Ed Vitagliano

AFA Journal news editor

January 2013 – Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. at the age of 32, after conquering Persia, Egypt and much of India in less than 10 years. Without a clear heir, his empire split into four main factions wrestling for dominance.

Caught in the middle of that fallout was the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, off the southwestern coast of what we now call Turkey. Rhodes was a democratic city-state that wanted to remain neutral in the jostling between the rival Hellenistic powers, choosing its alliances based on its own self-interests.

In 305 B.C., Demetrius I of Macedon – one of those Greek factions – laid siege to the city of Rhodes. The siege eventually failed and the Macedonians retired from Rhodes, leaving behind much of their equipment. 

According to the ancient Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily, the Rhodians celebrated the victory by erecting one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes, in honor of the Sun God or Titan Helios.

The dedication text for the 10-story statue praises the people of Rhodes for defeating their enemy and preserving “the lovely torch of freedom and independence.”

Human impulses
That statement celebrating liberty is almost 2,300 years old, which means the love of freedom did not begin during the Renaissance and its roots go further than the Enlightenment. It is also obviously not a strictly American ideal.

Instead, it is a universal human impulse. People don’t appreciate a foot on the neck. Human beings resent the whip and the rod on the back. People yearn to be free. 

 Unfortunately, because of the fall of man, there is another impulse in the human heart – a much darker one. It is the impulse to conquer and subjugate, control and oppress. And it has been unleashed on mankind for the entirety of human history.

After all, the war before the walls of Rhodes began because four smaller empires battled for control of the remnants of the empire of Alexander the Great. Those empires wrestled against one another because the generals of Alexander each wanted to reign in Alexander’s place. Alexander conquered much of the known world in retaliation for Persia’s assaults on Greece in the 5th century. That pattern continues back through history until the moment that Cain killed Abel.

Morality rooted in religion
Our Founding Fathers understood both of these impulses – the desire for liberty and the desire to oppress. And their genius in establishing this nation was in finding a way to preserve the former and hedge against the latter.

What was that way? Among other things: morality rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

In his Farewell Address, George Washington outlined the proper foundations for our Republic: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

If there is any doubt that the Founding Fathers saw this critical role for religion in the preservation of liberty, we might ask ourselves, why is the freedom of religion included in the Bill of Rights at all? Not only that, but why is freedom of religion included in the First Amendment? Furthermore, why is it the very first of the freedoms spelled out there?

The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press; it preserves the right of peaceful assembly and the right to petition the government over the grievances of the people. But before them all is the freedom of religion: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The source of freedom
Why was religion considered so important?

We must first remember that God is the source of freedom. Yes, the love of freedom is a human impulse – it abides in the human heart – but it does so because God intended for those created in His image to be free. All men yearn to be free because that desire is an expression of the imago Dei – the image of God – even if such men do not recognize its source.

The Founding Fathers recognized God as the source, however. That is why the Declaration of Independence declares that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….”

Government exists to secure those “unalienable rights.” However, in the absence of morality – internal control of the self – the founders knew that external control would have to be exercised by an increasingly expansive and intrusive government. Shackles must be fitted for a people who are unshackled from moral constraint.

Morality is not free-floating, however. The foundation of morality for a free people also required the substructure of religion.

In George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address to the people of the United States, he said: “And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

The Christian case for political freedom goes even further, for Christianity recognizes that human beings are not totally free – even if they live in a free country. They are in bondage to the power of sin, the brokenness of a fallen human nature, and the dominion of the god of this world. In turn, such roots of darkness produce a thirst in men to rule over others and become their masters (Matt. 20:25).

Jesus Christ becomes the only way for men and women to be truly free in their hearts and in their lives (John 8:36). As individuals are set free, then freedom comes to families, communities, and finally a nation.

Thus, in the secularists’ drive to overthrow the religious foundations of this nation, they are attempting to overthrow the very thing that preserves liberty and erects a wall against tyranny.

Christians must continue to insist upon the vision established by the Founding Fathers for our nation. The defenders of the city of Rhodes would be proud.  

A fresh look at church/state issue
The issue of “separation of church and state” remains a fiercely contested one. Meanwhile, the application of the inherent legal principles via the federal courts remains a baffling patchwork of rarely understood principles.

Many Christians who find themselves among the baffled will find help in A Tale of Two Governments by Robert J. Renaud and Lael D. Weinberger. The authors, armed with law degrees and a knowledge of church history, help the reader work through some of the confusion to a solid understanding of critical issues.

While other books have covered the church/state issue from a constitutional perspective, Renaud and Weinberger examine the matter from a historical and biblical view. Much of the book’s well-written 137 pages is spent looking at how the church has understood the relationship between church and state over the last two thousand years. It’s a concise and extremely helpful overview.

The core of A Tale of Two Governments, however, and what makes the book an especially welcome breath of fresh air, is its biblical discussion of the church’s Christ-ordained task of the spiritual discipline of its members. 

The last half century or more has seen an alarming erosion of religious liberty in America, and as a result “the authority of the church to govern itself” is threatened, state Renaud and Weinberger. This is especially true when churches are not clear on the biblical and legal ramifications of church discipline.

A Tale of Two Governments does a superb job of educating church leaders and church members concerning these matters – and they should take the time to read it. As the book says, the very integrity of the church itself is at stake. Available in print or for Kindle at www.amazon.com.

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Protect freedom. Learn more.

• American Heritage series
• Jesus IS Involved in Politics – Book/DVD set by Neil Mammen
• Change to Chains Book/DVD Set by William J. Federer

Resources above available at AFA Store.