If you are concerned about the culture war raging in our country, you would appreciate Dave Miller’s new book, God and Government. If you enjoy reading about our Founding Fathers and learning how they viewed our country, you would like Miller’s book. If you want to be an educated voter, you need to read Miller’s book. If you know of someone who needs to be an educated voter, you should share Miller’s book. If you homeschool your child (or would otherwise like them to appreciate our Founding Fathers), this ought to be on your child’s reading list (junior high school or higher). The book is divided into ten essays (three dealing with care for the poor) with five appendices. It is also chocked full of footnotes that are as educational as the rest of the material as well as providing sources for further study.
In God and Government (available through apologeticspress.org), Miller first shows from the Scriptures what God’s view of civil government is. “The Bible states explicitly that the central purpose and role of government is to maintain order, peace, protection, safety, and stability in society which, in turn, enables citizens to live their lives in freedom” (pg 2). Miller is quite at home in the writings of our Founding Fathers and fills the pages of God and Government with a plethora of their quotations. Through this presentation, he shows that the Founding Fathers largely tried to duplicate the civic aspects of the Israelite religion. After all, “Since God is perfect and infinite in all His attributes, His directives to Israel concerning proper punishment of unethical human behavior [as one example, p.h.] ought to serve as the ultimate model for any nation’s legal system” (pg 42). Who could disagree with that?
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are provided a biblical basis, even beyond the Declaration of Independence. An important component of those freedoms enshrined in the Scriptures and reiterated in the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution is the right to private ownership of property. Miller provides abundant evidence that the Scriptures support private ownership. I grew up, in the 70’s, reading material by George Benson and James D. Bales that was anti-communist. Miller is filling that role today, but fighting against communistic ideas and its embryonic form, socialism, within our own country.
With the Bible and the Founding Fathers as a firm foundation, Miller critiques the modern mentality of taxation by the government (Essay 6), including government-run healthcare, the welfare state mentality relative to caring for the poor, and immigration. Concerning the poor, Miller shows (Essay 6) that America’s poor does not generally fit the biblical definition of “poor” (nor a common sense definition). In Essay 7, he shows that the welfare state is detrimental to man’s spiritual and moral state. In the 8th Essay, Miller provides biblical and rational responses to people who are truly poor and need help. There are three solutions to poverty: work, family, and a moral education. Again, Miller does not simply provide biblical support but also quotations from Founding Fathers and contemporary economists such as Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. On pages 195-198, the author provides ten practical suggestions on how the church can serve the poor in significant ways.
In the final essay, Miller approaches the topic of “Illegal Immigration.” In this essay, we see biblical evidence that God allows and supports the concept of nations having their own borders. The modern left’s concept of “open borders” is not a biblical concept. Have you ever contemplated what the Bible might have to say about immigration? Did you know the Israelites dealt with immigration and God had a plan for them to deal with immigration? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to see what God thought of immigration as it related to His people in the Old Testament?
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There is a fascinating appendix dealing with Davy Crockett and charity as it relates to the Constitution but the most interesting part of the book (for me) was the appendix on the Native American. Appendix 4 deals with “Questions and Quibbles Regarding Illegal Immigration.” Questions 3, 4 & 5 deal with the Native American issue: Did our Founding Fathers mistreat and abuse Native Americans, stealing from them and polluting their land? It is a topic I have not seen treated from a fair, historical point of view. I’ll not give you the substance of the response but would encourage you to obtain the book.
One more eye-opening point… Did you know that the law, The Indian Removal Act, that led to the Trail of Tears only passed the Senate by a vote of 28 to 19 and the House by 109 to 97? It does not look like Americans, White Europeans, were gung-ho about resettling the Native Americans. It was more a decision of the politicians than the common people.
It is sad and disappointing when men and women distort and lie about the past in order to advance their own agenda. We are thankful to Dave Miller for helping to clarify the past so that we can perhaps have a brighter future as a nation. The book would make a great Christmas gift for readers on your list.
–Paul Holland
