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, what is principle 15 of the 28 principles of the Constitution? Principle 15. If you have been following along with us over the last few months, you know that we are now halfway through our study of those 28 principles, and we will push on today beyond the halfway point with principle 15.

But before I do, what I'd like to do is introduce you to our midweek Bible study for the year, for the academic year 23-24. I'm very excited about this one. We will have a Bible study on Thursday evenings, beginning at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place, and it's going to be on eschatology. Yes, on eschatology. Did you know that there's more than one way to view the end times, and end times prophecy in particular, than the one that's probably popular in your church?

Well, the one that I will be teaching in our upcoming midweek Bible study is one with a long history in church doctrine. Yeah, many of us don't know that. It is an ancient, biblical, and true one. And our midweek Bible study this year will be on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place in Idaho Falls, and our first meeting will be on October 26, and every Thursday subsequent to that one. You can find us at Leo's Place at 7 p.m. with our midweek Bible study on eschatology with a particular focus on post-millennialism.

If you've ever been curious about exactly what post-millennialism is, well, you can find out with us on our midweek Bible study upcoming. Well, we're now on principle 15 of the 28 principles of the Constitution as found in the 5,000-year leap. Our founding fathers had a deep and complex worldview, but underlying it were some very consistent principles that held it all together. The authors of the book, The 5,000-Year Leap, have done us an invaluable service in distilling that worldview into 28 discrete principles that are very accessible and understandable for the average man on the street in America. So, I urge you to pour over that book.

Let's take a small step towards awakening America's constitutional heritage by articulating principle number 15, and that is the highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations. Yes, the highest level of prosperity in any culture occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations. So, how appropriate is this one in today's world, where we're swiftly sinking to our lowest level of prosperity in a dictated market economy with a maximum of government regulation? Isn't that true? Well, our founding fathers were free market men.

They were not socialist. Most people are not even aware that the Constitution has specific provisions that reflect that principle. But items like the Interstate Commerce Clause, which says the Congress shall have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, and that Interstate Commerce Clause is found in Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution, and as well, the Coinage Clause of the Constitution, which says Congress shall have power to coin money and regulate the value thereof. And that's found in Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 5.

These were all designed to create a constitutional climate for a free market economy. So, don't let anyone tell you that the Constitution is indifferent to economics, or that it doesn't matter whether we follow Adam Smith or Karl Marx, or whether the stockholders or the federal government own General Motors. It does matter. Our Founding Fathers were thoroughly immersed in not only philosophy and politics, but also economics. In fact, the profit of free market economics was a favorite of our Founding Fathers.

Who was it? Was it Barack Obama? Donald Trump? Maybe Bill Clinton? No.

It was the contemporary philosopher and economist Adam Smith, and he published his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations, in five volumes in 1776 in England. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Does that year sound familiar? Of course, it was the very year of our own Declaration of Independence. In the years between that date and the writing of the Constitution, that was in 1787, our Founding Fathers imported that book.

They read it, and they integrated its concepts into the framework of our Constitution. In fact, so taken with the philosophy of Adam Smith, right, and the Wealth of Nations, that Thomas Jefferson would say of it, in political economy, I think Smith's Wealth of Nations is the best book extant. Unquote. Adam Smith is the father of free market capitalism. What is less well known is that he is also a Christian and a student of philosophy to such an extent that he considered himself more of a philosopher than an economist in the modern sense.

It was right and good to pursue profit and gain. It was biblical to have limitless liberty to exercise one's God-given gifts to create wealth. It was a Christian spiritual principle for a man to be able to sell his labor on the open market for as much as he could get for it from an employer. All of these things and more were anchored in Christian philosophy and biblical principles. Therefore, our Founding Fathers did not consider economics to be some neutral field of human endeavor outside of the realm of Christian morals and spiritual guidance.

No, no, no, no. And among these guiding principles of economics, we find Smith articulating, number one, specialized production was the most efficient means of using men's labor. Specialized production was the most efficient means of using men's labor. Men are equipped with particular gifts and talents that differ from one another. By using these gifts freely without government interference, he can maximize his good.

A weaver prospers most when he weaves, not when he plants. A merchant prospers when he trades, not when he stands in a production line. A banker prospers, excuse me, when he manages depositor's money, not when he tends sheep. On and on we could go. The notion of specialization was invaluable to the growth of the industrial revolution a century later.

And then number two, Adams also says, number two, the exchange of goods takes place in a free market environment without governmental interference in production prices or wages. The exchange of goods takes place in a free market environment without governmental interference in production prices or wages. The value of a thing depends upon one irreducible factor, and that is scarcity, not government interference. Yes, in the rainy season of India, it may require 100 gallons of fresh water to buy a loaf of bread. In the dry season, when there is no rain and no deep cistern, it may require only a cup of water for that same loaf of bread.

Well, scarcity determines price. No government mandate can change this law of nature. Men will find a way for a fair exchange of goods, whether in a free market or a black market. Number three, Smith also says, the free market provides the needs of the people on the basis of supply and demand with no government imposed monopolies. Yes.

Number three, the free market provides the needs of the people on the basis of supply and demand with no government imposed monopolies. If people do not want or need buggy whips anymore, they will not buy them no matter what governments say about the beauty or usefulness of them. Likewise, if people do not want or need a hybrid, right? An electric car, fuel efficient spam cans for cars, right? Like the Honda Prius.

Well, if people don't want them, they won't buy them no matter how much Al Gore or Joe Biden harangues Congress to pass laws to make us drive them. Oh, number four, Smith also says prices, prices, excuse me. Prices are regulated by competition on the basis of supply and demand. Yes, you can't force prices. Prices are regulated by competition and the basis of supply and demand.

During the recent spate of high fuel prices we've been experiencing, people blamed Joe Biden for it. And of course, he holds some responsibility. What most people fail to realize is that when demand exceeds supply, the natural consequence is an increase in price. And that's what Joe Biden did. He shrunk the supply.

So prices go up. That's what happens with gas prices in America. What Congress should do instead of laying incredible burdens on private industry to restrict oil production and gasoline refining, what they need to do is lift restrictions on locales like Anwar and limit restrictions on building gasoline refineries. Oh, number five, what Smith also says, number five, profit is that which makes the production of goods and services worthwhile. Profit is good, dear listener.

Profit is what makes the production of goods and services worthwhile. It seems like such a simple, basic truism, doesn't it? If you work, you expect something in return, but it's been lost in our idealistic socialist age. We're wired by God to add our labor to creation and to improve creation, thus making it better for the glory of God and our own selves. This improvement on nature is nothing less than profit, and it is well-deserved by the man who does it.

Socialism sneers at such things. Seeking rather to take away such a man's labor and give it to somebody else who has done nothing to improve creation. Number six, Smith also says competition improves quality, quantity, and price reduction. Competition improves quality, quantity, and price reduction. By competing with one another, car makers make those kinds of improvements.

That was demonstrated in the 70s when Japanese automobiles began competing with American cars. Toyota and Nissan created cheaper, better built, and more gas efficient cars than General Motors, Ford, or Chrysler. Only when those American companies began to make competitive cars did the big three recover. Well, Adam Smith had a profound insight into not only economic forces, but human nature as well. This is the great advantage of a Christian philosophical approach to economics over against a so-called purely economic model.

Man never interacts in his economic behavior in a vacuum apart from his other faculties. Man is a moral creature as well as an economic creature. He is a social creature as well as an economic creature. He is a political creature as well as an economic creature. And above all else, he is a spiritual creature as well as an economic creature.

Man is not purely economic. That's the terrible deadening effect of modern economic theory, excuse me, articulated by men like Marx or John Maynard Keynes. To these men, man was purely an economic creature, and his other aspects were only a product of his economic behavior. Thus, we find the great advantage of the capitalist view of man over against the socialist view of man. It is always more fully orbed and comprehensive, the capitalist view.

It is one reason why socialism ends in poverty and tyranny, while capitalism always ends in prosperity and freedom for the greater part of the people. Now, if what I've said is true, then certain other laws of human behavior obtain as well. In fact, Adam Smith delineated four necessary laws of economic freedom. Four necessary laws of economic freedom. Number one, the freedom to try.

The freedom to try. In this small phrase, we have the American dream summarized, don't we? The freedom to try impelled men like Henry Ford to conceive and apply the idea of the assembly line to produce automobiles. The freedom to try inspired men like Andrew Carnegie to standardize railroad lines and coaches and engines to build an empire. The freedom to try inspires every American with a great idea, from Steve Jobs with Macintosh to Bill Gates at Microsoft to the local dry cleaner and newspaper delivery boy who decides to add another route to his system.

Oh, I remember very vividly, for example, a congregant and friend of mine in the Chicago area when I served a church there. He was living the American dream in developing an idea of his. My friend Sal had an epiphany one day while doing his laundry and thought that he could sell pizza to those waiting for their laundry to get done. My friend Sal had the freedom to try his idea and opened his combination laundromat and pizza parlor, and he succeeded. How uniquely American.

Do you know how rare this is in the world? In so many other countries of the world, it's not ideas and energy and savvy that determine whether you have the freedom to try, but things like a person's class, like it was in England, or his tribe, like it is in Africa, or a man's religion, like it is in India. Oh, if you're not a Hindu, forget about getting a bank loan or a property deed, those kinds of things. Well, the freedom to try is uniquely American, and it is the core idea that draws the inspired, the hardworking, the inventive soul to these shores from all over the world.

Don't let our present government rob us of this God-given right as they attempt to regulate us, as they attempt to regulate who has access to loans and permits and real estate. Oh, these are all things that the Biden administration is trying to restrict to their own favorite candidates. Well, number two, Smith would also say the freedom to buy, the freedom to buy. I served a church in a Chicago suburb that helped rescue a doctor from Romania, along with his family. Romania at that time, that was in the mid-80s, was under the boot heel of the Soviet Union, where oppression and deprivation ruled the people.

No one had anything because of socialism. And I remember the good doctor washing his dishes and saying, in Romania, we had one lousy yellow detergent, when you could find it. In America, he looked down the dish detergent aisle, and he saw endless rows of green and gold and blue and red detergents with endless variations in names. In addition, some with lemon or lime or even skin softening hand lotion. Americans had the freedom to buy from a vast selection within every category of product.

And when his wife finally arrived in America with her children, she took her first trip to an American supermarket in the Chicago area. She stepped inside, looked at the vast array of goods before her that literally went on and on for acre after acre, and the aisle after aisle of food and goods, and she fell to her knees, crying. Am I allowed to buy these things, she said? She had come from a socialist country where she literally had several bunches of rotting celery to choose from, not dozens and dozens of bags of fresh celery with three or four kinds of celery to choose from.

Besides, oh, because of our free market capitalist economy in America, we have the freedom to buy. As we move more and more to a socialist economy, however, don't let anyone take away your freedom to buy, even as they're trying to do, right? In restricting what kinds of cars you can buy, or even meat now, right? Part of government strategy in taking over the auto companies is to mandate green cars, cars that are small and eco-friendly by being electric or hybrid.

If it were up to our government, it would not be the market that determines whether you can choose between a large gas-guzzling SUV or a cramped cheese box Yugo, but it would be the federal government who decides. If it were up to them, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that they would demand that you not only drive a little small cheese box, but out of your cars altogether? They want to push us out of our cars into public transportation.

So make no mistake about this, dear listener, your freedom to buy is being taken away from you, whether it's cars or meat or gas stoves or fatty foods or tobacco products or even coal to fire your electrical plants. Oh, number three, Adam Smith also insisted the freedom to sell the freedom to sell. This is a basic right anchored in our constitution. I'm sure that you all remember the dreaded Townsend Acts of 1765 in our nation's colonial history, where King George III demanded that almost every transaction made in the American colonies was subject to a tax, including products like glass or lead or tea or paper, legal documents.

That was all part of the Stamp Act. Anytime you tax something being sold, you restrict its availability to the consumer and his ability to sell it and the merchant's ability to sell it. In other words, there was practically no product or service whatsoever sold in America at that time that was not subject to a restrictive tax, including the popular beverage tea. In fact, the tax upon tea was one of the primary motivators for the American Revolution. The recent tea parties held all across our country this past April 15th were intended to recall this rebellion against the restriction of our freedom to sell.

The freedom to sell is one of the reasons for our American Revolution and should be remembered by every American. The freedom to sell in America was compromised then and it's compromised now. Perhaps the most egregious example of our restricted freedom to sell is the so-called cap-and-trade program being rushed into place by the present administration or the restriction on whether you can even manufacture gasoline cars after night after 2030 or gas stoves or coal-fired or wood-fired stoves, right? Cap-and-trade, restricting what we can sell. Once again, who do you think assigns a value, to these products and issues permits to trade them, huh?

Oh, it is the federal government, of course. What this means for you and me is increased government control over every drop of gasoline, every wad of energy, every pound of coal, every gallon of propane being sold in America. Oh, number four, the fourth principle that is ensconced in capitalism, as Smith understands it, is the freedom to fail. The freedom to fail. Oh, yes.

Dear listener, there is an irreducible law of prosperity that cannot be changed. The heights of your potential to succeed are only as great as the depths of your potential to fail. Your potential to earn is only as great as your potential to crash and burn. If the government artificially tinkers with the rules of the game to ensure that you can't fail, then by definition the government artificially tinkers with the rules of the game to ensure that you cannot succeed either. This is the deadening dilemma of United States socialism.

When the government steps in to bail out a man who took out a mortgage way beyond his means to finance, it artificially tinkers with the rules of the game and stimulates further irresponsible behavior on the part of others and creates further massive government debt. Oh, by relieving a mortgager of his risk to fail, you rob him of his incentive to succeed. The entire housing market shrinks and stunts limiting quality by housing, in-housing, by destroying the market. Yes. Adam Smith, along with our founding fathers, saw a role for government.

Government had four responsibilities. Number one, the government must police illegal force in the marketplace. Ah, force that compels purchase or sale of products, maybe? If company X wants citizen Y's property in order to build plant Z, it is government's role to protect the property of citizen Y, not enable the big corporation. The right to property is sacred.

And once that goes, no liberty is secure. Government's proper role is that of referee or policeman protecting private property. Number two, the government must police fraud. Fraud, that is, that which misrepresents the quality, location, or ownership of the item being sold or bought. Government must police fraud.

The flood of pirated products coming to us from China, for example, government should be policing that. Whether it is poisoned baby's milk or pirated CDs, the government and its agencies need to protect us from consumer fraud. Then, number three, the government must police monopoly. Monopoly eliminates competition and it restricts trade. If bundled Microsoft software is the only brand that can be sold with PCs, then a monopoly is being imposed.

In the past, railroads had a monopoly. Big steel had a monopoly. Big oil had a monopoly. In all of these cases, the government had a legitimate policing role in breaking them up. Number four, the fourth role of government.

The government must police debauchery of the cultural standards and moral fiber of society. For example, when business exploits vice in pornography or obscenity or drugs or booze or prostitution and gambling, the vice squad in every police department is a legitimate, excuse me, branch of law enforcement. Therefore, we see in a prosperous capitalist economy, the proper role of government is that of referee or policeman, not a participant. That's what I mean when I say the role of government is strictly negative. It punishes wrongdoing and reinforces good behavior, even as a good official does in the NFL.

It's like my favorite beer commercial where the official overhears the defensive captain promised beer for the other guy who makes the next tackle. Who makes the next tackle? It's the official. So he can get a beer. That's corruption.

Our founding fathers read Adam Smith and predicated our constitution on a free market capitalist economy. They saw government intrusion into the economies of England and France, and they rejected it. Whenever government becomes a player in the economy, tyranny and poverty inevitably result. Whenever government conscientiously polices a free market, the people prosper in liberty. Ah, Washington puts it this way.

George Washington says, let vigorous measures be adopted, not to limit the prices of articles, for this is inconsistent with the nature of the nature of things and impractical, but let vigorous measures be adopted to punish speculators, forestallers, and extortioners, and above all, punish those who would sink the money by heavy taxes, and let vigorous measures be adopted to promote public and private economy and manufacturing." Unquote. That was George Washington.

Oh, he saw clearly that as as railroad that, oh, I'm sorry, Washington saw as clearly as Ronald Reagan that government could create a climate for wealth as the individual was unleashed with his private gifts and talents to go out and make things happen. Oh, what is required in America is principle number 15 of the constitution articulated in the 5,000 year leap. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations. 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. You can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196 And come and join us at our midweek Bible study beginning October 26 at 7 p.m. at Leo's Place. And join us for our study of Biblical Eschatology, New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 208-523-0196 1-884-1196 2-885-1196 313-0196 3-885-3196 3-885-1196 4-885-3196 5-885-3-0196 6-885-3196 5-885-2196 4-886-2196 4-885-2196 5-885-1196