Zack Strong
September 17, 2025

Do we comprehend how blessed we are because we have the Constitution as our system of government? The federal Constitution of the United States is the most inspired work ever created by human wisdom. Indeed, it was not created by human wisdom at all, but was inspired by the Lord through noble, wise, and worthy men who loved by the Lord and the Liberty wherewith He had made them free. This Constitution Day, a long-neglected holiday by ungrateful and unthinking Americans, I plead for you to show gratitude to our inspired national charter of rights, to the men who fought and labored for it, and to the Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us with its bounties.

It must be admitted that America in 2025 is a vastly different place than it was in 1789 when George Washington became the first President of these United States. Not only have technology and social norms evolved, but our understanding of republicanism has evolved. Sadly, our comprehension of republicanism, federalism, constitutionalism, and sound governmental principles has lapsed. The average American knows practically nothing about the Constitution – most have never read it and wouldn’t understand it if they did. America is also a less free place in 2025 than it was in 1789.

Some balk at the idea that we are a less free nation now than in the past. What about slavery? What about women’s rights? What about this or that or whatever ideological talking point you remember from your government education? Even though slavery has been formally abolished, for U.S. citizens, Liberty has in fact decreased. A very quick overview looks like this: Government has ballooned in size (starting primarily with Abraham Lincoln), an unelected bureaucracy reigns regardless of changes in administration, intelligence agencies spy on everyone and collect our data without warrant or just cause, the Federal Reserve and Congress have utterly destroyed the purchasing power of the dollar while racking up unheard of debt totaling $37.5 trillion as of this writing, free speech is under withering attack and socialistic “hate speech” laws plague us, all fifty states have gun laws in blatant disregard of the Second Amendment, crime so often goes unpunished by corrupt judges and district attorneys, private property is being seized left and right by federal and state agencies, and we are being nickled and dimed to death by insane fees and taxes far exceeding those that enraged our forefathers and caused them to rebel against the tyrannical British. The list could go on and on. The fact is that the U.S. Constitution is hanging by a brittle thread and the Republic, which functions more like an empire, is on the blink of collapse.

Why have we fallen so precipitously? The prophetic patriot Ezra Taft Benson told us exactly how we would fall in 1968:

“I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I do not think our civilization will die that way. I think it will die when we no longer care, when the spiritual forces that make us wish to be right and noble die in the hearts of men, when we disregard the importance of law and order.

“If American freedom is lost, if America is destroyed, if our blood-bought freedom is surrendered, it will be because of Americans. What’s more, it will probably not be only the work of subversive and criminal Americans. The Benedict Arnolds will not be the only ones to forfeit our freedom. . . .

“If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers–normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free – Americans who have been lulled away into a false security.

“Great nations are never conquered from outside unless they are rotten inside. Our greatest national problem today is erosion, not the erosion of the soil, but erosion of the national morality – erosion of traditional enforcement of law and order.

“In this blessed land we have exalted security, comfort, and ease above freedom. If we dwelled at length on the many things that are disturbing in the life of America today, we might well become discouraged. I mention only a few of the reported startling evidences of our national illness, our moral erosion.

“There is a decline of U.S. morals and moral fiber, a turning to pleasure and away from hard work and high standards of the past. . . .

“America is the biggest market for narcotics.

“Although we consider ourselves a people who believe in law and order, we have seen much evidence of the passion of the mob. . . .

“The sky-rocketing cost of the welfare state. . . .

“Inflation has struck a serious blow to the value of the American dollar.

“We continue to move in the direction of more federal intervention, more concentration of power, more spending, more taxing, more paternalism, more state-ism. . . .

“The facts are clear. Our problem centers in Washington, D.C. And this applies to the administration of both political parties. In the words of James Madison, “Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.” (Elliot’s Debates, Vol. 3, p. 87.)

“If America is to withstand these influences and trends, there must be a renewal of the spirit of our forefathers, an appreciation of the American way of life, a strengthening of muscle and sinew and the character of the nation. America needs guts as well as guns. National character is the core of national defense.”

Benson was correct. Our biggest problems – and we have many – are our immorality and apathy. We are shockingly complacent. As our national house burns down around us, we sit absentmindedly scrolling on social media. We perpetuate a cycle of pride, contention, sacrilege, hedonism, and both political and spiritual blindness. Most Christians are Christians-in-name-only but do not follow the teachings of the Savior of the world. They certainly do not follow His laws governing morality and sexual relations. We have become a nation of porn-addicted, degenerate, self-centered pleasure-seekers instead of seekers of God, goodness, and the general welfare.

Because we have abandoned the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ, He has left us to our own devices – or, if you will, to our own vices. These vices, apathy, and ignorance have been our undoing as we have allowed – usually by electing them – vipers and monsters into office at all levels of government. The Lord has given us what we deserve – and what we deserve is pedophiles, adulterers, liars, Satanists, and corrupt self-aggrandizers in our government. These wolves in sheep’s clothing come in two sizes – Republican and Democrat. Neither fights for the American People. The fact that so many conservatives still believe that the Republican Party is on their side is indicative of how low we have sunk as a nation. If we want to have moral, upright, and good people restored to offices in government, we must do what the Lord told the Israelites through His prophet Isaiah and repent. I quote the inspired words:

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

“Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

“From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

“Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

“And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. . . .

“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

“Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

“But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

“How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

“Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

“Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

“Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

“And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

“And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

“Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

“And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.” (Isaiah 1:4-9, 16-28).

If you care about America, repent. Turn to the Redeemer Jesus Christ. Rid yourself of unworthiness and of the corruption and demoralizing taint of the world. The Savior stands with open arms ready to save. Everyone is welcome – none are forbidden to partake of His mercy. He bled in Gethsemane for your sins, suffered scourging, an unjust mock trial, and endured crucifixion as the great and last blood sacrifice, for you. No matter what you have done, you may repent. You cannot merely claim Jesus and think that cleanses you. It does not. Neither does deathbed repentance benefit you. Only a sincere, abiding repentance – that is, a turning away from evil and a turning to good – has the power to save you, cleanse you, and make you reborn sons and daughters of the Lord of lords. I repeat, if you love America, repent.

This Constitution Day, it is imperative to drink deeply from the wells of wisdom of our ancestors. Our forefathers were paragons of truth and political brilliance. In my studies of world history, I find no comparable group of men – men who understood so thoroughly the principles of Liberty, the dangers of tyranny, and the price required to both obtain and maintain Freedom. It is incumbent upon you to study our national documents – the Declaration of Independence and Constitution – and learn their holy and just principles.

James Wilson, one of the legal geniuses among the Founding Fathers, gave us important advice when he said that we cannot truly comprehend or love Liberty if we do not also comprehend and love law. We lie to ourselves if we claim to love Liberty but do not understand law – in our context, if we do not understand the Constitution. Wilson recommended that we all study the science of law through which we gain Liberty. He observed:

“Were I called upon for my reasons why I deem so highly of the American character, I would assign them in a very few words—That character has been eminently distinguished by the love of liberty, and the love of law. . . .

“In free countries—in free countries, especially, that boast the blessing of a common law, springing warm and spontaneous from the manners of the people—Law should be studied and taught as a historical science. . . .

“. . . Before we can be distinguished by the same honours [as illustrious men like Benjamin Franklin], we must be distinguished by the same virtues.

“What are those virtues? They are chiefly the same virtues, which we have already seen to be descriptive of the American character—the love of liberty, and the love of law. But law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge. The same course of study, properly directed, will lead us to the knowledge of both. Indeed, neither of them can be known, because neither of them can exist, without the other. Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness. In denominating, therefore, that science, by which the knowledge of both is acquired, it is unnecessary to preserve, in terms, the distinction between them. That science may be named, as it has been named, the science of law.

“The science of law should, in some measure, and in some degree, be the study of every free citizen, and of every free man. Every free citizen and every free man has duties to perform and rights to claim. Unless, in some measure, and in some degree, he knows those duties and those rights, he can never act a just and an independent part.”

If we want to regain the same level of Liberty our forefathers enjoyed, we must love and study law as they did. We must study the workings of our federal Constitution. We must study the principles of the Declaration of Independence. We must know what are our God-given rights and what are the responsibilities and delegates powers of government. We must become truly engaged patriots, not merely sunshine or armchair patriots.

As I said before, if you truly love America, repent. If you have not read the Constitution, acknowledge your fault, repent, and read it. If you are a parent, read it together with your spouse and children. Study it. Inculcate the principles into your children. Live them and hold your elected representatives accountable to that which they hypocritically swear an oath every two, four, or six years. There are many marvelous resources for comprehending the principles therein written if you do not trust in your own native reasoning ability.

Resources for better understanding the Constitution include:

W. Cleon Skousen, The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution
Paul B. Skousen, How to Read the Constitution & the Declaration of Independence
David Barton, Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, and Religion
Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, ed., The Founders’ Constitution series
Connor Boyack, The Tuttle Twins series, for the kids
Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, The Federalist Papers
Paul B. Skousen, The Federalist Papers Made Easier: The Complete and Original Text Subdivided and Annotated for Easier Understanding
W. Cleon Skousen, The Miracle of America video lesson series

However you choose to study and learn the Constitution, learn it. Internalize it. Live it. Freedom was purchased with blood. It may require blood to fully restore. But Liberty is worth it. The alternative – high-tech feudalism and oppression – is unacceptable. No good parent would put their children through a future of slavery and oppression and life in a decadent, godless society. Be a good parent. Turn to Christ. Be an example of the believers for your children, for your community, and for the world. You just might save your country, but you will certainly save your soul.

Happy Constitution Day. God be praised for sending the Founding Fathers to earth to carve out a haven of Liberty for the oppressed of the world and to institute the wisest document of Freedom ever seen in world history, the U.S. Constitution.