Paine was a deist (someone who believes in a God who created the universe but does not intervene in nature or human affairs) and a strident critic of Christianity who rejected the authority of the Bible. And yet, ironically, as part of his argument for independence in Common Sense, Paine sought to undermine the legitimacy of Britain's King George III by contending that the Bible portrayed monarchy as sinful.
In the section of the pamphlet entitled "Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession," Paine wrote, "As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of Scripture; for the will of the Almighty...expressly disapproves of Government by Kings." He went on to assert that "Monarchy is ranked in Scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them." Paine then quoted a Old Testament passage in which Gideon, a liberator of the Jews from their enemies, rejects the kingship. He continued by quoting another Old Testament passage in which the prophet Samuel warns the "children of Israel" against the idea of monarchy. Paine then concluded:
These portions of Scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchial government is true, or the Scripture is false. And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of king-craft, as priest-craft, in withholding the Scripture from the Public in Popish countries. For Monarchy in every instance is the Popery of Government.
Thus, Paine not only made the argument that monarchy is rejected by the Bible, but also managed to link it to Roman Catholicism (hence the reference to "Popish countries"), playing on the strong anti-Catholic feelings felt by many Americans, who were staunch Protestants.
As I have said, it is ironic that Paine, who rejected the authority of the Bible, should employ the Bible in an attempt to delegitimize the British monarchy as part of his case for American independence. Nevertheless, however hypocritical it might seem that Paine should make such an argument, his gambit was quite shrewd. Paine probably realized that many of his fellow Americans did view the Scriptures as authoritative. Moreover, the idea that monarchy was a divinely-appointed institution was still a widely-held belief. By contending that the Bible in fact condemned monarchy, Paine's argument for independence could only gain greater force among many of his readers. Thus it was that an appeal to Scripture helped pave the way to American independence.
Image of Thomas Paine from Wikimedia Commons