The US constitution was designed to limit the power of the president regarding taxes and the use of the military. This limitation of power goes all the way back to the Magna Carta and has its foundations in biblical principles. So when the Supreme Court overturned president Trump’s tariffs and when he unilaterally decided to bomb Iran, president Trump was acting outside of the bounds of his constitutional authority.
And we should be clear, he is not the first president to do such a thing. The US has not declared war since WWII, but many soldiers and many body bags testify that we have been at war. Our constitution says that war must be declared by the Congress, (Art.1.8.11) but as a nation we now treat that as a relic of a bygone time. Our constitution also says that any bill raising revenue doesn’t just need to start in Congress, but specifically the House of Representatives (Art.1.7.1). Now the president does both of these things and so called conservatives rejoice in what he is doing, which is clearly illegal, but they say the legislative process is too hard which was the design of the system.
In this episode, we want to consider why the Constitution was structured as it was, how we should think about it as Christians, and what our responsibility is to the president, to the nation, to each other, and most importantly to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thumbnail image by Avash Media under CC-BY 4.0
Timecodes
00:00:00 Constitution
00:09:23 Control of Money
00:15:59 Call to Repentance
00:29:58 Our Duty
00:41:10 Debating War
00:51:52 Abdicating Responsibility
01:10:20 Solutions
01:18:55 Oathbreaking
Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson