Adolphus Writer's Blog, page 4

How the Ruling Class Subverts the Constitution

John Marini, in his article “Abandoning the Constitution,” compares two views on the United States Constitution and whether your rights as citizens are God given and unalienable or merely granted to you (or withheld) by an unelected and therefore unaccountable bureaucracy. Progressivism’s hand in the latter view is apparent. It intends to mold its clients into whatever History demands as determined by experts. In the former view, you determine your life’s course in partnership with your fellow c...

The Historical Origins Behind the Subversion of the Constitution – Part 2

In John Marini’s review of The Bureaucrat Kings: The Origins and Underpinnings of America’s Bureaucratic State by Paul Moreno, Marini picks up where Guelzo, in “The Historical Origins Behind the Subversion of the Constitution – Part 1,” left off. Marini also identifies a thinker who predicted the administrative state’s inevitability and cites an obvious historical source of our predicament that we often neglect.

Marini observes that Moreno “judges historical and political changes in light of ...

The Historical Origins Behind the Subversion of the Constitution

In his Claremont Review of Books article, “The Left Side of History,” Allen C. Guelzo reviews Bradley Watson‘s book Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea. According to Guelzo, “Watson has crafted, not so much a historical genealogy of Progressivism, as its historiography .” However, what I found interesting was Guelzo’s description of the descent of American Thought from colonial idealism into post-civil war despair and twentieth century destruction.

Guelzo opens his review wi...

The History and Danger of Administrative Law – A Review

Administrative law is thought to be a recent threat to the American republic because it appeared in the last 120 years. Considered essential for decades by our leaders to handle the challenges of a complex and modern civilization, it was supposedly unforeseen by the framers of the U.S. Constitution.

Instead, Philip Hamburger proves that this corruption of our republic is very old. In his article, “The History and Danger of Administrative Law,” he says administrative law is the reinstitution of p...

Palliative Liberalism or Economic Nationalism

Daniel McCarthy, writing in First Things, describes our current pollical and economic troubles in the article “A New Conservative Agenda, A Governing Philosophy for the twenty First Century.” He contends that our bipartisan credentialed class’s plan is to ensure its own privileges while placating the service class with divisive identity politics.

For those who are no longer productive, the elite offer “palliative liberalism;” a package of economic measures that stops just “short of restoring inh...

The Soul After Death

John Calvin published a tract in 1534. He was twenty-five years old. With the exception of his Commentary on Stoic philosopher Seneca’s exhortation to Emperor Nero known as On Mercy, published in 1532, this was the earliest of Calvin’s writings, and two years earlier than the Institutes, the first known edition of which appeared in 1536. Called Psychopannychia, derived from Greek words which signify “the sleep of the soul,” the tract disproved the contention of the Anabaptists that the soul of m...

Triptych on The Judgment Seat of Christ

The previous three posts, though posted in time order, should be read from beginning to end.

The beginning is: All Will Be Revealed.

The middle is: The Reckoning.

Finally, the end is: Who Can Stand?

The three concern our humanity, the Judgment to come, and what our response should be, respectively.

Who Can Stand?

What should be our response to Gods impending Judgment?

O God, you know my folly;

    the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

Psalm 69:5 English Standard Version (ESV)

Even more, we should say,

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

   O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,

   that you may be feared.

Psalm 130:3-4 English Standard Version (ESV) 

John Calvin says to these verses,

If thou, O God! should mark iniquities Should God determine to deal with us according...

The Reckoning

There will be a reckoning, a judgment, or as Spurgeon said, a Great Assize:

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

 and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Romans 14:10-12 English Standard Version (ESV)

John Calvin says to these verses,

But thou, why dost thou, etc....

All Will Be Revealed

What does the Lord God say concerning Man?

They say, How can God know?

   Is there knowledge in the Most High?

Behold, these are the wicked;

   always at ease, they increase in riches.

Psalm 73:11-12 English Standard Version (ESV)

And again,

They hold fast to their evil purpose;

   they talk of laying snares secretly,

thinking, Who can see them?

Psalm 64:5 English Standard Version (ESV)

And again,

He says in his heart, God has forgotten,

   he has hidden his face, he will never see it.

Psalm...