THE FOUNDERS' WORLDVIEW
THE FOUNDING PRINCIPLES APPLIED
AUTHORITY AND LIBERTY
The fundamental principles of the American Constitutional Republic include Creation authority, liberty and justice. The first principle of creation is that the creator of anything has authority over his created work. Liberty is freedom from government-over-man, and justice is the dispensing of righteousness where we get what we deserve.
Consider abortion where the man-centered question determining whether a preborn child will live or die, is "when does life begin?" Millions of unborn babies have lost their lives because of the tumult over this materialistic question answered only on the basis of observation with the five physical senses and thereby based solely on Humanistic/Atheistic considerations.
However, when the first principle of creation is applied, more fundamental questions must be asked, i.e., "when were we created and who was our creator?" Clearly, our personal creation event took place upon conception and our Creator, Almighty God, performed another creative act to justifiably claim authority over His created work. Thus, under this first principle of the American Constitutional Republic, no human being has authority over His created work to determine if the preborn child will live or die.
Man-centered liberty is commonly thought of in terms of freedom of choice where there is no absolute standard of right and wrong. According to the notion of freedom of choice, obedience to a higher law is not required to make decisions. The man-centered decision-maker relies only on matters of pleasure and survival to make choices based on the powers of observation.
Principles such as "might makes right" and "the ends justify the means" are a driving force behind a person's best interests. The bottom line is that the man-centered freedom of choice imprisons a person within the boundaries of his or her own self-centeredness. In a society where this brand of decision-making predominates, everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. Consequently, a state of anarchy and chaos exists justifying the expansion of the State to control such conditions.
God-centered liberty brings true freedom from imposed control so long as obedience to the higher law prevails in an individual's life. Such obedience produces virtue in the person practicing it. A virtuous society is composed of virtuous people who do the right thing and refrain from doing the wrong thing. Governmental units such as family, church and state under the leadership of such virtuous people produce certainty, security and peace in a society. It worked that way for over 300 years in our land.
Why is this distinction between man-centered decision-making and God-centered decision-making so important? Because of where it leads an entire nation. The man-centered route produces confusion in the economic, social and religious life of a nation. The result finds legislative bodies throughout the nation passing thousands of laws attempting to curb the multitude of problems growing out of the self-centeredness of a people whose only basis for living their lives depend on pleasure and survival.
The story of the giant of Lilliput is a perfect example of a nation tied down by thousands of laws. Each thin Lilliputian thread represents a law imposing the will of the State over the people. Man-centered solutions are tried to stem the flow of human misery flowing from the problems (a) growing out of man-centered decisions, and (b) resulting from State-imposed control and regulation.
In a God-centered decision-making society, the situation is quite different. In practicing self-government, an individual controls, directs, regulates and restrains his actions to comply with an absolute standard of right and wrong. Such an individual operates his life from the inside out according to God's law and is, therefore, virtuous.
Civil government needs no laws to correct that individual's actions. The more virtuous the people in a society, the fewer the number of laws required to maintain order. Thus, a virtuous society experiences limited civil government thereby avoiding the Lilliputian model. Pray for revival that will increase virtue and accordingly limit the need for civil government.
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Neil F. Markva 25