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The church is not a building. The church body is the group of people who join together and worship God in one accord. But the church is not held captive in the sanctuary. Our church expands far beyond the walls and into the daily lives of all who believe. However, today’s culture wants to rip the fabric of the church apart. There’s no denying that. Every day, our legal ministry is contacted by a believer who is shocked that someone is suing his church, and we step up to defend him. A vast majority of these calls describe legal situations that are happening about which you would think NEVER IN AMERICA. But they do happen. Every day.

What can you do? Is the battle too hard? Below are a few things you can do.

1. Pray for our country, and let us know! Pray for these legal issues. Nothing is too hard for God. 

2. Stand. Stand for what the Bible says is right. Do not give in on Biblical principles. 

3. Give. Give of your time to witness. Give of your resources to your church and to those causes that protect your rights. Give of yourself, and God will reward your stewardship.

Today, we received dozens of phone calls and emails in our office. One was a call from a pastor who is devastated by legal action taken against his church. A mother dialed our office from a school where her child was being forced to participate in anti-Biblical rituals. Another call was from a Christian who was simply inviting a co-worker to a church dinner and was reprimanded by his boss. These believers just wanted to obey God’s Word and handled their situations with the utmost grace, but the culture is now targeting Christians. 

You have the right to do what’s right! We are here to stand with you. Please stand firm and allow CLA to be your legal missionaries along the way. 

A dear pastor and his wife in the Midwest found themselves in the middle of the unthinkable. Without ever violating a law or even an ethical standard, they found themselves being sued for the faith. Because they had little experience with the law and legal proceedings, they expected for their situation to be resolved speedily. They had no idea that their case would take years.

To begin with, this couple had to accept the fact that the preparations for a trial can take a lot longer than one might imagine. They had no way of anticipating how much time it would take to deal with the tedious legal details.

Finally, their case got to court. Though the facts were definitely on their side, the jury came back with a guilty verdict. Their hearts were crushed, but now they had to go through the long process of appealing their case.

When the appellate court heard their case, they actually won. But the day they won, they responded, “We are surely grateful for this legal victory. But this case has consumed so much of our lives for more than four years that even winning seems hollow. We are thankful, but we are exhausted.”

This story, of course, could be told over and over. There is a reason the old adage says, “The wheels of justice turn slowly.” People who watch court cases mustn’t be disheartened when they don’t receive the outcome they had hoped for because the case may be won on appeal. People who are in the midst of court cases need patience as they deal with legal matters day in and day out, especially when they feel that there is no end in sight.

At the Christian Law Association, we are thankful when certain matters can be handled expeditiously, when they can be “nipped in the bud,” so to speak. But we also covet your prayers as our legal missionaries spend an enormous amount of time on difficult cases. Though our experienced attorneys do unparalleled work on the cases, all of us benefit from having more patience.

We humbly ask that you pray for good and Godly people who are in the midst of legal struggles at this moment, that you pray for our legal staff as they tend to these difficult and tedious cases, and that you pray for our nation as many important cases slowly make their way through the legal system. We surely need God’s gracious hand of blessing, and we need to be patient people.

The Declaration of Independence is a document at the very core of our American system of government. Signed on July 4, 1776, the Declaration set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the Revolutionary War, the independence of the United States, and the establishment of an unbelievably effective system of government. There are several aspects of the Declaration of Independence that are decidedly Christian, and we will examine each of them briefly.

People Were Created by God

The Declaration of Independence includes this famous quotation:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Unpacking this statement, it is clear that the Founding Fathers believed that humans have a Creator. They acknowledged that human life came from God. Further, the Declaration asserts that God Himself created humans and gave them certain rights. Since rights like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were given to mankind by God, they cannot be taken away by the State.

This statement from the Declaration of Independence is not a neutral statement. It is a statement that honors God the Creator and recognizes that human governments cannot and should not overthrow divine principles.

All Men Are Created Equal

The Declaration, of course, asserts that all people are created equal. Even though they did not fully live out this idea in regards to slavery at the time, the Christian idea about the equality of humans would eventually be adopted more and more in the American system of government, culminating in a time when slavery would be abolished.

When America first articulated this Christian ideal in the Declaration of Independence, there were still thousands of men and women on our soil who were not yet being treated as equals because they were slaves. Although it took more than two hundred years, a bloody Civil War, and an ongoing civil rights movement to achieve it, this doctrine of equality, which has always been enshrined as an ideal in the Declaration, slowly became a reality for everyone. 

In 1890, historian Richard Frothingham wrote,

[A] low view of man was exerting its full influence when Rome was at the height of its power and glory. Christianity then appeared with its central doctrine, that man was created in the Divine image, and destined for immortality; pronouncing that, in the eye of God, all men are equal. This asserted for the individual an independent value. It occasioned the great inference, that man is superior to the State, which ought to be fashioned for his use. This was the advent of a new spirit and a new power in the world.

Ultimately, the eradication of slavery in the United States is rooted in the Christian ideal of the equality of mankind.

The Declaration’s Very Words Have Christian Sources

Not only the concepts but the very words of the Declaration of Independence are rooted in Christianity. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he did so with a great deal of input from those who had gone before him. He did a masterful job of setting forth our nation’s reasons for coming into being, but his thoughts were not original. As political science professor, Donald S. Lutz, observed, “[T]here was nothing new in the phrasing and ideas of the Declaration.”

Jefferson drew many of his ideas from John Locke and William Blackstone, both Biblical Christians. He also reflected the work of a group of twenty-seven Scotch-Irish church elders in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who drafted their own Declaration in May 1775, under the direction of Elder Ephraim Brevard, a graduate of Princeton. A comparison of the Declaration of Independence with the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence reveals many similar phrases.

In declaring the endowment of these unalienable rights, Jefferson was also influenced by George Mason’s “Virginia Declaration of Rights” which said: 

That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

Much of the wording of the Declaration itself is rooted in the work of Christian ideas as expressed by Godly people of Jefferson’s generation.

Self-Evident Truths

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that certain truths were self-evident, he was referring to truth that is known intuitively as a direct revelation from God without the need for proof, discussion or debate. For example, there is no need to prove that man is created in the image of God. It is assumed. Black is not white, round is not square, and men are not angels. These are all facts of nature that, as human beings, we are able to reason and understand without further proof. 

It cannot be refuted that Christianity had a great impact on the Declaration of Independence. At the Christian Law Association, it is our honor to defend the Constitution of the United States when enemies of the Gospel attempt to use the law to thwart Christian ministries. We ask for your prayer as we continuously labor on behalf of God’s people.

My paternal grandfather wasn’t well educated. He left school after fifth grade because he didn’t want to repeat it for the third time; and once he left, he had to make a living. The one thing he knew how to do was butcher a cow. So, he got a cow, butchered it, and took it to town to sell it. He got up the next day and did the same. That business grew until, by the time I came along, my dad, his brothers, and Granddad were slaughtering five to seven thousand head of cattle a week and putting them in semis and sending them everywhere. He wasn’t well educated, but he knew how to give a thousand men a full-time job. 

Granddad had an amazing attitude toward the Bible. If I heard him say it once, I probably heard it a thousand times: “Life’s real simple. If the Bible says it, you do it.” That was it. “You don’t have to understand it, but if God said it, you do it.” 

He also believed that we are to put others above ourselves. He called me in one day and said, “Davey, I have a job for you to do.” 

“Sure, Grandpa. What can I do?” 

“We got this farmer’s cattle too cheap.” 

I looked at him and said, “No, no, we just got a sweet deal. We got a top bid at the auction. We didn’t do anything illegal.”

He shot back, “Son, I didn’t say we did anything illegal. I said we bought them too cheap. I have a duty before God to watch out for that farmer. And I have a duty to God not to do to him what I wouldn’t want him to do to me. Do you understand that, son?” 

“Yes, sir.”

“Would you want him to buy your cattle too cheap?” 

“Of course not, Grandpa.” 

“Then don’t you ever do it to someone else. I put money in this envelope. Take it to the farmer and tell him we’re Christians, and we’re sorry, and we don’t do this.” 

That farm was 300 miles away in Ohio, and it was in the dead of winter. By the time I reached that farm, it was nine o’clock at night, and snow was flying everywhere. I walked up onto the porch in the dark and knocked, and a lady peeped out from behind the curtains before she opened the door. 

I told her, “Ma’am, my name is Dave Gibbs, and my grandpa sent me here tonight to apologize. We’re Christians, and we bought your cattle too cheap, and we don’t do that. We want to make it right, so here,” I said as I held out that envelope of money toward her. 

She opened it and began crying, so hard that her nose started bleeding. By that time, her husband had walked to the door, and he’s hugging her as she says, “What kind of man does this?” 

I’ll never forget her husband’s reply: “A Christian, Honey. A real one.” 

My dad and granddad did a lot of cattle judging. They judged many large competitions like the Western National Livestock Show and others, but their passion was judging 4-H cattle, and they’d take me along. I couldn’t judge, but if those 4-H kids raised a steer, they had to sell it. I was there to buy those steers. So, Granddad would give me popcorn, peanuts, and a Coke and tell me, “Here’s what you do. Every steer that comes in, you start the bidding at two dollars a pound.” 

You could have bought any of those animals for sixty or sixty-five cents a pound. A dollar a pound was high. Two dollars a pound was exorbitant! But I did just what he said. Every one that came in, I’d look at the auctioneer and say, “Two dollars.” 

Pretty soon, people who wanted to buy those steers started asking, “Little Gibbs, what we gotta do to get you off that two bucks?” 

“Ya gotta go talk to Granddad.” 

They’d look disgusted and say, “That won’t do no good. He’s doing what he thinks the Bible says to do. That’s just not gonna do any good.” 

When we bought those steers, we gave every one of those kids a Gospel tract and offered to pick them up, no matter where they lived, and take them to church. And I just sat there saying, “Two dollars a pound.” 

On the way home one day, I said from the back seat, “Grandpa, we spent a bunch of money today we didn’t have to spend.” 

He stopped that car right on the highway, turned around, and said, “Son, don’t you ever forget this. Number one, it wasn’t your money. Number two, it wasn’t my money. It was God’s money, and we made the Lord look good today. Don’t you ever say we spent what we didn’t have to when we made the Lord look good.” 

      “³¹ And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise….³⁶ Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful….³⁸ Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:31, 36, 38) 

Are we the real deal, or has the world so conformed us that we are just out for ourselves? Do we make the Lord look good in the way we deal with others? 

I made similar trips more than once carrying money for sellers, and so did others who worked for my grandfather. When Grandpa passed away, the viewing was scheduled for noon to eight at night, then the funeral was to be the next morning. They had to postpone the funeral for two and a half days because thousands of farmers showed up in Ohio from Texas, Montana, Illinois, Michigan… in fact, from all over the U.S. During those two-and-a-half days, I stood and listened as person after person said, “Let me tell you what you don’t know about your granddad.” 

At the end of the trail, what will people say about you? 

The lady from my first trip came and hugged my neck as she said, “Little Gibbs, be like your granddad. There’s not too many of them. Be real.” 

Christians, we have forgotten what we are commanded to do. Are we making the Lord look good today? 

More and more American Christians are being taken to court over matters relating to their Biblical faith today. As a nation, America no longer encourages religious liberty; the country only reluctantly tolerates it. In a great sense, the Christian’s convictions are being “put on trial” in America. Unfortunately, in many cases, the believer has not fared so well when that happens.

For a long time, conviction was a do-all, catch-all word, all too often used carelessly to justify actions and beliefs. For many, convictions have become a combination of Bible views with bits of personal interpretation and ideas added. If we change our minds about a matter, we just change our conviction.

In the courts today, Christians do not have to prove that they are right, but they must prove that what they claim to be convictions are, in truth, convictions, and not merely preferences. The Supreme Court of the United States has set a standard for that proof. You may someday be forced to follow that standard in the defense of your religious faith. Issues are litigated every week which come ever closer to what we hold to be true and dear. 

The Supreme Court determined that every single religious belief is one of two types: either a conviction or a preference. In the United States of America, only convictions are protected by the Constitution. Preferences are not.

What is a preference?

A preference is an extremely strong belief. A belief can be held with such intensity that we give all of our wealth to it, energetically proselytize other people to it, and even teach it to our children. The court says we can have a tremendous zeal for what is still only a preference. People will change a preference under the right circumstances—like pressure from family, peers, other people, lawsuits, jail, or death. The court will ask if you would be willing to die for your belief. Why? What creates a conviction? In a Christian, only one thing should do so. A conviction should be held only when a man believes that his God requires it of him. 

What is a conviction? 

A belief that is God-ordered is a conviction. It is not a matter of resolve or dedication, but believing with all of your heart that God requires something of you. The courts say that a conviction is something that is predetermined and purposed in the heart as a part of the fabric of someone’s belief system—it is non-negotiable, and not contingent upon victory. A conviction is not affected by the consequences that may result from living out that conviction. 

What is the ultimate test of a conviction?

The court noticed that people sometimes do not tell the exact truth. I don’t know if I have ever seen any of the people I have represented lie in the courtroom, but I have seen some who were incredibly casual with the truth. As a consequence, the court decided there must be a way to know whether what people are saying is, in fact, the truth.

A conviction will always show up in a person’s lifestyle. A conviction must be lived consistently and be consistent with itself. Our lives are the truest test of our convictions. The courts can test us in every way as to whether or not what we say we believe is truly our conviction, but the ultimate test is an examination of our lives. We can neither run nor hide from that fact. The way we live our lives is the truest test of all for whether our beliefs are convictions or preferences. Before we can state that something is a conviction, we must be prepared to say that its opposite is a sin.

Many Christians in our country are living lives that defy their stated beliefs. They are against in some forms what they are willing to accept in others. They denounce actions in others that they consider acceptable in themselves. Nothing will separate the truth from the rhetoric quicker than a serious examination of the way we live our lives. In such an examination, most of us will find that our beliefs are founded on preferences far more regularly than they are founded upon deeply rooted convictions. 

The greatest tragedy

The greatest tragedy is not the inconsistency before the court, but the insult to Christ. Far too often, we bow before the altar of self-serving living and bring a reproach upon the Savior who bought us with the price of His own blood. It is a sad commentary on our love and commitment to Him that we have very few beliefs that could stand up to the serious examination of this world to prove them to be actual convictions.

The greatness of the New Testament church was that the believers were not only willing to die for their beliefs, but their accusers could find no fault or inconsistency in them. Oh, that the world could say the same about us! Remember, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” 

Perhaps it is time to place ourselves on trial to see if we really believe what we say we believe. Are we really living consistently by what we claim as convictions? Whether or not we are ever brought to a courtroom and put on trial by men, we are on trial every day before our God. He demands consistent holy living, not just in word but in deed. Anyone of us can say we believe in certain things; but as children of God, we ought to live like it. God help us to make it so. 

Growing up in church, many heard and sang “How Firm a Foundation,” a hymn that describes how the Word of God provides a sure foundation for the people of God. The Bible talks plainly about the importance of foundations. “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).

We live in a society where many secularists are using every weapon they can to destroy the spiritual foundations so important to God’s people. The Bible teaches us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). But for decades, it has been illegal for teachers to lead their classes in Christian prayer. The Ten Commandments provide a moral foundation that is the bedrock of civil society, but secular education bans the teaching of these commandments in the classroom.

The Bible is clear that parents are to educate their children in the fear of the Lord. “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). In clear contrast, secularists are doing everything in their power to prevent parents from influencing the education of their children.

Here at the Christian Law Association, we urge God’s people to dig deep foundations. When secular society pressures you to abandon your faith and to have your children receive an education that is antithetical to the ways of the Lord, you must determine to do everything within your power to ensure that your family is being raised in a home built on godly foundations.

On the legal front, CLA is constantly battling for religious liberty, but all of this is to no avail if the people of God do not have a heart to dig deep spiritual foundations for their families. We must be aware of the onslaught against the very foundations of our faith, and we must determine to pursue God’s truth more than ever. 

It is clear that there are strong currents in our nation doing everything in their power to create a godless society, but as long as God’s people retain their determination to serve the Lord faithfully, there is still great hope. Let us continue to echo the words of the hymn…

How firm a foundation, 
ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith 
in His excellent Word! 
What more can He say 
than to you He hath said, 
To you who for refuge 
to Jesus have fled?