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nal
Public Law,
that sorne of the
more unrest rained, liberal kinds of
discovery we have today amount to
nothing more than general search
war rants issued to someone to go
about " rummaging" through some–
one dse's belongings.
The tragedy is that under our
current system, there is really no way
to protect your affairs from intrusive
prying. All someone has to do is file
suit against you and, upon his bald
suspicion that you have wronged
him, he gets to go rummaging around
through your prívate affairs. Vital
human liberty is lost .
Thus, as Brit isb Justice Lord
Camden declared in 1765,
"lf
suspi–
cion at large should be a ground of
search . .. whose house would be
safe." The point is, no one's!
God'a Way of Dlacovery
As any reading of the Bible, particu–
lar!y in t he Old Testament, will
show,
justice
is an important subject
with God. Not surprisingly, God
gives us an outline of
His
kind of
discovery in His Word.
Numbers
5:1 L-31
describes what
sorne biblical scholars call the "trial
of jealousy." This was a provision in
the laws God gave Israel for the
situation that has plagued all human
justice from the time of Caín and
Abel- how does an
innocent
party
prove a negative.
Thus, if a husband suspected bis
wife of adultery and she were inno–
cent, it would of course be practically
impossible to prove she
didn't
do it.
She could never really remove the
taint of suspicion.
If
such a case
carne up today, no doubt the wife
wou ld have to
fi ll
out endless
interrogatories asking her where she
spent every Jast hour of her time for
the previous severa! years!
But under God's laws the wife
could prove her innocence once and
for all in a comparatively short time.
Essentially, the husband would pay
the equivalent of a fi ling fee (verse
15),
and the wife would take an oath
(verse
19)
and drink sorne water
(verse
24).
Afterwards, her guilt or
innocence would be conclusively
proved once and for all by what God
would make happen to her physical
body (verse 27) .
March 1980
God's principie is that justice-the
vindication of the innocent and the
punishment of the guilty- be swift
(Ecclesiastes 8: 11 ). In the wor ld
tomorrow, God Himself will super–
naturally assure that whatever infor–
mation is necessary to settle a dispute
is available without dragging every
last irrelevant detail of someone's li fe
into the open.
The ultimate reform of our legal
system must wait until God estab–
lishes His government over the whole
earth at Cbrist's return. However,
until tbat happy day, there are a
number of things that ought to be
done, even in this darkened world.
(See
II
Corinthians
4:4,
Ephesians
5:11.)
Specifically, the kind of proce–
dural safeguards for the right to
privacy, which are cur rently af–
forded even violent criminals in the
context of the criminal law, should
be extended
to
civil cases. Courts
should require a
very
high level of
proof of the relevancy of sorne par–
ticular informat ion before they
force its disclosure. Certainly infor–
mation, which as evidence
"wou ldn't stand up in court,"
should be off limits.
Most of all, wbat is needed is a
change of attitude in the judiciary
about discovery. Before discovery
carne into vogue, the idea was that if
you were wronged, you already knew
about it and had enough information
deriving from that very fact to build
your case. Today, bowever, the atti–
tude is that all you have to do is just
imagine you have been wronged, and
t his all by itself will be grounds for
you to go ."fishing" around someone
else's prívate affairs until you finally
find proof you really have been
wronged.
No wonder our courts are over–
crowded. People are allowed to sue
even before they have sometbing to
sue about!
In a world that desperately needs
safeguards against prying- a world
which Bible prophecy demonstrates
will become much more totalitarian
in character before Christ steps in to
establish H is government-even
small t hings, like reform of a judicial
idea gone sour, would do a great deal
of good.
o
Voice Cries Out
(Continued f rom page JO)
ferred not with flesh and blood, nei–
ther went 1 [to a theological semi–
nary, but
1
was taught by J esus
Christ, the Word of God (in writ–
ing)) (Galatia ns
1:11 - 12,
15-17)!
T hat is why
1
have said the experi–
ence
I
was painfully subjected to in
thi s original int ensive study was
unique in human life a nd conduct in
ou r t ime.
1
know of no world religious
leader who arrived at his teachings in
such a manner. This world ' s religious
teachings did not come from Goo!
Only God is infallibly correct!
1
was brought , by the spring of
1927,
lO
a complete MIND-SWEEPING!
My mind had been
swept clean
of
previous assumptions and beliefs-1
had been brought through a painful
experience.
Twice profitable businesses had
collapsed, leaving me frustrated.
Then
1
was brought to acknowl–
edge that whatever religious beliefs 1
had held were contrary to the truth
of God . Not only what
1
had
believed, but also the churches!
1
had taken a beating!
1
had been
brought to realize my own nothing–
ness and inadequacy.
1
had been
CONQUERED by the Great Majestic
Goo- brought to a r eal
repen–
tance- and
also brought to a NEW
ROCK-BASED SOLIO FAITH in Jesus
Christ and in God's Word.
1
had
been brought toa complete surrender
to God and to
H1s
WORD.
. 1
was baptized, and the infilling of
God's Holy Spirit opened my mind to
the JOY UNSPEAKABLE Of knowing
God and Jesus Christ-of knowing
TRUTH-and the warmth of God's
divine LOVE!
What
1
once hated
1
now loved.
1
found the greatest and most absorb–
ing joy of my life in
continuing
to dig
out those gold nuggets of TRUTH
from God's Word. Now carne a new
enthusiasm in Bible study.
And
1
was led to find that one and
only true Church of God, founded by
J esus Christ on the day of Pentecost ,
A.D. 31.
1 now reveal to the reader SEVEN
MAJOR TRUTHS that identify it, a nd·
emancípate the reader from today's
spi r itual wilderness of religious con–
fusion. o
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