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 of Independence is sometimes described as the birth certificate of the United States Constitution. Because it refers to a god and creator, erroneously identified as the God of the Bible,3 many Christians4 consider the Declaration their ace in the hole when it comes to making the Constitution biblically compatible. However, it should already be quite apparent that the Declaration is better depicted as an ace up the sleeve. Any attempt to employ the Declaration as a means of christening the Constitution is as legitimate as winning a poker game with a concealed ace.
Neither the Declaration5 nor the Constitution6 it birthed can be depicted as biblically compatible.
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 #9
He [Britain’s King George III] has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
These are, once again, legitimate concerns. How much more so had the Declaration’s signatories been operating from a biblical paradigm—that is, what should have been outrage regarding the fact that King George had appointed judges who were dependent upon his will instead of Yahweh’s will, as defined by God’s moral law.7 In other words, King George was no King Jehoshaphat:
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)
Judicial Usurpation
That King George had usurped God’s judicial authority was not cited as the cause of the colonials’ grievance. Their concern was not that George was ignoring Yahweh’s will, but that he was instead ignoring their will.
Whether the will of one man or many men, it’s all the same. When the American colonials appealed to the will of the many, it was the same humanism as King George’s, only structured differently. Theirs was an attempt to overrule God by a majority consensus of finite humans, with what has invariably been disastrous results:
[Yahweh’s] law is ignored justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted. (Habakkuk 1:4, NASB)
The Constitutional Republic’s judicial branch is a contemporary case of Habakkuk 1:4. If ever you’ve been unjustly prosecuted, you know what it’s like to be surrounded by the wicked where justice is never upheld.
You can thank the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers that justice is seldom upheld in the Constitutional Republic’s Criminal Justice System. It couldn’t be otherwise being the entire Constitutional Republic was established upon capricious secular humanism and thus the fickle edicts of finite men.8
Violence to the Law
How much more so when Yahweh’s law is despised:
[H]er priests have … done violence to the law. (Zephaniah 3:4)
If it seems harsh to accuse the constitutional framers of doing violence to God’s law, look no further than Article 6 and its claim that the Constitution, rather than Yahweh’s law, is supreme.9
There can only be one supreme law at any given time. Consequently, if the Constitution is supreme, God’s law, at best, has been made subservient to the secular Constitution. In numerous instances, God’s law is abrogated entirely by the Constitution and its subsidiary laws.
Rather than appealing to God’s justice as reflected in His triune moral law, the framers, like King George, also usurped His judicial authority.10 In so doing, they created a Supreme Court adjudicated by nine biblically unqualified justices who have the ultimate authority to decide all appeals based upon what is predominantly their own immoral whims or those of the framers’, if they happen to be constitutional originalists.11
Forgetting Yahweh
Justice is not the habitation of We the People. It’s the habitation of Yahweh’s throne,12 and He was forgotten in 1787:
It is said that, after the convention had adjourned, Rev. Dr. Miller, a distinguished professor in Princeton College, met Alexander Hamilton in the streets of Philadelphia, and said, “Mr. Hamilton, we are greatly grieved that the Constitution has no recognition of God or the Christian religion.” “I declare,” said Hamilton, “we forgot it!”13
Hamilton and his fellow constitutional framers would have done well to have considered Deuteronomy 8:
Beware that thou forget not Yahweh thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes…. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget Yahweh thy God…. And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember Yahweh thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth…. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget Yahweh thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. (Deuteronomy 8:11-19)
Contemporary Americans would do well to consider the same. To forget Yahweh is to forget His law, with consequences equally calamitous:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee … seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hosea 4:6)
America, God is speaking to you!
Self–Deifying Authority
Their justice and authority originate with themselves. (Habakkuk 1:7, NASB)
Because the Judahites in Verse 4 shunned Yahweh’s law, they were exiled into Babylonian captivity and were thereby under Chaldean dominion whose “justice” and “authority” originated with themselves (the same as in the Preamble of the United States Constitution14). In doing so, the Chaldeans had made themselves their own God:
[I]mputing this his power unto his god. (Habakkuk 1:11)
According to 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, there’s only one true God—the Great I Am, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of all things. All other so-called gods amount to finite men ascribing their own renegade power unto their own bogus gods. In other words, the Chaldeans’ god, like all false gods, was merely an extension of themselves whose “justice” and “authority” originated with themselves.
To put it another way: the Chaldeans’ god was merely an ancient form of We the People,14 no different from King George or the constitutional framers whose “authority” and “justice” originated with themselves. Thus, George’s violation regarding his unbiblical judges and the constitutional framers’ violation regarding their unbiblical judges was one and the same.
No Biblical Mantle
The constitutional framers’ violation was, in part, a consequence of the Declarations’ signatories, whose “justice” and “authority” also originated with themselves, and who therefore had no biblical mantle and/or commission to pass onto the constitutional framers eleven years later. They had nothing comparable to the mantle and charge Moses passed on to Joshua:
And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel … Yahweh hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan … Joshua, he shall go over before thee…. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage…. (Deuteronomy 31:1-7)
Strong and courageous in what?
Now after the death of Moses … it came to pass, that Yahweh spake unto Joshua…. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:1-8)
If only the Declaration’s signatories and Constitution’s framers had been as courageous.
They Suffered in Vain
Having endured despotism at the hands of King George, the American colonials (especially the Declaration’s signatories) were willing to suffer horrific losses in order to secure their liberty from Great Britain. However, the real tragedy was that in doing so they only succeeded in creating a government inherently destined to become multiplied times more tyrannical than the one they were defying. You only need to compare 21st-century America under Constitution rule with 18th-century America under British rule to know this is true.
19th-century libertarian attorney Lysander Spooner summed up what was already true in 1870:
[The Constitution] has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it.15
This was destined to be the case because the Constitutional Republic, although of a different construct, is nonetheless the same humanism as was Great Britain’s government, including a judicial system built upon judges dependent upon man’s will rather than Yahweh’s will.
Grievance #9
He [Britain’s King George III] has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
For the tenure, or duration, of said judges’ terms in office. In other words, King George’s judges’ time in office was dictated by George rather than by God.
Judicial Tenure
How does what the constitutional framers did in this regard compare with that of King George? This is actually one place where the framers got it right.
Article 316 of the Constitution dictates that judges are appointed with no time constraints to their tenure in office. They remain judges as long as they wish, provided they behave themselves(whatever that means since good behavior is nowhere defined in the Constitution). Lifetime tenure is biblical:
Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom Yahweh thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee…. 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)
When any civil leader is of the caliber depicted here in Deuteronomy 17, Yahweh intends (and we should as well) for such a man to remain a civil leader indefinitely, provided he’s physically and mentally able, and provided he behaves himself—that is, provided he remains biblically qualified.
Good behavior is biblically defined as serving Yahweh as Sovereign along with serving the King’s subjects (aka loving Yahweh your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself), according to His commandments, statutes, and judgments.
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. (Proverbs 28:2)
Any government system that provides for ruler after ruler is indicative of a government under God’s judgment. Godly men not only limit or reduce the number of overall rulers, they also assist in prolonging Kingdom rule here on earth—that is, biblical government as established and expressed in local ecclesias.17
Righteous Leaders & Righteous Laws = Righteous Nations
According to Proverbs 14:34, it’s righteousness that not only prolongs but exalts a nation, as in Deuteronomy 4:
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Yahweh our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
Righteous leaders adjudicating righteous laws make for righteous nations.
Proverbs 14:34, Deuteronomy 4:5-8, and especially Deuteronomy 28:1-14 (that enumerates the blessings God bestows upon righteous nations) attest to the fact that America’s former greatness was not the result of the Declaration’s signatories nor the Constitution’s framers, as so many Americans have been conned into believing. Rather, America’s former greatness was the result of the early 1600 Puritans who formed governments of, by, and for God, expressly established upon His moral law:
Fundamental Agreement of the Colony of New Haven, Connecticut, 1639: Agreement; We all agree that the scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in duties which they are to perform to God and to man, as well in families and commonwealth as in matters of the church; so likewise in all public officers which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, we will, all of us, be ordered by the rules which the scripture holds forth; and we agree that such persons may be entrusted with such matters of government as are described in Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1:13 with Deuteronomy 17:15 and 1 Corinthians 6:1, 6 & 7….
Executive Tenure
Whereas the constitutional framers got it correct in Article 318 regarding the tenure of judges, they blew it in Article 219 regarding the tenure of Presidents, which is an unbiblical position of civil leadership to begin with.
Article 2 provides four-year terms for Presidents, and Amendment 2220 limits Presidents to two terms. In other words, the Constitution provides that the United States be ruled by ruler after ruler, which is part of God’s judgment upon our sinful nation.
Term Limits
Many Christians and patriots clamor for similar term limits to be adopted for the Constitutional Republic’s judges. However, the length of tenure is not the problem, but rather the caliber of judges—thanks to Article 6’s Christian test ban21 by which mandatory biblical qualifications were likewise eliminated.
Most people would concede that term limits are a good thing when evil men rule. However, although term limits prevent corrupt officials from ruling any longer than their term allows, they permit them to rule as long as their terms allows.
Furthermore, term limits can work in favor of the wicked just as easily as they can for better men and women, and never will anyone be replaced with righteous men as long as Article 6’s Christian test ban remains intact.
Being that Article 6 has guaranteed evil men and women as the Constitutional Republic’s civil “leaders,” the only thing term limits will accomplish is the replacement of one evil leader with another evil leader, who may very well be more wicked than one he or she is replacing.
Term limits, at best, are nothing but a Band-Aid on a self-inflicted wound, incurred with Article 6’s Christian test ban.21
Under a biblical government, provided a man remains biblically qualified and physically and mentally capable, he would never need to be removed from his bench. Only when a judge, for whatever reason, becomes biblically unfit should his term end.
The constitutional framers got the lifetime tenure of judges correct. They failed miserably regarding the judges themselves, all of whom since the inception of the Constitutional Republic should have never been given any tenure as judges, if for no other reason than because at their inauguration they swear to uphold the biblically seditious Constitution rather than the Bible’s triune law as the law of the land.21
Grievance #9
He [Britain’s King George III] has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Financial Compensation
America’s pre-revolutionary judges and governors were not financially compensated by the colonials but were instead dependent upon King George for their wages. This, in turn, led to many of these judges and governors’ being loyal to George rather than sympathetic to the needs of their fellow colonials.
This political conundrum would never occur under a biblical government. Matthew 10:10 informs us that a “workman is worthy of his support.” According to 1 Timothy 5:17-18, biblical elders who devote themselves and their time to Kingdom work are worthy of a double wage. Consequently, such judges would be financially compensated via the tithe collected from the general population whom they serve as judges.
The biblical tithe is not a church tithe, but rather a Kingdom tithe22—the Kingdom here on earth as established in local ecclesias.23
The biblical tithe also differs greatly from the Constitutional Republic’s graduated income tax.24 Instead, it’s a flat 10% increase tax—required, albeit voluntary, from only those with an increase.25
Under a biblical government, there is no graduated income tax, property tax, sales tax, nor any of the other sundry unbiblical taxes Americans suffer under, thanks to the Constitution’s framers rejection of Yahweh as America’s Sovereign and His moral law as supreme, including its economic and taxing statutes.
There’s little difference between King George’s oppressive taxation and that of the government created by the Declaration’s signatories and Constitution’s framers—with the exception that under the Constitutional Republic taxes are multiplied times worse than anything imagined by King George.
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 12.
Related posts:
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence, Pts. 1-10” (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.
4. 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.
5. Listen to audio series “Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence.”
6. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
7. For more on how the Bible’s immutable/unchanging triune moral law (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) applies and should be implemented today as the law of the land, see free online book Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
Then A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.
8. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
9. See Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
10. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
11. Originalism asserts that the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original understanding at the time the Constitution was adopted.
12. See Part 10.
13. Benjamin F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, Inc., 2009, originally published 1864) pp. 296-97
14. See Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
15. Lysander Spooner, No Treason, No. 7, The Constitution of No Authority, http://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm#
16. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
17. See Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
18. See Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
19. See Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
20. See Chapter 31 “Amendments 22-25: Additional Extraneous Executive Regulations” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
21. See Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
22. Listen to audio series “Kingdom Tithing.”
23. See Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
24. See Chapter 25 “Amendment 16: Graduated Income Tax vs. Flat Increase Tax” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
25. Listen to audio series “Kingdom Tithing.”