Reversing the Republic
TimeWatch Editorial
May 2, 2016
Percy Magan was born in 1867 in Ireland; he immigrated to the United States in 1886 and became a Seventh-day Adventist the same year. He worked as a licensed minister in Nebraska in 1887, and entered Battle Creek College in 1888, from which he later graduated. After a journey around the world in 1889 as secretary to S. N. Haskell, he became associate secretary of the Foreign Mission Board (1890-1891), head of the Department of Bible and history at Battle Creek College (1891-1901), and dean of Emmanuel Missionary College (1901-1904). He was cofounder, with E. A. Sutherland, of the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute (1904), later generally known as Madison College, and was its dean.
The men with whom he was associated have truly left a mark upon the history of this remnant church. Men like Haskell, author of books like “The Story of Daniel the Prophet,” and “The Story of the Seer of Patmos.” E. A. Sutherland, author of the book “Living Fountains or Broken Cisterns,” a carefully and detained treatment of the drift in denominational education away from the counsel given by God to the standards of the world. Percy Magan was the author of a book entitled “The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America.” In 1899, he published that work, and the Preface contains a very interesting introduction that describes the growth of his interest.
“In 1891 my friend and fellow worker, Alonzo T. Jones, wrote his "Two Republics, or Rome and the United States of America." It was my privilege to read this remarkable work in the proof; and, from the general field of the annals of mankind, my attention was specifically turned to the prophetical and philosophical history of the Republic of Rome and the Republic of the United States.” Percy Magan, “The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America.” Page 3
Out of this environment, Magan produces a work that expresses an understanding of the significance of the call of the remnant. His opening statement in chapter one on page three defines the importance of the United States of America to the fulfillment of these events.
“The advent of the United States upon history's stage broke the dawn of a new era, for all mankind. The principles of freedom enunciated in the immortal Declaration of Independence were pregnant for tens of thousands in other parts of the world, and for millions then unborn, as well as for the embattled farmers who fought at Lexington and Concord. The new nation appealed not to tables of dynasty and royal succession to prove her title to life or her right to existence as a sovereign state among peers. Discarding these, her founders bore her into the arena upon certain self-evident truths. Her people assumed their equal and separate station among the powers of the earth by "the laws of nature and of nature's God." Percy Magan, “The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America.”Page 3
What Magan has stated here, might at first appear simplistic. This is primarily because the Declaration of Independence has been memorized and repeated so often that for many it has lost its full significance. It is also ironic that the phrase most repeated, most significant is also most overlooked. The words: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, carry in their effortlessness the burden that initiated the desire to be set free from the coercive domination of the rulership of the old world. Percy Magan, in the very first chapter manages to capture and explain this, perhaps better than many who have devoted their lives to the study of history.
“Hitherto the doctrine had prevailed that the Almighty had created one class to govern and another class to be governed. Statesmen had universally held that all men were not created equal, and ecclesiastics had not been slow in seconding their teachings. When from time to time philosophers had arisen inculcating ideas of liberty and equality, they had been branded as anarchists by the state and as atheists by the church. Many a time both the civil and religious powers had buried their own differences of opinion and claims of jurisdiction in order that they might form a union for the sole purpose of more effectively dealing swift and summary punishment to these disturbers of the existing order of things. The rack, the fagot, and all the ingenious and exquisite tortures which the Inquisition could devise had been freely employed to wring from unwilling lips the desired recantation.” Percy Magan, “The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America.”Page 3
Notice how he puts that!! “Many a time both the civil and religious powers had buried their own differences of opinion and claims of jurisdiction in order that they might form a union for the sole purpose of more effectively dealing swift and summary punishment to these disturbers of the existing order of things.” Magan highlights the matter of equality as a major issue for both church and state. The papal feudal system, the class system if you will, was the yoke upon the necks of those who were perceived as the servant class. The Declaration of Independence broke that yoke. But subtle approaches have successfully restored the yoke of bondage. The ruling class has again taken control, while the servant class continues to believe that freedom still exits. Very soon the “rack, the fagot, and all the ingenious and exquisite tortures which the Inquisition could devise” will be reemployed to enforce the required inequality.
Cameron A. Bowen
