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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. Today, what do constitutional conservatives mean when they talk about the 5,000-year leap?

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If you've never heard of this phrase before, and I hope to impress it upon you here in these

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next few weeks, if you're wondering of what possible significance the 5,000-year leap

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could have for you, well, let me explain. For example, if you accept the figure of 5,000 years

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for being the rounded approximate period of time for recorded human history, well, then we can

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establish some very interesting comparisons between America's most recent history and this 5,000-year

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period in a time and place when the American Constitution and our constitutional system and

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ways of life, and the entire thrust of American history is coming to a halt, coming to a close,

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collapsing around us, as many of us presume to be happening as we witness things around us,

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and we're not just chicken little crying, the sky is falling. No, our constitutional way of life is

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coming to an end, and we need to remember, many of us for the future need to remember from once we've

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come. If you do not remember from once you've come, you will not remember who you are now, and you will

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not be able to take that into the future and be what you could possibly be. So, we are going to rehearse

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the 5,000-year leap that America has taken in her past and why God has so blessed her in the past

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to make her what she was, the greatest nation on the face of the earth, blessing the nations of the earth

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as well. Well, what does this 5,000-year leap mean? Let me take one tantalizing example for you. For

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the better part of the last 5,000 years, the top speed that any human could achieve was as fast as a

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horse or a team of horses could take him on land, or a sailboat could take him on the water, right?

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Unless you jump from a high and lofty perch, in which case the benefits of such speed quickly

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perished. Literally, right? So, when it came to air travel, too, all that a man could do is stare

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enviously at the birds in the sky and wish, if only I had wings like you. In fact, as recently as 1895,

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Lord Kelvin, who was a British mathematician and a physicist, said, unequivocally, heavier than air

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machines are impossible, unquote. Even Wilbur Wright, brother of Orville Wright and the famed inventor of

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the first flying machine and the first recorded manned flight in 1901, he speculated, after their

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own achievement, he said, man will not fly on a routine, consistent basis, he said, for 50 years.

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Man will not fly for 50 years. And, of course, within 50 years of making that statement, man would be on

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the threshold of flying a jet-propelled machine faster than the speed of sound. Well, how can we

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account for such accelerated, if I can use a pun here, how can we account for such accelerated

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progress in even this one era, much less the rest of society and culture, details of which I will

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outline in weeks to come? Well, in the relatively short period of time that constitutes the American

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pageant of history, so much has been accomplished in the realm of human rights and science and wealth

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that we can only describe it as a leap over the entire period of recorded human history. And thus,

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we call that leap the 5,000-year leap. Let me also take this opportunity to give full credit

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to the book and the organization that has put together so much of the information that I am

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delighted to share with you in the future. And that is the National Center for Constitutional Studies.

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The National Center for Constitutional Studies, located in Utah. The great lion of this organization

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was Dr. W. Kleon Skousen, a teacher and mentor for so many students of the Constitution over the last

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few decades. I respect him highly. Even President Ronald Reagan said of the National Center for

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Constitutional Studies, he said the NCCS is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the

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principles of the Constitution. Unquote. And the books from which I will be drawing much of my

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information include two volumes that I highly recommend to you for your own reading. In fact, I would say

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they're must readings. And for use in your homeschool curriculum, too. And they, those books are

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The 5,000-Year Leap, and also, secondly, The Making of America by Dr. W. Kleon Skousen. And you may

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take steps to acquire them and garner further information about the National Center for Constitutional

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Studies at their website, nccs.net, nccs.net. Now, what is so extraordinary about the last 200 years of

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American history that we can fairly call it a leap over the preceding 5,000 years of recorded human

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history? What is that? What is so extraordinary? Well, it really is astounding when we examine the

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rate of progress in several areas of human civilization over the last 200-plus years now,

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when compared to the same rate of achievements over the last 5,000 years. Dr. Skousen points up

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six revolutions which freedom made possible in his book, The Making of America. Yes, six revolutions.

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For the sake of brevity, let me summarize them under four headings. And I would encourage you

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to go to Dr. Skousen's book for all six of them. What I want to do is expand upon them with you

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with some of my own research. For the remainder of our time together, observe the following facts.

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Number one, the liberty created by our constitutional form of government made possible the culture for the

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industrial revolution. This is a very important historical point to make because we would not

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be where we are industrially, technologically, if not for the fact that liberty created by our

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constitutional form of government made possible the culture for the industrial revolution. From the

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dawn of recorded history, man has used tools to shape his environment and increase his control over

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his own destiny during the period of time that has acquired the label the industrial revolution. And that

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lasted from about 1750 to the 1850s, the mid-19th century. Well, the creation of many new machines

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increased man's efficiency and productivity of his labor so fast, and to such an extent that

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historians call it a revolution. That is, when things change suddenly and drastically, sometimes with

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violent upheavals. So profound and thoroughgoing were these changes during the industrial revolution,

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and so swift and compressed in time were they, that is, relative to the stretch of millennia of recorded

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history, that we can say that the growth of industry was exponential. Exponential. That's a geometric rate

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of progression, which has the potential of producing a very fast rise in the numbers of a quantity

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experiencing such growth. That's the idea of exponential. The miracle of compound interest is a good

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example, where when interest is added back to the principal sum, and interest charged on that compound figure,

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you get a pretty explosive growth on your money over time. That is, your money grows exponentially. Now, one of my

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favorite anecdotes is the ancient Persian fable, which illustrates for us exponential growth. The ancient

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Persian fable of the clever courtier who presented the king with a beautiful handmade chessboard. When asked by the

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king what he would like in return, the courtier asked for one grain of rice on the first square of the

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chessboard, two grains of rice on the second square, four on the third square, doubling the grains of rice

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on every subsequent square. What's a grain of rice? The king thought, how much could it be? So he called for

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all the necessary rice to be provided. What he failed to account was the unique doubling power of

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exponential growth. So that by the time he had reached the 21st square, he needed a million grains,

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and the 41st square demanded a trillion, and there simply was not enough rice in the whole world for

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the final squares. Exponential growth. This apocryphal story from ancient Persia illustrates

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vividly the power of exponential growth. Historians call the growth of machines and industry during this

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period of England and America exponential growth. And my favorite character from this period, and the

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prime example of the exponential growth of machines and industry during the Industrial Revolution is the

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inventor James Watt, who built upon the labors of his predecessors and is credited with inventing the

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steam engine. He took out a patent on that engine in 1769, and soon his steam engine was being employed to

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power everything from factories to locomotives to Robert Fulton's paddle wheel riverboats on the

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Mississippi. What role, you may ask, does constitutional government and Western liberty have to do with

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these things? Well, perhaps you missed an important step in this process. James Watt took out a patent

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on his steam engine in both England, he was English, and then in America too. And the patent is a

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completely Western idea based upon the Christian biblical principle that a man is entitled to the fruits of

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his own labor. Or as the Apostle Paul puts it in recalling the law of the Old Testament, the laborer deserves

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his wages. You won't find this in China. But in fact, all you'll find in China are pirates who steal another man's

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labor. There's no incentive to invent in China, because you cannot recoup your labors through a patent. The patent

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basically gives exclusive rights of an idea or an invention or a process to its creator for a specified period of

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time. Anyone who uses said idea, invention or process must pay a royalty to the creator so that he might enjoy the

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fruits of his labor. We would not have the prosperity and abundance of the West without this constitutional idea, the

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patent, based upon the principle that every man is entitled to his own property. So all of the labor that went into

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making the steam engine was thought to be the intellectual property of James Watt. Anyone who used his invention

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for their own profit, thus owed him a portion of their gain, because without his contribution to their labor, they

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would not profit to the extent they have. So without the patent, dear listener, consider this one small portion of

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the Constitution. Without the patent, what motive is there for an inventor to invent? You don't find

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inventions in India or China or other places where there is no such idea of a patent. The idea of the patent

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is a bedrock foundation for the success of our capitalist free market system. And you want to see it go

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downhill? Adopt socialism. There will be no new inventions. There will be no creativity. Other men would merely

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steal his idea and inventions and use them without remuneration. That's what happens around the world.

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This is the pattern of selfish human behavior throughout history. But when a constitutional state

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protects the property rights of its people, a true patent system is there to enforce the biblical principle

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that the laborer deserves his wages. Whether you are aware of it or not, our founding fathers recognized

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this principle and included it in the Constitution by empowering Congress, and I quote from the

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Constitution, to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to

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authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. And that's

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from section one. I'm sorry. Yes. From article one, section eight, paragraph eight. And so this is

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precisely what I am talking about when I speak of the 5,000-year leap where a constitutional context

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was created for men like James Watt and Robert Fulton and Eli Whitney and many, many more to create the

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phenomena of exponential growth in tools and machines during the Industrial Revolution. Number two,

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the second revolution that we're talking about, the liberty created by our constitutional form of

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government made possible, the culture for the transportation revolution, our second revolution we're

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considering. And it was the liberty created by our constitutional form of government that made this

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possible, that is, the culture for the transportation revolution. Isn't it amazing how we can fly along I-20,

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80 miles an hour right here in Idaho, over the old Oregon Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Highway 15 now

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traces of the good old cut off and on 20, I-20 if you will. I travel that often in conjunction with

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church matters and cover in a matter of minutes the same amount of ground it took over our forefathers

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only a century ago, days to travel. Yes, we cruise on smooth asphalt surfaces in temperature-controlled

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vehicles at 60 to 75 miles an hour over otherwise rough and mountainous ground that our pioneer

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parents coaxed and goaded horses and mules and oxen at mere several miles per hour in either freezing

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ice and snow or blazing baking summer heat, right? Oh, these latter modes of transportation, wagons and

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horses and mules and oxen, were all that our race knew for the better part of this 5,000-year stretch

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of recorded human history. Think of it. We traveled as far and as fast as we could walk until some brave

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and impetuous soul thought to jump on the back of a horse and ride him until he became manageable and

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domesticated, right? And we were thus consigned to the speed and power of one horsepower for millennia

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as long as we walked the earth. And those upon the sea could sail more swiftly under favorable winds, but

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speed and distance were still limited to what nature herself could provide in animals and elements.

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But in the space of two brief centuries, a mere handful of men changed all of that, didn't they?

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A 5,000-year leap. George Stevenson built the first steam-powered locomotive engine

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that moved on tracks. And Henry Ford took the technology of the internal combustion engine

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and gave us the automobile. The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, gave us manned flight. Our experience

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of manned flight is just one example of what I mean when I say that progress under our American

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constitutional system has been exponential. Even the otherwise optimistic Orville Wright was

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relatively pessimistic when he predicted man will not fly for 50 years. And yet,

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less than 50 years after Orville's historic flight, on October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager would not only fly

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on a routine basis, but break the sound barrier in his Bell X-1. Growth in this single area,

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manned flight, is considered exponential in that it did not take another millennia,

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another 1,000 years to reach it, but only 50. Think of it, 5,000-year leap. These are the kinds

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of things we mean when we talk about the 5,000-year leap. And we need to remember this in days to come,

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because indeed, as those who seek to put us down the memory hole and make us forget our history and

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our past would change all of this and bring us back into another dark age. We need to remember from

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once we've come. And we need to remember that the last 200 years of constitutional liberty has brought

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us a 5,000-year leap. Added to this fact that it didn't take another several millennia to reach the

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moon, but only 22 years. Add to this, and you have the very definition of exponential growth. Remember

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this in days to come. As our culture and society and nation comes crashing down around our ears,

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we need a proud, remembering few to recall our heritage and bring it back to bear in days to come.

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Ever since the creation of our race, man has gazed upon the moon, hasn't he? Made by God himself for

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times and seasons, as Genesis says. And that man has dreamed and imagined what it would be like to walk

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on the moon. Poets and philosophers speculated and spoke eloquently about its purpose in nature.

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It even drove some men mad, making of them lunar madmen or lunatics. Luna is Latin for moon.

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But it was Americans. It was us. Under the wide-open, freewheeling system of constitutional capitalism,

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it was us, Americans, who actually marshaled the resources and the manpower and the technical

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ingenuity to get there and bring back safely the astronauts who flew there. Constitutional

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capitalism made this possible, dear listener. And our founding fathers had the wisdom and the

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foresight to provide not only the economic engine of the patent, but also the wisdom to limit its

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regulations of commerce to certain very specified domains. This was the intent of the Interstate

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Commerce Clause, which is from Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 3, to regulate commerce with foreign

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nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes. The Interstate Commerce Clause was meant

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to indeed do this, but to also limit the federal government's interference in private enterprise. The

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original intent of this provision of the Constitution was to limit the interference and regulative force of the

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federal government to these three limited circumscribed domains, dear listener, to limit the federal

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government, not blow out the doors on expanding it. Originally, the Interstate Commerce Clause was

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designed to give unrestricted liberty to the states and individuals to create for commercial use and gain

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everything from Tang, right? The original orange drink famously created for the astronauts to drink in space

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all the way to the computer, right? Used to help navigate and control the Apollo spacecraft. But

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unfortunately, the Interstate Commerce Clause has been used as a wedge since the founding of our

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country to let the federal government control many more aspects of our lives than it was first intended

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to do. For example, almost all modes of transportation now are considered under this clause and so liable to

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regulation by the federal government. Railroads were regulated out of existence, as Dr. Skousen points out,

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by the unconstitutional extension of this clause. And we see its ill effects even today in the over

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regulation of the automobile industry. We see it in everything from the CAFE standards, that is the

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corporate average fuel economy, economy, excuse me. We see it all the way from there to environmental

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standards, right? To seatbelts. If the federal government would lift its limitless regulations of it,

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the big three would not have to come to Congress with hat in hand asking for billions of dollars

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worth of bailouts. If we were to abide by the original intent of the Commerce Clause, we would

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see the transportation revolution continue in America, and we would once again be at the forefront

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of progress in this area instead of falling behind and seeing it collapse around our ears. Well, the third

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revolution that we need to speak of as well today is the liberty created by our constitutional form of

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government made possible the culture for the communications revolution. Oh, 5,000 year leap

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indeed. Once more, in close connection with the speed of travel, the speed and quality of communication

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has increased exponentially. Note this, you listeners who can't put down your cell phones for more than 15

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minutes of who can't break your addiction to text messaging. Oh, for the bulk of recorded human

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history, communications amongst people was as fast and as accurate as a written letter or horsepower

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delivered communique. Even the romantic, exciting history of the Pony Express, where mail was delivered

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cross-continent in the saddlebags of men who drove their horses at breakneck speed in a matter of days

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rather than weeks, right? Ah, was still limited to the Pony Express by the physical capabilities of the

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fastest horse. Perhaps even our Red Brothers had us beat in this regard, being able to communicate

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across great distances via smoke signals. Well, the first great step in the communications revolution

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was the invention and deployment of the telegraph. Samuel F.B. Morse received a patent for his

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invention. Remember again, the importance of exclusive rights to an inventor in the patent. He received his

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patent in 1847. Morse, Samuel Morse, was an ardent Christian and believer in God's manifest destiny in

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America. And he hoped that his invention would contribute not only America's expansion across the

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continent, but also to the spread of Christianity. In fact, the very first message communicated from

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Baltimore to Washington, D.C. by Morse was, what hath God wrought, right, from the book of numbers in the Bible.

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Soon, telegraph lines were popping up all across the American continent and Europe too, using the

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electronic pulse method of long and short taps developed by Samuel Morse and known to us, of

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course, as the Morse Code. It became the universal language of electronic communication. And now, the speed

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and volume of communications was limited not only by the speed of electricity moving through copper wire

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and not the legs of a horse, right? There's a great historical irony in the fact that just as the

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Pony Express was getting its legs, if you will, the telegraph was sweeping across the continent.

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And there are pictures and paintings of Pony Express riders galloping right under teams of men

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stringing wire across the American wilderness. Oh, what a beautiful irony. What a beautiful picture

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of and encapsulating the idea of the 5,000-year leap. And soon, telegraph cables would be strung across the

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Atlantic Ocean to link the American continent with the European continent. On and on we can go. This is a

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perfect picture of what we mean by exponential growth. Had this been the only improvement in

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communications for the next 1,000 years, it would have been considered monumental. And here, an ardent

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Christian who believed in America's manifest destiny and the Constitution that had spawned it,

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he used the free-market capitalist system to invent a device that leaped over 5,000 years of human

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history to reduce the speed and increase the quantity or to, yeah, to reduce and increase the

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quantity, though not necessarily the quality of human communication, from the few miles an hour of a

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swift horse to the miles per second of an electronic pulse. Oh, so make no mistake about this, dear

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listener. The necessary ingredient that is left out of the equation when things are recounted in modern

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history books is the constitutional soil in which these were germinated. We have already noted the

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importance of the patent for industrious motivation. In regards to communication and its revolution,

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we would be remiss if we did not point out to you the absolute necessity of the First Amendment for

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impelling the advances in communication in America, the First Amendment. And of course, in part,

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that reads, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, right? For

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the understanding of the Founding Fathers, the abridgment of the freedom of speech had to do with

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political speech, that is, speech having to do with the government and its politics. They had just come

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out of a world where Crown and Parliament had censored very severely both colonial and the English press

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for opinions critical of King George III or the House of Lords. They were only following in the

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footsteps of Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell, both of whom took absolute control of the press as to who

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could print and what they could print, right? And so they were keenly aware of Founding Fathers,

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that a republic, if it were going to remain free, a republic demands a full and open airing of facts

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and stories and opinions. Oh, what other nation at the time had such a free press and free speech

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provision in a written constitution, which we are swiftly losing? France, the kings and the nobility

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ruled France with an iron fist, and the French Revolution would bring on Napoleon, too, no friend

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to the free press. And Germany or Russia, they were both ruled by czars, who controlled the press

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in their own worlds, even as the czars in America are swiftly descending and ruling us as well in our

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free speech. But at the time, America stood alone, having a free and independent press, and the

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opportunity to publish and proclaim whatever was in a man's heart. Oh, the notion that pornography,

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however, or vile and inciting speech was included in this freedom was unheard of to our Founding

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Fathers. Nevertheless, each new advance in the communications revolution put a great deal of

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strain on the provisions of the First Amendment. The invention of the radio has tested the limits of

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speech right down to our own day in regards to, for example, the fairness doctrine, right? The fairness

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doctrine. That was an obvious attack on free speech by liberals, even as they are attacking

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our free speech throughout today. We need to reclaim this liberty so that we can continue to grow and

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flourish and expand as a constitutional republic. Well, we will take up the fourth revolution, and the

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next time we're together, as we examine God's blessing America in the 5,000-year leap, as he has

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indeed given us the constitutional liberties. We'll track those biblical roots as well as we progress.

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This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a Moment of Truth.

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And we meet for holy worship, we proclaim liberty, and we speak freely using our First Amendment rights.

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We speak freely in worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on Sundays, 10 a.m. Sunday mornings at 101 4th Street

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on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for feedback and more information at area code

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208-523-0196. Area code 208-523-0196.