Building on a Firm Foundation

Have you ever had the experience of playing a game at someone else’s house and you think you understand the rules, but then somebody makes a play that you thought went against those rules? What is going on?  When you ask about the illegal move, your host explains, “Well, we didn’t really like all of the rules, so we altered some of them to make the game more fun. When you play at our house, you follow our rules!”

We certainly have a few games at our house with 1 or 2 rules that drive us crazy! One of them is a space in “The Farming Game”. In this game, one circuit of the board represents a year of farming. There is one space in the spring that says something like, “You’re farming like a pro! Skip to the second week of January.” This space makes absolutely no sense to us. If you’re doing such a great job of farming, why in the world would you be “rewarded” for that by skipping all of your harvests for the year? By mutual consent, we have often agreed that we will just ignore that space if one of us lands on it.

When games are created, the decisions on specific rules can be somewhat arbitrary and as long as everyone agrees to a rule change, there is really no harm done if you change a rule to make it more to your liking. But, what if a policeman pulls you over for driving on the right side of the road? You would probably be a bit bewildered by his explanation that for today, the rules have changed and everyone is required to drive on the left side of the road. (Of course, we are assuming that you do not live in one of the 78 countries where the law states that you should drive on the left side of the road.)

In both of these circumstances, the important aspect is that the rules are consistent and everyone is following the same set of rules. But are those the only conditions for a good law to govern a country, a state, or a town? Of course not! When the Constitution was debated and crafted, the debate was long and heated over exactly what types of rules Congress would have the power to make. The people certainly did not want a government with unlimited law making power. They restricted the ability of Congress to make laws to a specific, written list. 

So, we know that laws, in order to be Constitutional, must fall under one of those categories in which law making power has been granted to Congress. Are there more restrictions on the laws that can be made? Is there a solid foundation upon which a law should rest or can the formation of laws be somewhat arbitrary, like they are when creating a board game?

When we are dealing with laws that govern our lives and our liberties, it is self-evident that the writing of these laws should not be arbitrary. So, what is the foundation upon which all laws should rest in order to protect our rights and establish justice? Ezra Taft Benson, the 15th United States Secretary of Agriculture, said, “It is my sober conviction that no people can long maintain freedom unless their political institutions are founded in a faith in a Supreme Being and belief in the existence of moral law. … When men reject the premise that God is the source of law, they countenance a political system based on human law.”

Thomas Jefferson expressed a similar idea when he appealed to the “laws of nature and of nature’s God” in the Declaration of Independence. Cicero, a Roman political writer, observed the world and determined that he was surrounded by evidence of a Supreme Creator of the universe and determined that all just laws should be consistent with the Creator’s laws.

“Cicero’s compelling honesty led him to conclude that once the reality of the Creator is clearly identified in the mind, the only intelligent approach to government, justice, and human relations is in terms of the laws which the Supreme Creator has already established. The Creator’s order of things is called Natural Law.” (Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap, pg. 39)

Cicero further explained Natural Law as follows, “True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions….It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it.” (Quoted in Evenstein, Great Political Thinkers, pg. 133)

So, in order to protect liberty, our laws must not only be consistent and equally applicable to all, they must be based upon Natural Law, which is the law the Creator of the Universe has revealed to all mankind. Any law that violates God’s law will lead to a loss of liberty. Laws may take a different form in different circumstances, but we must be able to trace the law back to a foundation of the “laws of nature and of Nature’s God” (Declaration of Independence) in order to be assured that the law will protect our Natural Rights and preserve liberty in the land.