Restoring the

Foundations
Joe Morecraft, III
PSALM 11
In the LORD I take refuge;
How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your
mountain;
For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string,
To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart;
If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?"
The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD's throne
is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the
portion of their cup.
For the LORD is righteous; He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.
INTRODUCTION
It is an honor to be in the same room with Judge Roy
Moore and several other great warhorses in the battle for
America, who have been on the battlefield for many years.
My prayer for you is that years from now, you will be saying
what Caleb said, recorded in Joshua 14:11-1 am still as
strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me, as my
strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and
for going out and coming in. Now then, give me this
hill country ... for you heard on that day that Anakim
[giants] were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps
the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out
as the LORD has spoken.! Caleb was 85 when he spoke
these words!
EXPOSITION OF PSALM 11
Historical Context
David lived through two periods of national turmoil, when
it could be said that the foundations of society were being
destroyed. The first was during the administration of King
Saul, who increasingly betrayed the foundations of law and
justice for Israel's society. During this time David watched
the moral degeneration of Saul, who treacherously tried to
12 the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
kill David out of jealousy. The second was during David's
own administration as Icing, when Absalom, his son,
attempted a coup d'etat, rallying much of the populace to
him. Once again David's life was in danger and the nation
was brought to moral chaos.
Exposition
OvervieJJJ
Portions of this psalm are often quoted and often
misunderstood, because of a failure to see the literary
structure of the psalm:
1. (11:1a) David begins with a confession of faith in
God
2. (11:1b-3) David's friends urge David to flee
danger
3. (11 :4-7) David reaffirms his faith in God
Expository Sketch
1. (11:1a) David's Confession of Faith
In the LORD I take refuge ...
Although David was surrounded by many powerful
enemies seeking his life, who seemed to be making
headway at overturning Israel's godly civilization, David
composed this psalm from the perspective of his faith in
Jehovah, not from a sense of panic. In fact, he viewed his
entire dangerous situation from the perspective of faith.
It is as if he said, "1 have taken refuge in the Lord, and
regardless of the fact that everything looks as if God's
promises are failing, I still trust Him. I need no other
refuge; and I am confidently assured that He will not turn
His back on His faithful people and abandon the work He
has begun with our forefathers." It was from this vantage
point of faith in God and in God's Biblical revelation that
David was able to make sense of his situation and to know
how to face the crisis before him.
This must be true of us today if we are to win the battle
before us. We must look at it and respond to it from the
perspective of faith in and submission to God's Biblical
revelation because the Bible is divinely authoritative in
everything about which it speaks-and it speaks about
everything. Without that Biblical revelation we have no
basis for knowledge, morality or justice. Without it, these
are empty words, arbitrarily defined. If we are going to
win Ameriea back for our children, we must analyze and
confront the critical issues before us as Christians and
not simply as conservatives. Conservatism is impotent.
Conservative humanism is as devastating to this republic
HIiJIU17l1g f/;e l'olllldtillIJ/IJ
as Liberal humanism-it just takes a little longer.
2. (11:1b-3) David's Friends' Ad\,ice to Escape Danger
How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to
your mountain;
For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string,
To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart;
If the foundations are destroyed
What can the righteous do?"
David's friends were short-sighted, cowardly and
despondent regarding their dangerous situation. They were
not malicious enemies; they were cowardly friends, whose
perspective was one of unbelief. Cowardice is always
dangerous and deadly; and any advice to desert a post of
duty is unwise and wicked.
They were urging David to flee to the mountains for safclr
rather than risking death by making a stand. The coward
always asks first, not what is right, but what is safe. And
it is more painful for a faithful man to hear the co\yardly
pleading of well-meaning friends than to hear the threats
of the enemy. As I often prayed in the mid-1980's, when
I ran for the u.s. Congress: "Lord, I will take care of my
enemies, if you protect me from my friends." I still pray
that on occasion.
To convince David that he ought to flee, his friends painted
a frightening picture of the situation: For, behold, the
wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow
upon the string, to shoot in darkness at the upright
in heart ... The danger was real and imminent. David's
enemies had already begun their assault on his life and on
the foundations of the Hebrew Republic.
2
Therefore, they
asked: If the foundations are destroyed, what can the
righteous do?
What is meant by "foundations" in this context? They are
the pillars on which a society is based-the religious root
from which a culture is given its distinct character-the
basic principles of law and justice on which a constitutional
and free society is based. For Israel in the Old Testament
and for us in the United States those pillars are faith in the
God of the Bible and submission to His Biblical revelation.
Four of those basic foundational truths are set forth
concisely in Isaiah 33:22-
For the LORD is our judge,
The LORD is our lawgiver,
The LORD is our Icing;
He will save us ...
The LORD is our judge. All individuals and institutions
are accountable to Almighty God for all their thoughts,
words, actions and I" ,ltcles, I Iistorl' will end in an awesome
and final Day uf Judgmenl, \"hen all people will stand
before God and give an account of themselves. When a
person or nation believes this, it makes him more restrained
in the face of temptation:, to sin. Belief in tlle judicial
authority of God can mal,e a people more responsible and
act more morally. On the other hand, if this principle is
rejected, and a society believes that it is accountable only
to itself, it encourages lawlessness and irresponsibility.
Furcillg itself to belieye tllat it will not be judged by God,
a humanistic society abandons itself to immorality and
perversion.
The I,ORO is our lawgiver. God is the only So\1tce of
law and ethics for individuals and institutions, which will, if
oLeyed and enfurc:ed, guarantee liberty, justice, prosperity
and peace, The standard of Biblical Law is the only means
by which we can distinguish good and evil, justice and
injustice, truth and falsehood, reality and illusion. Without
that in fallible and absolute moral standard everything would
be a dangerous and terrifying blur. Humanism believes
the opposite. It believes that man is his own lawgiver, that
he has the ability to determine good and evil for himself
without any reference to God or His Bible. It does not
believe that a divinely re,'ealed book of unchanging moral
absolutes governing all of life exists. Therefore, invariably,
what humanism calls good, the Bible calls evil; and what
the Bible calls good, humanism calls evil, e.g., abortion and
hOll1osexuality.
The LORD is our Icing. The Lord is the ruler of the
Icings of the earth, Revelation 1 :5. He is the King of
Icings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19:16. All authority
in heaven and earth belongs to Him, Matthew 28:18.
His sovereignty is universal, total, limitless, final, eternal,
ultimate. He and He alone has the right to rule and to
regulate every aspect of human life, human society and of
the whole universe. Throughout our history as a nation,
we haye belieyed that the Lord is not only "the Author
of liberty" but that He is also the "great God, our King."
Therefore, all human authorities are limited in the extent
of their authority and jurisdiction and in their exercise of
power. Furtllermore, they are all accountable to the Source
of all autlwrity, which is the God of tlle Bible-There
is no authority except from God, and those which
exist are established by God, Romans 13:1. When this
foundational truth is disregarded and a society no longer
believes that the Lord is its Sovereign, authorities will
overstep their limitations and usurp powers God has not
giyen them, attempting to control and regulate all aspects
of society. They will grab as much power as they can to
impose their will and self-induced values on the rest of the
population. When a culture rejects the sovereignty of God
and seeks to replace it with its own pretended sovereignty
and auto1lomy, it enslaves the populace.
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 13
i
Restoring the Foundations
He will save us, i.e., the LORD is our Savior. The heart
of the Christian Gospel is that salvation from sin and its
consequences for individuals and nations is through faith
inJesus Christ, John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Galatians 2:16, Who
brings us rich, satisfying, life-changing, comprehensive
salvation under the sovereign rule of His Word, even
to those who do not deserve it. On the other hand the
humanists look to a variety of saviors-politics, education,
technology and research. Ultimately, humanism believes
that Man is his own savior, and that Man will bring a
coercive utopian-salvation to the world built by man
through political and social planning and regulation, state-
controlled education and technology.
The foundations of society, as described in Isaiah 33:
22, are "destroyed" when they are neglected, betrayed,
subverted and supplanted. This leads to moral, social and
cultural collapse. The goal of this subversion is the moving
of a nation off of one religious and ethical foundation
to another religious and ethical foundation in which the
adherents of the older religion are marginalized.
So then, what is the point of their question: if the
foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous
do? According to David's friends the only reasonable and
sane course for David was flight. Why? Because, once the
foundations are destroyed, there is no place to stand, there
is loss of footing, and so there is no hope to change things.
Trying to bring restoration when the foundations of society
are destroyed is like polishing brass on the Titanic. The
only choice is to run away to the mountains, learn to playa
guitar, and wait for Jesus to return and burn everything up.
Praise the Lord, David did not share the escapist religion of
his cowardly friends.
3. (11:4-7) David's Reaffirmation of Faith
The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD'S
throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the
portion of their cup.
For the LORD is righteous; He loves
righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.
Instead of yielding to their temptation, David stood firm
and refused to surrender his culture and nation to his
enemies. God used his courageous faithfulness to root
out his enemies and restore his nation. And where did
he find a place to stand for this great work? In His God
and His Biblical revelation. These foundations were not
and could be destroyed. He had a place to stand because
14 the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
His Lord and Savior is seated on His throne in His palace
in heaven, where He reigns supreme as sovereign over all
men and nations on earth. He oversees with omniscience
the actions of His people and their enemies. He judges all
men according to the standard of His Law and will jusdy
punish the wicked for the protection of the righteous.
What is more is the incomparable blessing God brings to
His righteous people: they will behold His face in love and
security.
In other words, David was walking by faith not by sight.
Instead of determining his response to the situation by
what he saw, contradictory as it appeared to the promises
of God, David determined his course of action by his faith
in the written Word of God. David did not look at life
from the same perspective as his friends. His God-centered
worldview was based on what God had revealed about
Himself in the Bible; and faith in that revelation made him
courageous in standing against the enemies of his nation.
Sometimes evil looks as if it has won and is in the driver's
seat; but we know better, and David knew better, because
God has spoken (psalm 2:1-6, 10-12):
Why are the nations in an uproar,
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand,
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the LORD and against His Anointed:
"Let us tear their fetters apart,
And cast away their cords from us!"
He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The LORD scoffs at them.
Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury:
"But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain."
Now therefore, 0 kings, show discernment;
Take warning, 0 judges of the earth.
Serve the LORD with reverence,
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and
you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
What is God telling us in Psalm 2? Because fallen man
views God's moral order as chains to be broken, the kings
and nations of the earth conspire to overturn that moral
order so they can be free from it. God says that all their
efforts are "a vain thing," i.e., an absolutely futile thing; and
so His response is contemptuous laughter, because He sits
as the almighty Sovereign over all the earth. His response
Restoring the Foundations
to their attempt to overthrow His sovereignty is the
establishing of His Son as ruler of the kings of the earth,
to whom all men and nations are accountable, and Who will
shatter like cheap clay pots all those nations that refuse to
repent of their rebellion against Him-Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like
earthenware, v. 9.
Therefore, all the political powers and judges of the earth
throughout history are called to recognize the supremacy
of the God of the Bible and serve Him, and to pledge
their allegiance to the Son of God, personally and officially,
bowing before the authority of His written Law, lest He
become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath
may soon be kindled. On the other hand, God blesses
and protects all who take refuge in Him.
Psalm 11 has a thrilling conclusion in verse seven: For
the LORD is righteous; He loves righteousness; the
upright will behold His face. This is the basis of David's
hope and the motive of his courageous faithfulness. God
is righteous! God loves righteousness! David is righteous!
God hates and destroys unrighteousness! Therefore,
David can be confident that God will maintain his cause
and avenge him in the destruction of his enemies and the
restoration of the foundations.
Application of Psalm 11
Two kinds of people are referred to in Psalm 11: righteous,
upright people, v. 5,7, and wicked people who love
violence, v. 5-6. Knowing the difference is of the most
vital importance for us today.
A righteous person whom God favors, defends and
rewards is: (1) One whom God has declared righteous
through faith in Jesus Christ. A person is not righteous
until God says he is. Until that moment God says he or
she is condemned as a sinner; but when that person puts
his faith in Jesus Christ and rests upon Him alone for
acceptance with God, God credits Christ's righteousness
to his account and declares him to be righteous in Christ-
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1. (2) One who, out of
gratitude for Christ, seeks, with God's help, to conform his
own life and thought to God's moral standard in the Bible.
(3) One who understands that that same law in the Bible is
foundational to the life of his nation. Proverbs 14:34 says:
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to
any people. Foundational conformity to God's written
Law exalts a nation to greatness; but disobedience to that
written Law brings a nation into deep disgrace.
A wicked person is someone who bases his life and thought
on himself as god, choosing to determine good and evil
for himself, without any reference to the revelation of his
Creator. He or she is described in our Psalm 11 as one who
loves violence, v. 5. Why? Because the wicked, passively
or actively, are destroying the foundations of a righteous
nation by trying to remove God and His Biblical revelation
from that foundation and by moving that nation to another
foundation, rebuilding it on a principle of revolt against
God. This always leads to bloodshed and death, hence the
wicked love violence.
The late 17
th
and early 18
th
centuries are referred to as the
Age of Enlightenment, although, I prefer the designation,
the Age of Endarkenment. During these decades Europe
left its ancient Christian base of faith that truth is known
only by divine revelation for a new base of blind faith
that man is the measure of all things, and that he can
discover truth by reason unaided by revelation. When this
philosophical, intellectual revolution took place, the bloody
French Revolution of 1789 was inevitable. It was the first
war of its kind in history. Its expressed purpose was to
expunge a Christian moral order from France, to remove
France completely from its Christian base. Because of the
change of foundations those were bloody days. Everyone
has heard of Robespierre, the guillotine, the reign of
terror, and the slaughter of thousands bf men, women and
children in the name of liberry, equality and ji'{lternity.
In the 20
th
century, America changed foundations and
changed gods. That revolution made for America the
bloodiest century in our history, not only in two World Wars
and several lesser wars, but in the brutal murder of tens of
millions of unborn babies in abortion with the approval of
the federal government. As God said in Proverbs 8:36-All
those who hate me love death. America's new gods have
failed her!3
In Romans 13, the civil government is described as a
minister of God to you for good, v. 4; but in Revelation
13 the civil government is described as a hideous beast, v.
2, that blasphemes God, v. 5, and makes war against faithful
Christians to overcome and silence them, v. 7. What caused
the difference? When does a civil government turn from
being a minister of God to you for good and become a
beast that is a threat to the church and to godly families?
The answer is to be found in what was required of the
subjects of this beasdy state. Everybody was to be given a
mark on their right hand or on their forehead, v. 16; and
those not bearing that mark would be severely persecuted by
the beast, v. 17.
This is not the first time in the Bible we read of a required
mark on one's hand and forehead. In Deuteronomy 6,
after exhorting His people to have His words in their hearts
and to teach them to their children, God exhorts them
to bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall
be as frontals on your forehead, v. 8. The point is not
that they were literally to be engraved on their hands and
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 15
RestOling the Foulldations
forehead, but that God's words, t ~ e . God's laws, were to
govern all their thoughts and all their actions and everything
that went on in their homes and nation, v. 9. Therefore,
when the beast of Revelation 13 requires another mark
on the people's hands and foreheads, it is imposing upon
them another law as the foundation of society rather than
the Law of God in the Bible; it is requiring that the people
submit to another law than Biblical Law. And, when that
happens, when a state imposes and enforces another law
other than that of Jehovah, the state not only becomes
tyrannical, but those who refuse to bear the mark, choosing
rather to obey the Law of God, suffer for it.
Destroying our foundations is an act of violence.
According to Psalm 11, God not only hates those who
destroy them, but for the vindication of His divinely
revealed moral order and for the protection of His faithful
people, He promises in His own time, to overturn, reverse
and destroy their wicked efforts and to bring restoration to
His people who love and serve Him.
Now, back to the question of David's cowardly friends: If
the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous
do? The answer they wanted was: "Nothing! All is lost!
Things have gone too far! The enemy is too large, too well-
funded, too entrenched to oppose them. Take flight! Hide!
Be more concerned about being safe and less concerned
about doing right!"
But what was David's answer to their question? If the
foundations are being destroyed, the righteous can stand
on God's revelation of Himself and His will for men
and nations in the Bible, for the Word of God cannot be
broken. He can keep on being righteous in life and office,
and work to rebuild the foundations until he sees God
restore those foundations and frustrate the efforts of those
warring against them.
Faith in God's sovereignty, providence, judgment, and grace
in Jesus Christ, with a love for duty, motivated by love for
God, truth and righteousness will keep us from that despair
that paralyzes action. All is not over while there is a man
left to bear witness to the truth of God. That man with
God's help can stop evil forces dead in their tracks and
recover the day.
So then, if the foundations are being destroyed, what can
the righteous do? What should he do? What must he do?
Rebuild the foundations! Give all his life, resources and
energy to the restoring of those foundations with the help
of God. And for us today, this work must go on regardless
of the difficulties, threats and set-backs.
Without renewed submission to God and His Biblical
revelation for all of life-law, politics, economics,
jurisprudence, and all the rest-we will perish under God's
16 the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
judgment as a nation of IDOLATORS. Why do I say
this? The source of law for any society is the God of that
society. It cannot be otherwise. As RJ. Rushdoony taught
us: "The power and meaning of all law is derived from an
ultimate authority, and the source of that culture's law is
its god. The god of a culture can be located by fixing its
source of law."4
The most important political issue of the 20
th
and 21 st
centuries is: What is the source of law for these United
States? To what standard do we turn as citizens and
public officials to distinguish good and evil, to determine
whether legislation or policy is moral or immoral, beneficial
or detrimental to our lives and liberties? God's absolute
standard in the Bible? Or fallen man's subjective and
arbitrary opinion? As Judy Rogers sings in her song,
Here I stafldl-"Who shall rule the rule of law in coming
generations?"
Hence the central importance of the battle of Judge Roy
Moore of Alabama to free the states and the people from
unconstitutional federal judicial tyranny and to free us from
those judges' attempts to silence our personal and official
acknowledgement of the God upon which this nation was
founded, the God of the Declaration of Independence
and the U.S. Constitution, the God of the Bible, as the
sovereign source of law, liberty and government.
s
Human beings, even with all their reason, experience,
research, statistics and polls, are not in a position to be a
reliable source of law that insures liberty and justice for
all. We are created beings, finite, fallen, sinfully flawed to
the core, whose reason unaided by revelation is distorted,
and therefore unreliable as a source of law which others are
obligated to obey or suffer the consequences.
History has shown repeatedly that the belief that man is
his own source of law, his own lawgiver, produces tyranny
and civil slavery. It always has. It does today. It always will.
When man reduces law to his own moralistic, subjective
opinions, he destroys law as a reliable and just governing
norm of society. When man sets himself up as society's
only source of law, reducing law to his own will, believing
that no law above man exists, the standard of man-made
law in a society becomes the principle: "might makes right,"
i.e., the whims of those who control political, military,
financial or media power become the Laws imposed upon
the rest of society, often at the cost of precious blood.
Although positing man's experience as the source of law
is arbitrary and irrational, always leading to racism, the
distortion of justice, the disappearance of liberty, the
decline of productivity and cultural and moral degeneration,
many public officials, either because they have no heart or
no head or with self-serving agendas, persist in introducing
and passing legislation and enforcing judicial decrees that
Restoring the FOllndations
have as their only basis the subjective and arbitrary opinion
of a man. When this happens, more times than not, they
call good evil and evil good.
The only Source of law that preserves liberty and justice
for all is the Sovereign Creator of the universe. God is the
Lawgiver of the universe, who Himself is above the Law.
In fact, His Law is the boundary between Himself and His
creation, in that man cannot transcend his creaturehood, i.e.,
his accountability to that God before Whom someday he
will stand. The sin of human beings is their desire to cross
over or to annihilate that boundary, to determine good and
evil for themselves with no reference to the Creator or His
Bible.
God has given to humankind--every individual, race, and
nationality-His Law to protect human society from the
ravages of the Lawless and the violent. Without that Law
governing society, anarchy and tyranny reign. Without
that Law society has no just and liberating restraints on
man's evil actions. If God is not the Source of Law for
us, then chaos and evil will dominate the scene. As R.
J. Rushdoony said: "A society in rebellion against God's
Law, is 'like a fish out of water, violendy active but quickly
destined to die.'''6
All human beings and all human institutions are under
God's Law: This is an inescapable fact of life, try
to suppress it as one may. And more specifically, all
humankind is under the Law of the Creator revealed on
Mount Sinai, Exodus 20:1-17. If human beings are the
creatures of the supernatural Creator, then we are both
under God, our Creator, and under His revealed Law. We,
together with all our institutions, are obligated to obey God
by obeying His Law in every sphere of life, for all human
life and society are equally bound by the absolute Law of
the Creator.
This also means that liberty is under Law, and that human
beings find their freedom to be what God has created them
to be, not apart from God's Law, or in rebellion against
it, but under it and in glad submission to it, having been
liberated from its condemnation through the redemptive
work of Christ by faith. The free person, then, is the Law-
abiding person, i.e., the person whose life, from its very
roots, is willingly submissive to God's will revealed in His
perfect Law of liberty, James 2:12, by which he will be
judged. Furthermore, this means that justice is impossible
except in terms of God's Law, for without His infallible
standard, distinguishing crime from good behavior, and
defining the punishments crime deserves, justice is arbitrary
and cruel.
The criticism most often brought against this viewpoint
is: "You cannot legislate morality." I have heard it a
thousand times, and so have you. And, on one level, I agree
with it. The state cannot make people good by passing
legislation! Law has no power to save individuals or nations.
As a Christian, I believe what God says is true: There is
salvation in no one else [but Jesus]; for there is no other
name under heaven that has been given among men,
by which we must be saved, Acts 4:12.
However, on another level, this popular cliche, ''You cannot
legislate morality," is naive. Why do I say this? Ali law and
legislation are based on some legislator'S understanding of
right and wrong, i.e., on his or her morality. A legislator
introduces a bill because he thinks it is "good" for the
people. He votes against another bill because he thinks
it is "bad" for them. What is he doing? He is using his
own moral convictions as the basis of his approval or
disapproval of legislation. All law and legislation, therefore,
are enacted morality, morality legislated. The question
becomes, NOT WHETHER morality will be legislated, for
that happens every time a law is enacted or enforced, BUT
WHOSE morality is to be enacted into law: fallen man's
or God's? Furthermore, all morality rests upon deeply
held religious convictions about God and life. As one has
said sarcastically, but correcdy: "No society has yet solved
the problem of how to teach morality without religion."7
Therefore, once again, the question is NOT WHETHER
religion will be mixed with legislation, BUT WHOSE
religion will be mixed with legislation? Satan's or God's?
The choice is yours and mine.
And so, in conclusion, we need to press the following words
of A.A. Hodge of 19
th
Century Princeton Seminary, on
our consciences, the conscience of every American, and the
conscience of every public official:
.. .if Christ is really King, exercising original and
immediate jurisdiction over the state as really as He
does over the church, it follows necessarily that the
general denial or neglect of His rightful lordship, any
prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the open
lawbook of His kingdom, must be followed by political
and social as well as by moral and religious ruin. If
professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of
their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the state, they
cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit in their capacity as members of the church.
The kingdom of Christ is one, and cannot be divided
in life or in death. If the church languishes, the state
cannot be in health, and if the state rebels against its
Lord and King, the church cannot enjoy His favor. If
the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the church, he is
not present in the state; and if He, the only "Lord, the
Giver of life," be absent, then all order is impossible
and the elements of society lapse backward to ... chaos.
In the name of your own interests I plead with you; in
the name of your treasurehouses and barns; of your
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 1 7
Restoring the Fotlndations
rich farms and cities; of your accumulations in the
past and your hopes in the future I charge you-you
never will be secure if you do not faithfully maintain
all the crown-rights of Jesus the King of men. In the
name of your children and their inheritance of the
precious Christian civilization you in turn have received
from your sires; in the name of the Christian Church,
I charge you that its sacred franchise, religious liberty,
cannot be retained by men who in civil matters deny
their allegiance to the King. In the name of your own
soul and its salvation; in the name of the adorable
victim of that bloody and agonizing sacrifice whence
you draw all your hopes of salvation; by Gethsemane
and Calvary; I charge you, citizens of the United States,
afloat on your wide sea of politics, there is another
king, one Jesus: the safety of the state can be secured
only in the way of humble and whole-souled loyalty to
His person and of obedience to His Law.
8
JCMIII
February 13, 2004
Cumming, Georgia
Soli Deo Gloria
Joe Morecraft, III, Th.D. has pastored Chalcedon
Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, for almost
30 years. He and his wife Rebecca (Becky to her
friends), have four children, one still at home, and two
grandchildren. Joe is a noted lecturer on contemporary political
and historical trends in the United States and has published three
books as well as hundreds of articles.
Endnotes
1 This is the introduction to a message given at Judge Roy Moore's
FOUNDATION FOR MORAL LAW conference in Montgomery,
Alabama, February 13, 2004. Those present included: Howard
Philips, Herb Titus, John Eidsmoe, Judge Roy Moore, Phyllis
Schlafly, Alan Keyes and representatives from many other national
Christian activist organizations, e.g., Coral Ridge Ministries, Focus
on the Family, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum,
Family Concerns of Georgia, Conservative Caucus, etc.
2 This is the title of a 19
th
Century book by E.c. Wines,
THE HEBREW REPUBLIC, reprinted under the title, THE
ROOTS OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC by the Plymouth
Rock Foundation. It shows the influence of the civil laws and
institutions of the Hebrew Republic in the Old Testament on the
US. Constitution.
3 Jeremiah 2: 11-13-"Has a nation changed gods, when they
18 the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
were not gods? But My people have changed their glory for
that which does not profit. Be appalled, 0 heavens, at this,
and shudder, be very desolate," declares the LORD. "For
My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me,
the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
4 R.J. Rushdoony, POLITICS OF GUILT AND PITY, (Fairfax,
VA: Thoburn Press, 1978), p. 141.
5 At a national press conference at the FOUNDATION FOR
MORAL LAW conference in Montgomery, Alabama, February
13, 2004, the Constitution Restoration Act was presented by
three U S. Senators, (Shelby of Alabama, Brownback of
Nebraska, and Zell Miller of Georgia, the last by letter), and
one US. Congressman, (Aderholt of Alabama), which had been
introduced in the US. Senate and the US. House. Its heart is in
the following provision: "Notwithstanding any other provision
of this chapter the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to
review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the
extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or
local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local
government (whether or not acting in official or personal capacity),
by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgement of God
as the sovereign source of law; liberty, or government." It further
provides that: "In interpreting and applying the Constitution
of the United States, a court of the United States may not rely
upon any constitution, lm.v, administrative rule, Executive order,
directive, policy, judicial decision, or any other action of any
foreign state or international organization or agency, other than
English constitutional and common law:" With reference to
enforcement, the Act states: "To the extent that a justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States or any judge of any Federal
court engages in any activity that exceeds the jurisdiction of the
court of that justice or judge ... engaging in that activity shall be
deemed to constitute the commission of-(1) an offense for which
the judge may be removed upon impeachment and conviction; and
(2) a breach of the standard of good behavior required by Article
III, section 1 of the Constitution." For more information contact
the FOUNDATION FOR MORAL LAW, www:morallaw.org.
6 Rushdoony, op.cit.} p. 141.
7 Sir Patrick Devlin, THE ENFORCEMENT OF MORALS,
(London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 25; quoted by R.J.
Rushdoony, POLITICS OF GUILT AND PITY, p. 141.
8 A. A. Hodge, POPULAR LECTURES ON THEOLOGICAL
THEMES, (philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and
Sabbath-School Work, 1887), p. 287.