America got Freedom from the Bible

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This article is an excerpt from the documentary "1620 - When Freedom Was Reborn" posted at www.1620.US.

     This article was started by Dave Leach R-IA Bible Lover-musician-grandpa (talk) 23:31, 8 November 2020 (UTC)
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Did America's Freedoms really come DIRECTLY from the Bible? Why it matters

If we say a bunch of Pilgrims 400 years ago stumbled upon Freedom by imagining its outlines in an ambiguous book, (the Bible), the way children imagine angels dancing across the sky when they watch clouds, our audience can smile and say “isn’t that quaint?”

But if I go on to document that what the Pilgrims thought they saw in the Bible really is in the Bible, then American aversion to appealing to the highest principles we know kicks in.

Christians will want to see what denomination put out the film, so they can know if they agree with it, and unbelievers already know they don’t agree with it, if it’s in the Bible.

There are three important reasons it matters whether the freedoms the Separatists saw in the Bible were really there.

First, if the Bible really is the source of our freedoms, knowing it is will encourage us to consult it as a guide to greater freedom and how to keep it.

Second, if Americans can be persuaded that there exists, in the Bible, information of value in shaping our nation, we may be moved to once again allow the highest principles we know, in those forums in which Americans decide whether to criminalize good or evil.

Third, should Bible believers discover that any part of the Pilgrim model was no mere human invention but was commanded by God, they may conclude it is still commanded by God, and may be motivated to obey God.

If the Bible really is the source of our freedoms, we as a nation need to consult it as a guide to greater freedom and how to keep it. We don’t need to force anyone to believe the Bible, but our freedom to believe or not believe is in danger as long as we who honor the Bible censor ourselves to appease those who hate God.

For this reason it seems relevant to briefly review the Scriptural evidence that the very freedoms which Separatist Pastor John Robinson resurrected are unequivocally embedded in the Pages of God.

History's Earliest Elections

Let’s read about the world’s first government in which every man had a voice and a vote.

It wasn’t Greece in 500 AD, where the lottery was the voice and only 1/8 of the men, not being slaves, could vote.

It was 700 years before that. It was in the Arabian desert between Egypt and Palestine.

Inspired by his father-in-law, Moses coordinated elections across Israel of 78,600 judges.

Even GOD was elected!

Israel’s government is simplistically called a “theocracy”, but even God would not enact laws for Israel until after the people had elected Him.

Exodus 19:8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.... Also Exodus 19:8, 24:3, 7, Deut 5:27-28, Jos 24:22.

This vote was no rubber stamp but a real vote, because God had expressed genuine reluctance to assume jurisdiction over the people until they voted. The election of human judges is stated in DeuterONomy 1:13.

Deuteronomy 1:13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

It was the people who took candidates from among themselves, and Moses confirmed them, the way a Supreme Court judge today confirms a President after the people elect him. The candidates were “known” by the people, a word meaning an intimate working relationship.

There were even campaign speeches!

Josephus, the Jewish general captured by the Romans and ordered to write a history of the Jews, supports this interpretation.

Antiquities of the Jews, Book 3, Chapter 4, Section 1.“[the leaders were] such as the whole multitude have tried, and do approve of, as being good and righteous men”. These judges were called captains of hundreds and thousands. Even while kings reigned, 400 years later, much of the government was by elected captains of hundreds and thousands.

The system survived into the Middle Ages

In fact, the system of hundreds and thousands continued long after Israel was scattered. A dictionary used by lawyers defines the same kind of “hundreds” as the form of Saxon government in England.

“...each county...comprised...hundreds, each hundred containing ten...groups of ten families...had its own court...its most remarkable feature was the corporate responsibility of the whole for the crimes or defaults of the individual members.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th edition

Remnants of the system continued for centuries after the Saxons were defeated. So English masses had experienced a voice in their government long before 1215 AD when the Magna Carta was signed,thanks to the Freedoms pioneered by Moses in 1200 BC.

Christian churches elected their pastors for centuries

Just as the Old Testament featured leaders elected by all the people, the New Testament featured church leaders elected by all in their congregations. A footnote to Josephus’ account of the origin of the “hundreds” was added by the translator of Josephus’ works in 1828.

Footnote: This manner of electing the judges and officers of the Israelites by the testimonies [campaign endorsements] and suffrages [votes] of the people, before they were ordained by God, or by Moses, deserves to be carefully noted, because it was the pattern of the like manner of the choice and ordination of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, in the Christian church.

Further evidence is found in Acts 14:23, and the note on that verse in the Geneva Bible – which is the Bible the Pilgrims used.

Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. (The Geneva Bible note says:) The apostles committed the churches which they had planted to proper and special pastors, who they appointed not rashly,but with prayers and fastings preceding their choice: neither did they thrust them upon churches through bribery, or lordly superiority, but chose and placed them by the voice of the congregation.

Following this interpretation, the Pilgrims always elected their own pastors, and their governor.

When the Bible says elders were ordained, which in the Greek describes a vote indicated by raising hands, Geneva translators explain that the apostles confirmed the choice made by each congregation.

Calvin's "Institutes"

Evidence of the election by congregations of their own pastors, from among their own members, for the first several centuries of Christian churches, is the history of those elections recorded by John Calvin in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion. Here are some excerpts:

Moses from 1200 BC, the Christian Churches from 30 AD, the Pilgrims in 1620 AD: it appears that a Republic was God’s pattern from the beginning. It appears that the only time in world history that all the people had a voice in their government was when men modeled their laws after God’s.

Coincidence?