Our Relationship to the Law

The praise of the saints in heaven is as follows in Revelation 5:10-11:
"Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

Paul wrote many things about man’s relationship with the law in the book of Romans that has confused the church for many years. Even today, the debates on the New Perspectives on Paul bring that confusion into high relief. Reading Paul in the context of this passage brings light on Paul and the law.

In the old covenant, man was under the law and the law was administered by angels. However, since the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the law is administered in heaven by a man. Christ, the God-man, rules over all creation. And as this passage makes clear, he has caused us to rule with Him on the earth.

If we are to rule, we are now judges. How does a judge relate to the law? This is a question that many Americans will understand. Is a judge above the law? While some may answer yes, the proper answer is no. If a judge fails to maintain the law, he is not worthy of the law and should be impeached. If a judge will not keep the law, he shows the law not to be the law. For law exists to formalize the proper customs of a society. See William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Law of England.

Is a judge capable at all times to keep the law perfectly? Again, this is a question that Americans should understand. The answer is no. The American legal system is founded upon a principle of proper appellate courts and at the apex of that system is a Supreme Court. A trial judge may get a ruling wrong, but there is recourse to a higher appellate court and ultimately to the Supreme Court. The appellate court corrects and admonishes the trial court in his exercise of the law, and the trial court corrects his behavior accordingly. This is how we should act.

Christians have been called to rule with Christ on the earth, but they have not been called to rule as circuit riders with no superior authority. They have been called into Christ’s body, the Church. Ruling within Christ’s body is the only way in which the Christian may rule within a proper appellate system. When we sin, we are not rejected by God but admonished by our mother Church, Christ’s bride. We live our lives accordingly. Only by the Sabbath principle of six days labor and one day rest and worship and communion with God may we engage in this proper role.

Thank you, Ed.

Missouri Capitol Report
Representative Ed Emery
District 126
April 12, 2010
Vision for Life
“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”
Ancient Hebrew proverb

Tuesday before Easter the Missouri House debated a major pro-life bill sponsored by Representatives Cynthia Davis and Bryan Pratt, HB 1327/2000. The bill passed overwhelmingly with 113 yes votes and only 37 voting no. The overwhelming vote followed lengthy and passionate debate – both for and against saving the lives of our most helpless and innocent. Some of you may have been watching or listening on that day which was Missouri Right to Life day at the Capitol.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, this nation has not recognized a right to life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness for the lives in the womb. For 190+ years in America, mothers found it unthinkable to deliberately kill their own child. It is against Natural Law and against conscience, which explains why it was only done in secret. Not even the animal kingdom is guilty of such savagery.

Since that tragic and deadly court decision, 50 million Americans including thousands of Missourians have been killed either in or as they exited the womb. I cannot think about those censured lives without wondering how many Albert Einsteins, Thomas Edisons, George Washington Carvers, Andrew Carnegies, Booker T. Washingtons, or Madame Curries have been killed in that 50 million? How many solutions for today were never born or will be delayed for decades even if abortion stops? Policies can transform culture and morals, and morals have consequences for future generations.

Mothers once had great visions for the future of their children – visions of greatness and success. However, the demise of the family structure has shifted perspective from generational to contemporary; from character to achievement; from legacy to consumption; from inheritance to indebtedness. We have become the “now” generation, which results from a lack of vision; “Where there is no vision, the people perish…”

The Israelite king David described the absurdity of abortion when he explained certain governments of his day. He said they “…frame mischief by a law… and condemn the innocent blood.” One day (soon, I hope) America will come to its senses. In the meantime your legislature continues to legislate wherever we can to protect life and family. We must seek to remind young mothers of “…the laws of nature and of nature’s God…” We must help enlarge their vision for the important accomplishments of their yet-unborn children. Missouri can and must lead the way on behalf of future generations.

You may telephone me toll-free at (866) 410-8822. You may also email me at ed.emery@house.mo.gov . If you would like to receive the weekly Capitol Report by email, please send me your email address. Thank you for your interest in good government and a promising future in Missouri. Follow Me On Facebook

Give Us Liberty

The national Republican Party continues to crow that this year is a great opportunity for them to obtain control of Congress as if they are the benefactor of political forces at work within the nation. This narcissistic attitude is further evidence that the national Republican Party just does not understand the purpose of their existence. Their self-centeredness betrays the attitude that they believe that they are the end and goal of all things and their power is their focus.

The preamble of the U.S. Constitution provides that, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The legislative power being granted to the Congress, Congress exists to fulfill the goal expressed in the preamble, and that goal is to provide justice, tranquility and the blessings of liberty on behalf of the people. When elected, a democrat does not function to represent the Democratic Party and a republican does not function to fulfill the glory of the Republican Party. Each exists to fulfill the prime goal of ensuring liberty through justice and defense of the nation.

To say that the circumstances in the nation today provide the Republican Party an opportunity truncates the goal with a disastrous result. The perversion of political parties that our founders abhorred has caused our elected officials to trade in their status as statesmen to establish liberty for a status of politicians to pledge allegiance to the party. The opportunity is for the Republicans to regain control. This is the furthest from the founders' desires.

This attitude has also fostered the horrendous idea that bipartisanship is a good thing. The concept of bipartisanship is that representatives compromise their principles to accomplish a goal. However, our representatives are called to stand on the principles of liberty and justice without compromise. If bipartisanship has any principled meaning at all, it is that the majority position must condescend to the liberty demands of the minority position. This is clearly not the understanding of our politicians today.

Until such time as those who work within our political parties recognize that they exist to serve the goals of liberty as the founders expressed them, their goal is a corrupt goal. The goal of our founders is for the United States government to establish liberty through justice as they envisioned it. May the circumstances within our nation cause that goal and no other to be achieved this year.

All Authority

THIS has given manifold occafion for the benign interpofition of divine providence; which, in compaffion to the frailty, the imperfection, and the blindnefs of human reafon, hath been pleafed, at fundry times and in divers manners, to difcover and enforce it's laws by an immediate and direct revelation. The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy fcriptures. Thefe precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparifon to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their confequences to man's felicity. But we are not from thence to conclude that the knowlege of thefe truths was attainable by reafon, in it's prefent corrupted ftate; fince we find that, until they were revealed, they were hid from the wifdom of ages. As then the moral precepts of this law are indeed of the fame original with thofe of the law of nature, fo their intrinfic obligation is of equal ftrength and perpetuity. Yet undoubtedly the revealed law is (humanly fpeaking) of infinitely more authority than what we generally call the natural law. Becaufe one is the law of nature, expreffly declared fo to be by God himfelf; the other is only what, by the affiftance of human reafon, we imagine to be that law. If we could be as certain of the latter as we are of the former, both would have an equal authority; but, till then, they can never be put in any competition together. (s appears as f in original manuscript) Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1 Section 2.

Likewise, Jesus declared:

18 And Jesus came and said to them, a"All authority bin heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 aGo therefore and bmake disciples of call nations, abaptizing them fin1 dthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them ato observe all that bI have commanded you. And behold, cI am with you always, to dthe end of the age. Matt. 28:18-20.

Therefore, to the extent human governments contradict the Law of Christ, they at odds with the supreme soverign of the universe. Legislators may not like this and they may disagree with it. But they only do so at their own risk and detriment.

A Letter to the Senate

August 25, 2009


Hon. Christopher Bond
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Hon. Claire McCaskill
Hart Senate Office Building, Suite SH-717
Washington, D.C. 20510



Dear Senators Bond and McCaskill:

It is time for the U.S. Government and particularly the United States Senate to change its direction. The U.S. Congress is on a rampage of tyranny the likes of which our country has never seen before. King George’s “taxation without representation” took money from the American colonies to finance a war against France. The present U.S. Congress has far surpassed King George. For decades now the U.S. Government has taken money from Americans for the war to get reelected by providing benefits to the voting bloc de jure, whether welfare, food stamps, farm subsidies, etc. etc. etc.

The present rampage of tyranny accelerated rapidly last year with TARP and Son of Tarp. You have confiscated my property and mortgaged my children’s prosperity to buy clunkers. You seek to enslave me and the vast majority of this nation to your health care whims all for the sake of some campaign promise to buy someone else health care. You now are also proposing to ration our energy usage through capping and trading our carbon. These efforts, my worthy civil servants, violate the basic covenant the U.S. Government has with the American people.

No doubt you believe you have the authority to impose these shackles on the American people and American business. After all you have the right legislate the “general welfare.” However, the “general welfare” cannot be used to trump a person’s right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It was King George’s taxes which caused the great Samuel Adams to compare King George to the Pharaoh of Egypt and the American people to the Israelites in their quest for freedom. It was this servitude which caused our founders and particularly Sam Adams to declare our right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and to indict King George for his breach of his covenant with the people in the Declaration of Independence. With this as the important foundation of our nation, the “general welfare” can never be used to justify infringing upon the individual’s freedoms.

My words have been strong. Senator McCaskill has exhorted civility in our public discourse. I agree with Senator McCaskill. However, strong threats require strong words. Sometimes strong words are required in order for the message to be heard. The question is whether the words are measured to achieve an appropriate result. I am particularly informed by the violent actions taken by those who are sent to intimidate those who have undertaken their right to discourse with their elected officials in town hall meetings. It was not those who protested the health care proposals but those who sought to intimidate such protests that caused the violence. Based on these observations, our words must be strong.

By your rampage of tyranny you are quickly abdicating your ability to govern. The U.S. Government exists to govern the states of this great land. Governing requires the ability to impartially determine in a righteous manner right from wrong. As you increasingly involve the U.S. Government in every industry and market in this nation, from cars to banks to health care, you decrease its capability to be impartial. A participant cannot be impartial in its judgment because it is always protecting its own self interest. By increasing your participation you are forever abdicating your right to govern.

Your job, should you decide to accept it, is to protect liberty. I realize that by fostering liberty you give up your ability to control people. You give up your ability to control the poor and the needy. However, by protecting a free people, you greatly increase this nation’s ability to care for the poor and needy. A free and righteous people can provide for the poor and needy. Slaves cannot.

Sincerely,



David C. Linton

I Just Got A Call

I just got a call from the Missouri Veterans' Association requesting a contribution to assist in the medical care of our veterans. I want to help our veterans; I owe it to them. But I just had to ask why he was asking for help.

"Because the federal health benefits are not quite timely."

"But isn't the federal government best qualified to give medical help to all of this country's citizens?"

"Amen!"

"And yet you are asking for help to improve the medical care for veterans because the federal program is not adequate. Do you see a problem in the consistency in your positions?"

He hung up on me. Now, I wonder why that was.

Returning to Covenantal Thinking

It is time for this nation to return to covenantal thinking. Just as Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham, saying I will be your God and you will be my people, the national government made a covenant with the people more than two hundred years ago. In that covenant, “We the People . . .” agreed, among other things, that each of us has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We have allowed that right to be infringed gradually over the years in return for a sense of “social security” or "entitlements" in one form or another. Now there is an expectation at the federal level that that national government can deny the people their right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in return for managing their health. But the management of my health means the management of my life. This is tyranny of the highest order. If you want to understand how this all came about, I recommend a book, Cry Wolf , an insightful view of how a covenant community is tricked by those outside the covenant into accepting a breach of the covenant for their benefit. Once lost, a covenant is hard to recover.