Supreme Law NJK Law NJK's Religious Freedom A Sermon Anecdote There once were two lawyers who were walking up and down the
isles of a immense Judicial Library which housed an innumerable amount of
books on all kinds of Laws. After hours of browsing these endless shelves,
one of the lawyers made the [then glaring under]statement that a really
staggering number of laws had indeed been formulated over the course of
human history (est. 35 million laws). The other lawyer responded by
saying: "Yeah! It’s even more amazing when you consider that we started
off with just Ten!
The New Jerusalem Kingdom will be ‘a nation under the sovereignty of God.’ As such the NJK will in political terms be known as a Theocracy. This means that it is God, through His revealed Word, who will have the Authoritative say as to what is right or wrong; truth or falsehood. This is similar to the True Authority of (most) Christian churches, congregations and/or denominations.
The Supreme Law of the NJK (i.e., its Constitution) will be the
Ten Commandments
as they are stated in
Exodus 20:1-17
and as they were "magnified" and made "honorable" (cf.
Isa 42:21 KJV)
by Jesus Christ in the New Testament (Matt 5:17-48).
(See an animated clip on the Ten Commandments
here). Still, it must be pointed out that the Authority of the Ten Commandments are only one side of this "covenant-type" agreement with God and for it to have its actual Authority, they must be "ratified" and obeyed by NJK citizens. (See e.g.,
Exo 19:7, 8;
24:3,
7; cf.
Deu 26:17-19).
It may rightly be asked here that, if this was indeed the case in Ancient Israel, then why did God reprimand/discipline/punish them when they did not do His will. Well the answer simply is that while Israel may have many times gone astray of God's will and done great sins against Him, they never said that they outrightly reject God and want nothing to do with Him. On the other hand, the continue to claim that they were His followers and He was their God, yet they repeatedly persisted in doing things that were against Him and HIs will. In doing so, they were bringing great disrepute to His Name, Truth and Character. As their professed (and probably honestly believed to be) God, He has not much choice than to help them or if necessary make them see His actual truth. Hence the use of reprimands/disciplines/punishments, and always in this merciful, increasing order. [Well, at least after the first two initial, and blatant/shocking clashes between God and His (new) People in the incidences of: the Golden Calf
(Exod 32),
and, a little later, the Kardesh-Barnea Rebellion
(Num 14),
while on the borders of Canaan.] This is all similar today to an underage child who
"emancipates"
themselves from their parents. Then they no longer have any authority over them. However if/when they are not "emancipated" they are to be subject to their parents and all their rules and regulations. (In essence, its the 'As long as you under my roof' law). Well, similarly as long as God's people claim to be His people then they are to be subject to Him.
So, like in Ancient Israel, despite this country being a Theocracy, it will still be the free-will acknowledgement, agreement, and obedience of the people that will make God's Rule, through His Word and Laws, truly effective. This therefore would mean that if all, or a great majority of NJK citizens were to suddenly decide that, e.g., (and using an extreme example) the 6th commandment (murder) was to be considered as obsolete, then it would in effect lose its "effectiveness" and thus be unenforceable by the NJK government and related agencies. The same would go with all other Biblical laws and biblical statutes. While this may seem on the surface as improbable, it has repeatedly occurred in nations that started out as "Christian" but over the years, as secularism took an increasing foothold among the government and people, previous righteous Biblical laws gradually lost their high standard and were eventually struck down. If rebellion could have broken out in Heaven and if Ancient Israel could have chosen many times to live outrightly outside of the will of God whom they had repeatedly tangibly encountered and experienced then nothing can be now said to be completely impossible; especially as long as God will allow all of His created being to continue to be free-moral agents.
(cf.
Deut 30:19, 20).
All this to emphasize that the NJK will only remain Christian as its citizen choose to adhere to Christian teachings. The various lessons from Biblical and World history are valuable further examples of what ultimately results when wrong courses of action are pursued and seemingly harmless compromises can and/or will eventually lead to.
The Source|Case|Code-book (whichever applies) for all NJK laws will be the Bible. Also, just as laws in a Constitutional democracy are deemed "legal " (i.e., "constitutional") or not, all subsequent decisions and laws in the NJK will have to be in harmony with the Ten Commandments. In the NJK’s judicial system, any case of offense will be classified by one of the Commandments (e.g., a Third Commandment offense, a Sixth Commandment offense, etc).
For those however who may 1) dismiss the NJK as a place where there will not be any "Religious Freedom," or 2) in the light what has been said earlier, which may lead one to believe that there will not be any moral hedges to protect truth if it is indeed left to the acceptance of the citizen of the NJK, it must be pre-emptively pointed out here that while there may not be "Religious Freedom" per se, in the sense of anyone being able to believe and practice whatever they believe in, (of course, as it is understood today, only if it ultimately does not comes against the established secular laws of the land), there will exist in the NJK a Freedom of Truth. This means that what will be deemed to be acceptable as a Religious Practice (and also as a Civil Law), will be whatever can be firmly and/or, as convincingly as possible, established as being True. "What is Truth?" (cf.
John 18:38).
Well one simply needs to make their case and let Truth establish itself! This provision will ensure that, on the one hand, whatever is true will be adhered to and followed, and, on the other hand, whatever is shown to be false will not be, or continue to be, upheld or practiced simply for the sake of convenience, tradition, or for no logical reason at all. All this of course, ultimately depending on the final "ratification" of all NJK citizens.
May 28, 2008