Hello Echo Chamber - Seditious Use of The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate

Hello Echo Chamber

Where we talk to ourself or only others like us

Seditious Use of The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate

Welcome to the new ‘Echo Chamber’ at Samuel Adams Returns. Why that name for this newsletter, blog/vlog? Frankly it seems that most of what is produced within this newsletter, blog/vlog posts only reverberate within a chamber of the cavernous bellowing from a cacophony of talking heads of various political, social and religious genres. The modern pushers of communication emotionalism are no different than the contentious wranglers of words during all ages, especially during the founding era of this nation. I will always contend that there is nothing spoken or written that has not already been (Ecclesiastes 1:9). It is the lack of understanding history and the pursuit of humanistic rationalism that champions modern cognitive dissonance in political, cultural and even religious thinking and language.

Hence, the furthering of new as well as ambiguous ‘narratives’ / story telling greater than historical facts and systematic reason¹. Through the education system, media and social media, we have well developed non-thinkers. We now have the gulable acting on emotionalism instead of truth established, at the very least, in natural revelation.

With that, I say again, Hello Echo Chamber at Samuels Adams Returns where we will look at our present through the mirrors of history.

Just a note, I may not be able to get to the video production of the postings. As you can visualize by the content here, I am continuing to do a lot of deep study in early church history, the writings of 1^st and 2^nd century church fathers as well as all the regular study I do to prepare for these newsletters. Hopefully for you, it is the content that matters.

On To The Topic for November and December

What is the seditious use of The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate?

We are seeing it everywhere in government. From the local level to the national. We are seeing the ideologues imbedded in every branch of government, especially in bureaucracies, defying existing law, Constitutionalism and reason. The majority in government even repudiate natural law / revelation as well as the designer and giver of the said natural law / revelation. Mostly in he last one-hundred-fifty years, the interlopers of humanism have filled the hallowed halls of government with the purpose on remaking foundational intent into something other than our established Constitutional Republic.

There are lists of reasons for the afore mentioned transformation of governance by anti-God ideologue lesser magistrates, but most significant are the mutations of higher education’s leadership. The presidents and staff of universities moved away from Christian Biblical presuppositions of every topic to that of humanism. Dr. Gary North points out in his book ‘The Biblical Structure of History.’ that the likes of Andrew Dickson White in 1896 ‘wrote one of the most important humanist books designed to undermine respect for Christianity: History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. He was a Protestant theological liberal. He hated any form of Protestantism that affirmed the final authority of the Bible.’ This as well as other humanist, socialist and communist ideologies has developed a divided nation with non-Christians having a point of disdain and enmity for all that is morally defined by Biblical truth.

Yet, as of the time of the finalizing this post, I found an interesting article that I wanted to introduce at this point. I challenge you to read this as you look at the seditious rationalization of those contrarian ideologies: Evangelical Christians Carried Trump to Victory. What Nonbelievers Assume About Them Is Often Wrong by Carrie Sheffield, December 15, 2024.

Seditious Lesser Magistrates

The election of Donald Trump to a second presidential term has set afire the seditious use of The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate. You can find numerous article (See Reference Articles) regarding the ‘Trump Proofing’ of the federal bureaucracies. Then there are the Blue States and Blue Cities who are raising the cardboard walls of a fictitious modern Magdeburg against the new Trump Administration. Those that strive to keep the existing establishment, are according to Founder’s intent of ‘limited national government,’ tyrannical and despotic haters of Federalism, Constitutionalism, inalienable rights and personal property.

To comprehend my position, one must first understand the proper and functional use of this doctrine of resisting tyranny and despotism (see the links to my programs for this). One must wrap one’s mind around – that the laws of the universe are anchored and grounded in the complete transcendence of the Biblical Creator – of all the universe. All human laws, regulations and rules are to be presupposed upon the Creator’s immutable dictums as set forth in Scripture and natural revelation.

Humanism and all of its theories and machinations are catastrophic failures. Without a willing comprehension of a transcendent God who not only created time and space but acts in and upon it, the result is only chaos and lawlessness by which sedition becomes the means of governing, more than governing, you have ruthless, suppression, injustice and repression of truth and the God given rights of humanity.

Before We Get To Crux Of IT

Before we get to the crux of it, being the basic seditious use of the Lesser Magistrate by the ungodly and immoral, we need to clear up one confusion that many Christians have regarding governance and active participation in all aspects of life against evil. The bamboozlement of the theology that began in 1827 with John Nelson Darby has caused, if you honestly study the impact, the ascendance of evil to its present level as well as political decisions that are not inline with the earliest church fathers and foundational beliefs in governance. Just for a moment, go back a few paragraphs to date of Dr. Andrew White’s book. Theology impacted and misguided by philosophical prescription versus Reformation contextualism.

The space in this post is to short to fully delve into the need to adhere to primordial context of Biblical ‘covenant’ and Reformation teaching inclusive of governance and history.

The Crux of Darby, Schofield and those that followed is simple: They created the philosophical environment for Christian neutrality in moral disintegration, political non-involvement, as well as cultural and theological ruin. Such that what ever would quicken the ‘the church age, this current age, to allow all things to get worse and worse; and then Christ comes back to rapture his church.² This impacted how Christians did nothing to prevent the now flagrant seditious use of the Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates against a new and forthcoming federal administration intent on returning to first principals of limited governance for and by the citizenry.

Basic American Historical Use of Lesser Magistrates

The facts are that the New England Colonies were the hot bed of Liberty from before the Puritans left Europe for the New World. The reason can be explained in a definition of Puritanism by Bradford Smith in his biography of William Bradford entitled Bradford of Plymouth,

Puritanism in England was essentially a movement within the established church for the purifying of that church for ministers godly and able to teach, for a simplifying of ritual, for a return to the virtues of primitive Christianity. There was nothing revolutionary about the main body of its doctrine. Its innovating principle was in the idea that the Bible, rather than any established religious hierarchy, was the final authority. Therefore every man, every individual, had direct access to the word of God. It was the Puritan’s aim to reconstruct and purify not only the church, but individual conduct and all the institutions men live by.

To grasp how and why those early New Englander patriots of the 18^th Century took the contrary and revolutionary positions they did, one needs to focus on the last sentence in the quote. Key to those traversing the ocean to this new land is the embedded theology preached from 1620 into 1776 based on solid Reformation truth to ‘reconstruct and purify not only the church, but individual conduct and all the institutions men live by.’ The reconstructing ‘all the institutions men live by’ gave the impetus to study history, the Reformation and have a distinct knowledge of governance under the sovereignty of God.

Sam Adams – The Last Puritan – Reconstructing All the Institutions Men Live By

I was recently asked in an interview if Sam Adams was really a radical ideologue who incited riotous and revolutionary rhetoric and activities? I countered that he was committed covenantal Puritan who understood not only the Bible but the Reformation, the most fully developed scheme of Calvinist political theory by Johanas Althusius and the actions of the Magistrates of Magdeburg (The Doctrine of Lesser Magistrate).

Consider this quote from Althusius’ Politico,

[I]f the supreme magistrate does not keep his pledged word, and fails to administer the realm according to his promise, then the realm, or the ephors and the leading men in its name, is the punisher of this violation and broken trust. It is then conceded to the people to change and annul the earlier form of its polity and commonwealth, and to constitute a new one.

And now the title of Sam Adams Master’s Thesis,

“Whether it be lawful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved?

This thesis is the result of a solid Biblical education by Sam’s Mother, the teaching and preaching from the pulpits of the day and the study of history as well as law, which is framed as ‘the law of justice³’ and ‘the law of truth⁴’ in a Christian context. Remember, that Harvard as well as most Colonial universities of the 18^th Century were seminaries first. Therefore Sam Adams and his peers across the Colonies were thinkers and logicians whose framework was instantiated in the historical writings of early political and Reformation leaders.

In concert with the learning and the historical evaluation of governance and forms of government, the pastoral leadership was highly influential in the political arena. This was again especially true in the northern colonies due to their Puritan heritage where as the other colonies. It became more evident in the southern colonies as presbyterianism and Huguenots gained influence with the settlements in the Piedmont as well as the greater countrysides from Virginia to Georgia.

The ministers of the day, having a Calvinist heritage, understood relational sovereignty. God is sovereign over all leadership and that the representatives of the people are responsible to that sovereignty first and then to the people. Due to their community continuity, ministers were very often called upon for input on political and governing positions. Those elected to the Colonial general legislatures were often well schooled in what we now call a Christian Worldview, which included the God instituted rights of liberty, property and good civil government.

The Founders as Lesser Magistrates

There is a lot written in my other blogs and vlog programs regarding the details of the Lesser Magistrates. What I want to emphasize here is that the American Colonial revolt against tyranny during the later part of the 17^th and into the 18^th Centuries was carried out by ‘elected officials.’ Sam Adams as well as the others that lead the fight for the Rights of the Englishman were locally elected to their legislatures as to the 1754 Albany Congress or ultimately to the Continental Congress.

Therefore, they were Lesser Magistrates acting according to their offices. This authority regarding the elected local magistrates was clear and concise in the minds of the Citizens. Additionally, the Citizenry held this understanding as gave their suffrage to those who would participate in the Continental Congress. We seldom if ever are taught that the ubiquity of God’s sovereignty over the actions of those elected to office or appointed by the elected, was conscious in the minds of citizen and magistrate alike. But when one studies the Sermons of the day (I suggest the Introduction to The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution) and read the personal writings of the founding magistrates, then it becomes more clear that a majority understood the Reformation concepts of liberty, property and the correct order of sovereignty. As J. T. Headly wrote in 1864:

Notwithstanding the numberless books that have been written on the American Revolution, there is one feature of it which has been sadly overlooked. I mean the religious element. In this respect there is not a single history of that great struggle which is not so radically defective as to render the charge against it of incompleteness a valid one. This omission on the part of historians, seems the more remarkable from the fact that common belief, the universal impression, is against it. There has scarcely been a celebration of the day on which our independence was declared, in which this religious element is not referred to as constituting one of the chief features of the Revolution, yet it receives a subordinate place in history. One reason of this, doubtless, is, that it did not enter into the machinery of political or military life. It was not an organized force that could be numerically calculated or physically disposed of in making outward achievements.

In other words, the people lived and acted by what they believed. So to did the majority of their elected magistrates. They acted according to, what we now call, their worldview of Christendom.

Subversion of Sovereignty – Thus The Resistance of Pretender Lesser Magistrates

I have to end the Seditious Use of The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate with the institutionalization of subversion. This subversion is perpitrated in the resistance of pretender Lesser Magistrates. (For subversion of the Federal Judiciary see Reference #6) To ensure you understand the word subversion, Webster’s 1864 dictionary defines it as: ‘Entire overthrow; an overthrow of the foundation; utter ruin.’

Since the entrance into the 19th Century, we can reflected back on the transition of the Universities from their first mission as seminaries to bastians of englightenment humanism. Therefore, the pulpits transitioned in kind. The clergy became Universalists, Unitarian and as described earlier, as Dr. White – the first president of Cornell University – anti-christian, anti-trinitarian and anti-personal liberties.⁵ With all that has occurred in academia and the effects of Darby’s dispensationalism, the elected of the citizenry nor the bureaucracts no longer seek the clergy for guidance as they did at the founding of the colonies and into the American Revolution.

One may take the steady creeping in of subversion and the seditious use of the Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate back as far as James Madison’s Remonstrances as discussed in my program ‘Episode 393: Madison – The Original Anti-Christian Nationalist.’ The point here is simple, as noted in the Anti-Federalist Papers, corruption would occur at all levels of government if a moral and religious citizenry did not elect, appoint and direct their agents in government in a manner established at the founding of the Colonies.

Conclusion: Resisting the Resistance of the Seditious Lesser Magistrates

There are only four ways to Resist the Seditious Lesser Magistrates.

1^st is the necessity of the pulpits to return to the leadership that they had during the landing of the Puritans through the late 1700’s. The ministers that hold to rooftop Christianity, pluralism and neutrality are not those which have the capacity to ensure a resistance to evil. Those who would be pastors should learn the foundational history of the Gospel in America and what it factually means to engage with society, politics, law, education and culture. We need a new purificaiton of the Church akin to the Sottish and Puritins

2^nd is the vetting of those who would hold public office or who would then seek bureaucratic positions. The primary concern here is their knowledge of Constitutionalism, Federalism and the primordial application of federalism to the closest mechanism of governance for the people.

3^rd is reforming education. The public system, for over one hundred years, has been and is destructive to Constitutionalism, Federalism, individual rights, private property and Christianity. Higher education must have their wings clipped by removing tax payer money. In some states as with Ohio, that would be a multi-megaton effort since funding is in the state Constitution. All federal funding to higher education should be stopped. The grants given for various research should be highly scrutinized for fraud and waste. As well as the Department of education abolished at the federal level. States must re-evaluate what is higher education and then remove tax payer funding that does not adhere to core traditional principles of education.

4^th is our present which will determine our future for the next twenty years. The strategies and actions of the 47^th President’s agenda must be executed. There will be instances that true legal action can be taken against the pretender lesser magistrates and their seditious resistance.

In the end, it comes down to ones belief in the complete sovereignty of God through Christ. Ones belief that Christ is already on the throne and is intent on making all the nations subject to Him. Such that the magistrates and bureaucrats are first subjected to Christ and then to the Citizenry.

There is much to yet to be accomplished in countering the Seditious Lesser Magistrates. Let there be reformation in the church once again.