Gary discusses a recent episode of The View on the Ten Commandments in schools.
There are many who would say that the Bible has no business in the so-called secular realm. The Bible is useful for spiritual matters but not the substantive matters of civil government, law, economics, politics, and science. Times have changed and the Bible is an out-of-date book. So say many in our day. But the Christian has the duty to follow the only true King and the commandments of His kingdom. If we truly love Jesus Christ, we must follow His commandments. When His commandments speak to civil government, we must obey.
To deny that there is a biblical system of civil government is to say that God has no standard of righteousness and justice in this crucial area. If men and nations can pick and choose the system of civil government they desire, man becomes ultimate and God becomes subordinate to man’s desires. How could a system of civil government ever be evaluated if the system is arbitrary at the very start? If a group of disenchanted citizens wished to overthrow the first arbitrary government, what standard of justice would prohibit them from doing it? If any man-made governmental system is legitimate, then it follows that all man-made governmental systems are legitimate.
Those who have the means, the power, and the influence are the ones who rule. Because all of life is to reflect the character of God, we must expect civil government to reflect His character as well. No two competing systems of civil government can be right. Only the Bible can be our guide in determining which is right. The experiences of history and the desires of men are of little consequence if they do not support or reflect the system of civil government outlined in Scripture. “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn” (Isaiah 8:19-20).
God and Government
Relying on clear historical and biblical research, author Gary DeMar demonstrates how America has been great and how she can be great again. But the work is far from finished, and Americans need to hear—now more than ever—the biblical and historical truths explained in God and Government. This edition has been thoroughly renovated, revised, and updated into a beautiful one-volume hardback.
Buy NowRemoving the Ten Commandments from schools does not eliminate moral instruction but replaces one moral framework with another. There must be a definitive and final legal standard of appeal to justify moral decisions at the personal and governmental levels. If not, then one judge’s opinion is as good (or as bad) as another: “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6).