Rule of Law. You hear that phrase a lot. I found over 3/4 of a million occurrences of that phrase in newspaper.com. The traditional understanding refers to a society ruled by the rule of the WRITTEN law, passed by the legislative bodies representing the people, and at one time highly influenced by divine moral law. The principle is to protect us from the capricious government leaders who are a law unto themselves. We do not have kings. The law is king in our system of government. For example, a 1772 Maryland newspaper wrote of a contract not based "upon any fixed rule of law, but on the arbitrary will of ...man." Many times I read of the "established" or "fixed" rule of law. We also are to be protected by the equal application of law. Yet the liberal meaning of "rule of law" is that the executive or judicial branch of government is not bound by the actual TEXT of constitutional or statutory law but whatever they SAY is the law. The judicial branch has a stronger justification for declaring a new interpretation of law than the executive branch. Our system of government depends of the consent of the governed. I suggest we watch out for how our leaders are using the phrase "rule of law." Isa. 8:20 has had a major influence on Christian and western thought, "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
Top
