efore the dispensational heresy obfuscated our understanding of the book of Revelation, most commentaries identified the "foul and loathsome sore" of Revelation 16:2 with the infection of the French Revolution. How apt a description for an infectious, oozing, loathsome sore it has been to us ever since. But sadly we have grown so used to it that we take the symptoms of the infection for granted and call it good health.

One of the symptoms we take for granted is the egalitarian democracy of the Jacobins. The Jacobins were the extreme revolutionary branch of the French Revolution that eventually gained prominence in it. They taught the ultimate equality of all men and women and that no right or privilege granted to one member of society can be denied to another; but, before we break into rousing strains of the Star Spangled Banner, perhaps we should step back and take a look at the Jacobin philosophy in light of scripture.

When God created the universe ex nihilo, He created a heirarchy. Adam was to submit to God, Eve to Adam, and the animal kingdom to mankind. He further ordains various governmental jurisdictions. For instance, God established the family government led by a covenant head, the local church government led by elders and deacons, and the civil government led by civil authorities. At times the areas of jurisdiction overlap in these governments but they each have their own sphere of influence where the others cannot tread. For instance, a civil government that cannot dictate what is preached in the church pulpit or what my kids should be fed for lunch. Tyranny is simply the attempt of one government to act within the jurisdiction of another government. Tyranny is the arrogation of powers that have not been ordained to it. It is no more acceptable for me to attempt to control the decisions of your church elders than it would be for me to control what time you put your children to bed.

This hierchial system of jurisdictional spheres is anathema to the Jacobin who sees no hierarchy or anything that should be withheld from his control. The Jacobin believes it is not only his right to exercise the same authority as your church but it is his duty to do so to ensure your equality in all things. The Jacobin says that parents are not peforming the duties they should be performing in all cases and therefore the equality of all children is threatened. If some parents do not teach sex education, for instance, the Jacobin takes the responsibility for such instruction upon himself, invading the jurisdiction of the family in the process. If a church attempts to uphold certain requirements for membership which not all people can meet, the Jacobin considers it his civic duty to force that church to comply with civil statutes against descrimination. After all, no privilege or right can be denied to one that is granted to another.

Public schools have been teaching us from the times of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address that our nation was founded on the egalitarian principle that all men (and women) are created equal. But, our educational system tends to overlook the blatant reality that our national union was not created with the Declaration of Independence but with our Constitution. The Constitution is the law of the land, not the Declaration of Independence. Sadly, we pro-lifers have come to adopt the Declaration as a holy document with some sort of legal binding and we point to the same phrase to justify our cause. But, Jacobinic philosophy was not the underlying force that fed our revolution against King George despite what Mr. Jefferson's document would lead us to believe. Our educational system has been remiss in explaining how Jefferson's words could be explained with egalitarian presuppositions in light of slavery. It is taken at face value by most of us that slavery made the signers of the Declaration hypocrites. We do not consider the possibility that the signers of that document may not have seen any discourse between slavery and what they intended to imply when making that statement.