1 00:00:04,780 --> 00:00:09,839 Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2 00:00:10,140 --> 00:00:15,019 where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, 3 00:00:15,380 --> 00:00:23,300 I would like to challenge you to remember, to remember the Christian roots of the United 4 00:00:23,300 --> 00:00:29,899 States Constitution. This is a valuable thing to do, because once we realize it, 5 00:00:29,899 --> 00:00:37,140 once we realize the trajectory from which we were launched, that is, we were launched as a 6 00:00:37,140 --> 00:00:43,579 Christian republic, if you will, then we can course correct and get back to that trajectory, 7 00:00:43,579 --> 00:00:50,880 because we have been taken off course for two or three generations now by those who would sever 8 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:58,840 us from our Christian roots. This you must also realize, not only that we were founded as a 9 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:05,079 republic, as a Christian republic, but also, make no mistake about this, there is a systematic 10 00:01:05,079 --> 00:01:10,939 programmatic effort underway to sever you from your Christian constitutional roots. 11 00:01:11,719 --> 00:01:18,439 There is a systematic programmatic effort to induce in you and your children a blissful historical 12 00:01:18,439 --> 00:01:26,000 amnesia to lobotomize your historical Christian constitutional memory. For example, Friedrich 13 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:32,760 Engels, who was one philosopher who provided the underpinnings for Karl Marx and communism, 14 00:01:33,359 --> 00:01:37,920 he, once again, was closely studied by Horace Mann and John Dewey, who were the fathers of the American 15 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:44,359 public educational system. Well, Engels said, and I quote, if you remove a people from their roots, 16 00:01:44,359 --> 00:01:50,579 they are easily swayed to your point of view. We have been swayed, have we not? Because we have 17 00:01:50,579 --> 00:01:57,480 been removed from our roots. For example, how many Americans today have been so easily swayed to the 18 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,439 point of view that there is a constitutional wall of separation between church and state? 19 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:06,840 This fallacy has been propagated by the herd of militant anti-Christians who wish to expunge 20 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:12,919 all religious influence from the public square. How many people today have been easily swayed to the 21 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:18,439 point of view that America was founded by secular men who wish to keep Christianity at arm's length from 22 00:02:18,439 --> 00:02:23,240 all of our founding institutions? How many others have been swayed to the point of view that our 23 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,340 founding fathers were a bunch of slaveholding criminals who devised the system meant to suppress 24 00:02:27,340 --> 00:02:34,360 and oppress the people and protect their own economic interests? These are indeed fallacies designed to 25 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:42,639 obscure the true heritage of the United States in a cloud of ignorance and falsehood. For example, 26 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:50,180 one Harvard professor of education and psychiatry in a speech to graduating, excuse me, graduating 27 00:02:50,180 --> 00:02:56,939 educators in 1984 said this, and I quote, every child in America entering school at the age of five is 28 00:02:56,939 --> 00:03:01,580 mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, 29 00:03:02,039 --> 00:03:06,860 toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, 30 00:03:07,199 --> 00:03:12,560 toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It is up to you teachers to make all of 31 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:19,819 these sick children well by creating the international children of the future, unquote. And that was back 32 00:03:19,819 --> 00:03:25,180 in 1984. These educators have been pretty successful, have they not, with the last few generations of 33 00:03:25,180 --> 00:03:33,219 children in making international children. And the mask is off, Christian. Not only are our media, 34 00:03:33,939 --> 00:03:40,699 left-wing politicians, radical culture out to induce historical amnesia in us, but our public schools 35 00:03:40,699 --> 00:03:45,460 have now produced several generations of Americans who can scream and holler, give me my rights and 36 00:03:45,460 --> 00:03:53,520 freedoms, but who cannot articulate the first thing about their nature or their past, right? In a recent 37 00:03:53,520 --> 00:04:00,460 civics survey, the surveyors found, for example, that more American teenagers were able to name the 38 00:04:00,460 --> 00:04:05,080 three stooges than the three branches of government, which of course are the executive, the legislative, 39 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:14,159 and the judicial. One-third of teenagers knew or thought that the slogan, from each according to 40 00:04:14,159 --> 00:04:19,420 his ability and to each according to his need, was from the Bill of Rights, when indeed, in reality, 41 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:27,480 it is from the Communist Manifesto. And 60% of those surveyed didn't know and couldn't name the 42 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:34,120 president who dropped the atomic bomb. 20% of those surveyed didn't know where or even if the atomic 43 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:40,800 bomb had ever been used. And one half of college seniors surveyed couldn't locate the Civil War in 44 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:48,800 the right half of the 19th century. Couldn't even, much less the true dates, 1861 to 1864. 45 00:04:49,399 --> 00:04:55,379 Well, unwittingly, many Americans are being told they are free, they're being assured that they're 46 00:04:55,379 --> 00:04:59,199 free, they're being told and taught that a thing called the Constitution guarantees their liberty, 47 00:04:59,199 --> 00:05:05,420 but who are, in reality, being shaped into the international children of the future. In reality, 48 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:09,639 they know nothing about the Constitution, they've been taught nothing about it, and indeed, they know 49 00:05:09,639 --> 00:05:15,759 more about the Holy Trinity of the Three Stooges than the three branches of government or the Trinitarian 50 00:05:15,759 --> 00:05:24,540 God of the Bible. Paul Blanchard, in The Humanist, way back in 1976, said this, and I quote him, 51 00:05:24,540 --> 00:05:30,500 I think the most important factor moving us toward a secular society has been the educational factor. 52 00:05:31,199 --> 00:05:36,779 Our schools may not teach Johnny to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is 53 00:05:36,779 --> 00:05:44,740 16 tends to lead toward the elimination of religious superstition, unquote. Oh, make no mistake about 54 00:05:44,740 --> 00:05:51,660 this, dear Christian. Our destiny as a free democracy depends in large part upon your remembrance of 55 00:05:51,660 --> 00:06:01,860 our heritage as a Christian constitutional republic. Do you remember? Do your children remember? Do you 56 00:06:01,860 --> 00:06:08,100 remember that the phrase, a wall of separation between church and state, appears nowhere in our 57 00:06:08,100 --> 00:06:14,600 Constitution, appears nowhere in our Declaration of Independence or any of our founding documents? 58 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:22,639 Rather, that phrase, a separation, a wall of separation between church and state, was first used by Thomas 59 00:06:22,639 --> 00:06:30,860 Jefferson in a letter that he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 to calm their fears that 60 00:06:30,860 --> 00:06:38,939 Congress was in the process of choosing a denomination to make the official national denomination. In that letter to the 61 00:06:38,939 --> 00:06:45,540 Danbury Baptist's Thomas Jefferson said, and I quote, believing with you that religion is a matter which lies 62 00:06:45,540 --> 00:06:52,579 solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship, that the 63 00:06:52,579 --> 00:07:00,300 legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. I contemplate with solemn reverence that 64 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:07,139 act of the whole American people which declared that our legislature should make no law respecting an 65 00:07:07,139 --> 00:07:14,259 establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation 66 00:07:14,259 --> 00:07:21,379 between church and state. Unquote. That is this phrase, a wall of separation between church and state, in its 67 00:07:21,379 --> 00:07:30,100 context. Note with me then, in its context, Thomas Jefferson's remarks were meant to reassure 68 00:07:30,100 --> 00:07:36,639 Christians that the government would have no means of interference with religion. Jefferson himself and other 69 00:07:36,639 --> 00:07:42,339 founding fathers expected at all times that religion would have a profound effect upon government, 70 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:48,079 exhorting everyone from the Virginia legislature to the Constitutional Convention to earnest prayer, 71 00:07:48,180 --> 00:07:53,860 for example, and for Christian principles to inform all of government. And secondly, note with me 72 00:07:53,860 --> 00:08:00,439 that Thomas Jefferson's unfortunate and inaccurate use of this phrase was not meant to be incorporated 73 00:08:00,439 --> 00:08:07,279 as an official principle of constitutional government. No, it was an informal personal term coined by 74 00:08:07,279 --> 00:08:12,279 Thomas Jefferson in personal correspondence 13 years after the First Amendment had passed. 75 00:08:13,100 --> 00:08:19,560 This, in effect, renders his letter, as one scholar has put it, ineligible to be considered a 76 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:26,459 first-hand reflection of the intent of the constitutional delegates. Unquote. Dear listener, do you remember 77 00:08:26,459 --> 00:08:34,679 that this phrase lay dormant for 145 years until it was resurrected by an ACLU lawyer, Leo Pfeffer, 78 00:08:35,259 --> 00:08:43,059 who included it in his brief in a case called Everson v. Board of Education, which was decided in 1947. 79 00:08:44,179 --> 00:08:50,139 Justice Hugo Black picked it up in his majority opinion, which is a 5-4 opinion, by the way, 80 00:08:50,620 --> 00:08:55,659 against the Board of Education using tax dollars to transport students to religious schools. 81 00:08:56,460 --> 00:09:01,539 Thence, it has been used ever since, a wall of separation between church and state, 82 00:09:01,759 --> 00:09:09,460 to create the false notion that the Founding Fathers intended to hermetically seal religion from government 83 00:09:09,460 --> 00:09:15,039 as if our system was intended to be neutral to all world religions. This is not so. 84 00:09:16,340 --> 00:09:23,960 John Quincy Adams says this about Christianity and the Constitution and the Revolution. 85 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,600 John Quincy Adams says, and I quote, 86 00:09:26,700 --> 00:09:34,139 the highest glory of the revolution was that it united in one indissoluble bond the principles of Christianity 87 00:09:34,139 --> 00:09:37,799 and the principles of civil government. Unquote. 88 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:46,059 The reason that constitutional Republican government holds an irresistible sway and appeal 89 00:09:46,059 --> 00:09:48,960 over the hearts and minds of the peoples of the world 90 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:53,700 and holds a corresponding sense of horror and revulsion amongst the tyrants of the world 91 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:58,580 is that it is the only system, constitutional republic, 92 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:04,419 is the only system in the world which approaches the form of government we were created to assume. 93 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:09,419 All other forms of government, we can say this categorically, 94 00:10:09,799 --> 00:10:13,179 all other forms of government take as their starting point 95 00:10:13,179 --> 00:10:16,820 the deification of that which is merely human. 96 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:18,820 That's the nature of humanism. 97 00:10:19,279 --> 00:10:25,320 That's the nature of the principle espoused by the King George III against whom we rebelled. 98 00:10:25,419 --> 00:10:27,419 That is the divine right of kings, 99 00:10:27,419 --> 00:10:33,419 going all the way back to the ancient pharaonic deification of a priestly monarch. 100 00:10:35,019 --> 00:10:42,379 Inherent in all such systems is the assumption that we are endowed with alienable rights by government, 101 00:10:42,379 --> 00:10:47,940 which as God can grant or revoke subjects' rights as they see fit. 102 00:10:48,820 --> 00:10:51,679 The ancient pagan view of authority was a pyramid 103 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:55,419 with power flowing from the gods to a king or a pharaoh 104 00:10:55,419 --> 00:11:01,460 to lesser authorities than maybe, perhaps, finally, to the people. 105 00:11:01,460 --> 00:11:07,460 On the other hand, biblical authority was seen to flow through an inverted pyramid 106 00:11:07,460 --> 00:11:11,419 from God to the people to elected representatives. 107 00:11:12,379 --> 00:11:16,759 The elected representatives do, by the way, not those born to the post, 108 00:11:16,879 --> 00:11:20,559 not those born or seizing power, no. 109 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,559 The Christian constitutional republic stands alone 110 00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:28,100 as the only system of government in the history of the world 111 00:11:28,100 --> 00:11:31,220 which holds out for the self-evident truth 112 00:11:31,220 --> 00:11:36,580 that all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. 113 00:11:36,580 --> 00:11:40,080 And when you unhinge God from the equation, 114 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:45,200 you are immediately reduced to the pagan humanistic view of rights and authority. 115 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:50,000 The rights of man become subject to the whims and caprice of men, 116 00:11:50,259 --> 00:11:53,799 not the deliberation and certainty of almighty God. 117 00:11:54,759 --> 00:11:57,600 Ask the average man on the street, for example, 118 00:11:57,700 --> 00:11:59,460 where does political power reside? 119 00:11:59,460 --> 00:12:02,860 You'll get answers somewhat like, well, the government, of course. 120 00:12:03,799 --> 00:12:05,919 Maybe in Washington, D.C., right? 121 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:07,659 Or perhaps the president. 122 00:12:08,059 --> 00:12:09,379 Or perhaps the Supreme Court. 123 00:12:09,460 --> 00:12:10,539 That's why they call it supreme. 124 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:14,799 Our socialist system has been very successful 125 00:12:14,799 --> 00:12:17,659 with these state subjects, haven't they? 126 00:12:18,580 --> 00:12:20,539 Forgotten is the preeminent principle 127 00:12:20,539 --> 00:12:23,879 enshrined in the preamble to our Constitution, 128 00:12:23,879 --> 00:12:27,340 we the people of the United States of America. 129 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:31,000 Political power originates in, emanates from, 130 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:34,919 is accountable unto, and devolves back upon the people 131 00:12:34,919 --> 00:12:38,200 as it has been entrusted to them by God Almighty. 132 00:12:39,139 --> 00:12:41,480 Thus, there is the greatest of dangers 133 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:45,179 in seeing the approach of our government as neutral and secular. 134 00:12:45,620 --> 00:12:46,279 No such thing. 135 00:12:46,639 --> 00:12:49,799 Because it can be neither neutral nor secular. 136 00:12:49,799 --> 00:12:54,179 If the Christian God of the Bible is factored out of government, 137 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:59,799 then government will return to its default setting of pagan statism. 138 00:13:00,259 --> 00:13:04,139 There is no such thing as a neutral secular state 139 00:13:04,139 --> 00:13:06,159 in the minds of our founding fathers. 140 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:06,539 No. 141 00:13:07,740 --> 00:13:11,539 For example, one scholar, R.J. Rushduni, says this. 142 00:13:11,899 --> 00:13:16,639 The concept of a secular state was virtually non-existent in 1776, 143 00:13:16,639 --> 00:13:21,779 as well as 1787, when the Constitution was written, 144 00:13:22,100 --> 00:13:24,480 and no less so when the Bill of Rights was adopted. 145 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:29,600 To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state 146 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:33,200 is to misread history and to misread it radically. 147 00:13:33,820 --> 00:13:38,940 The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order, unquote. 148 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:41,179 Do you remember? 149 00:13:41,580 --> 00:13:45,019 I'm calling you to remember this day, dear listener. 150 00:13:45,019 --> 00:13:49,500 Do you remember the saturation, the permeation of our nation 151 00:13:49,500 --> 00:13:52,279 with Christianity in her early days? 152 00:13:52,379 --> 00:13:52,879 This is true. 153 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:57,539 Do you remember, O Christian, that every colony, without exception, 154 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,399 incorporated within her charters and constitutions 155 00:14:01,399 --> 00:14:05,220 references to their indebtedness to Christianity? 156 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:09,759 The Massachusetts Bay Colony, for example, said this, 157 00:14:09,879 --> 00:14:11,460 and using the words of John Winthrop, 158 00:14:11,460 --> 00:14:15,820 We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, 159 00:14:16,340 --> 00:14:18,440 knit together by this bond of love. 160 00:14:19,019 --> 00:14:21,700 We are entered into a covenant with him for this work. 161 00:14:22,340 --> 00:14:25,620 For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, 162 00:14:25,879 --> 00:14:28,240 that the eyes of all people are upon us, 163 00:14:28,740 --> 00:14:32,100 so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work 164 00:14:32,100 --> 00:14:37,159 we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, 165 00:14:37,159 --> 00:14:41,480 we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world, unquote. 166 00:14:41,940 --> 00:14:43,419 The Massachusetts Bay Colony. 167 00:14:43,940 --> 00:14:49,039 And then, in the fundamental orders of Connecticut formed in 1639, 168 00:14:49,740 --> 00:14:50,539 we have this, 169 00:14:50,539 --> 00:14:56,960 We do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth, 170 00:14:57,279 --> 00:14:59,899 and do, for ourselves and our successors, 171 00:15:00,279 --> 00:15:03,840 and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, 172 00:15:04,299 --> 00:15:07,080 enter into combination and confederation together, 173 00:15:07,519 --> 00:15:12,159 to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 174 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:13,700 which we now profess, 175 00:15:14,139 --> 00:15:16,480 which, according to the truth of the said gospel, 176 00:15:16,860 --> 00:15:18,500 is now practiced amongst us, 177 00:15:18,500 --> 00:15:22,100 as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed 178 00:15:22,100 --> 00:15:26,360 according to such laws, rules, orders, and decrees, 179 00:15:26,519 --> 00:15:30,779 unquote, from the fundamental orders of Connecticut 1639. 180 00:15:31,419 --> 00:15:35,340 So, to conceive of a government apart from the gospel 181 00:15:35,340 --> 00:15:38,620 was a thing inconceivable to our founding fathers. 182 00:15:39,220 --> 00:15:42,899 They not only clearly remembered, as I'm calling you to do today, 183 00:15:43,399 --> 00:15:47,200 they not only clearly remembered the depth of heritage 184 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:48,740 owed to biblical Christianity, 185 00:15:48,740 --> 00:15:52,279 but they actively incorporated this Christianity 186 00:15:52,279 --> 00:15:54,759 into the very fabric of government, 187 00:15:54,940 --> 00:15:57,299 which they sought to establish. 188 00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:01,799 In fact, this is what the Supreme Court of 1892 said, 189 00:16:01,899 --> 00:16:03,879 certainly no modern Supreme Court, 190 00:16:03,940 --> 00:16:05,320 not the Supreme Court of today, 191 00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:09,059 but the Supreme Court of 1892 said this, 192 00:16:09,059 --> 00:16:13,580 In the case, the Church of the Holy Trinity versus the United States, 193 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,960 that court said in its majority decision, 194 00:16:17,500 --> 00:16:18,200 and I quote, 195 00:16:18,679 --> 00:16:22,779 Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon 196 00:16:22,779 --> 00:16:26,360 and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. 197 00:16:27,299 --> 00:16:28,980 Can you imagine the Supreme Court saying that today? 198 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:29,980 They go on to say, 199 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:32,679 It is impossible that it should be otherwise. 200 00:16:32,679 --> 00:16:35,240 And in this sense, and to this extent, 201 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,720 our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. 202 00:16:39,019 --> 00:16:40,320 This is a religious people. 203 00:16:40,620 --> 00:16:41,940 This is historically true. 204 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:44,840 From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, 205 00:16:45,059 --> 00:16:48,220 there is a single voice making this affirmation. 206 00:16:48,659 --> 00:16:52,039 We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth. 207 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:54,940 These and many other matters which might be noticed 208 00:16:54,940 --> 00:16:57,659 add a volume of unofficial declarations 209 00:16:57,659 --> 00:17:02,759 to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation, 210 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,140 unquote, from the Supreme Court of 1892. 211 00:17:06,799 --> 00:17:09,700 So, make no mistake about this, dear Christian, 212 00:17:10,259 --> 00:17:11,880 unless these things are remembered, 213 00:17:12,059 --> 00:17:14,359 and I'm calling you to remember them today. 214 00:17:14,799 --> 00:17:17,200 If you have never learned them, have never known them, 215 00:17:17,460 --> 00:17:22,539 then learn them and begin to remember these things. 216 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:25,359 Remembered in a biblical fashion too, 217 00:17:25,559 --> 00:17:27,259 so as to be obeyed and acted upon, 218 00:17:27,660 --> 00:17:29,180 unless we remember them, 219 00:17:29,259 --> 00:17:33,299 we will all sink into the spiritual and intellectual dementia 220 00:17:33,299 --> 00:17:35,720 of the modern American voter. 221 00:17:36,079 --> 00:17:40,599 The modern American voter who feels and emotes about an issue 222 00:17:40,599 --> 00:17:42,819 but cannot think and rationalize about it. 223 00:17:43,559 --> 00:17:45,720 The American voter who can pull a lever 224 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,079 but can't pull his own weight in society. 225 00:17:48,799 --> 00:17:52,680 The American voter who remembers every detail about Michael Jackson 226 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:54,819 but who hasn't a clue about Andrew Jackson. 227 00:17:54,819 --> 00:17:59,240 The American voter who may bleed for the rights of two men to marry 228 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:00,380 where there is no womb 229 00:18:00,380 --> 00:18:03,759 but will leave to bleed a child not yet out of the womb. 230 00:18:04,380 --> 00:18:09,279 The American voter who may be persuaded that God exists everywhere in his universe 231 00:18:09,279 --> 00:18:11,700 except in the voting booth. 232 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:17,059 The time has come to reawaken the memory and the conscience of a nation. 233 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,200 King Darius was enraged and he was righteously indignant 234 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:24,039 when he discovered that he was deliberately deceived and manipulated 235 00:18:24,039 --> 00:18:28,440 by his court officials in condemning Daniel to the lion's den. 236 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:31,779 And Darius wreaked a terrible vengeance upon them 237 00:18:31,779 --> 00:18:33,500 by throwing them into the lion's den. 238 00:18:33,500 --> 00:18:36,980 America was enraged and righteously indignant 239 00:18:36,980 --> 00:18:39,799 when she discovered on December 7, 1941 240 00:18:39,799 --> 00:18:44,240 that she had been deliberately deceived and manipulated by the Japanese Empire 241 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:46,119 when it attacked Pearl Harbor 242 00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:48,539 while peace negotiations were still underway 243 00:18:48,539 --> 00:18:51,599 and Japan paid a terrible price for her treachery. 244 00:18:52,339 --> 00:18:54,819 Well, I have faith that the American people 245 00:18:54,819 --> 00:18:58,519 when they finally discover that they have been deliberately deceived 246 00:18:58,519 --> 00:19:02,240 and manipulated by the forces of progressivism 247 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:06,200 and socialism and communism and one world government 248 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,440 in part by having the nerve of their memory severed and lobotomized 249 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:12,940 that the American people when they realize this 250 00:19:12,940 --> 00:19:15,900 will also be enraged and righteously indignant. 251 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,140 But this will not happen 252 00:19:18,140 --> 00:19:21,220 until that nerve of memory and remembrance 253 00:19:21,220 --> 00:19:24,359 and Christian conscience is re-established. 254 00:19:25,319 --> 00:19:27,779 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. says this. 255 00:19:28,519 --> 00:19:29,380 About history. 256 00:19:30,380 --> 00:19:33,079 History is to the nation as memory is to the individual. 257 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:37,420 An individual deprived of memory becomes disoriented and lost 258 00:19:37,420 --> 00:19:40,160 not knowing where he has been or where he is going. 259 00:19:40,299 --> 00:19:42,640 So also, a nation denied its past 260 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:47,160 will be disabled in dealing with its present and future. 261 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:47,920 Unquote. 262 00:19:48,299 --> 00:19:51,920 From the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 263 00:19:52,299 --> 00:19:54,700 on the importance and the necessity of history 264 00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:57,119 and of remembering, dear listener, 265 00:19:57,559 --> 00:20:02,599 well, what can we do then to re-establish that memory? 266 00:20:03,980 --> 00:20:09,259 Well, I have three recommendations for us as a people, 267 00:20:09,599 --> 00:20:10,700 as the American people. 268 00:20:10,980 --> 00:20:13,599 Number one, continue, dear listener, 269 00:20:13,759 --> 00:20:16,119 to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 270 00:20:16,259 --> 00:20:17,460 as the Apostle Paul says. 271 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:20,720 Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 272 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:25,779 for it is God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. 273 00:20:26,779 --> 00:20:30,599 Continue, dear listener, to live your Christian life to the fullest, 274 00:20:31,380 --> 00:20:32,299 aiming toward heaven, 275 00:20:32,519 --> 00:20:35,779 and you will elevate all and everything around you 276 00:20:35,779 --> 00:20:39,240 as you continue to work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. 277 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:40,759 This is called sanctification. 278 00:20:41,539 --> 00:20:44,900 Once again, that process of making you and your life 279 00:20:44,900 --> 00:20:46,940 and all that your life touches holy, 280 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:49,900 we have many great covenants 281 00:20:49,900 --> 00:20:52,900 which we must learn to sanctify 282 00:20:52,900 --> 00:20:54,799 as we live out our lives as Christians. 283 00:20:55,579 --> 00:20:58,359 You have your marital covenant, 284 00:20:58,740 --> 00:20:59,859 the covenant of marriage, 285 00:20:59,900 --> 00:21:01,500 which was established in the garden 286 00:21:01,500 --> 00:21:03,740 and perpetuates unto today. 287 00:21:03,940 --> 00:21:06,400 You have that covenant to sanctify, dear listener. 288 00:21:06,539 --> 00:21:07,940 That is, you make it holy. 289 00:21:08,380 --> 00:21:10,920 You make you and your wife espouses holy. 290 00:21:11,140 --> 00:21:13,559 You make you and your children holy, too. 291 00:21:13,559 --> 00:21:14,880 That is, you treat them biblically. 292 00:21:15,059 --> 00:21:17,440 You treat them as God would have you treat them, 293 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:19,839 as he commands you to treat them all through Scripture. 294 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,180 So then you sanctify that covenant, 295 00:21:23,339 --> 00:21:24,359 that marital covenant. 296 00:21:24,819 --> 00:21:27,839 You also have then the covenant of redemption 297 00:21:27,839 --> 00:21:31,079 that God made with Christ to redeem for himself a people. 298 00:21:31,420 --> 00:21:33,759 This is what saves you, dear listener. 299 00:21:34,259 --> 00:21:38,680 Faith in Christ who graciously gives you forgiveness of sin 300 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:42,660 and then his own righteousness in the covenant of redemption. 301 00:21:42,660 --> 00:21:45,579 This is a great covenant that you sanctify then 302 00:21:45,579 --> 00:21:49,420 by living a holy life and pleasing God in all that you do. 303 00:21:49,839 --> 00:21:52,480 This covenant then you sanctify as well. 304 00:21:53,059 --> 00:21:54,799 But how many of us realize then 305 00:21:54,799 --> 00:21:56,579 that we also have two other covenants? 306 00:21:56,660 --> 00:21:57,920 We have a church covenant. 307 00:21:58,259 --> 00:22:02,079 Indeed, we are combined then into the body of Christ 308 00:22:02,079 --> 00:22:04,880 and we have a church covenant that we live out as well 309 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:09,259 as we sanctify that life in Christ as well. 310 00:22:09,259 --> 00:22:12,740 But we also have a civil covenant established with Noah. 311 00:22:13,039 --> 00:22:15,640 This covenant we sanctify as well. 312 00:22:15,759 --> 00:22:19,700 That is, we make holy insofar as our world is affected. 313 00:22:20,180 --> 00:22:23,559 We make holy all around us, do we not? 314 00:22:23,779 --> 00:22:27,940 We live out Christian lives and we demonstrate that 315 00:22:27,940 --> 00:22:32,099 by making our wife, our husband, our children, 316 00:22:32,839 --> 00:22:35,700 our neighbors for that matter, and extended family, 317 00:22:35,700 --> 00:22:39,819 all with whom we come in contact, workmates, neighbors, 318 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:41,920 we live righteously. 319 00:22:42,079 --> 00:22:43,700 We live the gospel out before them, 320 00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:47,599 but we also then live it out in politics. 321 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,500 So many of my Christian brothers and sisters 322 00:22:51,500 --> 00:22:54,980 have the false notion that we do not soil the garments 323 00:22:54,980 --> 00:22:59,119 of the gospel with politics, do we not? 324 00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:01,579 That religion and politics are hermetically sealed 325 00:23:01,579 --> 00:23:02,259 from one another. 326 00:23:02,259 --> 00:23:05,160 No, dear brother and sister, you have a civil covenant 327 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,460 under which you are responsible insofar as you are able 328 00:23:08,460 --> 00:23:12,019 then to make your political world, the government, 329 00:23:12,339 --> 00:23:15,579 that is, whether it's local, whether it's state, 330 00:23:15,819 --> 00:23:18,180 whether it's national, you have an obligation 331 00:23:18,180 --> 00:23:22,640 to make that world as righteous and as holy as possible. 332 00:23:23,079 --> 00:23:26,359 This is a responsibility that you have, dear listener. 333 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,180 So continue, number one, my recommendation 334 00:23:29,180 --> 00:23:32,099 is to continue to work out your salvation 335 00:23:32,099 --> 00:23:33,519 than with fear and trembling, 336 00:23:34,059 --> 00:23:35,839 for it is God who works in you 337 00:23:35,839 --> 00:23:37,900 to will and to do for his good pleasure. 338 00:23:38,519 --> 00:23:41,880 Secondly, also read, study, remember, 339 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:43,940 connect with your past, 340 00:23:44,079 --> 00:23:46,759 and you will quickly discover that you've been cheated 341 00:23:46,759 --> 00:23:48,799 by your public school education. 342 00:23:49,460 --> 00:23:51,859 This is part of remembering, dear listener. 343 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,859 You can't act on the past until you remember the past. 344 00:23:54,859 --> 00:23:59,160 So read and study and remember and connect with your past. 345 00:23:59,579 --> 00:24:02,240 You have been cheated by the major news 346 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:05,799 and communications media and your public school education. 347 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,039 You have been cheated by the entertainment industry, 348 00:24:09,039 --> 00:24:11,900 which is part of the complex severing the nerve 349 00:24:11,900 --> 00:24:17,160 of your memory, of lobotomizing your brain from the past. 350 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,099 And you have been cheated by the major political parties 351 00:24:20,099 --> 00:24:22,779 in our nation, too, who are no longer committed 352 00:24:22,779 --> 00:24:23,740 to our Constitution. 353 00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:26,200 Only in name do they do so. 354 00:24:26,299 --> 00:24:29,880 They are committed, rather, to a world system of government. 355 00:24:30,779 --> 00:24:33,839 Thirdly, become active in your world, dear listener. 356 00:24:34,339 --> 00:24:36,700 No one person can do everything, can they? 357 00:24:36,859 --> 00:24:38,640 But everyone can do something. 358 00:24:39,319 --> 00:24:40,839 You can do something. 359 00:24:41,059 --> 00:24:42,900 Give a little to a worthy charity, perhaps. 360 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:45,059 Write a letter to your congressman. 361 00:24:45,420 --> 00:24:47,400 Volunteer your time at your church. 362 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:49,680 And for a worthy candidate, perhaps. 363 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:54,579 Become an informed voter and vote, vote, vote, vote, 364 00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,279 dear listener, and vote righteously. 365 00:24:56,980 --> 00:25:01,599 And ensure, work to labor to ensure that the voting process 366 00:25:01,599 --> 00:25:05,859 is not corrupted, too, as it has been in so many large cities. 367 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,000 And then encourage your friends and neighbors to vote as well. 368 00:25:10,079 --> 00:25:13,460 And perhaps God prompting you, neighbors prompting you, 369 00:25:13,460 --> 00:25:18,039 those with wisdom prompting you, telling you that perhaps you have 370 00:25:18,039 --> 00:25:23,960 the influence and the skills to become an elected representative 371 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,640 of the people, then run for office as well. 372 00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:32,220 All of these things and more are prompting many to become active 373 00:25:32,220 --> 00:25:33,079 in their worlds. 374 00:25:33,220 --> 00:25:34,799 And I encourage you to do so. 375 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,460 It's not enough just to reestablish the nerve of your memory 376 00:25:38,460 --> 00:25:41,339 of the Christian past of our Constitution, 377 00:25:41,339 --> 00:25:44,279 but we must act on what we then remember. 378 00:25:44,599 --> 00:25:46,059 Act upon what you learn. 379 00:25:46,940 --> 00:25:49,819 May the next generation, when and if there is one, 380 00:25:50,019 --> 00:25:52,299 capable and willing to remember, 381 00:25:52,779 --> 00:25:56,339 may that next generation, when it recalls us then, 382 00:25:56,559 --> 00:25:58,039 when it recalls you and me, 383 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:02,200 may they say that we were faithful to the memory 384 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,279 and traditions of our founding fathers 385 00:26:05,279 --> 00:26:08,039 and to the God of their fathers as well. 386 00:26:08,460 --> 00:26:10,940 This has been Pastor David Bass 387 00:26:10,940 --> 00:26:14,279 at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 388 00:26:14,740 --> 00:26:17,980 We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. 389 00:26:17,980 --> 00:26:20,960 at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 390 00:26:21,259 --> 00:26:23,559 I encourage you to drop by and visit us 391 00:26:23,559 --> 00:26:28,099 to be with us in our setting of worship 392 00:26:28,099 --> 00:26:29,599 as we do these things. 393 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,779 And you can call us for more information too 394 00:26:33,779 --> 00:26:37,440 or comment at 523-0196. 395 00:26:38,079 --> 00:26:40,279 New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church 396 00:26:40,279 --> 00:26:42,339 meets for holy worship at 10 a.m. 397 00:26:42,519 --> 00:26:45,380 at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 398 00:26:46,039 --> 00:26:49,700 Call us at 523-0196. 399 00:26:49,700 --> 00:26:50,259 Phillips.