Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today I'd like to ask you, when is it too late to save a sinking ship? Of course, I'm not talking about a literal ship. When I talk about a sinking ship, I use that term metaphorically for nations, churches, great institutions, peoples that mankind creates. In particular, I have in mind our own constitutional republic, the United States of America.

And I have in mind to ask several questions for you to dare to answer. And the first one is, is the United States of America beyond saving? Do we need to start over and perhaps create a new nation upon what is quickly becoming the ash heap of our constitutional republic? These are important questions to ask because our energies, our hearts, our resources are all at stake, not to mention a nation and constitution. so many of us have come to love and cherish.

But history is replete with cherished nations and churches and institutions that have died to what they were when they were created. And they have become, in many cases, the opposite of what they were created to be. Can that be said of us? Has the United States of America founded as a Christian constitutional republic? Has it died to what it was at its founding and perhaps morphed into its opposite?

That is a pagan lawless tyranny? I could probably make the case for you that that indeed is what has happened. But before we answer that, finally, let's look at the marks of a dead, failed state or a dying institution in history. First of all, number one, a state or a church or an institution is beyond reform when it regularly and egregiously transgresses its own charter and principles. Yes, we can see this throughout history.

A state, a nation, a church maybe, is beyond reform when it regularly and egregiously transgresses its own charter and principles. How can such an institution that does these things to itself long survive? For example, when the enemies of Jesus told the people that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub, Jesus told them incredulously, he said, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. Oh, how true this is. When a people divide against themselves, that is precisely what happens. They come to an end. Now, we at New Geneva have just completed our annual celebration of the Reformation, for example, when on October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel, which began an unstoppable movement to create a reformed church outside of the Roman Catholic Church, not within that church.

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had been regularly and egregiously violating its own charter and principles. It had become a house divided against itself and it could no longer stand. At its inception, for example, the church had its founding charter, the Bible. And over the centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had built up traditions and teachings derived from men that at times not only varied from those of the Bible, but contradicted them. The Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation had become a house divided against itself, ready to topple.

When asked to recant his books that pointed these things out, Martin Luther encountered by saying, unless I am convinced by reason and the scriptures, I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. Well, we can also see an example from history, the British Empire at the time of the American Revolution. It's an example of a people beyond reform, the British Empire, when it regularly and egregiously transgressed its own charter and principles.

Every Englishman knew his charter and principles handed down from generation to generation in documents like the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. And by them, the Englishman's rights and liberties were protected from the tyranny of king, parliament, or local prince. What were the American colonists then? They were good Englishmen, so they considered it themselves. They too knew their own charter and principles.

The only problem was the British Empire personified in King George III and parliament regularly and egregiously transgressed the charter and principles of the colonists. Can such an umpire long stand? And no one expressed the violation of those charter and principles better than did Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. He said, for example, when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right. It is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, Jefferson says, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. And then he says, Jefferson goes on to say, to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. And then he goes on to list particulars along the list of them.

America, when it initiated its revolution, dear listener, it was not a spoiled child, America, in a tantrum, but rather a genuinely agreed citizen of the British Empire, appealing to legitimate rights and liberties ensconced in its traditions and charters. So with these examples in mind, we must now ask the precise question of America. Are we indeed transgressing our principles? Are we beyond reform when we do this, when we regularly and egregiously transgress our own charter and principles? Have you not seen, dear listener, have you not taken note?

One of the six prime directives of our constitution, for example, was to establish justice, when in fact we have two tiers of justice in America now, one for the elites like the Clintons and another for the rest of us. What can be predicated of the Clintons can be said of the whole class of elites and nameless, faceless coterie of the deep state. Are we not indeed beyond reform when we suppress and oppress Christians and their speech while protecting the abusive speech of Muslims and atheists?

In fact, one of the goals of Marxists, wherever they seek to seize power, is to control speech, to control words and their definitions, the use and disuse, the banning of speech, speech labels, which they hang upon their enemies like racist, right? Have we not then gone beyond reform when the vested power of the people chartered to devolve into three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, while in reality, government power today resides in a shadow government, a fourth branch of government, they call the deep state.

And that consists of a permanent bureaucracy of federal employees who remain long after elected officials have come and gone. This deep state exists to serve and perpetuate their own big government interests and the interests of those who nourish and protect them, like President Obama used to do.

And of course, a good example of the deep state is the example of the Obama administration holdovers in the Justice Department, like Rod Rosenstein, who has obstructed every attempt at investigating the Clinton Foundation, obstructed the investigation into graft and corruption in the purchase of our uranium by the Russian government, and of course, the voter fraud and murder allegations in the death of Seth Rich, the Democrat operative who blew the whistle on the Clinton theft of the nomination from Bernie Sanders. On and on a week ago, where do we stop in chronicling how far we have drifted from being a constitutional republic?

In fact, it is not far off to say that those actually running the United States of America is not the elected representatives of our executive and legislative branches. No, they hate and despise a free people under a constitutional republic because a constitutional republic presupposes no need of them, the elite who in their minds are entitled to the wealth and the power of the world because of their inherent superiority owing to their intelligence, gifts and will, their will to power. Well, the centers of power, dear listener, are not where we think they are.

The centers of power are not in Washington, D.C. or New York City or our state capitals. No, the wealthy and the royal meet regularly at places like Davos, Switzerland and the Bilderberg to decide wealth distribution and world policy. Make no mistake about it, dear listener, our insidious shadow government. The deep state is accountable to them, not you, the voter. Who do you think finances election campaigns?

For example, the prime directive of every elected official is to what? Is to get re-elected. And it's not the $5 or even the $100 contributions of the average voter. No, it is the millions of dollars of influencers like George Soros or Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos or large corporations like Monsanto and Pfizer. And these are only a few of the familiar faces and corporate logos that we might recognize.

There are dozens of others around the world, less well recognized, but nevertheless, equally influential in feathering the financial nests of your congressman and president. So don't take my word for it either. For example, read Peter Schweitzer's book, Extortion, to see how this corrupt game is played. Well, if indeed our charter and principles continue to be systematically transgressed as they presently are, we are beyond reform. The swamp is not amenable to being drained.

No power relinquishes that power willingly without a struggle. The swamp creatures presently inhabiting Washington, D.C. will persist in resisting every effort at reform, Democrat or Republican, because reform by its very nature threatens their power, wealth, and status. It happened to a corrupt, bloated Roman empire in its collapse. It happened to a corrupt, bloated Roman Catholic church prior to the reformation. And it happened to a corrupt, bloated British empire before the American revolution and thereafter too.

The British empire kept declining after the American revolution. And as long as we continue to transgress our charters, that is our constitution and our principles, principles like that declared in the Declaration of Independence, that for example, all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. These are American principles, are they not? And as long as we continue to transgress them, we can expect nothing less than what they experienced. That is decline, deterioration, and eventual oblivion.

So a state, a nation or church even is beyond reform when it fails to heed the prophets sent to it calling for reform. Oh, a failed state, a dying state or church or institution is beyond reform, and it fails to heed the prophets that are sent to it calling it to reform. I use the biblical metaphor of the prophet precisely because that is what God sent to his people, Israel, to call them back to their original charter, which was the covenant at Sinai. And Israel, the prophets of Israel represented God to the people. They knew that charter, the covenant inside and out, didn't they?

And they reminded Israel of its provisions and where they were going wrong. But what was the response of the people? Did they repent in dust and ashes? No. Jeremiah says, I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, turn now every one of you from his evil way and amend your deeds and do not go after other gods to serve them.

And then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers. But you did not incline your ear or listen to me, unquote, the prophet Jeremiah. And what was the consequence for Israel not heeding the prophets? They were, of course, expelled from the land. They went into exile at the hands of Assyria and Babylon.

And the same has occurred throughout history with any people who transgressed their charter and principles. They are sent prophets. For example, for centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had prophets, if you will, sent to her calling for reform, but she would not listen. And John Wycliffe and John Huss were just two such prophets sent, calling the church back to its charter, the Bible, and its vital doctrines. And for his efforts, John Huss was burned at the stake, at the Council of Constance.

And then John Wycliffe, another prophet, calling the Roman Catholic Church back to her roots in the Bible and its doctrines. John Wycliffe barely escaped that fate. They wanted to burn him at the stake. They dug up his corpse and burned it. So they hated him so.

And then even loyal Catholic prophets like Erasmus, for example, who called for reform of the church from within. He did so patiently and lovingly. They were not heeded either. Even Martin Luther initially saw himself as another prophetic reformer, if you will, calling his church, the Roman Catholic Church, back to its roots in the Bible and its doctrines. And instead of Luther's prophetic voice being heeded, it rather precipitated what we now call the Reformation, which was a wholesale breakaway church from the Roman Catholic Church, which has been arguably in decline ever since.

And as well, not only the Roman Catholic Church, but also for decades prior to the American Revolution, the British Empire had prophets sent to her too, didn't he? Didn't she? Calling the British Empire back to her charter and principles. Most of our founding fathers wrote passionate letters, gave stem-winding speeches, calling Britain back to her charters of liberty like Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. All of them considered themselves good Englishmen, and they only wanted for themselves what other Englishmen possessed.

Even the great British statesman Edmund Burke warned in a prophetic voice, King George and Parliament, that they were driving the colonists to rebellion by transgressing their own charter and principles in the case of the colonists. All of these and more had prophets sent to them, didn't they? Calling them back to their charters and principles. We have them too. For example, for generations now, we've had the National Center for Constitutional Studies, one of my favorite places, the National Center for Constitutional Studies.

They have taught the Constitution and its principles faithfully and consistently for generations now, calling young and old to their charter and to live it too. And they make it a policy to hand out free copies of the Constitution to any and all, dear listener. They deserve your support. That is the National Center for Constitutional Studies. And you can write them at 37777 West Juniper Road in Malta, Idaho at 83342.

That's, once again, the National Center for Constitutional Studies. You can get free copies of the Constitution. They deserve your financial support too, if you can help them. Also, we have prophetic voices like Hillsdale College. They have also taught and inculcated the Constitution for generations of college students.

Hillsdale College, no government money do they take. And they have offered much of their curricula online for the rest of us too. They have been a consistent prophetic voice, calling us back to our charter and principles. There have also been individual prophetic voices that have been heard. Authors and commentators like Mark Levin have been very active in calling us back to our constitutional roots.

A couple of his books, Liberty and Tyranny, for example, or Men in Black, How the Supreme Court is Destroying America. They are two that come to mind for me. Mark Levin has also been very active and a clear voice in calling for an Article V Convention of the States to amend the Constitution as a partial remedy. It's not a cure-all, but a partial remedy for many of the abuses of power we see all around us. Well, all of these voices, many, many more as well, are the very last ones that both establishment Democrats and Republicans want to hear, though, isn't it?

Smaller government, more efficient government, leaner government, government that relinquishes power and money? Oh, that's never going to happen, leaving it up to the Republican and Democrat establishment. No. Saying things like this is like flashing the cross at a vampire. They recoil in horror.

It's the last thing they want. The prophetic voices calling us back to our charter, the Constitution, and our principles are not being heeded, are they, these voices? And thus far, it will be said of us. If we keep in this direction, if we persist in this course, it will be said of us as it was said of Israel. I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, sending them persistently, but you did not incline your ear or listen to me.

And we deserve the fate that results from this as well, sinking into obscurity, sinking into oblivion as the first Christian-free constitutional republic in the history of the world. And we will be sent away into oblivion and into decline if we do not heed the voices of those constitutional prophets, if you will. So we see that a state or a nation or a church, as it regularly transgresses its charter and principles, is a failed state beyond reform. We also see that a nation or a state or a church that refuses to heed the refuses to heed the prophets sent to it is also beyond reform and will fall into decline and will fall into a failed state.

Thirdly and lastly, then, we also see that a state or a nation or church is beyond reform. When it turns on those, it was created to serve and rather begins to feed on them. Instead, yes, a state, nation, a church is beyond reform. When it turns on those, it was created to serve and begins serving itself upon them instead. Do you need convincing of this reality in the United States of America, dear listener?

In every instance throughout history, a dying nation, a dying church turns on those it was established to serve and rather serves itself upon the body politic of that people at the expense of the people. This was the reality at the time of the Reformation. In fact, what finally, just one egregious example, what finally enraged Martin Luther was the selling of indulgences, as they were called, by the Pope to the common people. What this practice entailed, the idea of selling indulgences, was a promise by the Pope that he, because he had the power through Christ, that he would grant a full forgiveness of all the sins of a person who gave money.

Yes, the full forgiveness of all the sins of a person who gave money to help complete the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Well, not only that, but he went on to say that one could buy a shorter stay in purgatory for a relative who had died and was there for the same kind of contribution too. There was a saying that the hawkers used that when a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. That was the cynical promise. And it was a crass and cynical use of a religious principle that had utterly no basis in the Bible.

There's no basis in the Bible for the selling of indulgences, or there's no spiritual reality behind it whatsoever. It was a crass money-making scheme by the Pope. The Pope was serving himself at the expense of the people he was supposed to serve. And in fact, that was rife throughout the Roman Catholic Church at this time. And one of the things that Martin Luther called for in reform, this is what happens, dear listener, when a state, a nation, a church is beyond reform.

It turns on those it was created to serve and ends up eating on them, instead serving themselves and the body politic of those they were meant to serve. It was also the state of things at the time of the American Revolution too. King George and Parliament, there ostensibly to serve the colonists, were serving themselves up large portions of the colonists' wealth and power and property instead, weren't they? We know from history of the Stamp Act and the attacks on tea, these were only two of the more obvious examples of the British Empire feeding on the colonists rather than feeding them.

And then, of course, when the redcoats marched on Lexington and Concord to seize the colonists' guns and powder there, well, that became the last straw. And we heard the shot heard round the world, did we not, in the commencement of the American Revolution? Because in part, King George and Parliament, there ostensibly to serve the colonists as government is supposed to do, were rather serving themselves up large portions of the colonists and their property, weren't they? Well, can you spell deja vu, dear listener? It's happening all over again.

Your federal government is leeching the financial lifeblood from our collective veins of property. For example, you know that four of the ten richest counties in the United States of America with the highest median income surround Washington, D.C., where, of course, the suburbs are dense with government bureaucrats being paid fat salaries with secure benefits. In fact, the top two of those counties in the entire country are Fairfax and Falls Church counties in Virginia surrounding Washington, D.C., bedroom communities for the government bureaucrats with fat salaries and secure benefits.

And this, of course, while the middle class in America is swiftly disappearing, it is shrinking while the wealth of America flows to Washington, D.C. Let me also point out for you the level of taxation that we pay in America. Liberty for Life, which is a superb outfit, a superb outfit that analyzes the real tax rates that Americans pay. Liberty for Life estimates that by the time Americans finish paying both open and hidden taxes. Yes, we pay not only open taxes, that is the taxes that we can see on the surface right before our eyes, whether they be a sales tax, an income tax, whatever it might be. We also pay hidden taxes.

Those hidden taxes are those often disguised in the prices that corporations charge for their products. That's why I love the saying, because it's so true, that corporations don't pay taxes, do they? Corporations don't pay taxes. Every time their taxes go up, what do they do? They raise their prices.

And stupid Americans think they're finally getting back at corporations by having their tax rates go up. Well, they don't. You are just being a stupid taxpayer if you think that corporations actually pay taxes because all they do is raise their prices and you, the taxpayer, end up paying their tax for them. By the time then Americans get done paying both open and hidden taxes, we have paid an average of 52% of our income in taxes, dear listener. And taxation is not the only way in which government robs you, dear listener.

They have two other methods of robbing you. That is inflation and borrowing, too. This is two other ways that government consciously, cynically steals from you. By printing more money than the economy requires, for example, the government becomes the first spender of dollars that the rest of us must in turn absorb, not having created true wealth to back them up. Money is only meant to be a representation of wealth by which we can exchange our wealth with others through that money.

But there must be real tangible wealth to back up those dollars. And that doesn't happen if you just print money willy-nilly. It's the essence of inflation. That is too many dollars chasing too few products. And when that happens, prices inflate.

Also, not only by inflation, but by borrowing money from us, the United States citizens, we must pay back that loan. So when a government borrows money, it's not government that pays it back. It's us, the new United States citizen. And by doing this, the government steals from us in this other way. What generation, I ask you, for example, what generation will finally pay back the trillions of dollars that the federal government has already borrowed and is living high on the hog in Fairfax County, Virginia, Virginia, for example.

So we find, once again, that there are three signs that a nation or a church or a people of any kind is beyond reform. As nation or church is beyond reform, when it turns on those, it was created to serve and feeds on them rather instead. A state, a nation, a church is beyond reform. When it regularly and egregiously transgresses, it's charter and principles. You can't keep doing this contradicting the very documents that have founded you and expect to survive and thrive.

And then thirdly, a state, a nation, a church is beyond reform when it refuses to heed the prophets sent to call it back to that charter and principles, dear listener. It happened to Israel. It happened to the Roman Catholic Church, and it happened as well to the British Empire. We were founded on such things. Please, dear listener, consider these things in the course of your week and just know that New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for feedback and more information at area code 208-523-0196.