heavenly light

heavenly light

Thursday 19 August 2010

AVOID FOOLISH CONTROVERSIES AND GENEALOGIES

AVOID FOOLISH CONTROVERSIES AND GENEALOGIES Thursday - August 19, 2010

“But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” – Titus 3:9

In September 1802, political journalist James T. Callender wrote in a Richmond newspaper that President Thomas Jefferson had for many years "kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves." "Her name is Sally," Callender continued, adding that Jefferson had "several children" by her.
Two of Sally Heming’s children - Madison and Eston – believed that Jefferson was their father, and this belief has been relayed to their descendants for the next two hundred years.
A 1998 series of genetic tests indicated that descendants of Madison and Eston did carry a Jefferson chromosome, but it could not be established if it was from Thomas or another male Jefferson.
The Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, after reviewing essentially the same material as those who tested DNA, reached different conclusions, namely that Sally Hemings was only a minor figure in Thomas Jefferson's life and that it is very unlikely he fathered any of her children. This committee also suggested in its April 2001 report that Jefferson's younger brother Randolph fathered the children.
The controversy has consumed the descendants’ lives and has produced more questions than answers.

Genealogical controversies each up time. Today in prayer, praise the Lord that in Him we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and seek to use your time wisely to honor Christ.

“Genealogy: a perverse preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are.” – Sydney J. Harris

God’s Word: “nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work--which is by faith.” – 1 Timothy 1:4

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