On the Legitimacy of Constitutions and Legislatures, in response to a theological movement to abolish national covenants and constitutions, and the U.S. Constitution in particular
God granted men the ability to covenant, to form communities upon mutual agreement, such as marriage. Legislatures, properly speaking, thus establish the rules of covenantal association, mutual understanding of Scripture. For the Word is the Seed, and must go into the good soil of the human heart to grow and bring forth fruit. Of course, legislatures cannot rightly prescribe morality, but only interpret. Thus, the just must walk by the divine disadvantage of faith. No formulas can substitute for the ongoing and correctible walk of faith. That does not mean that constitutions are necessarily wrong in principle or an affront to God. Rather they are necessary. For example, churches should include a clear judicial path for the event that relationship is insufficient, and they must invoke the law—the Law is for the lawless.
Why is the all-sufficient Bible alone not enough as the only constitution and law for every country and nation?
Yes, Scripture is all-sufficient knowledge and wisdom, yet these are not enough (Romans 8:3). For example, the Law was not sufficient to save man. Christ Himself is the Logos, the Living Word. The Bible alone cannot provide what only Christ can do (John 5:39).
The Word is the Seed (Luke 8:11), and it must express itself through real people by faith. The Bible contains all we need for life, but it isn’t a prescription or a check list. How do we do greater things than Christ (John 14:12)? God has laid out a walk for man based on His finished work. Otherwise, how does Paul make up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions (Colossians 1:24)? Though grace is absolute, God expects us to work out our own salvation with trembling and fear (Philippians 2:12). This is the tension, the both/and, found everywhere in Scripture. The problem is the original sin making us the measure of all things. God’s answer is the divine disadvantage of faith. The just walk by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17). To do so, we apply the Scriptures, test the fruit, return to Scripture, and try again by faith. The result is asymptotic knowledge—by analogy, closer and closer to absolute reality, but close enough for God’s purpose. You know a tree by its fruit. I suggest Cornelius Van Til’s epistemology. R. J. Rushdoony did a great job explaining it in By What Standard? In summary, we never arrive upon some formula. As long as we live in this life, we always have economic and covenantal adjustments to make. We learn and grow. This is sanctification. Thus, God grants us the privilege of making specific covenantal agreements and constitutions to establish our understanding of Scriptures in practical relationships.
The alternative to this, under the original sin, is some strong man, an authoritarian, telling everyone else what the Bible says, and all must submit to him in the name of the Scriptures. This is the typical pattern we see historically among sinful men. It is a return to the divine right of kings and of popes.
Better to establish an agreement, in community, by faith, an agreement that establishes Scriptural individual justice and liberty to the best of our ability. Then, as in all things, God will bring the increase of fruit in due season.
Idealism vs Idealism with Providence
Idealists, many I consider friends in fact, say that defending the original U.S. Constitution is not the solution for our present crisis in civil government. Yet, an ideal Biblical solution requires working the raw Biblical material into something real. Reference the Parable of the Sower where the Seed of the Word must go into good soil (the human heart), grow into a healthy plant and reproduce the Seed in new fruit. This is a huge task of trial and error. To start from scratch requires re-inventing the wheel as it were.
The question is how do we act toward accomplishing the ideal given the current setting? While I certainly embrace the Biblical ideal, for the purpose of action’s next steps, I combine it with Providential provision. The God of history has given us a particular setting with which we must deal. He brought us to this point. Moreover, Providence provides intelligence from the lessons of history so that we need not grope blindly for solutions. We look to the old paths so that we can see the good direction forward (Jeremiah 6:16). God’s Providence in history allows us to discern the best expressions of Scripture to embrace, and also the bad expressions to avoid. Each will have produced fruit that we may measure against the Ideal. You know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:20).
God gave the United States the first self-governing nation since the early republic of Israel under Moses and the Judges. This national republic grew out of its long history of Biblical self-governing principles in Americans from the time of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation.
The exigencies of independence from England forced the founders to produce a national document that would protect local sovereignty, justice, and liberty, while providing the unity necessary for the defense of all against predatory European states, and from subversion within.
The United States Constitution appears to have pressed the founders to their limits in creating something completely new and profound. It appears the founders pressed the frontiers of Biblical community government even beyond that of America’s churches. As human institutions do, the churches naturally inherited a constraining tradition. In this case, their traditions grew out of the centralized and largely authoritarian tradition of the Catholic Church. Christian nations grew out of the tradition of monarchy. The founders remarkably, using Scripture and the lessons of history, produced a mature, however flawed, expression of the Biblical principles of community self-government, liberty, and justice. The founders appealed to Providence, becoming themselves instruments of Providence.
One Christian scholar documented that the Constitutional Convention referred most often to the Book of Deuteronomy. The Biblical foundation of the major elements of the Constitution is clear. For example, representation appears in Deuteronomy One: “Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you” (vs 13). Covenants have a voluntary aspect: “Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do’” (Exodus 19:2). From the passage, “For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will save us” (Isaiah 33:32), came the separation of powers doctrine, since while we can trust God with all three functions, sinful men cannot. The Two Commandments of Christ—love God, love man—represents the Biblical basis for the federal principle with its authority component and its non-authority peer component. The list goes on.
The founders left a legacy, however flawed and in need of correction, but nonetheless the best foundation yet in history, one capable of redemption in the hands of the redeemed. It is not a trivial matter that the founders included a sound means to revise the Constitution as American Christians gained wisdom. In fact, Christians have almost completely abandoned the stewardship of civil government, with the resulting vacuum filled by sinners largely with old, pagan authoritarianism.
How do we then take the next step toward the Ideal in light of our present decadence and sinful decline?
I suggest we first master the Biblical principles of community association, of Biblical relational government. Again, we identify these directly in Scripture, with the assistance of Providential fruit to judge best practices. Since much of law and civil government concerns economic functions, we likewise master economic principles. Then we begin to implement these practices in local covenantal spheres—our homes, our neighborhoods, our churches, our businesses. As skill and wisdom grow in these local spheres of activity and influence (salt and light, Matthew 5:13), we begin to exercise ourselves in greater spheres of community—that is, in civil government from the most local to the national and beyond. We analyze and offer better solutions for justice, defense, infrastructure, and public works needs.
Apostle Paul said that God will punish disobedience when we obey (2 Corinthians 10:4-6). This suggests the battle belongs to the Lord. He only waits, as He did with Israel taking Canaan until His people are ready for the task, to displace the present evil-doers in charge of society.
Those willing to repent and once more accept responsibility for loving our neighbors in greater spheres should have all the confidence that God will bring the increase in due season (Mark 4:26-29).
Nordskog Publishing offers my book Thy Will Be Done: When All Nations Call God Blessed, with its collected and systematized Biblical and historical wisdom. Also see my Get Wisdom! Making Christian Heroes of Ordinary People(free download) as good places to start learning.
© 2022
You make good points.
Here is the key issue:
Atheists don’t send their children to an evangelical Christian Sunday School one hour per week, but Christians send their children to the atheist public schools 30 hours per week. I am a retired teacher and unequivocally proclaim that there is no hope for America as long as Christians and conservatives allow their children to be indoctrinated in the public schools. We must rescue our children!