Common Sense

Common sense,” as some anonymous person once put it, “Is that which cultivates such valuable lessons, such as knowing when to come indoors out of the rain and, understanding “why” it is that the “early bird” gets the worm. "

Besides being what people often use to make sense of the world, "Common Sense" is also the title of a publication written by Thomas Paine, the Revolutionary writer, who is perhaps best known for penning the words, “These are the times that try men's souls."

Paine, born in England, was, you might say, a colonial columnist. He knew Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and even the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte well. He was a supporter, a promoter, of revolution, both the French, as well as the American. In fact his works are often thought to be instrumental in moving the newly colonized America to war with England. It's been said that "The written word is more powerful than any physical weapon," and Thomas Paine used his weapon quite well.

As a revolutionary writer and pamphleteer, Paine remarked on how it was that “God” would be on America’s side in the Revolutionary War, should it occur, (and in the passage of time and the writing of history, we now are well aware that indeed it did occur.) How did he know this to be the case? Once just simply has to wonder, since Paine did not embrace the Christian God. Do not get me wrong, Paine may have referenced "God," and even thought that "God Almighty" would be on America's side as they overthrew the "tyrannical" monarchy of England, but he had an entire different meaning in his own mind about who or what "God" when he wrote. Paine's God was definitely not the God of Christianity.

He was not Christian, but he was a religious man. He attended the local church and was surely trusted, for he was even responsible for the collection of tithes within the congregation. He was also known to give regular alms to the poor and he was active in his community as well, but people who read his writings know full well that Thomas Paine was not Christian. He was not atheist either, he was deist. Paine's "God" was "natural philosophy," something he described as, "the true theology." (The Age of Reason, Part 1 )

Deists, like Paine believe profess to believe in God, but their God is not revealed by scripture. A diest God is not personable or knowable other than what they believe is revealed by nature and reason. Paine did not believe in Jesus Christ, or in the God that Christians claim is made known through Jesus and by the world around us and by the revelation of scripture. In fact, he said himself that he detested the Bible, saying, "It would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, that a Word of God." As a deist, Paine believed “the gospel” to be nothing but a “fabulous invention.”

In his work, Age of Reason,Paine announced, "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church." Paine was not a complete fool, after all, he did not say in his heart, "There is no God." However, Paine had a God all his own, one of his own creation.

Paine had other beliefs and ideals too which were published and widely distributed to the colonists in 1776. Common Sense, inciting rebellion and challenging the "tyrannical" authority of the British Monarchy sold over 120,000 copies in the colonies at it's first printing. Unfortunately for Thomas Paine, the God who revealed himself through scripture, the God of love, patience, compassion and forgiveness, and long suffering, was not part of the equation. War and bloodshed were.

After the Revolutionary War, a penniless Paine withdrew from republic affairs and turned to inventing. He even returned to England. When his inventing didn't work out, he began writing again, and his popularity in England had him declared and outlaw, so he became a French citizen. During the French Revolution he was incarcerated in Luxembourg prison, until James Monroe, secured his release. He returned to America in 1802, but his outspokenness against Christianity ostracized him and he ended his life a both an outcast and a pauper.

There are stories of how later in life, when Paine was near death, Christians came to plead with him to repent and be saved, but Paine threatened to throw them out the door himself. His obituary read, "He had lived long, did some good and much harm."

Paine called his pamphlet, "Common Sense," and there well may have been some sense in what he wrote and believed, but it was at best only what was "common." While that which is common can be good, it can also be earthlyy, sensual and demonic. (James 3:15) And what, exactly, is it that is commonly understood and practiced by men who reject and do not know the true and living God? Does it not require a sort of “uncommon” sense, a holy and heavenly wisdom that comes from above to love one’s enemies and actually do good to those who seek you harm? Paine believed in "Common sense," but he rejected the wisdom of God in Christ.

This uncommon sense is so uncommon, that there is only one place we can really see it displayed in entirety, one person who exhibited this uncommon, holy, perfect, sense for us all, Jesus Christ. We read about it in the Bible, and we see it displayed as the story of his life and death is told and retold again and again.

Paine, at least believed that one should be sensible, reasonable and even honest in their dealings. Rightly he opposed the injustices he witnessed in his world, but the way he advocated a solution was the only thing that comes naturally to man, war and rebellion. What is needed most when trying times are upon you is something a bit above common sense, and that is wisdom.

Wisdom then, you might says is more than ordinary. Its beyond what is common to man's limited understand as well as his fallen nature.

If Paine had believed in God, he might have seen wisdom as being peaceable, pure and gentle... easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy, but he didn't. Instead he lived and moved and had his being in this life, rejecting and never really knowing God.