Fairview Baptist Church Pastor Bill Ledbetter said the U.S. is a constitutional republic, not a democracy, during a recent meeting of the Bryan County chapter of the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association.
Ledbetter said he wanted to share something called the “Lighthouse Moment” which comes from an organization that he leads called Lighthouse America.
“We teach the Bible principles on which this nation is built,” Ledbetter said. “There’s a reason America’s the greatest nation in history. I know that we use the word democracy sometimes for this or that but I want you to hear me tonight: America is a constitutional republic. We not are democracy and I will make this thought tonight and put it in place.”
He spoke of an an annual event at the Lake Tahoe golf course, the American Heritage Century Championship. According to Ledbetter, sports figures and politicians raise millions of dollars during the event to help needy people.
“They raise a lot of money for Americans who need help because that’s who we are,” Ledbetter said. “We are a people who love one another. We cut our teeth on that principle, love your neighbor as yourself.
“The Declaration of Independence, most people don’t know this but every tenet of the Declaration of Independence came from a sermon preached by the pastors in the colonial era. This is written by Alice Baldwin in the New England Clergy and the American Revolution. She is a lady who had black skin. She was the first woman dean of Duke University and she studied the pastors of the colonial era and they were called the Black Robe Regiment.
“Alice Baldwin said there is not a right asserted in the Declaration of Independence that had not been discussed by the New England clergy before 1783. I wish we had pastors discussing it today in the pulpits across America.
“America is a constitutional republic. Our constitution, every precept of the constitution comes from the Bible. Noah Webster made that clear in The History of the United States … where he talks about the fact that every precept of the constitution comes from the Bible, particularly the New Testament of the Christian religion.”
According to Ledbetter, the centerpiece of our constitutional republic is the separation of powers. He said the framers of the constitution were looking for a form of government that would protect citizens from tyranny.
“So, as they studied the Bible, they came to a verse in Isiah 33:22 which says this, ‘The Lord is our king. The Lord is our law giver and the Lord is our judge,’” Ledbetter said. “Can you hear three branches of government in that one verse? Folks, we live in the greatest nation ever built. Ever built. We have freedom and liberty because of the separation of powers.”
Ledbetter said there is a contingency in the nation that wants to tear this down.
“They want to pack the courts so they can get what they want instead of what the constitution says and that needs to stop,” Ledbetter said. “We are a Bible-based constitutional republic and as a result, we are the most prosperous nation in the history of mankind. Why? Because in this country, you are given under the constitution, the Godgiven right to use your Godgiven talents and pursue your God-given dreams in liberty.”
According to Ledbetter, the U.S. makes up only four percent of the population of the world but produces 25 percent of the world’s goods and services.
“We need to understand who we are because have forgotten who we are,” Ledbetter said. “Listen to this: James Madison said that only a well-instructed people may be permanently a free people, and our American citizens not only are not instructed, but in many cases, they’re being instructed in the wrong way today.
“They’re being taught a form of government that is not a constitutional republic. We have a problem in America and because we have this republic, we have something called the First Amendment.”
Ledbetter cited the First Amendment that prohibits Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion, restricting freedom of speech or the press or the right of the people to peacefully assemble to petition the government.
”You know what supports the First Amendment and that’s why we’re here tonight, part of it, is the Second Amendment, ‘A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,’” Ledbetter said.
“Man, we all hate it when somebody uses a gun for the wrong reason and in our country. We hate that. We want that to stop. The best way to get that to stop, get on your knees, America, and pray and ask God to put a hedge around this country. There’s a number of things that need to be done … but you can’t take the people’s guns because somebody else is evil. Do you hear me today? You can’t strip the people because somebody else is evil. We have to have another solution.”
Ledbetter spoke of federal spending and debt.
“This next quote, it’s debated about who said it, so I’m standing with Alexander Tytler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh and he says this: ‘A democracy will continue to exist up until voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the treasury,’” Ledbetter said.
“When somebody says to you, the government’s going to give you money, it’s your house. You better run for the hills, friend. When somebody tells you that, they want you to be deceived, take something from the treasury. Can I tell you something? It’s not government’s role to help you buy a house. That’s God’s role. The Bible says, and my God shall supply all of your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
“Look to God, but not to government. Can I get an amen? That’s critically important and I do think this: From that moment on, when we do this, electing people who will give us gifts from the treasury, from that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury with a result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose, fiscal policy which he (Tytler) said is always followed by a dictatorship. We must turn this thing around right now. Amen? Period.”
