My presentation is going to be a bit random and I hope you guys bear with me but it is going to be, I feel a very worthwhile message. Not only as a reminder but hopefully again just to reinvigorate our excitement about the Word of God, what is in the Word of God. I mean for some of us that are in ministry, that work in ministry, you know you sort of get used to being in this space but just understanding the sheer magnitude of God, that awe of God has been missed at times. I really enjoyed preparing for this message because over the last couple of months I’ve been reading through a book by Oz Guinness and it was called, “The Magna Carta for Humanity”. This is fascinating because of course it talks about the blueprint. What is a blueprint for human flourishing? What does that look like?

I remember back in 2018 when we started our Momentum Workshops, so much of what I shared in the early days was always this excitement and this story about the Israelites and God bringing them out of a place of slavery and bringing them into a place of freedom. I mean that whole journey alone is just incredible. So even back then, speaking about the value of freedom and what that means, you know freedom of speech, freedom of expression, that is a worthwhile thing to remember. What do I mean when I say a “Magna Carta of Humanity”?

There are parallels; there are parallels between the Magna Carta; who’s heard of the Magna Carta? Okay great, some have, some haven’t, so at least I’m teaching someone something today. The Magna Carta is a foundational document written in the 12th century that kind of underpinned the rule of law and government. It was during a very dark time that the Magna Carta was seen almost as this blueprint for western democratic ideals. When you look at the biblical principles outlined in the book of Exodus, particularly given at Mount Sinai, you really start to see the significance of these two. The great charter established the principle that everybody at the time, including the king, was not above the law and this was a very groundbreaking thing.

Over centuries the Magna Carta became a symbol of liberty, of rule of law, and of course was influenced even then by medieval Christians in the 12th century. You know this was foundational in shaping western democratic ideals. For me a Magna Carta for humanity advocates for a return of biblical principles as a basis for building a just and truly free society.

The laws given at Mount Sinai offer this timeless blueprint for human flourishing. A Magna Carta for humanity is and was historic. Now more than any universal declaration of human rights, it offers a vision of the deepest most comprehensive foundation for human flourishing and freedom that we’ve ever seen, without which even most of the declarations we see now wouldn’t exist.

The first five books of the bible are our starting point as we delve into a Magna Carta of Humanity. We also look at these initial books by considering these crucial declarations in Genesis to reacquaint ourselves with the importance of this crucial statement that underpins everything: “Imago Dei”, created in the image of God. I’ll also compare some of these foundations, looking briefly at the American and French Revolution, because as Dave said, look at the stark differences in how you start a nation, how you govern a nation and where it ends up. My hope today, guys, given all of this, is that each of us leave here so reinvigorated with a revelation of the God we serve and his love for you and for those around you.

We need to have a new excitement of our why. Why do we serve and why do we live for this incredible creator? My hope is that we contemplate why it is imperative for Christians to live so authentically for God and why that overflow of all should automatically realign our focus and our priorities in everything we do. I think I finish with a catch cry to say, choose life and encouraging others to do the same.

Now, the story of Israel’s great rescue out of Egypt has captivated me since I was little. This was the very Bible my grandma and parents used to read to me. It’s in Afrikaans there, but I remember reading through and looking at these illustrations of Moses and the burning bush and, you know, walking through the Red Sea and these parting of the waves. I mean, as a kid, when you were reading through these stories, that’s all going, oh my goodness, how is this even possible? A God did this. You know, we see the Red Sea crossing, the handing down of the Law to the Israelites. Exodus offered the greatest example of a redemption event in the Bible prior to Christ’s resurrection.

This rescue plan, while central to the Israelites, is just as crucial for Christians to understand and grasp because it has this timeless message of hope and redemption. Exodus shows us that God loves us and He loves His people. There are, of course, consequences to rebellion, but nonetheless, God loves us and He shows us that He’s often working in the background without our knowledge, and thank goodness for that.

Okay, what do you guys think of that AI image? It’s pretty good, hey? I probably spend more time on the images than anything else, but anyway, anyway. Now, that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? You know, again, it’s just this incredible Law. I mean, imagine walking through when this was happening, but anyway, story for another day.

As we follow the Israelites through this grueling journey of Egypt, through the Red Sea, right up to Mount Sinai, here we are introduced to the Ten Commandments. I mean, the fact that God wrote this Law with his finger should point to something pretty groundbreaking, right? Something pretty substantial. Here we saw the establishments of principles such as justice, freedom, and moral order that have pretty much influenced Western civilization.

The Sinai Covenant also serves as a foundation for later covenants in the Bible, but the exciting thing is it was pointing to Jesus from the start. It all weaves together. Grasping the ripple effects of this redemptive journey can honestly transform our political systems, our laws, and our policies. It’s this blueprint that creates an enduring moral framework, I believe. It also highlights the importance of people understanding how crucial it is to have a relationship with Jesus, one that is based on obedience, worship, and reverence. That mutual exchange really matters to Him.

The Covenant of the Ten Commandments, and Gus will talk about this later because there are people in this room way smarter than I am when it comes to constitution, but the Ten Commandments actually founded the modern principle of the rule of law, of Constitutionalism. So, the Mosaic Law was pretty much the foundation for most of the legal codes in the West. Ultimately, what do we know? The word of God, pretty much gold standard for law and government. It’s all there. The alternative, as we’ve seen apart from God’s law though, is ultimately chaotic rule and tyranny, and we’ll see this when I compare the two revolutions later.

Now, as we consider Exodus as an example of redemption, God was already hinting at your incredible worth, the worth of humanity in Genesis. This declaration that human beings are created in God’s image and have inherent valuable worth, guys, this was a complete game changer. Complete, because so many other faiths, so many other beliefs, there isn’t this realisation that you are created in the image of God. Socially, politically, this should have massive ramifications for leaders and Christians in politics. The thing is, do we truly grasp what this requires of us as followers of Christ? Beyond loyalty to a party, beyond politics, we live for an audience of One, and it is this amazing declaration that should shift our perspective and influence everything we do.

As I said earlier, Genesis 1:27, “Imago Dei”; “God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them”. In fact, when we look at these truths and these declarations, there is nothing like the God of Sinai. Never was, never will be. Sadly, these days, we see that in many faiths, there’s either this, you know, complete abandon for responsibility, or this daily grind of superstitions and obligations. The Genesis declarations are key with us understanding a Magna Carta framework, because again, as I said, like other beliefs and ideologies, it further demonstrates these core things. The sanctity of life, the inherent dignity of every individual, moral responsibility and of course God’s divine order and things.

Dave mentioned earlier, and I’ve seen this even simply just over the eight years as far as legislation goes, not only in WA and Australia and across the world, but there is a constant battle to attack those very, very things. Why? Because we know the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy. Let’s not underestimate the battle here, let’s not underestimate what we are facing, our inability to pray and believe and speak the truth creates a perfect vacuum for something else to fill that gap.

Just consider the attack on the sanctity of life alone. You know, we’ve been involved in obviously a lot of the pro-life movements over, oh gosh, even before I was at AC. Just the sanctity of life, why is it that the enemy is so anti-life? It reflects God’s craftsmanship. We are the salt and light. Think about the evolution of even the sanctity of life in laws.

You know, with abortion legislation, it starts at one place and just keeps changing and changing and changing to the point we’re now pretty much on demand, up to birth. You know, in WA, last year or the year before as we were going through this, I was so staggered by the amount of politicians who couldn’t even recognise and understand the importance of beyond the abortion, how do we care for the women that have been through these abortions? Understanding counselling, again we’re talking about love and consideration for our neighbour. That is absolutely the least we can do.

Mother and baby. Even the Rally for Life every year, you know; I use this every time as an opportunity to say, if we have this “Imago Dei”, this declaration of Genesis is in our hearts and we understand the sanctity of life; we should have tens of thousands of people at parliament every year at the Rally for Life. It is this crucial revelation, this crucial understanding that transforms how we actually even are involved in politics.

I’ve actually had people over the years say to me, the reason I can’t support you Marika is because you guys aren’t willing to compromise on legislation. To which I’ve said, good, great, of course we’re not going to compromise on this legislation because it’s the word of God. So we need to be so mindful that this kind of thinking is so pervasive, not just amongst Christians. Well, especially amongst Christians sadly and we need to be able to share and speak into this anti-life, anti-human attitude.

You see the Ten Commandments are not irrelevant, they’ve just been forgotten. Protecting the foundation, protecting the crucial understanding of this starts with a serious consideration of the consequences too, when society drifts so far from these core declarations. We see it playing out in legislation all over. I remember even a pastor sharing with me when the abortion legislation passed, you know something taking an innocent life, murder, that has implications for a State and a Nation – spiritually massive, even legally. So we have to be so discerning as Christians to understand they’re not just legislations that we’re fighting against; we’re honestly protecting our Nation and our State spiritually as well.

Is everybody still with me? Good. So keeping this in mind, we know that there are massive ramifications when we move away from the blueprint, when we move away from this incredible blueprint that God has given us. It has been to the West’s detriment unfortunately and it will continue to be because we continue to say that God is no longer relevant; that His laws, His foundations are no longer relevant.

I know many will be talking within an Australian context today so all I wanted to do is get you guys to actually think through the American and French Revolution. Who’s heard of that, the American and French Revolutions? So two entirely different situations, ethics, foundations. I mean here you had the American Revolution that was influenced by biblical foundations, a Judeo-Christian ethic. They wanted a stable and enduring democracy. As Dave mentioned earlier, the founding fathers, the leaders, the army generals, everybody was influenced by Christian teachings. You know, one of the army generals, even though I was reading through as I was researching this, wasn’t Christian but he goes, you cannot ignore the enduring power of a living God. So, so much of what they were striving for had that ethic at its core.

Again, liberty for the individual, justice, no one is above the law, moral responsibility, the worth of every individual.

Now my golly, I should have just put a picture up there of the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but honestly contrast and understand, you can really start to understand with the French Revolution why it is so depraved. I mean with the French Revolution you had absolute secularism. You had the war rooted in secularism. Anti-God, anti-church, pretty much held tribunals in the middle of the town squares were trying people without evidence, people were executed en masse during the French Revolution because they were simply not choosing to follow the dictators. It’s so interesting, isn’t it, in wanting to create this free Paris, this free France, they created more oppression and more tyranny than anything else.

I mean this guillotine became a symbol of the reign of terror. Honestly, a part of the revolution in France was known as the reign of terror because tens of thousands of people were executed. Think about the impact of this on leadership even going forward. The thing with the French Revolution too is this internal power struggle created more violence and paranoia. So what did you have? No longer the value of your neighbour. They were turning on each other. That created more instability. It was absolute chaos.

Now in all of this, I love what Oz Guinness said. He said this underscores that true freedom is not just about liberation from oppression. I mean it’s important to fight that but it also entails a commitment to a moral responsibility in our community and even contrasting that between the two different revolutions. I mean you had the Americans who understood the importance of moral responsibility, of community. That was really important to them yet with the French they were like well anti-god everything. Violent means of rule, violent means of putting structures in place. Of course the great enlightenment thinkers: they’re not very enlightened but there were long-term repercussions for France. There still is. When you look at these very core differences not only in its foundational ethic, but again as far as the concept of freedom goes, one is built on a house of sand, the other’s built on a rock.

Sadly this cultural climate change that we’re seeing, which I think is way more important than the other one, but this cultural climate change will continue. There is a choice facing the west that is more urgent and more consequential than ever. We only need to consider what is happening in our world today. Globally yes, I’m not saying America is the gold standard, but there is moral corruption everywhere. The world is losing touch with the revelation that once lifted or the revolution that lifted the US out of, lifted it up into history to be this great experiment of liberty. The question everywhere is will courageous leaders step up? That is the question. It leads us back to this central focus between law and love and Christ.

Today I think it’s almost a different kind of exodus isn’t it? It’s almost like people are wanting to go back to Egypt, back to slavery, back to oppression. Ideologies are blurring boundaries, they are dissolving clarity, eroding certainties. It creates anxiety and chaos and we’re seeing this play out. We know the Bible points to perilous times ahead, that’s not the thing. From the earliest days of the church, through the Middle Ages, through the Reformation and into the modern world, followers of Jesus have played a central role in human rights, in speaking the worth of every individual and making them global.

We’ve got to ask the question, if most of these human rights are the fruit of Christian ideas, what is the future if those Christian roots continue to die and we actually fail to water them? In the words of Samuel Moyn:

“No one interested in where human rights came from (or that are), can afford to ignore Christianity”.

Love is the founding principle of God’s kingdom and law is the foundation of his throne and judgment. Standing against these shifts and living for Christ matters and it’s really important. Biblical teachings that emphasize love must be demonstrated. Laws that underpin these declarations and timeless values must be introduced and of course leaders who recognize the individual as created in the image of God and the inherent worth must be supported. I don’t think hard times absolve us from our responsibility to be involved in politics, but you know what, there’s definitely a sifting happening. Rightly understood, Exodus shows us nothing less than the DNA of ordered human freedom and love which should be an inspiration for people and political leaders alike.

As I was preparing this, there was a story in the week about, just talking about Judeo-Christian values and I saw this comment and apologies for those who can’t read it, not a Christian, put this comment in response to an article to say, I’m not a religious person but I think the Ten Commandments is a great philosophy and we would be better if we all obeyed such. Isn’t that so funny? Everybody has this understanding, this knowing but we need to remind them and we need to own it, we really, really do. Our loyalty and obedience should be limited to an audience of One. One that loves us the most, the One that we can trust the most.

So in closing, how we relate to each other, make decisions, serve in parliament or serve our community, speak, act, let it all reflect our devotion and our reverence for Him. From those early days where the law was written down, let’s continue to seek God first because honestly the rest will follow. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, is there anything that compares to that? Now is the moment to put that stake in the ground that boldly declares to the world, I choose life. Amen. Amen. Thank you.