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by Tom Rose

It is obvious to anyone with a perspective of history that freedom is in decline in America. It has been for a number of generations. The question is why? The answer is that too many of our nation's moral and philosophical leaders have lost touch with the biblical foundations upon which our whole system of American culture is based (Ps. 11:3).

The Importance of Biblical Presuppositions

The presuppositions one holds are important. They condition a person's world-and-life view. They predetermine whether a person will view God's created world from a humanistic or a biblical viewpoint. The presupposition of this essay is that the God of the Bible exists. It is He who created the universe and who sustains it moment by moment (Job 38:4-41). God directs everything according to His predetermined end (Isa. 40:21-31). Therefore, when we consider anything about man or the world in which he lives, we must necessarily start with God.

Neutrality about God is impossible. Any person who thinks he can be neutral about God starts his thinking from an erroneous presupposition. Any attempt to be neutral about God is simply a fruitless effort to be anti-theistic. Cornelius Van Til points out in his Survey of Christian Epistemology that Adam and Eve were true theists before the fall because they accepted God's interpretation of themselves. But, when the tempter came along and seduced Eve into questioning God, she could listen to the tempter only by first giving up the presupposition of God's ultimacy and replacing it with an equal ultimacy between God and the devil, and herself.¹

A Look at Man

Let us ask some fundamental questions: What is man? What is his relationship to God? What is his relationship to himself, to other men, to Satan, to the state, and to the world?

The Bible tells us that man is a created being. He didn't just "happen" to evolve by chance from a lower form of life. In Genesis, we find God speaking, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). What does it mean for man to be made in the image and likeness of God? What significance does it have with respect to man's spiritual, economic, and political freedom?

The fact that man is created in the very image and likeness of God is what gives man freedom and self-responsibility before God. God, by His very nature, has the ability to think rationally and to place value on things. That is, He has the power to think economically. He is the first economist. And because man is created after God's own image, man can also think and act economically. Man's ability to impute (place) value on things and to choose, that is, to act as an economic being is but a reflection of God. Man is responsible to God because he bears God's image. This, in essence, is man's spiritual-economic tie to God as his Creator. Except for the fact that man is created in God's very image, man would have no spiritual freedom (Adam had the freedom to sin or not to sin), nor would there be any science called economics. And except for this fact, neither would there be such a thing as political freedom. If man were not created in God's image and likeness, he would be nothing more than a chattel--a non-responsible being. In short, every facet of man's freedom and responsibility before God rests on the fact that he bears the sacred image of God in his soul.

What, then, according to God's plan, is man's relationship to God and to God's creation? In Genesis 1:27 we find that the Godhead indeed did create man as proposed in Genesis 1:26. And in 1:28 we discover man's economic role relative to God's creation:

...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Gen. 1:28).

Here we see that man is made to be an economic steward who is responsible to God for his dominion over God's gift to him. Christian men and women (and not civil governments) are God's "spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5).

As a prophet, the Christian man intermediates from God toward the world in all that he thinks, says, and does. As a priest, he represents the world toward God; he dedicates the world and all that is in it in service to God. In short, man is to keep the world under dominion for the glory of God. In Exodus 19:6, God admonishes, "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation...." Even the last book of the Bible stresses believing man's God-given role as priest and king. In Revelation 1:5-6 believers in heaven sing Christ's praises: "...Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father...."

Man's duty to God, which includes man's economic role as well as his spiritual role, is found in these commands:

And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deut. 10:12).

...Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man (Eccl. 12:13).

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God (Micah 6:8)?

Mark 12:29-31 succinctly combines man's duty to both God and his fellowmen:

...The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

There is a good reason why God admonishes man to love Him "with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." This reason comes to light when we consider man's relationship to Satan. In John 8:34 and 36, our Lord admonishes us, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin...." and, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

Even though man was created as a free and self-responsible agent, man by his very nature tends to align himself with a higher power. Though free, man is not a primary entity or prime mover like God is. Man by nature will align himself either with God or with Satan. Since Adam chose to align himself with Satan, man became the servant of sin and lost the spiritual freedom that God gave him at creation. Ever since Adam's fall, sinful men have been faced with the moral choice of whom they will serve, Satan or God. Joshua challenged the Old Testament Israelites with these words:

Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth: ...choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Josh. 24:14-15).

Since man's political and economic freedoms are but functions, or outgrowths of his more basic spiritual freedom, it is crucially important for man to preserve his allegiance to God. In short, man by his very nature will choose to serve a higher power. The only question is: Will he serve Satan and thereby become a slave to sin? Or will he serve God and thus be free in accordance to God's higher law? The apostle Paul writes to regenerate man:

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Gal. 5:13-14).

Why Should Man Be Free?

A question now arises: Why should man be free? The answer to this question is very important because, unless we understand the real reason for man's God-given freedom, we aren't likely to defend invasions of our freedom by civil authorities, which is the usual source of freedom curtailment. The reason that man should be free, the reason that man must guard and defend his God-given freedom is found in Exodus 8:1. Here we find Moses confronting Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites who have been enslaved by the ruler of Egypt. He delivers God's ultimatum, "Let my people go!" But is that all God told Moses to tell Pharaoh? The answer is, "No!" The full text of Moses' ultimatum is this:

Let my people go, that they may serve me!

God's designed plan in this sinful world is for man to live as a free being, not simply for the sake of freedom in and of itself (which would be nothing more than license to do as we please), but so that man can be free to serve God! God requires that man preserve his freedom so that he can be self-responsible to God as man's Creator and Sustainer. Freedom is not something for man to enjoy only if the civil rulers graciously condescend in granting him freedom. Certainly not! Freedom is absolutely necessary if man is to be fully self-responsible before his Creator. Freedom is a gift from God, not a gift from civil rulers to be granted at their whim. For example, for me to attack or undermine another person's freedom would be to rob him of his most precious essence as a human being, his need to be self-responsible to God. The same holds true for you or the civil government, which is so often in our day the pernicious vehicle of man's enslavement.

The founding fathers of America understood this truth, but too many modern Americans, including our political leaders, have either forgotten or never understood the underlying theology of economic and political freedom. Man must be free in order to serve God in love and in truth. Let us never forget this: Freedom and self-responsibility are two sides of the same precious coin. One cannot exist without the other. If one is curtailed or expunged, the other will vanish in response. This is not to say, of course, that man cannot be spiritually free, even if he is imprisoned. I have become friends with a man who is now in prison, where he came to know Christ as Savior. This man, though imprisoned, is spiritually free. But the full blossoming of his spiritual freedom into the related sphere of political and economic freedom await his pending release.

The Role of the State

Now we come to the very practical matter of man's relation to the civil government. This matter can best be presented by asking this question: What is the proper role of civil government in a society of God-created, free, and self-responsible individuals?

James H. Thornwell (1812-1862) pointed out that civil government is a moral agency established by God:

...Civil government is an institute of Heaven, founded in the character of man as social and moral, and is designed to realize the idea of justice. ...As the State is essentially moral in its idea, it connects itself directly with the government of God.... A State, therefore, which does not recognize its dependence upon God, or which fails to apprehend, in its functions and offices, a commission from heaven, is false to the law of its own being....²

It is in 1 Timothy that we find a biblical statement of the proper role of civil government and its relationship to man. In this passage Paul tells us to pray for all men, and especially "for kings and for all that are in authority." Then he goes on to explain why we should pray for civil rulers. We are admonished to pray for them "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (1 Tim. 2:1-2).

Paul's explanation is of great importance because it instructs us regarding God's objective in establishing the institution of civil government and its proper role in a free society where men are self-responsible to God during their temporary sojourn on earth. The only proper biblical role of civil government is to maintain a moral system of law and order so that man can be free and responsible before God. Civil government is a God-instituted social agency, not to restrict man's freedom, but to maximize man's personal freedom and self-responsibility to his Creator.

Thornwell recognized this truth because, in the quote above, he went on to state that, "Subjects that have no religion are incapable of law...."³ If man were an evolved being, as the humanistic, Darwinian evolutionists suppose him to be, man would not stand as a self-responsible being before God. Nor would there be a need for a social agency called civil government to preserve and enhance man's freedom. In matter of fact, the humanistic, evolutionary view of man leads naturally to totalitarian forms of civil government which enslave men and turn them into chattel. (Another whole essay can be written on this.)

As it is, because of man's fallen nature, and because of his sinful tendency to enslave and take unfair advantage of his fellowmen, that the institution of civil government is God's appointed means of preserving and maximizing man's personal freedom and responsibility before God. There is a saying that goes like this: "That which is not free cannot be self-responsible." Thus, the spread of freedom, and not the encroachment of people's freedom, is the only valid end of civil government.

Today, we find civil rulers all over the world busily arrogating to themselves the responsibility of maintaining full employment, of stimulating the economy, of "protecting" the people from their own supposed shortsightedness, of eliminating poverty, of using the state's taxing power to forcibly transfer wealth from some citizens to others. In short, modern-day humanistic rulers use the guise of "caring for the people from the cradle to the grave" as a means of plundering the people in furthering their own political and economic goals. This is the mark of modern totalitarianism, the mark of the beast spoken of in the book of Revelation. Today, we see it growing by leaps and bounds here in America; and we also see it in every nation of the world. It is the mark of man's widespread religious apostasy and flight from biblical precepts. It turns God's institution of civil government from an agency designed to protect and maximize man's freedom and self-responsibility before God into a humanistic agency of political and economic tyranny.

As Christians, who stand free and responsible before God for our actions and the wealth we control while sojourning on this earth, we should be aware of the widespread tendency of civil rulers to depart from their God-appointed role. And we should set about to reform and reconstruct our social institutions, especially that of civil government, to maximize each person's individual freedom and self-responsibility before God. (The questions of man's sinfulness, of man's control of property, and of the role of voluntary exchange in a society of free individuals are pertinent to the issue under discussion, but limited space requires that these be treated in subsequent essays.)

© Tom Rose, 1999

Tom Rose is retired professor of economics, Grove City College, Pennsylvania. He is author of seven books and hundreds of articles dealing with economic and political issues. His articles have regularly appeared in The Christian Statesman, published by the National Reform Association, Pittsburgh, PA; The Chalcedon Report, published by the Chalcedon Foundation, Vallecito, CA; The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY; Christian Economics, published by the Christian Freedom Foundation, Buena Park, CA; and in many other publications. For ten years he wrote a weekly syndicated column published by newspapers such as: The Santa Ana Register (CA), The Indianapolis Morning News (IN), The Manchester Union Leader (NH), The Gazette-Telegraph (CO), and The Odessa American (TX). He and his wife, Ruth, raise registered Barzona cattle on a farm near Mercer, PA, where they also write and publish economic textbooks for use by Christian colleges, high schools and home educators. Rose's latest book is Reclaiming the American Dream by Reconstructing the American Republic, published by American Enterprise Publications, 177 N. Spring Road, Mercer, PA, 16137. Phone: +1 724 748 3726; Fax: +1 724 748 5373; Website: American Enterprise Publications (was www.wso.net/aep when this was published).

Endnotes

1. Cornelius Van Til, A Survey of Christian Epistemology, in Defense of Biblical Christianity Series, vol. II (n.p., den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1969), 20-22.

2. The Collected Writings of James Henry Thornwell, ed. John B. Adger and John L. Girardeau, vol. 4, Ecclesiastical (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1875] 1974), 514-515 (page references are to reprint edition).

3. Ibid., 515.

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