Gumming Up the System

Gary discusses tactics of Christian resistance that can be learned from Saul Alinsky.

When students graduated from the Academy in Geneva, they were assigned various posts, sometimes in France. These were dangerous trips; so dangerous that when the permanent ministers of Geneva went to France they left their families behind, and the city allowed those families to keep the ministerial house and even receive the minister’s salary.

Those sent to France were given an accredited letter. These letters were demanded by the receiving congregations; without them, a young preacher could be turned away, and this was an important factor in Calvin’s system of discipline and control. On the other hand, the letters had to be well concealed, for if discovered enroute to a congregation, the bearer could be put to death. In 1533, five Lausanne students enroute had been betrayed, and all five were burned to death, one after another, at the same stake in Lyon.

Among the precautions for travel were false papers and false names. These disguises were condoned by the authorities in Geneva because of the holy purpose for which they were adopted. Nevertheless, the number of aliases employed confuse the records of Geneva for historians, so that precise identities are sometimes—even now—unknown.

The risks that were taken were as high as any known today, just as the mercilous nature of the authorities then are matched by the totalitarian powers of modern times. Some of the travelers seem to have resorted to obscure mountain routes up into Dauphine. A Dauphine Protestant in the 1950’s told historian Robert M. Kingdon that “old folks can still point out the network of mountain paths by which the ministers came into France.” The region is still dotted with stone farmhouses that contain secret hiding places behind chimneys or in cellars, a day’s walk apart, that were used by the Underground against the Nazis during World War II, and that were created during the period of the French religious wars and the time of Calvin.

The Complete Christianity and Civilization

The Complete Christianity and Civilization collects all four volumes of the series with a bonus book from Gary DeMar, Something Greater is Here. These five resources are a mini-library of a comprehensive Christian worldview. They will leave you amazed and wondering were they have been hiding all these years. The print versions have been long out-of-print, but they have been preserved as electronic files, which also have the added benefit of being searchable.

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Gary discusses tactics of Christian resistance that can be learned from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. Scotland has recently made reporting “hate speech” easier and they are being inundated with cases. Author J. K. Rowling has even gotten involved. It all reminded Gary of an article written by Dr. Gary North years ago.

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