The men who who signed the Declaration of Independence and risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to make America the most prosperous and most admired nation in history would say:

• You are not a real American.
• You are a phony Christian, one who makes Jesus puke
• You are a lousy steward of the gifts, talents, privileges and rights with which you were endowed by your Creator, and a waste of awesome human potential.

We are going to change that for you. By transforming you into a Bible-believing Christian anarchist, America's Founders would agree you have become

The United States of America is the enemy of Christ and the most dangerous threat to humanity on the planet.

And you are a friend of this empire.

You are afraid that if "anarchists" abolish your government, it would be a bad thing. Government is your savior.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy by Ronald Reagan. He was associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was a columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments, including Stanford University, where he was Senior Research Fellow in the Hoover Institution, George Mason University where he had a joint appointment as professor of economics and professor of business administration, and Georgetown University where he held the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy in the Center for Strategic and International Studies. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost. Roberts says:

Americans need to understand that they have lost their country. The rest of the world needs to recognize that Washington is not merely the most complete police state since Stalinism, but also a threat to the entire world. The hubris and arrogance of Washington, combined with Washington’s huge supply of weapons of mass destruction, make Washington the greatest threat that has ever existed to all life on the planet. Washington is the enemy of all humanity.
How America Was Lost

"But . . . but," you stammer; "Isn't North Korea or Iran more evil and more dangerous than the federal government of the United States?

North Korea may be more evil, but it is not more dangerous. The United States already has a track record for staggering violence, and gives every indication of being willing to unleash even more unimaginable violence.

• Weapons of Mass Destruction
  • The United States is the world's largest arms dealer; one of the U.S.'s largest arms clients is the Islamic Theocracy in Saudi Arabia; the U.S. is the #1 source of all the world's weapons of mass destruction
  • Only the United States has used nuclear weapons against innocent non-combatant civilians
• We Must Not TRUST the Government
  • The United States has killed, crippled or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world in just the last 50 years.
• The United States is responsible for the rise of communism, socialism, and fascism around the world
  • World War II was plotted by Communists in the Roosevelt White House to protect Stalin from Hitler, not to save the Jews. As many as 90 million human beings suffered as a result of a completely needless war.
  • FDR provoked Japan to attack so that the U.S. could prevent Japan from conquering Asia, to benefit Mao and his efforts to set up communism in China, which ultimately cost the lives of 76 million Chinese.

And it's not only a question of where the U.S. is today. No other empire has departed so far from such auspicious Christian beginnings. This comes as no surprise to anyone who looks at the United States from a Christian worldview.

• The United States Supreme Court once boasted that the United States was "a Christian nation."
• The Supreme Court repudiated that long-standing heritage decades ago, and is now engaged in a War on God and Christian morality.
• The federal government will not even allow public school teachers to teach students that the Declaration of Independence is really true, because that document is based on the Christian worldview. Students can only be told that some folks a long time ago used to believe it was true. While most public school students know that Barack Obama is the President of the United States, most cannot name the Vice President, their Congressman or Senators, or summarize even the most basic features of American government as laid out in the Constitution.
  • Jefferson said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
  • America's Founders would say the United States is a "tyranny."
• Of course, nearly half of all students in inner cities drop out of school before finishing high school, and half of those who finish school are functionally illiterate.
• 400 years ago, public schools were formed to teach the Bible. The U.S. now bans the Bible; American students, who once led the world, now rank behind two dozen other nations in academic achievement; their lack of manners have earned the disrespect of the entire world, and Americans pay $12,608 per public school student per year for this educational malpractice.

The U.S. Federal Government now seeks to impose its anti-Christian worldview on the entire world.

• Government Tentacles of Atheism and Immorality
  • The U.S. imposes abortion and homosexuality on nations around the world as a policy mandate
• Deaths In Other Nations Since WW II Due To U.S. Military Interventions | By James A. Lucas
• U.S. Coercion has a long history: American Imperialism: Libertarians Must Get History Right
  • The United States has been an evil empire for decades.
  • In fact, imperialism and tyranny are part of European "civilization" going back centuries.
  • Introduction to The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand
• Mass-death accepted by American Secular elites
• Genocide accepted by American Secular elites
• Black Genocide

• The American People are being held hostage by a military empire in bondage to a corporate state (the very definition of fascism).
  • Battlefield America: The War on the American People
• Destruction of the Family by Washington D.C.
• Immorality promoted by the military-industrial complex
• Are U.S. Banks Criminal Enterprises?
  • The U.S. Banking System, functioning under the Federal Reserve System, defies the U.S. Constitution.
  • This unconstitutional system steals from the poor and elderly
  • This immoral system oppresses workers
• Government itself is the problem | Created to do things private citizens should be ashamed to do.

Every single person who signed The Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitution (1787) would take immediate steps to repeal the Constitution and abolish the government it created.

You do nothing of the sort. "Where's the TV remote?" you say.

The Declaration of Independence says we have a "duty" to "abolish" any government that becomes a threat to the unalienable rights with which we were endowed by our Creator. We have for too long neglected that duty. The United States denies the existence of the Creator, and is the largest threat to the rights of billions of human beings around the world. Without muskets or violence of any kind, the United States must be abolished. You are not a "good American" if you disagree. You show no respect to America's Founders if you disagree. (Or, you are a victim of educational malpractice.)

"But," you reply, "while the Declaration of Independence may speak of abolishing governments which have become tyrannical, the Framers of that document would not agree with abolishing all governments."

That may be true. But if America's Founders could travel through time to our day, they would see that "government" is as obsolete a concept as "the divine right of kings" was in their day. They would reach this conclusion based on the education they received in their day (which you have not received in yours), combined with the obvious lessons of history, reflected in the devolution of the government they created into the most evil, anti-Christian empire in history.

They would see the triumph of Capitalism and the failure of socialism. They would project recent advances into the future and connect the dots.

America's Founding Fathers would abolish the government they created, and not create another one to replace it. You need the education they had to recognize this. (And giving mass numbers of Americans this education is the only way our Founding Fathers would be able to abolish this government non-violently.)
 

YOU HAVE A PROBLEM
You Are the Problem

Imagine having a conversation with one of those who risked "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor" against a limited, Christian government like Great Britain in 1776. They travel through time and discover a New United States, which can only be described as "the enemy of mankind."

What would they say about you? What would they say about the risks you take against this atheistic tyranny?

They would say you are:    

• A pathetic American, or not a real American at all
• A Christian-in-name-only, who makes Jesus puke
• A waste of awesome human potential

You are one of the wealthiest human beings in the history of the human race, richer than billions of human beings both now and in centuries past.
    
You have the power to effect unimaginable change for good around the world. If Church-going Americans like you were to actually tithe (instead of giving less than one-quarter of a tithe),

“there would be enough private Christian dollars to provide basic health care and education to all the poor of the earth. And we would still have an extra $60-70 billion left over for evangelism around the world.” Source | More

But you are self-indulgent and ungrateful.
    
America's Declaration of Independence says you have the right to "abolish" your government if it becomes a "tyranny." Not just a "right," it says you have a "duty" to do so. America's Founders discharged this duty, and abolished the government over the American colonies. They said their government was a "tyranny."

America's Founders would say you are not "the salt of the earth," and a "light to the world." You are not a "City upon a Hill." This is because you haven't connected the dots and become a Bible-believing Christian Anarchist.

if the salt has lost its savor, how shall it be salted? it is thereafter good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Matthew 5:13

     If you're like most Americans, you believe the Old Testament is filled with violence and slavery, and cannot be a model for any civilized society today.
     On the other hand, you've heard that the Jesus of the New Testament was a hippie pacifist wimp, whose advice is totally "unrealistic," "impractical" and "utopian," and cannot possibly be taken seriously in the modern world.
     And that means the entire Bible is brushed aside. You look at the world through glasses which are tinted with propaganda that the Bible is irrelevant and archaic. That "archists" are best qualified to manage your life, and the schools and businesses which make up our society.
     You are a victim of atheistic educational malpractice.
     Our one-year program will get you salty enough to deal with a "post-Christian world." We believe the Bible is a "textbook" of political reform.

The Second Reason You're Going to Lose this Bet.

Yes, of course, we understand that you are shocked at the idea of becoming an "anarchist." Our goal is to make you a better student of the Bible, which will result in you becoming an anarchist.

We are completely aware that you, like all Americans, were raised to believe that "anarchists" are bad people. You have been trained in government-approved schools to believe that you should never want to be an "anarchist." You were also brainwashed into believing that those who "protect" us from those nasty "anarchists" are the Good Guys.

What is an "archist?" Repeat after me:

An "archist" is someone who believes he has the right to impose his will on others by force.

It's a simple concept. But a profound "paradigm shift."

An "anarchist" is not an archist. An anarchist does not believe he has the right to impose his will on other people by force, like a king or ruler. The anarchist does not believe you have the right to impose your will on other people by force. Even if you call yourself "the government." Even if you can get all your friends to call you "the government."

This is in fact what Jesus taught.

In addition to being a victim of educational malpractice, you are a victim of archist brainwashing. You now believe your captors and oppressors are your friends. You are shocked and offended at "anarchism" - the idea of abolishing "the government." This shows that your moral sensibilities are fried.

Many great minds were shocked and offended by men like Thomas Jefferson, who repudiated the widely-held doctrine of "the Divine Right of Kings."

How could a nation survive without a king? Who would lead the nation? It would be like a headless horseman! Dangerous ideas, Mr. Jefferson!

Even some of America's Founding Fathers were scandalized by the idea of a government with no king. Benjamin Rush, who signed the Declaration of Independence, spoke of his own "Copernican revolution":

Never before had I heard the authority of kings called in question. I had been taught to consider them nearly as essential to political order as the sun is to the order of our solar system.

Tremendous progress was made in the direction of liberty and self-government by those who questioned the status quo and limited the State.

But in 200 years, no more progress has been made. Too many Americans believe that they profit from the status quo; they are morally incapable of questioning it. In fact, no serious student of Christianity and American history can deny that we have regressed. We have suffered a significant loss in liberty and virtue. America's Founders would be shocked. Horrified.

It's time for another Copernican revolution.

Not only can we have a virtuous, orderly, peaceful, and prosperous society without a someone claiming a "divine right" to be "king," we can have a Godly society without "the State" in any form.

You're shocked at that suggestion, because you have fallen hook, line and sinker for The Biggest Government Lie in the history of the human race. The Big Lie is this:

"Anarchists" are the Bad Guys.
Those who oppose anarchists are the Good Guys.

As we saw above, those who oppose an-archists are, logically (or etymologically), "archists."

You've never heard the word "archist" before.

Put on your thinking cap.

We want to convince you that "archists" are the bad guys, and "anarchists" are the good guys,  .

This may be an insurmountable hurdle, because you've been brainwashed by compulsory "archist" mis-education.

You might be saying,

"Wait a minute. You can't trick me. Everybody knows anarchists are the bad guys. Where did you get this word "archist," anyway?

Answer: From the Bible.

I try to get everything from the Bible.

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus discovers His disciples arguing about who is going to be the "greatest" in the Kingdom of God.

They didn't understand that Jesus' Kingdom was quite unlike the kingdoms of the world.

The word translated "rulers" comes from the Greek word from which we derive our English word "anarchist."

"Lords," "rulers" and "great ones" are "archists."

Jesus clearly says His followers are not to be "archists." They are to be "servants."

Jesus did not tell His disciples to impose Christianity on the world by force.

From cover to cover, the Bible frowns on "archists." Because we're victims of educational malpractice, we miss this central point in the Bible. We don't see that in the Bible, "archists" are the bad guys.
    • We give them parades.

    • Our country is so great, we are told, that any child
      can grow up to be an "archist."

Being an "archist" means you can

    • steal ("tax," "eminent domain," "asset forfeiture"),
    • kidnap ("conscript," "incarcerate"), or
    • murder ("bold foreign policy," "capital punishment")
and still be lauded by society. A father, a school teacher, or a CEO in the "private sector" could never commit these evils, because they are not elected "archists."

Jesus says "archists" are not to be looked up to. We are to be "servants." We are to be pacifists. We are to be non-archists. If you go "back to school" with us for one year, you'll agree, or we'll pay you $1,000.00

For two thousand years, everyone -- Christian and non-Christian alike -- has recognized that Jesus taught pacifism. People with years of secular education, positions in power, or possessing property, have latched on to theories, rationalizations, and slogans to set aside the ethics of "Love your enemy" in favor of institutionalized vengeance.

Every year in America, "private sector" murderers kill 10-20,000 people. But during my lifetime, the United States government has killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS OF MILLIONS of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world.

And as governments steal, kill, and kidnap on a public scale that vastly exceeds "private" crime, governments also prohibit public schools from teaching children the most basic standards of Biblical morality. Governments are threatened by Christianity. Therefore they frown on teaching it in government-run schools.

The Government is the cause, not the solution, to crime.

Some worry that crime would "take over" if pacifists had their way. Crime has already taken over. It's called "government." That's not just an empty-headed "anarchist" slogan. It is an overwhelming statistical fact. If pacifism (a moral rejection of violence) were to spread through society, both crime and "government" would be reduced. Pacifists oppose theft. That means pacifists oppose "government." The amount of crime that would remain after pacifists abolish government (and, it goes without saying, the creation of paradise itself would not eliminate all crime) would be less costly than the price tag for Fortress America.

In 1994 "criminals" committed 7,885 bank robberies, taking $28 million. That same year, "government agencies" seized $2.1 Billion in "asset forfeiture proceedings," often without "probable cause," and often not returned when innocence was proven. Theft by any other name . . . would be called "taxation." The government steals 2/3 of everything you earn. Inflation steals from your future. "Criminals" cannot compete with the legalized, systematic plunder of "governments."

If government were to be abolished because of the society-wide spread of pacifist ideas, including education, the social costs of theft (by all thieves, private and public) would be reduced substantially. Your standard of living would be raised if government were abolished by a pacifist majority. (A scenario completely different from government being abolished by a criminal majority, a scenario without historical precedent. Criminals don't abolish the government, they take it over.)

This seems obvious to pacifists, but it can't be obvious to the person who is completely unwilling to look at the facts.

Two Hypothetical Scenarios

1. The moral sensitivities of a majority of Americans are raised to the point where they oppose all theft and vengeance, become pacifists, and abolish "the government."
2. The moral sensitivities of a majority of Americans are lowered to the point where they do not oppose theft and violence.
   1. One might think at this point that the criminal majority would abolish "the government."
   2. That is not the case.
      A criminal majority elects the government.
      The candidate says, "Vote for me, and I'll give you a piece of the action."
      The entitlement society is organized plunder. Violations of Biblical monetary policy redistribute wealth away from the poor, the elderly and the next generation.

The Government wants you to believe that the government creates rights, law, and order, and without the government, there would be "anarchy."

• America's Biblical public school system led America's Founders to boldly claim that rights came from God, not the government.
• Law also comes from God, not the government.
• Social order is the product of religion and morality, not the  government, according to America's Founders.

Abolishing an atheistic "government" does not threaten rights, law, and order. It is the most important thing Christians can do to establish and preserve law and order.

You might say, "Abolish an atheistic government, sure; but let's put Christian archists in their place, rather than have anarchy."

We had a Christian government. It failed. It had to fail because "Power corrupts" means "government corrupts." A "Christian government" is like a "Christian cancer."

If America's Founders could travel through time and see what has happened to the Christian government they created, and if they were to enroll in our program of Biblical Anarcho-Capitalism, they would agree that human beings do not need kings or coercive tax-funded institutions of any kind.
 

 
You will be notified when we are ready to wager. We need a minimum number of paid enrollees or donors to offset our administrative expenses. Nobody associated with this offer receives a salary or bonuses. We will notify you when we meet our minimums. In the meantime, why not register for our program along with everyone else?

This webpage ultimately links to over 2,000 webpages and blog posts created by Vine & Fig Tree, plus 1.6 zillion other webpages around the Internet. Go ahead and start digging. If you want a more systematic approach, dished out in bite-sized chunks every day, you should enroll in our program. And if you want personal accountability and coaching, those who donate are invited to attend our coaching webinars.

About Kevin Craig - Personal History

• "Christian Reconstruction"
• Vine & Fig Tree
• School Teacher
• Legal Education
• "Seminary"
• Homeless
• Hospice

Christian Reconstructionism

Before I graduated from high school, I had come in contact with R.J. Rushdoony [Google], founder of the "Christian Reconstruction" movement. Soon thereafter, I wanted to be "the next Rushdoony" when I grew up. Some would say neither one has happened yet. I became a "Chalcedon Scholar" and wrote a regular column for The Chalcedon Report. I substituted on occasion for Rev. Rushdoony in the pulpit which he regularly occupied and from which he first delivered the contents of his magnum opus, The Institutes of Biblical Law. I was an overnight guest at his home. David Chilton and I met regularly with Rushdoony for mentoring. The Institute for Christian Economics (Gary North) also published several of my articles. North described this article as "dynamite."

Rushdoony was influential in starting the "scientific creationism" movement, by getting a book called The Genesis Flood published. Becoming a creationist was for me the first of many radicalizing departures from the status quo. My first article published by Chalcedon was on the creationist issue.

One of Rushdoony's protégés was Greg Bahnsen, who wrote the book Theonomy in Christian Ethics (1977). "Theonomy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God's Law." The alternative is man's law, or autonomy.

Vine & Fig Tree 

I graduated from USC with a degree in political science in 1979. Because of the negative things Rushdoony said about secular universities, I did not want to go to college, hoping to move more directly to a Rushdoony-like career, but my father (a USC alumnus) was insistent. Perhaps the most enjoyable class I had was a class on "Political Philosophy" with John Hospers, who had been the Chairman of the Philosophy Department until he ran for President as the Libertarian Party candidate in 1972. Hospers could be described as a "minarchist." He believed society needed a small civil government. One of his recommended textbooks was Murray Rothbard's For A New Liberty. This was a breathtaking book in the mid-1970's. Rothbard argued that society needed no "civil government" whatsoever. I didn't think Hospers defended his minimal state against Rothbard's critique. My memory of chronology fails me, but if I was not an anarchist walking into Hospers' class, I was when I walked out.

Beginning around 1978 I began writing for an organization I envisioned called Vine & Fig Tree, which obtained tax-exempt status from the IRS as a non-profit corporation in 1982. The name comes from the Old Testament Prophet Micah, who spoke of a day when we beat our "swords into plowshares" and everyone dwells securely under his own vine and fig tree. More Info. I received positive encouragement on this venture from Dorothy Rushdoony, and on the trip back home from Vallecito, I think I realized that my future was not with Chalcedon, but rather with Vine & Fig Tree. My "swords into plowshares" pacifism, combined with a rejection of capital punishment (on strictly "Theonomic" grounds), seemed to me to be the logical development of Rushdoony's thinking, but ran contrary to the prevailing views of the "Christian Reconstructionist" mainstream.

School Teacher

My mother taught in California public schools for 30 years. The first job I had after graduating from college was teaching in a small Christian school. Part of our ministry to the homeless was teaching English as a second language to dozens of "illegal" immigrants. One of my housemates went on to teach in public schools, and I spent many hours helping her with bureaucratic administrative paper work.

Legal Education

Rushdoony was a proponent of Christian education, frequently appearing as an expert witness in Christian school cases vs. the increasingly-secular government. I worked with homeschoolers and studied law to help defend them in court. This was when homeschooling was illegal in California. By the time I passed the California Bar Exam, it was less persecuted. But then I was told by a Federal District Court in Los Angeles that because my allegiance to God was greater than my allegiance to the State, I could not be permitted to take the oath to "support the Constitution" required of all would-be attorneys, so I could not get a license to practice law. Details

"Seminary"

I shared the pulpit at a small church in Anaheim, CA with David Chilton, until he joined Gary North, James B. Jordan and the "Christian Reconstructionists" in Tyler, TX. Greg L. Bahnsen, one of the leaders of the "Christian Reconstruction" movement and a pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, wanted to see if he could get me ordained in the OPC by apprenticing me, rather than through the modern "seminary" system. I thought that was quixotic, but I enjoyed his one-on-one mentoring. Bahnsen was a Christian scholar with integrity and a sharp mind. Scholarship is a virtue.

Homeless

After passing the Bar Exam, I spent the better part of a decade with a small group of Christian anarchists who rented a large house in the "wrong" part of town and opened its doors to those who were homeless and wanted to get clean and sober, find a job, and save up first- and last-month's rent for a place of their own. We gave shelter and encouragement to over 1,000 people during the time I lived there, with an average of about 19 people at a time sharing our home, and served tens of thousands of meals and passed out thousands of bags of groceries to the poor in our neighborhood. We held weekly candlelight vigils in front of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station to question militarism and violence.

Our house was called "Isaiah House," and took its inspiration from Peter Maurin, a man who thought a great deal like Rushdoony. Maurin was a decisive influence in the life of Dorothy Day, a socialist agitator in the New Deal era, who converted to Christianity and founded the Catholic Worker movement, largely perceived today as a "left-wing" movement. Maurin said, "I am a radical of the right. I go right to the right because I know it is the only way not to get left." Maurin advised, "Read Our Enemy the State by Albert Jay Nock."

I moved in with these Catholic Anarchists because I saw in their kitchen and dining room the closest thing I'd seen to the L'Abri fellowship under Francis and Edith Schaeffer, a family setting I greatly admired and to which I aspired. The closest I came to the Schaeffers was seeing Francis Schaeffer live at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1977 when he was on tour promoting his book and film, How Should We Then Live.

Hospice

When my father got lung cancer, I helped him gulp down 70 pills a day and pumped into his heart two liters of an anti-cancer solution under an FDA clinical trial. After his death I moved my mother back to Missouri (where she was born), and the house was destroyed by a tornado. After being taken by helicopter to the hospital, she came back to my care on a feeding tube. For six years she was immobile, and for the last three years of her life my full-time job was turning her over in bed every three hours to avoid bed sores. She died a few hours before 2015 began.

During all of the above, I have been researching and writing, preparing to advance the Vine & Fig Tree vision, and have produced in the neighborhood of 2,000 webpages and blog posts. Some of them have been duplicated on other sites by people I don't think I've even met.

2015 and Beyond

Beginning in 2002, I have been a perennial candidate for U.S. Congress, both before and after I moved to Missouri. Even though I haven't been able to get out of the house to do much campaigning recently, I've still managed to be the top vote-getter among Libertarian Party Congressional candidates in Missouri for the last few elections (FWIW). I would love to campaign full-time, and bring my brand of "Christian Reconstruction" before the press and electorate.

I am actually an "anti-candidate."

When I first decided to run, it was primarily to gain a soapbox. I knew I had no chance of winning any election (or being inaugurated into any political office). But being an "official" "candidate" presented an opportunity to appear on radio, TV, and newspaper which an "ordinary" propagandist cannot get.

My first decision was which political Party to affiliate with. I decided against the Constitution Party because of their advocacy of state violence against immigrants. I joined the Libertarian Party even though it is not an explicitly Christian party, as the Constitution Party is.

I try to fund my campaign by being a professional "Bible Coach."

The Anarchist Worldview Bible Curriculum

How about a bird's-eye view of these five works that you will be required to read in the Anarchist Bible Bet "Colonial American One-Room Schoolhouse 2.0"

You will read Five of the Most Important Works in the History of America in the next 365 days

1. The Bible - Most important book in the history of the human race
2. The Westminster Catechism - behind the Bible, the most widely-circulated document in America in 1776.
   • taught in every classroom in America
3. The Wealth of Nations - the superiority of Capitalism vs. Socialism
4. The Myth of "the Separation of Church and State" - America was created as a Christian nation
   • Documents from a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1892
5. "Novus Ordo Seclorum" - The Myth of "the Rapture"
   • The Christian case for long-term optimism about the future of "American Exceptionalism."

The Bible

The Westminster Standards

America's Founders said that "religion and morality" were "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind." A good summary of "religion and morality" is found in the Catechisms and Confession of Faith drafted in Westminster in the 1640's.

B.B. Warfield, professor at Princeton in the late 1800's, wrote of the Westminster Standards,

[T]hey are the final crystallization of the elements of evangelical religion, after the conflicts of sixteen hundred years. . . . [T]hey are the richest and most precise and best guarded statement ever penned of all that enters into evangelical religion. . . .[1]

Richard Gardiner, in his impressive collection of "Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History, lists many sources which introduce the average Secular Humanist to the now-unknown religious foundations of  American Independence and Government. Among these sources are the Westminster Standards. Gardiner says of them:

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it." [Link goes to chap.23, "On the Civil Magistrate."] The Westminster Catechism (1646) Second only to the Bible, the "Shorter Catechism" of the Westminster Confession was the most widely published piece of literature in the pre-revolutionary era in America. It is estimated that some five million copies were available in the colonies. With a total population of only four million people in America at the time of the Revolution, the number is staggering. The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism.  Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk. [Link to Q. 127 of Larger Catechism; cf. also Q. 129.]

Here is an edition of our Westminster Module from several years ago. If you enroll in the Anarchist Bible Bet home study program, you'll get the 2015-16 edition of all Five Modules with the freshest content.
 

Anarcho-Capitalism and the Wealth of Nations

In 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed, Adam Smith wrote a book that is considered the first treatise on Capitalism. Full title: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations. What causes some nations to be wealthier than others? Freedom, personal responsibility, and morality. Pretty obvious, really; a nation characterized by rampant theft can never become prosperous. When competition turns into vengeance, and life is not respected, civilization crumbles. Subsequent economists have crystallized Smith's thesis:

"Capitalism" is the social system based on
the rejection of the initiation of force or violence against others.

A nation that is virtuous and free from the initiation of force and threats of violence, is wealthier than a nation which covets, steals, and initiates force against others. "Religion and morality" is the key to a Market freed from tyranny.

But in our secularist day, people are foggy-headed about this. People confuse "capitalism" with "crony-capitalism," "Keynesianism," and mild forms of socialism and fascism. "Capitalism" as a word has no meaning. So let's forget "capitalism" and focus on the roots of a peaceful and prosperous society:

Pacifism

The foundation of a flourishing humane economy is the repudiation of violence. We've been trained to reject "pacifism" on the grounds of "self-defense." This is an ambiguous and unChristian slogan. It is a rationalization for vengeance. The myth of "self-defense" weakens our resolve to follow the executed Christ and trust in statist violence.

Human beings know how to resolve conflicts without violence, but politicians and defense contractors want us to believe we need government compulsion and threats of violence to maintain "order." But order comes from a commitment to non-aggression. As we read the Bible, we face the requirement to beat our "swords into plowshares." This means pacifism and a Freed Market. You have questions about pacifism? We have answers.

Anarchism and "Anarcho-Capitalism"

Too many people, when they voice opposition to "capitalism," are actually thinking of "crony-capitalism," fascism, Keynesianism, and other systems of government coercion or favoritism in the Market. That's why we favor the phrase "anarcho-capitalism," or "100% Pure Laissez-Faire capitalism." "Laissez-Faire" is French for

"Let us work,"

"Let us conduct our business the way we think is best," or just

"Let us alone!"

Politicians do not know how to run a profitable business or make an economy thrive.

When governments face competition, they drop bombs on innocent consumers.

When businesses face competition, they lower prices or raise the quality, or invent something totally new to benefit consumers and raise our standard of living.

That is to say, businesses whose CEO's who are not victims of atheistic educational malpractice do not resort to violence. This is why America's Founders believed that "religion, morality, and knowledge" were "necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind." Good schools create good businesses.

Good schools cannot create "good government." "Government" is force; government is violence; government is theft. "Central planning" is socialism and socialism is war. "Government" is the militarization of the economy. "Good government" is a contradiction in terms.

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus discovered His disciples arguing about who is going to be the "greatest" in the Kingdom of God. They didn't understand that Jesus' Kingdom was quite unlike the kingdoms of the world.

The word translated "rulers" comes from the Greek word from which we derive our English word "anarchist."

"Lords," "rulers" and "great ones" are "archists."

Jesus clearly says His followers are not to be "archists." They are to be "servants." The biggest government lie in the history of the human race is that "anarchists" are the bad guys, and those who oppose "anarchists" (logically, "archists") are the Good Guys and defenders of civilization.

This is a "paradigm shift." The most orderly and prosperous society is the one with the greatest liberty, not the most powerful Emperor. But the essential foundation of liberty, prosperity, order and peace is the Bible, and

"Religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, therefore schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
[adapted from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787]

Consider the exposition of the 6th Commandment ("Thou shalt not kill") and the 8th Commandment ("Thou shalt not steal") found in the Westminster Larger Catechism. These two commandments alone, if taken seriously, consistently, and faithfully, would rid the world of all governments. When we all stand before "the Supreme Judge of the World," nobody is going to hear, "Oh, you worked for the government? Then all your acts of  theft and murder are excused. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Instead of reading Adam Smith's 18th-century work, we'll read a modern version of the same theme, called Healing Our World.

Why do we need to "heal" our world? Since I was born, the U.S. federal government has killed, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world. I would say this makes the United States the most evil entity on the planet and the enemy of mankind. And most Americans, if aware of this, say the price "is worth it" to keep the cost of gas down. Government is a reflection of bad morals, which are an effect of bad education. The worse the education, the larger the government. The world today is being strangled by the tentacles of immorality, violence, and crony-capitalism. But don't blame "them." We have to blame ourselves if we're going to Heal Our World.

Because of their Biblical education, America's Founding Fathers realized that "the Divine Right of Kings" was not a Biblical doctrine. You have been denied this education by an imperialist regime that can only be described as "the enemy of mankind." You don't see half of what America's Founders saw. If they were here today, they would see not only that the "divine right of kings" is an unChristian concept, but the entire concept of "the nation-state," having been invented by rebels and nowhere commanded or endorsed in the Bible, is a complete failure, leading to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people, the enslavement of billions, and the destruction or confiscation of trillions of dollars of property. In the 20th century alone.

In the phrase "Religion, morality, and knowledge," which America's Founders said were "necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind," "knowledge" also meant the ability to discharge one's divine calling, or vocation. Each of us has a calling from God. The one who is called to be a plumber or a farmer has a divine calling that is just as spiritual as one who thinks he's called to be a priest. This was the genius of the Protestant Reformation doctrine of "The Priesthood of All Believers." Government regulation of the economy is interference in the discharge of one's divine calling. It is interference in the way one worships God during the work week. This is why America's Founders believed revolution against Britain's economic regulations was a religious duty. Americans today are victims of atheistic education, and have no concept of the divine nature of their calling. They think their work is "secular."
 

Theocracy
The Myth of "the Separation of Church and State"

We are told that teaching the Bible in public schools violates "the separation of church and state."

Really?

Which church?

Or as James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution" would say, which "ecclesiastical body."

Most churches today do not teach Christian doctrine and the Bible in church as rigorously as Americans 300 years ago taught the Bible in school.

Today's myth of the "separation of church and state" has nothing to do with denominations of ecclesiastical bodies, or "churches" (which is what the First Amendment is really about). "Separation of Church and State" actually means "the separation of God and Government." It means the government is not obligated to obey God. It means the government now claims to  be  god, instead of being "under God" -- which is where America's Founders intended government to be, not "separate" from God; ignoring God; pretending God does not exist.

Because of the modern myth of "separation of church [God] and state,"

• that there really is a God, and His existence is a "self-evident truth"
• that our rights really are the product of the intelligent design of our Creator
            (not a gift from the government)
• that all Americans really are obligated to conform their lives to
            "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"
• that one day our actions really must pass judgment with
            "the Supreme Judge of the world"
• that all Americans really should have "a firm reliance on
            the Protection of Divine Providence."
• that Americans have a duty -- not just a right --
            to abolish any government that becomes a tyranny.
            This is a religious duty.
            As Jefferson put it,
                    "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
            Secularists inevitably make the government their god.

The Federal Government says that teachers in government-operated schools paid for by your taxes cannot "endorse" or "promote" these ideas. Oh, sure, students can be taught that a long time ago some people believed the Declaration of Independence was true, but teachers cannot say The Declaration of Independence really is objectively true, regardless of whether any human being or any government believes it to be true, and that students should stand up and risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in defense of those unchanging true principles.

Clearly, nobody who signed the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution would agree with this framework.

In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically declared that the U.S. was "a Christian nation." The Court made a lengthy review of all the most important "organic" documents in American history. By reading the Court's opinion and the charters it cites, we will show that the modern idea of "separation of church and state" is a destructive myth, and that America was intended be a nation "under God."

The word "theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God + rules." If America is a nation "under God," then God is over us, ruling, and that means we're a "theo+cracy." Every government on earth is a "theocracy." Every legal system is a reflection of a moral system, and every moral system is a reflection of the god of that society. A society's god can be the Christian God, the muslim god, or the Secular Humanist god, where every man is his own god, but the State inevitably becomes "God walking on earth" (to quote Hegel).

Consistent with what we learned under "Anarcho-Capitalism" above, we reject any attempt to use government coercion to promote "the true religion." But more important, we reject government coercion to suppress the Christian values of the Declaration of Independence.

We've been taught to fear the word "Theocracy" as much as we've been taught to fear the word "anarchy."

• We've been taught to fear "anarchy" because our wise overlords want to keep their job.
• We've been taught to fear "Theocracy" because atheistic tyrants don't want to be reminded that God is on the Throne, and they are answerable to His Law.

 A truly Biblical, Christian Theocracy is an anarchist Christocracy.
  

Optimillennialism
Confidence in the future possibility of “Peace on Earth.”

The doctrine of "the Rapture" was unknown in 1776. It was invented in the early 1800's. Nobody in Christendom had ever heard of it before. This doctrine, and the larger eschatological framework in which it appeared ("dispensational premillennialism") substituted "waiting" for "working," and allowed atheists to secularize America in the years that followed -- while Christians retreated and waited for the Rapture.

There is good reason to believe that "Peace on Earth" -- the message of the angels to the shepherds on the first Christmas Day -- is possible. Politically and Economically possible, and Eschatologically inevitable.

Too many Christians have bought into erroneous ideas about things getting worse and worse leading up to "Armageddon" and other apocalyptic nightmares. America's Founders were optimistic and future-oriented and believed they were creating a "Novus Ordo Seclorum" -- the motto on the official U.S. Seal which means "New Order for the Ages." Nobody in 1776 believed in "the Rapture." They believed peace, liberty, and prosperity were possible.

For Rush, who was present in the Congress as a representative of Pennsylvania, the events surrounding the creation of the Republic marked nothing less than a turning point in the course of human history. "I was animated constantly," he reflected in later years, "by a belief that I was acting for the benefit of the whole world, and of future ages, by assisting in the formation of new means of political order and general happiness."11 ___________________       11. The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush, edited by George W. Corner (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1948), p.161.

Christians who believe in "the Rapture" do not believe in "future ages." They believe Christ is going to rapture them "at any moment," and destroy the planet and everything man has worked for. Rapturists do not work "for the benefit of the whole world," nor assist in "the formation of new means of political order and general happiness." As we have mentioned several times, America's Founders believed that teaching children the Bible every day from their earliest years was "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind." Secular schools and theories of rapture are why we now have bad government and depression, instead of "good government" and "happiness."

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* Did the Supreme Court really "ban the Bible" from public schools?

Public school students can certainly be taught that the Bible exists. But they cannot be taught that it is true, and that it is a "sacred" book because it is the Word of God. In other words, the Court banned the teaching of the Bible as the Bible would be taught by those who wrote it. The Court also banned the Bible as the Supreme Court ruled 150 years earlier it "must" be taught.

An 1844 U.S. Supreme Court case involved a wealthy Frenchman who left a large sum of money in his will to the City of Philadelphia to build a school in which no clergy would teach. (Virtually all schools back then were run by churches or Christian organizations and clergy often taught the classes Mon-Fri.) There was a great controversy over whether the will of this obviously deistic Frenchman should be enforced. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that just because clergy couldn't teach, didn't mean that lay teachers could not continue to teach the Bible as the Word of God in a school administered by the city government. In fact, the Court said -- and the City of Philadelphia enthusiastically agreed -- that teachers "must" teach Christianity and the Bible as a "divine revelation" and a "sacred volume." Here are the words of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1844:

But the objection itself assumes the proposition that Christianity is not to be taught, because ecclesiastics [clergy] are not to be instructors or officers. But this is by no means a necessary or legitimate inference from the premises. Why may not laymen instruct in the general principles of Christianity as well as ecclesiastics. There is no restriction as to the religious opinions of the instructors and officers. They may be, and doubtless, under the auspices of the city government, they will always be, men, not only distinguished for learning and talent, but for piety and elevated virtue, and holy lives and characters. And we cannot overlook the blessings, which such men by their conduct, as well as their instructions, may, nay must impart to their youthful pupils. Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college -- its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? What is there to prevent a work, not sectarian, upon the general evidences of Christianity, from being read and taught in the college by lay-teachers? Certainly there is nothing in the will, that proscribes such studies. Above all, the testator positively enjoins, "that all the instructors and teachers in the college shall take pains to instil into the minds of the scholars the purest principles of morality, so that on their entrance into active life they may from inclination and habit evince benevolence towards their fellow-creatures, and a love of truth, sobriety, and industry, adopting at the same time such religious tenets as their matured reason may enable them to prefer." Now, it may well be asked, what is there in all this, which is positively enjoined, inconsistent with the spirit or truths of Christianity? Are not these truths all taught by Christianity, although it teaches much more? Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, so powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the sacred volume? The testator has not said how these great principles are to be taught, or by whom, except it be by laymen, nor what books are to be used to explain or enforce them. All that we can gather from his language is, that he desired to exclude sectarians and sectarianism from the college, leaving the instructors and officers free to teach the purest morality, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, by all appropriate means; and of course including the best, the surest, and the most impressive.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution which forced the Supreme Court in the early 1960's to repudiate Christianity and remove the Bible "as a divine revelation" from public schools.