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Was the American Revolution a rebellion, as it’s often called nowadays?  Were George Washington, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson just rebels wanting to overthrow the authority of the English Crown in the American colonies?  Or were they re-establishing Godly authority by declaring “these colonies are, and of right, ought to be free and independent states?”  Why is the Declaration of Independence almost never referred to in our courts today?

Actually the understanding of one simple principle, which our Founders understood, would answer all these questions.  It is the principle of interposition.  You may be asking, “What on earth does interposition mean?”  I’m glad you asked.  Noah Webster, in his first American Dictionary, defined interposition as being the act of “…placing or coming between; intervention.”  Then he added this comment to illustrate what he meant: “The interposition of the moon between the earth and the sun occasions a solar eclipse.” 

So how does the principle of interposition work in government?  All governmental (civil) authority flows out of God, as Romans 13:1 says, “…the powers that be are ordained of God.”  Government rulers have authority only because God has allowed them that authority.  God first deposits this governmental authority in the people at large.  The people, by their choice (or election), delegate to certain individuals the right to exercise certain powers over them so that bad individuals may be controlled, and kept from taking away the rights of good people.  Thus, you have a flow of authority from the throne of God to the common people of a nation, who then entrust certain specific powers to government servants for the purpose of maintaining order in a society.  This is the governmental system which God gave to the Jews, through Moses, as recorded in Deuteronomy 1:13-15.

However, when any government ruler steps out from under the flow of God-given authority and takes to himself more authority than the people have granted him, then the principle of interposition is needed to correct his unlawful actions.  In other words, someone is needed to step in between the unlawful government servant and the people; someone who will operate only in God-ordered authority.

Esther is a good Biblical example of this principle of interposition.  When Haman, the wicked servant of King Xerxes, deceived the King into allowing him to destroy all the Jews; Esther, the queen, appealed to the King to stop Haman’s actions.  Her interposition saved the Jewish nation.

America’s Founders were doing the same thing.  King George III had stepped out from the flow of God’s authority and had misused his authority as God’s government servant.  He actually cancelled all the governments in the colonies of America so that, in reality, we had no say in what laws were forced onto us.  Because of this, our Founders appealed to the rightful colonial government servants to interposition themselves between the King and the American people.  After every appeal to the King had gone unheeded, the people’s Representatives finally, on July 2, 1776, voted to establish their own national government directly under God’s authority.  This was done by writing and approving our Declaration of Independence.

Do we not, once again, need for our local and state governments to interposition themselves between the people and the current disordered national government?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson, this has been Think About It.