04 March 2015

Magisterial Protestantism and America's Founding: Did Knox and Calvin Believe in Religious Liberty?

https://store.hslda.org/from-tyndale-to-madison-p43.aspx

An ad for this book turned up in my inbox.
What a strange narrative these folks have sought to create. Religious Liberty, and then to cite Calvin and Knox?

Do these folks not realize that these men did not in any way shape or form believe in religious liberty? They believed that their particular forms of Magisterial Protestantism should not be 'free' to worship, rather they believed their form of Protestantism should be in charge and that the state should suppress all other forms of religion, including forms of Protestantism which dissented from their own. Freedom was their cry when they were being oppressed. It wasn't a general principal they had any interest in at all.

Then to weave this into the whole American narrative. This is great ignorance on display. Madison represented a great break, a great severing of the Constantinian tradition. Thanks be to God, even if Madison was basically an infidel and the motives of the Founders were a far cry from seeking to honour the God of Scripture.

Tyndale is of course a martyr and rightly considered a hero of the faith. Sadly he too put his hopes on the notion that a king might somehow 'reform' a nation. All nonsense of course. Kings do... pretty much what Henry VIII did to him. All that said, he was true believer and a mighty servant of God.

America was founded in sin, rebellion and blood. Nevertheless for God's people there were aspects of it that were and are favourable. But to celebrate it, especially considering the centuries of evil and abomination it has perpetrated? The American Empire is built on the same foundation as every other... theft and murder. That's the American narrative. To try and baptize it is frankly offensive.

Sorry. I don't expect Farris will want to tell the whole story, only the one that suits his narrative.

And I'm sorry he's simply wrong. In the end 1776 had a lot more to do with the Enlightenment than it did with Smithfield. The Enlightenment for all its folly and evil was brilliant for one thing. It began to smash the abomination and affront to God known as 'Christendom' and its false claims to being God's Kingdom on earth.

And like Knox and Calvin the Nationalistic Dominionists of our day don't really believe in religious liberty either. The Christian Right has demonstrated this time and time again in their war against free speech and personal liberty. A land with censorship and loyalty tests in not one that believes in religious liberty.

I recently found this little gem someone posted on YouTube:


It would seem many people have forgotten these days. For me it brought back some memories.