CONSTITUTION MYTHBUSTERS

[E]xamine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)

Letting Trump speak for himself

Patriots and Christians alike got so caught up, first, with someone finally appreciating their concerns and then again in the euphoria of Trump overcoming all odds to win the presidency, that they’ve predominantly failed to follow Paul’s instructions in 1 Thessalonians 5.

Christians so desperately want Trump to be “our” guy that they’ve failed to examine him, his oath of office, and his inaugural speech by the only true ethical standard: Yahweh’s¹ unchanging morality as reflected in His Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.²

Let’s remedy this wrong:

Donald Trump: “Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people.”

Restoring America’s promise: Whether Trump is able to succeed in this noble endeavor depends upon what he means by “its promise.” As will become apparent from the rest of his speech, Trump is not referring to the only thing that can restore America’s promise, but instead to that which from its inception has provided a false sense of hope because it was built on the shifting sands of humanism.³

DT: “Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.”

For many years to come: This is true. We’re involved in a multi-generational battle that demands we get this right—that is, if you’re at all concerned with the America we’re leaving our children and grandchildren.

DT: “Today’s ceremony, however, has a very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.”

Power to the people: This, of course, was precisely what the people wanted to hear. However, where in the Bible do we find anything close to Trump’s declaration? We don’t. Instead, we find the Bible replete with warnings against looking to the people as the source of power or authority:

Thus saith Yahweh; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm [of strength]…. (Jeremiah 17:5)

Regardless the numbers—whether the few in Washington D.C. or the majority of the populace—power or authority given to humans is an act of humanism. It’s also a repudiation of what Christ claimed in the Great Commission, namely, that all authority has been given to Him in both heaven and on earth.⁴ It’s also a contemporary manifestation of what the Prophet Habakkuk warned against:

[Yahweh’s] law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth … their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. (Habakkuk 1:4,7)

The New American Standard translates Verse 7 more accurately as, “Their justice and authority originate with themselves.” Sound familiar? It should:

The Preamble of the United States Constitution: 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.⁵

Because the Constitution is a Godless, Christless, and biblically lawless document, We the Peopleism is just an agreed-upon form of humanism. It is man doing what is right in his own eyes, per Judges 21:25. That this is true is demonstrated throughout the Constitution itself.⁶ It has, furthermore, been attested to by some of the framers and founding fathers themselves. Note the affinity between Trump’s statement “we are giving … [power or authority] back to you, the people” and the declarations that follow:

In one of his many arguments on behalf of the Constitution, James Madison revealed where ultimate power resides in a Constitutional Republic:

As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power … it is from them that the constitutional charter under which the [authority of the] several branches of government … is derived.⁷

Alexander Hamilton stated it similarly:

The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.⁸

John Adams confessed to the same humanism regarding the States’ Constitutions:

It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [the establishment of the States’ Constitutions] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven … it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses…. Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone….⁹

In other words, returning power to the people, as Trump put it, is a return to the 18th-century Enlightenment founders’ sedition against Yahweh’s authority. Not to be overlooked: “Power to the people! Power to the people!” didn’t originate with the constitutional framers. It was expelled from the Garden with Adam and Eve.

DT: “What truly matters is not which party controls our government….”

Which Party matters not: How very true. When examined by the only standard by which left and right is determined, the Democrats and Republicans are just two different wings of the same liberal bird.¹⁰

DT: “What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.”

Government controlled by the people: What truly matters is not that government is controlled by the people, a recipe for disaster if ever there were one. This is especially true since, according to Matthew 7:13, the majority of the population at any given time is in the broad way leading to destruction. Just where do you suppose the broad-way folk are going to lead America? The only place such people can lead America is to the precipice of moral depravity and destruction, which is precisely where she finds herself today.

What truly matters is not that government is controlled by the people, but that government is under the control of Yahweh and governed by biblically qualified authorities, servants of God who are continually a deterrent to the wicked and a blessing to the righteous, as depicted by Paul in Romans 13:3-6.¹¹

DT: “January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.”

Rulers of the nation: Cursed be January 20, 2017, if this proves to be true. The term “rulers” is just another term for “sovereigns.” Just as there is only one lawgiver per Isaiah 33:22¹⁴ and James 4:12,¹³ there is likewise only one sovereign:

I give thee charge in the sight of God … and before Christ Jesus … who is the blessed and only Potentate [sovereign, NASB], the King of kings, and Lord of lords. (1 Timothy 6:13-15)

Any ruler who doesn’t recognize Yahweh’s sovereignty is not a God-ordained authority for our blessing, but merely a God-established power for our judgment.¹⁴ If Trump were otherwise, he would have unequivocally acknowledged Yahweh’s sovereignty like King Jehoshaphat did when setting up judges in his realm:

And he [King Jehoshaphat] set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for Yahweh, who is with you in the judgment…. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of Yahweh, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. (2 Chronicles 19:5-9)

Note, unlike President Trump, King Jehoshaphat clearly acknowledged that his and the judges’ authority was subordinate to Yahweh’s.

DT: “At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens.”

Serving its citizens: Of course, this tickles the ears of the people and explains why so many were so exhilarated with Trump’s speech. The following warnings also explain the people’s intoxication with Trump:

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests [also presidents] rule on their own authority; and my people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it? (Jeremiah 5:30-31)

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

This last statement by Trump and the overwhelming response to it by alleged conservatives¹⁵ is just more evidence of how entrenched the humanism of the 18th-century Enlightenment founding fathers’ is in America. This is not the solution to America’s woes. Government of, by, and for the people is the crux of the problem.¹⁶

In the 1600s, the Colonial Puritans established governments, not to serve the people, but to serve Yahweh. It follows that the people are best served when Yahweh is served first:

Thy kingdom come. They will be done in earth, as it is in heaven … seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:10, 33)

The 17th-century Colonials sought first Yahweh, His kingdom, and His righteousness and because Yahweh is always true to His word, America became great, blessed by God, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14.

With this last statement and others like it—lauded by non-Christians and Christians alike—Trump is not calling down Yahweh’s blessings upon America but rather the continued curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68.

Stay tuned for Part 3.

 

Related posts:

Donald J. Trump: Cyrus or Nimrod? Pt. 1 (blog article)

Donald J. Trump: Cyrus or Nimrod? Pt. 1 (audio sermon)

Donald J. Trump: Cyrus or Nimrod? Pt. 2 (audio sermon)

Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant

A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government

Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

 

1. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. The bulk of contemporary Christianity has approached the United States Constitution in the same optimistic but insubordinate fashion.

3. “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:26-27)

4. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power [authority, NASB] is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18)

5. Chapter 3: “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH,” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

6. Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective

7. James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46 (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888) p. 217.

8. Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, No. 22 (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888) p. 135.

9. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1865) vol. 4, pp. 292-93.

10. Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?

11. Ten Reason Why Romans 13:1-7 is Not About Secular Government

12. “For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22)

13. “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?” (James 4:12)

14. For more regarding God-ordained authorities versus God-established powers, see blog article “Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government, Part 3.”

15. Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?

16. Chapter 3: “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH,” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.