The Divinely Inspired and Living U.S. Constitution

I wrote this post five years ago, but have brought it forward to be enjoyed on September 17, 2012, Constitution Day. At a time when it is sorely under attack, our nation stands on an historic precipice. The choice stands before us: the Republic which has held us in good stead over the 236 years, or a Socialist Democracy which is current rotting and crumbling in the nations of Europe.

For me and mine, we use choose the Republic and here is why:

I've been helping a nephew with a paper regarding whether the U.S. Constitution was divinely inspired and whether it is a living constitution. In other words, is it still valid?

I can give you a resounding YES and YES. Modern revelation tells us that . . . but I don't need modern revelation to feel the soul deep power and strength of our Constitution.

The United States Constitution was the first written constitution in the world. After two hundred years every nation in the world, except for six, have written constitutions using the U.S. Constitution as their model. Would something so insignificant and long dead been used by so many nations.

George Washington said in a 1788 letter to Lafayette: "It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the delegates from so many different states (which states you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well-founded objections."

Following that sentiment, on April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."

The Constitution is, indeed, fixed on true principles. For it is based on freedom, representational democracy, responsibility, hope and a devout belief in a Judeo-Christian god, Jesus Christ. It united the thirteen colonies who, at the time, functioned under the very weak Articles of Confederation. They feuded constantly, never seeking the common good. Had the founders of this nation not been determined to unite and strengthen the colonies with a Declaration of Independence and constitution, these colonies would have fallen and been snatched up by the British, French, Spanish and Italian governments. All European nations were anxious to get a toehold in the rich new land known as America.

The colonies were in a depression, everyone was in debt, the national treasury was empty, inflation skyrocketed and the currencies (one for each colony) were next to worthless. Some colonies were in negotiations with the British to rejoin that nation. Others fought bitterly against this, and worked to form their own small countries.

When the delegates of the thirteen colonies were called together, times were desperate. Instead of amending the Articles of Confederation, they threw them out, and begin writing an entirely new constitution. About this task, James Madison wrote, "There never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them. Truly, the U.S. Constitution was established "by the hands of wise men whom [the Lord] raised up unto this very purpose.""

Even these men felt the divine calling which had been there since before time, as we know it, began. Benjamin Franklin wrote, "When you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does . . . The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good."

So yes, this constitution was divinely inspired. There is no question when such feuding, opinionated men were drawn together that they wrote a document insuring freedom for all, in the formation of the Republic they'd sweated for months to create.

President J. Reuben Clark of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not believe that the Constitution was a fully grown document. "On the contrary. We believe it must grow and develop to meet the changing needs of an advancing world."

Joseph Smith, Jr. perhaps said it the best, "Its sentiments are good, but it provides no means of enforcing them . . . Under its provision, a man or a people who are able to protect themselves can get along well enough; but those who have the misfortune to be weak or unpopular are left to the merciless rage of popular fury." The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted at the conclusion of the Civil War, remedied that problem.

This is why the U.S. Constitution is a living document. It's foundation is good, but it needs growth as does a human being. In examining each of the amendments we find growth and improvement without violation of the foundation, save two (XVI and XVII.)

President Ezra Taft Benson said, "We [the people] are superior to government and should remain master over it, not the other way around."

President John Adams, the second president of the United States, said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

The stated breakdown of the Constitution by the liberals of today rests in their own immorality rather than a supposed dysfunction of said Constitution. They need to look to their hearts, consciences and actions to find the root of the problem they cast upon the Constitution. This Constitution of the United States is as valid and necessary now as it was in in 1778.

We live in a promised and divinely consecrated land, of that I assure you. With that privilege comes great responsibility. We should thank our founding fathers for paying for this citizenship we enjoy with their blood, and their very lives. The freedoms we now enjoy were purchased with the blood of men and women who sacrificed their all.

Can we really treat this sacred document so cavalierly? I think not. When was the last time you read this precious document that governs the last great hope of the earth, the United States of America?