Pastor's Blog

Overview of the Articles of the Constitution The Constitution, exclusive of the Bill of Rights and later amendments, consists of seven articles. The first four of these are subdivided into sections. (See below for an outline of the Articles.) The first three articles deal with the basic powers of government:  legislative (Art. 1), executive (Art. 2), and judicial (Art. 3). These three powers of government ultimately belong to God. For the L ord is our judge [judicial power]; the L ord is our lawgiver [legislative power];  the L ord is our king [executive power]; he will save us (Isaiah 33:22) The Constitution provides that these three powers are to be distributed into three separate branches of the federal government. In this arrangement, the Framers’ clearly reflect the ideas of Baron de Montesquieu. In his Spirit of the Laws , Montesquieu called for “the separation of powers” as a means of avoiding the tyranny that so often accompanies the concentration of p...

The Preamble (continued) The next stated purpose of the Constitution was to insure domestic Tranquility . This refers to the maintaining of peace and order both within and between the states. After the War for Independence there were uprisings in a number of states that threatened to undermine, if not to completely overthrow local government. Most of these disturbances grew out of protests over taxes levied by the states to pay their war debts. In some states taxes were higher after the war than before. Perhaps the most serious threat to domestic tranquility within a state came in the form of Shays’ rebellion. This was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts in 1786-1787, led by Daniel Shays, a farmer and veteran of the war. The rebellion began with protesters shutting down county courts in order to put a stop to hearings involving the collection of debts and taxes. When some of the leaders of the protest movement were arrested, the more radical membe...

The Preamble We the People   of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The preamble to the Constitution declares both the purposes for which the document was written and the authority by which it was created. The new form of government is said to be authorized by We the People of the United States . These famous words have become so much a part of the American ethos that we can hardly imagine any patriot in the founding era raising an objection to them. The words, however, were objected to in the most strenuous terms by Patrick Henry, who argued that the authority to create a federal government rested with the states as states and not with the people of the states. I would make this inquiry of th...

Introduction:  Strict versus Loose Construction When the Constitution was signed by its framers on September 17, 1787 and sent to the states for ratification, it was intended that—upon the approval of at least nine states (Art. VII)—the document would become “the supreme law of the land” (Art. VI). The ninth state to ratify the Constitution was New Hampshire, which took its decisive vote on June 21, 1788, and the new federal government under the Constitution formally began the following Spring with the inauguration of George Washington as president. The Constitution has served our country well for over 200 years, but like any form of government it is only as good as the men who administer it. The integrity of the Constitution depends entirely upon the integrity of those who are elected to hold office under it. It can only be an effective instrument of government if its officers are committed to abiding by its strictures. This is why officeholders in the federal government are...