Rushdoony continues his discussion of law with a brief discussion on natural law. He points out that, especially in Western thought, the idea of a higher law that man can discover was used as a basis for crafting the laws of the state.
Against this view arose two groups, the first being relativists, positivists, Marxists and all others who deny natural law and elevate the law of the state as the only thing that matters. He correctly points out that while not agreeing to the philosophy of this first group, their arguments concerning the inability of those holding to natural law to arrive at a set of non-variable truths was a fatal flaw. The problem for Rushdoony, is that while the assessment of the flaws in natural law may be correct, by replacing it with state law, it is bound by no higher law and is therefore becomes highly volatile. With no ultimate truth or basis for the law of the state, it must, by necessity change with the experiences and development of the state which will lead to chaos.
The second group opposing natural law are those Christians whose presuppositions flow from the Bible and believe that the law of God are those which govern both nature and man. Christians do not believe that nature, in itself, is a good standard for law given that nature itself is a product of the fall and thus we look for law in the revealed word of God.
Given that these two groups are diametrically opposed with one another, the one believing in universal God given truth and law and the other in the relativistic beliefs of men, is it not obvious that the two must remain in conflict. As Rushdoony closes out this chapter, the truth is that “when we deny God as our God, then we make men as gods over us.”(pg. 25) It goes without saying that when we abandon a good and loving God and his laws which are designed to protect and nurture his people, we do not find the liberty that we desire, but only captivity to the will of other men.
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