FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN ATHEISM, PART 3

TRIFECTA FROM HELL - BOOKS BY PAINE, ALLEN & PALMER

ETHAN ALLEN

Some people will look at this title and think I am even crazier than I look! I mean...dude, books by some guys named Paine, Allen and Palmer? All we know is Osteen, Lucado and Chan! What is up with that. Well, before you close this page and surf to the next site, consider this: What do "The Age of Reason"; "Reason, the Only Oracle of Man" and "Principles of Nature" have in common?


Well these three rambling diatribes against Holy God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, The Bible and Christianity led Harvard and other American colleges and those in the northeastern upper crust into full blown atheism! From there, America began its rapid descent into all kinds of cults and christian-themed "religions" in the 1800's, to the point where we are today, where some people boo God at a political convention! This Trifecta of books, by the THEN three top literary minds of atheism, is the Trio from Hell! These trailblazing books provided the unholy scriptures for the new crop of followers of the god of this world, who had unbridled freedom now that the Continental Army and American Independence gave everyone in America, the freedom to be whatever you wished to be!

As mentioned before, Charles Chauncy, the man who hated the First Great Awakening which led to millions being saved in America and the Gospel spreading across the land, moved Unitarianism into the fore. Harvard, where he was in the leadership, later became one of those institutions influenced by Chancy. Unitarianism, by the way, according to Webster's Dictionary, is a denomination that stresses individual freedom of belief, the free use of reason in religion, a united world community, and liberal social action.

In case you think I am overreacting and blaming these men for the people who booed the Name of God at a convention, the point has been missed.  Once these men departed from the Gospel and started thinking what men like George Whitefield and Wesley and Edwards were doing, was uncouth and not done in "polite society"....and once they had the power to do something about it, the die was cast!  What Chauncy did was despicable. He ditched the Bible for his Unitarian sermons and started preaching out of Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason"! It took a long time to get where we are today, but it had to start somewhere - and it started with Chauncy and Unitarianism, period.

Next to Paine's book, the great American Revolutionary War Hero Ethan Allen was the next most virulent anti-Christ. This is the same Ethan Allen that they named furniture stores after. His "Reason, the Only Oracle of Man" was an incoherent tome to paganism, yet the young men of New England lapped it up. The most outrageous statements by Allen were his writings blaspheming the Holy Spirit - the unforgiveable sin. Allen said "the doctrine of the Trinity is destitute of foundation and tends manifestly to superstition and idolatry"1. He was no different than the pharisees who stupidly (for their eternal souls) attacked Jesus and called Him all kinds of demonic names.

The third and final book of this Terrible Trio of Tomes, which has led so many into eternal torment, was actually written by a former Baptist pastor who was chased out of the ministry by the congregation, named Elihu Palmer! The ex-pastor once said of his fellow pagan Tom Paine that he "was.....the most useful man that ever existed on the face of the earth"2!!! Apparently, Palmer did not care or remember a thing about Jesus Christ! His book is called again ".

Palmer's book "Principles of Nature" contained even more heresy and blasphemy than Ethan Allen's book, this man was so lost. He said of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ "....the simple truth is that their pretended Savior is nothing more than an illegitimate Jew, and their hopes of salvation through Him rest on no better foundation than that of fornication and adultery" 3,4! Elihu Palmer now has an eternity to regret writing, saying and believing those things....just like all the others who "loved and admired" his "enlightened and reasoned" work! These men, others like them and their young admirers were the ones who rallied around Jefferson. This shocked the still involved and decent Founding Fathers John Adams and Patrick "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" Henry to no end. George Washington was horrified. Things were so bad, and especially between the Second US President John Adams and the pluralist/Deist Jefferson that a personal hatred developed between the two men. Adams was more concerned about the declining morals of the new country and finally called for a National Fast on April 25, 1799! This is something you will not see again in these days of anti-Christian bigotry in the media and politics.

While these three major books - most of them poorly written by all accounts - were the founding documents of American Atheism, God was (and always is) on the move! From the dawn of Time until now, He has His men in place everywhere.  Even in ancient Israel, which had gone completely pagan worshipping idols and more, God told the great prophet Elijah that He had 7000 men in Israel who did NOT follow the majority of that extinct nation (until 1948). Right around the time of President John Adam's National Fast,   preachers like Lyman Beecher; Ashbel Green and Jonathan Edwards grandson Timothy Dwight, were getting ready to launch the Second Great Awakening. God was moving to revive His elect and send preachers into the new Frontiers of the West! 

New England has never recovered from those men we have discussed this past week - Chauncy, Paine, Allen, Palmer and their friends from the French Revolution....but the Gospel and the men of God like Asbury; Peter Cartwright; Sheffey; Moody and more brought hope to the new West that only folks, who are completely surrendered to Christ, can do. 
Great is the Lord! Great is His Name! Great is He Who is Worthy to Be Praised! Amen.

RECOMMENDED BOOK: WHY REVIVAL TARRIES BY LEONARD RAVENHILL
Quote Credits:
1. Reason The Only Oracle of Man by Ethan Allen (Bennington Vt 1784) pp 352, 356
2. Principles of Nature by Elihu Palmer (London 1823) pg 112
3. Ibid pg 25
4. Ibid pg 23

FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN ATHEISM, PART 2

PART 2 - THE REVOLUTIONARY HEROES

THOMAS JEFFERSON

THOMAS PAINE

His book was the inspiration for the rebels with a cause – theFounding Fathers of a prospective new country. His words fired up the soldiersright before General George Washington crossed the Delaware. 

He was the authorof “Common Sense”, the biggest seller since the King James andGeneva Bibles in America! His words “These are the times that try men’s souls”have been engraved in the American story. He was a tiny little Englishman whowas introduced by letter to America by another man who loved good living – theerstwhile Ben Franklin. His name was Thomas Paine.  Once the AmericanRevolution was won, however, Paine needed more literary fields to conquer andliked what he was hearing out of France and the evil Jacobin Club. He movedthere to  join the men behind the Age of Reason ….and fellow atheists –Voltaire, Rousseau and others. In fact Paine even wrote another popular book bythat same name and thus began the proposed elimination of Christianity and theBible in pagan France. Now, the French Revolution was about to start. Butunlike the freedom, God-loving spirit of America, these people had an agendafrom another world.

The Jacobins burned down catholic churches; killed priestsand used the guillotine to destroy the entire royal family and anyone else whomthey wished. Their goal was to wipe God off the map in France! Voltaire, whoselast words before he died were “my feet are on fire”, remarked during this timethat within 100 years, Christianity will be wiped out in France! This offendedAmericans to no end, and not just Christian America, but decent people of allstripes, including American newspapers.  President Washington, John Adamsand other Founding Fathers were horrified.  Locally, especially in theuniversities of the northeast, anti-God rhetoric was exploding.  Charles Chauncy  lit the fuse of atheism with his attacks on the orthodoxChristian doctrine of the Bible and his Unitarianism was taken to extremelengths by college students at Harvard, Yale and other now well-knownuniversities.

These young college students went full bore atheist as thebooks and literature of the Age of Reason reached our shores, via subsidiesfrom French atheists and the Jacobin Club, who hoped to do to AmericanChristianity what they did to the French church! The idolatry of these youngAmerican students for the new atheistic movement, in the “Age of Reason” knewno bounds! They even started acting like groupies by calling themselves by thenames of these unsaved men: Voltaire, Rousseau, La Rue and the bunch. These men along with others, two of whom we will examine tomorrow (Ethan Allen and Elihu Palmer) joined up with Jefferson's new political party: the Democratic-Republican Party,( which prophetically enough, just left the Name of God out of their party platform this week)!

But it was not just these unwise young men. The great Founding Father ThomasJefferson was always a Deist, but his stint in France as ambassador reallysolidified his dislike of Christianity. Not knowing the furor that Paine's anti-Christian book "The Age of Reason" and the despicable conduct of the Jacobins and others during the anti-Christian French Revolution, President Jefferson invited Tom Paine back to the US in 1801 to celebrate. The outrage which greeted the return of Tom Paine to these shores shocked Jefferson. Yet, he should have known as American newspapers and the newly independent country did not take kindly to Paine's attacks on George Washington and Christianity!

Here is how the New York Evening Post from 1802 greeted the great American Revolutionary Hero of the 1770's.....Tom Paine....the same Tom Paine, who now had to disguise himself, get an alias and sneak down to visit his old friend Jefferson in the White House:

TO TOM PAINE

Detested reptile! Wherefore has thou come

To add new evils to our groaning land?

To some wild desert let they carcase roam, 

Where nought can wither by thy blasting hand.

In the dark hour that brought thee to our shore

The shade of Washington did awful scowl-

Hence, gloomy monster! Curse mankind no more,

Thy person filthy as they soul is foul!

(Seasons of Refreshing by Keith Hardman, Baker Pub. Pg 105)

Wow!! I don't know any Christian these days who speaks to atheists like that! But this is how Paine was welcomed back to America, causing his atheist friend Jefferson to regret the whole thing. By the way, personally, I don't recommend speaking like this to our non-believing friends. We need to pray first for them, then if they still reject the Gospel, leave them in the capable Hands of God and walk away.

There have been many well-meaning Christians over the years, who try to project Christianity and belief in Christ to these men and other Founding Fathers. The most well-known is David Barton, who just had his own controversy when Thomas Nelson pulled his "The Jefferson Lies" book from all bookstores everywhere. Barton is famous for taking public quotes of these men about God, adding one plus one and coming up with eleven. Jefferson and his friends and party at the time were no more believers in God than the Jacobin friends he had.  Even his Secretary of War Henry Dearborn was an avowed atheist. Dearborn once said of Christianity and the church "So long as these temples stand we cannot hope for good government"!!!  

If there is any doubt why things are the way they are in a country that is now $16 Trillion in debt with moral and spiritual crisis that is unsurpassed in human history, all we have to do is look back and we can find where it all began!

Tomorrow: The Conclusion - "Ethan Allen and Elihu Palmer"