Sep. 5, 2009 - All Laws Should Be Measured Against God's Law
I have been reading a fabulous book The 5000 Year Leap by W. Skousen. Wow. It disturbs me greatly that this was not taught to me when I was in school. It would disturb me even more that my children were not to learn this if it were not for me homeschooling. I hate the idea that so much truth has been stripped away from our education.
Our founding fathers' idea of a strong America was
"to keep the power base close to the people. The emphasis was on strong local self-government. The states would be responsible for internal affairs and the federal government would confine itself to those areas which could not be fairly or effectively handled by the individual states."
Like what Moses did after his father-in-law's suggestion.
Research shows that:
Jefferson had a conversation with President Washington in August 1793 where he expressed deep concern that some elements of the President's administration were pushing toward oppressive monarchial-type powers. The President immediately responded that republican principles must be maintained and that "the Constitution they had in place was an excellent one, if we keep it where it is." and took steps to correct the situation.
Our founding Fathers warned against the temptation to head towards a "welfare state" where the government endeavors to take care of everyone from the cradle to the grave. Thomas Jefferson wrote: "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy."
They even warned against deficit spending. Jefferson wrote, "we shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves, and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life [expectancy] of the majority." It was immoral to pass the debt of our frivilous lifestyle to the next generation.
I think it extraordinary that our Founding Fathers were all well-read. But not just anything. They read from Polybius, Cicero, Thomas Hooker, Coke, Montesquieu, Blackstone, John Locke, and Adam Smith. They were also careful students of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Even those that did not belong to any Christian denomination. They were educated on Greek, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, European, and English history.
Cicero said, "The animal which we call man, endowed with foresight and quick intelligence, complex, keen, posessing memory, full of reason and prudence, has been given a certain distinguished status by the Supreme God who created him; for he is the only one among so many different kinds and varieties of living beings who has a share in reason and thought, while all the rest are deprived of it. But what is more divine, I will not say in man only, bit in all heaven and earth, than reason? And reason, when it is full grown and perfected, is rightly called wisdom."
Cicero understood the greatest commandment, to love, respect and obey God. Apply this to government affairs where humans are involved and it is justice. It is intriguing to me that Cicero was neither Christian nor Jew and yet he figured this out.
Our Founding Fathers understood it was necessary to build a highly moral and virtuous society. They wanted to be different from other societies. They measured everything against God's Laws. They had enough wisdom to know that without two key elements, the Constitution they developed would not last. The people needed to be sufficiently "virtuous and moral" to govern themselves. A corrupt and selfish people could never make the principles of "self-government" operate successfully.
Franklin wrote: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
I am in awe over how the people back then knew how important it was for these two key elements to be present and that they doubted themselves. They had a deep thirst for independence. They wanted this to work but weren't sure they were capable of being "good enough". Some of the doubters were John Jay, Robert Morris, Robert Livingston, and John Dickinson. However, they took great pride in powerful expressions of faith and confidence they saw in men such as John Adams, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee and Josiah Quincy.
It was noted that Europe had corrupted its people with "luxury, indolence, amusement, and pleasure." (sounds familiar) There were newspapers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston printing letters pointing out deficiencies of American society. This caused a "self-examination" period amongst the people and a reform started to take place.
"Many Americans became extremely self-conscious about their lack of "public virtue" because of non-involvement in the affairs of government. They began to acknowledge their obsession with self-interest, the neglect of public affairs, and their disdain for the needs of the community as a whole. Gradually, a spirit of "sacrifice and reform" became manifest in all thirteen colonies."
Because many Americans liked the improvement in the quality of life due to the reform, they became afraid they would lose it and took quick steps to make sure this would not happen. They separated from all British manners under the current Monarch.
Want to learn more, I suggest getting the book. What an eye-opener. My prayer is that we will be given the opportunity by God to have one more reform.
