Nailing the Coffin Shut on Continuationism: Does the increase in tongues, healings, mirac!es and prophetic utterance evince a continuation of Pentecost (to be continued)?

Why a Republic?

By David L. Miner

In the last essay, we discussed some of the differences between a democracy and a Constitutional Republic. We saw that America was created to be a republic and NOT a democracy. And we saw that so much of today’s government and political elite are trying very hard to redefine this republic into a democracy.

In this essay, we are going to look a little more closely at the document that became the foundation of this Republic. We are going to discuss the Constitution for these United States.

Notice first that we said “for these United States,” not “of the United States.” The

United States did not create the Constitution; the Constitution created the United States. Please read that again. The United States did not create the Constitution; the Constitution created the United States.

This is a terribly important concept that no one in Congress or the Administration ever want you to know. Our politicians like to interpret the Constitution any way they please, and expect you to accept that. If they can treat the Constitution like they have authority over it, then they can do just about anything they want to do.

"If the Constitution is to be construed to mean what the majority at any given period in history wish the Constitution to mean, why a written Constitution?" (Frank J. Hogan, President, American Bar Assn. 1939)

But if the Constitution has the authority over the government, then clearly the government is limited in what it can do!

So what is this great document that wields so much authority? Quite simply, the Constitution was designed to limit the federal government. It was never intended to limit or control We The People, only the government. All the authorities and responsibilities of the government are spelled out in detail within the Constitution. It then goes on to state that any authority not specifically delegated to the federal government is expressly reserved from the federal government. This means that the government can never grow or increase, can never take over a new area of political power, can never take control over We The People. Yet why has our government so vastly exceeded its limitations?

Because We The People allow it!

This is not a discussion of conservative politics versus liberal politics, this is a discussion of Constitutional limitations. America will always have Conservatives and Liberals, but America should NEVER have unconstitutionals!

Let us explore an example of what we mean. Take healthcare, for example. Liberals would create a large federal bureaucracy to run things, like they did with ObamaCare. Conservatives would instead create a small federal bureaucracy and allow the States to run most of it. Those who look to the Constitution would say, “The Constitution gives the federal government absolutely no authority or jurisdiction over healthcare at all. Why are they even debating the issue?”

The Constitution recognized that all authority rested in We The People. We The People delegated some of that authority to the various state governments. We The People delegated a very small amount of authority to the federal government. All authority not expressly delegated to the federal government is expressly reserved to the States or to the People! This is our Constitution.

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground; That "all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."

Thomas Jefferson, February 15, 1791, where he quotes the 10th Amendment to the Constitution

So why do we have a federal government that sits around all day every day just looking for more issues to write new laws about, with no regard for or discussion of any Constitutional authority for those laws?

Again, because We The People allow it. All authority rests with We The People. We are the owners and rulers and bosses of this great nation. Yet we don’t keep up with our elected representatives, we don’t vote, and we don’t fulfill our great responsibilities to run this nation under our Constitution. Shame on us.

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed? -- James Madison, Federalist Paper #62

If we allow the federal government to evolve into whatever it wants to, then we deserve the monster that results from that unconstitutional evolutionary process.

"We, the People, are the rightful masters of both the Congress and the Courts. Not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who have perverted it." -- Abraham Lincoln.