New members of Congress tak ing the oath to support and de fend the Constitution of the United States, January 3, 1936.
As a newspaper writer, student, and author of boohs dealing with philo sophical, political, economic , and soci ological questions, Dr, Gilbert has be come known%as a champion of the “ Christian viewpoint # In the field of journalism, where Christian men and Christian principles are all too% rare, Dan Gilbert has fearlessly applied the fruits of a mind steeped in Scriptural truth. His book, The Biblical Basis of the Constitution, has been widely re viewed by'wthe great city newspapers as a unique contribution, resulting from deep research into the spiritual and moral forces which underlie American Constitutional ideals. At the age of twenty-four, Mr, Gilbert re ceived the^ honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in recognition of his contri butions in the field of literature and scholarship. He is one of the youngest men in history to receive this honor.
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The Christian V iew of Constitutional G o v ernment
By DAN GILBERT San Diego, California
W HEN Abraham Lincoln, in his im mortal address at Gettysburg, re ferred to our Constitutional system as a “government under God,” he was stat ing a truth which was uppermost in the minds of the founders of our nation. The Founding Fathers believed that all govern ment — all political authority — should be “ under God,” should be under His supreme authority. They revolted against English rule because they felt that neither the king nor the British Parliament recognized the supreme rule of God. The famous Revolu tionary leader, James Otis, maintained that God Himself had ordained limits beyond which Caesar, the power of government, should not go: “These are bounds, which by God and nature are fixed; hitherto have they a right to come, and no further.” The Declaration of Independence, which is the spirit of Americanism as the Consti tution is the body of Americanism, recog nizes the fact that man has a Creator. It further recognizes that men “ are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The purpose of government is to “secure” and safeguard these rights. Furthermore, when “ any form of govern ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abol ish it.” In other words, no government has a right to exist among men unless it recog nizes and safeguards God-given rights. If the government refuses to function “ under God,” if it refuses to recog nize divine authority and divinely given rights of the citizen, it forfeits Divine Moral Law in Relation to the Constitution
Most governments preach, but do not practice, the Ten Commandments. They enforce against their citizens laws against theft and murder. But they do not them selves obey these moral principles. For the citizen to cheat the government is always a crime. But, in Fascist and Communist nations, it is considered “ legal” for the government to seize and steal the property of the citizen. Under our Constitution, how ever, it is “illegal” for the government to confiscate or steal the property of the citizen. It is also illegal for the government to de stroy the life or liberty of the citizen, save in those cases where the citizen violates moral law. In America, it is legal and Con stitutional for the State, through the several states of the republic, to deprive murderers of their lives. It is also legal and Consti tutional for the State to deprive men of liberty if they commit crimes of violence or theft against their fellow men. This is all in accordance with Biblical principles. But, under our Constitution, it is illegal for the government to jail or kill a man for the expression of his God-given right to free speech. It is illegal to punish a man for his religion— for his expression of his God- given right to worship his Creator accord ing to his own conscience. In Contrast: Government by Human Decree Both Fascist and Communist governments refuse to recognize either God-given rights or God-given moral principles. They take unto themselves the power to deprive men of life and liberty for the sole reason that these men attempt to exercise, in an honest and conscien-
its right to exist—this is Americanism. A government which upholds God-given rights must, of necessity, adhere to divine moral laws upon which those rights are based. Man has a God-given right to life. He has a God-given right honestly to ac quire property for the nurture and benefit of himself and family. T o safeguard man’s right to life and to the means of livelihood honestly earned, God gave to man the moral law embodied in the Ten Commandments. Divine authority established the moral law to protect rights divinely given to man. Our Constitution recognizes these God- given rights, and to safeguard them it enforces the Ten Commandments—the di vine moral law — upon the government itself. The Constitution denies to both the state and the federal governments the power to deprive any American individual of “life, liberty, or property”—save according to “ due process of law” or as punishment for crime. The individual who obeys the moral law, and does not steal or commit murder —that individual cannot, under the Consti tution, be deprived unjustly of life or prop erty by the government. Thus, we have an application of the Golden Rule in the re lationship of the citizen to the government. If the citizen is honest and upright himself, the government must be honest and fair in its dealings with him. Unlike the system prevailing in other nations, the government of the United States may not require that the citizens refrain from stealing and kill ing, and then itself turn around and con fiscate the lives and property of the citizens.
Liberty is right because Christ said so, and Christ is God .— Abraham Lincoln.
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