1 00:00:04,719 --> 00:00:09,640 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:14,480 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:14,919 --> 00:00:21,559 And today, what is the State of the Union from the perspective of the Bible and our founding fathers? 4 00:00:22,460 --> 00:00:27,660 Oh, this past Tuesday night, President Donald Trump delivered one of the best State of the 5 00:00:27,660 --> 00:00:34,159 Union speeches that I personally have ever heard. It was filled with so much good. I don't know if 6 00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:41,280 you heard it too. He pointed out that our economy is roaring back, that ISIS and militant Islam is 7 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:47,420 routed and on the run. A strict, excuse me, constructionist has been appointed to the 8 00:00:47,420 --> 00:00:53,159 Supreme Court, and more importantly, the entire speech. And it was filled with so much content 9 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:58,380 too, wasn't it? It was almost an hour and a half long. We cannot dwell on it here, but the entire 10 00:00:58,380 --> 00:01:03,799 speech was filled with good old American optimism and enthusiasm that was very infectious. 11 00:01:04,159 --> 00:01:10,900 If President Trump continues in this vein, and the country continues to thrive and prosper as it is, 12 00:01:11,019 --> 00:01:15,680 his presidency will go down in history as one of the greatest. I would predict that. 13 00:01:16,459 --> 00:01:22,400 What I'd like to do today is step back a minute, step back, and put all of this into the larger 14 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:29,219 perspective of the Bible, our founding fathers, and the three great spheres of life in which we live. 15 00:01:29,219 --> 00:01:35,739 Those three spheres are that of the spiritual, the political, and the economic. Every nation 16 00:01:35,739 --> 00:01:42,019 participates in those three great spheres, the spiritual, the political, and the economic. 17 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:49,000 While we walk this pilgrim way together, dear listener, our paths intersect in many ways, but the 18 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:55,420 three great spheres are that of the spiritual. That is that invisible, but nevertheless, very real 19 00:01:55,420 --> 00:02:03,859 realm of God and angels, of faith and religion, of morals and behavior that regulate our lives. 20 00:02:04,340 --> 00:02:10,500 But there is not only the spiritual, there is also the political, and that realm is that in which we 21 00:02:10,500 --> 00:02:17,379 govern ourselves and make much of the spiritual physical. But there is also the economic sphere, 22 00:02:17,759 --> 00:02:23,099 and the economic sphere is that realm in which we exchange goods and services and the products of our 23 00:02:23,099 --> 00:02:28,020 labor with one another that we might thrive. So these are the three great spheres, the spiritual, 24 00:02:28,159 --> 00:02:34,020 the political, and the economic. So for ease of remembering, and the ease of my memory in 25 00:02:34,020 --> 00:02:42,379 particular, I have given America's mode of relating in those three spheres to be Christ in the spiritual 26 00:02:42,379 --> 00:02:49,919 sphere, the constitution in the political sphere, and capitalism in the economic sphere. Christ, 27 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:56,780 constitution, constitution, and capitalism. What has replaced and competes with these three 28 00:02:56,780 --> 00:03:02,699 founding bedrock principles in these three spheres in the United States of America presently 29 00:03:02,699 --> 00:03:12,060 are three contrasting modes. First of all, we have the tyrannical secularism for our spiritual lives 30 00:03:12,060 --> 00:03:17,819 together instead of Christ. We have statism for our practical political lives together instead of the 31 00:03:17,819 --> 00:03:24,900 constitution, and we have socialism for our economic lives together instead of capitalism. We have three 32 00:03:24,900 --> 00:03:31,460 C's versus three S's. This is for my ease of remembrance, and I hope it helps you remember as 33 00:03:31,460 --> 00:03:38,620 well. The three S's and the three C's are in direct conflict with one another too and cannot be brought 34 00:03:38,620 --> 00:03:44,780 into peaceful resolution. Don't be a dreamer, dear listener. That will never happen. There will be conflict in 35 00:03:44,780 --> 00:03:51,400 America as long as long as people are blinded and fooled by progressives to believe the lie that 36 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:58,139 secularism, statism, and socialism are good for America. There can be no coexistence. There can be no 37 00:03:58,139 --> 00:04:05,400 cooperation. The only alternative for our survival as a Christian constitutional republic to see that we 38 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:14,099 return to Christ, constitution, and capitalism in their respective spheres. Christ in the spiritual realm, 39 00:04:14,099 --> 00:04:21,699 the constitution in the political realm, and capitalism in the economic realm. We must return to these 40 00:04:21,699 --> 00:04:29,579 three founding principles, and let me show you why. Number one, in the spiritual sphere, the presumptive 41 00:04:29,579 --> 00:04:37,399 reality for America to work at all is that Christ inhabit America's spiritual realm rather than anything 42 00:04:37,399 --> 00:04:43,959 else. Here is America's greatest failing in the present time I submit to you. Because the presumptive 43 00:04:43,959 --> 00:04:50,379 reality for America to work at all is that Christ inhabit America's spiritual realm rather than anything 44 00:04:50,379 --> 00:04:56,300 else, Christ has been crowded out of the hearts, minds, and souls of many Americans for generations. 45 00:04:57,139 --> 00:05:04,500 And the vacuum created is being filled with other spiritualities. For example, secularism, one of the 46 00:05:04,500 --> 00:05:11,720 three S's I articulated for you. Secularism as the official stance of the progressive who abhors America's 47 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:18,899 past, Christian past, and fears as well that Christianity will be revived in the near future, as I sincerely 48 00:05:18,899 --> 00:05:26,959 hope it is. And this is how he keeps it at bay, by substituting secularism. And the progressive tries to distract 49 00:05:26,959 --> 00:05:34,339 America's attention from our history and the necessary component that Christ is to our national integrity. 50 00:05:34,339 --> 00:05:40,360 Well, not only secularism, but Islam is also fast gaining a foothold in this formerly Christian 51 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:47,040 nation. Islam reigning supreme in many Muslim ghettos in major cities in America. How long, 52 00:05:47,339 --> 00:05:53,959 dear listener, before Islam completely dominates our judicial system? For example, the judicial 53 00:05:53,959 --> 00:06:01,420 interpretation of the Quran is Sharia, Sharia law, based upon the Quran rather than constitutional law 54 00:06:01,420 --> 00:06:07,759 based upon the Bible. Sharia law is given tacit approval in these communities as law enforcement 55 00:06:07,759 --> 00:06:14,519 and federal marshals, et cetera, are afraid to impose the law of the land upon these zealous protective 56 00:06:14,519 --> 00:06:23,620 enclaves of Islamic jurisprudence. It is very dangerous to do so, I would also add. But we also have to ask 57 00:06:23,620 --> 00:06:29,079 ourselves at some point, is Islam compatible with a Christian constitutional republic? Would Christ, 58 00:06:29,079 --> 00:06:34,920 for example, sanction honor killings of a daughter for dating a non-Muslim? There's a record of this 59 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:40,519 here recently. Would Christ honor the arranged marriage of a nine-year-old girl to a 30-something 60 00:06:40,519 --> 00:06:45,420 Muslim man like Muhammad did with one of his many wives? That's been done recently in one of these 61 00:06:45,420 --> 00:06:51,480 enclaves as well. Would Christ put his stamp of approval upon the killing of one who fell away from 62 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:58,759 following him like Islam demands of one who falls away from following Muhammad? Well, it is particularly 63 00:06:58,759 --> 00:07:05,420 disturbing to point out how we must also reveal the increasing evidence of the honoring and the 64 00:07:05,420 --> 00:07:12,980 worship of Lucifer. It's shocking to reflect on this and to note it, but there is in America the 65 00:07:12,980 --> 00:07:19,180 honoring and worship of Lucifer among many of the power elites, especially in America. Hollywood and both 66 00:07:19,180 --> 00:07:24,920 the left and right coast of America are filled with it. And I would just refer you to Stanley Kubrick's 67 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:35,480 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, which documents many of this and dramatically portrays the worship of Lucifer among 68 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:43,519 many of the power elites in America. And Washington, D.C. is also filled with Luciferianism. And Julian 69 00:07:43,519 --> 00:07:49,379 Assange and WikiLeaks revealed in a variety of emails during the election that many in the Clinton campaign 70 00:07:49,379 --> 00:07:56,040 regularly engaged in Luciferian rituals involving blood and children and sacrifice. John Podesta 71 00:07:56,040 --> 00:08:02,779 in particular, Hillary Clinton herself is rumored to be a fourth degree witch. How close we came 72 00:08:02,779 --> 00:08:09,740 to electing a witch to the White House. How far from her roots America has fallen, dear listener. 73 00:08:10,220 --> 00:08:16,180 Christ and his gospel were at the center of the reason for being for the early colonies in America. 74 00:08:16,180 --> 00:08:22,360 How far we have fallen. For example, when Thomas Hooker led his small band of colonists from Massachusetts 75 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:31,639 into the wilds of Connecticut in January of 1639, they drew up this constitution, the Fundamental Orders 76 00:08:31,639 --> 00:08:38,299 of Connecticut, it was called, with this preamble that I'm going to read in part to you, the preamble 77 00:08:38,299 --> 00:08:43,460 that stated its very purpose for founding the colony of Connecticut. And it reads in part, 78 00:08:43,460 --> 00:08:49,539 we do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter 79 00:08:49,539 --> 00:08:56,679 enter into combination and confederation together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of 80 00:08:56,679 --> 00:09:02,019 the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Let me read that again. The purpose for the founding of Connecticut 81 00:09:02,019 --> 00:09:08,879 to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus, which we now profess 82 00:09:08,879 --> 00:09:14,379 as also the discipline of the churches, which according to the truth of the said gospel is 83 00:09:14,379 --> 00:09:20,340 now practiced amongst us, as also, there was a second purpose for the founding of Connecticut, 84 00:09:20,759 --> 00:09:27,360 as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such laws, rules, orders, 85 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:35,000 and decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth. And then from there goes the 86 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:41,559 constitution, the particulars of the constitution of the fundamental orders of Connecticut. So we see 87 00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:47,399 indeed the purpose for the founding of Connecticut was to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity 88 00:09:47,399 --> 00:09:53,720 of the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Generations later, our founding fathers understood the necessity of 89 00:09:53,720 --> 00:10:00,399 Christ and his gospel also to the founding and framing of America. George Washington puts it this way. 90 00:10:00,399 --> 00:10:06,960 He says, of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality 91 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:12,980 are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to 92 00:10:12,980 --> 00:10:19,700 subvert these great pillars of human happiness, that is, religion and morality, these firmest props of 93 00:10:19,700 --> 00:10:26,419 the duties of men and citizens, unquote, from George Washington. Now, the religion and morality of which 94 00:10:26,419 --> 00:10:35,139 Washington spoke was not Islam. It was not Buddhism. And it certainly wasn't the secular religion and morality 95 00:10:35,139 --> 00:10:42,659 that we see before us today. It was only and exclusively the Christian religion and the Christian morality of 96 00:10:42,659 --> 00:10:49,419 which Washington spoke. It was all that America knew. It was all she wished to know. Now, Supreme Court 97 00:10:49,419 --> 00:10:57,659 Justice Josiah Brewer, who sat on the Supreme Court in 1892, said in his adjudication of a case before the 98 00:10:57,659 --> 00:11:05,340 Supreme Court, he puts it this way. Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody 99 00:11:05,340 --> 00:11:11,139 the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise, Brewer says. 100 00:11:11,139 --> 00:11:17,559 And in this sense, and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically 101 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:23,879 Christian, unquote. A Supreme Court justice who would be drummed out of the chambers today if he 102 00:11:23,879 --> 00:11:29,240 were to say anything so bold. But Brewer did at the time, and it was true, and it still is true. 103 00:11:29,700 --> 00:11:35,279 The American Constitutional Republic is a Christian Constitutional Republic. It is impossible that it 104 00:11:35,279 --> 00:11:43,059 should be otherwise, as Brewer might say. Christ is the spiritual center of gravity who enables us to 105 00:11:43,059 --> 00:11:49,419 form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to ensure domestic tranquility, to provide for the 106 00:11:49,419 --> 00:11:55,139 common defense, to promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to 107 00:11:55,139 --> 00:12:03,019 our posterity, as the preamble to the Constitution says. When one examines honestly the history of the 108 00:12:03,019 --> 00:12:07,759 spiritual motivation for the founding of our Republic, it cannot be otherwise than Christ. 109 00:12:08,539 --> 00:12:12,860 The Massachusetts Bay Colony, for example, put it this way. In their very first Constitution, 110 00:12:12,980 --> 00:12:21,139 they said, we are a company professing ourselves, fellow members of Christ, knit together by this bond 111 00:12:21,139 --> 00:12:26,220 of love. We are entered into covenant with him for this work, for we must consider that we shall be 112 00:12:26,220 --> 00:12:32,779 as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, unquote, from their Constitution. 113 00:12:33,019 --> 00:12:38,639 And this phrase of Jesus Christ uttered in his Sermon on the Mount, you shall be as a city set upon a 114 00:12:38,639 --> 00:12:45,159 hill, it reverberates throughout American history as a metaphor for America. I remember most recently 115 00:12:45,159 --> 00:12:52,179 Ronald Reagan using it to describe what America had been in our past with the hope and aspiration that 116 00:12:52,179 --> 00:12:59,259 she could be such again. Reagan tried, as best that he could, to raise America to the level of a city 117 00:12:59,259 --> 00:13:05,639 set upon a hill. We must pray for and exhort Donald Trump to this hope and this aspiration again. 118 00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:13,240 Pray for this most important of points as well, dear listener. If anything else you do coming from 119 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:19,659 this message today, do this. Pray that Donald Trump come to know the Redeemer of mankind, as Brewer puts 120 00:13:19,659 --> 00:13:27,960 it as Donald Trump's own Redeemer, and then Trump self-consciously leading us towards Christ-centered 121 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:36,580 purpose in America again. Well, the argument that America was secular or religiously neutral is patently 122 00:13:36,580 --> 00:13:44,539 false. There is no neutrality when it comes to religion and spirituality. She loved, America loved Christ 123 00:13:44,539 --> 00:13:51,500 and followed closely the Christian religion in all her principles and ways. It is to this reality that we 124 00:13:51,500 --> 00:13:57,840 must return if we are ever to thrive again. So of our three ruling principles for America, Christ, 125 00:13:58,039 --> 00:14:05,820 constitution, and capitalism versus secularism, statism, and socialism, the three S's that we are 126 00:14:05,820 --> 00:14:11,919 battling in these realms right now, this first principle, Christ, is the chief principle, and it must 127 00:14:11,919 --> 00:14:17,299 suffuse the other two as well. Without Christ at the center of our governing system and Christ at the 128 00:14:17,299 --> 00:14:22,419 center of our economic system, they too will degenerate, as they have already, into statism and 129 00:14:22,419 --> 00:14:29,100 socialism. Only when Christ is made to be the center of national endeavors altogether will America return 130 00:14:29,100 --> 00:14:34,840 to her greatness, that is, being that city set upon the hill. Well, that brings us then to our second 131 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:41,899 principle in the great realm of our political life together, and that is that America was founded as a 132 00:14:41,919 --> 00:14:48,720 constitutional republic, not a status tyranny. Dear listener, in the realm of the political, 133 00:14:49,039 --> 00:14:55,620 our political lives together as a people, America was founded as a constitutional republic, not a 134 00:14:55,620 --> 00:15:01,820 status tyranny. Very few people in America today appreciate how utterly unique our constitution is 135 00:15:01,820 --> 00:15:06,759 in all the world and throughout all of history. From our very founding, our fathers drew up a charter 136 00:15:06,759 --> 00:15:13,960 that self-consciously vested power, not in a man-king, not in an aristocratic class of men to be an 137 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:19,820 aristocracy, or in the hands of a wealthy few, which would be a plutocracy, but rather they vested 138 00:15:19,820 --> 00:15:27,179 power in the people. Our preamble begins. We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, 139 00:15:27,539 --> 00:15:31,000 establish justice, and then makes its way through the rest of the preamble. 140 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:38,019 Well, all other nations and states throughout history owe their founding to bonds of race and 141 00:15:38,019 --> 00:15:44,919 ethnicity, for example, or perhaps familial kinships, as the tribal Israel was, or perhaps 142 00:15:44,919 --> 00:15:50,820 accidents of geography and conquest. In those days, in ancient world, power was held and applied from 143 00:15:50,820 --> 00:15:58,759 the top down. Not so America. Our founding fathers conceived the idea of a republic and then put it 144 00:15:58,759 --> 00:16:05,799 down on paper as a charter, a written constitution. Power flows from the bottom upward in America 145 00:16:05,799 --> 00:16:10,740 from the people who temporarily lend their representatives the exercise of that power 146 00:16:10,740 --> 00:16:16,919 on behalf of the people. They are, in principle, our elected representatives. They are servants of the 147 00:16:16,919 --> 00:16:22,679 people. They are not rulers and officials over us. Those representatives are stewards of power who 148 00:16:22,679 --> 00:16:27,899 relinquish that power back to the people when they are done. They are not permanent holders of power 149 00:16:27,899 --> 00:16:35,220 who lord it over us, the people. But that system of government I have just described to you by of the 150 00:16:35,220 --> 00:16:39,899 people, by the people, and for the people is now corrupt, almost beyond redemption, I submit to you. 151 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:49,120 It's very close to being over because in the decades passing, the lean, efficient, limited republic of our 152 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:56,159 founding fathers that they gave us, it has morphed into a corpulent, corrupt, gargantuan tyranny that we now aptly 153 00:16:56,159 --> 00:17:02,259 refer to as the deep state, right? We still maintain a veneer, a surface appearance of a constitutional 154 00:17:02,259 --> 00:17:10,339 republic, but just below that surface lurks the real and abiding government that is the deep state. It is as if our 155 00:17:10,339 --> 00:17:17,299 republic bobs up and down on the surface of the vast ocean like a little dinghy, and our rulers point to it and say, 156 00:17:17,299 --> 00:17:23,420 see, we still have a constitution, while just underneath the surface lurks the great white shark of the deep 157 00:17:23,420 --> 00:17:31,539 state, prepared at any moment to snatch that dinghy of our republic in its jaws. This is precisely because 158 00:17:31,539 --> 00:17:38,480 over the decades since our founding, Americans have fallen prey to the seductive siren song of big 159 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:45,940 government. Oh, woe is us. And it hasn't happened overnight either. Little by little, we have added this 160 00:17:45,940 --> 00:17:50,640 program and that program, this agency and that agency, this administration, that administration, 161 00:17:50,900 --> 00:17:56,779 each with its own bureaucracy and its rules and its own agenda, and God help the citizen who crosses 162 00:17:56,779 --> 00:18:05,000 those rules and agenda. But we have no one to blame but ourselves, dear listener. This is the way we want 163 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:12,539 it. This is what we the people have allowed. To this, we the people have grown accustomed. Oh, dear listener, 164 00:18:12,539 --> 00:18:20,400 how sad it is. We the people like the illusion of a free lunch with our meager fare of social security 165 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:26,359 or welfare or food stamps or Obamacare. We the people like the illusion of being protected 166 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:33,839 from the big bad world by creating the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the environment. 167 00:18:34,619 --> 00:18:40,160 We have the Food and Drug Administration to protect our food and medicine, ostensibly. 168 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:47,660 And then there's the NSA, the National Security Agency, to guard our national security. Well, also, 169 00:18:47,859 --> 00:18:52,900 since World War II, we have felt the need to take on the burden of being the world's policemen. 170 00:18:53,500 --> 00:18:58,740 And consequently, our military has mushroomed out of all proportion to our real defense needs. 171 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:05,220 And since 9-11, we have felt the need to surrender some of our liberty in order to be a little more 172 00:19:05,220 --> 00:19:11,940 secure from terrorism, ostensibly. And therefore, we need the Homeland Security Administration and the TSA, 173 00:19:12,099 --> 00:19:18,039 right, to restrict our travel and to track our every move, purchase and keystroke. There is no more 174 00:19:18,039 --> 00:19:24,839 privacy, dear listener, is there? Well, it is these elements of government that make up a permanent ruling 175 00:19:24,839 --> 00:19:31,960 class. That is the deep state, that great white shark working just beneath the surface of our political 176 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:38,380 system ready to devour what is left of our constitutional republic. Congressmen come and go 177 00:19:38,380 --> 00:19:43,920 every few years, as do presidents and their fleet of cabinet officials and assistants. Even the Supreme 178 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:50,480 Court justices, though they are appointed for life, they die and retire faster than the deep state has or 179 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:56,880 ever will. Now, all of this turnover I have just mentioned in the three branches of constitutional 180 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:03,039 government was deliberately created by our founding fathers to ensure that there would be no abiding 181 00:20:03,039 --> 00:20:10,339 power except the people. All other power and representatives would be transitional. But right 182 00:20:10,339 --> 00:20:16,619 under the very noses of the people over the decades, look at what has happened. Behold, a permanent ruling 183 00:20:16,619 --> 00:20:24,200 class, the vast Leviathan monster of bureaus and agencies, the inertia of a shadow government that 184 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:31,559 lumbers on long after the people's representatives have come and gone. Our constitutional system is 185 00:20:31,559 --> 00:20:39,000 broken, dear citizen. The bureaus and the agencies, which were designed initially to serve the legislative 186 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:47,599 will of Congress, they have morphed over the years from servants into masters. As Jefferson puts it, 187 00:20:47,599 --> 00:20:54,180 government is like fire. It is a wary servant and a terrible master. Oh, the deep state has become 188 00:20:54,180 --> 00:21:01,140 a terrible master, dear listener. And unless our Congress and our executive branch reassert themselves 189 00:21:01,140 --> 00:21:08,099 and hold the deep state accountable by drastically reducing the size and number of these bureaus and 190 00:21:08,099 --> 00:21:17,140 agencies, we, the American people, will continue to see the evil triad of secularism and statism and socialism 191 00:21:17,140 --> 00:21:25,200 instead of what our founders intended. That is Christ, constitution and capitalism. Well, that brings me to our third 192 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:34,059 component in the third realm of our life together as a nation, the economic realm. Number three, the economic system that 193 00:21:34,059 --> 00:21:42,220 afforded the greatest liberty for the citizens of the new republic was capitalism, not socialism. Yes, the economic system that 194 00:21:42,220 --> 00:21:49,180 afforded the greatest liberty for the citizens of the new republic was capitalism. From the 195 00:21:49,180 --> 00:21:54,940 earliest days of the colonies, Americans relied upon their own wits and abilities in the wilderness, and they 196 00:21:54,940 --> 00:22:01,180 produced wealth by the labor of their own hands. With the fruits of their labor, they exchanged goods with one another in a 197 00:22:01,180 --> 00:22:07,180 free market, far from the predatory whims of the parliament and king. And only much later, in the days before the 198 00:22:07,180 --> 00:22:14,460 revolution, did the British government begin to gain a stranglehold on the colonial economy. In the beginning, colonial 199 00:22:14,460 --> 00:22:21,099 governments were representative republics that taxed at the consent of those who elected them and they sent to colonial 200 00:22:21,099 --> 00:22:28,220 bodies. There was just enough government in those days to allow for justice and order so that the economies could 201 00:22:28,220 --> 00:22:36,140 prosper and the people be free to exchange goods and services at their discretion. That capitalist economic system, as 202 00:22:36,140 --> 00:22:42,619 practiced in the United States of America, as it has grown over the decades, has produced the most prosperous 203 00:22:42,619 --> 00:22:50,619 people in the history of the world. Opportunities abound for everyone in our capitalist system to create their 204 00:22:50,619 --> 00:22:56,299 own businesses, to hire their labor out to an employer perhaps, or even pick up and move to a new location if 205 00:22:56,299 --> 00:23:03,740 things do not work out, or maybe they just have somewhere else that appeals to them more. But the core idea of 206 00:23:03,740 --> 00:23:10,220 capitalism is that a man's wealth over and above that he requires to cover the cost of doing business 207 00:23:10,220 --> 00:23:17,740 and providing for he and his family, that over and above wealth can be used and invested as capital to 208 00:23:17,740 --> 00:23:24,140 create new wealth that was not previously available. This is the genius of capitalism. In capitalism, there is 209 00:23:24,140 --> 00:23:31,180 not one pie that's cut up and distributed equally to all as it is in socialism. No. In capitalism, there are resources 210 00:23:31,180 --> 00:23:37,740 available to create new pies such that the possibilities are limitless for the number of pies that can be 211 00:23:37,740 --> 00:23:43,819 created in a capitalist economy. In socialism, on the other hand, the presumption is that the wealth that 212 00:23:43,819 --> 00:23:50,619 there is presently is all that there is, and it must be distributed to all equally, right? There can be no 213 00:23:50,619 --> 00:23:56,859 possibility for growth, for the creation of new pies, because any excess a man may have in order to invest 214 00:23:56,859 --> 00:24:03,099 as capital to create new pies, that excess, that wealth is seized by the state in order to be 215 00:24:03,099 --> 00:24:11,099 distributed to others. Excess capital in socialism and Marxism and communism is seen as evil because one 216 00:24:11,099 --> 00:24:17,740 has more than another, which is just not fair, right? We see this constantly over and over again. Oh, there's a 217 00:24:18,380 --> 00:24:25,339 little proverb that runs like this. Capitalism shares wealth unequally with all, while socialism shares 218 00:24:25,339 --> 00:24:33,019 poverty equally with all. There's a lot of truth to that proverb, isn't there? Capitalism does create wealth, 219 00:24:33,019 --> 00:24:38,140 doesn't it? But it creates it unequally. Some are richer than others. Some are in the upper classes. Some are in the 220 00:24:38,140 --> 00:24:43,900 middle classes. Some are in the poorer classes. But there's wealth for all. It's just unequally distributed, while 221 00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:53,259 socialism shares poverty equally with all in that all socialist systems eventually sink into poverty because they do not 222 00:24:53,259 --> 00:24:59,099 create wealth. So there's a lot of truth in that proverb. And President Trump has gradually steered the ship of our 223 00:24:59,099 --> 00:25:06,779 economy around, hasn't he? To a course of capitalism from the stunted socialism of the Obama regime. How resilient 224 00:25:06,779 --> 00:25:13,099 must be the American capitalist system to bounce back so quickly under his leadership? Oh, but a word of caution 225 00:25:13,099 --> 00:25:18,859 must also be given here. Unless and until we experience a wholesale spiritual reformation in the United States, 226 00:25:18,859 --> 00:25:24,779 all of these gains I've just articulated for you will be short-lived. The psalmist exclaims, 227 00:25:24,779 --> 00:25:30,940 blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Oh, indeed. This is our history when God is central to our 228 00:25:30,940 --> 00:25:35,740 spiritual lives, when Christ is central to us as Americans. Blessed is the nation whose God is the 229 00:25:35,740 --> 00:25:43,019 Lord. But equally, on the other hand, when we forget God, when we forget Christ, he forgets us. The psalmist 230 00:25:43,019 --> 00:25:50,539 also says, the wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. Oh, may we be a nation 231 00:25:50,539 --> 00:25:58,059 that remembers God and does not forget God. How we need a wholesale return to Christ, constitution and 232 00:25:58,059 --> 00:26:04,220 capitalism. We have many signs of strength in America, do we not? A president, many in government 233 00:26:04,220 --> 00:26:09,980 who love the USA. Our economy is strong, getting stronger, bouncing back from eight years of lethargy. 234 00:26:09,980 --> 00:26:15,180 And there are also many godly men and women still in America who love their savior and seek to see 235 00:26:15,180 --> 00:26:20,859 him glorified in all that they do, including the blessing of our nation. But we need this wholesale 236 00:26:20,859 --> 00:26:26,619 return to Christ, constitution and capitalism from the death-dealing effects of years of secularism, 237 00:26:26,619 --> 00:26:33,099 statism and socialism. Pray for this reformation in the United States, dear listener, and may God bless 238 00:26:33,099 --> 00:26:39,500 the USA. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for 239 00:26:39,500 --> 00:26:45,339 Holy Worship Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us 240 00:26:45,339 --> 00:26:50,220 for more information at 208-523-0196.