God’s Law – Root of American Greatness

As Americans we are experiencing a systemic failure of government across the land. We cannot manage our finances with states, counties, and cities in trouble everywhere. Many are teetering on the edge of insolvency. The bureaucrats who run things have no wisdom as to what to cut or if taxes ought to be raised. They are discovering the limits of government and its abilities to solve all problems (to be as God).

Beyond this however, and perhaps more importantly, we have forgotten almost all of the founding precepts concerning civil government that made America work so well. We sometimes hear references to the ideas of limited government, justice for all, open courts, innocent until proven guilty, respect for private property, and a host of other great concepts but we do not know where these ideas came from. We also do not know why the knowledge of and support for these underpinnings has seemed to slip away over the last few decades.

As always, I am going to assert that the development of culture is based on the theology of the people. The root beliefs of any people will determine what direction the culture takes. Root beliefs are always religious at their center because man has been made religious in his bones by his Creator (Romans 1). We are not just religious in our public worship but in all things. The way we live and especially the law we respect identifies us for who we are. Every religion has its law or laws. Those laws express the nature of the Divine Being of that society. What does he approve or disapprove? Morality is first expressed in law and then propagated throughout the social order. This is why God was so jealous for His law. A different law issues from a different god—idolatry. Our pursuit of foreign law is a result of our pursuit of gods different from the God of the Bible.

As we watch the breakdown of governance we are really seeing a breakdown and abandoning of Biblical principle in the public square. We are seeing a breakdown of respect for and adherence to Biblical law as the foundation for society. This law, this code of behavior was the source for all of the great ideas we expressed as American from the founding era. They are all fading. Not because God has somehow lost His power but because we no longer recognize nor understand the source. We must return to the Book, to our God, or we will have other law and other gods imposed upon us. We have to go back to the Book.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach