CONSTITUTION MYTHBUSTERS

“Redeeming” Christ From Those Who Would Make Him a Sinner, Pt. 2

Posted: 1st October 2015 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: adultery, antinomians, capital punishment, clean hands doctrine, commandments statutes and judgments, death penalty, John 8, kingdom, pronomians, two or more witnesses, woman caught in adultery

Even if your theology does not recognize the kingdom as yet established,¹ Matthew 5:19 nonetheless demonstrates the relevancy of Yahweh’s² Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments under the New Covenant. Regardless when the kingdom commences, one is either great or least in the kingdom depending upon his response to Yahweh’s moral law here and now.

Antinomians and pronomians alike

The Greek word for law in the New Testament is nomos. Those opposed to Yahweh’s law for today are commonly identified as antinomians, as opposed to pronomians or those who teach that the law is still pertinent for these New Covenant times. Antinomians are in danger of missing out on the kingdom, not only in time and history, but also in eternity. Beware lest you be counted in their number.

But worse than those who turn “the grace of our God into licentiousness” (Jude 1:4)³ are those whose theology theoretically makes Christ a sinner and thereby eliminates Him as our Savior:

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4)

John 8 and the woman caught in adultery

Interpreting Jesus’ words or actions in a way that makes Him violate Yahweh’s law is both illogical and heretical. John 8 and its account of the woman caught in adultery is, arguably, the passage most often abused in this fashion:

Jesus went unto the mount of Olives…. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery…. They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground…. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one … and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (John 8:1-11)

Christians are often heard claiming that Christ’s response to the adulteress is proof He changed the law under the New Covenant. The tragic irony in this is completely lost on such Christians. What the scribes and Pharisees hoped and were unable to accomplish by conspiracy and subterfuge (i.e., making a sinner of Christ), today’s antinomian Christians have theoretically achieved with their theology. If indeed Christ changed the law, He violated the law, and in violating the law, He became a sinner.

Two to tango

What many Christians claim Christ changed when He told the woman to go and sin no more is, in fact, required by the law:

And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. (Deuteronomy 22:22)

The Pharisees hoped to entrap Christ with these two passages. Instead, He turned the tables on them.

Don’t forget that in order to be sinless, Christ was required to keep all of the law:

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)

According to the judgment provided in the previous two passages, something’s missing. Rather, someone’s missing. In John 8, the Pharisees produced the woman caught in the act of adultery. But where’s the man?

It takes two to commit adultery. If the woman was caught in the very act of adultery, then so was the man. Yet only the woman was indicted. The Pharisees are later described as withdrawing from the court proceedings because they were “convicted by their own conscience.” Could this be indicative that the male adulterer was one or more of their own number?

Without producing both the adulteress and the adulterer for adjudication, the veracity of the woman’s accusers is immediately suspect.

Two or more witnesses

Not only did the Pharisees fail to produce both adulterer and adulteress, they also failed in another requisite of the law:

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. (Deuteronomy 17:6)

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. (Deuteronomy 19:15)

In John 8, Christ responds to the Pharisees’ demand for stoning the woman by requiring the first stone to be cast by those without sin. This is sometimes known as the “clean-hands doctrine.” This is not a requirement for sinlessness. Otherwise, only Christ could ever testify in a court of law, and criminals would have free reign.

The point of Christ’s statement was that only those not guilty of the same crime are eligible as witnesses against another. And how did the Pharisees respond? They recused themselves as witnesses by exiting the “court room.”⁴

Stone her or send her on her way?

In John 8:7, Christ essentially said, “Stone her!”⁵ That Christ would require the death penalty for capital criminals should not surprise us. To have done otherwise would have made Him a sinner. Furthermore, he upheld capital punishment in Matthew 15:1-4, where he chides the scribes and Pharisees for not holding those who curse their parents to capital punishment, as required in Exodus 21:17.

Why then wouldn’t He do the same for anyone lawfully proven guilty of the capital crime of adultery?

Without at least two witnesses to accuse the adulteress, Christ was obligated by law to send her on her way. Anything else would have made Him a sinner and eliminated Him as our Savior.

Later in this same chapter, He alluded to this very requirement:

It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. (John 8:17)

Witnesses must participate in stoning

Not only does the law require two or more witnesses, but in capital cases, it also requires the witnesses to initiate judgment:

The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you. (Deuteronomy 17:7)⁶

Witnesses must be so certain of their testimony that they will not hesitate to throw the first stones in putting the accused to death. This mandatory provision for direct participation by the witnesses assures more certain testimony.

Consequently, even had the witnesses in John 8 remained present, had they been unwilling to initiate the stoning, Christ would have still been required by law to send the accused on her way.

Christ did not change the law regarding the woman caught in adultery as so many claim He did. Instead, He honored His Father’s law by observing it perfectly. In so doing, He remained sinless and retained the right to be our propitiation.

See Part 3.

“Redeeming” Christ From Those Who Would Make Him a Sinner, Pt. 1

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

Thou shalt not kill

Thou shall not commit adultery

Chapter 17 “Amendment 8: Bail, Fines, and Cruel and Unusual Punishments” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

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. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

Where the King James translated asélgeian as “lasciviousness,” the New American Standard Bible translates it as “licentiousness.” In his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster defined “licentiousness” as “excessive indulgence of liberty; contempt of the just restraints of law….”. By their rejection of His law, antinomians turn Yahweh’s grace into licentiousness; they are humanists dressed in Christian attire. Without Yahweh’s moral compass, every man is a law unto himself.

Do not overlook the implications of the clean-hands doctrine as it applies to jailhouse snitches who are often used in cases against other criminals. Of course, under a biblical juridical system there would be no jailhouse snitches because there would be no jails or prisons. See Prisons: Shut Them All Down!

For biblical reasons for stoning over other forms of capital punishment, see Chapter 17 “Amendment 8: Bail, Fines, and Cruel and Unusual Punishments” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

Along with the witnesses, the blood avenger(s), or next of kin, are also allowed to initiate judgment: “But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities [of refuge and is convicted by a biblical court of law]: Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.” (Deuteronomy 19:11-12)

“Redeeming” Christ From Those Who Would Make Him a Sinner, Pt. 1

Posted: 11th September 2015 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: commandments statutes and judgments, kingdom, kingdom of heaven, law obedience, Mosaic Covenant, New Covenant, Pharisees, Sermon on the Mount, sinless sacrifice, Ted Weiland, till heaven and earth pass, triune moral law, Yahweh's law

Think not that I am come to destroy the law…. (Matthew 5:17)

Imperative law obedience

Don’t let anyone tell you our salvation doesn’t require obedience to Yahweh’s¹ law. Obedience is imperative. Our salvation in Jesus Christ is dependent not only upon His atoning blood sacrifice and resurrection from the grave, but also upon His obedience to the law. In fact, anything less than perfect obedience makes Christ a sinner no different from you and I and every other finite human:

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4)

To change any law is to abolish that law—to abolish the law is to transgress the law—to transgress the law is sin. Any violation of Yahweh’s law on Christ’s part makes Him a sinner. That, in turn, disqualifies Him as our Savior and makes His crucifixion on our behalf as ineffectual as that of the crucifixion of the two thieves on either side of him.

The following should be one of the principle hermeneutical laws² for Bible interpretation: Anytime an interpretation of anything Jesus said or did makes Him to violate Yahweh’s law, that interpretation is both illogical and heretical.

Making Christ a sinner

In order for Christ to be our Savior He must be sinless. His being sinless required Him to keep Yahweh’s law perfectly.

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)

Our salvation requires His death, burial, and resurrection and His perfect obedience of the law to secure salvation for those who believe and put their trust in Him. Yet, Christians are often found making Christ out to be a sinner.

How? Without intending to, they commonly interpret Gospel passages in such a way as to make Christ to annul Yahweh’s law.

The most ironic of these egregious interpretations has to be how portions of the Sermon on the Mount are falsely construed . Knowing that some of what He was about to say in the Sermon on the Mount would be distorted in such a way as to make Him a sinner, Christ forewarns:

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. (Matthew 5:17)

Despite this statement, Christians are nonetheless often heard declaring that in the subsequent verses Christ changed and thereby destroyed the law.

The fulfillment and end of the law

Did Christ fulfill the law? Indeed, He did! In fact, He was the end of the law—that is, the Mosaic Covenant—for righteousness. Under the Mosaic Covenant, the Israelites were required to observe all of the law perfectly in order to be righteous before Yahweh. This was an impossibility for anyone but Christ:

And Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes…. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as he hath commanded us. (Deuteronomy 6:24-25)

Praise God! Christ put an end to this impossible Mosaic Covenant requirement:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. (Romans 10:4)

He fulfilled and thereby ended the Mosaic Covenant and its requirement for perfect law obedience in order to be justified before God. He furthermore fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant’s entire sacrificial system, which was imperative for the Israelites because of their failure to keep the law perfectly. Christ also fulfilled the moral requirements of the law so that He might be our sinless sacrifice. However, God forbid He thereby eliminated Yahweh’s righteousness as reflected in His triune moral law.

In other words, the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments are as relevant today under the New Covenant as they were prior to the Mosaic Covenant³:

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31)

Till heaven and earth pass

How long will His commandments, statutes, and judgments be relevant?

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18)

Note the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” in the next two verses:

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. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19-20)

Note, it’s not the kingdom in heaven but the kingdom of heaven. It originates from Yahweh’s throne in heaven and extends over all His creation, to be implemented here on earth by His ambassadors:

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven…. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:10, 33)

The kingdom of heaven here on earth was reinstated with Yahweh’s New Covenant remarriage to a remnant of the house of Judah (Acts 2) and a remnant of the house of Israel (Acts 10).⁴ That the kingdom definitively and progressively exists here and now is further evidence that Yahweh’s triune moral law remains relevant under the New Covenant.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt…. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. (Hebrews 8:8-10)

The antithesis of Yahweh’s law is not grace, but lawlessness and, therefore, sin. Yahweh’s laws are meant to keep us from sinning; grace is the solution after we have sinned. Puritan minister Samuel Bolton (1606-1654) wrote, “The law sends us to the gospel for our justification; the gospel sends us to the law to frame our way of life.”⁵

Christ “redeemed”

In Matthew 5, Christ upheld the written law as opposed to the scribes and Pharisees’ oral traditions.⁶ Six different times in Matthew 5:22-48, He contrasts the intent of Yahweh’s written law with what “has been said.” Christ did not change the law in Matthew 5. Instead, he defended the law against those who would change the law for their own commandments:

…Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? …ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:3, 6-9)

Heart worship goes hand in hand with obeying Yahweh’s law, not the other way around. Today’s Pharisees are not those who promote His law, but those who would rescind it.

Whatever some Christians may think Christ said in the verses following Matthew 5:17-20, one thing is for certain: Christ did not abolish Yahweh’s righteousness as reflected in His moral law. Otherwise, you and I would be forever lost in our sins and we would have no divine standard by which to conduct ourselves in His kingdom.

See Part 2.

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

The Mystery of the Gentiles: Who Are They and Where Are They Now?

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. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. Hermeneutics: The rules of textual interpretation, especially that of biblical texts.

3. Genesis 26:5, Exodus 18:13-16, etc.

4. For more regarding Yahweh’s prophesied remarriage to a remnant of both houses of Israel, see The Mystery of the Gentiles: Who Are They and Where Are They Now? For more regarding the inauguration of the kingdom of heaven in the First Century AD, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.

5. Samuel Bolton, The Moral Law: A Rule of Obedience, http://www.the-highway.com/articleFeb00.html.

6. The oral traditions so vehemently denounced by Christ were, circa 500 AD, codified into what today is known as the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud is the antithesis of nearly everything moral in Yahweh’s commandments, statutes, and judgments, and is arguably the most anti-Christ piece of literature ever written. Rather than the Old Testament, it is the Talmud that is today’s Jews’ religious book of faith. The traditions of the elders, Talmudism, and Judaism are all one the same. Thus the term “Judeo-Christian ethic” is an oxymoron. It was Hebrewism not Judaism that the Old Testament Israelites observed—that is, when they kept Yahweh’s law. Anything else was what today we commonly identify as humanism.

Antinomianism’s rejection of Yahweh’s unchanging moral standard for today is one form of today’s humanism, a contemporary instance representing the tradition of the elders.

Self-Imposed Impotence

Posted: 23rd June 2015 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: anti-dominion, Christ's immenent return, Christendom, constitution, cultural impotent, dominion, empowering our enemies, fear, fear of Yahweh, four-walled Christianity, grasshopper mentality, grasshopper mindset, kingdom, kingdom in heaven, kingdom of heaven, limiting God, limiting ourselves, moral law, polishing brass, self-imposed impotence, Ted Weiland, Yahweh's moral law

And there we saw giants … and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:33)

One More Trip Around Mt. Sinai . . .

This one faithless act by the Old Covenant Israelites resulted in a generation’s worth of wandering in the wilderness: forty years of what amounted to one more trip around Mt. Sinai over and over and over again. We’re informed in Deuteronomy 1:2-3 that the trip from Mt. Sinai to Canaan was an 11-day journey. It instead took 14,600 days for the Israelites to finally complete in order to take dominion of the promised land bequeathed to them by Yahweh.¹ Squandered time, lost opportunities, and wasted lives—all because of what amounted to self-imposed impotence.

The Israelites had no excuse. They had witnessed first-hand Yahweh’s multifaceted deliverance from Egypt, and yet they still refused to follow their Savior to their victory and inheritance.

Sound familiar? It should. American Christians have honed self-imposed impotence to a fine edge. They have been making one more trip around Mt. Washington over and over and over and over again as a consequence of looking to the Constitution² rather than Yahweh’s moral law as the supreme law of the land.³ They have been repeating this trek, not for forty years, but for two hundred and twenty-seven years—82,855 days and counting. As a result, the kingdom languishes, wickedness abounds, and Christians are getting the trampling they deserve:

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (Matthew 5:13)

However, all is not bad news. A good stomping tends to bring back some of the saltiness. In other words, eventually everything goes wrong just right. Lord willing, we’ll begin seeing greater and greater dividends on this “investment.” Until then, we will continue to witness the consequences of contemporary Christianity’s suicidal tendencies.

There are at least three tragic lessons to be gleaned from Numbers 13 and the Israelites self-imposed impotence. When we do the same:

We limit ourselves
We empower our enemies
We limit God.

Limiting Ourselves

Unlike Joshua and Caleb, the ten faithless spies limited themselves, not so much as the result of viewing the inhabitants of Canaan as giants, but as the result of regarding themselves as grasshoppers:

For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he…. (Proverbs 23:7)

They were grasshoppers because they saw themselves as grasshoppers. Thus, it was inevitable they would also act like grasshoppers.

Worse, what a man fears often becomes his reality:

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. (Job 3:25)

After rejecting Yahweh’s initial instructions, this is precisely what occurred when the Israelites proceeded without Yahweh’s sanction:

And they rose up early in the morning, … saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which Yahweh hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, … it shall not prosper. Go not up … because ye are turned away from Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you. But they presumed to go up unto the hill top…. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites … and smote them, and discomfited them…. (Numbers 14:40-45)

It is, therefore, crucial we fear no one but Yahweh:

The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in Yahweh shall be safe. (Proverbs 29:25)

To do otherwise is a violation of the First Commandment, per Deuteronomy 6:1-24, etc.⁴

Today’s Christians have limited themselves in numerous ways, principally with their anti-dominion mindset. Among other things, this theology teaches:

The kingdom has yet to be established
It’s a spiritual kingdom and, therefore, not present in this world
Yahweh’s moral law is not relevant under the New Covenant⁵
Christ’s return is imminent
It’s therefore futile to “polish brass on a sinking ship”⁶

All of this translates into a church that, for the most part, is culturally impotent. Christians are no longer pursuing the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. Instead of pursuing the kingdom of heaven (a phrase employed thirty-two times in Matthew’s Gospel), most contemporary Christians pursue the kingdom in heaven (a phrase found nowhere in the Bible). They thereby leave the non-Christians virtually unchallenged regarding most affairs here on earth.

If Christians would pursue the kingdom of heaven here on earth now, they wouldn’t have to concern themselves with the kingdom in heaven in their future. Turn that around and you may very well have reason for concern about your place in the kingdom in heaven. Why would the King want anyone with Him in heaven who is indifferent to His kingdom here on earth? It’s the New Covenant equivalent to Haggai 1:

Thus speaketh Yahweh of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that Yahweh’s house should be built. Then came the word of Yahweh by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled [paneled, NASB] houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith Yahweh of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith Yahweh of hosts; Consider your ways. (Haggai 1:2-7)

And Yahweh’s enemies love to have it so. They relish Christianity’s self-imposed impotence. This impotence amounts to a grasshopper mentality by which Christians have all but confined themselves within the four walls of their homes and church buildings. They have effectively walled themselves off from the world—or at least from having any kind of significant impact upon the world. In fact, on February 27, 2009, James Dobson conceded that we have lost the culture wars.⁷

The good news is that if Christians will shed this millstone they’ve hung around their own necks, they can turn this around.⁸ They might even begin to resemble their first-century brethren who were accused of turning their world upside down:

And when they [some of Christendom’s first-century enemies] found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down … [doing] contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. (Acts 17:6-7)

Empowering the Enemy

A grasshopper mentality not only limits ourselves, it also emboldens our enemies:

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:33)

Those last seven words reveal how we empower the enemy when we deem ourselves anything less than how Yahweh views us.

Contrast Numbers 13:33 with what occurred forty years later when Joshua sent two men to spy out the same land. After hiding the spies on her roof, Rahab declared the following:

And she said unto the men, I know that Yahweh hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. …our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you…. (Joshua 2:9-11)

What made the difference? Both the Israelites and Canaanites were the same people they were forty years earlier. But the second time around the Israelites had shed their grasshopper shackles and instead viewed themselves as the giants—or even better, led by a giant. In other words, instead of viewing themselves as sheep for the slaughter, they esteemed themselves as sheep led by a lion—and this time the Canaanites were terrorized.

Presently, Christianity’s enemies do not fear us. They have no cause to, if for no other reason than collectively we view ourselves as Christianity rather than Christendom.

In other words, we’re not taken seriously because we’ve yet to take ourselves seriously. We view ourselves as grasshoppers—as victims instead of victors, as the trampled instead of the tramplers, as the domineered instead of the domineering. Thus, the non-Christians ruling over us see us the same.

Don’t overlook the prefix “dom” in the word “domineering,” the same prefix in the word “dominion” and suffix in the word “kingdom.” To be kingdom-minded demands we be dominion-minded, and to be dominion-minded demands we view ourselves as the dominate rather than the dominated in society.

What Christianity’s enemies fear is the day Christianity sheds their mentality of “There are giants in the land everywhere we look!” This will occur when Christians wake up to the fact that from God’s perspective on high, the alleged giants aren’t giants at all. They are as much grasshoppers as we are. When this occurs, Christianity will have begun to trust in the One who’s bigger than both themselves and the “giants” in the land. That’s the day Christianity begins to be, once again, transformed into Christendom!

Until then, our enemies will continue to be empowered by Christianity’s self-imposed grasshopper outlook.

Limiting God

Not only does a grasshopper mindset limit ourselves and empower our enemies, it limits God.

This last point will likely be difficult to accept by anyone who believes in the overarching sovereignty of God, as I do. Nevertheless, note the following three passages, which indicate we limit God Himself with our grasshopper mentality:

How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. (Psalm 78:40-41)

Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:58)

What an absolute tragedy when we self-impose impotence. It limits us, it empowers our enemies, and worst of all, it limits Yahweh in what He would otherwise accomplish through us.

One More Trip Around Mt. Washington . . .

America is destined for more trips around Mt. Washington—until Christians have been finally honed by America’s desert fires and are prepared for establishing, maintaining, and sustaining dominion on behalf of their King.⁸ May Yahweh hasten the day! In fact, it appears He already has. Praise God, the paradigm shift has already begun!

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are YOU Promoting? Part 1

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are YOU Promoting? Part 2

10 Reasons the Kingdom Here on Earth Isn’t Mission Impossible

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

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. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is the first in a series of ten booklets on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

This self-defeating unbiblical concept was first made popular in the 1950s by J. Vernon McGee.

5 Reasons the Constitution is Our Cutting-Edge Issue

10 Reasons the Kingdom Here on Earth Isn’t Mission Impossible

Everyone’s a Bigot, By God!

Posted: 23rd April 2015 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: bei gott, bigot, bigotry, discernment, discrimination, Ted Weiland

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrew 5:14)

Discrimination Defined

For Christians, discerning between good and evil ultimately means discriminating against evil.

But isn’t discrimination at the heart of bigotry?

Indeed it is—and in a much more significant way than most people have ever considered.

Americans have been well-trained to respond negatively anytime they hear the word “discrimination.” But discrimination is an inescapable reality for both Christians and non-Christians alike:

discrimination: … 3. the power of making fine distinctions; discriminating judgment. (Random House Webster’s Dictionary, 2000¹)

Discrimination in the Bible

For the Christian, the Bible passages that demand discrimination are almost endless. For example, in Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, he asked for “an understanding heart to judge” the people of Israel in order to “discern [discriminate] between good and bad.”²

Other examples include:

Then shall ye … discern [discriminate] between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (Malachi 3:18)

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)

Inherent in proving that something is good is discriminating between what is good and evil.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [expose, NASB] them. (Ephesians 5:11)

Refraining from participation in the works of darkness, much less reproving them, requires discernment and, in turn, discrimination.

Discrimination in everyday life

Everyone discriminates every day. Anytime we make a determination between two things—such as between a shower or a bath, coffee or tea—we have performed an act of discrimination.

Some acts of discrimination are life-altering decisions. For example, young men should discriminate carefully when it comes to a wife. A pretty face and a shapely figure can turn one’s head (let’s be honest, they can turn one’s brain to putty and blind one to what otherwise would be self-apparent). Consequently, a young man would be well-advised to be more discriminating in selecting a wife than in merely choosing between a woman who’s beautiful and one who’s not so beautiful. Otherwise, he could end up with what Solomon depicts as a “beautiful woman who lacks discretion,” whom he equates with “a ring of gold in swine’s snout.”³

Discriminating between good and evil

Discrimination can be either good or evil, depending upon one’s paradigm.⁴ If you’re working from a flawed paradigm, discrimination will inevitably produce sinful results. On the other hand, if you’re operating from the right standard,⁵ discrimination will produce righteous results.

According to Matthew 5:13-14, the majority are in the broad way leading to destruction. Therefore, the majority’s standard will rarely produce righteous determinations. In other words, theirs is more likely to be PC (politically correct) than BC (biblically correct).

To be biblical, discrimination must be based upon Yahweh’s⁶ unchanging morality as reflected in His law:

The law of Yahweh 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)

Is there any standard man can devise that can improve upon what is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and altogether righteous? Only a rebellious man would think so. It was this standard the Apostle Paul recommended to his protégé Timothy:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)⁷

How does bigotry fit in?

Just as everyone discriminates, everyone is a bigot. Just as discrimination is good or evil depending upon one’s standard, bigotry also is good or evil, depending upon one’s god.

Webster’s College Dictionary defines a bigot, in part, as “a person who is extremely intolerant of another’s creed, belief, or opinion.”⁸ When people hear the word “bigot,” it’s this characterization they usually think of. However, does this definition describe something evil or something good? It all depends, not only upon the paradigm you’re working from, but the god you serve.

As a Christian, the First Commandment requires fidelity to Yahweh alone, which, in turn, demands intolerance of all other gods, creeds, and beliefs:

I am Yahweh thy God… Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3)

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 1:7-11)

Bigoted for God

These passages demand bigotry for Yahweh and against all challengers.

It may sound strange to use the word “bigotry” as for one’s god, because in today’s vernacular, the word is always employed to mean “opposed” to something. However, when one knows the etymology of the word “bigot,” it’s not strange at all. In fact, it puts the entire issue of discrimination and bigotry in its proper light.

The word “bigot” is derived from the German phrase bei gott, meaning by god. Because everyone serves either the true God or some surrogate god,⁹ we are all bigots on behalf of our god and against all others. The Bible depicts this as being jealous, or zealous, for God (Numbers 25:13, 1 Kings 19:10).

Under the New Covenant, this means anyone who rejects Yahweh as Sovereign (by means of Christ’s blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the grave) is, by God, a bigot for another god.

Because all alleged gods other than Yahweh are imaginary, they are merely manifestations of man himself.¹⁰ This means that anyone who rejects Yahweh as Sovereign and Christ as Lord and Savior is in reality a bigot on his own behalf or on behalf of some other individual or group of finite humans, whose fickle opinions are his criterion for discrimination.

[Y]e made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition … teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:6, 9)

The question isn’t whether or not you’re a bigot, but rather for whom are you a bigot?

What’s Your Paradigm? (audio series)

Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide? (blog article)

Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide? (audio sermon)

Could YOU be a Disciple of Baal and Not Know It? (blog article)

Could YOU be a Disciple of Baal and Not Know It? (audio sermon)

1. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, s.v. “discrimination” (New York, NY: Random House, 2000) p. 378.

2. 1 Kings 3:9

3. Proverbs 11:22

4. What’s Your Paradigm? (a six-part audio series)

5. Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?

6. 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. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

7. When the Apostle Paul penned his first epistle to Timothy, the New Testament had only begun to be written. Consequently, it was principally the Old Testament Scriptures he was recommending as the standard for Timothy and all other Christians.

8. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, s.v. “bigot” (New York, NY: Random House, 2000) p. 132.

9. It is never a question of god or no god but what god you serve. The god you serve is principally determined by the laws you keep. Idolatry is not so much about statues as it is statutes.

10. Could YOU be a Disciple of Baal and Not Know It?

Rights: Man’s Sacrilegious Claim to Divinity

Posted: 15th March 2015 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: age of enlightenment, autonomy, Bill of Rights, divinity, First Amendment, First Commandment, free exercise clause, free press, free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, God-expected respponsibilities, God-given Constitutional rights, God-given rights, natural rights, optional rights, responsibilities, right to life, right to religion, rights, Second Amendment, sovereign, sovereignty, unlienable rights

[K]eep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ … He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. (1 Timothy 6:14-15)

Yahweh’s exclusive sovereignty

All men not surrendered to Christ act as if they’re sovereign. Men identifying themselves as patriots often claim to be sovereign. No! There is only one sovereign.

To claim sovereignty is to not only claim autonomy¹ from God, it’s to usurp Yahweh’s² place as God.³ Human sovereignty, as expressed in the theory of natural and unalienable rights, is not a biblical concept. Rather, we can trace it back to the Age of Enlightenment. In fact, autonomous sovereignty can be traced all the way back to Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden when they challenged Yahweh’s sovereignty and thereby attempted to establish their own.

The reality is: man is but a pot in the hands of the Potter:

But now, O Yahweh … we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

[S]hall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:20-21)

Sovereign rights

As Creator, the Potter has the authority to do with His pots whatever He chooses. As Sovereign, He has the right to do whatever He decides with His entire creation. In fact, He’s the only one with this right. As the Potter, all rights are exclusive to Him.

“Certainly, we have a right to life!”

Do we? Does man have a right to life? Or is even the right to life exclusive to God?

If man has a right to life, that right then dictates God was obligated to create us. If this is true, who’s really the prime cause: the Creator who was obliged to provide the right or the created who had the right to life?

Only Yahweh has a right to life. It’s inherent in who and what He is: I Am That I Am—the great and only self-existing I Am That I Am.

For us, life is not a right. It’s first a gift from the Life Giver and then a responsibility. We are obligated to use our lives as intended by the One who gave us life.⁴ To claim life as our right is to eliminate any requirement of responsibility to our Creator. In reality, it’s an attempt to usurp His exclusive claim to sovereignty.

The inherent problem in claiming even life as a right should be obvious. Is it any different with other rights—even those enshrined in the Bill of Rights, which are hallowed by most Americans, particularly Christians?

Most Americans view the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution as sacrosanct and inviolable. But this is the song of a siren.⁵

The First Amendment’s guaranteed “rights”

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Are these rights enumerated in the First Amendment biblical? If they’re biblical, they’re guaranteed by Yahweh. If guaranteed by Yahweh, they should be found in the Bible. If they’re not biblical, they’re “guaranteed” by someone else who can and has incrementally taken them away:

In Understanding the Constitution: Ten Things Every Christian Should Know About the Supreme Law of the Land, David Gibbs, Jr., and David Gibbs III argue for unalienable rights:

Our rights come from God, not from the state. Therefore, the state cannot take them away. What Uncle Sam gives, Uncle Sam can take away. But our nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence makes clear that our rights are unalienable because they come from God.

This sounds wonderful, but is it true? The State has certainly taken away an unwanted infant’s right to life. The State has incrementally taken away gun owners’ Second Amendment rights.⁶ The State has taken away the right to happiness, in particular the right to own property. Because rights come from the State, the State can take them away at its pleasure.⁷

The right to religion

What about the First Amendment’s right to religion as provided in the Free Exercise Clause? Does man have a right to whatever religion and god he chooses? If so, how does this comport with the First Commandment?

I am Yahweh thy God…. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3)

For thou shalt worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14)

Man may choose to follow a god other than Yahweh, but he does not have the right to do so. It logically follows: Should government then provide such a right? If it does, what’s this say about such a government?⁸

If it’s your right to choose any god you prefer, you cannot be judged for doing so. And if you can’t be judged for choosing another god, who’s really sovereign?

It’s not our sovereign right to choose our god but God’s sovereign right to choose us. Consequently, the alleged right to choose one’s god is itself a claim to divinity, tantamount to what was offered Adam and Eve in the Garden, “Ye shall be as gods!”

Christians need to rethink their love affair with First Amendment’s seditious “right” to religion. It was provided not by Yahweh, but by a group of Theistic Rationalists and Enlightenment Freemasons, whose ideological paradigm is polytheistic to its core.

The First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause is responsible for transforming America from what was a predominantly monotheistic Christian nation (a united nation under one God) into one of the most polytheistic nations ever (a divided nation under many gods). It is arguably the most clever cover devised by man for sedition against Yahweh. It certainly has duped the majority of Christians into promoting the First Amendment as if some grand Christian ideal is found therein.

Only the Sovereign has a right to religion.

The right to free speech and a free press

How about the First Amendment’s right to free speech and a free press? If these rights (and the others enshrined in the Bill of Rights) are biblical like many Christians believe they are, they must originate in the Bible.

There are two inherent problems with the oft-parroted concept of God-given Constitutional rights:

1) Except perhaps as the Paper’s Timekeeper in Article 7, the Constitution knows nothing of God.

2) God and His Word know nothing of optional rights. Instead, the Bible is replete with God-expected responsibilities.

Is there anything in the Bible that provides for or even allows for people to gather for any reason whatsoever or to freely say anything they choose? No, there is not. Instead, the Bible puts limitations on both these activities.

Under the Constitution, the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press are used to provide protection for those who promote false religions, infanticide, sodomy, violence, obscenities, and other atrocities condemned by Yahweh.

Are these rights provided by your Sovereign? Indeed, they are! That is, if you look to the Constitution’s Bill of Rights as unalienable, established and secured by We the People in the Preamble.

What about what’s said about God? Do we have a right to say anything we wish about Yahweh or does the Bible put limitations on what can be said about Him?

And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, shall be put to death. (Leviticus 24:15-16)

Exodus 23:13 commands us to not even mention the names of other gods. The Bible condemns any favorable or casual promotion of other gods, whereas the First Amendment protects the “right” of those who do so.

The right to free assembly

The provision in Amendment 1 for U.S. citizens to assemble peaceably appears innocuous. But is it harmless to provide sodomites, infanticide advocates, and Satanists the right to peaceably assemble? If you’re a proponent of the Constitution and a defender of Amendment 1, you must defend the rights of such criminals and anti-Christians to assemble and promote their wicked agendas, thereby becoming complicit in their sins.

The Second Amendment “Right”

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

“Certainly, we have the right to defend ourselves and our families!”

No, we do not! We have the responsibility to do so:

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house [beginning with spiritual and physical protection], he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (1 Timothy 5:8)

The Second Amendment is one of the very few components in the Constitution and Bill of Rights that’s close to being biblical. However, the late 18th-century founders robbed bearing arms of its potency when they replaced the non-optional, God-expected biblical responsibility to bear arms in defense of ourselves and our families with the optional Enlightenment right to do so.

An optional right is much easier for government to control, manipulate, and even divest. Think about it: The Amendment with the wording “shall not be infringed” is the most infringed, licensed, and limited Amendment of the entire twenty-seven. Furthermore, a future generation of our posterity is likely to see the Second Amendment whittled away entirely or repealed altoghether.⁹ This is the inherent nature and danger of alleged God-given rights as opposed to God-expected responsibilities.

Even when it comes to the Second Amendment, it’s not our optional right to bear arms in protection of ourselves, our families, and others. It’s our responsibility to do so, not because of some undefined, indistinct natural law, but because the one and only Sovereign dictates it in His revealed Word.

Only One with rights

There is only one Sovereign, and, as such, rights are exclusive to Him. The rest of us are endowed with responsibilities to Him. To claim otherwise is to usurp His jurisdiction as God, which is what the Enlightenment founders did. This insidious, age-old battle is found time and again throughout the Bible.

When the late 18th-century founders replaced immutable biblical responsibilities with capricious human rights, they replaced Yahweh as Sovereign with We the People. Their government guarantees seditious unbiblical rights, which non-Christians and Christians alike have been more than happy to claim.

Americans have been spellbound by the song of a siren. In the process, they have traded Yahweh’s righteousness for their own alleged rights. Claiming rights to ourselves rather than responsibility to the one and only Sovereign is just another instance of man’s sacrilegious claim to divinity. May God have mercy on us!¹⁰

Rights: Man’s Sacrilegious Claim to Divinity (audio sermon)

Rights, Rights, Everyone Wants Their Rights

America’s Road to Hell: Paved With Rights

Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Chapter 18 “Amendment 9: Rights vs. Righteousness” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

1. Autonomy or self ruled as opposed to theonomy or God ruled.

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. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

3. Could You be a Disciple of Baal and Not Know It?

4. Rights, Rights, Everyone Wants Their Rights

5. America’s Road to Hell: Paved With Rights

6. The Second Amendment: A Knife in a Gunfight (audio sermon)

7. Chapter 18 “Amendment 9: Rights vs. Righteousness” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

8. Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

9. The Second Amendment is Doomed

10. Petition for Forgiveness Signature Pledge

Open Response to Pastor Chuck Baldwin’s “How Christians and Conservatives are Helping to Destroy America”

Posted: 7th December 2014 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: America, America's Christian tradition, America's greatness, biblical elections, biblical qualifications for civil leaders, biblically qualified judges, Christian Colonials, Chuck Baldwin, constitution, constitutional elections, constitutional framers, Constitutional Republic, Declaration of Independance, democracy, elections, Enlightenment concepts, founders, God-expected responsibilities, God's blessings, God's curses, law of nature, Masonic concepts, natural law, nature's God, optional rights, Phariseeism, Pharisees, Republic, revealed law, Second Amendment, theocracy, Thomas Jefferson, United States Constituiton, US Constitution, Yahweh's moral law, Yahweh's morality

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I appreciate much that Pastor Baldwin stands for. As compared with most of today’s pastors, he’s one in a million. Given the time to sit down and compare notes, he and I would probably find more that we agree than disagree on. Nevertheless, I couldn’t differ with him more when it comes to his promotion of the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land, per Article 6. In fact, he undermines much of the good he could otherwise accomplish if it weren’t for what seems to be an undying devotion to the biblically adverse Constitution. This is tragically true of not only Pastor Baldwin but of many of today’s pastors and ministry leaders.

As well-intentioned as I’m confident Pastor Baldwin is in his article “How Christians and Conservatives are Helping to Destroy America,” I cannot in good conscience let this article stand unchallenged. There’s far too much at stake. Consequently, it merits a response:

Chuck Baldwin: “What makes America America? What distinguishes this country from the nations of the world—or from world history, for that matter? Even casual historians must admit that there has never been a country like the United States of America ever to exist. This nation is unique to world history. There has never been a country like this—and probably will never be one like it again.”

Ted Weiland: America’s greatness is equivalent to God’s blessings upon her. So why did America become such a great nation? Deuteronomy 28:1-14 provides the answer. Yahweh¹ pours out His blessings upon nations that look to His moral law as the supreme law of the land:

Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 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)

Consequently, America’s greatness was not the result of the late 18th-century humanistic government of, by, and for the people, based upon Enlightenment and Masonic concepts. Instead, Yahweh blessed America as a result of the 17th-century’s Christian Colonials’ governments of, by, and for God, based upon His immutable moral law.²

Because Yahweh is also true to His word in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, we know America began to be cursed the moment the Constitution was adopted. It was only by God’s grace and mercy she lost her blessings incrementally. However, without repentance for our national apostasy, it was inevitable America would find herself where she is today: well on her way to being fully cursed.

CB: “As hard as it is for the anti-God types to admit, America has a deeply-rooted Christian history and culture. However, when one says, “America is a Christian country,” (usually spoken by a Christian, of course), he or she may mean something that NEVER existed. So, let’s set the record straight: America was never founded as a theocracy. And even though there are some well-meaning, albeit naïve, Christian people today who pretend that America once had, and should have again, a theocratic-type government and society, the fact is, America was NEVER a theocracy.

TW: Pastor Baldwin could not be more incorrect about theocracies, and for two reasons.

First, if we’re to believe men such as Alexis de Tocqueville, William McGuffey, and Pastor John Cotton, then America (or at least portions thereof) was in fact a Biblical theocracy:

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835:

They [the 1600 Colonials] 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].

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 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….

America was exalted in the eyes of the world because of her applied righteousness, embodied in Yahweh’s perfect law. Since 1788, when the United States of America, as a nation, [officially and nationally] stopped following Yahweh’s laws and began following the laws of WE THE PEOPLE, our legislation has ceased providing righteous instruction to others. Instead, the rest of the world now holds America in disdain. If America hopes to regain her favored status in the eyes of the world, she must return to her original Constitution.

McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader, America’s most popular school book in the 1800s, also testified to America’s early form of theocratic government:

Their form of government was as strictly theocratical insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil authority among them distinct from ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Whenever a few of them settled a town, they immediately gathered themselves into a church; and their elders were magistrates, and their code of laws was the Pentateuch…. God was their King; and they regarded him as truly and literally so….

William McGuffey was undoubtedly influenced by the writings of renowned early American preachers such as John Cotton:

The famous John Cotton, the first minister of Boston … earnestly pleaded “that the government might be considered as a theocracy, wherein the Lord was judge, lawgiver and king; that the laws which He gave Israel might be adopted….” At the desire of the court, he compiled a system of laws founded chiefly on the laws of Moses….³

Were de Tocqueville, McGuffey, Cotton, and others naive for viewing Colonial America as theocratic, as was suggested by Pastor Baldwin? I don’t think so.

The second reason Pastor Baldwin errs regarding theocracies is because all governments are theocracies.

When one understands that the principal means by which we keep the First Commandment is by observing Yahweh’s other moral laws and that idolatry is not so much about statues as it is statutes, it becomes apparent that all governments are theocratic. They serve either the true God or some false god, as demonstrated by what laws they keep and consider the supreme law of the land.

Furthermore, all nonexistent false gods always represent we the people in one form or another. In other words, today’s We the Peopleism is just a contemporary form of Baalism.⁴

…There is no escaping theocracy. A government’s laws reflect its morality, and the source of that morality (or, more often than not, immorality) is its god. It is never a question of theocracy or no theocracy, but whose theocracy. The American people, by way of their elected officials, are the source of the Constitutional Republic’s laws. Therefore, the Constitutional Republic’s god is WE THE PEOPLE.

People recoil at the idea of a theocracy’s morality being forced upon them, but because all governments are theocracies, someone’s morality is always being enforced. This is an inevitability of government. The question is which god, theocracy, laws, and morality will we choose to live under?…⁵

CB: The only theocracy in the history of the world was Old Testament Israel under Moses.

TW: Obviously untrue.

CB: After the death of Moses, God expected Israel to be governed by the principles established through Moses…. Only through Moses did God directly govern the people. And even within the government of Israel, God established the roots of what became known as republican (small “r”) government….

TW:

…Constitutionalists insist the United States government is a republic, not a democracy, but they never stop to consider that the two are virtually the same regarding sovereignty.

Christian Constitutionalists further insist republics are Biblical. However, because republics (like democracies) rely upon the majority vote of the people for the selection of their leaders, rather than upon Yahweh’s choice (as per Deuteronomy 17:15), republics are not anymore Biblical than are democracies. Both democracies and republics culminate in a government of, by, and for the people rather than a government of, by, and for Yahweh. The same is true with other issues voted upon by the people: ultimately the majority’s will is exalted over Yahweh’s will.

As demonstrated in Chapter 3, both republican and Christian governments are ultimately theocracies. As a result, they are incompatible and hostile to each other. A republic looks to the people as its sovereign; a Christian theocracy looks to Yahweh. The very definition of a sovereign, or supreme ruler, excludes simultaneous sovereigns….⁶

CB: So, if by “Christian nation” people mean that America was established as some sort of theocracy, they are gravely mistaken. It is also unfortunate that some well-meaning (at least, I think they are well-meaning) Christian people give the unchurched world the impression that they are trying to create some sort of theocracy in America today. Some even go so far as to teach that we don’t need a Constitution or State and municipal laws—and any such laws are themselves evil. This is an asinine philosophy, to say the least.

TW: Such laws are evil only if they violate Yahweh’s moral triune law.⁷ This is the standard by which everything (including the U.S. Constitution) must be ethically examined.

When the Constitution is actually examined by this standard, it’s found to be anything but biblically compatible. In fact, there is hardly an Article or Amendment that is not antithetical, if not seditious, to Yahweh’s sovereignty and morality.⁸

CB: I, for one, would never want a so-called theocracy administered by the likes of the vast majority of Christian teachers and pastors today.

TW: Nor would I. Most of today’s Christians pastors and teachers would never be in the position of administering a Biblical theocracy because the majority of them do not meet the Biblical qualifications.⁹

CB: Are you kidding? Most of them can’t even govern a small congregation of believers who are ostensibly assembled under the same ideology, same eschatology, same ecclesiology, etc. Have you been to a church business meeting lately? You really want those people dictating national laws? God forbid!

TW: Although Pastor Baldwin has a legitimate concern regarding today’s pastors and teachers, his objection is nonetheless a straw man. His concerns about the dearth of biblically qualified men does not trump the fact that government and society should be established on Yahweh’s moral law.

Follow Pastor Baldwin’s reasoning to its logical conclusion and one can only conclude that he prefers a government administered by unregenerate men employing their own fickle finite “laws” (Judges 21:25, Matthew 15:6-9) over biblically qualified men employing Yahweh’s perfect law and altogether righteous judgments (Psalm 19:7-11) as the standard for society.

CB: No! There is no Moses on the scene today with new revelation dictating God’s will for the nation.

TW: We don’t need a Moses today. God has already provided us with His triune moral law by which we’re to be governed.¹⁰ What we need are biblically qualified judges who will implement and adjudicate Yahweh’s law instead of their own capricious edicts:

Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers…. And let them judge the people at all seasons…. (Exodus 18:21-22)

The Bible stipulates, among other things, that judicial appointees must be men of truth who fear Yahweh and hate covetousness. (See Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” for a list of additional Biblical qualifications.) The United States Constitution requires no Biblical qualifications whatsoever. Nowhere does the Constitution stipulate that judges must rule on behalf of Yahweh, rendering decisions based upon His commandments, statutes, and judgments as required in Exodus 18. That not even one constitutional framer contended for Yahweh, as did King Jehoshaphat, speaks volumes about the framers’ disregard for Him and His judicial system:

And he [King Jehoshaphat] set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for YHWH, who is with you in the judgment…. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of YHWH, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. (2 Chronicles 19:5-9)¹¹

CB: That being said, there is no mistaking the fact that America has a deeply-rooted, rich Christian tradition.

TW: Indeed! A rich and deeply-rooted 17th-century American Christian tradition when the Christian Colonials established governments of, by, and for God, based upon His moral law. That all changed when the constitutional framers rejected Yahweh’s law for their own Enlightenment and Masonic concepts.¹²

CB: America’s founders, even those who were not professing Christians [emphasis added], as we understand the term today, acknowledged that fact….

TW: Pastor Baldwin has inadvertently highlighted one of at least two reasons why the Constitutional Republic was doomed from its inception:

Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. (Matthew 12:25)

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

The second reason is found in the following passage:

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)

The house known as the Constitutional Republic was not built upon the rock of God’s Word but upon the sand of non-Christian Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke.

CB: Noah Webster (himself an outspoken Christian, of course), said, “The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.”

TW: The standard for determining whether the Constitution is Biblical is not a bunch of dead men’s (often cherry-picked) quotations but instead the Word of God—particularly His immutable moral law:

Recognizing the Bible and Christianity’s influence upon society is not the same as legislating and adjudicating according to Yahweh’s law. One only needs to look at the record to know there has been a dearth of the latter since the Constitution’s ratification.¹³

Why is this? This was not the case in the 1600s Colonial governments.

In order to conclude the Constitution is a Christian document, today’s Christian Constitutionalists have severed the framers’ words from their actions. To date, the battle between Christians and secularists over the Constitution has been a war of quotations—and there are plenty to go around for both sides, often from the same framers….

The only means of determining whether the framers were Christians is to compare their actions to the Word of God:

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)

This is a perfect description of the constitutional framers. Although some of them claimed to be Christians, they openly practiced lawlessness [beginning with the Constitution they framed].¹³

CB: Webster also said, “When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty.”….

TW: Although I appreciate Webster’s sentiments, God never entitled man to vote for anyone. The framers usurped the Biblical election process by which we end up with the best of the best of two or more biblically qualified candidates, every single time. They replaced it with constitutional elections (what amounts to not much more than a popularity contest) that, thanks to Article 6’s Christian test ban (which all but eliminated Biblical qualifications) can, at best, only provide the best of the worst.¹⁴

CB: Daniel Webster noted the following: “Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”….

TW: Indeed! Our 1600s Pilgrim and Puritan fathers. This is not true of most of the late 1700s lawyers, Freemasons, and Enlightenment boys.

For more regarding the late 1700s founders’ true religious persuasions, see Dr. Albert Mohler’s interview with Dr. Gregg Frazer. Dr. Frazer proves from the key founders’ own writings that they were neither Deists in the purest sense of the word, nor Christians in the Biblical sense. Instead, they were Theistic Rationalists.

Dr. Mohler is President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Frazer is Professor of History of the Master’s College in California.

CB: America’s founders never thought they were creating a theocracy, but they did have a “high veneration” for the Christian faith and “sought to incorporate its principles” into American government.

TW: Then why is there hardly an Article or Amendment that’s not hostile to Yahweh’s triune moral law?¹⁵

CB: The principles of the Christian faith include both Natural and Revealed Law. The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, especially, clearly illustrate the founder’s understanding and appreciation for these principles.

TW: The standard is always God Almighty’s morality as codified in His revealed law, not some undefined natural law. By this standard, the Constitution is found to be biblically seditious and is the reason America finds herself teetering on the precipice of moral depravity and destruction.

The sins of the late 1700s founders were of both commission and omission. By their sins of omission alone they doomed America to its present deplorable state of affairs:

…3. Every problem America faces today can be traced back to the fact that the framers failed to expressly establish a government upon Yahweh’s immutable morality as codified in His commandments, statutes, and judgments. (Would infanticide and sodomy be tolerated, let alone financed by the government, if Yahweh’s perfect law and altogether righteous judgments were the law of the land? Would Islam be a looming threat to our peace and security if the First Amendment had been replaced with the First Commandment? Would Americans be in nearly as much debt if usury had been outlawed as a form of theft? Would crime be as rampant if “cruel and unusual punishment” had not been outlawed and criminals were instead punished with Yahweh’s altogether righteous judgments? Would we be on the fiscal cliff if we were taxed with a flat increase tax rather than a graduated income tax?)….¹⁶

CB: The Declaration begins, “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which THE LAWS OF NATURE AND OF NATURE’S GOD [emphasis added] entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT [emphasis added], that all men are CREATED [emphasis added] equal, that they are endowed BY THEIR CREATOR [emphasis added] with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

TW: The generic “nature’s god” and “creator” of the Masons and Enlightenment boys was not the God of the Bible, and to embrace that god is to reject Yahweh. Thomas Jefferson, who cut the virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and ascension of Christ (what he described as a “dunghill”¹⁷) out of his cut-and-paste New Testament, was the chief architect of the Declaration. Be very careful who and what you endorse:

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your [personal, State, White, Senate, or the] house [of Representatives], neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 1:7-11)

CB: As Thomas Jefferson quickly penned the Declaration (and he did write it rather quickly), he was borrowing heavily from John Locke and the commonly understood principles of Natural Law. Though the founders were dissimilar in regards to their understanding of Biblical teaching, to a man, they understood and agreed with the “self-evident” principles of Natural Law, or “the Laws of Nature.”

TW: This speaks volumes to the Enlightenment influence upon the founders:

The framers nowhere attributed the inspiration for any specific article or amendment in the Constitution to the Bible or the laws of Yahweh. After reviewing over 2,200 political writings published between 1760 and 1805, David S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman came to some very interesting conclusions regarding the Bible’s influence upon the constitutional framers and others of that period. Lutz admitted that while the “book … most frequently cited by Americans during the founding era [was] … the Book of Deuteronomy, … the Bible’s prominence disappears [during the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debate over the Constitution],” and “the Federalists’ inclination to Enlightenment rationalism is most evident here in their failure to consider the Bible relevant.”¹⁸ Between the 1770s and ‘80s, Biblical quotations decreased among both Federalists and Anti-Federalists, while Enlightenment and Whig citations increased.¹⁹

CB: Furthermore, virtually every “right” enumerated in the Bill of Rights can be traced directly to commonly understood principles contained in Natural and Revealed Law. That fact is unassailable.

TW: America was sold down the river when the late 1700s founders replaced God-expected Biblical responsibilities with optional Enlightenment rights, which are easily controlled by whatever government happens to be in power. One need look no further than the Amendment with the wording “shall not be infringed.” The Second Amendment is the most infringed, licensed, and limited Amendment of the entire twenty-seven. Furthermore, a future generation of our posterity are likely to see the Second Amendment completely whittled away or repealed altogether. This is the inherent nature and danger of optional rights.

Although the Second Amendment is the closest thing to being Biblical in the Constitution, the framers robbed it of its potency when they made bearing arms in defense of ourselves, our families, and neighbors an optional right rather than a God-expected responsibility:

CB: In addition to our common Christian heritage, America was united with a common language, along with a common culture and history. The loss of our Christian heritage, our common language, along with our common culture and history would certainly transform America into something other than America.

TW: This is precisely what has come of the late 18th-century founders’ capricious Enlightenment ideas codified in the Constitution.

CB: Unfortunately, however, there are those who share our common faith and history who are also contributing mightily to the destruction of America. I am talking about those who would identify themselves as Christians and/or conservatives. Of course, to hear these people talk, America’s problems are all caused by “liberals,” or Democrats….

There is absolutely no question that a national breakdown of morality is seriously problematic to the survival of a free republic. No doubt about it! My only contention on this point is that the groups mentioned above are not the true problem; they are only symptomatic of the true problem. The real problem is the CHURCH. A soft, uncommitted, carnal, materialistic, lazy, self-righteous church is the root cause of ALL of America’s problems, including the ones mentioned above….

TW: I agree. This includes Christians who ironically and tragically promote the biblically seditious Constitution as any part of the supreme law of the land.²¹

CB: Phariseeism is a major problem today…. The spirit of Phariseeism is so prevalent among the Church today that is no wonder why so many unbelievers refuse to darken the doors of a church. Many of today’s Christians are as enslaved to the traditions and doctrines of men as any slave anywhere…

TW: This hits the proverbial nail on the head:

…The framers were fully cognizant of the word “supreme” and its meaning when they declared the supremacy of the Constitution. In so doing, they made the law of Yahweh subservient to the law of WE THE PEOPLE.

Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:6-9)

The framers, and today’s political leaders and Constitutionalists pay homage to the traditions and commandments of men as the supreme law of the land. Even the Pharisees of Jesus’ day weren’t so brazen as to call their man-made traditions supreme….²¹

CB: Some of the most enslaved people on the planet are professing Christians. Many of our churches, Christian schools, colleges, seminaries, etc. are filled with the “servants of men.”….

TW: Many of whom are slaves of the late 1700s Enlightenment and Masonic founders and their secular Constitution, thanks to pastors and ministry leaders who are at the forefront in beguiling their adherents into believing the Constitution is a biblically compatible document.

CB: The assault against the United States is massive. We are fast losing our Christian heritage and culture—and Christians are as much to blame as anyone….

TW: I couldn’t agree more. This is predominantly being accomplished by those who are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear—that is, the biblically seditious Constitution into a Christian document. Instead, it is the principle reason America has lost her Christian heritage on a national scale.

CB: We have lost our understanding of, and appreciation for, Natural Law. Even most pastors cannot articulate the fundamental principles of Natural Law, even though this is the Law upon which America was founded….

TW: Pastor Baldwin is correct. The Constitutional Republic was not founded on the revealed law of God’s Word but on some diversely construed undefined natural law.²²

CB: We cheer as our country has turned into a “Warfare State.” We applaud as our nation has turned into an Orwellian surveillance society. We are losing our common language, our common history and heritage, and our common faith. Christianity in 2014-15 is not even comparable to Christianity in 1775-76….

TW: And far less to our true 1600s Christian forbears’ Chistianity.²³

CB: Yes, the very people who claim to love America the most and who claim to be interested in her blessing and prosperity are too often the very ones who are helping to destroy her.

TW: Indeed!

Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

A Biblical Constitution

375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution

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. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. 375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution (Blog article)

3. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

4. Could You be a Disciple of Baal and Not Know It? (Blog article)

5. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

6. Chapter 7 “Article 4: Republic vs. Theocracy” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

7. A Biblical Constitution (See Article 2)

8. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

9. For a list of Biblical qualifications for civil leaders, see Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

10. Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

11. Chapter 6 “Article 6: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

12. For more regarding these two antipodal governments, see blog article 375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution

13. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

14. For more regarding Constitutional elections versus Biblical elections, see blog article Salvation by Election.

15. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

16. 5 Reasons the Constitution is Our Cutting-Edge Issue (Blog article)

17. Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 24 January 1814, Lester J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams (Williamsburg, VA: Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1988) p. 384.

18. Donald S. Lutz, “The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought,” The American Political Science Review (March 1984) pp. 189-97.

19. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

20. The Second Amendment: A Knife in a Gunfight (Audio)

The Second Amendment is Doomed (Blog Article)

21. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

22. For an enlightening examination of natural law from a Biblical paradigm, see Chapter 5 “Theonomy and Natural Law” of Pastor William O. Einwechter’s book Walking in the Law of the Lord: An Introduction to the Biblical Ethics of Theonomy.

23. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution (Blog article)

Salvation by Election

Posted: 4th November 2014 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: America's national idol, biblical elections, Christian test ban, constitution, constitutional elections, election, elections, kingdom, lots, Republic, voting, We the People

It is better to trust in Yahweh¹ than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in Yahweh than to put confidence in princes. (Psalm 118:8-9)

QUESTION: Do elections benefit or harm America?

ANSWER: Depends upon whether we’re talking about Constitutional or Biblical elections.

Constitutional Election

Two hundred and twenty-six years of unbiblical constitutional elections selecting Biblically unqualified candidates for non-Biblical positions of leadership² have consistently produced an America that is more ungodly, less Christian, and further enslaved. This is true regardless whether a Democrat or a Republican has been elected.

Of course, if we’re to believe the pundits, this time will be different! The Internet bloggers have been abuzz for several weeks with a plethora of articles such as “One Day Left to Save America!,” “Your Vote is Sacred,” and “Vote As If Our Country’s Survival Depended On It…Because It Does.” Do not overlook the ring of humanistic self-reliance in these titles. When has We the People ever been able to save themselves from anything?

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. (Psalm 146:3)

The eternal optimism (AKA: extremely short memories) of the American electorate is astounding. Repeatedly doing something that hasn’t been able to improve America in over two centuries is, at best, foolhardy. Worse, constitutional elections are a societal opiate. People end up believing, “Provided I’ve made my biennial pilgrimage to the voting booth, I’ve done my duty as a Christian and a patriot!”

Trading possible short-term improvement for the long-term solution is selfish and short-sighted. It only postpones what this generation’s Christians should be working toward on behalf of a future generation. The fact is, in trying to save the Republic by non-Biblical means, Christians have all but lost the Kingdom.³

For two reasons, constitutional elections can only, at best, produce the lesser of two evils:

1) Article 6’s Christian test ban all but eliminated Biblical qualifications.

2) The majority of people who vote are in the broad way leading to destruction⁴and are inevitably not going to vote Biblically.

Election day is the Constitutional Republic’s high holy day, when the American voting public (non-Christians and Christians alike) worship at the altar of America’s national idol—the humanistic,⁵ antichristian,⁶ and polytheistic⁷ U.S. Constitution.

Constitutional elections demand of those elected that they swear allegiance to a thoroughly Biblically seditious document.⁸ Anyone who helps elect someone who would swear to uphold the Constitution becomes complicit in this sin, as well as any other Biblical violations committed while this person is in office.

Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thus share responsibility for the sins of others…. (1 Timothy 5:22)⁹

Biblical Election

America cannot vote herself off the precipice of moral depravity and destruction. She must repent, beginning with her national idol (the 18^th-century founders’ Constitution based upon capricious Enlightenment and Masonic concepts) and its unbiblical election process.

America needs to restore government based upon God’s immutable moral law, including His election process. Under a Biblical election system, Yahweh elects civil leaders from among two or more Biblically qualified candidates. This provides us the best of the best, every single time.

Thou shalt in any wise set him king [or any other ruler or judge] over thee, whom Yahweh thy God shall choose…. (Deuteronomy 17:15)

But how do we determine whom Yahweh elects? The same way they did in Acts 1:

And they appointed [put forward, NASB] two, Joseph called Barsabas … and Matthias [for a replacement for Judas’ place as a leader in the ecclesia]. And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen…. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:23-26)

Lots are the only surefire way of determining Yahweh’s choice of two or more candidates, nominated by people who can personally attest to their Biblical legitimacy. Consider the following promises regarding lots:

The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of Yahweh. (Proverbs 16:33)

The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty. (Proverbs 18:18)

“Election” is a Biblical term that belongs exclusively to Yahweh. Man has usurped the term and relegated this authority to We the People with horrific consequences. There’s a better way if only Christians will lead the way in returning to it.

Choose Ye This Day

Our choice for election boils down to a popularity contest based upon campaign promises versus a proven record based upon Biblical qualifications and Yahweh’s immutable moral law.

Because of my opposition to elections, I’m often accused of giving up on America. Quite the contrary. I believe America can be saved by election, but only by Yahweh’s election of Godly men who will refuse to compromise His sovereignty and His moral law.¹⁰

For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)

For a more exhaustive presentation on this vital subject, listen to the audio series Election: Man’s or Yahweh’s? Part 1 and Part 2, and read Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

Election: Man’s or Yahweh’s? Pt. 1

Election Man’s or Yahweh’s? Pt. 2

Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 1

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 2

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. It was unlawfully deleted and replaced with “the Lord” and “God” by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the numerous Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Chapter 6 “Article 3: JudicialUsurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

3. Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 1

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting:? Pt. 2

4. Matthew 7:13-14

5. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

6. Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

7. Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

8. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

9. Petition for Forgiveness Signature Pledge

10. Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

10 Reasons the Kingdom Here on Earth Isn’t Mission Impossible

Posted: 5th September 2014 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: "giants", ambassadors, Colonial Christians, Constitutional Republic, government of by and for God, grasshoppers, judgment, kingdom, kingdom of God, long-range visionaries, mission impossible, Ted Weiland, utopia

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven…. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:10, 33)

When promoting Yahweh’s¹ kingdom here on earth as one of our principal objectives as Christians,² I’m often confronted by someone who thinks I’ve got my head in the clouds.³ The following is fairly typical of the responses I receive:

Your faith is to be respected. However, you can’t be serious. As secular as our government has become, this will never work. Millions have already prayed till their knees ache and our mess just keeps getting worse. You’re dreaming of utopia. It’s a nice gesture, but wholly ineffective.

Not only am I dreaming of utopia, I’m doing everything in my power to help make it happen, regardless how short we may fall in our attempt. Any progress toward utopia (the kingdom of God here on earth, based upon His moral law—Deuteronomy 4:5-8, 28:1-14, etc.) is better than where we find ourselves in America today under the Constitutional Republic’s government, based upon Enlightenment and Masonic concepts (Deuteronomy 28:15-68).⁴

But is the dream as impossible as some people make it out to be? I submit the following ten points as evidence that the mission is not as impossible as one might think—that, in fact, it’s not impossible at all. I also offer these points as encouragement and incentive to those already engaged (and those who hopefully will become engaged) in today’s battle for the kingdom.

1. God Hears Our Prayers

The Israelites in Egyptian bondage prayed for centuries and, in Yahweh’s providential timing, were heard and finally delivered. Keep praying! But while praying, don’t forget your obligation to do everything you can to advance your King’s kingdom: “Pray as if everything depends upon God and work as if everything depends upon you.”⁵

And it shall come to pass … that I will … punish the men that are settled on their lees…. Let not thine hands be slack. (Zephaniah 1:12, 3:16)

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]: 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)

2. God Is Always a Majority

Our God is a majority, with or without us:

…Yahweh is not restrained to save by many or by few. (1 Samuel 14:6)

God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. (Psalm 62:11)

3. The Night Is Always Darkest Before Dawn

Things often must get worse (much worse) before they can get better—meaning, America is certain to go through a period of severe judgment before we see the kingdom restored in any significant fashion. As grim as this may sound, this is not the bad news it may at first appear. Because our God is sovereign, everything goes wrong just right:

[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)

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Yes, this means even Obama and all of his criminal cronies (donkeys and elephants alike). Such men and women are intended as judgment upon an ungodly nation (Deuteronomy 28:43-44). But don’t overlook that the caliber of men and women governing our nation today is also meant to keep the sheep close to their Shepherd.

4. Christian Responsibility Remains Unchanged

As Christ’s ambassadors, our responsibility to pursue and advance His kingdom remains the same regardless how impossible the task may seem or what persecution may come of it.

[W]e are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you…. (1 Peter 4:12-14)

5. Christian Repentance Will Bring Change

If American Christianity would repent of what’s best described by Christ, in Matthew 5:13, as salt that’s lost its savor, who knows what we might be able to accomplish.

My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord Yahweh: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. (Psalm 71:15-16)

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)

6. A New Mindset Will Bring Change

We must begin by repenting of the notion that the “giants” in the land are bigger than our God, when in fact they are just “grasshoppers” before Him, same as us.

And they [the ten faithless spies with Joshua and Caleb] brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land … eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and … there we saw the giants … and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:32-33)

It is he [Yahweh] that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants [everyone, including the “giants”] thereof are as grasshoppers [in His sight]…. (Isaiah 40:22)

7. Kingdom Work Is Never Futile

Regardless the immediate outcome, nothing we do for King and kingdom is in vain.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:57-58)

8. Our Work Readies Future Generations

To ward off despair, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Christ and become long-range visionaries. What we do now is not so much for ourselves as it is for a future generation.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience [endurance, NASB] the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Our efforts are so a future generation might have the opportunity to do it right(eous) the next time.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18)

9. Christian Utopia Has Happened Before

What we’re pursuing has already been accomplished here in America: in the 1600s when the Colonial Christians established governments of, by, and for God, based upon His perfect law and altogether righteous judgments.⁶

In June of 1639 the leading men of New Haven [Connecticut] held a convention in a barn, and formally adopted the Bible as the constitution of the State. Everything was strictly conformed to the religious standard. The government was called the House of Wisdom…. (John Clark Ridpath, History of the United States⁷)

They [the Christian Colonials] 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].

10. Nothing Is Impossible With God

Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27)

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

Mission impossible? Hardly. Not only is nothing impossible with God, neither has He commissioned us with an impossible task:

For the eyes of Yahweh run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him…. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

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)

Now, let’s go to work for our King!

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 1

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 2

5 Reasons the Constitution is Our Cutting-Edge Issue

375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution

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. It was unlawfully deleted and replaced with “the Lord” and “God” by the English translators.In obedience to the Third Commandment and the numerous Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 1

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting:? Pt. 2

3. This accusation is actually quite ironic. The clouds (thinking about heaven) is where I endeavor to persuade Christians from spending an inordinate amount of time, which often results in them neglecting their kingdom responsibilities here on earth.

4. 5 Reasons the Constitution is Our Cutting-Edge Issue

5. Often attributed to Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the Apostle John.

6. 375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution

7. John Clark Ridpath, History of the United States, 4 vols. (New York, NY: The American Book Company, 1874) vol. 1, p. 181.

8. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (New York: NY: The Colonial Press, 1899) vol. 1, pp. 36-37.

9. William Holmes McGuffey, McGuffey’s Sixth Eclectic Reader (New York, NY: American Book Company, 1879) p. 225.

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are YOU Promoting?, Pt. 2

Posted: 30th August 2014 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: Christendom, Christendom vs. Christianity, Constitutional Republic, dominion, dominion madate, John 18:36, kingdom, kingdom ambassadors, kingdom of God, Repbulic, sovereignty, Ted Weiland, We the People

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven…. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:10, 33)

Is it possible to promote the Constitutional Republic and the Kingdom of God at the same time? Many Christians would answer in the affirmative. Following are three reasons proffered by those who believe this is possible:

Because the Constitutional Republic was based upon Biblical principles, to promote the Republic is to promote the kingdom.

Because the kingdom of God is not yet in existence under the New Covenant and won’t be until Christ returns, we have been given secular government to restrain men in their criminal activities.

Because the kingdom of God is not of this world, we can’t expect governments which are of this world to implement and enforce God’s moral laws.

In Part 1, I addressed the error in the first two reasons. Let’s now take a closer look at the third reason many Christians believe it’s possible to be faithful to both the kingdom and the Republic at the same time.

Does the Kingdom Exist Here on Earth?

Matthew 6:33 charges us to seek God’s righteousness and kingdom—in other words, His will. Where?

…Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10)

Even Christians who understand the present reality of Yahweh’s¹ kingdom here on earth² seldom see its relevance beyond the four walls of their homes or church buildings. “We have secularized everything not illuminated by stained glass windows.”³ However, Yahweh wills that His kingdom, governed by Biblically qualified men, employing His righteous laws, be established here on earth as it is in heaven. There is nowhere in heaven Yahweh does not reign, nowhere His kingdom cannot be found, and nowhere His laws are not intact. This is His will for earth as well.

In addition to individual conversion by means of Christ’s blood-atoning sacrifice, the implementation of His moral law societally is the second means by which His kingdom, His government, increases (Isaiah 9:6-7) and takes dominion of other kingdoms (Daniel 2:44). In other words, He has left to His subjects the task of fully establishing His kingdom here on earth:

Ye are blessed of Yahweh which made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are Yahweh’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. (Psalm 115:15-16)

Yahweh never abdicated His throne. He is as much King now as He was at the beginning of creation. As perpetual King, the kingdom He rules over is also perpetual.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. (Psalm 145:13)

To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 1:25)

Many Christians reject these inescapable facts of Yahweh’s sovereignty, believing He has no kingdom at present or that His kingdom is limited to heaven. They lift their favorite proof text from John 18:

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36)

The exact same Greek phrase ek toú kósmou, translated “not of this world,” is used several times and is explained in the preceding chapter:

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world…. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. (John 17:14-18)

Clearly ek toú kósmou does not mean Yahweh’s kingdom exists only in heaven. Although it is certainly true that His kingdom is not of this world, this does not mean He does not intend it to be in this world. His statement in John 18 is better understood to mean His kingdom is nothing like the other kingdoms in this world. Someone once said, “The only kingdom that will prevail in this world is the kingdom that is not of this world.”

That Christians are citizens of His kingdom while here on earth (Colossians 1:12-14, 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, Revelation 1:9) and that He reigns in our midst (Luke 17:21) proves by itself that His dominion extends beyond heaven to earth.

The teaching that Yahweh’s kingdom does not exist on earth or that He has abandoned the earth to His enemies is not new to this age:

…Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, Yahweh seest us not; Yahweh hath forsaken the earth. (Ezekiel 8:12)

Christians who reject Yahweh’s extant kingdom here on earth are looking for a future king and a future kingdom. This erroneous theology has all but destroyed Yahweh’s kingdom, at least in practice, here on earth. It is certainly one of the principal reasons why the antichrists and non-Christians rule today.

Kingdom vs. Republic

It should now be apparent that Yahweh’s kingdom exists both in heaven and on earth, despite its present deplorable state here on earth. The culpability for its present state belongs, not to God, but to Christians who are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good.⁴ Christians have all but ceased being kingdom ambassadors here on earth, which is the only place ambassadors are relevant.

Contemporary Christianity is full of savorless salt, good for nothing but to be trampled under the foot of man, per Matthew 5:13. Christians today are the “trampled” rather than the “tramplers,” and they have no one to blame but themselves. What used to be known as Christendom (short for Christ’s or Christian dominion) is now merely four-walled Christianity. This has resulted in culturally impotent Christians—to the delight of our enemies.

Many Christians are peering into heaven and wondering when Yahweh is going to clean up this mess. Could it be He’s looking down upon us and wondering when we are going to clean it up? Yahweh is not responsible for our making a mess of things. He has given us the tools by which to right society, if we would only believe in Him and implement His moral laws. Case in point: 1600s Christian Colonial America.⁵

Every generation that rejects Yahweh’s plan for the kingdom is another generation destined to live under the heel of non-Christian dominion. Worse, any dereliction of our kingdom commission and responsibilities (2 Corinthians 10:4-6) assures our posterity will suffer more of the same, if not worse.

Because the kingdom of God and the Constitutional Republic are Biblically incompatible,⁶ we cannot pursue either one without damaging the other. How woeful that most conservative Christians spend more time pursuing the Republic of We the People then they do the kingdom of God.

Inherent in the dominion mandate (2 Corinthians 10:4-6) is Yahweh’s expectation for His people to maintain, protect, and increase their holdings in furtherance of His kingdom. That Yahweh expects this of His kingdom ambassadors is evident in that His stone kingdom is depicted as becoming a great mountain (Daniel 2:35, 44), a mustard seed that is to grow into a great tree (Matthew 13:31), and leaven that leavens the entire world (Matthew 13:33).

Christians are ambassadors for the kingdom, not the Republic, and a kingdom demands certain things of its subjects. To serve the King is to obey and promote His law. To promote His law is to pursue and advance His kingdom. To advance His kingdom is to establish His dominion in His name everywhere we can.

Time to choose. If We the People be god, you should indeed be doing everything you can to promote their Republic.⁷ If Yahweh be God, you should be doing everything in your power to promote His kingdom, His government, His will here on earth as it is in heaven.⁸

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 1

10 Reasons the Kingdom Here on Earth Isn’t Mission Impossible

Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution

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. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators.In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. Republic or Kingdom: Which Are You Promoting? Pt. 1

3. Dennis Woods, Discipling the Nations: The Government Upon His Shoulder (Franklin, TN: Legacy Communications, 1996) p. 184.

4. Nothing occurs outside Yahweh’s sovereign plan. Because everything is ultimately under His control, everything goes wrong just right. See Daniel 4:17, etc.

5. 375 Years Later: Constitution vs. Constitution

6. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

7. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

8. Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are YOU Promoting? Pt. 1

Posted: 23rd August 2014 by Ted Weiland in Uncategorized
Tags: commandments statutes and judgments, constitution, Constitutional Republic, culturally impotent, kingdom, kingdom ambassadors, kingdom of Christ, kingdom of God, not of this world, Repbulic, Roman Republic, Ted Weiland

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven…. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:10, 33)

Because the Constitutional Republic was based upon Biblical principles, to promote the Republic is to promote the kingdom.

Because the kingdom of God is not yet in existence under the New Covenant and won’t be until Christ returns, secular government exists to restrain men in their criminal activities.

Because the kingdom of God is not of this world, we can’t expect governments that are of this world to implement and enforce God’s moral laws.

Perhaps it would be prudent to take another look at each of these points.

Does Promoting the Republic Promote the Kingdom?

The notion that the Bible and the Constitution are Biblically compatible has been parroted so many times that most Christians don’t give it a second thought. Consequently, they have never taken the time to examine the Constitution by the Bible. I have examined the Constitution by the Bible and have found that it’s anything but Biblically compatible.

There is only one standard by which everything (including the Constitution) must be ethically evaluated: Yahweh’s¹ immutable morality as reflected in His commandments, statutes, and judgments. When the Constitution is actually examined by this standard, hardly an Article or Amendment—even in their original intent—is compatible with Yahweh’s¹ sovereignty and morality. For the evidence for this claim, see Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, which examines every Article and Amendment by the Bible.²

It is an inescapable fact of government that all law systems are intolerant of laws inconsonant with their own:

Every law-system must maintain its existence by hostility to every other law-system and to alien religious foundations or else it commits suicide.³

America’s Constitutional Republic is, in fact, a competing kingdom, as are all governments established on man-made legislation. To promote the Republic where it conflicts with Yahweh’s morality is an act of sedition against the King of kings.⁴

Is the Kingdom Defunct?

If the kingdom is not yet in existence, then Jesus, John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul, and the Prophet Daniel lied, and so did the God who inspired them.

Perhaps the most potent proof that the kingdom of God has already been established under the New Covenant is that the Apostles were told that some of them would live to see the kingdom reinstated:

And he [Jesus] said unto them [His disciples], Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. (Mark 9:1)

In Acts 1:6, the Apostles anticipated the renewed kingdom in their lifetime. In Acts 2, it was indeed reinstated with power on the day of Pentecost. The renowned 18th-century commentator Matthew Henry agreed:

…the kingdom of Christ began … immediately after his ascension, and will continue in the doing till the mystery of God be finished.⁵

Following the events in Acts 2, the first-century Christians proclaimed Jesus to be a reigning King and themselves citizens of His kingdom—not sometime yet future or merely in heaven, but then and there:

But the Jews which believed not … set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason … crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. (Acts 17:5-7)

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins…. (Colossians 1:12-14)

As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12)

I John, who also am your brother, and companion [fellow partaker, NASB] … in the kingdom…. (Revelation 1:9)

Redemption through Jesus’ blood results in deliverance from the power of darkness. Because we are delivered from the power of darkness into the kingdom, the Colossians’ passage demands that if the kingdom is not in existence now, then redemption and forgiveness of sins are not yet valid. If the kingdom is yet future, no one has been delivered from the power of darkness, nor partaken of the inheritance of the saints. In short, no one has yet become a Christian.

In Acts 17:7, the disciples were described as already serving Jesus as their King here on earth, according to His laws. Rome’s persecution, imprisonment, and murder of Christians demonstrates that the Romans understood the kingdom the Christians preached and lived was an extant rival kingdom. Had Christianity been merely a religion, Rome would not have concerned itself with Christianity anymore than it did with the other religions in its realm. Christendom’s King, His kingdom, and His laws posed a threat to the Roman Republic, just as Daniel prophesied.

And in the days of these [the Roman] kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44)

The kingdom is presently under the rule of non-Christians (Matthew 11:12, 23:1, 13), not because it has yet to be established, but because Christians have bought into the lie that the kingdom doesn’t exist on earth at this time.⁶ Christians have consequently abdicated leadership of society. The church has become governmentally and culturally impotent because Christians have been convinced that everything outside the four walls of their church buildings is off-limits.⁷

In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Christians are described as ambassadors for Christ. The word “ambassador” is a kingdom-related term. Among other things, ambassadors are responsible for expanding their King’s kingdom. With these premises in mind, let me leave you with two questions:

1) Are we to be ambassadors of the kingdom only in heaven?

2) Does Yahweh have any need of ambassadors in heaven?

The answer to these rhetorical questions should be self evident.

See Part 2.

Republic or Kingdom: Which Are YOU Promoting? Pt. 2

10 Reasons the Kingdom Here on Earth Isn’t Mission Impossible

Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

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. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators.In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

3. Rousas John Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1973) pp. 5-6.

4. This is not to say that while living in the Republic, we shouldn’t seek a peaceful coexistence where ever possible (Jeremiah 29:4-7, Romans 12:8).

5. Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible: Genesis to Malachi, 3 vols. (Brattleboro: Brattleboro’ Typographic Company, 1837 [orig. publ. 1708-1710]) vol. 3, p. 60.

6. Nothing occurs outside Yahweh’s sovereign plan. Because everything is ultimately under His control, everything goes wrong just right. See Daniel 4:17, etc.

7. Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

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