Filed under: Bible

Old European Secular Philosophy vs America

"We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."*

Justice William O. Douglas, 1952

 

"America has freed more human beings from the clutches of evil than any [other] nation on earth, and we are a relatively young country.  Even though continental Europe, in its posture of pseudo-sophistication, might consider us the country cousin of the family of nations, when these same Europeans needed to be rescued--often from themselves--we were there to rescue them.  We have done it many times and in many ways around the world.  At enormous costs to ourselves, we have gone into (and out of) dozens of nations in order to make the world a better place--even those nations that were our deadliest enemies, like Germany and Japan after World War II.  What MacArthur did in Japan, and what the Marshall Plan accomplished in Europe, are without historical equal, and they indicate what we think our high calling on the planet really is!  They also indicate the American penchant for forgiveness and generosity, which surpasses all others" (Dr. Jack Wheeler, The Ugly Liberal American, page 4, quoted by The Schwarz Report, May 2008, Vol 48, number 5).

 

It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.**

George Washington

 

George Weigel, highly respected author, said at a Seattle Pacific University symposium regarding the departure from representative citizen control over government policies:  "It not only seemed to me an act of infidelity toward the past, it seemed to imply a program for the future, namely, state-enforced secularism."  In an interview with Kathleen Braden, Weigel laments political decisions made bureaucratically rather than according to the popular will, and trumpets the need for spiritual revival in America and for citizen action as "salt and light" (George Weigel, author of The Cube and the Cathedral, "A Conversation With George Weigel," Response Magazine, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington, Autumn 2007, 18-20).

 

Supremacist judges, liberals (progressives) in education and their converts in the media have deceived millions of people into believing that privacy rights, social justice and diversity require public acceptance of evil life practices, homosexuality and baby genocide.  The loss of American values arises directly from unelected liberal judges-turned-legislators and the ensuing defilement of traditional American jurisprudence. (from p. 56).

 

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?**

Thomas Jefferson

 

"Truth [when communicated] is great and will prevail if left to herself … she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them" (Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, 1786, cited by Hamilton Albert Long, The American Ideal of 1776, Philadelphia:  Heritage Books Inc., 1963. xxii).

 

Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed.  Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of Christianity caving in.***

Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Bible-american-flag1-300x199

 

*Zorach v. Clauson, Docket 431, citation 343 US 306, 1952.

**Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, (Philadelphia:  Matthew Carey, 1794), Query XVIII, 237, MS-176. 

***http://jpfo.org/articles-assd02/christian-nation.htm

 

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Old European Secular Philosophy vs God

The old European secular philosophy includes secular humanists and other atheistic sects, such as the followers of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Professor John Dewey and Fabian socialist John Maynard Keynes. Their agenda is obvious.  It is the elimination of God as well as a moral foundation for law.    

 

Their belief is expressed in the Humanist Manifesto:  "No deity will save us; we must save ourselves."  The first Humanist Manifesto, written in 1933, was published with thirty-four signatories including the educator John Dewey (Paul Kurtz, tenured radical professor, State University of New York at Buffalo, Humanist Manifesto II, 2).

 

Without exception, rejection of creation's God and freedom

for religious competition over the broad spectrum

of private and public life gives rise to moral revisionism.

 

The religious presupposition for the secular humanist mind-set comes from Charles Darwin's book Origin of the Species.  Those who adopted Darwin's God-rejecting assumption about the origin, meaning and purpose of life have no dependable standards upon which to establish human equality, morality or representative government.  Truth, for them, is what man himself chooses at any given time and circumstance.  Standards are based on wishes, perceptions and mortal goals rather than on established knowledge, objective facts or principles.

 

According to Darwinian militants, "There is no fixed limit or perfect form of knowledge and, that on the contrary, truth is always tentative."*

 

The Bible is stamped with a Specialty of Origin, and an immeasurable distance separates it from all competitors.**

W. E. Gladstone

 

"The attempt by the rulers of a nation [France] to destroy all religious opinion, and to pervert a whole nation to atheism … [and] to establish atheism on the ruins of Christianity [is] to deprive mankind of its best consolations and most animating hopes, and to make a gloomy desert of the universe" (James D. Richardson, citing Alexander Hamilton from October 3, 1789, in A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, published by Congress, 1899, Vol. I, 64).

Abrahamlincolnibelieve

 

*John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy, Higher Education Transition (New York: Harper and Row, 1958), 306.

**Halley's Bible Handbook authored by Henry H. Halley and published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI (republished since 1924).


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Public Education Shuns Reality

The secularization of education discriminates against students.  The idea of the Ten Commandments as a basis for personal decision-making is fully substantiated by beneficial outcomes.  Without that moral compass, our nation's youth are left in the dark and under the CONTROL of destructive thinking.  They are not given the knowledge for healthy families, fiscal common sense and national prosperity.  When taxpayers figure this out, marginalization by teacher union bosses and teacher tenure will be exposed.  This will open things up and give parents, along with 95% of the teachers (who are in agreement with the citizen majority), the freedom to install religious diversity back as a source of knowledge.

 

This struggle within our education system is not a debate between science and religion, but between religion and religion, atheism and theism.  Science is simply the sphere in which the debate is taking place.

 

Dr. Michael Ruse, a leading evolutionist and authority on philosophy, points out in his recently published book The Evolution-Creation Struggle that the "theory of evolution is, in fact, religion."*  Dr. Ruse also writes:  "Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science.  Evolution is an ideology, a secular religion, a full-fledged alternative to Christianity with meaning and morality.  Evolution is a religion.  This was true of evolution in the beginning and is true of evolution today."

 

The change in American culture since the 1947 Supreme Court decision in Everson v. Board of Education, teacher unionization, and tenure law has led to a colossal increase in family breakdown, abortion, homosexuality, use of addictive drugs, and burgeoning needs for hospital and prison space.  Universities and colleges dominated by the old European secular philosophy have become havens for alcoholism and dorm cohabitation by unmarried students.  Some state universities have a department of religion dominated by atheists who serve as a campus mafia to destroy the academic standing of any faculty member who dares to suggest that there is such an alternative to Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species as intelligent design or a God of creation.

 

"The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four [is] infected with at least one of the diseases, US health officials reported Tuesday" (Laurence K. Altman, The New York Times, Tuesday, Mark 11, 2008).  One in four US teenage girls have STDs.  The diseases, which are infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, can produce acute symptoms … and potentially fatal entropic pregnancy … and cervical cancer."**

 

In 2010, according to Pam Stenzel, a leading lecturer to young people regarding sexual abstinence, teenage girls in America today are carrying, on average, 2.3 sexually transmitted diseases.  In one 24 hour period, 12,000 teens contract a sexually transmitted disease.***  In the 1950s there were five known sexually transmitted diseases.  They could be treated with antibiotics.  Today, there are over thirty sexually transmitted diseases and thirty percent of them are absolutely incurable.  Among the possible disastrous results are a lifelong necessity of treatment as well as sterility, infertility, radical hysterectomy, cervical cancer and death.****

 

"One of every 100 adults are in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator," states a report from a new study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.  With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates" (David Crary, New York Associated Press, February 28, 2008).

 

These are merely symptoms of the consequences of the courts' detachment from written and permanent law.  Far greater damage is the hidden loss to the soul of American youth.  Is it any wonder that studies show a significantly higher percentage of public school teachers send their children to private schools than non-teacher parents" (George Archibald, The Washington Times, September 22, 2004)?


Govt-censorship

 

 

*Dr. Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 327.

**Lawrence K. Altman, "One In Four US Teenage Girls Have STD's, Study Finds," International Herald Tribune, March 12, 2008.

***Pam Stenzel, http://pamstenzel.com/

****Pam Stenzel, http://pamstenzel.com/


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Ban the Ten Commandments? What For?

The laws of creation's nature include the perimeters for civil behavior provided by the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5).  Because of the universal benefits that come from applying the Commandments, they are a common part of the moral religions throughout the world.  Prior to the time that supremacist judges embraced the intolerance of a tiny minority (the laws of man), the rest of us had the benefits that come when the Commandments were emphasized in the schools and on public properties throughout the nation.

 

 

Americans recognize that the promotion of life-building attitudes is important, but that it is not right to punish harmful attitudes that have not been expressed by criminal actions.  "We, The People" places the consequences of attitudes, good or bad, in the hands of God.  He sees and hears all.  Over time, the failure to police one's own thoughts renders severe punishments in direct proportion to the evil committed.  These six commandments pertain directly to such matters of the heart:


You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself a graven image.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Honor your father and mother.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey,  nor anything that is your neighbor's.

 

Four of the commandments provide the foundation for civil and criminal law in America:


You shall not murder (the right to life).

You shall not commit adultery (the sanctity of marriage).

You shall not steal (the right to own property).

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (the right to be truthfully represented).

 

It is citizen support for moral absolutes reflected in the Ten Commandments that promotes the passage of good laws by elected representatives.  It is, exclusively, this moral climate within our society and government that can prevail over the curse of moral relativism practiced by the masters of political deception.

 

 

To justify taxpayer support, educators must teach the truth about the God-honoring Declaration of Independence and Ten Commandments that have enabled Americans to change a wilderness into the greatest nation on earth.

 

Tencom07

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Ban the Bible? What For?

The benefits of the Bible to society and governments were recognized by the Founding Fathers.  The Bible was "recommended to American citizens by the Confederation Congress on September 12, 1782" (James H. Hutson, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1998, Preface and pp. 57-58).

 

God's standard for truth is the most fundamental moral category in the universe.  Truth separates traditional American values (theistic belief) from the old European secular philosophy (atheistic belief about life's origin, meaning and purpose).  Abel, who had chosen to follow the God of absolute truth, was slain by Cain, who, abiding by the impulses of the flesh, had chosen to follow his own version of truth.  It is this same war of divergent cultures that is now raging between the "In God We Trust" of Americans and the cultish atheism of old European secular philosophy.

 

During the controversy over the French Revolution, Edmund Burke wrote in response to the question, "What is liberty?"  He stated:  "Mere liberty without other forces working in the sphere that it opens up is only another name for license" (Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790, London: Henry G. Bohn, 1864 extract, 129).

 

The sovereignty of our constitutional government is clearly made subordinate to the sovereignty of certain God-given rights of the citizens who ratified it.  This distinguishes the meaning of liberty for individuals in America.  They can exercise their independence and capacity to make better and differing decisions.  What a contrast from the demands of secular academician with communistic, socialistic and liberal leanings!  They reject the citizen's capacity for self-rule and expect conformity to cultish political correctness based upon changeable decrees.

 

The Bill of Rights law is spiritual in the sense that it upholds the unalienable right of the people to follow God's prescription for happiness without fear of authoritarian reprisals.  The idea is economic as well, because people, having the right to life, also have the right to work and to use the fruits of their labor to sustain life.

 

The God of creation is identified by the Bible as the "Good Shepherd."  It is this same God who gave the Ten Commandments to mankind through Moses.  A good shepherd does not dictate and control.  When a lamb falls and breaks its leg, the shepherd will place a splint on the leg and carry the lamb until it heals.  Then, hoping the lamb has learned a lesson, the shepherd allows it to run again when able.  God admonishes, but unlike those allied with Satan, He will not deceive and seek to by-pass a person's common sense to force worldly compliance (atheistic political correctness).

 

When our government allows, based upon its original constitution, the freedom of Americans to align their lives according to the precepts of God's Word, its citizenry can prosper under the Good Shepherd's protection.  Choosing the benevolent God of the Bible as one's own shepherd of life is, of course, a personal decision; but when that choice is made, the lamb is under God's protection and learns self-control as he follows the Good Shepherd.


Ban-bible

 

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The Paper Trail of Our Constitution IV

On September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, members of the Constitutional Convention signed a draft of the Constitution.  Subject to ratification by nine or more states, America would become a representative republic.  Unalienable rights (man as sovereign under God over government) are to be guarded by separations of power among three branches of the central and state governments.  Constitutional separations of power also help to protect against infringement by hierarchical authoritarians or a misled citizen majority (such as occurs in a pure democracy).

 

Washington, as president of the convention, transmitted the proposed Constitution to the people's representatives, who were then still operating under the Articles of Confederation.  Referring to man's sinful nature and the dangers of collusion by government officials for personal power, Washington wrote: "The great powers to be vested in General Government of the Union and the impropriety of delegating such extensive trust to one body of men is evident:  hence results the necessity of a different organization."*

 

The ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified the Constitution at its state convention on July 21, 1788.  When Congress was informed, it set March 4, 1789, to be the start for the new government.  On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office and became the first president of the United States.  Another anxious year passed before that government became fully operational.  Fourteen years after the God-honoring Declaration of Independence was ratified, the benefits of separation from authoritarian elites became a reality.

 

Charles Pinckney, who at the outset of the convention doubted the success of the undertaking, was amazed at the final result: "Nothing less than that superintending hand of Providence, that so miraculously carried us through the war, could have brought it [the Constitution] about so complete, upon the whole."**

 

God raises up nations and He brings nations down according to His will.  In I Samuel 8, Israelites rejected citizenship responsibilities outlined in Scripture and asked to be like other nations and have a king.  God gave them a King--an arrangement that was second best to His own authority alone, but better than anarchy.  "But God is the judge:  He putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalm 75:7).  "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37).

 

In 1791, on July 19, George Washington wrote in a letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham:  "The United States enjoys a scene of prosperity and tranquility under the new government, that could hardly have been hoped for."*** In 1792, on March 11, Washington explained:  "I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that Agency which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."****

 

The Constitution of the United States has survived many times longer than any other constitution.  For example, in the last two hundred years, France has gone through seven different government charters, and Italy forty.  "In God Is Our Trust," emblazoned in "The Star-Spangled Banner" (official national anthem of the United States), takes elitists of every stripe out of the authority equation.

 

A century later, William Gladstone, one of Britain's greatest prime ministers, proclaimed the American Constitution to be "the most wonderful work ever struck off by the brain and purpose of man."*****

Pledge4

1789 Inauguration of George Washington

The Bible is open to Deuteronomy 28 at his request.  Washington added his own "So help me God" to seal his oath.******

*William L. Hickey, The Constitution of the United States of America (Philadelphia: Nabu Press, 1851), 188.

**Hamilton Albert Long, The American Ideal of 1776, (Philadelphia: Heritage Books, Inc., 1963), 205-206.

***Harry Atwood, The Constitution Explained, 4th ed. (Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1992) 5.

****David Barton, Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, and Religion (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press), 116. (Citing Washington, Writings 1838, Vol. X 222-223, to John Armstrong on March 11, 1792).

*****Gladstone speech, The North American Review, (September, 1878), http://www.quotes.net/quote/3589

******http://books.google.com/books?id=S1mRh9Zhxa4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=...,+a+biography&hl=en&ei=QXIWTtukHsjd0QGvp5Rf&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=so%20help%20me%20god&f=false

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A Letter To My Grandchildren

More than one of you have faced a challenge from your college professors or spiritual mentors that the War of Independence was "throwing off the government that God has placed upon you."  Some theologians do take that position according to Daniel 2:21, "He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings …"  A similar reference to this is, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God…" (Romans 13:1,2).

 

I would agree ~ IF the King of England had been proceeding according to written law.  

 

Following the British "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 and the ascension of William and Mary as joint monarchs, the proposal to draw up a declaration of subjects' rights and liberties was made in the House of Commons.   The completed declaration was codified as the British citizens' Bill of Rights in 1689.  Among the "ancient rights and liberties" asserted were "the right of the subject to petition the king and prosecutions for petitioning are illegal" as well as "subjects may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and allowed by law" and "excessive bail and fines shall not be required and cruel and unusual punishments are not to be inflicted."  There was an internal change of constitution following the excesses of James II.*

 

These laws protected the citizens' right to petition the King without fear of retribution.  He and his subordinates were repeatedly violating this and the citizens' right to freedom.

 

One hundred years later, Edmund Burke (1729-1797), a British statesman and orator, commented on this internal change of the British constitution by saying, "The Revolution was made to preserve our ancient indisputable laws and liberties, and that ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty."*  He opposed the King's efforts to suppress American independence.  

 

For years our Founding Fathers tried to negotiate reasonableness; but the British response was an iron fist, including the placing of troops on the coast.  Eventually negotiations between the colonists and the King collapsed.  Written like a legal brief, the Declaration of Independence detailed how their rights as British citizens were being violated.  They are "… taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments" (Declaration of Independence).

 

"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.  A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position" (President George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796).

 

Government employees are servants of the people who are the sovereigns under God over government.  The American Declaration of Independence and citizens' Bill of Rights, added later to the Constitution, provides the God-honoring design for government, and the Constitution is the tool for implementing that design.

 

Americans concurred with written law resting upon the British references to the Laws of Nature.  It is the governing character of Laws of Nature such as humility, the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments, that lead to success.  This is the sure foundation upon which man's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" rests.  Called "virtue" by America's Founding Fathers, the impartial and divine element frees man to do what is right.  "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

 

I identify with and support the several Norris ancestors who fought for independence.  Keep up the good work as students, my children.  I love you.  

 

Grandpa

M__d_army_in_front_of_house

Grandpa and Grandma Norris

Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas

1952

 

 

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*http://constitution.org/bor/eng_bor.htm

**http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1478-0542.003/abstract

 

Biblical Government II

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for support of societies as the natural affection is for the support of families.  The Amor Patriae is both moral and a religious duty.  It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but millions of our fellow creatures, not only the present but of future generations.  This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first character of history." This is an excerpt of an essay on patriotism written by Dr. Benjamin Rush, published in 1773.  He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence.  A devout Christian, Rush established Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and served as professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1813.  

 

Patriotism is a religious duty.  When the early Americans searched their Bibles to learn about government, about patriotism, what did they find?  The following is a list of the principal lessons to be learned from the biblical guidelines of levels of government discussed in my last blog post.

 

1.  God instituted civil government.

 

"For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.  Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?  Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good.  But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Romans 13:3-4).

 

2.  The omnipotent God is sovereign--His authority is over all.

 

In the history recorded in 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites rejected citizenship responsibilities outlined in Scripture and asked to be like other nations.  They wanted a king.  God gave them a king--an arrangement that was second best to His authority alone, but better than anarchy.

 

"But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalm 75:7).  "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37).

 

3.  Government servants are accountable to God.

 

"For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing" (Romans 13:6).

 

4.  As citizens, we have a moral responsibility to participate and improve civil government.

 

"For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men" (1 Peter 2:15).

 

"Art thou called being a servant?  Care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather" (1 Corinthians 7:21).

 

"Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16).

Images_rush

Benjamin Rush

1746 - 1813

 

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Biblical Government

When the early Americans searched their Bibles to learn about government, what did they find?

 

The first level of government is individual self-government.  Lasting success comes by giving attention to God's standards, the laws of creation's nature that were the norm before man's rebellion opened the door for Satan's influence (Exodus 20:1-17, Romans 13:13-14).  Big government, the abundance of police, prisons, and hospitals are the consequences of sinful life practices.  When man restrains his own selfish impulses and desires, the tyranny and exploitation of big government can be avoided.

 

The second level of government is the family.  From the beginning, it has been the holy commitment of one man and one woman in marriage that has defeated the will of Satan in his war against civilization (Genesis 2:18-24).  God instituted marriage to facilitate companionship and the nurturing of children in the truth.  The husband cares for his wife in a loving way and she respects him (Ephesians 5:22-23).  Parents are responsible for the education of their children.  By learning to honor and obey their parents, children also learn to honor the lordship of God and become responsible citizens (Ephesians 6:1-4, Proverbs 15:5).  The Bible makes it clear that property ownership and wealth come through labor, while laziness produces poverty (Proverbs 10:4-5).  Recognition of this aspect of the laws of creation's nature benefits families (1 Timothy 5:8, Proverbs 31:13-27).

 

The third level of government is the voluntary union of people belonging to a church, churches of different denominations to edify citizens through biblical principles for faith and community (1 Timothy 5:17) and discipline (Matthew 18:16-19).  Churches also have the biblical mandate to be societal caregivers (1 John 3:17).  Families and churches are united in the promotion of citizen self-reliance and limited civil governments.

 

The fourth level of government is civil government on local, regional and national levels.  Its prime function is to protect the citizens from criminals inside and outside government and from external aggression (Romans 13:1-4, 1 Peter 2:13-14).

 

Detailed in Chapter 4 of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness, these guidelines for government were applied by America's Founding Fathers.

Tencommandments

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American Principle Seven: Interpreting the Constitution Is Predicated By Morality

"We hold these truths to be self-evident …"

Declaration of Independence

 

"Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.  Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with

indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

 

Declaration-of-independence
The Founding Fathers wrote God-honoring natural-law philosophy into the Declaration of Independence.  Morality inherent in natural law is the underpinning of the Constitution.  Persistence in upholding this perspective separates the Constitution as a tool from defilement by the adherents of man-made law (Alexander Hamilton, Tully Papers, in Philadelphia newspapers 1794).

 

Natural law reflects the common-sense separation of wrong from what is right, as does man's God-given conscience.  In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 1, Paul rejoices in "the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward."

 

Provisions that distinguish the application of American Constitutional law include not destroying innocent life, not stealing and not being untruthful.  Following through on one example, lying when a person gives evidence in a court of law is the crime of perjury.  Liberal law professors avoid discussions about the origin of natural law because that requires an acknowledgment that the predicate for Constitutional interpretation--"government of laws, and not of men"-- resides in higher biblical authority.

 

The impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"* are the moral connectors that uphold the work ethic, prosperity, and civil community.  When we speak of morality here, we are speaking of what John Marshall wrote in the Marbury v. Madison opinion.  He said, "The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men."

 

It is this bold rejection of the foundational history of law by atheistic-secular authoritarians and the elevation of natural-law philosophy that caused immigrants, by countless millions, to come to America.  And it is the ironclad benefit resulting from applying the impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" that cause them to stay in America.

Prog1sm

*The phrase "Nature's God" used in the Declaration of Independence did not originate with Americans.  The laws of nature's God include the biblical standards of morality.  When the bond between God and man was broken in the Garden of Eden, the forces of evil that seek to defy creation's nature were unleashed.  "The law of nature was a common term used by historic legal writers such as Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone and others.  The law of nature's God, a lesser used term, was more commonly called the divine law, or the revealed law"

(Loning Historical Reference Works).

 


 

 

A full discussion of these vital American Principles can be found in my book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

For more information or to purchase the book:

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