For most of you reading this blog, the question of which god you serve is already settled:
Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that Yahweh1 he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. (Deuteronomy 4:39)
…there is none other God but one … though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth…. (1 Corinthians 8:4-5)
However, this is not true for the majority of people (Matthew 7:13-14), even for most alleged Christians. The gods in today’s world are as many and varied as ever. Although many Americans profess Yahweh as their God and Christ as Lord, most who do so, do not trust in the God of the Bible—at least, not as He dictates:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [anomian, lawlessness]. (Matthew 7:21-23)
As a rule, our choice of another god is not articulated. Most people reveal their rejection of Yahweh by the way they live their lives. The law by which a person chooses to live determines his god. Any time we choose another’s or our own will over Yahweh’s, we enthrone another god in our hearts. On the other hand, when Almighty God is lord of our lives, our innermost desire becomes one of pleasing and serving Him. We do this by obeying His commandments, which are His principle means of revealing His will to us:
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)
What Embarrasses You?
Yahweh’s law, to one degree or another, embarrasses many Christians. Their rejection of His statutes and judgments tacitly proclaims their belief in their own morality and divinity. Their consciences are pricked, not by God’s law, but by their own perception of good and evil:
Conscience must be under authority, or it ceases to be conscience and becomes a god…. Under the facade of conscience, an assault is launched against conscience and authority…. Conscience [in such instances] … is simply a term for our own desires, enthroned as law….
True conscience is under authority, godly authority. True conscience is governed by Scripture; it does not set itself up as an arbiter over God and His word…. True conscience subjects itself to God’s authority: it is at all times under God, never itself a god and lord.2
When men reject Yahweh’s righteousness as codified in His moral law, they implicitly reject the Author of that law:
Beloved, … it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:3-4)
Antinomianism
“Lasciviousness” is translated from asélgeian. The New American Standard translates this Greek word as “licentiousness.” Licentiousness is the “excessive indulgence of liberty; contempt of the just restraints of law….”3 Turning God’s grace into licentiousness is known as antinomianism. An “antinomian [is] a person who maintains that Christians are freed from the moral law by virtue of grace and faith,”4 in contradiction to numerous New Testament passages:
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19)
Do we then make void the law through faith [or grace]? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31)
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good…. For we know that the law is spiritual…. (Romans 7:12-14)
Antinomianism can be traced all the way back to Adam and Eve. Tragically, it is espoused by most modern Christians. By rejecting the bulk of Yahweh’s morality as provided in His commandments, statutes, and judgments, antinomians reject Him as God and Jesus as Lord. By accepting only some of His morality, they derive the remainder of their ethics from the law systems of other gods. In practice, antinomians are polytheists.
It does not matter how many times a person assures us that he is in favor of Christian civilization and opposed to the humanistic myth of neutrality. If he does not affirm the continuing validity of the biblical case laws [the Ten Commandments’ statutes and judgments], his affirmation in favor of Christian civilization is in vain, intellectually speaking. At some point, his denial of the continuing moral and judicial authority of God’s revealed law will logically force him to affirm some form of natural law theory or common ground reasoning, i.e., the myth of neutrality.5
Antinomianism is much more serious than most people (even most pronomians) realize. Jude depicted antinomians as not only rejecting God’s law, but also denying God Himself.
Since there is only one true God, and His law is the expression of His unchanging nature and righteousness, then to abandon the Biblical law for another law-system is to change gods.6
To whatever degree antinomians reject Yahweh’s moral law, they are to that degree humanists. Without God’s moral compass, every man is either a law unto himself or a slave to some surrogate god. Antinomianism is an implicit rejection of the First Commandment.
In God We Trust
Most American Christians take it for granted that the inscription “In God We Trust,” on our coinage, points to the God of the Bible. Quite the contrary. Instead, it begs the question, “Which god?”
Since the inception of the First Amendment and its provision for freedom of religion (by which polytheism has flourished in our nation) the answer to that question is no longer a given, as it was in the 1600s and early 1700s. Since the ratification of the First Amendment, we have quickly gone from being one united nation under God to a divided nation under many gods. With the possible exception of ancient Rome, America has become the most polytheistic nation ever.
Most Christians hang their religious hats on Amendment 1 as if some profound Christian principle is found etched therein. This is but further evidence that most Christians do not believe, trust, and worship Yahweh as He dictates, even as required in the First Commandment.
Which god do you serve?
Related posts:
First Commandment Violators: Framers and Bloggers Alike
The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH
Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
1. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. In obedience to the Third Commandment and in honor of His memorial name (Exodus 3:15), and the multitudes of Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to use His name throughout this blog. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”
2. Rousas John Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1973) pp. 122-23.
3. Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. “licentiousness” (1828; reprint ed. San Francisco, CA: The Foundation for American Christian Education, 1967).
4. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, s.v. “antinomian” (New York, NY: Random House, 2000) p. 59.
5. Gary North, Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989) p. 179.
6. Rushdoony, p. 20.
This is why I, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, don’t pay homage to any national symbol when the music begins. If the word “desecration” is used to describe its destruction, then I demand to know which god such a “sacred” symbol belongs to.
We need to also pay closer attention to the lyrics of the songs sung to those national symbols.
Also how about the Pledge of Allegiance: See “Pledge of Allegiance: Is It Under God?” at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/onlineBooks/ThePledgeofAllegiance.html.
Ted and David, I completely agree. While we’re at it, we should also include the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Most people truly believe it is a Christian song, belonging right next to “Onward Christian Soldiers”. Nothing could be further from the truth!!
And there are sincere people who will harm and kill you if you lit it on fire or other such objections. So be Armed, just in case.
A good teaching. Thank you. I also read “The Third Commandment” (link above). Finally I can say His name correctly with confidence. Yahweh.
Thanks George!
Good reading, Ted. I also looked up “The Third Commandment” as referenced by George and spent the next half hour or so looking at this. I also went to Wikipedia in search of a more easily read explanation and came away with the understanding that this is not something to be absorbed in one sitting.
It’s similar to Gary North’s statement in his book “Tools of Dominion: Case Laws of Exodus”, (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics), where he describes the proper way to read the book.
“You deal with it as you would eat an elephant: one bite at a time. Chew well; it is occasionally tough.”
I’m going to have to chew on this. It may take some time before I have any other answer.
BTW, anyone who wants to download free books by North and other Reconstructionist authors can do so by following this link: http://garynorth.com/freebooks .
For a little more understanding of the free books, go here:
http://www.garynorth.com/public/department78.cfm
The citation listed above is found on page 23 of the book listed. My mistake.
OK, let’s get it right this time. The above quote is from Gary North, Tools of Dominion: Case Laws of Exodus (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990), p. 23.
Tighten up, Mitchell.
Roger, yes, it’s initially probably a “tough chew,” but one I hope you will find satisfying in the end.
Just a couple of morsels to get you started: Why is that when the God of the Bible inspired the Tetragrammaton (YHWH if pronouncing or YHVH if spellling) to appear in the Old Testament nearly 7,000 times, the English translators thought they had the authority, influenced by Jewish traditions (as admitted in some of the Prefaces of their translations), to remove His MEMORIAL name from the Bible?
Also, think about this, you can find the name of nearly every other god in existence at the time in the Bible, but the name of the GOD OF THE BIBLE is missing, leaving Him with merely generic titles and descriptions.
All of this should be considered in light of Matthew 15:6-9.
May your “gold mining,” regardless the outcome, be fulfilling!
Hello Ted,
Your look into the united States constitution & etc. was a real eye opener for me. I was raised – like many Americans – to believe that while the constitution was not exactly Scripture, it was ‘ very, very close’. Now, having you hold it up alongside The Law as God wrote it in the Bible and comparing the two; principle by principle, it’s clearly lacking in so many ways. More than simply showing fallable human origins -which is reasonable- it’s attempt to over-rule the Law of God makes the eventual failure of this national government and all who worship it, a foregone conclusion.
How different the constitution is from the covenants written by Christians who came here from Europe during the century and a half before the revolution. Those Christians had written ‘covenants’ with God concerning their goals and loyalty to Him and His government on Earth, making their governments as close to Theocracy as they were able, so that they could worship God properly – regardless of personal sacrifice. They understood the true pinnacle of power and center of worship must always be God: obedience to Him was to be first in all things.
Decades ago, I used to think that all we needed was ‘… to get back to the constitution.’ . Eventually the understanding was given to me that I was essentially worshiping a pack of idols made by men. Now, when I hear the same pat statement from well meaning ‘patriots’ about the return to the constitution, I ask them: “Remember when we only had TEN Laws?”. They ‘get it’ – maybe not agree with it – but they’ll be thinking about that; Lord willing.
Yearning for His Kingdom,
Ray
Ray, very well said! Keep planting those seeds. This is the front line battle (like Gideon of old, removing our fathers’ national idol) that must be eventually won (one we’ve only just begun) if we ever hope a future generation of our posterity will be able to do it right(eous).
Welcome aboard Ray. Excellent post. We were all taught to revere the Constitution. The hardest groups to reach are those who claim to want a Christian nation, and argue vociferously that the framers did indeed establish just that. The latest incarnation of secession movements petitioning the White House for release is a perfect example of trying to return to a time when life under the Constitution was LESS oppressive. Loosening the chains, ever so little, does not make a man any less a slave.
Excellent article, Ted, and comments. It’s wonderful to see – even though not in great numbers – men of faith expressing their views and all working in harmony towards a better understanding of Yahweh’s will for us in His Kingdom. God bless each of you.
Amen! The turn around (Acts 17:6-7) had to begin somewhere. How blessed we are to be a part of this momentous paradigm shift!