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God's Law Vs Man's Law:
Why Can't Man's Law Prevent Evil?

Quick Look: Two fundamental law systems are explored: positive and negative law. Negative law, embodied in Biblical laws, prohibits wrongdoing, thereby limiting the law to evil acts. Positive law, often seen in humanistic societies, grants specific rights but leads to an overregulated life, as it attempts to control all aspects of human behaviour to ensure those rights. The article argues that positive law fosters tyranny rather than freedom, as it expands to manage every facet of life, creating dependency on the state. In contrast, with its foundation in Biblical principles, negative law imposes responsibility and allows individuals freedom as long as they do not violate the law. For more details on God's Law Vs Man's Law, read the article below.

There are two foundational types of law: positive law and negative law. They represent two totally different ways of dealing with people. Negative law focuses on what people are not allowed to do, while the other focuses on what they are allowed to do. It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but as we will see, it is the difference between freedom and slavery.

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Biblical Law is applied Christianity, and it is negative law. Humanistic Law is applied humanism, and it is positive law.

Let’s examine examples from the two types of law and then examine why one works and the other doesn’t.

Negative Law

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image.
3. You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness.
10. You shall not covet.

Positive Law

1. Everyone has the freedom of conscience and religion.
2. Everyone has the freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression.
3. Everyone has the freedom of peaceful assembly.
4. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
5. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.
6. Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.
7. Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote.
8. Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in, and leave Canada.
9. Plus many other provisions and rights.

Which set of laws do you prefer? Personally, I like the second list. It makes me feel good to know my rights compared to being told what I can't do. Most of us are human enough to like that idea. Then why did God choose negative law? Isn't that a significant criticism of Christianity - "You're always telling me what I can't do?"

God's Law Vs Man's Law:
God's Law Is Negative Law

The simple answer is that negative law works and positive law doesn't. Think about it. If positive law is so great, then why does it protect and promote high taxes, abortion, murderers, thieves, rapists, etc.? Why does it give us ineffective crime punishment? Why is the economy always up and down? Why do the poor become poorer and the rich richer under positive law? Keep asking questions like these until you realize: It doesn't work!

Looking at the list above, we see that God's law is almost entirely negative. Even the two positive commands have implied negatives. Remember the Sabbath is followed by you shall do no work on the Sabbath. Honouring your father and mother is supported by laws telling us what not to do.

Positive law draws a circle. It says, "You have the right to freedom of speech. You have the right to...etc." All our rights are protected [supposedly] inside the circle. The basic implication is: Whatever is not permitted is forbidden. In other words, if we haven't been given the right to it, then we can't have it - and there is a lot of space outside the circle!

That would be bad enough, but positive law can never stop there. There are large cracks in the circle. Because it concerns our "rights", it must have laws to defend them and ensure we get them. In short, under positive law, the law controls every aspect of life. Isn't that what we see happening in Canada, the US, and other nations today? It is the ultimate humanistic/socialistic dream of salvation by law, which is in direct conflict with the Christian doctrine of salvation by Christ alone.

In a positive law system, the highest law is the health of the people. While that sounds great, it must lead to tyranny. In seeking the supposed highest good—as determined by government bureaucrats—the law must attempt to control all people and all their activities.

"Because the law is unlimited, the state is unlimited. It becomes the state's business, not to control evil, but to control all men. Basic to every totalitarian regime is a positive concept of law." R.J. Rushdoony

In a positive law system, laws multiply like rabbits, trying to control every aspect of life. The result is that nobody can keep them all. Only specialized [and expensive] lawyers have any hope of making sense of them. The end product is an enslaved people forced to dance to the whims of the lawmakers or face their wrath. What a price to pay for rejecting God's system of law!

This represents God's negative law system. It says, "Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not...etc." In God's system, everything inside the circle is forbidden, and the boundaries are clear. The basic implication is: Whatever is not forbidden is permitted. [That is why we must be cautious with our 'thou shalt nots', because if God hasn't banned it - in word or principle - then it is allowed.]

God's Law Vs Man's Law:
Dealing With Evil

Negative law compels the law to address specific evil acts. This means that, except for the forbidden zone, man's life is beyond the law. The law is uninterested in what we do as long as we are not acting in the relatively small forbidden zone or headed for it. If we go to the forbidden zone, the law will jump up and yell, "Thou shalt not." In any other case, negative law doesn't care what we do. Law [and lawmakers] becomes a very minor aspect of people’s lives.

Do you see why negative law brings freedom and positive law brings tyranny?

Positive law is unlimited, while negative law is limited to controlling evil. Positive law assumes people are childish, so the state must "father" them. It must provide for them and ensure everything in their lives is taken care of. This is total interference! Eventually, it makes people dependent on the state, unable to decide for themselves. It destroys human beings and tramples liberty and individual thought.

"A medical colleague returning from Finland in the 1980s told me how Russian men would marry Finnish women so they could emigrate to Finland. Once there, however, the array of decisions that the average citizen makes concerning housing, shopping, etc., was just too much for many of them to bear. Overwhelmed by the task of taking responsibility for their life, the men went back to Russia where scarcity and aggression make choice a rarity. This destruction of the questing human spirit, of the confidence in one's ability to cope with the world, is the most devastating effect of the extreme aggression of communism." Dr. Mary Ruwart

While this is seen most in extreme communism, it is the end result of all positive law, including the varieties of socialism practiced in Canada and the United States.

"Socialism of any type leads to a total destruction of the human spirit..." Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Negative law deals with things realistically. It knows people are not childish but irresponsible. They are in deliberate rebellion to God - a rebellion that only comes to an end with the salvation found in Jesus Christ. So, negative law doesn't try to save people (that is, legalism) or "father" them. It concentrates on prohibiting and punishing public acts of evil.

"When the law loses its negativity, when the law assumes a positive function, it protects the criminals and the fools, and it penalizes responsible men." R.J. Rushdoony

Isn't that what is happening today? It is almost safer to be a criminal than an upright citizen! Regardless of its intent, positive humanistic law will always support evil and evil men at the expense of the innocent and the law-abiding.

God's Law Vs Man's Law:
Positive Law Commands In Negative Law

After saying all that, I need to clarify one more thing. Although the foundation of God's law is negative, that does not mean there are no positive commands.

The basic structure of negative law includes some positive commands, just as the basic structure of positive law includes negative commands. The positive commands, within the negative frame, show that we are responsible for protecting and helping other people. We cannot retreat within ourselves and say, "I haven't broken any laws, so everything is OK." God has given us responsibilities we must fulfill. Let's look at a couple of examples.

"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him. If you meet the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it." [Ex. 23:4-5, NKJV]

Here we have a positive command. If someone [even an enemy] has lost something and we find it, we are responsible for returning it. We cannot look the other way when someone needs help - it doesn't matter who that someone is - we are required to give the help needed.

"And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall give money to their owner, but the dead beast shall be his." [Ex. 21:33-34, NKJV]

Again, we have a positive command. This time, we learn we are responsible for taking reasonable safety precautions, or we will bear the consequences.

This also clearly illustrates the difference between negative law and positive law. Negative law simply states that if you dig a pit, you had better cover it, or you will be responsible for any resulting damage [no government inspectors needed!]. Humanistic law would tell us where we could dig the pit, how deep and wide it could be, what kind of cover to put on it, and probably make us buy [extort] a digging permit before we could dig it on our own property. And people want to live under positive law!?!

Since negative law includes some positive commands and positive law includes some negative commands, how can we tell which system a law belongs to? To figure that out, we must look at the basic law structure in which a specific law is found. We have negative law if the law's foundation is built on controlling and punishing evil. If the premise is one of controlling people [who have committed no moral crime] to ensure everyone gets their "rights", then we are dealing with positive law.

Old Testament Israel was supposed to be an example of the positive effects of the negative law. Unfortunately, they insisted on living in the forbidden zone and/or allowing it to degenerate into the positive law of people control. For this reason, except perhaps under Joshua, they did not live up to the ideal of a negative law society.

There was a time when most European nations acknowledged that Negative Biblical law was the way nations were supposed to be governed. To the degree they followed Biblical law, they prospered. To the degree they lived in the forbidden zone or followed positive humanistic law, they suffered.

When a negative law society exists, it becomes a great temptation for the leaders to corrupt it into a positive law system [for the good of the people, of course], and so gain power and control over people that they were not intended to have. The leaders must be people of integrity and committed to the negative Biblical Law system. And the people must be continually on guard against any law, however small, that violates Biblical Law - for no system is corrupted by giant leaps but by small, seemingly insignificant steps.

God's Law Vs Man's Law:
Conflict Of Authority

God is the Creator and Owner of the entire universe and everyone and everything in it. He alone has the right to declare right and wrong and make law. Mankind is only allowed to take the Word of God and make application laws. Application laws apply the Scriptures to specific situations. For human beings to make law, any kind of law, independent of God, is to express the sinful rebellion of Adam in the Garden of Eden and treat God with contempt. It is a deliberate declaration of independence and war against the King of kings and the Lord of lords. It is an impotent war against the Almighty that brings out the dangerous laughter of God.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers band together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles." The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, "I have installed My King on Zion My holy mountain..." Ps. 2:1-6, NIV

For more details, see our Master Life course.

Glenn Davis is a Christian author and Bible teacher whose work draws on more than 40 years of study, writing, and local church teaching. He has written 700+ articles, created five Bible courses, published three books, and shared 100+ Bible videos on YouTube. Readers can find his books on Amazon, follow his teaching on YouTube or visit Glenn Davis Books. Away from the keyboard, he enjoys time with family, reading, walking, and board or card games.

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