Ignorance Of The Law Is No Excuse

Most of us have heard the phrase “ignorance of the law is no
excuse” at one time or another. I never really thought about
the phrase much until I began reading, “By The People” by
Charles Murray. In light of what Mr. Murray has to say on
this subject, I would like to share some considerations in this
Sabbath Thought.

Mr. Murray writes, “For centuries, common law recognized
two requirements for a criminal act: a guilty act and a guilty
mind…. You not only had to do something wrong, you had to
be aware you were doing something wrong. But the law also
held that ignorance of the law is no defense. How could these
two principles be reconciled? Because there weren’t many
laws. Most of the laws that did exist prohibited acts that were
obviously wrong in themselves, such as murder, rape, and
theft. Other laws prohibited things the state decided to prohibit
that were not wrong in themselves (for example, sumptuary
laws), but these were of a manageable number and were part
of daily life” (pp. 32-33).

Mr. Murray is saying in essence there was a time in America
where the laws were so few in number that “ignorance of the
law was (truly) no excuse.”

Today, we often are unaware we have broken a law. He points
out, “Through the first half of the nineteenth century, virtually
all criminal law was defined and prosecuted by the states with
fewer than a score of crimes defined by the federal
government (for example, treason or bribery of federal
officials). By World War 1, the number of federal laws had
reached the 500s. As of the most recent count, in 2007, the
federal code numbered about 4,450 crimes. We have seen an
increase of about 50 percent just since 1980” (p. 33).

Consider that “the tax code, as of 2013 consisted of four
million words—about five times the length of the King James
Bible. It is riddled with ambiguities and special provisions.
The IRS can almost always find something wrong if agents
look hard enough, no matter what tax preparation software
you used and no matter how faithfully you tried to do the right
thing” (p. 38).

The problem is that we are overwhelmed with thousands of
laws and if someone wanted to push the matter, we are in
violation on a number of fronts and don’t even know of our
non-compliance.

We have reached the point in time where ignorance of the law
is all too common. There are just too many laws to keep up
with.

The good news is that there are laws on the books that were
established by a mind far beyond that of human beings. God in
His wisdom established a law code of Ten Commandments.
His laws were applicable in the Garden of Eden and will be
applicable to the end of time.

The Bible, as a whole, is an expansion on the meaning and
application of the Ten Commandments.

God put His law in one book making it a ready resource for all
mankind.

How good it will be when man realizes the futility of trying to
put more and more laws into effect and accepts the simple
approach to law given by God. We get an inkling of what is to
come in Isaiah 2:3, "Many people shall come and say, "Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of
the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall
walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

As the Bible becomes the standard for the entire earth, then it
can truly be said, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

Gary Smith