REVOLUTION I

REVOLUTION I

A revolution is a drastic and far reaching change that occurs relatively quickly. It is coined from the Latin word ‘revolvere’ which means “turn or roll back”. This change is usually a change in social and political institutions over a short period of time or a major change in the economy or culture. Some revolutions are caused by the majority of the population whereas others are caused by a small band of revolutionaries. Also, a palace revolution only touches the ruling elites.

A rebellion on the other hand is the blunt refusal to accept some code or authority or convention. A rebellion could also be an organized opposition to authority; a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control from another.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS
Political revolutions are often characterized by violence, and vast changes in power structures that can often result in further institutionalized violence, as in the Russian and French revolutions (with the "Purges" and "the Terror", respectively). A political revolution is the forcible replacement of one set of rulers with another, whilst a social revolution is the fundamental change in the social structure of a society, such as the Protestant Reformation or the Renaissance. In contrast, a coup d'état often seeks to change nothing more than the current ruler

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

This is perhaps the most popular revolution in history. It occurred between 1789 and 1799. Through the French Revolution, the French Monarch and the Oligarchic government was replaced absolutely by a system of republicanism. The slogan for the French Revolution was "Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!" ("Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!"). this later became the slogan for many militant and human activist groups who sought change in their environment.
CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The main cause of the French revolution was the fact that the old order and government suppressed the citizens of France in the face of a changing world. The middle class allied with the aggrieved peasants, wage-earners, and individuals of all classes who sought freedom and the practise of Enlightenment as others were practising. As the conflict went on and the power of the legislative increased whereas the power of the monarchy, many of the members of the legislative began to misuse power and also sabotage the monarchy. The abuse of power by the legislative and the struggle between the legislative and the monarchy led to the main causes, which are:

1. A poor economic situation and an unmanageable national debt were both caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation, the massive spending of Louis XVI and the many wars of the 18th century;
2. A resentment of royal absolutism;
3.An aspiration for liberty and republicanism;
4.A resentment of manorialism (seigneurialism) by peasants, wage-earners, and, to a lesser extent, the bourgeoisie;
5.The rise of Enlightenment ideals;
6.Food scarcity in the months immediately before the revolution;
7.High unemployment and high bread prices resulting in the inability to purchase food;
8.A resentment of noble privilege and dominance in public life by the ambitious professional classes;
9.A resentment of religious intolerance;
10. The failure of Louis XVI to deal effectively with these problems.
Before the enthronement of Louis XVI in 1774, the French government had undergone a lot of financial crises. The main problem came from Louis XVI (1774-1793) who mismanaged the state’s funds by appointing incompetent ministers to take up sensitive tasks in government. Also, he put up a burdensome tax system that was meant to raise funds particularly to support the American War of Independence (1775-1783).

There were periods of ministerial mismanagement and this led to the dismissal of one minister of the treasury, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot. This dismissal was supported by members of the nobility, clergy and the wife of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette. Another minister was appointed to take over the treasury, called Jacques Necker. He was also dismissed because of the criticism of the nobility and the clergy. However, Jacques Necker won popular acclamation from the masses because he published the royal account and showed the heavy cost of privileges and favouritism particularly towards the nobles and clergy. This provoked anger amongst the masses. A series of changes occurred in the government and the legislative was also reshuffled with a number of sanctions on some of them.

Hunger became widespread and the people of Paris began to defy royal decrees openly. Due to pressure, Louis XVI formed a legislative assembly made up of members of the nobility and the clergy. The Queen and Charles Philippe the Comte d’Artois who was the younger brother of King Louis XVI urged the king to call in a foreign regiment to protect Paris. Rioting continued until Bastille, a royal prison was stormed and captured by the demonstrators. Around this time, there was massive rioting in other parts of France, led by peasant farmers against the nobles and other members of the legislative. Fearing serious confusion, a group of royals and top-ranking government officials including Charles Philippe, called émigrés left France.

The middle class who sought a total overthrow of the king formed a provisional government and began to operate. The unrest brought fear to the royals. King Louis XVI then appealed for calm amongst his troops trying to curb the revolution and recalled the former minister of the treasury, Jacques Necker, who had published the secret deals of the royal family as minister. The king ordered the National Constituent Assembly to action. During the night session of August 4, 1789, the clergy, nobles, and bourgeoisie renounced their privileges; a few days later the assembly passed a law abolishing feudal and manorial prerogatives, but providing compensation in certain cases. Parallel legislation included prohibition of the sale of public offices, of exemption from taxation, and of the right of the Roman Catholic Church to levy tithes.

The National Constituent Assembly began to draw a constitution. The main preamble of the constitution was built around the demands of the revolutionaries Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”). However, as the Assembly deliberated on what to put in the constitution and what not to put into it, the hungry masses of Paris were being told of rumours of the king’s plans of using food he had hoarded to put them under control and other conspiracies of the royalists. Large crowds marched to the palace and there, the royals were rescued by a brave and popular General, Lafayette. At that time, some of the conservatives of the Constituent Assembly resigned. The Constitution was finally drafted and King Louis XVI accepted it. For the next 15 months, it was used to govern the nation.

On July 17th 1791, a group of Republicans marched to the Champ de Mars to demand for the resignation of King Louis XVI but the military opened fire on them and dispersed them. The bloodshed widened the gap between the commoners and the ruling upper class. The constitution suspended King Louis XVI briefly and he came back into power. There was an election and a legislative council came into power. Not long afterwards, King Leopold II of Belgium and King Fredrick William II of Prussia (Now part of Germany) announced that they would not hesitate to use force to support King Louis XVI of France when the need arose.

The Legislative council was made up of 750 inexperienced representatives who got power from two major parties. Most of the representatives sought their individual personal interest and not the well-being of the masses. They began to oppose each other to the detriment of the nation. Whereas the group backing the King sought the dissolution of the Legislative Council altogether, so that they could get more favours from the King, the group that was more aligned to the Revolutionaries sought to use their powers to wage war against the Kings of Prussia and Belgium who had promised support for King Louis XVI.

Finally, the members of the Legislative Council who sought external war with the foreign kings got their wish. On the battlefield, the French soldiers were divided along party lines. Though they were more powerful, they had to struggle to win certain portions of the war. Back from the war, there was confusion between the factions that were coined right from the Legislative Assembly. The price of food increased and there were mob actions and demonstrations. During one of the marches, a group marched to the palace and began to protest against the king. Marie Antoinette, the Queen, who had become unpopular because of her lavish hairstyle during the period of hunger and hardships refused to give the people concessions. Instead, she ordered her troops to charge on the masses. Violence followed and she was captured alongside King Louis XVI.

Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a deputy since 1789 had made a law that all public executions must be carried out by a decapitation machine that was believed to promote more equality and humane termination of life. The device became known as the guillotine. As the King and Queen were in custody, they were tried by the Convention, a surviving caucus of the Legislative Council. King Louis XVI was found guilty for "conspiracy against the public liberty and the general safety" and executed by guillotine. The head of King Louis XVI was thrown down as a challenge to all other monarchs particularly the Kings of Prussia and Belgium. Within the next few days, a committee and tribunal were formed to try and kill implicated leaders in the interior of France. The Committees were under the general leadership of Maximillien Robespierre belonged to a group called the Jacobin who introduced the Reign of Terror. All in all, between 18,000 and 40,000 people were guilliotined including Maximillien Robespierre who was also found guilty under his own laws.
A new constitution was adopted called Directoire or Directory. It gave right to the formation of two Houses of Parliament consisting of 500 representatives and 250 senators. Executive powers was given to five ‘directors’. There was massive demonstrations and rebellions by the Jacobins and Royalists but the military under the Directory suppressed them successfully until a successful General called Napoleon Bonaparte gained a lot of power. On 9th November, 1799, General Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup and declared himself Consulate. Finally, after a long period of dictatorship, Napoleon declared himself Emperor.
OBSERVATION
It is observed that the root of the French Revolution came from the weakness of King Louis XVI. He was double-minded where he was supposed to take action and that was what led to indiscipline amongst the lower ranks and his loss of control all over the nation. The King failed to deal with the push and pull factors when he was supposed to. This suggests that no matter how powerful a leader may be, if he fails to use his power at the righ time, no form of force can be applied to make up for the wrong step.

Also, having all the power and failing to have checks and balances is a recipe for disaster. One of the descendants of the royals who fled, the emigres, called Baron John Edward Acton (1834-1902), made the popular statement, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Perhaps the problem of King Louis XVI was not the overuse of power but the inability to use power when it mattered most.

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

This is the most popular social and religious revolutions in history. Before the 14th Century, all Christians belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The protestant reformation began with the questioning of certain practices of the Catholic Church. Some of these practices included the sale of indulgence; which was the ability to pay for intercessory prayers before he went to commit a particular sin, for example, before going to sleep with another’s wife, one could talk to a priest, pay for prayers and then go on to commit adultery with the belief that the sin has been compensated for. Other practices in the Catholic Church were the compulsory requirement for pilgrimage to holy sites, veneration of the saints and their relics as well as the poor educational and moral standards of the clergies.

The first man to question all these in the Roman Catholic Church was John Wycliffe who attacked all these practices directly. He began by translating the Bible into English. This was against the laws of the Roman Catholic Church that required the Bible to be in Latin only. Wycliffe was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the Papacy in 1411 and burnt at the stake in 1415. His followers, the Hussites began an armed uprising and fought wars with the Roman Catholic Church. Previously, during the Great Schism, the authority of the Catholic Church had been divided broadly.

The actual Protestant Revolution began with Martin Luther, a German, in October 1517. He was an Augustinian monk with his hair shaven. During that time, Europe was threatened by Islamic invasion so Luther opened the debate into the issue of the sale of indulgence which required church members to pay for intercessory prayers before they entered sin. Martin Luther wrote 95 theses and tradition has it that he nailed it to the door of the Wittenberg Castle’s Church. This pushed a swift realization and awareness amongst the people, particularly when the 95 theses were reproduced by the then newly invented printing press. In Switzerland, another man, Huldrych Zwingli had also begun printing articles against the practices of the Catholic Church. Erasmus also from present day Holland began to write on Christian Mysticism and Humanism which was against the Catholic Church.

The writings of another man, John Calvin created loose consensus about the practices of the Catholic Church. Not long after, Henry VIII separeted the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Chruch and this was completed in 1536. Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church with the others. The frustrated reformers began what became known as the Renaissance or Re-Birth in Europe. The renaissance was based on academic freedom and liberalisation in all fields of study and improvement of humanity.

Based on the Renaissance, music, art, science, philosophy and business improved rapidly throughout Europe. The Roman Catholic church had no other choice but to move on to catch up with the Protestants to ensure a better Europe when the Reformers proved their point.

Afterwards, many thinkers from the earlier Reformers joined together and formed churches that spread throughout the world. Amongst them was John Wesley who formed the Methodist Movement from the Calvinist ideals.
OBSERVATIONS
The Roman Catholic Chruch started off very well under the able and anointed leadership of Peter, the closest disciple of Jesus Christ. However, over hundreds of years, many leaders of the Church that Jesus Christ built on Peter, the Rock was corrupted. This implies that leaders of churches with a vision of eternal existence and perpetual succession must put in place a foundation that cannot be broken or manipulated in future when the leader is not alive. This calls for a proper machinery from the onset that would promote checks and balances and also encourage constructive criticism right from the years the visioner or founder is alive to work as a lasting ordinance for the generations to follow. In this direction, changes in the move of God and the society can be assimilated into the church to promote effectiveness. It is noted that although the Jews do not often live together as a single entity, they are often very firm in keeping their ordinances handed over from the days of Moses. This means that the Christian Chruch must go to the Old Testament to take up certain principles that aided the careful handing down of Jewish religious priniples to future generations.

THE DELIVERANCE REVOLUTION IN AFRICA

It is interesting to note that the name Jesus is is derived from a Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Joshua, or in full Yehoshuah (“Jehovah is deliverance”). This underscores the identification of Jesus Christ with the Ministry of Deliverance! The title Christ is derived from the Greek christos, a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh (“anointed one”), or Messiah.

In Africa, where idol worship and animist practices play a vital role in the daily lives of people, Christianity was introduced after the continent was discovered in the late 1400s. Over the first 500 years of European contact with Africa, the Gospel has been preached over the years to the native Africans. Many Africans only accepted it because of the security, advancement and social improvement the European Missionaries brought. Over the years therefore, many Africans went to church for the sake of formality but deep down their hearts, they believed in the efficacy of their gods and idols.

The Deliverance Revolution in Africa was begun in Nigeria where, the use of African traditional spiritual powers for injurious purposes was at its peak. There was therefore the need for a massive turn around that would guarantee the exeption of the African Christian from the destructive forces of the African traditional charms and rituals. Many Christian Priests spent long hours praying for God to undertake a revival on the continent. Finally, ministries began to spring up that carved the spiritual realms into two; the good and the evil. With that mentality, leaders of such ministries were able to teach their members how to pray and wage spiritual war to break free from the world of evil or darkness for the world of good and perfection.

The message of deliverance is the most important and effective message the ordinary African needs. Without the message of deliverance to provide fast-track elevation of Africans from poverty, hunger and disease into wealth and better living, the African people would spend years trying to bridge the gap between them and the rest of the world. The solution is a revolution; a large scale and liberalised spread of the message of deliverance to provide a sudden turnaround in the issue of spiritual connection to powers of local gods, demons and idols.

Africa therefore needs a very effective method of resounding the message of deliverance to all and sundry. Just as the Protestant Reformation in Europe became successful because of the liberalisation and easy flow of information, the African Deliverance Revolution can also benefit Africans fully with the liberal spread of the message of deliverance. Plausible methods of spreading the concept of deliverance include:

Movies: Most Pastors involved in the Ministry of Deliverance have gained a vast wealth of experience in working in the house of God. In conjuction with the professionals of the movie industry, many Pastors can form Movie Ministry Section in their churches. This section of the church would sit down with the Pastors and draft movie scripts that can be acted based on real life issues, recorded by video camera and sold all over Africa. This can be a revenue generation activity and can also affect lives positively and improve the understanding of the ministry of deliverance. In a nation like Ghana where the movie industry is yet to be developed, entry into the markets would not be so difficult.
Use of Radical Slogans: Every revolution has a slogan. The use of slogans like “You either destroy the wicked spirits or the wicked spirits would destroy you” on flyers and posters can push people into thinking and reconsidering the ministry of deliverance.
Books: This has been done effectively by the most powerful Pastors of deliverance ministries like Pastor Enoch Aminu. With the encouragement of all ministers who have spent considerable time in the ministry to put down their experiences in the ministry, there could be a heap of knowledge and massive promotion of the ministry of deliverance.
Through Schools: Teachers who have come to understand the ministry of deliverance should be encouraged to talk briefly on the subject to their students to build the awareness of the younger generation. This can be effective if teachers in deliverance ministries are organised under one umbrella and taught how to go about this in a very subtle but efficient manner.
Liberalism: If the ministry promotes a liberal and casual outward system, many people are likely to be invited. Since strictness and firmness is the backbone of the ministry of deliverance, when the members come into the church they would have to conform to the rules of the ministry. However, on the outside, ministries of deliverance must be more liberal.

Sources:
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Microsoft Encarta
Wordweb Dictionary