Magna Carta and the fight for freedom today. This is very relevant. The Reformation Society stands by the five solas of the Reformation. 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 Soli Deo Gloria, everything has to be done for the glory of God alone. we might be the only country in the world that still has Soli Deo Gloria on every one-ran coin. Which is, thanks to Andrew Murray's influence, that that became a major motto in our country. Soli Deo Gloria. Still on every one-ran coin in the country. Magna Carta and the fight for freedom today. This piece of paper, we've got a replica on our door at the boardroom, with the banners or the crests, the shields of the different banners, the barons, the different knights of England who forced King John to sign this with the seal. This is the most valuable piece of paper in the world. One Magna Carta was sold recently for 30 million pounds. 30 million pounds. That's a lot. So it's got to be the most, and when I say piece of paper, it's not a piece of paper, it's actually vellum, it's on calf leather. Genesis 12 verse 1 to 3, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Magna Carta has been one of the most valuable exports of Great Britain to the rest of the world. Magna Carta has truly blessed all the families of the nations of the earth, even if they haven't heard the name. Magna Carta was the first statute, meaning the first written restriction on the powers of government. Up till then, the idea was the king is the law. Rex Lex, the king is the law, the king's word is law. And as Louis XIV, the Sun King, so famously said, I am France and France is me. Well, he wasn't, but that was the attitude. The chief, the king, the emperor, the pope, whoever was the top, he determined it and there was no appeal. It was just the king's word is law. Magna Carta restricted the powers of government, put the king under the law. Magna Carta, sealed by King John at Runnymede, 15 June 1215, recognized foundational scriptural principles. Justice must not be sold. Justice must not be delayed. Justice must not be denied. No taxes may be levied without the consent of representatives of those being taxed, of each class. The upper class couldn't determine what taxes the lower classes must pay. The lower class cannot determine what taxes the upper class must pay. The knights, the priests, The barons, each one's representatives had to agree to the form of taxes and amount of taxes being imposed on their group. Each municipality had rights. Each municipality had great rights to determine not only their representatives but also their taxes. No tax is valid unless the people concerned have agreed to the tax. That the services being rendered are equal to the taxes being demanded. No one may be imprisoned without a fair trial by a jury of their peers. A jury of your peers means we're not to be judged by some judiciary magistrate appointed by the king, as he could be bought and paid for. He could be biased. Nor may a commoner be judged by a jury of knights, nor may a knight be judged by a jury of commoners, nor, in fact, nor could a parish priest be judged by other than a jury of parish priests. So the whole principle was you should be judged by people who, a farmer should be judged by farmers. A soldier should be judged by soldiers. It's had to be a jury of your peers. It's not just and right that you've got to put people under a hostile jury of people who don't even like that individual or that group. Property must not be taken from any owner without just compensation. You can see why I thought this was relevant at this time. We're dealing with expropriation without compensation, EWC, a government proposal to remove section 25, which specifically deals with private ownership property in this country. There's a threat to private ownership property. There's threats to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship and freedom of association also in this country. So MacLeod Carter is very relevant. Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, is recognized as the grandfather of all Bills of Rights. Now, I don't think our Constitution and Bill of Rights in Salafi is that good. But it does contain good aspects. There are some good aspects in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. And insofar as they're good, it's directly because they are built on Magna Carta, which is built on the Scriptures. And so even a stop clock is right twice a day, and so there's even good things and bad religions, governments, and bills of rights sometimes. But all bills of rights look back to Magna Carta. Magna Carta was the inspiration for the glorious revolution of 1688. Now the backdrop to that is the wicked Charles I's son, Charles II, came back to England in the Restoration and was about as debauched a king as they've ever had. And his son, James II, was even worse, and he apostatized and went back to Catholicism, which the English had already said, we're not going to allow an English monarch to be a Catholic or to be married to a Catholic or to be engaged to a Catholic, as the case may be. So Magna Carta was the inspiration for the Glorious Revolution whereby Parliament appealed to William and Mary across the Channel in Netherlands to come over and take over the throne of England and they deposed James II as monarch in a bloodless revolution. Hence it's called the Glorious Revolution because it was a bloodless revolution. Nobody died, but they kicked the king out. The whole army, Parliament, Archbishop Canterbury, the whole lot, lock, stock and barrel said, we no longer recognize James II as our king. We appeal to the Protestant William and Mary to come over. Now Mary was the last of the Stuarts. She was in fact a Stuart, but she was a Protestant Stuart married to a Huguenot king. And she, oh Prince, but she wouldn't accept the throne unless it was jointly given. Hence in the English lineage the only time they've had a joint monarch, two monarchs actually, was when Queen Mary insisted her husband, who was not English, but Huguenot actually, that he would be a joint regent in England. That was unusual, hence you have the reign of William and Mary. And William is much revered amongst the Protestants in Northern Ireland because he saved Northern Ireland, Belfast, Ulster from Catholicism, Battle of the Bourne, which is still celebrated every year in Northern Ireland. I discovered when I was there. So that's a glorious revolution of 1689. And it produced the English Bill of Rights of 1689. English Bill of Rights, most English people aren't even aware that there is an English Bill of Rights and most Americans aren't either. In fact most Americans claim that the American Bill of Rights is the first Bill of Rights in the world. Not so. The American Bill of Rights of 1791 expressly acknowledged it was built on the English Bill of Rights and the English Petition of Rights and the Magna Carta and the Domes of King Alfred. Lord Denning described 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. During the greatest century of Reformation, the 16th century, there was a tremendous upsurge of interest in Magna Carta and strenuous efforts to apply these biblical principles of justice and freedom into all areas of British life. Magna Carta is an important symbol of liberty today. It is greatly respected worldwide by both historians and lawyers, and I'll prove that later, 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. It would be hard to think of a more important document outside the Bible. Do not remove the ancient landmark, Proverbs 23.10. Just think of how many people want to remove ancient landmarks. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, wrote to 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 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 all her rights and liberties inviolable. That's the first point in Magna Carta. That the Church of England shall be free and have all her rights and liberties inviolable. And yet, friends of ours like Adrian Clarke have been arrested for street preaching the gospel in Bristol. And you would have thought Magna Carta would be sufficient that you could produce and say, but the first article in Magna Carta is that the church shall have her rights inviolable and have the British authorities interfered in their Magna Carta rights on every level, especially religious freedom. This is why the American Bill of Rights starts with religious freedom. The Bible was clearly recognized as the 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. Now, when I was in England most recently, I got a chance to walk past the Royal Courts of Justice and it's quite an impressive old building. And you notice that they have got a statue of Moses, clearly identifiable with the double tablets of the law, this long beard. and King Solomon, the author of Proverbs, great wisdom there, and the Lord Jesus, and King Alfred the Great, who's him we began tonight's meeting with, the author of The Dooms, which is the foundation of the common law of England. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Magna Carta established the right of trial by jury to protect the accused from capricious condemnation by authorities. The king could easily appoint a judge, or just tell this judge, you know, this guy, off with his head, and people could be bribed, and justice could be bought, and sold, and denied, and delayed. The high value that Christianity from its inception has placed on the individual stands in stark contrast to the ancient Egyptian civilization in which the individual was always subordinate to the state. There was no such thing as individual rights in ancient civilizations. It's in stark contrast to the ancient Babylonian culture, which was very harsh. There was no individual liberty and individual rights in these ancient civilizations, so-called. You just think of the Persians or the Chinese. Chinese torture is a byword to this day. Even the highly esteemed Greek civilization would cheerfully condemn people to be thrown off cliffs, to drink poison, as was done by famous philosophers, forced to drink poison, commit suicide, and so on. And the Roman cultures, in which the individual was always subordinate to the state. It was statism. In fact, our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified under the Roman judicial system. They crucified tens, in fact hundreds of thousands of people. They had people burned alive for refusing to burn incense to Caesar. Christians were massacred in the arena despite Roman law. And yet the amount of pagans today who talk about Greek and Roman law as so idyllic, they wouldn't have wanted to live under that. And then, of course, we've got the Aztecs and the Incas and the Mayan civilizations, which were terribly advanced civilizations, they tell us. But they cheerfully ripped out people's beating hearts out of living people on the tops of their pyramids to make the sunrise each day. Well depicted in Apocalypto by Mel Gibson, should be required viewing for all anthropologists to deify pagan cultures and civilizations. The amount of throwing people to their deaths and dragging people off to sacrificial altars. And then, of course, you've got the Inquisition in medieval Europe at the very time that Magna Carta was written, where you were effectively guilty, it's all proven innocent, but not much chance to prove yourself innocent. Right up to this century in India, you get people being sacrificed, human sacrifice before altars of Kali in India. If you thought that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was totally fictional, well, not what they're telling you about the cult of Thagi. The Thagi cult, sacrificing human beings to Kali, is real and even practiced today. True liberty, individual rights, and respect for human personality found no place in ancient world, not even in Greek and Rome. It was the Christian emphasis on the individual, the importance of the individual, that established the freedoms and the rights enshrined in Magna Carta of 1215, and later the English Petition of Rights of 1628. You may not have heard of that one too much, but the English Petition of Rights of 1628 was presented to King Charles I. by Parliament and he immediately just dispensed with Parliament, closed Parliament for 11 years. If you've watched the film Cromwell, very well presented on the whole issue leading up to the English Civil War, the English Petition of Rights was the reason why Charles arbitrarily dismissed Parliament and kept it closed for 11 years. Of course, it ultimately led to the English Civil War and ultimately to the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and the American Bill of Rights of 1791. Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, challenged King James I that Magna Carta gave the courts of common law the right to provide justice. from the highest to the lowest, because the king is under God and under the law. Now that's not something that James I or Charles I believed in, or Charles II or James II. They believed the king was, he had the divine right of kings. They believed in the king is above the law. And so what's true for you isn't true for me, because I'm the king and I can decide. And so this notion that the king is under God and under law, well, it's biblical, but you don't get that from any other religion. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. So John 1911 makes it clear all civil authority is delegated by God, all civil authority is limited authority, and all civil authority is answerable to God. Dr. Alvin Schmidt, in his excellent How Christianity Changed the World book, documents that the freedoms and liberties expressed in the Bills of Rights and the Declarations of Independence are all extensions of Magna Carta, which is thoroughly Christian. Civil 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. From the laws of Moses through to Sermon on the Mount, these are the foundations for law. Magna Carta is still to this day revered throughout the world as the cornerstone of modern freedom. let anyone suggest what else could have been the cornerstone of modern freedom. So Winston Churchill even noted in The History of the English-Speaking Peoples that the rights and liberties of the English speakers owes more to the vices of King John than to the virtues of any man. Now that's a backward way of saying something interesting. It means that the vices of this bad king, John, this petty, capricious, evil, cruel king, led to Magna Carta being forced on him. Because he was so bad, we've got a wonderful statute that limits the powers of government. King John was one of the very worst kings that England ever had. He could have only been exceeded by perhaps Bloody Mary. I think they would probably have to compete for who was the worst, sort of like between Jimmy Carter and Barack Hussein Obama, who's the worst president America's had. I saw a billboard with a picture of Jimmy Carter smiling saying, well at least I can't be called the worst president in American history anymore. John's cruelty and capriciousness and pettiness drove the Barons of England to mobilize and compel King John to sign the statement which Archbishop Stephen Langton had authored, Magna Carta, or the Great Charter of Liberties. Now, his elder brother was Richard the Lionheart, one of the most beloved, respected, honored kings of England. Richard the Lionheart spent only four months of his 11 years reign in England. The rest of the time he was on crusades in the Holy Land, fighting people like Saladin, and even the enemies of Christianity, like the Muslims, respect Richard the Lionheart. A man who in his own lifetime could be called the Lionhearted. He was brave, bold. He would, with 200 knights, charge into a mass of 6,000 Muslims and beat them. He was an extraordinary person. His battle axe felled many Muslims. Many of Saladin's men crushed beneath his sword and axe. And nobody would have asked King Richard the Lionheart to sign a charter limiting his powers, because they trusted him, they respected him, they honoured him. was a brave and bold man. But on the other hand, his wicked brother John usurped a lot of his brother's powers in his absence while he was in the Holy Land and when Richard returned he actually banished his wicked brother for all the evil things he's doing. This has been a theme of many a Robin Hood film which is founded in fact on this matter at least. So Richard is honored throughout England and outside the Palace of Westminster or the House of Commons and the House of Lords combined, you only have two statues in the grounds and that is Richard the Lionheart and Oliver Cromwell. Because Richard the Lionheart was really won the greatest kings of England. In fact it is his crusader flag, the St George's cross, the red cross on white. which to this day is still a flag of England. Richard's personal crusader flag became the flag of England, and this is just another reason why Muslim jihadists and politically correct rabble-rousing liberals want to get England to change its flag, and why they must never change a flag, because this is a thoroughly Christian flag. It should not be changed. It's a testimony, again, to Richard the Lionheart's pivotal place in England's history. So interesting that one of Britain's greatest kings, younger brother, was one of the worst kings. His sword, Richard's sword, was for justice, it was for Christianity, it was for advancing the kingdom and for defeating the forces of Islamic Jihad. No wonder he is hated to this day. Richard's sword, his cross, his flag, felled by a French crossbow bolt in France. And after Richard's death, his wicked petty, capricious, sadistic brother took power and very soon he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III and he had to, in 1213, get on his knees and beg the Pope's legate for forgiveness because he had offended the Pope. He was so bad that he, in 1213, laid the crown of England at the foot of the papal legate who kicked it. to roll along the floor, showing contempt for the Crown of England before the Papist Pope from Rome. In fact, they then required England to pay a thousand marks, that's a thousand gold coins a year, as tax to the Pope. And here the Pope is, the Pope's legate, his representative sent, showing, rubbing his feet on the gold, trampling on the gold of England, these thousand marks that's been received to show his contempt for the people of England and the crown of England. Now John was a contemptible person but the fact is he was meant to represent the kingdom of England and in this he was a disgrace. Enter Robin Hood or Sir Robert of Loxley And I think this is the best Robin Hood film ever made, the Errol Flynn version, the 1938 version, I think. One of the first full-color films, really a celebration of color technology. We've got it now in our library, and I must say, absolutely wonderful. That's the way, that's at the best time. I wouldn't say of Hollywood, because this is a British-made production. What would we call it? Pinewood. This is some of the best of Pinewood Studios. And Errol Flynn, Olivier de Havilland, what a tremendous job they did. But in here, you get the ethos as well put in this much mythologized and a lot of legend added. But at the core of it, it's accurate. And same too with Ivanhoe, where it depicts that Richard's away. And while Richard's away, the rats and mice are playing. under John's protection and the evil things being done which led to many good people of Britain going into the forest and living as outlaws and needing to resist. And the climax of both of those films, Robin Hood and Ivanhoe, is when Richard returns and deals with his wicked brother and so on. So that much is historical fact. So the leading up to Magna Carta was the French invasion of Normandy in 1204. Normandy was British. the British controlled Normandy, because remember, Richard and John came from the Normans, came from the Plantagenet line, and so here they had come in, they were the Norman invaders in 1066, they were the new people ruling England, but the Normans were the Norsemen, the Vikings, who had taken over that part of France. To this day, it's called Brittany and Normandy because Britain and the Norsemen who had conquered England in 1066 controlled a good half of France. And John lost all of it. All of it was gone, except for Calais, which bloody Mary sold to pay her debts or something like that. And so Britain even lost its toehold across there from the two worst kings in England's history, John I or John the Worst and Bloody Mary, but still. So the French took all England's possessions by Calais, effectively under John's useless, worthless reign. Then this led to Magna Carta, which led to the Army of God being formed. Now the Army of God was the barons. formed the Army of God, the bishops and the barons together came to force Magna Carta on John the Worst. And shortly after that, the French invaded England thinking maybe they could take all of England. It didn't work. And King John died within just a year and a half of signing Magna Carta of dysentery in a field at age 50. Magna Carta was pivotal because here you had the barons gathering together to force the English king to agree to a whole chart of liberties, which had actually been agreed to by Henry I at his coronation. And so they brought that up and then they made it his coronation promises. They decided to put into official document, binding on the king and his heirs forever. and this was basically forcing them at Staines. Now Staines, well no Runnymede is between Staines and Windsor and the English king was on the run, and the barons took London with great ease. There was no resistance, and they pursued him as he was running to his castle at Windsor, and halfway to Windsor, past Staines, between Staines and Windsor, on the River Thames, they cornered him and forced him to sign this. They made him an offer he couldn't refuse. And you can see here sort of the bishop on the one side and the baron on the other. So you've got the military, the Ministry of Justice, and you've got the Church or the Ministry of Grace working together to force the king to come to terms and to do what is right. And there's quite a few interesting tapestries and paintings that depict this. You certainly get the spirit here where his heart's not quite in it, but he doesn't have much choice. And you can see again the church and the military effectively working together. Justice, the sword of justice, and the keys of grace working together, which is the way it should be. And King John looks pretty haggard over here. Doesn't look like he's only 49 at this point. And this is one of the examples. The original Magna Carta was all in Latin. We've got an example in the hallway and on the door here. And it was one long line. The numbers were put in later. Well, it didn't take long for this wicked John to actually violate his promise. One of the promises was that he's done this without reserve that he would not attempt to annul it or anything like this and immediately went and tried to annul it and to get the Pope to annul it too. Interestingly, the wicked Pope who had excommunicated him just two years before, Innocent III, he was happy to annul Magna Carta, not the Pope at jurisdiction anyway. And for his oath-breaking perjury and other deceptions and cruelties, when John was fleeing the barrens shortly after he lost all his possessions and the crown jewels and everything else in the wash in a flooded river crossing it. It's interesting that shortly after this, Professor John Wycliffe, the greatest professor of the greatest university in the world at that time in Oxford, championed the independence of England from papal control and supported King Edward III's refusal to pay taxes to the Pope, which John had initiated in 1213. And it was only one step away from denying the political supremacy of the Pope of England to questioning his spiritual supremacy over the church. And the royal favour that Wycliffe earned from this confrontation protected him late in life because, of course, Richard was most grateful and so was his wife Anne of Bohemia, who became Queen Anne of England. It's Professor Wycliffe who mobilised the Lollards, the lay preachers, to travel throughout the land to preach the Bible, to read the scriptures, to preach in the marketplace and to sing scriptures in English. which doesn't sound radical to us, but that was super radical at the time, because up to then the only language you could use for spiritual matters was Latin, according to the Catholic Church. So the sealing of Magna Carta, 15 June 1215, was a splendid victory for all English-speaking people. It marked an end to the arbitrary power of any ruler to throw a man into prison without granting him opportunity to prove his innocence. Magna Carta decrees that a man arrested must be tried in court, and if it cannot be proved that he has done wrong, he must be set free. He is innocent until proven guilty, beyond a shadow of a doubt. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike, are an abomination to the Lord. No taxation is legal if it is not authorized by the people being taxed. Weights and measures must be standardized. You can't have people in one part of the country voting tax on people in another part of the country and so on. You can't have one community deciding what another community has got to pay. That's not just. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, and honest effort, and an honest hand. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19, 35 to 36. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. Isaiah 61, verse 8. A great council of nobles and bishops was to advise and guide the king in governing the country. There's another requirement of Magna Carta. This great council soon developed into English Parliament. It comes to the French to parler, or to discuss, to talk. And this is the model and the mother of all parliaments. What we call the House of Commons, the British call the Palace of Westminster. The Palace of Westminster, built in the Victorian era, in its present form, And it contains the House of Commons on the one side and the House of Lords on the other side. The House of Commons has green upholstery, the House of Lords has red upholstery. And this is the Parliament that inspired even our Parliaments in Cape Town. The right to a fair trial by jury of one's peers. The right to having a voice in running your government and in determining your taxes. The right to adjust and uniform standard weights and measures. Remember all currency and exchange of goods and services done in terms of weight. are just some of the many blessings which flowed from Magna Carta. It forbade usury. It forbade bankers charging interest. In fact, the biggest emphasis and probably the most repeated emphasis of Magna Carta is forbidding of usury, of bankers charging interest. And this is something that the economist Stephen Mitford Goodson emphasized in his books, The History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind and Inside the Cypher Reserve Bank. That's one thing for a bank to charge you a service fee for something, but interest is immoral. So, for example, if somebody wants to buy one of our books, there's a certain price. If they want to buy 10 of the books, they might get a discount. If they want to buy 100 books, there's more of a discount. For the banks, it works differently. The more you bank, the more they charge you. Instead of bringing the service charges down, they bring the service charges up. So for me, if somebody wants to buy a hundred books, that's less work for me than to sell a hundred individual copies. So I pass on the discount. That's the way we think in book ministry. But if a person wants to bank more money, he's got to pay more to the bank. and less money pays less. And so the whole way of usury is absolutely criminal. Do you think when you've got interest rates for a house, for example, and you're paying 11% per annum, you're paying for years and years and years and decades, and you're still only paying off the interest, and you haven't even got to paying off the actual loan that you made. Usury is forbidden in the Bible. According to Stephen Mitford Goodson, there's 62 pastures in the Bible that forbid usury. And there's a lot of passages in Magna Carta that forbids usury and forbids interest rates and all the rest of it as being iniquitous, unbiblical, theft, robbery. And it's an interesting thing, also pointed out by Stephen Bedford Goodson, that as a result of Magna Carta's emphasis on not having interest rates and usury and banishing the bankers who did this, they were able to build colossal magnificent cathedrals, because the average worker in Europe was only working about 140 days a year, and they had about 220 days holiday a year. And so because of this tremendous amount of freedom and liberty, because they had no interest rates, and they had no bank charges, no usury in loans, they were able to build the cathedrals, which are monuments, to a time when Europe did not have usury. interesting point. Amos 5. Hate evil, love good, establish justice in the gate, let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. The church in England played a central role in drafting Magna Carta, initiating the negotiations between the barons and the king, and at least 11 other bishops were present at the signing of Magna Carta along with its author, Archbishop Stephen Langton. Now you see the bishop on the one side, the baron on the other in this monument to Magna Carta. The bishop with his Bible, the baron with a sword and shield, and that's actually a very good monument to depict again the balance between the ministry of justice and the ministry of grace, working together under God to force the king to rule in accordance with just biblical principles. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Archbishop Stephen Langton strongly sympathised with the Northern 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. Magna Carta, by the way, also enshrines the right and duty of the barons, the military of the country, to rise up and to, in the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, and to seize power from the king if he usurps the authority, which is the very legal basis on which Oliver Cromwell and the forces of the armies of Parliament in the English Civil War fought against King Charles and put him on trial for high treason, because Magna Carta gave them the right and the duty to do so in the event of gross injustice and all negotiations breaking down. A group of barons met in St. Edmund's Abbey Church and swore an oath to compel King John to accept the Charter of Liberties which was a proclamation made by Henry I. Nobody forced him to make it, he made it. And so this proclamation of liberties was seized upon and improved upon and given even more teeth and forced on John at Runnymede. So here you can see London, Staines, there's Windsor where he is fleeing to where he could endure a siege, but he is intercepted at Runnymede on the River Thames. So when you hear about Runnymede, that's it. It's very, very close to Windsor Castle. The Barons advanced in London where they were warmly welcomed. Even the town of London opened the gates to them, no problem. And by the time they pursued the King to Staines, Magna Carta included 63 demands. It was being increased as they travelled. On Monday the 15th of June 1215, the barons met the king, means they cornered him, in a meadow named Runnymede on the south bank of the River Thames, halfway between Staines and Windsor Castle. John agreed to the demands, but another four days were spent hammering out the details of the wording and making copies of the document. So we normally speak about 15 June 1215 as being the date. It was accepted, but it was actually only sealed and signed on Friday the 19th of June the Royal Seal was affixed to the official Magna Carta, although he'd been forced to sign an initial charter on the 15th. So generally speaking, we work on the 15th of June internationally, but it was finally, finally hammered out by the 19th of June. And this is it. This is the Seal of John, and that's an original copy of Magna Carta, which we have copies, replicas of, pictures of, on our door and framed in the hallway. Rudyard Kipling, the great English poet, wrote, 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 immersed or 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 saving always his livelihood. You couldn't take his property, his cattle, his horses, whatever was his livelihood. Very relevant at this time. And here is a monument built at the site where it was signed. Interestingly enough, not by the British, but by the Americans. This is set up by the American Bar Association to commemorate Magna Carta's symbol of freedom under law, which is why it's got the American white cross on blue background, because the Americans paid for this monument. Because they recognized this as their birth certificate too. There are other monuments here of, for example, here you can see the knights with their shield and sword. There's a sword there, and King John is being forced with his sword in his right hand to sign this document with his left. Interesting monuments of an unhappy king. Now, Innocent III, who was a very strong pope, very powerful pope, He had excommunicated King John of England at 1209. and he rescinded it in 1213 at his abasement and humbling himself and placing the British crown at the feet of the papal legate and so on. But he now took John's side and declared that this was not valid. Well, for good reason, because it violated his inquisition on the continent. Despite attempts by King John to violate his commitment and the hostility of Pope Innocent III to Magna Carta, Interesting, I can have these names that are totally meaningless. He's anything but innocent. It's like Democratic Republic of the Congo, People's Democratic Republic, or the People's Democratic Republic of China. When they've got the word democratic in it, they normally aren't. And when they're called innocent or pious, they probably aren't. The regency of John's young son, Henry III, reissued Magna Carta in 1216. He didn't do it unwillingly, he did it enthusiastically. Now, remember, he's at least the nephew of Richard, even if he's the son of John. You don't always have to follow your parents in their bad ways, you can start a new charter. And so the 1216 charter reissued, and there was even a few fine-tunings there. His son, Edward I, or Edward Longshanks, who was a great Crusaders spent a lot of time killing Muslims in the Holy Land. He reissued Magna Carta in 1297, again with a few other refinements, confirming it as part of England's statute law and Edward I is often given the credit as being the father of the English Parliament. In a sense, the Great Council was then renamed a Parliament and put into English statute law. Of course, The Scots hate him because he's the hammer of the Scots. He probably gets a bit of an unfair treatment in the Braveheart film, but nevertheless Edward I did issue a 1297 version of Magna Carta. Now John died just a year and a half after signing Magna Carta at age 50 of dysentery in the field and he's buried in Worcester Cathedral. and it's quite an impressive tomb. But notice the strange... He's got two talking heads. He's got an ugly demon on one shoulder and he's got a more angelic kind of character on the other shoulder. Maybe it's sort of like, you know, in some of these cartoons where you see you've got the angel on the one shoulder telling you the good thing to do and you've got the demon on the other shoulder telling you the bad thing to do. I think what it's suggesting is that John was double-minded and he was torn between knowing the right and doing the wrong. But as Winston Churchill said in History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Englishmen owe more to the vices of King John than to the virtues of any other man. They're chartered rights as Englishmen. 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 time of the Anglo-Saxons, such as the dooms of King Alfred the Great at the end of the 9th century. King Alfred the Great of England, who lived in the 9th century, fought in over 54 battles. He laid the foundations of the common law. Notice his statue here, which I've been to in the south of England, in Wessex. He's got the battle axe, but he's also got the scroll. He was a scholar. a lawmaker, an educator, but he was a soldier and a fighter as well. Alfred began his dooms with the Ten Commands of Exodus 20 and the Mosaic case laws of Exodus 21 to 23 and then mentioned the golden rule of Christ and other biblical principles from the Sermon on the Mount. That's the common law of England. That's the dooms. It's called the dooms because there were penalties if you violated these laws. So the dooms of King Alfred were also called the common law of England. It is not good to show partiality in judgment. He who says to the wicked, you are righteous, him the peoples will curse, nations will abhor him. The principles of limited government and the foundations of individual liberty can be traced through King Alfred to the Bible. And that is a quote from the history of English-speaking peoples. The law of God's the only effective foundation for freedom and justice. The ten commands cover our responsibilities to God, our responsibility to our parents, and our responsibility to other people. Each command deals with a specific area. God, worship, speech, time, authority, life, love, property, truth, and conscience. Each command includes prohibitions, like you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, but also includes an implicit right, the right to freedom of worship, the right to know God's will and to do it. The right to have freedom of speech, the right to work and to rest, respect for authority, the right to life. Do not commit murder means the right to life is enshrined. Do not commit adultery, the sanctity of marriage is protected. Do not steal, private ownership property. Do not bear false witness, the right to be protected from slander and libel. Do not covet, freedom of conscience. The only limit to our conscience is do not covet and worship God alone. So that means you've got freedom of conscience outside of that. The only limits to freedom of speech is, do not take God's name in vain, don't bear false witness. Outside of that, those small limitations, you've got freedom of speech. So all of our rights are based on the Ten Commands. And Jesus summarized the second table of the law, do to others you want to be done unto. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ expressly affirmed the eternal validity of God's law. Do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot, not one tittle will by any means pass in the law until all is fulfilled, not the least stroke of a pen. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So then Matthew 5, could the Lord make it any stronger that the law of God applies? Because the law reflects the character of God. It was written by God's own finger on stablets of stone. And the new covenant, Jeremiah says, is written on our hearts. So how much clearer could the Lord make it that his law applies? Jesus said, if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. The great commission is to teach obedience to all things the Lord has commanded. Ten commands are summed up in the words of Christ. The greatest command, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. Only the fear of God can produce lasting justice and righteousness in individuals, families, churches and nations. Here you've got this beautiful painting in the Swiss Palace of Justice. Justice lifts the nations and Lady Justice is symbolized holding the balance, the scales of justice, weighing the evidence with a sword pointed down to an open holy Bible. And the elders of the city look to her for wisdom and justice, while the sheriff stands by with his double-handed sword, while the people argue out their cases performed. And so justice lifts the nations. I so prefer the Swiss picture of justice to the American picture. The American lady justice is always blindfolded. In Europe, all the statues of the lady justice I've seen in pictures, there's no blindfold. Americans seem to think a blindfolded lady justice makes sense, but I don't want someone blindfolded wielding a sword. And there's always the scales of justice and the sword. In America, the sword's often pointed upwards. But I like this, the sword's pointed downwards to an open bar. This is the basis of all justice and righteousness. Only to the degree that people fear God and obey his commands can society function for the good and the freedom of all its citizens. Adherence to God's law would result in respect for God, respect for people, respect for property. A society where you can love your neighbor instead of fearing your neighbor. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish. It will be utterly ruined. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Now both James I and his son Charles I attempted to suppress the 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. A terrible way to emphasize the principle that even the king is under the law. and how much clearer it could be. The first time in history the king had been executed after due process of law. Kings had been assassinated before, murdered, but never before did a king go through due process of law, being accused of high treason and executed. Very harsh, but it did prove the point of lex rex, the law is king, not rex lex. Now they've inverted the Latin from rex lex to lex rex, the law is king. If you go to Oliver Cromwell's, his monument to Oliver Cromwell, an unusual person you would think in the Reformation wall at Geneva. It's of course got Calvin, Farel, Beza, Knox, as you'd expect. They're the Ministry of Justice. But here you've got a Ministry of Grace. You've got the Minister of Justice, Oliver Cromwell, a military man, parliamentarian, who seized control of England and was part of the court that condemned the king to death. On the wall, which says, you notice, Post Tenebris Lux. After darkness, light. That's, you'll see that even on the wall up at Franschhoek at the Huguenot Monument. It's the motto of Geneva. After darkness, light. And you've got Oliver Cromwell depicted in the wall here as one of the reformers. A surprising choice by many people's minds. But he's one of the only other statues outside the Palace of Westminster in England, outside the House of Commons. The violation of the rights of Englishmen, as outlined in the Magna Carta, led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which ousted the Catholic apostate James II, and welcomed the Protestant William and Mary from Netherlands to the throne and the signing of the English Bill of Rights of 1689. And this is honoured The Tercentenary of the Bill of Rights published this coin produced by Queen Elizabeth's Authority in 1989 with the crown over the crown and the scepter of Parliament, the English Bill of Rights, which most Englishmen to this day don't even know exists. Righteousness exalts the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. The colonists of 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. You see, they were Englishmen, but on the other side of the Atlantic. And they were being taxed without representation, and they were being treated like they had no rights. And they said, but our chartered rights as Englishmen, Magna Carta, is being violated. And the English Parliament treated them like, well, you subjects, you've got no rights. Because they're in America, which is why they declared independence. In 1687, William Penn, after whom Pennsylvania is named, published The Excellent Privilege of Liberty and Property, being the birthright of free-born subjects of England, which contained the first copy of Magna Carta printed in American soil. 1687. Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants. Right is right, even if everyone's against it. Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. William Penn's comments reflected those of Cokes. Magna Carta is fundamental law. The American colonists quoted extensively from Magna Carta concerning the rights to trial by jury and habeas corpus, meaning you're innocent until proven guilty, and you have no right to be detained without trial unless it's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're guilty. You're innocent until proven guilty, without a shadow of a doubt. The American founding fathers declared that their constitution was to preserve their rights and liberties as enshrined in Magna Carta. Look at this. In 1987, which is in time of Ronald Reagan, this oak tree, planted with soil from Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in 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 trace their lineage through the institutions of English law to the Magna Carta. sealed at Runnymede on June the 15th, 1215, planted December the 2nd, 1987 by Secretary of the Army of the United States of America. They could even see, in 1987, Magna Carta as the line through which their liberties and the Constitution run. The Founding Fathers of America claimed Magna Carta as foundational for the American Constitution of 1789, which became the supreme law of the land in the USA. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. This comes straight from Magna Carta, and this, in different words, is in our Bill of Rights in South Africa too, which also comes from Magna Carta. You can't deprive people of rights of property and due process of law, just because they're the wrong race, or because you don't like them, or because you covet their property, or whatever. In 1976, Britain lent one of the four surviving originals of the 1215 Magna Carta to the United States for their bicentennial, and under its eternal birthday celebrations, they also donate an ornate case to display it. A replica is still on display in the United States Capitol Crypt in Washington, D.C. and what an ornate presentation. Magna Carta, and this is only a copy, in the crypt of the American Congress. That means at the base. It's symbolically the foundation of the whole establishment. William Stubb, in his Constitutional History of England, published in 1870s, he documented that Magna Carta had been a major step in the shaping of the English people as a nation governed by laws under God. The British Dominions, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Southern Rhodesia, Union of South Africa, all regarded Magna Carta as foundational to their laws and sought to model their constitutions on its provisions. Canada. Australia. Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, is built over an enshrined copy of Magna Carta 1297, an original from King Edward I, the father of English parliaments, so called. Four exemplifications of the original 1215 Magna Carta remain in existence and are held by the British Library and the Cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury. Now they were each, of course, handwritten as before the printing press. So they each have slight variations and differences. Some are more significant, with a book done long ways, landscape or portrait and so on. So you've got the cathedrals of Lincoln and the cathedrals of Salisbury which house copies of these and there was an attempt to steal one of these recently and an alarm sounded and a person was smashing away with a hammer at the glass trying to break through and of course got arrested and you know these are very well protected. These are the most precious possessions of these cathedrals in many ways to preserve Magna Carta. 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 the provisions were understood by the populations and read to them. You may only handle these with gloves. The original charters were written on vellum sheets, which means calf leather using quill pens in the abbreviated Latin. Each was sealed with a royal great seal using beeswax and resin, most of which of course have not survived. I mean the beeswax and resin hasn't survived, the vellum has. The 63 numbered clauses of Magna Carta were introduced by Sir William Blackstone in 1759 as the original charters formed a single long unbroken text. William Blackstone said, so great moreover is the regard of the law for private property that it will not authorize the least violation of it, no, not even for the general good of the whole community. Private ownership of property is the foundation of civilization. No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God. This has been repeated in so many cases by legal experts. No law is valid unless it's founded in God's law. God's law is the foundation. Now, God's law was meant to be the foundation for Magna Carta. And insofar as Magna Carta reflects God's law, it is fundamental, inviolable, gold standard law. And here you can see the history and defense of Magna Carta with one of the swords that was there at Runnymede. Of course, the wooden handle has rotted many years ago. But again, just showing the sword and the word goes together. The four original 1215 charters on joint display in the British Library in 2015 to mark the 80th anniversary of Magna Carta, that must have been absolutely nerve-wracking for security. transported and received under great pomp and ceremony and phenomenal security. All four originals in one place, can you imagine? Lincoln Cathedral's original copy of the 1215 Magna Carta was being displayed at the World Fair in New York when the Second World War broke out and they spent the rest of the war years in Fort Knox, the most secure facility America had. Prime Minister Winston Churchill attempted to gift this charter to the American government, hoping this could encourage the USA, then neutral, to enter the war on Britain's side. But Lincoln Cathedral protested and refused to hand over the rights to such a precious heritage. It doesn't belong to the British government. It doesn't belong to the British Prime Minister. It belongs to Lincoln Cathedral. You have no right to give anyone else our property. basically what Magna Carta stands for. Anyway, Winston Churchill didn't seem to have grasped this basic fundamental point of private ownership property. It wasn't his property to give. Only one exemplification of Henry's 1216 charter survived and it's held in Durham Cathedral. Durham Cathedral is a magnificent fortress. I visited here and let me tell you, this was the scene of the Prince Bishop. The Bishop of Durham was one of the most powerful men in the whole country. When William the Conqueror conquered England, he left Durham County and said like, how are you doing? He did not bother to mobilize against the armies of the Prince Bishop, which was more than the Vikings could handle at that stage. And so Durham remained very, very independent. And for many years, even today, the Bishop of Durham has got a phenomenal amount of independence, even the Church of England. Bishop of Durham's house. And you can see it's built like a fort. It is a fort. And this is the pulpit, but in fact I've got a picture somewhere of the throne of the bishop which is extremely exalted as well. Durham Cathedral. Four copies of the 1217 chart exist. Three of these are held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and one at Hereford Cathedral. So this is where you get Magna Carta. So the charter towns in red, that's where they wrote these charters. And the blue is where original copies reside, such as Salisbury, Lincoln, and of course City of London. So can you say the word 12, eh? Originally, but I don't know where all the rest have gone. Damaged, burned in war, whatever. Nothing to do with biblical 12. Well, maybe that was the intention, you know, like the 12 tribes, yes. That was the idea, like 12 stones, yes. That was the goal. So now a green, later version, is in Canberra. A copy is in Washington, D.C. So this, the Canberra, of course, being Australia's parliament. So the Australian government has a 1297 Charter, original, signed and sealed by Edward I, Edward Longshanks, father of English Parliament, on display in the Members Hall of Parliament House Canberra. Now just look at how this whole place is built. What is under the dead centre there? Magna Carta. The entire Australian Parliament is built over and around Magna Carta. It is the foundation, the ethical, legal, moral foundation of Australia. Where is that pointing down to? This. Magna Carta is at the dead centre, the epicentre, the foundation of the Australian Parliament. This is a 1297 original. And it was brought out, of course, in 1215, the Australian government all bowing to it and championing it. But this is the thing that's so amazing. They don't live by it, but they're all revered and respected. It was like in 2011, all over England and the world, people were championing 400 years of King James Bible. But do they obey it? Do they read it? Do they preach it? Nevertheless, it's important that they're acknowledging it and we can hold them to account in this. The National Archives in Washington, D.C. has a copy of the 1297 chart as well. So in 215, all over the world, the English-speaking world, there was Magna Carta Day. And you saw phenomenal exhibits in Britain. I mean, the British know how to organize celebrations and all the law books based on Magna Carta. And of course, a lot of books are written on this. The British government produced postage stamps with different points of Magna Carta that excessive bail ought not to be required nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. from the English Bill of Rights 1609, copying from Magna Carta 1215. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, American Bill of Rights 1791, Magna Carta 1215, Foundation of Liberty. They produced coins of Magna Carta. Queen Elizabeth the 11th to 215, this was minted for Ascension Island, no less, with Magna Carta. depicted here with all the symbols of freedom under law. Magna Carta, 800 years, 1215-2015. Again, the Seal of John with the law. Here's a coin, 1215. Again, you can see the Great Charter, Magna Carta. They produced them in silver and gold. Royal Mint. Obviously, they recognized Magna Carta as the gold standard. This is real fundamental law. Whitechapel produced the Magna Carta Bell, 1215 to 2015. For the children, they produced the Magna Carta Chronicle, a young person's guide to 800 years in the fight for freedom. They held great events in, anyone recognize where this is? This is in Whitehall. This is just outside Parliament. It was in this hall. This is Westminster where the Westminster Confessions, the Westminster Standards, the Westminster Catechism was produced. This is where they tried Charles I and condemned him to death. So they used this as a venue to discuss and celebrate the significance of Magna Carta. Displays all over the world, from Australia to Canada. Studies, promotion, and people coming and revering it. But again, how many of them even know what Magna Carta says and condemns, and do they vote according to it? This is by Rani Mead. This is what they organized. Now, by the way, the actual monument to Rony Meade runs off to the side, I think, to the left here. But they started off, everyone from, you can Google and hear the speeches of Brian Cameron and all those characters. Who is it, Prime Minister Cameron? David Cameron, that's correct. So here you've got the American flag and the British flag. Interesting, at this American monument. Notice, erected by the American Bar Association. And so the Americans have had their own special events there. The Queen of England went there, received with great enthusiasm. And here's the Coldstream gods, the Queen's own gods, and all the royals turning up there. And you had symbols of, I don't know what the Americans were doing dressed up in the Knights Templar, what the Knights Templar had to do with it. But anyway, they were there too. And you had the military. You had everyone from politicians to legal people to royals. The Duke of Cambridge commissioned this plaque to commemorate the 800 celebrations. Australians were there. Canadians were there. The Royal Air Force was doing a flyover. All this at Runnymede. So it's not like the world doesn't recognize this is important. They just would rather you remain ignorant about what it actually says. It's not surprising that Pope Innocent III reacted with hostility to Magna Carta and attempted to annul it, because the Catholic Inquisition was established in a continent with corpus juris, effectively guilty till proven innocent. While the Church in England was establishing habeas corpus and trial by jury, where innocent till proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, 2 Chronicles 19.2 says, should ye help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord, therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you. For those who think Magna Carta is only a matter of distant interest for historians, Britain's membership of the European Union threatened to undermine our chartered rights as Englishmen. EU is deliberately trying to rebuild Babel. They deliberately try to build in Strasbourg their Parliament building here in the form of Babel, even with the incomplete building and with scaffolding as part of it, as depicted in the Brussels painting by Bruegel. The EU is trying to recreate Babel. They even say many tongues one voice. That's one of their slogans. Brussels is attempting to create a unified European criminal code which would abolish trial by jury and habeas corpus and other safeguards entrenched in Magna Carta. More influenced by the Papal Inquisition and Napoleonic Code Corpus Juris, if allowed to progress unchecked, an EU prosecutor could issue European warrants which could violate the foundation stones of British freedom's established Magna Carta. This is a threat to freedom. These people are unaccountable. However, there's a rebellion in the ranks, and in the recent EU elections, Euro-sceptic, anti-globalist groups such as the Italian Prime Minister, Marine Le Pen, who got more votes for her French front rally, national rally, Geert Wilders from Netherlands, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Freedom Party in Netherlands, and the Brexit Party of England have really been winning. The European Union is not Europe, says Marion Le Pen. It is an ideology without land, without people, without roots, without soul, and without civilization. The European Union is solely killing the millennial nations. And Brexit in England has surprised the world. That even with all the political parties in the government being against it, even with all the media being against it, and BBC's propaganda campaigns against Brexit, a majority of English voters chose Brexit. And the recent EU parliamentary elections, the Brexit party got more votes than any other. In fact, the Brexit party now, which only started six weeks before the EU elections, is now the largest party in the EU parliament in all of Europe. a phenomenal vote against globalism and politics as usual. So the British line is not dead. It's still got a bit of roar. Most Christians do not seem to understand that we are in a war. It's a war of ideas and it's a war of loyalties. You either give your allegiance to God or to Satan and the world is the battlefield. Unfortunately, many Christians have failed to renew their minds and don't understand how the humanist worldview conflicts with the biblical worldview. You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so that we might no longer be a reproach and disgrace. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Be very careful in how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord and who finds great delight in his commands. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it. Unless the Lord builds 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 Magna Carta, we've got magazines on the table which have got the text of the presentation tonight and some of the pictures available can help distribute. Recent threats to our freedom such as the hate speech bill, threat to free speech. We've got this article and links to audio and video on the web or will have soon and on a Reformation 500 page on Facebook we all share this recently. These are some of my sources on Magna Carta. I wrote an article for the Covenant Nations also on Blessing the Nations about Magna Carta back in 2015. The books on the Glorious Revolution and of course we've tried to enshrine many of these principles in our Biblical Principles for Africa and Ten Commands books. So, any comments, questions? How many of these 63 points I saw? 63 points. 63 points I actually recognized. Basically about four. Only about four. Things like private property, trial by jury and so on. But usury, obviously they violated that a long, long, long, long time ago. And yet that's the main emphasis, is against usury. So Britain doesn't actually have a constitution. It basically still runs on the theme of the Labour Party. That is correct. In England, you should be able to, at any time, appeal to Magna Carta. And it's been the greatest legal authority in British history. Sir William Blackstone said, Magna Carta is fundamental law. It's foundation law. Any law not in accordance with Magna Carta is invalid. What we need is Christian lawyers who will be able to stand up and make these cases in court. And some politicians will stand on us too. But even in our country, We have got recognition of links to Magna Carta, because our Bill of Rights is even meant to be based on it. So I think there's a good case, but if you're in Australia, Canada, or Britain, or America, they have built their parliaments over it. with America or Canberra. So I think our friends should do a lot more studying Magna Carta and pointing out how can you try and infringe on our freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of worship, freedom of association, right to private ownership of property and all this. This is fundamental law. And I think a little bit more creativity on the side of our side we could win quite a few arguments. So I want to ask about death penalty. Yes, but again, on the basis of a trial by jury, without a shadow of a doubt, nobody is to be deprived of life, liberty, life, capital punishment, liberty, that means being imprisoned, or property confiscations, without due process of law by a jury of their peers, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, and so there's all kinds of protection. So it's taken for granted that you can be deprived of life in these cases, but it's got to be extremely grave, serious, and so on, such as murder. As I said, to give a person death penalty for trivial offences. This is something also that the Charles Dickens books in the 1800s well depicted. Do you know that they had, at the beginning of the 19th century, 300 offences in Britain that you could get the death penalty for? And Charles Dickens was pointing out a lot of the injustices, which his books helped, especially Oliver Twist and so on, to bring to people's attention, and they reformed much of the law when they saw that. So, you know, how can you be giving the death penalty for a person who effectively was A thief needs restitution. Execution should be reserved for murder, kidnapping, rape, capital offences. And Britain had wandered far from it, so you needed sometimes a literary person like Charles Dickens to bring the conscience of the country back. So how does Britain figure now? Is Britain still classed as a feudal state, a country? Does it have the right to bear arms? Obviously not. It does. Officially, according to the English Bill of Rights, the Dooms of King Alfred, the Laws of Cnut, Magna Carta, nobody may deprive any free man of keeping and bearing weapons. And the English Bill of Rights expressly even included firearms, which of course didn't exist in the days of Magna Carta, but there to speak about weapons, which would include your bow and arrow, your swords and daggers. So the English Bill of Rights made it clear, and in fact the terms of the English Bill of Rights of 1689 is, no Protestant shall be deprived of his rights keep and bear arms. Interesting that they didn't allow Catholics because they saw Catholics as seditious and wanting to overthrow and they were dealing with terrorism even back then from the Irish Catholics. So they saw no problem with depriving Catholics of having a firearm and access to dynamite but not Protestants. But still the principle applies and apparently the man who started taking weapons away from the English people was Winston Churchill as Home Secretary first and later as Prime Minister. What was his reason? He didn't have a good reason because he was taking away people's weapons during the Second World War when you would have thought if you're in danger of invasion, as he claimed, why would you want to disarm your people? So there's still no reason behind it? There's no logical legal reason. No, but remember Britain's got the foundation for the Second Amendment in Magna Carta. They can't deprive anyone of rights. And the English Bill of Rights has expressed about the right to firearms. So, by taking away firearms from English people, they're saying they're no longer free people. Because the very definition is, no free man shall be deprived of the right to keep and bear arms. But I mean, after the shooting up in, was it the Dunblane massacre? Yes. They went berserk. It's gotten harder and harder. And in Britain, if a farmer, say, uses a shotgun to defend his home from some home invader, he's the one who ends up in jail. Which is, it's wicked. And Australia's gotten, if anything, worse. They've gone berserk. And you know, there's an enormous amount of people who think that the mosque attack in New Zealand was a false flag operation. I think there's a very strong possibility. There are American security people, there's British military intelligence people who've stated that almost all the terrorist attacks that take place in Britain and America are false flag operations organized by our own security forces. I don't know, but that's what's being said and it certainly seems feasible to me. just the normal people as feudal countries. So all those martial art weapons came from the farming implements. They used farming implements like the runchaka and everything else for farming. That's why the Far East has all these martial arts, because they were deprived of weapons. They had to improvise. By the way, it was pointed out to me a while ago that even cricket was started as a martial sport to be able to bat away projectiles. Oh, really? I'd never thought of crickets having... Now, we know that there was a time in Britain where they banned tennis because they wanted everybody... and they passed laws requiring every Englishman and his son to be on the village green after church, practicing with their archery. because archery was the primary weapon of Britain. Longbow. You had to, by law, provide your son of six years old with a bow his height, and at eight years old, and at ten, and at twelve. And they had to be exactly his height, and you had to be out, and you had to fire so many arrows. And they decided after a while to ban virtually every sport, so that every Englishman had to be practicing with the archery. It was that important. That longbow, was it 1066, the Battle of Hastings? Battle of Hastings, 1066, and it was an arrow that pierced Harrod's eye. But of course Crecy in the 13th century and Agincourt in the beginning of the 15th century, these were critical. And it was the superpower of Europe and the world was France. Was Crecy Welsh? Was he Welsh or British? Well, at Crecy, they were fighting the French, and I think it was the Welsh bowmen who were a key factor in it. And by the Battle of Agincourt, Henry had the English longbowmen were the best in the world. In fact, they said their forearm muscles were, you can even see from the skeletons now, which was an English bowman, because you can see his bones are so much stronger on the right arm. Where did the actual V sign come from? Oh, yes, the English archers, of course, using their two fingers. So the French king said he's going to cut off the two forefingers of every English bowman he found. So they'd be standing at the battle of things, going like this to the French. which is I've still got my two fingers, my bowstring fingers. And so that's where it became a rude symbol between the English and the French. It's like we can still do to you what we did at Crecy and at Agincourt. And now, interesting in Eastern Europe, Going the other way around, they use it as the V for victory over communism. Churchill used it a lot, but I'm talking about Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, people going like this, it's victory over communism. The English always had pointing the fingers towards them outright, but it comes the same thing, it's my bow fingers for archery. Yeah, like Posh. Port out, starboard home. So they put luggage, because the best berths, cabins in a ship was a port out, starboard home, because you'd be going around Africa to India, and you see the coast all the way around, port out, starboard home. So the Posh people got the best berths, which cost more, so they got P-O-S-H, and that's where the term Posh came from. You could afford the best berths and cabins on a ship. Sure, that's interesting. Talking about free, I came across a quote from Edmund Burke the other day, and I thought it was quite interesting. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters. Their passions forge their fetters. What a good term. Yes, that reminds one of Hugo Grotius' quote that you cannot govern a country unless you're capable of governing a city. And if you can't govern a city unless you've governed a village. And you can't govern a village unless you've ruled a family. And you can't rule a family unless you can control yourself. And you can't control yourself unless your will be lord and your appetites are vassals. So you can't let your passions or your appetites be your ruler. It's got to be the will over your instincts and desires. In other words, if you can't be self-controlled, and even went further and said, neither can you rule yourself unless you're ruled by God. That's right. So even though the Bible tells you to exercise your self-control, that has to be... Under God's control. I think I've also heard it from philosophers when we were doing philosophy in high school, and it's that, like, no man is free, like, naturally. You're bound to take, like, decisions according to education that you got, to your character, like, everything around you. So you're kind of bound to take even your decisions and your reactions will always be bound to something. Yes. Kind of saying no one is free. Everyone is bound to something. That's the fact. New Zealand never came up in this Magna Carta. Do they sort of... They've got to regard it as foundational to their law. I don't know what they've said publicly, but certainly their parliament was built on it originally. But with Australia it's absolutely fascinating how they have really built their parliament. Has there ever been a parliament built more around Magna Cod as its foundation? So for example, when I was in Australia last year and I went on a pro-life demo outside an abortion clinic in Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, and I was told by the pastor who's my host that in Queensland abortion is still illegal. It's practiced but it's still illegal in statute books. So I was part of this and as I was a foreigner I kept quiet and let them handle it. But when the police arrived after a few minutes of us being there He said, you've got to leave, and so our host said, what law have you violated? He said, I'm not saying you violated any law, but if you don't leave, I'm going to arrest you. So he said, you do realize that we have the right to assembly, and he even quoted Magna Carta, and said, and abortion is illegal and crazy. And a policeman raised his hands like this and said, that's above my pay grade. But if you don't move, I'm going to arrest you. But what have we done wrong? It doesn't matter. The people in there have said that they are experiencing stress because we are out here, and so I'm ordering you to move. But what have we done wrong? It doesn't matter. I've ordered you as a police officer to move. So where's the law? We hadn't violated any law. According to my host, everything we did was completely legal, constitutional, etc. Not in accordance with Magna Carta, but even Australian law. But the policeman still had this attitude of, you do what I tell you or else I'm going to arrest you. For what reason? What law have we violated? They don't have the answer. They don't. So many countries are getting lawless. Like Adrian Clarke out in Bristol. Bristol! Which is where the great evangelical awakening under George Whitfield began with open air preaching. They want to arrest them for open air preaching. Why? What have we done wrong? These guys just didn't care. Fortunately they had body cams which recorded everything said done and were able to play it in the court and the judge dismissed the case when he saw that actually the office had no reason for arresting them. Even when they said you offended some people here, it turned out that the hecklers in the crowd were doing the offensiveness and the evangelists like Adrian Clarke were responding very calmly, rationally and objectively. And it just shows if you do open air preaching or demonstrations outside the clinic it's probably good to film it. Because if you get nailed these days it's their word against yours unless you've got a video recording. It's sad that it's come to that. In a supposed Christian country. Yes. You're guilty till proven innocent. In Saudi Arabia until you're offending a couple of Christians across the road there. Yeah, you'd be beheaded. Yes, like they would care. Well this is a weapon. Well worth knowing your laws and Magna Cod is not even that long. It's easy to access. But I mean in words. It literally fits on one big page. We've got an abbreviation on the door and a bigger one on the wall. Now this one is in Latin and the English translation is framed in the hallway. You'll see we've got several things that I think are very significant. On the door to the field office we've also got the 95 theses for reformation. Yes, those four that we spoke about. No, no, no, they're originals because remember we're talking about originals, handwritten, sealed by the king. Those originals, not copies, they were the actual originals from 1215, and then 1216, then 1217, and then there was 1297, and all of those are Magna Cartas, but I mean the original originals, those are the ones that are treasured, which people are willing to pay 20 to 30 million pounds apiece for, and of course most of these places won't sell them either. but isn't that just fascinating that you have all this pomp and ceremony and all the powers of Britain gathering there at Runnymede and the Air Force and everyone's all honoring it and think while they're aborting babies locking up people for defending themselves and it's just staggering. But it's still good for us to note, it doesn't matter that the other side's hypocrites. Our Lord didn't hesitate to point out hypocrisy. Just read Matthew 23. When people want to talk about law and right and justice, just knowing these facts, and the notes are there on the Christian Action magazine, So, just to know some of these facts and to point it out to people, all of your basic rights, enshrined in Magna Carta, based on the scriptures, these are the foundations of all law. Any law not compatible with that is invalid. And I think we've got a strong case to argue. And seldom have I been in a country where you can argue this more effectively than Australia or Great Britain, where they worship Magna Carta effectively as the epitome of law. But if you start asking them what's in it, they have no idea. So what about the schools? Can't we make a plan so that in the schools it can be actually done? Yes, knowledge is power. I mean this is where you really empower people with the knowledge of this. And you used to have to be trained in law, and still are in many countries. You've got to study Latin to be able to be a lawyer, because a lot of the original was written in Latin, like Magna Carta. And it's very useful to know the key legal principles, like habeas corpus and so on. and jurisprudence. So if we can get our people just to understand what Magna Carta teaches, this is a weapon to use. And the Southern Constitution has many of these principles, like nobody can be deprived of property without just compensation. Who wrote about the Constitution? A group of who? Well, sadly, it included people like Soror and Poser. But still, it was agreed to by all sides and it was required, like privatization of property and all that sort of thing, the exact opposite of expropriation of compensation. That was a requirement to bring about peace and a resolution, a lawful resolution that led to the one man, one vote, etc. and it stopped civil war. Now, if you're going to violate that sworn agreement, you're going to not only violate the very foundation of civilization and a good economy, but you're going to open up to a reopening of all those violent, extremely destructive things that were on the go in the early 90s. last week that the government actually, there was a commission that drew up a new document about the land reforms. Oh yeah, well they're working on it. I do know that people like Afroforum and Freedom Front Plus are fighting and their lawyers are busy investigating and trying to counter it. Transvaal Agricultural Union and others. So let's stay alert, because it's all in danger of happening now. But just on the positive side, bear in mind that when they voted for this at the end of February last year, they were talking about implementing it by the end of August last year. But there was so much opposition, including from Australia, Donald Trump's tweets and things like this, that they put it back. And then they were talking about 31 March this year, they're going to start land expropriations on. And then that also got pushed. Now, you see, it shows that even with the minimal amount of resistance, it slowed them down. We can throw lots more wrenches in the works and undermine their whole system. The main thing is right now, it's a battle for the mind. It's a battle for moral high ground. It's an information war. So we've got to fight this. Letters, radio, every means we can. Sharing videos and audios like this on the internet with others. We've got to get people overseas knowing, and so I've been on quite a lot of overseas radio programs, British, American, and so on. Getting overseas support is key, because that's what can put pressure on this government to rein in their forces. Because if they are able to do what they want in the dark, they'll do the worst. You shine light, maybe the cockroaches will scurry into the corner. I've had hour-long programs on this in Britain and America. Many, many, many scores of radio programs on the expropriation of compensation run personally. Most are horrified, incredulous, unbelieving. How is this possible? We thought Ramphosa was great. Our Prime Minister said that she trusted him and things like this. So you get very interesting reactions. But they're horrified, just mind-bogglingly. How can our government continue to give aid to your government if they're planning this sort of thing? Which is a good question. Anyway, Theresa May's out. She's, in fact, what a worthless individual. I don't know if you noticed in her resignation, Theresa May came out with, it was pitiful. She said, I'm only the second woman to be Prime Minister of Great Britain, but I won't be the last. She couldn't point to anything she'd done, but she dared to make this into gender politics, and by association, link herself to Margaret Thatcher, the greatest progress the Britonels had in the last century. What possible connection is there between her and Margaret Thatcher? Nothing in politics, but it's just, well, she's a woman, I'm a woman too, so that's pathetic. Absolutely worthless piece of nonsense. That's the best Theresa May could come up with. Well, what about your actual policies? What did you actually achieve? In, what, three years she failed to get Britain out of Europe even after the Brexit vote? Well, she was always a Remainer at heart. Yes. He didn't do anything. It's just like Ramaphosa said he's going to clean out corruptions on. Has he prosecuted one single case of corruption? And by the way, remember he was several years ago, Barzuma appointed, what was it, 2013, to sort out Eskim? So, you know, honestly, what a corrupt criminal, and yet there are people all over, including Christian South Africans, at last we have a president to be proud of, and now we are saved, our prayers have been answered, we can rebuild the country, and this rhomophoria, they call it. I just don't know where these people's minds are, but you've got a lot of gullibility. It's the same with Malang Gagwa. I mean, he was Bob's right-hand man. There's 20,000 assorted. It hasn't worked very well either. Yeah, and they didn't say anything about that. No. Do you recall when the interim constitution was published, Peter Leon, Tony Leon's brother, saying that the weakness of this constitution was conflict, conflicting clauses, and unclear clauses, which left it open to... Probably deliberately. For example, back in 1996, when F.W. de Klerk was president, deputy president, I met with de Klerk and he, with the pro-life delegation, he said, there is no way abortion can ever be legalized in South Africa. We have the right to life force in the Bill of Rights. And he was, you know, take it from me. And he also said, in that same meeting, I can assure you that neither I nor any national party member will approve this constitution unless it guarantees the right to life of pre-born babies. Or you could call them unborn babies. And just a few days later he voted for the constitution. Is that amazing? The clerk is in Afrikaans a volksveraer. Volksveraer. A people traitor. Traitor to the people. Absolute... He sold away the farm. We were the superpower of Africa. We had all the power. We could have negotiated any deal we wanted. And we had the power to enforce it. We could have given him independence, all sorts of things. I mean, all sorts of options have failed him. Now he had to choose a centralized kind of government situation. We could have had a totally decentralized, we could have a Swiss confederation system. There was many options open to us. We had the power to bring about an agreement, and we could have done it. But no, he deliberately undermined it. What do you think? Was he under some sort of... He was bought. He was totally bought. And who do you think bought him? I mean, you're just talking about the powers that be... Well, P.W. Butcher told me that he contacted F.W. de Klerk when he got his Nobel Peace Prize and said, I see you got the Nobel Peace Prize that they offered me if I'd release Mandela, so I suppose they also gave you the I think it was $12 million or whatever, but they offered me to do it too, so I presumably got that too. And he said he never even denied it. He just complained that, yes, they never said that I'd have to share this Nobel Prize with Mandela. No, he didn't use those words. It's as bad as Obama getting it in his first year. Well, how do you like the Nobel Peace Prize? That's meant to be something that the Norwegians give out. The Americans offered it. In fact, Jimmy Carter offered it. I will ensure that you get a Nobel Peace Prize if you sign this." It was Begin and, who was the Egyptian? Sadat. Sadat and Begin. If the Egyptian and Israeli armistice would sign this peace act, I'll guarantee you get the Nobel Peace Prize. And then they offered the Nobel Peace Prize to BW Buddha and then offered it to FW De Klerk if it released Mandela. And the American government can not just promise it, but dish it out. So how independent is this Nobel Peace Prize? Just like an Academy Award. What's an Academy Award mean? A bunch of cocaine-sniffing perverts, drug dealers, and rapists are swapping gold statues. I'll give you a gold statue this year, you give it to me next year. It's just a mutual back-slapping thing. It's just a bunch of... It's not an academic anything. The Academy of Arts and Sciences of the Hollywood Academy Awards, they're all the producers and directors and so on and so on. We call it the self-admiration club. It's like mutual back-slapping, back-scratching, blowing one's own trumpet thing. It's meaningless, and yet the amount of people, oh, I've got an Academy Award, I must go and see it. No, if you've got an Academy Award, it means it promotes pedophilia, homosexuality, LGBTQ, communism, demonizes Christians, mainstreams, blasphemy and pornography. There's nothing, if the Academy Award's recommended, you basically should go elsewhere. I don't watch Academy Award winning films, recent Academy Award winning films, because that means nothing. Well, it's just probably very bad. Yeah, it's shocking. The amount of times when you used to go and think, oh, it must be good, and then, bait and switch. You just take this pathetic thing on the imitation game. For the first half of the film, you think you're watching an intelligent espionage war film, and then suddenly you discover it's a homoproma. And... The Imitation Game, both Enigma, Codebreaking, GCHB, Signal War. It's all basically totally promoting homosexuality. And it was just unbelievable. They twisted everything to make it out that if you get the war, the whole thing is the homo saved the world. Really? They did the same thing with Alexander. Not that I bothered to see the film. I didn't even bother to watch a trailer because I was warned. But they brought out Alexander, which is on Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great has built three hours, two battles, most of it's homoprogrammed. Did they portray him as homosexual? Or was he a homosexual? Yeah, that's why he had two wives and several children. But it doesn't matter what the truth is. They take someone and they promote them. Well, it's not like until the greats got his lawyers around he can defend himself at the moment. So it's reprehensible that they can bear false witness to people of other generations like that. But that's Hollywood. And we've just got to despise them because they're trying to defile everything that's good and beautiful in the world. That's for sure. So let's get a legal battle going. I pray we get more lawyers here. You know, when you've had everybody in a country, from the Prime Minister, the President, the Queen, and everyone from Australia all the way through America, oh, Magna Carta, the foundation, the greatest... You know, Magna Carta teaches this, and demands that, and requires this, and so on and so forth, and you can absolutely humiliate me, because they've said, this is our foundation, this is the law, and everything in our country is based upon it. This is the fundamental foundational law. All you need to do now is tell them what it actually says. I don't think there's anything in there they actually like or agree to. And you often wonder why they make such a fuss over it. I think they have to. It's forced on them to a degree, just like you had the Archbishop of Canterbury and Aulis about the King James Version, they've used it for years. At the 400th anniversary they made a big song and dance about it. Oxford University, Cambridge, but do they read it? Do they preach it? Do they believe it? No, they don't, but they all were joining in with the celebrations of it. Our Stelbosch University, for the Calvin 500, which we organized worldwide and so on, in 2009, even Stelbosch University, after many attempts to see if they'd get involved, they organized the Calvin 500 at the Greek school. But at it, the dean of the Dutch-formed church, the Theological Cemetery there, he said, theology has nothing to do with God. Theology is all about man. I forget. I thought it was a woman. But I wasn't there. I had it reported to me. But theology says nothing about God. It says everything about man. That's anthropologies about man, theologies about God, but that's the Dean of the Dutch Formed Churches Theological College in their premier university. That's how I postdate that problem. Yep. So, um, I... No, no, one of the groups are that, um, Moraletta wants to move now out of the NGO. Well, he can ban them. Again, you see, they had to, because they were Calvinist College in Maine, they had to give lip service to Calvin as the foundation and Calvin as father of the anniversary and so on. But what they wanted to do is just get the people excited about the name and the concept, but ignore what he taught. While they're promoting everything against what he actually taught. The reason it's an inconvenient truth. Well, truth really ruined a good story. It really, you know, all the lawyers have to bow to it, but at the moment you start quoting it, they're coughing and suffering heart failures and all the rest of it, because they can't handle it. I mean, this is an obnoxious truth to many of them. But that's the thing, we've got a charade out there, they're pretending they're based on law, and they talk about international law and all this sort of thing, but they don't even respect basic law. Change the world.