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Christianity and the Constitution

By Stephen McDowell

The United States Constitution is perhaps the most important document ever written for the benefit of mankind other than the Bible. A prestigious literary journal reveals the reason why, declaring in 1867: “The American government and Constitution is the most precious possession which the world holds, or which the future can inherit. This is true – true because the American system is the political expression of Christian ideas.”[1]

The Constitution went into effect in 1789, thirteen years after the United States separated from Great Britain and became a nation. The ideological foundation of the Constitution rests in the biblical roots of the nation expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges Creator-endowed rights, embraces the laws of nature’s God as the highest authority, appeals “to the Supreme Judge of the World,” and expresses “a firm reliance upon the protection of divine Providence.”

The Framers of the Constitution declared that its formation and ratification were a miracle of God. Shortly after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Father of the Constitution James Madison said: “It is impossible to conceive the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed, as less than a miracle.”^[2] The President of the Convention George Washington wrote that the “adoption of the proposed General Government” disposed him to be of the opinion “that miracles have not ceased.” For, he said, one could “trace the finger of Providence through those dark and mysterious events, which first induced the States to appoint a general Convention and then led them one after another…into an adoption of the system recommended by that general Convention.”^[3] Even the non-Christian Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Our General Convention…when it formed the new Federal Constitution, [was] …influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent and beneficent Ruler in whom all…live, and move, and have their being.^[4]

The Founders believed that God was involved in America adopting the Constitution because it contains many biblical principles of good governance. It was the foundation for the advancement of liberty, justice, and prosperity in America and became an example to the world. Washington wrote that the U.S. Constitution and system of government is “in my opinion the fairest prospect of happiness and prosperity that ever was presented to man.”[5] Its purpose, power, premise, and form are Christian.

The Preamble of the Constitution reveals the biblical purpose of government as expressed by the Apostles Paul and Peter: “to establish justice” (1 Pet. 2:14); “to insure domestic tranquility (1 Tim. 2:1-2); “to provide for the common defense” and “promote the general welfare” (Rom. 13:4); and to “secure the blessings of liberty.”

The power of the Constitution flows from its underlying ideas which include: the reign of law, Creator-endowed rights, just trials, self-government, religious freedom, private property rights, Christian union, and right of defense. Each of these have their origin in biblical truth.

The United States Constitution has been so successful because the Framers had a biblical view of man. They understood original sin, human depravity, and the temptation of power to corrupt. John Adams, quoting Jeremiah 17:9, reflects the premise of American government: “The Word of God … informs us, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”[6] This worldview affected the form of the Constitution. Legislative, executive, and judicial powers were divided among three branches of government with a number of checks and balances. The Constitution specified the limited powers of each branch, with the national government prohibited from being involved in religion, education, and media. The states retained most power, and everyone was subject to the written law. Frequent elections enabled the governed to hold those who govern accountable. In instituting these provisions, the Founders were following the example of the Hebrew Republic established by Moses.

James Madison wrote in the Federalist: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”[7] However, the Bible teaches men are not angels, but fallen and fallible beings who have a sinful nature and, thus, cannot be entrusted with too much power. The U.S. Constitution presupposed this idea, and any nation desiring to live in liberty should seek to incorporate biblical structures of government. More importantly though, they should copy the principles.

The Constitution has been an example to the world. When it went into effect 230 years ago, there was not one like it. Today, about 175 countries have a constitution, most inspired by and some directly copied from America’s. Most of the nations have not experienced the same blessings this document produced in America because, while copying the form, they neglected its power and premise.

According to Washington, the establishment of the U.S. Constitution demonstrated “the finger of Providence in human affairs greater than any event in history.”^[8] Yet, the Framers of the Constitution knew it was not a perfect document, and hence, they made provision to amend it. Nonetheless, it is the best form of government mankind has produced because “it is the political expression of Christian ideas.” Since these biblical ideas have brought great blessings to mankind, all effort must be taken to learn, teach, and preserve America’s great political charter of liberty.

[1] The North American Review, in The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Christian Self-Government with Union, Verna M. Hall, compiler, San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, p. 34.

[2] Robert A Rutland, ed., The Papers of James Madison, University of Chicago Press, 1962, 10:208.

[3] George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, 39 vols., Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931, 29:525.

[4] Albert Henry Smyth, editor, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Macmillan Co., 1905-07, 9:702.

[5] Washington to Thomas Jefferson, August 23, 1792, Writings, 32:131.

[6] John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1856), Vol. 6, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, “Chapter First. Marchamont Nedham. The Right Constitution of a Commonwealth Examined.”

[7] Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist, A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1898, p. 344.

[8] George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, D. Appleton and Co., 1891, 6:414.

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Developing Citizens with a Biblical Worldview

The foremost commandment is that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are not only to have a passionate heart for the Lord, we must also cultivate a passionate mind for Him.

We are to have zeal accompanied with knowledge (Rom. 10:2). We are transformed by renewing our mind (Rom. 12:2). We need to be diligent in learning how to accurately handle the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:14). We need to be like the Bereans, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so (Acts. 17:11).
Paul writes that we are in a war, but “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh … We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4-5). Our battle is in the realm of ideas. We are in a war of worldviews.

We need a Biblical worldview because the extent and quality of revival or transformation will be determined by how believers view all of life from the Bible’s perspective.

Jesus taught, “Every one who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. Every one who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand” (Matt. 7:24-27).
We are to build our house – our worldview, life, family, business, society, and nation – upon the rock – a Biblical view of God, man, truth, law, and life.
We must act upon His words. The Bible speaks to all of life, addressing not only personal matters but civil matters as well. For our life, family, and nation to be strong, they must be built upon all of the truth of God’s Word.

To learn about developing a Biblical worldview and four areas that are foundational for our worldview, see this internet broadcast by Stephen McDowell:

Link to Video

Join Us for a Christian History Tour in 2019

The dates are set for next years’ “In God We Trust” tours. Join folks from throughout the USA to see how our historic sites reveal our Christian foundations.
Tours are hosted by Tim Wildmon of American Family Association, with tour guides Stephen McDowell and John McDowell of the Providence Foundation.
Sites and dates:

Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown
June 16-19 and September 15-18

Washington, DC, and Mount Vernon
June 19-23 and September 18-22

You can choose either or both portions. To learn more and sign up visit: Spiritual Heritage Tours

For a two-minute look at the Christian nature of our historic sites in Washington DC

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Matthew Maury: Inspired by the Bible to Discover Ocean Currents

For PDF Version: Matthew Maury: Inspired by the Bible to Discover Ocean Currents

By Stephen McDowell

Inspired in his life work by Scripture, Matthew Fontaine Maury was sustained by industry derived from his Christian faith. As an enlightened seer in new fields of science and guided by his biblical worldview, he played a significant role in advancing civilization. He was one of the greatest men America has ever produced.

Maury’s accomplishments include: 1) He was the father of oceanography, 2) He charted the ocean and wind currents, 3) He mapped out and proposed sea routes, including laying down lanes for steamers in the North Atlantic, 4) He developed the National Observatory, 5) He was instrumental in founding of U.S. Naval Academy, 6) He proposed the idea for a U.S. Meteorological Society or National Weather Bureau, 7) He was a key consultant for the laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable, 8) He invented the first floating mines and the first electric torpedoes, 9) He wrote many influential science books. Matthew Maury literally fulfilled the ancient mandate of God to take dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:26-28).

Maury first discovered and mapped the ocean currents. See NASA animation of the ocean surface currents:

Scriptural Inspiration

Matthew Maury’s faith was evident in his work and in his writings, where he often quoted the Bible. He said the same God who was the author of the Bible was also the author of nature. In both God gave a divine revelation of Himself to mankind, and that the message of the two were never contradictory. He also said “to remember that the earth was made for man.”[1]

Maury was originally inspired to find the ocean currents as Scripture was read to him. A monument honoring Maury was dedicated in Richmond, Virginia, in 1929. A writer for the Richmond Times, Virginia Lee Cox, spoke of this biblical inspiration in describing the monument in a newspaper article of the day. Cox wrote:

On the plinth of the monument in the flattest relief are figures of fish, representing Maury’s interest in the paths of the sea. The story goes that once when Maury was ill he had his son[2] read the Bible to him each night. One night he read the eighth Psalm, and when he came to the passage—“The fishes of the sea and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the sea” — Maury had him read it over several times. Finally he said, “If God says there are paths in the sea I am going to find them if I get out of this bed.” Thus the Psalm was the direct inspiration for his discoveries….

In his right hand are the pencil and the compass, and in his left hand a chart. Against his chair is the Bible, from which he drew inspiration for his explorations. The sculptor has caught amazingly the spirit of the man.[3]

Another Maury Monument—in the Goshen Pass on the bank of the North Anna River, erected by the state of Virginiain 1923—also reveals his biblical inspiration. The bronze tablet on the monument contains these words:[4]

MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, Pathfinder of the Seas, The Genius who first snatched from ocean & atmosphere the secret of their laws. Born January 14th, 1806. Died at Lexington, Va., February 1st, 1873…. Every mariner for countless ages as he takes his chart to shape his course across the seas, will think of thee. His Inspiration Holy Writ: Psalms 8 & 107, Verses 8, 23, & 24; Ecclesiastes Chap. 1, Verse 8; A Tribute of his Native State Virginia, 1923

The Scriptures that inspired Maury were: Psalm 8:8 — “The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” Psalm 107: 23-24 — “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.” Eccl. 1:8—“All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

Maury looked to the Bible when it gave insight into scientific knowledge. For example, he writes in The Physical Geography of the Sea:

And as for the general system of atmospherical circulation…, the Bible tells it all in a single sentence: “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.” – Eccl., i., 6.[5]

Maury frequently mentioned the work of God in his scientific writings. “The ocean of air like the ocean of water, is never at rest. It has its waves and its currents.” After giving three offices of winds that make life on earth possible, Maury wrote: “Discharging these various offices, they verify the Psalmist’s words, ‘God maketh the winds his messengers’.”

Maury believed giving yourself to a useful and God-ordained occupation was the secret of happiness. He “found that occupation, for some useful end or other, was the true secret of happiness.”[7] Once a man found this occupation, Maury believed industry was essential for success. He wrote: “It’s the talent of industry that makes a man. I don’t think that so much depends upon intellect as is generally supposed; but industry and steadiness of purpose, they are the things.”[8]

A Biblical Seer

Maury was able to accomplish so many significant things because he attempted to look at creation from a lofty position, from the view of the Creator. One of his biographers wrote:

The thing above all others that made Maury a great man was his ability to see the invisible. He was a seer. He saw the cable before it was laid. He saw a railroad across the continent before it was built. He saw a ship canal from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes before it was dug. . . . He was a seer and a pathfinder not only on the seas, but under the seas, across the lands, and among the stars.[9]

He saw so much because he knew the Bible, believed it, and saw the harmony between what it taught and the natural sciences. He wrote that, “Physical geography confesses the existence, and is based on the biblical doctrine that the earth was made for man. Upon no other theory can it be studied; upon no other theory can its phenomena be reconciled.”[10] In the same speech, he also declared:

I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore of no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon! The Bible is authority for everything it touches….The Bible is true and science is true. The agents concerned in the physical economy of our planet are ministers of His who made both it and the Bible. The records which He has chosen to make through the agency of these ministers of His upon the crust of the earth are as true as the records which, by the hands of His prophets and servants, He has been pleased to make in the Book of Life. They are both true; and when your men of science, with vain and hasty conceit, announce the discovery of disagreement between them, rely upon it the fault is not with the Witness or His records, but with the “worm” who essays to interpret evidence which he does not understand.[11]

Maury, as has been true of most of the significant scientists in history, accomplished his great work because he had a biblical view of life and science. He realized the Creator of the Universe is orderly and caused His creation to operate according to set laws. Maury believed God wants man to discover and apply those laws as part of his mission to take dominion over the earth. Maury wrote:

As a student of physical geography I regard the earth, sea, air and water as parts of a machine, pieces of mechanism not made by hands, but to which, nevertheless, certain offices have been assigned in the terrestrial economy. It is good and profitable to seek to find out these offices, and point them out to our fellows; and when, after patient research, I am led to the discovery of any one of them, I feel with the astronomer of old as though I had ‘thought one of God’s thoughts!’ — and tremble.[12]

____

To learn more about Maury order Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas

[1] Charles Lee Lewis, Matthew Fontaine Maury, The Pathfinder of the Seas, New York: AMS Press, 1969 (reprinted from edition of 1927), p. 82.

[2] Other accounts say his wife read the Bible to him.

[3] Lewis, pp. 251-252.

[4] Ibid., pp. 240a-240b.

[5] Matthew Fontaine Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856, p. 80.

[6] John W. Wayland, The Pathfinder of the Seas, The Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, Richmond: Garret & Massie, Inc., 1930, pp. 60-61.

[7] Lewis, p. xiv.

[8] Maury to Frank Minor, July 25, 1855, in Lewis, p. xiv.

[9] Wayland, p. 131.

[10] Lewis, p. 96.

[11] Lewis, pp. 98-99.

[12] Hidlegarde Hawthorne, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Trail Maker of the Seas, New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1943, pp. 154-155.

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The Christian Idea of Education

By Stephen McDowell

The Bible teaches us that all men have great value, but that men are sinful, in a fallen state, and in need of a redeemer. We cannot save ourselves. We need the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to work in us, to translate us into the kingdom of God. Once we become a new creation we must grow in our salvation — we must be sanctified in His truth so we can extend His kingdom in the nations. Biblical education is central in doing this.

All people must be educated so they can know the truth (God) themselves. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the church began to embrace a pagan philosophy of education, thinking only certain people can know and keep the truth (the Bible). These keepers of the truth (the clergy) would then tell the common person what that truth was. This practice led to bondage, as many people were cut off from the truth. The Protestant Reformation changed this. It brought forth the Christian idea of education; that is, everyone should know the truth themselves. Everyone should have access to the Bible, God’s source of truth to mankind. This Christian idea motivated many people to translate the Bible into the common language of the people.

America’s Founders were very much aware of the relation of education and liberty. They knew that a people cannot be ignorant and free. Jefferson said it this way: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”[1] Benjamin Franklin said that ignorance produces bondage: “A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”

Early Americans believed that useful education—that which produces liberty—must have its foundation in Christianity. To the Founders, Christianity was the source of liberty, all types of liberty. In the Preface to his United States History book, Noah Webster wrote:

The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion.[2]

Signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush wrote in 1806:

Christianity is the only true and perfect religion, and that in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obeys its precepts, they will be wise and happy.[3]

Education is much more than imparting knowledge and skills; it is preparing people to fulfill their destiny in assisting to advance God’s Kingdom in the earth. G.K. Chesterton said: “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. Whatever the soul is like, it will have to be passed on somehow, consciously or unconsciously…. It is…the transfer of a way of life.” Christian education passes on the Biblical way of life. State education today is passing on a secular, humanistic, socialistic way of life. Modern state education undermines liberty in two ways. One, it teaches a worldly philosophy that leads men into captivity (see Colossians 2:8). Two, it takes away from the family the role as primary educator.

The Bible teaches that parents have the right and responsibility to govern the education of their children. Embraced by early Americans, this idea motivated parents to educate their children at home, to start church and private schools, to found colleges, and to make education available to all citizens, including Native Americans. This produced a Biblically literate and educated nation. Everyone knew principles of liberty. Thus, these people could affect a Christian Revolution and give birth to the American Christian Constitutional Federal Republic.

Education in Biblical truth produced a free society with little crime. The crime that existed was a concern for the Founders, but they knew how to most effectively deal with it. Benjamin Rush wrote in 1806 that

the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, … is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of christianity by the means of the bible. For this Divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.[4]

Education in colonial America was primarily centered in the home and church, with the Bible the focal point of all education. Schools were started to provide a Christian education to those who were not able to receive such training at home and to supplement home education. The first schools were private and started by the church. The first common or public schools (though not like public schools today) originated with the school laws of 1647 in Massachusetts, which stated, “It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures.”[5] America’s Founders recognized that Satan wants to keep people ignorant. If he can keep them ignorant, he can keep them in bondage. This motivated them to not only start schools but also colleges.

Colleges and universities were started as seminaries to train a godly and literate clergy. In fact, 106 of the first 108 colleges were founded on the Christian faith. One of the original rules and precepts of Harvard College stated:

Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternall life, (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning.[6]

The Father of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams, declared that education in the principles of the Christian religion is the means of renovating our age. He wrote in a letter October 4, 1790, to John Adams, then vice-president of the United States:

Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity and universal philanthropy, and, in subordination to these great principles, the love of their country; of instructing them in the art of self-government, without which they never can act a wise part in the government of societies, great or small; in short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.[7]

Knowledge apart from God and His truth is little better than complete ignorance, because the most important aspect of education is the imbuing of moral principles. All education is religious — it imparts a basic set of principles and ideals, a worldview. How the youth are educated today will determine the course the nation takes in the future.

[1] The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Libscomb and Bergh, editors, Washington, DC: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1903, Vol. XIV, p. 384. Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816.

[2] Noah Webster, History of the United States, New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1833, p. v.

[3] Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical, Philadelphia: printed by Thomas and William Bradford, 1806, p. 93.

[4] Rush, p. 113.

[5] Richard Morris, editor, Significant Documents in United States History, Vol. 1, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1969, p. 20.

[6] From New Englands First Fruits, 1643, in Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History by Rosalie Slater, San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1980, p. vii.

[7] The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, by William V. Wells, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1865, Vol. III, p. 301.

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The Christian Idea of Truth (Law)

One of Seven Ideas that Made America a Success

By Stephen McDowell

For PDF Version: The Christian Idea of the Truth (Law)

America is a unique nation in history; she is exceptional. No nation has been as free, prosperous, charitable, and virtuous. Alexis de Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America, “The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.”

American exceptionalism was not a result of some inherent value within the American people, but came from the valuable ideas upon which the nation was founded. Christianity was the source of these ideas. Noah Webster wrote in the introduction to his dictionary:

The United States commenced their existence under circumstances wholly novel, and unexampled in the history of nations. They commenced with civilization, with learning, with science, with constitutions of free government, and with the best gift of God to man — the Christian religion.[1]

These liberating ideas were released in modern history when the Bible began to be printed in the common language of the people during the time of the Protestant Reformation. The people who settled America carried this truth with them, planted it, and gave birth to this special nation.

In recent generations America has been rejecting these liberating ideas. To preserve liberty and to advance, America must embrace the seven ideas that made her free and prosperous. For one, she must embrace the Christian idea of truth.[2]

The Christian Idea of Truth (Law)

How do we know what we know? What is the basis for what we consider true and right? For Christians, the basis of truth is found in God’s Word. It is what the Bible proclaims. Jesus prayed to the Father: “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). His Word is not just true, but it is truth. Truth is what Jesus teaches, and He taught men must obey all the Scripture (Matt. 5:17-19). The Bible is God’s Word and the source of truth to all men. The degree to which men and nations have applied God’s Word to all of life, is the degree to which they have prospered, lived in liberty, and been blessed.

A Christian worldview proclaims that there is truth, there is right and wrong, there are absolutes that we can know. The secularist has a much different view of “truth.” From a humanistic perspective there is no absolute truth. All so-called truths are relative. The relativist says: “Whatever I want to believe, I may believe. Whatever I think is true is true for me, and whatever you think is true is true for you. If you believe in a God as the source of truth, that’s okay, but I don’t believe in God or absolute truth; and you shouldn’t force your view upon me or upon society.”

Relativism is the predominant view of those in academia, the media, and western governments. But such a view is completely illogical. When someone says “there is no absolute truth,” a simple question will reveal the absurdity of this position. Merely ask them, “Are you sure?” If they answer no, they have jettisoned their epistemology, acknowledging that they do not know for certain that there are no absolutes. If they answer yes, then they have affirmed the position that there are absolutes.

After someone admits there are absolutes, the next point to consider is who is the source of those absolutes. For Christians, it is the Bible. For humanists, it is man, either as an individual or corporate man with the state expressing “truth” to society.

The belief in the certainty of no absolutes is not logical. It contradicts itself. One who believes this is like the man who built his house upon the sand — it cannot stand up under pressure of storms (see Matthew 7:24-27). If a worldview is built on this presupposition, it will fall.

A Christian worldview teaches there is absolute truth, where God is right about everything, and He reveals the truth that man needs to know in His Word. Relativists will condemn Christians who believe in right and wrong as narrow-minded and bigoted. They say, “You should not see things as right and wrong. It is wrong to do this.”

What they are really saying is that they do not want to face the reality of the Creator God — Who is the source of all right and wrong — and His standard of righteous living. They want to live life on their own terms. Hence, their theology, or worldview, follows their morality.

A pagan view of truth has captured the thinking of most of the world. Relativism is the dominant view of Americans today, even those Americans who claim to be Christians, as revealed in a poll conducted by the Barna Group in the spring of 2002. In a survey of adults and teenagers, people were asked if they believed that there are moral absolutes that are unchanging, or that moral truth is relative; 64% of adults said truth is relative to the person and situation. Among teenagers, 83% said moral truth is relative; only 6% said it is absolute. Among born-again Christians 32% of adults and 9% of teens expressed a belief in absolute truth. The number one answer as to what people believe is the basis for moral decisions was doing whatever feels right (believed by 31% of adults and 38% of teens).

Early Americans, who were mostly Christians, held to the Christian idea of truth. Their laws and constitutions reflected that worldview. They believed fixed law applies to everyone and is always true. God reveals His law in nature (the laws of nature) and by special revelation in the Bible (the laws of nature’s God). The phrase Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence — “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” — had a well established meaning.[3]

An early civics textbook, First Lessons in Civil Government (1846) by Andrew Young, reveals the Founders’ Biblical view of law:

The will of the Creator is the law of nature which men are bound to obey. But mankind in their present imperfect state are not capable of discovering in all cases what the law of nature requires; it has therefore pleased Divine Providence to reveal his will to mankind, to instruct them in their duties to himself and to each other. This will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and is called the law of revelation, or the Divine law.[4]

This is in great contrast to the secular or socialist view of law, as revealed in the French Declaration of Rights (1794): “the Law . . . is the expression of the general will. . . . [T]he rights of man rests on the national sovereignty. This sovereignty . . . resides essentially in the whole people.”[5] To the humanist, man is the source of law, of right and wrong. But if whatever man declares to be lawful is the standard for society, then everyone’s fundamental rights are threatened, for a majority, or ruling dictator, can declare anyone to be an outlaw. Tyrants have done this throughout history, and tens of millions of people have been killed under this worldview.

The Christian view of law proclaims that all men have God-given inalienable rights, and the Bible states what those rights are. No man can take them away. All men are subject to God’s higher law, rulers as well as common people. No man is above the law, nor is man the source of law. Hence, the rule of law originated in the western Christian world where the Christian idea of law prevailed. This Christian view of law produced the unique nature of American constitutionalism and law.[6]

–To learn all seven ideas that made America a success, order The American Dream

[1] Noah Webster, “Introduction,” An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse, 1828, reprinted in facsimile edition by Foundation for American Christian Education, 1980.

[2] To learn all seven ideas see Stephen McDowell, The American Dream, Jamestown and the Planting of the American Christian Republic, Charlottesville, Vir.: Providence Foundation, 2007.

[3] See Stephen McDowell, Building Godly Nations, chapter 11, “The Changing Nature of Law in America,” Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2004, pp. 183 ff.

[4] Andrew W. Young, First Lessons in Civil Government, Auburn, N.Y.: H. And J.C. Ivison, 1846, p. 16.

[5] Thomas Paine, “Declaration of Rights,” The Writings of Thomas Paine, Collected and edited by Daniel Conway, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Vol.3 , p. 129-130.

[6] See McDowell, Building Godly Nations, Chapter 7, “The Influence of the Bible on the Development of American Constitutionalism.”

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