Posted in Journal
True Liberty
Typically, we relate “government” to “civil” government; whose “strong arm” in this country has become more and more necessary to control moral behavior. In the modern era, certainly, our civil government has become increasingly active in controlling our citizens’ behavior due to the rise of crime and immoral behavior. Also, our civil courts are extraordinarily backlogged in their efforts to resolve the populations’ civil issues since the populace seems unable to “right” these issues on their own.
However, should “government” begin and end with “state” control? If we need the state to control all our actions, can we call ourselves a free society or are we simply becoming what our Founding Fathers fled—a despotic system of government with the state having absolute power?
Unmistakably, the more amoral a society becomes, the more despotic a ‘system of government’ will become encroaching on liberties. This encroachment occurs as the people place great demands on the state for answers to social problems. The state often obliges the people with their “strong arm” to counter increasing anarchy. However, once this encroachment of liberties has occurred for justifiable means, it almost certainly leads to excessive encroachment based on the whims of man and then “liberty” has been compromised.
However, it was another “govern-ment” that our Founding Fathers sought in coming to these shores—a government of the people under the sovereignty of God for “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty”.[1] The Separatist—those Pilgrims of old—were a people of the Book—the Word of God comparing all things to the Bible. As William Bradford set forth in Of Plymouth Plantation,
“The one party of reformers endeavored to establish the right worship of God and the discipline of Christ in the Church according to the simplicity of the gospel and without the mixture of men’s inventions, and to be ruled by the laws of God’s word…”[2]
And so on the shores of Cape Cod in 1620, it was set forth in the Mayflower Compact, to “covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politick; for our better ordering, & preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid,”—“for the glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith”—“to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws…”[3]
The Pilgrims understood what we seem to have forgotten—that it is the Bible that is the only absolute standard of right and wrong.
As Robert C. Winthrop so eloquently put it in an address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society in
“The voice of experience and the voice of our own reason speak but one language on this point. Both unite in teaching us, that men may as well build their houses upon the sand and expect to see them stand, when the rains fall, and the winds blow, and the floods come, as to found free institutions upon any other basis than that morality and virtue, which the Word of God is the only authoritative rule, and the only adequate sanction.”[4]
Historically, the American hearth and home built the foundations of American’s Christian character through Biblical education. It was this foundation and reliance on God that caused our untrained Continentals, a “rag-tag” team, to defeat the greatest military power of the day.[5]
The American Christian Church, by its ministers, educated the people in Biblical principles of civil government through its Artillery, Election, and Fast Day sermons. They did not separate the civil sphere from religious liberty.[6] It was the man of principle who became the “uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier”.[7]
The Bible is defined as “THE BOOK, by way of eminence; the sacred volume, in which are contained the revelations of God, the principles of Christian faith, and the rules of practice.”[8]
All Scripture is inspired by God[9], or God-breathed, being recorded by approximately 40 different authors over a period of approximately 1600 years. Some of its authors were rich, such as kings, and some were poor, like shepherds, some were educated, and some were not.[10] Although the books of the Bible were written by many authors of diverse life stations and written hundreds of years apart, they read like one story for “…Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”[11]
The Bible has stood the test of time. Before 1948, the earliest copies of the Old Testament, faithfully copied by scribes, dated in AD 900. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, that had been copied by scribes between 200 BC-100 AD, was nearly identical with only a few small variations revealing the amazing accuracy of the Jewish scribes in copying the original Biblical manuscripts. The New Testament was written between approximately AD 35 and AD 100. There exist 5,735 accurate manuscripts of the New Testament.[12]
Is it any wonder that such a book would contain the depth of wisdom in the ‘government of man’; truly a sacred volume, containing the revelations of God?
The ‘government of man’ in a free society does not begin with the external state that is hard-pressed to restrain from trampling on liberties; but with the internal man in self-government. In order for the internal man to self-govern, he is in need of an absolute standard of right and wrong; “that morality and virtue, which the Word of God is the only authoritative rule”[13]
Noah Webster’s words in 1832 ring true—the Scriptures contain the fundamental principles of civil liberty needed for a true republican government. The moral order of the universe laid down by its Creator has been set forth succinctly for us in the infallible Word of God as an adequate guide to human reasoning; for human reasoning left to its own devises only results in the ambitions of evil passions as reflected in the annals of history throughout time. “In my view, there are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are the combined force of religion and law, and the force or fear of the bayonet.”[14]
So we should “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”[15] And accordingly, the “hungry will be fed…the naked clothed…the stranger will be sheltered…the prisoner visited…the sick ministered unto…”[16], and we will be guided in the civil government of man for a free society.
“All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”[17]
This country’s true liberty resides in Biblical self-government to maintain a society free of stringent governmental control.
[1] 2 Corinthians 3:17
[2] Of
[3] The Mayflower Compact,
[4] Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions, by Robert C. Winthrop, Vols. I, II,
[5] The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, by Verna M. Hall, Foundation of American Christian Education, San Francisco, 1975, pg. Ib
[6] Ibid, pg. Ib
[7]Continental Congress Fast Day Sermon, by Reverend John Witherspoon, 1776.
[8] American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828
[9] 2 Timothy 3:16
[10] How Do You Know the Bible is from…God, by Kyle Butt M.A., Apologetics Press,
[11] 2 Peter 1:20-21
[12] How Do You Know the Bible is from…God, by Kyle Butt M.A., Apologetics Press,
[13] Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions, by Robert C. Winthrop, Vols. I, II,
[14] Principles of
[15] 2 Peter 3:18
[16] Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions, by Robert C. Winthrop, Vols. I, II,
[17] Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions, by Robert C. Winthrop, Vols. I, II,
