America Was Founded on Biblical Principles of Government

For more than 20 years, Morgan Hill has been the host site for
annual American History and Government Study Seminars sponsored by
ACH Study Groups.
For more than 20 years, Morgan Hill has been the host site for annual American History and Government Study Seminars sponsored by ACH Study Groups.

Nearly 1,000 ACH alumnae have spent four back-to-back 12-hour days learning about the hand of God in His-story and Biblical principles of government. Those from out of town have enjoyed the legendary Morgan Hill hospitality.

These events have gained a reputation as the best of their kind in the nation. Last year, after two decades of leadership, my wife and I turned over the reigns to Beth Ballenger, master teacher and the world’s best storyteller. Her organization, Noah Webster Educational Foundation, is sponsoring this year’s seminar as a family vacation event in Sutter Creek. 

Our nation was the only nation in human history to have been consciously and purposefully founded upon Biblical principles. The positive results are indisputable! America has produced the greatest individual liberty and opportunity, the greatest creativity, the greatest industriousness, the greatest benevolence, the greatest scientific research from human and plant cell and atomic structure to deep space exploration!

Those Biblical principles in our foundation have been under increasingly heavy attack since shortly after the ratification of our Constitution, which, with the addition of the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, represent the greatest examples of civil documentation in human history.

One of the quotations on the walls during these ACH seminars is this one, “Take God out of anything and it dies!” For several generations we have been systematically taking God out of our public education system. What was once the shining example to the world of what public education can accomplish is now a disgrace to our nation!

Those who remain loyal and patriotic to, “the American experiment in civil self government” are hard pressed to give sound reasons for their position. 

Can you name three fundamental doctrines that had never before been incorporated together into a single civil government? Each had been tried before and failed without the support of the other two.

America has a representative government. America has a federal structure (i.e. You are as much a citizen of California as you are of the U.S.A.)  American government includes separation of powers. (i.e. The Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches are coequal and any two can overrule the third.) By the way, our founders were well aware of the Biblical source for these three fundamental doctrines.

As the American ship of state drifted farther from its moorings, “We the People” were becoming less and less aware of the only principles by which to steer her. A self-governed people without law become anarchists (every man for himself). Throughout human history, anarchy has always degenerated into harsh external government called tyranny (another word for slavery).  “Liberty without law is anarchy. Law without liberty is slavery.” This is a dilemma.

Law with liberty is found only under God’s law of liberty. Any other law, internal or external, is by definition, the law of man. Now, can you see why even the posting of the “Ten Commandments” is under such savage attack by the ungodly? It is a direct challenge to both the tyrant and his “useful idiots” the anarchists. 

Our Constitution is such a challenge. The tyrant and the anarchist hate it because it protects our right to the unalienable rights endowed by our Creator upon all men. 

ACH seminar curricula are based upon progressive presentation of seven Biblical principles of government. Each may be best understood by its counter-concept:

n Individuality as opposed to collectivism.

n Self-Government as opposed to external manipulation.

n Quality Character as opposed to degradation.

n Private Property as opposed to socialism.

n American (Biblical) Form as opposed to globalism.

n Local Authority as opposed to centralization.

n Liberty as opposed to social engineering.

If we have forgotten or never learned how to apply these principles to the issues before us, we are left with only our emotions and limited individual understanding of history and reasoning. We will forever be “reinventing the wheel!”

Here is an example. Our founders understood that majority rule (democracy) worked well in a small group (example: the New England Town Meeting). The majority lived closely with the fruit of majority decisions. Thus the system was self-policing on the individual conscience.

Democracy in a large group, however; produced “the tyranny of the majority,” whose members were unaware of the fruit of their majority decisions upon the minority. The solution was to democratically elect representatives from small constituencies that joined the larger group to govern (a republic).  Thus, the minority position was protected.

When our Constitution was first ratified, the people of each state were represented by congressmen according to population. The states, large or small, were each represented by only two senators as delegates to the U.S. Senate. Each of those senators, according to the constitution, were to be elected by a small constituency, the legislature of each state.

In California, we have 40 state senators and 80 Assemblymen, 120 legislators. Under the original constitution, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein would have to look to those 120 legislators for the privilege of membership in “the world’s most exclusive club.” That would certainly increase our respective interest in who we sent to Sacramento!

Because “We the People” had drifted from the principle of local authority, we ratified the 17th Amendment in 1913. As a result, Boxer and Feinstein are elected by a simple majority of millions of voters. In effect, they are accountable to no one, or no group. They are free to become tyrants in a group of tyrants. The individual states’ sovereignty is no longer protected by the U.S. Senate.

That is just one of many examples of violated principle. The fact that we remain so strong and so relatively free is a testimony to the strength of our foundation, NOT to our national character! As we approach the celebration of the birth of our nation, let us resolve to return and relearn those basic Bible principles of government, well illustrated in history and well reasoned.

Ben Gilmore is a Morgan Hill businessman. He’s a member of the Board of Contributors, which is comprised of local writers whose views appear in the newspaper on Tuesdays and Saturdays.