Thank God that the United States declared independence from England two-and-a-half centuries ago and dependence upon the Lord at the same time. Great Britain, which was a prime mover toward human progress in many ways, seems to be going through a period of jettisoning its former greatness---one move at a time. On the chopping block? Trial by jury for many cases.

Trial by jury is as old as 829 AD in France, but according to Judge Joseph A. Wapner (a TV judge in the 1980s), the system could be traced back to the law of Moses. That would mean 1400 years before Christ.

In Guideposts Magazine (November 1988), Judge Wapner wrote: “Taken for granted in America and Great Britain, trial by jury, one of the strongest safeguards against government’s arbitrary authority, remains a rare privilege in much of the rest of the world. But where, long before the Magna Charta, did it gain its first, rough expression? That’s right, in Leviticus. To be precise, in chapter 19, verse 15: “In righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.”

The Magna Carta (the Great Charter) of 1215 AD ensured the right to a trial in England by a jury of one’s peers. The Magna Carta was a milestone in legal history. This was an agreement by the nobles and signed by King John (basically against his will) to curtail the king’s tyranny. Trial by jury was only one part of this great forerunner to constitutional government.

Dr. Peter Lillback---founding president of Providence Forum, for which I serve as the executive director, as a division of Coral Ridge........

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