A discerning look at Ted Weiland's "Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective"

By Angela Wittman

I believe I have found within the Scriptures the key to what made America great, and this key can restore her to her former greatness. - Ted Weiland, (Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution; The Christian Perspective, http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-preface.html)

A couple of years ago Ted Weiland contacted me and asked if he might send me his primer on Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective. After receiving and reviewing the primer, I decided to toss it in the trash due to the concern that Mr. Weiland was missing a foundational point - Biblical covenanting.  And after recently reviewing his work in greater detail, I believe the reformed and theonomic community should be cautious about Mr. Weiland's book and his beliefs.

Due to some glaring "red flags" I encountered while researching Mr. Weiland, I've decided to write this warning and state my concerns.

First of all, it appears that Mr. Weiland has a different view of what God's covenant with His people is than what has been traditionally taught and believed for hundreds of years.  According to his book Israel's Identity - It Matters! posted online, he is of the belief that "the Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, and kindred peoples (hereafter identified as Celto-Saxons) [are] today’s genetic Israelites":

If you are not convinced the Celto-Saxons are the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please consider this one scriptural proof:

In Jeremiah 31, Yahweh promised to make the New Covenant with the Israelites:

"Behold, the days come, saith YHWH, 3 that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt…. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith YHWH, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31-33)"

Just as Yahweh promised, He has made the New Covenant with Israelites. Take a globe and draw circles around the land masses in which true Christianity has flourished for the last two millennia, and your circles will encompass those nations composed primarily of Celto-Saxons.

Over the last two thousand years, it has been predominantly Celto-Saxons who have embraced New Covenant Christianity and who have been most responsive to Yeshua’s 5 call to salvation. All other nations would be oblivious to Christianity had it not been for the Celto-Saxons’ proliferation of the gospel message. Yahweh’s promise to the Israelites in Jeremiah 31 alone proves who Israel is and is not today.

(Text quoted and portions excerpted are taken from: Israel's Identity - It Matters! by Ted Weiland, Preface, http://www.scribd.com/doc/125938789/Israel-s-Identity-It-Matters-by-Ted-R-Weiland)

These statements signal to me that Mr. Weiland has an entirely different view of who the true Israel is than as traditionally taught in the Reformed Church and he has instead made the error of focusing on bloodlines instead of the heart of the matter - one's faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning work accomplished on the cross for His chosen people.  In fact, the very Scripture Mr. Weiland quotes (Jeremiah 31:31-33) is the same that countless of Christians use for comfort and encouragement once becoming new creatures in Christ.  How disturbing it is to think that if one were not "Celto-Saxon" this promise would not pertain to them!  What a twisted view of Scripture one must have in order to come up with this nonsense.  Is Mr. Weiland missing the point that  under the old covenant, the law of God was engraved on tablets of stone and now under the new covenant God writes His law on the hearts of His people? (See study note for Jer. 31:33 in the Reformation Study Bible, page 1099.)  It is my opinion that Mr. Weiland is off on a tangent with his extensive studies of "Celto-Saxon" bloodlines.

In all fairness, Mr. Weiland claims he does not use the term "Christian Identity" when describing himself,  preferring instead the term "Christian Israel;"  but his preoccupation with "Celto-Saxons" is at the very least confusing and reason enough for Reformed and Theonomic Christians to be cautious when promoting his work.*

I'm also alarmed at the title of his book "Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective." It appears that Mr. Weiland is pitting the Constitution against the Bible, refers to it as being a seditious document** and claims his view or perspective is "the" Christian one. This smells of arrogance with an inflated view of one's self; perhaps Mr. Weiland truly believes he has been endowed with some hidden knowledge the rest of us lack - including the Founding Fathers who had a much more Biblical worldview than today's national leaders and legislators.

My assessment of Mr. Weiland and his writings regarding the Constitution and Biblical Law is that he goes too far in denouncing the Constitution,  Founding Fathers and their motives which he cannot truly know as he cannot read their hearts - only historical accounts which reveal they were noble men with feet of clay. And he has stated that while respected theonomic theologian Dr. R.J. Rushdoony described the Constitution as "a good procedural manual" it is "contrary to Yahweh's laws."*** Sorry, but I have to ask how?  I have long been an advocate for the Constitution to recognize Jesus Christ in a more explicit way with an amendment, but I have not found it to be seditious or immoral.  I agree with Dr. Rushdoony that is a good procedural document for a Christian government. It needs amended - not dismantled or destroyed.

In the May/June 2012 issue of Faith for All of Life, Martin Selbrede wrote a book review for Mr. Weiland's book called "Faithful in Little Things?" in which he states that his critique is with the methodology and if that isn't sound, it will "leaven the whole lump." **** I agree. Mr. Weiland's methodology isn't sound, and frankly I don't think his theology is, either. After spending weeks reading excerpts from books written by Ted Weiland, articles on his blogs and his comments, I've concluded that my first response of tossing his primer into the trash was a wise move.

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Notes:

*In the comment section of his blog Constitution Myth Busters, Swallowing Camels, Part 3, Ted Weiland recently stated:

That said, I don't want to mislead anyone here on this blog or anywhere else. Whereas, I do not hold to the term "Christian Identity" for the reasons I stressed to Angela (I prefer the term "Christian Israel," if a term must be used at all), I do accept Hebrews 8:8-9 at face value--that is, that the New Covenant was made with a remnant of Israelites from the house of Judah and the house of Israel via Christ's blood atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the grave. In other words, no automatic salvation by race or lineage. I also believe that whereas the covenant is specific to Israelites (Romans 9:3-4, Hebrews 8:8-9, etc.), unlike most Identity folk, I also believe that non-Israelites can be proselytes to the New Covenant just like they could under the Old Covenant.

I also believe it can be proven Biblically, archeologically, and historically that today's Israelites are found in today's Celtic, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and kindred peoples. In fact, I believe I can also Biblically prove that if this is not the case then Yahweh is an impotent liar who cannot fulfill His New Covenant promises.

**In the comment section of Constitution Myth Busters, Swallowing Camels, Part 1, Mr. Weiland stated:

Even if we employ the Constitution in some immediate situations, ultimately it has to be exposed for the seditious document it is and for the reason America is teetering on the precipice. For the sake of yours and my posterity, I hope you'll join those of us who have already begun the process.

***Statements found in Ted Weiland's "An Open Response to Martin Selbrede and Archie Jones' 'Book Review' of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

****I have a pdf file of the May/June 2012 Issue of Faith For All of Life which contains the article "Faithful in Little Things?" by Martin Selbrede.   Please feel free to contact me for a copy or you can go to: http://chalcedon.edu/faith-for-all-of-life/ and register (or log-in) and search the archives for the May/June 2012 issue of Faith For All of Life.

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Additional resources for the discerning reader:

Inside the Christian Identity Movement: http://www.rickross.com/reference/christian_identity/christianidentity7.html

A Case of Mistaken Identity: Christian Identity's False Doctrine of Salvation: http://myshasta.info/tempest/seventhunders/identity/mistaken_identity.htm

Christian Identity Movement (LCMS): http://www.tlcgirard.org/web_documents/christian_identity_movement.pdf

Christian Identity: A "Christian" Religion for White Racists (CRI):  http://www.equip.org/articles/christian-identity-a-christian-religion-for-white-racists/

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Scriptures for the discerning Christian to consider (1599 Geneva Bible):

[Emphasis in bold text is mine. AW]

1Timothy 1:4

 ^[a]Neither that they give heed to fables and ^[b]genealogies which are endless, which breed questions rather than godly edifying which is by faith.

Footnote a: The doctrine is corrupted not only by false opinions, but also by vain and curious speculations: the declaration and utterance whereof can nothing help our faith.

Galatians 3: 14-16

^14 [a]That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

^15 [b]Brethren, I speak as ^[c]men do: though it be but a man’s covenant, when it is ^[d]confirmed, yet no man doth abrogate it, or addeth anything thereto,

¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to the seeds, as speaking of many: but, And to thy seed, as of one, ^[e]which is ^[f]Christ.

Footnotes a; b; e; f:

a. Galatians 3:14 A conclusion of all that was said before in the handling of the fifth and sixth reasons, to wit, that both the Gentiles are made partakers of the free blessing of Abraham in Christ, and also that the Jews themselves, of whose number the Apostle counteth himself to be, cannot obtain that promised grace of the Gospel, which he calleth the Spirit, but only by faith. And the Apostle doth severally apply the conclusion, both to the one and the other, preparing himself a way, to the next argument, whereby he declareth, that the one only seed of Abraham, which is made of all peoples can no otherwise be joined and grow up together, but by faith in Christ.

b. Galatians 3:15 He putteth forth two general [rules] before the next argument, which is the seventh in order: That one is, that it is not lawful to break covenants and contracts which are justly made and according to Law amongst men, neither may anything be added unto them: The other is, that God did so make a covenant with Abraham, that he would gather together his children which consist both of Jews and Gentiles into one body (as appeareth by that which hath been said before.) For he did not say, that he would be the God of Abraham and of his seeds, (which things notwithstanding should have been said, if he had many and divers seeds, as the Gentiles apart and the Jews apart,) but that he would be the God of Abraham, and of his seed, as of one.

e. Galatians 3:16 He putteth forth the sum of the seventh argument, to wit, that both the Jews and the Gentiles grow together into one body of the seed of Abraham, in Christ only, so that all are one in Christ, as it is afterward declared, verse 21.

f. Galatians 3:16 Paul speaketh not of Christ’s person, but of two peoples, which grew together in one, in Christ.

Galatians 4: 27, 28

^27 [a]For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest no children: break forth, and cry, thou that travailest not: for the ^[b]desolate hath many more children, than she which hath an husband.

²⁸ Therefore, brethren, we are after the ^[a]manner of Isaac, children of the ^[b]promise.

Footnote 27 a:

Galatians 4:27 He showeth that in this allegory, he hath followed the steps of Isaiah, who foretold that the Church should be made and consist of the children of barren Sarah, that is to say, of them which only spiritually should be made Ahraham’s children by faith, rather than of fruitful Hagar, even then foreshowing the casting off of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles.

1599 Geneva Bible Version Information:

All but forgotten in our day, the Geneva Bible was the most widely read and influential English Bible of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A superb translation, it was the product of the best Protestant scholars of the day and became the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers and thinkers of that time. Men such as William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton used the Geneva Bible in their writings. The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of its extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, and others, were included to help explain and interpret the Scriptures for the average reader.