Anglo-Saxon Socialism: Religion of Works;
Single-handedly Delayed by Tyndale’s Faith
Our post, Ubermensch Reborn in BLM, briefly explored German philosophy that elevated Man’s Reason, coupled with epic ethnic mythology, over faith in Christ. But the German philosophers were simply apologists for French philosophers who prized Man’s Reason above any moral restraint of religion as discussed in, French Revolution: Birth Pangs of Socialism. Several French philosophers were influenced by English philosophers which begs the question, “Why did England not aspire toward scientismic socialism as their French and later Germanic compatriots?” It would be correct to say, Reformation, but it would be imprecise. The more correct answer is condensed into one Reformed man: William Tyndale, Prince of Translators.
Martin Luther Sparked the Reformation;
He also Doomed the Reformation to Statism
Martin Luther was not the prime mover of the Reformation; he was the spark that revealed general unrest with Roman Catholicism’s (RCC) self-serving doctrinal tyranny. Luther did not refute much of RCC practices and doctrines though he began the movement away from works-based salvation. The cause was taken up by Calvin, Zwingli, Huss, Wycliffe and many others whose names are known only to Christ. These men generally sought to return Christianity to the people as depicted in the New Testament; especially in the Gospels and Acts. This required translations of the Bible into the vernacular language of each language group. But, translation is not simply changing languages but requires understanding and interpreting into coherent grammar and idioms of the target language. Within three hundred years or less, each of the major Reformation church groups became associated with newly formed nation-states to become little copies of RCC. These persecuted faiths became persecutors themselves. France did not embrace the Reformation and actively murdered Huguenots, as Reformers were called there. Thus, RCC tightened its control and coupled with central economic failure crumbled to secular Reason. The German path was later and somewhat different but nonetheless a socialist movement devoid of Christian restraint. England was on the same path.
The religious wars in England were not as violent nor as sweeping because of its isolation as an island nation and sparse craggy highlands. Wycliffe believed each believer should own a readable Bible which under RCC was only in Latin which many village priests could not read. As Christ preached to individuals, he believed that each person should read and be responsible for God’s truth in their life; or lack thereof. This ebbed and flowed until Wm Tyndale came on the scene. He literally spent his life translating the Bible until he was executed. But, England was flooded with his translations and eventually England repudiated RCC but established its own nation-state church devoid of true doctrine.
John Knox Literally Took Up Tyndale’s Work;
The Father of the Scottish Revival: Presbyterianism
While the Enlightenment found fertile ground in England, it had to contend with vigorous biblical Christianity that would not die out as in European countries. Just when it was quelled in one area, it moved to another. John Knox championed Calvinism as Presbyterianism named for its elder system of church government. All these men were dedicated to the Five Solas: Bible alone; Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone and Glory of God alone. Many died because this was anathema to the State and thus its moral arm; the State Church. Yet, the fervor of each generation affected by these men died out for such is the fickleness of second generation Christians who did not fight the battles. And such also is the subtleness of Satan to degrade the faith into faithlessness.
Puritanism was the reaction against England’s State Church which became simply a form of RCC without beholding to Rome; it answered to the King and thus excused royalties excesses. There was a State bible, a State book of prayers and State-sponsored beliefs. Puritanism was a break-away movement to return to Reformed Presbyterianism with each church deciding its own beliefs based on their study of the Bible. However, whenever the persecuted becomes secure they become the persecutors. The Puritans in American New England refused to allow any other faiths in their territories and expelled unbelievers from their midst. They became mired in Postmillennialism; the belief that they were to prepare a righteous kingdom for Christ to receive on His return. This is the history of all faith movements; they remain faithful for a time then wander from the path of truth. This is the fundamental lesson in the Letters to the Churches in Revelation {Chapters 2-3}.
Puritanism Morphed into Pietism Awakenings
These Prized Emotionalism over Doctrinal Truth
Pietism sought recapture the spirit of the Reformation but without the emphasis on doctrinal learning. Pietism began in German provinces, swept through Europe, influenced England and came to America. Its positives were on personal faith and holy living; however, this became emotionalism that eventually led to such heretics as Charles Finney and extra-church personalities that answered only to themselves. America’s First Great Awakening motivated the people to rebel against England under the tutelage of John Locke {more on this shortly}. The Second Great Awakening became the impetus for Lincoln’s War which strengthened central government over state governments leading to the federally led Progressive Era or American Socialism. This emphasis on emotionalism also invited the establishment of the Pentecostalism and Charismatic movements that have floundered on the Health, Wealth and Prosperity heresies extent today apart form the Bible. But Pietism was not the only Reformation failure to haunt America.
John Locke is probably the Father of the American Revolution. He was born into a Puritan family but developed doctrinal ideas foreign to Puritanism’s Calvinism of Election and Predestination. Locke rejected the idea of people being born as sinners and disavowed the Trinity. He developed the idea of God-given Rights out of whole cloth based simply on his empirical philosophy. His ideas became the basis for the American Revolution coupled with Thomas Paine’s, and Thomas Jefferson’s, Deism. Locke legitimized rebellion against Tyranny by calling it not-rebellion but a restoration of man’s natural rights. Since he has almost no Scriptural basis for his ideas, his arguments became slippery slope fallacies that are constantly redefined to justify current goals. Many Christians are caught in this snare because they have been raised in the Pietist tradition, emotionalism over theology based on solid bible study.
Deism sought to combine Reason and God into a philosophy to pass muster in an otherwise Christian social environment. However, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason dispelled the notion of a Christian God. His hedonistic defense of Reason celebrated the French Revolution’s violence and thought it should come to England and America! Even Bayle, whom we discussed previously, was a French Huguenot whose philosophy supported atheism over Reformation Christianity! What a quagmire of Christendom was produced out of Christianity that the early Reformers died to bring to you and me. What happened?
Reason Without Biblical Christianity
Is Neither Reason nor Reasonable: It is Sin
Satan works by deception and delusion (2Th 2:3-12). He is like the stage magician who holds your gaze with the obvious while he performs his illusions behind the scenes. The German and French philosophers and the violence of their philosophies over the past two centuries is Satan’s obvious socialism to hold your attention. His real work of Socialism was accomplished in England and America behind the shield of Pietism, Deism and Christendom. Evangelical Christians were dazzled by the Second Great Awakening and gave their lives to build a strong central government one the bodies of their countrymen while Lincoln finally sold the concept of emancipation as the goal of his war; even though he repudiated this goal at the beginning of his presidency. He suspended the Constitution and was praised. Later, his predecessors would also function under the guise of national emergency to inaugurate and expand socialism’s agenda but with the consent of the people. This has become the model to establish International socialism or globalization. The current Covid-19 manmade pandemic is the emergency to begin the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset beginning with the consolidation of national currencies into regional digital and then a single currency controlled by them to control the world.
As Christians we have only the Bible as our source of absolute Truth. Satan’s goal is to move us from the Bible to any other source which he then manipulates to move everyone to accept the same goal. This is The Lie, the great delusion, he has been orchestrating since Original Sin. Only faithful Christians welded to the Bible can see the delusion but this only puts us in the same position as William Tyndale, dying for one’s faith. Very few Christians are speaking out and many are unwittingly fostering the delusion by clinging to Lockean ungodly beliefs that masquerade as bible-based. Religious, Catholic and Jewish, preach morality but cannot speak Christ’s truth as their works-based religions seek to add to Christ’s atoning death which the Bible teaches as not just impossible but Satanic. It is the Five Solas but one only finds faith in studying the Bible diligently and in prayer.