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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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A Nation of Laws and God-Given Rights 0:10 Well, greetings. We're looking at chapter 36 of reversed from culturally woke to biblically awake. Chapter 36, the consent of the0:22 governed and the rule of law. I remember when I was in grade school hearing this phrase over and over, we are a nation of laws. It never impacted me at all. I mean, I0:34 thought, yeah. Okay. So we are. Isn't everybody else? I didn't realize I didn't grasp the implication of that and how fortunate I was to live in a0:46 nation where we were a nation of laws. We obeyed laws, or for the most part, we did. I didn't grasp power around the world, dictators and0:57 tyrants, and how much massive amount of corruption and violation of the nation of laws that were in other countries. And I came, as I grew older, came to really1:09 appreciate that phrase, a nation of laws. I wanna take us back to what I've shared on quite a few of these videos, so I'm repeating myself multiple times,1:21 but it's just so important. And that is our our our founding document, our birth certificate before the constitution was the declaration of independence. And it says1:33 that all authority, all rights come from God and God alone. The reason why I keep saying this is because this, in my opinion, as I've said before,1:45 is the real epicenter of American exceptionalism, which makes us exceptional as a nation. To recognize all rights come from God, and they are given1:57 by a gracious and loving God to We the People. And we the people then temporarily loan them to elected officials.2:10 And those elected officials have it for short durations of time, not permanently. God owns these rights, but he gives them to us, the people, and then we temporarily loan them2:21 to people. Loan them to elected, officials. This means this is a very limited form of government. Our Constitution is designed to restrain2:33 government. Rewind! Our Bill of Rights in our Constitution is designed to restrain government. In fact, in our Constitution it has what's called enumerated powers:2:45 Numbered, listed, enumerated. They're limited. The government is not supposed to do beyond this. Here, government, is what you are to do and no more. In fact, the2:57 challenges we have in our government is that our government is violating that and going way beyond its enumerated powers. That's why we have many of the problems we do today. It was very3:09 interesting that during the time of FDR, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President, and during Barack Obama's time, both of them said, we need a bill of rights for government. No.3:21 The bill of rights is to protect the citizens citizens because the purpose of government is to protect the citizenry. Both of them contended, we need to give a bill of rights for the government to have3:32 more power. No. That's absolutely contrary to scripture. And the way in which the constitution goes with the course of scripture is it understands the nature of human depravity,3:45 the capacity of sin on the human heart. And based upon that, we've got to limit the amount of power that humans have on earth so they don't obliterate 1 another. In other words, when3:57 a nation follows within the scope of what God has commanded, that nation will be blessed. Deuteronomy 28, the 1st 14 verses, enunciate very clearly4:09 the blessings on a nation if that nation will walk in the ways of God, in covenant with God. Once they acknowledge God is God, God's the ultimate authority, then4:21 human government is automatically limited. We've been saying this a number of different times on on on these videos. There is a doctrine of what's called the lesser magistrate.4:33 What is that? Go back to the 15 fifties in Materberg, Germany. There were 9 pastors who rose up and said, we will not accept what this magistrate,4:45 government leader, is saying because of the doctrine effectively of the lesser magistrate, that above this this lower magistrate, this lesser magistrate, is a4:57 higher magistrate. What is that higher magistrate? That higher magistrate is God himself. So these 9 pastors rose up. The doctrine of lesser magistrate formulates from5:09 that time frame, and they said, we will not we will not obey what this magistrate is saying because it's in contradiction to what the highest magistrate, God himself, is5:20 saying. That's not unlike what the apostle said. We're not gonna obey man. We're gonna obey God on this 1 in Acts when the when the apostles were told, be silent and don't talk about Jesus at5:32 that particular time. Related to that is the doctrine also of interposition. What's interposition? That's when a law or a rule, let's say a federal5:44 law, is such that it's in violation with good Christian conscience, and so you interpose interposition. You interpose yourself in there to block the5:56 harm done by this higher law that's in contradiction to the word of God. We find that in 1st Samuel 14, the law of interposition taking place at that particular time. In6:08 Proverbs 24 24, another place talks about rescue the perishing, that the the abortion the abortion anti abortion movement to try to save babies at abortion clinic is founded on6:20 this principle of intervention, operation rescue, that used to block abortion clinics. Why they do that? It's based upon this scriptural principle. We have to interject or interpose6:32 ourselves in there to try to save the life of an innocent baby. During war war world war 2, saving the lives of Jews, Corrie 10 Boom, Raoul6:43 Wallenberg, and many others. It was the the principle of interposition. We put ourselves in there when an ungodly law is trying to bring results that are displeasing to the6:55 lord. There's another principle called nullification. What is nullification? It's when a a state law or a a a a smaller jurisprudence is finds that7:07 a a federal law is absolutely violating, what is appropriate at a given time. We certainly see that, for example, in the Fugitive Slave Act in, in7:19 18 hundreds. A slave, for example, made it to Oberlin to Oberlin College, and, these students and the faculty rose up and protected that slave from being hauled back to7:31 the south to their to their slave owner. What's that called? That's called nullification. Now the test for this is not just our rising up on the inside and say, we wanna rebel against7:43 some law. That's not the test. The test for what is legitimate nullification or not is if it's absolutely in conformity with God's standard. You you find examples7:54 of this in scripture quite a bit where they defied the law, they nullified the law, or they interposed themselves in the law. What would be some of the examples? Well, 1 is the Egyptian midwives in8:06 Exodus chapter 1, the hiding of Joshua's spies by Rahab in Joshua 2, Obadiah hiding the prophets in 1st Kings 18, Moses leading the Jews out of captivity8:18 in Exodus 14, Daniel in Daniel 6, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. All of these are examples where they refuse to deny their faith, and because of their8:30 the ultimate authority, God Almighty, they refuse to go along with what the world leaders were saying at that particular time. Now there's layers of of8:42 magistrates. We have, obviously, we have the the federal law. We have state. We have county. We have municipal laws. And there are times when a law, federally, is in violation8:54 of the scripture of good religious conscience, and lower entities will have to stand against those laws at that at that given time. That's the law of law of lesser magistrates.9:06 Now we live in a culture right now where, for example, the debate is going on about immigration. What does the scripture say? The scripture has a lot to say about the nature of immigration.Lesser Magistrate, Interposition, and Nullification 9:19 Who's allowed to come? The word is ger, g e r in the Hebrew. We're gonna talk about that on another time. We won't go into that right now except to say, when we find people9:31 declaring a sanctuary city or a sanctuary state, that is in violation of the very Hebrew words in Hebrew scriptures of the intentionality of the nature9:43 of immigration. Now we'll unpack that at a at a later time. But the essence of what I wanna say right now is the the goal of defying a law or nullification is not based upon my9:55 own human whims. I don't like that law, so I'm going against it. That is not an option. Most laws are good. Most laws are designed to protect the citizenry. But there are occasion when10:06 laws develop for various reasons and come into being that are in defiance of the word of God. And that's when you stand against them at that time.10:18 Because once again, I wanna remind us, the whole purpose of government is to protect the citizenry. It's to, affirm and reward good, and to,10:30 restrain evil. And it's to maintain order, and so we have peace and tranquility in our home. Well, we're moving from culturally woke to biblically10:42 awake.10:43 Let us pray. To our almighty God, to provide leaders, leaders that will defend theModern Applications and Government’s Biblical Role 10:55 poor, deliver the needy, and crush the oppressor. God, may we uphold righteousness and justice in our nations. May our governments11:07 truly represent its people and its elected officials. May they be obedient and accountable to the laws of the land. Father, we thank you for the conviction of the11:19 Holy Spirit in the position that they've been granted, that you would form protection around about them, that you would guard the gates of their mind and heart and will to be true ministers11:32 of government, ministers that serve you. We thank you for their willingness to serve our nation, protect them, and appoint them, and anoint them. In11:44 Jesus' name, amen.11:47 We hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you so much for watching. Hey, don't forget to check out this discussion questions that are attached. Have a fun time studying, and we will see you in the next chapter.In this video 0:00 A Nation of Laws and God-Given Rights9:10 Lesser Magistrate, Interposition, and Nullification10:44 Modern Applications and Government’s Biblical Role
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