Marsiglio of Padua #2 (Teaching)

Marsiglio of Padua opposed the Great Bible Reset and focused on the Book of the Covenant in Exodus 20-24 as the foundation for a Christian nation. He believed in the separation of church and state, with government based on reason and the will of the people. He disregarded the Mosaic Law and preferred the arbitration of the human mind for secular law. Marsiglio saw the state as responsible for instructing and guiding people, while disregarding the need for spiritual influence. He also emphasized the role of the executive in directing the execution of laws. Tomorrow, there will be a biblical analysis of Marsiglio's teaching. Visit kingswayclassicalacademy.com and boomers-alive.com for supplements and quantum energy medicine. Hello everybody, today we are going to be focusing on the teaching of Marsiglio of Padua and his neglect of the defining role of the Book of the Covenant in Exodus 20-24 in the creation of a Christian nation. So, Marsiglio of Padua actively opposed the Great Bible Reset in laying a foundation for the biblical state. And we focus on Exodus 20-24 because that is the first summary of the law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. And that is the heart of what we have to do. The law of God is so relatively simple that even children can understand it. When they read the law in ancient Israel, the children were required to be there and hear and understand most of it because it was relatively simple. Its multiple law codes is not what preserves liberty. Its multiple judges in the courtroom that preserves liberty, conferring together. So who was Marsiglio of Padua? He lived from 1274 to 1343. He was a Franciscan political philosopher and doctor. With defense or pacis, he sketched the outline for the modern secular state. He proposed the extreme separation of church and state that vexes politics to this day. All law is prefaced by somebody's religion, somebody's conception of what is right and what is wrong. And if it's not Christianity, it's going to be some other religion. It's just impossible to separate church and state. So how do we summarize Marsiglio's teaching? Well, defense or pacis means defender of the peace. Marsiglio was disgusted with church excesses. And thus, he believed only a strong central government could effectively defend the peace. Dante was inspired by ancient Rome, but Marsiglio, like Thomas Aquinas, returned to Greece. Notably Aristotle and Plato. Rather than the Bible, Marsiglio found the authority for government in reason. This would be either the will of the people or the wisdom of their enlightened leaders. Plato's philosopher kings. Moreover, the state's power is free of any moral oversight by church leaders. At the same time that Dante was arguing for a strong central government, Marsiglio was arguing for a weak, privatized church, disengaged from the world, and offering little or no moral compass for the state. In Deuteronomy 17, we have the Levitical priest as expert in the divine law, present in the courtroom advising the judge in the civil court. And any convicted person who presumed to ignore the verdict of the priest and the judge, was to be put to death. Then all the people will hear and be afraid. And will not act presumptuously again. And that's in Deuteronomy 17. But what do we do? Being wiser than God, we throw them in a model prison system that was proposed by the Quakers back in the early 1800s in Pennsylvania. They're there to meditate on the error of their ways and supposedly to reform their lives. The problem is it just doesn't work. It just doesn't work that way. It's not God's way. It's not double restitution. So what are Marsiglio's thoughts on Aristotle's purpose of the state being instituted for the sake not merely of living, but of living well? Well, Marsiglio refers to Aristotle to open his chapter on the purpose of the state. Aristotle makes the state, or the government, synonymous with the perfect community. This is an extremely dangerous formulation because it takes what was intended to be just one aspect of society, expands it to encompass the whole. It makes of the state a divine institution, quote, comprising every element of sufficiency in itself, end of quote. But biblically, the state is given the power to administer justice within the society. When its role is expanded to that of ensuring that man lives well, it must abandon its primary and original judicial function. To accomplish this messianic goal, the state must become a planner, a regulator, a confiscator of resources. And in doing this, it must abandon justice in the process. So what is Marsiglio's attitude toward eternity and the spiritual realm, and how does this affect his political theory? Well, according to Marsiglio, eternity and the spiritual realm are beyond the sway of the temporal affairs of philosophy. Eternity is a province of theology and has nothing to do with the good life on earth. Philosophy, on the other hand, has provided an almost complete demonstration of what makes for the good life and for living well in the material world. Philosophers have concluded that a civil community, not a spiritual community, is necessary and sufficient for constructing the good life on earth. Thus, Marsiglio's civil community is divorced from any need for a spiritual influence or corrective. So what are we to make of Marsiglio's statement that the state must provide teachers for instructing and guiding men in these things? Well, whatever spiritual influence Marsiglio allows for the present world must be mediated by teachers provided by the state. These are necessary for instructing and guiding men in matters of revelation, of worship and thanksgiving, for benefits received in this life and the next. Biblically, the state has no business whatsoever in providing teachers for the church, nor teachers for children in any form. Luther and Calvin made a monumental mistake during the Reformation when they insisted that instructors be compensated by tax monies of the state. This was an open invitation for the civil magistrate to assume the teaching and discipling ministry that God has assigned to the church alone. Because whatever government funds, government eventually controls. On the contrary, it is the nations who will in the last days, before the second coming, come to the mountain of the house of the Lord for instruction regarding the law of God. As a result, they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. We see this in Isaiah 2, verses 1-4. What is Marsiglio's attitude toward the Mosaic Law and its political precepts, such as we find in Exodus 20-24? Marsiglio arrogantly brushes aside the Mosaic Law at the beginning of his discussion on the people as legislator, and a more brazen subordination of the law of God to human reason can scarcely be imagined. Marsiglio says, Concerning the institution of the Mosaic Law, we have not here to do, not even with the political precepts which such laws provide for the affairs of this life. We are now concerned solely with the institution of law and authority that proceed directly for the arbitrament of the human mind. Thus, Marsiglio subordinates the mind of God to the mind of man in political matters. This is exactly what Stephen Wolfe has done in his recent bestseller, In Defense of Christian Nationalism. So what source does Marsiglio prefer for the secular law? Marsiglio is a democrat through and through. As noted above, he prefers the arbitration of the human mind to the word of God when it comes to the matter of civil law and political authority. In a democracy, it is the will of the majority, the will of the majority, rather than the word of God that provides the foundation for governing authority. And here again, Marsiglio defers to the pagan Aristotle in his decree that it be the whole body of the citizens commanding or deciding by its own choice or will that something be done or omitted concerning the civil actions of man under a temporal punishment or penalty. But what is the purpose of the executive power, according to Marsiglio? Well, the executive, according to Marsiglio, is called into existence by the legislator, the whole body of the people, for the purpose of performing and regulating civil acts. The legislature determines what the law shall be, and the executive directs the execution of the law and the various functions of the state. And this latter task is best accomplished by the services of one or a few rulers rather than the whole body of the people, the legislator. It would be cumbersome and inefficient for the legislator to attempt to execute the laws itself. But this reverses the biblical model in which God first gave the law to Moses as the administrator or judge. Afterward, Moses appointed a Sanhedrin to assist him with counsel in the task of governing. But Marsiglio prefers his own wisdom to that of God and his revealed law. So tomorrow we'll get into a biblical analysis of Marsiglio's teaching in more detail. In the meantime, I'd invite you to please visit the bookstore at kingswayclassicalacademy.com and the longevity store at boomers-alive.com for the lowest price, highest quality supplements on the internet. And discover the power of quantum energy medicine by communication. Medicine by communication. And this will help support the school as well. So in the meantime, we'll see you tomorrow.