In today’s culture most people do not know just how much America was built on Biblical Principles. Today we are told that we were founded by atheists and deists. The truth is we had full blooded Christians who were building our nation 248 years ago!
Most of our form of government comes from Biblical Principles that our founders used to create our nation. They were worldly men who kept up with the times and back then nations were rising a falling all the time. They wanted to create something different. Something that no nation had yet seen. So, they created the Great American Experiment. Although I am covering 5 lessons, our founders used many others! This is just a taste.
The Golden Rule
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 7:12
Our childhood golden rule comes straight from the Bible. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I remember my teachers and parents using this all the time. Unfortunately I had a backwards view of Matthew 7:12. I always looked at it as though I was the other person. In other words, if someone hits me, they must want me to hit them back because that is what they did to me.
Obviously, that is not what the Golden Rule actually means. In actuality it means treat people better than they treat you. It is easy for people to get emotional and act hateful, its human. It’s godly when we separate our emotions and respond in love to those who lash out at us in anger. Always treat someone better than they treat you and you will not go wrong.
Ok, so that’s not really civics but it is a good lesson and I was surprised to find that it came from the Bible. I am not sure why I was surprised as the Bible is full of all the good and right things we should do, but it still surprised me.
A Republic
“Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.”
Exodus 18:21
Our form of government is a Republic. Which is a form of government where the citizens are the ruling class and we elect individuals to represent us. We have the same form of government that Moses established among the Israelites during the Exodus. Thousands = Federal Government, Hundreds = State Government, Fifties = County Government, Tens = City Government. The problem these days, that we are failing ourselves, we are not doing a good job at the first part of that verse. “Select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain.” If we want to have a good a prosperous country we have to elect Godly men (and women) to lead us.
The Ten Commandments
1. You shall have no other Gods before me. 2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 3. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. 4. Honor your Father and Mother. 5. You shall not murder. 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his manservant or his female servant or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Exodus 20:1-17
Ok so you probably knew this one. Obviously, we have laws against stealing, murder, and adultery. The Ten Commandments are the foundation for those laws. I have discovered that The Ten Commandments are broken down in two ways. I was raised Lutheran and so this is the format that I learned in the Lutheran church. But the other way breaks up the first commandment into two parts where the Lutheran’s break up the coveting commandment into two parts.
In my personal opinion I feel like we could combine the first commandment and the last commandment getting us to Nine Commandments leaving us plenty of room for Jesus’ greatest commandment which is, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul AND to love your neighbor as yourself.” But I digress. Whichever format you were taught in the Ten Commandments does not matter as much as the fact that they are the moral law that we are to govern our lives after and that all other laws stem from them. These were very much at the heart of our Founding Forefathers when they began to shape our great nation.
Degrees of Murder
“He who strikes someone so that he dies shall certainly be put to death. Yet if he did not lie in wait for him, but God caused him to fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, someone is enraged against his neighbor, so as to kill him in a cunning way, you are to take him even from My altar, to be put to death.”
Exodus 21:12-14
So here we have an example of manslaughter and premeditated murder. If someone kills another unintentionally than, they could flee to a city of refuge. They essentially served out a sentence where they had to remain in that city (away from their families and homes) until the head priest of the refuge city passed. So punishment was still rendered, however, the penalty of death was not issued.
On the flip side if you premeditated (by lying in wait) to murder another, you could not flee to a city of refuge. The Blood Avenger for the murdered family member would kill the person who killed their loved one. So we don’t have quite this same set up as the Israelites, but you can definitely see how our laws come from the Bible. Many states do seek the death penalty for murder but the “Blood Avenger” is the state not the family of the murdered.
Property Rights
“If someone steal an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no guilt for bloodshed on his account.”
Exodus 22: 1-2
Restitution very much comes from the Bible as we see in Exodus 22: 1, however, that is not the only location. Pretty much all of Exodus 22 covers Property Rights. You find much of the same information readdressed in the book of Deuteronomy as well.
Self defense of the self and home (also known as the castle doctrine) comes from the Bible as we also see in Exodus 22:2 and again in Deuteronomy 24: 10-11. This is where our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Amendment rights come from. The Bible which tells us we have the right to defend ourselves and our home without guilt.
Now there are more writings on that such as time of day which has an affect of guilt as well. Anyone who has taken their concealed carry permit class is familiar with this difference as well. It makes all the difference in the world if you can see the perp clearly or not, because once you can see them you have time to assess the threat level of the situation.
Jurisdictions
“for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
Romans 13:4
The Bible clearly indicates that in society we have different jurisdictions. There is the family jurisdiction, the civil government jurisdiction and the church’s jurisdiction. There is some areas of overlap but problems arise when one jurisdiction overlaps too far into another jurisdiction.
We learn in the Old Testament what can happen when civil leaders cross out of their jurisdiction when we look at King Uzziah found in 2 Chronicles 26: 16-21. King Uzziah had become powerful due to the LORD’s help and he decided to go into the Temple Sanctuary and burn incense to the LORD. A job only for the priests. He suffered consequences for his actions because God has made it perfectly clear that Civil Government is to remain within its jurisdiction. Civil Government is NOT to lead the church.
Sword of Civil Justice
As we see in Romans 13:4, Civil Government bears the sword of Civil Justice. Government is instituted to protect the rights given to the people of God and to punish wrong doing. Good and righteous people do not need to fear the government, because they are there to punish the wicked and protect the innocent.
The problem arises when the good and righteous people are failing to elect good and righteous people to represent them. When this occurs the government becomes corrupt. Our founders knew this as they witnessed nation after nation rise and fall in their lifetime. They noticed what worked and what didn’t work. They knew that America would not succeed in its War for Independence or in the establishment of a Nation without the help of Divine Providence.
Happy Fourth of July! Thank GOD we have this nation and Thank God he gave us such brilliant founders who built our nation! Let us not be the generation that loses it all! God Bless!
Check out my other posts in my archives, or download some of my freebies! If you want to learn more about Biblical Citizenship check out this class from Patriot Academy.
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