THE FOUNDERS' WORLDVIEW
THE FOUNDING PRINCIPLES APPLIED
RELIGIOUS EQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES
The exciting thing about authority in the United States is that the Founders chose to form a civil government around a system of belief that acknowledged the God of the Bible as the Superior which any inferior is bound to obey. Based on the ideas embraced in our founding documents, the inferiors include the State along with its citizens.
The constitutions of the various state and federal civil governments comprise the supreme law limiting the authority and power for those civil governments to act. The primary problem is that judges, legislators and administrators have all been educated (indoctrinated) under the Humanistic/Atheistic philosophies promoted by our nation's public school systems the past 30 to 50 years. Thus, man-centered thinking now places the god-State at the pinnacle of power rather than Almighty God.
Nevertheless, until the various constitutions are rewritten, those particular agencies of civil government are still subject to the laws of nature and nature's God. Here, according to the principles of Creation authority, the people are the source of authority for the civil government. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, at Article I, Section 2, of the Virginia Constitution, states "[T]hat all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people, that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them." Thus, with the Creator designated as the Supreme Authority over the State, the people are over civil government.
In a belief system that eliminates the God of the Bible as Sovereign, the State is not subject to the Higher Law. Thus, the State itself becomes the supreme law. Said another way, the State becomes a god with ultimate legal authority over the people. Therefore, when the State is god or exclusive sovereign, the people involuntarily become servants to the master, the State.
What does this have to do with religious equality? EVERYTHING! When the State sets aside the Supreme Authority of the Creator God, the laws of nature and nature's God become passe when writing the governing laws of that State. Right now, no man, according to the Virginia Declaration of Rights, shall be compelled by force to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.
However, where the State has expelled the laws of God as the guiding authority, the people's tax money provide the support for the god-State's religious practices which include (1) killing babies in the womb for the convenience of the State and those involved in abortion; (2) underwriting pornography produced by perverse-minded individuals who have rejected their Maker's rule over their lives; and (3) building and maintaining buildings housing the public educational system dedicated to eliminating every vestige of a God-centered society and establishing the State as the exclusive sovereign over the people. These are but a few examples in a virtually endless list.
"No man," declares the Virginia Constitution, "shall be [burdened] in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief." Under the laws of nature and nature's God, the State has no authority to tax or otherwise encumber the people in their free exercise of religion. This means that church property is not taxable and is not to be subject to laws treating them as commercial property.
Zoning laws imposed on churches by the State is evidence that the State has declared itself the exclusive sovereign over the churches' property in violation of the laws of nature and nature's God. The imposition of workman's compensation laws and income tax laws on churches violate the Higher Law. The power to tax is the power to destroy. Unfortunately, wherever the State has declared itself as the ultimate legal authority, the free exercise of religion has become a thing of the past.
Are the churches to be given free reign in the community if not subject to the tax and zoning laws? That question is nonsensical in light of the over 300 years that the churches were not subject to such laws in our nation. Biblical churches obey the laws of nature and nature's God. Pray for revival to restore the first principles of the American Constitutional Republic and thereby experience the benefits of righteousness across our land.
8 Neil F. Markva 22