The separation of powers and reciprocal checks and balances incorporated throughout the Constitution has been heralded as one of the most important features of American government, enabling it not only to survive but to thrive for over two centuries. History is filled with examples showing that when government power was centralized in one body or leader, that government always became a danger to the rights of individuals and brought that nation to ruin. The Founding Fathers not only had these examples of history to guide them, but they had the revelation found in the teachings of the Bible. The love of power, and our propensity to abuse it, at the root, finds its source in the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9 declares: "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" This well-known verse encapsulated what Calvinistic ministers and theologians termed the "depravity of man" (that the natural heart of man easily embraced moral and civil degradation), and it was a frequent topic for sermons in the Founding Era. The Founding Fathers understood the significance of this verse and openly cited it, as when John Adams reminded Americans: Let me conclude by advising all men to look into their own hearts, which they will find to be "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked"(Jeremiah 17:9).
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 18:51:34 +0000
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