Last week in our blog posting, we looked at what standard we will use in evaluating our civil government. We saw
that, according to E.W. Wines’ book Roots of the American Republic, much of our Constitution springs from the Hebrew Republic in the Bible.
However, as we look at Wines’ very first two items on his list of Hebrew Republic characteristics (religious unity of both God and the people) they would seem to be directly antithetical to a statement in our Constitution! Article 6, Section 3 which states, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification or public Trust under the United States.”
In other words, I can be an atheist, a Muslim, a Marxist, or follow any religion I choose, and still hold a public office in the civil government, if I can get elected. On the other hand, the Bible teaches that all civil government office holders are BELIEVERS IN THE ONE TRUE, TRIUNE GOD of the Bible and worship only Him. Other than this sentence, and several other comments that could be construed to support it, our Constitution is the greatest governing document ever written by man. Why did our founders add Article 6, Section 3 to an otherwise brilliant, biblical document?
I believe the Founding Fathers were influenced by the thought of the European Enlightenment, particularly the idea of the power of human reason apart from God. To many Enlightenment thinkers, God was an absentee, watch-maker God, who had created and then wound-up His world like a clock, and is now letting it unwind, completely uninvolved in the process Himself! These thought leaders called themselves “Deists.”
This allowed these intellectual, European thinkers of the pre-evolution, late 18th century, to explain our existence (an absentee, creator God), yet still propagate their own reason as supreme. I am sure our founders, who were our colonial version of “intellectuals,” were influenced by this thinking, even though their strong, colonial, Reformation foundation militated against a more thorough, Enlightenment take-over, a la France and Great Britain.
It’s easy to see how our nation’s founding fathers could have, consciously or unconsciously, left any mention of God whatsoever completely out of the Constitution (except for the perfunctory “year of our Lord” in stating the date). They wanted to “sit at the big-boy’s table” with France, Great Britain and other ancient, established European countries.
As a result, they left us severely handicapped by our Constitution as we look for the God-given, foundational authority through which Jesus will rule, through us, over the earth, as is our purpose in life. It is a brilliant document, I believe the best civil governing constitution ever written, but, I believe it has this one glaring weakness that seemingly, in the short-run, does not hinder its daily effectiveness, but I believe the Article 6, Section 3 clause is fatal in the long-run!
This clause assumes a religiously pluralistic nation, with all religions (Islam, Marxism, Hinduism, or “whatever is right for me,” etc.), or no conscious religion at all, all dwelling together in peace and brotherhood, because we are all Americans. However, Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad,” There can be no religious neutrality. All other religions with gods and “god-substitutes” other than the Triune God of the Bible, are simply disguised fronts for Satan’s continued, desperate attempts to delay his final defeat. Make no mistake, all religions other than biblical Christianity are satanic.
So, there are two religious options for America—the current religious pluralism of our Constitution (one author calls this system Political Polytheism) where all religions are accepted equally, OR the much-maligned, denigrated, ridiculed (wait for it …) THEOCRACY! There are no other choices: either man is ultimately his own God (as in all other religions besides Christianity) or the Triune God rules over all!
Note that I am referring here to a biblical theocracy only, not an historical one. The abject failure of ALL historical attempts by powerful men pretending (and maybe even arrogantly believing) that God ruled in their land through them, was a joke. The one, demonstrably successful Theocracy was in Israel from the time that Moses received the Law of God (Exodus 20) until the Jews demanded another king besides God. 1 Samuel 8-10 is the story of Israel’s rejection of this 400 year theocracy under which they had lived, as Wines beautifully describes in his book.
It is estimated that 90% of the population of the original 13 colonies were Christian in 1786 when the Constitution was written, so even though the founders gave the colonists a de jure (legal) pluralistic government in the Constitution, it was actually a de facto (in fact) theocracy. Article 6, section 3 was meaningless to them. “Of course we are all Christian.”
Those days are over. Polls tell us that in the last 100 years, those who claim Christianity as their religion has dropped from 90% to 60%, whereas those who claim no religion (secular humanist – “I am my own god and decide all things for myself”) has risen from under 10% to 30%. The remaining 10% are various other organized religions.Islamic communities have exploded, and they even have representation in our US Congress!
What do we do? We decide to learn for ourselves what God is saying to us about civil government. Know that the education of the Christian community will take many years. But, in the process, we are to rule over our own little spot in it. The results are totally with God!
I am attaching a pdf of my little 73 page book entitled, Let Earth Receive Her King!, a deeper dive into my three-year struggle with Theocracy, and what finally tipped the scales for me. I propose constitutional amendments and lay out a picture of what a theocratic America would look like. Hope you will give it a look!
