Transcript

Today we will look at structures in the United States Constitution based on Christian presuppositions

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History. Today, we will be looking at structures in the United States Constitution based on Christian presuppositions. In the last podcast, we talked about the Christian form of our government. That our government of the United States is, Christian in the sense that it's founded upon biblical principles. It's founded upon the Christian idea of man, the Christian idea of government. We, specifically looked at the preamble of the United States Constitution and saw that that reflects the purpose of government as revealed in the Bible. And so today I want to look at, just mention some general structures that are seen in our United States Constitution, and we will come to see that these structures are based upon the Christian presuppositions that the framers of the Constitution and the general population had. Now, all of the founders of America were certainly not regenerated Christians. Most all of them profess the Christian faith. God knows the heart. I don't know what percentage exactly of that, 98% or more profess to be Christian. but even those that were not Christians, all the Christians, you know, had a biblical understanding of man and government. That was a foundational presupposition that shaped their actions, especially in giving us the form of government that we do. But even non Christians, had an understanding of this and belief in this as well. See, they believed that man has a sinful nature. Man is a sinner. He's fallen. He has need of a Savior. And since man is sinful and fallen and fallible, man should not be entrusted with too much power. Even Christian men, because we are growing in, maturity every day. So we still have the capacity to fall short. We have a new nature that doesn't want to. We have a nature that desires to obey and follow the Lord. But we also recognize that we, are growing every day in our ability to follow the Lord. And so the founders of America understood that man is valuable. He's created in the image of God and has great value. and therefore civil government, one of its primary functions is to protect man's valuable life. But man is also fallen and sinful. Therefore, we should not trust man with too much power, because man historically has shown that he will abuse power that he has and seek to gain more power. So a nation's form of government should reflect this view of man as man good, is he basically good as the secularist tells us, or is man sinful and fallen? Well, the founders believed that the latter. James Madison wrote In federalist number 51, what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? So they recognize that when you look at government, you look at the form of government, then you can see what the people who formed that government thought about man. One's view of human nature profoundly affects one's view of government. Now, pagan governments, which are not based on the belief that men are sinners, establish too much centralized power in the hands of men. And when you give man too much power and you centralize power, it leads to oppression and tyranny and loss of individual liberty. Now when we speak about, uniting a people together in a common civil society, there's really only two types of national union. There's pagan union and there's a Christian union. See, pagan union, is held together by external force and intimidation. That was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic was a great example of that that we see in the 20th century. That that union of several different were independent countries, were a result of force and fear and intimidation. But that's in great contrast to the United States of America, which is a depiction of Christian Union. The United States is a Christian union because it was united not by external bonds, but by the vital force of distinctive ideas and principles. And those principles came from the Christian faith. They had that common view, of the purpose of man, God given rights of man that emanated from the Creator, which enabled the 13 colonies to come together to form one nation. So when our founders declared independence from England, they were well aware that great oppression was possible not only when power is concentrated in a monarchy like it was in England, but also if you concentrate power in the hands of an elite. Now Parliament was a national legislature in England and it had supreme authority. But Parliament, acted, went along with the action of King George III in many of these things in a tyrannical way that violated the God given rights of the American colonists and even their rights as British citizens. They acted in a way that restricted their liberty. That required the American founders to stand up, and resist. So when our founders drafted the Articles of Confederation in 1777, that was the first national government that the 13 colonies operated under. this national Congress had very little power. The confederation placed supreme power in the 13 state legislature. So there's like 13 heads. And the Continental Congress was merely a committee of the 13 sovereign states. And its so called president was simply a chairman elected annually. And so they had seen the shortcomings of this confederation. And that, as we've discussed in past podcasts, was a motivation for them to gather together in June of 1787, in the summer of 1787, to come up with a new form of government that would correct the deficiencies of this, confederation that we had entered into. Now, the problem with a confederation or confederacy is that it's too weak or inefficient to maintain a strong nation. It required voluntary unanimous consent of all 13 states in order to make every decision. And it's difficult to get unanimous consent even among a godly loving people with the common worldview. So by 1787, the delegates in the Philadelphia convention realized there needs to be a change. And they achieved this in the establishment of a form of national union that was unique in all of history and it's still unique today. And it embraced this concept known as federalism. Federalism is the principle that most powers should be decentralized among state and local governments, but that a few defined powers are delegated to a national government in a federal form m of government. You have, two kind of sovereign, in a sense, governments operating upon the people at the same time, a national government and a state government. James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution, described a federation when he said the powers delegated by the Constitution to the federal government. He's talking about the national government, that one that sits in Washington D.C. today. the powers delegated by the Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. So he pointed out that, look, this constitutional form of government based upon the idea of federalism does grant certain powers to the national government. But they are few and they're defined, and they are defined in our Constitution. But all the others remain with the state governments and are much broader state or local governments. Thomas Jefferson said that the way to have good and safe government is, is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many.

Both national and state governments have supreme power over their defined areas of jurisdiction

Now, the Constitution does not make the states merely administrative arms of the national government. It establishes in effect a dual form of government. Both the national government and the state governments having supreme power over their defined areas of jurisdiction. See, this means that every American citizen has two law making bodies to which he must submit. He must obey federal laws as well as state laws equally. But you might ask, well, what if one conflicts with the other? Well, the answer is they shouldn't if they're both Operating based upon the principles of the Constitution. Because they make each one. National and state governments, make laws dealing with completely different areas of life. See the national government according to the US Constitution should only or can only make laws dealing with such items as the regulation of interstate and foreign commerce, coining money, the postal services, copyrights, citizen it laws in the armed forces. The state governments then make laws dealing with many other things regarding education, voting procedures, marriage and divorce, corporations, traffic and many other things. And neither can, at least if they're following the Constitution, neither should interfere in the area of the other, but without being unconstitutional and thus, subject to indictment. So each government in a sense sovereign in its own sphere, is held in check from encroaching on the other by the higher law of the Constitution. In Article 6 of the Constitution, paragraph 2 declares it is the higher law. It's the law of the land, our United States Constitution and all citizens are subject to to it. And by covenant the states are subject to that as well. And of course our national leaders are subject to it as well. See, the constitution establishes only 18 powers of the national government. Article 1, section 8 lists the powers of the national government. Then it declares that these powers are off limit to the states in section 10. So there are certain powers that belong to the national government, and not the state governments. But the Constitution reserves every other undefined powers to the states. In the 10th Amendment, which says the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively are to the people. So in other words, the national government, there's only 18 powers that it has and they're all other powers remain with the states are the people. And those 18 powers that the national government have. When our founders entered into a covenant, when we the people that came from each of these states agreed to this covenant, this form of government, they said, okay, we're going to let the national government have these powers and then the rest remain with the states. And they couldn't be altered except by amendment to the Constitution. So the framers recognized that there will be some things that we can't see clearly now. And there needs to be a way to amend the Constitution, though it's a difficult process and requires much more than just a simple majority to do so. So this really makes the federation a permanent union, unlike the uncertainty of a confederation. With the confederation. If any one state said I don't want to do it, there's no way to force them to do it that they could act on their own. They could just withdraw from the Union because it wasn't a permanent covenant. See, the Civil War was precipitated by the succession of the Confederate states from the Union. Now, in a future podcast, we'll explore more of this conflict, the war between the States, the Civil War, and these ideas of, can we secede from the Union or not? But our founders established a permanent union of states by a national covenant. That's what the Constitution is. See, the Latin word for covenant, covenant is foidus F O E D U S. that's where we get our word federal. So the bottom line of any covenant, because we've entered into a civil covenant. That's one unique thing about America, American polity. It's based upon the biblical idea of covenant, where people covenant together under God to form a civil body politic. We read that language in the Mayflower Compact and there's many other charters and compacts that use similar covenant knowledge. But the bottom line of any covenant, whether in marriage or in church or in civil government, is that there should be no divorce. All problems and conflicts must therefore be patiently discussed and debated until they are resolved. But of course, to do this, it requires Christian character and virtue and biblical thinking in order to work it out. And that's, what many people who seceded from the Union during the Civil War weren't willing to do. And many in the south said we should, shouldn't secede. Like Robert E. Lee, we need to work out the difficulties we have here. And there were some real difficulties and wrongs on both sides of the north and south, but they didn't, work, work their way through it. But, in a true Christian covenant, we need to work our way through it. Now, the idea of an unbreakable union was rooted in the federal theology of the colonial churches. Ever Stiles, a minister, preached a sermon in 1760 entitled Christian UN Union. It was published widely distributed, read by many, many people. And he spoke about Christian union. He spoke about this idea that first was revealed in church covenants and began to be expressed in civil covenants after this. So the idea of an unbreakable covenant was not the only idea the founders borrowed from the churches. They also borrow the idea of dual sovereignty. See, federalism really means dual government. The only model in history to which our founders could refer was in the, primitive churches of the first century. See, no civil government history ever attempted this. Such a idea as having dual forms of government. And so they couldn't look to an example of civil government. But they, they understood churches that express this idea of federalism from the early church and to even the churches in colonial America. In the New Testament church, our founders certainly was, they were aware of, of the growth of the church in the New Testament and the governance that existed there. They saw evidence of dual government to which every Christian was submitted. See, every local church was governed by its local presbytery of elders, Because Paul talks about elders being appointed and they are the ones that would govern the church. You can read first Timothy 3, 4 and 5. yet there was a measure of authority exercised by the apostles and prophets in the mother church of Jerusalem. And those were also binding on the church at large. You can read about that in Acts, chapter 15 and 16. And so these dual governments were also operating in the denominational arrangement of the colonial churches. So early church reflects in some sense this concept of federalism. You know, dual government governments. But the churches and colonial America, also reflected this idea. A Presbyterian in Virginia, for example, was loyal to his local church leadership, but also to the Presbyterian denominational leadership at large. Now, the pilgrim pastor, separatist pastor, Reverend John Robinson, he was a pastor of the pilgrims in England and in Holland, he emphasized the loyalty to the local congregation. This idea of self government. While you had men like Puritan clergyman William Ames emphasize loyalty to the church of England at large or this principle of union. And of course they debated their points of which, what is it, Is it going to be local, self governing congregations? Or do you have some sort of national church to which churches, to submit? And these things are being worked out, this concept of church government, during the time of the birth of the colonies in the United States.

The United States Constitution reflects biblical concept of government, dual forms of government

See, one of the delegates in the Constitutional convention was James Wilson of Pennsylvania. He also was a, justice of the first supreme Court. He said that a free republic is best symbolized by a pyramid, with a majority of powers decentralized among the people and only a few granted to the national government. See, a pyramid, the very top is narrow and small. And as you go down to the base of the pyramid, it gets much broader. And this is why our founders put a pyramid on our national seal. You can see that on the dollar bill. This reflects this idea of federalism, where, the national government represented by the very top of the pyramid is very limited in the amount of power it has. And below it are state governments, which has broader powers, more power. Below that are local governments, which, even closer to the people. And there's. They exercise More power there. And really at the foundation is family government. And so that pyramid, the higher up the go, you go in that pyramid, the least power you have, and most of the power rests closest to the people. Family government and local governments, state and the national government. And so this, concept of federalism is based upon the Christian doctrine of the sin nature of man. You don't want to give man too much power, especially those that are a long way from you in the governing process. And so you keep the power close to the people so they can hold the people accountable that are governing, because sinful man will tend to abuse power. So this idea of federalism, dual forms of government, is one unique aspect of the United States Constitution that reflects the biblical view of man. Now, another broad, general idea that we see in our constitution is the idea of separation of powers. Now, our founders understood when power is centralized, it leads to loss of liberty. And so after our founders apportioned most of the powers of government to the states, they went even further because of the mistrust of sinful man, and separated the few and limited powers of the national government into three branches, and then even set up a series of checks and balances that these three branches exercised upon one another. James Madison wrote that the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Furthermore, he wrote in Federalist 47 that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct. The oracle who is always consulted and cited on these subjects is the celebrated Montesquieu. So Montesquieu was a French writer. In his books on his book on the spirit of law, Common spirit of law, he spoke about the very the importance of separating the powers of government among people and branches of government in order so that, power is not abused. Now, the Bible defines government. Well, every government exercises three functions. There's a legislative function of government makes laws. There is a executive function which carries out the law. And there's a judicial function which judges if that law has been violated. And we see in Isaiah 33:22, God speaking to these three functions of government. scripture says, for the lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, he will save us. Now, every government carries, out those three functions of government. Whatever kind of government you have, if it's a monarchy, an aristocracy, an oligarchy, a democracy, republic, every government will exercise those powers. Our founders recognize we don't want anyone or A few people to, have these powers because that will lead to loss of liberty. That's why they divided those powers among many people and set up checks and balances. Now, Isaiah, prophet tells us that God does all three of those. That's because God is perfect. He's infallible. He can possess all three powers and still be just and fair. But sinful man cannot do that. And our founders understood that man was sinful. So they made sure that they didn't do that. So just as federalism was an idea rooted in church government, so also is the concept of the three branches of government. Now, the Protestant Reformation produced three distinct movements of Christians who emphasized three different forms of church government. The Episcopalians emphasized the rule of one that rules from the top down. The Presbyterians emphasized the rule of a few elders, and the Congregationalists emphasized the rule of many. By the design of the providence of God, each of these groups colonized America and formed their colonial civil governments, patterns similar to their churches. See, the northern colonies were settled predominantly by Congregationalists, who emphasized the rule of the many, and they had that form of church government. Consequently, we see that reflected in their form of civil government as well, where all the, congregants, the people, the citizens, had a voice in government, elected their representatives. Now, the southern colonies, being mostly Episcopalian, established royal provinces, which really were a form of monarchy. You had governor appointed by the king initially, and the governor had a, lot of power. there were elected representatives, and they did give consent to so many things. But many times, if you had a bad governor, bad state leader, then he could usurp the role of the legislature in those colonies. And the middle colonies were proprietary and being influenced greatly by reformed Presbyterianism, they established more aristocratic governments. And so, see, God allowed these three isolated geographical groupings to experience the strengths and weaknesses of their particular form of government for more than a century. And so when you had representatives from the Thirteen Colonies come together in Philadelphia in 1787, they brought with them their experience for over generations, of the strength and weaknesses of these particular forms of government. They decided, in the words of James Madison, that the essential qualities of the monarchy, unity of counsel, vigor, secrecy, will enable the president to execute the laws with energy and dispatch. But they also established an unelected Supreme Court and U.S. senate in order to give quote to this part of the system. All the advantages of an aristocracy, wisdom, experience, and a consistency of measures. But they also then had elements of democracy, which was reflected in the house of Representatives, where the people would elect their Representatives every two years. So here we have three elements. We have a legislative element, reflecting democracy. We have, executive element, represented by the president on the national level. And we have aristocratical element, the rule of a few, seen in the judges and initially in the Senate. So our federal government, is a reflection of church government. Now, Article 1 of our Constitution speaks about the powers of the legislature. Article two deals with the powers of the executive, and article three deals with the powers of the judicial. And so all three forms of church government, the rule of the one, the rule of the few, the rule of the many, are reflected in our form of civil government. We see all three of those in the US Constitution in the national form of government. And each of the states had come to reflect in different ways these three forms of leadership or governance as well. And once we gained our independence, some of the states adjusted the amount of power that existed with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government. So what a great, example of God's providence bringing forth to man a unique form of government that has produced the most liberty the world has seen. Episcopalian form of government by itself is not the biblical model in the New Testament, but neither is the Presbyterian or congregational. In fact, there's a blend of all three, of these governing entities that are reflected in the first century church government. There was the rule of elders, which is a Presbyterian form, but there was a voice of all the congregation who gave approval to the choice of deacons and other things. And then there were chief executives. James sat as kind of the, head of that local governing board. So you see all three aspects of these governing forms, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Congregational, in the early church government. And then these came and were planted in the colonies, during the colonial period, from 1607 till our independence in 1776. You see, these forms of church government reflect in the type of governments existed in each of the colonies. And then you see all these coming together, blended together in a unique way in the United States Constitution, which has, been of great, benefit to mankind and helped to check the powers of abuse and also to draw upon the strength of each of those three forms of government. And so the biblical model of civil government, in essence was providentially shaped by the colonization of America in such a way that democracy, aristocracy and monarchy be blended together into a, balanced Christian republic. And this is the first time in history we see anything like this. And so here another general idea. We have federalism tool sovereign governments operating upon individuals.

The idea of representation or representative government is rooted in the Bible

At the same time, we have a general separation of powers, the functions of government, and one other general concept we see in our Constitution and is rooted in the Bible is the idea of representation or representative government. Now, in future podcasts, I'm going to explore this in more detail. So I'm not going to say much about that right now. But election of representatives is a biblical, idea. God mandated or instituted that in, Deuteronomy 1, Exodus, chapter 18, we see how God gave wisdom, told Moses through God of the advice of Jethro to tell the people to choose from among themselves rulers of tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands. So the people were involved in electing representatives. And we'll again talk about the importance of this, why it's a biblical idea. And, future podcast.

Without Christianity, there never would have been a Constitution

So the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were clearly founded upon Christian ideas of man and government. Our founders were the first men to hold these truths and to establish a nation upon them. So without Christianity, there never would have been a Constitution. As Noah Webster, the father of the dictionary and a, key federalist in the passage of the Constitution, said, the religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety and benevolence, which acknowledges in every person a brother or a sister and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity. And to this we owe our free constitutions of government. And so our form of government flowed from Christian understanding of man and government. Christianity formed the foundation of our nation. We've examined directly how it influenced those who came and gave birth to America, but it also influenced the form of government that we have. Our government was made only for moral and religious people. It's wholly inadequate for the government of any other. John Adams, stated so it's very important that we understand this, that we prepare people with this character and worldview if we want our unique form of government to continue to bring forth the blessings of liberty where it's intended by our founders. Well, thanks for joining us on this America's Providential History podcast. To get more information about these subjects, Visit our website, providencefoundation.com you can get some of our books, take a look at videos, and read articles that will keep you busy for a long time. So glad you joined us today and hope you can be with us, next week in a new podcast.