The Blackstone Initiative – Declaring the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God

 

 Q.         Who was Sir William Blackstone?

Sir William Blackstone was a renown English barrister, law professor, jurist, legislator, lecturer, and commentator.  But his most notable achievement was the writing of his Commentaries on the Laws of England.  The Commentaries, first publish in 1765, were cited and quoted by the Founding Fathers and by the early American courts more than any English or American authority.  They are, therefore, foundational to any understanding of the American constitutional and legal system.

Q.         What did the Commentaries say about the law?

Blackstone wrote about the Law of Nature, “This law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other - It is binding over all the globe in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.

He also wrote about the Law of Revelation, “The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures.  These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the riginal law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity.”

He concluded, therefore, “Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.”

Q.       What is the Blackstone Initiative?

The Blackstone Initiative is a public policy organization devoted to this principle that upon these two foundations the law of nature and the law of Scripture depend all human law and that no human laws shall be suffered to contradict these.

Q.       What further principles is the Blackstone Initiative founded upon?

All subsequent and subordinate principles derive from the original principle.  For the present, the Blackstone Initiative proposes the following subordinate principles:

1.        The United States federal government is subservient to the state governments except in those limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.

2.       The U.S. Constitution has a fixed meaning as originally written and ratified by the original thirteen colonies.  Any effort to make the U.S. Constitution a “living document” vacates it of all meaning and, ironically, destroying it in its very purpose, causes it to die.

3.       The word “federal,” being in meaning “covenantal,” the federal government was and is a product of a binding covenant between the states, the people and God, namely the U.S. Constitution, and failure of the federal government to be faithful to said covenant makes it null and void.

4.       Education is the process of inculcating a God loving culture in one generation by the prior generation and, therefore, education is not within the authority of the government except and only insofar as it fosters a legal climate in which education can be accomplished by individual families and the church.

5.       God’s primary tool of cultural change is the covenant renewal worship of His people.

Q.       How will these principles be pursued?

1.     By publication of substantive statements of position,

2.    By instruction on the foundational principles of this nation, and

3.    Interaction with Missouri legislators on Scriptural principles pertaining to legislation, and

4.    Dialogue with churches regarding these principles.

Q.       How can you help?