Paine's influence spread in America from his boisterous call to stand against oppression and tyranny through his pamphlet Common Sense. He has been considered the Father of the American Revolution and a supporter and instigator in the French Revolution. He spent much of his time in France where he wrote The Rights of Man. Paine wielded his pen like a sword to the extent his birth country, England, wanted him arrested and brought to trial. He even wanted to help Ireland start a revolution of their own. In short, he was a great agitator.
I thought about letting my thoughts bounce around in my head and leave it at that, but a recent chat with my Dad impressed me to go ahead and put them on paper. Sometimes a discussion can give relevance for the need to write things down. My Dad and I can touch on many subjects while we talk and two topics that we like to linger on are History and the Bible. He was reading a biography on Bonhoeffer and I was telling him about Paine. We love comparing and contrasting details and relate them to the current events. When we do that our conversation always comes to the topic of mankind's position in the grand scheme of things. The figures written about throughout history all have the opportunity to deal with the position mankind faces. The way in which they choose to submit or not submit to the position is what makes their lives a learning tool for future generations.
I've been studying various times in History as a hobby for some time now and one question I have in the back of my head as I read historical accounts is this: Is the thinking in our modern age of progress and technology any different from ages past? Is our thinking advanced, taking us to higher places as the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Century seem to love laying claim to?
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I'll pick on the 18th Century because this has been my focus lately. Reading about the Age of Enlightenment parallels the 21st century quite nicely. According to Kant, The Enlightenment was "Mankind's final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error." Thomas Paine was the climactic figure of this statement, he sums it up in his book The Age of Reason. This was his "enlightened" masterpiece, his tribute to progress. His arrival into the realm of liberation and freedom was to attack the Word of God, throw out all 'superstitious' miraculous sections, annihilate the prophets, and reduce Jesus to a good teacher and the Holy Spirit to an absurd ghost story. The Bible was merely a book to entertain with a few good moral stories. Paine went on to declare Science as the ultimate gavel for judging what was real and what was not.
One would think Paine was an atheist with his vehement onslaught on the Bible but on the contrary, he was a deist. He did believe there was a God, in fact, Paine created his own religion called Theophilanthropism, meaning: God, Love, Man. His goal was to : "heighten the spirituality of all people, to bring them to harmony with themselves, their fellow human beings, the universe and ultimately God." Paine also took part in a sect called the Illuminists, "writers were to transform the world by simultaneously being centers of light and a body of resistance and to be legislators of the universe." Another club Paine frequented was called "Le Cercle Social" meaning circle of light. This excerpt from Fruchtman's book explains the nature of their ideals. "France had been fully enmeshed in a series of radical changes in lifestyle, which followed on the heels of vast political change...Religious ceremonies took on an earthly quality. A return to things natural, to nature herself, meant that ceremonies were regarded as festivals where statues of Dame Nature became the centerpiece. Festivals celebrated the new model of nature and light. An enlightened populace had set off a spark of revolution...time, place and all humanity were fully subsumed by nature and the seasons." (pages 377-379-various quotes taken from these pages)
This was elitist thinking of the 18th Century, the currents ran deep in Europe and were subtle in America but alive and kicking. Many of the Founding Fathers leaned towards Enlightened thinking. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and yes, George Washington were influenced to some degree by the ideology of the time.
Fast forward to the 21st Century and look closely at the political and cultural structure. You don't have to look hard to find The New Age movement is an obvious product of the Enlightenment. It takes all religions and makes them acceptable and they tout "light" as their feel good mantra. If you are on the path to knowing your true self, you will know God. Go back and read Paine's goal for his idea of religion. Eerily similar. The only difference is it is more widespread and open and called many different names.
How many times have you heard Oprah, talk like that? Have you seen this type of talk in your community or in your church? The Earth and nature and the study of natural laws (science) take center stage in our modern culture. (Worshiping the creation instead of the Creator.)
If you look at the past 200 years not much has changed, the progression is found in the widespread acceptance of an ideology opposite of what God tells us is truth, which is in reality a form of idolatry. Where's the "light" in that?
Paine, like many others, decided to reject the truth of man's position and make up his own rules (religion). For a man who hung his hat on hating religion, he found himself caught up in the web of it by creating his own. Doesn't this sound familiar? Read Isaiah 14:12-15, the first rejection and rebellion against truth. Let me clarify what 'position' am I talking about? The position of man is that we are sinful and in need of a savior. This is fact whether we like it or not (Romans 3:10). If one can come to terms with this and submit to the fact of our depraved state, the Word of God becomes our lifeline that points to the One (Jesus) who could (and did) change our fate.
If you fail to understand your position, then you remain spiritually dead, and the outcome is similar to the ravings of The Age of Reason. Romans 1:18-32 Explains this in perfect detail. Verse 25 is loud and clear, "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator..."
When you are spiritually dead, you can not understand the things of God.( Romans 1:19, Ephesians 4:18). Paine was an obvious example of this. How ironic a hired pen, a writer by trade, couldn't even begin to comprehend the theme of the Bible. From the very beginning The Book explains a problem; sin entered a perfect world causing a dilemma. and throughout the text which spans hundreds of years with real people used as God's messengers; some of which were contemporaries and some who did not know of each other, to reveal God's solution to the problem through His Son Jesus. Over three hundred prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in the New Testament, this cohesiveness over such a long time period is a miracle in itself. One more small point and then I'll shut up, it is not hard to pinpoint an authors style, once you read Tennyson or Grisham or pick any of your favorite authors, you can see their unique stamp on the page. The Bible has God's unique, divine stamp throughout the pages of His Word, and once you KNOW Jesus through personal relationship just as the author's of the Bible did you can see Him everywhere.
I'll make my last statement short. Aside from the true light; only found in Jesus, one can only lack luster and the tainted light will eventually lead you down a path where you'll find yourself lost.
Jesus: "I AM the LIGHT of the world. John 8:12
Which "light" illuminates your path?
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