Contact: Lyn Perez, Reformed Theological Seminary, 407-366-9493
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 22, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following commentary is submitted by Dr. Michael A. Milton.
Another state legislature approves same-sex "marriage."
Another chip in the foundation of civilization. Another moment closer to a death sentence for a nation, and not even ObamaCare will be able to stop it. But the trials that we face in this nation, and in the West, are not about healthcare or even a constitutional crisis, but a crisis of ethics and morality.
Legislatures concoct bills to allow for violations of the Law of God because they either do not know the Law of God or they oppose it or they are simply apathetic toward it. Governors sign these laws for the same reason. And the yoke of moral bondage is then placed back on the children and grandchildren of our citizens. But the process of passing bills into law, in this case codifying what the Bible and thousands of years of human civilization clearly abhors, reveals the fatal flaw that our founders saw could happen: to uninformed or unconcerned citizens placing people into office who do not meet necessary conditions to serve. The first condition being moral.
The government of the United States was not devised on a whim, as Senator Smith told the leadership at the National Religious Broadcaster's dinner this year. Madison, Washington, Adams and the others, whatever their differences on religion (there was comparatively little space between them), were firm in their conviction that the representative government of the U.S. could work, but, and this is a large condition, only if the citizenry was committed to electing representatives with religious (and they referred to at least the broader tenets of Judaeo-Christian religion) morals that could exercise wise moral (and they for the larger part meant biblical) decisions in their stead. Thus John Adams would write:
"[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other" (Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States,Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, 1854), Vol. IX, p. 401, to Zabdiel Adams on June 21, 1776. See Wallbuilders.com)
Former Senator Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, now CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, declared that the governmental system of the United States was erected in an era when absolute monarchy, and monarchy by divine right ideas, were all the rage in the world. The U.S., alternatively, grounded a system of government in such a biblical representative fashion that King George III once remarked in exasperation that the experiment in self governance was a "Presbyterian parson's rebellion!" (Source: Douglas F. Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments form the 16th Through 18th Centuries [Philipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 1992], p. 131).
But the government of this nation, founded on the idea of representative governance, requires an "activation code" to work. That code is the wise moral choices of a people who know the difference between right and wrong.
That is why the Northwest Ordinance, the first major legislation signed into law by President Washington, was passed by the first Congress. It was passed to provide government funds to establish Christian "schools and the means of education" in the far territories that would support the "religion, morality, and knowledge" of citizens which they considered was "necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind." Their conviction? Only those who know the divine laws of God revealed in His Word, the Bible, can intelligently elect a candidate who will uphold those laws in office. Without that one critical element, the government runs sluggish at best, and at worst, is infected with a virus that destroys sacred and indispensable elements of morality that hold the body of our nation together. This is also what President Washington meant when he charged a nation in his farewell address,
"It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government." (Source: George Washington, Address of George Washington, president of the United States . . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796. See Wallbuilders.com).
Rogue legislatures and courts that are defying the laws of God can only be stopped when the people know their Bible. Only a true revival of religion in our nation can stop the insidious regression we are witnessing. And only God can do that. As Christians, we need to pray now more than ever, for the “moral code” that runs this nation to be re activated. For a government for the people, by the people, and of the people begins with one person who quite frankly knows his Bible.
Michael Anthony Milton (Ph.D., University of Wales) serves as the chancellor/CEO elect of Reformed Theological Seminary (one of the largest accredited seminaries in the country), a U.S. Army chaplain (instructing at the Armed Forces Chaplain School) and the James M. Baird Jr. chair of pastoral theology at RTS/Charlotte. He is an author, songwriter, singer, ordained minister, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., and he previously served as the president of RTS/Charlotte. Dr. Milton also hosts a national Bible teaching television program, Faith For Living, broadcast on the NRB Television Network, and a radio program broadcast on several stations in the southeast. For 16 years he served in the business world and has also served as a top-secret Navy linguist.
