True Patriotism and Political Dissent

 

“Thy soil was tainted too with armed hordes Prowling like cannibals in search of blood 2 Assassins bravoes ruthless as their swords Abhorred alike by mankind and by God Who spared nor sex nor age but strewed their road With patriot corses thick as autumn’s leaves But patriot tears shall aye bedew the sod Which blooms above these martyrs hallowed graves Whilst many a balmy sigh from beauty’s bosom heaves … Land of the brave that nursed heroic Bruce And gave the patriotic Wallace birth Thou rt covered with a thousand glorious hues And mightiest of the mighty here on earth May pure religion dwell by every hearth Within thy borders May the patriot’s flame Mix with thy legislation and thy worth Still keep thee on the pinnacle of fame For ever and for aye proceed we to our theme … Carnage hath done her work And all is hushed All save the lamentation of despair The stiffled sob the dying groan which rushed Incessant on the horror striken ear Shriek execration blasphemy and prayer And praise were blent For on the blood stained sod Oppressors and oppressed commingled were The despot’s tool the patriot saint who trod The thorny path which leads to glory and to God“

The Covenanter Communion

 

Many people think it is horrifying when they learn that we Covenanters do not believe in voting, holding office, military service, pledging allegiance, etc to the current system of government. They think we are being unpatriotic, hateful of America. They think we do not support our troops. Even worse they may think of us as treasonist people. Subverters and seditionist of our government. Many people believe that we have an absolute duty to vote. Now while I might agree that we are subverters as Alexander Craighead the first Covenanter minister in America was called a sower of sedition I deny that we are not patriotic. We do love our land and we want to see our nation come under the authority of the one ultimate King, who rules over all nations. Our political dissent is a true patriotism with a fervent desire and fire down within us that want to see our nation florish and not perish. Covenanters were and are intensely patriotic.

Sadly, The modern American church suffers from the idolatry of Patriotism and a false patriotism at that. And if you disagree with their concept of patriotism whether that is not pledging to the American flag, or you don’t vote then you are unpatriotic.. But what is more true is that political dissent is a painful but necessary sacrifice and it is not a denial of our patriotism but a sign and symbol of our true patriotism.

“Political dissent is a painful sacrifice, made only because of the demands of a higher loyalty. The position of the Church is an expression, not a denial, of our patriotism. The greatest service which one human being can perform for another is to lead him or her to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is precisely the service which Covenanters wish to perform for their beloved nations.” — Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland

“Think about it, Friend, for God may visit suddenly. It is better for the nation to acknowledge God and live, than to continue to reject Him and be destroyed. Who is on the Lord’s side?” Who is the True patriot? The Covenanter!””–Rev. F.M. Foster in an article “Watch your Step” in the Covenanter Witness Oct 24, 1928 p. 185-186

We do not merely want to see men die senselessly but for a true purpose and for our Lord and King, our only Redeemer. We do not want to see our nation under judgment from God but blessed by the Divine Yahovah and flourish from coast to coast. The moral evils of America threaten the very existence of our nation. God’s judgment is upon us if we do not alter course.

The Covenanters were America’s first Christian nationalists. We have for two centuries decried the fact that the United States was not and is not a Christian nation. We are God’s rebels–just as likely to be Patriots against Britain as we were to be Whiskey Rebels against the federal government. We fight for an explicitly Christian America in the midst of what we see as a secular state that failed the test of Christian nationhood. Covenanter Settlers to Pennsylvania brought with them three things: whiskey, the Presbyterian faith, and an intense spirit of independence.

“This Kingdom is not the Christian Church merely, but evidently involves the idea of a civil dominion, in association, however, with the Christian religion in its purity, for it takes the place of those kingdoms, which it has demolished, and covers with its benign rule “the earth,” which they had oppressed, and saturated with the blood of the Christian and the patriot.” Covenanter William L. Roberts, The Higher Law, 1851

“Patriots have toiled and in their country’s cause. Bled nobly and their deeds as they deserve. Receive good recompense but Martyrs struggle for a brighter prize and win it with more pain and suffering yet few remember them.”-Grave Stone of Covenanter Robert Nairns of Bonhill, Died 1685

“If our country shall be saved from the moral evils that threaten her life, it will only be through a radical change of the compact which binds Christ’s followers in unholy agreement with political atheism and infidelity. To agree to administer civil government over a nation, largely made up of Christians, and enjoying greatest Christian freedom, with the name of God unrecognized in the fundamental law, and the Lord’s Authority, and the Lord’s Day, and the Lord’s Book, constitutionally ignored and dishonored, is certainly unworthy of the disciples of Jesus, and a blot on true patriotism. Both patriotism and religion, with united voice and earnest call, demand separation from a political system, that bars out the law of Christ, and Christ himself, who is KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Therefore, Covenanters withdraw from the Government of this country by political dissent, and decline to take any responsible part in the administration of civil power.”-The Covenanters in America: The Voice of their Testimony on Present Moral Issues. Rev. J. C. M’Feeters

“WHO then will come to the help of the Lord against the mighty? Who will lend a hand to bear up the fallen banner of the Covenant?—that banner that was once borne up so nobly on the hills of our native land, by men of whom the world was not worthy. The hosts of Antichrist are gathering; they are mustering for the final conflict; they are banded together as one man—with “one heart and one soul.” Where is the host that is to confront them? Who can stand against them, but those who feel that necessity is laid upon them so to do, as being bound by the oath of God, and are willing, though with deepest humility, to be followers of those, who “for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus,” “loved not their lives unto the death.” Oh! shall it be said, that in this crisis of the world’s history, the sons of Scotland could see “the abomination that maketh desolate” set up in the midst of them, and yet look tamely on? Shall it be told in the days to come, that your fathers have laboured, and struggled, and bled, to transmit to you a scriptural faith and a scriptural Church, and all the rich blessings of the gospel—that through your supineness you should allow your children to be deprived of these blessings? Oh! surely it shall not be. As patriots—as freemen—set for the defence of liberty in the Thermopylae of the world, I call on you to rally around the standard of “CHRIST’S CROWN AND COVENANT” under which alone true liberty can be permanently found. As the children of the martyrs—if your hearts have ever been warmed by the study of their heroic contendings—if your souls have ever been elevated by seeing the noble Argyll leaving his broad domains, and the wife of his bosom, and all that was dear to him, to lay his head for this cause meekly on the block, while the peace of God was so abundantly poured into his heart, that he was constrained to exclaim, “His goodness quite overcomes me!” If you have ever shed a tear over Margaret Wilson, when drowned at eighteen years of age, in the bay of Wigton, as a martyr to the Covenant—who, rather than compromise her testimony for the truth, firmly replied to those who had revived her, when almost half-dead, and offered her life on unscriptural terms, “I am one of Christ’s children; let me go;” and then, along with her aged companion, found a watery grave; if you have ever admired the grace given to Marion Harvey, that enabled her, on the scaffold, at Borrowstonness, at the age of twenty, to cry, “O free love, that ever He should make me feel that his love is better than life!” if you ever felt your faith invigorated by the sublime farewell that the youthful Hugh M’Kail, when standing on the fatal ladder, while the light of heaven shone in his face, and the Spirit of glory and of God. did rest upon him, bade to “sun, moon, and stars, father and mother, and all delights”—going on in a strain of seraphic rapture, till he finished with “Welcome glory; welcome eternal life; welcome death;” if you have ever felt the power of such memories as these, by which God and man alike bore testimony to this Covenant, I call on you to prove, that you are not unworthy of your sires—that you are not the degenerate plants of a strange vine. As the children of God, who know that God is a Spirit, and that they who worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth, I entreat you to arouse yourselves to stem” -Rev. Alex Hislop, 1858, The Scriptural Principles of the Solemn League and Covenanter

“It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.” (Thomas Paine) and “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” (Thomas Jefferson) (No endorsement of Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson intended)

So we suffer the painful sacrifice of political out of love for our country. We also suffer political dissent because we are not to be associated with wicked governments and rulers lest we become accomplice in their wicked deeds or that by our association we confirm their legitimacy. So in conclusion, ours is a True Patriotism for this country and a higher loyalist to the King of kings.

This is the final of 6 part series on Civil Magistracy, Qualifications, Electing and Political Dissent. The Final two parts were previous written on my blog some time ago and deals with the reasoning for our Political Dissent.

You can find them here,

Why I Do Not and Cannot Vote In the Present State and Nature of Our Nation @ https://mintdill.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/why-i-do-not-and-cannot-vote-in-the-present-state-and-nature-of-our-nation/

Why Political Dissent @ https://mintdill.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/why-political-dissent-among-reformed-covenanters/

 

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