The Bible And The Constitution - Immutable Or Evolving?

If there is any one absolutely erroneous teaching in America - it is the teaching from Liberals, religious and secular, who adamantly declare that the Bible and the Constitution are documents which should evolve, i.e., adapt, change - to whatever secular society declares is now the best solution for America and the world.   Why do I say this? 

First, let's look at the Liberal's view of the Bible.  The Liberal Christian and religious folks will adamantly declare that the Bible is not the inspired, inerrant, literal Written Word of God - that it is not the full authority for Christian salvation, morals, and living.  They view the Bible as a good guideline for Christian living, but not the actual Written Word of God.

And, the secular Liberals agree with them - for it helps them make any desired lifestyle, aberrant or otherwise, a legal and accepted norm in America and the world. In the same way, both groups typically view the Constitution as an evolving rule of law - to be modified and adapted to support Liberal society's desired lifestyles.

Yet, God tells us, regarding His Bible, His Word,  "All Scripture - is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness"  (2 Timothy 3:16, kjv, nkjv).

The English phrase "is given by inspiration of God" comes from the Greek word "theopneustos" and according to Strong's Concordance means, "God-breathed, inspired by God, due to the inspiration of God.  Referring to the divine inspiration (inbreathing) of Scripture.  Inbreathing relates directly to God's Spirit (Greek pneuma) which can also be translated "breath."

In other words, God, the Holy Spirit, "breathed" His teachings, thoughts, messages which He intends for all mankind - into the hearts and minds of those 40 specially chosen men who actually put "pen to papyrus (their paper)" and wrote the 66 inspired, inerrant, literal books of our Bible.

Second Peter 1:21 (nkjv) tells us, "For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved (inspired) by the Holy Spirit."  But, I am often told by Liberal naysayers - how can you believe the Bible is the inerrant Written Word of God - without falling into circular reasoning?  In other words, my stance is: the Bible tells me it is the Word of God - therefore, it is the Word of God.  Actually, I do believe that.  But, how do you and I avoid this pitfall when sharing with secular and religious Liberals?

Easy, 2 Peter 1:21 gives us the answer:  Prophecy! -  an absolute validation of the Bible as the true Written Word of God.  In the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, there are 1817 prophecies.  The only prophecies left to be fulfilled are those concerning the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  To date, Biblical prophecy has been 100% accurate, proven by both secular and religious writings.   

No other sacred book, of any of the world religions, contains prophecy.   Biblical Prophecy, 100% accurate, is absolute proof that the Bible is the Written Word of God.  For only God could give perfect and infallible prophecy.  God does not change; therefore His Written Word does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17).

That covers, and in my mind, validates the Bible as the inspired, inerrant, literal Written Word of God.  

Now, let's take a look at what the Liberals want to do with our Constitution.   Almost since the birth of America, Liberals have wanted to push all Christian faith out of the halls of American government.  In an attempt to do that, they laid claim to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson as their support for the teaching of an "evolving Constitutional" - through which they claim support for their favorite doctrine:  Separation of Church and State.

In English, the exact term (Separation of Church and State) is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state," as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802.  In that letter, referencing the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Jefferson writes:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship - that the legitimate powers of government reach, actions only and not opinions - I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' - thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

Jefferson was describing to the Baptists that the United States Bill of Rights (Bill Gray Note:  The first 10 amendments to the Constitution) prevents the establishment of a national church, and in so doing they did not have to fear government interference in their right to expressions of religious conscience.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state)

Separation of Church and State is a fallacy created by the Liberal Left (secular and religious) in an attempt to keep all Christian influence out of government.  And, believe me, my Friends - especially today, our government really needs a lively injection of Christian influence and Christian morals throughout the halls of government.  The current presidential election should be proof of how badly, how desperately, America needs that strong shot of Christian influence - from the highest halls of government, into the homes of we common men and women of America.

However, let me state a firm position on my part, which the secular and Liberal religious folks cannot seem to understand:  When I say Christian influence in our government - that is exactly what I mean ~ influence - not control.  To have Christian, or religious (any religion), control of a nation is a theocracy.   And, throughout history, there has never been a successful theocracy.  Why?  Because, even though it may wear a "religious" hat - it is still a government controlled by men.

There is only one theocracy I look forward to experiencing.  That is the true One World Government, i.e., theocracy, which will be established by Jesus Christ after His Glorious Second Coming - when He will establish His 1000 year Millennial Kingdom of earth, from the throne of David in Jerusalem.

Now that I have given you my thoughts on the immutability of our Bible and our United States Constitution, let me share my inspiration for writing those thoughts.

This week I read the following article in one of my favorite Christian creation apologetic magazines, Acts & Facts, from the Institute for Creation Research - and felt a need to share this article, and my thoughts, with you, my Friends.   You can get a FREE subscription to this excellent magazine at:    http://www.icr.org/subscriptions/ 

Balancing Church and State, Part 2: Evolutionary Law

by James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D. *

Evidence for Creation

http://www.icr.org/article/9527

What is law and the rule of law?  Is law objective and stable, like a wooden ruler, or is it stretchy and unstable, like a rubber band?  Many citizens expect government officials to obey the law - yet many officials, due to their positions of power, act as if they are the law, as if might makes right.

As noted in a previous article, the phrase “separation of church and state” has often been used to force-fit an unbalanced understanding of the First Amendment. (1)  How did this happen?  In short, the interpretation of law became “evolutionized” during the late 1800s, so the objective and stable meaning of the First Amendment was replaced by “evolving” interpretations, selected by whoever sat on the judicial bench.

Constitutional law professor John Eidsmoe writes:

Twentieth-century jurisprudence is based on a Darwinian world view.  Life [supposedly] evolves… and therefore laws and constitutions [supposedly] evolve.  According to the Darwinian principle, the Constitution’s meaning evolves and changes with time.…  This is not the way the founding fathers viewed constitutional interpretation.  They saw the Constitution as the supreme law, and also as a covenant or contract.

The Constitution, like all legal documents, was viewed as a fixed document, to be interpreted according to its plain meaning.  And if its meaning was ambiguous as applied to a specific situation, it was to be interpreted according to the intent of those who wrote it, signed it, and ratified it.  James Madison expressed this view when he wrote, “(If) the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the Nation… be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a faithful exercise of its powers.”  (2)

This anti-objective approach to defining or redefining laws, as if law somehow has an animistic life of its own and evolves, is misleadingly called "legal positivism."

Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell of Harvard Law School pioneered this approach in 1870.  It consists of five assumptions:

1. There are no divine absolutes in law, or if there are they are irrelevant to the modern legal system.
2. Law is simply man-made - whatever the state says is law.
3. Law evolves as man evolves.
4. Judges guide the evolution of the law by writing decisions.
5. To study law the “scientific way,” [we must use] the decisions of judges (case-law method of legal study).  (3)
   

But regardless of how popular evolutionary theory, thought, and jargon may be in the academy or in the courthouse - judicial might does not create right.  Truth is not a man-made construct, nor can truth change!  The true meaning of the First Amendment does not “evolve."  (2,3)

The authors of the First Amendment had a creationist worldview.  They treated law (like truth) as firm and foundational, not stretchy and shapeable. (4)  Accordingly, the evolutionary approach to interpreting law should be exposed as the lie it is.  The roots of legal positivism did not come from the authors of our Constitution; they came from unfounded evolutionary ideas a century later.  Legal positivists impose an evolutionary arbitrariness to constitutional law, but the founding fathers intended our Constitution to be an objective standard, like a ruler, for defining the rule of law.

References

1. Johnson, J. J. S. 2016. Balancing Church and State. Acts & Facts. 45 (7): 21. A full treatment of the First Amendment’s purpose is provided in Rector, etc., of Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.S. 457, 12 S.Ct. 511 (1892), by Justice David Josiah Brewer, a Smyrna native. See also Romans 13:1-4.
2. Eidsmoe, J. 1987. Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of our Founding Fathers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 391-392.
3. Eidsmoe, J. 1995. Institute on the Constitution. Bridgewater, VA: American Foundation Publications, 76.
4. George Mason’s religious liberty tenet, which he had drafted 12 years earlier for the Virginia Declaration of Rights, became the precursor for Virginia’s proposal to Congress to approve a religious freedom amendment for the new Constitution: “That Religion or the Duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by Reason and Conviction, not by Force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural, and unalienable Right to the free Exercise of Religion according to the Dictates of Conscience, and that no particular religious Sect or Society of Christians ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others.”
   

* Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of Apologetics and Chief Academic Officer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Cite this article: James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D. 2016. Balancing Church and State, Part 2: Evolutionary Law. Acts & Facts. 45 (9).

 

My Friends, I pray this blog gives you a better understanding of why we Conservative Christians and Americans view our Bible and our Constitution as immutable, unchanging.  The Bible was given to teach us how to gain and how to live the Christian life.  The Constitution was given to us to guide us in our legal, moral, and judicial walk with our neighbors.  Neither was created to limit our Christian life - but to assure that we can live it to the fullest. 

Taking our lead from the old Mission Impossible television series, "Good morning, Christians, Your mission, should you choose to accept it.  .  .  ."  ~  is to ignore all the Liberal Left's attempts to put our Christian faith in handcuffs - and make all effort to take the Living Word of God to all the world, starting in your Jerusalem, i.e., your family, your local fellowship, your community, your nation.  Make America great again!

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill