When Justice is Aborted

The above book was written by Gary North in 1989. The following excerpt is taken from pages 19 - 21.

No Other God

God's claims regarding Himself are all-inclusive. He is the only God. "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:5-6).

The Kings and rulers of this world despise this view of God. They are at war with God, and they ridicule anyone who preaches that such a God exists. They insist that there is no transcendent God. If there were such a God, then they would not be totally sovereign. Their word would not be the standard of authority in history. So, they rebel against Him by publicly denying that He exists. They join in a conspiracy against the God they say is not here and cannot be. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us" (Psalm 2:1-3). God in turn laughs derisively at them. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure" (Psalm 2:4-5).

Because God's claims are all-inclusive, all rival claims of absolute sovereignty are false. Yet the rulers of this world make such claims. There is a political-theological war going on throughout history. This war is between two groups of people: covenant-keepers and covenant-breakers. There is no way to reconcile these two groups. Each side tries to persuade the other side to join the "true" cause, but neither side believes that there can ever be more than a truce or temporary cease-fire between them in history. This is a war for the hearts and minds of men. It is also inevitably a war for the lawful control over all of mankind's institutions. There is not one grain of sand, not one soul, not one seat of authority, that is outside this battlefield.

What is the official god of any society? A society's god is its publicly designated source of law. Thus, a society's legal order will testify to the nature and character of its god. The legal order will support that god and its followers. The law will say "yes" to those activities that the society's god says "yes" to; it will say "no" to everything that the god says "no" to. There can be no civil law without a public "yes" and "no." Civil law inevitably promotes one group's goals for society and suppresses other groups' goals. This is why there can be no religious neutrality in history. This is also why there can be no religious neutrality in politics and civil law.

There can be only one voice of absolute authority in society. There is only one source of legitimate law. There is one God, and only one, who will succeed in bringing His comprehensive will to pass in history. This is the God of the Bible. Those who claim to be His followers are required to acknowledge His absolute sovereignty. But they cannot do this without simultaneously denying all other gods, all rival claims to absolute sovereignty. They may be forced to obey laws that another god has declared, but they must always deny the claims of divinity - final sovereignty - of all such gods.