The Perfect Law of Liberty
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass [mirror, NASB]: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:22-25)1
The law of Yahweh2 is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)
Perfect, sure, right, pure, true, and altogether righteous, resulting in conversions, wisdom, joy, enlightenment, better than fine gold, sweeter than honey, and providing a great reward. It can’t get any better than that! It’s known as the perfect law of liberty.3
Incredibly, many Christians4 and patriots are willing to settle for man’s alleged best—that is, the United States Constitution.5 Even if the government created by the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers is the best government ever devised by man, it remains only man’s best imperfection:
Suppose it be “the best government on earth,” does that prove its own goodness, or only the badness of all other governments?6
Why would anyone settle for man’s imperfection—regardless how much better it is than man’s other imperfections—when instead we can have Yahweh’s perfection?
This is precisely what the 18th-century American colonials did. They replaced England’s imperfect government with their own imperfect government—what, in fact, has turned out to be a far more egregious version of man’s imperfection.
The Declaration Speaks for Itself
Paragraph #2, Sentences 6–7
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
As we continue to biblically examine the twenty-seven Facts (grievances), take note again how many of these same abuses can be leveled at both the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers.
Grievance #10
He [Britain’s King George III] has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
Adding to the Word
Regardless what these offices were that King George introduced in the American colonies, anything in addition to the Bible’s civil offices, and George was guilty of adding to the Word and law of the King of kings:
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God…. (Deuteronomy 4:2)
The American colonials were, once again, completely justified in this grievance against King George—from a biblical paradigm. If only that had been the case!
Worldview on Display
To know someone’s worldview, one only needs to determine the ethical paradigm7 from which he operates.
If your worldview futilely attempts to combine the Bible and the biblically seditious Constitution,8 not only is your paradigm unbiblical, it’s as double-minded as were the Israelites on Mt. Carmel with Elijah in 1 Kings 18 and the Pharisees and Herodians in Matthew 22, outmaneuvered by Christ in their Caesar-coin subterfuge.9
Why halt ye between two opinions?
- If Baal be God, follow him. If Yahweh be God, follow Him.
- If Caesar is your King, render to him what’s due him. If Christ is your King, render to him what’s due Him.9
- If We the People be God,10 serve them. If Yahweh be God, serve Him.11
All three of these are essentially the same options. Choose incorrectly or choose both and it will invariably result in slacking the law of Yahweh or disregarding it entirely:
[T]he law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. (Habakkuk 1:4)
You cannot serve two masters; you will end up loving one and hating the other—the other likely being Christ in the tradition of the 1st-century Judahites when they responded to Pilate “We have no King but Caesar!,” or in the Constitutional Republic’s case “We have no God but We the People!”11
King George’s Added Offices
The colonials’ protest against King George for adding uncalled-for civil offices was justified, provided their grievance was biblically motivated. Otherwise, George had just as much alleged right to add non-biblical civil offices as the constitutional framers did when creating the three branches of the Constitutional Republic, none of which are biblical.12 This, despite today’s Christians repeated futile attempts to make them biblical.
Beware! Christians are generally so determined for the Declaration’s signatories and Constitution’s framers to be our guys and the Constitution to be our document that they’re willing to go to just about any length in their attempts to make it so. But doing so only culminates in Isaiah 5:20 & 24—that is, in calling evil good and bitter sweet, per Verse 20. This stems from their having cast away the law of Yahweh of hosts, per Verse 24—the only way you can arrive at such a conclusion.13
Proof Texting
Isaiah 33:22 is, arguably, today’s Christians’ favorite proof text in attempting to make the Constitution biblically compatible:
For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king…. (Isaiah 33:22)
Isaiah 33:22 depicts three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial—the same as in the U.S. Constitution. Thus, it’s often parroted that Isaiah 33:22 was the inspiration for the Constitutional Republic’s three-branch government—despite the fact that this claim was never made by even one of the constitutional framers.
If you were constructing a government based upon Yahweh as its Sovereign and His moral law as supreme would you not go out of your way to acknowledge God and credit His Word for everything in your document inspired by His Word? Of course you would!
That the constitutional framers didn’t do so proves by itself that neither they nor their Constitution is what Christians wish it to be. It also means today’s Christians are endeavoring to make a silk purse out of sow’s ear.
Glaring Inconsistencies
If the United States Constitutional Republic’s three-branch government is biblical, then today’s Constitution of the Russian Federation (adopted on December 12, 1993) is also biblically inspired for the same reason:
State power in the … [Russian Federation] shall be exercised on the basis of its division into legislative, executive and judicial authority [even the order is the same as the U.S. Constitution’s]. Bodies of legislative, executive and judicial authority shall be independent [same as with U.S. Constitution]. (Section 1, Chapter 1, Article 10)
If the United States Constitution is biblically based because of its three branches of government, then so is Russia’s current Constitution. By this standard, there’s hardly a constitution in existence that’s not biblically inspired including the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republics, inspired by Marx and Lenin. Chapters two, five, and nine are devoted to its legislative, executive, and judicial branches and also found in the same order as the United States Constitution and Isaiah 33:22.
How about a Constitution that quotes Scripture? Certainly a Constitution that quotes the Bible would be biblical.
If this is true, then, once again, the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republics is biblically compatible because 2 Thessalonians 3:10 is found therein:
In the U.S.S.R. work is a duty and matter of honour for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principal: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.” (Chapter 1, Article 12)
You can also find, among others, the following biblically compatible components in the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation:
- Equality before the law, per Section 1, Chapter 2, Article 9
- Protection for the life of everyone, per Section 1, Chapter 2, Article 20
- Capital punishment for murderers, per Section 1, Chapter 2, Article 20
- Innocence until proven guilty, per Section 1, Chapter 2, Article 49
The same can be done with any nation’s Constitution.
Do biblically compatible components mean the Constitution of the Russian Federation is biblically inspired or even biblically compatible? Of course not! And yet similar lists created by wishful Christians have been produced with similar components extracted from the United States Constitution that the compilers, in turn, claim prove the U.S. Constitution is biblically inspired.
Just because there are biblical components in a Constitution does not make the Constitution biblically compatible, especially when the same document is riddled with components that are not only biblically adverse but biblically seditious. Case in point: the United States Constitution in which there’s hardly an Article or Amendment that’s not biblically egregious.13
Constitutional Framers’ Added Offices
Article 1, Section 1: All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Herein granted! Granted by whom? By a bunch of legislative usurpers!14
Article 1 is proven to be biblically seditious by the very same passage of Scripture that allegedly proves the Constitution’s three-branch government was biblically inspired:
…Yahweh is our lawgiver…. (Isaiah 33:22)
Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines “legislator” as “a lawgiver, one who makes laws….”15
Yahweh, as God and Creator, and thus the only one with authority to determine what constitutes good and evil for His creation, is thus the one and only lawgiver, or legislator.
What’s this say about those whom the constitutional framers allegedly made legislators? What’s this say about the constitutional framers? The framers and those whom they enabled as legislators are equally usurpers of Yahweh’s exclusive legislative authority.
Consequently, Article 1’s legislative branch is as much an added civil office as were those added by King George that the American colonials were so irate about, and therefore just as biblically seditious.
Morality Monopoly
As the source of morality, Yahweh is likewise the source of all true law. Because legislation enacts morality, morality and legislation are indivisible. Because only Almighty God can legitimately differentiate between what is good and what is evil, Yahweh holds the monopoly on legislation.
Finite men who claim legislative authority invariably make illegal what is lawful and legal what is unlawful. It’s been inherent for them to do so ever since the Garden of Eden. Thus for any man (such as King George) or group of men (such as the constitutional framers) to enact a different law code than God’s is tantamount to calling good evil and evil good per Isaiah 5:20. In turn, this makes a mockery of Yahweh and His law.
Worse, calling good evil and evil good—as the Constitution does repeatedly16—is a claim to divinity. One of the attributes of God is the authority to define and legislate good and evil. Because there is only one true God17, there is likewise only one standard for what is good and evil. Therefore anyone who attempts to legislate differently from Yahweh is usurping His place as God:
The art of government is the organization of idolatry.18
[T]he other gods about whom we must be concerned are, as they ever have been, to be found in the seats of temporal, or human, government.19
This is what, in Matthew 23:2, Christ depicted as fraudulently sitting “in Moses’ seat.” This is what both King George and the constitutional framers were guilty of when they added unbiblical civil offices as part of their legal codes. In the constitutional framers’ case, this included the legislative,20 executive,21 and judicial22 branches.
Grievance #10
He [King George III] has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
King George was behaving himself like a Midianite:
[T]he Midianites … encamped against them [the Israelites], and destroyed the increase of the earth … and left no sustenance for Israel…. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites…. (Judges 6:3-6)
The American colonials had good reason to rebel against such despotic government oppression. But tragically, America has fared no better—in fact, much worse—from the government created by the constitutional framers in reaction to George’s government:
Article 1, Section 6, Clause 1: The Senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury….
Ascertained by law! Whose law?
Any amount of remuneration not prescribed in the Bible—nowhere even inferred in the Constitution—only goes to further demonstrate the framers’ disregard for God and His law. Regardless the amount, any compensation slated for legislators who themselves are in violation of Isaiah 33:22 only goes to pay them to further their legislative usurpation.23
Unlike the Bible, the Constitution provides no salary ceiling for the amount of compensation for civil leaders. Consequently, such compensation was subject to change with the whims of those determining the amount of compensation. And who was that? The very ones who were being compensated.
Congressional Salaries
Congressional salaries—while evil because of what they bankrolled—were nonetheless not so bad as to the amount originally paid to the Constitutional Republic’s original hoodlums—only $6.00 per day while in session.
However, that quickly changed. By 1815 (only twenty seven years later), congressmen had rewarded themselves with $1,500 annually, regardless how often they were in session. By 1968, their annual salaries soared to $30,000. The current outrageous salary for senators and representatives is $174,000. The Speaker of the House receives $223,500 (nearly a quarter million dollars annually) and the Majority and Minority Leaders each receive $193,400.
Every year congressman and senators also receive an automatic cost of living adjustment. Every member in both the Senate and House receive an additional allotment for office expenses. This amounts to approximately $1 million per office.
The current annual congressional expenditure is $626,103,500, not accounting for many other financial perks and lavish retirement plans received by former congressmen and women and their spouses.
King George and his minions could have only dreamt of such a haul!
And all of this extravagance for what? Thomas Jefferson expressed it quite adequately in Grievance #10: “swarms of officers [counterfeit legislators are] … harass[ing] our people, and eat[ing] out their substance.”
No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.24
Taxpayers are financing their own destruction and all because the Declaration’s signatories and Constitution’s framers committed the same biblical violations King George committed.
If Only for More Gideons
In Judges 6, when the Midianites and others were plundering the people, Gideon hid his and his families’ sustenance from the counterfeit legislators of his day (aka ravaging Midianites) and was honored by God for having done so. Yahweh then used Gideon and his little band of three hundred to defeat the overwhelming hoards of Midianites. In turn, the Israelites requested that Gideon and his sons be their rulers, to which Gideon responded as follows:
I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you. (Judges 8:23)
If only George Washington and his fellow compatriots had done the same when responding to King George, how different America would look today. Tragically, they instead chose to repeat King George’s sins and his violations against Yahweh.
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
See Part 13.
Related posts:
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence, Pts. 1-11” (Articles)
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective
End Notes
1. All scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.
2. 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. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to memorialize His name, per Exodus 3:15, in this article.
For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain, the third in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
3. For more on how the Bible’s immutable/unchanging triune moral law (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) applies and should be implemented today as the law of the land, see free online book Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
Then A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.
4. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Jesus and forgiven of your sins.
For a more thorough explanation concerning water immersion and its relationship to salvation, the bookBaptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
Additionally, listen to audio series “I Had a Dream: Judgment’s Coming. Are You Under the Blood?” Part 1 can be found here. Or a MP3 CD, containing all ten messages, can be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
5. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
6. Lysander Spooner, No Treason, No. VI, The Constitution of No Authority, http://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm#
7. Listen to “What’s Your Paradigm?”
8. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
9. See Chapter 9 “The Government Depicted by the Apostle Paul is Due Tribute, Custom, Fear, and Honour” of The Romans 13 Template for Biblical Dominion: Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government
10. We the People is a contemporary form of Baal. See blog article “Could YOU Be a Disciple of Baal and Not Know It?”
11. See Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
12. See Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation,” Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation,” and Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
13. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
14. See Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
See also Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land.”
15. Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. “Legislator” (1828; reprint ed. San Francisco, CA: The Foundation for American Christian Education, 1967)
16. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
17. Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 44:6, 2 Corinthians 8:4-6, etc.
18. George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists, 1903, https://www.panarchy.org/shaw/maxims.1903.html
19. T. Robert Ingram, The World Under God’s Law (Houston, TX: St. Thomas Press, 1981) p. 33
20. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
21. Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
22. Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
23. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
24. Gideon J. Tucker, New York Surrogate Reports (New York, NY: New York Surrogate, 1866), p. 249, quoted in Suzy Platt, ed., Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (New York: NY: Barnes & Noble, 1992) p. 198