8/12/2019 1988 Issue 1 - God's Law in America - Counsel of Chalcedon

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4. --

TilE

NATURE

OF

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, Thobum

Press, Fairfax, VA.

.,--,FOUNDATIONSOF

SOCIAL ORDER, Thobum Press, Fairfax,

VA. .

6.

DeMar,

G ~ .

RULER OF

TilE

NATIONS, Dominion

P r e s ~

Ft. Wor 1

1

TX.

7. Whitehead, John, THe STEALING OF

AMERICA, Crossway Books, Westchester,

L

8.

TilE

SECOND

AMERICAN REVOU)TION, David C.

Cook Pub. Co., Elgin,

IL. .

9 . ~

THESEPARATION

ILLUSION Mat t Medi3, Milford MI.

10.

RushdoonY.._RJ., CHRISTIANITY

AND THE STATE, Ross House Books,

Vallecito,

CA.

c J J i M ~ ~

0

~ t ~ N B W J 8 H ~ A L v ~ f

III,

No. 1.oSummer).,1976,_vallecitohC:A.

12. SKousen

c.,

TnE

M A K u ~ G OF

AMERICA, The National Center for

Constitutional Studies, Washmgtopl..PC

13. McDonald, Lam', WE HOLU THESE

TRUTHJ.76 r e ~ ~

Seal Beaclt, CA.

14.

wines, W.C.,

THE

HEBREW

R E P U B L I ~

American Presbyterian

Press,

x r ~ d g ~ i d s ~ ~ ~ Jo. ,_n..k

CHRISTIANITY

AND THE

C 1 ~ S T I 1

u uON,

Baker Book

House, Grand Rapids, MI. .

16.

Walton, Rus, BIBLICAL PRINCI-

PLES, Pl}'I louth Rock Foundation,

Marlborc>Ugli, NH.

17.

M"adison J

D .

Hamilton, TilE

FEDERALIST PAPERS, New Alnerican

Libr ).IY,

NY.

18. Hei).IT, Mason, THE

ANTI

-

FEDERALIST PAPERS, New American

l i b { f Y s ~ r

Gregg, A THEOLOGICAL

INTERPRETATION OF AMERICAN

HISTORY, Craig

Press,

Nutley, NJ. .

0

Continuing the series

of taped sermons on

The Revival

o the Church

by

Joe Morecraft, III

The Revival

of he Church

and

the lory ofGod V

(Exodus

33)

The R ~ v i v a l of he Church

and the Coming of Christ I

II

(Is

a.

62-64)

The Way to Revival

I

l l

Chron. 7)

$4.00 per tape (cassette)

$14.00 for set

of

four

Order from:

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God s Lawin America

According

to

Christopher Columbus'

diary from his 1492 voyage to America,

one over-riding compulsion which

drove

him

on

the

risky adventure was

his wish to expand the gospel of Christ

to the "isles at the ends of the earth."

This evangelical concern stands out

boldly in his diary. Later, the earliest

immigrants from Europe, those who

shaped America:s culture, law, tradition,

and ethics, were those who came

from

England.

Our

early forefathers were

Pil

grims

and Puritans - men and women of

devout Christian faith. (In fact, as late

as 1776 when the people declared in

dependence, Puritanism provided

the

moral and

religious background

of

fully

75 of the

population.)

The

earliest

English charters of

the

settlements in

Americamade unequivocal references to

their intent of spreading the Christian

religion in the New World. The frrst

charter of Virginia in 1606, the charter

of Maryland in 1732,

the

.charter of

Massachusetts in 1729 are a few ex

amples . The famous Mayflower Corn

pact

of

1620, which has been called the

"foundation stone

of

democracy in

America," states, "In the

name

of God,

Amen.

We

aving undertaken for

the glory of God, and advancement of

the Cluistian faith, and

honor of

our

king and country, a voyage to plant the

fust colony on the northern part of

Virginia." The Massachusetts Civil Bay

Code

of

1640

made

repeated references

to Biblical law by direct citation and

Scriptural annotation.

In 1644 a book was published in

England by Samuel Rutherford entitled

Robert Smith ls

a Presbyterian

layman who

lieads the

Christian

Food

Miss

ion

In

Laurel,

Mlss1sslppi.

by Robert Smith

Lex Rex.

In

1660

i t

was

co

ndemned

as a treasonable writing by the Com

mittee of Estates. On October 16, Lex

Rex was burned at the Cross

of

Edin

burgh and a few days later in

St.

Andrews. Rutherford, a Presbyterian

minister, was deposed from the min

istry, dismissed from his Chair of

Divinity at St. Mary's C_llege, placed

under house arrest and sent to be tried

before Parliament

on

March 29, 1661.

What was the center of this book which

caused

a

stonn of controversy to erupt

in

the streets

of

London? Lex Rex

means law is king." Previously it had

been unchallenged:

Rex

Lex, "the king

is

law." Lex Rex attacked the seven-.

teenth century political concept of the

Divine Right of Kings. Rutherford said

that civil government and law should be

based on God's law as revealed in the

Bible. All are under God's law. No t

even the king is above it. Rutherford

used Romans 13 to show that all power

is from God who ordains and insti

tu

tes

government. John Locke, who influ

enced

Jeffer

son, and

John

Witherspoon,

a signer

of

the Declaration

of

Indepen

dence, were influenced by Rutherford's

arguments

in

his book. James Madison

was later influenced by Witherspoon's

teach

ing

at the College

of

New Jersey

(Princeton) where he was president.

Madison was referred

to

as the "Father

of the Constitution."2

Our founding fathers established the

United States aS a

constitutional repub-

lic

not

as

a

democracy. In fact, they

wished to guard against the' rise of

democracy. The earthly magistrate was

considered to hold his position and

exercise power by a divine decree.

He

was looked upon as a minister of God

under common grace for the execution

of the laws of God among the people at

large, for the maintenance of law and

order, and

for

so ruling the state that it

would provide an atmosphere favorable

for the

preaching

of

the gospel.

In

Puri-

Page 8 The

Counsel of

Chalcedon, January, 1988

8/12/2019 1988 Issue 1 - God's Law in America - Counsel of Chalcedon

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tan

political theory the magistrate de

rived his power from God and not from

the people. The voters and the magis

trates were to look to the Scriptures as

a guide for the general conduct

of

their

government. The rulers and the people

were thus subject to the will

of

God,

and the rule

of

the people could never

take precedence over the divinely or

dained powers and functions

of

human

government. The democratic philoso

phy, with its emphasis on the

v-

ereignty of the people, laid a fundamen

tal contradiction to the Biblical doctrine

of

the sovereignty of God. Noticeably

absent from the Constitutional Conven

tion of 1787 were the more outspoken

promoters

of

democracy: Thomas Jeffer

son, John Adams, Richard Henry Lee,

and Thomas Paine. Madison, Hamilton,

and other leaders at the 1787 gathering

detested the democratic form of govern

ment. It was not the wish of the found

ing fathers to have the opinion of the

day reflected but to have God's laws up

held through the Constitution for fur

ther generations.3

James Madison is called

the

father of

the constitution since

he

was instrumen

t l

in working out a blueprint for the

document and a basic agenda for the

convention. He arrived

in

Philadelphia

eleven days early for that purpose.4

Benjamin Franklin, during one

of

the

more heated moments

of

debate, elo

quently called for deliberation

to

cease

as

the conventioneers paused to pray for

God's guidance. In regard to the wording

of

the Constitution, this extraordinary

document came to a close with Article

VII as the words done in Convention .

he Seventh Day

of

September in the

year of our Lord one thousand seven

hundred and eighty seven and were

carefully penned by Gouverneur Morris.

Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitu

tion, in explaining the Executive

branch's role

in

the passage

of

a bill,

gives the President 10 days in which to

accept

or

reject a bill. Sundays are ex

cepted, recognized as days

of

religious

observance.

The Constitution

does not call for a

separation o church nd state

The first

amendment states, Congress shall

make no law respecting an establish-

ment of religion,

or

prohibiting the

free

exercise thereof This was simply

to

guard against the establishment of a

national

or

state religion. Thomas

Jefferson

did

hold that the Constitution

built a wall of separation between the

church and state, but, once again,

e f ~

ferson was not present

at

the Consti

tutional Convention. He

was

in

France

at the time

of

the 1787 meeting and

had

no input. There

is

a government that

uses the separation of church and state

language in its Constitution.

It

is found

in the wording

of

the Soviet

o n ~

stitution which says, In order to ensure

the citizens' freedom

of

conscience, the

church

of

the USSR is separated from

the state, and the school from

the

church.

Jefferson himself allowed the Bible

and

a hymnal to be used in teaching

students to read when he headed

the

District of Columbia school board.

James Madison issued prayer proclama

tions when he was President and

sat

on

a committee that recommended c h a p ~

lains for Congress. The Supreme Court

has, astonishingly, outlawed prayer in

the public schools as well as a

moment of silence, while sessions of

Congress are routinely oJ)ened with

prayer. The Congress has in fact estab

lished the position for a fulltime paid

chaplain

who

lifts up such prayers

to

God.

The

Supreme Court has, also re

markably, decreed the Ten Command

ments cannot be posted in the public

schools. This is indeed an astonishing

ruling for this body to make, since in

plain view, a plaque hangs

on

the wall

above and behind the Supreme Court's

Chief Justice in the main chambers,

on

which is written the Ten Command

ments. The 83rd Congress went so far

as to provide a prayer room or chamber

for meditation. There is a stained glass

window in the prayer

room

depicting

George Washington kneeling in prayer;

something he often did with the men

under his command. Around Washing

ton are the words Preserve Me 0

God

For In hee Do

I

Put My

Trust.

Beneath his kneeling figure is

the

reference for this

quote-

Psalm 16:1.

The Constitution also calls for protec

tion

of

life, liberty, and

property

When

~ r i c

was colonized,

the

settlers

in

every colony made Biblical law their

basic law. There was

no

tax on pro

perty; this was basic to Biblical liberty.

he

inscription

on

the Liberty Bell is

taken from the Biblical land law pro

claiming liberty throughout all the land

and unto all the inhabitants thereof'

(Leviticus 25:10). In the frrst Constitu

tional Congress in 1774, Congress

denied that Parliament could tax real

property. In spite

of

this, the property

tax was introduced very slowly, frrst

appearing in New England, coinciding

with the spread of Deism and Unitaria

nism, as well as atheism. The South

was the last area to accept the property

tax..S Progressives felt that the seizing

of property during the emergency of

World War I had given the idea of the

sacredness

of

private property a blow

from which it would never recover.6

I have

in my

possession a letter from

Mrs . Bethany Claunch written in 1977

to President Jimmy Carter. She decries

the death of the little town of Holcut,

Mississippi, located in Tishomingo

County, where she and her husband

lived

at

the time.

Under

the power of

eminent domain, the Army Corps of

Engineers was allowed

to

force the

Claunches and the other residents

of

Holcut

to

sell their land and

h o m ~

against their will

to

the Federal

Government. Mrs. Claunch, in

her

let

ter,

is

openly upset over

the

deaths of

several of the elderly who were trauma

~ e d by

the

forced relocation. The town

of

Holcut

no

longer exists. The land

owners' property was procured to estab

lish a park, along the Tennes

see/Tombigbee Waterway, in a county

where there are already two parks:

Tishomingo State Park and J.P. Cole

man State 'Park. This

is

a prime ex

ample of the extremes to which society

can move when

God s laws

are dis

carded.

As late as 1892, the Supreme Court

determined in the case of the Church of

the Holy Trinity vs. United States that

America was a Christian nation from

its earliest days. The Court opinion

de-

livered by Justice Josiah Brewer, was an

~ x h a u s t i v e

study

of

the historical and

legal evidence for America's Christian

The Counsel of Cbalccdon, January, 1988 Pag e

8/12/2019 1988 Issue 1 - God's Law in America - Counsel of Chalcedon

3/3

Heritage. After examining hundreds of

court cases, state constitutions, and

other historical documents, the court

came to the following conclusion:

Our laws and our institutions must

necessarily be based upon and embody

the

teachings of the Redeemer of.

mtinkind.

It

is

impossible that

it

;should

be otherwise and in

the

sense and to

the extent our civilization

and

our

institutions

ate

emphatically Christian.

. .

.this is a religious people. This is

historically true. From the discovery of

the continent to the present hour there

is a single voice making this a/firma-.

tion.

. .

We

find

everywhere a clear

recognition of the same truth. . . These

and many other matters which might be

noticed adda volume

of

unofficialdecla

rations to the mass of organic utter.

ances that this is a Christian nation.1

As America has moved from

the

foundation on which our forefathers

built this mighty nation, as America

has

become

increasingly disobedient to

God's laws, as America continues to

depart front Biblical principles, the

entire country suffers. The symptoms

of incorrigibility toward God can be

viewed across this land by the sharp rise ,

in

crime, increased alcoholism and

drug

abuse, high levels of child abuse, climb-

ing illiteracy rates, the advent of AIDS,

distressing suicide trends, high rates

of

marital separation and dissolution,

alanning growth in emotional

and

mental disorders, etc. Probably the,

most blatant example, at present, of

failure in replacing God's laws with

those of man is

in

the battle over

poverty. As man has devised one

scheme after another to alleviate pover

ty

and

increased expenditures into the

billions, the problem has

only

.wor

sened. There are thousands of homeless

people roaming

the

streets, especially

in the larger cities. People are losing

their homes, jobs,

and

property in.great

numbers. Soup kitchens and public

shelters across the land are stretched to

the

limit

and beyond by the increasing

numbers of clients who tramp to thefr

doors daily. Tent cities are springing up

here and there alntost overnight. The

number

of welfare recipients

has

con

tinued

to

increase markedly over the

years. It is tinie to say enough is

enough as we make a call for ou r .

nation to return to God's law and Bib

lical charity.

[Editor's note Mr; Smith wrote

this article for his newsletter, Biblical

Charity which is part of his Christian

Food

Mission ministry. This explains

his emphasis on the question o poverty

in the last

paragraph of the article.]

.

ENDNOTES

. lKenneth L Gentry, Jr., The U S

Constitution: A

Christian Document

The

Couns.el of Chalcedon (December,

198,

6}: 1 5 ~ 1 7 .

M ~ u s L Loane, Mtlker o

ReligiouS

F'reedom

in

the

Seventeenth

Century

(Grand

Rapids:

Wtn. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1961 .

3c. Gregg Singer, A

Theola

gical

Interpretation

of

American History

(Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and

Reformed Publishing Co.,

1981 .

4Time July

6,

1987.

5R.J. Rushdoony,

Ti

th

ing and

Dominion

(Vallecito, CA: Ross .House

Books, 1979),

p

2 .

6singer, p. 215

7Gary DeMar,

George

Washington

and the Treaty of Tripoli The Biblical

WQridYiew

_{July, .

1.987 :

.

7 D

Seminar

on

ilie

IBook

of

R e v e l i ~ t i o o

by

the Rev.Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

The Postmillennial and preterist approach to the Book of Revelation is

gaining an ever-increasing hearing in conservative Christian circles today.

Those interested in the viewpoint will be interested

to

know that the Rev.

Kenneth

L

Gentry, Jr. has organized a four hour seminar on Revelation

from

this

perspective.

The

seminar covers important introductory questions

to Revelation, elucidates the fundamental principles for its proper interpretation;

and surveys the major figures and

movements in it, in

an

easily iinderstandable

and convincing fashion. Seminar costs include $300.00 honorarium, travel

expenses, and small printing cost for seminar syllabus (which inay

be

printed in

your own office for

free).

For o r e information, contact Kenneth L Gentry; Jr., .

124 Meadowbrook Dr., Mauldin, South Carolina 29662

Page 10

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__. __. .._ __The Coun5el of Cbaicedon, January, 1988