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In politics, everything revolves around the positioning of right, left, and center. You’re either rightwing, leftwing, or a centrist. Politicians and non-politicians alike employ all three terms as if there’s a consensus on the parameters for those designations. Even if this were true, who gets to determine what’s right, left, and center, and how are those determinations made? Over time, the parameters shift (always further to the left), so how is someone on the right to know he’s now a centrist or a centrist to know he’s now on the left?

No Standard=No Answers

There are no answers to these questions because there is no standard for these terms. The terms are completely arbitrary, defined at any given time by finite man and his fickle ethics rather than by Yahweh1 and His immutable morals. Although the following example doesn’t specifically address right and left, it illustrates the disparity between man’s ever-changing standard and Yahweh’s never-changing standard:

Two people could have walked down any U.S. street in 1930 – one with a bottle of whiskey under his arm and one with a bar of gold in his pocket, and the one with the whiskey would have been a criminal whereas the one with the bar of gold would have been considered a good law abiding citizen. If the same thing happened in any U.S. city in 1970, the one with the whiskey would be the law abiding citizen and the one with the gold bar would be the criminal.2

In a mere forty-year period, man’s standard had completely reversed itself. The same transposition of ethics has occurred innumerable times under all governments based upon the traditions of man.

Isaiah 33:22 and James 4:12 declare that Yahweh is the exclusive legislator. There are no others, period! Anyone who claims the title of legislator (particularly when his “laws”—whether commandments, statutes, or judgments—are inconsonant with Yahweh’s) is a usurper and is perpetuating the sin begun by Adam and Eve. The same is true for any one of us who would modify Yahweh’s triune law.

Making Lawful Illegal . . .

Any legislation antithetical to Yahweh’s turns evil to good and good to evil (Isaiah 5:20). When man rejects Yahweh’s standard of morality, it is inevitable he will make legal what Yahweh has made unlawful (e.g., infanticide and sodomy) and make illegal what Yahweh has made lawful (e.g., monotheistic Christianity outside the four walls of church buildings).

Yahweh is the only lawgiver because as Creator He’s the only one with the authority to determine what is good and evil. His morals as codified in His commandments, statutes, and judgments determine what is right and left. Anything left of His right(eousness) is left, liberal, and ungodly.

A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left. (Ecclesiastes 10:2)

While foolishness has its inherent liabilities, our right/left positioning has even more serious consequences:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels….” (Matthew 25:32-34, 41)

Wicked Righteousness

Unless your right is God’s right, your right is left. More to the point, unless your righteousness is God’s righteousness, your righteousness is wickedness. This is reminiscent of the days of the Judges, a time when most people rejected Yahweh as their king, and “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 16:25)

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but Yahweh pondereth the hearts. (Proverbs 21:2)

It should be clear that we the people, individually and collectively, have no answers for what’s right and what’s left—that is, what’s righteous and what’s unrighteous. We the people are the problem, and left to ourselves, we only make matters worse. We certainly do not have the wherewithal to “establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility” and “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

We might try to blame the politicians. But the politicians are a part of we the people, and the people are responsible for voting the politicians into office. We cannot escape our culpability. Our only solution is Christ’s righteousness, secured individually by His blood and exercised communally through His law.

When today’s politicians (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, etc.), churches, preachers, and most people claiming to be Christians are measured against Yahweh’s standard, they are found to be merely left- or right-leaning liberals. We must abandon these counterfeit qualifiers, provided by who knows whom, and endeavor to point people back to Yahweh and His immutable standard for right and left.

For more regarding this standard and how it applies today, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.

 

Related posts:

The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH

Article 1: Legislative Usurpation

Today’s Mt. Carmel Christians

 

1. 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. In obedience to the Third Commandment and in honor of His memorial name (Exodus 3:15), and the multitudes of Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to use His name throughout this blog. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. W.W. Turner, The Amazing Story of the British Sovereign (Nashville, TN: 1970) p. 4.

 

  1. Lee says:

    Pro 4:27 NASB

    “Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil”

    Deu 5:32 NASB
    “So you shall observe to do just as Yahweh your God
    has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the
    left.”

  2. Roger Mitchell says:

    Excellent way to put it! I get so tired of listening to people blasting each other instead of taking responsibility for themselves. Good to have you back.

    • Roger, thanks! It was great to be “back in the saddle” behind the pulpit at the Missouri conferences this past week. But, I must admit there’s “no place like home!”

  3. stevor says:

    The whole political realm is Manipulated. BOTH parties are owned by the same Elites. They won’t let in REAL competition and thus the GOP had to idiot candidates, McCain and Romney, who were so pathetic that the GOP had trouble voting for them.
    It’s all a manipulated GAME where they Elites DECIDE and LAUGH at the lemmings who just read those terms and choose one “side” or the other and “vote” accordingly.

  4. disqus_kCwmwRYgbh says:

    Good article Ted – dead on

  5. disqus_kCwmwRYgbh says:

    OK, let me try this again. Great article Ted – from Don Schanzenbach. For some reason this system will not let me post as myself.

  6. jenniewalsh says:

    PLEASE, Pray fervently for the Divine Protection of all who are standing
    for God, God-Freedom and the Divine Rights of Free Men everywhere
    throughout America and the world. The wolves in sheep’s clothing, the
    deceivers, the phoneys, are literally everywhere, in every organization,
    group, religion, government, corporation everywhere throughout America
    and the world, busily undermining and corrupting all that is good. Pray
    for Divine Discernment to recognize the EVIL ONES disguised as
    “helpers”, “patriots” and “friends”.

  7. Conclubblog says:

    I’d suggest the Right Side of History which can be viewed at http://constitutionclub.org/2014/02/01/the-right-side-of-history/

    • Conclubblog, thanks for responding.

      If you will scroll down to the comments section, you’ll find I responded to that article on February 2, 2014, with an excerpt from this article.

      What say ye about the fact that “…Yahweh
      is the only lawgiver because as Creator He’s the only one with the
      authority to determine what is good and evil. His morals as codified in
      His commandments, statutes, and judgments determine what is right and
      left. Anything left of His right(eousness) is left, liberal, and
      ungodly….”

  8. Ed Roberts says:

    I’ll tell you what stands in my mind — first, we all are here and have to live somehow in peace— the bible offers this — but I cant help but wondering that the bible is a mere trick of the elites back when they realized that if the masses do good deeds and turn the other cheek — this is just another avenue for the evil doers to move ahead — since those who object to their ways will simply trust in scripture, turn the other cheek and thus allow for evil to progress — I thought bible also says to deliver the meek from slavery — though admittedly, I have little understanding of the bible — mostly due to the underlying thoughts that it exists to simply encourage the good folks to leave the bad folks alone while they be bad since we can – not win against the devil — Another point is that I have numerous times invited the devil to take my sole just for the mere proof (let me see him in my eyes) that devil exists — and do so again here in writing — yet no devil appears to me in real life to take this free sole in exchange for the mere proof that he is there — but on the other hand, perhaps it is no deal since once proven to me in a physical sense – I would likely continue my quest to quash such a being – being able to or not — but at least I would be more able to protect my children from his existence – knowing he’s there and working his evil — in short — I have faith in God — but deny devil exists — I think its bad people doing bad things — since devil wants soles – why not take mine for a simple proof he exists — perhaps other than he already has my sole — ?? perhaps ?? But I like to think not !!