Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Saturday, August 07, 2010 4:03:00 PM
Would men consider that judicial activism and debating the legitimacy of sodomite marriage are symptoms of the same problem? Specifically, the abandonment of our heritage in revealed truth as a basis for law in favor of autonomous wisdom. We are seeing first hand that the opinions of finite men are not a sufficient base for law.
‘There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death’ [Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25].
Law must be grounded in truth, or it becomes arbitrary. In a culture that rejects truth, arbitrary becomes the characteristic of morality, ethics and law. Our Constitution becomes subject to arbitrary thinking because definitions lose their context.
What is ‘general equity’ and how did this Reformation principle empower the West?
"…the law of God which we call the moral law is nothing else than a testimony of natural law and of that conscience which God has engraved upon the minds of men…this unchanging moral law is the foundation of all particular civil laws. The moral law is the equity or the common, natural basis of all civil law." [from Calvin’s Institutes]
The expression ‘general equity’ defines the element of justice, derived from natural law, which belongs to all civil laws, despite the variation between the political constitutions of different nations.
When civil law is based on the principles of general equity derived from the self-revealed and eternal I AM, then men have an absolute reference to morals, ethics and law. This is part of the liberty promised by Messiah in the coming of the New Covenant.
The law is a rule of faith and practice for the believer. But for the unbeliever, its use is to restrain the wickedness of men. Let’s ask a question regarding the civil laws surrounding marriage and divorce. What effect will no fault divorce have on the institution of marriage? Will it not lessen the significance of the covenant relationship? Will men work at preserving their marriage or walk away when problems arise? Marriage was instituted before the Fall. Now it is a divine remedy for the sanctification of fallen men. Divorce for any other cause but adultery and abandonment of the marriage bed promotes lawlessness and the degeneration of the culture.
The issue of interest is the breakdown in authority that has led to the acceptance of autonomous reason over the eternal wisdom of Christ. That’s why we consider Darwinism as the enemy of the cross and therefore the enemy of liberty based in constitutionalism and general equity. Not only was Darwin wrong; the fruits of his vain philosophy are dangerous and destructive.