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, altogether righteous, resulting in conversions, wisdom, joy, enlightenment, better than fine gold, and sweeter than honey. And if all of this weren’t enough, providing a great reward.
Question: Is this what the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution3 provided America? Close your ears to all the spurious propaganda spread by Christians4 and patriots alike, and consider where America finds herself today.
America’s descent into today’s abysmal state of affairs is the result of what was at first a slow but incremental—at breakneck speed presently—plunge into moral depravity, officially commencing with the adoption of the United States Constitution as the law of the land,5 sired by the Declaration of Independence.6
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.
Grievances #13 & 22
He [Britain’s King George III] has combined with others [members of England’s Parliament] to subject us to … their Acts ofpretended Legislation:… For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
King George was suspending the American colonials’ legislatures and replacing them with those of his own making. In turn, immediately following the War for Independence, the colonials suspended King George’s legislatures and replaced them with legislatures of their own making as found in each of the thirteen original states’ constitutions. The same then occurred thirteen years later with the adoption of the federal Constitution7:
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.
The phrase “own Legislatures” in Grievance 22 should set off biblical alarm bells for the following reason:
For … Yahweh is our lawgiver…. (Isaiah 33:22)
There is no biblical justification for men forming their own legislatures, thereby empowering finite men as lawmakers to create their own laws by which to govern themselves—whether it be King George, the 17th-century American colonials, the constitutional framers, or anyone else.
The framers’ great aspiration is known as the Great Experiment in Self-Government. It was, therefore, inescapable that they would create their own laws by which to govern themselves, rather than submitting to Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty, as reflected in His commandments, statutes, and judgments.8
If ever there were a recipe for disaster, self-government is it. Self-government is what Adam and Eve attempted in the Garden. How well did that turn out for them? How well has it turned out for America?
Judgment by Spurious Laws
Yahweh is sovereign over all of His creation, thus none of what was done in the 18th-century American colonies was without His overarching supervision. Self-appointed legislators and man-made legislation is but one of God’s means for judging man for rejecting Him and His perfect law of liberty:
[T]he most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest [lowliest, NASB] of men. (Daniel 4:17)
Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live … that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh. (Ezekiel 20:24-26)
The Prophet Micah depicts the best of the lowliest of men as briars and the most upright among them as sharper than a thorn hedge (see Micah 7:4). It’s what today under the Constitutional Republic is often described as the lesser of two evils. However, sometimes it’s the worst of two evils. Regardless, it’s always the evil of two lessers. No wonder “no one’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”
This is invariably true unless, of course, we’re talking about Yahweh’s legislature, consisting of Him as exclusive lawgiver via His Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments as the law of the land8:
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Yahweh my God commanded me…. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Yahweh our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31)
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Romans 7:12)
Clashing Legislators
The Prophet Isaiah contrasts the caliber of leaders who serve Yahweh as Lawgiver with Micah’s briars and thorns representing finite usurpers:
Seek Yahweh while he may be found, call upon him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Yahweh, and he will have mercy upon him … for he will abundantly pardon…. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace…. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree…. (Isaiah 55:6-13)
The fir and myrtle trees are indicative of the civil leaders the Apostle Paul depicts in Romans 13:1-79 as men of God who are a continual blessing to the righteous and a perpetual terror to the wicked, under which:
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. (Psalm 92:12)
Under man’s surrogate governments, the best you get for rulers are “briars” and “thorns.” Under a biblical government established on Yahweh’s law,10 adjudicated by biblically qualified judges, we get “fir” and “myrtle trees” for civil leaders. However for the “trees” to flourish, the “briars” and “thorns” must be eliminated:
Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son…. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. (Psalm 72:1, 6-8)
This Psalm depicts what everyone in their right mind desires for their nation, their people, and their posterity. Yahweh is always true to His word, thus when early 1600s America was governed by God’s law, it’s exactly what America experienced:
They [the 17th-century Puritans] exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now presents to the world is to be found [in perfect fulfillment of Deuteronomy 4:5-8, demonstrating the continuing veracity of Yahweh’s law and its accompanying blessings, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14].
Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650. The legislators of [New Haven] Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ … copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.…11
America’s former greatness (blessings from God) was the result of the early 17th-century Colonial governments of, by, and for God established upon His unchanging moral law, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14.
On the other hand, God curses nations that reject His sovereignty and replace His law and legislature with their own man-made surrogates. Thus, America began to be cursed (by God’s long suffering, only incrementally at first) when the 18th-century “founding fathers” replaced the 17th-century biblical governments with their own humanistic government of, by, and for the people, based upon capricious man-made Enlightenment and Masonic traditions, including the Constitutional Republic’s legislative branch.12
Consequently, without repentance for these sins of sedition against Yahweh and America’s complicity therein ever since, it was inevitable that America would find herself teetering on the precipice of destruction.
Source of Morality
As the source of all true morality, Yahweh is likewise the source of all true law. It’s that simple! His never-changing immutable morality (aka His righteousness) is codified and reflected in His triune law of liberty:
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. …my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. (Isaiah 51:6-8)
Because Yahweh’s righteousness can never be abolished, neither can His moral law that conveys His righteousness to us. Thus to change His law is to change Yahweh’s moral nature, and to change Yahweh’s moral nature is (in theory) to eliminate Yahweh Himself.
Source of Law
Because legislation enacts morality (or immorality as the case may be), morality and legislation are indivisible. Because Yahweh holds the exclusive authority for determining what constitutes good and evil, He likewise holds the monopoly on legislation.
Anything else is merely man making legal what God has determined as unlawful (e.g., government-financed in utero infanticide, sodomite “marriages,” and religious pluralism) and making illegal what God has determined or dictated as lawful (e.g., mandatory biblical qualifications for civil leaders). Therefore, for any man (e.g., King George) or group of men (e.g., the constitutional framers) to form their own legislatures and thereby to legislate a law code different than Yahweh’s is tantamount to calling good evil and evil good, per Isaiah 5:20. In turn, it makes a mockery of God and His law and, in so doing, repeats the same sin responsible for casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden.
Usurped Divinity
Calling good evil and evil good—as the Constitution repeatedly does,13 not to mention its biblically criminal legislature ever since—is a claim to divinity. One of the attributes of God is His exclusive authority to define good and evil. Because there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, etc.) and Lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22, James 4:12), there is likewise only one standard for what constitutes good and evil. Consequently, anyone who attempts to alter His determinations for good and evil is usurping His place as God:
[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.14
This is what Christ, in Matthew 23:2, depicted as fraudulently sitting “in Moses seat.” This is precisely what both King George, the American colonials, and the constitutional framers were guilty of when they created their own legislatures.
Last Five Grievances
The last five grievances essentially address different aspects of the same thing:
Grievances #23
He [King George] has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
Grievances #24
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
Grievances #25
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Grievances #26
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
Grievances #27
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Ungodly Acts of Warfare
All of this sounds terrible! But has the United States of America fared any better? Not to sound trite, but this is the way of nations that have rejected the Bible’s perfect law of liberty as the foundational standard for society. Case in point: The Constitutional Republic’s imperialistic empire and its industrial military complex that has disregarded the biblical laws of warfare as, for example, found in Deuteronomy 20.
No one will argue that the power to declare war is a very serious responsibility. So, why were the constitutional framers so vague in defining the parameters of war and the conditions under which it could be declared? Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1115 is the only place of significance where warfare is mentioned in the Constitution:
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11: [Congress shall have the power] To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.
That’s it! Read that again. The only foundational difference from what King George was doing is the number of men empowered to do so.
Little wonder this power has been abused from the inception of the Constitution. Luther Martin, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention who finally walked away from the Convention in disgust and subsequently campaigned against its ratification, protested:
[T]he congress have also a power given them to raise and support armies, without any limitation as to numbers, and without any restriction in time of peace. Thus, sir, this plan of government, instead of guarding against a standing army, that engine of arbitrary power, which has so often and so successfully been used for the subversion of freedom, has in its formation given it an express and constitutional sanction.16
Because the framers provided no biblical parameters, unbiblical warfare has been the rule ever since. From 1945 to the present (2021), the United States has bombed nineteen different countries under the guise of defending America’s sovereignty and promoting Democracy. But America is none the better for it. The international bankers are better off, but not America. Moreover, not one of those nineteen countries has become a legitimate Democracy (not that this would be anything to celebrate).
Something’s terribly amiss—at the expense of life and limb of America’s young men and women.
Wars fought for political gain or financial profit are ungodly acts of aggression—including King George’s war against the American colonials and every war initiated by the Constitutional Republic since its inception.
Doing it Righteous
What’s especially grievous about this is that as bad as it was for the American colonials under King George’s reign of terror, the colonials’ sins were just as grievous, perhaps worse, at least in the sight of God. The colonials had the opportunity in their day to do it right, that is, righteous. They instead failed miserably, as did Great Britain’s government.
It’s now our time to do it right! The Constitutional Republic is presently tearing itself apart before our very eyes as part of Yahweh’s judgment upon a very wicked nation.
Consequently, unless we want to see America and our posterity go through all of this all over again, it’s imperative we do everything in our power to ready our posterity with the tools to erect local kingdom ecclesias17 on what will someday be the inevitable ruins of the Constitutional Republic:
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:26-27)
[E]very kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. (Matthew 12:25)
Otherwise America needs to get ready for one more trip around Mt. Washington, similar to ancient Israel’s repeated trips around Mt. Sinai during her forty-year wilderness wanderings.
May Yahweh grant us to see the work before us:
Let the work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. (Psalm 90:16)
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:57-58)
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6, NASB)
And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them…. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:11, 13-17, NASB)
Related posts:
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence, Pts. 1-12” (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. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
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. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
6. “Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
7. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
8. For more on how the Bible’s triune and integral moral law (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) applies and should be implemented today as the law of the land, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
Also A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.
Also ten books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments, beginning with Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
10. A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
11. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (New York: NY: The Colonial Press, 1899) vol. 1, pp. 36-37
12. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative 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. T. Robert Ingram, The World Under God’s Law (Houston, TX: St. Thomas Press, 1981) p. 33
15. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
16. Luther Martin, Jonathan Elliott, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 4 vols. (Washington, DC: Jonathan Elliott, 1836) vol. 1, p. 368 17. Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future