Freedom Sentinel • March 15, 2023

The Tyrannical Fiction of the Common Good

British statesman and Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, once stated in a speech in the House of Commons in 1783 that “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” 
House of Commons, 1783, William Pitt the Younger




Mr. Pitt’s observation is an apt platform from which to analyze the world we live in today. No matter where on the planet you live, you have been through some combination of nearly three years of lockdowns, church and business closures, mass surveillance, threatened or forced Covid inoculation with an ineffective and dangerous drug therapeutic, and technocratic censorship by social media platforms of anyone who questions the wisdom or beneficence of any of it. There is evidence of substantial state involvement in this censorship. 1, 2


In Orwellian China, 280 million people were recently locked in their apartments and homes for months, unable to do basic tasks like grocery shopping or banking, and suffering intimidation by armed state police. 3

Millions of Chinese recently took to the streets to protest lockdowns and China’s “zero Covid” policy, despite a violent government crackdown against protesting. 4


In diverse places, officials have used supposed Covid “non-compliance” as a pretense to arrest dissenters and foment social division and snitching.


Without exception, it was claimed by the powerful that each of the foregoing violations of the God-given liberties of humanity was “necessary” for the sake of the common good. 

On the horizon in 2023, there are new “common good” initiatives pending: “climate lockdowns”, more “green passes”, and central bank digital currencies. In Oxford, England, a plan has been approved to build gates at city entrance points to limit vehicle travel in order to battle climate change.


 7https://www.oxford.gov.uk/news/article/2250/proposals_to_trial_six_new_traffic_filters_in_oxford_announced, 8


The plan will restrict residents to 100 exits per year, absent special authorization. These pending measures are increasingly linked to centralized control over buying and selling and a looming forced “climate Sunday” initiative.9, 10, 11, 12, 13


Of course, we are told Sunday laws are for the common good, also. 14, 15, 16, 17


So let us return to Mr. Pitt’s statement. The first and second part can be characterized as observations about the nature of tyranny and tyrants generally. At a basic level, Mr. Pitt states, tyrants always attempt to justify cruelty and despotism with the excuse that it is “necessary”. This, Pitt states, is the “argument of tyrants”. 


The last part of Pitt’s statement refers to the response of human beings to tyrants. There will be tyrants in this wicked world until Jesus returns, which raises the question of how one should respond to tyrants in their various forms, be they tyrants of the church or tyrants of the state. So, what does it mean that necessity “is the creed of slaves”?


It means this: when the individual, or society, accepts the lie from tyrants that their mistreatment and loss of human freedoms is “necessary”, their acceptance is an act of self-enslavement. Or, put another way, it is the essence of slavery to believe the lie that tyranny is justified under any circumstances. 



There is no more fallacious theory extant than that which is embodied in the common idea that natural rights must be limited by law in order to promote the “common good.” Natural rights are the rights given to man by the Creator. They are neither more nor less than what the Creator made them. To say that they need to be clipped and pruned down … is to reflect upon the wisdom of the Creator. 
Rights were given to the individual for his good. Among man’s “inalienable rights” the Declaration of Independence enumerates “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The more of these things an individual has, the better off he is, and the more of prosperity does he enjoy. And the more individuals there are of this kind in the community, the more prosperity and happiness is there in the community. 
What, on the other hand, is the “common good”? It is a very indefinite term. Each person defines it to suit himself. Government define it to suit themselves. Over in Russia it is declared to be for the “common good” that the little children of heretical parents should be taken from their homes and sent away to be brought up in the orthodox “faith.” In Peru, until recently, it was considered to be for the common good that no Protestant marriage ceremonies should be recognized as valid by the state. In Spain it was for the common good that Protestants should not be allowed to worship in church buildings. The list of instances in which personal rights have been invaded under the plea of the “common good,” might be extended indefinitely. How are these things decided to be for the common good? Oh, it is by the decision of the majority, at least of those in power. And this is the way the question is always decided; this is the way it is proposed to decide the question to day, and the only way in which civil government can consider it, in this country at least. A natural right, therefore, as limited by the “common good,” is simply such a privilege as the majority may see fit to grant. And this would take the matter out of the hands of the Creator entirely. It would leave no force to the term “natural” right at all. For what a person is allowed to have by the majority, cannot be his by nature—by birth. [emphasis added] 
American Sentinel April 21, 1898, page 243



Jones sets the matter out faithfully and clearly. The gift of inalienable rights is to ensure that those rights bestowed by the Creator cannot be alienated (removed) from His children by tyrants. Even, and especially, by tyrants who claim to justify their oppression by claiming the false necessity of the common good. 

Nor are these inalienable rights solely the property of Americans. No, they are the property of every child of the Creator. As Abraham Lincoln stated,

Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage, and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.
 Abraham Lincoln, in a speech at Edwardsville, Ill, September 13, 1858


Today, the western world is preparing to wear these chains. A growing chorus of voices is calling for the subordination of the concept of individual rights and freedoms for the sake of what is falsely claimed to be the common good. On issues of climate, social justice, public health, economics and family cohesion, the argument is that centralized authority must control the lives of humanity despite the objections of individuals or minorities with their trifling quibbles of conscience and “rights”. Make no mistake, this is the argument of tyrants. 

Let us consider recent examples of the use of this false justification. 


Example 1. It was at equal parts urged and threatened that it was necessary for the good of all to compel humanity to submit to forced Covid vaccination. 18, 19, 20


It should surprise no one after this display of naked authoritarianism that the efficacy of the Covid shots was a lie. 21, 22, 23


The shots do not stop infection or transmission; they are neither safe nor effective.24, 25


State and industry leaders, including many religious entities, shamefully collaborated to compel Covid vaccine uptake against the conscientious objections of dissenters, and utilized the false argument of the common good to do so.26 


Example 2. Pope Francis says that global problems, such as climate change and protecting family rest time, need a supranational authority to enforce rules for the common good. According to a 2022 article in the Times of Malta, the “common good … entails devolving authority upwards to international bodies to defend family and individual rights…Human rights cannot be advanced to support claims to individual demands that are morally inappropriate.” 


“Supranational authority” is simply another term for a centralized global authority which exists beyond the democratic and constitutional safeguards which exist nationally to protect representative government, national sovereignty and individual rights. The papacy for centuries has opposed strong concepts of nationalism for this reason. The reader will note the Times of Malta’s circular reasoning regarding individual rights and centralized moral authority: 1. human rights cannot be asserted if it is determined that individual demands are “morally inappropriate”; 2. the same centralized international body which determines what is in the common good also has the power to determine whether objections to its initiatives are “morally inappropriate”. Such rationale neatly deprives individuals both of rights, and the ability to assert them, which is the essence of totalitarianism and a re-establishment of the absolute power of the papacy during the Middle Ages.

 

Example 3. In his commentary for World Youth Day on January 1, 2023, Pope Francis stated the following:

We can no longer think exclusively of carving out space for our personal or national interests; instead, we must think in terms of the common good, recognizing that we belong to a greater community, and opening our minds and hearts to universal human fraternity. We cannot continue to focus simply on preserving ourselves; rather, the time has come for all of us to endeavour to heal our society and our planet, to lay the foundations for a more just and peaceful world, and to commit ourselves seriously to pursuing a good that is truly common.”
 https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2022/12/16/221216a.html


Example 4. A number of “Catholic integralists” are openly urging U.S. courts to reject the originalism method of constitutional interpretation in favor of a new concept known as, unsurprisingly, “common good constitutionalism”. “Originalism” is that doctrine which requires courts to interpret the Constitution as it was originally intended, with, for example, its paramount protections for the individual rights of religion, speech, the press, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. “Common good constitutionalism”, on the other hand, is a cloak for the subordination of these individual rights in favor of papal social moralism.

 

Proponents of these ideas would give global moral authority to the papacy, just as the Pope has now been made the moral authority of many companies, including Visa and Mastercard, in the so-called Council for Inclusive Capitalism. 


Conclusion


Obviously, if it is accepted that the common good necessitates and excuses authoritarianism, it follows that those deemed to be non-compliant should and will be punished because, it is argued, all non-conformists endanger the common good. 


History warns that there is no regard for individual rights in such a system. 


But this is not Christ’s way, and this is not Christ’s system of government, for “the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” – 2 Corinthians 3:17. Christ searches and calls for each one, but compels none. He says, “Come, let us reason together” – Isaiah 1:18, and, “Let him who is athirst com. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” – Revelation 22:17. Christ provides the water of life for all, but He compels none to drink. 


As Thomas Jefferson maintained in the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom:

Almighty God hath created the mind free; … all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in His almighty power to do.
 Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, January 16, 1786


In contrast to the principles of the religion of Christ, Revelation 13’s end time scenario is built on the argument by civil and religious powers that it is necessary to prevent buying and selling for those who have refused the mark of the authority of the first beast. There is no doubt that this end time mandate will also be couched in the false argument of the common good, and that it will cruelly persecute dissenters. There will be no exceptions allowed. 



And it will still be the argument of tyrants, and the creed of slaves.

The New Rome?

By Wings of Liberty • June 18, 2026
Of all the world empires of human history one name stands above all the rest for its cruel brutality and extreme public debauchery: Rome. At the height of its dissipation, up to a full third of its annual financial expenditures were made to create public spectacles for its citizens. Fights between wild beasts. Deadly gladiator battles. Gruesome public executions of religious or civil dissenters. The spectacles were more than mere entertainment – they were a political strategy to help control the overpopulated capital. Thus panem et circenses – bread and circuses. A well entertained mob is less inclined to political involvement or protest. The bloodiest place in the wicked, degenerate empire was the Roman Colosseum. It seated 50,000 people, comparable to many modern sporting stadiums. 9000 animals were slaughtered at its inauguration to pagan deities. It was inaugurated with the blood of animals. It was then soaked in the blood of men. It is almost forgotten history that it was named after the depraved and notorious tyrant Nero, who murdered thousands upon thousands of Christians, and killed the Apostle Paul. The very same Nero who killed his own mother and then his wife. History records that a giant statue of the notoriously degenerate Caesar called the Colossus of Nero once stood near the Colosseum. The bronze statue has been lost to history – but some sources say that it stood over 120 feet tall. It is fitting that the most bloodthirsty venue, in the most bloodthirsty empire in history should be named for such a man. Gladiator battles were a regular occurrence in the Colosseum, and in other parts of the Roman Empire. The fights were bloody, with real weapons, but often not deadly because gladiators were too expensive for every match to be fatal. The fighters were highly specialized, with trainers and owners. The bouts had rules and referees similar to modern combat sports and historians estimate only 1 in 8 fights ended in the death of one of the combatants. The violence was the entertainment. Gambling, or what we would call sports betting, was a central part of the entertainment experience. And the pagan mob of Rome loved every minute of it. Gladiator fighting lasted for a period of nearly 700 years, from 264 BC to 404 AD, when the fights were permanently banned by the Emperor Honorius in 404. The sudden and surprising end of the violent entertainment was the direct result of not just Christian influence, but direct Christian intervention. The story of Telemachus is the stuff of legends and was once well known in the Christian world, but like much of Christian history is being forgotten or replaced as so-called Christian culture goes back to paganism, and back to Roman paganism in particular. Telemachus was a monk who lived in a small monastic community and who spent his time studying the Bible, praying and gardening. Little is known of his quiet existence. It was his death during a trip to Rome that he is remembered for. Nothing could quite prepare a quiet Christian farmer for the shock of the capital of the ancient world. It was not just the wild debauchery and feasting, or the political corruption. At the time Telemachus arrived in the city of Rome, the gladiator games were taking place to celebrate another military victory. Rome was constantly at war with this vassal or that, or this barbarian or that, and when it wasn’t fighting external enemies its generals and its emperors were fighting each other. Telemachus witnessed the incredible excitement in the city. The citizens discussed the upcoming combats, their favorite gladiators, the placing of their bets. On that fateful day in 404 AD, Telemachus followed the mob into the Colosseum to observe what would take place. Christians for some centuries publicly opposed the games, which endeared them neither to the masses nor the government. The early church father Turtullian some two centuries earlier had written a treatise on the subject discussing the pagan origins of the spectacles, which can be read here: https://www.pseudepigrapha.com/LostBooks/tertullian_spectacles.htm In this treatise, Turtullian described the history of this entertainment, it's relationship to the celebration and worship of pagan gods and goddesses in various cultures, and the arguments that pagans made to justify the events in the face of Christian criticism. Tertullian's conclusions in Spectacles are stark and direct: he called the gladiator games idolatry, and murder, born out of pagan honoring of the dead, and consecrated with the costumes, rites, and names of deities of pagan religion. No Christian, he says, should have any confusion about involvement or participation in these pagan events, where men made in the image of God fought and died. A few notable and compelling excerpts are footnoted here.[1] His arguments are worth reading. On that fateful day when Telemachus entered the Colosseum, he saw the gladiators turn and salute and declare, “We who are about to die salute you!” He saw the seething masses gathered to watch the violence with breathless anticipation, and a sense of horror overwhelmed him. He could not sit quietly and passively witness the violence without doing something. As the fighting started, Telemachus climbed onto a wall, and yelled, “In the name of Christ stop this! Stop this now!” Nobody paid any attention to him. The mob was transfixed by events in the arena. So Telemachus entered the arena. And suddenly the eyes of fifty thousand people were fixed on him. He approached the warring gladiators, shouting, “In the name of Christ, stop this! Stop it!” At first they ignored him, intent on their battle. But then the crowd's cheers changed to murmuring - who was this man interfering in their entertainment? Telemachus attempted to interpose physically between the gladiators, and was pushed back. The citizens in the seats quickly grew angry. Suddenly, a voice in the crowd shouted, “Kill him! Kill him!” The rest of the mob joined in. The chant went up – “kill him!”. The gladiators turned and began to stab Telemachus. History records that some of the Roman citizens pelted him with rocks. He was mortally wounded and collapsed on the sand, dying. Telemachus looked up at the gladiators, and with his dying breath said once more, “In the name of Christ, stop.” And then he lay still. A hush fell over the crowd which a moment before had been seized with the spirit of violence and murder. The gladiators stood over the body of Telemachus. Silence overtook the arena. Soon one citizen quietly left the Colosseum. Then another. Every person who had witnessed the death of the innocent man was forced by the Holy Spirit to feel that their blood lust and love of violence had been the cause of his death. Soon afterward, and as a result of that day's events, Emperor Honorius banned the gladiator games permanently. Fast forward to our day, to the modern western world. To our Christian modern world. On June 14, 2026, an arena was set up on the White House grounds and an event dedicated to everything that the Roman Colosseum stood for was held for the viewing pleasure of the supposedly Christian nation. Men made in the image of God bloodied each other before the politicians and soldiers of the new Rome. People cheered. Wagers were made. Millions changed hands. The event was streamed on Paramount+ and while there has been no official release of the number of viewers, commentators speculate the event drew a Super Bowl size online crowd. Tell me, Reader, as you think about these things. Does the Christian west love Christ and the principles of His kingdom? Does it love mercy and kindness and peace and good will toward all men? Or does it love violence, blood and debauchery? What does it mean when the leaders of the supposedly Christian nation sit mere feet from the violence and the blood, in the midst of the maddened throng? When Telemachus gave his life to stop the gladiatorial games, Christianity in its simple, self-sacrificing power stopped the frenzied pagan mob. But who will rebuke the blood thirsty mob when it gathers under the pretended cloak of Christianity? Revelation 13 says that the power which looked like a lamb will speak like a dragon. The dragon was Rome. Look around you and consider. Are we not living in the new Rome? ======================== Tertullian's Letter on Spectacles www.pseudepigrapha.com https://www.pseudepigrapha.com/LostBooks/tertullian_spectacles.htm [1] Now let us also point out that the other characteristics of the things which are going on at the spectacles are all opposed to God. God has given us the command both to deal with the Holy Spirit in tranquillity, gentleness, quiet, and peace, inasmuch as, in accordance with the goodness of His nature, He is tender and sensitive, and also not to vex Him by frenzy, bitterness of feeling, anger, and grief. How, then, can the Holy Spirit have anything to do with spectacles? There is no spectacle without violent agitation of the soul. For, where you have pleasure, there also is desire which gives pleasure its savor; where you have desire, there is rivalry which gives desire its savor. And where, in turn, you have rivalry, there also are frenzy and bitterness of feeling and anger and grief and the other effects that spring from them, and, moreover, are incompatible with our moral discipline. For, even if a man enjoys spectacles modestly and soberly, as befits his rank, age, and natural disposition, he cannot go to them without his mind being roused and his soul being stirred by some unspoken agitation. No one ever approaches a pleasure such as this without passion; no one experiences this passion without its damaging effects. These very effects are incitements to passion. On the other hand, if the passion ceases, there is no pleasure, and he who goes where he gains nothing is convicted of foolishness. Since, then, frenzy is forbidden us, we are debarred from every type of spectacle, including the circus, where frenzy rules supreme. Look at the populace, frenzied even as it comes to the show, already in violent commotion, blind, wildly excited over its wagers. Accordingly, from such beginnings the affair progresses to outbursts of fury and passion and discord and to everything forbidden to the priests of peace. Next come curses, insults without any justified reason for the hatred, and rounds of applause without the reward of affection. You have, therefore, the theater prohibited in the prohibition of uncleanness. Again, if we reject the learning of the world's literature as convicted of foolishness before God, we have a sufficiently clear rule also concerning those types of spectacles which, in profane literature, are classified as belonging to the comic or tragic stage. Now, if tragedies and comedies are bloody and wanton, impious and prodigal inventors of outrage and lust, the recounting of what is atrocious or base is no better; neither is what is objectionable in deed acceptable in word. Now, if you maintain that the stadium is not mentioned in the Scriptures, I will admit at once that you have a point. But as for what is done in the stadium, you cannot deny that it is unfit for you to see--punches and kicks and blows and all the reckless use of the fist and every disfiguration of the human face, that is, of God's image. Never can you approve the foolish racing and throwing feats and the more foolish jumping contests ; never can you be pleased with either harmful or foolish exhibitions of strength nor with the cultivation of an unnatural body, outdoing the craftsmanship of God; you will hate men bred to amuse the idleness of Greece.

MAY 17, 2026: REDEDICATION AND THE IMAGE OF GOLD

By Wings of Liberty • May 6, 2026
Nearly six hundred years before the birth of Christ something occurred in ancient Babylon which symbolizes the final events of our day. The most powerful king in the world at that time erected a statue of gold on the plain of Dura, and called the dignitaries of his kingdom to come bow down and worship it. The Bible says that they “were to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up” – Daniel 3:3. Carefully note the wording. Nebuchadnezzar’s dedication of the image was a service which blended worship and patriotism: Religious Nationalism. Church and state. Attendance and participation were mandatory. The statue symbolized a golden age that would never end. It was not just a civil idea, it was a religious idea, in direct response, a rejection, to the dream Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel 2. The ceremony of the dedication of the image in Daniel 3 was a religio-nationalist event. Failure to worship the image was not only unpatriotic, it was a capital crime, punishable by execution in a fiery furnace. See Daniel 3:1-6. Daniel was a book sealed – Daniel 12:4. Revelation is a book opened – Revelation 5:5. Revelation, in other words, explains the book of Daniel and its prophetic significance to us. Revelation 13 maps out a repeat of the events of Daniel 3 and 6, but on a worldwide scale. The healing of the deadly wound to the papal power – this is finished. We have already passed it in the dust of history. It occurred in 1929 when civil power was restored to the Vatican, uniting church and state. Next is the setting up of the image to the papal power. Church and state. In Daniel 3, the three Hebrew worthies face a religious-political test. In Daniel 6, Daniel faces a similar political and religious test. The Lord is informing us of what is to come. In Revelation 13 we have the explanation. The Bible declares: Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Fast forward from Babylon to our day, more than two and a half millennia later. The most powerful man in the world is calling the country to the re-dedication of the nation. Re-dedication to what??? Rededication to its founding principles? Rededication to the separation of powers? Apparently not, for the three branches of government are collapsing into the power of the executive branch. Rededication to the separation of church and state? Negative. Rededication to liberty of conscience? Nope. Freedom of religion? No. None of these. The meaning of Trump’s “Golden Age” is the same as in ancient Babylon: permanence and power. It is not a civil service alone that is planned. No, there is a religious element to this service, as there was in Daniel 3. There is mention of a god. Re-dedication to God. This is religio-political language. The rededication of the nation to God. And that is the same forbidden ground that Nebuchadnezzar trod on more than two and a half thousand years ago during the height of ancient Babylon and its golden image which was supposed to herald a golden age. The parallels are astonishing. Striking. Too clear to miss. To blend religion and civil governance is to make an image to that oppressive and despotic papal power which ruled the world for 1260 years. Revelation prophecies that the “lamb-like beast” which comes up out of the earth will make an image to the papal power. That means America – which is built on a separation of church and state – will reunite church and state once more in violation of its founding principles. This is happening right now. The world will change forever on May 17, 2026. Church and state are uniting, and the nation, in violation of its founding principles and the First Amendment, will gather to rededicate civil society to God. With a union of church and state will come the push for religious legislation, because if the nation is dedicated to a god, then it will next attempt to enforce the observance and worship of that god. The blessings of God have been showered on America, but always on the condition that it maintain its covenant to safeguard liberty of conscience and the separation of church and state. The blending of church and state violates that covenant and will lead to a marked deterioration in every aspect of society. Babylon is fallen, is fallen – Revelation 14:8. The mark is coming – the requirement that Sunday be sanctified. That is the mark of papal power – the contended change of the fourth commandment. Revelation 14 contains the last warning to humanity: Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Donald Messiah

By Wings of Liberty • April 13, 2026
World leaders tend to have inflated egos. Familiarity with worldly power and the ability to command armies and multitudes tends to go to their head. But as arrogant and narcissistic as the average head of state is, few of them claim to be god. That class of elite arrogance is usually reserved for a select group of the great megalomaniacs of history. 1 Pharoah in Egypt right before his country was destroyed by the ten plagues. Herod before he was eaten by worms, right after the multitudes declared, “it is the voice of a god, and not a man” – Acts 12:22. Papa Doc Duvalier in Haiti, who rewrote the Lord’s Prayer to give worship to himself – “Our Doc, Who art in the National Palace…/Hallowed be Thy name…/Thy will be done at Port-au-Prince and in the provinces/Give us this day our new Haiti/and never forgive the trespasses of the antipatriots who spit every day on our country”. Pharoah. Herod. Alexander the Great, who is rumored to have drowned in his own vomit. Papa Doc. And Donald Trump.  Long tending towards delusions of deity, the president released an end time signal picture on April 12, 2026 on his own platform, “Truth Social”.