Available for a suggested donation of $7.00.
|
|
|
|
|
Section 1
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the congress: Provided, that no amendment which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that1 no state, without its consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
Amendment
Even before the United States Constitution was entirely penned, it provided for its own amendment. Can you imagine the Bible providing for its own amendment? In stark contrast to the U.S. Constitution, the Scriptures repeatedly command against adding anything to or taking anything away from Yahweh’s2 Word:
Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them…. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of YHWH3 your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:1-2)4
The words of YHWH are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. (Psalm 12:6)
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6)
…whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14)
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19)
Because the U.S. Constitution provides for both adding to and subtracting from its system of law, it is therefore imperfect and consequently incompatible with the laws of Yahweh. Yet most Americans (many who claim to be Christians5) choose man’s imperfect law in preference to Yahweh’s perfect law wherever the two are inconsonant with each other. When someone chooses both the Bible and the Constitution – as Christian Constitutionalists do – they have tacitly chosen the imperfect over the perfect. Otherwise, they would not have attempted to integrate the imperfect with the perfect in the first place.
Amendment by Majority
Nothing in the Constitution is absolutely sacred. Every bit of it can be changed, even to the people’s detriment, if that is what a majority of the people desire.6
Amendments to the Constitution are achieved democratically – that is, by a three-fourths majority vote. But how often, especially in Congress, has the majority proven correct?
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
America is not in the mess she is today because of the minority. Although today’s government may not be exactly what the framers envisioned, it is, nonetheless, a Constitutional government, authorized by (among other things) Article 5’s provision for democratic Constitutional amendment and the subsequent bureaucratic statutes required to apply each amendment.
Inspiration
The U.S. Constitution pales in comparison with Yahweh’s perfect laws. How could it be otherwise? One is inspired by man and the other by God:
WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (Preamble of United States Constitution)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Through the centuries since its ratification, many people have proclaimed the Constitution a divinely inspired document. In the preamble of A Miracle that Changed the World: The 5000 Year Leap, Cleon Skousen provided quotations from James Madison, James Wilson, Benjamin Rush, Oliver Ellsworth, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Charles Pinckney, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, all of who attributed terms such as “miraculous,” “from heaven,” “the hand of God,” “a finger of that Almighty hand,” and “the superintending hand of Providence” to the Constitution or the government formed thereby. Skousen introduced these quotations:
Like the framers themselves, many Americans in the early years of the Republic truly regarded the constitution as a miracle. Not only did they praise the competence, wisdom, and motivations of those who served in the federal convention of 1787, but they declared that the formation and adoption of our new system of federal government represented a political achievement unprecedented in human history. They looked upon it, moreover, as an event that was actually “influenced, guided and governed” by the hand of God.7
Rus Walton identified the Constitution as “that Divinely-inspired constitutional document.”8 In Contending for the Constitution, Mark Beliles made the following claim, which is impossible to prove:
America’s Constitution … was in many ways “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” the Spirit behind it is the Spirit of the Lord based upon a biblical world view. Our founders, who authored the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution 11 years later, were filled with an attitude of dependence on God. They looked to Him as the source of their strength and the hope of their success in all major endeavors.9
Skousen, Walton, and Beliles claim this despite the founding fathers refusal to invoke Yahweh for His assistance during convention, and despite the fact Yahweh is never acknowledged, called upon, or quoted in the Constitution.
2008 Republican Presidential candidate, Ron Paul declared, “I am running for president to restore the rule of the law and to stand up for our divinely inspired Constitution.”10 (What is especially revealing about this declaration is that it was part of Paul’s “Statement of Faith” on his web page.) If the Constitution were divinely inspired, it would not be necessary to amend it.
Speaking to the national Convention to Secure the Religious Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, held in New York on February 26-27, 1873, Pastor J.P. Lytle of Ohio commented upon the Constitution’s alleged divine inspiration:
The time was when the Constitution of the United States was regarded as so sacred an instrument, that to speak of amending it, or touching it in any form for the purpose of alteration, would have been regarded as sacrilege. But that time has, in the Providence of God, passed by. In our day, within ten years past, we have seen the Constitution of the United States amended, and amended, again and again; and the idea that it, as first formed, contained the perfection of all human wisdom, has been dissipated, and we have come to discover that it was a delusion.11
At the same convention, Illinois’ Pastor Jonathan Edwards shared similar sentiments:
…it is our conviction and our boast that this Constitution is the best national charter recorded on the pages of history. But our fathers were not infallible, and the Constitution which they made for us not perfect.12
If the U.S. Constitution is not perfect, it could not have been divinely inspired. Barely one year after the Constitution’s ratification, James Madison, the “father of the Constitution,” declared the following:
[It is] the best that could be obtained from the jarring interests of the States….13
I am not a member, if there be any such, who think the Constitution lately adopted a faultless work….14
Perhaps the U.S. Constitution was better than the laws of other nations, but it certainly is not better than or even close to comparable with Yahweh’s perfect laws, which are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16). To claim that the Constitution is divinely inspired is to be guilty of what Yahweh condemned in the book of Ezekiel:
Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane…. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord YHWH, when YHWH hath not spoken. (Ezekiel 22:26-28)
There is one sense in which the Constitution was divinely inspired:
Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live…. (Ezekiel 20:24-25)
When we reject Yahweh’s laws and government, He provides us with surrogates in order to eventually bring us to repentance. The more time that has passed since its ratification, the more clear it has become what an inherently inferior document the Constitution is. As time continues its march and as things only becomes worse, the superiority and perfection of Yahweh’s law and government will become even more apparent.
Click to Read Chapter 9
Click to order the Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution CDs:
- The e-book (on CD) A Christian Perspective on the U.S. Constitution
- The audio CD The Bible vs. The U.S. Constitution (Pts. 1 & 2)
End Notes
1. The italicized words represent a temporary provision that protected the slave trade until 1808.
2. YHWH (most often pronounced Yahweh) is the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible. For a more thorough explanation concerning the sacred names of God, “The Third Commandment” may be read online, or the book Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, 69363, for a suggested $4 donation.*
3. Where the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) – the four Hebrew characters that represent the personal name of God – has been unlawfully rendered the LORD or GOD in English translations, I have taken the liberty to correct this error by inserting YHWH where appropriate. For a more thorough explanation concerning the sacred names of God, “The Third Commandment” may be read online, or the book Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, 69363, for a suggested $4 donation.*
4. All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Portions of Scripture have been omitted for brevity. If there are questions regarding any passage, please open your Bible and study the text to ensure it has been properly used.
5. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Yeshua (Jesus’ given Hebrew name) and forgiven of your sins. For a more thorough explanation concerning baptism and its relationship to salvation, “Baptism by the Scriptures” and “Fifty Objections to Baptism Answered” may be read online, or the book Baptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
6. David Gibbs, Jr., David Gibbs III, Understanding the Constitution: Ten Things Every Christian Should Know About the Supreme Law of the Land (Seminole, FL: Christian Law Association, 2006) p. 82.
7. W. Cleon Skousen, A Miracle that Changed the World: The 5000 Year Leap (Malta, ID: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2006) p. i.
8. Rus Walton, One Nation Under God (Capitol Station, Washington, D.C.: Third Century Publishers, Inc., 1975) p. 21.
9. Mark A. Beliles, Douglas S. Anderson, Contending for the Constitution: Recalling the Christian Influence on the Writing of the Constitution and the Biblical Basis of American Law and Liberty (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Foundation, 2005) p. 3.
10. Ron Paul, Campaign for President of the United States, Ron Paul 2008, Hope for America, Statement of Faith, <www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/87/statement-of-faith/>.
11. J.P. Lytle, “Address of Mr. Lytle,” Proceedings of the National Convention to Secure the Religious Amendment of the United States (New York, NY: John Polhemus, 1873) p. 45.
12. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, “Address of Dr. Edwards,” Proceedings of the National Convention to Secure the Religious Amendment of the United States (New York, NY: John Polhemus, 1873) p. 56.
13. James Madison (2 October 1788), quoted by Gaillard Hunt, ed., The Writings of James Madison, 9 vols. (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904) vol. 5, p. 298.
14. Madison (2 November 1788) vol. 5, p. 298.
*We are admonished in Matthew 10:8 “freely ye have received, freely give.” Although we have a suggested a price for our books, we do not sell them. In keeping with 2 Corinthians 9:7, this ministry is supported by freewill offerings. If you cannot afford the suggested price, inform us of your situation, and we will be pleased to provide you with whatever you need for whatever you can send.
Click to Read Chapter 9
|
Most Recent Article
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
Most Recent Message
The Uncircumcised
Important Books
Visit us on:
|
Printable version.