2008 Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy



Vision Forum has given us the opportunity to review a copy of the 2008 Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy through their affiliate program.

The Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy is a three day conference that Vision Forum does to teach a Christian view of law. We wanted to go last year, but Daddy was working too much. In this CD set, the speakers explain that the Bible must be the foundation for our view of law. We must have a biblical worldview. They also talk about the current status of laws and court decisions that relate to different issues such as Biblical Marriage and the 2nd Amendment. The Witherspoon School is not just for lawyers, it is helpful for all Christians in deciding who they should vote for, etc.

Here are summaries of several of the messages:

Introduction to the Christian Foundations of Western Law
by Doug Phillips

This message is really an introduction to the entire album. After going through the different speakers, he talked about how we must have a biblical worldview. We can not abandon our Biblical worldview when we relate to unbelievers, even when we are witnessing to them. Mr. Phillips said that the bible is sufficient and must be our grid to interpret everything. He spoke on what our view of Old Testament law must be, that we must realize it still applies, and that we must get principles for our law from it.


Christian Jurisprudence: Biblical Law, Natural Law, or Positive Law?
by Bill Einwechter

In this message Mr. Einwechter, one of our favorite speakers, talks about biblical law, natural law and positive law. Positive law says that all law is derived from the state, and evolves and changes as the state makes new laws. Many lawyers today hold to it, and this is why they believe that they do not have to follow the intent of the founders when they wrote the Constitution of the United States. Natural law says that there are unchanging principles of law in nature, which just laws are derived from. Natural law is not to be confused with the laws of nature. Many people, from the ancient Greeks until now, have believed this. Biblical law is much different from the others; it is getting our law from the bible. Christians should believe in biblical law.


Symposium on the Reformation and Law
by Bill Einwechter and Doug Phillips

This message is a Q&A session. In it Mr. Phillips and Mr. Einwechter answer questions about many issues, including Christians in today's military, and whether or not Christians can hire women.


Christianity and the Courts
by Hon. Roy S. Moore

This is a special message by Chief Justice Roy Moore. He spoke on how God must be over our government. There was also a Q&A time. I really enjoyed it because his speaking style is easy to follow and he includes many personal anecdotes. He is an inspiring speaker because he has been tried by the fire for what he believes, which is that we must honor God in everything we do and all the decisions we make.

A Theology of Church and State
by Doug Phillips

This message is about the biblical view of the three different jurisdictions: family, church and state, and how they relate to one another. At different times throughout history, different jurisdictions have ruled over the others. For example, in the time when Roman Catholicism was dominant, the church ruled over the family and state. In the bible, we see that they should not rule over any of the others. The three jurisdictions should be equal.

The Battle for Biblical Marriage
by Jordan Lawrence

In this message Mr. Lawrence spoke on the issue of marriage being between one man and one woman. He spoke on how the bible definitely affirms that, as well as most of the state constitutions. He spoke on many of the current events relating to this, and he finished by encouraging the Christians to keep fighting the battle for traditional marriage.


You May Not Take Our Guns
by Larry Pratt

Mr. Pratt, director of Gun Owners for America, spoke on the Second Amendment: the right to keep and bear arms. Many people think that there will be less crime if guns are outlawed, but that is not actually the case. Guns stop crimes. Gun bans will not stop criminals from having guns, but prevents law-abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves. When gun bans are passed, crimes increase. Constitutionally, there should be neither a gun ban, nor a concealed carry law. In one part of the message he mentioned that one political leader said during a speech that anyone who thought that they needed to have a gun to defend himself was paranoid. At that time, that person was surrounded by six armed bodyguards. He also talked about the current state of the gun laws in the United States.

Other Messages

What the Bible says about Female Magistrates by Bill Einwechter
Defamation in the Blogosphere by Josh Carden
Biblical Law, Ethics, & Public Policy for Lawyers by Doug Phillips
Biblical Law, Ethics, & Public Policy Recap by Doug Phillips
The Significance of the Electoral College
by Howard Phillips
Genesis & Geneva: The Emergence of Liberty in the West by Doug Phillips
Spheres of Sovereignty: Church Discipline, Autonomy, and the State by Bob Renaud
The State of Parental Rights in Light of the Texas Polygamy Case by Don Hart

You can buy the CD set here, or download it from behemoth here. If you would like to receive opportunities like this, join the Vision Forum Affiliate Program.

Ten P's in a Pod






Until the end of March, the audiobook Ten P's in a Pod is free at Behemoth.com. To download it, click here. Also, the book is 60% off. This book is really funny, and it is also convicting. Daddy thought it was convicting when he said that since you feed your family three times a day, it makes sense that you should feed your family from the word of God three times a day.

More snow pictures

These are some pictures of us in the snowfall we had last week. It was really good snow for snowballs, so we had some good snowball fights, of which I won one and Joshua won the other. We are sorry that we did not get any pictures of the snowball fights. We tried to sled, but the snow had melted off of the road where we usually sled. We tried using our sled as a snowboard but that was bad for it so we stopped. We went into the woods, which is where we took these pictures, and then got lost. The reason that we got lost is because we could not see far ahead at all because there was snow on everything. Joshua kept kicking trees and getting snow down his coat and his back.

Me in the snow


Snow on top of a bridge we built


Joshua after he fell in the snow


Snow on the trees


Joshua (he just kicked a tree and snow is falling on his head)


Snow falling

P. S. I took the pictures except for the one of me

Indiana Trip - Day 2

On Wednesday, the second day of our trip, we started out eating breakfast at the Damings. Then, while Daddy and Mr. Brown worked, Anthony, Nathaniel, Stephen and I played around their house. We rode bikes, crossed their creek and played games in their gym. Then we went by Mr. Daming's office, where he keeps his equipment for the excavating business, and picked up an excavator and dropped it off at a house that he was going to knock down. We ate lunch at Taco Bell, and Daddy had lunch with one of his employees who lives in Indiana.

In the afternoon we went back to the house that Mr. Daming was going to knock down. We walked through it, and the owner of the house, Mr. Daming's friend, wanted to keep some of the doorknobs, so we helped him take them of. Then we started ripping the house down with the excavator. It was really fun! The excavator is so powerful that if you were good at driving it, you could probably rip a house down in ten minutes. Stephen and I both got to operate it. Here are some pictures:

Stephen is the one operating the excavator in this picture

Me driving

David knocking down the chimney

After we knocked down most of the house, we left for Indianapolis where the conference was. The dinner at the conference was very good. We saw a lot of people that we already knew. After dinner, we heard two speakers, Mr. Voddie Baucham and Kevin Swanson. They were good messages, but I will talk about the conference more in the next post.

Indiana Trip - Day 1

Last weekend we attended the Leadership Summit Conference in Indianapolis which is put on by CHEC (Christian Home Educators of Colorodo.) The speakers were Kevin Swanson, Doug Phillips, Voddie Baucham, and others. We left at 5 a.m. on Wednesday to drive up to Indiana with the Damings, Mr. Brown, David Brown, and the NCFIC Interns. We stopped in the afternoon in Northern Kentucky to see the conference center where the Browns are planning to have the NCFIC Sufficiency of Scripture Conference. It is a very nice facility, and it should be a great conference. After that we left at about 7:00 p.m. and we arrived at the Daming's house in Indiana. We ate some pizza there that we picked up on the way, and after a little while we went to bed. Here are a few pictures:



Here we are in the RV



The Conference Center




Snow for the Third Time!!

On Monday we got a bigger snowfall than ever this winter, and about four inches accumulated. The weather report said that we got seven inches, but probably the first three inches melted when it touched the ground. This was not very good sledding snow, but it was good packing snow, so the boys had some snowball fights. It was right around freezing outside both Monday and Tuesday, so the snow didn't really melt until Wednesday (except on the road). Here are some photos:



The beautiful snow on the trees.


Joshua liked to kick the snow off the trees, and make it look like it was "snowing" again.



Stephen eating the snow off the trees.


Psalm 51:7 says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." KJV