Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Friday, October 22, 2010 12:42:05 PM
'God alone is Lord of the conscience...' [1689 Reformed Baptist Confession of Faith]
‘Religious faith remains one of the main foundations for belief in human equality and dignity -- as it was in the Declaration of Independence. But this conviction leads in a different direction than some religious people imagine. It is honored by respecting the priority of conscience.’ –Michael Gerson
What is the origin of this thing Mr. Gerson calls ‘respecting the priority of conscience’? Did it come from the secularists? What about the belief in Natural Law that the American Founders (including Jefferson) appealed to as authoritative and self-evident in the Declaration? Did that also come from the secularists?
Does the term ‘Christian nation’ mean a theocracy or a nation founded on the principles of Biblical Christianity; that is, a constitutional republic, limited government, division of powers and elected magistrates that rule with the consent of the governed. New Covenant Christianity gave us the first amendment. Secularism had nothing to do with it. Isn't it obvious today in the light of the NPR firing of Juan Williams that secularism opposes the intent of the first amendment?
In the secularist version of the constitution there is no first amendment. They don’t hold to freedom of religion any more than they hold to freedom of speech. The issue at NPR is not about the rights of Muslims, but rather an ungodly alliance against Western thought and culture. They will use any means to tear down America. In this they are the greater threat to liberty than Islam since they are already within the gates in the public schools, academia, the halls of government and the churches.
The Beginning of Liberty
The confessions of faith of the reformed churches including the Westminster and 1689 London Baptist express the doctrine of Christian liberty and liberty of conscience…
This doctrine was the consensus of colonial American Christians. From paragraph 2 under the chapter on liberty of conscience...
‘God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his word, or not contained in it. So that to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.’
Representative government was the natural outgrowth of elder rule church government practiced in the reformed churches. The elders were recognized by the churches as qualified according to the Scriptures. Their demeanor was one of willing servitude to the people of God. Their authority was recognized as delegated from Jesus Christ. The people were not serfs to be lorded over, but brethren of Christ ruled by Him under the authority of His word. The elders were ministers of that word.
Here is one of the references from the New Testament that is given in support of the doctrine of conscience...
‘Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand’ [Romans 14:4].
What was the result of this consensus? Our premise is that liberty in America was associated with this doctrine being codified in law, including the concept of rule of law. But without the consensus there is no foundation for constitutionalism to stand. Today in American some men assume that liberty of conscience can be divorced from its origins in New Covenant Christianity. Our premise is that it cannot be maintained and in fact liberty is diminishing with the advent of secularism.
But even in the churches the new order of liberty wrought out by the work of Christ on the cross is more and more suppressed and exchanged for that which leads again to bondage…
New Covenant Christianity
One of the most misused and misunderstood words in American society is the word liberty. Today the word has lost its historical perspective rooted in spiritual freedom. Now it is equated with human autonomy; that is, freedom to think and act as one pleases. It is freedom from God, His laws and His ordained authority structures, including family, church and state. More often, liberty today is associated with democracy and majority rule rather than with the rule of law and the social compact or covenant that we call the Constitution, established for the people’s protection against authoritative and majority ruled government.
Both the antinomian concepts of liberty and liberty as democracy have one thing in common. They both deny human depravity and elevate autonomous man; they suppress the knowledge of the self-revealed God and His Law. Both make man the measure of all things and both lead men toward tyranny. Secular and Biblical history are our witness.
There is no real or lasting liberty apart from spiritual liberty…
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. [John 8:31-36]
Political and civil liberty flow from a society of men set free from the ignorance of their own spiritual bondage. This is what is unique about the founding of America. New Covenant Christianity recognized the authorities of church and state ordained of God and for the first time they were established in their proper roles as a free state and a free church ruled by the authority of Jesus Christ through His law, governing the state and governing the church.
Today many conservatives start with the constitution and divorce it from its spiritual heritage. This heritage in Biblical Christianity is ignored or outright denied. But liberty derives it meaning from the New Covenant. We would do well to consider again the great liberty whereby the colonial and early Americans were made free…
‘CHRIST has purchased for all believers a liberty inherent in the gospel. It comprises freedom from the guilt of sin, from the condemnation that follows upon guilt, from the wrath of God, and from the severity and curse of God's law. It also includes deliverance from this present evil world, and from all such things as bondage to Satan, sin's domination, the hurtfulness of afflictions, the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave, and eternal damnation. Furthermore, it includes free access to God and the yielding of obedience to Him, not as it were with the fear of a slave for his master, but with a childlike love and readiness.’
‘All these blessings were more or less enjoyed by believers in Old Testament days, but under New Testament conditions Christian liberty becomes more extensive. It includes freedom from the burdens imposed by the ceremonial law to which the Jewish church was subjected, greater boldness in approaching to the throne of grace, and a larger measure of the free Spirit of God than was normally granted to saints in the pre-Christian era.’ [1689 Reformed Baptist Confession]