1 00:00:04,750 --> 00:00:10,130 Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church 2 00:00:10,130 --> 00:00:15,089 with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and 3 00:00:15,089 --> 00:00:22,210 faith. And today, what are the 11th and 12th principles in the 5,000-year leap? 4 00:00:22,609 --> 00:00:27,530 We at New Geneva have been tracking with some very important principles of the American 5 00:00:27,530 --> 00:00:33,670 Constitution that have been delineated in one important book for America, and that is the 6 00:00:33,670 --> 00:00:42,509 5,000-year leap. What document has distilled the wisdom of the last 5,000 years of human experience 7 00:00:42,509 --> 00:00:48,429 with government? What document was crafted by gifted men who sifted through the governments 8 00:00:48,429 --> 00:00:54,929 of the last 5,000 years and culled the best from them and shaped those elements into one of the 9 00:00:54,929 --> 00:01:00,429 purest republics ever seen on earth? Well, of course, that document is the Constitution 10 00:01:00,429 --> 00:01:08,870 of the United States of America, formed by our founding fathers in 1787 and which oversaw the 11 00:01:08,870 --> 00:01:15,430 most flourishing period of cultural and scientific advancement in human history. Tell me, in what 12 00:01:15,430 --> 00:01:22,290 other country in human history has man gone from horse and buggy to supersonic air travel and put 13 00:01:22,290 --> 00:01:27,709 American footprints on the moon? In what other country have we progressed from log cabins with 14 00:01:27,709 --> 00:01:34,909 wood stoves and kerosene lamps to digital TV cell phones and a laptop computer? In the accumulated 15 00:01:34,909 --> 00:01:42,290 history of the last 5,000 years, no progress has been so dramatic or prosperous as has been the 16 00:01:42,290 --> 00:01:50,409 progress of a free humanity under the Constitution of the United States of America. The service which this 17 00:01:50,409 --> 00:01:57,069 book, the 5,000-year leap, has accomplished for us is reducing the vast and sometimes complicated 18 00:01:57,069 --> 00:02:06,909 worldview of our founding fathers into 28 discrete principles. These 28 principles do not exhaust 19 00:02:06,909 --> 00:02:14,650 everything that can be said about our Constitution. It doesn't pretend to do that. But those 28 20 00:02:14,650 --> 00:02:21,449 principles do summarize the essential elements of that Constitution. And what we would ask of you, 21 00:02:21,449 --> 00:02:29,090 dear listener, is to listen to and digest these 28 principles one at a time. And as you do, you will 22 00:02:29,090 --> 00:02:36,729 either rejoice that your previous knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Constitution has been confirmed, 23 00:02:37,030 --> 00:02:43,330 or else that you'll rejoice that the gap in your understanding of it has been bridged. 24 00:02:43,330 --> 00:02:49,530 So, one way or another, you will no longer be able to plead ignorance of the Constitution to 25 00:02:49,530 --> 00:02:55,330 anyone. In fact, we would recommend that you go ahead and purchase this book from the website of 26 00:02:55,330 --> 00:03:02,169 its publisher, the National Center for Constitutional Studies, excuse me, the National Center for 27 00:03:02,169 --> 00:03:11,189 Constitutional Studies, nccs.org. Buy their books, send them money for support, for they do work that no 28 00:03:11,189 --> 00:03:18,169 other group on the face of the earth does. So, with this in mind, let's now turn to principles 11 and 12 29 00:03:18,169 --> 00:03:25,669 of the 28 principles of the Constitution. Principle 11 is, the majority of the people may alter or abolish 30 00:03:25,669 --> 00:03:32,210 a government which has become tyrannical. The majority of people may alter or abolish a government 31 00:03:32,210 --> 00:03:39,590 which has become tyrannical. And I like this one. Oh, come on, everyone. Away with a massive 32 00:03:39,590 --> 00:03:45,830 tyrannical monster that has become our federal government. Let's start tomorrow. Let me dig out 33 00:03:45,830 --> 00:03:51,469 my constitutional magic wand and wave it over Washington, D.C. so that, poof, we have the 34 00:03:51,469 --> 00:03:59,210 Constitutional Republic created for us by our founding fathers. Oh, if it were only that easy. 35 00:03:59,210 --> 00:04:05,490 But I don't think that is what they had in mind when men like Adams and Jefferson and Hamilton crafted 36 00:04:05,490 --> 00:04:12,430 our founding documents. They had just 11 years before the Constitutional Convention abolished a 37 00:04:12,430 --> 00:04:17,829 government which had become tyrannical, quote-unquote, when they entered on the Revolution of 1776. 38 00:04:18,029 --> 00:04:24,449 And the Constitutional Convention itself was a step to alter a government which had become not 39 00:04:24,449 --> 00:04:31,050 tyrannical but ineffective. That is, the Articles of Confederation. Yes, very few people realize this. 40 00:04:31,290 --> 00:04:37,089 But the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were sent there ostensibly to tweak the Articles 41 00:04:37,089 --> 00:04:43,730 of Confederation a little bit and then come home. But once there, the delegates from the respective 42 00:04:43,730 --> 00:04:50,990 state congresses realized that it would be easier and faster to scrap the articles and start afresh 43 00:04:50,990 --> 00:04:57,949 with a new document. Voila! We have our Constitution, then, as we know it. And our founding fathers knew 44 00:04:57,949 --> 00:05:06,170 what it was both to abolish and alter governments. Ah, this is a very important principle to understand 45 00:05:06,170 --> 00:05:13,730 precisely and correctly because it is fraught with danger. There are two dark and deep ditches on either 46 00:05:13,730 --> 00:05:19,089 side of this road and a straight and narrow road right down the middle, which our founding fathers 47 00:05:19,089 --> 00:05:24,810 traveled very successfully. And one of those ditches on one side of the road is that of the socialist 48 00:05:24,810 --> 00:05:32,569 toady. The socialist toady. We see a lot of them in our country today. The Oxford English Dictionary 49 00:05:32,569 --> 00:05:41,269 defines a toady as servile, an obsequious hanger-on, slavish, unthinking follower, unquote. 50 00:05:41,810 --> 00:05:48,209 This is the road of progressives in our land today. They mindlessly automatically accept what 51 00:05:48,209 --> 00:05:53,870 has fed them from socialist central, whether that be the Obama White House or news outlets like 52 00:05:53,870 --> 00:06:01,569 MSNBC. The socialist toady is preoccupied with being accepted as a right thinker, quote-unquote, 53 00:06:01,970 --> 00:06:09,529 even as the citizens of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World strove to be in line with the party on 54 00:06:09,529 --> 00:06:14,610 right thinking when it came to a test-tube mother, which was far more sophisticated, 55 00:06:14,610 --> 00:06:20,670 rather than a viviparous mother that is a natural live-born child from a woman's womb, 56 00:06:20,930 --> 00:06:26,730 which was far too primitive and repugnant so politically incorrect as it's becoming more and 57 00:06:26,730 --> 00:06:33,449 more in our country today. Well, the socialist toady will accept the chains of slavery under any 58 00:06:33,449 --> 00:06:41,569 condition and do so for a variety of reasons. Yes, I have a friend who is so obsessed with his own 59 00:06:41,569 --> 00:06:48,769 safety and the state of his 401k that he would never think of risking to speak out on any issue 60 00:06:48,769 --> 00:06:54,149 of conscience. I also have a relative who is so obsessed with looking good in the eyes of her 61 00:06:54,149 --> 00:07:00,509 progressive colleagues that whatever the party line may be, she'll parrot it without a moment's 62 00:07:00,509 --> 00:07:08,149 hesitation or thought. Generations of public school educated citizens now know how to put a condom on a 63 00:07:08,149 --> 00:07:14,149 cucumber or weave a basket, but they've never taken an American history course or government or civics 64 00:07:14,149 --> 00:07:21,329 course in their lives. They have no clue about the Constitution or the difference between a democracy 65 00:07:21,329 --> 00:07:29,470 and a republic, and consequently they are led like sheep by socialist goats like Barack Obama and Joe 66 00:07:29,470 --> 00:07:36,589 Biden and they're slaughtered like sheep in their taxes, freedoms and rights. This is a deep naive ditch 67 00:07:36,589 --> 00:07:42,949 into which so many slavish progressives have fallen, but it's not the predicament of our founding fathers. 68 00:07:43,129 --> 00:07:50,649 No, no, no, no. Andrew Ford puts it this way. He says the price of liberty is always has been and always 69 00:07:50,649 --> 00:07:57,209 will be blood. The person who is not willing to die for his liberty has already lost it to the first 70 00:07:57,209 --> 00:08:04,930 scoundrel who is willing to risk dying to violate that person's liberty. Unquote. Are you free? He goes 71 00:08:04,930 --> 00:08:11,370 on to ask. Are you free? Well, are you free, dear listener? Are you willing to risk your life to 72 00:08:11,370 --> 00:08:17,129 maintain your liberties? Most people are not, and they continue to lose their liberty to the first scoundrel 73 00:08:17,129 --> 00:08:25,389 willing to risk his life to violate those liberties. Oh, this is the first and prior ditch into which most 74 00:08:25,389 --> 00:08:32,370 of Americans fall, the ditch of the socialist toady. The second is like unto it, as our Lord might say 75 00:08:32,370 --> 00:08:37,330 about the greatest commandments. The second is like unto it, that second ditch. That is, not only is 76 00:08:37,330 --> 00:08:43,190 there a man unwilling to fight for his liberty, but there's the man willing to rashly throw it away 77 00:08:43,190 --> 00:08:50,850 in a violent fit of temper. This character we might call the revolutionary hothead. For how many foolish 78 00:08:50,850 --> 00:08:57,750 revolutions in the history of our race is this kind of person responsible? The premier example is that of 79 00:08:57,750 --> 00:09:05,029 the French Revolution of 1789. Rarely in the history of man have we had a more fit contrast than the 80 00:09:05,029 --> 00:09:13,850 revolution of 1776 in America and that of France in 1789. In America, God was worshipped and revered 81 00:09:13,850 --> 00:09:20,210 and acknowledged as the great providence who guided our destiny. In France, the goddess of reason was 82 00:09:20,210 --> 00:09:26,129 fashioned by the mobs in the so-called tennis court revolution and God declared to be dead. 83 00:09:26,129 --> 00:09:34,450 In the revolution of 1776 in America, the direct consequence of our revolutionary war was the 84 00:09:34,450 --> 00:09:42,409 fashioning of a constitutional republic. In France, the direct consequence of the series of mob actions in 85 00:09:42,409 --> 00:09:49,389 the streets in the French Revolution was the reign of terror where thousands of citizens were slaughtered at 86 00:09:49,389 --> 00:09:55,870 the guillotine. The revolution of 1776 produced men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson 87 00:09:55,870 --> 00:10:03,289 and John Adams, each of whom served as president in a constitutional republic. The French Revolution of 88 00:10:03,289 --> 00:10:11,029 1789 eventually deteriorated to such a state of anarchy that it produced men like Robespierre and 89 00:10:11,029 --> 00:10:19,190 eventually the tyrant Napoleon. Many other examples could be cited of rash, spontaneous outbursts of 90 00:10:19,190 --> 00:10:25,669 mob-like action where the criteria for altering or abolishing a tyrannical government are not present. 91 00:10:25,669 --> 00:10:32,789 Whether we think of the grain riots in Rome under the ancient empire or the so-called Prague Spring of 1956 92 00:10:32,789 --> 00:10:39,669 where brave but rash patriots tried to throw off the yoke of the Soviet Union but were crushed by Russian tanks 93 00:10:39,669 --> 00:10:47,110 or even the foolish revolutionaries of the 60s in America who rioted in the streets and produced radicals like 94 00:10:47,110 --> 00:10:55,269 Bill Ayers and his offshoot of the SDS, the Weathermen. In response to the fast creeping socialist tyranny 95 00:10:55,269 --> 00:11:02,149 overtaking America in our own day, we must be careful not to respond as revolutionary hotheads but 96 00:11:02,149 --> 00:11:10,870 rather ask, what would Washington and Jefferson do? That's not to deny that our constitutional republic is 97 00:11:10,870 --> 00:11:18,629 swiftly deteriorating into a socialist tyranny. The very term tyrant is derived from the Latin tyrannos 98 00:11:18,629 --> 00:11:27,509 which is derived from the Greek tyrannos which originally indicated tyrannos, a ruler in whom all power had been 99 00:11:27,509 --> 00:11:34,230 concentrated. In the Greek city-states ironically, tyrannies developed when pure democracies collapsed 100 00:11:34,230 --> 00:11:40,950 because of their inefficiencies and inequities. When people cried out for solutions to their problems, 101 00:11:40,950 --> 00:11:47,509 a variety of saviors rode to their rescue and imposed their will on the masses, creating some of the purest 102 00:11:47,509 --> 00:11:55,429 tyrannies the world has ever known. Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines a tyranny as arbitrary or despotic 103 00:11:55,429 --> 00:12:03,509 power, the exercise of power over subjects and others with a rigor not authorized by law or justice, 104 00:12:03,509 --> 00:12:10,629 nor not requisite for the purposes of government." Unquote. I like this definition because it includes 105 00:12:10,629 --> 00:12:16,870 an inerrant measure of tyranny, that is, law, justice, and the requisite purposes of government. 106 00:12:17,509 --> 00:12:23,830 When a tyrant, whether he calls himself a president or senator or governor, exercises power 107 00:12:23,830 --> 00:12:30,389 against law and justice or against the expressed purposes of government, then he rightly deserves 108 00:12:30,389 --> 00:12:38,149 the title of tyrant. Such a man in such a system must be altered or abolished by the majority of the 109 00:12:38,149 --> 00:12:45,190 people. This is an important component of the eleventh principle to keep in mind. It is the majority 110 00:12:45,190 --> 00:12:52,149 of the government that must make the change. In the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, 111 00:12:52,149 --> 00:12:58,950 those Virginia Declaration of Rights said this, when any government shall be found contrary 112 00:12:58,950 --> 00:13:05,350 to these purposes, that is the commonwealth of all, a majority of the community has an indubitable, 113 00:13:05,350 --> 00:13:13,190 inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it in such a manner as shall be judged 114 00:13:13,190 --> 00:13:21,029 most conducive to the public will." Unquote. There is never a system so perfect that it is not possible 115 00:13:21,029 --> 00:13:27,110 for a few to be tyrannized by the majority. This is why the rights of the minority in America are 116 00:13:27,110 --> 00:13:33,990 protected, though not necessarily their will allowed to prevail. That must be kept in mind by impertinent 117 00:13:33,990 --> 00:13:39,029 minorities, too, in our country. Their rights are guaranteed, not the prevalence of their wills. 118 00:13:39,029 --> 00:13:42,710 John Locke, the philosopher of the revolution, put it this way. He said, 119 00:13:42,710 --> 00:13:49,429 it is impossible for one or a few oppressed men to disturb the government where the body of the 120 00:13:49,429 --> 00:13:53,750 people, that is the majority, do not think themselves concerned in it. And that was from 121 00:13:53,750 --> 00:13:59,750 his second essay concerning civil government. And thus, although a few American citizens may have 122 00:13:59,750 --> 00:14:05,750 their property taken from them in an eminent domain case, for example, by a tyrannical government, 123 00:14:05,750 --> 00:14:12,389 those agreed citizens are not justified in making a revolution if the people do not share their 124 00:14:12,389 --> 00:14:19,509 outrage. In one eloquent passage of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson echoed the long 125 00:14:19,509 --> 00:14:25,509 suffering patience of the colonists when he said, prudence indeed will dictate that governments long 126 00:14:25,509 --> 00:14:32,629 established should not be changed for light and transient causes. And accordingly, all experience has 127 00:14:32,629 --> 00:14:39,190 shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves 128 00:14:39,190 --> 00:14:46,309 by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." This is good advice to all of us who see the 129 00:14:46,309 --> 00:14:51,750 quickening pace of tyranny in America. Governments long established should not be changed for light and 130 00:14:51,750 --> 00:14:59,110 transient causes. But we must ask ourselves, is the seizure of our property, whether it be our homes in 131 00:14:59,110 --> 00:15:05,190 eminent domain lawsuits or our guns during the raids in New Orleans during the Katrina emergency? 132 00:15:05,190 --> 00:15:12,309 Are these light and transient causes? Is the recent homeland security report issued by the tyrant-esque 133 00:15:12,309 --> 00:15:21,190 homeland security chief Janet Napolitano a light and transient cause? And this piece of hysterical 134 00:15:21,190 --> 00:15:26,629 right-wing creative journalism, it's not really a report, not a sliver of evidence for any of 135 00:15:26,629 --> 00:15:33,029 the assertions just offered. She characterizes those who oppose abortion or illegal immigration or 136 00:15:33,029 --> 00:15:38,710 oppose the erosion of our Second Amendment rights as right-wing extremists. And Joe Biden is followed 137 00:15:38,710 --> 00:15:43,669 right along with her, right? Where they are the most significant threat to homeland security, 138 00:15:43,669 --> 00:15:51,029 white supremacists supposedly. When a long train of abuses and usurpations, Jefferson adds in the 139 00:15:51,029 --> 00:15:58,309 Declaration of Independence. He says, when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably 140 00:15:58,309 --> 00:16:06,870 the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their 141 00:16:06,870 --> 00:16:13,830 duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security." Unquote from the 142 00:16:13,830 --> 00:16:19,669 Declaration of Independence. Well, if so, then we must frankly acknowledge Principle 11, that is, 143 00:16:19,669 --> 00:16:26,309 the majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical. Principle 144 00:16:26,309 --> 00:16:33,350 number 12 is a good companion to this one, and it is, the United States of America shall be a republic. 145 00:16:33,350 --> 00:16:41,429 The United States of America shall be a republic. We are a republic, dear listener, not a democracy. 146 00:16:41,429 --> 00:16:46,389 And this is not a mere hair-splitting distinction for pointy-head intellectuals to debate in their 147 00:16:46,389 --> 00:16:52,309 river towers. No, this goes to the heart of who we are as a people. It goes to the heart of your 148 00:16:52,309 --> 00:17:01,990 liberties, fellow citizen. It concerns you intimately and directly. Once again, Webster's 1828 dictionary 149 00:17:01,990 --> 00:17:08,789 defines republic as a commonwealth, a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power 150 00:17:08,789 --> 00:17:15,910 is lodged in representatives elected by the people." Unquote. Our founding fathers studied 151 00:17:15,910 --> 00:17:22,630 what they called the divine science of government. The divine science of government. And they studied 152 00:17:22,630 --> 00:17:28,950 it closely all of their lives. And they concluded that democracy was one of the most dangerous, 153 00:17:28,950 --> 00:17:36,150 unreliable forms of government ever created. Because in a democracy, the people as a whole participate in 154 00:17:36,150 --> 00:17:42,150 every component, every branch of government. They directly make and administer laws and they act as 155 00:17:42,150 --> 00:17:47,829 judges over laws violations and every decision of government they participate in. That is, they vote 156 00:17:47,829 --> 00:17:55,269 on every issue. This kind of pure democracy was tried at various times and places in history and 157 00:17:55,269 --> 00:18:05,829 invariably led to disaster and eventual tyranny. Why? Well, there really are four reasons why. Number one, 158 00:18:05,829 --> 00:18:12,549 in a democracy, issues are dispatched with shallow treatment. As James Madison pointed out in the 159 00:18:12,549 --> 00:18:18,230 Federalist Papers, most men are preoccupied with the daily tasks of making a living practicing their 160 00:18:18,230 --> 00:18:23,190 trades, crafts and professions. They don't have time to study every issue that crops up in government 161 00:18:23,190 --> 00:18:29,430 in the depth and detail required to make a decision. Hearings, studies, reports are either not produced 162 00:18:29,430 --> 00:18:37,589 or participated in by citizens in a democracy. No. So, the likelihood that a vote on any given issue 163 00:18:37,589 --> 00:18:44,309 will be ill-informed and disastrally mistaken dramatically increases. In fact, this was proved 164 00:18:44,309 --> 00:18:52,309 out in Athens on several occasions when democracy was tried. Oh, global warming scam science, for example, 165 00:18:52,309 --> 00:18:58,630 is a good modern example. Could you imagine the laws that would have been passed by now in a democracy 166 00:18:58,630 --> 00:19:04,470 with the general public having been so erroneously misled by the hysteria in the left-wing science 167 00:19:04,470 --> 00:19:10,069 community? So, number one, in a democracy, issues are dispatched with shallow treatment. Number two, 168 00:19:10,069 --> 00:19:18,069 in a democracy, government must be confined to a small area. Every citizen must participate in a democracy, 169 00:19:18,069 --> 00:19:23,670 then they all must be present for every decision. This is a physical impossibility in the vast 170 00:19:23,670 --> 00:19:29,509 hinterlands that comprise the continental United States. Our founding fathers realized that if 171 00:19:29,509 --> 00:19:36,869 America was going to be practically governed and grow as they saw God working, then representatives 172 00:19:36,869 --> 00:19:43,990 sent to a central capital must do the work of the people. A republic can grow, a democracy cannot. 173 00:19:43,990 --> 00:19:52,069 Number three, in a democracy, mob rule invariably results. Oh, that's one of the great pernicious effects 174 00:19:52,069 --> 00:20:00,230 of democracy. Mob rule invariably results. And it's difficult to communicate to a modern audience the passion 175 00:20:00,230 --> 00:20:07,190 of violence that rules in democracies. Have you ever been part of a mob? That is a large group of people 176 00:20:07,190 --> 00:20:14,470 aroused in a single passion with a single purpose, anonymous, ready to do violence? Oh, I've talked 177 00:20:14,470 --> 00:20:21,509 with people who are part of the protest against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, for example, or even in the 178 00:20:21,509 --> 00:20:29,430 George Floyd mobs when you were anonymous. Oh, democracy rules in mobs, dear listeners. The advocates of 179 00:20:29,430 --> 00:20:34,230 democracy are some of the most violent people on the face of the earth. And we saw this in the George 180 00:20:34,230 --> 00:20:41,990 Floyd riots all over America, did we not in 2020? As James Madison points out in Federalist paper number 181 00:20:41,990 --> 00:20:49,430 10, he says, democracies have ever been a spectacle of turbulence and contention, have ever been found 182 00:20:49,430 --> 00:20:56,950 incompatible with personal security or the rights of property. Democracies have in general been as short 183 00:20:56,950 --> 00:21:04,309 in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths, unquote. A very poignant point to make. 184 00:21:04,869 --> 00:21:11,509 And number four, in a democracy, tyranny eventually obtains. It may seem counterintuitive, but we can draw 185 00:21:11,509 --> 00:21:18,470 a straight line from democracy to tyranny. Madison was sagely observing the results of history when he noted 186 00:21:18,470 --> 00:21:25,190 that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, 187 00:21:25,190 --> 00:21:31,829 right? In the first place, a dynamic kind of occurs where the majority ends up not only making 188 00:21:31,829 --> 00:21:40,390 decisions over the minority, but taking rights and property from a minority as well. This happened in 189 00:21:40,390 --> 00:21:47,589 several city states in Greece, and we see it in America too, with the persecution of the taking of 190 00:21:47,589 --> 00:21:54,950 rights of vaccine resistors during the panic pandemic that occurred just a few years ago. 191 00:21:54,950 --> 00:22:02,309 The rights of, and the property even, of vaccine resistors were appropriated, or even during the 192 00:22:02,309 --> 00:22:09,990 Floyd riots, the George Floyd riots, again, personal property neglected and destroyed, rights trampled upon 193 00:22:09,990 --> 00:22:16,950 in those riots. In a republic, a written constitution protects the rights and property of the minority. 194 00:22:16,950 --> 00:22:24,549 In a democracy, the ignorant, passion-driven will of the majority can override the rights and property 195 00:22:24,549 --> 00:22:30,950 of the minority with tyranny resulting. What is more, the inequities and errors of judgment of the mob 196 00:22:30,950 --> 00:22:38,150 and the misery and suffering that results invariably causes a cry of deliver us to well up in the hearts 197 00:22:38,150 --> 00:22:44,869 of the people? Yes. Our founding fathers observed this to be the case in ancient Athens, where the democracy 198 00:22:44,869 --> 00:22:52,309 established by Salon, for example, fell prey to all of the weaknesses cited above. Their money became 199 00:22:52,309 --> 00:22:59,670 worthless, disasters in the military resulted from poor judgments of the majority, and others tyrannized by the 200 00:22:59,670 --> 00:23:07,910 the majority began to plot treason. In the end, misery and suffering so predominated in Athens that the 201 00:23:07,910 --> 00:23:15,029 people cried out for a strong man to deliver them. This provided the opportunity for the tyrant 202 00:23:15,670 --> 00:23:25,190 Pesistratus to seize power, Pesistratus, and his promise of change you can believe in became real with a 203 00:23:25,190 --> 00:23:31,910 vengeance. This is just one example from history noted well by our founders of how we can draw a 204 00:23:31,910 --> 00:23:38,230 straight line from democracy to tyranny. Oh, for all of these reasons and more, our founding fathers 205 00:23:38,230 --> 00:23:45,109 rejected democracy as a form of government and embraced a republic as the best form for the United 206 00:23:45,109 --> 00:23:51,109 States of America. And in intervening years, this distinction has been blurred, however, and obscured by 207 00:23:51,109 --> 00:23:57,430 a number of movements and people. But it's time that we return to and recapture the original vision 208 00:23:57,430 --> 00:24:04,630 of our Constitution that establishes not a democracy but a representative republic. Your God-given rights, 209 00:24:04,630 --> 00:24:10,549 dear listener, depend on it. When the property of the individual is at the disposal of the collective, 210 00:24:11,190 --> 00:24:16,630 liable to seizure and redistribution at the whim of government, then no man's property is safe. 211 00:24:16,630 --> 00:24:22,710 When your rights are amenable to change or violation depending upon the vote of the majority, 212 00:24:22,710 --> 00:24:28,869 then no man's rights are guaranteed any longer. Presently, a large portion of our nation is charging 213 00:24:28,869 --> 00:24:35,430 over the precipice of socialism and democracy like lemmings to their own destruction. They're filled with 214 00:24:35,430 --> 00:24:41,829 envy for other men's property and jealousy over other men's lives. Our present leaders use these 215 00:24:41,829 --> 00:24:49,269 passions too to gain power and then tyrannize other citizens' lives. They are ignorant of Jesus' rule of 216 00:24:49,269 --> 00:24:54,869 the Spirit, that is, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not 217 00:24:54,869 --> 00:25:03,269 consist in the abundance of his possessions. Jesus says that in Luke 12, verse 15. And those who advocate 218 00:25:03,269 --> 00:25:10,390 democracy and want to seize the property and rights of the minority, they are ignorant of the fact that their 219 00:25:10,390 --> 00:25:16,710 life, liberty, and happiness can be had with an abundance of the things of life, or their life, 220 00:25:16,710 --> 00:25:23,750 liberty, and happiness can be had with the meagerness of things. Oh, it depends upon the soul and character 221 00:25:23,750 --> 00:25:30,230 of the individual, whether you can be happy with much or little. It depends upon the soul and character 222 00:25:30,230 --> 00:25:37,910 of the individual, not upon the generosity of government. No. Oh, our fellow citizens, 223 00:25:37,910 --> 00:25:44,309 I'm afraid, are also manifestly ignorant of principles 11 and 12 too, which we've outlined 224 00:25:44,309 --> 00:25:50,630 today. That is principle level 11, the majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which 225 00:25:50,630 --> 00:25:57,509 has become tyrannical. And principle number 12, the United States shall be a republic. This has been 226 00:25:57,509 --> 00:26:05,109 Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 227 00:26:05,109 --> 00:26:11,670 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And I would just encourage you to join us, 228 00:26:11,670 --> 00:26:17,269 cross our threshold, visit us. Summer's a good time to do that. Though summer's closing quickly, 229 00:26:17,269 --> 00:26:23,269 isn't it? And come and join us. We're preaching through the Gospel of John right now. And I would 230 00:26:23,269 --> 00:26:28,950 just encourage you to come and join us at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You will receive a 231 00:26:28,950 --> 00:26:35,190 warm welcome. We worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday, 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 232 00:26:35,190 --> 00:26:49,509 And you can call us for feedback or more information at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.