The LIght and the Rod: Volume 2, Biblical Governance Corruptions

By Dan Wolf

We live in an increasingly secular world, a world where man focuses more and more upon himself. As a result, we are no longer educated in the things that truly matter. We’ve forgotten what brought us as a people so far in such a relatively short period of time.

The Light and the Rod examines two sets of ideas shaping how man chooses to live with others. They order society in incompatible ways. One brings success; freedom, personal liberty, progress, and peace. The other breeds failure in many forms; oppression, compliance, division, and unrest.

As a people, we must choose one. But why does one work and the other fail? The Light and the Rod’s two volumes explore that question. The answers are there, because truth never changes. False ideas, on the other hand, must continually reinvent themselves to be accepted because they come from man alone.

Volume one surveys these two sets of ideas. We can find in them in the words of Plato, Aristotle, Clement of Alexandria, Plotinus, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. They display themselves in history; from Rome’s fall, through the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and the experiment that is America.

The second volume dives into two additional sets of ideas with us today. Ideas we find in the words of those such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Rousseau, and Muhammad. They claim to be new or different, but they are not. Their ideas are simply corruptions of earlier ones, and they lead to the same place as their borrowed source—failure.

This topic is timelier than I’d ever imagined. We see both sets of ideas being employed during the current Coronavirus outbreak. Not only across different countries, but across America itself through each governor’s actions. China and Michigan; Sweden and South Dakota. Each different, but also alike. At stake are the basic notions society rests on; who brings order to society, what is law’s purpose and scope, what is freedom, ownership versus stewardship, and how does each define justice. All these and more are at stake. If you want to be free, you first need to learn what that phrase really means. You will find the answers in very few places within our education system today. But the answers are there, and the kind of life you want to live depends on them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Wolf
• Release date: Apr 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781370905751

Dan Wolf

Dan Wolf’s life can be divided into his career and vocation. By way of career, he is a successful professional with over twenty years’ experience helping organizations solve problems. He possesses a rich mix of research experience, analytical abilities, and the capability of turning complex abstract ideas into something tangible. These same skills of research, analysis, and communication carry over to his writing. He deeply believes that things do not happen in isolation; that understanding different facets leads to a better understanding of issues.He is a CPA with a Master’s degree in Finance and two years of doctoral coursework in human judgment and decision-making. He taught himself programming, and has extensive experience in utilizing technology to design and develop business processes that support cost modeling, performance metric development, financial and operational analysis, and the distribution of information from those processes. He has used analytical methodologies to identify cost improvement, cycle time reduction, data quality improvement, and human performance management opportunities.His vocation began at a young age with a penchant for history, but started in earnest with the events of 9/11. In trying to understand those events he has been led on a journey which has included learning the tenets of Islam, the contents and history of the Bible, and exploring Christian philosophical/theological thought related to our purpose. This purpose directly translates into how we should govern ourselves and is born out in the history of freedom’s development. Future works will focus on these and related topics.More articles by Dan Wolf can be found at the Virginia Christian Alliance website where he contributes on contemporary issues. http://www.vachristian.org/

Book preview

The Light & the Rod

Volume 2

Biblical Governance Corruptions

Dan Wolf

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The Light & the Rod, Volume 2

Copyright © 2020 Dan Wolf. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

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Other books by the author:

Collectivism and Charity

A War for God

A Handbook of Natural Rights

Visit the author website:

http://www.livingrightly.net

Other articles by the author can be found at:

https://vachristian.org/

ISBN: 978-1-3709057-5-1 (eBook)

ISBN: 978-0-9987567-7-6 (Paperback)

Version: 2019.11.28

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Our English Heritage

Chapter 2: A Promise Fulfilled

Chapter 3: A Pagan Response

Chapter 4: Pagan Thought’s Fruit

Chapter 5: Islamic Tenets

Chapter 6: Biblical Basis

Chapter 7: Putting it All Together

Appendix A: Timeline of Events and People

Appendix B

Appendix C

Notes

Introduction

The Light & the Rod’s second volume picks up where the first volume left off. Volume 1 employed philosophy and theology to develop two governance models based upon two contradictory and incompatible sets of ideas. These models have implications for what Man means when he speaks of freedom, rights, justice, virtue, values and the like. The first model uses ideas underlying the early pagan state religion societies. Its ideas find their basis in Greek philosophy—in Man alone. The second model’s ideas have their basis in the Jewish Tanakh and are extended by the Christian New Testament. These biblical principles radically reshaped Man’s ideas about governance, and the way he viewed the things related to it.

This volume opens with history, highlighting the interplay and conflict between these two sets of ideas. It begins with that greatest of pagan empires, Rome, and its decline. The discussion progresses through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Along the way, we’ll see the implications the biblical principles model had for freedom’s development—freedom as it was understood at America’s founding and not necessarily what is meant today when this word is used. We’ll look at the feudal system and several medieval documents. We’ll move specifically to England and from there go to its North American colonies. We’ll end this discussion examining America’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. This content is covered in the Chapters 1 and 2.

But not everyone agrees with the ideas underlying the biblical principles approach. The next four chapters examine two responses built upon the same pagan ideas underlying the early state religion societies, such as Greece, Egypt, and Rome. Chapter 3 opens by completing the history began in the first two chapters. It focuses on the corruption between religious and political power that reached its peak during the Renaissance. This corruption shaped many writers’ thoughts since. The chapter focuses on the ideas underlying works by Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Benedict Spinoza, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We’ll see they are a repackaging of the same pagan ideas underlying the state religion societies. Chapter 4 then examines two documents derived from these ideas, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ideas underlying these latter documents are then compared to those in America’s founding documents.

Chapters 5 and 6 review the second response: Islam. This discussion is limited to governance and the related ideas outlined above such as freedom, rights, justice, and so on. The intent is to let Islam speak for itself. Chapter 5 reviews some issues related to language and Islam’s source document development. This information allows us to use these sources in developing Islam’s ideas about the topic at hand. Concepts are derived from the Qur’an, Sirat, and Hadith. Chapter 6 uses this same approach to derive similar concepts from the Tanakh (Old Testament) and New Testament. The chapter ends comparing the two sets of ideas derived from Islam and Judeo-Christian source documents.

Chapter 7 looks at the situation today. It focuses on the -isms developing over the last couple of centuries. These include communism, fascism, humanism, liberalism, progressivism, rationalism, and socialism. All are derived from the same pagan set of ideas underlying the two corruptions of biblical principles outlined in this volume. They all come from the same root. The chapter uses the writings of F. A. Hayek to draw some societal implications from these pagan ideas—ideas that are rooted in Man alone. It then closes with some questions for you to consider for further thought.

As in all my work, the only answers that truly matter are the ones you arrive at yourself. But those choices should be honestly informed. I simply try to present you with the facts, using original source documents wherever possible. I believe the choices are very clear, but it is up each one of us to make them. It is both our right and our duty, and we are each accountable for our choices in the end. But making good choices requires knowledge—education—and today we are no longer taught what is important to truly succeed and thereby fulfill our purpose. Once we have knowledge, we have an obligation to act. These are the knowing and doing Christ spoke of in the Gospels.

It takes the effort of each one of us working together. The material isn’t necessarily the easiest to understand, but nothing ever truly worthwhile is easy. Are you up for the challenge?

I pray whatever your choice, your journey is a good and fulfilling one.

Back to TOC

Chapter 1: Our English Heritage

The prior volume examined two sets of ideas underlying two different governance models, two incompatible ideologies having implications in the areas of rights, justice, freedom, virtue, and values.[1] We begin by presenting those two models again, one based upon pagan ideas from the early state religion societies and the second from Judeo-Christian principles.

The above models, as well as their underlying ideas, could not be more different. They are contradictory and incompatible—they cannot coexist. This means we must choose one or the other. The table below summarizes some of the significant differences.

The remainder of this chapter provides an overview of freedom’s development in England and its American Colonies up to the War for Independence. The material begins with the Roman Empire’s fall and proceeds through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We’ll see that both threads of thought (pagan and Christian) were present during this period, and this interplay of ideas led to the final two models presented in this volume.

This review accomplishes several things. First, it shows how the first two models played out in history, including America’s founding. This is done using source documents and the Founder’s words themselves. Second, it provides a basis for discussing the two remaining models’ development. Third, it provides examples of the forces leading to the biblical model’s corruption, forces just as relevant today as they were a thousand years ago. Once in place, no model is easy to maintain, but the one chosen has a profound impact on society. Only when a people understand the ideas and principles associated with both models are they in a position to make good choices for themselves.

We’ll start by looking at why Rome fell and who ruled after its fall. This sets the stage for discussing the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages today are generally portrayed as a dark time between the enlightenments of Rome and the Renaissance. I hope the material in this section dispels that notion as being inaccurate. The Middle Ages were a period where the structures which directly led to the creation of free societies developed. These structures set the stage for the technical advancements occurring during the Industrial Revolution. The next material presents an overview of the Feudal System and the development of social contracts; from there we look to the development of freedom within the city-states of Northern Italy.

A second inaccurate notion is that the Founders looked to John Locke and others who pronounced a more secular view of freedom based upon social contract theory alone. However, this also is not true. Social contracts were actively used to limit a ruler’s power during the Middle Ages. It was the violation of those contracts which led to actions creating the Magna Charta in England and the Act of Abjuration in the Netherlands. The notions in England leveraged by Locke were developed by others such as Thomas Becket, Thomas More, Stephen Langton, John Major, George Buchanan, Edward Coke, and many others. Historically, social contracts relied heavily on the religious basis for natural rights contained within those contracts—well before Locke’s birth. Locke incorporated Enlightenment ideas about religion into his social contract theory.

The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire began as a republic, but not like America’s. It was founded on the pagan principles underlying the state religion societies. Several significant differences were present. First, people existed to serve society, ensuring that it and its class structures were successfully carried into the future. Second, all were not equal, but rather some were more equal than others. This equality was based not on Man’s inherent nature but on the skills, abilities, and knowledge one possessed—and how useful those were to society’s success. Third, citizenship was only for those who could benefit by having it: those who were part of the elite with the skills, wealth, and abilities to help society be successful.

Several structures contributed to Rome’s development and fall. We will very briefly look at three of them: its class structure, slave economy inherent in that structure, and its army.

Societal Structures

There were initially several groups within Roman society. The patricians possessed significant wealth and thought they should rule. But there was a problem. There were relatively few of them, and they could not rule the majority plebian classes without the latter’s help. Agreements were reached over time giving the plebeians certain rights in exchange for allowing the patricians (later with the equestrians, senators, etc.) to rule.

This created a tiered society. To be a citizen, one had to own property, and the patricians owned property. Generally, about 10% of any population in one of these societies were citizens, and as far as we know never more than 20%. The patricians (and later other landed groups) ran the empire. They were at the top. The plebeians had their own laws, elected their own officials, but they were not citizens and did not participate in ruling the empire. They occupied the middle tier. Slaves were at the bottom and at Rome’s height of power made up about 40% of its population.

Much of Rome’s economy was based on slave labor. At its height, the Roman Empire is estimated to have had a population of 60-90 million people. Based on the figures above, there would have been about 6-9 million citizens. Slaves would have constituted between 24 and 36 million. The remaining 30-45 million were those in the plebian classes and women and children outside Rome’s class structure.

Slave societies faced several limitations. First, slaves lived relatively short lives. Second, they tended to produce few children. This class was largely expendable. When one wore out, they were simply replaced.

The heart of Rome’s empire was its army. It was unmatched in its day. Citizens were expected to participate in politics and/or the army. To be a citizen, one had to own property. When a Roman army went off to fight, they were fighting for their home. At its height, Rome’s empire stretched from England in the north to the Sahara Desert in the south, and from Spain and western Africa to the Persian Empire in the east. Starting in the 1st century BC, Rome’s army would begin fighting the Germanic peoples in the north and would a short time later begin a war with Persia that would last until the latter’s fall to Islam in the 7th century. The Roman army’s victories brought new territory under its control and supplied many slaves, but at its height, the soldiers were further away from home and gone for increasingly longer periods of time.

So What Changed?

In 60 BC, three men conspired to gain control of Rome: Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar. Crassus had tax contracts he wanted enacted. He was after wealth. Pompey had returned from military victories in the east. He had treaties he wanted ratified. He was after military power and glory. Caesar wanted to rule the Empire. He desired political power. All three got what they wanted, at least for a time. But with this change, Rome turned inward. The focus shifted from expanding the Empire to controlling Rome’s power.

Rome’s empire reached its largest geographic area about 175 years later in the early 2nd century AD. Not adding new territory resulted in the main source of slaves supporting the economy drying up. Over time, the economy began to fall apart. I mentioned that the armies were gone for longer periods of time, and to be a Roman soldier one had to own property. Politicians liberated vacated property for Rome’s benefit, and some soldiers had their property taken outright because they were not home to defend their rights. As they no longer owned property, they could no longer be in the army at a time when a large army was needed to fight in both the north against the Germanic peoples and the east against Persia.

But the politicians had another bright idea. They simply removed the requirement of owning property to be in the army. This allowed anyone to join. However, soldiers were no longer fighting for their homes, but instead the riches, honor, and glory only their generals could provide. Allegiance shifted from Rome to its generals, increasing the inner turmoil already present. Finally, Constantine made Christianity Rome’s official religion in 313. This made it morally difficult to continue justifying slavery, and put Christianity in both religious and political roles that are relevant to our discussion.

How Did It End?

The Germanic tribes invaded the Roman Empire beginning in the 3rd century AD and continuing into the 6th. These included the Vandals, Goths, Ostrogoth, Visigoths, Lombardi, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Alemannia, and many others. But who were they? By this time, many of the Germans within a hundred miles of the Roman frontier, particularly their tribal leaders, had been Christianized. The Germanic tribes traded with Rome, particularly for food. They knew Latin and used Roman coins. They provided a Roman education to their children.[2] They were hired as mercenaries in the Roman army. They were not the barbarians much of history has made them out to be. They were little different from the Romans themselves.

So why did they come? From about 300-500 AD, the weather in northern Europe was unusually cold. In fact, in 366 the Rhine River froze to the extent that tens of thousands of Alemannia foot soldiers were able to walk across it, the only time in recorded history this has occurred. The colder weather further limited their already short growing season for food. They initially came looking for food and work, things they had already been obtaining from Rome. They also came seeking protection from the Huns who invaded both the Germanic and Roman lands from the east. When the Germanic people entered Rome’s Empire, they found chaos: Roman armies fighting Roman armies, Germans fighting Romans, and Germans fighting other Germans.

That is the external reason for Rome’s collapse, but there is another: It decayed from within. The conspiracies and corruption mentioned previously support that notion. But Rome’s focusing its attention inward showed itself in another way. One other pagan society principle was that the people belonged to the state, and society should be shaped to the state’s needs. Males were more valued within these pagan societies. One way this bore itself out was through the use of contraception, abortion, and infanticide. The typical ratio of women to men across societies is about 49/51, if today’s definition of normal can be used. Within the Roman Empire at its height, this ratio was at least 45/55. So within its population of 60-90 million, there were about 33 to 50 million men and somewhere between 27 to 40 million women.

For a male population the size noted above, we would normally expect to see a female population between 32 and 48 million. This represents a difference of 5 to 8 million women from what were present. One example supporting the use of these methods of population control comes from the city of Ashkelon. A portion of the sewer beneath the bathhouse was excavated. About one hundred newborn skeletons were recovered from the bottom of the sewer. So much for Roman enlightenment. When a society can convince itself that only certain life matters, then no life matters. It is only a matter of time before anything else can be rationally legitimized. It all begins with ideas.

Political and Religious Tensions

I’ve already mentioned Constantine’s making Christianity the empire’s official religion in the 4th century. Consistent with his earlier pagan beliefs, Constantine viewed Christianity as a part of Rome and therefore under his authority. He had no problem interjecting himself into theological issues.

This same tension was also evident within the church through the writings of the early church fathers. Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria are two of its earliest whose writings date back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Tertullian expressed one view as follows:

What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church? what between heretics and Christians? Our instruction comes from the porch of Solomon, ... With our faith, we desire no further belief. For this is our palmary faith, that there is nothing which we ought to believe besides.[3]

Tertullian believed that pagan and Christian thought were separate, unrelated, and should remain so. He believed recognizing pagan ideas would corrupt Christianity.

Clement expressed the second view:

So while truth is one, many things contribute to its investigation.... if philosophy contributes remotely to the discovery of truth … it aids him who aims at grasping it … to apprehend knowledge … then we shall avow it to be preparatory training for the enlightened man.[4]

Find whatever truth existed within pagan thought and use it to meet people where they were at. Use this connection to lead them to God’s truth. As outlined in Chapter 3 of the previous volume, Clement viewed philosophy as preparatory for the Gentiles receiving Christianity’s message. To him, Plato was a pagan philosopher, but he came closer to understanding Christian ideas than any other. By refuting Plato’s ideas, he could demonstrate Christianity’s truth and consistency.

The downside of this framework is it easily slips into integrating pagan notions into religion, resulting in its corruption. We will see that was exactly what happened during the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. The Rights of Man model is a response to that corruption. The remainder of this chapter and Chapter 2 focus on the first thread, represented by the Biblical Principles model. Chapter 3 discusses the pagan thread and the development of the Rights of Man model.

More will be said about the Germanic tribes who replaced Roman rule in a moment. But before we close this section, there is one more relevant point to make. I mentioned earlier many German tribal leaders were Christianized before they were driven into Roman territory. Those tribes also elected their leaders.[5] Their leaders came from the people—were elected by the people—to serve the people, just as in the Biblical Principles model.

What of the church, particularly the bishops? When Rome collapsed, its army and administration disappeared. The only consistent authority remaining was the church. Did the church in Rome select the church’s bishops or the ruler? Neither. Leo I was pope during the fifth century. He faced Attila at the gates of Rome unarmed and persuaded him not to destroy the city. He said the following about selecting bishops:

When therefore the choice of the chief priest is taken in hand, let him be preferred before all whom the unanimous consent of clergy and people demands, but if the votes chance to be divided between two persons, the judgment of the metropolitan should prefer him who is supported by the preponderance of votes and merits: only let no one be ordained against the express wishes of the place: lest a city should either despise or hate a bishop whom they did not choose.[6]

As Rome collapsed, it was replaced by political and religious structures consistent with Judeo-Christian principles having separate spheres of influence: one to rule and the other to instruct what it meant to live as God’s people. Both leaders came from within the people and were elected by the people. The beginnings of the biblical model were in place. We’ll turn next to why this occurred.

The Feudal System

Before we discuss the feudal system’s development, we must look at the European continent and collapse of the Roman Empire that marked the beginning of the Middle Ages. The European continent at this time was laced with mountain ranges and dense forests, the exceptions being the northern coast areas in what are now parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, in France around what is now Paris, and southeastern England. These natural barriers led to the creation of many small, relatively isolated communities. In the days of the Roman Empire, travel was difficult, and their roads were primarily developed to carry foot traffic, particularly their army.

The Roman Empire’s collapse brought an end to whatever oversight it had provided, and the size and isolation of the communities made it difficult for another political power to rise up, take control, and maintain that control over a large area. The only significant power remaining after the Roman Empire’s fall was the church.

After Rome’s Fall

These small political units were unable to exercise extensive control over people as power was fragmented. This fragmentation existed not only between the state and the church, but between various groups within the people themselves. As a result, military forces were small and ineffective for ruling the people without their goodwill. Each side needed the other to achieve its goals. This set the stage for a different idea. One of limiting power similar to what occurred between the patricians and plebian classes at Rome’s beginning. Further,

with the advent of biblical religion and its distinctive views of Deity, nature, Man, and government, did people begin to grasp the idea of limited power in the state. The era in which these notions were assembled into the edifice of freedom was precisely, the Middle Ages.[7]

More than any other source, the concept of limits on power was put forth by the church. It served as a counterweight to the political aims of rulers in protecting the people. The theology and philosophy covered in the previous volume[8] provided the basis and structure for that limitation and