The US Constitution As Covenant Theology
This is the outline of a suzerain covenant:
Preamble
Historical Prologue
General Stipulations
Specific Stipulations
Renewal, Document Clause
Witnesses
Victory Statement
This is how the Constitution reads:
Its Premable forms the Shema Statement & Historical Prologue.
We the People … God includes Himself as a member/citizen of every nation.
In order to form a more perfect union - points us to a specific time & place in US & Global History.
Articles 1 - 6 are its General & Specific Stipulations
Article 7 forms the Document Clause, Witnesses, Covenant Establishment, & Victory Statement.
Given the Preamble of more than one State Constitution @ the time & the fact that the Founding Fathers were not infrequently copacetic with State Churches at the time, those who argue that the US Constitution doesn’t rest on Judeo - Christian ideals sound like a know-it-all people who don’t know nearly as much as they think they do.
Suzerain covenant form is plastered all over the text of both the OT & NT. Saying that these words don’t come from & point to broadly Judeo-Christian values is like saying the Book of Esther says nothing about God because God’s name isn’t in the book, even though it is in the underlying text via acrostic & the entire book is about God’s providence.
The Framers probably didn’t realize that their words took this form, but nevertheless they do. That’s easily demonstrated, so, if God didn’t not have a hand in its writing, then how is it that it takes the form of a suzerain covenant & it’s content is so very congruent with the principles of representative theology, philosophy, & ethics properly derived from a correct understanding of the Bible in terms of its exegesis, exposition, understanding, & application?
Instead of arguing that the MAGA people are utterly wrong about their assertions about the relationship between the Judeo-Christian tradition & the US Constitution, it light of the form & content of the document & what was going on relative to civil religion in the late 18th Century in the US & the statements within State Constitutions then up to the present day, the better, more intelligent argument ought to seek to demonstrate that there is some truth to what those who act as if the Constitution is inspired writ believe — & that what the American Conservative movement in the present day has come to advocate & embody is incongruent with what Christians who say they believe in the inerrancy & infallibility of the Bible ought to believe as well as the Constitution’s own text.
O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)!
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