subject: Vote For One: Covenant With God Or Social Contract Of John Locke [print this page] The social contract theory of John Locke provided the philosophy and source of governing authority for both U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson borrowed freely from Locke's phraseology.
The Social Contract
Locke spells this all out in paragraph five "Of the Beginning of Political Societies" in his "Second Treatise on Government". He is quite emphatic that the only source of authority for any government is the will of the majority, quite apart from any reliance on God or His law.
"..thus that which begins ... any political society is nothing but the consent of ... a majority ... this is that, AND THAT ONLY, which did or could give beginning to any lawful government..." This is man going it alone without reliance on the governing authority of God or the Bible. That is the essence of Democracy.
Constitution Is Social Contract
Under the Lockean model the people contract with one another to ordain a civil government. God and His law are not Party to the Contract. The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution clearly adopts this model: "We the people of the United States . . . do ordain this constitution for ourselves and our posterity." God is snubbed, and Article VI, Section 3 forbids requiring an officeholder to swear allegiance to God.
The Bible contradicts Locke's ascription of power to the majority. Romans 13:4 states that "...there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God."
Judgment Under The Contract
With no Divine standard, Locke's pluralistic government will be forever gridlocked in contentious debate. God always judges the nation that rejects his counsel and the culture disintegrates.
Without the living and true God and His law there can be no justice. But contrary to popular Christian opinion, the founding fathers never appealed to the Bible. There is only one substantive reference to Scripture in the four-volume set of notes compiled from the Constitutional Convention.
The founding fathers laid out their defense of the Constitution in "The Federalist Papers" and that book never refers to God or His law. That is because the two are mutually exclusive. The social contract and natural law are polar opposites of God and his covenant Law. We must choose one or the other when formulating our government.
When Adam determined to disobey God he fell from grace along with the rest of God's creation. Thus, it is impossible for the mind of man to find meaning in a fallen creation because ".... the creature [creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope" (Rom. 8:20). That means that the definition of justice is unattainable by any reference to the "law of nature" or "natural law."
The Founding Fathers opened the door for their posterity to arbitrarily reinterpret the vague social contract articulated by John Locke. As our current desperate plight indicates, the Constitution cannot shield us from social, economic, and political devolution. This can only occur when we repent and renew our national covenant with God.
