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Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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Today, let me ask you a very important question. Why does spiritual change always precede genuine

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political and economic change in the United States of America, that is? Look to our history,

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dear listener, because this is my chief criticism of the modern Tea Party movement in the United

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States of America today, my chief criticism of libertarianism, for that matter. There is a

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complete and arid void of substance on this factor of the equation for a return to the United States

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of America's founding values. Now before us every day, inside and out on television and on radio,

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on the internet, there's a torrent of talk about the Constitution, but very little consideration

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of what constitutes the character of the people who bring the Constitution, who bring an economy to

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life. Part of the problem we have today is that our constitutional offices, for example, are manned

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by people who have no moral scruples about violating their constitutional oath of office, which reads,

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I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of, for example, President of the United

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States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United

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States. Unquote. The oath of office that every president takes, but which the last several seem

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indeed to have ignored or deliberately decided to work against. What kind of cynical man, for example,

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swears this oath and then goes out and selectively enforces the border laws enacted by Congress

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and in fact opens them up to a flood of illegal aliens? What kind of lawless president appoints cabinet

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officers without the advice and consent of Congress, as this one has? What kind of president passively

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ignores the laws on the books concerning drugs or the Defense of Marriage Act, the DOMA Act?

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What kind of moral character swears this oath and then stands ready to plunge us into a war in the

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Middle East or fosters government institutions like ISIS, right, like the Islamic State, arms them and

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encourages them and selectively bombs them? What kind of president swears this oath of office and then

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blatantly lies about legislation before Congress like the so-called Affordable Health Care Act that

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will remove the ability to keep one's doctor to obtain health coverage more cost-effectively and do so

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affordably? Uh-huh. The kind of man who does these things is an immoral and characterless man. No

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constitution on paper is able to check a tyrant in the flesh. That requires, the checking of a tyrant

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requires constitutional men in the other two branches to stop, admonish, and impeach the executive who

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violates his oath of office. We obviously have no such men in these two branches today, or else we would

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see different results. There is also a torrent of talk, too, isn't there? Out in television, out in radio,

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out on the internet, out on YouTube channels, there's a torrent of talk about a return to capitalism as our

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founding economic system, too, with which I am in hearty agreement. But as men like John Locke and

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Adam Smith taught us, the fruit of a man's labor is his property, and that property is sacred. No other

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man has the moral right to take property from another through, for example, things like taxes and

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inflation and creating limitless debt, as our government has been doing in the last few years, and doing so

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without the consent of the governed, the notion that property is sacred implies that God has sanctioned

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private property and the righteous way in which it is obtained. Yet no one thinks through the moral

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issues of capital and its use today, do they? Not only, for example, is it immoral to tax away the fruit

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of a man's labor, but it is immoral as well to undervalue that labor by suppressing wages, as happened during

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the Gilded Age? We've been through this historically, have we not? I covered this a few weeks ago, when the

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captains of industry conspired together to fix wages while prices of the goods produced continued to rise.

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Not only is it immoral to devalue another man's labor through inflating his currency, as our

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government does presently, it is also immoral to artificially keep prices higher than wages, such that the

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worker is chronically in debt. We saw this happen in the 19th century as well, in the so-called company towns,

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like the coal mining towns of Kentucky. Read your history. And West Virginia, too, where the rents and the prices

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were deliberately calculated to make the miner more in debt at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year.

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Not only is it immoral to borrow limitlessly in the name of those that you govern, even as our federal government

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does now borrows from the banks, but it is also immoral to loan to borrowers whom you know can never pay

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back those loans you offer, backed by the taxpayer as it is even in our federal system, the so-called

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federal banks, as happened in the Fannie Mae and the Freddie Mac collapse in 2008. Now, for example, many in

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the Tea Party movement are familiar with Adam Smith and his grand magisterial work, The Wealth of

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Nations, are we not? This book, the idea, the concepts in The Wealth of Nations laid the groundwork for the

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conscious practice of capitalism, though very few have read his magnum opus. Yet, sadly, very few people

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are familiar with his equally profound work. How many of you out there have heard of Adam Smith's equally

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profound work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments? Yes, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, in which Adam Smith

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put forth his understanding of precisely how men behave in society with one another. And despite the

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greater success of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith personally always considered his other magnum opus,

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The Theory of Moral Sentiments, his more important work. He begins that work by saying,

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how selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which

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interest him in the fortunes of others and render happiness necessary to him, that he derives

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nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it." The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Every man has these

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kinds of sentiments if indeed they are encouraged. It is a natural capacity for compassion, if we can put it

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that way. This natural capacity for compassion, or sympathy as Smith calls it, is God-given and it's

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wired into his very nature. This is the idea of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. This man accomplishes

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and expresses in the normal course of his everyday life. The first and primary directive for the

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individual, however, in order that he might not have to be the object of some other man's compassion,

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is the care of himself. It's so important, dear listener. This is Adam Smith's idea behind The Theory

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of Moral Sentiments, is that in order not to be an object of compassion or sympathy, one must take care

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of himself. I quote now from The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith. He says,

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"'The administration of the great system of the universe, the care of the universal happiness of

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all rational and sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much

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humbler department, but one much more suitable to the weakness of his powers and to the narrowness of

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his comprehension, that is, the care of his own happiness, of that of his family, his friends,

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his country." Unquote. Oh, dear listener, we need to return to these principles, these moral

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sentiments, however, as Adam Smith would call them. Note the crucial premise that Smith establishes in

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his theory of moral sentiments, quote, unquote, "'The administration of the great system of the

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universe, the care of the universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings is the business of

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God and not of man.'" Unquote. How unlike the modern progressive, dear listener, for him, it is the

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business of man to ensure the care and universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings, right,

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to the progressive. Well, now, Smith realized, now, Smith realized, as we should, that if

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man acted his moral part in the realm given him, that is, the care of his own happiness, that of his

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family, friends, and country, well, then the great God of Providence would so weave and intertwine these

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destinies that a greater sense of the universal happiness of all men would begin to take place.

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Now, the modern Tea Party movement has forgotten this. At best, it has relegated it to a kind of

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embarrassing, oh, well, this too, kind of status. Prayers are offered at rallies, speakers allude to

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God here and there, and a vigorous defense is given for him in the public square, like the Ten

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Commandments at the courthouse, or in God we trust on our currency, prayer in the public schools. But I

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tell you, the absolute necessity of Christ at the very core of the Tea Party movement, at the very core

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of the libertarian movement, is entirely absent. And I am here to draw a clear, dark line to the

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contrary. I assert to you, dear listener, without the Christ of the Bible at the center of your passion

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and concern, all of your efforts to bring the United States of America back to the Constitution

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or back to capitalism will fail. You will rally for limited government, but see it cynically

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metastasize ever larger as it has over the last few years. What good has it done to elect

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Republicans to office, for example, that swept the recent elections? Oh, it's done no good. You will

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clearly articulate constitutional principles as we have for your kids and all to hear, but you will

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see, rather, tyranny continue to grow unchecked. Without Christ at the center of your passion, you will

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argue vigorously for individual self-reliance, but you will see government dependence and

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passivity go on and on, even as we have seen metastasize before our eyes. You will establish

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beyond doubt that a people should not spend more than it has economically. You can do this without

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Christ. You can establish that it is wrong to borrow more than you can repay, and you can argue that to

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print more money than you can pay back with true wealth, you will nevertheless see your nation tumble

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over a financial cliff with its profligacy as we have seen it happen before our eyes.

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Well, this is precisely because neither the Constitution nor capitalism is capable without

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the spiritual and moral integrity of the Christian faith. When I say these things, I hear howls or

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protests from atheists or agnostics, practitioners of other religions, even many libertarians.

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But I am not alone in asserting this, and I'm asserting this strongly, too. Thomas Jefferson

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said, and I quote him, the reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because

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Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart. Brothers and sisters, Jefferson's words

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were never more true than they are today. The reason that Christianity, he said, is the best friend of

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government is that because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart, unquote. What a

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profound insight from our founding father, Thomas Jefferson. It's a crucial insight. I lecture elsewhere,

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for example, that no other religion on the face of the earth changes, transforms, gives birth from heaven

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above, as does biblical Christianity. Jesus himself observes, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your

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heart, and all of your soul, and all of your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Well, the biblical gospel of

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Jesus brings to life the human soul as no other religion can. The biblical gospel of Jesus saves the soul for

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eternity, and then secondly, makes one capable of behaving in a true moral and ethical fashion here on earth, traits that

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our founders recognized were requisite for free people. Even the so-called morality of the atheist is a

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see-me-too morality that is entirely derivative of Christianity, even as the atheist faith is derivative of

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biblical faith. True liberty gives space for a man to act according to his nature. If that nature is fallen,

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corrupt, and dead to God, then that liberty will give him space to see what we see today,

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because liberty gives space for a man to act according to his nature. And if his nature is fallen and

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corrupt, we see a nation laden with debt and lies and tyranny. We see a people dependent and lazy and

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debauched. We see a country teetering on the brink of extinction. True liberty gives space for a man to

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act according to his nature. If that nature is reborn in Christ, if it is virtuous, and if that nature is

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alive to God, then that liberty will give him space to see what we saw at our founding, at least,

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that is a nation spiritually alive and virtuous, a nation living the principles of the Constitution

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and prosperous in a capitalist economy. This cannot be emphasized too strongly, dear listener,

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without the Christ of the Bible at the center of your passion and your concern, all of your efforts,

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dear Tea Party worker, dear libertarian, all of your efforts to bring the United States of America

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back to the Constitution or capitalism will fail. Do you realize how unanimous this was amongst our

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founding founders? The future and success of America, said James Madison. Listen to this. The

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future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God in which

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this Constitution is founded, unquote. Oh, how profound that is. Once again, insights from Jefferson

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and, of course, from Madison. The future and success of America, he predicted, is not in this

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Constitution, but in the laws of God in which this Constitution is founded, unquote. The Constitution

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is but an empty vessel without the law of God. The Constitution is but a hollow parchment without

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a virtuous people to execute it. The Constitution is but an exercise in futility until Americans are

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brought alive in their Savior, Jesus Christ. You can rally at the courthouse till the Lord returns,

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elect Tea Party candidates until the Congress has choked with them, and slashed the size of our bloated

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federal government until it goes from the carnival fat lady to a fashion model on the runway, but you

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will still have tyranny and poverty and despair because men's hearts will not have been changed.

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When will the Tea Party recognize this and get their lives right with God first?

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The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, Madison said, but in the laws of God

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in which this Constitution is founded, unquote. If the foundation of the Constitution, then, is the law of

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God, what happens when you destroy that foundation, as progressives are only too glad to see and do,

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and as the Tea Party is casual or neglectful in repairing. Of course, the whole structure collapses

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when that foundation is eroded, as we see happening before our eyes. Jesus tells us that a wise man

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built his house on rock so that when the tempest comes, it stands the forces that beat upon it.

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Our founding fathers recognized this and so built the foundation of the Constitution on the rock

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of God's law and word. Progressives have so effectively brainwashed and propagandized

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generations of Americans that they are euphemistically referred to now as low-information voters, right?

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Such that we are now fools who have built upon the sand of secularism and statism and socialism

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rather than Christ's Constitution and capitalism. What is the result? Oh, as Jesus said,

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the house fell, and great was its fall, as he says on the Sermon on the Mount. Am I a lone voice in this?

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Am I crying in the wilderness? America, repent? No. To tell you the truth, historically, when you look

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back through American history, I am only an echo of many voices in the past, and many voices in the future,

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too, if we survive so long. If we abide by the principles, as Webster said, Daniel Webster,

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the great senator, one of the last great senators from Massachusetts, said,

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if we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper.

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Webster goes on to say, but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction, the instruction of the Bible,

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that is, and the Bible's authority, no man can tell how suddenly catastrophe will overwhelm us and bury

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all our glory in profound obscurity, unquote. Daniel Webster. Dear brother and sister,

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in the founding spirit of America, the posterity of Daniel Webster and the founders, I'm afraid,

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are frittering away the rich heritage, bequeathed us like the prodigal son who spent all of his inheritance

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on whores and hors d'oeuvres, hors d'oeuvres, right? And he did this in a far country, and we will come

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to this same pass, as great a ruin as the prodigal son, unless we too return to our father. All of

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America needs to have the heart of the prodigal son who came back in repentance. And Jesus says in

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that parable of the prodigal son, and I quote Jesus, but when he came to himself, he said,

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How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.

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I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and

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before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants,

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unquote. Only such humility and repentance from the American people, listen, O Tea Party,

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listen, O Libertarian, only such religious humility and repentance will bring us back from the brink of

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ruin and the catastrophe, as Webster calls it, the catastrophe that will overwhelm us and bury

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all our glory in profound obscurity, unquote. Good intentions are not enough, listener. A pure

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spirit towards the Constitution and great labors to restore it will not suffice. Inculcating conservative

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fiscal policy, electing Tea Party candidates is mere economic spitting in the wind. The spiritual

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renewal of all of America must first precede the constitutional and economic renewal of all of

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America. Without your own spiritual birth in Jesus Christ, dear listener, your own personal

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spiritual birth in Jesus Christ, as Jesus said, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom

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of God. You will not only perish eternally in hell in the life to come, but in this life, you will live a

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life of death and be incapable of living the life of liberty under our Constitution that our founders

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intended. Additionally, dear listener, you will live one of two extremes, one of two economic extremes with

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this history has demonstrated this for us time and time again. That is, you will either experience the life

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of predator capitalism that we saw historically during the Gilded Age several weeks ago. I lectured on that

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period and the consequences for unrestrained libertarianism, or else you will fall into the

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other economic extreme of government socialist dependency that we see alive and well today. The spiritual

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revival of the late 19th century brought us back from the catastrophe of the Gilded Age that almost

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overwhelmed us then, unfettered capitalism without morality, without Christianity, without religious

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restraint and the spiritual revival, which included men like Dwight L. Moody and Billy Sunday. That brought us back

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from that catastrophe. Then, and only then, did we begin to return to constitutional principles and economic

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prosperity. And I ask you, will God intervene to bring us another renewal, another reformation, dear listener?

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This is, and it always has been, the bellwether of constitutional and economic renewal. Have the people first and prior

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experienced a spiritual renewal in Christ? And there will be no economic revival without a spiritual revival. Dear fellow

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pilgrim, on our mutual spiritual journey, examine our history and you will see that this has always been the case in the United States.

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States of America. There would have been no Declaration of Independence, no War of Independence, no Constitution without the

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First Great Awakening, led by men like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. There would have been no continuing

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American Union under the Constitution. There would have been no war between the states, no liberty for slaves, without the

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Second Great Awakening happening first, prior to the Civil War. And there would have been no child labor laws, no Spanish-American

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war, no prosperity for the American worker, if there had not been first and prior the great revival of the 19th

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century happening first. As God is sovereign over the affairs of men, there will be no constitutional renewal

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today. There will be no economic recovery and prosperity in America today until there is first a prior spiritual

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renewal in the Jesus Christ of the Bible. It is not enough to say, yeah, you tell him, pastor, and walk away. You, dear listener, must repent of

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your sins, and you must believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, though no works of your own do this, but only

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and utterly by God's grace do you come alive to Him. You, dear listener, must reform your life according to

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biblical principles, that is, live honestly in your dealings with your fellow man, live a life sexual and of

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moral and sexual purity before the Lord, and practice the religion of the Bible. You, dear listener, must apply

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these principles of the Bible to your daily life, politically, socially, and economically. To this, I must warn

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of several grave errors that will prevent true spiritual, political, and economic reform as well. These warnings

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are, number one, libertarianism is a grave error that will bring catastrophe. Let me say this again, and I fly in the

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face and the teeth of much thinking today in conservative circles, but I assert to you, libertarianism

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is a grave error that will bring catastrophe. This moral and spiritual error is fashionable in many

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conservative circles today. Well, I recognize that the Libertarian Party does not speak for all

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libertarians. Its platform does reflect many of the values of libertarians. For example, they say on their

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website, we seek a world of liberty, a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives.

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We defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest and welcome.

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We do the diversity that freedom brings, unquote. Now, our founding fathers, on the other hand,

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recognized that God was sovereign over the affairs of men and that human activity was accountable to more

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than being peaceful and honest. That activity must be in line as we have seen with God's law and his

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righteousness. Libertarians have a hands-off approach to social issues like gay marriage

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and faithfulness in the bonds of marriage and drug use and abortion. And for a host of reasons,

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I declare elsewhere, see my lecture on libertarianism in particular, that all of these social issues will

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destroy us as swiftly as the issues we agree upon with libertarians, like limited government versus

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statism, fiscal austerity in government versus profligate debt-ridden spending, and an emphasis

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upon personal liberty versus the tyrannical nanny state and alliances amongst the nations of the

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world only when it serves our national interests versus being the world's policemen and enforcer

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progressive ideals. I agree with progressives on all these things. So realize, dear fellow pilgrim,

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that the areas in which we agree are only half the bridge to American salvation. God will not act to

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save the United States of America until the other half of that bridge is built. That is a spiritual

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rebirth in Christ that transforms the so-called neutral social issues into biblical social issues.

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Traditional, faithful, one-man, one-woman marriage, sobriety, and use of drugs, and an ethic of life

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instead of death on the abortion issue, all these things, for example, you will end up in the river

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crossing half a bridge as surely as you drove off the bank with no bridge. So it will be for all who

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follow the libertarian agenda. So as centuries of history have proven, it is only and exclusively

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the biblical Christian faith applied to society, culture, and politics that has culminated in the

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most just and prosperous and freest nation the world has ever known, the constitutional republic of the

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United States of America. So dear Tea Party member, dear libertarian, you have been cowed,

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you have been propagandized, you have been tyrannized into hiding your lamp under a bushel,

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as Jesus would put it, into separating church and state such that the two are isolated airtight

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compartments such that the twain shall never meet. You are meant to be mutually independent church and

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state and interactive. So I would encourage you then to stand up, otherwise you will never see the

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constitution practiced as you know it. Pray for true and genuine reformation in America, not just a

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superficial religiosity. Do more than mouth religious cliches like in God we trust, or we are a Christian nation,

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or Christ is the God of this country. Stop it. Live it. Rather, first come to the God of grace, not of works,

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who saves you for belief in Him. And then bring your life in line with Christ's as you live out the remainder of

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your pilgrimage here on earth. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

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New Geneva meets for holy worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning at 101 4th Street on the corner of

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4th and Boulevard. Join us at New Geneva 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings and call us at 523-0196.

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12-3, the

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home of the wedding.

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Middle East,

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West,

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West,

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West,

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West,

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West.

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West,

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West,

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East,

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West,

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West,

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West,

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West.

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West,

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West,

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West,

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West,