Asher Sisneros

Asher K. Sisneros

Dr. Gary North

American Literature

November 25, 2024

Note: As the American Revolution came to a close, Paine issued a series of pamphlets titled “American Crisis.” This essay is a rebuttal to those pamphlets, written from the hypothetical perspective of an American loyalist during 1788. 

There are men among the ranks of the revolutionaries who style themselves as the “sons of Liberty,” fighting for the rights of all Englishmen. But what is it they fight for? This entire movement for independence from the British monarchy is fine-sounding and touches the heartstrings of America, but these revolutionaries lie to the people. Their true intentions are masqueraded behind a veil of so-called liberty. Yet liberty from the King is slavery to Congress. Thus I ask the reader, which master will be less tyrannical: the king who sits across an ocean or the mob who rests by your doorstep? 

Just look at the voice of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine. When loyalists who were tarred and feathered for their support of the King vocally encouraged General Howe to liberate them, Paine said, “I sincerely wish next year’s arms may expel [the loyalists] from our continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions.” Are they less human? Are they, because of their political opinions, alienated? Are they, because they do not believe the taxes under the King are as burdensome as Paine claims, worthy of contempt and hatred? Are they, because they prefer petition over revolution, and because they believe paying taxes to the government that graciously defended them during the French and Indian War is fair, make them worth robbing and killing? Are they, because they are willing to stand with and pray for the King as the Apostle Paul commands in Romans 13, immoral and vile traitors?

If theft were not enough, Paine also openly calls for the execution of all loyalists: “Those who oppose and seek to betray it [the American Revolution], must expect the more rigid fate of the jail and” the gallows. The loyalists have committed no treason. They have not assisted either side militarily, but somehow they have become traitors who are worthy of death. That is not the rule of law. Those are not the words of justice. Those are the words of a police state, and the words of an empire. 

All men are equal before God. Their life and property are endowed to them by their Creator. Who is America to separate God’s people from their rightful inheritance? When their English forefathers arrived on the continent, they gave thanksgiving to Jehovah for giving them provisions and a new land to settle and subdue in Christ’s name so they could worship in peace. Those provisions were given because of their faithfulness. Yet now, the revolutionaries wish to strip these Englishmen of their inheritance and sequester their promised land in the name of liberty. Even worse, they wish to jail and murder all opposition in the colonies. The hearts and minds of the people must be won by the pen, not by the sword. 

The government exists for the sole purpose of punishing criminals. The loyalists do not commit a crime against their neighbors or against God by supporting the King. Perhaps it is unpopular among the patriot forces, but no moral law is broken, and the government’s only standard of justice is the moral law. If a person does not violate the moral law—even if they are a loyalist—using physical force against them is unjust, and the government, in perverting justice, wrestles with God. 

As important as equal and unadulterated justice is owed to all men, it dwindles in comparison to the just due owed to Christ. Paine speaks of universal principles, such as the “universal rights of man,” natural rights, and even divine attributes such as providence. But not once does he honor the Son. Providence did not inherit the world, and natural law was not crucified at Calvary. As the King of kings, He is owed His honor. And while Paine’s revolution may honor God the Father, he ignores one point: no one goes to the Father except through the Son (John 14:6). Honoring the name of some abstract “creator” is not the same as the fear of God. Even the apostate nations acknowledge a power greater than human might. Plato himself, a father of reason, believed in abstract forms that governed the material world. Belief in the divine is not enough to ensure a sturdy foundation. No house can stand unless it is built on a firm foundation—on the rock of Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:24-27). Yet this revolution makes no mention of the Rock. Where is Jesus glorified in “Common Sense,” in the Declaration of Independence, or in “American Crisis”? He honored nowhere, and that is deliberate. Neither Jefferson nor Paine are Christians who believe in the Messiah. Their lord is the lord of humanism and reason. Yet without the firm foundation of Christ, the republic they strive to build cannot stand. 

That really brings me to the heart of the matter: the fight for liberty is a lie. Paine and the other American humanists do not strive to create a republic that propagates liberty. As he says, “America need never be ashamed of her birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire.” Their true intentions are clear: they seek to build an empire that will “make a world happy” and “exhibit on the theatre of the universe a character hitherto unknown.” In a utopian fashion, as a product of the Enlightenment, Paine strives to remake the world in the image of reason. Empire is the goal; revolution is the means. 

Through the revolution, America’s Christian heritage is under attack. Christ’s moral law is at stake. In this struggle, forces collide to decide the fate of this new empire. A colony once built in the image of Christ is being torn down and rebuilt as an empire in the image of humanist reason. With its success, all liberties will be lost, for there is no liberty aside from Christ. First, the empire will trample over the rights of loyalists, as they have already done, and then the rest of all Christian traditions. But do not be mistaken: all of the Devil’s kingdoms end in ruin as his servants embrace self-destruction. The grand lie Satan told Adam was not that there was no God, something even Paine and Jefferson acknowledge, but that man can be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5). In short, the Devil told Adam to trust his own intellect, i.e., reason. But like the kingdom of Adam, this American empire will fall.