Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

When the framers of our American constitution first gathered, they faced a fundamental question. The question was not merely, Can we create a free republic? The question was, Can we create a free republic that will remain free? Those men knew their history, and they knew that history was against them. The first step in gaining freedom was past—it was the American Revolution. They had step two before them—writing a constitution. But the biggest challenge lay beyond their horizon—sustaining freedom. And law is not enough to sustain it.

We believe in the rule of law in this country. It is carefully drawn as a distinction from the rule of a king. What we haven’t really considered is that the law can become just as tyrannical as a king. How does it happen? Well, just look at how the courts are interpreting the law nowadays. We are no longer being governed by all the people, but by the law as interpreted by a few judges. And what is guiding the judges—the constitution, or the customs of the time? According to Os Guinness:

[The framers] knew their history in a way many modern political leaders to their shame don’t. If you have a corruption of customs […] the Constitution itself will be subverted. People will follow the same laws, but with a different rationale, and you’ll see a steady decline. What was the Framers’ solution to this? Many people think it’s the Constitution and law. It isn’t. That’s only half the answer. The other half is quite clear and incredibly overlooked today, even among scholars. It’s what I call the Little Triangle of Assumptions.

I remember first seeing the movie The Ten Commandments in the theater over 50 years ago. One of the things I remember from the film was the stentorian voice pronouncing: proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. I recall thinking how awkward the King James English was in the picture at that point.

I knew it was a citation from the Bible. What I did not know at the time was that the sentence was engraved on the Liberty Bell, cast in 1753. But I think those writing the script of the movie knew it well enough—and the connection was deliberate. The dominant theme of the movie was liberty.

And, while one might not pick up on it at first, it is plain enough: You can’t just free the slaves and guarantee liberty for them. It was the Ten Commandments that formed the foundation and pillar stones of liberty for those newly freed. That’s why James writes this in the New Testament…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights[.]

The founding fathers stated in the first official document of our nation that our rights and our freedoms are granted, not by men, but by God. And we laid the foundation of the laws of this nation on those rights. In a way, we made a covenant with God in our founding.

Through the years of our history, we have become the wealthiest and most powerful nation the world has ever seen. And unlike the great empires of the past, our nation has a commitment to freedom and the rights of man—rights we declared were given by God.

We need to consider the obligations that fall to us with the wealth and the power we have in our hands. When you have the power, the means in your hand to do something about the freedom of a people, how can you withhold your hand from giving it?

What’s really going on in the world? And what is this War on Terror really about. When you get to the basics, what people call terrorism is actually a war against the spread of freedom. The war is being waged by the enemies of freedom. Their motive? They are mortally afraid. What are they afraid of? Well, freedom of course.

They think we are the problem, and that’s why they struck the World Trade Center. They want us to stop the invasion of what they call western values into their world. But we can’t stop it. We aren’t the cause of it, merely the harbinger. We are no more the cause of freedom than the first robin on your lawn is the cause of spring. We aren’t the cause of Freedom—God is. And their own people are beginning to demand freedom and the enemies of freedom are deathly afraid.

The criminals who are behind all the death and destruction in the name of Allah are afraid of liberty in the same way, and for the same reason, that the Jewish establishment feared Jesus. Here was a man who could step up to a man born blind and make him see; a man who could heal a withered arm, could heal a woman of a flow of blood that no one else could stop, could even bring back to life a man who had lain dead for four days; a gentle man, soft spoken, harmless. And the Jerusalem establishment wanted to kill him. Why?

If power corrupts (and we know it does) and absolute power corrupts absolutely, how is it that God has not been corrupted? This is one of the old and popular challenges that unbelievers like to toss out to Christians. Actually, it is a perfectly legitimate question, and the answer to it opens the door to understanding and resolving a wide range of issues relative to God and the Bible.

It was Lord Acton who coined the statement about power, and I am beginning to understand why it is so. And perhaps why the founders of this country were so dedicated to the balance of powers, and preventing the centralization of power. There is now, and long has been, a struggle between power and freedom. I think it is fair to say that there is enmity between power and freedom. Freedom is a threat to power, and power is a threat to freedom. It has always been so.

Why, then, does God not become corrupted by power? The answer is relatively simple, but for some reason, people don’t see it. God has a goal in mind that requires freedom for all concerned. Surely we can all understand how having an over riding objective tends to diminish every other consideration. So what is that objective? Before I answer that question, I want to talk about the issue of freedom. It has been very much on my mind of late, because I fear a considerable loss of freedom is in the works for mankind—if present trends continue. To explain this, at the risk of boring you, I have to go back to the beginning.

As I watch the way our government is changing, I can’t help thinking back to a time when man enjoyed maximum freedom under God. The story is in the Bible, of all places, and it describes, of all things, a theocracy. Many nowadays worry that Christians want to establish a theocracy in this country, but they needn’t worry. You can’t establish a theocracy in a country that doesn’t recognize God. In the Bible, the story of the theocracy (and its end) is told through the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel.

It began, ironically, with another freeing of slaves—in that case, the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. If you think about it very long, you’ll know that you can’t just grant men Liberty by setting them free. Merely freeing the slaves leads only to anarchy. To really be free requires an internal commitment to the rule of law, and the only law that can guarantee Liberty is the Law of God.

So, God brought Israel out of Egypt and 50 days later, spoke to them all from the slopes of Mount Sinai. What did he have to say? He gave them what the Bible calls his testimony—Ten Commandments. The people were frightened beyond measure at the display of power, but they agreed to the words of the Ten Commandments and voluntarily entered covenant with God as their king. It was this law, and God, that guaranteed their liberty, and that is why James, in the New Testament, calls it the Law of Liberty. It is a long and difficult story through the conquest of Canaan and the establishment of the nation. But fundamental to the nation and the economy were the same principles that guided the fathers of this country.

Is there such a thing as the unpardonable sin? It’s a disturbing idea—that there might be something I could do that could never be forgiven. And, since I have had the question in last day or so, I thought I might tell you what I know about it. It is, I think, rather more complicated than a set of a few proof texts commonly quoted and explained. Let me start with what God is really like.

The images people carry around in their heads about God often bear little resemblance to the real God of creation and the Bible. To some, God is a kind of grandfather in the sky. Not really a Father, because a father is more immediate and judgmental. No, a grandfather is better, because they let you get away with more stuff. I might despair of really understanding God if it weren’t for some revealing statements in the Bible. Take this quote from Jeremiah, for instance.

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

The conscience is the inner sense of what is right and what is wrong in our conduct and our motives. It’s supposed to be that guiding light that says, You should feel good about this act. You should feel awful about that one. It’s that sense which impels us towards the right kind of actions. It’s that complex of moral and ethical principles that controls or inhibits our actions and thoughts. And, when that’s gone or corrupted, how are you going to live your live? It is possible that we’ve brought up a generation of kids with no conscience, no shame?

Let’s talk about this for a minute. A generation with no conscience will be governed by what? Well, it won’t be governed by any sense of right and wrong. What’s left is that they will be governed by what they can get away with. If nobody will find out about what we have done, it isn’t necessarily wrong. If it doesn’t hurt me, cause me any problems, or get me in trouble than it isn’t something I have to be concerned about.

All rules are then external. If we can get around them, to our benefit and without getting caught or punished, it’s okay for us to do that. Right and wrong conduct, then, will be directed by the odds of getting caught against the possible gain from the crime—a simple punishment/reward ratio. Is that what we’ve come to? No conscience—just a question of what works and what doesn’t.