Question

What do what you believe the Biblical principles advise regarding the application of law within administration? (1100-1200 words please)

Answer 1

The Bible’s influences on the Constitution were manifested in several ways:

First, general theological or doctrinal proposals on human nature, civil power, political culture, and similarly informed conceptions and law and civil public organizations.

For example, scholars have noted that a biblical understanding of original sin and the radical depravity of humankind (Genesis 3) inspired framers to design a constitutional system that would guard against the concentration or abuse of governmental powers in the hands of fallen human actors.

The most basic, fundamental features of the American constitutional design — limited government, separation of powers, and checks and balances — are best understood in the light of this theological doctrine of human depravity and the attendant necessity to check, in the words of Federalist 37, “the infirmities and depravities of the human character.”

For another example, oaths of office, ubiquitous in constitutions and statutes in the founding era, were often explicitly premised on a belief in a future state of rewards and punishments.

Second, the founding generation saw political and legal models in the Bible that they were trying to integrate into their political and legal systems.

For example, in Article IV, 4, cl. 1, the Constitution requires each state to maintain "a republican form of government." Many in the founding generation believed that the Hebrew commonwealth described in the Old Testament provided the republican government with a divinely inspired model that was worthy of emulation in their own political experiments.

Third, some particular laws published in the United States may have been affected by the Bible. Constitution. To be sure, it is hard to establish definitively that a particular constitutional provision was taken from a particular biblical passage; rather, it is more probable that constitutional principles were indirectly affected by biblical ideas that had long before found expression in Western legal tradition, particularly in English common law and, more lately, colonial legislation.

Article I, 7, cl. 2 except Sundays from the 10 days that a chairman is required to veto a bill. This is an implicit recognition of the Christian Sabbath, commemorating the sanctification of the seventh day for rest by the Creator (Genesis 2:1-3), the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath free from secular defilement (Exodus 20:8-11), and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead in the Christian tradition.

The Fifth Amendment, drawn up by the First Federal Congress, prevents double-hazard or trial of a defendant twice for the same crime which St. Jerome, in a commentary of the late fourth century and legal scientists, has since said was a principle discovered in the novel of the prophet Nahum 1:9.

Legal commentators have highlighted extra instances of the impact of the Bible on particular constitutional regulations, including regulations on cruel and unusual punishment, the number of witnesses needed in instances of treason, affirmation as an alternative to oath, and blood corruption.

Although the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 easily admitted that the document they wrote was imperfect, there was agreement that under the conditions it was the best that could be framed. And some, like Benjamin Rush, "thought that God's hand was used in this job," just as surely as "God split the Red Sea to offer the Israelites a passage."

Even the skeptic Benjamin Franklin, while disclaiming that the Convention’s work was “divinely inspired,” remarked that he could not conceive such a momentous achievement as framing “the new federal constitution” without it “being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent and beneficent Ruler.”

Today's commentators may disagree that the Constitution was a product of Divine Providence or that it includes aspects informed by Christianity, but the Bible was one of the intellectual sources that affected the founders. Recognizing the often-neglected contributions of the Bible to the founding project enriches our knowledge of the excellent constitutional experiment of the nation in republican self-government and law-abiding freedom.

Some things are apparent from natural law, from biblical laws, from logic, good order, and from human nature. We are all called, in a sense, to be judges from the distinct rules of the Bible and the distinct types of legislation of the Bible. We all learn a type of common sense and uncommon sense at times. The Bible leads us to know wisely and responsibly how to create choices. And indeed, this responsibility has been given to us by God. It's a wise, complete and accountable way to study this judgement or administrative order.

In particular, the Bible organizes the various types of law through the doctrine of covenants. In doing so, the Bible enables us to systematically and meaningfully comprehend distinct systems of Biblical legislation, each forming its own kind of constitution.

Maybe I could put it differently. Different covenants generate varying relationships and do different things. Most nations today have official constitutions enacted by government or common law systems in terms of law. Nations derive constitutions from agreement, common or historical consensus. Sometimes constitutions appreciate themselves or their government as being from God.

When one studies the laws of the Bible, these laws can and do become complex. Much of the complexity can be sorted out through simple common sense. It is for example obvious that when the Bible describes a cultural practise of the Jews; that we do not need to enforce that practise as a moral or social law. We all, or at least most of us, somehow understand this intuitively. But sometimes it becomes harder.

This became an problem for the early church when they had to decide how, where and when to expect gentiles (non-Jews) from the Law of Moses to follow moral values. By making Gentiles Jews, some early Jewish Christians colloquially called the Judaisers tried to do so. Of course, the function of baptism (or mikveh, which is also a practice of Jewish conversion) might well have resulted them to expect such an attitude.

The Jews have historically sought to apply moral laws to gentiles through what they call the seven laws of Noah. In the New Testament the Biblical writers however did so through natural law and through the doctrine of covenants.

Power is a three-strand cord that can't be discovered without each other.

There is power in a triad of power, accountability and responsibility. Like a three-legged table, supported by all three, one cannot withdraw one facet of authority from the other without overthrowing it, even though each of the three has been said to relate to the other in its own manner. Power is a three-strand cord that can't be discovered without each other.

There is power in a triad of power, accountability and responsibility. Like a three-legged table, supported by all three, one cannot withdraw one facet of authority from the other without overthrowing it, even though each of the three has been said to relate to the other in its own manner.