Much is heard today about sovereignty of nations and of humans. It might come as a surprise to the many that nations aren’t completely sovereign and that humans have no sovereignty of any kind, in any shape or form. That of course isn’t the popular belief of today which maintains that anyone can do whatever they darn well please, even murder and that at times that is excused because … Fill in your own excuse if you are demented, a liberal, an atheist, a crackpot, and a champion of human sovereignty. If anyone feels left out or slighted, it wasn’t intentional since there are too many kooks out there to name them all in such a short space.

After reading the opening paragraph, a few may be indignant and given to expressing themselves with different levels of sputtering. So be it, but the truth is the truth. The reason that nations are not fully sovereign and the reason that humans have none is that neither is totally free of constraint. In simple words, nations and humans didn’t and can’t create the rules that govern society morally and therein lays the fallacy of sovereignty for both nations and humans. You protest and ask what morals have to do with sovereignty. The answer is everything that is right and decent from the beginning of the creation. And indisputably, our laws are based on the moral underpinnings of God. Period. (More discussion on morals later.)

“So now you are bringing God into this discussion?” the dissenters say. Exactly, and that is why nations and humans aren’t sovereign. There is the higher power to whom we owe our existence whether people like it or not, and that existence comes with a very definite set of rules whose violations come at our own peril. Adam and Eve found out the hard way in the Garden that they weren’t sovereign and were banished from God’s presence. He had laid down very definite rules for living and they chose to ignore them and as the kids say, “do their own thing.”

We are in a period of time that isn’t unlike the period of time during the life of Israel when there was no king in Israel to set the rules. In Judges 17:6 we find: In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. In other words, there wasn’t a leader who would set forth the boundaries of behavior and as a result there was moral and social chaos. An article by Barbara Simpson for World Net Daily has a list of the behaviors that take place when God is ignored. In addition, you should read the excellent article by Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld on rights and sovereignty. It goes hand in hand with the Simpson article. (Both links are below.)

The words of Paul in Romans 2:16 should dispel the notion that man is sovereign and can set his own rules for living. He was speaking of the Gentiles doing right according to a conscience based on their understanding of God’s way. Even though verse 14 says they were a law unto themselves (they didn’t have the Laws of Moses), that didn’t mean they were sovereign beings. They knew God was the sovereign and that was shown by their conduct. Then Paul wrote that they too would be judged by God’s standard of conduct: In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Any notion of sovereignty is destroyed by the fact that the hearts of men and women are and will be judged by Jesus Christ.  

When people form the idea that the nation and humans are sovereign, they need to search the words of the founders. The founders, without exception, ascribed sovereignty to God and uttered not one word that would indicate in any manner that nations and man were sovereigns in their own right or any right. Every reference to a nation and man’s right to govern through laws is always predicated on observance of God’s sovereignty, thus giving lie to the idea that we are a law unto ourselves with no moral and ethical constraints.

09-24-2007 DEC 

                             Next Lesson Humans Aren’t Sovereign Part II                                                                         Recommended reading

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57795               http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57789