The Need To Ground Law In Transcendent Truth

Tonight, I’m going to speak to you about law— I’m going to be speaking to you about the need to ground law in transcendent truth. Show me your laws. I will show you your God. If you don’t believe that there are any laws above the Supreme Court and you believe that they are the ultimate authority, they ultimately become God for you. If you think you’re the one that makes up laws for yourself, then you are your God. Show me your laws. I will show you your God.

 Why is it that we need laws? Well, the answer to that question is to curtail human nature. Laws are intended to reign in the natural impulses, the sinful natural impulses that all of us are born with and all of us develop as time goes on. God instituted three different agencies that were supposed to take care and help reign in human nature. One was the home where children were to be instructed regarding right and wrong and disciplined. The second is the church and the responsibility of the church to teach its congregations correctly and to reign in evil impulses and behavior. Then of course there was also the state.

Now when you look at the city of Chicago for example, oftentimes the homes are so badly arranged. By that I mean to say that many of them are dysfunctional homes. You have a lot of crime that is taking place, and the state has to step in and often do things that were really the responsibility of the home. Then when you have a sense of justice where criminals are oftentimes seen as not the villains but rather the victims, you have a great deal of lawlessness. That’s not unique to Chicago, it’s unique to many cities in the United States.

But what I want to do is to talk to you today about the role of law. In order to do that, I want to speak about Nazi Germany. Now, it’s important for me to emphasize at the outset that America is not Nazi Germany. But the reason that I turn to Nazi Germany is because it is perhaps the best example, at least the best example that I know, the best example of what happens when law is disconnected from transcendent values and we shall see what takes place as a result. As you know, after World War I, Germany was in disarray. It had lost the war. There were soup lines in Munich and in Berlin and elsewhere. People were out of work. People were desperate and desperate people are willing to sign on to almost anything.

Now, I won’t tell you about the Weimar Republic, which didn’t work out very well. Hitler received much of the vote. He never received a majority, but he was able to finagle his way in to become the authority and eventually the chancellor and the ruler of Germany. But what he needed was a good reason to reign in what was happening in Germany to control it. From his standpoint, what he really needed was the opportunity to begin to take tight control. And it came in 1933 with the burning of the rice dog, that great parliament building in Berlin. Now, it was actually done by a Dutchman, but it was blamed on the communists, and it might well be that Hitler’s henchmen were behind it because later on Hitler is going to say it was a gift from the gods. Because after the burning of the Rech dock, Hitler said, “The communists are coming.”

So, he had the enabling act, a law to relieve the distress of the German people. What he did is he took away freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, opposition parties were outlawed, and anyone who disagreed or tried to overthrow him was summarily taken care of and executed and so forth. Now the question is how did the Germans respond to the taking away of civil liberties? The answer is for the most part, they were quite happy because when you have a time of chaos, you need strict rule and sometimes in desperation you have to do whatever it is that you have to do.

So Hitler saw this as an opportunity to take control and he took control by the enabling laws. But what he needed to do was to appease the church. The church in Germany was very strong. People went to church, both Catholic and Protestant church attendance was high, and he knew he was going to have to control the church in some way, but now he went through a period of appeasement. Appeasement meant he tried to do all that he possibly could to get the church to support him without in any way intimidating them.

As a matter of fact, he put forth a proposition called “positive Christianity.” I won’t take time to read my definition of positive Christianity, but I will simply read what Hitler said. “We insist upon the freedom for all religious confessions in the state provided they do not endanger its existence or offend the German races, sense of decency and morality. The party as such stands for a positive Christianity without binding itself denominationally to a particular confession.” Did you catch that line? It says a positive Christianity that does not offend the German racist sense of decency and morality. He would be the one who would determine what would offend the German sense of decency and morality.

Thankfully, there were some pastors who immediately saw what it was all about. For example, there was one pastor, and I’m not going to be reading the text though I have them here. I’m going to be paraphrasing for lack of time, but he basically said this, we can’t accept this at all. We don’t want the government to support us, but we want the government to allow us to preach the gospel. He says the best German, the nobles, German is a sinner, and we have to offend sinners in order that they might believe the gospel. They have to be told the truth about themselves, the truth about evil. So we can’t go along with that.

Even Carl Bart, who is known to many of us as not an evangelical but somewhat of an evangelical, I guess you could say. He spoke against it and his big point was he said, you can go into a church and you can shout Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ a thousand times. He says it will not do any good unless you can tell men and women they are in danger of the judgment of God. Therefore of course you have to offend their sense of decency. There is an offense of the cross. We’ve largely lost that oftentimes in evangelical circles but the point is the death of the church was put forward by Hitler as the new liberation of the church to a positive version. A positive version of Christianity, which we might say today, is progressive Christianity.

Now, in order for you to take control of a country, if you’re a dictator, what you need is an enemy. There are reasons for this. It’s very important when it comes to propaganda. The enemy was close at hand, it was seen as the Jewish nation. Why was it that the Jews were seen as the enemy in Germany? Well, the answer is because they were blamed on the defeat of Germany in World War I. There was a tremendous amount of propaganda against them, and Hitler used them as scapegoat for Germany’s failure and he began to persecute them. I have to say this, that the persecution of the Jews in Germany and all throughout Europe had a long history of hundreds of years. I could stand up here and I could tell you many different instances and stories, but I must hurry on.

So, Hitler following the science, in fact, some of his doctors would take Jewish skulls and hold them up and show them that they were subhuman. So, following the science, he eventually had what was known as the Nuremberg laws. Of course, as you might have guessed, I use that phrase following the science with a little bit of tongue in cheek and a little bit of sarcasm. I thank God for science. I’m not arguing that at all. Science has done wonderful things for us, but just because you hear something follows the science, you still have to investigate it because it could be terribly wrong.

What Hitler did is now he took over the role of lawgiver. The Nuremberg laws basically said the Jews were subhuman, and because of that they could be killed without reprisal. Now, I’m going to hurry to the whole fact that during the Nuremberg trials— I missed one point in my outline. I was going to talk about how the state overtook the media and once of course the media was in line with Hitler, then you have propaganda and all that. But the Nuremberg trials— Okay, the war is over. World War II has ended. Twenty-one Nazis are tried in Nuremberg at those famous trials, fifteen were Protestant, six were Catholic.

There was a chaplain from Saint Louis who spoke German, a very conservative Lutheran who is asked by our government to go there and to be a chaplain to them. It’s a fascinating book that was written about him. He discovered many of these knew the Lord’s prayer. They were able to quote Psalm 23 because they had all been brought up in church. But here was the question, and this becomes very critical now, by what laws should these men be tried? Should they be tried by the laws of England? Should they be tried by the laws of America? The henchmen of Hitler argued, “We didn’t break any laws!” To quote Eichmann—he was not at Nuremberg but found elsewhere—he said, “I was just obeying the laws of my country and the laws of my flag.” What he was really saying is “You can’t try me. I’m guilty of nothing. None of these crimes.”

There was an American attorney by the name of Robert Jackson who stood up and gave a marvelous speech and said “There is such a thing as a law above the law. There is a transcendent law that applies to all cultures and you’re going to be tried by that law.” Ultimately as you think about it, that transcendent law is really rooted in the fact that God exists. That’s why indeed there is a transcendent law.

What does the Bible say about law? Well, there’s much to be said. I want to read some passages of scripture. It says in the book of Genesis “If someone sheds blood by him, by others, his blood shall be shed.” (Genesis 9:6) Then it says in Deuteronomy 19:15, “A single witness shall not suffice facing any crime in any way.” You had to have a number of witnesses and there’s even instruction as to what happens if you have a malicious witness.

So there had to be evidence. But let me read some other verses. “You shall not pervert justice, you shall not show partiality and you shall not accept a bribe. For a bribe binds the eyes of the wise and subverts the justice that should follow.” (Deuteronomy 16:19) “It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.” (Proverbs 18:5) “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.” (Proverbs 28:5) “For the Lord is our law giver and the Lord is our king. He will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22) And then this verse, I wish I could camp on it for a moment. “Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away for truth has stumbled in the public square and unrighteousness cannot enter.” (Isaiah 59:14)

I do have to say this very quickly that when it comes to social justice, this is the verse that we need to apply to what’s happening. You see, if truth stumbles in the public square, if justice is cut off from transcendent values, justice can be whatever you want justice to be. So, you can have such things as “environmental justice,” which is the green new deal. You can have “marriage justice,” which is same-sex marriage. You can also have “economic justice,” which is socialism. You can take the word “justice” and you can apply it wherever you want it to be applied. And Isaiah 59:14 says, it is important that people recognize justice must be based on truth and if it isn’t, of course it is perverted.

Now, all that about Nazi Germany about the role of law and the power of law. Laws can enable people to do evil. Laws are intended hopefully biblically for good, but they can certainly go otherwise. Now what I’d like to do is to talk about America.

I was born and raised in Canada and I am a naturalized American citizen. I don’t know too much about the founding of this country because I didn’t have the same education all of you have had. But I tell you this, the more I contemplate the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, Americans have no idea of how fortunate they are. These documents are intended to reign in human nature because the founding fathers knew the history of the world was basically tyranny and they were aware of that. What they did is to make sure they would have a form of government that would be under control in such a way it could correct itself. The President would have a lot of power, but he would also be reined in by the Supreme Court. Then of course you have justice and they are brilliant documents.

But one of the phrases that is most famous and most important is we are created equal, and we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. That is of course life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have a constitution that balances freedom of religion with laws, necessary laws, and oftentimes there is conflict and we can expect there to be conflict. But by the 1800s, a man by the name of Christopher Landell of Harvard University began to teach what the Constitution said was not the important thing, it was how it was interpreted. He began to promote the idea that it’s not what the Constitution says as much as it is what the justices say that it is.

Then you have none other than Oliver Wendell Holmes saying “Laws are beliefs that have triumphed and nothing more.” Truth is the majority vote of the nation that can lick all others. So what you have now is the beginning of sociological law. Where law is no longer directly based upon our founding documents, but it is rather malleable. That is to say the Constitution is malleable, and it can be interpreted in different ways. That’s of course why you have the abortion rights and so forth which are not found in the Constitution.

The great threat we are facing in America today has to do with the so-called “SOGI laws.” That’s something that you should be acquainted with. “S-O” standing for sexual orientation and then “G-I” for gender identity. SOGI laws. These laws oftentimes are not intended to protect these classes of people, but they are written in such a way that they want to coerce others to agree with their lifestyle. This may be instituted by the government. It may also be instituted by businesses, as you well know.

A man in a business texted me some time ago and said, “Can a Christian sign this document? I’m expected to sign this document where I work.” I said, “Well, you can sign this and this and this, but you can’t sign that.” These kinds of laws are being imposed upon people with the intention of silencing any opposition and people going along with the lifestyles of people with whom we of course disagree.

May I take you to the great and the wonderful state of Michigan. Here’s House Bill 44 74, and this was given to me by one of your attorneys whom you ought to be supporting. It has to do with the intimidation of people, the harassment of individuals, and that goes on to say that you can’t harm them bodily and so forth, which of course we agree with. These laws are always written in a way that you can agree with part of them, but the intention is to sneak in some very serious matters that have to do with freedom of speech.

For example, it says, “You cannot intentionally harass this individual or intimidate someone,” because speech now is a crime. Hate speech is a crime. “You cannot speak about these people and intentionally target them in these ways.” Then it lists all the people who are covered by this, those of different race or color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability, age, ethnicity, national origin. Then the last thing says, “And if you associate with anybody who does this, you can be equally guilty of a crime.” What this means is a tremendous amount of intimidation. What it means is that when this is passed, you have no idea how it’s going to be interpreted by the judges. It can be passed and says, “Obviously we want to be kind to people who disagree with us in these things and all of us agree with that.” But if I might use this illustration, it has a hole in it big enough for a truck to drive through. In other words, a judge can interpret this however he wishes. Any objection to the SOGI laws or to such things as same-sex marriage can be deemed as a violation of this kind of a law. Which has been passed by the house in Michigan but has not yet been passed by the Senate.

Sometime ago I studied the law in Canada that had to do with conversion. That law is so broad it could be interpreted if you have a daughter for example, and she wants to become transgender and she wants to be a boy and she wants surgery to become a boy, and if you try to talk her out of it, you could be guilty of a crime. Now isn’t it interesting if you talk people into this kind of a lifestyle, you would not be deemed a criminal, but if you try to talk people out of it, you would be? Can be interpreted that way and as darkness descends upon our land.

As I mentioned to you, God willing, I’m writing a book entitled The Eclipse of God: Our Nation’s Disastrous Search for a More Inclusive Deity, which is really what these sermons have been based on. As I have been doing that, I have become very much aware that as darkness descends, what you’ll find is that the radical left becomes less and less tolerant. We have people in our country who scream “Tolerance!” Vut that is only used as a bridge for power and once they have power, they become very, very intolerant. That’s where we’re going and I don’t want you to be discouraged because of that. I’m only telling you what is happening.

As a matter of fact, it could come to the point, and I know that this sounds extreme, where if you are a Christian family and you’re raising your children in Christian values, you could be deemed that you are actually being a person whose children need to be taken from you because you are being abusive and you’re teaching them the wrong things, et cetera, et cetera. I know that that sounds extreme, but once a nation no longer acknowledges God, remember there is no stopping point along the way. Ask the folks in China, in Russia, in Albania where Rebecca and I were in April, and you’ll find that the intrusion of the state into the lives of people and the insistence that everyone march according to the same drum is absolutely overwhelming.

Now, how is Antichrist going to rule the world? I realized that we have a difference of opinion regarding prophecies. Some of us believe there is going to be an antichrist and some of you perhaps go to churches where they teach that will not happen. But it says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that “The lawless one is going to be revealed.” Obviously he’s going to be lawless because he will be making his own laws. In Daniel 7:25 it says, “He will speak words against the Most High. He will wear out the saints. :We can understand that.) He will wear out the saints of the Most High and change times and the law.”

So, law is going to be used— And some of us believe that might involve that you cannot buy or sell unless you have the mark of the beast. That’s easy to understand, actually. When we were in Albania, we went through a museum that talked about life under communism. And when you went into a courtroom, there was the picture of the dictator that was on the wall, and you had to in effect swear allegiance to him before your court case would be heard. So, it’s not hard for us to see how there could be certain demands made as we live in a society that is moving towards a digital kind of prison.

Now you say, “What do we do as a result of this?” Well, God is calling us to faithfulness. Remember this, we were born for this generation, for this era, for this reason, so we might be a light in the midst of it. aAnd to prove Jesus means more to us than anything else, including a job. That’s what it’s coming to. For some people, we have the privilege of representing Him.

There is a story I want to tell you about Niemoller as much I could say about him. But he was tried in Germany for not hate speech, but abuse of pulpit. Abuse of pulpit meant that he spoke against the Reich. That is the kingdom. That’s what Reich means. The third Reich, the third kingdom, the third empire. He spoke against it in church because he was a pastor, so he was going to be tried.

He was taken into a prison cell and his trial was about to begin and a young Nazi soldier came to get him. As they were walking underground in the tunnel through the tunnel, suddenly Niemoller hears this verse of scripture bouncing around, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and is safe.” And he’s wondering, where’s it coming from? Then he realized the young guard was quoting that in his ear as they were walking there in the tunnel toward the courtroom. Then Niemoller said, suddenly they were in the courtroom, there was a picture of Hitler. He knew of course, he would be tried, and he went to a concentration camp. Though he did, as you may know, survive the concentration camp.

But I’ve often thought of that young soldier obviously for him to know Proverbs 18:10, he must’ve been brought up in a church. He must’ve been brought up in a Christian family, what went wrong? So that he was caught up in what I like to call this Nazi stream, the stream of propaganda, which is so powerful that it’s almost impossible to resist. What happened to him? At what point did he make compromises so he went along with the regime?

I want to leave you with a challenge. Think through, especially if you’re in a business, think through at what point would you be willing to compromise or not compromise? Where do we as Christians draw a line in the sand and say, “I can do this, this, but I cannot do this and I’m willing to pay the high price of obedience to Jesus Christ.” That’s the challenge for the young people we are raising. That’s the challenge actually for all of us. At what point are we willing to prove Jesus is more important to us than even the food we eat? Christians around the world are having to prove just that.

Jesus said this. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). And we say that so glibly, don’t we? But let’s remember the cross was an instrument of execution. I think it was Bonhoeffer who said, “The idea of taking up the cross seems like a very nice idea for Christians until they realize where the cross led Jesus.” Namely to Golgotha, namely to a crucifixion.

I’m leaving you with a challenge. I want you to have hope because beyond this life, everything is going to get better. As a matter of fact, let me challenge you with this. No matter what you are going through, this is the worst, if you’re a believer, this is the worst that life is ever going to be. Because afterwards it’s going to be mighty, mighty fine. If you’re an unbeliever, this is the best that it’s going to be.

Rebecca and I were at the grave of Frank Sinatra many years ago in California. First of all, I was surprised that the gravestone was just so ordinary. I thought he’d have a mausoleum or something, but it was one of these gravestones where you could run a grass cutter, a lawnmower right over it. On the tombstone were the words of one of his favorite songs. “The best is yet to come.” Now, I’m not Frank Sinatra’s judge, but I do have to say this, if he did not put his faith and trust in Jesus, the best for him was not to come. The worst was yet to come.

We live at a very wonderful time here in America. We still have a lot of freedom. Look at how we are able to gather. I can preach on whatever I want, say whatever I want. We have so much to thank God for, but as the darkness closes in, the question, especially for the coming generation, is: “How much is Jesus worth to us, even as we represent Him in a darkening culture?”

Let’s pray. Father, I pray these words which remind us of the great need of this nation, I pray these words might challenge us. Help us to know what we’re up against, but to rejoice for the privilege. Even as the early church who rejoiced for the privilege of being persecuted for your name. Help us Lord, help our children and grandchildren to be willing to pay any price they are asked to pay for faithfulness, even as many believers did in Germany during those very dark days. Thank you. We love you. We pray we might be faithful to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.