Thomas Paine: His Calvinist-Political Thought

Did you know that John Adams got upset with Thomas Paine for basing his arguments in Common Sense on the authority of the Bible? Historian A.J. Langguth writes:

[John] Adams thought the author's reliance on the Old Testament as his authority was merely ridiculous (Patriots: The Men Who Started The American Revolution, page 335).

You see, appealing to the authority of Scripture to prove a point is very Calvinistic, but not very Deistic (almost all deists, if not all, deny special revelation from God). Thomas Paine understood perfectly that the overwhelming majority of those in favor of independence from Britain were Calvinistic in their political thinking, not Deistic. You might say Thomas Paine had some common sense. Benjamin Franklin also had some common sense, for we read:

[Franklin] thought Christianity, while it might be untrue, was indispensable to the kind of society he preferred (Patriots: The Men Who Started The American Revolution, page 436).

Franklin knew that religious and civil liberty cannot exist outside a Calvinistic nation for long. Franklin had been raised and educated in a strict Calvinist Presbyterian home.

Now, let's get back to Thomas Paine. The very title of his important book (Common Sense), points us back nearly a century to John Locke's philosophy (common sense is a Lockean epistemic term). Locke's political theory, which was also Calvinistic, not Deistic, is based upon the authority of Scripture! John Locke was raised by Puritan parents, and so in his 'Two Treatises Concerning Government' we are not surprised to see Locke also quote Scripture authoritatively. Of course, Locke was merely reflecting the Calvinist political thought of George Buchanan, who lived in Scotland during the late 1500's.

Bibliography:

Langguth, A.J., Patriots: The Men Who Started The American Revolution, Simon And Schuster Paperbacks, New York, 1988.

Paine, Thomas, Common Sense, Barnes And Noble, New York, 1995.

Paine, Thomas, Rights Of Man, Barnes And Noble, New York, 2004.

Read George Buchanans Calvinist-political work at:
http://www.contra-mundum.org/books/jure/jure.html

Visit my channel page for more videos on Calvinism:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RedBeetle

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