The Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
Proverbs 29:2 (KJV)
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works. 16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. 22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee. Psalms 33:12-22 (KJV)
“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
1 John 3:4 (KJV)
It would have been far simpler had I chosen a title such as, the Righteousness of the Law, for there are fewer examples on earth of any law, other than that Divine Law of God, that could be used to illustrate righteous law. But the Perversions of the Law provide an abundance of illustrations and empirical evidence to prove the concept. This devotion does not pretend to be a scholarly, or profound, study of my subject; but it will serve to provide the observations of an older fellow who has lived 75 years. During that time, I have tried to keep my eyes and ears open to the political environment about me and, unfortunately, believe that our institutions of law and government have fallen into a maelstrom of decay and decadence which inevitable lead to bondage and poverty of those of its people who are caught in the undertow.
I am aware of the feckless argument that “it has always been so;” however, I happen to know that the moral turpitude and hedonism of the social, religious, and political structure of the American society – and, indeed, the global horizons – has never been so irreparably compromised. As a boy growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountain region, I remember a generation of men and women who, though some of which were lacking in formal education, were nonetheless scholars in biblical doctrine and Constitutional principles. Should an issue arise in business dealings or political considerations, the Holy Bible, or the U.S. Constitution would have settled the matter without further argument. Divorce was so rare that my friends and I wanted to go see what a divorced lady looked like when it was rumored that she had moved into a community nearby. There were bad jokes about homosexuals in high school; but we thought that those were only jests in poor taste.
I have witnessed the U.S. Supreme Court render rulings that directly contradict the provisions of the Supreme Law of the Land – the U.S. Constitution – and claim their decision was based on the very document their decisions contradict. I have observed the silence of the citizenry when such decisions are rendered, and the absolute shameful inaction of the mainline churches in standing up to the abuse of religious freedom, of the murder of infants in their mother’s womb, and in the dignity legalized by so-called homosexual marriage. All of these, of course, the Supreme Court has ruled as complying with the U.S. Constitution. But these Black-Robed hypocrites cannot point to a single line in the Constitution that will support their rulings in the above matters. Most often, they will point to the First Amendment as justification to suppress religious liberty and even abortion; but the First Amendment is the very provision that guarantees religious liberty and the right to life.
The framers of the Constitution well knew the dangers of an over-reaching government. They had just fought a bloody revolution to gain their freedom and independence from such a government. So, they included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights to guarantee that the American population would never be left without a strong defense against the abuses of a government bureaucracy. The Second Amendment was not intended for the use of a firearm as a sport, or for hunting, but so that a man could protect his home from invasion and his community from governmental and unconstitutional oppression.
The bulwark and catalyst of the War of Independence was not the mercantile or political leaders of the colonies – it was the Godly pulpits of America. From those pulpits thundered the righteous indignation of a people of God who had become outraged at the suppression of their liberties. Christian people have always loved and sought after Liberty because Liberty is a grant from God and not government. If a people become so weakened in their character and commitment to the true Sovereign of our Land, then their liberties will be forfeited, and they will be left in the dust to wonder how this could ever have happened.
The imaginations of the heart of man has always been to more and more evil, but the seasoning faith and commitment to the Christian Moral will serve to salt the society with righteousness and water the vitality of the nation with virtue. I have quoted often a man of great scholarly stature on the nature of republican government. His name is Marcus Tullius Cicero. When in elementary school, we studied the writings of Cicero, and learned how the principles of our own Constitutional Republic were informed by his writings. But today, our youth will hear nothing of Cicero since the principles he espoused have been removed from their textbooks and replaced by social indoctrination subject matter. But the principles of republican government espoused by Cicero averred that the laws of a republic applied equally, without exception, to every citizen. In a pure democracy, it is the opposite – the laws do not apply equally, but the mob who screams loudest will receive the larger benefits of government. I will share three only quotes of Cicero here. The 1st:
“Power and law are not synonymous. In truth, they are frequently in opposition and irreconcilable. There is God’s Law from which all Equitable laws of man emerge and by which men must live if they are not to die in oppression, chaos and despair. Divorced from God’s eternal and immutable Law, established before the founding of the suns, man’s power is evil no matter the noble words with which it is employed or the motives urged when enforcing it. Men of good will, mindful therefore of the Law laid down by God, will oppose governments whose rule is by men, and if they wish to survive as a nation they will destroy the government which attempts to adjudicate by the whim of venal judges.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.
The above quote has direct application to the Parable of the Trees (Book of Judges 9:8-15) upon which I recently wrote. Most of our recent politicians (over the past 70 to 100 years) have been very like the bramble, and not like the Olive Tree, Fig Tree, or Vine – all of which produce FRUIT. We now have a different President whose character I would have rated at around 3 (on a scale of 1-10) prior to election, but as President, he has fulfilled all the promises a single person standing against the swamp alone could hope to achieve. As President that rating has gone from 3 to 9.79!
Our Congress has been remiss in standing up to the courts by enacting disabling legislation to restrict the court’s abuse. In fact, our Congressmen have allowed the court decisions to take the political heat from what they have not the guts to enact themselves – so they blame the courts but do nothing to ameliorate the damage. Our country is becoming just like the days of the Book of Judges – “There was no king in Israel and everyman did what was right in his own eyes.”
The 2nd quote of Cicero: “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor; he speaks in the accent that is familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.” (Cicero)
How many traitors have we witnessed in our U.S. State Department, Congress, or the White House who would sell out the freedoms of the American people for a dime! Men and women of honor are persecuted, and the villains are exalted and go free. It is a hard fact for the American people to believe that we actually have men in high places who seek the destruction of the Constitutional Republic our Forefathers Founded on this continent; but they are there, and they are there in great force.
Cicero’s 3rd quote: “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” — Cicero, 55 BC Surely I need not expound on this last. There were a few benefits of the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘60’s. Voting rights should not be denied any citizen in good standing, and discrimination should always be shunned in the legal, political and social realm; but observe what great damage has been done to the black families of America through government programs which have rendered many as slaves of the government plantation, and encouraged the departure of the fathers from the home!
The true Sovereign of America was the Lord Jesus Christ who provided the Light and Vision for our founding. He it is who must be the Supreme Law of the Land if we are not to suffer chains and bondage. “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 1:25 (KJV)
“Prenez en Gré”
In Christ Alone during Pre-Lenten
SEASON
,
† Jerry L. Ogles , D.D.
Presiding Bishop
Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide & Chancellor, Faith Theological Seminary
“Metus improbo compescit, non clementia.” – Syrus, MAXIMS: Fear, not kindness, restrains the wicked!
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer – HOLY SCRIPTURE:
“If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God’s Word; and if we be uncertain of God’s Word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or a synagogue of Satan.”
