When we call for Christian action [re: "A Call to Action", No Fear, Jan 1995] we imply that there is work to do that is being neglected. The need was mentioned for Christians to be active in praying the Lord's Prayer in more than just words but also in an active faith. We may need to be reminded that a faith that does not manifest itself in works is dead: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves...whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues 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 What work were we to be doers of? In this article we shall see that the salvation Christ secured for His faithful friends included more than an other-worldly salvation. His Word offers a more comprehensive salvation which is designed to bring "His Kingdom come... ON Earth, as it is in heaven." Christians have neglected their duty to advance the gospel of the Kingdom, which includes teaching the civil authorities how to rule according to the Word of God. Something burned in the hearts of the early people who came to America. They were escaping a tyranny that forgot the Ways of God. These Christian people seemed to equate freedom and liberty with "the advancement of the Christian faith." For example, in 1773 the men of the town of Marlborough made the following proclamation: "Death is more eligible than slavery. A free-born people are not required by the religion of Jesus [the] Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their laws and liberties...[We] implore the ruler above the skies, that he would make bare His arm in defense of His church and people, and let Israel go." (The Light & The Glory, by Peter Marshall) What do the words "Life, Liberty, and Property" have to do with Christianity? For Americans these words seems to bring to mind the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Does this mean the concepts of Life, Liberty, and Property were simply secular or have Christians (and their governments) forgotten their Biblical origins? It should be thought of as strange that Christians don't immediately recognize how important these words are. If Jesus the Christ was pictured in John 14:6 as "the Way, the Truth and the Life" is it not obvious that He is concerned about life and indeed the very embodiment of it? When we read in 2 Corinthians 3:17: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty," is it not apparent that the Spirit of God is the very essence of liberty? But what about property? The Word of God has much to say about property - concern over stealing and coveting your neighbor's possessions, workmen worthy of his wages, just weights and measures, interest (usury) on loans, laws concerning the land, etc., etc. Property is a reward for faithful work and is a blessing when it is not coveted or gained dishonestly. Have the words "life, liberty, and property" been perceived as only having political significance because we have failed to understand their religious nature? Every nation has some sort of religion which establishes the laws of that nation. The very nature of "law" is a regulation of someone's morality (or lack thereof). Have Christians given up the fight for just religion by allowing amoral and anti-Christian forces to replace God's religion with an amoral one; God's moral law for a humanistic law? What happens when we trust man to establish our standards of "right" and "wrong" (i.e. the law)? Frederic Bastiat experienced it first hand before and after the French Revolution of February 1848. His experience as an economist and statesman of that time inspired him to write the following in his pamphlet simply titled, The Law: "The Law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law became the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish! "If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it." Mr. Bastiat immediately followed this statement with an acknowledgment that "Life is a Gift of God. We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life -- physical, intellectual, and moral life." This truth is the rock that our Christian civilization rests upon. When man attempts to make himself the source of life, either individually or collectively (i.e. the state), he must reject God and His "perfect law of liberty" and tyranny shortly follows. The so-called battle to keep "church and state" separate has really been a religious battle designed to remove Christianity from the state. The battle is a struggle over who is Lord, God and Saviour - God or the State. Who are Christians going to trust and obey? God or Caesar? God or the State? Whose Constitution are we going to obey? God's or the States'? God's Covenant Constitution (i.e. the Bible) or the United States Constitution of "We the People"? The beginning of this battle to remove Christianity from the government in America started with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Today, there are Bible believing Christians who believe that the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired. They will say that it was built on the Bible and deserves respect, allegiance and honor. What hogwash! What Christian should respect any document that starts off with "We the People..." instead of "For the glory of God, Amen!"? The famous American patriot, Patrick Henry who said, "...Give me Liberty or give me death!" hinted at the true nature behind the U.S. Constitution when he said: "The evil genius of darkness presided at the Constitution's birth. It came forth under the veil of mystery." I believe history and the Word of God is on my side in condemning the U.S. Constitution as the instrument responsible for leading this nation away from "His Will being done on Earth as it is in heaven." Should this surprise any Christian who reads His Bible which says that any house that is not built upon the Rock (that is Christ) shall fall? (Matt. 7:24-27) Maybe this excerpt from Life After Death in the Body Politic by Charles E. O-Donnell, (p. 126) can shed some historical light on why Patrick Henry would say such a thing about the Constitution's birth: "When the Constitutional Convention, as we now call it, opened in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787, the delegates were attending 'FOR THE SOLE AND EXPRESS PURPOSE OF REVISING THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.' Of the sixty-two delegates appointed, 55 showed up; there were no more than eleven states ever represented at one time; 39 (men) signed the final draft -- three refused, but the others had already left the city before the meeting ended. Among the notable absentees were Thomas Jefferson (who later very significantly branded Alexander Hamilton as a traitor - Hamilton was the one who wrote the formal request for the Constitution Convention), John Adams, Sam Adams, and Patrick Henry, who said he 'smelled a rat.' " But why did Patrick Henry "smell a rat?" Patrick Henry became one of the most notable opponents of the U.S. Constitution and the "Federalists," who brought this satanic document into being. We read that Henry was not the only one ignorant of the dangers of this document in Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen, (P. 296-296): "...The Anti-Federalist ranks were very strong, led by such men as Mason, Benjamin Harrison, Theodorick Bland, John Tyler (father of the President), the Cabells, Edmund Ruffin, James Monroe, Grayson and Richard Henry Lee. Washington, pondering over their names, said it was "a little strange that the men of large property in the South should be more afraid that the Constitution will produce an aristocracy or a monarchy, than the genuine democratic people of the East." Chief among Anti-Federalists was Patrick Henry, tall, thin, stooped, and at fifty-two looking on himself as aged and broken in health. He wore spectacles, concealed his reddish-brown hair by a brown wig, not too well-fitting. His blue eye was still keen, his long face alive with feeling; the old magic waited to be called up at will. 'I fear that overwhelming torrent, Patrick Henry,' wrote General Knox to Rufus King when the convention was well under way. "From the first day, Henry was the nerve center of the room. 'The Henryites,' they called his followers. Every Federalist came girded against them..." Patrick Henry was a deeply devout Christian man who had the spiritual insight to "smell a rat" in the U.S. Constitution. He would go on to speak of "the tyranny of Philadelphia," which he likened to "the tyranny of George III...I believe," he said, that under the new Constitution "this similitude will be incontestably proved." Patrick Henry was proved to be a true prophet as we see America moving along the fast track to total tyranny. This fact shouldn't surprise Christians who understand that "Life, Liberty and Property" are blessings and can only be secured from the one true living God -- Jesus the Christ, the Word who came and dwelt among us. (John 1:1,14) In several of Henry's speeches against the Constitution he stated: "What right had they to say, We, the People?" Indeed, what right did they have? Though Henry offered a less than perfect alternative when he suggested that it should have read "We, the States" he was at least on the right track. Patrick Henry had enough understanding to know that the phrase "We the People" was wrong and he came closer to the truth when he stated: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!" A proper alternative for any "Constitution" would have started better if it began this way: "For the Glory of God, Amen! We the Christian People under subjection and service to our King, Jesus the Christ, do covenant and combine ourselves together in the sight of God and one another into a Civil Body Politic and look to and affirm the Word of God as the source of all just and righteous Law to govern this Land and it's people. The Bible, as Law of the Land, shall determine our standard of right and justice and be the light that guides our leaders under the righteous reign of the King of kings. There is only one Lawmaker and Judge, and the whole duty of man is to Fear God and keep His commandments under the New Covenant our King made with His people who are called by His Name." Have I therefore become your enemy for telling you the truth [Gal. 4:16] about this satanically inspired humanistic document that replaced the Christians Covenant Constitution and Law of the Land (i.e. the Bible)? There can only be one answer to the question of who is going to be master of whom. Will it be God over the state or the state over God? The struggle has never changed since Christ came into the world and will continue until He has "put down all rule and all authority and power...For he must reign, till He hath put all enemies under his feet," (I Corinthians 15:24,25). "Submit therefore to God...there is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy." (James 4:7,12) Can any Christian claim honestly that man's laws supersede God's Laws? If man attempts to pass a law that legalizes stealing, murder or rape will the Christians say "Amen!"? Who is Sovereign? Whose law is Supreme? God's or Caesar? God's or the State's law? When it came down to a choice the Apostles choose to obey God. "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:27-29) Man (or the state collectively) cannot make God into an outlaw without becoming an outlaw. Sir William Blackstone in his famous "Blackstone's Commentaries on the Law" affirmed this when he wrote, "No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to the law of God." (1 Bl. Comm. 40). When men reject God as the source of moral Law they form governments which slowly encroach upon the people's God given gifts of life, liberty and property and the rights to enjoy them. We have heard quoted Ecclesiastes 12:13 before, but how long does it take to realize that this applies to ALL men, especially those trusted with civil responsibilities? For those who don't remember it says, "Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." All men, especially our rulers, must be shown that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way to life, the ONLY guarantee of liberty, the ONLY source of just and righteous laws to protect our property, and the ONLY one who can make promises of blessings and happiness in this life, as well as the next. There simply is no other Name, except Jesus the Christ, in which men can find such a comprehensive salvation -- not Caesar, not Uncle Sam, not the State, nor any government of man. Jesus the Christ is the only source of salvation -- not only in the life to come but in the life here and now -- but we, and our nation's leaders, must choose His ways over man's ways and see to it that His "will be done...on Earth as it is in heaven." The true religion, Christianity and the Word of God, is the tried and true protection for life, liberty and property. Our only hope is indeed, Jesus the Christ, and the Way He reveals to us in His Word. Walk in the Truth and have the faith that is alive and active in the Spirit that brings Liberty! I would like Christians to pray Paul's prayer that Christians throughout the world may understand their God and the hope he has secured for us who believe: "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe... "which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above ALL rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. "And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Ephesians 1:18-23) Reformers such as Cartwright and Knox maintained that the ministers "should teach the magistrates how to exercise civil jurisdiction according to the Word of God." (Mass. Election Sermon, 1669, p.4) This article is a wake-up call to action for all who have neglected this duty. Be a doer of the Word, pray without ceasing and lets be about the work He has called us to do! May His Kingdom Come and His Will be done on EARTH as it is in Heaven!!!

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