There must be no partiality in judgment. “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor not nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly” (Lev. 19:15). This is biblical equality.  Justice is the administration of the Law of God with its penalties by proper civil magistrates.  Justice is colorblind.  Justice does not consider economic status.  Justice does not consider ethnicity.  Justice applies equally across the board regardless of the individual, and regardless of his or her personal history or experience.

As a result of the neo-Marxist movement in this country, I have been forced as a Christian and as an American citizen to re-examine our national history.  Being trained as a Reformed theologian, I see things differently than most other people, even those who call themselves evangelicals.  I’m amazed at how this research has changed my mind on numerous ideas that I had previously held as sacred.

I’ve preached a sermon in numerous churches titled “The Fatal Flaw in the U.S. Constitution.”  Basically, I said that since there was no religious test required for civil officeholders (Article VI, Clause 3), America officially became a polytheistic nation.  At minimum, the Constitution should have required an oath to the Trinitarian God of the Bible. This would not have sanctioned a national State Church, but it would have grounded our Constitutional Republic in the Christian Faith.  This clause was a grave mistake.

After re-examining the Declaration of Independence, I now believe that it’s statement on equality was another grave error. After stating that it is self-evident that all men are created equal (which obviously on the face of it is not true), it goes on to say that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  After paying tribute to some generic Creator, it defines equality in terms of the rights of man, and ultimately it defines the quality of life in terms of happiness.  I call this Americana equality.

Americana equality was a secular attempt to define equality, and it has miserably failed.  When we strayed in our founding documents from the God of the Bible as our Creator and Lawgiver, it only took about 200 years to see the fruit of such a major mistake.  Today, we are in the midst of a Revolution that seeks to expel the Triune God and His law from every square inch of our nation.

In addition, others too in the past have tried to define equality in a secular fashion.  Modern left-wing liberals define equality in terms of equal outcome for everyone.  All men should share in the fruits of the labor of the group regardless of how much labor, capital, and risk each one has put into the building of society.  Income and wealth should be redistributed evenly to all men.  This is their pathway to equality.  This has traditionally been called Marxism.  In actuality, it is theft.

Modern right-wing conservatives define equality in terms of opportunity.  Even if we all begin from different starting points, if you work hard, keep your nose clean, and add a little ingenuity, then you can, not only be equal, but rise to the top.  The opportunity is there. You can participate in the American Dream.  Some have!  We are told that this is the pathway to equality for all people.  This has traditionally been called capitalism.   In reality, poverty, single-family homes, and other such things such as differences in God-given abilities, generally make this untenable for many people. The have-nots become covetous (breaking God’s law) of the haves, and this opens the way for the lure of Marxist equality.

What then separates the biblical view of equality from all others?  As citizens of a nation, the Bible teaches that all men are equal indeed, but only equal under the Law of God. This is what our forefathers failed to enshrine in the Declaration of Independence and in the United States Constitution. “To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because they have no light in them” (Isa. 8:20).

Biblical equality also demands that all men must be treated the same (equally) under the Law of God.  There must be no partiality in judgment. “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor not nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly” (Lev. 19:15). This is biblical equality.  Justice is the administration of the Law of God with its penalties by proper civil magistrates.  Justice is colorblind.  Justice does not consider economic status.  Justice does not consider ethnicity.  Justice applies equally across the board regardless of the individual, and regardless of his or her personal history or experience.  This is quite different from Americana equality.  This is quite different from Marxist equality.  This is quite different from either left-wing or right-wing economic equality.  This is biblical equality.

Guilt is the result of breaking God’s law.  It is not some feeling (false guilt) that overcomes us because we have more material blessings than other people, or because we are a different color or a different nationality than other people.  When used improperly false guilt becomes a weapon to subdue the tender conscience.  We cannot allow this to happen. Freedom from false guilt can only be maintained by understanding true guilt which is the transgression of God’s Law, and the solution to true guilt which is redemption in Christ Jesus.

A polytheistic, multi-cultural society cannot long endue.  Without a common God and Lawgiver, chaos or tyranny will eventually prevail.  We denied the only King and Lawgiver in our founding documents.  We have allowed false religions to flourish in our midst.  We believed that different races with different religions could all co-exist in peace.  Different religions always bring their law-systems with them when they settle in a new country.  Politics becomes the arena of the battle for power, rather than the administration of God’s law equally to all men.  The melting pot has become a boiling pot. We must understand the times in which we live.

When Jesus was enthroned as King at the right hand of God the Father, he demanded worship not only from all individuals, but from all nations.  Christianity is not a choice that man makes.  Christianity is the demand of a sovereign God to worship him alone.  “O Kings of the earth, kiss the Son, lest he become angry and you perish in the way” (Psalm 2:12).  Our forefathers failed to confess the Triune God as Lord over all, even over this nation.  Although many of them were godly men, they avoided the declaration of the Triune God as the foundation of our nation. This was a grave error.  In reality, this was nothing less than rebellion against the Triune God.  To avoid him is to void him, and we are paying the price today.

Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tennessee.