Advancing the Kingdom of Yeshua law lesson 2

First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. What is “religion”? Black’s Law Dictionary defines “religion” as follows: “Religion. Man's relation to Divinity, to reverence, worship, obedience, and submission to mandates and precepts of supernatural or superior beings. In its broadest sense includes all forms of belief in the existence of superior beings exercising power over human beings by volition, imposing rules of conduct, with future rewards and punishments. Bond uniting man to God, and a virtue whose purpose is to render God worship due him as source of all being and principle of all government of things. Nikulnikoff v. Archbishop, etc., of Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, 142 Misc. 894, 255 N.Y.S. 653, 663.” [Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 1292] The essential characteristics of religion according to the above therefore include: 1. “Belief” in the existence of a specific “superior being”. This “belief” is what those engaged in a religion call “faith”, and it consists of an opinion that either is not supported by evidence or cannot be supported by evidence. 2. Worship, obedience, and submission to the mandates and precepts of a specific supernatural or superior being. 3. Rules of conduct with future rewards and punishments. For instance, the Bible contains a system of biblical laws which regulate the conduct of all believers. When one's belief collides with the power of the state, the latter is supreme within its sphere and submission or punishment follows. But, in the forum of conscience, duty to a moral power higher than the state has always been maintained. The reservation of that supreme obligation, as a matter of principle, would unquestionably be made by many of our conscientious and law-abiding citizens. The essence of religion is belief in a relation to God involving duties superior to those [283 U.S. 605, 634] arising from any human relation. As was stated by Mr. Justice Field, in Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 342 , 10 S.Ct. 299, 300: 'The term 'religion' has reference to one's views of his relations to his Creator, and to the obligations they impose of reverence for his being and character, and of obedience to his will.' One cannot speak of religious liberty, with proper appreciation of its essential and historic significance, without assuming the existence of a belief in supreme allegiance to the will of God. Church: the religious society founded and established by Jesus Christ, to receive, preserve, and propagate his doctrines and ordinances. A body or community of Christians, united under one form of government by the profession of the same faith, and the observance of the same ritual and ceremonies. [Blacks Law Dictionary 1910 2 nd ed.]

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