Several years ago, a young student, Kari Hayes, completed our one-semester course on the 28 Principles of Liberty entitled “American Government and Constitution, Part I.” Feeling the excitement and truthfulness of these ideas, she wrote, “Armed with a pink highlighter, I began to mark verses in my Bible that correlated with the Principles of Liberty.” Kari sent me a copy of her project which she entitled, A Scriptural Index to The Five Thousand Year Leap. While I was teaching a seminar in Georgia, Kari showed up, eager to learn more. We have developed a warm friendship and she recently married and is now known as Kari Wentworth.
I am grateful to this young freedom-loving patriot for her untiring work and her love of correct principles. The following, which is mostly Kari’s work, is an indication of how the Founders’ principles, explained in The Five Thousand Year Leap, indeed have their roots in the Holy Scriptures.
This is a continuation of the Scriptural Index to the 28 Principles of Liberty. Last month we gave Biblical scripture supporting principles 1-14. Here are the remaining 14 Principles with their suggested Biblical supportive scriptures:
Principle 15. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and minimum of government regulations.
Leviticus 25:10 – And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Leviticus 25:14 – And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
Deuteronomy 25:15 – But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Principle 16. The government should be separated into three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial.
Isaiah 33:22 – For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
Principle 17. – A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power.
2 Chronicles 26:16-21 – But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several [separate] house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
Principle 18. The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.
Exodus 31:18 – And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Deuteronomy 11:20 – And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
Deuteronomy 27:8 – And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
Nehemiah 9:38 – And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
Principle 19. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained in the people.
Deuteronomy 17:15 – 20 – Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
Principle 20. Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.
Exodus 23:2 – Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:
Deuteronomy 27:19 – Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Principle 21. Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
Exodus 18:22 – 23 – And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.
Principle 22. A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
Leviticus 24:22 – Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
Numbers 15:15 – 16 – One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
Principle 23. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
Exodus 18:20 – And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Deuteronomy 6:6 – 7 – And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Proverbs 9:9 – Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
Isaiah 28:10 – For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Principle 24. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
Deuteronomy 20:5 – 8 – And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.
Luke 14:31 – 32 – Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
Principle 25. “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.”
Exodus 23:32 – Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
2 Corinthians 6:14 – Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Principle 26. The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.
Genesis 2:24 – Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Exodus 20:12 – Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Proverbs 20:20 – Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
Matthew 5:27 – 28 – Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Ephesians 6:1 – 4 – Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Principle 27. The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.
Proverbs 22:7 – The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Romans 13:8 – Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Principle 28. The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.
Psalms 33:8 – 12 – Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Acts 17:26 – 27 – And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
After reviewing the 28 Principles of Liberty in terms of the Holy Scriptures, we are brought to proclaim with the Psalmist:
Psalms 19:7 – 11- The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the LORD 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.
