Lecture 3 - Movement of Christian Liberty

The movement of Christian liberty (and self-government).  Jesus providing internal liberty that is interpreted by the Spirit and principles for external civil liberty.  The church propagates Jesus’ principles. During dark ages, pagan influence perverts church government.  Development of Jesus’ civil government will eventually lead to America, where God provides external liberty in the first Christian republic (a civil government run by self-governing people).

1320 Declaration of Arbroath by earls and barons of Scotland to the Pope during the Scottish war for independence.  Their declaration of support for Robert the Bruce.   

Excerpts from this Scottish Declaration of Independence:
But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert.....Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.….for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

“the spirit of freedom”
a Scottish legacy and heritage of freedom that was in the American founders

American founding fathers with Scottish descent: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Witherspoon, John Hancock

Nineteen of the fifty-six delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence came from Scotland or Ulster or, like the Scottish-tutored Thomas Jefferson, had ancestors there. Other Founding Fathers like James Madison had no ancestral connection but were imbued with ideas drawn from Scottish moral philosophy. Scottish Americans who made major contributions to the revolutionary war included Commodore John Paul Jones, the "Father of the American Navy", and Generals Henry Knox and William Alexander. Another person of note was personal friend of George Washington, General Hugh Mercer, who fought for Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Culloden.

1384 John Wycliffe “The Morning Star of the Reformation”
Studied at Oxford University and became a professor of divinity. tried to reform the Church of England, which had become corrupt and riddle with superstition.  He was persecuted for these efforts and expelled from Oxford.  
He began to see his efforts to reform the church from the outside were doomed to failure, for only as the people had the word of God could they begin to reform their own lives and then, as the logical next step, the life of the church.  But the Bible could be read only by educated clergy since it was only available in Latin.  So he alone began to translate the Bible into English, finishing the translation in 1381.  
Translated the entire Bible into English
Copies of his Bible, portions of it, and tracts, were passed out and read out loud.  The people were taught to read.  
“morning star” because the first rays of the light of God’s Word began to shine forth in the darkness

1440 Invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg
he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, the movable type printing press.  The Latin Bible was the first book ever printed in 1455. In the next century, the reformation broke out.  Without his invention, the Protestant Reformation would not have been possible. The use of the printing press was instrumental in spreading the knowledge of liberty.  Within 10 years of his invention of the press, the total number of books increased from 50,000 to 10 million.  Charles Coffin wrote:

“Through the energizing influence of the printing press, emperors, kings, and despots have seen their power gradually waning, and the people becoming their masters.”

No longer were Bibles painstakingly copied by hand and chained to pulpits.  They were mass produced and accessible to multitudes.  The Bible was in the people’s language, available for the common people to read.

Of his press, Gutenberg wrote:
“Let us break the seal which seals up holy things and give wings to truth in order that she may win every soul that comes into the world.”

The Bible was now in print and people could read it for themselves and this had an incredible influence on inventions, government and civilization

1517 The Protestant Revolution
On October 31, 1517 - Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg. Luther protested against the church saying the church did not determine a person’s salvation, faith does.  This reformation (“revolution”) where the reformers restore the textbook of liberty - the Bible.

Romans 1:17 “the just shall live by faith”
The Catholic Church was exposed

1558 The Spanish Inquisition
In 1478, the Papacy began the Spanish Inquisition, which wiped out virtually all Protestants in that nation by 1558