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Restoring
the
Foundations
Joe Morecraft, III
PSALM
11
In
the LORD I take refuge;
How can you say to my soul, "Flee
as
a bird to your
mountain;
For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string,
To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart;
f the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?"
The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD's throne
is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons
of
men.
The
LORD
tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He w ll rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the
portion of their cup.
For the
LORD is
righteous;
He
loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.
INTRODUCTION
t s an honor to be in the same
room
with Judge Roy
Moore and several other great warhorses in the battle for
America, who have been
on
the battlefield for many years.
My prayer for you is that years from now, you will be saying
what Caleb said, recorded in Joshua 14:11-1 am still as
strong today
as I was in
the day Moses sent me
as
my
strength
was then so my strength is now, for war
and
for
going out and
coming in. Now
then
give
me this
ill
country ..
for you
heard
on that day
that Anakim
[giants]
were there with great
fortified cities;
perhaps
the
LORD will be
with me and
I shall drive
them
out
as the LORD has spoken. Caleb was 85 when he spoke
these words
EXPOSITION OF
PSALM 11
Historical Context
David lived through two periods of national turmoil, when
it could be said that the foundations of society were being
destroyed. The first was during the administration of King
Saul, who increasingly betrayed the foundations of law and
justice for Israel's society. During this time David watched
the moral degeneration of Saul, who treacherously tried to
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the COUNSEL
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kill David out of jealousy. The second was during David's
own administration
as
Icing, when Absalom, his son,
attempted a coup d etat, rallying much of the populace to
him. Once again David's life was in danger and the nation
was brought to moral chaos.
Exposition
OvervieJJJ
Portions of this psalm are often quoted and often
misunderstood, because of a failure to see the literary
structure of the psalm:
1. (11:1a) David begins with a confession of faith in
God
2.
(11:1b-3) David's friends urge David to
flee
danger
3. (11
:4-7) David reaffirms his faith in
God
xpository
Sketch
1. (11:1a) David's Confession of Faith
In the LORD I take refuge
..
Although David was surrounded by many powerful
enemies seeking his life, who seemed to be making
headway at overturning Israel's godly civilization, David
composed this psalm from the perspective of his faith in
Jehovah,
not
from a sense of panic. In fact, he viewed his
entire dangerous situation from the perspective of faith.
t s
as
if he said, 1 have taken refuge in the Lord, and
regardless of the fact that everything looks
as
if God's
promises are failing, I still trust Him. I need no other
refuge; and I am confidently assured that He will not turn
His back
on
His faithful people and abandon the work
He
has begun with our forefathers." It was from this vantage
point
of
faith
in God
and in God's Biblical revelation that
David was able to make sense
of
his situation and to know
how to face the crisis before him.
This must be true of us today
if
we are to win the battle
before us.
We
must look at it and respond to
it
from the
perspective of faith in and submission to God's Biblical
revelation because the Bible
is
divinely authoritative in
everything about which it speaks-and it speaks about
everything. Without that Biblical revelation we have no
basis for knowledge, morality or justice. Without it, these
are empty words, arbitrarily defined. f we are going to
win Ameriea back for our children, we must analyze and
confront the critical issues before us
as
Christians and
not simply
as
conservatives. Conservatism is impotent.
Conservative humanism
is
as devastating to this republic
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as Liberal humanism-it just takes a little longer.
2
(11:1b-3) David's Friends' Ad\,ice to Escape Danger
How can you say to my soul, Flee as a bird to
your
mountain;
For, behold, the wicked
bend
the
bow,
They make ready
their
arrow upon
the string,
To
shoot
in
darkness
at
the upright in
heart;
f the
foundations
are destroyed
What can
the righteous do?
David's friends were short-sighted, cowardly and
despondent regarding their dangerous situation. They were
not malicious enemies; they were cowardly friends, whose
perspective was one of unbelief. Cowardice is always
dangerous and deadly; and any advice to desert a post
of
duty is unwise and wicked.
They were urging David to flee to the mountains for safclr
rather than risking death
by
making a stand.
The
coward
always asks first,
not what
is right,
but what is
safe. And
it is more painful for a faithful man to hear the co\yardly
pleading of well-meaning friends than to hear the threats
of the enemy. As I often prayed in the mid-1980's, when
I ran for the u s Congress: Lord, I will take care of my
enemies,
if
you protect
me
from my friends. I still pray
that
on
occasion.
To convince David that he ought to flee, his friends painted
a frightening picture of the situation:
For, behold, the
wicked
bend
the
bow,
they make ready their arrow
upon the string, to shoot in darkness at the upright
in heart ..
The
danger was real and imminent. David's
enemies had already begun their assault
on
his life and
on
the foundations of the Hebrew Republic.
Therefore, they
asked: f the foundations are destroyed, what
can
the
righteous do?
What is
meant
by foundations in this context?
They
are
the pillars
on
which a society is based-the religious root
from which a culture is given its distinct character-the
basic principles of law and justice
on
which a constitutional
and free society is based. For Israel
in
the
Old
Testament
and for us in the United States those pillars are faith
in
the
God
of the Bible and submission to His Biblical revelation.
Four of those basic foundational truths are set forth
concisely
in
Isaiah
33:22-
For
the LORD
is
our judge,
The
LORD
is our
lawgiver,
The LORD is our Icing;
He will save us ..
The LORD
is
our judge.
All
individuals and institutions
are accountable to Almighty God for all their thoughts,
words, actions and
I
,ltcles, I Iistorl' will end in an awesome
and final Day uf Judgmenl, \ hen all people will stand
before
God
and give an account of themselves. When a
person or nation believes this, it makes him more restrained
in the face of temptation:, to sin. Belief in tlle judicial
authority
of God
can mal,e a people more responsible and
act more morally. On the other hand, if this principle
is
rejected, and a society believes that
it
is accountable only
to itself, it encourages lawlessness and irresponsibility.
Furcillg itself to belieye tllat it will not be judged by
God,
a humanistic society abandons itself to immorality and
perversion.
The
I,ORO is
our
lawgiver.
God is
the only So\1tce
of
law and ethics for individuals and institutions, which will,
if
oLeyed and enfurc:ed, guarantee liberty, justice, prosperity
and peace, The standard of Biblical Law
is
the only means
by which we can distinguish good and evil, justice and
injustice, truth and falsehood, reality and illusion.
Without
that in fallible and absolute moral standard everything
would
be a dangerous and terrifying blur. Humanism believes
the opposite. It believes that man is his own lawgiver, that
he has the ability to determine good and evil for himself
without any reference
to
God or
His Bible. It does
not
believe that a divinely re,'ealed book of unchanging moral
absolutes governing
all
of life exists. Therefore, invariably,
what humanism calls good, the Bible calls evil; and wha t
the Bible calls good, humanism calls evil, e.g. abortion and
hOll1osexuality.
The
LORD
is our
Icing. The Lord is
the ruler of the
Icings of the
earth,
Revelation 1 5 He is the King of
Icings
and Lord
of
lords,
Revelation 19:16. All authority
in
heaven and earth belongs to Him, Matthew 28:18.
His sovereignty is universal, total, limitless, final,
eternal,
ultimate. He and
He
alone has the right to rule and to
regulate every aspect of
human
life, human society and
of
the whole universe.
Throughout our
history as a nation,
we haye belieyed that the Lord is not only the Author
of liberty but that
He
is also the great God, our King.
Therefore,
all
human authorities are limited
in
the extent
of their authority and jurisdiction and in their exercise of
power. Furtllermore, they are all accountable to the Source
of
all autlwrity, which is the God
of
tlle Bible-There
is
no authority
except
from God, and
those
which
exist are established by God,
Romans 13:1.
When
this
foundational truth is disregarded and a society no longer
believes that the Lord is its Sovereign, authorities will
overstep their limitations and usurp powers God has not
giyen them, attempting to control and regulate all aspects
of society. They will grab
as
much power
as
they can to
impose their
will
and self-induced values on the rest of the
population.
When
a culture rejects the sovereignty
of God
and seeks to replace it with its own pretended sovereignty
and auto1lomy, it enslaves the populace.
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He
w ll
save us, i.e. the LORD is our Savior. The heart
of the Christian Gospel is that salvation from sin and its
consequences for individuals and nations
is
through faith
inJesus Christ, John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Galatians 2:16, Who
brings us rich, satisfying, life-changing, comprehensive
salvation under the sovereign rule of
His Word, even
to those who do
not
deserve it. On the other hand the
humanists look to a variety
of
saviors-politics, education,
technology and research. Ultimately, humanism believes
that Man is his own savior, and that Man will bring a
coercive utopian-salvation to the world built by man
through political and social planning and regulation, state
controlled education and technology.
The foundations of society, as described in Isaiah 33:
22, are "destroyed" when they are neglected, betrayed,
subverted and supplanted. This leads to moral, social and
cultural collapse. The goal of this subversion is the moving
of a nation
off
of one religious and ethical foundation
to another religious and ethical foundation in which the
adherents
of
the older religion are marginalized.
So then, what is the point of their question: if
the
foundations are
destroyed, what
can the righteous
do? According to David's friends the only reasonable and
sane course for David was flight. Why? Because, once the
foundations are destroyed, there is no place to stand, there
is loss of footing, and so there is no hope to change
things.
Trying to bring restoration when the foundations
of
society
are destroyed is like polishing brass on the Titanic. The
only choice is to
run
away to the mountains, learn to playa
guitar, and wait for Jesus to return and burn everything up.
Praise the Lord, David did not share the escapist religion
of
his cowardly friends.
3. (11:4-7) David's Reaffirmation of Faith
The LORD is in His holy temple, the
LORD'S
throne
is
in
heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids
test the
sons of men.
The
LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And
the one who
loves violence His
soul
hates.
Upon the wicked He w ll
rain
snares;
Fire
and brimstone and burning
wind w ll be
the
portion
of their cup.
For
the
LORD
is righteous; He loves
righteousness;
The
upright w ll behold His
face.
Instead of yielding to their temptation, David stood firm
and refused to surrender his culture and nation to his
enemies. God used his courageous faithfulness to root
out his enemies and restore his nation. And where did
he find a place to stand for this great work? In His God
and His Biblical revelation. These foundations were not
and could be destroyed. He had a place to stand because
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His Lord and Savior is seated on His throne in His palace
in heaven, where He reigns supreme as sovereign over all
men and nations
on
earth.
He
oversees with omniscience
the actions of His people and their enemies. He judges
all
men according to the standard of His Law and will jusdy
punish the wicked for the protection
of
the righteous.
What is more is the incomparable blessing God brings to
His righteous people: they will behold His face
in
love and
security.
In
other words, David was walking by faith not by sight.
Instead of determining his response to the situation by
what
he saw
contradictory
as
it appeared to the promises
of God, David determined his course of action by his faith
in the written Word
of
God. David did not look at life
from the same perspective
as
his friends. His God-centered
worldview was based on what God had revealed about
Himself
in
the Bible; and faith in that revelation made him
courageous in standing against the enemies of his nation.
Sometimes evil looks
as
if
it has won and
is
n
the driver's
seat; but we know better, and David knew better, because
God has spoken (psalm 2:1-6, 10-12):
Why
are
the nations in an
uproar,
And
the
peoples devising a vain thing?
The
kings of
the
earth take their stand,
And the
rulers
take counsel
together
Against
the
LORD and against His Anointed:
"Let us tear their
fetters
apart,
And
cast
away their cords from us "
He
who
sits
in
the heavens laughs,
The LORD scoffs at them.
Then He w ll speak to them in
His anger
And terrify
them
in His fury:
"But
as for
Me,
I have
installed My King
Upon
Zion, My holy
mountain."
Now
therefore,
kings, show discernment;
Take warning,
0
judges of
the
earth.
Serve
the LORD with
reverence,
And rejoice
with
trembling.
Kiss
the
Son,
lest
He
become
angry,
and
you perish
in
the
way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How
blessed
are all
who
take refuge
in Him
What is
God
telling us in Psalm
2?
Because fallen man
views God's moral order
as
chains to be broken, the kings
and nations
of
the earth conspire to overturn that moral
order so they can be free from it.
God says
that
all
their
efforts are "a
vain thing," i.e. an absolutely futile thing; and
so His response is contemptuous laughter, because He sits
as the almighty Sovereign over all the earth. His response
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to their attempt to overthrow His sovereignty is the
establishing of His Son as ruler of
the kings
of
the earth
to whom all men and nations are accountable, and Who will
shatter like cheap clay pots all those nations that refuse
to
repent of their rebellion against Him-Thou shalt break
them
with
a rod of
iron Thou shalt shatter them
like
earthenware v. 9.
Therefore, all the political powers and judges of
the
earth
throughout history are called to recognize the supremacy
of
the God of the Bible and serve Him, and to pledge
their allegiance to the Son of God, personally and
officially,
bowing before the authority of His written Law, lest He
become angry,
and you
perish
in
the way, for His
wrath
may soon
be
kindled. On the other hand,
God
blesses
and protects all
who take refuge in Him.
Psalm 11 has a thrilling conclusion in verse seven: For
the LOR
is
righteous; He loves
righteousness;
the
upright w ll
behold
His face. This is the basis of David's
hope and the motive
of
his courageous faithfulness.
God
is righteous
God
loves righteousness David is righteous
God hates and destroys unrighteousness Therefore,
David can be confident that
God
will maintain his cause
and avenge him in the destruction of his enemies and the
restoration
of
the foundations.
Application of Psalm 11
Two kinds of people are referred to in Psalm 11: righteous,
upright people, v. 5 7 and wicked people who love
violence, v. 5-6. Knowing the difference is of the most
vital importance for us today.
A righteous person whom
God
favors, defends and
rewards
is: (1)
One whom God has declared righteous
through faith in Jesus Christ. A person is
not
righteous
until God says he is. Until that moment God
says
he or
she is condemned
as
a sinner; but when that person puts
his faith in Jesus Christ and rests upon Him alone for
acceptance with God,
God
credits Christ's righteousness
to his account and declares him to be righteous in Christ
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus Romans
8:1.
(2) One who, out of
gratitude for Christ, seeks, with God's help, to conform his
own life and thought to God's moral standard in the Bible.
(3)
One who understands that that same law in the Bible is
foundational to the life of his nation. Proverbs
14:34
says:
Righteousness exalts a nation but sin
is
a disgrace to
any people. Foundational conformity to God's written
Law exalts a nation to greatness;
but
disobedience to that
written Law brings a nation into deep disgrace.
A wicked person is someone who bases his life and thought
on himself as god, choosing to determine good and evil
for himself, without any reference to the revelation of his
Creator.
He
or she is described in our Psalm
11
as one
who
loves violence, v.
5.
Why? Because the wicked, passively
or
actively, are destroying the foundations of a righteous
nation by trying to remove God and His Biblical revelation
from that foundation and by moving that nation to another
foundation, rebuilding it
on
a principle of revolt against
God. This always leads to bloodshed and death, hence the
wicked love violence.
The late 17
th
and early 18
th
centuries are referred to as the
Age of Enlightenment, although, I prefer the designation,
the Age of Endarkenment. During these decades Europe
left its ancient Christian base of faith that truth
is
known
only by divine revelation for a new base of blind faith
that man is the measure of all things, and that he can
discover tru th by reason unaided by revelation. When this
philosophical, intellectual revolution took place, the
bloody
French Revolution of 1789 was inevitable.
It
was the first
war of its kind in history. Its expressed purpose was to
expunge a Christian moral order from France, to remove
France completely from its Christian base. Because
of
the
change of foundations those were bloody days. Everyone
has heard of Robespierre, the guillotine, the reign of
terror, and the slaughter of thousands bf men, women and
children in the name of
liberry,
equality and
i {lternity.
In
the 20
th
century, America changed foundations and
changed gods.
That revolution made for America the
bloodiest century in our history,
not
only in two World Wars
and several lesser wars, but in the brutal murder of tens of
millions of unborn babies in abortion with the approval
of
the federal government. As
God
said in Proverbs 8:36-All
those who
hate
me
love
death.
America's new gods have
failed
her 3
In
Romans 13, the civil government is described as a
minister of God to you for good, v. 4; but in Revelation
13 the civil government is described as a hideous
beast v.
2, that blasphemes God, v. 5, and makes war against faithful
Christians to overcome and silence them, v.
7.
What caused
the difference? When does a civil government turn from
being a
minister
of God to you for good and become a
beast that
is
a threat to the church and to godly families?
The answer is to be found in what was required
of
the
subjects
of
this beasdy state. Everybody was to be given a
mark
on
their
right
hand
or
on their forehead, v. 16; and
those not bearing that mark would be severely persecuted by
the beast, v. 17.
This is
not
the first time
in
the Bible
we
read
of
a required
mark on one's hand and forehead. In Deuteronomy 6,
after exhorting His people to have His words in their hearts
and to teach them to their children,
God
exhorts them
to bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall
be
as frontals on
your
forehead,
v.
8.
The
point is not
that they were literally to be engraved
on
their hands and
the
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forehead,
but
that God's words,
t ~ e .
God's laws, were to
govern all their thoughts and all their actions and
everything
that went on in their homes and nation, v. 9. Therefore,
when the
beast
of Revelation 13 requires another
mark
on the people's hands and foreheads, it is imposing upon
them another law as the foundation
of
society rather than
the Law of God in the Bible; it is requiring that the people
submit to another law than Biblical
Law.
And, when that
happens, when a state imposes and enforces another law
other than that of Jehovah, the state not only becomes
tyrannical, but those who refuse to bear the mark, choosing
rather to obey the Law of God, suffer for it.
Destroying our foundations is an act of violence.
According to Psalm 11, God not only hates those who
destroy them,
but
for the vindication of His divinely
revealed moral order and for the protection of His faithful
people, He promises in His own time, to overturn, reverse
and destroy their wicked efforts and to bring restoration to
His people who love and serve Him.
Now, back to the question of David's cowardly friends:
f
the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous
do? The answer they wanted was: "Nothing All is lost
Things have gone too
far
The enemy is too large, too well
funded, too entrenched to oppose them. Take flight Hide
Be more concerned about being safe and less concerned
about doing right "
But what was David's answer to their question? f the
foundations are being destroyed, the righteous can stand
on God's revelation of Himself and His
will
for men
and nations in the Bible, for the Word
of
God cannot be
broken. He can keep
on
being righteous
in
life and office,
and work to rebuild the foundations until he sees God
restore those foundations and frustrate the efforts of those
warring against them.
Faith in God's sovereignty, providence, judgment, and grace
in Jesus Christ, with a love for duty, motivated by love for
God, truth and righteousness will keep us from that despair
that paralyzes action. All is not over while there is a man
left to bear witness to the truth of God.
That
man with
God's help can stop evil forces dead in their tracks and
recover the
day.
So then, if the foundations are being destroyed, what can
the righteous do? What should he do? What must he do?
Rebuild the foundations Give ll his life, resources and
energy to the restoring of those foundations with the help
of God. And for us today, this work must go on regardless
of the difficulties, threats and set-backs.
Without renewed submission to God and His Biblical
revelation for all of
life-law
politics, economics,
jurisprudence, and all the rest-we will perish under God's
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judgment
as
a nation of IDOLATORS. Why
do
I say
this? The source of law for any society is the God of that
society. t cannot be otherwise. As RJ. Rushdoony taught
us:
"The power and meaning
of
all law is derived from an
ultimate authority, and the source of that culture's law is
its god. The god of a culture can be located by fixing its
source of
law."4
The
most important political issue of the 20
t
and
21
st
centuries
is:
What is the source of law for these United
States? To what standard do we turn
as
citizens and
public officials to distinguish good and evil, to determine
whether legislation
or
policy is moral or immoral, beneficial
or detrimental to our lives and liberties? God's absolute
standard in the Bible?
Or
fallen man's subjective and
arbitrary opinion? As Judy Rogers sings in her song,
Here I stafldl- Who shall rule the rule of law in coming
generations?"
Hence the central importance of the battle of Judge Roy
Moore
of
Alabama to free the states and the people from
unconstitutional federal judicial tyranny and to free us
from
those judges' attempts to silence our personal and official
acknowledgement
of
the
God
upon which this nation was
founded, the God of the Declaration of Independence
and the
U.S.
Constitution, the
God
of the Bible,
as
the
sovereign source of law, liberty and government.
s
Human beings, even with
all
their reason, experience,
research, statistics and polls, are not in a position to be
a
reliable source of law that insures liberty and justice for
all.
We are created beings, finite, fallen, sinfully flawed to
the core, whose reason unaided by revelation
is
distorted,
and therefore unreliable as a source of law which others are
obligated to obey or suffer the consequences.
History has shown repeatedly that the belief that man is
his own source
of
law, his own lawgiver, produces tyranny
and civil slavery.
It
always has. It does today. It
always
will.
When man reduces law to his own moralistic, subjective
opinions, he destroys law
as
a reliable and just governing
norm of society. When man sets himself up as society's
only source of
law,
reducing law to his own will, believing
that no law above man exists, the standard of man-made
law in a society becomes the principle: "might makes right,"
i.e. the whims of those who control political, military,
financial or media power become the Laws imposed upon
the rest of society, often at the cost
of
precious blood.
Although positing man's experience
as
the source of law
is arbitrary and irrational,
always
leading to racism, the
distortion
of justice, the disappearance of liberty, the
decline of productivity and cultural and moral degeneration,
many public officials, either because they have no heart or
no
head or with self-serving agendas, persist in introducing
and passing legislation and enforcing judicial decrees that
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have as their only basis the subjective and arbitrary
opinion
of a man. When this happens, more times than not, they
call good evil and evil good.
The only Source
of
law that preserves liberty and justice
for
all
is the Sovereign Creator
of
the universe.
God
is the
Lawgiver of the universe, who Himself is above the
Law.
In
fact, His Law is the boundary between Himself and His
creation, in that man cannot transcend his creaturehood,
i.e.
his accountability to that God before Whom someday he
will stand. The sin of human beings is their desire to cross
over or to annihilate that boundary, to determine good and
evil for themselves with no reference to the Creator or His
Bible.
God has given to humankind--every individual, race, and
nationality-His Law to protect human society from the
ravages of the Lawless and the violent. Without that Law
governing society, anarchy and tyranny reign. Without
that Law society has no just and liberating restraints
on
man's evil actions.
f
God
is
not
the Source
of
Law for
us, then chaos and evil will dominate the scene. As R.
J Rushdoony said: A society in rebellion against God's
Law, is 'like a fish out of water, violendy active but
quickly
destined to die.'''6
All human beings and all human institut ions are under
God's Law:
This is an inescapable fact of life, try
to suppress it as one
may.
And more specifically, all
humankind
is
under the Law of the Creator revealed
on
Mount Sinai, Exodus 20:1-17. f human beings are the
creatures of the supernatural Creator, then we are both
under God, our Creator, and under His revealed Law.
We,
together with all our institutions, are obligated to obey
God
by obeying His Law in every sphere of life, for all human
life and society are equally bound by the absolute Law of
the Creator.
This also means that liberty is under Law, and that human
beings find their freedom to be what God has created them
to be, not apart from God's Law, or in rebellion against
it, but under it and in glad submission to it, having been
liberated from its condemnation through the redemptive
work of Christ by faith. The free person, then, is the Law
abiding person, i.e. the person whose life, from its very
roots,
is
willingly submissive to God's will revealed in His
perfect
Law
of liberty, James 2:12, by which he will be
judged. Furthermore, this means that justice is impossible
except in terms of God's Law, for without His infallible
standard, distinguishing crime from good behavior, and
defining the punishments crime deserves, justice is
arbitrary
and cruel.
The criticism most often brought against this viewpoint
is:
"You cannot legislate morality." I have heard it a
thousand times, and so have you. And, on one level, I agree
with it. The state cannot make people good by passing
legislation Law has no power to save individuals or nations.
As a Christian, I believe what God
says
is true:
There
is
salvation in
no one
else [but Jesus]; for there is
no
other
name
under
heaven
that
has
been given among
men,
by
which
we must
be
saved, Acts 4:12.
However,
on
another level, this popular cliche, ''You cannot
legislate morality," is naive. Why do I
say
this? li law and
legislation are based
on
some legislator'S understanding of
right and wrong,
i.e.
on his
or
her morality. A legislator
introduces a bill because he thinks it is "good" for the
people.
He
votes against another bill because he thinks
it is "bad" for them. What is he doing? He is using his
own moral convictions
as
the basis of his approval
or
disapproval of legislation. All law and legislation,
therefore,
are enacted morality, morality legislated. The question
becomes, NOT
WHETHER
morality will be legislated, for
that happens every time a law is enacted or enforced, BUT
WHOSE
morality is to be enacted into
law:
fallen man's
or
God's? Furthermore,
all
morality rests upon deeply
held religious convictions about
God
and life. As one has
said sarcastically, but correcdy:
No
society has yet solved
the problem of how to teach morality without religion."7
Therefore, once again, the question is NOT
WHETHER
religion will be mixed with legislation, BUT WHOSE
religion will be mixed with legislation? Satan's
or
God's?
The choice
is
yours and mine.
And so, in conclusion, we need to press the following words
of A A Hodge of 19
th
Century Princeton Seminary,
on
our consciences, the conscience of every American, and the
conscience of every public official:
.. .if Christ is really King, exercising original and
immediate jurisdiction over the state as really as He
does over the church, it follows necessarily that the
general denial or neglect
of
His rightful lordship, any
prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the open
lawbook of His kingdom, must be followed by political
and social
as
well
as
by moral and religious ruin. If
professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of
their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the state, they
cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling
of
the
Holy Spirit
in
their capacity
as
members
of
the church.
The kingdom of Christ is one, and cannot be divided
in life
or in
death.
If
the church languishes, the state
cannot be in health, and if the state rebels against its
Lord and King, the church cannot enjoy His favor.
f
the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the church, he is
not present in the state; and if He, the only "Lord, the
Giver of life," be absent, then all order is impossible
and the elements of society lapse backward to
...
chaos.
In the name of your own interests I plead with you; in
the name of your treasurehouses and barns; of your
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of
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rich farms and cities;
of
your accumulations in the
past and your hopes in the future I charge
you-you
never will be secure if you do not faithfully maintain
all the crown-rights
of
Jesus the King
of
men. In the
name of your children and their inheritance of the
precious Christian civilization you in turn have received
from your sires; in the name of the Christian Church,
I charge you that its sacred franchise, religious liberty,
cannot be retained by men who in civil matters deny
their allegiance to the King.
In
the name of your own
soul and its salvation; in the name
of
the adorable
victim of that bloody and agonizing sacrifice whence
you draw all your hopes of salvation; by Gethsemane
and Calvary; I charge you, citizens of the United States,
afloat on your wide sea of politics, there is another
king, one Jesus: the safety of the state can be secured
only in the way of humble and whole-souled loyalty to
His person and
of
obedience to His Law.
8
JCMIII
February 13, 2004
Cumming, Georgia
Soli Deo Gloria
Joe Morecraft, III, Th.D. has pastored Chalcedon
Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, for almost
30 years. He and his wife Rebecca (Becky to her
friends), have four children, one still at home, and two
grandchildren. Joe is a noted lecturer
on
contemporary political
and historical trends in the United States and has published
three
books as well as hundreds of articles.
Endnotes
1 This is the introduction to a message given at Judge Roy
Moore's
FOUNDATION FOR
MORAL LAW conference in Montgomery,
Alabama, February 13, 2004. Those present included: Howard
Philips, Herb Titus,
John
Eidsmoe, Judge Roy Moore, Phyllis
Schlafly, Alan Keyes and representatives from many other
national
Christian activist organizations, e.g. Coral Ridge Ministries,
Focus
on
the
Family,
Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum,
Family Concerns of Georgia, Conservative Caucus, etc.
2 This
is
the title of a 19
th
Century book by E c Wines,
THE
HEBREW REPUBLIC, reprinted under the title,
THE
ROOTS
OF
THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC by the Plymouth
Rock Foundation. It shows the influence
of
the civil laws and
institutions of the Hebrew Republic in the Old Testament on
the
US. Constitution.
3
Jeremiah 2:11-13- Has a
nation
changed gods, when they
18
the
COUNSEL
of
CH LCEDON
were
not gods? But
My
people have
changed their glory
for
that which does not profit. Be appalled, 0 heavens, at this,
and shudder,
be
very desolate, declares
the LORD.
For
My people have committed two evils:
they
have forsaken Me,
the
fountain
of
living waters, to
hew
for themselves
cisterns,
broken
cisterns, that can
hold no
water.
4
R.J. Rushdoony, POLITICS
OF
GUILT AND PITY, (Fairfax,
VA: Thoburn Press, 1978), p. 141.
5
At
a national press conference at the
FOUNDATION
FOR
MORAL LAW conference in Montgomery, Alabama, February
13, 2004, the Constitution Restoration Act was presented by
three U S. Senators, (Shelby of Alabama, Brownback of
Nebraska, and Zell Miller of Georgia, the last by letter),
and
one US. Congressman, (Aderholt
of
Alabama), which had been
introduced in the US. Senate and the US. House. Its heart is
in
the following provision: Notwithstanding any other provision
of this chapter the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction
to
review, by appeal, writ
of
certiorari,
or
otherwise, any matter to the
extent tha t relief is sought against an element of Federal,
State, or
local government,
or
against an officer
of
Federal, State,
or
local
government (whether or
not
acting
in
official or personal capacity),
by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgement of
God
as
the sovereign source
of
law;
liberty,
or
government.
It
further
provides that: In interpreting and applying the Constitution
of
the United States, a court
of
the United States may
not
rely
upon any constitution, lm.v administrative rule, Executive
order,
directive, policy, judicial decision, or any other action of
any
foreign state or international organization or agency, other
than
English constitutional and common law: With reference to
enforcement, the
Act
states: To the extent that a justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States or any judge of any
Federal
court engages
in
any activity that exceeds the jurisdiction
of
the
court of that justice or judge...engaging in that activity shall
be
deemed to constitute the commission of-(1) an offense for
which
the judge may be removed upon impeachment and conviction;
and
(2)
a breach
of
the standard
of
good behavior required by Article
III, section 1
of
the Constitution. For more information contact
the FOUNDATION
FOR
MORAL LAW, www:morallaw.org.
6
Rushdoony, op.cit.} p. 141.
7
Sir Patrick Devlin, THE
ENFORCEMENT OF
MORALS,
(London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p.
25;
quoted by
R.J.
Rushdoony, POLITICS
OF
GUILT AND PITY,
p.
141.
8
A A
Hodge, POPULAR LECTURES
ON THEOLOGICAL
THEMES, (philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and
Sabbath-School Work, 1887), p.
287.
