A REPUBLIC: PROPHECY AND PROMISE

 I want to thank Bro. Tony Mincer for the wonderful series of lessons on William Penn.  As I look back on the men who shaped the founding of our great nation, I come away with a huge heart of humility.  While I would like to think I could be as brave as William Penn, I'm not so sure.  

Now we will turn our attention toward a man whose faith in Christ was less obvious, and whose life was circumspect to say the least.  As we dive into the life of Benjamin Franklin, I would like all of you to keep in mind the purpose of God in bringing our great nation into being.  In today's world it is easy to point out the displacement of native peoples, the terrors of slavery, and the repression of peoples as somehow indicative of the moral failure of the founders, and in turn a statement against our republic, and capitalistic economy.  This is not true.  The declaration of Independence, and our Constitution were both a prophetic declaration of human dignity, and a promise of what could be.  A republic was a new creation, and democracy was considered a failed governmental experiment.  Capitalism was new, and it's power yet untested.  As with all great endeavors, evil will often shadow the purest of motives.  Cruel, and heartless men will attach themselves to good ideas in the hope that their evil hearts won't be revealed.  

While slavery and servitude were hallmarks of European cultures for over 3,000 years, it only took 60 years from the creation of our United States for slavery to be abolished.  While monarchs lived in great wealth, and purchased the loyalty of tribal leaders throughout Europe, our great country saw average ordinary men rise to great wealth and provide employment for generations.  All of these benefits grew, and grew as men, and women became free to follow the voice of God.  

While it is easy for Marxists, and humanists to point out the flaws of the Church throughout our nation's history, they seem less willing to admit the good done by the Church when confronted with the truths of its many successes.  

It was Christians who discovered God's hatred of slavery, and began the march toward its abolition.  It was Christian women who led the suffrage, and acquired the right to vote.  It was Christians who took up the mantle of human rights and began the march to destroy racial persecution.  Justice is a Jewish, and Christian concept, and the United States has led the way in the battle for justice.  The Church has led the way for liberty, justice, and human rights.  The Church has made the world a better place to live.  These are facts that can't be disputed!  I have seen the conditions in other nations, other continents, and in other cultures.  We have made the world a better place, and God willing, the Church will continue to be a shining light for good in a darkened world.   

AS THE ENLIGHTENMENT FADES

We've been blessed in our study of two of the most influential men in our nation's history.  John Locke, and William Penn both were major contributors to the age of enlightenment, and we find their ideas, and philosophies written throughout our Constitution, as well as our Declaration of Independence.  

Neither of these men were perfect!  Humans aren't perfect.  We slosh around in the swamp of our passions, morality, and soiled character looking for ways to improve the condition of those around us while tethered to our own selfish desires.  There is no human being, other than our Lord Jesus Christ, who has conquered the muck of our human condition.  Even the most dedicated, and selfless of us succumbs to our weaknesses at moments.  The Apostle Paul called it the 'carnal nature', or the 'flesh.'  

YET, the Apostle Paul saw something that caused him to willingly lay down his life for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He witnessed Grace, and love, and its power to uplift men from the swamp of carnality.  What the law was powerless to do, Christ accomplished by His death, and resurrection.  

Both John Locke, and William Penn experienced the light within, and sought to inform their generation of the truth revealed to them.  While it is impossible to teach about them without noting their flaws, and contradictions, it is impossible to ignore the vision they held for mankind, more specifically the institutions of government by which humans must submit to one another.  For anyone who looks at this age through just one lens, they will see what they expected to see.  If our lens is black history, you will see how miserably these men failed, and even appeared to be hypocrites.  If you view them through the lens of white supremacy, you will be disappointed by their liberal views of humanity.  Locke, and Penn were products of their generation, and were constrained by their peers, as well as the financial constraints of the time in which they lived.  Still, they wrote down their dreams and aspirations to which they themselves hoped to live by.  It is much like the same 'voices' in our society who call for social justice while abusing the very demands they make upon others. Duplicity continues!  If anything put a magnifying glass upon the hypocritical nature that lives within all of us, the Pandemic of 2020 would be an electron microscope.  

Our nation's founders were products of their generation, to judge them by ours is to make our moral failures even more circumspect.  It's like the old saying, "while you're pointing a finger at someone else, there are four more pointing back at you."  By the time our nation's founders were formulating the path to freedom from Europe, the "enlightenment" was fading.  Our Constitution would be its crowning accomplishment, and a model for others to follow for the next 250 years.  The highest aspirations of Locke, Penn, and a host of others would be enshrined within a small letter to a despot across the ocean.  Nearly 12 years later it would be woven into the fabric of our Constitution.  At the core of this great document was the novel idea of individual worth.  This was a secular treatise upon a spiritual truth revealed in Christ Jesus. 

For example, Alexis de Tocqueville who would come to the United States from France around the 1850's studied our working republic and left hopeful, and yet fearful for the experiment of liberty.  He was filled with hope because of our focus on local governments, spiritual freedom, and exercise of capitalism.  He was fearful because he saw the threat of tyranny if the government became too centralized.  He called it the 'tyranny of the masses.'  Our founders sought to create a government that would unite us in purpose, while at the same time protecting the rights of the individual.  Hence our three separate, but equal branches of government.  Sadly, as time has marched on, we've seen the effects of allowing one branch to become more powerful than another.  Our legislative branch no longer legislates as it should, giving more and more executive power to the Executive branch.  This in turn puts a greater burden upon the Judicial branch to interpret, and rule upon what is legal for an Administration to do.  

As we succumb to the tyranny of the minorities, we find ourselves drawn ever deeper into the arms of socialism.  The age of enlightenment is fading quickly because the citizens of our nation no longer hold to the truth that we are 'endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.'  Without a sovereign God, there is no moral foundation to place our feet upon.  We are pulled ever deeper into the morass of pettiness, and selfishness that is the human condition.  Grace, and love are the only salvation for those who are sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp.  Grace and love are from Christ alone.