please govern yourself

Please, govern yourself! Continuation of a series on the separation of church and state... Faith Fellowship Church...PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013...Terry Dashner The American Constitution was written for people that are able to govern themselves. John Adams wrote, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Historian and author Gary DeMar wrote as a follow up to Adams' statement, "When self-government is abandoned for self-serving opportunism, we should expect a decline in the health of the nation." What is government anyway? Before World War I, textbooks dealing with national government were qualified with the title "Civil." According to Gary DeMar's book entitled, God and Government (American Vision, INC. 2001, page 3), "An example of this can be seen in a textbook used in 1903: Elements of Civil Government. According to its author, 'The family...is a form of government, established for the good of children themselves, and the first government that each of us must obey' (p. 18). The book continues by defining five areas of civil government: 'the township or civil district, the village or the city, the county, the State, and the United States' (p. 18). The term 'government,' as the older educational definition indicates, is broader than the state. Textbook writers were aware that there were personal, family, church, school, and civil governments, each having a legitimate realm of government. The state was seen as only one government among many." Not so today. Currently, all entities of government are lumped into one general definition--the government. It seems that the civil government has assumed responsibility to be the government. Washington has relieved us from what we believe is the heavy burden of governing ourselves, our families, our churches, and our schools. Again DeMar writes, "If the people of the United States do not once again establish self, family, church, local, state, and national governments to their proper places of power and authority, our nation is doomed." Good point. Concluding remarks... Noah Webster stated that government begins with the individual and the "regulation" and his "conduct." Government, in the older definition, is moral and personal before it is practical and institutional. Without self-governed individuals who follow some moral code, we cannot expect good family, church, and civil government to be developed. Self-government (or self-control) under God is the foundation of any society (ibid. p. 11). We can not force morality on the citizens of this nation. Nor can we govern the ungovernable by simply adding more laws. Civil law is for those who obey authority. Those who have no self-control, who care nothing about civil harmony and law, wouldn't obey authority and live in peace with their neighbor no matter how many laws were put on the books. What is important to America's survival is family government. It is the responsibility of the parents to train up their children in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." To fear God is to govern oneself according to the moral instructions of the Bible. If self-government is taught in this fashion, national government will find its proper sphere. Pastor T.