Educational Research Analysts  November 2007 Newsletter  
what they
say now:

AMERICAN
GOVERNMENT
IN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
A Beka Book
©1997
Lacks Biblical principles
on foreign relations or
money and banking


AMERICAN
GOVERNMENT
FOR CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Bob Jones University Press
©2005
Presents few Biblical principles specific enough to draw such comparisons

whom these Christian Government texts might contrast:
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foreign relations
Oregon Treaty
(1846)
U.S. obtained the Oregon Territory
south of the 49th parallel, which became
Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
Mexican Cession
(1848)
U.S. received California, Nevada, Utah,
most of Arizona and New Mexico,
and parts of Colorado and Wyoming,
which led to the Compromise of 1850,
the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
the rise of the Republican Party,
secession, civil war, emancipation.

This was POSITIVE TERRITORIAL DISPLACEMENT, in which a government that better follows Biblical principles replaces one that follows them less (Deut. 20:10-11,15). Superior and inferior political systems exist (1 Sam. 8:7). Unlike the U.S., the British political system had no trinitarian shared sovereignty in federalism and fewer checks and balances. Chaotic Mexico had armed party battles, many revolutions, multiple constitutions, repeated dictatorships. U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott ruled Mexico City so well, a Mexican group asked him to stay as dictator.
League of Nations Covenant
in the Versailles Treaty
(1919)
League member nations would:
  • Defend the territorial and political sovereignty of other member nations from foreign aggression.
  • Conform to League decisions concerning levels and reductions of national armaments.
  • Submit international disputes to international arbitration, wait three months after the arbitration was completed before going to war, and attack no member which followed League directives.
  • Take economic and military action against nations waging war despite their League commitments.
  • God does not outlaw war (Deut. 20).
  • No particular national boundaries are sacrosanct (Josh. 1:3-4; Deut. 28:63-64).
  • A nation should avoid conflicts unrelated to its own welfare (II Chron. 35:20-23).
  • To destroy human political unity, God confused languages (Gen. 11:1-9).
  • International political disunity therefore checks and balances human depravity.
  • World political entities are anti-Christian insti­tutions which DENY THE PESSIMISTIC VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE and hence the necessary DEITY OF CHRIST to atone for sin (Rev. 13:1-8, 11-17).
money and banking
Independent Treasury System
(1846)
– No federal control over the money supply –
strict construction
original intent

Deliberate currency debasement is wrong (Lev. 19:35-36; Deut. 25:13-15; Prov. 11:1, 16:11, 20:10, 23; Amos 8:5-6; Mic. 6:10-11). The Constitutional Convention rejected bids to authorize federal bills of credit (fiat paper money) and federal charters of corporations such as banks, one delegate saying that emissions of federal bills of credit would be "as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelation."
Federal Reserve System
(1913)
– Much federal control over the money supply –
loose construction
no free-market interest rates

Where there is one medium of exchange, government should not expand the money supply enough to raise prices, lest it defraud creditors (through eroded pur­chasing power of repaid loans) and oppress debtors (inflation raises prices faster than wages, making debts harder to pay) (Deut. 17:17b). Price controls on interest rates mislead investors, misallocating resour­ces and causing general, economy-wide booms and busts.
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