The Decline

of America
&
Tltomas Aquinas
by Joe Morecraft
The Early Decline of America .
. . , .
to repentance but she was too blind and too stubbom to
repent.
Like Israel, the seeds of America' s present decline were
sown by the same hands who first erected this "city set
uponahill." As jW:atas the first generation of Americans
were (early to late-middle 1600' s), they fl!iled to pass on
. their vision to the second and third generations. In 17rJl.
Increase Mather could write: "You that are aged and can
remember what New England was fIfty years ago, that
saw these churches in their first glory, is there not a sad
decay and diminution of that glory! How is the gold
become dim!"
. - .-
Forfiftyyears these early Americans, thePurltans,enjoyed
undisturbed socialpeace and increasing prosperity. This
was not by accident It happened because these were men
and women who made every effort to reconstruct the
America is in the midst of the most serious spiritual church, society andeveryotherinstitution andfacetoflife
declension in her history, and it is affecting every aspect in the light'and direction of theworld-viewof the Bible,
of our life and society. We have changed gods. And our inherent in their Calvinistic theology. The Puritan was
newgodsarefailingus, andweareexperiencingwc:nening notlikeotherpeople. HecametoNorthAmericatobuild
consequences. When did this decline begin? Tenyears a Holy commonwealth under the Word of Christ. He
ago? Fifty years ago? When did Israel's decline begin, probed endlessly the implications of biblical truth and
which eventually led to herdestruction at the hands cifthe law to himself and his society. He sought assiduously to
Babylonians? Jeremiah gives uS the anSwer: (Jer.32:31
C
draw every pOssible implication and application from
33); everyverseintheBible. Andasaresultthesecourageous
"Indeed . this city (of Jerusalem) has been to Me a
provocation of My anger and.My wratbFROM THE
DAY THAT THEY BUILT IT, (998 Be), even to. this
day, (586 BC); thatit should be removed frombefore My
face, because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the
sons of Judah,whlch they have done ib pro.voke Me to
anger-they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their
prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. And they have tumedtheir back to Me, and
not their faCe; though I taught them, teaching again and
again, they would not listen and receive instruction."
"From the day that they built it (J etusale.rn):' What
sobering words! The. seeds of Jerusalem's decline and
destructionin586BC; were sown by the hands of the very
people who made her a great city, as the capital of
Jehovah's theocracy and the center of ISrael's worship
under King David around 998 BC. GodSentprophetafter
prophetthroughouttheinterveningcenturiestocallIsraeI
. .
The Counsel of Chalcedon February/March 1991 Page 6
Christians laid the Joundation. upon which this
constitutional republic was built, this countIy, which,
under God' s blessing upon their efforts, became the
greatest and freest nation on the face of the earth.
The Shift From Augustine to Aquinas
What happened? There is ample documentation in the
publications of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
aI).d in modern research on P1,uitanism, that the second
and third generation American did not continue the plans
and vision of their fathers. This declension, interrupted
occasionally by spiritual revivals, advanced in each
succeeding generation until Unitarianism and
Anninianism got a stranglehold on New England in the
late eighteenth century. So the question is: how did the
first generation American l>uritans fail ' their second
generation?
The answer is to be found in this: the first generation
AmericanPuritans,Christiangiantsamongmenthatthey killed the Holy Commonwealth. Later generations of
_ were, "had one glaring weakness in their otherwise Americans wanted to preserve the benefits of Puritanism,
perfect system, the single but fatal inconsistency in an but they wanted to discard the old theology of their
otherwise monumental consistencY," wrote Perry Miller Puritan fathers. And so here we are.
inTheNewEnglandMind: the Seventeenth Century. The
weakness was that "in the Puritan mind confidence in the
certainty of God's word was matched by an equal
confidence in the infallibility oflogic," continues Miller.
In other words, theAmericanPuritans,as all sinners, were
not consistent with their first principle, that all of life in all
its aspects and details must be governed by the Bible.
THEIR TIiOMISM SOMETIMES CROWDED OUT
TIiElRAUGUSTINIANISM. Theirweakerdescendants
seized upon that inconsistency and developed it into
Unitarianism, Deism, Transcendentalism, etc. until it
became the full-blown anti-christian humanism of the
twentieth century.
Augustine, (354-430 AD), believed that, in order to
understand any aspect of life, it must be understood in the
light of the written word of God. The Protestant
Reformation in the sixteenth century was a revival of
Augustinianism, especially in the writing and preaching
of John Calvin. The Puritans were British Augustinians
who came to this continent to workout all theimplications
of their Reformation faith and world view.
Thomas Aquinas, (1225-1274 AD), believed that the
Bible is necessary to understand some things, such as
salvation and the sacraments, but that human reason is
fully capable of understanding many areas of life, such as
politics, econo!Ilics, etc., without reference to the Bible.
This view supplanted Augustinianism as the centerpiece
of Catholic thought in the Middle Ages, and with that
transition came the corruption of the Church. The
Renaissance exploited Tho!Ilism. It taught that, if the
Bible is unnecessary to understand some aspects of life
and society, it is unnecessary to understand any area of
life and society. In fact, it is an obstacle to the acquisition
and advancement of knowledge in general, and must be
discarded. So says today's humanism, which grew out
of the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, which grew
out of the weakness of Thornism, which attempted to
synthesize Christianity with pagan Greek and Roman
philosophy, butwhichwinds up prostituting Christianity.
The Augustinian American Puritans never shook off all
the influences ofThomism. And this is what eventually
The most devastating legacy ofTho!Ilism in this country
is the idea of "natura1law." This theory originated in
Greek and Roman thought. Connie Marshner, a
contemporary Thornist, defmes the natura1law theory in
this way: "Though intellectual fashions change, an
objective moral order, knowable by man and within the
reach of mankind, can be reasonably seen as the most
stable basis of personal, national and international order
and happiness." (Future 21: Direction For America In
The 21 st Century, pg. 129). The anti-christian direction
of this viewpoint is seen inMarshner's comment that "the
natural law is independent of divine revelation, since its
first principles are common to mankind as a whole, on
philosophical precepts, not on religious precepts, (nor
biblicalones-JCM),andcanbeunderstoodandaccepted
by anyone, (regenerate or unregenerate-JCM), willing
to master the intellectual rigors of it" (pg. 132).
Thefirst generation AmericanPuritans would never have
said such a thing. In fact, they said the opposite. In 1638
theFundamental Orders of Connecticut declared: " ... well
knowing where a people are gathered together the word
of God requires that to maintain peace and union of such
people there should be an orderly anddecentgovemment
established according to God, to order and dispose of the
affairs of the people at all season as occasion shall
require ... " And in 1642 theNew Haven Colony officially
stated that " ... when the plantation began andgovemment
was settled, that the judicial law of God given by Moses
and expounded in other parts of scripture, so far as it is a
hedge and afenceto the moral law, andneitherceremonial
nor typical nor had any reference to Canaan, hath an
everlasting equity in it, and should be the rule of their
proceedings. "
The Counsel of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 7
I,
However, their inability to appreciate fully the flaws and
dangersofPlatonicreasonandAristotelianlogic,coupled
with their inconsistent application of their biblical
presuppositions, opened the door for men like Thomas
Jefferson, John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, and others of
that generation, to attempt to lay the foundation for
Americanrepublican political philosophy in the theory of
natural law and natura1rights. This has proved fatal to our
nation. Much of the departure from our Christian heritage
as anation Can be attributed to the beliefinandapplication
of this unbiblical theory. It has led us farther and farther
from God, liberty, justice, morality, prosperity, peace,
and a regard for the sanctity of human life. It has led us
deeper and deeper into the suicidal tendencies of
humanism
Much of the departure from Our Christian
heritage as a nation can be attributed to the
belief in and application ofthis unbiblical
(natural law ) theory. It has led us faliher and
farthel'ftom God,)ibrty,justice, morality,
prosperity,peace,aJld for tbe santity
offilinla.lllife. Ithlis ledllSdeeper and deeper
. into the suicidal tendcllciesofhumanism.
The Refutation of "Natural Law"
Gary North's critique of natura1law is totbepoint,Moses
And Pharaoh, (pp.236-246):
"Such a conception of natura1lawrests on the assumption
of a universal human logic, the universal applicability in
history of that logic, and the universal recognition of this
logic and its universal applicability by all reasonable
men. It assumes, in short, the NEUTRAllTY of human
thought.
''The Bible explicitly denies any such neutrality. Men are
divided into saved and lost, keepers of God's covenant
and' breakers of God's covenant There is no agreement
between the twopositions.-Human reason, unaided by
God's reveiation--untwisted by God's grace-cannot
be expected to devise a universal law code based on any
presumed universal human logic. What mankind's
universal reason CAN be expected to do is to REBEL
against God and his law. Ethical rebels are not logically
faithful to God.
The Counsel of Cbalcedon FebruarylMarcb 1991 Page 8
\.
"The Greek and Romait concept of natural. law rested on
. the presupposition of MAN'S AUTONOMY. Itrested
on the presupposition of NEUTRAllTY in human
thought The Bible recognizes this common heritage of
the image of God in man, but it sees this image as twisted
and perverse in rebellious man.
"A crisis of confidence has appeared in the West which
has undermined the West's confidence in its own legal
institutions. Berman's account of this erosion is
masterful: 'Whatis new today is the challenge to the legal
traditionasa whole, andnotmerelytoparticularelements
or aspects of it; and this is manifested above all in the
confrontation with non-Western civilizations and non-
Western philosophies. In the past, Western man has
confidently carried his law with him throughout the
world. The world today, however, is suspicious-more
suspiciousthaneverbefore--<>fWesternlegalism. Eastern
and Southern Man offer other alternatives. The West
itself has come to doubt the universal Validity of its
traditional vision of law, especially its validity for non-
Western cultures. Law that used to seem 'natura1' seems
only 'Western.' And many are saying that it is obsolete
even for the West.'
''The acids of the West's own humanism and relativism
have eroded the foundations of Western legality, which
has been one of the chief pillars of Western civilization.
If all cultures are equally valid, then their legal traditions
are also equally valid as aspects of these cOmpeting
cultures .. Therefore, Hayek recommends that we refuse
to save that dying elderly Eskimo who has been left to
perish in the snow by his peers. Is it any wonder, then, that
Hayek'seloquentpleaforanineteenth-centuryversionof
the rule of law has failed to gain the commitment of
scholars and social philosophers in the' twentieth? His
oWl1 twentieth-century relativism (irnplicitinnineteenth-
century relativism) has eroded his economic and legal
prescriptions.
"Men seek: a ' sovereigntY greater than themselves, a
sovereignty which can guarantee meaning to their lives
and success in their many ventures. IF GOD IS NOT
THE SOURCE OF LAW, AND LAW IS NOT
UNIVERSALLY VALID BECAUSE IT IS
REVEALED BmLICAL LAW, TIIEN ONLY A
HYPOTIIETICAL UNIVERSAL POWER STAlE
REMAINS TO GIVE MAN THE SOVEREIGNTY BE
SEEKS (capitals JCM). If this also fails, then nothing
remains to assure mankind that his works have meaning
in time and on earth.
THE FAILURE OF NATURAL LAW DOCfRINE
WAS ASSURED WHEN MEN AT LAST CEASED
TO EQUATE NATURAL LAW WITH BffiLICAL
LAW (capitals JCM). When natural law was at last
recognized as 'natural' rather than revealed, autonomous
rather than created, then it gained its universality only to
the extent that mankind is seen as a true universal. But
with the rise of relativism ... , the hoped-for unity of man
collapsed. Now only power remains, not natural law.
Now only the rise of a new source of unity, the world
State, can guarantee man's legal order the unity it
requires ... Naturallaw thereby ceases being natural. A
universal law can only be IMPOSED by the power State.
To summarize: NATURAL LAW THEO'RY
ABANDONED RELIANCE ON THE REVEALED
LAW OF THE GOD OF THE BmLE IN ORDER TO
ASSERT IT AUTONOMY AND UNIVERSALITY,
ONLY TO LOSE BOlli ITS AUTONOMY AND
NATURALNESS (SELF-ATTESTING UNIVERSAL
VALIDITY)TOTHENEWSOVEREIGNTYOFTHE
POWER STATE (capitals JCM).
We must alsorespondto the crisis of Western law withthe
answersthatBermanisunwillingtocallfor: therestoration
of Christianity as the foundation of Western religion, the
restoration of this religion as the foundation of morality
and reason, and the establislunent of biblical law-and
nottherestoration of natural law theory-as the foundation
of social order. Nothing else will revive the West. A true
religious revival-a COMPREHENSIVE REVIVAL
which restructures every human institution in terms of
biblical law-alone can establish the West's foundations
oflong-term social and legal order. A true revival alone
can re-establish the long-term institutional foundation of
the free market economy."
The Faith & Failure of Puritanism
This general decline in the life and thought of second
generation American Puritans is located in the decline of
"the unity of Puritan thought and ... the piety of Puritan
life, " wrote Terry Elniff in his book, The Guise of Every
Graceless Heart. He explains:
"ThePuritan concept of unity ... involvedacommonwealth
of separate spheres of covenant activity --close, compact,
coordinate, but not confounded; independent but inter-
dependent.
"The ideology of Puritanism with its emphasis on limited
and divided power, its spirit of non-autonomy, and its
insistence on the application of God's law as an absolute
and sovereign authodty outside of man was instituted in
a form of government and social order which was based
on the consent embodied in the covenant, limited by the
law, and active both in preserving the social fabric and the
individual liberty of its citizens. At the same time the
Puritan theology developed an ethic that enabled its
adherents to live realistically and prosperously in the holy
commonwealth that had been created. (pg. 102)
"Ithas been our endeavor, he (the author of the seventeenth
century Puritan book, New England's FirstFruits )wrote,
'to have all God's own institutions, and no more than his
own, and all those in their native simplicity, without
having any human dressings; having liberty to enjoy all
that God commands, and yet urged to nothing more than
he commands.' To have anything more than God
commanded was human autonomy; to have anything less
than he commanded was disorder and lawlessness. The
essence of non-autonomy was to have all that God
commanded and no more. To the extent that New
England accomplished that, to that extent she prospered.
THE PROBLEM NEW ENGLAND HAD AND THE
DILEMMAS SHE FACED, AS WE HAVE SEEN,
CAN BE TRACED TO HAVING OR ATTEMPTING
TO HAVE EITHER MORE OR LESS mAN GOD'S
OWN INSTITUTIONS (capital JCM). What the
historians have called the declension was simply the
result of turning away from those institutions in one way
or another to human autonomy." (pg. 103)
The increasing encroaclunent of pretended human
autonomy intoAmedcan Puritanlife and thought resulted
in a growing disharmony and disorder in colonial society.
Their goal was "to maintain a complete harmony of
reason and faith, science and religion, earthly dominion
and the government of God," wrote Perry Miller in The
Puritans. But they were not successful in maintaining
that unity of thought and life under the word of God to the
glory of God in coming generations.
The Counsel of ChaIcedon FebruaryIMarch 1991 Page 9
Human (pretended) autonomy is the sense of self-
sufficiency and confidence in the ability ofhtimllI1 reason
to understand and order life apart from the guidance and
enlightenment of God's Word and God's Spirit The
focal points of this struggle between human autonomy
and non-autonomy in American Puritanism were church
membership, church establishment, the relation of church
and state, and church government Controversies in these
areas had implications forthe entire Puritan world-view.
Elniff writes:
"As the spheres separated more widely, the division
between church and state was more pronounced: the
church was seen as ruling in spiritual matters while the
state ruled in temporal and secular matters. The elements
of authority were seen as separate anddividedratherthan
as cooperating and unified. The individual looked to the
church on moral, spiritual, and theological matters, but to
the secular state for protection, welfare, prosperity and
justice-the 'keys topersonaiaggrandizement' Intracing
this development through the writings of the Puritans, we
should be aware, warns Rutman, that there 'is a subtle
difference between a Winthrop or Cotton for whom the
goal of society was the pleasing of God; a Samuel Wi1la:rd
to whom ahappy, contented people was most pleasing to
God; and a John Wise to whom 'the happiness of the
people, is the end of ( the state's) being; or main business
to be attended and done. ",
The transformation from the 'pleasing of God' to the
'happiness of the people' as the end of the stateis certainly
an example of the developing autonomous outlook, but
the more significant development is the acceptance of the
division of the commonwealth, the acceptance of the idea
that the interests of church and state were mutually
exc1usive, divided and distinct, andthatthemoreimportant
concerns of the people were hound up with the state rather
than the church." (pg. 109)
"The ultimate failure of the holy commonwealth came
with the decline of the concepts of unity and piety, as the
Puritans lost both the sense of the covenanted spheres
united in the Triune God and the reality of the spiritual
view of life. The concept of human autonomy was
expressed in the secularization of the state and in the
'intellectual somersaults' the Puritan made as he moved
back and forthbetweenhis secular and spiritual interests."
(pg.117ff.)
The Counsel of ChaIcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 10
With this synthesis in Puritan thought came the
deterioration of personal piety. And because of this , by
the eighteenth century, colonial life was no longer
harmonious. It was shaken with all kinds of intemill
diso:rders. First generation American Puritan, William
Bradford, first governor of the Plymouth plantation, as an
old man, grieved over this spiritual declension he could
already see in the late 1600's. He said:
"0 that these ancient members had not died or been
dissipated .. or else that this holy care and constant
faithfulness had still lived, and remained with these that
survived, and were intimes afterward added unto them.
But (alas) that subtle serpent hath slyly wound in himself
under fair pretence of necessity and the like to untwist
these sacred bonds and ties, and as it were insensibly, by
degreeS, to dissolve or in a great measure to weaken, the
same. I have been happy, in my first times, to see, and
with much comfort to enjoy, the blessed fruits of this
sweet communion, butitis now apart of my misery in old
age, to fmd and feel the decay and want thereof ... , and
with grief and sorrow of heart, to lament and bewail the
sarn.e."
However, it should be pointed out that this declension
advanced slowly in New England, because of the biblical
institutions the Puritans had put in place. Their biblical
concepts of checks and balance between various spheres
of authority, such.as the family, church and state; their
emphasis on the limited, non-sovereign authority of these
spheres; and their commitment that all spheres were
totally governed by biblical law, enabled this Holy
Commonwealth to be a productive, self-correcting, self-
stabilizing, and institutionally balanced society "with
liberty and justice for all" for almost two hundred years.
In 1730, the hundredth anniversary of the founding of
New England, Thomas Prince spoke of this declension in
Puritanism. He did so, not in despair and hopelessness,
but to encourage his listeners to correct the situation and
enjoy the restored blessing of Ahnighty God. He said:
"But O! Alas! Our great and dangerous declension! To
what an awful measure are they gone already, how
transcendently guilty do they make us, how threatening
do they grow ...
''Though 'its true we still maintain in general the same
religious principles and profession with our pious fathers,
yet how greatly is the spirit of piety declined among us,
how sadly is religion turning more and more into a mere
form of godliness, as the apostle speaks, without the
power, and how dreadfully is the love of the world
prevailing more and more upon this professing people!
And tins notwithstanding all the zealous testimonies
which have from time to time for above these threescore
years been borne against these growing evils.
true nature of our national crisis, but also hold the only
solution-the reconstruction of the United States in terms
of the Puritan vision of a Holy Commonwealth on these
shores, avoiding the mistakes they made. This is not
nostalgia. But it is only as we build on the biblical
foundation the fIrst generation American Puritans laid
that we can take the future for Christ.
May Christians all over America recommit themselves,
by the grace of God, to pray for and work for the re-
establishment of the crown rights of Christ, the King, over
all the earth, and
"Now then let the for the Christian
affecting view of Reconstruction
all these things, of all aspects of
both present, past American life
and future, excite and thought by
us all in our the infallible
several places to Word of God in
doourutmostthat a.;;;;===========;;;;============;;;;.! the power of the
we may not share in the dreadful guilt of this declension, Holy Spirit to the glory of God. May we not rest until we
norhave apartindrawingon the lamentable consequences see, under the Lord's blessing, Christian individuals,
ofit. But let us lay it to heart and moum before the Lord, loving each other in Christian families, worshiping in
first our own apostasies and sins and then the apostasies Christian churches, educating their children in Christian
and sins prevailing among this people. Let us cry schools, working in Christian businesses, under the
earnestly for the Spirit of grace to be poured forth on us protection of a Christian Republic and Christian states,
and them, that the hearts of the children may be returned governed by Christian elected officials, with Christian
to the God of their fathers and may continue steadfast in judges administering biblica1law.
his sacred covenant. And being revived ourselves, let us
labor to revive religion in our several families, and then
rise up for God in this evil day, bear our open witness also
against the public degeneracy, and do what in us lies for
the revival of the power of piety among all about us."
(from The People of New England Put In Mind Of The
RighteousActs Of the Lord TO ThemAndTheir Fathers.)
"Not long after, the Great Awakening broke out. Forthe
Puritans, it seems, not even declension could be
autonomous," writes Elniff, pg. lB.
Conclusion
So where does this leave us in the United States today?
It means that today's Christians, armed with the old
Puritan vision and world-view, obtained from the Bible
alone, by means of the Protestant Reformation, must
recognize that we, and we alone, not only understand the
May thatday come when our beloved nation will publicly
and sincerely confess: " ... we the people of the United
States of America, distinctly acknowledge our
responsibility to God, and the supremacy of His Son,
Jesus Christ, as King of kings, and Lord of lords; and
hereby ordain that no law shall be passed by the Congress
of these United States inconsistent with the will of god, as
revealed in the Holy Bible." Amen! SO LET IT BE! n
The Counsel of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 11