The Constitution - A Heavenly Banner

References:
"The Constitution—A Heavenly Banner" | Ezra Taft Benson
Brigham Young University on 16 September 1986

Doctrine and covenants 101: 76-80

Joseph Smith, HC 3:304

In Howard and Martha Coray Notebook, July 19, 1840, quoted by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, comps. and eds., The Words of Joseph Smith (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1980), p. 416

Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. John G. Nicolay and John Hay, vol. 1 (New York: Francis D. Tandy Co., 1905), p.43]

[Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. John G. Nicolay and John Hay, vol. 1 (New York: Francis D. Tandy Co., 1905), p.43

Doctrine & Conventions 98:10
Ether 2:10

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When I look back on almost six thousand years of human history, Freedom’s moments have been infrequent and exceptional. Freedom as we know it has been experienced by probably less than one percent of the human family.

If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can be denied by government. I, for one, will never accept that premise.

Since God created people with certain inalienable rights, and they, in turn, created government to help secure and safeguard those rights, it follows that the people are superior to the creature they created.

The most important single function of government is to secure the rights and freedoms and property of individual citizens.
By deriving its just powers from the governed, government becomes primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft, and involuntary servitude.

Property is anything that you have labored for with your own hands and your own means to own. Government cannot claim the power to redistribute money or property nor to force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will.

Listen, when government forcibly takes our taxes and distributes it to foreign entities, that is performing an act of charity against the will of the people.

No individual possesses the power to take another’s wealth or to force others to do good, so no government has the right to do such things either. The powers of the creature cannot exceed the creator.

John Adams said before the signing of the Declaration, “There’s a Divinity which shapes our ends.” These were not ordinary men, but men chosen and held in reserve by the Lord for this very purpose.
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Savior declared, “I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose.”
These men laid the foundation of the country we now enjoy, and our people have not held true to it.

We honor more than those who brought forth the Constitution. We honor the Lord who revealed it. God himself has borne witness to the fact that he is pleased with the Constitution written by these great patriots.

We need to once again befriend and restore the Constitution of the United States. And we must accept nothing less. It is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner.

I want to take a minute to break down the constitution:
The first 7 articles outline the Constitution. It was then ratified to include the Bill of rights.
There are five articles that are crucial to the preservation of our freedom. If we understand the workability of these, we have taken the first step in defending our freedoms.

#1) The Founding Fathers believed in common law, which holds that true sovereignty rests with the people.
“To secure these rights [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

#2) To safeguard these rights, the Founding Fathers provided for the separation of powers among the three branches of government—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Each was to be independent of the other, yet each was to work in a unified relationship.

The use of checks and balances was deliberately designed, first, to make it difficult for a minority of the people to control the government, and, second, to place restraint on the government itself.

#3) The powers the people granted to the three branches of government were specifically limited. The Founding Fathers well understood human nature and its tendency to unrighteously seize domination when given authority. Therefore, the Constitution was prophetically designed to limit government to certain enumerated functions, and anything beyond that boundary is tyranny.

#4) the principle of representation, which means that we have delegated to an elected official the power to represent us. The Constitution provides for both direct representation and indirect representation. Both forms provide a tempering influence on pure democracy. The intent was to protect the individual’s and the minority’s rights to life, liberty, and the fruits of their labors—property. These rights were not to be subject to majority vote.

#5) John Adams said "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
I address this more in my video "World peace"
But, Have we been wise beneficiaries of the gift entrusted to us?
Have we valued and protected the principles laid down by this great document?

In sadness, I say that we have not been wise in keeping the trust of our Founding Fathers. For the past two centuries, those who do not prize freedom have chipped away at every major clause of our Constitution. Now today, we face a crisis of great dimensions.

We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith when he said: “Even this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the constitution is upon the brink of ruin, [religious] people will be the Staff upon which the Nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction."
Will you rise up and be among the people who save the Constitution?
What will be required for you to do so?

Let me take a gab at what I think will be required to restore the constitution:

1. We must be righteous and moral. We must live the gospel principles—all of them. We have no right to expect a higher degree of morality from those who represent us than what we ourselves follow.
To live a higher law means we will not seek to receive what we have not earned by our own labor.
It means we will remember that government owes us nothing but liberty.
It means we will keep the laws of the land. It means we will look to God as our Lawgiver and the source of our liberty.

2. We must learn the principles of the Constitution and then abide by its precepts.
Have we read the Constitution and pondered it?
Are we aware of its principles?
Could we defend it?
Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound?

To quote Abraham Lincoln, “Let [the Constitution] be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation.”
The Constitution should be our Political religion. Interesting, isn't it?
Think on that term.

3. We must become involved in civic affairs. As a citizens of this republic, we become a choice people, with civic responsibilities. We cannot do our duty and be idle spectators. It is vital that we follow this counsel from the Lord when he said: Honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.”

4. We must make our influence felt by our vote, our letters, and our advice. We must be wisely informed and let others know how we feel. We must take part in local precinct meetings and select delegates who will truly represent our feelings.

I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington. It will be saved by the God fearing citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom, and who abide by the principles of the Constitution themselves. And we must NEVER remove ourselves from it.

God has placed his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land, so I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document.
I testify that the God of heaven sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this government, and he has sent other choice spirits—even you who hear my words this day—to preserve it.
We, the blessed beneficiaries, face difficult days in this beloved land, “a land which the Lord said is choice above all other lands”
It may also cost us blood before we are through.

A lot of my thoughts today come from Ezra Taft Benson, linked below, And he said this: "It is my conviction that, when the Lord comes, the Stars and Stripes will be floating on the breeze over this people."

May it be so, and may God give us the faith and the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives and fortunes that we might be free.
They paved the way, and we must not depart from it.