5-30-20 Political Theology: Unmasking and Richard Baxter

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Political Theology: Unmasking and Richard Baxter

This week we are returning to my theme of Political Theology. In particular the Unmasking of masking in relationship to Richard Baxter.

For those of you who do not know Richard Baxter, he was one of the key 17th Century Puritan church leaders. Now many pastors out there like Baxter because he is known as ‘a Pastors – Pastor.’ He has a lot to say about what that means in relationship to congregational leadership and development but… What they ignore is that he was a standard barer for Liberty and what moderns have come to term in a nasty way – Theonomy or a 17th Century variation of it.

Richard Baxter

I am not going to get into a full Political Theology Unmasking of Richard Baxter. I want to clearly have you think through his position on Political Philosophy summed up in Christian Directory (1673):

‘He that understandeth not the divine dominiurn et imperium, as found in Creation and refounded in Redemption and man’s subjection to his absolute Lord, and the universal laws can never have any true understanding of the polity of laws of any Kingdom in particular?’

The point is in support of what Sam Adams would write regarding that the rulers, be it governors, congressional persons, presidents and bureaucrats all must submit to the authority of the Biblical God of the Universe as ultimate authority or they were despots (period). WALTER B. T. DOUGLAS summarizes this in his essay as:

‘Essentially, Baxter believed in the concept of the Christian state, but he opposed the scholastic view of the hierarchical, organic, and teleological structure. He defended the position that political government was necessarily rooted in the divine constitution of the world.

The social “creatureliness” of man, says Baxter, presupposes that the Creator wanted him to live in a society under the control of government. Man’s rationality and ultimate responsibility to God strongly argue in favor of the theory that government (and that includes ecclesiastical government ) by duly constituted law is not only desirable but is also consistent with man’s nature. Thus Baxter’s respect for law and authority was rooted in his theological understanding and exposition of the absolute sovereignty of God, of the nature of man, and of the hierarchical structure of society. He therefore saw the relationship of political theory and practice to divinity as being one of mutual dependence.’

Several weeks ago I asked in the program ‘Is God the same yesterday, today and tomorrow?’ Baxter believed so. With that, the Founders know that if God was not and the Puritan truths of Richard Baxter and his peers was not preached from the American Pulpits then – well here we are – being forced and shamed into wearing masks.

Unmasking

I do not have the time to elaborate on all of the research I have done on the mask issue. I will reference only one article that I believe delivers a succinct position. I will say that in my review and analysis on the news article, speeches and masking rhetoric to a ‘New Normal,’ I can validate that all my efforts expose the national use of the Delphi Technique.

In addition to the reference information regarding the Delphi Technique the article by Molly McCann is on point. Check out ‘Mandatory Masks Aren’t About Safety, They’re About Social Control.’

New update is the article that brings to the discussion that mask do nothing for the wearer: Nolte: The Science Turns Against America’s Mask Fascists Link to the included New England Journal of Medicine – Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era of May 21, 2020

Sam Adams Wisdom – no longer followed.

I am including only a few of the opening paragraphs of this document. The full document is at the program archives. It is interesting to me that in many of the principled statement, Sam could have been writing this in respect to China instead of the issues on hand with Great Britain.

“AN AMERICAN” TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE AND OTHERS.

[W. V. Wells,1 Life of Samuel Adams, vol. iii., pp. 18-26; printed in the Massachusetts Spy, July 16, 1778.]

To the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Viscount Howe, Sir William Howe (or, in his absence, Sir Henry Clinton),

William Eden, and George Johnstone.

Trusty and well-beloved servants of your sacred master, in whom he is well pleased.

As you are sent to America for the express purpose of treating with anybody and anything, you will pardon an address from one who disdains to flatter those whom he loves. Should you therefore deign to read this address, your chaste ears will not be offended with the language of adulation,—a language you despise.

I have seen your most elegant and most excellent letter “to his Excellency, Henry Laurens, the President, and other members of the Congress.” As that body have thought your propositions unworthy their particular regard, it may be some satisfaction to your curiosity, and tend to appease the offended spirit of negotiation, if one out of the many individuals on this great continent should speak to you the sentiments of America,— sentiments which your own good sense hath doubtless suggested, and which are repeated only to convince you that, notwithstanding the narrow ground of private information on which we stand in this distant region, still a knowledge of our own rights, and attention to our own interests and a sacred respect for the dignity of human nature, have given us to understand the true principles which ought, and which therefore shall, sway our conduct.

You begin with the amiable expressions of humanity, the earnest desire of tranquillity and peace. A better introduction to Americans could not be devised. For the sake of the latter, we once laid our liberties at the feet of your Prince, and even your armies have not eradicated the former from our bosoms.

You tell us you have powers unprecedented in the annals of your history. And England, unhappy England, will remember with deep contrition that these powers have been rendered of no avail by a conduct unprecedented in the annals of mankind. Had your royal master condescended to listen to the prayer of millions, he had not thus have sent you. Had moderation swayed what we were proud to call “mother country” her full-blown dignity would not have broken down under her.

You tell us that all “parties may draw some degree of consolation, and even auspicious hope, from recollection.” We wish this most sincerely for the sake of all parties. America, in the moment of subjugation, would have been consoled by conscious virtue, and her hope was, and is, in the justice of her cause and the justice of the Almighty. These are sources of hope and of consolation which neither time nor chance can alter or take away.