P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

GETTING RID OF JUSTICE JONES

It’s been around for 41 years now, but because it came from the Supreme Court — the final court of appeal — there’s not much people can do about it.

I’m talking about the landmark case Engel vs. Vitale. Up and up and up it went, until in 1962 the Supreme Court of the United States heard all the oral arguments and then decided that public school officials could not require students to recite a state-composed prayer at the start of a school day, even if pupils who wanted to absent themselves were given that option. State-mandated prayer in public schools was too “(quote) coercive” in its nature, the high court ruled, and was an improper violation of the First Amendment and the American concept of separation of church and state.

Now, friend, there’s probably no faster way to get an argument started than to talk about that 1962 decision . . . unless we add on 11 years and discuss Roe v. Wade in 1973. Millions of Americans agree with those two court rulings, and many other millions don’t. But Engel vs. Vitale has been the law of the land for the past 35 years now, and you simply can’t get past it because it comes from the Supreme Court, the final court of appeal. Those are the facts.

All this week, as we think about Thanksgiving tomorrow, and also about the fact that this is National Bible Week here in North America, we’ve been expressing gratitude to God that we have one Book that for Christians is also a final court of appeal. You and I can debate and discuss and go back and forth; we can consider new ideas and fresh perspectives from a thousand different sources. But when our “(quote) truths” come up against the Bible — well, that’s the Supreme Court. That’s the final word. And aren’t you glad today that we have that final word to depend on?

Let me broach a subject that might be very near and dear to your heart. Have you ever wished that the Supreme Court might change in its composition just a little bit? Ever wished Justice Jones might retire or decide to become a commentator on ABC instead of sitting there in his black robe making disastrous woolly-headed rulings year after year? I suppose we all have. I recall with some shame how a Christian preacher right here in Southern California prayed very openly and publicly, with many TV cameras on hand for the occasion, that God would come down and strike a certain judge dead! But here on this earth, even the supremest of supreme courts can do a U-turn when justices retire or even change their minds. A reporter asked Eisenhower, I think it was, what some of his greatest mistakes as president had turned out to be, and he confessed: “Well, two of them are sitting on the Supreme Court.” Men who had changed their views in mid-stream.

So that highest court does change and shift and waver and wobble, doesn’t it? The death penalty used to be illegal in America — cruel and unusual. Now it’s not, as of 1976 and the decisions in Gregg vs. Georgia, Profitt vs. Florida, and Jurek vs. Texas. Back in 1857 we had the infamous Dred Scott ruling, which informed our ancestors that slaves were not citizens of any state or of the United States. A good white man couldn’t be deprived of his property — slaves, that is — without due process.

1896: Plessy vs. Ferguson — “separate but equal” railroad cars were legal. That’s what the Supreme Court said just over a century ago. Then 61 years later, the same court, with new members, of course, gave us Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which was a complete reversal. “Separate but equal” was not constitutional, not permissible, at least not in public schools, and soon not anywhere.

Well, friend, as we look back on the landscape, I think we can be glad for some progress . . . and maybe here on the day before Thanksgiving, we can mingle our gratitude with prayers for more changes yet to come. But aren’t we equally glad that the Word of God, in stark contrast with those nine black-robed judges in Washington, D.C., never changes? Its rulings are never reversed on appeal; there’s never an about-face when it comes to the teachings in the Bible.

It’s a fact of Scripture — and of this universe — that our God never changes. He says so time and time again.
“I am the Lord; I change not.”

That’s Malachi 3:6. And if the Lord doesn’t change, how could His Word ever change? After all, every word in the Word comes from Him. Here’s II Peter 1:21:

“For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” “As they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” it says in the King James Version.

Friend, the Bible comes from God. It’s inspired; it’s His own Word. Not only can it give us the security of being a final court of appeal, but it’s a final court of appeal that will never shift or ooze over or get retired or legislated into a new and different court of appeal. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

Here in the U.S., as Republican and Democratic presidents with their litmus-test committees try to pack the courts as fast as they can with their types of judges, especially for those nine coveted Supreme Court slots, we experience the turbulence of change, of turnover. And when there are bad rulings, we look forward to that change. But aren’t you thankful today that the good rulings, the wise and loving decisions of our heavenly Father, are set for all time, for eternity? There’s no fragile, slender, hanging-by-a-five-to-four-thread majority that could get voted out in the year 2000 elections. The rulings of God’s Supreme Court, all recorded in this Book of books, are going to stand forever. I like how Pastor Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship puts it:

“God has spoken,” he says. Then he adds: “And He has not stuttered!”

David was telling me just last week about a delightful debate he had over the phone with a pastor from Tampa, Florida. That’s right, a delightful debate . . . and it’s not an oxymoron. Because this Christian pastor and teacher was just a wonderful, pleasant, God-fearing man who truly did know his Bible. He was a student par excellence.

Well, they began to discuss the Bible’s teachings on what happens to a believer who dies. Now, there are many views held by honest Christians on that topic, and there are verses that are hard to understand. Well-meaning believers can end up studying hard and then holding a different position from their brother right down the street. And these two men on the phone had some wonderful transcontinental turbulence, going here and there looking at this verse and that one, darting back and forth between the New Testament and the Old. It was a lively, friendly, frantic, interrupting-and-being-interrupted discussion. A debate; that’s putting it very plainly.

Now, why didn’t it disintegrate into resentment and name-calling? Why didn’t a religious war break out? After the 40 minutes were up, they still didn’t see things the same way. The difficult hadn’t become simple, and unresolved differences that have gone on now for 2000 years didn’t get fixed in those 40 minutes. But it was a constructive, uplifting, spiritually enhancing time for both men. In fact, they both confessed that to each other as they finally hung up. “You’re my brother in Christ and I love you,” this Tampa pastor said right at the end.

And why? Friend, I’ll tell you. Because both men accepted that the Word of God is our final court of appeal. They both agreed and accepted and rejoiced in the fact that when the Bible says something, it’s to be accepted. Both men, fiercely loyal to different denominational heritages, had an even higher commitment to this wonderful old Book. That’s what made the difference. And when we have different perspectives from one another — after all, that’s one reason why Christians go on the radio, is to discuss and air those perspectives and gain a hearing for them — it’s so important to keep the unchanging Supreme Court in its place. The Bible and the Bible only: our rule of faith.

In our own lives and in our discussions, then, we can be thankful for this final court. You have a dream — but what does the Bible say? Or your neighbor has a dream — but what does the Bible say? You get a new video in the mail, one of those slasher-gasher types that hacks out part of the gospel. But what does it say in the Word of God? You hear good sermons each weekend, but do they square up with the Bible? Friend, your pastor should thank you and commend you if he or she sees you flipping through the pages of your own Bible right during their sermon, checking them out. Putting them to the test. You see a miracle performed on TV; you put that to the test too. Put the preacher who worked that miracle to the test. Check everything by the Word.

If you like games, you’re probably familiar with the concept of “trump.” When a card is “trump,” it wins. No argument, no discussion. The player with trump takes the hand. Well, friend, we may have visions and dreams and books and opinions and our long-distance debates with friends in Tampa, Florida. That’s all well and good. Let’s keep on with it. But the Word of the Lord, this book called Holy Bible, well, that’s trump. Not a trump that changes suits or colors. It’s just always trump. The Word of God spoken by the God who never stutters.

As you pack up the car for your Thanksgiving drive tomorrow morning, why not pack along some of that trump? Take it with you wherever you go.