The Christians During the Revolutionary War

Lesson Transcript

Jesus didn't teach us to love our enemies. That's crazy. We live in a real world. Jesus wouldn't want us to do that. And they said they did it throughout all the colonies. Like they said, and they just, yeah. And they made it hard because the Mennonites and the others were one of the few who said, "No, Jesus told us to love our enemies." Well, good morning. Good morning.

We're going to talk about this, what happened to the Kingdom Christians, the Christians who put Jesus' teachings first in the state of Pennsylvania, which at that time period was the colony of Pennsylvania. We're going to go back and look at King Charles II, who was the one who granted William Penn the land grant for Pennsylvania in 1681. I'm going to just read some key provisions of the charter in the summary form, but here's an actual of the charter itself. And I'll read that here first.

It says, "We do by this our royal charter for if our heirs and successors make, create, and constitute the true and absolute proprietary of the country, aforesaid and all of the other premises, saving always to us, our heirs and successors, the faith and allegiance of the said William Penn, his heirs, and the signee, and of all other proprietaries, tenants, and inhabitants that are or shall be within the territories and precincts aforesaid, and saving also unto us, our heirs and successors," the key word, "the

sovereignty of the aforesaid country." This charter granted the territory of Pennsylvania to William Penn, but like I said, it specifically reserves the sovereignty to the king and to the government of Great Britain.

It grants William Penn the authority to make laws in the colony of Pennsylvania for the inhabitants of Pennsylvania so long as those laws are in harmony with Great Britain. It requires a copy of every law that was passed in the colony of Great Britain to be sent to, sorry, passed in the colony of Pennsylvania to be sent to England where it could be reviewed, and if it was in conflict with the laws of England, it would be declared null and void. I don't think that ever happened, but it was a provision.

It allows the inhabitants of Pennsylvania to appeal any judgment that a court in Pennsylvania decided to appeal it to the King of England and the British government in England. It allows the inhabitants of Pennsylvania to import and export goods, but you have to, you're required to pay customs, duties, and tariffs, just like all other English citizens. It wasn't just specifically on Pennsylvania. And it requires the inhabitants of Pennsylvania to obey the Navigation Acts.

That was specifically in the charter of 1681. And later, those same Navigation Acts are one of the things that the colonies rebelled against. And this Navigation Act had been designed to make England the world power in commerce and trade. And they had been passed in the 1550s under William Cromwell during the English Civil War. Like I said, those provisions, if you think about them, are some of the things the American colonies rebelled against. Now we're going to skip to William Penn.

If we remember, he was given Pennsylvania as payment for a debt that the king owed his father. And William Penn was very pleased with that because he wanted to make a colony where people could worship God free, how their conscience dictated. He wanted that. So he obviously accepted that payment. There's obviously a rendition of William Penn. And here's a map of that time period of the colony of Pennsylvania. And it's obviously much bigger than it is nowadays. It included a lot of New York.

Look how small New York is, and then New Jersey, and then Maryland. Actually, at that time period, William Penn was the largest non-rural landowner in the world. That's how big this colony of Pennsylvania was. William Penn drew up for the inhabitants of Pennsylvania a charter of privileges in 1701. I'm not going to obviously read the whole charter, but I want to just look at his charter for religious freedom in the colony of Pennsylvania. Let's just look at that.

It says, "Because no people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, of a bridge of the freedom of their conscience, so as to their religious profession and worship, and Almighty God being the only Lord of conscience, Father of lights and spirits, and the author as well as the object of all divine knowledge, faith, and worship, who only doth enlighten the minds and persuade and convince the understanding of people.

I do by here grant and declare that no person or persons inhabiting in this province or territory who shall confess and acknowledge one Almighty God, the Creator, upholder and ruler of the world, and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under the civil government, shall be in any case molested or prejudiced in his or her or their personal estate because of his or their conscientious persuasion or practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry contrary to

his or their mind, or to do or suffer any other act or thing contrary to their religious persuasion." Which is in direct contrast, if you think of most of the other colonies where they had state churches, like Virginia, the colony of Virginia had a state church that would have required, like I think, supporting the Anglican Church.

And we know in Massachusetts, they supported what was what we call the Congregationalist Church, but it was actually the Puritan Church. William Penn not just only made that declaration about religious freedom, he made this other statement. At near the bottom of his declaration, he specifically puts that no person can change the religious freedom of Pennsylvania in his charter, that it was invulnerable forever. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, but that's what he said.

It says, "But because the happiness of mankind depends so much upon the enjoying of liberty of their conscience, it's aforesaid, I do hereby solemnly declare, promise, and grant for me, my heirs, and the signs that the first article of this charter relating to the liberty of conscience and every part and clause therein, according to the true intent and meaning thereof, shall be kept and remain without any alteration invulnerably forever." That's a pretty strong statement that he put in the charter of Pennsylvania

in 1701.

And as we know, he opened Pennsylvania up to all the Christians in Europe who had been being persecuted, the Quakers in Great Britain. That was actually forbidden to be a Quaker in Great Britain. It was forbidden to actually be a Quaker in the colony of Massachusetts. He opened to the continental Europe, the Mennonites, the Amish, the Brethren, which we know was the German Baptist. We also opened up to another group called the Schweinfelders.

I'm not sure where they came from, but they were another non-resistant group of Christians who came to the colony. Also, the Zindendorf Moravians who had been under Count Zindendorf, they came here too. Like I said, they all were non-resistant Christians who came to the colony of Pennsylvania.

But because he believed in true religious freedom, he also opened it to other people, such as the Presbyterians from Northern Ireland and Scotland, to Church of England people, to Congregationalists, such as the Puritans, to Roman Catholics, and to Baptists from Great Britain. He opened it up to everybody. Most likely, he wouldn't have even allowed atheists to come to Pennsylvania.

They would not have been allowed to hold a public office, but since he had freedom of religion, I think he would have allowed them to come here too. The Pennsylvania Assembly got worried about all these people who came to the colony of Pennsylvania who weren't from Great Britain. Would they be loyal? Would they have affirmation of allegiance to the king? So starting in 1727, they required all of the non-English speaking citizens who came here to sign an affirmation or oath of allegiance.

I think they gave both options. I think it was probably wise. They should have probably thought about the citizens from Great Britain too. Would they be loyal? Because it wasn't the German speaking type people who caused the problem. When it first began, it was under King Charles II. It was King Charles III who was the "king of England" during the American Revolution.

And here's what I could find, and this is specifically talking about, I think, Amish and Mennonites from the Palatinate area of Germany, because it's, you know, and here's the one, the oath or affirmation.

It says, "We subscribers, natives and late inhabitants of the Palatine upon the Rhine, which would be in Germany, in places adjacent, having transported ourselves and families into the province of Pennsylvania, a colony subject to the crown of Great Britain, in hopes and expectation of finding a retreat and peaceful settlement therein, do solemnly promise and engage that we will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His present majesty, King George II, and his successors, kings of Great Britain.

We will be faithful to the proprietary of this province, and that we will demean ourselves peacefully to all his said majesty subjects, and strictly observe and conform to the laws of England, and to this province to the utmost of our power and best of our understanding." This plays a key role during the American Revolution, this oath of allegiance that the non-English people had to give when they came to the colony of Pennsylvania.

Like I said, they required it somewhere around 1727, maybe a little earlier, but at least what I could find said about 1727. As we know, the colony grew. Like I said, it was a mixture of non-resistant Christians and Christians who fought, such as the Presbyterians and others. They slowly but surely pushed past where William Penn wanted to, such as where we are now. This would have been the frontier at one time period, and they were having conflicts with the Native Americans.

Those same people did not like that William Penn treated Native Americans fairly. They didn't like that the legislature here was controlled by the Quakers. They obviously were part of it, but they did not like it was controlled by the Quakers. They did not like the Quakers held to non-resistance. Like I said, the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Church of England, they caused problems with the Native American people in the colony of Pennsylvania.

As we know what happened in 1754, the French and Indian War happened, and one of the battleground areas was in Pennsylvania, such as Fort Necessity near Pittsburgh. And it went obviously into New York and Canada and further in the Appalachians. Ultimately, Great Britain won the French and Indian War in 1763, but Great Britain then passed some laws to help recoup the costs. And the colonies all came up in arms saying, "That's unfair. You can't tax us. We don't have representation.

You're wanting to put us under slavery." And they got very upset in the late 1760s. Great Britain repealed all those laws except the three-cent tax on tea, if we remember that. Eventually, we had what was called the Boston Massacre in the early 1770s, which actually wasn't a massacre. It was where British soldiers were being taunted in such like a riot. Somehow, someone had set fire, and the British soldiers fired, and I think six colonists were killed, but they fired in self-defense.

And a couple of years later, we had the Boston Tea Party when they threw over 300 cases of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest a three-cent tax. If you remember, I think it's because they didn't want these same people were smuggling, and they had an atmosphere of lawlessness and not obeying the civil government, as we are called to in scripture. Great Britain then put what was called the Acts of Intolerability. I think that's what it is. And that's where we go to our next slide.

Here's a rendition of what's the Boston Committee of Correspondence. If we remember, the Sons of Liberty and others were going around both in Massachusetts and all the other colonies, stirring up people behind the scenes with these extraordinary committees of correspondence, safety, and observation. Pennsylvania, being a Quaker colony, was a little late, but they got those same things here in the state of Pennsylvania in 1774. These colonies, more or less, sorry, these committees spring up behind the scenes.

They had not been elected by the general populace. They more or less assumed all authority. They made laws, regulations. They executed judgments on the people. Like I said, they were not elected. If you ran afoul, you could get beaten up, tarred and feathered, and ultimately executed. I don't know if in Pennsylvania these committees actually executed anybody, but they could have. And then we had the first Continental Congress in the state of Pennsylvania that was called in 1774.

And again, that was in Philadelphia, again, bypassing the elected body here in Pennsylvania. That was passed, I think at that time period, the colonies were trying to extend an olive branch of peace with Great Britain. But again, it bypassed the assembly, the Quaker-dominated assembly. And then a year later, 1775, we know what happened. Everything broke loose. We had the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775 outside of Boston.

Boston, I mean, Britain realized the colonies were an open rebellion, sent in troops from Great Britain to quell the rebellion. So we had a second Continental Congress in 1775, again in Philadelphia, again bypassing the Quaker-dominated assembly. I want to read in July 18th, 1775, the Continental Congress, Second Continental Congress, passed a militia act. They had, and it had two sections. The first section was talking about the militia.

It says that all able-bodied men throughout the colonies should form themselves into companies of militia, each selecting a captain, two lieutenants, a flag carrier, a drummer, and a fifer. On the other hand, it did remember the state of Pennsylvania had all these non-resistant Christians.

It also said, "As there are some people who for religious principles cannot bear arms in any case, this Congress intends no violence to their conscience, but earnestly recommends to them to contribute liberally in this time of universal calamity to the relief of the distressed brethren in the several colonies, and to do all other services to the distressed country, which they can consistently do with their religious principle." So on paper, they acknowledged that they were conscientious objectors.

In Pennsylvania here, we had militias show up. They more or less came up underground because the call for militia came out. And I was reading about like something like Lancaster County, because this like I said, this area was on the frontier again. Lancaster, Berks County. And these militia people who made these militias could not believe that there were people who were conscientious objectors and who did not want to support the revolution. And that was starting in the fall of 1775.

They started having a real issue with people like us who weren't in support. They actually went to the Quaker-dominated assembly asking for petitions, but they started acting for, they did petitions to the Quakers saying, "Hey, this is not fair. These people need to help us." And I mean, it was getting big. If you remember when I spoke before, there was a great grandson of one of the Mennonite ministers, the Rittenhouse, who was actually a loyal patriot. His name was David Rittenhouse.

And he was one of the ones stirring up, you know, they need to contribute. Benjamin Franklin said this about that issue. It says, "Those who could not, because of their conscience, make a military contribution should make a monetary one based on a fixed rate of assessment. If the benefits of the struggle are universal, it is not in accordance with justice of equity that the burden should be partial." Again, saying everybody needs to pay for the independence.

But that's the same argument that Britain said about six years earlier, and the colonies said, "No way. We're not paying for the French and Indian War." It's a very inconsistent statement. If we remember, we had the Declaration of Independence in July, I think it's July 3rd, 1776. It was approved July 4th. The Quaker-dominated assembly adjourned at that time period, like right before the American Declaration of Independence, because they realized they had no power, no one was listening to them.

Why are we doing this? They made a new convention for a government here in Pennsylvania, a new constitutional convention. Benjamin Franklin helped head it up, and they actually made a new constitution here in Pennsylvania. And as I was just thinking about that, in the new constitution, John Adams had made this comment at the eve of the American Revolution.

There was approximately a third of the population in all the colonies, and I think he was about right, a third in each, approximately each colony who were called the Tory or the loyalist who supported Great Britain. There was about a third in each of the colonies who was a Whig or patriot who supported independence, and there was about a third who remained neutral. Some of those, obviously in Pennsylvania, were the non-resistant Christians.

Obviously, other colonies would have had other people, but they more or less remained neutral from the whole thing. Now we get some interesting things that happen here as we go from 1776 into actually the outbreak of hostilities. The Continental Army under the command of George Washington, the general, was coming towards Valley Forge because they had, Britain had captured Philadelphia. The Continental Army needed supplies. Obviously, the Britain Army needed supplies too.

One of the things they needed supplies for was paper for their guns and cannons. Guess where some of that paper came from? They sent troops to the Effort of Cloister in Effort and took 300 unbound German martyrs' mirror that had been translated in the 1740s for paper. Approximately half of those martyrs' mirrors were used in cannons and muskets.

The Mennonites and Amish actually were able to buy approximately half of them back later, and they still exist, but approximately half of those were used in war, which is, in my mind, a very sad use of the martyrs' mirror to be killing people. We had the new Pennsylvania legislature. One of the first things they did was pass an official militia act, March 1777, for the state of Pennsylvania. And at that time period, it was a state. It was not a colony anymore. They had become a state.

This act required all white men between the ages of 18 and 53 capable of bearing arms to serve two months of militia duty on a rotating basis, which was approximately two months a year. Refusal to turn out for the military exercise resulted in a fine of five shillings a day for each day missed. Proceeds were used to hire substitutes. For about 60 days, that came to about 300 shillings or 25 British pounds, which is probably $4,000, $4,500 in US dollars a day.

The militia act did provide for an exemption for the members of the Continental Congress, Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, Supreme Court Justice, Masters, and Teachers of Colleges, Ministers of the Gospel, and Indentured Servants. As a practical matter, anyone could avoid service either by filing an appeal to delay their service or by paying a fine to hire a substitute. And that fine, again, the five shillings a day, which they used to hire a substitute. I wanted to show you an example.

This obviously is a recreation of an example of a militia. This was done at Colonial Williamsburg, which would have been the colonial capital of the Colony of Virginia at that time period. I thought it was a pretty good example with the uniform. The other thing that the Pennsylvania legislature adopted in addition to the militia act that caused great havoc on the non-resistant Christians was their oath of allegiance that was adopted first in 1777 and later amended in 1778, and I think maybe in another amendment.

And here's what it said. I will read the oath first. Remember, the non-resistant Christians, because they came from Continental Europe, had to make an oath or declaration or affirmation to the King of England. So now they're being asked to make a new declaration of allegiance. It says, "Therefore, it is enacted that all white male inhabitants of the state," I'll skip to the bottom, "will subscribe before some justice of the peace an oath." And I will read it.

I will say, "I, John Henry, do swear or affirm that I renounce and refuse all allegiance to George III, King of Great Britain, his heirs and successors, and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a free and independent state. And then I will not do anything, not at any time do or cause to be done any matter of thing that will be prejudicial or injurious to the freedom and independence thereof as declared by Congress.

And also that I will discover and make known to some justice of the peace of said state all treasonous or traitorous conspiracies, which I now know or hereafter shall know to be formed against this or any of the United States of America." What makes this oath even worse is that the people who created the oath knew that the state of Pennsylvania had been created by the Quakers and that the Quakers had given complete religious freedom to their inhabitants.

And now these people who took over later are now more or less taking away that religious freedom because now you have to take an oath. And number two, it says you shall report treasonous or traitorous conspiracies. If you did not take this oath, they put a penalty both in the 1777 and 1778. And let me just read those penalties. You could not vote. For most non-resistant Christians, that would not have been a big deal, but the Zindador Moravians and the Quakers voted.

That's how they had kept power in the state of Pennsylvania. You couldn't travel more than a mile from your house if you have not taken this oath because you were required to have a certificate showing that you've taken it. You could not buy, sell, or transfer property. If you think about that, it sounds exactly like the mark of the beast in Revelation.

You have to have, you know, and that was one of their concerns about taking the oath, the non-resistant Christians, because that's exactly what it says in Revelation. You could not buy or sell without having the number of the beast. You could not adopt a child. And if you had not taken the oath, the militias had the authority to come and take your gun away from you.

For the non-resistant Christians who were not fighting, that was, they often used their gun for hunting and things like that, so you would lose your gun. About a year later, April 1st, 1778, they added these additional penalties. You could not make a will. You could not sue. For non-resistant Christians, that would not be a big deal suing. You could not sue. You would be fined an extra 10 pounds or serve three months in jail if you did not take the oath.

And a stubborn refuser could be exiled from the state of Pennsylvania and have all their property confiscated. That's pretty amazing. That sounded exactly like what happened in Europe. If you think about some of the stuff in Bern and Zurich, the same exact thing that happened in the state of Pennsylvania. If you remember, William Penn had guaranteed complete religious freedom, and now it's been taken away by the American revolutionists.

Something that we do not hear in our history books, but it happened in this colony. The law also encouraged these residents of Pennsylvania to be a spy on their neighbor, to listen, to learn. Are you following us? Are you on the king's side? And encouraged that spying and traitorous, I mean, encouraging for them to spy. The provision gave that up to half of the property that was confiscated was now yours.

So of course, that's going to give an incentive for people who don't like somebody, a neighbor, or in the Mennonite cases, you're a little strange. Why won't you go with the program? So a lot of neighbors were spying or using that as a reason to get back at somebody.

The Mennonites and the others, I use why I say Mennonites because of the Mennonites, the Amish, and the Brethren, and the Schweinfelders, and the Moravians, and the Quakers, as I said, some of the reasons they didn't like, would not want to take the oath, or there's some simple stuff that we all know from scripture that there was a direct violation. First one was they had given their solemn affirmation when they came here.

Jesus says, "Let your yes be yes and your no no for whatever is more than these is from the evil ones." Number two, the non-resistant Christians said this is in direct violation of Romans where it says, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." And then related to that is the non-resistant Christians paid their taxes, as Jesus said, "Render therefore the things that are Caesar's Caesar's and therefore the things that are God's Gods." And who goes in rebellion and revolution for a three-cent tax on tea, I think is ridiculous, and obviously I think they must have thought it was ridiculous too.

And what made this, like I said, hard for them is the typical pastors in that time period from the Colony of Massachusetts to the Colony of Georgia preached that the revolution was a holy cause. It was a just war. We are being persecuted. These British are evil, wicked men. They're going to come over and steal everything, kill your wives and children, make you slaves, just like they've done, still do nowadays. They were saying, you know, anybody who's noble and red-blooded doesn't want to be a slave.

Jesus didn't teach us to love our enemies. That's crazy. We live in a real world. Jesus wouldn't want us to do that. And they said they did it throughout all the colonies. Like I said, and they did say, "Oh." And they made it hard because the Mennonites and the others were one of the few who said, "No, Jesus told us to love our enemies." One of the pastors had the nerve to say that the angels are on our side because we have truth and justice.

That is pretty amazing in my mind when you are completely directly violating the teaching of Christ to overthrow the lawful government and you say that we have truth and justice, angels on our side. Like I said, you know, but they say all the pastors said, I should say most of them, there were a few who remained neutral, who were, you know, who didn't support either side, but the vast bulk of them supported the American Revolution, the revolutionaries.