When politicians run for office, most of them make promises. They promise what THEY THINK you should want. Are they right? What should you be voting for?
When we vote, what we are doing is choosing the people who will manage our government for us. What is the American government suppose to do? Do you really know? When was the last time you read our nation’s founding documents? When did you last read the Declaration of Independence or The United States Constitution? Have you ever read the Constitution of Virginia or the Bible? These documents, each in its own way, define how our government works.
The Bible
The Bible provided our country its foundational values. In addition, the Bible helped to shape our concepts about Law. Unfortunately, because our public school system emphasizes the secular nature of our government, this fact is lost on many Americans. Here are two examples.
- Sir William Blackstone‘s writings (Commentaries on the Laws of England) helped to shape both American and English law. However, you will find it difficult find the word “Christ” in Blackstone’s book. That is because Blackstone spelled “Christ” this way, “Chrift.” The example here is Blackstone’s formulation. Here is how Wikipedia begins its explanation of this principle.
In criminal law, Blackstone’s formulation (also known as Blackstone’s ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle: “better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer“, expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.
This Wikipedia article continues by pointing out that this principle had earlier expression in Genesis 18:23-32.
- At biblestudy.org, we get the answer to questions. Consider the answer to this question: What is the difference between Old Testament commandments, statutes and judgments? Within this little article, the author explains the origins of the English concept of common law.
Examples of judgments concerning how to apply God’s law concern the laws of inheritance when a man has only daughters (Numbers 27:1-11; 36:1-12). After this case with the daughters of Zelophehad, it then served to govern how similar cases should be decided in the future. In principle, this is rather like how English common law operates, in which prior decisions by judges should be normally respected by future judges as precedents to follow when making their own decisions in the same or analogous cases. The difference here, however, is that God made the initial decision when this case was brought to His attention, rather than a human judge trying to figure out what is just, according to tradition and human reason, when some novel or first-time problem is brought to his (or her) attention.
What the Lord did is set an example for His priests, one we followed later in our courts of law (see Deuteronomy 17:8-11).
Vote Biblically on November 2nd. See also:
- FACT BASED VOTING: WHAT SHOULD YOU VOTE FOR? HOW ABOUT THE CONSTITUTIONS OF VIRGINIA AND THE UNITED STATES?
- FACT BASED VOTING: WHAT SHOULD YOU VOTE FOR? HOW ABOUT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?
- FACT BASED VOTING (a list of voter guides)
