After centuries of its banning by Rome, the edict of Milan made Christianity legal in A.D. 323. Emperor Constantine not only deemed that Christianity was not a threat to the nation and culture, but two years later, he made it the official state religion.
Countless writers have speculated whether Constantine embraced Christianity out of sincere conversion, or of mere political opportunism.
A case can be made either way, and it’s doubtful we will know definitively in this life. Though he certainly couldn’t have known the ramifications of his decisions, Constantine’s support for Christianity would benefit the entire world and immeasurably change history.
In a similar way, as the media and internet collectively melt down over President Donald Trump’s banning from the military those who struggle with gender confusion, the president may be about a higher purpose than he realizes.
So much more than sexual accommodation within the military, or within the culture at large, is at stake. The mainstreaming of homosexuality, the redefinition of marriage, the eisegesis of rights into the Constitution where inalienable rights previously would never have been implied — none of these social and political machinations could be implemented unless a pesky (for the Left, anyway) little problem were forced out of the way: natural law.
Great thinkers throughout history — religious and philosophical leaders, not to mention the framers of our nation — have called it by many names: self-evident truth, objective morality, undeniable truth, and “natural law.” Space does not permit delineation of all implied by natural law, but for the purposes of this article, let me point out three things natural law would tell us:
1.) Males and females are different. People of every era and culture know this.
2.) One’s gender is an inherent and unalterable part of what it means to be a human being.
3.) These things come from and are tied to God.
Since the 1960s, our culture has been at war with natural law. We know deep inside that killing babies is wrong, for example. But in order to legalize abortion and not feel guilty about it, we’ve spent decades engaging in mental gymnastics, denying that life begins at conception and quibbling over when a human fetus should be recognized as a person.
Regarding the long-term conditioning of public consciousness so that homosexuality is gradually accepted — or at least, over time, made to appear less counter-intuitive — our children are fed junk science and junk history. Historical revisionism, so as to spin opposition to natural law in a positive light, has birthed a cottage industry of what could only be called “anti-knowledge.” (In a couple of debates I have done, pro-LGBTQ academics have said to me, “Throughout history, the nature of marriage has always been fluid.” This is simply false.)
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But in order to usher in the moral and social changes that progressives and leftists envision, natural law must be abolished. Or at least recognition of natural law must be abolished. The problem is, you can’t abolish what is part of the DNA of reality.
Alexander Hamilton, whose influence on the creation and understanding of the Constitution can hardly be overstated, spoke often of “natural law” and God, and of our obligation to acknowledge both. Hamilton called this moral law “eternal and immutable law” and stated that it is “obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature … Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.”
Because of our desire to legitimize behaviors we know are wrong, humans ignore natural law or try to deny an awareness of it. But Hamilton and the Founders believed in human accountability to natural law, because in our consciousness and in nature, God has inexorably revealed moral truth. Hamilton said, “The sacred lights of mankind … can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. No tribunal, no codes, no systems can repeal or impair this law of God, for by His eternal law, it is inherent in the nature of things.”
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In jettisoning natural law and God, from whom it emanates, we are positioning ourselves for a very bleak future. And we are paving the way for a hell on earth for our children’s children. One of two futures awaits America and the West in the absence of a recovery of moral truth and natural law: either the iron fist of communism or the iron sword of Sharia. Only the affirmation of natural law and morality, and government based thereon, are sufficient to hold those two forces at bay.
The framers of the Constitution understood that if we recognize God’s weaving of natural law and objective morality into the fabric of life, we could experience a blessed “manifest destiny.” Should these things not be recovered, we will continue to head toward inevitable tragedy. In mandating that our military not capitulate to the transgender lobby, the president actually scored a point for the defense of natural law.
If support for natural law is restored, President Trump will have done more than strengthen our military; he may ultimately contribute to the saving of America, and — one hopes — the western world.
Alex McFarland is a religion and culture expert, national talk show host, speaker and author of 18 books, including “Abandoned Faith” (2017). He also serves as director for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at the Christian Worldview Center of North Greenville University in Greenville, South Carolina, and spent 20-plus years training teens and adults in the biblical worldview, including as Teen Apologetics director at Focus on the Family.
(photo credit, homepage and article images: Gage Skidmore, Flickr)
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