UNDERSTANDING THE
CONSTITUTION

TEN THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD
KNOW ABOUT THE
SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND

David Gibbs, Jr. & David Gibbs, III

[2006]

[ISBN 0-9741149-4-4]

CONTENTS
    INTRODUCTION .. 1

  1. GOVERNMENT WAS GOD'S IDEA .. 5

      Government is an institution ordained and
      created by God for all eternity.

  2. THE DECLARATION OF
    INDEPENDENCE .. 11

      The Declaration of Independence, America's
      founding document was based on God's laws.

  3. THE ARTICLES OF
    CONFEDERATION .. 27

      The Constitution was not the first statement of
      bylaws enacted by the newly free and united
      colonies.

  4. THE CONSTITUTIONAL
    CONVENTION OF 1787 .. 31

      Drafting the new Constitution required the
      miraculous intervention of God.

  5. THE CONSTITUTION .. 41

      The Constitution represents a compromise
      between those who desired a strong central, or
      federal, government and those who wanted to
      leave the greater power with individual states.

  1. THE FIRST ADMENDMENT
    RELIGION CLAUSES IN THE BILL
    OF RIGHTS .. 83

      Some delegates to the Constitution Convention
      would not agree to ratify the Constitution
      without a guarantee that a written Bill of Rights
      would be speedily enacted to secure religious
      freedom and other important individual liberties.

  2. FIRST ADMENDMENT FREEDOM
    OF SPEECH AND ITS IMPACT ON
    RELIGION .. 113

      Christians have retained more rights under the
      First Admendment doctrine of Free Speech than
      under the First Admendment Religion Clauses.

  3. OTHER PROVISIONS OF THE BILL
    OF RIGHTS .. 119

      The Bill of Rights, as enacted, became the first
      ten admendments to the Constitution.

  4. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL
    AMENDMENTS .. 135

      In the more than two hundred years since the
      Constitution and Bill of Rights were adopted,
      only seventeen amendments have been ratified.

  5. THE MODERN COURT'S
    INTERPRETATION OF THE
    CONSTITUTION .. 151

      Methods of judicial review and the adoption of
      an evolving case method of law to replace the
      common law       have been the primary methods
      used by judges to expand the constitution.

CONCLUSION .. 167

APPENDIX 1 .. 171

    The Original Constitution of the United States of
    America.

APPENDIX 2 .. 195

    The Admendments to the Constitution of the
    United States of America

APPENDIX 3 .. 227

    Thomas Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury
    Baptists