The Holy Bible and the United States Constitution are two of the greatest documents in history and both suffer from the interpretative conventions of man. To effectively use them, it is necessary to recognize that they were intended to provide timeless, unchanging guidance to ensure salvation and liberty, respectively. The best understanding of either is provided by the era, society, and language in which they were written and their earliest expositions.
For Scripture, this is the Ante-Nicene Fathers and the Four Great Councils. For the Constitution, it is the debates surrounding its ratification and the Federalist and Anti-federalist Papers. In both cases, strict interpretation is sublime for it ensures harmony between meaning, intent, and purpose. To apply license to either and twist or distort their meanings to suit contemporaneous desires is to destroy salvation on one side and liberty on the other. With either, acts that are required must be carried out; those that are prohibited must be avoided.
Should a question arise as to whether something is permissible, the intent of either document must be observed. Hence, with the Bible, that which could compromise salvation or the Will of God is forbidden. With the Constitution, that which could compromise public liberty, the Natural Rights of Man, cannot be upheld. Between these two pillars lie all that can be rightfully enjoyed by man. Anything else is heresy on one hand and tyranny on the other, either result in destruction.
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