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. Today, completing our series, what are 12 things that America has given to the world as good gifts that have never been seen throughout history anywhere else. It is thrilling to me that we have arrived at our 250th anniversary of the birth of our nation, declaring ourselves independent from the motherland of England with the instrument of separation, our very own Declaration of Independence.

In reality, the number of good things that the United States of America has bequeathed to an enslaved world are many more than 12. But for the sake of brevity, I have chosen 12 of the most important, at least to my mind, 12 of the most important things that America has given as good gifts to the world. And perhaps you have more in mind. I'd love to hear them. One thing I know for sure, as long as free men live and fight and labor together, the good things we Americans have given will be used and practiced and appreciated.

Thus far, we have unfolded nine of them. The first nine, number one, a Republican constitution founded on an idea rather than 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, fourth good gift, our founding fathers succinctly, explicitly acknowledged our rights derived from God and not government.

Number five, the United States of America is a nation which self-consciously ended slavery. Good gift number six, while Christianity was and is intended to be the religion of the people. There was no established state church. Very important in history. Number seven, the patent guaranteed to inventors and authors and creators of all kinds, the right to the fruits of our labors.

Oh, this was a real incentive for economic growth. Number eight, gift, the USA thrived for 125 years with no tax on personal income and or property. Oh, and then good gift number nine, a nation in which the supreme command of the military forces is vested in a civilian executive. That is a president, the first nine of those good gifts. Today, I'd like to complete that pristine dozen with three final good gifts that the United States of America has given to the world that will be cherished wherever free men live, fight, and labor together.

And that is number 10 now. We have a nation which self-consciously educated their populist children and immigrants in the principles of a Christian constitutional republic. Yes, we must. We must get back to this. We were a nation that self-consciously educated our populist children and immigrants in the principles of a Christian constitutional republic.

Now, this good gift is a corollary really of good gift number one. We have a Republican constitution founded on an idea rather than a tribe or race. A civilization founded on tribal traditions or racial cohesion doesn't need to self-consciously educate the people. They are raised in the ways of the tribe and the race from birth. They're born into them.

It's their mother's milk, so to speak. The gods, ancestors, myths, history, and customs are inculcated by the fathers, the chieftains, the shaman of the tribe around the dinner table, campfire, and festivals of the tribe, right? Books, classes, abstract ideas like liberty, a written constitution, or separation of powers is utterly foreign to the civilizations of history. The idea that anyone outside of the tribe or the racial clan could become a citizen was laughably absurd to most people at the time of our founding. As my tribe, the Dutch, used to say, if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much.

Therefore, if one were to become a citizen of such a country where citizenship depended upon a fundamental grasp of an idea versus a tribal or ethnic bloodline, then a working knowledge of that idea was paramount. How could you become a vital citizen of a country founded an idea when you had no clue as to what that idea was, right? Consequently, a thorough program of education in the principles of a constitutional republic is required in a free constitutional republic. The point we want to emphasize is that liberty is learnt. It is not lavished naturally.

George Washington put it this way. He said, a primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? What duty more pressing than the communication of it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country? George Washington.

Only through patient, consistent teaching of constitutional principles could an otherwise ignorant populace learn to govern themselves in true liberty. Thomas Jefferson warned that, he said, and I quote, a tyranny of government will follow unless the people at large were educated at the common expense of all, unquote. Jefferson also understood the importance of educating the general public in the principles of a constitutional republic.

He said, and I quote, the most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes, unquote. In other words, tyranny can only be defeated when the people are sufficiently educated to recognize it when it rears its ugly head. This is precisely why tyranny thrives in America today.

We do not know ambition under all its shapes, as Jefferson says, and therefore, we allow it to thrive, as long as we get our perks, that is. Do we understand the value of history? A systematic exposure to, as Jefferson puts it, the knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, a systematic exposure to that would go a long ways toward waking up this clueless generation who are obsessed with affordability, the new buzzword, and clicks and blue checks on their social media accounts, like clueless puppies with a shiny bauble.

They're being hypnotized by the false promises of socialism dangled in front of them by fraudsters like Mayor Mom Donnie in New York. There is a reason that the public school system no longer teaches American history and civics and government, because if they did, we would realize how we have been had, deliberately deceived in having our liberties stolen from us over the decades, and we would throw the bombs out. The deliberate strategy of Marxism is this, historical blackout.

Just as London went stone cold black at night when German bombers flew their missions overhead in World War II, turning out their lights and curtaining their apartments, so Marxists used this metaphor for turning out the lights of history so that the people are in the stone cold dark, ignorant of their past and how they went from liberty to slavery at the hands of evil men like those that rule over us today in the United States of America. Dear listener, liberty is learnt, not lavished naturally. Parents, teacher children, inculcate history and the principles of a constitutional republic.

It is a gift that the United States of America has given to the world. The 11th good gift that America has given to the world, never seen before on the stage of history, is number 11, a record of prosperity and happiness unmatched in human history. Yes, the United States of America has given the world a record of prosperity and happiness unmatched in human history. Do it our way and you'll experience this. In the future, if the world searches the records of history for the civilization which brought the highest level of prosperity and human happiness to the common man, then without doubt, the United States of America will come in first.

The the founding fathers set forth the basic principle. We the people. Oh, with my new technology, search assist. After combing the historical record, search assist concluded, and I quote, the United States has created more total private wealth than any other nation in history, unquote. Now that's a major qualifier in that conclusion, more total private wealth than any other nation in history.

Many other nations and empires over the course of human history have amassed tremendous incalculable wealth. For instance, the Egyptian empire, enduring for almost 4,000 years, one might expect such an empire to amass great wealth, and they did. But as one banking website observes, the vast majority of ancient Egyptians, it turns out, were dirt poor. The empire's unimaginable wealth was almost solely concentrated at the top of the social pyramid among the pharaohs, priests, and to a lesser degree, scribes, architects, engineers, and other privileged tradespeople, unquote. Yes.

Or the Mesopotamian empire. For example, Mesopotamia means between the rivers, that is the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Mesopotamia was a tremendously rich and fertile region of the Middle East, fostered incredible wealth for untold centuries, and most historians believe this region was the cradle of civilization, as they call it. Everything from the wheel, to the written language, to the first currency, were all developed here. Even the Garden of Eden is thought to be located somewhere in this region.

Or there's the Mali empire. This little-known nexus of power and influence and wealth was located in Timbuktu, Africa. Timbuktu flourished at its peak between AD 1280 and 1337. And the website gobankingrates.com says that the leader of the West African kingdom of Mali, and I quote, was so rich that his wealth can't possibly be calculated, unquote. That's wealthy.

That king was Mansa Musa, who historians believe was the richest single individual to ever live. Half of the gold in all the world came from Mali, and it was all his. Well, the one thing these and almost all other empires shared in common was that, as the website gobankrates.com observes, they say, and I quote, wealth was almost solely concentrated at the top of the social pyramid. Yeah. So, while there were certainly empires where tremendous wealth accrued to a few privileged classes of people, the average Joe saw none of it.

He had to be content with his hut, loincloth, and bowl of porridge. And while it's difficult to calculate the annual income of the average man in history, we do have some good data points. First of all, the average annual income for the common man in Judea during Jesus' time was 200 to 300 denarii. Now, that was enough to buy one's daily bread, as Jesus calls it, and little else. And then, a laborer in England during the Middle Ages averaged about $500 per annum.

Now, his buying power was greater than $500 about a day, but it was still a poor man's income. And the website, visualcapitalist.com, visualcapitalist.com. This website has some interesting information, an interesting graph that shows the average income by world region from 1820 to 2020, a period of 200 years, a valuable time span. The United States of America dominates every year, growing that average annual income from around $2,500 in 1820 to $58,000 per annum in 2020. No other country, whether in Western Europe, East Asia, Middle East, or Latin America even came close.

All Latin American countries combined, for instance, went from a few hundred dollars per year in 1820 to only just under $14,000 in 2020. This is why we can say the United States has created more total private wealth than any other nation in history. When you hear the socialist and communist in America today disparage and tear down our country, keep this truth in mind. Even the poorest indigent in America is richer than anyone anywhere else. Why are desperate souls trying to storm our ramparts to get into America, dear listener?

Perhaps they adore the awful, the aging white female liberals who condescendingly take their side and who constitute the majority of the Democrat Party. Or perhaps these desperate immigrants are self-righteous progressives who are indignant at all of the racism and injustice here, and they want to correct it. Au contraire. No, the immigrants migrating to America, they seek a better life, more economic opportunities, and freedom like they cannot find in their countries of origin. Appointing a national fast day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.

We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown." Unquote. And Ben Franklin, when he was ambassador to France, he told the French that God showed his favor to us, and I quote, by the remarkable prosperity with which he has been pleased to favor the whole country. Unquote.

And Patrick Henry said this about us. I love this quote. Patrick Henry said, It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians. Not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

Unquote. All of these are still true, dear listener, and they still obtain. In your darkest moments, do not despair. Always keep in mind that you live in a land where opportunities still exist to prosper and flourish as nowhere else. So keep your perspective.

As Lee Greenwood so eloquently put it, if tomorrow all the things were gone, I worked for all my life, and I had to start again with just my children and my wife, I thank my lucky stars to be living here today, because the flag still stands for freedom. And they can't take that away. Yes. That's why immigrants come here indeed. And that's why you should be thankful to God for living here as well.

Don't let the communists and the progressives take that away. The United States of America will be remembered in history. If not now, then in the future, we will be remembered in history as the most prosperous nation in history because of God's providence and the liberty afforded us by the Constitution. Well, our 12th and final good gift that America has given to history that will be a consistent heritage of the world is number 12. We have given the world a heritage of liberty rooted and grounded in biblical principle.

Yes, a heritage of liberty rooted and grounded in biblical principle. One of the profound ironies of our time is that the enemies of our constitutional republic and the enemies of the United States of America in general and its founding, they would not even have a concept of the freedom they so passionately argue for were it not for our Lord Jesus Christ and the principles he established for personal freedom for the common man. When the Communist Manifesto proclaims workers of the world unite, all you have to lose is your chains.

Their very concept of freedom for the individual worker is rooted and grounded in the biblical principle of freedom for the individual believer. Yes. All of the ignorance of this is profound. The irony is mind boggling to me. Personal freedom throughout the long sad history of mankind was the privilege of a few, the elite, the ruling class.

The lot of the common man was limited. And as the philosopher and historian Thomas Hobbes put it in his 17th century work, Leviathan, he said that life for the common man throughout history was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. In general, we find that the lot of the common man was that he was born, lived in, and died within a 50 mile radius of his home village. Yes. There was no such thing as freedom of movement.

I moved to the Idaho region back in the 1990s from Chicago. I got out while it was still, the getting was still good. I wouldn't have been able to do that back in ancient times. No. Well, the common man also followed generally in the footsteps of his father, practicing the trade and occupation of his forbearers.

There were no career options, if you will, based upon merit and education and ambition. There was no provision for choosing who would rule over you. You consented to live under the king, prince, or lord you were born under, or else there was no freedom of the vote. No. And justice for you in those days was arbitrary.

You had no right to a lawyer or trial by jury or a fair, speedy trial. These kinds of things were unknown. The judge or prosecutor could do whatever they wanted with you. On and on we could go. The kind of personal freedom we know today was utterly unknown to the ancient.

Freedom as we know it today, personal, individual, accompanied with unalienable rights, began with Jesus of Nazareth and his basic premise of freedom. When he said, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." This foundational freedom is spiritual freedom, dear listener. Faith in Jesus sets us free from sin and death. Jesus pointed out to those around him, some of whom were followers, some of whom opposed him, he said, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Unquote. Oh yes, from gospel of John number eight. This is the prior freedom, dear listener. Come alive in Jesus by believing in him, and you will pass from spiritual death to spiritual life, and you will know the freedom from sin and death that Jesus revealed in his earthly ministry among us so long ago, preserved now in the scriptures.

The thing is, over the long centuries of the growth of Christianity, as the faith grew, that spiritual life and freedom began to transform the culture and society as well as the church. People began to demand the kind of liberty they experienced in their spiritual lives, in their physical lives as well. And over the long, painful centuries, with many fits and starts, advances and setbacks, accompanied by rivers of blood, sweat, and tears, we come to the Founding Fathers, who had each made it their personal mission to be students of that history.

Men like Thomas Jefferson had read the classics as well as their own contemporaries like John Locke or Montesquieu or Frédéric Bastiat. They read these guys such that they knew to their toenails that liberty is anchored in biblical principle and Western tradition. And as a result, Jefferson could write in that famous document, we hold these truths to be self-evident. Now, that's a technical term for philosophers. That is, I don't have to rehearse here in this document all the biblical proofs and citations from the great thinkers to persuade you.

No, we've done our homework. Now you go and do your homework if it's not self-evident to you. That's the sense of self-evident. And for the Founders, what was self-evident is that all men are endowed by their creator, ding, ding, ding, ding, with certain unalienable rights. And that among these, not limited to, but just a sample, right, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Consequently, we can say without hesitation that this is one of the most profound gifts that America has given to the world, dear listener, never to be forgotten and never to be denied to free thinking men who are willing to fight for that liberty. We are poised on a precipice, dear listener. We must fight for these liberties. Well, just remember, as you look back on America, dear listener, we've done this. Once again, over 250 years of painful fits and starts, advances and setbacks accompanied by rivers of blood, sweat, and tears, we have made what the Founding Father so boldly created.

We have made for us, this is ours. It is a reality in a lost and slavish world. This is what makes the United States of America so unique in history. It is up to us now, dear listener, to improve upon our heritage and pass that heritage on to our children and our children's children. Many threats and obstacles remain before us, and more on that in weeks to come.

Yeah, there's still a lot of obstacles and threats to this liberty, and there probably always will be. So, it's nothing new in our generation. So, though we face many threats and obstacles, we are free men and we will not be stopped. What America has begun will continue to grow despite setbacks. It is as inevitable as the rising and setting of the sun as certain as the earth in its course around the sun.

God has ordained indeed that first there will be spiritual liberty for the individual believer, and as it works, as it gestates, and gives birth in the heart of those believers, it indeed will create also cultural, societal, and political liberty as a natural out product, as a natural result of that liberty, that spiritual liberty. So, dear listener, consequently, with those truths in view, do not be discouraged. Do not be deterred. Keep alive what has been given you and teach it to your children and your children's children if you are so fortunate to see them.

Just know that if you are so blessed to see your children's children, it is because of God's good providence over your life, and because he has seen fit to place you in a time and place to live as a free man in the greatest country in history, the United States of America. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and we do indeed worship our Lord in freedom and in liberty and in the truth of the gospel.

So, we would just suggest that if you want to check us out, come to us on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you can call us for more information or some feedback at area code 208-523-0196. That's 208-523-0196.