8/12/2019 1988 Issue 1 - Book Review: Christianity and the Constitution, The Faith of Our Founding Fathers - Counsel of Ch

1/2

upon themselves the penalties of

th

faith. The answer is

th

root

of

that

sense

of

moral superiority which makes

Communists, though caught in crime,

berate their opponents with withering

self-righteousness (Pg. 11, WIT-

NESS)

.

"The Communist vision has a migh

ty agitator and a mighty propagandist.

They are the crisis.

The

agitator needs

no

soap box. It speaks insistently to

the human mind at the point where des

peration lurks. The propagandist writes

no Communist gibberish. It speaks in

sistently to the human mind at the

point where man's hope and man's

energy fuse to fierceness (Pg. 11, WIT-

NESS).

"The vision inspires. The crisis im

pels. The workingman is chiefly moved

by the crisis.

The

educated

man

is

chief

ly moved by the vision. The working

man, living upon a mean margin of

life, can afford few visions - even prac

tical visions. An educated man, peering

from the Harvard Yard, or any college

campus, upon a world in chaos, finds in

the vision the two certainties for which

the mind

of

man tirelessly seeks: a

reason to live

and

a reason to die.

No

other faith of

our

time presents them

with the same practical intensity. That

is why Communism is the central ex

perience

of

the first half of the twen

tieth century, and may be its final ex

perience - will be, unless the free world,

in the agony of its struggle with Com

munism, overcomes its crisis

by

dis

covering, in suffering and pain, a power

of faith which will provide man's mind,

at the same intensity, with the same

two certainties: a reason to live and a

reason to die. If it fails, this will be the

century

of

the great social wars. f it

succeeds, this will be the century of the

great wars

of

faith" (Pg. 11-12, W -

NESS).

I believe this eloguent and very ac

curate revelation

by

Chambers

of

the

core appeal of Communism makes the

situation very clear

to

any Bible-be

lieving Christian because, of

ll

people,

Christians understand the seductive ap

peal made by Satan in the Garden

of

Eden:

Ye

shall be

as

gods."

[To be continued in the next issue.]

BOOK REVIEW

Christianity

and

the

Constitu

tion: The Faith

of

Our Found-

ing

Fathers,

by John Eidsmoe.

Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987, 416pp. Re

viewed

by

Rev. Kenneth

L.

Gentry, Jr.,

Reedy River Presbyterian Church,

Greenville, SC.

One

of

the eminently important

socio-political questions of

our

day has

to do with the role of Christianity in

the founding of our nation. It should go

without saying to the readers of The

Counsel

of

Chalcedon that America is

adrift in the tumultuous

sea

of

secular

humanism. Such anchorless casting

about on the waves

of

the

sea of

chance

is sure

to

result in a shipwreck of monu

mental historical importance for Ameri

ca, -- unless faithful Christians can in a

timely manner secure this ship of state

with its original Christian moorings.

A vital aspect of our Christian endea

vor

to

regain America's stability is

educational. We life in a day and age

where righteousness and truth are con

sidered bias of the worst sort,

and

dreams

~

distortions are the tools of

"objective historical inquiry." In effect,

the writing

of

history has recently be

gun

to

take

on

the appearance of the

writing

of

a novel.

The

modem

historio

grapher "creates" history, rather than

gathers

t

However,

by

the grace

of

God there is now a growing number of

books being published which has begun

calling into question the secular human

istic rescriptive approach in the field

of

historiography .

. One significant area of concern in his

tory is the role of Christian influence

on our constitutional founding fathers.

Was

Christianity a significant compel

ling influence toward the establishment

of

our

national governing document,

or

not?

It

is the considered opinion of the

editorial staff of The Counsel ofChalce-

don

that it most certainly was. Conse

quently, we welcome the Baker

Book

House publication of this helpful vol

ume

of

historical inquiry.

Do not

let

the fact

of

the author's

training

at

Dallas Seminary and Oral

Roberts University dissuade you from

reading this work; John Eidsmoe has

demonstrated himself

to

be a competent

legal historian.

Two

of

his previous

books include: The Christian Legal

Advisor and God nd Caesar: Christian

Faith and Political Action. From 1981

to 1986 he taught constitutional law

and legal history at

0.

W. Coburn

School of Law.

He

has written the

present book for the purpose of impres

sing upon the reader the significant

truth

that

"the founding fathers recog

nized that freedom

cannot

exist in an

immoral society -- the nation will

crumble from within

or

be conquered

from without. Christians

must

supply

the moral fiber

that

comes from obedi

ence

to

God and his natural

and

revealed

laws i f America is to survive as a free

society." The present reviewer whole

heartedly concurs with this goal.

The

book is divided into three major

parts. Part I, The Background," pro

vides four insightful chapters entitled:

"Calvinism," "Puritanism," "Deism,

Freemasonry, and Science,"

and

"Law

and Government." His treatment of

Calvinism

and

Puritanism is quite help

ful. He fully acknowledg

es

the impor

tantrole

of

our

reformed faith on Ameri

ca's founding. He

even

concurs with

George Bancroft that John

Cal

vin may

rightly be considered "the father of

America" (p. 18) . And this despite his

admission that I cannot consider my

self

a Calvinist," in that he is a

minister

of

"the Church

of

the Lutheran

Brethren"

(p.

19, n5). The historical

insights offered in the first two chapters

are must reading for concerned reformed

Christians.

Unfortunately, he radically miscop

strues the nature

of

covenant theology,

as Dallas Seminary graduates are prone

to

do: witness J.

D.

Pentecost's sum

marizing covenant theology, not

by

quoting covenant theologians, but by

quoting

L.

S. Chafer Things t Come,

pp.

65-66)

No

wonder they

do

not

understand covenant theology On page

24 Eidsmoe states: "The central theme

The Counsel of Chalcedon, January, 1988 Page 23

8/12/2019 1988 Issue 1 - Book Review: Christianity and the Constitution, The Faith of Our Founding Fathers - Counsel of Ch

2/2

of

covenant theology is that God

made

two covenants with

:tnan,

a covenant

of

law and a covenantof grace. The cove

nant

of

law consists of God's revelation

of

the

Old Testament law, the Ten

Commandments, and man's promise to

obey it; the covenant of grace is God's

promise

of

redemption through man's

faith in the finished work

of

Jesus

Christ

on

the cross. A quick(consulta

tion of

the Westminster Confession of

Faith rectifies this dichotomy'between

law and grace. WCF 7 states the proper

two-foldness of the covenant;,., The frrst

covenant made with man

~

a cove

nant

of

works wherein life was pro

miSed to Achun; and in

him

to his

p6sterity, upon condition of perfect and

personal obedience (WCF 7:2). In

WCF 7:5 the Westminster divines

clearly state that the second covenant,

the covenant

of

grace, was differently

administered in the time of the law, and

in the time

of

the gospel: under the law

it was administered by

Interestingly, however, -- and surely

this evidences cracks in modern dispen

sationalism, cracks which I have pre

dicte-d w ll eventually cause the demise

of

this inane theological construct -

- Eidsmoe states: As a dispensation

alist premillennialist, I reject the view

of

some

of

my dispensational col

leagues that the Mosaic law is irrele

vant today rrhe law's] principles

are universal, unchanging, and appli

cable to all societies including ours (p.

31, n6). What a refreshing evidence of

the influence of theonomic ethics, -- an

evidence

so

q ~ m t r r y t the horrifying

call of.dispensationalist Norm Geisler

in Moody Monthly (October, 1985) for

Christians t back

off

seeking a Chris

tian nation.

Chapter 4 provides some quite inter

esting analyses of

the literary influences

on the founding fathers.

Part

II, Meet the Founding Fathers,

composes the bulk of the work; it con

sumes almost 300 pages of the book.

In essence, it is reminiscent

of

the book

by M. E. Bradford, Worthy Com-

pany: riefLives of the Framrs

of

the

United States Constitution (Plymouth

Rock Foundation: 1982). Both books

seek

to

demonstrate the Christian herf-

tage that was so dominant in colonial

America, particularly

in

the Revolution

ary War era. But whereas Bradford gave

biographies

of

each

of

the signers

of

the Constitution seeking t demonstrate

that probably 50

of

of the signers

were Christian, Eidsmoe is concerned t

provide a chapter each on thirteen

of

the

most influential of our Founding

Fathers in which the focus is on their

religious beliefs

and

how those beliefs

affected their political thoughts and

actions. The men dealt with include:

John Witherspoon, James Madison,

George Washington, Benjamin Frank

lin, Thomas Jefferson,

to

name but a

few.

This portion of the book is enor

mously helpful for

ari understanding of

the significant influence

of

Christianity -

- even a postmillennial, reformed Chris

tianity -- upon our founding fathers.

The work: is well-documented, often

from original sources, I highly recom

mend its reading to the concerned reader.

it

would be

an

excellent source of read

ings in any history class

of

junior high

age or above.

Non-Profit Org

U.

S.

Postage

P ID

BULK RAT

Permit No. 155

However, I should note some of my

own uneasy feelings in regard to the

presentation

of

some

of

the evidence.

On occasion the author strains to put a

Christian, or at least a slightly more

Christian face on a man or a matter

where it does not well fit.

My

convic

tion is that though some

of

the

Founding Fathers were not Christians

themselves, they were, nevertheless, liv

ing

in an

era of strong Christian in

fluence. nd this influence pushed them

to relatively Christian positions on a

number

of

important m.atters. Eidsmoe

occasionally imposes his desire to see a

Christian conunitment among these

men where I am not sure such exists.

Part III, The Constitution: Then and

Now, is composed of three chapters,

one

of

which is particularly helpful:

Chapter 21: Biblical Principles Found

in the Declaration and the Constitu

tit:m.

Unfortunately, the book has no

index, which is to be lamented.

[Editor's note- This book is avail

able free for a $70.00 donation to The

Counsel ofChalcedon.]

[ ]

Page 24 'l'lte Counsel

of

Chalcedon, January; 1988