We have seen a lot of political finger-pointing recently about who is an existential threat to American democracy. Conservatives know that liberal Democrats seek larger, more powerful government in the socialist form. Conservatives generally prefer limited representative government. We have seen through lawfare being used against those who disagree with the Democrats that the laws are what those in control interpret them to be. Conservatives want the rule of law established and unchanged, except by legislative action. In both cases, Republicans are saying that Democrats want to end democracy, and Democrats are saying Republicans are a threat to democracy—especially their brand of it.

After being imprisoned and warned by the high priests (the governing body of the Jews) not to conduct ministry in the name of Jesus, Peter and the apostles responded in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” In developing the governing principles over the children of Israel, Jethro advised Moses in Exodus 18:21, “…provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them (the people)…”

This is the basis of American government the Founders used. There are many justifications of civic responsibility in the Bible, but are Christians using them?

The foundational social contract from which our Republic was derived is that there are inalienable rights endowed by the Creator and that government is formed to protect those rights. The basis of a Constitutional Republic (not democracy) is predicated on the belief that God created man and conveyed certain rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are protected in our Constitution. Government was limited by the Constitution to protect these rights.

Under the influence of Marxist Democrats, the meaning of the Constitution’s words has been twisted, and government rather than the Creator has become the source of rights. As a result, Christian America seems confused on how to oppose this perversion of the Constitution and rule of law.

John Jay, a Founder and first Supreme Court Justice, put it succinctly: “Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

Errant teaching from the pulpit and from Christian leaders has created disillusionment and apathy in Christians about their civic responsibility. Some are acting in error under the direction of the anti-biblical theology of dominionism. Others are failing to act because of a hyper-response to teachings about the rapture.

There are many other teachings that have contributed to Christian ineffectiveness in self-government. Be not confused. As an American and as a Christian, we all have civic responsibility. God gave us a nation where we have freedom of self-government. The Founders said it would only work with a moral and religious people. If Christians shirk their civic responsibility, the nation will fall. And it is.

Remember the saying, “Only you can prevent forest fires”? Herein, only you can protect this Constitutional Republic.

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/today-explained-newsletter/358061/democrats-biden-trump-existential-threat-democracy-debate

https://rollcall.com/2024/03/04/one-existential-threat-in-shift-biden-gives-trump-a-tongue-lashing/

Posted in The Daily Jot

In recent weeks, America once again has been awakened to the hand of God in such a way that only fools can deny it.

Irrespective of your political beliefs, former president Donald Trump was miraculously saved from an assassin’s bullet. Trump himself said,

“It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

Even the news media, well, at least FOX commentators were saying it was the hand of God that saved Trump from death. Democrats, however, were calling for a ban on guns and blaming Trump for riling up hate as a predictor of his own assassination attempt.

But what of the hand of God?

From the time of Plato to Thomas Hobbes to John Locke in the 1600s, to our Founding Fathers in the 1700s, to Marx in the 1800s, men attempted to define the need of government in society.

Plato wrote of a utopian communistic society, as did Hobbes, using Biblical imagery in his essay “Leviathan” to describe the all-powerful government. These men used the fallen nature of man to justify strong central authority to control man in preventing man from destroying other men. Marx wanted to ban all religion.

Their systems essentially focused on the idea that man is inherently evil and must be strongly governed by a “benevolent” sovereign. But this is against God’s will for mankind. In Genesis 2, God put Adam in the Garden, giving him the rules… the law, if you will. And he said in verse 17 if you violate this command, “you will surely die.”

Locke, however, saw that God created man in his own image, gave him dominion over the earth, and gave him laws by which to live. Locke believed these inalienable God-given rights were those of life, freedom, and property. He believed that man generally wanted to get along with men, but from time to time, those who covet the life or labor of others would try to take their fruits rather than create them from their own enterprise. In these cases, governments were needed to impartially enforce the laws of God. In other words, man would give up some of his freedom for the protection of government in civil society. Otherwise, he should be left to prosper by his own value add, which is his labor.

The Founding Fathers were influenced by Locke. Laws derived from the laws of God, civil society with freedom and impartial enforcement of the laws, checks and balances, were all staples of American government.

Locke also wrote that if there was “a long train of abuses, prevarications, and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to people… that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the ends for which government was first erected…”

In other words, if government is not impartially enforcing the laws of God, the people should put it into the hands of those who would rule as such.

In America, we have the choice of our leaders. Christians are still a majority. We must decide if we are to be slaves to tyranny or benefactors of Liberty.

Posted in The Daily Jot