Necessity of a Godly Foundation in Government

Let me get this. Just hang with me,

Stacey, for a minute. Okay. So, um, with that,

I will turn this over to Stacey with Throughout All Ages Ministry. Go ahead,

Stacey. All right. Thank you. We are live on Facebook, too. Okay, everyone, I'm going to open up in prayer.

So please join me. Lord God, just thank you for this time with creation fellowship,

Santee, and getting Mr. Constitution on here. And may we glean from the information he provides to us,

Lord, and may you bless him and bless the audience that listens in. And we thank you for this time in Jesus name.

Amen. So I have been a part of Santee creation fellowship for many years, and I'm excited to provide wonderful speakers such as Mr.

Constitution. But I'm with Throughout All Ages Ministry, 1530 apologetics knows known as TAME.

And we go into the public high schools, build up the students character to intellectually think about their worldview and weigh it with truth.

And if you would like to learn more about Throughout All Ages Ministry, you can go to Throughout All Ages Ministry .com

and learn more. And today I'm excited to introduce our guest.

His name is Doug B. Gibbs. He is a radio show host, author, public speaker and outspoken proponent for spreading the

Constitution literature and a patriot advocate. As the president of the

Constitution Association, I am so excited about his topic today regarding Benjamin Franklin, and he stated only a virtuous person are capable of freedom, while the

Constitution may be the blueprint of our system of literature, liberty, sorry, the firm foundation is that of our creator.

I met Doug Gibbs speaking and I was just so excited.

I approached him. And we became good friends since and he is now on KPRC radio station.

And I am he is known as Mr. Constitution. So go ahead and I'm going to hand it over to Doug Gibbs.

Oh, good evening, everybody, you know, and I was muted the whole time we're talking and it was because there's,

I am in my office at home, and there's doggies in the background and grandkids and all that.

And so I'm like, snapping my fingers. Hey, everybody, shut up, you know, but glad to be here.

And and, Stacey, thank you for a wonderful introduction. Thank you. And, you know, what she was referring to, there's a number of quotes at the founding fathers said regarding virtue, freedom, and God's hand on what this country became.

And to be honest with you, the God's hand is was necessary. Our foundation had to be godly.

And it was God's hand on the colonies that moved us towards independence towards revolution.

And I want to address that in today's discussion. I also a lot of what

I'm going to talk about today. I've written eight books, my latest book is called creator.

And it'll be you can buy it either at Douglas v. Gibbs .com slash store, or Amazon.

It's called creator. I even grabbed a copy at one point. So there it is, creator by Douglas v.

Gibbs. My friends tease me because I actually typoed my cover. There's no dot after the

R but hey, you know, nobody's perfect. But anyway, so the creator is the keystone of our system.

What I mean by that, for those of you are who are familiar with Roman architecture, or just the idea of what a keystone is, it's a wedge shaped stone that fits at the top of an arch.

And it is what holds that arch together. You remove the keystone, the whole arch comes tumbling down.

And the creator, the Lord is the keystone in our arch, our system, without the

Lord, it all comes crumbling down. And the founding fathers understood that in the early Americans understood the importance of having a godly foundation.

And that is part of the reason why God is throughout our founding documents throughout even the settler documents, the fundamental orders of Connecticut, the

Mayflower compact, and so on and so forth. And this the foundation of our system truly is a godly one, regardless of the fact that there are those out there trying to convince you otherwise.

There's a particular book out there, matter of fact, called the 1619 project that wants to tell you that the foundation was not a godly one, it was a slavery one.

And I'm actually working on a book to address that right now. Now, as we talk about this,

I wanted to do a quick sidestep because the lady who introduced me,

Stacey, who introduced me so wonderfully, and she asked me about something that and I heard you talk about this at the beginning, about the 6000 year creation ago creation idea.

And you know, it's funny, I've believed that all my life, and it's because of the founding fathers. And I, you know, if I'd been thinking

I want to grab the two quotes, I'm gonna that I'm going to kind of halfway refer to here,

I didn't think of it till just now, is that there are two quotes, one by, I believe it's,

I want to say Eldridge Gary, the other one definitely by she's

Louise now I can't think of the name. But we have two founding fathers that actually include 6000 years since the creation in their quote.

One of them is about also abortion, saying that the that the that life begins at the earliest stirrings in the womb.

And that the Constitution is about preserving all life, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as it says in the

Declaration of Independence. So when she asked me about the 6000 years, I kind of got a kick a kick out of it, because that's,

I believe that my whole life. And it was the founding fathers that geared me in that direction. So I just thought you might find that fascinating.

But anyway, get back to what I was talking about. So the Creator is our keystone.

So that makes them maybe the Constitution, the blueprint of our whole system. And in fact, in my book, which

I wrote, because of a speech I actually originally gave, I got to thinking about it.

How is it? How can I explain how important the Creator is best? And this actually originated a few years ago, about about two years ago, a year and a half ago,

I was speaking to a group in Fallbrook in San Diego County, California. And this particular group,

I mean, the members of this group come to my Constitution class and in Fallbrook and on Tuesday mornings, and a lot of them are followers of what

I do. And I speak to this particular women's group, like every year, at least once a year, sometimes twice a year.

And in fact, it's because of this particular group that I ultimately met Stacy. And I'm thinking to myself, gosh, they're gonna have me speak again.

And I surely they've heard just about everything I've got to say. Not that repeating yourself is not a good thing.

But I'm thinking to myself, gosh, you know, I've got to come up with something that's going to be a little different, little new.

But But in this day and age, we're going through right now, I want the Christians in the audience to understand number one, number one, how important our godly foundation is, number two, how important it is for Christians to be in the public square, and, and be defending that system, and doing their best to be a part of preserving that system.

After all, we are given the Great Commission, and the Great Commission does not say stay inside your church and hide and don't talk about the

Lord. No, it's the opposite, we need to be in the public square. And a part of the public square is well, politics and all that good stuff.

So and then that drags the Constitution into it. And so first of all,

I'm thinking, okay, I really want to inspire this group to really understand that.

Number two, and it's, and it's interesting, because I've also always believed that what

I do as Mr. Constitution is a ministry that was given to me by the Lord. And I've always taken it seriously.

But at this particular meeting, I was taking it maybe a little bit even more serious than usual in my head,

I really want to make sure I ministered to them. I ministered this message in such a way that they went away, not just saying,

Oh, that Matt, Mr. Constitution was good, but really going, gosh, I really learned something. I was really so I'm so I'm just thinking about this.

I'm thinking, how can I come up with something? What new thing can I talk about? That will get me all of these reactions and all of that.

And so for a week before the speech, I'm thinking about it, and I'm thinking about it. And I can't come up with anything.

And so I did something that I hadn't done during that prayer week, I prayed deeply about it. And funny thing, you know, it's, you know, be careful when you ask the

Lord to show up, because he will. And it's interesting sometimes how it happens. So I'm up at two o 'clock in the morning,

I'm working on stuff. And I'm thinking about the speech. And I, you know, I'm going to, you know, be out there that evening, you know, with this new speech that I haven't seen to come up with yet.

And then these thoughts came into my head, and it was almost as if somebody else put them there.

Maybe not me. And you know, it's funny, because I do believe in divine providence, I do believe

God's hand is on us. But I never experienced anything quite like that before. And, and I really got to thinking about it.

And I got to think about the word creator. And how the word creator is more than just a title, one of the many titles, and and the one of the many attributes that God has and is.

But also, it was a word that the founder has used a lot when they refer to God. Benjamin Franklin called him sometimes, our powerful friend or the father of lights, which is a biblical reference.

And Jefferson when writing about God Almighty often use the word creator.

And it was an important word to them. And I got to thinking about that word. And then I realized, you know what, everything

I talked about and everything that our system is about is right there in creator. So I'm going to go over that with you.

So the creator, the big word, keystone, keystone of our system, you remove that foundation, you move the creator, from the equation, it all comes crumbling down.

Now we've got these letters, these seven letters of this word, C r e a t o r.

So let's break them down. Creator C, constitution. If God is the keystone, the

Constitution is the blueprint. This is what God gave us that it's the men that I believe wrote the

Constitution had heavy inspiration from God. Was it inspired like the Bible? No, I don't think it was necessarily in that way.

But was God's hand there? Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. And here's what's interesting when we get to the

Constitution, Constitutional Convention, is you have these men who all are

Christians, they all have their own different little beliefs, but they're all Christians, different denominations, perhaps we're even told that a couple of more

Christians, which, you know, Jefferson and who wasn't there, by the way, he was in France at the time, and Benjamin Franklin, who was, and I'm told that these two men were deists, they didn't even, they weren't really

Christians. And my response is always, well, if they were deists, they weren't very good ones. Because they referred to Christ, they refer to scripture all the time.

And in the case of Benjamin Franklin, 81 year old, attending this convention, he's the elder statesman.

And if you remove like about eight of the older guys from the convention, the remaining guys, the average age was like 27.

I mean, it was a young group. And a few oldsters. And so here's 81 year old

Benjamin Franklin, and he's here at this convention. And for the first four or five weeks, they are fighting like cats and dogs.

There was a lot to disagree about big states versus small states, slavery versus abolition, and so on and so forth.

And so they're arguing the fighting, they're not sure how they're going to get this thing off the ground.

The only thing they got done during the first four or five weeks of the Constitutional Convention was that they had set up the basic framework, okay, we're gonna have articles and sections and, and James Madison had given us a great outline that he had written ahead of time, father of the

Constitution. And they voted George Washington as president of the convention.

But other than that, they were arguing like cats and dogs. They weren't getting along very well, because they all have their own personal little petty preferences of what they wanted, what was best for their community, their state, their religion, what they believed, and so on and so forth.

And so you've got all of these. Well, the kids are fighting basically, and the older 81 year old

Benjamin Franklin is silent. He's watching it all. And you know,

I wonder if you know, you know, you've seen images of, you know, paintings and all that Benjamin Franklin, you know, when he's on, you know, money and things like, he's always got a spectacles, right?

And sometimes a square spectacles similar to these might, sometimes it might be round ones. And I don't know which pair he was wearing.

But I can see him in the back room, kind of adjusting his spectacles, kind of lifting them every once in a while and looking at the crowd and going, man, what a bunch of crazy kids.

I could just imagine that. But he was quiet and he watched it. And then, for those of you who are my age and older, you youngsters might not remember this.

There was a commercial on television when I was a kid. When EF Hutton talks, people listen.

Remember that? Well, when Benjamin Franklin spoke, people listened. And so he, gentlemen, and I'm sure the room went dead silent.

Once again, I don't know all the details. I wasn't there. My can my grandkids are convinced I was there. Matter of fact, you know, two of my grandkids are convinced

I'm over 100 years old. That's beside the point. But I wasn't there. But I can imagine the room silenced immediately.

Benjamin Franklin was a well respected individual. He'd been in the game a long time. And he was a part of the revolution.

He was a part of the Declaration of Independence. He was there. He was an important cog in that machine of independence.

Gentlemen, we have forgotten something, he said. Now, I don't know what the immediate response was.

I'm wondering if some of them were like, well, see, we got the parchment, we got the, you know, we got our plumes, you know, to write with and the ink, what'd we forget?

I'm wondering if some of them thought that way. But you know, Benjamin Franklin, you know, gentlemen, we have forgotten something.

We were on our knees in prayer during the war. Have we forgotten our powerful friend?

Why do we neglect to consult the father of life during this critical moment in history?

And if he knows every, I'll paraphrase, it's not the exact words, it's pretty close. If he knows every sparrow that falls to ground, surely he is involved in the affairs of men and the creation of empires.

Then he suggested they pray before each session. Now, this goes back to this deist thing.

He actually did call himself a thorough deist in his autobiography, but as he got older, he explained in that speech, as I get older, he said,

I see more, I recognize more that he is involved in what we do.

So he recommended they pray. And what's funny about it is after he made this recommendation, they argued for four more days on whether or not to pray.

And then after four days of arguing, and Alexander Hamilton led the opposition to prayer, exclaiming that they did not need any foreign aid.

His words, not mine. I thought that was kind of a clever way of saying it. And also, one of the arguments that Hamilton made was, well, gosh, if we're praying all the time, and the people find out, they're gonna think we don't have control of our convention, we don't have any original ideas in our head.

Now, someone that doesn't understand prayer, I guess would say something like that. So, so they debated for four days, and then finally, they held a vote.

And they, someone made the motion. Someone seconded, and they voted, and they voted against the prayer at first.

Because the arguments were, we can't afford a clergyman. And we don't want outside prionized to understand what we're there to see what we're doing, they won't understand.

I mean, this is, you know, in Philadelphia, Independence Hall, same place where the Declaration of Independence had been debated.

If ever you've been to Philadelphia during the summer, this is from May to September, folks. May is the last decent month of the year in Philadelphia before it gets very hot and very humid.

And there they are trying to keep it secret, because they're afraid people wouldn't understand. They've got the doors locked, the windows closed.

No AC, no deodorant. You can see, you can see my problem here, right?

So of course, they were mad at each other, it was probably hot, smelly, and everything else anyway.

But here they are, they're arguing over this. And they're worried.

So they voted down. And then the gentlemen who did want to praise it were like, well, wait a sec, we've got to pray.

If we're not going to do it here, we're going to do it anyway. So the ones that wanted to pray, went down to the nearest church.

It was a Calvinist reformed Calvinist church or Calvinist reformed, I guess. But the pastor they asked to lead them was someone they trusted.

His name was William Rogers. And William Rogers was a Baptist minister who had served in the

Revolutionary War, he had left his church to don a uniform, so that he could participate in independence as someone they trusted.

And so they asked him to pray for them, Reverend William Rogers, Baptist minister, and he did.

Now I want you to listen to the prayer very carefully here, to realize how inspired it was, and that he was well informed, he knew what they were up to.

So and one more one more thing, this is kind of interesting. They had been arguing.

They're fighting. And when they finally got together for prayer. The interesting irony about it is, the prayer was delivered on July 4 1787.

I think the dates kind of interesting. And here's the prayer by Reverend William Rogers.

As this is a period Oh Lord big with events impenetrable by any human scrutiny.

We fervently recommend to thy fatherly notice that August body assembled in this city, who compose our federal convention.

Will it please the eternal I am to favor them from day to day with thy immediate presence, be thou their wisdom and their strength, enable them to devise such measures as may prove happily instrumental for healing all divisions and promoting the good of the great whole incline the hearts of all the people to receive with pleasure, combined with the determination to carry into execution, whatever these by servants may wisely recommend that the

United States of America may furnish the world with one example of a free and permanent government, which shall be the result of human and mutual deliberation, and which shall not like all other governments, whether ancient or modern spring out of mere chance or be established by force.

May we triumph in the cheering prospect of being completely delivered from anarchy, and continue under the influence of Republican virtue to partake of all the blessings of cultivated and civilized society.

Now you notice in the speech, and I want to go back and reiterate something he said, that, that this would be serve as an example of a free and permanent government.

In other words, to be the shining beacon on the hill. And remember when

Benjamin Franklin had recommended that they pray, and he said, if ever if he knows every sparrow that falls to the ground, surely he is involved in the affairs of men and the creation of empires.

They truly did believe that America would be an empire, but not an empire of conquest, but an empire of emulation, that the rest of the world would see the liberty and want to emulate it, that the rest of the world would see what

America was doing and say, I want their liberty too. And that tyrants would fall and empires would crumble, simply because the world would look upon the

United States and see how godly and free she truly was an empire, a godly empire, one that was founded on godly principles, and one that was full of liberty, free enterprise, and all the other wonderful things that go along with it.

Now, had the prayer not happened, I believe the arguing would have continued.

Had that moment in time not occurred, our

Constitution, the miracle would not have happened. The miracle was not possible until the members, the delegations of that constitutional convention came together in prayer.

And they looked together to the same God and said, we're putting it in your hands, oh,

Lord. Please give us the wisdom and the strength. Please inspire us, so that we may create something worthy of you.

Now, this is not the first time, though, that God had his hand in that process. Like any system,

America, the founding, the settling generation, the first generation that settled

America's shores, they were very godly people. They came here because of they were seeking religious freedom, right?

You've heard that about the pilgrims and all that. But as time passed, and the greatest generation of their time passed, and the children and the grandchildren, and the great grandchildren became the colonists, their attention to a godly society wavers.

And they were ignored. And after a while, it got so bad that in 1662, the ministers in Boston, or not

Boston, but Massachusetts, west of Boston, got together and like, hey, man, we need to do something here.

And they decided to devise something called the halfway covenant to fill their pews because our pews were empty.

Hey, if you're only halfway good with God, don't worry, we'll accept you at the church, you can have communion with us.

That'll get them here. You know, because when you become a new creature in Christ, you become half of a new creature, right?

Of course not. But that's what they were essentially teaching. And what had happened was then those people grew up and became the leaders and the ministers.

And what do you think happened to that message? It doubled, and it tripled and quadrupled, and it got worse and worse, until finally, in 1734,

Jonathan Edwards, a pastor in North Hampton, Massachusetts, says,

Whoa, we got a problem here. We have a society that's living in sin, and then some, and they think that that halfway covenant is their ticket to do so.

Our culture is in trouble. And as recently, in our modern society, a gentleman by the name of Andrew Breitbart once said, politics run downstream from culture.

If you got a problem with the culture, everything else is going to be problematic too. And Jonathan Edwards in 1734 realized that we better get right with God, our society, our culture is in danger here because we are not following the

Lord. After all, when it comes to your salvation, they know you by your fruits, right?

Our faith is dead if our fruits don't follow. And he began to preach that.

And he began to point out the sins that are being committed. And he started talking about things that go even beyond what was going on.

Not only do you need to turn away from what you're doing, you need to move towards God even more so.

Where are the prayers before dinner? Where are the family times with the Bible, with the father reading the

Bible for the family? He was arguing this. And a revival began in his church.

People caught on, the conversions went off the charts. People turned back towards God.

And as they did that, they realized something's wrong with our system. The people running our city are corrupt.

Well, they couldn't see it before, because their minds were just as corrupt in sin. Give you an example.

I worked for a credit union for a number of years. I handled money a lot. I handled the genuine article so much that if a fake came across my hands, it rarely happened.

But I tell you what, when it happened, I knew what it was. Because I handled the genuine article all the time.

A fake was easy to spot. If we are not immersed in the genuine article, with the word and God, we can't spot the fakes.

We have to be with the genuine article so that we can recognize what is not.

Because we got one foot in the world and one foot in Christ or a toe in Christ and rest of the toes in the world or whatever.

We're right there with them. We're not gonna be able to recognize the difference because we see all of it all the time.

You don't learn how to spot the fakes by hanging out with the fakes. The fakes become apparent when you're immersed in the genuine article.

And that's what was going on. So here we are now.

We've got this town that's going through revival. And it's prospering.

The economic part of it's getting better. The manufacturing is getting better. The political system's better. Everything's better.

And all the towns around are going, whoa, what's going on with Northampton over there? Let's check it out. And the pastors began preaching the same message in their churches.

And before long, this revival in 1734 and beyond has reached over 100 communities in Massachusetts.

And word about this reaches Britain. George Whitefield hears about it.

And he comes to the colonies to check out what's going on. And he sits in the pews and listens to Jonathan Edwards a few times.

And he approaches Jonathan Edwards says the Reverend, that's a mighty message. It should go throughout the entire 13 colonies.

And I want to help you do it. So Jonathan Edwards actually helped

George Whitefield get ready for his trip. And George Whitefield took that message and preached it from the southern tip of Georgia all the way to the northern tip of what today is

Maine, which back then was part of Massachusetts. And over the next 40 years, the 13 colonies experienced something.

It's called the Great Awakening. It became a godly culture again.

They became immersed in the genuine article. And when as they became immersed in a genuine article, they began to see the counterfeits, the fakes, the problems, the tyranny.

And they weren't happy with it. Suddenly, things like the

Stamp Act weren't so acceptable anymore. Suddenly, things like the tyranny of the redcoats, quartering in the homes and the general warrants were not acceptable anymore.

Tyranny was outed and easily recognized. And as John Adams explains, in the minds of the colonists, the revolution began.

The cry for independence began in their minds. And then it became conversation in the church halls, and the meeting halls and the pubs.

And then the activities began. And the rallies and the protests.

And finally, when the tyrants pushed too far, when they unloaded their guns, opened fire on colonists, the revolution began.

A revolution, a declaration of independence, and Articles of Confederation, and a

US Constitution, all made possible, because in 1734, a single pastor said, the halfway covenant is wrong.

We need to get right, our culture needs to get right. If it wasn't for the

Creator, and that message, the Constitution would have never happened.

So Creator, C -R -E -A -T -O -R, C stands for Constitution, R in Creator, Republic.

They recognize that a pure democracy wasn't going to work, because in a pure democracy, the wealthy and the powerful can use their funds and their power to get anybody they want into office.

It needed to be a republic in which there are different mechanisms. The people voted in the members of the

House of Representatives originally. The state legislatures appointed the senators.

The lawmaking process, then, in Congress, had three voices.

The people in the House, the states in the Senate, and the executive branch through the

Vice President as President of the Senate. Checks and balances, differences of opinion, debate, a republic.

And the state legislatures, during the Constitutional Convention, being the parents over this federal government that they created with the

Constitution, had oversight over everything the federal government did. There was nothing the federal government could do without direct or indirect state legislature approval.

Boy, what a great system that would be, right? Except all those mechanisms except for like one are gone.

Originally, for example, there was no income tax, not directly on us anyway.

In fact, the IRS didn't exist until 1862. And the idea of a direct tax on the people didn't exist until 1913, 16th

Amendment. And then during the 1930s, they began W -2 withholding. Late 1930s.

All of that's fairly new. Originally, that's not the way they did it. Originally, the budget was presented to the states by the federal government.

And then the state legislatures will look at it and say, Okay, well, we're not paying for that, that or that. Try again, send it back.

Sometimes they wouldn't pay until it was corrected. Could you imagine if you or I tried to do that?

We'd be in an orange jumpsuit pretty quick, wouldn't we? In 2007, a friend of mine and myself went through the entire federal budget.

And we determined based on our study, that 85 % of federal spending is unconstitutional.

That wasn't going on when the states were over had oversight over the budget.

Another way that they had oversight was the US Senate, the US Senate, the state legislatures originally appointed the members of the

US Senate. And that worked really well, because that gave them the state legislatures, the ones who basically sent their delegates the

Constitutional Convention to create this government in the first place, oversight on the lawmaking process, treaties, confirmation of judges and other officers.

What a fantastic setup. Federal government couldn't do anything without the state legislature saying it was okay.

17th Amendment 1913 changed that to the vote of the people. Well, Doug, don't you think the will of people is a wonderful thing?

Yes or no. See, the thing about the Constitution is it's about the proper distribution of power.

And one thing that we've learned in history is power corrupts. Absolutely. Absolute power corrupts.

Absolutely. I know you knew the last word of that. All of you did. I'm sure of it. So we don't want all the power in any one place.

And that includes the people's hands, because we'll mess it up too. So no pure democracy for us.

The states had a voice, the counties counties, how the counties have a voice, oh, you're gonna like this. Alright, so the

US Senate, two per state, appointed by the state legislatures. The state governments were modeled as a republic also after the federal government.

So your California State Assembly, or your state houses of representatives, depending on some call it assembly, some call it

House of Rep, depends on the state. But nonetheless, your local legislature in the state level, the assembly or house was as it is today, voted in by the people based on districts determined by population.

But the State Senate was not. The State Senate was one per county, appointed by the legislature of the county.

And then back then the legislature of the county was not a board of supervisors. It was bicameral. In other words, two houses, just like the state and the federal legislature.

One house voted in by the people, the other one were appointed by member cities. Interesting, huh?

A little different. That's what a republic looks like. And so if it's now,

California is a great example. Do you think that the State Senate would look differently if it was one per county?

Let me give an example. Senate District two in California. That's like Del Norte, which is up in upper very far north end of the

California coast and other counties around eight counties for one state senator. Because of population, they're sparsely populated.

So it takes eight counties for this big enough population to match all the other districts. But LA counties get packed, right?

It's huge. So in LA County, there are 13 Senate districts. So in the current system, eight counties get one senator and one county gets 13 senators.

Somebody is getting the better end of the deal on that one, and it's the population center. And Madison and Jefferson argued that population centers are where tyrannies rise from.

So the founders set it up so that the rural areas had a bigger voice. So under this system for the

State Senate, one per county, that would mean that each of those eight counties in Senate District two would each have a senator.

In LA County, who has 13, they'd get one. Do you think the State Senate in California would look a little differently?

Absolutely. And then, if they are appointing the senators, and the two houses are different from each other, now they're going to have to compromise, right?

And you might, I don't know, have U .S. senators from differing parties in the

U .S. Senate. How many states would that happen to? Where they would go from two of the same party to a split, because the legislature changed, because the state became a republic again.

This change happened permanently in 1964. It's actually relatively recent.

Reynolds v. Sims. Alabama was still doing it the old way, having the counties appoint the state senators, one per county.

They got sued because it wasn't very democratic. Not supposed to be a democracy.

It's supposed to be a republic. Ah, but it's not much. It doesn't look like a democracy if you're doing it that way, was the argument.

So it worked its way to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Warren, some of you who are my age and older might go, well, that explains a lot right there, decided, yes, it wasn't very democratic.

We're going to do it. All the states have to do it the new way. Districts based on population rather than one per county.

No wonder we're having difficulties. We're not a republic anymore. We need to be a republic. C for constitution,

R for republic, E for equality. I'm not talking just equity, like they're trying to preach out there.

I'm talking equality. Jefferson's equality. In the Declaration of Independence, he wrote, all men are created equal.

Didn't say that their current condition was equal. They're created equal. In God's eyes, we're all equal at creation.

He equally wants our worship. He equally wants our love. He equally wants us to do well. He equally gives us our natural rights.

He doesn't say, hey, you know, Stacey, I'm only give you half the natural rights.

Doug, you're only getting a quarter of them. But Terry, you get all of them. No, that's not the way it works. All of us get all of the natural rights.

All of the rights that God gives to us are God given natural rights. We all get all of them. We're all created equal.

Well, Doug, those founding fathers didn't think it was real equal if they kept slavery, I've been told. Let's examine that for a minute.

Did you know in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson had originally written 138 words of anti -slavery language?

And in that anti -slavery language that got removed on July 1 of 1776, because two states didn't like it,

South Carolina and Georgia. That means 11 out of 13 states said, yeah, we love that anti -slavery language.

Doesn't sound like a racist country to me, does it to you? When 11 of the 13 say we like anti -slavery language in our declaration, and they only removed it because they wanted to make sure that those two states,

Georgia and South Carolina remained in the Union, and were willing to sign the declaration. So they removed it on July 1, 1776.

And in that 138 words of anti -slavery language, Thomas Jefferson wrote, in when referring to the slaves, that these men are being used by the

British. And they've done no wrong and they and they have been put into a condition that they should not have been put into.

And now we're trying and now the British are trying to use them against this colonies. Notice he called the slaves men.

And he didn't just call them men. When he put men in the original draft, he put it in all caps, capital

M, capital E, capital N. Emphasis. These men, you know, the same guy that had written earlier in the declaration, all men are created equal.

Absolutely, he was including slaves in that equality. They recognize that sin was, as they say, the great sin.

And that it someday must be abolished. And they knew it would be, they hoped it would be in their lifetimes.

But from God's point of view, from creation, all men are created equal. And they truly did believe that.

The condition that people were experiencing at that time was not equal.

And we're not supposed to be equal anyway, really, totally. I mean, I'm glad everybody's not equal. Because if everybody was equal, they'd all know the

Constitution like I do, and I wouldn't have a job. But we're different, aren't we? You have your own skill set.

Some of us have more determination than others. Some of us have different skills. Some of us get the lucky break.

Some of us don't. Some of us reach the height of our profession. Some of us never realized what our profession was supposed to be.

We're not equal. In that sense. Equality is

God's equality, Jefferson's equality, that we're created equal. So creator

C, Constitution, R, Republic, E, equality, A, activism.

Well, Doug, do you really think Christians should be active? Absolutely. Remember that thing about the

Great Commission, we got to be in the public square. Jesus didn't say,

God doesn't say in the Bible, the scripture does not say, hide inside the four walls of your church and hope a few people come hoping to be changed over and accept

Christ. We must go out into the public square for the Great Commission.

And in the public square are all these other things that involve our culture. And it is our job to make sure we have a godly culture.

You darn tootin, we're supposed to be active. Activism is important.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying that we need to, you know, be some of these crazy activists that do some crazy things, but we do need to be active.

Because if you look at the First Amendment, there are five rights that are enumerated in the

First Amendment, religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

In other words, pray about it, talk about it, write about it, gather about it, be activists about it.

That's the model for maintaining our liberty. That is the model for keeping the

Republic. Elizabeth Powell, my favorite founding father was a woman.

Elizabeth Powell, one day was wearing a bonnet walking across the grass slope walks up to Benjamin Franklin at the end of the convention says to him,

Dr. Franklin, what have you given us a monarchy or Republic? A Republic?

Madam, if you can keep it, that was Elizabeth Powell. Elizabeth Powell was the wife of Samuel Powell, Mayor of Philadelphia, they owned a large home, and they would board out the rooms like a bed and breakfast style thing.

And they would have these opulent dinners to attract the most notable travelers. And after dinner, those men would then retreat to the parlor, light their pipes and discuss politics.

Elizabeth Powell, and like many of the ladies of her day, would follow the men into the parlor and argue politics with them and sometimes even light a pipe up with them.

And she became an influencer. She was the first influencer in my opinion. And she got to know these guys.

George Washington and Elizabeth Powell became matter of fact, very good friends. It was she that convinced him to serve a second term.

It was she that convinced him Mr. President was a perfect title. It was she that helped guide the beginnings of our country.

So one says, well, Benjamin Franklin said to her, you know, for her to keep the Republic.

How could a woman do that if she couldn't vote? Well, first of all, she could vote. That's, that's not true that women could not vote.

In fact, if you read the New Jersey State Constitution, which was written in 1776, it indicates that all inhabitants, after meeting certain criteria could vote.

Women were capable of voting as were free blacks at the time. Women tended not to be property owners and women tended not to vote, partly because of the patriarchy of the society in which men tended to be the ones to own property.

And also women because of the culture of the time tended not to get into politics because it was a man thing.

It was a man's world. So by choice, often women didn't vote or participate, but they could.

Now, eventually, in the 1800s, the laws did go kind of weird on us. But that's a different discussion. That was a reaction to the the activism of the ladies during the beginning of the temperance movement and all that, but that's a whole different discussion for another time.

But the women could be active. And one of the ways to be active is be an influencer like Elizabeth Powell.

Notice I said earlier, in the First Amendment, we got those five rights that are enumerated. The first one, religion, prayer, the last one petition, activism.

Everything we do must begin with prayer and end with being active. Everything else is just in between.

And all those in between things don't happen if we're not in prayer. And if we're not active, the rest of stuff is fluff.

We better be in prayer, we better be on our knees in prayer. And we better be active, or we will be in our knees in tyranny, bondage.

So C, Constitution, R, Republic, E, equality, A, activism, T, theology.

People say, well, theology has to study religion. No. It's a study of God. Religion is manmade.

My faith is God made. And if he's going to be the keystone to my structure,

I better understand him, I better be in his word, I better be knee deep and neck deep into my theology, understanding it, reading it, learning it, practicing it.

Otherwise, it all falls apart. If I'm going to depend on him to be the keystone,

I better understand who he is, and why we are his creation.

C, Constitution, R, Republic, E, equality, A, activism, T, theology,

O, organize. The Revolutionary War wasn't going well in the beginning.

It was an angry mob. It was an angry mob of storekeepers, and farmers, and merchants, few professionals, with handmade muskets that they couldn't hit the side of the barn barn with, couldn't march, no uniform.

But darn it, they wanted independence. So they got out there as an angry mob, and they stood up against the greatest military force in the world, the

British Army, and they were getting slaughtered. Eight of the first 11 battle major battles were lost by the

Americans. It was a bloodbath. Then General George Washington realized there was a problem.

They weren't real organized. The militias belong to states and the states, the states weren't following the advice of him or Continental Congress.

And a lot of these guys, they would just throw their hands up and go home sometimes and desert. Then the generals were all bickering with each other and the other officers are bickering with each other.

There was no organization. So George Washington, after really messing it up in the beginning, as a general that didn't have everything organized, organized it.

He created battalions and companies. He created the regulars and lengthened enlistments, got

Congress to promise that they would get paid, and things like that. Convinced the states to listen more to him and Congress, so they can work as a body as a common defense.

And once they were organized, the war began to change direction. Those ragtag militiamen began to make a difference.

They began to win a few battles. And while I argue that we really didn't win the

Revolution War, what we did was we frustrated the British enough where they threw their hands up and left for a while.

But nonetheless, that was accomplished, because they became organized.

Most people don't know that there were two First Crusades also. The first First Crusade was an angry mob, and the angry mob went out there to face the well -trained hordes of Islamic armies and got slaughtered.

It wasn't until they organized under the leadership of the

Christian countries, that the First Crusade, the second First Crusade became more successful.

Right now, we are up against something that's very frightening. And we're not organized.

We're a bunch of islands, doing our own little thing. And that's why tyranny is having its way with us right now.

Because we're not organized. We don't know how to stand firm against them, because we don't even know how to get along with each other.

We bicker over the silliest stuff. And we're not in prayer together. We better get organized, and we better come together under one banner, and we better work together or it's going to be a very long, cold winter.

C for Constitution, R Republic, E Equality, A Activism, T Theology, O Organized, R Rule of Law.

In the Declaration of Independence, it says the laws of nature's and of nature's

God, the laws of nature and of nature's God, that's God's law. The rule of law, the rule of law is the system that we know right and wrong of.

We know what it should be. It's self evident, as it says in the Declaration of Independence, but only a godly culture can recognize it.

Because we're not godly, right and wrong becomes a little more difficult to recognize.

Goes back to that thing I was talking about, about handling the genuine article. Remember that? Handling all the genuine article money so I can find the fakes?

Or at least recognize them? The rule of law is the genuine article.

The role of man is not. And the role of man is tyrannical. The role of man is a bunch of judges, a bunch of politicians making decisions without God's inspiration being involved.

Without the moral law being involved, without the 10 Commandments being a part of it.

Without principles, godly principles. The problem with the thing about principles, principles apply to everyone.

Just like natural rights. There are people out there that don't believe that natural rights apply to everyone or that the right rights are natural rights or that or nor do they have principles.

Because what they seek is not a principled country based on a godly foundation.

What they seek is power and wealth for themselves. And so the rule of law means nothing to them.

They want the role of man to be in charge. And I have a saying about that to help people understand what I'm talking about.

The moment you set aside the rule of law, and you begin to follow the rule of man, it doesn't take very long before you begin dancing around a golden calf.

Our culture better be godly, we better be in tune with the rule of law, or we will lose it.

There was a man named Alexander titler. He was a Scottish political philosopher, he died in 1813.

He was well aware of what was going on in America. And he created this cycle, the titler cycle

TYT LER for those of you taking notes. And in the titler cycle, he explained that the average system of liberty, democracy, republic, whatever, last between 200 and 250 years.

The average system of liberty lasts between 200 and 250 years. Last September, we celebrated 234 years of the

US Constitution and 245 years of freedom. Under the

Declaration of Independence. We're on the edge of that cycle. According to Alexander titler, and that cycle begins a bondage at the very top, it's a big circle.

And it begins a bondage. And when you're in bondage, I don't care who you are. It's like the old saying, there's no atheist in a foxhole.

You cry out to God. So begins a bondage and from bondage comes spiritual faith.

And once we have that spiritual faith, and you know, God's in your corner, and you've reached out to God, you've had that spiritual awakening, then the culture becomes courageous, and courage is achieved.

And from that courage, comes liberty, because you want to stand up and fight for that liberty, bondage, courage.

I'm sorry, bondage, spiritual awakening, courage, liberty. And from all that comes abundance.

But once you get to the part in that cycle that says abundance, prosperity, you're halfway through the cycle and you're at the bottom.

Now you got to work your way back up. And what follows abundance is selfishness, complacency, apathy, dependency on government and back to bondage.

Where are we on that cycle? And as a godly society, is it possible to cut across from somewhere around dependence on that cycle across to spiritual faith again?

Or do we have to go through bondage first? I don't know the answer to that one.

But I do know this. The cycle doesn't begin without spiritual faith.

The cycle does not begin unless the rule of law through spiritual faith is the basis of the system.

Without spiritual faith without that godly foundation, the system cannot go to courage, liberty and abundance.

Those things don't happen. If there is no spiritual faith and there is no godly foundation. Alexander Titler saw it, the

First Amendment recognizes it. But as Americans right now, for some reason, we can't seem to get that through our heads.

I'm not this group, obviously, you guys got it. But our culture is far from being a godly culture right now.

We need to follow the steps of Creator, Constitution, Republic, equality, activism, theology, organized rule of law, all of those things need to happen.

All those things are important. As Christians, we need to be involved in all of it. And we need to make sure our culture has a godly foundation because I'm gonna tell you right now, if we can't get our spiritual house in order, we're not going to get our political house in order.

It's not possible. If we don't have the

Almighty King, as our leader, someone else will step in as our leader.

Be God of this world. Because you know, everything that comes out, it comes from one of two directions.

Either God, or somewhere else. It's either a godly thing or it's a

Luciferian thing. No wonder we're in trouble, because our culture is anything but godly right now.

If we don't have a godly foundation, which is necessary for us to achieve, enjoy, and preserve our liberty, then it will come crumbling down, the keystone will drop out, and that whole arch will come crumbling down.

And the only way to rebuild it would be to find that keystone and get it back into place again, and to build it all over again.

And it begins with spiritual faith. It begins with that godly foundation, none of the structure can stand unless that foundation is there.

Now I tell people, when it comes to that, considering our current situation, either we are

Thomas Jefferson, or we are Cicero. Thomas Jefferson, well,

Declaration of Independence, he was a part of bringing liberty, getting it started, kickstarting it, getting the motor running and the wheels turning.

When it came to liberty. Cicero was a statesman in the Roman Republic, trying to save liberty, stop the empire from forming and keep the

Roman Republic as it should be. But he failed. And the Roman Republic fell.

And the Roman Empire rose. And Rome became a tyranny. Cicero wrote about his efforts.

Who wrote, who read his writings, Thomas Jefferson. And Cicero's writings became inspirational for Thomas Jefferson's push for liberty today.

So either we are Jefferson or we are Cicero, either we're going to get the kickstand going again and get the wheels turning and the motor running, we're gonna get liberty going again, or we're gonna fail, it's gonna collapse.

But our work will not be forgotten or in vain. Because like with Cicero, somebody in the future may see our hard work, and what we've done, and resurrect that liberty.

But that's not the reason I do it. The reason I do this is because as a Christian, I should always stand against evil.

As a Christian, I should always stand as in Galatians 5 .1 liberty.

He gave us our liberty. We need to stand for it. It is our duty as Christians to stand firm in the yoke of liberty.

It is our duty to also be a positive influence on our culture, and to lead those who do not know him to Christ.

And it's hard to do. If you're no longer allowed to practice religion, if you're no longer able to practice your belief, your faith in Christ, you lose the system, you lose your ability to stand firm in Christ, and spread the good word, you become an underground church, hiding in the shadows.

If we don't get control, if our culture does not become godly again.

So Doug, do you really think it's possible? What does it say in Matthew?

With God, all things are possible. It also says in the book of Luke that we are to occupy until his return.

To occupy until his return is to maintain our ministry. And this is my ministry.

This is the ministry God gave to me. And this is my ministry for not just you, but all of America.

And it says this, without a godly foundation, it all comes crumbling down.

We better get right with God. We better get our culture right. We better follow Jonathan Edwards example.

The halfway covenant is not acceptable. The halfway covenant is going to destroy us.

We better get right with God. And it can begin with just one. It did with Jonathan Edwards. But it didn't just begin with him, then it spread, because people got active.

Because people want to take that word and spread it far and wide. And George Whitefield came and said, I want to help.

Another pastor said, I want to preach it. Another citizen says, I believe it and I want to help.

And it became contagious in the colonies. We could do that now. But we have to understand in the first place, that for it all to happen, we've got to have a godly foundation.

Because God was the author of our liberty. Christ is the reason we strive for that liberty.

What a wonderful message. And we think to ourselves, yes, if only people were willing to hear it.

And my response is, yes, if only we were willing to speak it. They can't hear it.

If we don't talk about it. They can't hear it. If we are not advocates for it.

It takes activity. So that's my call to action to you. We all have a skill set.

And it's different. I know not everybody's a speaker or writer or a group leader.

Not everybody's a radio host or an author or whatever. But we all have our ministries.

You might be the person at church that people come to to ask questions. You might be the rock in your family.

You might be a great email warrior, or a phone call warrior to help out a group with their phone calls.

You might simply be the person that while standing in line at the grocery store gets to talking to other people in the line and says,

Hey, have you heard about the details of the godly foundation of our Constitution? Did you know that there was a great awakening in America?

Boy, things are pretty rough right now. I bet if we got right with God, it would get better. I don't know.

I don't know how to start that conversation. But you might be that person that does know how. Whatever it is, follow

Luke. Occupy until his return. But I will say this as things get scary and nervous.

One of two things is getting ready to happen. Either Jesus is nearly here with the second coming, or we're on the verge of a new great awakening.

Either way, we should be excited. It seems scary. We're up against some pretty tough hombres.

But see, here's the thing. I used to say, I've read the book, and I know who wins.

Then a friend of mine said, Doug, you're not saying that right now. So what do you mean? God's already won.

The victory is already there. The victory is already at hand. He conquered death on the cross.

And he has already conquered the darkness of earth. We just don't know the details yet, because we haven't gone through them.

He's already won. But it's important that we participate. It's important that we do our part.

It's important that we stand firm in liberty and God's foundation.

Thank you for spending the time with me. Well, thank you.

That was very good. That was amazing, Doug. And we're gonna have to have no PowerPoint needed.

Not at all. That was amazing. We're gonna definitely have to have you back. I'm gonna have to go back to YouTube and listen to it all again.

Sorry, Robin, go ahead. I was just so excited. I was on the tip of my seat. I'm like, Doug, you're that was great.

Thank you. It was very good. And before we end the recording and the live stream, does anybody have any questions they want to put into the chat or on Facebook Live?

And we'll read those. Otherwise, we'll shut off our live stream and while you're watching for chatters or questions.

Let me do this real quick. If you don't terribly mind. Nope. You want to learn more about me Douglas fee gibbs .com.

Political pistachio .com is where I blog my latest book creator, a lot of what

I talked about you want to read there you go. Want to read about it. There it is in this book. I've got eight books.

And I'll be honest with you. I'm in it for the cause. I'm not a PA wide patriot.

I'm a PA teach patriot. But the fact is, it takes funding to do what I do.

And I actually canceled the class tonight that I would make something off of because I wanted to be here with you. And all

I ask is that you at least consider purchasing a book, donating or whatever. But here's the thing.

I try my best to be as involved as I can. But I'm also very busy. The reality is,

I am my secretary. I am my producer. I am my accountant. I am my scheduler.

I am my everything. I feel like I don't get back to you quickly. I'm sorry. But I totally get I do.

Do you have a donation link at your website? If you go to Douglas fee gibbs .com, or political pistachio .com,

they both have it on Douglas fee gibbs .com. It's right there at the top of the page, I think, at political pistachio .com.

On the right sidebar, you scroll down just a little bit. It's right below the join my email list link.

Yes, that's what I was gonna say sign subscribe and join his email list. He's out great information every week.

And I mostly put out information about my classes, but so you get the handout, you have to read the handout.

That's what a lot of people like about that. But I also if I make a video, I write an article, it goes out my email blast also.

And you know, that pistachio is nearly impossible to spell, right? So what is the other one? No, it's easy.

pistachio, p i s t a, c h i o, political pistachio calm or my name

Douglas v, as in victory gibbs .com. Excellent.

Thank you so much. Okay, so your information in there. Oh, I think someone did.

Thank you, Terry. Yeah, and Brad said, Thank you. And Terry and all kinds of people are I see the comments that are popping up there.

And I appreciate Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I wish I could shake all your hands. But well, it's not gonna work.

Well, you know, it's the whole Corona thing. So I'm stopping the live stream right now. And we can turn off the recording.