The Perfect Law of Liberty
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass [mirror, NASB]: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:22-25)1
The law of Yahweh2 is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)
The Declaration Speaks for Itself
Paragraph #2, Sentences 6–7
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
As we continue to biblically examine the twenty-seven Facts (grievances), take note again how many of these same abuses can be leveled at both the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers.
Grievance #8
He [Britain’s King George III] has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
King George had barred the appointment of judges from among the American colonials to litigate their own legal cases. The colonials had to consequently wait for delayed adjudication from across the Atlantic Ocean via George’s English appointees. This was certainly a valid complaint. But it doesn’t begin to compare with King George’s underlying judicial malfeasance.
Truer Words Never Spoken
There are no truer words in the entire Declaration of Independence than “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice.” However, they are only true when evaluated from a biblical paradigm.
Where does justice originate? Without answering this question correctly, any discussion regarding justice is an exercise in futility. Not only does justice originate with Yahweh, it’s the foundation of His throne, emanating from God Himself:
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy [Yahweh’s] throne; lovingkindness and truth go before Thee. (Psalm 89:14, NASB)
Yahweh, the habitation of justice, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers. (Jeremiah 50:7)
Psalm 89:14 is repeated in Psalm 97:2. Verse 1 provides the reason righteousness and justice are intrinsic to our God:
Yahweh reigneth … righteousness and judgment [justice, NASB] are the habitation of his throne. (Psalm 97:1-2)
As reigning Creator, Yahweh has sole authority for what constitutes law and therefore justice—that is, the determination for what’s good and what’s evil. Has God ceased reigning? He reigns as much now over His creation as He did at creation. Like it or not, because He always has and always will reign over heaven and earth, He gets to determine what’s good and what’s evil and therefore what’s just and what’s unjust.
Anytime man claims differently as to what constitutes good and evil, it’s the same sin responsible for Adam and Eve being thrown out of the Garden. This is true even when man’s replacement is better than what it replaced. Case in point: the Declaration’s signatories’ and Constitution’s framers’ injustice3 that replaced King George’s and Great Britain’s worse injustices.
These were merely two different versions of Adam and Eve’s biblical sedition, resulting in government of, by, and for the people. This biblical perversion juxtaposed with government of, by, and for God, as can only be established upon His perfect law of liberty. This includes its altogether righteous justice as expressed in its civil sanctions per Psalm 19:9. Such justice can only be consistently administered by biblically qualified men of God, adjudicating by the same righteous judgments, enforcing the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes.
Their Authority and Justice Originated with Themselves
Therefore, the law is ignored [slacked, KJV] and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted…. Their justice and authority originate with themselves. (Habakkuk 1:4, 7, NASB)
Now travel forward in time with me some 2,400 years and listen to this as it reverberates through the eons of time, proving Solomon, once again, correct that there’s nothing new under the sun:
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice…. (Preamble, United States Constitution)
What an audacious claim! Only Yahweh, God of the Bible, can establish justice. It’s where He resides, intrinsic in who He is.
On the other hand, anytime autonomous man attempts to establish justice outside God’s moral law—whether King George, the Declaration’s signatories, the Constitution’s framers, or anyone else—the result is always injustice.
Isaiah 5:20 depicts this transposition as calling good evil and evil good. Case in point: the biblically seditious Constitution4 sired by the biblically adverse Declaration of Independence.5
The word “autonomous,” comes from two Greek words auto meaning self and nomos meaning law. The word literally means self law. It’s just another way of describing humanism, in this instance constitutionalism.
In Deuteronomy 12:8, Moses warned, “Ye shall not do after … whatsoever is right in [every man’s] own eyes.” Constitutionalism is a collective, agreed-upon form of humanism. By their silence, and thus their acquiescence to this new form of government, the American people claim their authority and their justice, not from Yahweh, but from themselves. In turn, they make themselves their own God.6
Biblically Unqualified Judges
Compounding the American colonials’ judicial problems was that the judges (Judiciary powers) King George had forced upon them were not biblically qualified and were therefore unlawful judges and thus merely usurpers.7 Had this been part of the colonials’ grievance, perhaps they wouldn’t have made the same blunder eleven years later when they likewise failed to compel all judges in their new government to be biblically qualified.
The Bible stipulates, among other things, that judicial appointees must be men of truth who fear Yahweh and hate covetousness. The United States Constitution requires no biblical qualifications whatsoever.
Nowhere does the Constitution stipulate that judges must rule on behalf of God, rendering decisions based upon His commandments, statutes, and judgments as required in Exodus 18. That not even one constitutional framer contended for God, as did King Jehoshaphat, speaks volumes about the framers’ disregard for Him and His judicial system:
And he [King Jehoshaphat] set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for Yahweh, who is with you in the judgment…. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of Yahweh, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. (2 Chronicles 19:5-9)
America’s Civil “Leaders”
Have you ever wondered how America ended up with the caliber of civil leaders she has today? Could it have something to do with Article 6’s Christian test ban8 by which mandatory biblical qualifications were likewise eliminated? Once adopted, it was inevitable that America would be ruled by nothing but nincompoops, scoundrels, incompetents, immoral reprobates, and outright criminals.
Take nincompoops, for example. Exodus 18:21’s qualifications include the fear of Yahweh. Kings David and Solomon point out that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Thus, without the fear of Yahweh, you end up with, at best, nincompoops as your alleged leaders.
Not only did the constitutional framers fail to require biblical qualifications for all judges, they eliminated them. This is the real issue as it pertains to Article 6’s Christian test ban. The extant 18th-century states’ Christian test oaths were mere shells of what they should have been, easily falsified with disingenuous verbal confessions of faith. Although better than the federal constitution, the states’ constitutions also failed to mandate biblical qualifications, such as the following:
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness…. And let them judge the people at all seasons. (Exodus 18:21-22)
The first qualification is that judges are to be “able men.” Able in what? In what Moses was to have taught them as related in the previous verse:
And thou shalt teach them ordinances [statutes, per the Hebrew] and laws…. (Exodus 18:20)
These laws and statutes represented God’s law, not Moses,’ nor any other finite man’s capricious man-made law.
Civil leaders are also to be men who are known for their fear (or reverence) of Yahweh. No one, for example, who swears to uphold the biblically seditious United States Constitution9 as the law of the land can, by any stretch of the imagination, claim that they reverence Yahweh. Nor can those who help elect such legislative usurpers.10
Exodus 18’s qualifications likewise require civil leaders to be men of truth, men with whom the truth of God’s law is paramount and who would therefore be unbiased in judgment regardless who is being tried:
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shall thou judge thy neighbor. (Leviticus 19:15)
Unbiased judgment is impossible with finite men—that is, except with judges with whom the truth of Yahweh’s unchanging law is preeminent, which, in turn, determines their every judgment.
Such judges are also to be men who hate covetousness and who therefore cannot be bought, or bribed, at any price.
How well do you think Britain’s judges fared when measured against just these few qualifications required in Exodus 18:21? The Constitutional Republics’ judges and other civil “leaders” have fared no better, thanks to Article 6’s Christian test ban.
Additional Qualifications
There are several other passages that provide biblical qualifications for civil leaders,11 all of which demonstrate the utter failure of Britain’s government and the one here in America that replaced it, known, of course, as the United States Constitutional Republic.
For example:
Thou shalt… set him king over thee, whom Yahweh thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother…. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book… And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom…. (Deuteronomy 17:15-20)
Deuteronomy 17’s qualifications begin by declaring that civil leaders are to be chosen/elected by God Himself. God never intended fickle finite men to elect anyone, not by popular election and/or electoral college,12 nor by any other means devised by man.
Elections of civil leaders are God’s exclusive domain. Man is responsible for nominating biblically qualified men of God. Yahweh elects from those nominated. His choice is revealed via the casting of lots, per Proverbs 16:33, 18:18, Acts 1:23-26, etc.13
Civil leaders are furthermore required to be kindred rather than strangers. This, juxtaposed with the Constitutional Republic, some of whose leaders are Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc., who have introduced their gods and unbiblical laws into American society.
It is also required of civil leaders that they personally write out, daily read, and perform Yahweh’s laws. How many of Britain’s 18th-century leaders, including King George, do you suppose fulfilled these requirements? The exact same number of Americans who were required to do so eleven years later, and ever since, by the United States Constitution.
The result: America has had nothing but nincompoops, scoundrels, incompetents, immoral reprobates, and outright criminals (not to mention Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc.) for her civil leaders since the inception of the biblically seditious Constitution.
The only qualifications for civil leaders in the entire Constitution is found in Article 314—that is, that judges are to be men (and, by default, also women15) of “good behavior.” But what worth is a condition of undefined good behavior?
Good behavior can only be defined by and understood from the parameters of God’s morality. Any standard leaving good behavior to the determination of humans is humanism.
Biblical Justice
Justice is defined as “the quality of being just, righteous, equitableness, or moral rightness.”16 This is a perfect description of Yahweh and His moral law. All true law, righteousness, equity, morality, truth, and justice originates with and emanates from Him. None of this exists outside God and His moral law. It furthermore existed long before 1776 and 1787.
Because the Constitution does not uphold Yahweh’s righteousness, justice, and lawfulness, it instead established unrighteousness, injustice, and lawlessness as the law of the land.17 Christians18 recognize this regarding all other false gods and their edicts. Any unwillingness to apply the same criterion to the document that begins “We the People” is evidence that We the People is a God to them: Vox populi vox Dei: the voice of the people, the voice of God.19
Justified Outrage
The American colonials’ grievance against King George and his obstruction of the administration of justice was entirely justified, but only from a biblical paradigm. However, this was not the standard from which the Declaration’s signatories’ grievances originated being that a mere eleven years later some of those very same men and the other framers of the Constitution replicated the same biblical violation of obstructing The Administration of Justice as can only be found in Yahweh and His triune and integral moral law.
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so Yahweh, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment [justice, NASB] in the gate [where court was convened]: it may be that Yahweh God of hosts will be gracious unto [you]…. (Amos 5:14-15)
The 17th-century American colonials had legitimate grievances against King Georg’s judicial abuses. However, those pale in comparison to God’s grievances against the constitutional framers’ legislative and judicial abuses, evidenced in Article 1’s20 and Article 3’s21 usurpation of Yahweh’s legislative and judicial authority. Add to those Article 6’s22 Christian test ban, that outlawed mandatory biblical qualifications for America’s civil leaders, and America was doomed to unbiblical despots who would invariably hasten America’s suicidal march to the precipice of moral depravity and destruction.
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
See Part 11.
Related posts:
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence, Pts. 1-9” (Articles)
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
“Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future”
Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective
End Notes
1. All scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.
2. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to memorialize His name, per Exodus 3:15, in this article.
For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain, the third in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
3. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
4. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
5. Listen to audio series “Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence.”
6. See Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
7. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
8. See Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
9. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
10. See Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
11. For a comprehensive list of biblical qualifications, see Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
12. See blog article “Constitutional Elections: Dining at the ‘Devil’s Table.’”
13. For more on how the Bible’s One-God/One-Vote election system operates, see blog article “Salvation by Election.”
14. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
15. See Chapter 28 “Amendment 19: The Curse of Women’s Suffrage” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
16. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, s.v. “justice,” p. 720
17. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
18. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Jesus and forgiven of your sins.
For a more thorough explanation concerning water immersion and its relationship to salvation, the bookBaptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
Additionally, listen to audio series “I Had a Dream: Judgment’s Coming. Are You Under the Blood?” Part 1 can be found here. Or a MP3 CD, containing all ten messages, can be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
19. See Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
See also Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land”
20. See Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
21. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
22. See Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.