1 00:00:07,629 --> 00:00:12,710 Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:12,710 --> 00:00:17,030 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and 3 00:00:17,030 --> 00:00:17,309 faith. 4 00:00:17,789 --> 00:00:25,410 Today, I'd like to contrast what America needs, that is Christ, Constitution, and Capitalism 5 00:00:25,410 --> 00:00:31,870 with what she has, and she has presently secularism, statism, and socialism. 6 00:00:31,870 --> 00:00:38,369 As you might discern from my simple attempt at alliteration, I have set up a comparison 7 00:00:38,369 --> 00:00:43,710 and contrast in the three great categories in which our human life takes place. 8 00:00:43,810 --> 00:00:50,890 That is, our spiritual lives, where we see secularism has replaced Christianity, our political 9 00:00:50,890 --> 00:00:57,929 lives, where statism has replaced the Constitution, and our economic system, where socialism has 10 00:00:57,929 --> 00:00:59,170 replaced capitalism. 11 00:00:59,170 --> 00:01:07,450 So, for ease of remembrance, I have three C's compared with three S's, Christ, Constitution, 12 00:01:07,709 --> 00:01:14,329 and Capitalism, the three C's, with secularism, statism, and socialism, the three S's. 13 00:01:15,469 --> 00:01:20,370 Now, let me make my case with these comparisons and contrasts. 14 00:01:21,010 --> 00:01:26,730 First of all, in that first category, the realm of the Spirit, which I would contend is the 15 00:01:26,730 --> 00:01:35,549 most important, the area of our spiritual lives, number one, Christ must replace secularism in 16 00:01:35,549 --> 00:01:36,930 the United States of America. 17 00:01:36,930 --> 00:01:43,670 If we are ever to return to our former days of glory, to where God would have us, Christ 18 00:01:43,670 --> 00:01:48,030 must replace secularism in the United States of America. 19 00:01:48,030 --> 00:01:57,329 In reflecting upon our founding, the old Massachusetts senator from the 19th century, Daniel Webster, 20 00:01:57,430 --> 00:02:00,750 noted, and it's as true today as it was then, he said, 21 00:02:00,849 --> 00:02:04,409 Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. 22 00:02:05,150 --> 00:02:09,949 Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. 23 00:02:09,949 --> 00:02:13,610 They journeyed by its light and labored in its hope. 24 00:02:14,310 --> 00:02:20,729 They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of our society and to diffuse its 25 00:02:20,729 --> 00:02:26,210 influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary, unquote. 26 00:02:27,150 --> 00:02:29,310 And how spot on Webster was. 27 00:02:29,889 --> 00:02:32,069 I recommend a book to you, dear listener. 28 00:02:32,069 --> 00:02:40,909 It is called The Light and the Glory, The Light and the Glory, and its subtitle is Did God Have 29 00:02:40,909 --> 00:02:41,870 a Plan for America? 30 00:02:42,409 --> 00:02:45,169 Its authors are Peter Marshall and David Manuel. 31 00:02:45,689 --> 00:02:51,629 The publisher is Ravel, and it's an excellent introduction to our exploration, settlement, 32 00:02:51,990 --> 00:02:54,509 and founding as the United States of America. 33 00:02:54,509 --> 00:03:02,150 And it brings home to us what we are asserting here, that Christ must replace secularism in 34 00:03:02,150 --> 00:03:03,530 the United States of America. 35 00:03:03,810 --> 00:03:07,669 We were founded as a Christian republic, I would assert as well. 36 00:03:08,210 --> 00:03:12,129 Some of the chapter titles from this book, The Light and the Glory, are, for example, 37 00:03:12,509 --> 00:03:13,870 To the Promised Land. 38 00:03:14,330 --> 00:03:19,969 That chapter, of course, is about the pilgrims, how they planned and provisioned and pilgrimaged 39 00:03:19,969 --> 00:03:25,150 to the new world that was just on the horizon at the time. 40 00:03:25,229 --> 00:03:28,330 Another chapter, God, our maker, doth provide. 41 00:03:28,909 --> 00:03:32,349 And that talks about the survival of the pilgrims once they were here. 42 00:03:32,349 --> 00:03:35,270 And they would say, God, our maker, doth provide. 43 00:03:35,530 --> 00:03:38,590 Another chapter would be A City Upon a Hill. 44 00:03:39,009 --> 00:03:43,250 And that chapter is about the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 45 00:03:43,710 --> 00:03:45,469 John Winthrop was their governor. 46 00:03:45,469 --> 00:03:52,889 He first preached a sermon coining the term, Ye Shall Be As a City Set Upon a Hill, taken 47 00:03:52,889 --> 00:03:59,469 from the Gospels, of course, and used by presidents ever since, most notably Ronald Reagan, who 48 00:03:59,469 --> 00:04:02,830 said that America was still a city set upon a hill. 49 00:04:03,409 --> 00:04:08,849 Another chapter would be A Sunburst of Light, which described the First Great Awakening, which 50 00:04:08,849 --> 00:04:10,509 preceded the American Revolution. 51 00:04:11,030 --> 00:04:15,449 And then, of course, there's a chapter on the American Revolution which said, No King But 52 00:04:15,449 --> 00:04:15,810 Jesus. 53 00:04:16,610 --> 00:04:20,569 There's an entire chapter of this book called No King But Jesus. 54 00:04:20,889 --> 00:04:26,110 And, of course, they asserted that King George III of England was no king over them, that they 55 00:04:26,110 --> 00:04:28,910 were indeed free and independent people. 56 00:04:30,490 --> 00:04:38,529 So, just know America, not only from this book, but from all of American history, you have 57 00:04:38,529 --> 00:04:40,329 been robbed of your history. 58 00:04:40,329 --> 00:04:45,069 Our collective memory has been effectively erased of its Christian heritage. 59 00:04:45,350 --> 00:04:48,129 We need Christ instead of secularism in America. 60 00:04:49,370 --> 00:04:54,730 What school system, pray tell, what school system these days teaches government and history 61 00:04:54,730 --> 00:04:57,009 and civics anymore as a requirement? 62 00:04:57,889 --> 00:05:03,250 There is a technique in propaganda called historical blackout. 63 00:05:03,250 --> 00:05:09,449 This technique was cultivated and developed by Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister in Nazi 64 00:05:09,449 --> 00:05:17,050 Germany, historical blackout, whereby population, schools, and media are fed a history deliberately 65 00:05:17,050 --> 00:05:22,410 altered, erased, or covered up in order to teach the history desired by the government rather 66 00:05:22,410 --> 00:05:24,350 than that which actually transpired. 67 00:05:24,350 --> 00:05:30,610 A perfect example of this is the otherwise excellent Civil War series produced and directed 68 00:05:30,610 --> 00:05:31,589 by Ken Burns. 69 00:05:31,790 --> 00:05:37,750 I like this series on the Civil War, but what bothers me about it is that it utterly ignores 70 00:05:37,750 --> 00:05:43,769 the role that Christianity played in the lives of that generation, the Civil War generation, 71 00:05:44,470 --> 00:05:49,949 the role that Christianity played in both justifying and condemning slavery, for example, 72 00:05:49,949 --> 00:05:56,449 Christianity, and paradoxically, both sides, North and South, experienced great religious 73 00:05:56,449 --> 00:06:02,350 revivals of deep conviction during the fighting of the Civil War, and none of this is explored 74 00:06:02,350 --> 00:06:07,350 by Burns as if the Civil War generation was as secular as him, Ken Burns. 75 00:06:08,269 --> 00:06:12,709 So, we might extend this analysis to all of our present generation. 76 00:06:12,970 --> 00:06:15,629 It is a secular generation at best. 77 00:06:15,629 --> 00:06:23,610 Now, the Oxford English Dictionary defines secular as, and I quote, concerned with the affairs 78 00:06:23,610 --> 00:06:30,589 of this world, not spiritual or sacred, not concerned with religion or religious belief. 79 00:06:30,970 --> 00:06:34,230 The Oxford English Dictionary definition of secular. 80 00:06:35,230 --> 00:06:42,750 And so successful has my generation, the baby boomers, excuse me, so successful have the baby 81 00:06:42,750 --> 00:06:49,470 boomers been in infiltrating and co-opting our institutions over the last 30 to 40 years that 82 00:06:49,470 --> 00:06:54,689 Americans raised in public schools have little or no understanding of our Christian background 83 00:06:54,689 --> 00:06:55,490 and heritage. 84 00:06:56,170 --> 00:07:03,970 For example, a study by McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum notes that 22% of Americans could name 85 00:07:03,970 --> 00:07:09,970 all five Simpson family members, while just one in a thousand people could name all five First 86 00:07:09,970 --> 00:07:10,970 Amendment freedoms. 87 00:07:10,970 --> 00:07:18,149 They also found that 14% of us think we declared our independence from, from whom? 88 00:07:18,529 --> 00:07:20,910 From France, they think, instead of England, of course. 89 00:07:21,370 --> 00:07:27,209 15% of us in this survey did not know that the Declaration of Independence was adopted on, 90 00:07:27,910 --> 00:07:28,389 on when? 91 00:07:28,629 --> 00:07:30,610 July 4, 1776. 92 00:07:30,610 --> 00:07:38,209 So thorough has the brainwashing been that when you tell a millennial, for example, Thomas 93 00:07:38,209 --> 00:07:43,470 Jefferson composed the eloquent Declaration of Independence, what is the response you get 94 00:07:43,470 --> 00:07:44,509 very often? 95 00:07:45,110 --> 00:07:48,990 And that is, well, Jefferson was a racist because he owns slaves. 96 00:07:49,209 --> 00:07:53,709 And of course, for progressives, this is all the answer that is needed, racist. 97 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:59,069 The term does not need to be defined anymore or explained or put into context. 98 00:07:59,069 --> 00:08:04,290 All that needs to be done is speak, racist, as a label affixed to your opponent. 99 00:08:05,050 --> 00:08:09,750 Thus, anyone using it against the founding father, for example, has just diminished any 100 00:08:09,750 --> 00:08:12,069 reason to go any farther in studying the man. 101 00:08:12,149 --> 00:08:17,569 He was a racist, as far as they're concerned, and thus unworthy of the superior public school 102 00:08:17,569 --> 00:08:22,069 educated, dope smoking, texting, ignorant, illiterate millennial who cannot distinguish 103 00:08:22,069 --> 00:08:23,449 his butt from a bread roll. 104 00:08:23,449 --> 00:08:30,569 So, this brainwashing, historical blackout, if you will, has extended as far as the Christian 105 00:08:30,569 --> 00:08:32,649 heritage of the United States of America. 106 00:08:33,370 --> 00:08:37,570 And when I say the United States of America is secular, I mean three things by it. 107 00:08:37,629 --> 00:08:42,029 Number one, to be secular in the United States is to be anti-Christian. 108 00:08:42,870 --> 00:08:46,909 The United States of America is becoming increasingly anti-Christian. 109 00:08:46,909 --> 00:08:49,730 Tolerance is for all but the Christian. 110 00:08:50,549 --> 00:08:54,529 We must tolerate, for example, the beating of Muslim women by their husbands as a form 111 00:08:54,529 --> 00:09:00,370 of discipline, or Muslim female circumcision of the clitoris to reduce the pleasure factor 112 00:09:00,370 --> 00:09:05,269 of sex for them, or the Muslim restriction of driving privileges in many countries as a 113 00:09:05,269 --> 00:09:07,490 form of religious observance. 114 00:09:08,029 --> 00:09:13,870 But if a Christian refuses to adorn a gay wedding with flowers, or puts a Christmas creche 115 00:09:13,870 --> 00:09:19,309 on the lawn of City Hall, or says a prayer at a public school graduation, oh, then he 116 00:09:19,309 --> 00:09:23,210 has transgressed the rule of separation of church and state, and he must be punished. 117 00:09:24,309 --> 00:09:26,549 True Christians are not surprised by this. 118 00:09:27,210 --> 00:09:32,750 Jesus himself said, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 119 00:09:33,289 --> 00:09:37,429 If you were of the world, Jesus said, the world would love you as its own, but because 120 00:09:37,429 --> 00:09:42,549 you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 121 00:09:42,549 --> 00:09:46,769 Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. 122 00:09:47,110 --> 00:09:52,850 If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you, unquote, the words of Jesus to his disciples 123 00:09:52,850 --> 00:09:53,730 and to us. 124 00:09:54,529 --> 00:09:59,090 One of the marks of an anti-Christian system is its treatment of the church. 125 00:09:59,690 --> 00:10:05,409 Our government, society, and culture becomes increasingly hostile to the church and its 126 00:10:05,409 --> 00:10:09,909 gospel, and that is because it is demonic in nature. 127 00:10:09,909 --> 00:10:11,389 Oh, is this radical? 128 00:10:12,429 --> 00:10:13,830 Oh, no, it is not, is it? 129 00:10:13,909 --> 00:10:19,669 Well, when I also say that our government and our culture and society is secular, I also 130 00:10:19,669 --> 00:10:22,129 mean that secular does not mean neutral. 131 00:10:22,889 --> 00:10:24,570 Secular does not mean neutral. 132 00:10:24,809 --> 00:10:25,929 There are two are not equated. 133 00:10:26,350 --> 00:10:30,190 The United States of America worships another god altogether. 134 00:10:30,190 --> 00:10:37,269 So, when I use the word secondary to describe our leaders and culture and society, I do not 135 00:10:37,269 --> 00:10:41,129 mean that they are dispassionate and neutral towards Christianity and Christ. 136 00:10:41,250 --> 00:10:41,909 No, no, no, no. 137 00:10:42,330 --> 00:10:47,610 It is a given in the lives of men and their own nations that all men worship. 138 00:10:48,289 --> 00:10:54,210 Man is wired originally to first love, honor, and worship the God of the Bible who made him. 139 00:10:54,210 --> 00:11:00,490 But in lieu of doing that, and there are many in lieu of doing that, he will find someone 140 00:11:00,490 --> 00:11:04,850 or something to worship in his stead because that is what we do as humans. 141 00:11:05,809 --> 00:11:10,610 If man does not worship the God of the Bible through Christ, he will find another God to 142 00:11:10,610 --> 00:11:16,110 worship, perhaps the demonic God of Islam, that is Allah, or perhaps the eight million 143 00:11:16,110 --> 00:11:21,929 gods of Hinduism, over eight million of them, or the Buddha, perhaps, as examples of idolatry 144 00:11:21,929 --> 00:11:22,929 throughout the world. 145 00:11:23,490 --> 00:11:28,610 Even so-called secular America worships, make no mistake about this, worship. 146 00:11:28,750 --> 00:11:34,990 If you define worship and it is simply that which we serve and reverence, if that's the 147 00:11:34,990 --> 00:11:40,570 definition of worship, how many do you know, for example, that serve and reverence money, 148 00:11:40,970 --> 00:11:47,309 or serve and reverence their sexual urges, or serve and reverence power, especially power 149 00:11:47,309 --> 00:11:48,129 over others? 150 00:11:48,129 --> 00:11:55,450 Well, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, virtually defines these impulses to serve and reverence 151 00:11:55,450 --> 00:11:57,830 the flesh as idolatry. 152 00:11:58,490 --> 00:12:04,529 Even the so-called atheist, I submit, cannot find terms to express himself without first 153 00:12:04,529 --> 00:12:09,529 presupposing the God of the Bible, and then paradoxically using the very nomenclature of 154 00:12:09,529 --> 00:12:12,409 Christianity to try and deny this God. 155 00:12:12,750 --> 00:12:13,450 Oh, the irony. 156 00:12:13,450 --> 00:12:20,470 Well, as I have described earlier in other places, nations cannot be neutral either. 157 00:12:20,769 --> 00:12:24,710 Nations cannot be neutral, and neither can the United States of America. 158 00:12:25,309 --> 00:12:31,669 We all live lives simultaneously in the realm of the physical and the spiritual. 159 00:12:31,870 --> 00:12:36,429 We live lives like this as individuals and collectively as nations too. 160 00:12:36,429 --> 00:12:44,110 Cumulatively, every people cede authority and devotion to a being in the realm of the Spirit, 161 00:12:44,289 --> 00:12:50,409 both as an instinct to worship, as I mentioned previously, and also as a source of law and 162 00:12:50,409 --> 00:12:50,850 culture. 163 00:12:51,610 --> 00:12:55,690 If it is not God, it will be another, and there is no neutrality. 164 00:12:56,090 --> 00:12:59,509 Dear listener, there is no neutrality in any of this. 165 00:12:59,509 --> 00:13:04,590 Jesus himself said, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the 166 00:13:04,590 --> 00:13:08,090 other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 167 00:13:08,590 --> 00:13:08,970 Unquote. 168 00:13:09,710 --> 00:13:12,809 There is no neutrality in the realm of the Spirit, dear listener. 169 00:13:13,389 --> 00:13:19,549 Number three, we must also remember that secular is designed to deceive and distract the general 170 00:13:19,549 --> 00:13:20,009 public. 171 00:13:20,649 --> 00:13:26,330 Progressives use this term secular to deceive and distract the general public. 172 00:13:26,330 --> 00:13:32,370 So, if the things I just noted for you are true, and they are, then this is true as well. 173 00:13:33,049 --> 00:13:37,889 Christians' defenses go down when they hear, oh, the government is neutral towards all religions. 174 00:13:38,070 --> 00:13:38,669 Oh, yeah? 175 00:13:39,350 --> 00:13:41,850 We have already observed how false this is. 176 00:13:42,210 --> 00:13:47,590 Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security in their faith by thinking that 177 00:13:47,590 --> 00:13:52,909 a secular state in which there is a separation of church and state is going to be fair to them. 178 00:13:53,269 --> 00:13:55,769 Oh, what a mistake we first make, right? 179 00:13:56,330 --> 00:14:02,970 We see how great advances the evil one has made in America through this ruse over the last number 180 00:14:02,970 --> 00:14:03,750 of generations. 181 00:14:04,230 --> 00:14:08,990 Abortion, broken homes, and marriages, the breakdown of traditional marriage, and wars, 182 00:14:09,110 --> 00:14:15,129 violence, poverty, ignorance, all of these and more, spell the death of Christian culture and influence. 183 00:14:15,730 --> 00:14:21,029 All of this is under the guise of a benevolent, neutral government who only wants to practice 184 00:14:21,029 --> 00:14:23,110 tolerance, tolerance, diversity, and equality. 185 00:14:23,990 --> 00:14:32,350 And so, we see how Christ is at war with secularism in America, at war with secularism in America, 186 00:14:32,769 --> 00:14:38,230 a secularism that is really idolatry in a pleasant, neutral-looking sheepskin. 187 00:14:39,009 --> 00:14:45,169 Without him, that is, without the living, risen Christ of the Bible, there will be no more America. 188 00:14:45,169 --> 00:14:48,830 We need Christ rather than secularism for America. 189 00:14:49,490 --> 00:14:51,889 Daniel Webster also observed, and I quote him again, 190 00:14:52,269 --> 00:14:56,490 if the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, 191 00:14:56,929 --> 00:15:03,929 anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation 192 00:15:03,929 --> 00:15:05,590 or end, unquote. 193 00:15:06,409 --> 00:15:09,409 Oh, dear listener, we're already insensitive to Christ. 194 00:15:09,529 --> 00:15:12,549 We are already insensitive to that feeling for the gospel. 195 00:15:12,549 --> 00:15:15,690 We need Christ, not secularism in America. 196 00:15:16,250 --> 00:15:22,750 If the United States of America requires the three C's for its restoration and its reformation, 197 00:15:23,169 --> 00:15:30,409 and that is Christ, constitution, and capitalism, in defeat of the three S's that presently obtain, 198 00:15:30,669 --> 00:15:37,149 those three S's, of course, are secularism, statism, and socialism, well, then this first thing 199 00:15:37,149 --> 00:15:42,950 is the chief thing, and that is Christ, the desire of the nations, the desire of this nation. 200 00:15:43,649 --> 00:15:46,429 We have just compared and contrasted Christ with secularism. 201 00:15:46,830 --> 00:15:52,090 Let's now do this with our second set, and that is the constitution with statism. 202 00:15:52,629 --> 00:15:59,529 We must assert, indeed, strongly that the constitution must replace statism as our political system. 203 00:15:59,529 --> 00:16:06,850 In the sphere of politics, in the realm of the political, the constitution must rule us rather 204 00:16:06,850 --> 00:16:07,850 than statism. 205 00:16:08,490 --> 00:16:15,789 Can anyone deny, for example, that we have passed from a constitutional republic to a statist tyranny? 206 00:16:16,590 --> 00:16:20,690 Now, the Oxford English Dictionary defines statism succinctly. 207 00:16:21,090 --> 00:16:28,210 It defines it as centralized government, administration, and control of social and economic affairs. 208 00:16:28,210 --> 00:16:35,330 Statism is centralized government, administration, and control of social and economic affairs. 209 00:16:35,750 --> 00:16:39,149 That's a pretty good, succinct definition of what statism is. 210 00:16:39,649 --> 00:16:45,909 And now Americans have seen this happen over the past few generations and put into warp drive 211 00:16:45,909 --> 00:16:52,889 by our Borg bot, President Obama, and Americans are either apathetic or they seem to like it. 212 00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:54,730 It's exasperating, is it not? 213 00:16:54,730 --> 00:17:02,129 Our centralized federal government, a beast warned against by our founding fathers, our founding 214 00:17:02,129 --> 00:17:06,670 fathers, Washington, one of them, Washington, said, government is not reason. 215 00:17:06,910 --> 00:17:08,170 It is not eloquence. 216 00:17:08,369 --> 00:17:09,130 It is force. 217 00:17:09,549 --> 00:17:12,849 Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. 218 00:17:13,410 --> 00:17:18,450 Never for a moment should it, that is government, be left to irresponsible men, unquote. 219 00:17:18,450 --> 00:17:26,170 So our centralized federal government today, however, does precisely these things. 220 00:17:26,369 --> 00:17:30,369 It administers and controls our social affairs, for example. 221 00:17:30,710 --> 00:17:35,470 That is from the line in the maternity ward where you were cradled until you could be registered 222 00:17:35,470 --> 00:17:41,470 to the immunization line as a child to the cafeteria line in school to the unemployment line 223 00:17:41,470 --> 00:17:46,730 as an out-of-work adult, to the welfare line as a needy indigent, to the social security line 224 00:17:46,730 --> 00:17:50,930 as a senior citizen, to the line at the Bureau of Records where your kids must stand in line 225 00:17:50,930 --> 00:17:54,210 to get a death certificate, to file insurance claims. 226 00:17:54,549 --> 00:17:59,789 Oh, the beast of government administers and controls your social affairs, dear listener. 227 00:18:00,369 --> 00:18:02,690 They also control your economic interests. 228 00:18:03,130 --> 00:18:08,430 Every baby born into American society ends up beginning his existence, for example, owing over 229 00:18:08,430 --> 00:18:13,170 $56,000 as his or her share of the national debt. 230 00:18:13,670 --> 00:18:15,430 And from there, things only get worse. 231 00:18:15,849 --> 00:18:21,029 Taxes, inflation, government borrowing only rob him of his wealth that he earns with his labor. 232 00:18:21,569 --> 00:18:25,430 And when you start a business, remember when President Obama said during the campaign, 233 00:18:25,549 --> 00:18:27,910 you didn't build that, somebody else did, right? 234 00:18:28,349 --> 00:18:33,029 Or when you buy land or create a product or provide a service, the federal government is 235 00:18:33,029 --> 00:18:36,109 there to control it, tax it, and punish it beyond all reason. 236 00:18:36,109 --> 00:18:43,569 So, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, statism is centralized government controlling 237 00:18:43,569 --> 00:18:45,390 your economic affairs, too. 238 00:18:46,069 --> 00:18:48,269 This is statism, pure and simple. 239 00:18:48,630 --> 00:18:49,869 How do you like it, dear listener? 240 00:18:50,470 --> 00:18:54,829 You will never flourish or prosper as long as statism continues to grow. 241 00:18:55,390 --> 00:19:00,490 Do you even know what it was like to live under a constitution rather than a dictatorial state, 242 00:19:00,609 --> 00:19:01,630 as we now know? 243 00:19:01,630 --> 00:19:08,470 Over the generations, Americans have become like trained SEALs, groomed to arf, arf for 244 00:19:08,470 --> 00:19:09,569 a fish from the government. 245 00:19:09,769 --> 00:19:12,190 And when they get it, they clap and they ask for more. 246 00:19:12,509 --> 00:19:17,349 And in the meantime, your trainer, the federal government, is robbing you of every quarter 247 00:19:17,349 --> 00:19:19,029 from every quarter of the globe. 248 00:19:20,029 --> 00:19:27,130 That ringwraith Nazgul of a president of ours is deliberately usurping the legislative functions 249 00:19:27,130 --> 00:19:32,890 of Congress, is he not, overstepping the separation of powers established by our Constitution. 250 00:19:33,670 --> 00:19:40,049 Our Constitution says in Article 1, Section 1, all legislative powers herein, granted, shall 251 00:19:40,049 --> 00:19:45,529 be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 252 00:19:45,529 --> 00:19:46,130 Representatives. 253 00:19:46,130 --> 00:19:56,650 Well, to the pigs in the animal farm, animal farm, of course, the fictional allegory written 254 00:19:56,650 --> 00:19:59,589 by George Orwell of Soviet tyranny. 255 00:19:59,589 --> 00:20:03,269 He wrote animal farm as an allegory of Soviet tyranny. 256 00:20:04,069 --> 00:20:11,210 And to the pigs in the animal farm of this administration, the Constitution is just the writing on the 257 00:20:11,210 --> 00:20:14,089 barn wall in animal farm. 258 00:20:14,089 --> 00:20:20,029 They used the barn wall during the Revolution to write in big, bold letters, the seven commandments 259 00:20:20,029 --> 00:20:21,150 of animalism. 260 00:20:21,769 --> 00:20:28,390 And those seven commandments of animalism were empty phrases used by the pigs to cow and to 261 00:20:28,390 --> 00:20:31,670 deceive the animals of animal farm. 262 00:20:31,950 --> 00:20:36,849 And so the words of our Constitution are used by this present administration to deceive the 263 00:20:36,849 --> 00:20:39,769 people into thinking they live in a constitutional republic. 264 00:20:39,769 --> 00:20:42,470 But really, they're living in a status tyranny. 265 00:20:43,109 --> 00:20:51,750 And it's used to cow the farm into submission and reassure us that the pigs are of true conviction 266 00:20:51,750 --> 00:20:53,549 in terms of their principles. 267 00:20:53,690 --> 00:20:59,390 But in reality, like the fat swine of animal farm, they ended up doing what they wanted, pigs 268 00:20:59,390 --> 00:21:02,490 being a little more equal than others in the end. 269 00:21:03,230 --> 00:21:09,329 So whether arbitrarily changing Obamacare law or making up immigration law or Second Amendment 270 00:21:09,329 --> 00:21:15,690 ammunition bans or signing treaties with Iran circumventing Congress, he and his administration, 271 00:21:15,890 --> 00:21:20,509 the president, have cynically decided to see just how much power they can exercise before 272 00:21:20,509 --> 00:21:21,529 Congress will act. 273 00:21:21,670 --> 00:21:28,289 And like an abused wife bitch slapped into submission, Congress just takes it and asks for more. 274 00:21:28,710 --> 00:21:33,750 I'm sure that behind closed doors in the White House, they laugh at John Boehner and Mitch McConnell 275 00:21:33,750 --> 00:21:37,470 and all of Congress and the American people for what they are able to do. 276 00:21:37,470 --> 00:21:42,970 And many in Congress, and I would say Obama's fellow progressive patsies in particular, 277 00:21:43,349 --> 00:21:49,630 simply fall in line, hand over their sacred trust in facilitating the executive grab for power. 278 00:21:50,309 --> 00:21:56,690 There is no difference now in our Congress, between our Congress and the German Reichstag under Hitler 279 00:21:56,690 --> 00:21:59,210 or the Supreme Soviet under Stalin. 280 00:21:59,210 --> 00:22:05,769 All of them were cowed puppet lackeys who rolled over to the will of the Fuhrer and the Benevolent 281 00:22:05,769 --> 00:22:11,849 Father and rubber stamped whatever was decided by the executive in a grand charade of Republican 282 00:22:11,849 --> 00:22:14,069 government, not real Republican government. 283 00:22:14,809 --> 00:22:21,150 Most of these that do this now in America, and I would include here Obama and Biden and 284 00:22:21,150 --> 00:22:26,569 Reid and Pelosi and Boehner and McConnell and many more, they should be impeached. 285 00:22:26,690 --> 00:22:29,470 And tried for violating their oath of office. 286 00:22:29,470 --> 00:22:35,049 Instead of protecting and defending the Constitution, they have consciously, cynically perverted and 287 00:22:35,049 --> 00:22:36,630 defamed the Constitution. 288 00:22:37,089 --> 00:22:43,329 Congress refusing to wrest the bottle of power from an executive branch drunk with it. 289 00:22:44,549 --> 00:22:49,670 The ultimate responsibility for statism in America, and I would contrast this with the 290 00:22:49,670 --> 00:22:52,730 Constitution, of course, lies with the American people. 291 00:22:53,250 --> 00:22:55,089 There's no excuse for us, dear listener. 292 00:22:55,089 --> 00:22:59,190 There's no excuse for this state of affairs in our state of tyranny. 293 00:22:59,730 --> 00:23:01,690 We get the government that we deserve. 294 00:23:02,390 --> 00:23:06,650 The Constitution for us is like a holy book that no one opens and reads. 295 00:23:07,150 --> 00:23:11,170 That holy book is revered and put into a place of reverence on a golden pedestal. 296 00:23:11,529 --> 00:23:15,329 It's printed in indelible ink with gilded pages and ornate jeweled covers. 297 00:23:15,329 --> 00:23:17,750 But no one knows what's inside. 298 00:23:18,430 --> 00:23:23,670 Israel did this precise thing with the Bible in her decadent days before her destruction. 299 00:23:24,509 --> 00:23:29,890 For Israel in those days, the Bible held a revered position in the temple, but it gathered dust 300 00:23:29,890 --> 00:23:33,970 because no one bothered to open it, read it, and do what was inside. 301 00:23:33,970 --> 00:23:40,910 Dear people of America, our founding fathers bequeathed a people's document in which power 302 00:23:40,910 --> 00:23:44,890 devolved to us, to a religious-informed electorate. 303 00:23:45,450 --> 00:23:50,049 It begins, it begins, for crying out loud, we the people of the United States. 304 00:23:50,130 --> 00:23:55,089 And Obama has morphed our preamble into me, the person of the United States. 305 00:23:55,089 --> 00:23:58,690 And we seem to like it just fine, most of us anyway. 306 00:23:59,289 --> 00:24:03,670 And it is time then to return to the three C's that I've been outlining for you. 307 00:24:04,730 --> 00:24:11,990 That's Christ, Constitution, and Capitalism, and stark distinction between secularism, 308 00:24:12,150 --> 00:24:13,369 statism, and socialism. 309 00:24:13,710 --> 00:24:15,390 So that brings me then to number three. 310 00:24:16,329 --> 00:24:19,990 Capitalism, not socialism, should determine our economy. 311 00:24:19,990 --> 00:24:26,670 Oh, someone once observed capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth, while socialism 312 00:24:26,670 --> 00:24:29,349 is the equal distribution of poverty. 313 00:24:29,970 --> 00:24:31,250 How true it is. 314 00:24:31,910 --> 00:24:36,390 And a case can be made for the biblical basis for capitalism, as I have done elsewhere. 315 00:24:37,190 --> 00:24:42,309 But as long as we populate this earth on this side of heaven, there will be a variety of gifts 316 00:24:42,309 --> 00:24:45,569 and rewards according to our individual talents. 317 00:24:45,670 --> 00:24:48,609 And capitalism merely recognizes this. 318 00:24:48,609 --> 00:24:55,410 And when government is doing its job of administering true justice, then government creates equal 319 00:24:55,410 --> 00:25:01,230 opportunity, not equal outcomes, but equal opportunity to all men to exercise those gifts 320 00:25:01,230 --> 00:25:07,130 and talents in a free market and then enjoy the fruits of that labor as they see fit. 321 00:25:07,670 --> 00:25:13,829 Principles like the ownership of private property is derived directly from the Bible, where in 322 00:25:13,829 --> 00:25:18,009 the Old Testament, for example, property belonged to families, not to the state. 323 00:25:18,609 --> 00:25:25,109 So sacred was this principle of property that every 49 years in the year of Jubilee, all property 324 00:25:25,109 --> 00:25:31,130 returned to its original family boundaries, regardless of how it had been bought and sold during 325 00:25:31,130 --> 00:25:31,789 their interim. 326 00:25:32,490 --> 00:25:35,130 We saw and we see all around her. 327 00:25:35,230 --> 00:25:40,210 Israel saw nations like Egypt and Babylon, where the land was by definition a possession of 328 00:25:40,210 --> 00:25:45,130 the godlike pharaohs in Egypt and the kings in Babylon, but not so in tiny Israel. 329 00:25:45,130 --> 00:25:50,829 Well, no, in Israel, the promise was, and I read now from Micah chapter four, they shall 330 00:25:50,829 --> 00:25:54,289 sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree. 331 00:25:54,750 --> 00:25:59,529 No one shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken, unquote. 332 00:26:00,329 --> 00:26:08,470 Dear listener, capitalism must replace socialism in the United States of America if indeed we 333 00:26:08,470 --> 00:26:24,630 are going to survive, we must return to the Constitution, not statism, as is presently the case. 334 00:26:24,630 --> 00:26:30,789 We must return to capitalism, not socialism, as is presently the case, if indeed we are going 335 00:26:30,789 --> 00:26:33,750 to survive and prosper as the United States of America. 336 00:26:34,269 --> 00:26:38,630 This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 337 00:26:38,910 --> 00:26:44,869 We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 338 00:26:44,869 --> 00:26:47,930 Call us at 523-0196.