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Dan Ford's Conference Presentations
By: Joshua

Can you imagine holding in your hands a Bible that one of the Puritans or even John Knox had held and read 400 years ago, or handling a stone cuneiform tablet that used to be part of a wall in the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar's palace? Well, last Friday and Saturday my family and I, and about 100 other people had the opportunity to look at, read, and yes, touch, handle and hold these and many, many more amazing historic documents during the "Our Christian U.S. Constitution" conference. This was due entirely to the generosity of the honorable Mr. Dan Ford and his God given interest in historical documents.
Dan Ford resides in St. Louis Missouri, and has been an avid collector of artifacts and historic documents for the past fifteen years. During this time he has compiled an archive of original source materials ranging from ancient cuneiform tablets, parchments, and pottery to pamphlets, maps, books, private letters and public documents from the reformation to the colonial times. Mr. Ford specializes on the subjects of Christian, English, and American history, and as a group teacher and conference speaker for the last 10 years he has always shown in each of his presentations, the abundant evidence of our godly inheritance.
Mr. Ford's presentation on Friday was entitled "Understanding Our English Constitutional Inheritance," and a main point that Mr. Ford stressed throughout his presentation was, "God is the Author of all law." Starting with the mid 1500's and his favorite man of that time period- John Hooper, Mr. Ford worked his way down a long table stacked with documents and books, picking up and expounding on each artifact as he reached it. A few of the subjects Mr. Ford spoke about was the First Puritan Declaration of Christ and His Office," by John Hooper, the authorization of the King James Bible in 1604, the two kinds of separatists, the English Civil War and many other interesting documents and events.
One of the most intriguing and awe-inspiring artifacts was the original Geneva Bible that I have already mentioned as the one that the Puritans or John Knox would have read. To be able to hold and leaf through that leather bound volume of God's word and read the handwritten footnotes was truly a privilege.
Moving on from our English inheritance to our colonial American Inheritance, Mr. Ford started us off by presenting an early copy of the Ten Commandments in Hebrew on a sheep skin. From there he moved through Columbus and his passion to spread the dominion of Christ to the whole world, the colonization of America, John Eliot- the first missionary to the American Indians and Lex Rex- or the Law and the Prince. He also dealt with the oppressive acts of the British government on the American Colonies, the first written list of American rights, America's Magna Carta and the American Revolution, and the all important truth that America did and does have a King, and that King is God the King of Kings. These are only a few of the subjects Mr. Ford spoke on, but it would take a small book to put into writing everything Mr. Ford said and showed us, so now I will move on to his 3rd and final presentation of the conference.
In this session, which was titled "The Historic Principles of the Preamble," Mr. Ford started with the Preamble of our U.S. Constitution and went through it, putting the clause "Under God" after the various phrases and showing that this was the given understanding when the founders wrote the Constitution. Just a few of the points Mr. Ford touched on were; the fact that God is the origin of all just law, the Puritan model of Unity in Covenant under God, and that the Declaration of Independence created a Covenant Union of states. He also spoke about the colonies relying on Biblically based Laws, not the designs of men, the Puritan model of securing a peaceful commonwealth, the need to pass a framework for Godly Liberty down from generation to generation, and he ended by stressing the fact that God is in our "Christian Constitution." Amen! Mr. Ford. Thanks to your there is no doubt in my mind and probably the minds of everyone else that came and listened, that indeed we do have a Christian U.S. Constitution. Thank you Mr. Ford and may God bless you!

Following are some pictures that Grace captured during the conference.