Professional Documents
Culture Documents
March/April 2005
By Greg Uttinger
Beyond Pragmatism ment and constitutional consistency, government in relation to Jesus Christ’s
A mericans have
largely lost the
original meaning of the
Nineteenth-century Democrats
were a far more freedom-loving bunch
than modern Democrats or Repub-
istic war. War of that sort ratchets up the
level of government taxation and con-
trol, and destroys private property — for
word “liberal.” For us, a licans. They favored lowering trade the victor as well as the vanquished.
liberal is someone who barriers, promoted political decentraliza- Democrats have a respectable
believes that the civil tion, detested most government wealth anti-war heritage. This is not the peace-
government should manage our lives, transfers, opposed corporate welfare, at-any-price, “better Red than dead”
preferably from the highest possible and — until the populists arrived with idea of misguided Vietnam era hippies.
level of bureaucracy. It means high taxes, William Jennings Bryan — favored the Nineteenth-century Democrats recog-
onerous regulations on businesses, and gold standard. It was the Republicans nized that a true commitment to liberty
coerced wealth transfers in place of fam- of the era who had raised tariffs to requires a non-interventionist foreign
ily and church support networks. astonishing levels (during the Lincoln policy. While standing ready to defend
administration), who had centralized ourselves if attacked, we encourage
Classical Liberalism government power in Washington,
But the term “liberal” actually is peaceful cooperation through trade.
who had subsidized incredibly wasteful Democrats in both the North and
rooted in the Latin word for freedom railroad projects, and who had produced
— liber. Americans have turned the in the South showed their opposition to
the “greenback” currency not backed by imperialism during the War Between the
word 180 degrees to mean the oppo- gold. Perhaps the future for the Demo-
site of freedom, so that when I want to States. One Northern Democrat from
cratic Party lies in reclaiming their heri-
identify the original concept of limited Ohio, named Clement Vallandigham,
tage of opposition to big government.
government and individual liberty, I became one of Lincoln’s harshest critics.
Maybe that is too much to hope
have to add a qualifier: classical lib- In March, 1863, at a political meeting,
for, but there are a few planks in the old
eralism. It is classical liberalism that he called Lincoln a dictator and said
Democratic platforms that would be
incorporates many Christian ideas about that the war was “wicked and cruel.”
attractive to a large number of modern
government. Many Northern Democrats saw that
voters.
Today, both major political parties the war was largely about keeping the
have become liberals, in the modern, Anti-War Democrats southern states as a market for North-
upended sense of the word. Democrats Of all the older Democratic posi- ern manufactured goods, forcing them
are of course far more likely to be identi- tions, perhaps the one that offers the to provide tariff revenues for federal
fied as liberals, but, ironically, the label most hope for today’s Democrats is the projects mostly centered in the North
would also have fit Democrats back opposition to unnecessary war. Classical and run by corrupt Republicans. Some
when liberalism still meant freedom. liberalism opposes offensive or imperial- were in favor of allowing the South to
By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
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Faith for All of Life
King David’s
Military Genius
By Lee Duigon
A s U. S. Marines
on the evening
of November 6, 2004,
science. They would have written it up
as a heroic, uncomplicated, glorious vic-
tory in a toe-to-toe fight.
But David had another reason for
giving up the city. Consider the fates of
those who did try to hold it. Judah de-
prepared for their as- David’s victory over his rebellious fied Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586
sault on the terrorist son really happened as told. The techni- B. C., and wound up with a dead king,
stronghold of Fallujah, cal details of the story argue strongly for a ruined city, and 70 years in captiv-
a chaplain anointed them with holy oil. its historical authenticity. ity. In 70 A. D., Jewish zealots tried to
Heavy-metal Christian music played on defend Jerusalem against the Romans.
loudspeakers. A young marine stood up The Surrender of Jerusalem
The Romans took the city, destroyed
to read a verse from the Bible: how King Hundreds of years after David,
the Temple, and sold the surviving de-
David overcame the Philistines. the Chinese military sage, Sun Tzu (c.
fenders into slavery. And in 1099, with
The verse hit home. Marines rose 350 B. C.), in The Art of War, advised
Muslims defending the city, Jerusalem
up and roared, “Hoorah, King David! against measures that would result in the
fell to the armies of the First Crusade.
Huhhh!”1 destruction of a disputed city or terri-
As General George S. Patton often
Did they know they were cheering tory. “He did not conceive war in terms
of slaughter or destruction; to take all said, fixed fortifications are a monument
for a military genius?
intact, or as nearly intact as possible, was to the stupidity of mankind. Unless
As revealed in the Biblical ac-
the proper objective of strategy,” wrote supplied from the outside and defended
count, King David must rank as one of
history’s most gifted military leaders. We military historian B.H. Liddell Hart, capably, a besieged city will fall to any
get the most information about his mili- in a commentary on Sun Tzu’s teach- determined and competent attacker.
tary skill in 2 Samuel 15-18, which tells ings.2 In his own words, Sun Tzu said, By allowing Absalom to take Jeru-
the story of Absalom’s revolt. David’s “Generally in war the best policy is to salem, David saddled him with major
victory, ordained by God, in this civil take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior distractions — the administration of a
war displays the king as a strategist and to this.”3 major city, its expenses, and incidentally,
tactician par excellence. Jerusalem was David’s capital, his the king’s stable of concubines.
For those who question whether home. Someday he hoped to build The Roman historian, Livy, de-
David ever existed, the uniqueness of his God’s temple there. To have defended scribed what happened to Hannibal’s
generalship is an embarrassment. Priest it against Absalom would have exposed victorious Carthaginian army when it
and scribes concocting a fiction, centu- the city to extensive damage. What took over the city of Capua, famous in
ries after the supposed fact, are hardly would be the good of controlling Jerusa- those days for its luxury and hedonistic
likely to have been experts in military lem if it were reduced to rubble? lifestyle: “...Capua robbed his army of
T here is a lot of
confusion about the
separation of church and
What Does the Bible Say?
Perhaps the most disturbing thing
about this legend is that many Chris-
to the world, being salt and light, the
state expects citizens to be law-abiding
and peaceful. Both the church and state
state. History has been tians agree, believing that Biblical Israel are accountable to God for their origin
rewritten to distort the was a theocracy with the functions of and authority. Both must confess, “The
clear intentions of our the church and state all mixed together. Lord is our Lawgiver!” (Is. 33:22; Jas. 4:
Founding Fathers, and the activist bent This, however, cannot be supported 12). The state has the God-given power
of the Supreme Court has set precedents from Scripture: “…the chief priest to use the sword to defend its citizens
based on political interests instead of the is over you in all matters of Jehovah, from outside aggression (Rom. 13:1-7),
original intent of the Constitution. and…the ruler of the house of Judah in and to keep them safe from criminals
Church and state are assumed to all the King’s matters…” (2 Chr. 19:11). by administering swift justice according
be two distinct institutions. As much as This is about as clear as it gets: the priest to the sure and certain terms of Biblical
we hear about this “separation,” many (church) is in charge of religion, and the law (Dt. 16:20; Pr. 21:3).
people would be surprised that the roots king (state) is in charge of civil duties. The church is to set forth the Word
of this view are not very deep. They This clear separation of powers and of the Lord, so that society will have a
only extend back to 1962, when the U. responsibilities is evident in Old Testa- clear direction and trustworthy guid-
S. Supreme Court cast aside nearly 200 ment Israel, where there was a harmony ance. Its members should be taught to
years of constitutional history and ruled take care of the education and welfare
of church and state under God, not a
in Engel v. Vitale that school prayer of each other instead of letting the state
union of the two. Moses was Israel’s
was unconstitutional. Within a year usurp this responsibility.
civil ruler, and Aaron was her priest, as
the Court had removed prayer, Bible Nineteenth century pastor Dr. Wil-
God, from Israel’s very beginning, kept
reading, and religious instruction from liam Symington described the church-
separate the civil and ecclesiastical of-
public (government) schools. state relationship: “Things may be
fices.2 This truth is seen in the prophet
For more than a century the Su- diverse without being adverse. That civil
Zechariah’s statement: “These are the
preme Court has arrogantly made judi- society and ecclesiastical society differ,
two anointed ones, who stand beside
cial decisions with the attitude that the we admit…. But they are not…neces-
Constitution means what the Court says the Lord of the whole earth” (Zech. 4:
14). The two anointed ones refer to the sarily opposed to each other.”3 Sev-
it means.1 With the majority of Chris- enteenth century Westminster divine
tians confining their Biblical beliefs to kings and priests, as the following brief
list illustrates: George Gillespie, “the prince of Scottish
their churches and homes — as if God theologians,” notes several agreements
is not God in all of life — the media, King Priest and differences between the church and
law schools, and the judiciary have been Moses Aaron state authorities:4
dominated by either non-Christians, or Joshua Eleazar
by Christians who don’t have a devel- David Abiathar Agreements
oped Christian worldview. This double- Solomon Zadok 1. They are both from God and are
whammy of anti-Christian thought has Hezekiah Azariah “ministers of God,” and shall give
resulted in an urban legend whereby the Zerubbabel Joshua account of their administrations to
average person supposes that there is, God.
or should be, a separation between the While the church expects its 2. Both must observe the law and
church and the state. members to present a godly testimony commandments of God and each
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