Viable republic
Once you understand the history of what the real Church established by Jesus Christ and John the Baptist was doing in the world it would be obvious to understand that the early Church was a viable republic in the heart of the Roman Empire.
"The early church was characterized by a sense of solidarity (cf. Acts 4:32); Christian unity provided a source of strength against the hostile forces of the world. Only later did “sects” mar the scene. Second, the historian noted that the disciples were cautious “to detect the errors of heresy” as such evolved within the movement. The devout were willing “to expel” from the society of the faithful those, who by teaching or practice, threatened the safety of the religious community [1]. Gibbon also notes that one of the factors that preserved the integrity of the church in those early days was that every congregation was “separate and independent,” and as yet not “connected by any supreme authority or legislative assembly” [2]. Thus the divine organization of the church, along with its willingness to discipline the unruly, facilitated growth. The historian surmised that by the end of the 3rd century A.D., there were approximately 1 million Christians in Rome. Modern estimates go much higher and suggest that one out of every five persons was a devotee of Christ. The reasons Gibbon cited for the rapid expansion of the faith certainly do not exhaust the story, but surely they reflect some valuable truths from which the serious student can profit."[3]
The drive to be independent yet united was fed regularly by the benefits of their network and the demise of the Qorban systems of a declining Roman empire. The caring body of serviced supported by free will offerings of an equally caring network of Congregations became the Benefactors of the people who did not exercise authority through a top-down authoritarian government.
Their union and discipline was the result of their network of charity through love of one another but were they a republic? Historians seem to think so.
"The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire. " This is the fifth cause of the growth of Christianity according to Edward Gibbon.[4]
This is also verified in Historians Will and Ariel Durant, "Among these secondary factors he listed “the pure and austere morals of the Christians” in their first century, but he added, as another cause, “the inflexible (and, if we may use the expression, the intolerant) zeal of the Christians.” And while he praised “the union and discipline of the Christian republic,” he noted that “it gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman Empire.” In general he reduced the early progress of Christianity from a miracle to a natural process; he removed the phenomenon from theology to history.”"[5]
Republics may take many forms and may have different types of governments within their general condition of recognized and individual freedom. In one sense a republic signifies[6] the state of the people existing independently of their form of government.[7] In such republics the leaders are not rulers because they are titular[8] in nature.
“Natural law was the first defense of colonial liberty...Some colonists went so far to claim that they [rights] were granted by the ‘King of Kings’ and therefore ‘no earthly Potentate can take them away.’”[9]This idea of the government being separate[10] from the people is not unique or foreign to the Church. Israel was originally a republic“Some scholars regard the ancient confederation of Hebrew tribes that endured in Palestine from the 15th century BC until a monarchy was established about 1020 BC as an embryonic republic.” [11] dependent on free will offerings and the voluntary participation of its citizens in service of its nation and society. The leaders and ministers of the “church in the wilderness” were kept separate from the people.[12] The people’s contribution to that form of government and their participation in it was always by freewill choice.
Their ministers did not stand between God and the people as some teach today. They were doing something unique and essential for a healthy society. They stood between the “gods of the world” and a free people living in liberty under God.
They did this by supplying the services and benefits of government without exercising authority one over the other, as God and Christ has said from the beginning.
“Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent.”[13]The adversary of liberty under God's works his sorcery through the servants of subversion. Promising liberty from their responsibilities through sloth he brings in servitude.[14] Turning minds and hearts through the sophistry of scholars, the promises of politicians, and the apostasy of the modern church the voice of the people is tempted to reject God again and return to the tribute and bondage of rulers. Instead of living by the perfect law of liberty through charity the voice of the people elect “men who call themselves benefactors” of the people but “who exercise authority one over the other”, contrary to the decrees of Jesus.
The Kingdom of God only binds men together by faith, hope, and charity. Jesus Christ and the apostles, like Gideon,[15] would not rule over the people. Moses led the people out of bondage into a system of government where there were no kings who could exercise authority one over the other, no government to make laws and cause the people to bow down and serve them.
God uses such governments to punish the people who reject and turn from Him to set up men as gods through sloth or consent. The Ministers of God’s government are not like Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, or Caesar, but are to be titular leaders of a peculiar people.
Understanding what the real church was doing will also explain the Christian conflict between the Roman cult and government and what the persecuted Christians were really charged with.
By the time Constantine began to peddle his brand of Christianity and Church the real Christians had over 1200 known Bishops who exercised no authority over the ministers of the Church nor the people in free Congregations. What were they doing? What were the Elders of the Church doing?
Republics
“Are men the property of the state?
Or are they free souls under God?
This same battle continues throughout the world.”[16]
- “Some scholars regard the ancient confederation of Hebrew tribes that endured in Palestine from the 15th century BC until a monarchy was established about 1020 BC as an embryonic republic. That would make the ancient Israelite commonwealth the earliest republic in history and one of the oldest democracies; except for slaves and women, all members of the community had a voice in the selection of their administrators and were eligible for political office.”[17]
Those who held office were the elders of each Family and they exercised the power of the state autonomously within the sacred nature of the divine union of Husband and Wife. No new laws were made but the law was administered through the courts of the congregations with the congregations of Levites administering the appeals through the cities of refuge.
The Levites administered charity and mercy, but they had no exercising authority over the choices of the people, nor their liberty. They only had control over what they were free given in sacrifice.[18]
The leaders were chosen by ten families in congregations, bound together by love and charity. There was no power to take the first fruits of their labor, draft their sons and daughters, nor compel taxes. The people remained free souls under God. They remained at liberty as long as they loved God and one another.
The people held the power of the state individually and independently from the administration of government.
- “Republic. A commonwealth; that form of government in which the administration of affairs is open to all the citizens. In another sense, it signifies the state, independently of its government.” Black’s Law Dictionary 3rd Ed. p1536.
A Pure Republic
- “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…”[19]
- “The term republic, res publica, signifies the state independently of its form of government.”[20]
A pure Republic allows the people the power of choice. They may retain their right to choose or waive it for what they believe is profitable or for gain. People change the governments change. It has been said, “All roads lead to Rome”, but if we turn around all roads lead to the Kingdom of God. It is all about which direction you choose to go, which path you choose to take.
- “Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14
The United States is a democracy within the original republic and it has changed as its citizenry changes. Relationships have been altered by choice and consent. The dreams and desires of the people may become a nightmare of despair before those who slumber awake.
The term republic in its pure form comes from the words Libera Res Publica, Free from Things Public.
- “Tacitus repeatedly contrasts the res publica under the emperors with the pre-Augustus libera res publica; and in the Germania 37, encountering the disasters which Germans inflicted upon the res publica Romanorum, he distinguishes between the old res publica, which he calls the populus Romanus, and the new res publica, which he calls “Caesar”. The old res publica hardly had the mixed constitution which dreamers assigned it and which actually never can exist, but it was something greater and majestic which lives on as a glorious memory in a mean age.”[21]
History will repeat itself if we will not learn from it. If you are not free from things public then you have subscribed to a republic fashioned after the precepts of Caesar rather than a free society.
Footnotes
- ↑ Gibbon, Edward. (n.d.). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. I. New York, NY: The Modern Library.
- ↑ Gibbon, Edward. (n.d.). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. I. New York, NY: The Modern Library.
- ↑ Author Wayne Jackson commented on Gibbon's work.
- ↑ Five causes of the growth of Christianity
"Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry an obvious but unsatisfactory answer may be returned; that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author. But as truth and reason seldom find so favourable a reception in the world, and as the wisdom of Providence frequently condescends to use the passions of the human heart, and the general circumstances of mankind, as instruments to execute its purpose, we may still be permitted, though with becoming submission, to ask, not indeed what were the first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church? It will, perhaps, appear that it was most effectually favoured and assisted by the five following causes:
I. The inflexible, and, if we may use the expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses.
II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth.
III.The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church.
IV. The pure and austere morals of the Christians.
V. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire." Chapter 15 Fall In The West — The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - ↑ — Rousseau and Revolution, Will et Ariel Durant p.801. fn 83 Heiseler, 85.
- ↑ “The term republic, res publica, signifies the state independently of its form of government.” Bouvier’s Law Dictionary Vol.1. page 13 (1870).
- ↑ “Republic... it signifies the state, independently of its government.” Republic. Black’s Dictionary 3rd Ed. p1536.
- ↑ “A state or nation in which the supreme power rests in all the citizens… A state or nation with a president as its titular head; distinguished from monarchy.” Webster’s New Dictionary unabridged 2nd Ed. 1965.
- ↑ Origins of the American Revolution, By John C. Miller. Published by Stanford University Press, 1959. And The Other Side of the Question: or A Defence of the Liberties of North America. In answer to a ... Friendly address to all reasonable Americans, on the subject of our political confusions. By a Citizen, New York, 1774, J. Rivington, 16. Bulletin of the New York Public Library. By New York Public Library.
- ↑ “Holiness then denotes the separateness, or otherness, of God from all his creation. The Hebrew word for holy, qados, in its fundamental meaning contains the note of that which is separate or apart.” Easton Illus. Dictionary.
- ↑ “Republic” Microsoft ® Encarta. © 1994 Ms. Corp. and F & W Corp.
- ↑ Nu. 8:14 “Thus shalt thou separate the Levites... Levites shall be mine.”
- ↑ Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice (1856-1941)(Olmstead v. U.S.).
- ↑ 2 Peter 2:19 “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”
- ↑ “And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.” Judges 8:23
- ↑ Cecil B. DeMille in “The Ten Commandments.”
- ↑ “Republic,” Microsoft ® Encarta. © 1994 Ms. Corp. and F & W Corp.
- ↑ See “The Sophistry of Sacrifice” published by His Church
- ↑ Constitution of the United States, Section 4.
- ↑ Bouvier’s Law Dictionary Vol.1. page 13 (1870).
- ↑ The Ruling Power: A Study Of The Roman Empire In The Second Century After Christ Through The Roman Oration Of Aelius Aristides, James H. Oliver, Kessinger Publishing, July 25, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-1428659315.