It’s Too Easy to Be Guilty
By J. Jeff Toler for Shenandoah Christian Alliance j.toler@sca4christ.org
- “A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless.” ― Antonin Scalia
In the opening graph in the National Review, “The Rule of Law vs. the Rule of Lawyers,” Dan McLaughlin writes, “The rule of law is, in Justice Antonin Scalia’s famous phrase, a law of rules. It begins with the rule of written law and depends on the evenhanded enforcement of that law. Rules are to be written down where all can see and know them, and they are to be applied the same way to all. What it means to be a government of laws, not of men, is inseparable from the proper separation of powers by which the power to write the rules and the power to enforce them are in different hands and the writing comes first.” [https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/09/the-rule-of-law-vs-the-rule-of-lawyers/]
The Bible is acknowledged as the written word of God. Within the Bible are the written laws of God: the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:1-17 lists the laws of God before there was any institution of civil law and civil authority. (these passages are edited to fit the space allotted)
The first four commandments are directed to the identity, invisible nature, name, and holiness of the Creator:
1. “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
2. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything.”
3. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
The fifth commandment is the directive to respect the next highest authority among mankind other than God Himself—parents:
5. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
The following final five laws or directives God has given humankind are devoted to the private sector:
6. “You shall not murder.”
7. “You shall not commit adultery.”
8. “You shall not steal.”
9. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
According to the Library of Congress, there is no official list of all federal laws because the total number of federal laws and amendments has never been tallied. However, some will estimate that there are approximately 300,000 federal laws—many of which cover government agency regulations. Congress has enacted around 200–600 statutes during each of its 115 biennial terms, so more than 30,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789. By my estimate that’s more than 3,000 times the number of laws God inscribed in stone for Moses to give to His people.
Here is a question for your consideration: why did God need only ten laws, but the Land of Liberty and justice amassed 300,000 laws since 1789, when the Constitution was ratified?
I’ve learned a few things in my time serving on a condominium regime, and to some extent on the city council: the more complex and specific laws and rules are written, the more likely they are to be contested, violated, and arbitrated.
If we think this is due to an impulse to, at best, overthink what we are doing when it comes to legislation, there is some merit to that. But I also think that a lot of legislation is obfuscatory—deliberately intended to be confusing.
Peter Roff, for US News, pointed out this strategy, writing, “Speaking Tuesday to the 2010 Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties, (Nancy) Pelosi began the windup of her healthcare pitch by alluding to the controversies over the healthcare bill and the process by which it has reached its current state. Then, just after saying, “It’s going to be very, very exciting,” Pelosi gaffed, telling the local elected officials assembled that Congress “[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.” [https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/03/09/pelosi-pass-health-reform-so-you-can-find-out-whats-in-it]
If you missed this point, go back and read how last five commandments listed were devoted for the “private sector.” This raises the question, where is the mention of government leaders and civic authorities in the Ten Commandments? There are none. For the Most High God, there was no need. And, for the Israelites, there wouldn’t be until one day, the people demanded a king.
The simplest of words—of declarations—can have the most profound meaning and significance.
Edward J. Erler writes, “If the central principle of the Declaration is true, that ‘all men are created equal,’ then it necessarily follows that among human beings there are no natural rulers and thus no man can be ruled without his consent. It also follows that in the absence of natural rulers each individual is possessed of the natural right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights necessarily belong to individuals because they are inherent in the principles of human nature, the first principle of which is natural human equality.” [Still Separate But Equal – Claremont Review of Books]
We have laws because humankind needs them. But, it’s too late to go back to depending on the Decalogue alone. Our laws can only attempt to comport with the innate sense of reality that God has formed in us. C. S. Lewis (pictured) describes this innate sense of reality in the first chapter of Mere Christianity:
“They say things like this: how do you like it if anyone did the same to you? That’s my seat. I was there first. Leave him alone he isn’t doing you any harm. It’s as if both parties had in mind some kind of law or rule of fair play, or decent behavior, or morality, or whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have.”
Lewis continues, “Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature… (but, the older thinkers) really meant the Law of Human Nature.” (Emphasis added)
The enemies of God and Man, employing the religious philosophy of Marxism—which is a philosophy of resentment—have no use for law, or rule, much less fair play. Instead they use the tactics of conflict and contradiction. This is now why nearly all of the social and cultural institutions can only divide us. There is no standard by which agreement can be found within them. The True Church is the only arbiter left to speak truth to power.
We who should know this, ought be horrified that so many in The Church are abdicating the role and responsibility they were given to defend the laws of God.
“. . . there would always have to be present in the city something possessing the same understanding of the regime as you, the lawgiver, had when you were setting down the laws.” —Plato, Republic 497c-d
- “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” —Romans 3:19-20
