the larger point that it doesn’t even matter if they’re 100 percent efficient,” Gibbs said of renewables. “The story is that they're still part of a giant industrial civilization that consumes resources.”
https://nypost.com/2020/05/02/why-eco-leftists-are-suddenly-turning-on-michael-moore/

Renewables?

Nearly half of ALL renewable? Depletes natural resources

Largest percentage of all renewable “green” energy comes from biomass products; trees, plants, animals

Rather than being carbon neutral, biomass is liquidating millions of tons of irreplaceable carbon stocks in the midst of a climate crisis already out of control.

ALL renewable energy forms consume resources, are inefficient (no more than 20% efficiency), and produce dangerous toxic waste & bi-product
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/renewable-sources/

Green Economics — Religion to Reality
https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2012/number/3/article/green-growth.html

Bloomberg “Renewable Energy”
--Wind
--Solar
--Other (yet other comprises nearly half, and the majority is biomass—trees, plants & animals
Sooo

It’s better for the earth, better for humans to eradicate, cut down, chop down, kill off to keep the energy consumption status-quo?

Bloomberg has already donated more than $150 million to the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations as part of his previous environmental campaign, known as Beyond Coal.
 
He bought off the Sierra Club, do he could harvest the worlds trees

The world, it’s poor peoples and natural resources will be decimated, turned to profit, harvested, and abandoned. A toxic wasteland everywhere

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/climate/bloomberg-climate-pledge-coal.html

Bio-mass as “renewable” is both a scientific joke, and illogical and impractical

Cutting trees down, requires double the amount of burned wood to match coal, more to match efficient natural gas
Less than half efficient at best,
Total production 1% — a joke

Europe has ten years of data and experience w renewables, all w negative and worse than expected benchmark outcomes

https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/another-view-with-steve-goreham-the-overlooked-error-with-biomass/article_bd79c2da-88e7-5d76-9d40-46558a8b9dae.html

The old alchemists dream to “make” one substance be worth more than it actually is, become something it isn’t and cannot be through a seemingly magical process.

Renewable energy through industrialization — joke

I think science is being ignored, or not understood

Laws of Thermodynamics

Energy exists in many forms, such as heat, light, chemical energy, and electrical energy. Energy is the ability to bring about change or to do work. Thermodynamics is the study of energy.

First Law of Thermodynamics:
Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.

The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another.

The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. In essence, energy can be converted from one form into another.

There is no free lunch.
--Change consumption. Drastically.
--Change lifestyle.
--De-aggregate. Eliminate cities.
--Environmental harmony, true closed system sustainability.
--Population decrease. 'Soylent Green' (JK)

Yes, IF all the above were done, and the net energy needs could be met with tree waste, and tree farms bio-mass is feasible

And then there’s the dishonesty of data—“trees” aren’t the same

Most tree farms are soft woods like pine and fir, the density of these trees is a tenth of hardwoods, and grow in a fraction of the time

And thus, cutting down forests of trees that contain hardwoods cannot be calculated into this biomass as they cannot be used unless a 30, 50, 100 year plan is involved

I.e. an 40-foot hardwood tree with a 18-inch diameter can weigh as much as 10,000 pounds while a 50-foot pine tree with a 12-inch diameter will only weigh as much as 2,000.

BUT

We know this won’t be done, nor tree harvesting contained to farms

The poor and under regulated or corrupt will sell its land, it’s trees and it’s peoples for profit
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/08/18/is-biomass-really-renewable/

I think I may be missing something critical; I thought the issue was CO2 emissions causing global warming and the end of life , etc etc

I thought it was established trees were the primary means to scrub and remove CO2 emissions

Yet, under this notion of a Green Society and it’s “renewable” energy is bio-mass, the largest percentage category

And bio-mass is primarily trees?

So the plan is to cut down trees, the primary means to scrub CO2, then burn them, in order to help the environment?

Someone’s crazy

Beyond all this, and to highlight what I think is “the point” of Moore’s documentary “the Planet of the Humans”, renewable energy aren’t the answer

Renewables aren’t renewable

I was around solar pv panels for years n never saw them renew, repopulate, fornicate or have little solar panels

I never saw them even make out, let alone 2nd base

Green isn’t green

If Solar Panels Are So Clean, Why Do They Produce So Much Toxic Waste? Forbes 2018

“The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2016 estimated there was about 250,000 metric tonnes of solar panel waste in the world at the end of that year. IRENA projected that this amount could reach 78 million metric tonnes by 2050...

Solar panels often contain lead, cadmium, and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. “Approximately 90% of most PV modules are made up of glass,” notes San Jose State environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney. “However, this glass often cannot be recycled as float glass due to impurities. Common problematic impurities in glass include plastics, lead, cadmium and antimony.”

There is NOWHERE to retire them safely—how good can that be?

And there currently is no mandated plan by state or federal to retire, and recycle broke or old panels

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/05/23/if-solar-panels-are-so-clean-why-do-they-produce-so-much-toxic-waste/

Occasio's Green New Deal a Good One, Smart One, Doable? That would be NO.

Not according to a 100% bi-partisan vote against it.

"Senate UNANIMOUSLY votes down Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal 57-0 with high profile Democrats joining Republicans to show their disapproval for the radical plan as she charges the GOP with wrecking the world."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6853499/Senate-votes-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortezs-Green-New-Deal-57-0.html

We ARE killing this world. We are terrible stewards of this amazing Earth. Our lack of appreciation, lack of understanding of our utter reliance on her, cruelty, waste, and greed are mind-boggling. We will be held accountable to her Creator. I love Gaia.

Renewable energy just isn't the answer.

Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone...?

November 20, 2014

Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone...?

Not all jobs, events, circumstances or relationships are destinations, often they only serve as way stations and steppingstones that help carry us along in our journey.

Breakdown Dead Ahead!

February 28, 2015

Breakdown Dead Ahead!

I know many people that prolong an often needed breakdown by self medicating, or doctor prescribed medicating for depressed and anxious symptoms.

I'm not a doctor, but I can tell you that some people need a breakdown, to hit rock bottom, to reach their wits end in order for their life to truly get better. 90% of breakthroughs are preceded by a breakdown.

Just saying. (Luke 20:17-18)

**  God lives beyond our wit's end--once we quit running, trying, working and living within and by ourselves--that's when God takes over. I called it breakdown, but we know it as surrender

Spartan!

May 6, 2014

Spartan!

I completed the Spartan Sprint 5K with a torn rotator cuff, two partially separated attaching tendons, and severe tendonitis in my right arm/shoulder.

I finished the Sunday Spartan Sprint Open in 2:17:51 — placing 24th for Age Group, 1166th for Gender, and 1706th Overall (top half of field)! Why'd I do it? After my motorcycle accident a year ago the doctors and their tests kept saying "disabled" and that started getting into my head and pulling me down--this was my "I'll show them (and me) I've got heart" moment! I completed 24/25 obstacles on the course. For those of you who are down or have been down, let me remind you it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that matters... Philippians 4:13

Colorado Springs Military Spartan Sprint: 4.5 mile course created by Spartan Sprint & Army Special Forces. 25 obstacles.

First Section:
Obstacle 1: Over-Under-Over (runners must first climb over a wall, run 10 yards, climb under a wall, run 10 yards, then through a square hole placed in a wall. This obstacle was repeated three times in a row). Obstacle 2: can't remember!. Obstacle 3: GFT Wall (runners must climb over a wooden walls. The first was 4', the next was 6' and the last was 8'). Obstacle 4: Muck Run (runners ran, waded through a nasty, mucky creek, through a 2-4 ft. pond and up a 15 ft. muddy hill). Obstacle 5: The Gamble (each participant was faced with a decision, to choose between flipping a 250 lb. tractor tire multiple times, or drag a tractor tire--I chose the flip). Obstacle 6: Atlas Lift (lift a 120 lb. round stone and carry it 15 yards, drop it, do 5 burpees, repeat).

Second Section:
Obstacle 7: can't remember. Obstacle 8: Log Hop (runners had to hop across differently sized and spaced logs/stumps without touching the ground. Bonus, the stumps were unstable in the mud). Obstacle 9: Barb Wire Crawl (runners had to crawl 100+ yards through muddy pits under barbed wire, staying low to the ground as to not get injured by the wire). Obstacle 10: Tractor Pull (runners drag/pull a chain looped through a 40 lb. knobby cement block through a bumpy dirty course up and down hills for about a quarter mile). Obstacle 11. Rope Climb (runners climb a rope 20 ft. hung over a body of water/mud -- the one obstacle I did NOT complete).


Third Section:
Obstacle 12: Monkey Net (a version of the monkey bars obstacle which fashioned cargo webbing that began with a 20 ft. incline and ended with a decline traverse). Obstacle 13: Rolling Mud (runners climbed a slippery, muddy hill followed by a water pit and this repeats 5 times in a row. The hill is between 5-10 feet tall and the water is 2-4 ft. deep). Obstacle 14: Inverted Wall (runners climbed a wall that was 10-12 feet high but was like a ramp... only the ramp was on the other side and you were under it). Obstacle 15: Rucksack Carry (runners had to pick up and carry a 125 lb. rucksack/backpack a quarter mile up and down steep, winding hills).

Fourth Section:
Obstacle 16: Object Carry (runners had to carry a 70 lb. "pancake"/sandbag a quarter mile). Obstacle 17: Weaver (runners had to “weave” through logs with 3 ft. gaps, going over one beam and then under one beam, to the top of the 20 ft. A-Frame and back down the opposite side). Obstacle 18: Underwater Wall (runners climb a muudy hill and slide down it. Once in the water, there is a solid wall with barbwire across the top that skims the surface of the water so you have to completely submerge yourself to go under ad ten up another mud hill) Obstacle 19: Traverse Wall (runners had to traverse sideways a long wall of maybe a 100ft with small pieces of 2x4 screwed on at varying spans, similar to a bouldering wall). Obstacle 20: Spear Throw (participants had to throw a wooden spear into a target from a distance of 10-20 yards).

Fifth Section:

Obstacle 21: Herculean Hoist (Athletes must hoist a 75 lb. sandbag 25 ft. off the ground using a pulley system. This obstacle is similar to the "lat-pull" exercise machine, but is more difficult because the rope is often muddy and slippery... Once the block is in the air you cannot drop it. You have to get the block to the top and then bring it to the ground without letting go of the rope). Obstacle 22: Dunk Wall/Slip Wall (runners climb up a slick 10 ft. mudwall with a rope. Then slide down the mud wall on the other side into 6-8 ft. deep water/mud). Obstacle 23: Bridge (runners have to climb a wooden ladder that has been painted and caked with mud up 90ft to the top of a platform. Once at the top, you have a 45ft long horizontal cargo net to get across, followed by the 90ft climb back down the same type ladder on the other side). Obstacle 24: Fire Jump (athletes run through and then jump over a burning section of wood 1 foot to 2 feet tall). Obstacle 25: Gladiator Gauntlet.

 My brother Mike said I had something in my teeth. I told him a was a little bit of determination. ;)

You Could Really Pull the Trigger and End a Life? Let it Go...

October 6, 2015

You Could Really Pull the Trigger and End a Life? Let it Go...

My two cents: I'm all for gun ownership. But I'm wondering if all the people that post their outrage over the possibility of the government taking your gun(s) away have EVER committed violence against another person? Have you ever blackened an eye? bloodied a lip or nose? taken someone down and just beat the spit out them? No? So what are you going to do with your gun(s) when a criminal or even the government rolls up on you, shoot it out with them?

Are you proficient with your weapon? Can you fire under pressure, at a human moving target? Do you practice? What do you shoot at, a round target, a silhouette or a real human? 

Even if you have been trained to fire your weapon, most of you certainly haven't been conditioned to kill another human. Maybe some that routinely blast away at humans or human-like things in video games can lower the resistance and operantly train themselves, but NOT the average person.

I am a Marine Corps vet, I've done violence, I've had violence committed against me and the thought(s) make me ill. I work at a Veteran's hospital, and do you know which unit is consistently full? The PTSD unit. When most men and women experience the horrors of war, it changes them, deeply and permanently.

Within us is a powerful resistance to killing one's own kind, a resistance that exists in every healthy member of every species. It is rare for animals of the same species to fight to the death. In their territorial and mating battles animals with horns will butt their heads together in a relatively harmless fashion, but against any other species they will go to the side and attempt to gut and gore. Similarly, piranha will fight one another with raps of their tails but they will turn their teeth on anything and everything else, and rattlesnakes will wrestle each other but they have no hesitation to turn their fangs on anything else.

A taboo against killing our own is imprinted into the genetic code in order to safeguard the survival of the species.

Sheesh--if you're not willing and/or by nature unable to blow someone's brains out/end a life, just let it go.

**Advice from an expert:
 Approximately 20 or so years ago, a family's home was entered by force. The family filed a lawsuit against the City and the police department. This case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. The Court ruled against the plaintiffs claiming that it was not the police's responsibility to protect the home and occupants. The Police were there to maintain law and order. 

1. Take your states concealed weapon course, even if you're not going to carry a weapon 
2. Know if your state has and or uses/exercises the "Castle Doctrine" 
3. If you will arm yourself, both you and your spouse or significant other should also be proficient in using this firearm, fire your weapon at least once a quarter with this weapon. 
4. Store the weapon in a safe that is in area where you have immediate access, but the one/two weapon safe is attached/bolted to the house (compartments in closets work well) 
5. In the event you pull your weapon, call the police first and keep them on your cellphone, speaker because 911 operators should be recording the call. 
6. No such thing as warning shots or shooting at extremities. 
7. Know where you you live or visiting (situational awareness) 
8. Only use deadly force as a last resort. 

Laws are updated regularly, so educate yourself.

A Dear Ol' Friend Retired...

November 4, 2015 (Lakewood, CO)

A Dear Ol' Friend Retired...

A dear ol' friend retired yesterday. She was there for us to help in the long sleepless nights, through each of our children's early childhood moments--tummy aches, colic, daytime naps, and bedtime stories. She started off shiny & new, but was broken several times, fixed, recovered, fixed, recovered again, but finally, alas could no longer be fixed. Sometimes, you just have to let go. So we are. Thank you dear chair, though we never named you, you were an unbelievable blessing. We say goodbye with so many memories, and much love.

** (Tina) "Spent many a nights with her rocking our children to sleep, falling asleep with them in our arms and she would let us get some rest through the long nights. We will miss her."

That's Stupid

January 31, 2014 1212pm

That's Stupid

Elevating a man, any man to godhood, is well, stupid. James in his pithy manner was quick to say, "Elijah was a man, with a nature like ours." Period.

But those who allowed that spirit(s) on them, well, they built on a bad foundation, allowed themselves to be seduced by spirits, allowed themselves to be brought back into bondage and overly identified with a man (as children do). “Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? (I Corinthians 1:12-13)

It’s interesting how much the childish human race likes labels!  We want to associate ourselves, our children, our churches, our families, our work and so many other areas of our life, with a label….something that we can quickly use to define ourselves…..to distinguish ourselves from others. Where do all the celebrity & athlete posters hang? On the walls of children, adolescents & adults who have yet to or ever will form mature self identities. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:11)

Children when they have grown up, they can see their parents with mature eyes and realize their parents’ lack of perfection—”What! You mean there is no santa claus, and you don’t know everything?” It’s sad to see the collapse of Galatians church members right before our eyes. Just read that one book and you can see what is happening today within our ranks.

If you notice, the Epistles of Paul were often written to call out evils in the churches which he had planted and later called for correction. That letter to the Galatians is not an exception. At a period not long after his second visit tidings came to him that excited his alarm and indignation. That restless wing of the church which clung to Judaism (legalism, the Gospel plus something else, the cult of man worship & will worship) which had troubled the church at Antioch (Acts 15:1), which had made necessary the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:5–30), whose evil work at Corinth we note in both Epistles, but especially in the second, whose continual warfare made one of Paul's sorest afflictions “perils among false brethren,” had sent its emissaries into Galatia and had taught that it was needful that the Gentile Christians be circumcised and submit to the law of Moses in order to be saved. If you trace the history of the many early message emissaries and missionaries, you will see this same pattern.

The Galatians were (modern ones still are) attracted to the law because it gives them specific moral guidelines that they can apply to their practical problems. The Jewish law teachers were renowned for their ability to develop applications of the law for every conceivable situation. There seems to be a sense of moral security in such well-defined codes of conduct. In comparison, Paul's command to "live by the Spirit" seems to leave everything up in the air. Lazy & immature people want a very specific list of steps to follow. They say, "Tell me exactly what to do and what not to do, and then I will feel safe; I'll know how to act." But this approach to the Christian life is in danger of repeating the Galatian error. It is an attempt to live under law rather than under the direction of the Spirit.

Highlights of the Issues at Galatia:
The eager abandonment of the gospel of grace for a pseudo gospel by the Galatians was astonishing to Paul, even though some were agitating them and attempting to pervert the gospel of Christ 1:6

Expressing his amazement, Paul accuses the Galatians, who were called by Christ's grace, of abandoning God for a different gospel 1:6

The message, presented by those who were troubling the Galatians, was not an additional gospel but an attempt to reverse or undo the gospel of grace 1:7

Justification has always been by faith and since the Law is unable to make anyone righteous, Christ died to redeem those who were under the Law making them heirs and sons of God as children of Abraham according to promise 3:1

As justification is obtained by faith (as evidenced by the reception of the Holy Spirit) so sanctification is also experienced by faith 3:1

The Galatians have been beguiled because the crucifixion of Christ was explained to them 3:1

Israel is no longer to be a slave-like son under the bondage of the Law, but an adopted heir of God with full privileges 4:1

1.  A child - heir is subject to those in authority over him 4:1-2
2.  Israel, like children, were under bondage to the regulations of the Law 4:3
3.  But at the proper time God sent His Son, who was subject to the Law, to redeem the Jews enabling both Jews and Gentiles to be adopted as adult sons 4:4-5
4.  To His sons God sent the Spirit of Jesus Christ to unite them with the Father and change their position from that of slaves to heirs 4:6-7

In view of their new position, Paul asks why the Galatians have returned to the bondage of the Law 4:8-11

1.  Since the Galatians know God and more importantly God knows them, Paul asks why they want to enslave themselves to the powerless and useless practices of Judaism as evidenced by their observation of feasts, festivals, and holy days 4:7-8
2.  Paul fears that his ministry to the Galatians has been fruitless in terms of Christian living 4:9

Paul pleads with the Galatians to not abandon the teachings of faith and agonizes over their spiritual growth 4:12-20

Initially, the gospel was received with great readiness; but later the Galatians' immaturity and need for an identity and self-aggrandizement (boasting) led to the apostle himself being welcomed as “an angel of God” (Gal. 4:14). Factually though Paul was an “angel”, a messenger, this was not the purpose of the Galatian to use such a term. They weren’t content to be an “ordinary” believer who would be called a mere “Christian” -- they wanted more than to say they had believed on Jesus based upon the preaching of a man even as great as Peter (Cephas), or Appollos — they wanted to say they had received their revelation from an angel. Does this sound at all familiar?

In summary, undermining the power of the Spirit by an overstress on the law, Paul said, is "stupid."

The Galatian church was a non-Jewish community that had no ties to the law. It had been evangelized in the power of the Spirit but later had been influenced to put itself under the power of the law in a way that undermined the integrity of the original Gospel that Paul had proclaimed. The fact that the Galatians had been so easily seduced to come under this law rather than remaining in the Spirit elicited Paul's term for them as "stupid."

The Greek word for "stupid," anontos, is used six times in the New Testament. Galatians uses it twice.
 

Thus, while Paul envisioned a new order in the world through the church (Galatians 3:25) wherein there would be neither Jew nor Greek, and a new global way of being a church that transcends all forms of ethnicity. Where the Gospel proclaimed by Paul challenged categories of slave or free, Galatian-type (Message) people seem obsessed with controlling our faith so that theological freedom is denied, resulting in slavery to laws around works of the flesh rather than promoting the fruits of the Spirit.

For many years I have bemoaned the fact that the church seems composed of children who have not grown up in the faith. Knowing so much truth and then not walking in it is stupid, and indicates a person has been beguiled, seduced, deceived, bewitched and/or in bondage. We need a maturation of faith based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe that if we would be grounded in this kind of faith, we could begin to get our priorities in order. This would start with the realization that it's more important to have vibrant church communities than preserving a man-made law (taking things a good or Godly man said in his flesh, as a personal conviction and not a universal imperative) that results in clannish behavior, splits and schisms.

Out of curiosity, if someone asked you to name the very first book written of the 27 books contained in the New Testament, what would your answer be?  Many, might suggest "Matthew."  After all, it appears first in the listing of books, therefore some assume it must have been written first.  The first book to be written was Galatians, and I am firmly convinced this was providential.  The very first declaration of inspiration was a proclamation of Freedom in Christ, the very message the world, and even the church, needs to hear today!

Paul's letter to the Galatian brethren has often been heralded as the "Magna Charta of Christian Liberty."  The Magna Charta ("Great Charter") was a document issued by King John of England on June 15, 1215.  Abuses by King John caused a revolt by nobles who compelled him to execute this recognition of rights for both noblemen and ordinary Englishmen.  People long to be free, and very few will long tolerate the oppression of those who would presume to lord it over them.  Revolution and reform may at times be slow in coming, but come they will. The first message the young church of our Lord Jesus needed to hear -- a message just as needed by the church today -- is that we are free.  We have been liberated from the tyranny of law, and we abide in a state of grace.  "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1).  There were some in Paul's day, and many in ours, who sought to enslave the disciples of Christ to a legalistic system.  Law is not the basis of our fellowship, unity or salvation, and yet some were (and still are) teaching this fallacious and stupid doctrine.  Thus, before any other book of the New Testament was ever penned, the apostle Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sent out this Great Charter of Christian Liberty in Christ.

The great reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) regarded the epistle to the Galatians as a type of "battle cry for Christian liberty."  He felt this inspired writing called him "to fight Paul's battle for the liberty of the Gospel all over again" against the oppressive legalisms he perceived in the Roman Church.  Luther once wrote, "The Epistle to the Galatians is my epistle; I have betrothed myself to it; it is my wife."  Those discerning disciples who love and cherish their freedom in Christ have long loved and cherished the truths proclaimed by Paul in this marvelous first book of the New Testament canon.

"Not many books have made such a lasting impression on men's minds as the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, nor have many done so much to shape the history of the Western world.  Galatians has been called the 'Magna Charta of Christian Liberty,' and this is quite correct.  For it rightly maintains that only through the grace of God in Jesus Christ is a person enabled to escape the curse of his sin and of the law and to live a new life, not in bondage or license, but in a genuine freedom of mind and of spirit through the power of God.  Because of this powerful truth, Galatians was the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 10, p. 409).