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June 10, 2003 The underlying basis for all good and righteous law is its principle of Biblical justice. Once the law perverts justice, it is no longer lawful. In fact it is no longer law, but tyranny. Despotism is rooted in the personal whims of any sovereign, [executive branch], or group of sovereigns, [legislative or judiciary branch], and not in right law. In 1765 British jurist Sir William Blackstone declared, “No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.” (I.e. the Law of God). Pastor Samuel Cook, preaching at Cambridge Massachusetts, on May 30, 1770 stated, “Justice also requires of rulers, in their legislative capacity, that they attend to the operation of their own acts, and repeal whatever laws, upon an impartial view, they find to be inconsistent with the Laws of God, the rights of men, and the general benefit to society.” There was a time, in the not so distant past that America’s laws were firmly based in Biblical law and Biblical justice. The justice of the American ideal was based upon the premise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness according to the Creation mandate of God and His conferred inalienable rights. That happiness was not only to be based upon Divine liberty and justice; it was to be based upon the reality of private property. In fact, the original wording in the Declaration of Independence was drafted as “the pursuit of property.” Since that wording might have been too narrowly interpreted, the framers thought it wiser to generalize their intention and pen the phrase, “pursuit of happiness” to include the entire concept of the right to every form and kind of property ownership. It was this Biblical legal under-girding which insured the American experiment from disorder and future disintegration. The framers knew that to protect a nation from self destruction, its social order must be based upon an enduring legal structure. For the framers that structure was God’s lawful legal system. Such laws would insure both personal and corporate order provided they were not altered or ignored. Since every social structure requires a social order to hold it together, the choosing of such an order becomes of the utmost importance. The founders of America chose God’s Law. John Quincy Adams declared on July 4th, 1821, that “The highest glory of the American revolution was this; that 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…” Every rule and every ruler has its limits. Either they are good and just or they are evil and unjust. They cannot be both. They are limited by who they are and what they are based upon. They are limited to their presupposition about God and about His Law. Likewise, every social order has its limits. If it is built upon evil rulers or evil rules, it cannot be anything but evil. In the same way every social order which is built upon good men and good laws will produce a culture which is right and just. William Penn desired that society’s legislators be good men; “for while good laws do well, good men do better”. Even King James I of England understood these principles. Speaking before Parliament in 1603, he declared, “A king ceases to be a king and degenerates into a tyrant, as soon as he leaves off to rule according to his laws.” At the time of James’s declaration, England’s laws were firmly fixed upon Biblical precepts and statutes. James was expressly referring to the Law of God. Samuel Rutherford, writing in 1643 in his infamous work, Lex Rex, or The Law and the Prince, stated, “God hath given no absolute and unlimited power to a king above the law of God.” While these precepts seem elementary, they are not readily embraced in today’s modern America. They are rejected, forgotten or ignored. Most of modern American citizenry suffer from Historical amnesia, not regarding the indisputable facts establishing the Biblical Foundation of the American social order. God-centeredness is now called fanatical, hateful, dangerous, intolerable or politically incorrect, while wickedness is called compassionate, noble, progressive, and liberating. Yet the American founders firmly based their social order upon a Divine standard and were not ashamed to call it the Word of God. These are the facts, and they are without refutation. America needs another Great Awakening as in the 1700’s. Although there is a great Reformation underway, it is still very much fragmented and underground. If America refuses to awaken, they may forever remain in a deep slumber of ignorance and oppression. Soli Deo Gloria ------------ About the author: The Reverend Paul Michael Raymond pastors the Reformed Bible Church In Central Virginia and is the Cheif Director of the Institute for Theonomic Reformation, an online Christ-Centered Educational Resource Center. He can be reached at his website HisGlory.us. Email: Pastor@hisglory.us Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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