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)
What could be better? And yet Psalm 19 provides only the bare bones of what’s derived from government established upon the Bible’s perfect law of liberty,3 tragically spurned by the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers.
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.
Grievances #13 & 16
He [Britain’s King George III] has combined with others [members of England’s Parliament] to subject us to … their Acts of pretended Legislation: … For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.
The Navigation Acts were a series of edicts passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade, particularly with Spain and France. This, in turn, undermined significant sources of revenue for the American colonials.
Treaties & Alliances
Is cutting off trade from other parts of the world inherently wrong? Are trade agreements with other nations inherently righteous and therefore biblically acceptable? If you’re working from a strictly biblical paradigm, the answer is: No, trade agreements are not inherently righteous, and, therefore, neither is cutting off trade with other nations inherently wrong.
There are biblical parameters for agreements, treaties, leagues, alliances, pacts—call them what you will—beginning with the First Commandment.4
The First Commandment is usually viewed as intended for individual application. However, the First Commandment goes far beyond merely personal consideration. For example, the First Commandment and its statutes and judgment is the principal law governing national borders, immigration, international alliances, and trade agreements.
Had the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers been operating from a biblical paradigm, their grievance with King George would not have merely concerned his limitations on international trade, but that his reasons for his trade prohibitions were not generated from the First Commandment.
The constitutional framers’ trade stipulations were no more biblically inspired than were George’s trade restrictions:
Article 6, Clause 2: This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States [aka the Constitutional Republic], shall be the supreme law of the land….5
Treaty with Tripoli
The constitutional framers basis for international treaties was not established on biblical law. Nothing demonstrates this better than the Treaty with Tripoli made with Muslims.
…the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…. (Treaty with Tripoli, of Barbary, Article 11)
This treaty was unanimously approved by the Fifth Congress and signed by President John Adams, making it part of the supreme law of the land per Article 6. Even without this treaty, the Constitution was already non-Christian because anything biblically adverse is also non-Christian.6
The Constitution is not only unbiblical and non-Christian, it’s idolatrous. Idolatry is not so much about statues as it is statutes, such as what one considers the supreme law of the land. There can only be one supreme law: 1) The Constitution, per Article 6, or 2) Yahweh’s moral law, per the Bible.7
John Adams’ part in the Treaty with Tripoli’s non-Christian declaration was not new to him. Prior to becoming President, Adams made essentially the same admission regarding the original states’ constitutions:
It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [the establishment of the states’ constitutions] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven … it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses…. Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone….8
The “natural authority of the people alone”? That’s humanism at its worst!
For obvious reasons, many people attempt to negate the Treaty with Tripoli’s non-Christian declaration:
Despite the efforts of some Christian leaders to spin-doctor this document [the Treaty with Tripoli], the statement speaks for itself…. Imagine your church saying that it was “not in any sense founded on the Christian religion,” or a member of your congregation telling his neighbor that his own personal faith was “not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” If such words are unfit for Christians and their churches, how are they acceptable in a[n alleged] Christian government? There is simply no context that justifies the statement—other than it being a deliberate denial of Christianity.9
If the federal government is not Christian, what is it? At best, it’s non-Christian. At worst, it’s antichristian. And regardless—thanks to Amendment 1—it’s nationally polytheistic, which, in turn, makes it biblically seditious.10
First Commandment Statutes
Had the constitutional framers been operating from the biblical law code regarding treaties and trade agreements, they would have cited their scriptural authority, such as the following three Exodus passages, all of which are First Commandment statutes11:
Thou shalt not bow down to their [the heathens’] gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. (Exodus 23:24)
What’s this say about Amendment 112?
It’s one thing to allow for individual freedom of conscience and private choice of gods—something impossible to legislate for or against to begin with. It’s another matter for government to enable any and all religions to proliferate through the land and proselytize our posterity to false gods. This is what the First Amendment legitimizes, an unequivocal violation of the First Commandment and the polar opposite of the First Commandment statute cited above that requires all Mosques, Temples, and Synagogues devoted to false gods be torn down.
National Borders
And I [Yahweh] will set thy bounds [borders]… for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. (Exodus 23:31)
Don’t let anyone tell you the Bible doesn’t mandate national borders.
When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds [borders] of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8)
[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds [borders] of their habitation. (Acts 17:26)
In addition to a number of other passages ignored by today’s egalitarians and integrationists, in Numbers 20, Israel respected Edom’s national borders when denied entrance by the Edomites.
However, even when a nation’s borders are protected by border walls, that nation may still be at great jeopardy:
For I, saith Yahweh, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. (Zechariah 2:5)
Without God as America’s principle wall of protection, her borders will never be completely secure.
Compounding America’s border problems is that America has become so ungodly that, not only is God not her wall of protection, but He’s become her greatest enemy. America officially rejected Yahweh as her Sovereign and thus His moral law as supreme in 1789 when He was replaced with We the People as America’s Sovereign13 and His moral law (including the First Commandment14 as America’s principle border and immigration law) was replaced with the biblically seditious Constitution, per Article 6.15
It was then that America began her suicidal trek to the precipice of moral depravity and destruction she presently finds herself teetering on, being pushed over the edge by Christians16 and patriots who are bent on promoting the genesis of her national woes as the solution to the problems it created.
Unequal Yoking
Thou shalt make no covenant with them [the heathen], nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee. (Exodus 23:32-33)
God does not allow for nations established upon His sovereignty, and thus His law, to make covenants, alliances, pacts, treaties, or trade agreements with nations that do not recognize Him as their God.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
Contemporary Christianity applies these two passages to marriage and business ventures, if they apply them at all. How much more so to nations and governments when so much more is at stake?
Had the constitutional framers based government upon the Bible’s triune moral law (beginning with the First Commandment17), treaties such as GATT, NAFTA, and other disastrous unbiblical trade agreements would have never occurred.
God Is Jealous
Immediately following the First17 and the Second18 Commandments in Exodus 20, we’re informed in Verse 5 that Yahweh is a jealous God. Consequently, He does not allow His people to enter partnerships with individuals or treaties with nations in rebellion to Him:
And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer … said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate Yahweh? therefore is wrath upon thee from before Yahweh. (2 Chronicles 19:2)
Jehoshaphat king of Judah join[ed] himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly: And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish…. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, Yahweh hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish. (2 Chronicles 20:35-27)
The former two passages also rule out foreign aid to non-Christian nations. To provide financial assistance to a pagan nation is to disdain what may be Yahweh’s financial judgment on an ungodly nation. No amount of money can bail out a nation under God’s judgment. Such nations do not need our money; they need the gospel!
The 18th-century American colonials’ beef with King George regarding his trade restrictions (along with his other tyrannical dictates) should have been generated from his violations of Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty and not merely their own interests. Perhaps then they wouldn’t have erected a government that’s become manifold times worse than the one from which they seceded.
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)
Stay Tuned for Part 16.
Related posts:
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence, Pts. 1-12” (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 Part 1.
Also Chapter 1 “The Perfect Law of Liberty” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
4. Thou shalt have no other gods before me is the first in a series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
5. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
6. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
7. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
8. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1865) vol. 4, pp. 292-93
9. Christian J. Pinto, “The Church in Secret Societies,” Twenty Experts Advise You on How to Overcome the Most Frightening Issues You WILL Face This Century (Crane, MO: Defender: A Division of Anomalos Publishing House, 2009) pp. 158-59.
10. Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
11. Thou shalt have no other gods before me is the first in a series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
12. Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
13. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
14. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, the first in a series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
15. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
16. 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.
17. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, the first in a series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments. 18. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, the second in a series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statu