Maurice, good to hear from you. :-)
Are you saying that there is no document that is a foundational reference point for how your country is governed?
There have to be some rules written somewhere or it is anarchy already, it seems. If a vote is taken on something, the results of that vote also have to be recorded or the outcome of the vote will be perpetually subject to dispute by anyone so inclined to question someone else's memory.
Our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence go hand in hand as the foundational documents for the government of this country. The Supreme Court and some people in government are not always heeding the constitutional guidelines.
Regarding stealing and the laws, the purpose of laws is to inform that stealing is wrong, not to prevent it. Each individual's conscience and personal convictions are what determine whether he or she will choose to respect the statement of law that stealing is wrong, or try to get away with it when nobody is looking.
It is good that your conscience and rational thought guide you to not steal; honest people help make this world a better place.
And you are right on target, bulls-eye, when you say you'd "rather we simply respect other people and their property." That is what our Constitution is about, too.
I agree that a lot of rules are burdensome. God didn't give us that many to start with. When someone questioned Jesus on the subject, as to which of the multitude of laws was most important (the lawyers of the day had added more laws), Jesus gave a simple, easy to understand answer. He said the most important of the laws is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matt 22:37 -40
So, Jesus was telling us that all the bookshelves of rules can be distilled into those two.
Those who want to put their trust in the law and being justified by abiding by all the laws have an almost impossible task of reading the laws to start with. But even if a person could speed read and comply with all laws, that wouldn't justify him or her in the eyes of God.
That might be one reason you (and probably all of us) have frustrations with the law. Subconciously, we know that it is an impossible task to be perfectly law-abiding. The Bible confirms this, for example, in this verse from Romans 3:20, which reads, "...therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
And then it goes on to talk about the righteousness which Christians delight in, the righteousness without the law.
I still try to be law abiding, but it is a heavy burden lifted from me to know that I'm no longer "under the law".
Returning to the subject of the U.S. Constitution, if you want to read our Constitution, which is not a very large amount to read, here is one location where you can find it:
house.gov
The Declaration of Independence is the document that preceeded the Constitution. It is what formally started the war for independence from England.
It starts out with these words:
"The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
That is the first paragraph and the beginning of the second paragraph. I think the Declaration, in particular, is a beautifully written document. One internet site where you can find a copy of it is:
ecst.csuchico.edu
At first, when communicating with you, I thought you were in the U.S., because you referred to money as having In God We Trust printed on it. Or does New Zealand money have that inscription also. Or were you in the U.S. and moved to NZ?
The car we have, we purchased second hand from a lady who move here from New Zealand. (Trivia-not that it is relevant to anything here)
best wishes
John |
