America: A Republic
if You Can Keep It!
The very
foundation of America’s constitutional system of government is under attack.
United
States Attorney General William Barr gave a stunning speech at the University
of Notre Dame in October, a speech that should move people to take note of the
seriousness of the times. He warned that the Judeo-Christian moral foundation
that America was founded upon is under attack by academics, activists, actors,
educators, journalists, media moguls, politicians and secularists of all
stripes.
This attack threatens the very foundation of America’s
constitutional system of government.
Mr. Barr loves the U.S. Constitution and understands this noble
document as few men do. My father, Trumpet editor
in chief Gerald Flurry, has stated that God surely had a hand in Mr. Barr’s
appointment as attorney general. He was attorney general under President George
H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, and it is remarkable that he decided to take the
job again. He seemed to come out of nowhere, and the timing of his nomination,
hearings and confirmation is significant.
The attorney general’s speech is a message that God wants
America to hear. In His mercy, God is exposing the corruption in American
politics and giving people one last chance to repent before the nation plunges
into a time of unparalleled calamity.
No Freedom Without Law
The attorney general began his speech by describing mankind’s
capacity for self-government. He said that no society can endure that does not
restrain individual greed and selfishness. But who is ultimately responsible
for ensuring that people do not oppress their neighbors?
“By and large, the founding generation’s view of human nature
was drawn from the classical Christian tradition,” Mr. Barr said. “These
practical statesmen understood that individuals, while having the potential for
great good, also had the capacity for great evil. Men are subject to powerful
passions and appetites, and, if unrestrained, are capable of ruthlessly riding
roughshod over their neighbors and the community at large. No society can exist
without some means of restraining individual rapacity. But if you rely on the
coercive power of the government to impose those restraints, the framers
believed, this would inevitably lead to a government that is too controlling,
and you will end up with no liberty, just tyranny” (ibid).
America’s founders faced the same dilemma that all civilizations
face: How do you restrain selfish, lawless people without turning to an
authoritarian government—which will inevitably be ruled by selfish, lawless
people? The conclusion that George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton,
John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison came to was that
the individuals had to learn to restrain their own selfish and lawless human
nature. This obviously required religion and morality.
“[T]he founders decided to take a gamble, and they called it a
great experiment,” Mr. Barr continued. “They would leave the people broad
liberty. They would limit the coercive power of the government and they would
place their trust in the self-discipline and virtue of the American people. In
the words of Madison, ‘We have staked our future on the ability of each of us
to govern ourselves.’”
When the founders spoke about “self-government,” Mr. Barr said,
they were not primarily referring to governmental structures that put power in
the hands of the majority. They were referring to each individual’s capacity to
restrain his own human nature and govern himself. They were referring to moral
character, which is especially important in a free republic, where restraints
are not enforced by “philosopher kings.”
This is why an American constitutional republic is only suitable
and sustainable for a moral people.
As John Adams explained it, “We have no government armed with
power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and
religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest
cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was
made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other.”
As long as most Americans voluntarily submit to God’s Ten
Commandments, the U.S Constitution is a relatively effective governing
framework that prevents tyrants from rising to power and guarantees a large
amount of liberty to the people. But if people refuse to submit to the law of
God, the same form of government will yield anarchy, until an authoritarian
leader rises up to restore order.
“As far as human government goes, the United States started
about as right as any government man has ever produced,” my father writes
in Character in Crisis.
“Critics today can say what they will about why it started right. But the Founding
Fathers all seemed to be in perfect agreement on the issue. The country began
in fertile ground because
it was founded upon religion and morality.”
In the summer of 1787, Elizabeth Powel approached Benjamin
Franklin as he exited the Constitutional Convention. The account goes that she
asked, “Well, doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin’s
reply: “A republic, madam, if
you can keep it.” Like America’s other founders, Franklin knew
that if we fail
to establish and maintain the rule of law, our republic is doomed!
Character in Crisis
Over the past century, society has abandoned even basic tenets
of biblical morality. “[M]odern secularists dismissed this idea of morality as
sort of otherworldly superstition imposed by a killjoy clergy,” Mr. Barr
continued. “But in fact, Judeo-Christian moral standards are the ultimate
utilitarian rules for human conduct. They reflect the rules that are best for
man, not in the by and by, but in the here and now. They are like God’s
instruction manual for the best running of man and the best operation of human
society, and by the same token, violations of these moral laws have bad,
real-world consequences for man and for society. We may not pay the price
immediately, but over time, the harm is real.”
Militant secularists no longer have a “live and let live”
attitude toward biblical moral codes, he said. They are no longer content to
live a lawless lifestyle and leave others to practice their faith. In fact, he
said, many government officials in the Obama administration seemed to “take
delight” in compelling people to violate both the moral codes of the Bible and
their conscience by forcing religious employers to fund contraceptive and
abortifacient coverage in their health plans. Secularists in many state
governments take the same delight in forcing Christian bakers to cater
homosexual weddings.
Progressive activists think they are moral and upright, and that
circumstances in America are improving as they go about destroying religion, morality
and the institution of family. But this view is deranged. Just look at the
social wreckage that family breakdown has caused. As Mr. Barr pointed out, we
see record levels of depression and mental illness. We are witnessing soaring
suicide rates and a deadly drug epidemic that is killing more than 70,000
people a year. We see swelling numbers of angry and alienated young males
rioting in the cities and committing mass shootings.
Where is the progress? Look around and you see immense
suffering, wreckage and misery!
“This is not decay, this is organized destruction,” Mr. Barr
warned. “Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass
communication—popular culture, the entertainment industry and academia—in an
unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.”
Americans are not keeping their republic. It is in grave danger
of descending into anarchy and war. And the reason is that people abandoned
“God’s instruction manual” and indulged their own selfish, lawless human
nature.
America Under Attack
Attorney General Barr is describing America under attack. He
does not discuss Satan the devil, nor does he grasp the depth of Satan’s role
in this attack. But the Bible reveals that Satan is “the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”
(Ephesians 2:2). It also prophesied that Satan would be cast to Earth in the
end time (Revelation 12:9). The devil is full of wrath (verse 12), and he has
gotten control of society, particularly the radical left.
Abraham Lincoln once stated, “All the armies of Europe, Asia and
Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their
military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a
drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand
years. … If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and
finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by
suicide.”
America’s Disappearing Will
The big reason these powers are rising today traces back to the
power vacuum created by America’s weakness—and the disappearance of America’s will.
Gentiles have contempt for the weak.
In recent decades, America has demonstrated its lack of will to
decisively use its power in several international arenas. Right now there is a
temporary resurgence taking place under President Donald Trump, but it is not
enough to reverse this trend—certainly not in the long term.
Recognizing this weakness, China has been asserting its power in
the South China Sea and tightening its control over the people of Hong Kong and
Xinjiang. Russia is claiming more and more power over former Soviet nations,
including Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus. It is also pushing its weight around in
the Middle East. Iran is also becoming more belligerent. America’s broken will
is a big part of what is motivating these actions.
Throughout history, China has often taken on an expansionist
policy to conquer, destroy, subdue and enslave people. In recent years, the
United States has acted like China has changed, but that same policy is
materializing again, stronger than ever.
Russia and China are also defying the U.S. by supporting North
Korea, upgrading Kim Jong-un’s ability to attack South Korea, Japan and even
the U.S. with nuclear weapons! If China and Russia were concerned about the
general welfare of mankind, would they do that? If they still respected the
United States, would they act so brazenly against American interests?
Russia’s and China’s actions prove that Gentiles are rising to
power before our eyes! And these are just two of many Gentile nations
growing more aggressive on the world scene.
U.S. weakness is putting its allies on dangerous ground. Many
nations are realizing they cannot trust America for protection anymore. They
have to make peace with China, Russia and these other nations if they are to
survive in the new global order that is taking shape.
Again, under the Trump administration, America is showing more
spine to the world’s aggressors than previous recent administrations. But Bible
prophecy shows that this is only a temporary resurgence in America’s foreign
policy. It
will not last longer than one more U.S. presidential election!
Is that an urgent crisis??
While many will rejoice at the United States’ demise, this trend
is building to catastrophe like never before seen! As the U.S. falls in power,
it will be replaced by leaders who act like wild, raging beasts!
A Final Note…
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