“The law is the
organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the
substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this
common force is to do only what the individual forces
have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons,
liberties and properties; to maintain the right of each, and
to cause justcie to reign over us all.”
Fredric Bastiat “The Law”
1850
The fundamental basis for
good and righteous law is its principle of justice. Once the
law perverts justice, it is no longer lawful. The perversion
of justice occurs when the divine rights of the individual,
life, liberty and property are violated. It must be fervently
asserted however, that individual rights do not include
actions which are perversions of moral and ethical precepts.
Ethical precepts are not relative but absolute. They are
established by God, in His Word and witnessed in the
conscience of man. Any law therefore, that is introduced, or
supported which violates the Law of nature and the God of
nature is not law but a perversion of law.
“...the Law is
good if a man use it lawfully.”
(1Tim 1:8)
It follows then that if
legislators introduced, and supported only good and
God-centered laws, the social order would flourish. Godly Laws
are the fabric and fundamental foundation of proper social
order.
THE NEED FOR ORDER
The colonists and founders of
this nation knew that the only just and enduring laws were the
Laws prescribed by the Holy Scriptures. Such Laws would insure
both individual and corporate order. According to author Dr.
Russell Kirk, society must be held together by a system of
social order. Kirk identifies the idea of the American social
order as one being based and rooted in the “genius of
Christianity”. The colonists knew that if a nation were to
be founded upon this basis, order and prosperity would prevail
among the people. Bastiat shares this view:
“It seems to me that such a
nation would have the most simple, easy to accept, economical,
limited,
non-oppressive, just, and enduring government
imaginable...Under such an administration, everyone would
understand that he possessed all the privileges as well as the
responsibilities of his existence. No one would have any
argument with government, provided that his person was
respected, his labor free, and the fruits of his labor were
protected against all unjust attack.”
Knowing these principles of a
good and Godly government, John Quincy Adams declared on
July 4,1821:
“The highest glory of the
American revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble
bond the principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity.”
Lyman Beecher, Presbyterian
clergyman and President of Lane Theological Seminary, wrote in
1831:
“The government of God is
the only government which will hold society, against depravity
within and temptation without…”
Beecher’s son Henry Ward
Beecher, author, clergyman and brother of Harriet Beecher
Stowe, stated:
“Sink the Bible to the
bottom of the ocean, and still man’s obligations to God
would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only
his lamp and his guide would be gone; the same voyage to make,
but his chart and compass would be overboard.”
Sir William Blackstone
declared the presuppositional basis for law by stating:
“These Laws laid down by
God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil...This law
of nature dictated by God Himself, is of course superior in
obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in
all countries, and in all times: no human laws are of any
validity if contrary to this.”
Like Blackstone, Rufus
Choate, a powerful lawyer, Congressman, and U.S. Senator of
the early 1800’s stated:
“No lawyer can afford to be
ignorant of the Bible.”
Yet the modern legislative
agenda is antagonistic to these Scriptural and Constitutional
ideas. Since the modern state desires control over the
smallest detail of the private life of its citizens, a
benevolent social order is unable to develop at its natural
progression and in its logical manner. A disintegration of a
proper Constitutional social order indeed is the result and
the existence of the people is made uncertain and precarious
by state created controls.
These philosophies of
government are very unlike the original intent and
Constitutions of the several colonies and states of early
America.
CONSTITUTIONS AND GOD’S
LAW
On January 14, 1639 the first
constitution was written in America, instituting a provisional
government and later serving as the model for the United
States Constitution. The Fundamental Orders [Constitution] of
Connecticut were written by Roger Ludlow in 1638 after he
heard a powerful sermon preached by the famous Puritan
minister, Thomas Hooker. Along with Hooker and his entire
congregation, Ludlow helped to found the state of Connecticut
known as the Constitution State. The premise of the Order was
simply to make laws, “As near
as the Law of God as they can be.”
The towns of Hartford,
Wethersfield and Windsor adopted the Constitution and asserted
in their preamble:
“...according to the Truth
of the said Gospel, is now practiced amongst us; as also, in
our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such
laws, rules, orders and decrees.”
In 1639 at Quinipiack (now
New Haven), Connecticut, the first example of a written
constitution, with extensive and exhaustive definitions of
governmental powers, was composed. Some of these articles
included:
Article I: That the Scriptures
hold forth a perfect
rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties
which they are to perform to God and men, as well in families
and commonwealths
as in matters of the church.
Article II: That as in matters which
concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so
likewise in all public offices which concern civil order,- as
the choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing
laws,-dividing allotments of inheritance, and in all things of
like nature,-they would all be governed by those rules which
the Scripture held forth to them.
In 1639 the General Court of
Connecticut issued the order:
“That God’s Word should
be the only rule for ordering the affairs of government in
this commonwealth.”
GREED, PRIDE, AND PLUNDER
Today’s law has undergone a
dramatic disfiguring. With the change of law comes a change in
constitutions, conveniently called amendments. Unlike
the Law of the framers of America, today’s law no longer
upholds righteous absolutes in order to protect the good and
lawful citizen. Instead, the power to legislate has fallen
into the hands of the greedy and unscrupulous. Many
legislators today are unfamiliar with the God inspired Laws of
the Holy Scriptures, which consequently inhibit them from
grasping the original intent of the American Constitution.
Thus, their over-all legislative interpretations are warped,
their judgment perverse and Biblical and Constitutional
liberty quickly becomes extinct.
Furthermore, plunder becomes
a right of those in power because true law has been
re-written. This illegal re-writing of true law places the
collective force of the ignorant and unscrupulous in a
position of absolute power. Such scandalous perversion against
the Law bears testimony that these law-makers desire nothing
more than to exploit the person, liberty and property of the
people who they are set over to protect. Of course these “officers
of law” take every precaution to protect themselves from
harm so they enact laws which protect evil and oppress good.
Much of today’s law has converted plunder into a right and
the right of lawful defense to protect against plunder a
crime.
Well did the Scriptures warn:
“Woe unto them
that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for
light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter!”
(Isaiah 5:20)
“Woe unto them
that decree unrighteous decrees,
and that write grievousness which they have prescribed.”
(Isaiah 10:1)
“Woe unto you
lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye
entered not in yourselves,
and them that were entering in ye hindered.”
(Luke 11:52)
LAW AND THEOLOGY
Perhaps the initial objection to the
arguments presented in these articles is that “theology and
law are incompatible”. It is an offense to many of our day
to suggest that God Law, which is Theological in essence, has
no place in the law of society. Of course this is most
preposterous. When the state asserts a concept of law based
upon its own authority and ideal, that law can only be
tyrannical. Statist law, without the authority of God’s Law
will always oppress and is always destined to failure. The
source of law in any system is the god of that system. If the
source is the autonomous state, then the state is god, and
will eventually require unquestioning obedience. Since
theology is the study of the god of any system of thought,
then theology is very much a part of the legal system.
Moreover, theology is the essence of political theory. The
question simply put is, who is
the god of the political and legal system in America?
Understanding these
principles of government, Andrew Jackson on June 8, 1845 in
reference to the Holy Scriptures and the civil affairs of the
American government:
“That book Sir, is the Rock
upon which our Republic rests.”
LORDSHIP AND SOVEREIGNTY
Law comes down to a matter of
sovereignty. Who rules? God or man? The Scriptures or the
State. Is Christ God, or is Caesar God?
The issue of law has always
been one of “lordship”. Unlike many of our
governors and legislators today, the Colonists understood the
principles of freedom. As they grew in resilience and
confidence in God during the British conflict, even England’s
appointed Governor observed their steadfastness in God’s
Law. The British Governor wrote of the Colonists:
“If you ask an American,
who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any
governor but Jesus.”
The popular motto of the day was “No
king, but Jesus.”
As recent as October 4, 1982
President Ronald Wilson Reagan designated 1983 as the national
“Year of the Bible.” This resolution was requested
by a joint resolution of the 97th Congress of the United
States of America and stated as Public Law 97-280:
“WHEREAS the
Bible, the Word of God, has made a unique contribution in
shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed nation
and people.
WHEREAS
deeply held religious convictions springing from the Holy
Scriptures led to the early settlement of our Nation,
WHEREAS
Biblical teachings inspired conceptions of civil government
that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and
Constitution of the United States.
WHEREAS
the history of our Nation clearly illustrates the value of
voluntarily applying the teachings of the Scriptures in the
lives of individuals families and societies
WHEREAS
that renewing our knowledge of and faith in God through the
Holy Scripture can strengthen us as a nation and a people:
NOW THEREFORE, be
it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, that the
President authorized and requested to designate 1983 as a
national “Year of the Bible” in recognition of both the
formatives influence the Bible has been for our Nation, and
our national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy
Scriptures.”
SUBMISSION TO LAWFUL
AUTHORITY
When the Colonists declared
that there was no authority but the Lord Christ and His Word,
they were not rebelling against authority. True
Christianity embraces authority. In fact, hierarchy is
an intimate, and necessary component of the Covenant of God.
Since it is God Who establishes authority, to rebel against
lawful authority is to rebel against God Himself. What the
Colonists would not be in submission to was god-less
government. Oppressive powers were anti-Christian, and no
orthodox Christian could, in right conscience, submit to such
and act against the Sovereign God of Heaven.
Many politically vocal
Christians are not true Christians at all in both motive and
practice. These are the sort that would rather have anarchy so
as to gain autonomy. Their rejection of man’s law for the
Law of God is merely a pretense in order to be a “law unto
themselves”. On the other hand, the sincere follower of God
seeks to bring about a Lawful government by Lawful means.
Through obedience to God’s Word and through teaching and
preaching the Truth is made known. The duty of every Christian
is to declare what is righteous and holy, just and good. It is
God Who must impress these Truths upon the hearts of men.
The Apostle declares:
“For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God…”
(2 Corinthians 10:14)
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