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, continuing in our series, what are 12 things that America has given the world that were never seen in their fullness in history anywhere else.

Now, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of our nation, declaring ourselves an independent nation from England, there are countless good things we have given to the world, but some of them are of such a unique character that we can say that prior to our being here on earth, the world has not seen them in their fullness as they have until after we got here. Over the last few weeks, we have documented six out of the 12. Number one was a Republican constitution founded on an idea rather than a tribe or race. Number two, a written constitution composed in a brief period of time rather than traditions developed over centuries.

Number three, a system whereby power is transferred in an orderly, peaceable fashion. Number four, our founding fathers succinctly, explicitly acknowledged our rights derived from God and not government. Oh, I love that one. Number five was the United States of America, America as a nation which self-consciously ended slavery. Very pertinent for today.

And number six was while Christianity was and is intended to be the religion of the people, there was no established state church. What a gift that was. Well, let's move on now. We hope to articulate three more of those good gifts that America has given to humanity over her history. Do that today, and you will not find anything like them previously, but hopefully you will see them replicated and improved in the course of future history.

This is especially important in a day when we see the resurgence of socialism and Marxism in America. Well, that seventh good gift that America has given to the world, not previously seen in its fullness anywhere else in history. Number seven, the patent. You may be surprised at this, but it's true. The patent guaranteed to inventors and authors and creators of all kinds, the right to the fruits of their labors.

Yes, the patent guaranteed to inventors, authors and creators of all kinds, the right to the fruits of their labors. There is a provision in the Constitution of the United States of America, which may appear innocuous and incidental at first glance, but as American history has rolled on, it has proven to be one of the most productive and encouraging provisions in the entire Constitution.

It is found in Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 8, and it reads, the Congress shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries, unquote. Now, that may seem boring and unimportant. Until you invent something, the world flocks to buy and to use, and when that happens, the money will start rolling in. But to whom? That's the catch.

Throughout history, it's always been the rich and powerful who have benefited from the genius and labor of inventors and laymen who tinker and experiment and create. For example, the creators of gunpowder in China serve as exhibit A of this phenomenon. They were a group of alchemists who worked together and produced the first successful products for use by the emperor during the Tang Dynasty of the 9th century. In fact, Emperor Zhuanzong used gunpowder with several primitive applications in his army, and there was no recognition, remuneration, or advancement that accrued to any of his alchemists.

And despite historians' best efforts at discovering who these diligent inventors were by name, records are not extant, despite the Chinese obsession with keeping careful records. These assiduous creators perished in obscurity, and there were rumors that the emperor had them killed, so that the formula for gunpowder would not be shared with any other warlords. That's gratitude for you. And a close competitor for exhibit A of the systematic abuse and neglect of the artist and creator is none other than Leonardo da Vinci. Yeah, da Vinci lived in Venice from 1452 to 1519, and he was endlessly creative and inventive.

He gave the world many practical creations in the fields of civil engineering and chemistry, geology, geometry, hydrodynamics, and countless other things. For example, da Vinci created a system for removing liquid waste from the city. That system brought water from higher elevations through Venice into cover channels in the city streets that brought it into the broader ocean. It was an early version, if you will, of the modern sewer removal system. It was clean, efficient, and far more sanitary than the unplanned, unsanitary system previous.

Now, the Doge of Venice eagerly adopted da Vinci's ideas, but did nothing to see that he was remunerated for his design. In fact, he did everything he could to ignore da Vinci and his comprehensive plan. He pretended that it was his own vision. Now, this can be said for countless inventions of da Vinci. These are just two examples from the long history of human invention.

We know from American history that there was an explosion of creativity during the second industrial revolution in the 19th century. Everything from the cotton gin to the steam engine to the mechanized loom to the light bulb were invented by creative, ambitious people in America. What fueled this sort of activity, dear listener, why were men lining up to get their inventions in the hands of the American people? Well, in short, it was because they were getting paid.

Finally, after centuries of government and monarchs and thieves robbing the original inventor of an idea and profiting from it, a creator could file with the patent office and have exclusive rights to his invention or authorship or book or song, whatever it might be, for a specified period of time. And there were early precedents for this idea. Oddly enough, it was in Venice in the 15th century that a patent law was finally passed for inventors, perhaps because of da Vinci's experience. And then in England in 1624, they passed a statute of monopolies, as it was called, regulating the granting of exclusive rights to the king's favorites.

That was an attempt to put a rein on the king, as a matter of fact. But both of these and others were early very limited efforts, though, at patent law. It wasn't until the United States Constitution made its provision for a patent office to be created that patents reached warp speed levels. For example, Thomas Edison was awarded 1,093 U.S. patents across a wide variety of technologies. The website thomasedison.org puts it this way.

From his office library at West Orange, the great inventor managed 30 companies under the umbrella of Thomas A. Edison Industries, employing over 10,000 workers in the design, prototyping, and commercialization of many new patents and products to be sold around the world. Unquote. The reason Edison could do this was because he held exclusive rights to those things he and his companies invented. And so it has been with inventors and creators ever since. Whether it be in the fields of science and industry or arts and music, why do rock stars get so fabulously rich from their compositions?

It's because they have exclusive rights to them, unlike fellow troubadours from the past. Elon Musk has some 25 patents personally related to vehicle design and autonomous technology, but his corporation Tesla holds thousands of patents. Patents are one of the reasons Musk is the world's first trillionaire. And the drug companies also, the notorious drug companies, hold multiple thousands of patents, Pfizer alone, holding 66,947 patents, at this stage anyway, for various medicines.

Now, some critics rightly point to the abuse of the patent process that deprives the public of much-needed technology and products in order that corporations can maximize profits at the expense of the public good. While much of this is true, the patent has been a great blessing, actually, in the economic growth and flourishing of the American economy over the first 250 years of our existence. May it continue to bless us. Number eight, the eighth good gift that the United States of America has given to the world is the United States of America thrived for 124 years with no tax on personal income and property. Oh, 124 years.

What a blessing. No tax on personal income. The history of personal income tax is as old as the history of mankind. Tyrants have perpetually sought the hard-earned personal wealth of those over whom they rule. The income tax originated in Egypt, where pharaohs seized the personal property of subjects to finance lavish construction projects like the pyramids.

Subjects were expected to contribute a measure of physical labor, too, to the state, as well as a proportion of their crops. This was all done by an early version of the IRS called Grand Viziers, who were the middlemen who did all the dirty work of actually collecting the taxes and by force if necessary. Greece and Rome continued these well-worn practices. The New Testament bears witness to it time and time again, doesn't it? In fact, the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem is related to the personal income tax.

Luke tells us, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered, from Luke chapter 2, verse 1. This was in order that the emperor could better tax his subjects, ensuring that a proper headcount was made so that no one was left out. Therefore, Joseph had to trek to Bethlehem in order to be registered in the town of his birth so he could be properly taxed. The New Testament regularly refers contemptuously to ha-talonis, ha-talonis, that is the tax collector, a hated personage in Israel at this time for their predatory practices.

The Roman procurators and governors would appoint certain men to go among the common citizens of their colonies, like Israel, and they would charge what they saw fit, according to a general standard that wasn't always adhered to, though, by the ha-talonis. In fact, as long as Rome got her cut, the tax collector could charge over and above that amount for services rendered, quote-unquote. They were known for their corruption and greed. If the common citizen objected, then the tax collector had the force of Roman legions to back him up.

Well, during the Middle Ages, the rulers of Europe imposed various forms of the personal income tax on their subjects. There was the gable, a tax on goods and services and wages. There was the dargana, a tax on salt. There was the castato, an income tax introduced in Florence that was widely copied throughout Europe. Well, the major point in all of this is that the personal income tax was a regular feature of life prior to the American experiment and liberty.

And as you might expect, it was a hated feature of everyday life. And it kept the common man impoverished and frightened and controlled, just like today. This is precisely why the Founding Fathers made provision against, excuse me, the direct personal income tax on citizens and their property, except in certain circumstances. Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution reads, no capitation of other direct tax should be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. Yeah, no capitation of a direct tax shall be laid.

That is a direct personal income tax. Any direct tax on the people had to be levied on an unbiased objective basis across the board nationally based upon most recent censuses, since I, excuse me. It was so sweeping, this measure, that it was never implemented. And besides, the people would never have stood for it. They had just fought a revolution, in part, to be free from the oppressive taxation of King George in Parliament.

The Federalist Papers thoroughly discuss the new powers of the federal government to lay and collect taxes. It was one of the chief reasons the Constitutional Convention was convened, as a matter of fact. The federal government, under the Articles of Confederation, had no power to collect taxes, and the states were chronically behind in financing the federal system. So, it is worth highlighting and amplifying, dear listener, that despite this expansion of powers for the federal government under the new Constitution, no founding father insisted that there be a direct tax on the personal incomes and property of the American citizen.

No graduated income tax. No systematic income tax paid annually by individual citizens. No tax seized based upon a person's individual income or property. What liberty, what freedom, what prosperity there was. James Madison puts it succinctly, and he said, a national revenue must be obtained, but the system must be such a one that, while it secures the object of revenue, it shall not be oppressive to our constituents, unquote.

Amen, James Madison. The founders understood the oppressive history of taxation. They consciously, deliberately included a provision in our founding document against the tyranny of a personal income tax. And from 1789 to 1913, that's 124 years, the United States of America prospered with no individual income tax. What changed?

What changed, dear listener? Oh, it is the perennial plague of potentates. We don't have enough money. Oh, in the early 20th century, Congress complained that they did not have enough resources to cope with a growing, burgeoning nation. We were expanding westward and adding new states, and we needed more money to finance this growth that was not being provided by the traditional methods of tariffs and imposts and other indirect taxes.

The advocates of a direct personal income tax that the founders hated, the advocates of a direct personal income tax, said the Constitution was antiquated and obsolete. Does that sound familiar? What was needed was a constitutional amendment that allowed for taking from the personal incomes of everyday citizens. And so there was born the 16th amendment, and it reads, the Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration, unquote. Ah, there it is.

There it went. And it all began innocently enough. In the early years of the IRS, the federal government took only one to three percent of income and only from the wealthiest of American citizens. No tax was collected from most American people early on. What is it now, dear listener?

As of 2024, the average American citizen pays up to 37 percent of their annual income in federal income tax per year. Oh, and it might even be more for you. Who knows? Additionally, the IRS has the power to seize your property, your bank account, and garnish your wages if they determine you're not paying enough. And at the end of the day, they can put you in prison.

If a tax court judges that you have tried to defraud the federal government or cheat on your taxes, the founding generation made a revolution over a three to four percent tax on T in commerce, what would they say about us who patiently bear with a system of tyranny? It is obvious to anyone who thinks for a moment about our situation that our tax system, as it is currently structured, is not meant to raise money to run the federal government. No, the money raised by the IRS from the personal income of the American public amounts to about five point three trillion dollars. That's gross as of 2025.

And that's sufficient to pay the interest on the national debt and a little bit more. But most revenue raised by the federal government has gotten through borrowing. Yes, borrowing. And the tab is still ours. Yes, the American taxpayer for generations to come will be paying off this borrowed debt.

And this is the real way that government spends, however. They don't have to cull it from John and Jane Doe's payroll deductions and 1040 filing. No, all they have to do is call up the Federal Reserve. And with a few keystrokes, they don't even have to bother to print currency anymore. A few keystrokes and voila, billions, trillions of dollars are now available to Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chuck Schumer and the thieves in D.C., that is the District of Criminals.

The real purpose for the personal income tax and the crushing oppression of the American system is an old one. And that is to keep the common man impoverished, frightened and yes, controlled. How many people do you know precisely like this who are impoverished and frightened and controlled by the IRS, by the federal system, maybe even yourself? Can you appreciate what our founding fathers did for us in the Constitution? The gift that they gave us.

The founders understood the oppressive history of taxation. They consciously, deliberately included in the Constitution a provision against the tyranny of a personal income tax. From 1789 to 1913, 124 years, the United States of America prospered with no individual income tax. What liberty, what freedom, what prosperity. Might it not be time to repeal the 16th Amendment and return to constitutional principle?

Always remember the good gift the founders gave us. Well, the ninth good gift that the founders gave us is, number nine, a nation in which the supreme command of the military forces is vested in a civilian executive, a president. Yeah, the commander-in-chief is a civilian executive, a president. This is a foundational aspect of our republic. The rationale of the founding fathers was that the supreme commander of the armed forces would be an elected official, a president who was accountable to the people, accountable to the people, the supreme commander of the armed forces.

He would be our representative when the dogs of war would be unleashed. He would not wage war for war's sake. He would not unnecessarily jeopardize the peace and safety of the American people. He would look out for our interests, not those of a class of powerful military elites. The founders had a deep and abiding suspicion of standing armies with a permanent officer corps.

Such situations had been the fertile seedbed for oppression and tyranny from the earliest mists of time. After all, Americans were still smarting from the chains of the mightiest army in the world at that time, that is, the British redcoats enforcing the dictates of the British empire. The ancients knew no compartmentalization between civilian and military. No. The Greek city-states, for example, were ruled by kings who led armies composed of conscripts directly marshaled from the city's population.

We still recognize such discipline societies as Spartan, don't we? After the Greek city-state Sparta, perhaps because the most martial culture in Western history. And the Roman Republic tried to mitigate this tendency by having the Roman army, which was a militia in its early days. Did you know that? The Roman army was a militia early on during the days of the Republic.

And that militia was led by two consuls elected by the Senate. Those elected consuls would share the responsibilities for the militia. In times of war, one consul would take command of Rome as dictator. Yes, that's where we get our word dictator. That is, he was a general with absolute power for a brief period of time, usually two years.

He would then return power to the Senate. Wow. This system worked well in the Roman Republic as long as it was manned by honorable men with the best interest of Rome at heart. But of course, as Lord Acton aptly put it, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, as men like Julius Caesar developed a taste for power, that two-year period extended longer and longer until the absolute rule of Roman kings took their very title from Julius's example as Caesar's.

Voila. The Roman Republic morphed into the Roman Empire as the distinction between civilian command and military command disappeared. Well, other examples abound from history. The term military coup, for example, is instantly recognizable to us. El Salvador, Chile, Egypt, as well as others, experienced an overthrow of an elected government by a military junta, as it's called.

Well, the temptation for this forcible grasp after power is overwhelming, dear listener. History bears this out, and it must be kept in mind in our experiment with the republic. Has human nature changed, dear listener? No, it hasn't. And no system is sacrosanct that is coming with a guarantee of liberty just because of the system per se.

No, a republican form of government is no guarantee of liberty and freedom. A free republic is only as good as the people who compose it. So, we as Americans must be vigilant, not negligent. Vigilant, not negligent. One of our greatest generals and presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, has already warned us of what he called the military-industrial complex, which was already centralizing more and more power in the federal system when he gave that farewell speech in 1959.

Yes, or 1960, excuse me. We must be vigilant and not negligent. Now, Eisenhower's military-industrial complex, we have come to call the deep state. Yes. And even that really has mushroomed into what I call the federal department of demons.

That describes it, I think, a little more accurately. Deep state is kind of amorphous and mysterious, isn't it? No, I call it the federal department of demons. And as we work to defeat this tyranny that we are under, yes, dear listener, let us always remember the good gifts given us by our constitution. Never seen before in history quite like this, that is, a commander-in-chief who is a civilian executive, that is, a president elected by the people and accountable to the people as well, dear listener.

Oh, and so, with that in mind, let us not forget our end of the constitutional bargain, and that is, this, as John Adams put it, he put it so well, he said, this constitution is fit only for a moral and ethical people. It is entirely unsuited to any other. Yeah, hey, indeed, a republic is only as good as the people who compose that republic. And that moral and ethical framework that John Adams spoke of is a Christian framework. So, as we contemplate the 12 good gifts given us by our constitution and the founding fathers, we've articulated nine of them now.

We'll do the next, the last three in our last broadcast on this series. But as then we contemplate and appreciate the 12 good gifts given us by our constitution and the founding fathers, never seen before on the stage of history, let us pray and work for a renewal of faith in our country, that is, in the United States of America, a renewal of faith in God extant. Now, let us pray for it in the United States of America, that we might become worthy, once again, of those good gifts given us by our republic. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And we do appreciate those good gifts given us. We worship in liberty and in freedom in part because of those good gifts. Once again, we worship on Sundays. Come and join us.

You'll find a warm welcome. We worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or give us some feedback at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.