Merry Christmas & Happy New Year From The Moral Liberal!

We’ve Moved! We’ve Upgraded!

We’ve Moved to

TheMoralLiberal.com

Please visit our new magazine styled site and reset your bookmark and subscriptions.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE!

Steve Farrell, Editor In Chief

God: The Author of Law

Many members of the Church believe that God is subject to physical laws or that He perfectly understands and obeys the physical laws of the universe. In other words, that God is some sort of super-scientist who has managed to understand all of the laws of the universe. This is a common belief but it lacks scriptural basis.

Instead, God is the author of law. Law does not exist independently of God.

Consider the following:

And again, verily I say unto you, he hath given a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons; (D&C 88:42, emphasis added)

You see, God is the great lawgiver, and in a sense that means more than simply the giver of moral laws or commandments. He is also the giver of the laws of physics, chemistry, and so forth.

Gospel Scholar Susan Easton Black, held this understanding. She wrote, for instance:

Joseph Smith did not give self-existing law—which does not think, plan, or have purpose and also does not have body, parts, or passions—credit for the uniformity and order in the universe. Rather, he taught that the universe is governed and upheld by a powerful God who has body, parts, and passions and who is in the form of man. “If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible . . . you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves.”

God takes credit not only for the movement of the heavenly bodies but also for the physical changes that take place above the earth in the atmosphere, on the earth, and in the earth itself. For example, since he is responsible for creating natural law, he is ultimately responsible for the rain and snow and for the budding and blossoming of plants. He told William Marks and Newel K. Whitney to “settle up their business speedily and journey from the land of Kirtland, before I, the Lord, send again the snows upon the earth.” He also told them, “will I not make solitary places to bud and blossom, and to bring forth in abundance? saith the Lord.” (D&C 117:1, 7)

Joseph Smith explained that physical matter must obey the decrees or commandments of God (natural laws) until these laws are changed or revoked by a different commandment from God: “God has made certain decrees which are fixed and immovable; for instance, God set the sun, the moon, and the stars in the heavens, and gave them their laws, conditions and bounds, which they cannot pass, except by His commandments; they all move in perfect harmony in their sphere and order, and are as lights, wonders, and signs unto us. The sea also has its bounds which it cannot pass.” (Susan Easton Black, Doctrines for Exaltation: The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants, 55-71)

That God is the author of law was also the understanding of  Elder Anthon H. Lund, member of the First Presidency, who held that:

We believe that everything is ruled by law. We are thankful that it is so, for otherwise we would live in a world of chance, in a fearful uncertainty of what would happen next. I believe that the material laws that can be traced in the creation had an intelligent will behind them, that the laws themselves were never superior to the will of God. He made those laws, and by His power they became effective to accomplish His purposes. (Conference Report, April 1916, p. 12. italics mine)

Also Elder Parley P. Pratt who stated that God,

has the power to govern and control the universe. (JD 17:324, emphasis added)

Here I believe Pratt was referring to God as the author of all natural laws. How else could he “govern and control the universe?”

But wait, Joseph Smith believed likewise. He stated:

God set the sun, the moon, and the stars in the heavens, and gave them their laws, conditions and bounds, which they cannot pass, except by His commandments; they all move in perfect harmony in their sphere and order. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 197-98.)

And:

If . . . we admit that God is the source of all wisdom and understanding, we must admit that by His direct inspiration He has taught man that law is necessary in order to govern and regulate His own immediate interest and welfare: for this reason, that law is beneficial to promote peace and happiness among men. And as before remarked, God is the source from whence proceeds all good; and if man is benefited by law, then certainly, law is good; and if law is good, then law, or the principle of it emanated from God; for God is the source of all good; consequently, then, he was the first Author of law, or the principle of it, to mankind. (Joseph Smith, HC 2:12-13.)

Joseph Fielding McConkie goes even further. Writing that it is heresy to believe that God is not the author of law:

A common Latter-day Saint heresy is that we become as God is through education or the mastery of laws. The notion being that God became God by identifying the laws of nature and learning how to live in harmony with them and how to harness them for his purposes. Our present text refutes such a notion. God is the author of law, not the co-partner with it. We do not worship law. Law, like the sectarian god, is without body, parts, and passions; it knows nothing of justice or mercy, or of good or evil. It has no power to determine or change its own course.

But, says one, is it not by obedience to law that Christ became as his Father and that we become as God is? To which the answer is, Yes, of course, but Christ followed only laws that had been ordained by the Father. His salvation rested in doing the will of the Father, not in discovering laws that govern in the universe and attempting to comply with them. So it is with us. We seek salvation in the teachings of the prophets, not that of scholars.

It is righteousness of which the scriptures speak, not scholarship. Exaltation is obtained by faith in Christ, repentance from sin, compliance with the ordinances of salvation, and enjoying the companionship of the Holy Ghost, not by the mastery of math and science. By obedience to gospel principles, Christ obtained the fulness of his Father. Having obtained that fulness, he became the personification of the Father and thus became a perfect expression of the mind and will of the Father. The power and authority of the Father thus became his and so we say of him (as we say of the Father) that he is in and through all things, that nothing is greater than he is, for he and the Father are one. The idea that God became such by the mastery of the laws of nature is a modern tower of Babel built on a college campus. It gets men no closer to heaven than its ancient counterpart. By contrast, revelation tells us, “The powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness” (D&C 121:36). (Revelations of the Restoration, D&C 88)

That God is the author of natural law also makes sense in light of: Moses 6:63; Psalms 19; and Alma 30:44. The fact that: “all things bear record of Christ,” that “the Heavens declare the Glory of God,” and that planets which “move in [a] regular form,” testifies “of a Supreme Creator” suggests that there was deliberate design in the making of such law.

That God is the author of law holds all sorts of theological and philosophical implications. None of which is within the scope of this thesis, except the idea – common to the founders – that, for man’s law to be just, it had to be founded upon God’s law. For instance, many Founding Father’s quoted William Blackstone who wrote:

Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws. . . (William Blackstone, as quoted by Verna M. Hall, ed. Christian History of the Constitution of the United States, p. 253)

Regarding the “law of nature” and even in the absence of direct revelation, man was not left alone to determine how man’s law should be formed. God provided man the ability to reason intellectually, and feel intuitively, the proper course to guide one’s actions and in the enacting of laws. John Locke could write, therefore:

“As men we have God for our King, and are under the law of Reason: As Christians, we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the law revealed by him in the gospel.” (John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity).

The “law of reason,” is manifest to individuals through the Light of Christ, and therefore through the operation of the Light of Christ just human laws can be formed.

That God is the author of law should also give new meaning to Thomas Paine:

But where some say is the king of America? I´ll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of Great Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. (Thomas Paine, Common Sense)

Betsy Ross Remembered | The Moral Liberal

Betsy Ross Remembered | The Moral Liberal

Posted using ShareThis

No One Can Explain to Me What’s In the Bill! — NYC Mayor Bloomberg

The Moral Liberal, Wall Street Journal, John Fund

In a key scene in Frank Capra’s 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” appointed senator (and unwitting pawn in a corruption scheme) Jefferson Smith, played by Jimmy Stewart, suggests to a colleague that perhaps it would be a good idea to read bills before voting on them.

“The bills?” responds an incredulous Senator Paine, played by Claude Rains. “These bills are put together by legal minds after long study. I can’t understand half of them myself, and I used to be a lawyer.”

Unions vs. Property, Employer, Workmen, and Public Rights — Joseph F. Smith

Prophet Statesmen, Joseph F. Smith

Excerpt from a 1903 article written by Joseph F. Smith in The Millennial Star, Volume 65, p. 418.

There are three clearly defined principles that should be well understood and carefully observed in the relationship which men occupy to their employers. In the first place, employers should be made to feel secure in the conduct of their business, and that no violence shall be done them, and that property rights shall be held sacred. In the second place, workmen, even when they are not members of the union, should be made to feel secure in their work.

The American Crisis Vb — Thomas Paine

Liberty Letters, March 21, 1778, Thomas Paine

To The Inhabitants Of America

WITH all the pleasure with which a man exchanges bad company for good, I take my leave of Sir William and return to you. It is now nearly three years since the tyranny of Britain received its first repulse by the arms of America. A period which has given birth to a new world, and erected a monument to the folly of the old.

With Dignity and Christian Love — Martin Luther King, Jr.

American Minute with Bill Federer

On DECEMBER 31, 1955, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led a nonviolent protest by boycotting the city buses of Montgomery, Alabama. Rev. King stated:

If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, ‘There lived a great people … who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.’

The Great Depression According to Milton Friedman — Ivan Pongracic Jr.

Free Enterprise Zone, The Freeman, Ivan Pongracic Jr.

Milton Friedman

Few events in U.S. history can rival the Great Depression for its impact. The period from 1929 to 1941 saw fundamental changes in the landscape of American politics and economics, including such monumental events as America ’s going off the gold standard and the founding of Social Security. It was a watershed for the growth of the federal government.

Mother Nature Has Her Say — Phil Brennan

Perspectives With Phil Brennan
Informed Views from Outside the Beltway

Beyond the old margarine commercial’s warning that “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” we’re now learning that it’s also dangerous to fool with her.

She doesn’t take kindly to puny old mankind’s absurd attempts to manage the climate through laws and treaties.

A case in point is Mother Nature’s icy blast on the heels of the Denmark conference on global warming, a gigantic hoax now known as “climate change,” because it starting getting colder around what the superior class calls the fin de siecle — a Frenchified way of saying the turn of the century.

No Life Without God — Robert D. Hales

A Way of Life, Robert D. Hales

Excerpt from Robert D. Hales October 2009 General Conference address, Seeking to Know God Our Eternal Father, and His Son Jesus Christ.

Without God, life would end at the grave and our mortal experiences would have no purpose. Growth and progress would be temporary, accomplishment without value, challenges without meaning. There would be no ultimate right and wrong and no moral responsibility to care for one another as fellow children of God. Indeed, without God, there would be no mortal or eternal life.

About Those ‘Death Panels’ — William L. Anderson

Free Enterprise Zone, The Freeman, William L. Anderson

It seems inevitable that the government will grab the remains of “private” medical care, so I will look at our medical futures. One development will be the implementation of the infamous “death panels” that socialists swear are a figment of the imaginations of paranoid persons like Sarah Palin.

For example, I received emails from the religious left-wing organization “Sojourners,” which declared that Palin was lying when she made the comment last August 7 in her Facebook page that declared:

Opening Verse, Opening Page of Endless Possibilities — Rudyard Kipling

American Minute with Bill Federer

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, And never the twain shall meet, Till earth and sky stand presently, At God’s great judgment seat” wrote Rudyard Kipling in Ballad of East and West.

Born DECEMBER 30, 1865, in Bombay, India, he was sent back to England at age 5 for schooling. Poor eyesight ended hopes of a military career, so at age 16 he returned to India as a journalist, winning acclaim for his poems. He fell in love with his friend’s sister, Caroline Balestier, while visiting in America.

The American Crisis V — Thomas Paine

Liberty Letters, 1777, Thomas Paine

To General Sir William Howe

TO argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. Enjoy, sir, your insensibility of feeling and reflecting. It is the prerogative of animals. And no man will envy you these honors, in which a savage only can be your rival and a bear your master.

Rich Rewards to Strenuous Strugglers — Jorge F. Zeballos

A Way of Life, Jorge F. Zeballos

Excerpt from Jorge F. Zeballos’ October 2009 General Conference address, Attempting the Impossible.

[T]he Lord has said, “Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.” With all our heart, with all our might, with all our mind, and with all our strength—that is to say, with all our being.

The Public Be Damned — Alan Caruba

By Alan Caruba

The most dangerous political trend of 2009 has been the disdain for public opinion that has manifested itself in the White House and among the Democrats who control Congress. Combined with an obvious preference for lying to the public, it portends a difficult year ahead.