|
The Great Seal of the United States of America bears the Latin inscription novus ordo seclorum, meaning "A new order of the ages." In the Bonus Book For the Family, over forty pages are dedicated to this important subject.
Mankind has a choice between two fundamentally different worldviews or opinions about truth or reality. The Judeo-Christian worldview arises out of a belief in the infinite God Who created man in His own image. The focus of the Bible, going back over 4,000 years, is history and God's role on behalf of mankind. Every person is valuable to God and has the unique spiritual capacity to be guided by and work with Him. The other worldview places man at the helm. Having rejected God, those who embrace this worldview proceed in a way that reflects the incalculable and changeable decrees of worldly thinkers. The value of life becomes the arbitrary choice of the hierarchy that manages to be in control of knowledge centers and law at any given time. This secular worldview has no basis whatsoever for unalienable human rights which cause restrictions to be placed on the use of government power.
A definite, unique, and specific American philosophy of government does exist. Under the influence of that philosophy, our nation became the overwhelming choice of people all throughout the world. Chief among the foundations of the American philosophy is the belief that man is the beneficiary of human rights which are superior to secular claims, government, and things material. Therefore, governments serve as a tool under the direction of the people for the preservation of their unalienable God-given rights. Jefferson wrote, "Almighty God has created the mind free." Under secularist-controlled governments and education, the freedom to hear both sides of issues and make wise choices falls apart. (Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, passed in the Assembly of Virginia, 1786. Jefferson was the governor of Virginia at the time.)
William Ellery Channing wrote, "Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite knowing no restraint, and poverty and suffering having no solace or hope, man would trample in scorn the restraints of human laws. Virtue, duty, principle would be mocked and scorned as unmeaning sounds. A sordid self-interest would supplant every feeling, and man would become . . . a companion of brutes" (cited by James Hutson in a presentation to the John Courtney Murray Seminar at the American Enterprise Institute, June 6, 2000).
The American philosophy is an indivisible whole, and any compromise in upholding its principles destroys its functionality. The bricks and mortar of this unique American philosophy are detailed in the Declaration of Independence, unanimously approved by the Continental Congress in the late afternoon of July 4, 1776. Defending this Declaration, which came upon the world scene like an unrelenting tide, is our all-sufficient basis for renewal today.
|
