for civil government.¹The Scriptures acknowledged civil authority as delegated authority from God, upon which He placed divine limits. Even kings were not allowed to abuse God's people. Those who did suffered not only divine retribution, but natural disaster.²Biblical principles cautioned the Founders of the need to restrain the exercise of civil authority to its God given charter. The Biblical charter ordained civil authority chiefly to restrain evil and the wickedness of men and to promote an environment where the proclamation of God's Truth was permitted freely.³The Constitution framed the legitimate use and role of secular authority according to these Biblical patterns.
Can a civil authority remain legitimate and under divine favor if it throws off restraint and claims for itself rights and privileges not granted by God? No! Such a government sets itself up as a higher authority than God when it presumes to write and implement laws opposed to God's Law. We have that situation today in America. The laws of the land, which now forbid the teaching of God's Law in the schools and in public, imply that God is a threat to the State. The State must therefore control the free expression of religion in order to protect the people from harm. But the truth is that the State is entirely dependent upon the Law of God for its very existence! Yet the State, by its laws, has made itself the enemy of God.
If there is no authority higher than the State, then the State effectively becomes the arbiter of all that is just and right. The danger of this autonomous humanistic State is that it will not be restrained from exercising despotic and tyrannical power over its citizenry because it has become accountable to no one but itself. Recognizing no divine limit to its function, it becomes the arbiter of morals as well as policies. When a religious objection arises to a particular law or policy, the State appeals only to itself for its decision. It has no guiding principle higher than a flimsy social contract that is easily reinterpreted to suit present whims. There are no abiding principles or enduring truths to which the government must subject itself with reverence, respect, and awe. There is no absolute authority to which it may turn for counsel and wisdom.
When the Supreme Court publicly and officially expelled the Ten Commandments from our public schools in the 1960's, it denied a divine sanction for morals and the State declared itself "Supreme." A black-robed, gang of nine has become our nation's god. It has declared its authority higher than the Creator's by standing in opposition to God's Law and by presuming to pass judgment upon the counsel of God. As a result, our protection -- as God's property -- is being removed. Today, individual rights may serve the State's interests, but tomorrow the State might change its mind. Who is to stop it now from dissolving those rights we so cherish? Are we not already seeing an erosion of our freedom?

Cut off from divine favor and divine justice, the State can write laws opposed
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