Why then is this people ... slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.... How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us? Lo, ... the pen of the scribes [e.g., that of the Declaration’s signatories and Constitution’s framers has made it] ... vain. (Jeremiah 8:5, 8)

Consequently, if we hope to save America from the precipice on which she presently teeters as a consequence of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, these lies must be laid bare before the glorious light of God’s Word.

The Declaration Speaks for Itself

Paragraph #2, Sentences 6-7

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Grievances #13 & 20

He [Britain’s King George III] has combined with others [members of England’s Parliament] to subject us to ... their Acts of pretended Legislation:... For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring [Canadian] Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.

When we examine the Declaration of Independence by the Bible and its flawless law system, two phrases in this grievance jump off the page: 1) “free System of English Laws” and 2) “Arbitrary government.”

Bogus Comparisons

Thomas Jefferson is allegedly contrasting these two forms of government. However, there is no such thing as a free system of law independent of Yahweh’s triune law of liberty.257 Consequently, both forms of government were arbitrary.

Jefferson did not have the Bible’s law in mind. If he had, he would have unequivocally identified it as such—just like you would have in his place. Consequently, Jefferson’s assertion regarding a “free system of English law” was bogus—just more swelling words of vanity, boasting of liberty when there was no real liberty at all.

That said, there’s no reason not to believe the American colonials’ rule of “law” was more free than the “absolute rule” King George was imposing upon them. However, more free (which is the very best you can ever hope for under arbitrary man-made government) is not the same as free. More free is the same as less enslaved:

[People often claim] ... that we are the most free nation on earth. While this may or may not be true, most people have never considered this possibility: If all of the other nations were under 100% totalitarian dictatorships, and the United States of America was only under a 95% totalitarian dictatorship, it could still be said that “America is the most free nation on earth.”258

Foolish Comparisons

To make such comparisons between man-made governments is foolish:

[W]hen they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

The same applies to Republicans comparing themselves with Democrats.

It’s inconsequential how one finite civil leader compares to another finite civil leader, or how one man-made government compares to another man-made government. This only serves to divert people’s attention from the true standard. The only thing that matters is how we compare to our God’s expectations for us.

Whenever we choose one man-made surrogate—whether man or government—over another man-made surrogate, it results, at best, in the lesser of two evils. Sometimes, the worst of the worst. And always the evil of two lessers.

Suppose it [the Constitutional Republic] be the best government on earth, does that prove its own goodness, or only the badness of all other governments?259

Government Oppression

For Jefferson to contrast one form of government oppression with what allegedly was a worse form of government oppression only demonstrates government oppression, regardless how it’s packaged. Nothing is accomplished by grumbling and complaining about government tyranny—that is, the Declaration’s Grievances against George’s government—if you’re only going to replace it with another form of government tyranny.

Part of Jefferson’s complaint in Grievance #20 was that King George was replacing the “free system of English laws” with “arbitrary government.” The Franklin Wordmaster Thesaurus provides two lists of synonyms for “arbitrary.” The first list begins with “capricious.” The second list includes “despotic” and “tyrannical.”

Arbitrary Government

Despotism and tyranny are two of the inevitable consequences of capricious man-made government, as demonstrated by the Constitutional Republic, which was established upon arbitrary man-made edicts.260 Where does America find herself today as a result? Ruled by despotic government, at the behest of unbiblical tyrants.

Arbitrary government is what Habakkuk 1:7 depicts regarding the Chaldeans whose authority and justice originated with themselves, invariably resulting in despotism and tyranny. Arbitrary government is what’s also depicted in the Constitution’s Preamble.261 It’s also how John Adams described the original states’ Constitutions:

It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [the establishment of the states’ Constitutions] ... were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven ... it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.... Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone.262

With this admission in mind, consider again the Treaty with Tripoli, of Barbary:

[T]he government of the United States of America [aka the Constitutional Republic] is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.... (Treaty with Tripoli, of Barbary, Article 11)

This Treaty (which became part of the supreme law of the land, per Article 6263) was unanimously approved by the United States Fifth Congress and signed by none other than President John Adams.

If the Constitutional Republic isn’t Christian and/or biblical, what is it? At best, it’s non-Christian. At worst, it’s anti-Christian. Regardless, it’s as arbitrary, capricious, despotic, and tyrannical as was Great Britain’s government against which the American colonials were rebelling. In fact, it’s become multiplied times worse than King George’s arbitrary government.

Grievances #13 & 21

He [Britain’s King George III] has combined with others [members of England’s Parliament] to subject us to ... their Acts of pretended Legislation:... For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.

This is essentially a reiteration of previous grievances. It specifically refers to the alteration of the Massachusetts Charter regarding King George making their judges subservient to the Crown rather than answerable to the colonials themselves.

This is but more evidence that the Declaration’s signatories were not working from a biblical paradigm. Whether the colonials’ judges were answering to King George or to the people in general—whether to one, a few, or to many—it’s a humanistic government of, by, and for the people, juxtaposed with a biblical government of, by, and for God:

And he [King Jehoshaphat] set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for Yahweh, who is with you in the judgment…. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of Yahweh, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. (2 Chronicles 19:5-9)

This presents a stark contrast with the judges under King George’s jurisdiction, those appointed by the 18th-century colonials, and those empowered by the Constitution.264

Had King Jehoshaphat been a wicked King, he would have most likely done as King George was accused of doing, instructing his judges to rule according to his own dictates. At the very least, he would have charged them to represent the people of his kingdom, as with the American colonials. Either way, it would have amounted to an arbitrary despotic government in rebellion to Yahweh, His Kingdom, and His law.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:

Source Notes

256. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/blvc-index.html

Also audio series “Bible Law vs. Constitutionalism,” beginning at bibleversusconstitution.org/tapelist.html#T742.

257. Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant, bibleversusconstitution.org/law-kingdomFrame.html

258. James Bruggeman, epilogue to Christian Duty Under Corrupt Government: A Revolutionary Commentary of Romans 13:1-7, by Ted R. Weiland, 2nd ed. (Scottsbluff, NE: Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, 2006, 2nd ed.)

259. Lysander Spooner, No Treason, No. VI, The Constitution of No Authority, http://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm#

260. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/blvc-index.html

See also audio series “Bible Law vs. Constitutionalism,” beginning at bibleversusconstitution.org/tapelist.html#T742

261. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt3.html

262. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1865) vol. 4, pp. 292-93

263. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt9.html

264. Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt6.html

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