If you want to predict the future, study the past, because history does repeat itself.

The Image of Rome

“‘Civil Law,’ ‘Roman Law’ and ‘Roman Civil Law’ are convertible phrases, meaning the same system of jurisprudence.”¹

Rome was eventually dependent upon its legions, centralized government authority, and its vast bureaucracy, but originally it was another form of voluntary family based government that made its humble beginnings a great nation.

It was the character of that early society that made that nation flourish. “…[T]he healthy moral traditions of early Rome were maintained by the discipline of the family, resting on the supreme authority of the father - the patria potestas - and the powerful influence of the mother, to whom the early training of the child was entrusted.”

There was an influx of new ways and a turning away from those moral family values that brought Rome down. “In the science of money-making which had been elaborate under Hellenistic monarchies, the Roman capitalists proved to be apt pupils of their Greek teachers.” The price of this agog for affluence and opulence was self-serving pride and vain arrogance. Selfishness conquered Rome.

“Even amongst women there were symptoms of revolt against the older order, which showed itself in a growing freedom of manners and impatience of control, the marriage tie was relaxed…² The “sanctity of marriage had ceased… Abortion, and the exposure and murder of newly-born children, were common and tolerated; unnatural vices, which even the greatest philosophers practiced, if not advocated, attained proportions which defy description.”³

“Italy was living through the fever of moral disintegration and incoherence which assails all civilized societies that are rich in the manifold resources of culture and enjoyment, but tolerate few or no restraints on the feverish struggle of contending appetites.”⁴

Rome was originally a Republic after the people drove out the Tarquinian Kings. The word Republic has been redefined over and over until its origins are almost forgotten. From Plato to Stalin everyone has developed in their own imagination what a Republic should look like.

The Romans identified their government as Libera Res Publica, meaning Free from Things Public. In a true or pure Republic the leaders are “titular” and therefore its governmental authority remains with the people. In a that early Republic 500 years before the first Caesar the people of Rome were free.

The United States Constitution did not create a true republic. A pure republic requires that the individual take responsibility for himself and his neighbor by a personal daily choice.

According to Article. IV, Section 4 the U.S. was created to “guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…” The United States itself was an indirect democracy which is not a Republic.

In an indirect democracy the people elect leaders who can make laws without our consent for they are no longer titular in authority but have power. That power may be restricted by constitutions and contracts. It is still power and power corrupts. The mere idea that 51% of the people can rule over the rights of the other 49% is already an usurpation of the Republic. In order for the majority to gain lawful authority the individual must first relinquish his natural authority over himself.

Over the years the people of Rome steadily released the power of the Father of each house to the Fathers of the State. Rome became more federal and empirical as the people looked to central government to solve problems. This mutual assent allowed men to rule over their neighbor with increasing power and control. Eventually the emperium of everyman that began within the family was vested in the Emperor. The Emperor became the Father of the state, the Patronus. He became the Parens Patria, the Parent of the Nation.

They soon fell prey to their own oppression, civil war, and conflicts. The Roman Senate elected its first emperor. Originally Rome was under Janus as far as religious gods are concerned. The temple of Janus was unique. Such temples involved investments and returns. Although the altars of Janus may have been more like the early altars of Israel in their beginning, their ministers became more like stockbrokers than priests. Its biggest business was done during war and its profits were the spoils of those wars. There was money to be made in the process of war.

There are many things we should understand about Rome in order to understand the government today. In 29 B.C. Gaius Octavianus marched into Rome as the “savior of the Republic” and was given the title of Augustus by the Senate. He was then legally granted, under constitutional forms and limitations, the position Emperator.⁵ This was one of three offices established to protect the Republic.

“Protection draws to it subjection; subjection protection”⁶

The Emperator was ‘commander in chief’ of all military and naval forces, for a period of ten years. He could set foreign policy and establish treaties much as the president of the United States does today.

The Principas Civitas, was the ‘First Citizen’ or chief executive officer of Rome, a municipality. At home each year he had to be elected to office, swearing a binding oath read from clay tablets.

“Thus the republic was restored under the presidency of its ‘first citizen’.”⁷ A republic under an authority that is no longer titular, in name only, is no longer a pure Republic, but another form of government within that Republic.

The third office Augustus requested from the Senate was the most interesting and misunderstood. It was the office of God. Actually, he was not just a god, but the ApoTheos, or Originator of gods.

His duties as the originator of gods was to appoint all the lesser gods throughout the empire. These gods were called theos in the Greek. The New Testament translates the word theos into the word god or God.

It was a common term used to address judges and magistrates in court. What Augustus did was appoint all the judges deciding Imperial matters in the federal courts of the Empire. This would include judges as powerful as Pontius Pilate or obscure judges that settled excise tax, tariffs disputes or other federal jurisdictional issues.

This could be seen as a quirk of language except the fact that word elohim in the Hebrew, which is the word translated into gods or God in the Old Testament was also a common word used to address judges and magistrates in the Jewish courts at the time of Christ. This is clearly stated in the Strong’s Concordance for both the Greek and Hebrew.

It should not be so strange to think of the Roman Emperors as gods when you realize that George Washington himself was deified in the ceiling of the capitol dome. “Across the Dome’s eye, 180 feet above the floor, spreads a gigantic allegorical painting by the Italian artist Constantino Brumidi. The painting depicts the ‘Apotheosis,’ or glorification, of George Washington.”⁸ The Vatican painter, “Brumidi depicted George Washington rising to the heavens in glory… The word 'apotheosis' in the title means literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god…”⁹ The president appoints the “gods many” of the US.

This simple fact that judges in courts were called gods by Roman, Greekand Hebrew alike should open a whole new understanding as to the meaning of the Bible text. Has this simple truth been kept from the people? The Bible is about good and bad government.

We are told that the United States is a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It was not honest Abe who coined that phrase but John Wycliffe who wrote in the introduction to his translation of the Bible in 1382, the words, “This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.” The US is really a government for and by the majority of the people which exercises authority over the minority through the ruling law makers it elects, and the judges they appoint.

Israel was a government and Jesus preached a kingdom and the Apostles worked daily in the temple serving the needs of the people. Jesus was born, hailed, and anointed as King of Judea and Rome agreed with an official proclamation nailed to the cross.

Augustus as Emperator had dropped his elected position of President of Rome for almost 18 years while he settled disputes as a sort of combination N.A.T.O, U.N. and U.S. military force all rolled into one. He kept banking, trade and commerce prospering throughout his new world order and received great praise and adoration for his accomplishments at home and abroad.

The United States is also, “a democracy in a republic”,¹⁰ with constitutional limitations. It has a president who sets foreign policy and signs treaties; an appointer of judges; a commander in chief of the army, and navy but also has an air force which is able to make fire come down from sky upon the earth in the sight of men, [See, Revelation 13:11-13]

When the Separatists and pilgrims left the shores of England they said, “Good-bye Babylon. Good-bye Rome.” The Common Law of the Angloe-Saxon and the Holy Bible was the foundation of that Republic in the wilderness of the 1600’s. The government’s authority was in the hands of the people and rose from the Common Law of the Land.

It is now Roman Law that dominates the legal system and the courts in America. In Black’s law dictionary, found in every law office of the democracy, there is hardly a page that does not make reference to its Latin origins of legal principles and precepts.

Efforts to bring in Commercial Law, Equity and the Roman Civil law were here from the beginning. Cromwell had sent troops to America to ‘protect the Republic’ but by virtue of the provision of the United States Constitution and through the Judiciary Act of 1789 these contrary forms of law found a foothold in the Americas. These alternative systems made great advances during our own Civil War under Lincoln and subsequent presidents such as Wilson, FDR, Johnson and unto this present time. No presidency was immune to the forces of change, corruption, and decay.

Today, employment,¹¹ schools,¹² and the legal courts,¹³ and almost every aspect of the lives of the citizens of the United States is manipulated, guided, and taxed by a government that mirrors Rome.

Social democracy has conquered the people not so much with the sword, but by their own greed, sloth, and covetousness through application and participation.

The Common Law and the Holy Bible, once the motto and battle cry of early Americans, have become catch words to identify so called radicals, extremists and religious fanatics. Such titles of derision have not been so commonly misused by the legal authorities in America since before the Tories and Redcoats were sent back to serve King George III.

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animated contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”¹⁴

A vast social welfare system that has grown up in the United States as well as the burdensome bureaucracy that bleeds the people is supported at the public cost, the sweat and blood of your neighbor. The cord of economic stability is pulled at both ends. The true productive laborer who carries the weight of this beastly incorporation staggers with no rest in torment under the infliction of today’s Gabbai and Mokhes.

Rome and Judea were not anarchists, but became a more and more complex legal system of laws, regulations and obligations. The burdens that fell upon the average laborer in order to support this burgeoning bureaucracy and apathetic welfare state were immense and they depended upon a vast system of tax collectors and revenue officers.

‘The Gabbai [tax collector], collected the regular dues, which consisted of property, income, and poll-tax and the Mokhes collected tax and duty upon imports and exports; sales tax; tolls, road excise tax, harbour-dues, town-dues, etc. They had invented taxes that reached into the life of almost everyone. There were taxes on axles, wheels, pack-animals, pedestrians, roads, highways; on admission to markets; on carriers, bridges, ships, and quays; on crossing rivers, on dams, on licenses, in short, on such a variety of objects, that even the research of modern scholars has not been able to identify all the names.’¹⁵

The abandonment of the voluntary system of charity fostered by Roman and early cultures like Israel undermined the fabric of society, the family. The result was a breakdown of those values, a disrespect for the position of parents, a cessation of marriage and its permanence. People delighted in gluttonous welfare, the imagery of violence, erotica, and the moral degeneration of their free bread and circuses.

Today we do not attend the blood soaked arenas of the Roman coliseums, but we have a modern two dimensional coliseum in every dwelling. Rome too started with the amusement of blunted sword and choreographed battles. We now watch in the comfort of our own homes with curious titillation the assassinations and executions around the world or espy with patriotic cheers as missiles crash through the roofs of distant bunkers or in the tropical jungles or blood soaked sands of remote deserts regions. Even in the production of drama we make terror and death a virtual reality and call it entertainment.

Did God ordain (i.e., dictate, decree, impose) the exercising authority of federal democracies or any other government? Or was it ordained by the false gods of man’s vain imagination. Are they created by God or by man's own hands and covetous hearts?

“If we will not be governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants.”¹⁶

When God allowed the voice of the people in 1Samuel 8 to choose a king, they had already rejected God. Man is allowed by God to choose his own rulers if he does not choose to be ruled by God. In their hearts and minds, and souls there is a turning away from God when men make other men their father and master through application, service, and adoption. Instead of Our Father who art in Heaven, the LORD God, Eternal Ruler, in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, they turn to other ruling judges, being reborn to new fathers. To be reborn is to return to the Father of us all.

“And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9)

To make such a statement angered those who thought man’s governments and the Roman political and judicial system, its peace and commerce was good for society and business. It would be like saying call no man on earth president. It was unpatriotic and politically incorrect but Jesus preached an alternative, the kingdom of God.

The practice of the leaders of government and rulers of nations being called father was a common everyday occurrence in the days of Augustus, Tiberius and Jesus. The Emperor was called Patronus and Senators called Patri or Father.

“Patronus (Lat.) In Roman Law. A modification of the Latin word Pater, father. A denomination applied by Romulus to the first senators of Rome, and which they afterwards bore.”

“Excise (tribute), in its origin, is the patrimonial right of emperors and kings.”¹⁷

Octavian was called the Pater Patriae, or “father of his country”. To give men this power was forbidden by God and Jesus in Luke 22:25 when he mentioned “benefactors”. He told his new appointed government of servants it was not to be that way with them.

The right to tax is the right of a father. It is his authority over his children vested in governments that grants that power. These elected fathers were not natural fathers but were inaugurated fathers, conscripti patres. We have heard of the free bread and circuses of Rome that fed the apathy of the mob and seduced the people into moral decay. Like over indulgent fathers the Roman presidents and senate led their children into indulgence and iniquity but also subjection, oppression and corruption. What should have been for their welfare was a snare.

The Latin word pater means father and was used everyday as a title in reference to the Senators of Rome and of course the Emperor and before him the Proconsul was referred to as the Father of the Senate and therefore the Empire. Also in the Greek text of the Bible we find Pater,¹⁸ meaning father. We can assume that the people of the day when they heard the word pater they thought of one of three things. Either they were talking about their genetic father or their fathers in Rome or their Father who art in heaven. Federal, communistic and socialist governments have assumed the position of Father of their subject citizenry according to the law of Parens Patriae, Obey the Father.” ¹⁹

“Redemption is deliverance from the power of an alien dominion and the enjoyment of the resulting freedom. It involves the idea of restoration to one who possesses a more fundamental right or interest. The best example of redemption in the Old Testament was the deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, from the dominion of the alien power in Egypt.”²⁰

The threefold process of manumission from our Natural God given Father was through Novation,²¹ Tutor,²² and Korban.²³ Today, novation begins at the certification of birth. With sealed documentation to prove your membership you become eligible for the protection of the State. You are a child of the state with rights to care, education and shelter [tutor]. When you labor you must honor your new Father, the man made State, with the first fruits of that labor in exchange for your continued social security [Qurban, Corban].

People have put faith in Constitutions signed by the hands of men with its checks and balances. But in all these written constitutions of the nations there is a granting of power and authority. Jesus told his appointed Ambassadors and Ministers to not be that way.

“I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes to much upon constitutions, upon laws and courts. These are false hopes, believe me; these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no Constitution, no law, no court can save it.”²⁴

And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. Luke 22:25

Most Americans opposed the constitution. “Just as the revolutionary Adams opposed the Constitution in Massachusetts, so did Patrick Henry in Virginia, and the contest in that most important State of all was prolonged and bitter. He who in Stamp Act days had proclaimed that there should be no Virginians or New Yorkers, but only Americans, now declaimed as violently against the preamble of the Constitution because it began, ‘We the people of the United States’ instead of ‘We, the State.’ Like many, he feared a ‘consolidated’ government, and the loss of states rights. Not only Henry but much abler men, such as Mason, Benjamin Harrison, Munroe, R.H. Lee were also opposed and debated… others in what was the most acute discussion carried on anywhere…”

“Owing to the way in which the conventions were held, the great opposition manifested everywhere, and the management required to secure the barest majorities for ratification, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the greater part of the people were opposed to the Constitution.”

“It was not submitted to the people directly, and in those days of generally limited suffrage, even those who voted for delegates to the State conventions were mostly of a propertied class, although the amount of property called for may have been slight.”²⁵

“A constitution is a body of precepts the purpose off which is to control governmental action until modified in some authorized manner.” “For the most part the English Constitution is unwritten.”²⁶

If a constitution is created in an unauthorized manner is it a continuation of lawful government? The fact is the Constitution of the United States was never ratified by law and was a revolutionary act and a departure from lawful government. “If a constitution expressly provides that it may be amended only in a certain way and another way followed, such and attempted amendment is illegal; but if it is acquiesced in it becomes effective as a peaceful revolution such as took place when the United States Constitution took effect upon the ratification by nine states in spite of the fact that the old Articles of Confederation provided that they should not be amended without unanimous consent of the states.”²⁷

So, what was the real American revolution? In understanding the events and conditions leading up to the conflict between colonists and the King of England, it is easy to see that the king was revolting against the compact, law, and charters of the colonies by seizing an unwarranted use or usurpation within those free states composed of individual freemen living on their own land.

It is the constitution itself which was the real American revolution. Very little power was in the hands of the instituted legislative bodies and leaders. The real civil power was in the hands of the individual freeman where no law could be made except by his consent. They could not rule over their neighbor but were free to rule over themselves and stand equally against injustice their neighbors as well as themselves.

The Constitution itself was never a Christian document. It violated the directives of Jesus Christ by offering a power and an exercising authority to men. A little power corrupts. Since those early days the power of government tribunals has grown with every application of the people. As people pray or apply to governments they make those governments more and more their Father. They “worship” in their churches but their allegiance is given to another king and Father of the State, created by their own hands. [see the booklet Worship]

To worship is to give homage, allegiance and service to your king, leader or prince. In Egypt the people were compelled by law to work one-fifth of the year for the government and it was called slavery but in most countries today the people pay more than half the years labor to their governments and they call it freedom. Their first fruits are taken, their sons run before their chariots of their armies and their daughter work under their task masters.

For centuries the early Church taught that the Roman Empire was the beast. The persecution of that early Church was not because of religious doctrine and spiritual faith. Religious freedom was guaranteed under the Roman Constitution. The fundamental objection to exercising authority and allegiance was the thorn wedged between Christians and the Roman Empire. Whether a social democracy within a Republic or an autocratic Benefactor offering entitlements in exchange for the power to force contributions made the kingdoms of the gentiles incompatible with the Kingdom of Heaven. A government that grants entitlements is also entitled to take. A charitable government can only accept charity.

Is the United States an image of Rome? Is the US and the UN more like Rome and the Roman Empire or are they like the Kingdom of Heaven as Jesus Christ preached it? Who has the world followed?

John the Baptist was the Pontifex making strait the way of the Lord but Jesus the Anointed King was the Pontifex Maximus of His Holy Kingdom. His servants also point the way to His perfect law of Liberty under God which is not of the world but is truly in it and at hand.

The Pontifex Maximus, or “high priest”, was the office of the ‘preparer of the road’ or the way. It was a powerless office designed to keep the Republic pure and the ministry of public offerings on track with their purpose. Christ and Constantine were both the Pontifex Maximus of different kinds of government. Those who strike hands with a governments to obtain its gifts, gratuities and benefits inevitably snared.

“A man void of understanding striketh hands, [and] becometh surety in the presence of his friend.” (Proverbs 17:18)

Man has been warned over and over that he should be cautious at the table of rulers whether they be singular monarchs, elected executives or mobs of the majority.

When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. Proverbs 23:1

If we covet our neighbor's goods through the tables of rulers we become a surety for the other members of the State and are snared.

“He that is surety for a stranger shall smart [for it]: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.” Proverbs 11:15

Our surety is one who gave himself willingly to create the asylum state of liberty and freedom. He stood before the New World Order of the Roman Empire and appealed only to His Father in Heaven to protect His throne, the throne of David, and Moses and Abraham.

The Roman Government and therefore the UN-Holy Roman Empire still owes the Kingdom of Heaven a debt. They took the blood of an innocent man, the King of Judea, the remnant of Israel. Yashua, a.k.a. Jesus the King of Peace so that we the guilty may be free today.

By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Hebrews 7:22

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10

No more tribute is owed in His kingdom than to love your neighbor and serve your God. If we have applied to the state for its benefits, then we have coveted our neighbors goods, for it is your neighbor who will pay for your desires. The Benefactor State does not wait patiently for the charitable contribution of the people. Do not apply to their Fathers.

…Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. (Mt 6:9,13)

Shall we apply to Our Heavenly Father for our needs and forgive the civil state its debt of entitlements? May we be led from the temptation of those ways that are contrary to the way of Pontifex Maximus of the Kingdom of Heaven, Yeshua the Anointed King, the Soter and Savior.

Our salvation is found in the faith, hope and charity of the Kingdom of Heaven and in seeking that Kingdom instead of the bounties and benefits of a gentile kingdom of the world.

Where is the Church that, “In its most general sense, [is] the religious society founded and established by Jesus Christ, to receive, preserve, and propagate His doctrines and ordinances?”

Where is that, “body or community of Christians, united under one form of government by the profession of one faith, and the observance of the same rituals and ceremonies?”²⁸

Seek the government of the People, by the People and for the People, one nation under the God of Heaven and the Father of Mankind? Seek the Kingdom as it was in the beginning. For those who will learn the ways of the ancients, the ways of Christ there is a Kingdom at hand.

Who shall preach the Kingdom of Heaven and heal a nation of people who seek the will of God, the true Father of us all?