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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 are principles 18 and 19 of the 28 principles of the Constitution? We have been

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tracking with the founding principles that shaped the most incredible advance of human progress

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in world history, and that's not an overstatement. Because of the conditions established by our

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founding fathers in the Constitution, Americans found opportunity to prosper and flourish as no

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other people in recorded history. In this brief span of 200 plus years, we have gone from horsepower

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in horse flesh to many multiples of horsepower in steel and fuel. We have gone from gazing at the

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moon as a romantic figment of our imagination to walking on it. We have gone from marginal living

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in subsistence farming to a well-fed, well-supplied people that lacks nothing and, as a matter of fact,

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has to deliberately go without in order to stay fit and trim, right? That's most of our

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circumstances now. Well, no nation in human history has prospered more or achieved more than the United

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States of America, living under a free constitutional republic. Such was that progress that Kleon Skousen

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could call the relatively short period of time in which this took place the 5,000-year leap, hence his title

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for the book, since Americans seemed to have leapt over generations of other races and peoples in their

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quest for liberty and prosperity. And so we have the title of the book in which these 28 principles of

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our founders is summarized. The 5,000-year leap. Get this book. Read it. Absorb it. Teach it to your children.

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Well, with this in mind, let's articulate principle number 18. And principle 18 of the 5,000-year leap is

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the unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth

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in a written constitution. A written constitution. The essence of this principle goes to the heart of human memory

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and human deception. It is the nature of the people to forget. It is the nature of government

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to deceive. In honor of Biden's election, I recently re-read George Orwell's classic 1984,

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which is, of course, the grim tale of futuristic oppression and tyranny, and the abiding principle of

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Big Brother's euphemistically named Ministry of Truth, right? Oh, Ministry of Truth, where they are

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of deception and lying is perfected entirely for government ends, is that of doublespeak. Yes,

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the basic principle of Big Brother is doublespeak. In doublespeak, two entirely opposing truths can be

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asserted at the same time and both be equally true according to them. One day, as he gives example,

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one day we can be at war with country A and at peace with country B. The very next day we can be at

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peace with country A and at war with country B. And not only this, but Big Brother goes a step further

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and insists that not only are we at war with country B now, but we have always been at war with country B

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and at peace with country A. Oh, and every good citizen will not only say that this is true,

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but will actually believe it or else. Oh, the way that this, excuse me, the way that this state of

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affairs is perfected so that people actually believe doublespeak is to have an army of government

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bureaucrats actually rewriting the objective record of newspapers and documents and photos. And we do it

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with AI now, don't we? In fact, this is the job of Winston, the main character of 1984. There is power in

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truth and historical truth is embodied in the historical record. This combined with the easy forgetfulness of

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the human mind makes it easy for tyrants to manipulate, alter, and distort the truth. And of course, this is

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even more true now with AI, artificial intelligence, is it not? Our founding fathers knew this trait of human

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nature, forgetfulness of the people and the tendency of government to tyrannize. That in the nature of the people

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to forget the nature of government to deceive. Our founders examined history themselves and discovered

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even among peoples with strong traditional rights stretching back for centuries that under the right

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conditions, those rights could be lost. The Anglo-Saxon tribes came under particular consideration by the

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founders because these peoples had a tradition of unwritten, unwritten, importantly, understood rights

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that were known by the whole people. As Dr. Colin Ries Lowell puts it, or Lovell puts it, he says,

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and I quote, the law applied by any one of these Anglo-Saxon assemblies was customary. Until the

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Anglo-Saxon conversion to Christianity, it was unwritten, and like all customary law, was considered

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immutable, unquote. But when the Normans invaded England and conquered them, those rights were degraded,

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lost, and forgotten by subsequent generations precisely because they had never been encoded in

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written form. And it took centuries to recall and regain those rights. But even then, these liberties

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were ensconced in written form in an almost ad hoc, haphazard way. We see this throughout English

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history. Famously, for example, we have the examples of the Magna Carta written down, transcribed in A.D.

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1215, where the nobles wrested property rights and civil rights from King John. We have the petition

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of rights in A.D. 1628, where King Charles I was forced by Parliament to grant a wide swath of civil

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rights to the English people. And then we also have the English Bill of Rights written down in A.D.

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1689, where William and Mary willingly granted further rights in what was called the Glorious

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Revolution as they ascended the throne of England. For all of these, the people paid dearly. And

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additionally, they were only those liberties that they had enjoyed in the first place for generations prior

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to the Norman Conquest, but finally reduced to written form. The authors of our Constitution had all of

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these documents and more at their elbows when they set about to create a new government in America.

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They were committed to developing a single comprehensive document that would give the

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American people an objective source to which they could appeal when their rights were challenged.

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No more ad hoc piecemeal liberties, no. And they had several examples from the colonial period in

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America, too, as models. One of the finest, my favorite, is the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut,

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which were written down in A.D. 1639, composed by the founder of that colony, Thomas Hooker. It gives

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glory to God and sets out a purpose to serve God and the people, but conspicuously absent from it was

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any reference to a king, prince, or dread sovereign, as so many previous charters felt obligated to

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include. So, instead of Charles I being the ordainer of the Fundamental Orders, the document cited

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we the people of Connecticut, right? Does that sound familiar, we the people? Well, it was the first

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written constitution known to modern history that created a government, and it marked the beginnings

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of American democracy, of which Thomas Hooker deserves more than any other man to be called the father.

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All of the charters of the colony shared many of the same characteristics, whether the Mayflower

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Compact for the Pilgrims or the Pennsylvania Charter composed under the oversight of William Penn.

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The chief thing that they shared in common was that they had the liberties, rights, and form of

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government written down in an objective instrument, not a set of assumptions, passed along by word of

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mouth, liable to reshaping or replacement by a tyrant. Such has always been the case with great ideas in the

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West, as exemplified by the greatest document of our culture, that is the Bible. Yes, the spiritual

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traditions of tribal peoples are generally transmitted via word of mouth and various ritual practices,

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and oftentimes they die when the culture dies. In contrast, although ancient Israel is long gone

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and the first century culture of Jesus' day is gone too, well, the Bible and its religious truth in revealing

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redemption for mankind through Jesus Christ, well, it lives on and has never been stronger. In fact,

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it can be argued that this one book, the Bible, has done more to create new cultures, societies,

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and nations than any other single book. Almost every Western nation has, as one of its resources for

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law and government, the Bible, and principles derived from it. As we have documented elsewhere,

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this is especially true of America, where the Bible has a unique top-to-bottom impact on our

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constitution. The reason for this consistent influence is because the ancient languages of

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Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek communicated the grand truths of the living Bible in not only the spoken

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medium, but also in the objective medium of the written word. The written word. Very important. And so,

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the truths of salvation could be referenced and checked and handed down consistently from generation to

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generation without error. Well, the importance of having crucial information in writing was highlighted

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for me several years ago when I re-shingled my roof. I gave clear verbal instructions to my son to order

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40 pallets of shingles, 15 pallets of ridge caps, and three rolls of torch-down paper, right? Well, the next day I

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came in to find that the company was preparing to deliver 15 pallets of shingles, three pallets of ridge caps,

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and 40 gallons of roofing tar. Oh my goodness. I stopped the order, and in order to teach my son a

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valuable lesson, sent him back. This time with written instructions for the order. The second time around

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with the information in black and white, the order went off without a hitch, but it had to be written

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down. Well, extrapolate this circumstance to the larger canvas, if you will, of our liberties and rights,

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which are far more important than an order of roofing shingles. Does it matter whether Congress

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shall have power to declare war or the president? Which was it the founders intended? How long can the

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human memory be trusted to make this distinction? If anyone cares to know, we have it in writing in

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the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 11. Congress declares war. It is important to assert

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that the Supreme Court, too, has jurisdiction over cases that come to it, with the exceptions,

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as the Constitution says, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

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Oh, this harkens back to the abortion controversy. Were you aware that Congress could accept all cases

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referencing abortion from the court's purview if it had the guts to do it? Well, dear listener, we have

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written down for us our mode of government with its attending Bill of Rights. I have it before me

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as I write. It was not written in some, it was not written, excuse me, in some exotic long dead language

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that we can no longer decipher. No, it's written in plain English. It is not filled with technical

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language designed to obfuscate the perspicacious. No, rather, our Constitution is composed of everyday

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terms and words that the average high school graduate can understand with the aid of a Webster's

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dictionary for some words if need be. And you can pick up a copy of our Constitution and its amendments

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and make sense of it in one reading. You can do this in under an hour at most and be better informed

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than most of our congressmen. Oh, for example, the famous ignoramus Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

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Have you ever heard her comments on the Constitution? For example, she articulated three branches of

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government all right, but she named them the executive, Congress, and the Senate. Oh, ignoramus-Cortez.

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Or she said that the Supreme Court shouldn't have power to review congressional legislation.

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Oh, are you kidding? That's written into the Congress and is part of the balance of powers.

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Yes, Alexandria Ocasio or occasional cortex, as some people call her. Well, I'm convinced that one of

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the agenda items for many progressives is to deliberately keep the average American as ignorant

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as AOC, as ignorant of our Constitution and the liberties to which we are entitled. This is why our

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public schools have dropped government, civics, and history requirements in order to graduate. And so,

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when your average high school graduate is asked about the Electoral College, for example, he looks at you

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quizzically. He comes up clueless. All he knows is that he has never attended the Electoral College,

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right? No, the progressive knows that the more this average American knows about his Constitution

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and its founding principles, the less power will be a resident in the government, and the less power

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will be in the hands of the socialist progressive to shape and mold America to his agenda. I am also

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convinced that the more the average American knows about his Constitution, the angrier he will be that

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he's been cheated of as God-given liberties for lo these many past decades. Dear listener, I urge you to

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pick up your Constitution and read it and take charge of your political destiny. Ah, the sweeping powers

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being assumed by the present administration and the now-present tyranny of the American people could

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never happen to an informed, aroused citizenry. Yes, our Congress is too weak and timid and beholden

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to special interests to stop this trend. And if anyone will check the growth and debt of big

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government, it will have to be you and me, the average citizen, well-informed and spiritually

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renewed. But in order to be well-informed and spiritually renewed, we'll have to avail ourselves

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of the two written objective documents given us for these ends, that is, the Bible for spiritual

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renewal and the Constitution for our American renewal. As Principle 18 states, the undeniable rights

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of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a

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written Constitution. And this has been done for you, listener. It is there for your reading and study.

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But that written Constitution must be read and acted upon for it to be effective.

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Well, Principle 19. Principle 19 now also enunciates a very important idea held dear by our Founding

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Fathers, and that is, only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government,

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all others being retained by the people. Oh, very important principle here. This is consistent with

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all of the other principles we've unfolded for you. If all power is created and finds its ultimate

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ground in God, and he in turn has vested civil power in the whole of the people as its original source,

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then it stands to reason that civil power is the people's to delegate to representatives at their

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discretion. The people giveth and the people taketh away. Clever representatives may try to trick and fool the

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people into thinking that political power is theirs, the rulers, and not the people's.

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Knowing the tendency of rulers to clutch after power, the people will be

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parsimonious in lending that power to those they choose to govern them. Well, unlike our present

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populace, our Founding Fathers were acutely aware of the menace of unlimited power in the hands of a few

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men. They had grown up under the ever-expanding power of the kings of England and parliament that taxed

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and legislated for them unrestricted by a voice or a vote by the colonists. The soothing fatherly voice

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of the English government speaking so reassuredly of their love for and good intentions toward their

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childlike colonists. Oh, it sounded so good at first. They traded English goods with the colonists and gave

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them protection from aggressors, even fighting a war on their behalf for the American colonies and the

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French and Indian war that ended in 1765. But the soothing fatherly voice soon became the shrill,

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harsh rant of a tyrant as the British government laid increasing taxes on the people, courted soldiers

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in the citizens' homes, arrested and detained colonists without trial or charge, seized property at

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will without full compensation, and in a thousand and one ways transgressed the rights and liberties of the

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colonists. The first blush of being good English subject of the crown wore off as government does what it

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always does when there's no one and nothing to stand in its way, and that is it tyrannizes the people it

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governs. As Alexander Hamilton put it in Federalist paper number 15, Hamilton said, and I quote,

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there is in the nature of sovereign power an impatience of control that disposes those who are invested with

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the exercise of it to look with an evil eye upon all external attempts to restrain or direct its

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operations. Yes, unquote, your federal government looks with an evil eye on you if you try to restrict

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or stop their operations. In other words, those in power don't like to be told what to do, especially

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by those that govern. When compared to the wisdom and insight into human nature possessed by our founding

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fathers like Hamilton, how pitifully ignorant and foolish seems our present generation of leaders

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and citizens. Oh, instead of jealously guarding the power resident in the people, we cede more and more

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of it to government, naively trusting like silly Pollyanna that government only wants to help when in

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reality they only want to help themselves and not the people. We are suckers for smooth-talking politicians

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who soothe us into thinking they have our best interest at heart. Like snake oil salesmen in the

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old west, our politicians sell us government programs where we think we'll get government health care,

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for example, for free or a bailout check or tax rebate check or inoculation when in reality all

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government money printed must be backed up eventually by real wealth created by us people. Like naive

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children who surrender a dime for a shiny nickel because the nickel is bigger, we are exchanging

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our liberties and freedoms for ostensibly free money and security and getting something for nothing.

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Most Americans who vote in favor of larger, more intrusive government are naively ignorant of the

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actual erosion of their liberties in proportion to the growth of that government. When will we wake up

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and realize that big government is not our friend but our enemy? When will we listen to the voice of our

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founders that echoes down the corridors of time that there is an impatience of control, as Hamilton puts

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it, with Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi that looks upon us, the people, with an evil eye when we try to limit their

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power? When will the American people realize that once government starts, it never stops? Once it starts to tax, it never stops.

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Once it begins a war, it never stops the war. Once it starts to control your health care, it never stops.

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Once it begins to take away your guns, it never stops. Once it begins to abort a generation of babies,

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it never stops. On and on it goes. Oh, Pelosi and Biden are impatient of control when it comes to enacting their

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big government socialist agendas. What we see with the present administration is the very thing our founders

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fought against with their blood, treasure, and sacred honor back in 1776. When will America wake up and

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revive? A sure sign that America has awoken to its true heritage is when it is suspicious, not naively

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trusting of its politicians, and is very stingy with the power it lends to them to exercise for limited goals.

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This is what is meant in the first part of the principle that only limited and carefully defined

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powers should be delegated to government. Men like Jefferson and Hamilton and Adams realize that if the

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states were to keep their distinct identity and liberties, then the federal government be narrowly

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focused on its specific tasks. It is up to the people to be ever vigilant and to see to it that the

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federal government is carefully defined and delegated. Yes, a federal government is adept at raising a

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national army, for example, to defend the whole of the country. That should be supported and encouraged.

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It is not meant to be a social laboratory for homosexuals in the military or women in combat,

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for example. On and on we could go detailing how that instead of only limited and carefully defined

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powers being delegated to government, unlimited and carelessly defined powers have been handed to

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government on a silver platter. The solution to the dilemma of how a federal government could be

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granted enough power to do its constitutional mandate but yet be kept in check from overreaching

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its limits was answered by our founders in the principle of dual sovereignty. Dual sovereignty.

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Now, if you're like me, it may have been high school since you last heard of this principle,

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if even then. I remember it as a long line of obscure terms I had to memorize for a test and then

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promptly forgot. But let me be clear. At this juncture, in my studies of our liberties and freedoms,

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no principle was better understood nor more advocated by our founders than this one,

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the principle of dual sovereignty. The basic premise of dual sovereignty is that the federal

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government is supreme in its sphere of enumerated powers, those narrow, specifically designated

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powers in the constitution, such that the states cannot interfere. While the states are supreme in

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all of the remaining spheres, without having to be enumerated, every other power is reserved to the

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states, such that the federal government cannot interfere. The founders intentionally created these two

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separate spheres of opposing powers in order to check tyranny by either one of them. There is

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intended to be a deliberate tension between the federal government and the individual states.

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The founders did this intentionally so that power would be checked one by the other. As Hamilton puts

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it once again in the Federalist Papers, I quote him, this balance between the national and state governments

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ought to be dwelt on with peculiar attention, as it is of the utmost importance. If one encroaches on their

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rights, they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be prevented from

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overpassing their constitutional limits by the certain rivalship that shall ever subsist between them."

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Unquote. The premise, the principle of dual sovereignty. Well, dear listener, you were created by

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God to be a free man in a land of liberty. Our founders were biblical realists and they understood

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that fallen men lusted after power and control over their fellow man as they exercised political power

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and must thus be strictly hemmed in and controlled by the people. And therefore, we have principle 19.

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Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by

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the people. We have also observed with amazement and awe how biblical Christianity prospers and thrives

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because it has been transmitted to generations of Christians in the objective text of a written

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document, the Bible. God will be faithful to his promises and we can be certain of this because he has

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written as much. He says, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all

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generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works, from Psalm 145. Although it is

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little appreciated by most Americans today, we have consistent liberties and freedoms in a constitutional

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republic because they have been reduced to an objective form in a written constitution. Lay your hands on that

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constitution and read it, study it, know it. It is the charter of your liberties being swiftly destroyed and made

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irrelevant by leaders who keep it tucked away out of sight, telling you that you're too stupid to

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understand and interpret it, that it's the only the geniuses on the high Supreme Court that are smart

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enough to know what it means. No, no, no. Prove them wrong as you come to know and defend your liberties,

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taking them back as one in whom political power originates, one in whom as a body with your

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fellow citizens. We, the people of the United States, do ordain and establish this constitution.

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

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Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

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Come and join us and call us at area code 208-523-0196. 523-0196.