Huge Mistake Number Three: Representation

After they abolished the government,

They replaced the government they abolished with a new one.

Yes, that was a mistake.

And you'll see why, and you'll have an alternative, after you read two of the five great works that we cover in the Samuel Adams Coaching program.

One of the rallying cries in the American Revolution was "No Taxation without Representation."

"Representation" in our day means those who pay no taxes can elect politicians to tax the rich and give to those who aren't.

The tax on tea that gave rise to the Boston Tea Party was only 3 pence per pound of tea. We pay TEN TIMES MORE than that on every gallon of gas. The overall tax rate in 1776 was 2% or 3% max. If you pay one dime in federal income tax, the government is taking over 60% of everything you earn.

Personally, I would rather have colonial tax rates without representation than "representation" and TRILLIONS of dollars of government theft and waste.

What gives Smith the right to elect a "representative" to steal from Jones?

Following the end of the war in 1783, Washington returned to private life and retired to his plantation at Mount Vernon. He spoke of his desire to live safely under his own Vine & Fig Tree, prompting an incredulous King George III to state, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

Despite his yearnings, Washington came out of retirement to preside over the Constitutional Convention and become President of the United States of America.

Was this a mistake? Would Washington have been a greater American if he hadn't? Did America really need a President? Did Israel really need a king?

Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me Death”) refused to support the Constitution.

“I smell a rat in Philadelphia,” he said.

 

He was right. So was George Mason, the “Father of the Bill of Rights,” who also opposed the new constitution.

At first, Samuel Adams was an opponent of the Constitution of 1787. Eventually Adams agreed to support it. Patrick Henry never did.

Patrick Henry was right. So was George Mason. So were other noted Anti-Federalists:

Richard Henry Lee Robert Yates James Monroe James Winthrop

Mercy Otis Warren George Clinton Melancton Smith Arthur Fenner

One can also argue that Thomas Jefferson expressed several anti-federalist thoughts throughout his life, but that his involvement in the discussion was limited, since he was stationed as Ambassador to France while the debate over federalism was going on in America in the Federalist papers and Anti-Federalist Papers.

The Constitution, with its "separation of powers," "checks and balances," and theory of "enumerated powers," failed to prevent the rise of an atheistic tyranny.

Madison, Hamilton, and John Jay sold America on a Constitution which they claimed would prevent the rise of another tyranny.

They were wrong.

Every single person who signed the Declaration of Independence and/or the Constitution would take immediate steps to begin abolishing our present government if they were here in 2013.

And because America's Founding Fathers were excellent students of history, if they could see the history of the world from 1789 to 2013, they would become the most radical of libertarians.

They gave us what they called "an Experiment in Liberty," and America became the most prosperous and admired nation in history. Washington D.C. abandoned that experiment in the 20th century, embarking on an experiment in government central planning. Everywhere this experiment was tried -- Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union -- it left poverty and mass death.

Sam Adams would see that we need to abolish the current tyranny, and replace it with nothing but "the Invisible Hand" of 100% unregulated, Laissez-faire capitalism. 

As if greedy politicians don't.

But your moral concerns are valid.

That's why George Washington, Samuel Adams and nearly all of America's Founding Fathers believed American education had to be centered on "religion, morality and knowledge.".

From a Christian perspective, two things characterize pure religion. They can be summed up in the words of the Apostle James:

Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction, and
to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27

This is why voluntary charities were everywhere in early America, and why welfare has now been nationalized by the State.

"Trust No One"

How do libertarians respond to the accusation that they do not have enough trust in government? John Adams wrote in 1772:

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

Should libertarians have more confidence in their government? Thomas Jefferson, 1799:

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

James Madison warned the people of Virginia (1799):

the nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy.

Madison added in Federalist No. 55,

[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust. . . .

Trusting government, having "confidence in government," is un-American.

The British historian Lord Acton put it this way:

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

The exercise of political power is problematic. We should assume that "great men" -- that is, powerful men -- men who wield the force of "the government" -- are morally corrupt. This assumption should be considered confirmed if he increases his own power during his time of "public service."

• Why a Bill of Rights? | Walter Williams
• Why Bad Men Rule | Hans-Hermann Hoppe

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters ... but they mean to be masters."
~ Daniel Webster

But if the Constitution of 1787 was a failure, could any constitution succeed?

No.  

And this leads us to a very radical conclusion.

Or perhaps I should say, to a very hated conclusion.

In fact, the three huge mistakes we've been discussing lead us to the three most hated words in today's political lexicon.

Thing #4
The Three Most Hated Words in Politics Today
and why you must embrace them

• Theocracy
• Pacifism
• Anarchism

Most Hated Word #1 - THEOCRACY!

Literally, "God rules."

The First Huge Mistake made by America's Founding Fathers was the concept of "rights."

We saw that the proper approach was to ground life, liberty and property (or the "pursuit of happiness") in our social duties not to kill, steal, kidnap, bear false witness, etc.

Why is it I have a duty not to kill you? Where does this duty come from? There are many theories in the universities, but none stand up to examination or can be lived out consistently in practice. The best protection for "human rights" is a strong sense of duty to God. America's Founding Fathers were unanimous in the conviction that a nation cannot remain free if it ignores its duties toward God. These duties are spelled out in the Declaration of Independence: "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." That linked webpage shows pretty conclusively that America's Founders understood that phrase to refer to the Bible.

We want our nation to be "under God," not a government that thinks it is God.

America used to be a nation "under God."

That's why America has always been a Christian Theocracy.

Everybody at the ACLU and every anti-theocracy action group on the Left agrees that New England was Theocratic from the early 1600's and for a few generations thereafter. If you try to get the Shorter Catechism taught in public schools, someone will accuse you of trying to "impose a theocracy," even though the Catechism was in every classroom in every colony in America in 1776.

Before the Declaration of Independence was signed, every one of the 13 colonies was a Christian Theocracy.

Did the Declaration of Independence change this? Did the Declaration secularize America?

Of course not. If you try to get the Declaration of Independence taught as truth in public secular schools today, you will be accused of "trying to impose a theocracy." The Declaration of Independence from Britain is also a Declaration of Dependence on God.

A "theocracy" is where God rules. George Washington described God as "the ruler of nations." Notably, nations that are called "Christian Nations." England was one of those "Christian nations." So was America.

The Constitution did not secularize the 13 Theocracies. They wouldn't have ratified the Constitution if they had known or suspected that it would do to America what has been done to America in the name of the Constitution. Nobody treated the Constitution as a document that secularized the 13 Theocracies. Read about their actions here. See the links in the box at right.

America was a Christian Theocracy from 1600 to 1800 and beyond. In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States still declared that America was a Christian nation.

A Christian Theocracy is not the same thing as a Muslim Theocracy. A Theocracy led by the Prince of Peace is different from a theocracy led by a god of war. A Christian Theocracy is a "Vine & Fig Tree" society where Christ is King in heaven. No state-church. No church-state. No state-priests. No church-police.

We're going to read about this during the next 365 days. Details here.

On the day after the Constitution went into effect in March of 1789, America and each one of the 13 united States was a Christian Theocracy.

As a militant non-violent Peacemaker, you are going to join other extraordinary Americans in undertaking the task of abolishing the U.S. government and making America a Christian Theocracy again.

America's Founders agreed that our nation must be "under God" -- the true God, not Osama bin Ladin's God -- and thus a Christian Theocracy, governed by the true religion.

From a Christian perspective, two things characterize pure religion. They can be summed up in the words of the Apostle James:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and
to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27

This is why voluntary charities were everywhere in early America, and why welfare has now been nationalized by the State.

Go to the second of the Three Most Hated Words in Politics

Most Hated Word #2: Pacifism

The Second Huge Mistake made by the Founders was to take up arms against the Empire in a violent revolution.

If you're not allowed to resist an Empire, you're not allowed to resist lesser enemies. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commanded, "Resist not evil." He also said "Blessed are the Peacemakers."

Pacifism is clearly at the heart of being a Christian Peacemaker.

Pacifism is a critical issue in our day.

"Pacifists" are often criticized for being willing to stand by and do nothing while their wife or daughter is raped.

This is slanderous, a violation of the Ninth Commandment.

Pacifists continually meet objections like those of Samuel Bacchiocchi, who said:

It would be morally irresponsible to turn over one's wife to a rapist just to "keep peace."

This is a "straw man." Such critics cannot name a single pacifist who would do nothing to try to prevent or stop a rape. I've never met a pacifist (and I've met hundreds and lived with several) who would say to a rapist, "Here she is. Go for it. And peace to you." A pacifist believes in the existence of evil, and believes violence is evil. A pacifist opposes violence because violence is evil, and a pacifist wants to eliminate or prevent evil. A pacifist would take prudent steps to stop evil, avoid evil, catch evil off guard, and evangelize evil, but would not -- as many non-pacifists seem to advocate -- start out immediately with lethal force. Many 2nd Amendment zealots would pull out their gun at the drop of the hat. At least that's the way they talk. Probably they are a bit more rational. Like Bacchiocchi.

Here's a simple question that will prove you are a pacifist.

Imagine you are "Star Trek" Captain Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. You are walking down the street of a planet in the Deltoid Galaxy with one of your never-ending stream of beautiful women at your arm, when a large burly alien with the tattoo "I AM A RAPIST" across his forehead jumps out from a dark alley, grabs your female companion and says "I'm going to rape this woman!" You pull out your Phazer™ gun and . . . here's the question:

Do you set the Phazer to "stun" and quickly put the rapist to sleep and call the proper authorities, or do you set your Phazer to "maximum molecular disruption" and utterly obliterate the rapist, ending his life?

When given such a choice, only a sociopath would choose annihilation or lethal force. Everyone else is a "pacifist." It's that simple.

What happens if you're consistent with this innate, conscientious pacifism?

Answer: you will begin to change the world.

In many ways the most violent world in recorded history.

Christ is the Prince of Peace. His vassal-subjects must be committed to Peace. The Prince of Peace commanded us to love our enemies. True Christians are willing to follow Christ to the cross (Matthew 16:25; 1 Peter 2:21).

But the religion of Secular Humanism (America's State religion) teaches vengeance. Modern Man believes it's better to make someone else die for you than to give your life for another. Entire populations are organized on the principle of institutionalized vengeance.

Most people don't want to be called a "pacifist," but more and more people are adopting a social philosophy which is very close: the "Non-Aggression Principle" or "Zero-Aggression Principle."

This principle is at the heart of modern defenses of capitalism. "Capitalism" means many things to many people, especially those who oppose it. Most mainstream voices, even "conservative" voices (e.g., Fox News) would not call themselves defenders of "capitalism," much less "laissez-faire capitalism." Most of those who openly call themselves defenders of "capitalism" rely on the Non-Aggression Principle.

The most consistent adherents of the Zero-Aggression Principle call themselves "anarcho-capitalists." More about both Capitalism and Anarchism below.

If Obama asked for your guns, would you give them to him?
"I Would Give Obama My Guns If He Asks"

Continue to the next hated word.

Thing #5
The Three Things You Need to Become Extraordinary

• Content/Curriculum

  • Read the Five Most Important Works in the History of Western Civilization
  • Apply them practically to your life, your home, your neighborhood, your society, by becoming a coach to "the least of these."
  • Our Daily Training Program
  • The Importance of Ideas - inevitability: Islam, Marxism
  • Worldview
  • Daily Devotion
  • LifelongLearner

• Community

  • Exhort one another daily
  • Iron sharpens iron
  • “Nouthetic Coaching”
              — You are "competent to counsel" (Romans 15:14)

• Coaching

  • Life = Race
  • Mentor/Elder/Pastor
    • Jethro -> Moses
    • Paul -> Timothy

The Importance of Ideas

The human beings that settled the New World

were the same species of humans that remained in Europe.

But America became extraordinary,
while Europe stagnated under monarchy and socialism.

The difference was ideas.

Ideas have consequences.

These same ideas can have consequences in your life.

The Samuel Adams Coaching Program

Here's a description of our program, along with our continuing attempt to persuade you to sign up.

Samuel Adams Coaching is a distance-learning program that helps you learn these ideas and develop the skills to put them into effect and promote them in our society.
 

Our First Assigned Text:
The most important work in the history of America and Western Civilization, obviously, is the Bible.

George Washington read the Bible an hour every morning.

Then another hour in the evening.

America's Founding Fathers knew it well.

It takes 11 minutes a day to read the Bible
from cover to cover in one year.

Maybe you've already read the Bible --

but you read it as a religious book.

A "devotional" book.

A book to "inspire" you.

A book to help your "self-esteem."

 

We're going to read the Bible as

marching orders from General Headquarters.

We're going to read the Bible as a

textbook in political science and economics.

For example,

We're going to pay close attention to

what the Bible says about

inflation and fractional reserve banking,

which led the Framers of the Constitution to say

"No state shall make anything but gold or silver a tender in payment in of debts."

Americans in 1776 knew what the Bible said about economics, law, political science, and more.

Americans today do not.

Christianity is not just religious devotionals.

Christianity is a worldview that affects every area of life.

To the left and the right you can see a list of contemporary issues which the Bible addresses directly and clearly. During the next 365 days, you'll see these issues in the Bible like America's Founding Fathers did, and like you've never seen them before.

Pretty dismal story, isn't it?

Sure, God sent His Son, who died on the cross, so that some of the players can be forgiven for their rebellion and go home with God, but God's original purposes for man and the creation were thwarted by Satan, the ultimate victor.

The Bible doesn't teach this.

The Bible says our purpose as human beings is to turn a fallen wilderness into a Garden-City. The New Jerusalem is the "Vine & Fig Tree" society.

Hundreds of years before Christ, the prophet Daniel spoke of the first Christmas, the birth of the Messiah in the days of the Roman Empire. That barbaric, debauched empire was destroyed, and the Kingdom of Christ began growing like a mustard tree, like leaven, like a field (Matthew 13). The Emperor Justinian began Christianizing the Eastern Roman Empire, and in the West kings like Alfred and Ethelbert made the 10 Commandments the basis of new legal systems. The "Common Law" began, with a Christian foundation, and eventually found its way into the Constitution of the United States, "a Christian nation." Though there have been ups and downs, the progress of Christianity has been undeniable -- at least to those who have been taught the facts of history.

Most Americans in the 21st century have not.

If you enroll in the Samuel Adams Coaching Program, you will learn the story of the "Vine & Fig Tree." You will learn that the Bible says the purpose of the first Christmas was that "the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). This has been going on for 2,000 years now. This is a wonderful story that isn't being told.

Some people sincerely believe that the Bible says that everything is going to get worse and worse until God finally destroys everything and then starts over. (Why He would want to go through failure again is not disclosed.)

You will read a different story in the Bible when you enroll in the Samuel Adams Coaching Program, and have a coach pointing out things in the Bible that you may have missed.

Perhaps you're reluctant to pay your tuition for a class that teaches something very different from what you've always heard. So we'll give you the entire year-long curriculum. We want to make it clear that simply reading the class outline in a week, or even a month, will not give you the same result as you will have if you enroll in the Samuel Adams Coaching Program and study a little bit each day, think about it, study more the next day, pray about it, and take an entire year to complete your reading of the “Vine & Fig Tree” story. It just won't be the same.

But you wouldn't be a good shopper if you bought a product without knowing what it delivered. So if you're doubtful about our agenda, here are two ways to survey the story of the Bible that you'll learn in the year-long Samuel Adams Coaching Program.

The first way is a 12-day study entitled "The 12 Days of Liberty." It's modeled after the "12 Days of Christmas," which take place from December 25 to January 6. You've never heard the Christmas message like this:

• The 12 Days of Liberty
• Day 1: Incarnation and Liberty
• Day 2: I'm Dreaming of a Large Christmas
• Day 3: The Birth of the Anti-King
• Day 4: Defeating the Enemies
• Day 5: Peace on Earth
• Day 6: Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Capitalists
• Day 7: Kingmas: Christ = King
• Day 8: Let's Keep Christmas Commercialized
• Day 9: A Christmas Nagocracy
• Day 10: Christmas for the Lowly
• Day 11: "All Flesh Will See the Salvation of God"
• Day 12: The Christmas Millennium

This study is obviously not a review of the entire Bible, though many other parts of the Bible are reviewed besides the Christmas narratives in the Gospels.

Here, then, is a review of the entire Bible. Again, it is no substitute for the Berean model of searching the Scriptures daily. And reading them all in an afternoon is not the same as reading one a day and thinking about it prayerfully over a period of time. But just so you can see an example of the worldview of the Samuel Adams Coaching Program, here are 95 Bible Studies, patterned loosely after Martin Luther's "95 Theses," somewhat-humorously called “The 95 Days of Christmas”:

Welcome to “The 95 Days of Christmas” | View

The Importance of Luther's 95 Theses | View

The Origin of These 95 Theses | View

Introduction: Taking the Bible Seriously | View

Thesis 1: Christ the Word | View

Thesis 2: Christ the Creator | View

Thesis 3: Creation, not Evolution | View

Thesis 4: Omniscience, Predestination, and Providence | View

Thesis 5: “Self-Evident Truths” | View

A. “Vine & Fig Tree” BEFORE THE FALL | View

Thesis 6: The Biological Basis of Patriarchy | View

Thesis 7: The Dominion Mandate | View

Thesis 8: Patriarchy and “the Extended Family” | View

Thesis 9: “Vine & Fig Tree” and the Sanctions of the Covenant | View

Thesis 10: The Priority of Agrarianism | View

Thesis 11: “Vine & Fig Tree” and the Mountain | View

B. “Vine & Fig Tree” BEFORE THE FLOOD | View

Thesis 12: The Fall Of The Angels | View

Thesis 13: The Fall of Man | View

Thesis 14: The Purpose of Cain’s “Suspended Sentence” | View

Thesis 15: Cain’s City: The Autonomy of the State | View

Thesis 16: The Demonic Roots of Violent Tyranny | View

C. “Vine & Fig Tree” BEFORE SINAI | View

Thesis 17: The Post-Flood Absence of The Institutional Church | View

Thesis 18: The Patriarchal Power Of “Capital Punishment” | View

Thesis 19: Nimrod: The First Politician (Post-Flood) | View

Thesis 20: “Vine & Fig Tree” vs. Political Slavery | View

Thesis 21: Demonic Activity At   Babel | View

Thesis 22: The Division of The Nations | View

Thesis 23: Evangelism In The Old Covenant | View

Thesis 24: “Vine & Fig Tree,” “National Defense,” And Military Socialism | View

Thesis 25: “Vine & Fig Tree” and “Sacraments”: Circumcision | View

Thesis 27: “Vine & Fig Tree”, Precious Metals, and Money | View

Thesis 26: The Myth of The “Separation Of Church And State” | View

Thesis 28: Salvation is Political | View

D. “Vine & Fig Tree” UNDER MOSES | View

Thesis 29: “Vine & Fig Tree” and Resistance to Tyranny in the Early Days of the Old Testament | View

Thesis 30: As With All Angelic Activity, No State Action Is Coincidental or Random | View

Thesis 31: Ceremony, Ritual, Liturgy, And The “Pedagogical Law” | View

Thesis 32: “Vine & Fig Tree” and “Sacraments”: Passover | View

Thesis 33: Patriarchs And “Elders” | View

Thesis 34: The Need for a Pedagogical Legal Structure | View

Thesis 35: Angels And The Pedagogical Legal Structure | View

Thesis 36: The Promised Land | View

Thesis 37: The Temporary Character of The First “Church Officers” | View

Thesis 38: “Vine & Fig Tree” and the Temple  | View

Thesis 39: Patriarchy and Education | View

Thesis 40: “Vine & Fig Tree” and Oaths | View

E. “Vine & Fig Tree” AND THE RISE OF THE STATE | View

Thesis 41: The Character of “gods” | View

Thesis 42: National Security Without a State | View

Thesis 43: The Prohibition of Monarchism | View

Thesis 44: The State as the Answer to the Prayers of Rebels | View

Thesis 45: The Inferiority of Old Covenant Typological Mediators | View

F. “Vine & Fig Tree” AND PROVIDENCE : THE STATE | View

Thesis 46: Romans 8:28 and The State | View

Thesis 47: God’s Sovereign Ordering of Every State | View

Thesis 48: The State Serves God by Sinning | View

Thesis 49: The State As Sanctified “Servant”/“Deacon”/”Minister” | View

Thesis 50: The State Does Not Serve God Self-Consciously | View

Thesis 51: Only One King Self-Consciously Serves God | View

Thesis 52: Judgment of the State in Heaven and Earth | View

Thesis 53: Moloch-Worship and the Nature of Idols | View

Thesis 54: War, Capital Punishment, and “The Sword” | View

Thesis 55: The Throne of David | View

G. “Vine & Fig Tree” AND THE MESSIAH | View

Thesis 56: Statism At The Time Of Christ | View

Thesis 57: Kingship, Citizenship, and The Gospel | View

Thesis 58: The Civil Authority of The Pastor: Christ The Shepherd | View

Thesis 59: Jewish Opposition To The Kingdom | View

Thesis 60: Christ’s Binding of Satan | View

Thesis 61: True Power vs. Political Power | View

Thesis 62: Agrarianism As Environmentalism | View

Thesis 63: Christ’s Ascension to the Throne of David | View

Thesis 64: The Camaraderie of “Church” And State | View

Thesis 65: Fox News and the Coming of the Kingdom | View

Thesis 66: The Anointed King vs. Political Kings | View

Thesis 67: Jesus The Nazarene | View

H. “Vine & Fig Tree” AND THE EARLY HOME-CHURCHES | View

Thesis 68: Extremism Vs. Neutrality | View

Thesis 69: Sons of God and Pedagogues | View

Thesis 70: Judgment and the Church-Courts of Christ | View

Thesis 71: The Apostolic Church and the Spread of Power | View

Thesis 72: “Vine & Fig Tree” and the House-Church | View

Thesis 73: “Vine & Fig Tree” and the “Sacraments”: Baptism | View

Thesis 74: “Vine & Fig Tree” and the “Sacraments”: “The Lord’s Supper” | View

Thesis 75: Self-Ordination | View

Thesis 76: Salt and Statism | View

Thesis 77: Political Authority and Kingdom Citizenship | View

Thesis 78: “Vine & Fig Tree” and Resistance to Tyranny in the Last Days of the Old Covenant | View

Thesis 79: Taxation, Kingdom Citizenship, and Overcoming Through Suffering | View

Thesis 80: Violence | View

Thesis 81: Vengeance | View

Thesis 82: Creationist Anarcho-Socialism and Darwinian Archo-Socialism | View

Thesis 83: Pedagogy and The Powers | View

Thesis 84: The End of Archists: The Pedagogues Judged by the Church | View

Thesis 85: The Last Days of the Old Covenant | View

I. “Vine & Fig Tree” IN “THE MILLENNIUM” | View

Thesis 86: “The Millennium” | View

Thesis 87: “Ruling with Christ” | View

Thesis 88: Salvation as Light and Social Healing | View

Thesis 89: Edenic Restoration | View

Thesis 90: The New Heavens and New Earth | View

Thesis 91: The Unconverted In the “Millennium” | View

Thesis 92: The Last Acts of Earthly Archists | View

Thesis 93: The City of God | View

You need to go through the entire year-long program to appreciate these studies. You do yourself a disservice if you try to judge any one of the studies without studying the entire series. Real change will take place when you work through the entire Bible systematically, daily, prayerfully, thoughtfully, over the course of a year. The change in your thinking -- the change in your worldview -- will not come about because we forced you or tricked you. You will experience those "Aha!' moments when the lightbulb goes on and you're never able to look at the Bible the same way again.

The significance of most of these studies will become clearer after you become acquainted with the four other works that we'll be covering in the Samuel Adams Coaching Program.

continue

Both sides of this coin are wrong.
We need to examine these myths.

• How did the Civil War make things better? It gave us complete domination by the federal government.
• What future was improved for Poland and Czechoslovakia by World War II? They were rescued from Hitler and turned over to Stalin.
• How did U.S. war help the people of Iraq? A westernized, secular nation was converted into an Islamic Theocracy that leans toward Iran. Hundreds of thousands of Christians were killed or made homeless. Infrastructure was destroyed.
• Which improvements in the human condition have ever been won by war?

• We're told that if we follow the "pacifist" ethics of Jesus and beat our "swords into plowshares," we'll end up living in a "warlord society" and millions of people will die.
  In the 20th century, the world's war-making powers killed hundreds of millions of human beings.
  • They killed 250 million of their own citizens.
  • They killed 250 million human beings from other nations in senseless wars.
  • How could it possibly be worse if the human race denounced the entire idea of archism?
  • Archists not only murdered a half a billion people, they enslaved more than a billion, and confiscated trillions of dollars of private property. This is "rational," "sensible," "practical," "realistic" and "real world," and the Bible is not???
  • Insanity.
  • Would Jesus Celebrate Memorial Day?
• We already live in a corporate-warlord society. The United States is the largest arms dealer in a world of archist violence.

Conclusion:

Morality | Character | Virtue

Each day as we read the Bible we're going to focus on things that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel Adams focused on in their studies: virtue, morality and character.

 

Not the kind of character that makes a person a prissy priest or clergyman.

 

But the kind of character than can create entrepreneurs, CEOs, and heroes; build businesses and hospitals.

 

We'll study the character traits you see at left, and we will begin developing them into habits in our own lives.

 

We'll discover a program to develop extraordinary habits in the next great work we're going to read.

Thomas Jefferson, despite his criticisms of clergy and ecclesiastical corruption, would want to be remembered as one who lived and encouraged a life of virtue and morality. He would not take credit for the army of people who champion "separation of church and state" as a cloak for selfish immorality and a lack of virtue.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, He has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus, and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses.
— TJ to James Fishback, Sept 27, 1809, Bergh 12:315. (1809.)

Jefferson had written in 1819, "I never go to bed without an hour or half an hour's reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep" -- to which Randall adds, "The book oftenest chosen . . . was a collection of extracts from the Bible."
Henry Wilder Foote, "Introduction," The Jefferson Bible, 23

He was passionately devoted to the gospel of Jesus, which stirred him to the depths of his being and was the most powerful motive force in his life.
Donald S. Harrington, "Foreword," The Jefferson Bible, 11

Speaking of "the widespread denunciation of him by his political opponents as an anti-Christian infidel or atheist," Foote observes,

[I]t is one of the minor ironies of history that such slanders should have been so generally and so long believed about the man whose knowledge of and admiration for the teachings of Jesus have never been equaled by any other President.
Henry Wilder Foote, "Introduction," The Jefferson Bible, 18

It was not, however, to be understood that instruction in religious opinion and duties was meant to be precluded by the public authorities as indifferent to the interests of society. On the contrary, the relations which exist between man and his Maker and the duties resulting from those relations are the most interesting and important to every human being and the most incumbent on his study and investigation.
-- TJ, Report to the Visitors [school boards] Oct 7, 1822

America's Founders were agreed that religion and morality were an essential part of a public school education.

This is because good character, which is the embodiment of religion and morality, was essential to liberty and a free Republic. If everyone thinks he is his own god, and can steal, enslave, or kill anyone who stands in his way, you cannot have ordered liberty. People of bad character will clamor for a strong government to take vengeance against other people of bad character. Soon you have totalitarianism and lawlessness.

Read the Founders on the connection between morality and liberty here.

Continue to Westminster Standards

The second-most popular work in colonial America
(after the Bible)

was the Westminster Standards.

This comprised a Confession of Faith, a Larger Catechism and a Smaller Catechism.

The Smaller Catechism was for children. The Larger Catechism for teens. Both exceed the depth of most seminary graduates in the 21st century.

At a time when the total population of America was only four million people, it is estimated that some five million copies of the "Westminster Shorter Catechism" were available in the colonies. Historian Richard Gardiner writes:

The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism. Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk.

It takes approximately 11 minutes per day to read through the Bible from cover to cover. It only takes a couple of minutes a day to read through the Westminster Catechisms and Confession in a year. They were written around 1645 and the drafters unequivocally opposed our brand of political libertarianism. But they believed that God is God, and denied that the State is God, a necessary first step on your road to becoming an extraordinary American, an extraordinary Christian, and an extraordinary human being.

And from the Westminster Standards we're going to discover a program that will rapidly and profoundly change our personal character and habits.

Over the course of 365 days, you'll begin internalizing Christianity as a worldview.

You will begin applying Christian principles to every area of your life. Christianity will no longer be a private belief for you, but a public matter. You will become your own "City upon a Hill."

"In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, that is Mine!"

If Christianity is relegated to Sunday school, then Monday through Friday we can deny justice, infringe on liberty, and destroy the life, liberty and property of others. It is because the Westminster Standard viewed life as a whole, all of it under the jurisdiction of God and His Laws and morality, that America became prosperous and admired. Americans Christianized business, science, the arts, and every area of life. This made America a great place to live.

Consider your alternatives:

An atheistic Soviet Union

Buddhist Sri Lanka

Islamic Uzbekistan

Most people would rather live in America, a Christian nation.

Or any nation that is a part of Christian Civilization.

It was Calvinism that shaped America.

continue

Only weeks later, Washington signed his first major federal bill [30] - the Northwest Ordinance, drafted concurrently with the creation of the First Amendment. [31] That act stipulated that for a territory to become a State, the "schools and the means of education" in that territory must encourage the "religion, morality, and knowledge" that was "necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind." [32] Conforming to this requirement, numerous subsequent State constitutions included that clause, [33] and it still appears in State constitutions today. [34] Furthermore, that law is listed in the current federal code, along with the Constitution, the Declaration, and the Articles of Confederation, as one of America's four "organic" or foundational laws. [35]

Washington would be appalled that today's Supreme Court says it is "unconstitutional" for children in public schools to be taught that Christianity is "necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind." Every single person who signed the Constitution believed that it was, and intended for government to endorse that idea.

In his Inaugural Address, Washington, speaking publicly and officially as the new President of the United States, said:

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to the Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge.
      In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. And, in the revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with a humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.

President Washington could not have said these things to children in a public school classroom in 2013. (And not just because American public school students are generally illiterate and wouldn't understand half of what colonial teenagers would have understood.)

A Christian Theocracy seeks to give God all the glory. It's hard to see that God rules today when the State claims to be the Messiah.

Americans today have been misled by the myth of "the Separation of Church and State." This mythical idea -- not found anywhere in the Constitution -- has come to mean the separation of God and State, with God being separated into the private world of fantasy and imagination, and the State having omnipotent power in "the real world."

In 1892 the United States Supreme Court unanimously declared that America was "a Christian nation." The Court went back to the discovery of North America by Columbus, and summarized all the official legal charters and documents that acknowledged our duty to God and created the American Theocracy, the most prosperous and admired nation in history. In 1989 the Court said, "This Court  squarely has rejected the proposition that the First Amendment is to be interpreted in light of any favoritism for Christianity that may have existed among the Founders of the Republic. "May have?" America is no longer a nation under God. As a result, America -- once prosperous and admired --  is now bankrupt and despised.

The great conflict in Western Civilization today is whether our world will become

•	an Islamic theocracy,
•	an atheistic theocracy (where man thinks he is his own god, but the omnipotent secular State wields total, crushing power),
•	or whether America will again be a "City upon a Hill," persuading the world to become a peaceful, global Christian Theocracy -- the kind described by the Prophet Micah.

The third reading assignment will be the history of Christian Theocracy and "Western Civilization."

Hundreds of years before Christ, the prophet Daniel spoke of the first Christmas, the birth of the Messiah in the days of the Roman Empire. That empire was destroyed, and Christian Theocracy began growing. The Emperor Justinian began Christianizing the Eastern Roman Empire, and in the West kings like Alfred and Ethelbert made the 10 Commandments the basis of new legal systems. The "Common Law" began, with a Christian foundation, and eventually found its way into the Constitution of the United States, "a Christian nation." No one book adequately chronicles this history, so we will read from a number of books that try:

           

Excerpts from these books are freely available on the Internet. Only one of the authors agrees with our radical conclusions (described below), but their arguments lead to our conclusions if consistently held.

There are two stories that need to be told:

The first is how Christianity destroyed the slavery and paganism of the Roman Empire and inaugurated "Liberty Under God," the foundation of "Western Civilization"   (476 A.D.- 1517 A.D.).

The second story is the story of America, and how

• Calvinism created America  (1517-1787)
• America apostatized into an atheistic empire  (1787-2013)
• and -- hopefully -- how America repented and became an anarchist-theocracy (2013 - ????).

To begin this second story, George Washington would assign the reading of the Supreme Court's opinion in the 1892 Decision Holy Trinity Church vs. The United States and all the historic legal documents cited by the Court.

The Final Book

The message of the angels to the shepherds on the first Christmas:

And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest,
And peace on earth
among men in whom He is well pleased.

For many people, "realism" = pessimism.

And for 100 million evangelical Americans, God has predestined life to get worse and worse. Wars will inevitably increase. Totalitarian military dictatorship and tribulation are inevitable. God's experiment of putting human beings on earth to cultivate the Garden and build a New Jerusalem will be complete failure. Jesus will end it all by coming again, in the cosmic equivalent of "If it's your football and you're losing the game, just take your football and go home."

One of the most popular objections to undertaking the task of abolishing an atheistic dictatorship by working to persuade archists to repent (resign) is the belief that Christ is going to return "any day now," and "you don't polish brass on a sinking ship." Christians are soon going to be "raptured," many believe, so why work against the tyranny of "The New World Order" or invest energy in a defense of "Liberty Under God?"

This entire theological edifice, and the millions of people believing it, did not exist in 1776. No theologian was preaching "the Rapture" in 1776. America's Founders felt comfortable proclaiming their creation of a "Novus Ordo Seclorum," a New Order to last for Ages. According to the U.S. Dept. of Treasury, the motto on the Great Seal "signifies a new American era" that "will always grow, improve and build."

This optimism has virtually disappeared in the 21st century.

The final book assigned for reading in our Samuel Adams Coaching Program will be a book that refutes modern "pessimillennialism" and restores optimism and confidence in God's ability to achieve His goals. This book will give us courage to be Peacemakers. This book will become one of the most important books in Western Civilization because it will prevent the plunge into pessimism and nihilism that threatens to bring down Western Civilization itself.

We are searching diligently for this book.

In the meantime, We are going to assign the reading of an 1876 book entitled The Parousia:

"Parousia" is the Greek word used for "second coming." This book is simply a catalog of all New Testament prophecies concerning "the second coming." The result of looking at all the evidence will be a "paradigm shift."

We admit that this book is not yet one of the most important books in American history or the history of Western Civilization. What we believe is that the idea that Christians should not be a "city upon a hill," a "light unto the world," or "the salt of the earth," and should allow Satan to rule or destroy the world, is an idea that has already done much to undo everything George Washington and the Founding Fathers worked for, as well as all that Calvin and Augustine worked for. It is, in fact, turning over the City of God and the Kingdom of Christ to the city of man and the kingdom of Satan.

In other words, one of the most important ideas in the history of Western Civilization is the refutation of the idea that Western Civilization --Christian Civilization -- is not worth perpetuating.

• Biblical References
• American References

• Sovereignty
• Authority
• Victory
• Power
• Kingdom
• Heaven on Earth
• Heaven Now
• Christmas vs. Rapture

Audio

Predestination

vs. "Free Will"

Chose birth?

• Nobody used "free will" to come into existence

• Real issue: The nature of the Creator | Person or Mud

Calvinism

"Free Will" = imago dei | Image of God
 • reason
 • planning for future
 • symphonies

Providence

Protection is an act of love

Prayer  = anti-deism

V&FT "impossible even for God."

• Globalism
• Catholicism, not Rome-ism
• Planetary redemption
• End of racism
• End of nationalism
• "Optimillennialism"
• Confidence in the prospects of human progress toward a Christian world.

Audio

One religion is superior to the others

One has caught our attention: jihadism

blow-up vs. convert

• The Bible: The Word of God
• Law-Word
• Worship the Word
• Theonomy
• Justification by Allegiance
• Christian Reconstruction:
  Application of God's Law to Nations/Governments
• Character

Audio

Now U.S. exports weapons/pornography

Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.

"judgmental" vs. Hitler

• Family
• Patriarchy
• Self-Government
• "Economics" = "family government

Audio

Family = "undemocratic"

Adams: mothers:
religion + morality

Thou shalt not kill

Thou shalt not steal

• Peace
• Swords into Plowshares
• Standing Armies
• Government = force
• Non-Aggression
• No retaliatory force
• Capitalism: The Economics of Peace
• Non-Archism

Audio

Pacifism = "criminals will take over"

 

Really? More people will die under pacifism than under archism?
More money will be confiscated under pacifism than under archists?

• OT = violence, slavery
• Jesus = irrelevant utopian hippie; not
  "practical" or "realistic."

Fact:

• Bible = V&FT
  utopia

• Garden
• Eden
• Land
• Property
• 30,000 verses or John 3:16

Audio

Environmentalism

Wilderness vs. Garden

"False weights and Measures."

• Darwinism vs. The Weak
• The Remnant
• Extended Home
• Community: Bereans vs. Fox News
• Hospitality vs. xenophobia
• Service
• Works of Mercy | audio
• Society vs. "State"
• Capitalism vs. "Law of the Jungle"
• Election by Grace

Audio

immigration vs. "enumerated powers."

Audio

Purpose is not to have a fight or
shout-over like Fox News

 

Don't sign up if you just want to tell us we're wrong.

Bereans, search scriptures

"I'll have to think about this"

"This is what I've always been looking for"

So here's how Samuel Adams would coach you
to become an Extraordinary Christian:

The last two will cost you.
You can get 'em here.
We will actually pay you to become a mentor. Mentor two people, and everything you need is free.

Enroll Now!

Each coaching semester begins when it is fully enrolled and funded. Our coaching program is provided by Vine & Fig Tree, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. We use a popular internet strategy known as "Crowdfunding." This means when we receive enough funds from the crowd to cover the costs of administering the program, including membership site software, hosting, and labor, the semester begins. Each member of the crowd contributes whatever amount seems to be a good fit. To enroll, simply type in your email address and the amount you're willing to contribute.

• Our program is divided into three parts:
  (1) A 7-day course describing the Vine & Fig Tree ideal. This course is always free.
  (2) A 95-Day Orientation Program; (Why 95?)
  (3) The Full One-Year Daily Program.
• We suggest a tax-deductible donation of one dollar per day to participate in the Orientation Program, but a donation of any size will get you into the Orientation Program.
• Jesus says, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." We suggest you pay your coach minimum wage for every hour of program material he creates for you. We can bill your pledge in convenient monthly payments.
• Because of the tornado, we are suggesting an ultra-low price for both the Orientation and the Full Coaching Program: $279.
• You're more than welcome to make a larger donation.

Type your email address in the form below. Then type in the amount of a tax-deductible donation you are willing to make to Vine & Fig Tree. We will get back to you with details on getting started. No Credit Card necessary right now. No obligation.

When you sign up, you'll get

• an email every day, telling you what the assigned readings are;
• an audio recording of the readings -- for car, exercise, mindless work;
• access to a members group where additional conversation and support can be found;
• Weekly (or more often) live Q&A webinars; share progress, encourage one another.
• unlimited email questions to your coach
  • ask a question about the readings
  • ask for more proof or supporting evidence
  • ask about how to implement a lesson in your daily life
• Other coaches charge 10 times as much.

This introductory coaching program lasts 95 days.

Why 95?

Because we'll be reading Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Not because they are infallible (in fact, we disagree with "Justification by Mere Belief"), but because they were a landmark in the history of western civilization, and because of the historical association of the Bible, the Protestant Reformation, and public schools. We'll read one a day.

Then we'll read one of Vine & Fig Tree's presumptuous 95 Theses on Anarchism.

Then we'll talk about one character trait of a Christian Theocrat/pacifist/anarchist each day.

Then we'll read from a thoroughly documented book which shows how the "impractical" and "utopian" teachings of Christ can become a public policy blueprint for a harmonious "pacifist" "anarchist" "theocratic" society.

Free? Obviously, you can read these books yourself, by yourself, for yourself, for free, and even take advantage of all the links on this website. Go for it.

We offer community and accountability. Your tax-deductible investment creates commitment. By making a tax-deductible donation to Vine & Fig Tree, you make an investment in your own progress. You've got some "skin in the game."

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