In this response to the
100 questions,
the full objection here is, "Christians keep trying to use the law
to impose their privately held beliefs on other people."
Apparently this questioner believes
it is only Christians who use the law to impose their privately held
beliefs on other people. If this questioner truly believes that,
then it shows a striking level of naievité and lack of awareness of
how often the law is used to impose privately held beliefs on other
people. So let me break it to the questioner gently:
Most, if not all laws that are
imposed, are imposed by one group of people trying to use the
law to impose their privately held beliefs on other people.
How many examples will be
sufficient to make this point obvious? When I attended school, to
support a point in a paper, it was taught that at least three
examples or supporting evidences should be supplied. When the
disciple Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone
(Matt 18.21), the answer given by the rabbis at the time was three.[1]
Peter generously doubled it and added one - though that was far
short of the way it is done in the Kingdom, where forgiveness is
given whenever needed (the essence of verse 22). But since this is
not a matter of forgiveness, but a demonstration of a point, Peter's
approach of seven - in this case examples - will be sufficient to
show how common it is that one group uses the law to impose personal
beliefs on another.
A few of the many privately held non-Christian Beliefs that have
been forced on all - including Christians:
1. The (unconstitutional)
Separation of Church and State
Though many people have pointed it out, many others are still
surprised to learn that the phrase "separation of church and state"
does not appear in the U.S. constituion. And the "establishment"
clause of the first amendment was not meant to keep the church and
state separate. Rather, as Jefferson pointed out to the Danbury
Baptist Association in 1802 in a letter, the "wall of separation" he
referred to in his letter was to keep the government out of the
church; not the church out of the government.[2]
But those whose rejected Christianity due to their private beliefs,
and wanted to
decrease the impact of the church perverted the intention of
both the constitution and Thomas Jefferson to make people believe
the constitution requires a "wall of separation" between church and
state when in fact it does not.
2. The removal of the Ten Commandments from the public schools.
Though there's a movement to get them back in the class room[3]
The Teb Commandments have long been banned from schools, as has
school prayer. These prohibitions are part of a concerted effort to
remove God from the classroom.
3. Creation cannot be taught in Schools
Most are aware of the Scopes "Monkey Trial", but that trial focused
on evolution, and was just the beginning of efforts to remove of
Christian teaching (which would include Creation) from schools. The
final blow that outlawed teaching creation in school was The Edwards
v. Aguillard case in 1987.This was followed by outlawing the
teaching of Intelligent Design in schools in the 2005 with the
Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover[4] case.
4. Roe Vs. Wade - Abortion - (The legalized killing of babies)
This 1973 ruling is so widely known I won't bother with links for
it. The fact that the Supreme court kicked it back to the states[5]
did not make it illegal throughout the country. The high court
simply removed the federal allowance of it and left it for the
individual states to decide for themselves.
5. The corruption of Marriage to
allow gMarriage
The supreme court in its ruling in Obergerfell v. Hodges (2015) has
corrupted marriage to allow same sex couples to legalize a union
which has been called "marriage", but is better called gMarriage[6]
(the g is silent) which is the U.S. government's redefinition of
marriage. This is against the belief systems of every major religion
(Christianity, Judaism, Islam), yet it has been imposed on every
person in the United States.
6. Attempts at making Sharia Law Legally binding
Islam is a religion of satan[7] (one
of many) and so predictably includes immoral practices such as honor
killings[8] and the perverse belief that
there is no problem, issue or sin with Muslim men raping "infidel"
(non-muslim) women.[9] Attempts at making
Islamic or Sharia law the law of the land are ongoing, as muslims,
attempting to bring about a world wide caliphate, are working hard
to make the immoral dictates of
Sharia law the law of the land.[10]
7. Vaccine mandates
Many people, Christian and non-Christian alike, were suspicious
of the mRNA experimental vaccines when they were released,
questioning their
effectiveness, safeness, and the draconian measures used
to try to gain adoption and get people to take it. That did not stop
the government from mandating the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, even
when not desired and contra-indicated.[11]
So clearly Christians are not the only people using law to
impose their privately held beliefs on other people. All groups, be
they atheist, Muslim, Gay, or whatever, use the force of the law to
impose thier personal beliefs on others. As a Christian, I don't
agree with any of the above laws, yet they are imposed upon me by
those fully willing to use law to impose their privately held
beliefs on me and others who disagree with them. So the question
should not be, [why do] Christians keep trying to use the law
to impose thier personally held beliefs on other people, but rather,
why do people in general keep using the law to impose thier
personally held beliefs on other people?
The answer becomes simple once you
ask the correct question. People keep trying to use the law to
impose their personally held beliefs on other people, because they
believe their personally held beliefs are the ones that are better
than other beliefs, and thus should be enforced using the power of
the authorities. That leads to an even better question:
Which personally held beliefs are better or correct, and thus should
be enforced by the power of the authorities? Now, we're
getting somewhere. The real question is not really one of why do
Christians (as opposed to others) do it, but why are Christian
beliefs the correct ones that should be believed and enforced (as
opposed to other beliefs)?
The Christian beliefs are correct and should be enforced because the
morals they teach are supported by natural law, most religions and
governments around the world. You need look no further than the Ten
Commandments given by Moses at Mount Sinaii to see this. The Ten
Commands are divided into two sections - commandments one through
four - deal with people relating to God, and commandments five
through ten dealing with people relating to people, particularly how
people should treat other people. This is the moral law.
Commandments 5 through 10 are:
5. Honor your Father and Mother (Ex 20.12)
6. Do not Murder (Ex 20.13) (The word is murder, not kill - there's
a difference)
7. Do not commit Adultery (Ex 20.14)
8. Do not Steal (Ex 20.15)
9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor (Ex 20.16)
10. Do not Covent anything of your neighbor's (Ex 20.17) (that you
can't have - because it's your neighbor's)
With the exception of numbers 5 and
10 (which are internal and cannot be quantified), every one of these
is in the legal code of virtually every civilized nation - until
that nation starts breaking down and allowing, or at least not
penalizing, these mandates. Students of history know even these
obvious commandments are suspended once other (inferior or perverse)
moral laws are put in place.
For example, if you pretend people
are not human, as the Nazis did to the Jews, then you allow the
killing of 6 million Jews and other undesirable groups. Pretend
there's nothing wrong with adultery and you get easy, "no fault"
divorce laws. Pretend stealing is not wrong, and you get states that
will not prosecute theft if under a certain amount. Such refusal
to police and deter such immoral acts does not make it right or
moral. It just demonstrates the corruption in the authorities that
exist to protect the people. (Rom 13.4)
So commandments five through ten
are universal (though only 6-9 can be objectively enforced). Moral
people do not object to them. What about commandments one through
four? As the bard would say, "ay there's the rub." The problem
starts with the introduction to the Ten Commandments where God, the
true and one and only God, identifies who he is, and lays down the
first commandment. First, how God identifies himself:
"I am the LORD
your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery. (Ex 20:2)
Who is God? God starts the
decalogue by introducing himself, giving his personal name -
which the Jews considered too holy to be spoken, so "the LORD"
is substituted for his true
name[12]. God further identifies
himself as the one who broke the power of Pharaoh, the king of
Egypt, with his miracles and led the children of Israel out of the
bondage they were under in the land of Egypt. (Learn more about the
Exodus
here.) Having introduced himself and giving us a reminder of his
awesome power sufficient to overwhelm the pharaoh of Egypt (by
laying waste the land of Egypt (Ex 7.14-11.9; 12.29-32) and
destroying Pharaoh's army who were chasing the people of God (Ex
14.15-28)), what is the first instruction God gives in this list of
ten?
"You shall have no other gods
before me. (Ex 20:3)
So, no worshipping other gods, no
following their teaching, and definitely no putting any of their
teachings or instructions into your legal code to enforce upon other
people. Thus no honoring Muhammed, Allah, Buddah, Shiva, Vishnu,
Molech (the Caananite god of child sacrifice and abortion) ,etc.,
and no support for Sharia law, or any other legal codes that oppose
what God has instructed. And the commands only get more precise in
how God is to be worshipped after this one: No idols, no misusing
his name, and remember to worship him weekly on his day.
What does this objection, about
imposing beliefs, really come down to? This objection is really
about a desire to not recognize God and rather, to reject the God of the Bible.
This is the same God who has identified himself and given instructions on
the proper way to live. Those who reject God's laws do not want the
the God of the Bible telling them what's good and right. Instead,
such believe the lie of the serpent, the lie of satan that you can
determine for yourself what's good and right. (Gen 3.6)
The question comes down to the same
question that confronted Adam and Eve: Who are you going to believe,
God, or the serpent satan? Who do you think knows what's best for
you? The creator who made you who wants you to live with him (Is
57.15), or the lying serpent who's trying to get you to follow him
into hell? (John 10.10, Matt 7.13)
So why do Christians try to use the
law to impose their privately held beliefs on other people - as
other people do? Christians do it because the law, when correct, is
a teacher. It teaches you right from wrong. And when correct and
followed, it can lead you to the truth and a good life and point you
to something even greater. The apostle Paul tells us:
"So the law was put in charge
to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." (Gal
3:24)
So what is the motive of Christians
who keep trying to use the law to impose thier privately held
beliefs on other people? To be the preservatives of society we were
called to be (Matt 5.13); to preserve (some would say conserve) good
society; and just as importantly, to let the law be the steward it
is supposed to be to lead you to Christ. For as the apostle Peter
reminds us, God is "...not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance." (2 Pe 3.9 KJV) The message of
salvation is much more difficult to believe when the law, and thus
right from wrong, is not recognized. So good laws - those in
accordance with what God has mandated - assist in bringing people
out of darkness and into the light of Christ. This is your answer to
the implied question of "why" Christians do this.
Duane Caldwell | May
26, 2025
Notes
1. "In Rabbinic discussion the consensus
was that a brother might be forgiven a repeated sin three times..."
D.A Carson, "Matthew" in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 8;
Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984 p. 405
Back
2. David Barton, The Myth of
Separation, Aledo, Tx:Wallbuilder Press, 1991, pp. 41-42
Back
3.
Mat Staver "The 10 commandments are
back" Liberty Counsel, Mar 25, 2023,
https://lc.org/newsroom/details/230325-the-ten-commandments-are-back
Back
4. Ten Major Court Cases About
Evolution and Creationism. NCSE, June 6, 2016,
https://ncse.ngo/ten-major-court-cases-about-evolution-and-creationism
Back
5. Dobbs v. Jackson, 2022; See
"Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Sends abortion back to the
states" Jon Ward, Yahoo!News, June 24, 2022,
https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-repeals-roe-v-wade-sends-abortion-back-to-the-states-142310680.html
Back
6. Stream commentator William
Briggs defines gMarriage as:
"Gmarriage is government-defined marriage, which is not actual
marriage, which can only be between a man and woman"
William Briggs, "A Mild & Temporary Victory over Gmarriage", The
Stream, june 6, 2018,
https://stream.org/a-mild-temporary-victory-over-gmarriage/
Back
7. Satan has many religions.
Since the muslim "mahdi" messiah is the Antichrist, Islam can
appropriately be categorized as another religion of satan.
On the Mahdi being the antichrist, See John Macarthur, "The Mahdi is
the AntiChrist - Pastor John MacArthur", YouTube, Dec 12, 2017,
https://youtu.be/b-f8zDeqy-k
Back
8. Though Islamists say
technically neither they nor the Quran support honor killings, most
honor killings are committed by and condoned by muslims.
Ibn Warraq, "Honor Killing and Islam", City Journal,Jun 20, 2018,
https://www.city-journal.org/article/honor-killing-and-islam
Back
9. On allowance of Muslim men
raping "infidels" see:
Raymond Ibrahim, "The Muslim Man's Sexual 'Rights' Over Non-Muslim
Women", 2/11/2016,
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2016/02/11/the-muslim-mans-sexual-rights-over-non-muslim-women/
Back
10. On attempts to legalize
Sharia law in America see:
"Sharia Law In America - Sharia Law Advancing in America"
https://www.billionbibles.org/sharia/america-sharia-law.html
Back
11. Alexandra Benisek, "Vaccine
Mandates: What to know", WebMD, Oct 25, 2022
https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/vaccine-mandates
Back
12. God's personal
name is represented by the four charachters YHWH, and is typically
vocalized as Yahweh. Jehovah is a corrupted, incorrect translation
of God's personal name written in Hebrew. As a reminder not to speak
the name of God, the Masorite copiers of the Hebrew text substituted
the vowels for Lord (Adonai) for the vowels that belong to God's
name. This produces an impossible to read word in Hebrew that would
have been a reminder to Hebrew readers not to same the actually
name, but to substitute Lord (Adonai) instead. Later translaters
tried to translate God's name, and ignored the fact (or didn't know)
that the word is an impossible word form in Hebrew.
Back
Image:
Banner in stone on the Supreme Court Building