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 have a question for every patriot who fully understands that we are living under a tyranny in today's United States of America. And that question is, where are the states? Where are the states in this fight?

I ask this because the answer to this question will help to answer another question I hear asked over and over again in America. That is, what are we going to do? How do we overcome tyranny and restore our constitutional republic? Is there a biblical constitutional way to fight the kind of tyranny we find suppressing us? And the short answer is yes.

This broadcast is an expansion upon an earlier series on the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. And that broadcast, that series, three-part series, can be found on our podcast website, which is americastruths.org. That's all one word, americastruths.org. And I urge you to give that a listen. And there you will find the more complete picture of what we must do to defeat tyranny and reestablish our constitutional republic, the doctrine of the lesser magistrate.

And this broadcast is an expansion upon one aspect of that. We saw that the doctrine of the lesser magistrate is the biblical constitutional answer to how we the people can resist tyranny, even to the point of using armed resistance against tyrannical force. And the basic principle of the doctrine of the lesser magistrate is that when a tyrannical supreme magistrate cannot or will not alter its ways, then it is the right and duty of lesser magistrates to resist him and overthrow him with arms if necessary. The tyrant, by definition, has broken the social contract established by the constitution.

And that tyrant has forfeited his right to govern. And we saw then, as we reviewed the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, we saw that one of the timely strategic lesser magistrates who is well-positioned to conduct biblical constitutional resistance is the governor of an individual state. That governor has constitutional elective authority. That is, he's been elected by the people and wields true power and authority on behalf of the people. In cooperation with the state's legislature, he can enforce legislation to resist the power of federal tyrants.

And if necessary, he can raise a state militia strictly under his command that cannot be federalized by the tyrannical beast in Washington, D.C. Well, what we want to do today is to expand on this idea and show why the United States Constitution is perfectly in line with the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, owing precisely to the state's determinative prominence at the creation of our country. Yeah, the states were prominent at the creation of our country. The states, considered individually, were the country.

It was not the United States considered as a whole, but rather individual states considered as separate sovereign nations who chose to establish a limited federation to represent them in certain matters, like making treaties with foreign powers or coining money or regulating trade between the several states. And they had specific enumerated powers, this federation, and no others. How that vision has morphed over the decades, dear listener. Today, we think of a state as one of 50 sub-juristictions of one federal entity, don't we?

Those of us who live in Idaho, for example, are but a subset of citizens who actually compose a part of the whole body of the country we call the United States of America as a whole. States may have different names, have different geography and climate, different foods and accents, but in relation to the District of Criminals, Washington, D.C., they're all part of the same. Do what you're told because we are over you, says Washington, D.C. Today, it's the whole that matters. The United States collectively. For example, at our founding, Americans used to predicate about the Union, the United States are.

That's the present plural, emphasizing the individual states as entities. Now we just say the United States is. That is present singular, which emphasizes the one federal government that originally served the interests of the several states. Oh, why is that? What distinguishes our attitude towards states that is so different, different from that of the people who established the country?

Well, the answer to that question goes a long way towards showing us what needs to be done to break the global tyranny tightening around us. You want to defeat tyranny? Where are the states? Where are the states? Six points I'd like to make with you briefly here.

Number one, the colonies understood themselves to be individual sovereign states or nations. The consciousness of the original 13 colonies was far different than ours today. Each of the states were founded as colonies created by charters from the English crown and parliament. They were Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Each one of these states had its own inspiration and motivation for being established.

Massachusetts was founded by Puritans who wanted a thoroughly Christian Protestant nation that would usher in the Christian millennium. Maryland was founded by Cecil Calvert who sought to provide a safe haven, a nation in the new world for Roman Catholics who were being persecuted in Protestant lands in Europe, thus Maryland, right? Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn as a nation where his fellow Quakers could prosper and thrive uninhibited. Even Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams as a nation for free-thinking Christians who were not bound by the denominational conventions of other states. On and on we could go.

Each state was fiercely independent and committed to its founding vision. Each colony began to see itself as an independent sovereign state or nation as the decades rolled by. They had their own colonial legislatures and that passed laws governing their daily lives. Their elected governors administered all aspects of life and the colonial courts adjudicated disputes that the far-off judges in England could never come close to judging. Even after independence, when the federal government was created, individuals still saw themselves as citizens of their respective states more than as citizens of a larger union.

For example, at the juncture of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, when he was offered the generalship, the command of northern forces, well, he said, and I quote, save in the defense of my native state, I never desire again to draw my sword. Robert E. Lee took up the command of the southern forces because he wanted to fight for his state, Virginia. He even said in a letter, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. Unquote. That is Virginia.

Wow. England was half a world away and it seemed not much to care either during the colonial period. The individual colonies came to view themselves as 13 independent sovereign nations who happened to share a continent and a measure of cooperation with one another on certain specified matters. But in the final analysis, they were independent entities who would end up challenging the most powerful empire in the world for their liberty. That was the British Empire.

And in doing so, the 13 colonies would become the 13 original states of the union. And secondly, the second point I want to make with you is that these states or nations created a federal government to serve them, not vice versa. Change your thinking here, dear listener. Put on your thinking cap. The newly minted 13 states realized quickly that they needed a federal structure in which they could do things collectively that they could not do individually or else the United States would never have been formed in the first place.

Well, that included the aforementioned negotiating treaties with foreign powers, coining money, and regulating trade between the states. But it also included making laws that would serve the individual states and, most importantly, protect the God-given rights they had so recently fought for at so great a cost, protecting the rights of the citizens. And their first attempt at forming such a structure was the Articles of Confederation. But it proved too weak to achieve the ends desired by the respective states.

And that prompted the famous Constitutional Convention of 1787, where our founding fathers formed a more perfect union in giving us the United States Constitution. That celebrated document not only protected the rights of every American in the Bill of Rights, but granted to the federal system that they constructed only 20 enumerated powers for it to exercise on behalf of the states. 20 things the United States government could do and no more. James Madison put it this way. He said, the powers of the general government relate to external objects and are but few.

But the powers in the states relate to those objects which immediately concern the prosperity of the people. Unquote. James Madison had it right. In fact, of so great importance was the principle of limited government that they ensconced in the Constitution the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Right?

The Ninth Amendment reads, the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. And then the Tenth Amendment goes this way. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people. Unquote. The language of the Constitution, dear listener, is clear and understandable by any intelligent adult who's been taught the skills of rudimentary thinking.

Why have so many of them ignored or equivocated or blatantly transgressed these amendments over the years? The intent of them is transparent. The Ninth Amendment assures all who would think otherwise that just because ten rights are protected, all others could be trashed. No, there are many other God-given rights not specified, which are the people's as well.

And the Tenth Amendment is supposed to guarantee that the general powers of government fall to the purview of the states, except for those specifically enumerated by the federal or to the federal government to serve the people and the states and accepting certain powers prohibited to the states. Wow. What's happened to us? That brings me to point three. Those roles have been gradually reversed over the years.

Oh, the rules of who's supreme, right? Those roles have been gradually reversed over the years. Part of the curse on Israel that God promised them if they became slack and lazy and disobedient is that their slaves would rise up and become masters over them. Oh, that's precisely what's happened to the United States. The intended servant, that is the federal government, has risen up and become master over the states who were the intended masters.

Oh, the history of the Constitution has been a sad story of erosion as this process has gone wrong, right? We see the erosion. If you study history, you see the erosion of the separation of powers between branches of government and the balance of powers. We see the erosion of the liberties of the people specified in the Bill of Rights. We see the erosion, in particular, of the Tenth Amendment as if it were a mere speed bump on the road to tyranny.

Oh, the federal behemoth now exercises more powers than 20, don't they? They ban, they punish, fund, advertise, legislate for and against, encourage, regulate, and tax every facet of our lives, from our food, transportation, incomes, careers, homes, to medicine and health care, and even the discrimination against our religious faith, even now to where they fully intend to sexualize your children and determine their gender and take them away from you if you disagree. Oh, what Thomas Jefferson warned us about has come true.

And Jefferson, all those years back, was a prophet when he said, and I quote, when all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated, unquote. Oh, yes, as Jefferson predicted, your federal government has gone from a lean Spartan warrior to a demonic Jabba the Hutt of Star Wars. Oh, that Jabba the Hutt, you remember, it's demonic, and so is your federal government.

It eats its subjects, and so does your federal government. Jabba the Hutt was bloated fat with the fruits of our labor. So is your government. It enjoys chaining and robbing and murdering its slaves. It has nothing but contempt and hatred for you.

Do not be a naive, brainwashed Pollyanna any longer. Your federal government does not have your best interest at heart. It does not want to protect you, but predate upon you. That federal system will devour you and destroy you for its own aggrandizement. Where are the states?

Who's in charge? Who the states have been charged with encouraging the common wealth of their citizens? They have become the states' mere administrative districts for the federal government. Edicts are handed down from on high in D.C., and the states' obediently, unquestioningly carry them out, lest they lose federal funding for the myriad of programs to which they've become addicted over the decades. The states are weak, ineffective, and compliant to the dictates of Washington, D.C.

If the federal government is Jabba the Hutt, then the states have become that little lizard creature who crawled all over him, who was his toady salacious B. Crumb. They laugh and screech, the states do. They laugh and screech like him, and they fawn over, they obey cravenly, but they no longer exercise any independent thinking or action. Then, where are the states? Where are the states?

Point number four I'd like to make with you. Liberty will not be restored until the states reassert their sovereign status in relation to the federal government. Liberty will not be restored until the states reassert their sovereign status in relation to the federal government. This mushrooming tyranny will not stop until the people led by the lesser magistrate stops it and destroys it. The lesser magistrate may turn out to be perhaps a faction of white hats in the federal government, or maybe a federation of local jurisdictions led by sheriffs.

Several possibilities and scenarios could play out, but the best and strongest option is the one provided by the Constitution, the reassertion of the power of the states. Take back the powers not delegated to the federal government, dear listener. Being only 20 in number, they are, really, for the federal government. Reassert and protect the rights of your citizens, O states. They are numberless, and God-given those rights.

Make wholesome and salutary laws, O states, that further the well-being and property of your citizens. Do not let the tyranny of the district of criminals encroach upon those rights. Guard them jealously. And in order to do this rather time-consuming, distasteful job, three things are required. A, states need strong governors.

States need strong governors. Your state's governor is the lesser magistrate to the bloated federal tick tyrant, now sucking our lifeblood. Governors will need courage and intelligence to lead the people of their state. They will need to defy and defeat the beast on one side and defend his or her people on the other. It will require sacrificial labor on the governor's part and may also require martial leadership if military resistance is required.

And it may well be. Remember, no tyrant in history ever relinquished his power willingly or peacefully. Well, not only strong governors, but also states need strong legislatures. Governors need strong legislatures to back them up with the power of law. We are in a nation of laws guided by the rule of law.

Legislatures and governors need to work in tandem to secure the rights of the people and stand in stark contrast to the tyrannical rule of men and women now characterizing the federal beast. Senators and congressmen must have the governor's back, too, and the interests of the people at heart. Well, states need, then, C. States need strong citizens. Point C. States need strong citizens. None of this will work without the enthusiastic, informed, intelligent support of the people of that state.

And that means you don't go out and vote once every four years and think you've discharged your civic duty. No, dear listener. It means that you stay informed on the vital issues of the day and talk with others. It means you give to candidates and causes that matter. It means that perhaps you run for office locally where you live and work.

It means you volunteer and advocate for worthy causes and groups that are making a difference in your world. Oh, this option of all the possible scenarios being bandied about out there, right? It's the best for taking back our country and restoring our Constitution. And the states have tools with which to work as well. That brings me to point five.

Point number five. The states have a very full bag of constitutional tools with which to defeat the tyrannical federal government and reestablish liberty. Oh, the states have a lot of tools with this to fight and defeat tyranny. There are so many things that individual states can do to facilitate reconquering their territory, that territory both physical and spiritual. And here are just a few of those tools.

First of all, communication and media. States already advertise the advantages of their states as good places to do business or relocate or vacation. States, Idaho, use media to free yourselves and make your case before the people. And then there's also executive action. Governors have a wide discretion to act on behalf of the people apart from executing the laws of the state, don't they?

And then we also need legislation, legislative action. Lawmakers can create the environment for the impartial rule of law for their people, enabling strong governors and protecting the people. Oh, then there is also armed resistance. That's another tool in the bag of governors of the lesser magistrates. There is armed resistance.

If it comes to this, and it may well, states can create their own militia, independent of the transgender troops the federal government will send. Oh, for the patriotic militia in almost every state. And there's a patriotic militia movement in almost every state of the union. This is the constitutional and biblical avenue for your military skills and your willingness to serve. Then there was also secession, separation from the federal government as it is now constituted.

And that's an option that's once again being talked about and considered in some circles. And that way may well be an option, secession from the union. And then finally, there is just plain living well. It's often said that living well is the best revenge. And it is also the most effective tactic in the war on tyranny.

Marry, raise a family, work hard at your job and your recreations. Be an honest citizen who does his or her part in the community and see to it and your neighbors that you and your neighbors have clean water, clean air and clean food, create small local economies that are hard to regulate and control. And a lot of this is just simple and easy logic to figure out. Well, then finally, sixthly, the sixth point that I want to make with you is that you should and we all must acknowledge that God is sovereign overall. Yes, he is superintending the outlaying of history.

And we must all then acknowledge that he is sovereign overall, the God of the Bible. He is about building his kingdom and a free constitutional republic may well be in his plans for the United States of America. Even yet, this is my prayer. This is what I hope for. This is what I labor for.

But it might be that he is done with us too. And we will be consigned to another dark age of slavery and evil. And that is the default setting of humanity for millennia. Just pick up your Bible and read, dear listener. Let's hope that it is the former and not the latter that issues in America's history in the near future.

It is sure, however, that the states will not win back the republic without God. Begin, dear listener. You begin by giving your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and find that true liberty begins in the realm of the spirit first and foremost. True liberty begins in the realm of the spirit first and foremost and foremost and then radiates outward from there to your immediate world and then to the world of others and then to the world of politics. Politics, excuse me.

Politics and culture radiates outwards after that. In fact, knowing God is the most important part of living well, for that matter. Knowing God is the most important part of living well. And it goes on then that life into eternity, that's the plus. That's the big advantage of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, being saved by him and knowing your God, the father.

It goes on into eternity. So let me just finish by asking once again, where are the states? You must step up states. Oh, states 50 of you, you must step up. Pray that we hear from them and that we hear from them soon before it is too late.

This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can also catch our, our log, our assembly of past broadcasts at americastruths.org. americastruths.org. You can find our past broadcasts, including this one.

Call us for more information and some feedback as well at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.