The Reformation Society exists to stand for the principles and the doctrines of the Reformation. The Five Solas are Sola Christus, Christ alone is the head of the Church, Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone is the ultimate authority, Sola Gratia, salvation is by the grace of God alone, Sola Fide, justification is received by faith alone, and Sola Deo Gloria, everything has to be done for the glory of God alone. That is still on our one-ran coins in Sola Deo Gloria. If you go to Wellington, to the side of the monument of Andrew Murray which has been defaced you'll see the tomb of Andrew Murray and it's got Solly Deer glory on it. That was his motto. So tonight we are looking at blessing the nations 800 years of the Magna Carta. We are approaching in June June the 15th will be the 800th anniversary of one of the most significant events in the establishment of law and liberty. Genesis 12 verse 1 to 3 I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The Magna Carta has been one of the most valuable exports of Great Britain to the rest of the world. The Magna Carta has truly blessed all the families of the earth where the people recognize it not, it has blessed. Because the Magna Carta was the first statute, the first written restriction on the powers of government. The Magna Carta signed by King John at Runnymede on the 15th of June 1215 recognised foundational scriptural principles. Justice may not be sold. Justice may not be delayed. Justice may not be denied. And justice delayed is justice denied. No taxes may be levied without the consent of representatives of those being taxed. This is basic municipal rights and freedom. This forbids the idea that you can have one group of people deciding taxes for another group of people. That's why you've got to have municipalities that are small, where the community decides, rather than a uni-city where some strangers who couldn't care less and know nothing about your situation, they decide what you've got to pay and whether you get any benefits for what rates and taxes you paid. No one may be imprisoned without a fair trial by a jury of their peers, of their equals. Property may not be taken from any owner without just compensation. Now if these principles seem familiar to you, they were pretty radical for the time. The Magna Carta is recognised as the grandfather of all Bills of Rights insofar as there are good principles in our Bill of Rights and our Bill of Rights in South Africa is flawed but there are good elements and those good elements come directly from the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was the inspiration for the glorious revolution of 1688 the bloodless revolution that freed Britain from Catholicism of James II and brought in William and Mary and established Protestant rule in Britain And the Magna Carta was also the model for the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which most people aren't even aware of. And, of course, for the Bill of Rights of the United States of America. Lord Denning described the Magna Carta as the greatest constitutional document of all times, the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot. up to this point it was accepted in fact many parts of the world today still seem to think that the king is law in fact that's the term that they used at this time was the king is the law rex lex in latin rex means king lex means law rex lex the king is the law the king's word is law what the king says is the law the sun king Louis XIV of France said I am France and France is me which is arrogance in the extreme, but there's a lot of presidents today who seem to think like that. They think they are the nation. During the greatest century of reformation, the 16th century, there was a tremendous upsurge of interest in the Magna Carta and strenuous efforts to apply these biblical principles of justice and freedom into all areas of British life. The Magna Carta is an important symbol of liberty today. It is greatly respected worldwide by both historians and lawyers as a potent foundational document for the protection of personal liberties. It has been described as one of the most important legal documents in history. The only reason you can say one of is because it's based on the most important legal document in history, which is the Ten Commandments, the law of God, as revealed in the scriptures. Do not remove the ancient landmark. landmarks, whether they're historic monuments or boundaries for property, estates, they are not to be moved. This is the law of God. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, wrote the Magna Carta, which declares, John, by the grace of God, King of England, know ye that we in the presence of God and for the salvation of our soul and the souls of all our ancestors and heirs and unto the honour of God and the advancement of the Holy Church and the amendment of our realm by this present charter confirmed for us and our heirs forever that the Church of England shall be free and have her whole rights and her liberties inviolable that's the first article of 63 articles in the Magna Carta that the Church of England should be free and have her whole rights and liberties inviolable this is why the first clause in the American Bill of Rights is freedom of religion. Without freedom of religion you don't have any other freedoms. It's the foundation for all freedoms, in fact. And that's why English evangelists who have been arrested on the streets of England for preaching the scriptures, such as Romans 1, being accused of hate speech, hurting the feelings of some pervert, All they need to do is wave a Magna Carta and say the Church of England shall be free and have a whole rights and liberties inviolable and maybe they need to give a bit of a legal lesson to these law enforcement officials who might not have actually even heard of this to remind them the foundational legal document on which all the laws of Britain are based is the Magna Carta which is based itself on the law of God. The Bible was clearly recognized as a foundational authority for Magna Carta You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty in righteousness. You shall judge your neighbor. When I've been to London, like in July last year, I went past the Royal Courts of Justice and it's very inspiring. Do you notice those spires? They've got different statues of individuals around. The first statue recognizes plainly Moses, evidenced by not just the long beard but the ten commandments on the tablets. Then King Solomon, a wise man who wrote the book of Proverbs and who was wise in his judgments. Although not very wise in his personal life, but he's here in terms of the book of Proverbs. Christ being symbolized, the giving of the law on the Sermon on the Mount. And King Alfred the Great. Why King Alfred the Great? The one non-biblical character who runs the courts of of justice in London. Because it was King Alfred the Great who translated the Gospels and the law into English. The first of the scriptures to actually translate into English. And he set forth the dooms. Now the dooms of King Alfred are the common law and the dooms means this doom will fall upon you, these are the punishments if you break these laws and it's called the common law because it's common to all, it doesn't matter what your station in life the same law applies to all, that's why it's called the common law and the common law of England which was issued in the 9th century, that's the 800s by King Alfred was I am the Lord your God and brought to you out of the house of bondage, out of the house of slavery in Egypt you shall have no other gods before me and all of the ten commandments and the case laws of Exodus 20, 21, 22, 23 and the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule of Christ and the Great Commandment that's the foundation of all the law of England the law of Moses and the Sermon on the Mount of Christ that is the common law and all the laws of England flow from that that's the dooms of King Alfred and that is the foundation for Magna Carta and the English Royal Courts of Justice recognise that in their architecture. Architecture can tell you a lot and that's why people who want to smash statues and national monuments are doing violence to far more than just property. They're national treasures and they're bounding markers. It's like a cairn on Table Mountain. If you think you're somewhere and the cairn disagrees with your perception of where you are on the map, you're wrong. The boundary marker is right. The boundary marker is a fixed point. You get to Maclear speaking and you think, no this can't be Maclear speaking. I think I'm over by Echo Valley. No. The boundary marker is right. You are wrong in your perceptions. And so these are boundary markers that have been set up for our instruction. Magna Carta established the right of trial by jury to protect the accused from capricious condemnation by authorities. Because the judges were appointed by the king. The judge could be bribed, intimidated into condemning someone because the king wanted him condemned. But a jury of 12 of the peers of the person. If a man was a noble, he must be judged by nobles. If he's a knight, he must be judged by 12 knights. If he's a commoner, by 12 commoners. He should be judged by his own people. 12 of them. And this was to protect against arbitrary misrule of a royal appointee. a government official. The high value that Christianity, from its inception, has placed upon the individual is in stark contrast to the ancient Egyptian and Persian and Babylonian and Chinese and Greek and Roman cultures, not to mention the Aztecs, the Incas, the Marabili, the Zulus. Every culture put the individual subservient to the state. The state predominates, the community predominates, and individuals were just trampled over if they got in the way of the community. But Christianity has never had that attitude. It's always, you can have one individual who's right and the whole community is wrong. True liberty, individual rights, respect for human responsibility found no place in the ancient world. And in came Christ and the Word of God and changed all that. It was the Christian emphasis on the individual that established the freedoms and the rights enshrined in Magna Carta of 1215 and the later English Petition of Rights presented in 1628 to King Charles, whose immediate response was to suspend Parliament for 11 years, which led to the English Civil War, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which followed the glorious revolution that ousted James II and brought in William and Mary, and the American Bill of Rights of 1791. This is the lineage of freedom in the English-speaking world. Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, challenged King James I that Magna Carta gave the Courts of Common Plea the right to provide justice from the highest to the lowest because the King is under God and under the law. Oh, if he had only listened to that, and if his son Charles I had listened to that, he wouldn't have lost his head at the end of the Civil War because he thought he was above the law. The fact that today the Americans can place their President, as they did with Clinton, on trial, what they called to have the President impeached, who he's brought on trial before the Senate and the House combined. That, even though it didn't succeed in ousting him, the very fact that the President could be put on trial, that is a glorious fruit of Christianity and Magna Carta to show the head of state is under the law. He cannot break the law with impunity. Even the head of state is answerable to the law. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, you would have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. That means all civil authority is delegated by God, all civil authority is answerable to God. And to really emphasize that, the British put on trial King Charles and had him executed, showing even a king is under law. Dr. Alvin Smit in How Christianity Changed the World documents that the freedoms and liberties expressed in bills of rights and declarations of independence are all extensions of Magna Carta, which is thoroughly Christian. Civic freedoms and liberties could not have occurred had it not been for the Christian values that prompted and shaped the formation of these documents, all of which are extensions of Magna Carta, the Great Charter. Magna Carta is revered throughout the world as the cornerstone of modern freedom. Sir Winston Churchill noted in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples that the rights and liberties of English-speakers is more to the vices of King John than to the virtues of any man. That's a bit of a backhanded way of saying something. But what did he mean? Nobody would have required of King Richard the Lionheart a Magna Carta. He was brave, he was bold, he was courageous, he was a man of integrity, he was revered, even respected by his own enemies, because King Richard The elder brother was a really bold, brave, courageous man of integrity. spent most of his eleven years as king fighting on crusades in the Holy Land against the Muslims and he only spent four months of his eleven years as king in England. He once offered London up for sale to fund one of his crusades. So you can see where his priorities lay. But King Richard was the kind of person people respected. Nobody would have asked King Richard to sign this charter because He was recognized as a good man, but his brother was so lecherous, so wretched, so dishonest, so breaking of all of his promises and vows and oaths. Here's a scene of King Richard coming back to England and his wicked brother had usurped the throne in his absence and was oppressing the people with exorbitant taxes and he was actually exiled from the kingdom under Richard. And only Richard's death by crossbow in France enabled John to come back and to take his place. Outside the Palace of Westminster, the House of Commons and the House of Lords in London, there are only two statues. One is Oliver Cromwell and the other is of King Richard the Lionheart. In fact, the flag of England, the St George's Cross, is King Richard's flag. That is the flag of the Crusader. And it was Richard's flag that became England's flag, which explains to you why the Muslims hate this flag and they want this flag changed. and I hope and pray the English people have the backbone to tell him to take a running flying leap into hell. This magnificent statue with this huge crusader sword this depicts the great honourable crusader spirit of this King of England who was a worthy man and a man who wielded the sword for England for Christ for the crusades for the Holy Land but he died at the hand of a French crossbow bolt and his wicked brother John seized the throne and John was so bad that he ended up being excommunicated for six years from the Pope, because of his breaking of his vows and all the rest, that in the end, when he realized the barons were mobilizing against him, he reconciled with the Pope, with Pope Innocent III, by placing the crown of England at the feet of the papal legate. Can you imagine? He handed England over, not that he had the right to do so, he handed England over to the Pope. So the Pope wouldn't just be the spiritual head, he would now be the actual feudal head, he'd be the political or temporal head as well. And then the king had to pay a tribute each year of taxes of a thousand marks, that's a thousand gold coins a year, to the Pope. And here's the papal legate trampling on the taxes of England, which is now officially under the Pope, to show their contempt for the money of the English. That's how bad John was. He was that lecherous and low. And in this way he got the alliance and support of Pope Innocent III. Funny how these people are called innocent or not. Well, this is where Robin Hood comes into the story. And I trust that you've seen the best of the Robin Hood films, which is the Errol Flynn one, without a doubt. And Robin Hood is not just a legend. There were people, Robert of Loxley, out there in the forests of Sherwood, rebelling against the oppressive taxation of King John and before he is King, when he is Prince, while his brother was in the Holy Land. And so this resonates in English history because the story of Ivano, maybe you've seen the Ivano film too, which gives you a good idea of all the abuses that Prince and later King John was guilty of which led to Robin Hood and led to the Magna Carta and the Barons forcing him at gunpoint at sort point to sign this charter because he was abusing the wards he would be if a knight died in the Holy Land or was absent then the king would take ownership of his property, and of his widow, and of his daughters, and he would sell them in marriage to people that they didn't want to marry. That's why even Magna Carta is dealing with it, that the king may not interfere with marriage or force it on someone, or force someone to pay a fine or a tax to the government to receive their inheritance promptly, and that widows shouldn't be withheld from their inheritance immediately. upon the death their husband and that they shouldn't have to pay to the states anything for this in death taxes and so on and so all of this is dealt with because as if you've seen Ivanhoe or Robin Hood films then you would immediately recognize a lot of the problems and the abuses that Prince John was guilty of so that gives the background if you haven't seen his films they're part of our library here And so the barons of England were outraged because he was abusing the barons, he was abusing their daughters, he was abusing their wives, widows, he was confiscating lands, he was forcing people to pay ridiculously large amounts. Now John was so bad he lost everything that Richard had gained. Now for those who are not aware of the history of it, you know I'm sure that in 1066 the Normans invaded England and seized England. England was originally inhabited by Celts, Britons, and the Angles and the Saxons and the Jutes came in and took over what we today call England, named after the Angles, Angleland, and the Celts, the original inhabitants of the British Isles, moved into Wales, Scotland and Ireland. And so Angleland, or England, is where the Saxons, the Jutes and the Angles moved into, basically Danes and Germans who moved in. Now the Normans were Norsemen. Many people speak of the Normans as though they were French. Well, just because they came from France doesn't make them French at all. It's like the Americans invaded Normandy from southern England in 1944. It didn't make them Englishmen. Just because that was their base of operations. The Normans were Norsemen, as in, Lord, from the fury of the Norsemen, deliver us, the Vikings. And so the Norsemen, the Vikings who invaded in 1066, they owned Normandy. Normandy is that section of France where the Northmen or the Norsemen ruled, where the Vikings were in charge. So for many, many years, for centuries, the King of England was called the King of England and of France. Because a huge section of France, more than half of France, actually belonged to the English. The English crown controlled both sides of the Channel for centuries. Well John managed to lose just about all of it. Everything that Richard and Henry and his father and all the people before him had controlled in France was just lost in the first few years of John. He didn't manage to win a battle, he managed to lose everything, squandered everything, made a total mess, chaos, shambles, utter and complete disaster and at the end they had virtually nothing left of France and they were pushed out of it and they just hang on by their toehold to just Cairn and a few other places, which is why you then have Henry V later, Battle of Agincourt and of course Crecy before that and he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother. and all of that great Henry V speeches given in Shakespeare. So this business of France and England being under the same crown all dated long before John, but John managed to lose it all and force his ancestors later to try and reclaim it, which was finally lost by Mary, as in Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary, Catholic daughter of Henry VIII, who was so bad, it would be a competition between John and Mary Tse, who is the worst monarch of England. But I think those two would be right at the bottom of the pile as absolutely hideous and detestable, and both of them managed to lose everything in France. And Mary sold Cairn, the last part of British possessions of France, to the French to settle some of her debts, which were enormous. So all that gives you background as to why John was overtaxing the people. He kept fighting wars. He fought the Irish. He fought the Scottish. He fought the Welsh. He fought the French. He lost all the battles. And these battles are very, very, very expensive. And so he was getting less and less of a tax base to pay for more and more of the wars, which meant more and more taxes were being piled on the barons who were still unfortunate enough to be under his crown. And so this is where things just went off the rails. we are not going to keep paying these taxes. Plus there's the hidden tax of unjust weights and measures. He was debasing the currency and putting lead in the gold and silver coins and it was just so outrageous and this explains why McNicotta made such a strong emphasis on limiting the taxation, limiting the power of the state, limiting his ability to do everything from wards of the state to having authority of the marriages of especially girls whose fathers were the crusades are out of town, or were, if they died, or they weren't sure where they were, in many cases it took years to find out if the father was still alive. And so these princesses and these barons' daughters, they became wards of the king, as you see with Maid Marian and King John and the whole story that you get in Robin Hood. That's all got a basis in fact, because that's exactly what King John did. and also the fact of needing standardised weights and measurements because he had made the currency of England debased, which is exactly what Mary did too. Queen Mary was hideous in her abuse of currency. So this is the background that led to King John being forced to sign this Magna Carta. It's the only good thing that came out of his realm was Magna Carta, and it certainly wasn't his idea. This wasn't the king graciously granting something to subjects. It was the king being forced to accede to something at the point of the sword. and within months of this he was fighting, the ink was not even dry so to speak on the parchment and he was already breaking his word and so as he fled his barons who went to war against him he lost all his baggage, his jewellery, his lot in the wash as the waters came up and this was seen as God's judgement and he died of dysentery in 1216, barely a year after reneging on his oath. To fast forward another century and a half, Professor John Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation, championed the independence of England from papal control and supported King Edward III's refusal to pay taxes to the Pope. And it was only one step away from denying the political supremacy of the Pope of England to questioning the spiritual supremacy of the Church. And this royal favour that Wycliffe earned from this confrontation protected him later in life. And so that he is able to mobilise the lay preachers, the law lords, to travel throughout the land and read the Bible, preach in the marketplace and to sing the scriptures in English, laying foundations, sowing the seed, ploughing the fields in preparation for the Great Reformation to come. So King John was one of the very worst kings that England ever had. And so the people of England owe more to the vices of King John than the virtues of any man their liberties. Because his vices forced the barons to force his hand to produce and agree to this document which has proved to be a blessing. What man means to evil, God can use for good. God can work all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to purpose. And so we should not be too discouraged when we see evil things taking place. We're living in evil times. violence, treachery, lawlessness, wickedness, but those things can be used for God's honour and for our good if it makes us better, stronger, chase us back to the scriptures, back to God, and we will develop greater strength of character in having to overcome these challenges than otherwise. I mean, just think of, for example, our ancestors who were fortreckers, who faced wilderness, carved civilisation out of Absolute wilderness, had nothing given to them free. It was hard times that made strong people. Strong faith and hard times is a good combination. The reformers, the martyrs, the people who advanced our freedoms, they were people who knew ease and comfort and safety. They knew danger, difficulty, but that's what brought out the best in them. John's cruelty and capriciousness drove the barons of England to mobilise and to compel King John to sign the statement which Archbishop Stephen Langton had authored, Magna Carta, or the Great Charter. So the signing of Magna Carta, 15 June 1215, was a splendid victory for the English people. If you see any copies of Magna Carta it will always say 15 June 1215, that's the date on the documents, but it was actually fully agreed to by the 19th of June. So you may see a difference in dates. The documents will always say 15 June. That's when they met with him and that's when he in principle agreed. But it took hammering out and royal clerks reworking the documents until the Magna Carta was fully agreed to and the royal seal was affixed to it on the 19th of June. So you may see people using different dates but normally 15 June is considered that's the date. This marked an end to the arbitrary power of any ruler to throw a man in prison without first granting him the opportunity to prove his innocence. The innocent shall prove him guilty. Magna Carta decreed that any man arrested must be tried in a court, openly, and if it could not be proved by the state that he had done wrong, he must be set free. The burden of proof is on the state, not on the accused. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. No taxation was legal that was not authorized by those being taxed. Weights and measures were standardized. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest effort and an honest hymn. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19 is of great importance because Leviticus 19 tells us how to be holy. It begins, Be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And then the rest of Leviticus 19 tells you how to be holy, which includes relationships, it includes economics, it includes boundary markers, everything. and honest weights and measures. In other words, dishonest money, inflation, is a crime, it's theft. My first mission overseas, 1988, I went to Germany, including East Germany, to England, to America. I was ten weeks, two and a half months overseas. The air tickets, the train tickets and everything was a thousand rand. 1,000 Rand. My father bought a car in 1971 for 1,000 Rand. I bought a brand new motorbike in 1981 for 1,000 Rand. I went overseas for 10 weeks across three continents for 1,000 Rand in 1988. Today you'll be lucky to buy a good pair of running shoes for 1,000 Rand. That is theft! That is debasing currency, that is stealing from people. The first mailing of Frontline Furniture in 1982, a stamp cost 4 cents. The first time I sent a package of 5 kilograms of books to America, it cost 4 Rand. 4 Rand for a 5 kilogram parcel to America. What has happened that our money is now lower? When I was growing up, the British Pound was weaker than the Rand. the American dollar was weaker than the rent. The Rhodesian dollar was... there was three American dollars to be paid for one Rhodesian dollar. Then they reached a stage of a hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars couldn't buy one American dollar, or a loaf of bread. Magna Carta required a great council of nobles and bishops to advise and guide the king and governing of the country which was the beginning of the House of Lords, which later led to the forming of Parliament itself. This great council soon developed into the English Parliament, which is the model and the mother of all parliaments in the world. The right of a fair trial by a jury of one's peers, the right of having a voice in running your government and in determining your taxes, the right to adjust and uniform standards of weights and measures for money and goods, are just some of the many blessings which have flowed from Magna Carta. hate evil, love good, establish justice in the gate, let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never flowing stream. Archbishop Stephen Langton strongly sympathised with the Northern and Eastern Barons who openly rebelled against King John. The Archbishop declared that if John refused to negotiate he would excommunicate every man in the Royal Army. Suddenly all the volunteers to fight for the King disappeared because nobody wanted to be excommunicated. Bear in mind at that stage there was only one church. A group of barons met here at St Edmund's Abbey Church and swore an oath to compel King John to accept the Charter of Liberties as proclaimed by King Henry I, which was about 60 years earlier. And he had given the Charter of Liberties about 20 different promises in his coronation oath, which were basically along the lines of the dooms of King Alfred, just rule and so on. And so reworking this, but that was something that the king had promised at his coronation. Now they're going to extract something far more requiring and far more specific from this lecherous, treacherous, lying, deceptive perjurer of a ruler. And so this is the first document. This is the Baron's petition. So these are the articles required from the Baron. And it's this that the King agreed to on the 15th of June at Runnymede. And this was later reworked into the Magna Carta. The Barons advanced on London and in London the people opened the gates, in fact the Tower of London opened the gates and the Barons took the Tower of London which had the Royal Mint, had the Royal Seal and the Crown Jewels and King John had to just keep retreating and he retreated along the Thames up to Windsor and the Barons advanced all the way through and just past Staines at a place on the south bank of the Thames River, a field called Runnymede they met in full armour and they compelled the king at the point of the sword to agree to their petition which included 63 demands by that stage. So on Monday the 15th of June 1215 the barons met the king in the meadow called Runnymede on the south bank of the Thames River halfway between Staines and Windsor where Windsor Castle is today. and this was a matter of the knights or the barons in full armour with the bishops in their full regalia and there were 11 bishops there and they put pressure on him and it took four days of hammering out the details of the wording before they could make copies of the document and at least 11 copies were made and sent out of Magna Carta. On Friday the 19th of June John affixed the royal lead seal to Magna Carta And this is a seal. Now this seal exists. This is the seal that was attached to the bishop's writing, Bishop Stephen Langton's writing, which was the Baron's Demands, which they agreed to on the 15th. The document itself, it fell off, but the seal is still intact. And this is what a copy of Magna Carta looks like. There are four such copies in existence, written on leather. Rudyard Kipling wrote this, At Runnymede, at Runnymede, your rights were won at Runnymede. No freeman shall be fined or bound or dispossessed of freehold ground, except by lawful judgment found and passed upon him by his peers. Forget not, after all these years, the charter signed at Runnymede. A free man shall not be punished for a trivial offence, except in accordance with the degree of the offence, and for a serious offence he shall be immersed according to its gravity, yet always saving his livelihood." And here is the monument of where it was actually signed. Interestingly enough, the British did not set up this monument, the Americans did. Because the Americans see, even though this isn't Britain, the Americans see Magna Carta as the birth certificate of freedom, which is the foundation of the American Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. And most people may be surprised at that, but you see the Americans were mostly British people who saw that their chartered rights as Englishmen was being violated. They were not being protected in accordance with the chartered rights which they should be living under in England, just because they're across the ocean. didn't mean they didn't have the right to have representatives agreeing to the taxation, having fair weights and measures, and being protected in their persons habeas corpus from unjust arrest. And so, you can see, interestingly enough, the American star over this monument here to commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of freedom under law. And that term, freedom under law, is so important. You cannot be free unless you are under law. If it's just freedom in the way the secular humanist means it, then I'm free to break your rights and steal your property and violate your person. That's no good, but freedom under law means all of us are free because we're respecting one another's property and persons. And that's the only freedom there can be, freedom under God's law. God's law makes us truly free. And so here's another monument of, you can see King John signing the document with a sword to his side, but he's got these well-equipped barons, knights around him compelling him to sign. So it's not exactly like he's doing this of his own free will. Interestingly enough, Pope Innocent III, he certainly was not innocent, he had his time in the papal position at exactly the same time that John was king in England. They just overlapped. One of the requirements in the Magna Carta is, we will not seek to procure from anyone, either by our own efforts or those of a third party, anything by which any part of these concessions or liberties might be revoked or diminished. Should such a thing be procured, it shall be null and void, and we will at no time make use of it, either ourselves or through a third party. And within days of signing this, he was sending a third party to go to the Pope to declare this annulled, which the Pope did declare annulled, which is an exact violation of what he had just done. But the Charter this Magna Carta also empowered the 25 barons to swear to uphold all the Articles faithfully and cause them to be obeyed by others to the best of their power and that the 25 barons and any others that they may co-opt will cause with all their might the peace and liberties granted and confirmed by an endless Charter and so one of the requirements of Magna Carta is that the military powers in England were to ensure that these principles be adhered to and that is one reason why Oliver Cromwell and Parliament believed they could mobilize the military against the King was because he is violating Magna Carta which required that those of the military might to do so to force him to stay honest. And that's exactly what the Americans thought they were doing also in 1776. In Worcester Cathedral you can see King John the Worst's memorial and it's intriguing that he's got these little creatures on his shoulder. One is a demon and the other is an angel. Speaking about the fact that, you know, you've got these two voices in your head. You've got the angel sitting on your one shoulder telling you to do the right thing and you've got the demon on the other tempting you to do the wrong. And so the idea was that he was tormented by the voice of his conscience and the voice of his demon, but he seemed to have listened to his demon more. An intriguing thing, I don't know if you've ever seen another tomb where a person's had an angel and a demon perched on their shoulders in the tomb. That's King John the Worst's memorial. Despite all attempts by King John to violate his commitment as soon as it was made, and the hostility of Pope Innocent III to Magna Carta, the regency of John's youngest son, Henry III, who was only nine years old when his father died and he acceded to throne, he reissued the Magna Carta in 1216. And his son, Edward I, reissued Magna Carta in 1297 confirming it as part of England's statute law and there were a few points that fell off because they were just for that time but all essence and core of it was reissued and it was really entrenched and so while the original Magna Carta was violated by the one who'd signed it his successors and heirs reconfirmed it and it got entrenched into English law and into the statute books During the time of the Reformation in the 16th century there was an upsurge of interest in Magna Carta as lawyers and historians traced the principles of freedom to the Great Charter to biblically based laws enacted during the times of the Anglo-Saxons such as the dooms of King Alfred the Great at the end of the 9th century. It is not good to show partiality in judgement. He who says to the wicked you are righteous, him peoples will curse, nations will abhor him. Both James I and his son Charles I attempted to suppress discussion of Magna Carta and this led to the English Civil War of the 1640s and the execution of Charles for high treason in 1649. The first time in history that a king has been put on trial for treason and after due process executed. Kings have been assassinated before. but never provide a king being executed after a trial. And this most dramatically proved the point that the king is under the law. No longer rex lex, now it's lex rex. The law is king. It was the violation of the rights of Englishmen as outlined in the Magna Carta that led to the glorious revolution of 1688 which ousted the Catholic James II and welcomed the Protestant William and Mary from Holland to the throne and the signing of the English Bill of Rights in 1689. which most people have forgotten. But Britain did not forget to mint a coin in 1989, linking 1689 with 1989, the tertiary centenary of the Bill of Rights. And most English people are not even aware there is a Bill of Rights in England. I've had them say, no, no, America's got a Bill of Rights, we don't. That is how poorly educated the average people are in the schools in England. Sadly so. It is the Bill of Rights of 1689 that is at stake right now while people in England are discussing whether Charles can truly be the successor to Queen Elizabeth. Because Charles has disqualified himself on three accounts. According to the English Bill of Rights, a divorcee cannot take the throne of England. Nor can anyone take the throne of England who is married to a divorcee. This excludes Charles and Camilla on two accounts immediately, as they're both divorcees. Thirdly, you cannot accede to the throne of England if you are a Catholic, or if you are not a Protestant, in good standing with the Church. Now, Charles is not exactly a practicing Church of England Protestant. In fact, he has expressed himself as not wanting to take his earth as defender of the faith, but as defender of faiths. small f, defend of faiths, and he has shown tremendous enamouring with Islam, and he has championed the cause of Islam in quite a number of cases in England, such as when the Muslims wanted to set up a study centre at Oxford University, and Oxford dons would not allow it. Next thing they made Prince Charles patron of one of their Islamic societies. And then they got him to put pressure on Oxford to sell some land to the Muslims that they could set up their own study centre in Oxford and take the name Oxford Study Centre for Islamic Studies. Which is an outrageous abuse of the Royal Charter and it's in violation of the Bill of Rights of 1689. He's not meant to advance anything but the Protestant faith. And so I would say Prince Charles is excluded from being King on three accounts according to the English Bill of Rights 1689. And so they should go straight to Prince William and omit Charles if they are to be true to the Bill of Succession as required in the English Bill of Rights. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. The colonists in the 13 colonies of North America protested the violation of their chartered rights as outlined in Magna Carta when Parliament failed to provide redress for their grievances. They were complaining about the taxation, they were complaining about the arrest, they were protesting about the fact they didn't have elected representatives. They were protesting about the billeting of soldiers and their homes without permission. And so many things. Confiscation of lands. All the things that were protected under Magna Carta were not being enforced across the ocean. Somehow they'd lost the chartered rights by being on the other side of the Atlantic and they would not accept that. And so they were fighting for their chartered rights to be restored. In 1687 William Penn, after whom Pennsylvania is named, he published the most excellent privilege of liberty and property being the birthright of free-born subjects of England. And this book contained the first copy of Magna Carta printed on American soil. Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants. That's as true today as ever. Right is right even if everyone is against it and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it. well said by William Penn. Penn's comments reflected those of Copes that Magna Carta is fundamental law. The American colonists quoted extensively from Magna Carta concerning the right to trial by jury and habeas corpus. The American founding fathers declared that their constitution was to preserve their rights and liberties as enshrined in Magna Carta. For example, here's the National Trust saying, this oak tree planted with soil from Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, commemorates the bicentenary of the Constitution of the United States of America. It stands in acknowledgement that the ideals of liberty and justice embodied in the Constitution, traced their lineage through institutions of English law to the Magna Carta, sealed at Runnymede on June 15, 1215, planted December 2, 1987 by John Marsh, Secretary of the Army of the United States of America. So as late as the 1980s, America had a Secretary of the Army who could recognize the biblical principles of Magna Carta as the foundation for their freedoms and justice. I doubt that America's got a Secretary of the Army today who would do that. The American Founding Fathers claimed that Magna Carta was foundational for the American Constitution of 1789, which became the supreme law of the land in the United States of America. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor do lie to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. All this comes straight from Magna Carta. In 1976 Britain lent one of the four surviving original manuscripts of the 1215 Magna Carta to the United States for their bicentenary celebrations and also donated an ornate case to display it. A replica is still on display in the United States Capitol Crypt in Washington DC. William Stubbs in his Constitutional History of England published an 1870s document that Magna Carta has been a major step in the shaping of the English people as a nation governed by laws. under God. And so the British Dominions of Australia, New Zealand and Canada and Southern Rhodesia, Union of South, all regard Magna Carta as foundational to our laws and we've sought to model our constitutions to its provisions. That is the foundation of our laws. And so here's a Magna Carta 1297 produced under Edward I in Parliament House in Canberra, Australia as one of the most treasured possessions. Four exemplifications of the original 1215 Magna Carta remain in existence and are held by the British Library and the Cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln. Lincoln Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral are the repositories for these most precious of legal documents foundational for freedom, liberty and these are the property of these churches. At least 13 original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta were issued by the Royal Chancery at the time. These were sent to county sheriffs and bishops who made more copies, ensured that provisions were understood by the population. The original charters were written on vellum sheets, leather sheets using quill pens and abbreviated Latin. Each were sealed with a royal seal using beeswax and resin. Much of this of course had not survived. The 63 numbered clauses of Magna Carta were introduced by Sir William Blackstone in 1759 as the original Charters formed a single, unbroken, long text. William Blackstone said, So great, moreover, is the regard for the law of private property that it will not authorise the least violation of it, no, not even for the general good of the whole community. Private ownership of property is inviolable. No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God. That needs to be shouted from the rooftops. All of man's law, small l, must be underscored by God's law, capital L. Because Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The four original 1215 charters will be on joint display in the British Library this year to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. I must admit, that would make me very nervous to have all four in one place. Prime Minister Winston Churchill attempted to gift the charter of Salisbury Cathedral to the American government, hoping this would encourage the USA, then neutral, to enter the war. But Lincoln Cathedral refused to hand over the rights to such a precious heritage and informed the British Prime Minister, it does not belong to you or to the government of Britain, it belongs to our cathedral. It is Lincoln Cathedral's possession and you do not have the right to give it. The Americans took the Magna Carta and kept it in Fort Knox for the whole of the Second World War and only legal wranglings from Lincoln Cathedral got it restored to them after the war. Only one example of the 1216 Charter survives and it's held at Durham Cathedral. Durham, in the far north of England, one of the most powerful of the Bishoprics, a fortified city on its own, Durham Cathedral was the seat of the Prince Bishop. He had his own army, he enacted his own taxes and no King of England ever attempted to challenge the power of the Prince Bishop of Durham. Now this is a classic power of where secular power and church power just met and Durham Cathedral has a 1216 Magna Carta which again is considered its most serious trust and position and it has their rights enshrined which they will use to defend themselves against any infraction of the state. I've been to this church, very impressive, built like a monumental fortress. Four copies of the 1217 chart exist, three of these are held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and one at Hereford Cathedral. The Australian government has a 1297 charter on display in the Members Hall of Parliament House Canberra and this whole edifice is built around Magna Carta. That is their most precious possession in Parliament in Canberra in Australia. and all of this around is meant to enshrine this document. The document is considered the authority for everything else that goes on in the Parliament here in Canberra in Australia. So, this should all make us stop and think what is so important about it. The National Archives in Washington DC has a copy of the 1297 Charts as well. The Church in England played a central role in drafting the Magna Carta, initiating the negotiations between the Barons and the King, and at least 11 other bishops were present at the signing of the Magna Carta, along with the author, Archbishop Stephen Langton. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The true Church should always be involved in enforcing the just application of God's law in all areas of life. It's not surprising that Pope Innocent III reacted with hostility to Magna Carta and attempted to annul it, because the Inquisition was being established on the continent of Europe with its corpus juris, where burden of proof is on the accused, guilty till proven innocent. But the Church in England was establishing habeas corpus and trial by jury, where burden of proof is on the state, innocent till proven guilty. Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you." For those who think Magna Cod is now just a matter of distant interest for historians, Britain's membership of the European Union is threatening to undermine our chartered rights as Englishmen. The Tower of Babel is being rebuilt right now in Brussels and Strasbourg by the EU, self-consciously building themselves on the Babel rebellion against God. Many tongues, one voice, they say. These are the countries that at the moment are under the EU and most of these countries have got huge movements objecting to their country's involvement in the EU and in recent elections France, Austria, Germany, Denmark, all over Europe you can see there's a real rumbling of discontent against the EU and in Britain and France the parties against the EU got more votes than even the governing ruling parties. Because the EU elections are proportional representation, that's exact number of votes, not just seats. And so you could see the EU break up because there's a tremendous groundswell of hostility to the European Union. And it's the EU that's fomenting a lot of the war in Ukraine and trying to get Ukraine to join the EU. and threatening to start almost a third world war. The EU is really irresponsible. This is Babel. This is New World Order. It's thoroughly anti-Christ in how they are promoting the homosexual agenda. abortion, multiculturalism, Islamic invasions, all of these things. I mean, persecuting Christians for open air preaching. So the EU really is the enemy of the church in Europe. Brussels is attempting to create a unified European criminal code which could abolish trial by jury, habeas corpus and the other safeguards entrenched in Magna Carta. The European Union is more influenced by the Papal Inquisition and Napoleonic Code's corpus juris, and if allowed to progress unchecked, an EU prosecutor could issue European warrants which could violate the foundational sense of our freedoms established in Magna Carta, for example, prosecuting some evangelists in Scotland for hurting some pervert's feelings. And this is where we find ourselves today. people who understand their history, dealing with people who understand nothing but propaganda and indoctrination. They've been brainwashed by the world. For example, this is a picture of Constantinople under the Christians before it was conquered and turned into Istanbul of Turkey. reminding of the immense, glorious civilization of Christians that ruled for a thousand years. This was the greatest Christian city in the world, the greatest city in the world, Constantinople, before the Muslims took it in 1453. And this should remind us, this is what can happen to the most beautiful civilizations if you allow it to be taken over by Islamists, secular humanists, or anyone who hates Christ. This is Christian civilization that today is behind the lines. and now being wrecked by Islamists and Jihadists. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty only. Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. So we will be putting this up on our ReformationSA.org website and as soon as it's feasible we'll get the audio shared on Sermon Audio and on the Reformation Facebook Quite a lot of what I put together on Magna Carta has come from this book I've had several books on Of course that is what we're trying to teach through the Ten Commandments book The Basis of All Law, Biblical Principles for Africa understanding the foundation of all law in our society. If we know our history and if we know what God's law teaches, then we are laying good foundations for the future. So any comments or questions? I've just been reminded again that I was reading Exodus and I was reading about the Pharaoh and how he was oppressing the Israelites and then Moses comes and continuously all these bad things were happening and everything you read about Pharaoh and who he was and it was all negative but it is also encouraging to know that God was so in control of the whole situation and was leading that situation to gain glory for himself because every time that Pharaoh turned Moses down It was God who had hardened his heart. God, even before sending Moses, had planned this whole thing. And I'm just thinking also about King John and how he was the worst king that you can see, that you can see in history, but how it must have also been God's hand in that. making him the worst king in order for something like the Magna Carta to be able to come through, to see God being glorified or for God to get victory or glory out of a situation. because the same with that Pharaoh situation how every time, I mean Pharaoh could have said yes maybe after the first two or three times but then the Bible specifically said every time God hardened Pharaoh's heart and made him turn against it so that he would receive glory in it and he would tell Moses Pharaoh is going to say no to you and then also when I was reading the Ten Commandments and after the Ten Commandments the law that God gave and how When you read it, it kind of gives you the sad feeling when you look at this country and the way that things are going. It's sad because you can see what it could be if everybody was living according to the commandments, not just the Ten Commandments, but also the law with regards to how to deal with property and all that kind of thing. You know, there's so much even amongst the Christians, as we've said before, that are turning, they say we must live only, we live under grace, not under the law. But they stir out everything, the baby with the bathwater, they don't see the value of the law anymore. So this is a good reminder of those things. Do you have a comment? Have we ever had trial by jury in this country? I don't recall it. Does anyone know? I don't recall it. The closest I think is we have a magistrate and two assessors. Yeah. Which is a pity. It is. What also is interesting is how the British used to have that they would elect their own sheriffs, which the Americans still have, that they elect the sheriff and their prosecutors. We've never had that either, and that would be a good thing, that one could actually elect your prosecutors and your sheriffs. There's a lot of things they vote on in the elections in America and in Switzerland too, where they've got all the way down to, you know, the smallest municipal positions are being voted on. But we've had those things taken out of our hands. We've got less rights right now than most of the people in the Middle Ages that we look down on. People in the Middle Ages in Europe had more freedoms than we've got right now, which is quite disturbing. I was thinking they were saying that you can't impose taxes on this, there's consensus about it. I was thinking when did we agree to the taxes? And you know there was a debate going on in Europe fairly recently. where they were talking about whether 50% or 60% was a fair tax. And then at what stage does it get to you that they say 90% is? There are places in Europe where there is 80% and 90% tax. Yes, there are. And it seems to me like the governments decide that without any consensus with anybody. It's absolutely outrageous. And of course, if you had real decentralization, You may not be able to change the country's laws, but you could deal with your province and your municipality, if it was accessible. In the past, Pinus used to be its own little garden city with its own mayor, and I remember the mayor would come to the local Baptist church, we knew him, we knew where they lived. You could pop in and you could see the mayor and the town council and chat to them about anything. That's when I actually had power, and the whole community knew one another, and they could hold those people accountable. But when it's some stranger out there, this ugly civic centre in downtown Cape Town, you've got trouble finding parking, and the person's not there, and the man with the key hasn't arrived, and come back in the wrong queue, and they keep doing a run around, and nothing gets done. The bigger the government, the more mess. In fact, as was well said by Thomas Jefferson, bad government normally comes from too much government. Limited government is the biblical way. More personal responsibility, less power to government. Most things should be done by the family and the individual, and the church and local community. Central government should have very limited roles. In fact, biblically, if we look like in the biblical principles to Africa, we make it clear. Government is there to be national defense, justice, and crime and punishment. That's it. They are just to protect you from criminals and from external invaders. That's government's job. Justice, law and order, and defense. Everything else is in the hands of private citizens and the church and the community. Education shouldn't be the realm of any state. You can't trust any state to the moulding of the minds of future voters. You can't trust the economy in the hands of the state. Certainly you can't trust printing the money to them. Goodness me. You might as well give a bottle of vodka, a shotgun and keys to a 12-year-old and let them ride around in your truck while drunken with shotgun. You can't give power to central government. Any government's going to abuse it. That's the principles we have. And that's why the barons had to force the king to limit his power at the point of the sword. And that's really where our civil liberties came from. And that's why there's so much productivity and freedom and inventions came out of Europe, was because they limited the powers of the state. But that was self-governed people who were willing to work hard and not expect a free handout. So, any other comments or questions? I think it's an exciting study in history. We're at a time of tremendous lawlessness right now. But if we can remind people that here we are at the cusp of the 800th anniversary of something immensely significant in terms of legality and authority. which has implications for everything. Property, economics, jobs, everything. Which of us doesn't want stability and freedom and a healthier economy and a healthier society? It's only going to come from God's law. But if people ask, where does law come from? Challenge your unsaved, evolution-believing, secular humanist friends. Where does law come from? If God doesn't exist, if there's no eternal right and wrong, if there's no Day of Judgment, how do you determine what's right or wrong? If you believe in evolution, from goo to the zoo to you, from mud to monkeys to man, cosmic accidents, once there was nothing, and then there became something, and something became everything, how do you determine what's right or wrong? What's your basis for law and justice? If you're an evolutionist, if you're into situation ethics, how does an atheist establish what's right or wrong? Majority vote? What if you're in a Muslim country and the majority vote that you should be stoned to death? Because you're an infidel. How do you determine what's right or wrong? You're with a bunch of cannibals and they decide you suffer? There's a majority vote? The atheist has no basis for law. Not real law, not objective law. Historically, the factors justice and limited government came from Christians through the Magna Carta and the Doomsday King Alfred totally based on the Ten Commands and the case laws of Exodus and the Sermon on the Mount by the Lord Jesus. That's the foundation of law. If you reject that as your foundation of law, what do you have? And this explains the mess we've got in the world today. They don't want God. They don't want creation. They don't want the Book of Genesis or Exodus, of course. And therefore, what have we got? Evolution, perversion, homosexuality, immorality, chaos, anarchy, breaking down, lack of respect for life and property, murdering of foreigners and xenophobic riots. And how can you say that's wrong? If you reject God and His law and the Bible and creation, how are you determining what's right or wrong? I mean, if the majority want to do that, what's wrong with hacking your neighbor to death? If it's what the majority want. How do you determine right and wrong if you reject God? I don't know that our atheist friends can have any logical, consistent argument for justice and law if they reject God and the Bible. So this is an evangelistic point. We are not quite two months away from the 15th of June. We've got less than eight weeks before there, but we can start building up, I hope, discussions. And this is going to be in the next Christian Action magazine we'll be putting on social media. We want to get the CDs out. We want to get people thinking and talking about it. But when there's so much lawlessness, I would trust a lot of people saying, what's wrong with our world and what's the solution? And I believe this can be a nice milestone, a very momentous milestone, to point people to something that was a foundation stone that led to the greatest prosperity liberty and freedoms the world has ever seen which is all under threat now because we've abandoned the foundations and so that's the thing we we need to call the people back to these foundation stones well let's pray perhaps three or four would like to bring some of these matters before the Lord Our Heavenly Fathers, we've listened to the history of John. We can't help but be reminded of our own country and how a man like Zuma could undo so much in such a short time. Because of his lack of acknowledgement of you and of law and a respect for these laws and the Magna Carta and all these things from history, and we recognize the very dangerous times that we live in where everyone is doing what's right in their own eyes and we ask you, not because we deserve it, but we do ask you for mercy we were a Christian country that abided by your rules but we are not anymore and we are open to so much evil we pray that you will, in your great mercy, move in this country in a very special way. We know that as you have the heart of Pharaoh, you can have the heart of any ruler. And we know that this country deserves a lot of what is happening, but we also know that you are a good God and we trust you and we pray that we might be loyal to what we believe. and we believe in you so we ask that your church will stand up and be counted at this time and proclaim the truth in Jesus name yes lord when you look at the chaos in our country in the last couple of weeks lord we pray that you will bring a revival of repentance So, please help the church to stand up and to proclaim your word in all areas of life. To proclaim that you are the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and that you are Lord over South Africa. Lord, we pray that you will drive back the forces of darkness, Lord, and let your light shine once again in this country, Lord. Please, Lord, help the church, to pray for breakthroughs, Lord, to seek your face, Lord, and to turn back to you, Lord. Lord, we pray especially for the youth at this time, Lord. Lord, that you will pour out your spirit and draw them to you, Lord. Because they look at the world and they are without any kind of anchor in this chaos, Lord. I want them to look to you. for their salvation and for everything that they do in their lives. In Jesus name. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your law. Thank you for the freedom that we find in your law. Thank you Lord God that you are holy and you call us to be holy and you've given us your laws as requirements of what you expect from us thank you lord god for jesus and for his righteousness as he fulfilled this law lord and as we can be clothed in in his righteousness in your righteousness lord we can have the righteousness of god and lord i just pray that you will continue to lead us by your holy spirit whom you've given lord to remind us when we are wrong and we step off the line that you'll remind us lord and bring us back to obedience to your law. Lord, your word declares that if we say we love you, then we should obey your commands. So, Lord, we thank you so much for your law. We thank you, Lord, for the protection which we find in your law. Because it's those who disobey your law who find themselves in trouble and the world starts going upside down. But those who obey your law are blessed. So, Lord, Once again, we thank you for your law, and we just ask that you will continually help us to obey your law more and more each day. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord God, we thank you for the opportunities that bad times give us. We know that bad times are good for spiritual work. We thank you, Lord God, for the fact that during times of disruption, people can be waken up and shaken out of their apathy and distraction to focus on what really matters. You, your word, your law, the day of judgement, things that will matter for eternity and we pray Lord God that you may mercifully and graciously take what man has meant for evil and use it for good. Lord that these attacks on law and property will cause people to re-look at where law actually comes is anything that is right or wrong in the light of eternity, in the light of your nature, the law that you gave to Moses. We pray, Lord God, that there would be a resurgence of interest into looking at what the foundations of freedom and justice are, that we can relay these foundations in a country that had been broken up and undermined in so many places by irresponsible people and by cowards, too, and treacherous individuals and corporates who refuse to make a stand. We ask, Lord, that there really would be a revival of repentance amongst your people, in your churches. Help us, Lord God, to be faithful to your word, to be effective in your service, to be brave and bold for you. Lord, how we pray that there'd be leaders in this country and throughout this continent who'd be like those barons, to call the leaders to account, back to your word, back to serving the population, not oppressing them. We ask, Lord God, that as we approach 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, that there'd be a resurgence of interest in the subject, that you'd draw a lot of attention to our articles and PowerPoints and audio messages that we'll be posting on this. We pray, Lord God, that there would be many a Bible study and school, college pulpit that would focus on this. And we do pray, Lord God, that there'd be political parties in this country that would take up this challenge and call our people back to this foundational principle. And we pray, Lord, for opportunities to challenge our unsaved friends over how consistent are they in their worldview. If they reject God and the Bible, what is their basis for knowing what is right and wrong? What is the basis for civilization and society? We ask, Lord, that you would help us to communicate this effectively, give us courage and opportunity and wisdom. We commit one another to your hands and pray, Lord, that you'd be our shield and our fortress. And Lord, as our Armenian friends and brothers and sisters in Christ worldwide commemorate the centenary of the horrific events that were unfolded on him by the Muslims in Turkey in the First World War. We pray Lord God that you would cause Christians to ask why it is that the media and Hollywood do not give attention to when Christians are targeted. We pray Lord God that this injustice would be exposed and a deep discontent against the powers that be who ruling our media throughout the world would manifest itself and that we would not swallow the brainwashing and lies which has been forced on us so often by those who hate you. Give us, we pray, much courage and much strength and conviction