How Early American Quakers transcended the idea of the nation-state during the turbulent Age of Revolution: “Provocative . . . important . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice Early American Quakers have long been perceived as retiring separatists, but in Holy Nation Sarah Crabtree transforms our historical understanding of the sect by drawing on the sermons, diaries, and correspondence of Quakers themselves. Situating Quakerism within the larger intellectual and religious undercurrents of the Atlantic world, Crabtree shows how Quakers forged a paradoxical sense of their place in the world as militant warriors fighting for peace. She argues that during the turbulent Age of Revolution and Reaction, the Religious Society of Friends forged a “holy nation,” a transnational community of like-minded believers committed first and foremost to divine law and to one another. Declaring themselves citizens of their own nation served to underscore the decidedly unholy nature of the nation-state, worldly governments, and profane laws. As a result, campaigns of persecution against the Friends escalated as those in power moved to declare Quakers aliens and traitors to their home countries. Holy Nation convincingly shows that ideals and actions were inseparable for the Society of Friends, yielding an account of Quakerism that is simultaneously a history of the faith and its adherents and a history of its confrontations with the wider world. Ultimately, Crabtree says, the conflicts between obligations of church and state that Quakers faced can illuminate similar contemporary struggles. “A significant and highly important contribution to the scholarship on the intersection of religion and nationalism during [these] critical decades. . . . carefully researched and elegantly written.” —Kirsten Fischer, University of Minnesota

In this investigation of Quakers in early America, Sarah Crabtree elaborates on the tensions caused by Quakers conception of themselves as people beholden not to states but to Christ. Quakers were no less than a triple threat to their governments because they claimed loyalties above and beyond the state, resisted the military strategies that were used to bolster the state, and became political activists pushing for reform. In resisting both the compulsion and the exercise of state power, Quakers put forth alternative definitions of nation and citizenand yet, many Quakers often found themselves drawn to political and social reform efforts that required recognizing and engaging with nations and states. Crabtree argues that the resulting conflicts between obligations to church and state illuminate similar contemporary conflicts."

This story starts before the beginning of time, before our present day earth existed as we know it. Our scientific world claims that the earth is billions of years old. The Bible does not tell us the age of the earth, only the approximate age of our present earth as it is now. It wouldn't matter to us how old the earth is or what went on, except that back there sometime something went wrong, or did it? Was Satan supposed to be a part of our learning process right from the start? Did God love us so much even before he created us that he made sure his perfect plan that he had for us would bring us to Him out of pure love? A lot has happened since the time God created Adam, the first man, and Abraham, God's trusted friend, whom he picked to produce the seed that would lead to his coming to earth (God incarnate) in the form of Jesus Christ, his only begotten son.How could God produce or create beings capable of absorbing and growing his kind of love? When he created Lucifer, he had the very best of the most beautiful material, the most valuable, the most wisdom and knowledge – you might say the ultimate of all known things to fashion him from – and somehow sin and vanity crept into the equation. Yet, when God reproduced his son, he came up perfect in every way, the same as the father. So it would seem that all known things, spiritual and those manifested, could not produce the love that God wanted to give to his children, all that is except his holy spirit. To be part of the God family, you had to be born again – born of the spirit. So God sent his own Son as a forerunner of God's Elect to make up a holy nation.The Bible tells us that God walked the earth to find a righteous man. Don't forget that Abraham was not a Jew; he was simply the only righteous man on earth at that time.From the seed of Abraham came a line of people known as Jews or Israelites. The nation, Israel, was to be a Holy Nation of Kings and Priests. Right from the start, God spoke of Abraham's seed and, ultimately, that seed led to Jesus Christ. All who have Christ in them are of Abraham's seed because Christ was of the seed of Abraham. As the story goes, everyone on earth has the same opportunity for eternal life through Christ. May everyone who reads this book come a little closer to our God and Savior through a story that started long before the beginning of time, a story about how a just and perfect King, along with his saints (born again), will rule the world and utopia will finally be as God planned it in the beginning. Since God claimed me in a more personal way fourteen years ago, my life has been one of study and prayer. The urge for knowledge has been constant. God says, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” Since that time, I have had numerous dreams, visions, words of knowledge and much guidance. I am not attempting to interpret the Bible, only to give you my understanding, so far, in my quest for the truth. Some of the understandings I have had have become clearer to me through my writing and I hope this book will make them clearer to my readers.

"In addition to considering such key issues as poverty, wealth and power, theocracy and pluralism, civil religion, the culture wars and political cooperation between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. Bolt also draws extended comparisons between Kuyper's views and the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord John Acton, Pope Leo XIII, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Jonathan Edwards. A distinctive feature of this study is its focus on the rhetorical, poetic character of Kuyper's public theology and practice as a political leader. Bolt shows how focusing on Kuyper's rhetorical and mythopoetic perspective, rather than on his theological and philosophical ideas, provides contemporary evangelicals with a more credible and effective theology for the public square."--Jacket.

This book, the holy nation, is a revealing of the 14th chapter of the revelations that gives us the answer to what the purpose of the father is in regards to his people. -Min Jonathan Friedl. Milwaukee, WI Min. Uriyah Baraka knowledge that comes from our Creator is filled full of wisdom. I enjoy reading all his material. I grow in wisdom, knowledge and understanding of the divine. This book is a must read. - Pastor. Ginger Banks, Indianapolis, IN.