Review
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Title: The Majesty of God’s Law, It’s Coming to America
Author: W. Cleon Skousen
Publisher: Izzard Ink Publishing
Genre: United States, HIstory; United States, Founding Fathers; United States, Prophecies about
Year Published: 2010
Number of Pages: 653
Binding: Hardbound
ISBN10: 0-934364-20-6
ISBN13: 978-0-93436-420-1
Price: $24.95
http://www.amazon.com/Majesty-Gods-Law-Cleon-Skousen/dp/0934364206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425592665&sr=8-1&keywords=9780934364201
Reviewed by Elizabeth W. Roach for the Association for Mormon Letters
When picking out something to read on vacation, most people would not go for history or law as favorite genres. Inviting people to read and discuss that same 600 page book on the history of modern law would normally have people yawning and making excuses to try to escape by the end of the sentence. But if that were the case, they have never read a book by W. Cleon Skousen.
In “The Majesty of God’s Law,” Cleon Skousen not only examines the roots of American politics and law, but also makes a case for America having a great and glorious destiny awaiting her as we are able to prepare ourselves to follow God’s divinely revealed code of law. As dry and ponderous as that sounds, Skousen does an outstanding job of making this topic approachable, understandable, and interesting. Each chapter comes with discussion and reflection questions to analyze and evaluate his points.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” Skousen understands this topic as few others of his time did. In addition to being a scholar and a university professor, he also served 16 years with the FBI and four years as chief of police in Salt Lake City.
Originally published in 1996, “The Majesty of God’s Law” was the work and effort of three decades of research and study. Skousen begins his story, for this book reads as a conversation or a story, with the establishment of the United States Constitution. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America set out to do something radical, indeed revolutionary, in their time: order a government to rule over a people designed, destined, and determined to be free. The Founding Fathers found their inspiration in God’s own revealed law for governments as found in the Bible.
Skousen shows how Moses revealed God’s law to the ancient Israelites and how they were not prepared or committed to live it. Had they been able to abide by its precepts, it would have made their nation the most peaceful, powerful and prosperous of any of its time. As ideas passed down through time, different people took bits and pieces of the divine law and tried to construct governments with some of the features, but left out other essential parts. Skousen discusses the Greeks, Babylonians, Romans, the Holy Roman Empire and associate systems in the Dark Ages, down to the founding of the United States. From those historical foundations, he discusses the vision of America’s destiny to be the shining city on a hill that all nations will flow to. He asserts that the best days for America are yet ahead and her future is bright.
The path between here and there is not problem- or danger-free. He issues a clarion call to those who are listening to get prepared for events that are currently occurring in the United States that erode freedoms and endanger our ability for self-determination. A John Adams quote stuck out to me: “I must study politics and war so that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.” It is incumbent on each of us to do what we can to learn God’s statutes and live by them so that we can teach our children and their children. Cleon Skousen died in 2006, but he left this work as a legacy for his fifty grandchildren he names individually in the dedication and for each of us. He wrote it with the conviction that when the people are prepared, the Lord will establish His law among them again.
Writing this review has felt a little like trying to put an elephant into my purse. There is so much to ponder and consider in this book. I am sure “The Majesty of God’s Law” has been used as a textbook. It is profound, but it reads like an historical novel. He wants us to discuss and apply what he is teaching and so there are questions to answer at the end of every chapter. The book also contains the statutes of God’s law – about 100 — that are used to govern any situation that may arise. Having so few codes made me remember David Bednar’s comment in October 2013 General Conference on the Lord’s law of finance: the LDS Church’s finances are governed by Sections 119 and 120 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Two sections to direct the fiscal affairs of an organization of over 15 million people in dozens of countries around the world. These simple practical laws also made me think of Joseph Smith’s explanation of how the people in Nauvoo were so happy, industrious and law-abiding when he said he taught them correct principles, and they governed themselves. Ultimately, that is God’s intention for us, that we learn to govern ourselves, which will bring us more freedoms that we can now comprehend.
As for getting the elephant into my purse, I have decided the only logical way to do it would be to take a photograph and put that in my purse instead. In the same way, I hope this review can be like a snapshot of what this book holds and can give an idea of what is there inside the covers waiting to be discovered and acted upon.
This book is essential for those who love freedom, who want to preserve what we have been given, and to establish greater freedoms .