there ought to be a law
The Palestinians are a people group whose history can often be described in terms of their subjugation by another people. Geographically, Palestine is the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, and has been controlled by many kingdoms and powers, including ancient Egypt, ancient Israel and Judah, the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great and his successors, the Hasmoneans, the Roman Empire, several Muslim caliphates, and the crusaders.
The word Palestine derives from Philistia, the name given by the early Greek writers to the land of the Philistines, who occupied a small pocket of land on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
If you were to “Google” the greatest king of Palestine, here is the name Wikipedia will give you: Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat, (pictured) who died in 2004. It has been said that Palestine, as a nation state only existed for about one or two hundred years since the days of the ancient Canaanites.
Such a history could easily have given the Palestinian people a distorted sense of national unity and purpose—especially now, subject as they were to those who conquered and ruled them in the land they occupied. This same land that is also known as the Holy Land and is, of course, held sacred by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. This history is significant today because the commonality among most, maybe not all, Palestinians, would be that of suffering under the animosity created by their occupiers—most especially the Muslims.
Their history may offer a clue as to why the Palestinian people “elected” Hamas, a brutal terrorist organization, to govern them in the territory known as the Gaza Strip.
Of course, if we are to assume they actually elected them, maybe this is because they lack both the will and the desire to govern themselves.
Noah Webster’s “The American Dictionary of the English Language” provides the definition of government like this:
“The direction, regulation, control, restraint of the individual by external authority or by internal character and conscience.” [Note: The founders of the American republic knew that the individual is properly self-governed when governed by Christ.] and…
“The system of polity in a state; that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions; a constitution, either written or unwritten, by which the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed and defined; as a monarchial government or a republican government.”
The theory is just that—theory, but one that might explain the plight of a people who are suffering from both the brutality of their oppressor leaders—Hamas—and the justified retaliation of their neighbor, Israel, all without any corresponding genuine representation. Without any real ability to free themselves from the situation on their own, Palestinian people are quite literally, trapped.
Hamas, as we should already know, is a Sunni Islamist political and military organization governing the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territories. Yet, Hamas isn’t there to govern at all. They’re real aim is eliminating Israel. Nevertheless, the Hamas exist because, in their ranks, are only the people who are unified: by the homicidal hatred of the Jews. We could think of it this way:
A government can only be good, if it actually is good. If the government is not good, it’s not a legitimate government, but a tyranny.
Which brings us to the subject of self-government.
Over this past weekend, I had the pleasure and privilege to spend time with some truly exceptional scholars and teachers at the Christian Education Initiative (CEI) Strategy Summit IV: Building Christendom. I have regained my optimism for retaking America from the growing tyranny in America we are now experiencing.
Many spoke about self-government. But what exactly is self-government, and why is it so important? To begin, we must understand that God first established the family as the basic unit of government in the world, beginning with our first parents.
- God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. (Genesis 1:28-29)
This is government from the beginning. As for establishing His governing the nations—goy or ethnos—we read, “These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.” (Genesis 10:32)
Only from self-government will come limited government. God encourages to us to limit our civil governments, those made by mankind in this way:
- When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)
When we depart from this, it will soon enough follow that everything can, and will, go wrong.
- Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)
The law—God’s law—is the singularly beautiful and fundamental design for both limited and self-government. For those who were taught honest history, America is unique in this regard: we chose both these options in creating a government so unique in world history it’s still being described as an experiment.
In the recent generations, these very precepts have come under severe, and frenetic attack by our ancient, determined adversary: the prince of the power of the air…
- in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2)
It’s urgent that we know more of what we are supposed to know, because we face such great suffering and pain—great fear and anxiety—and because the law of the Lord is no longer written on our hearts. It’s imperative you and I seek help with our own education, and so I recommend these important resources among the many that are available to help:
- Foundation for American Christian Education (Look for “Nation Makers: the Art of Self-Government”)
- The Nehemiah Institute
- The Salt and Light Council
- Why Liberty Matters
- Christian Halls
- Virginia Christian Alliance
- Shenandoah Christian Alliance
- Truth in Education
- Christian Education Initiative
- First Landing 1607 Project
There are too many others to list here. To know more about how to access the content presented at the CEI Summit, please email me at: j.toler@sca4christ.org
