Thomas Aquinas #1 (Historical Context)

Hey John, this is Thomas Aquinas number one, the historical context. Welcome everybody to greatbiblereset.com where our thesis is that the one and only thing that will save America from the judgment of God is a return to God's requirement for Christian nationalism. God's requirement for Christian nationalism spelled out in Exodus 20-24 is called by God the book of the covenant and it was first delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai as the Mosaic covenant. Today we're looking at the historical context surrounding the life of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century A.D. Now we've seen how the western mindset with its monasteries and otherworldly focus was spellbound by Neoplatonism for a thousand years, the first millennium of the church of western civilization. The first crusade that began in 1096 broke that spell and exposed the west to ancient authors like Aristotle. Aquinas imported Aristotle into the church at the invitation of the Pope. These writings had been locked up in translations and commentaries of the Muslims, especially a guy named Averroes. There was a school of western Christian thought called Averroism which suggested that there's two sources of truth. One is Aristotelian philosophy and the second is biblical revelation. This was the theory of double truth. Now Aquinas sought to reconcile and combine the two so as to appeal to the unbeliever. Thus Averroes introduced ancient Greek and Islamic philosophy into Christian Europe and he has been described as the founding father of secular thought in western Europe. So Averroes via Aquinas gave further impetus to the development of secular civil law divorced from biblical law in the west after the papal revolution of 1075 to 1122. Thomas reversed Anselm's dictum I believe in order that I may understand, which he unfortunately did not live up to very well in practice, but with Aquinas the engine of faith or reason pulls the caboose of faith. Neoplatonism and St. Augustine had given the church an inward and upward focus for a thousand years. Then Aquinas comes reviving Aristotle's idea of studying things in nature to discover truth. So Thomas Aquinas took that a step further and hoped that the natural theology he derived from this idea would give rational validation of faith for the unbeliever. And today we have a new book by Stephen Wolfe, In Search of Christian Nationalism, which is repeating this age old folly. To quote the author, quote, revealed theology serves to complete politics but it's not the foundation. I can't believe he said that but he said it. Christian political theory treats natural principles as the foundation, origin, and source of political life, even Christian political life. And how is this any different from the original error of Eve when Satan suggested, hath God said, you will be like God, knowing good from evil. In other words, you Eve will be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong. And that's what we find in this new book by Stephen Wolfe, unfortunately. Remember how the Justinian code lay buried in an Italian library for over 500 years? I guess somebody was reorganizing the library in 1180 AD and it's like, hey guys, check this one out. And so the systematizing, the analyzing of this code, the Justinian code, simulated the growth of the first universities in places like Paris and Rome and especially Bologna, Italy. At the same time, Henry II, who is known as the father of the royal law or the common law, was the first in the line of 14 English Plantagenet kings who reigned from 1154 to 1485, 331 years. And second in line there was Richard of the Lionheart, who actually spent very little time in England. And he uttered the phrase from the devil we came to the devil we shall return, referring to his line of kings. They were succeeded by the Tudor line, which included the 50 year reign of Elizabeth I, which was also dictatorial, but had a better PR campaign in the works of William Shakespeare, a.k.a. Francis Bacon. And we'll get into that more in the future. Much of the 13th century, the 1200s, was marked by struggles of the barons against this Plantagenet tyranny, resulting in establishment of some of the notable secular beachheads of English liberty. For example, we have the Magna Carta in 1215, negotiated by Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to bridle the tyranny of King John. Under the feudal system, the great lords were obligated to support their king militarily within reason, but they could not be taxed without their approval. And so it was violation of this code, together with John's licentious lifestyle, which led to a confrontation at a meadow on the Thames River near London in 1215. Magna Carta corrected a wide range of abuses, but its most important features are found in clauses 39 and 40, which alone remain legally binding today, along with parts 1 and 13. Now clause 39 stipulates that, quote, no free man shall be taken or imprisoned or deceased or outlawed or exiled in any way destroyed nor will we go or send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land, end of quote. So this is the basis for the jury system and the doctrine of due process of law in modern jurisprudence, Western jurisprudence. But here's the problem. Although the Magna Carta is often said to provide the basis of English liberties, the foundation of its authority is inadequate for enduring freedom. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams made that point in a Fourth of July speech in 1821, where he said, quote, the people of Britain through long ages of civil war had extorted from their tyrants not acknowledgements, but grants of right. They received their freedom as a donation from their sovereigns. They appealed for their privileges to a sign manual and a seal. They held their title to liberty like their title to lands from the bounty of a man. And in their moral and political chronology, the great charter of Runnymede was the beginning of the world, the fabric of their institutions. Instead of solving civil society into its first elements in search of their rights, they look back only to conquest as the origin of their liberties and claim their rights, but as donations from their kings. End of quote. Now, unfortunately, Adams and the American founders, while rejecting the wheel of the ruler as the basis of governing authority, turned instead to the will of the people. Quote, there were spirits capable of tracing civil government to its foundation in the moral and physical nature of man, explained Adams. But conquest and servitude were so mingled up in every particle of the social existence of the nation that they had become vitally necessary to them. End of quote. Thus Adams distinguishes between king-granted rights and what he claims are God-given rights based in natural law or the nature of man. It is this equally tenuous foundation on which the U.S. Constitution is based, as specified in its preamble. We the people do ordain and establish this Constitution instead of God. Magna Carta was finally ensconced in the statute books of the realm in 1297 by none other than Edward I, who is known as the great usurper of the Scots. Now the problem with this is seen in the fact that John immediately recanted. He petitioned the Pope for a moment on grounds that his signature had been coerced, and the Pope was quick to accommodate him. Although its influence waned greatly under the strong Tudor monarchy of the 16th century, Magna Carta had a profound influence on later English history, especially its provision that taxation must be by a cent. This led to the rule that Parliament must approve all taxation, a stipulation that even the Stuart kings of the 17th century were compelled to obey. At that time, Sir Edward Coke and the petition of Wright in 1628 appealed to its provisions. English kings were required to reconform Magna Carta some 44 times. Moreover, its provisions were extended in the Bill of Rights embodied in the Revolution Settlement, which brought William and Mary to the English throne. They were established in the Act of Settlement in 1701, which clearly defined the British constitutional monarchy. Now Adam's analysis presents a false dichotomy, and it ignores the excluded middle, rather than the will or the pleasure of the ruler, or the will of the people, government must ground its authority in the word of God. Deuteronomy 17, 18-20 sets the standard, where it says, When he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and all these statutes, and do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment. End of quote. Now Magna Carta makes no reference to the law of God like that, and it left the door open to the heretical utilitarian formulations of Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700s, and then John Stuart Mill in 1849, when the common law failed. Later, and it failed by devolving into the death penalty assigned to some 200 crimes. You know, people say that the law of God is tyrannical with 15 death penalties, but the common law had over 200. Later in the century, the conflict turned bloody. In 1265, an English Parliament is held by the victorious Simon de Montfort. First English Parliament. In that same year, the future King Edward I defeated de Montfort at the Battle of Ivesham. William Wallace and Robert Bruce emerged victorious against Edward I and Edward II in Scotland. Now we'll look at this in more detail over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'd invite you to visit our longevity store at boomers-alive.com. Pick up some great deals and extremely high quality supplements. Buy one, get two free. Buy one, get three free right now. Or check out the bookstore at kingswayclassicalacademy.com for more detail on Thomas Aquinas and these great truths. So thank you for being with us today, and we look forward to tomorrow.