Presuppositions
It seems to me that whenever two courteous, thoughtful people of good will come to a serious disagreement when discussing some important matter, invariably it is because they have entered the conversation or the discussion or the debate with different pre-suppositions.
And it seems to me that this is why well meaning folks sometimes get frustrated with each other. Although frequently they agree on the evidence, they nonetheless end up at different conclusions because they have begun, sometimes unknowingly, at different starting points.
Pre-suppositions are critically important. They were so important to the founders of the American form of government that they were laid out in the Declaration of Independence before any argument was made about the wrongdoing of King George the Third and the tyrannical behavior of the British Parliament.
Essentially, in that document, our founders said this on our behalf:
Dear King George:
There is a God and He is the Author of all Law and Liberty and government. Since He is the Creator, we all follow His rules, including kings and parliaments. When you make what you call “laws” they are, in fact, not law unless they are in harmony with His law. His law is found in the Bible.
After laying out these pre-suppositions then they made their case.
They said:
You, king and Parliament, have attempted to enforce on us many things that you call law, such as taxes you have no authority to impose and you have intruded into areas of our lives, such as our privacy and our freedom to speak and worship and write, that God has given you no right to intrude upon.
No matter how many guns or police you send to enforce these pretended laws, they are not valid and we reject and resist them.
We will fight you if we have to.
Not because we desire to be lawless, but because you have acted lawlessly.
Now do you see that absent this belief in a higher moral authority, the complaints against king and Parliament would be nonsense. Do you see that if you pre-supposition that the king is the lawgiver, then it doesn’t matter how many complaints you have, he is the law.
Do you also see that if we, in America, do not start with the same understanding as our founders- the same presuppositions - then we have no argument against ObamaCare or bank bailouts or endless spending or anything else.
We have no liberties and we have no rights unless we base their existence on the pre-supposition that God exists and that His Authority is over everything, including civil government, and that His Word is law regardless of what any court or president says or does.
If you pre-suppose that the Supreme Court or the President makes law, it’s over. Save your breath.
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