Make Us A King
A Covenant Broken
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And he (Samuel) said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:
He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
-1 Samuel 8, 11-17 KJV
In our narcissistic “Netflix and chill” twenty-first century world, we have three factions of citizenry. For this article, I shall call the groups “awake,” “woke,” and “asleep.” “Awake” knows what time it is and sees that excessive government power combined with coffer siphoning corruption will surely sink our county. “Woke” sees government as the supreme law of the land, the giver of all good gifts and graces and the mighty shield against thy mortal foe. The enemy “woke” fear is not combatants from distant lands, but none other than their “awake” neighbor. The third class is simply “asleep,” and can't be bothered to participate in self-government. In election cycles, we call them independents. 100% of the annoying campaign commercials are aimed at them. They rarely, if ever, pay attention to the world beyond their wants and are greatly influenced by "trusted" sources of media. Every viable campaign holds an "October surprise" bit of dirt on their opponent because the Netflix watching “asleep” crowd is easily swayed by sensational news. Especially, if their favorite talking head on a digital screen tells them what to think about the sudden scandalous, yet carefully timed “surprise.”
Much to the chagrin of many in my country, the United States of America historically was a Covenant state. It was Divine providence, called on by George Washington, that delivered victory against mighty British forces in the Revolutionary War. So deep was Washington’s faith in God and His protection of the victorious young nation, that he resigned his position as leader of the Continental Army upon achieving victory. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was going to resign, King George III of England said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." But those who understand the Covenant begged from God and its unique protection of free people know that Washington, should he have deviated from the Covenant, would have not only condemned his own soul to reside among the majority of historical leaders, but he would also have condemned his young country to the same fate as well.
Fifty-six rebel colonists, who dared invoke Divine Covenant wrote into the Declaration of Independence this phrase, "the laws of Nature and Nature's God," thus setting our nation on the course of emulated Biblical prophecy. In my nation’s initial “divorce degree,” it appears here:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--
A United States, built on limited representative government under Divine and Covenanted protection of Nature's God, though far from perfect, prospered for over 100 years. “America is great,” as Tocqueville said, “because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” To be sure, one cannot get the true gist of Tocqueville’s observations without reading his prediction in full context:
I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did, I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.
The question among a minority of small state types is, when did the United States lose her "goodness?” Historians are always looking for the definitive answer to that question- they are ever seeking the "crossing of the Rubicon" moment that signified when America began her decline. One such seeker is Victor David Hanson.
Victor David Hanson has an excellent piece in the most recent Imprimis newsletter titled, Imperialism: Lessons From History that does an excellent job of laying out the historical empire crushing results of “bringing civilization” to conquered lands. The modern terms for “bringing civilization” to foreign lands are called “nation building” or “spreading democracy.” The United States is currently “spreading democracy” to the tune of billions of dollars each week in Ukraine. But “civilizing” neighboring lands cannot occur until a nation has first consolidated its own citizens under collective control.
I contend that the fall began when the United States begged their God and Protector to give them a king. Our 1 Samuel 8 moment was in 1909 when Congress passed the 16th Amendment. That is when we, as a nation, asked God to give us a king. Not a “king” in the traditional sense. Because much like the Romans who loathed the term king and went to great lengths to avoid it, so too do we as Americans, who won our independence from King George III, contort ourselves to avoid the appearance of that unsightly term. As a nation, however, with the passage of the 16th Amendment, we begged God to give us a kingly state. In 1909 both Houses passed the 16th Amendment Resolution giving all authority to the Federal government, without exception, the power to levee income taxes. Here is that fateful document:
Five years later in 1914, the several States of our union ratified the 16th Amendment, and a kingly destiny in the United States was born. It is precisely the 16th Amendment that shifted America's God first Covenant to a government first mentality. And those three groups, “awake,” “woke,” and “asleep” discussed earlier are now mere vassals to the kingly state apparatus, not seeking Divine protection, but electing ever more representatives to tap the tax revenue sources created by the 16th Amendment so as to provide comfortable servitude for their particular faction.
With the enactment of the 16th Amendment, God's proclamation to his people once again became true. We begged God to give us a government to judge us and to fight our wars. In turn, He thusly provided:
And this will be the manner of the government that shall reign over you:
It will take your sons and daughters, and appoint them for the state, for its tanks, and its ships and planes; and some shall be infantryman before its war machine.
And it will appoint state captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them out as agents, and to reap state harvests, and to make state instruments of war, and instruments of state stakeholders.
And the state will take your fields, and your schools, and your businesses, even the best of them, and give them to state servants.
And the state will take a tenth, twentieth or even a thirtieth of your seed, and of your businesses, and give to state officers, and to vassals of the state.
And the state will take your men, and your women, and your best young workers, and your means of production, and put them to state work.
The state will take a percentage of all your labor: and ye shall be the state’s servants.
Having recently traveled to Maryland, just outside Washington DC for a family event, I witnessed firsthand how the servants of the state live. Suburb, after cushy suburb contained well cared for subordinates of our kingly government's realm made possible by the passage of the 16th Amendment. For across our vast country, our servitude to the present “figure-headed” kingdom is extracted weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually from the direct results of our labor. This is the penalty of a once free people that turned its back on our Covenant with God and His Divine protection in favor for state protection. “Give us a state the judge us and fight our wars like other nations” we demanded of God with the passage of the 16th Amendment. God, seeing that His chosen people, with their shinny city on a hill, chose idolatry of government over His Divinity, and simply granted their request. And with that simple passage of the 16th Amendment over 100 years ago, Tocqueville’s prophecy came true. The United States ceased to be great because she ceased to be good.