Liberals everywhere are praising the pro-homosexual decision of Judge Richard Posner’s decision in the Wolf v. Walker same-sex marriage case. The media have been hyping the quick shift in opinion regarding same-sex marriage. In reality, the shirt is in judges who are overruling the decisions of duly elected state legislatures. These judges are acting as gods. Their arguments are capricious and banal. This particular “argument” from Judge Posner’s decision is getting high praise:

“Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure.”

This is an argument for overturning moral, biological, and rational arguments against two men or two women who engage in sexual relationships who he says should not be denied marriage? What is Judge Posner’s foundation for law? Ultimately, it’s him. R. J. Rusdoony writes the following Introduction to his Institutes of Biblical Law (1973):

“Law is in every culture religious in origin. Because law governs man and society, because it establishes and declares the meaning of justice and righteousness, law is inescapably religious, in that it establishes in practical fashion the ultimate concerns of a culture. Accordingly, a fundamental and necessary premise in any and every study of law must be, First, a recognition of this religious nature of law.

“Second, it must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society. If law has its source in man’s reason, then reason is the god of that society. If the source is an oligarchy, or in a court, senate, or ruler, then that source is god of that system.”

It’s not a new thing for rulers to think of themselves as gods. There was the first-century Roman Emperor Domitian who was given the title Dominus et Deus, “Lord and God.”

The Roman denarius coin was graced with the image of Tiberius Caesar and inscribed with the title “Son of the Divine Augustus.” It was this coin that has become synonymous with the relationship between God and governments: “‘Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.’ And they brought Him a denarius” (Matt. 22:19).

“The Tiberius denarius is a symbol of power and of the cult. But it is not these things separately, but together, and that is the decisive point. This denarius becomes a symbol of the metaphysical glorification of policy which runs through the whole of the ancient imperial history, and which also determined the Roman philosophy of domination from the time of Julius Caesar.”1

The Caesars personified the State religion of absolute power and control.

When the religious leaders were given a choice to free Jesus or Barabbas, they chose Barabbas, crying out, “‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar’” (John 19:15).

Once it is declared, either by others (Acts 12:20-23) or by the rules themselves (Isa. 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:1-3; Dan. 4:28-30), that they are gods, nothing is impossible (“against nature”: Rom. 1:25-27) or immoral (Matt. 19:4-6). The declaration makes it right. “Let it be written; so let it be done.”

Now we come to the way these gods attempt to overturn the rational and moral order of God’s creation. Consider Emperor Nero as described in the September 2014 issue of National Geographic:

“One is hard pressed to ‘rehabilitate’ a man who, according to historical accounts, ordered his first wife, Octavia, killed; kicked his second wife, Poppaea, to death when she was pregnant; saw to the murder of his mother, Agrippina the Younger (possibly after sleeping with her); perhaps also murdered his stepbrother, Britannicus; instructed his mentor Seneca to commit suicide (which he solemnly did); castrated and then married a teenage boy; presided over the wholesale arson of Rome in A.D. 64 and then shifted the blame to a host of Christians (including Saints Peter and Paul), who were rounded up and beheaded or crucified and set aflame so as to illuminate an imperial festival. The case against Nero as evil incarnate would appear to be open and shut. And yet …”

Given today’s court rulings, Nero was quite the modern, truly ahead of his time. The tag line introducing the NG article titled “Rethinking Nero” reads:

“He killed two of his wives and possibly his mother. He may have presided over the burning of Rome. But he never fiddled, and now some scholars say he wasn’t all bad.”

Given the decisions of Judges like Richard Posner, we might soon find Nero’s image on one of our nation’s coins.

1. Ethelbert Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars: Historical Sketches, trans. K. and R. Gregor Smith (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1955), 126–127. [↩]