Why We Need Protection From Government

Walter Williams

From: The Pen of George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams:

“Why did the founders of our nation give us the Bill of Rights? The answer is easy. They knew Congress could not be trusted with our God-given rights. Think about it. Why in the world would they have written the First Amendment prohibiting Congress from enacting any law that abridges freedom of speech and the press? The answer is that in the absence of such a limitation Congress would abridge free speech and free press. That same distrust of Congress explains the other amendments found in our Bill of Rights protecting rights such as our rights to property, fair trial and to bear arms. The Bill of Rights should serve as a constant reminder of the deep distrust that our founders had of government. They knew that some government was necessary but they rightfully saw government as the enemy of the people and they sought to limit government and provide us with protections.”

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Modern Problems Require Ancient Solutions

Quoting Eric Rauch:

The men and women of the 16th century had determined a course of action, founded upon the Scriptures, that forever changed Europe and England and led to the formation of the very country where we now live. Although we are grateful for that heritage, we should also be looking to the future. The decisions that we make today will determine, 500 years from now, whether our descendants will be celebrating the thousand-year anniversary of the Reformation, or whether it will be forgotten.

Providentially, we are not left without guides to help us along this difficult path of the church’s response — and duty — to the society and the civil government that it finds itself surrounded by. We tend to think that our modern civilization has unique problems that cannot be informed by history, that we must find our own answers, and this is why the modern church has been mostly ineffectual in its calling to be an agent of change. The settings and the technology may change, but the heart of man is still the same. Man is the same sinner today that he was 500 — and 5000 — years ago. Our modern problems do not require modern solutions; they require ancient ones, the ones taught in the Bible.

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Reagan On The Constitution And The Supreme Court

Quoting President Ronald Reagan:

“The Supreme Court of the United States is the custodian of our Constitution. Justices of the Supreme Court must not only be jurists of the highest competence; they must be attentive to the specific rights guaranteed in our Constitution and proper role of the courts in our democratic system. …[J]udges’ personal preferences and values should not be part of their constitutional interpretations. The guiding principle of judicial restraint recognizes that under the Constitution it is the exclusive province of the legislatures to enact laws and the role of the courts to interpret them.”

Without Knowledge Of Self There Is No Knowledge Of God

Written by John Calvin:

Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption, reminds us, (see Calvin on John 4: 10,) that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness. We are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and, indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him. (Institutes of the Christian Religion, A New Translation, by Henry Beveridge, Esq)