Did God Raise Up and Inspire the Writing of the U.S. Constitution?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution is the foundation of the federal government because it provides the structure of the government and limits the power of the government. According to President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the “United States Constitution is the oldest written constitution still in force today.” This Constitution was written for and adopted by the original thirteen American colonies, but today it is a model for nations worldwide. “Today, every nation except three have adopted written constitutions.” 

            President Oaks is uniquely qualified to speak about the Constitution. He explained in his talk in the April 2021 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ that he has studied the Constitution “for more than 60 years.” He spent some of those years as “a law clerk to the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.” He also worked as a professor of law for 15 years and served as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court for 3.5 years. “Most important, I speak from 37 years as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, responsible to study the meaning of the divinely inspired United States Constitution to the work of His restored Church.”

            The U.S. “Constitution is unique” and “is of special concern for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the world,” according to President Oaks. His reason for this statement is that God revealed in Doctrine and Covenants 101:77, 80 that He “established” the Constitution “for the rights and protection of all flesh.” This idea brings this question from President Oaks: “What was God’s purpose in establishing the United States Constitution?”

We see it in the doctrine of moral agency. In the first decade of the restored Church, its members on the western frontier were suffering private and public persecution. Partly this was because of their opposition to the human slavery then existing in the United States. In these unfortunate circumstances, God revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith eternal truths about His doctrine.

God has given His children moral agency – the power to decide and to act. The most desirable condition for the exercise of that agency is maximum freedom for men and women to act according to their individual choices. Then, the revelation explains, “every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:78). “Therefore,” the Lord revealed, “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:79). This obviously means that human slavery is wrong. And according to the same principle, it is wrong for citizens to have no voice in the selection of their rulers or the making of their laws.

            President Oaks continued his talk by explaining why Latter-day Saints believe that the Constitution was divinely inspired. Even though we do not believe that every word was inspired by God, we believe that there are inspired principles in the document. Some of those principles are: (1) the principle that the people is the source of power for government, (2) the division of delegated powers between the federal government and the sovereign states, (3) separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, (4) the Bill of Rights which guarantees of certain freedoms for the people and certain restrictions on government, and (5) the overall purpose of the Constitution – government “by law and not by individuals.”

 

Why Is the Constitution Considered to Be Divinely Inspired?

             The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the divinely inspired Constitution of the United States. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been taught for nearly two hundred years that the Lord “raised up” wise men to write the Constitution and that the document is divinely inspired.

Today members of the Church of Jesus Christ and friends who listened to General Conference were taught about the Constitution by President Dallin H. Oaks. President Oaks has the distinction of serving as a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren at the U.S. Supreme Court, as a law professor, and as a Utah Supreme Court justice until he was called to the apostleship in 1984. Therefore, he is professionally qualified to discuss the Constitution. 

President Oaks discussed the importance of the Constitution to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth and the Church of Jesus Christ organized less than fifty years after the Constitution was written and ratified. The First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion was crucial to the Restoration.

According to President Oaks, members of the Church of Jesus Christ have a responsibility to defend, protect, and preserve the Constitution because we know that it was divinely inspired. We should also pray for the Lord to bless all nations and leaders. In addition, members must study the Constitution to learn its inspired principles and then advocate for those principles.

We should seek out and support wise and good persons who will support those principles in their public actions (Doctrine and Covenants 98:10). We should be knowledgeable citizens who are active in making our influence felt in civic affairs.

            President Oaks continued by teaching that there are at least five divinely inspired principles contained in the United States Constitution. (1) “The Constitution established a constitutional democratic republic, where the people exercise their power through their elected representatives.” (2) The delegated power is divided between the national or federal government and the sovereign states. (3) There is a separation of powers between the “independent executive, legislative and judicial powers so these three branches could exercise checks upon one another.” (4) The Bill of Rights is a cluster or collection of guarantees for individual rights and specific limits on governmental authority. (5) “The vital purpose of the entire Constitution. We are to be governed by law and not by individuals, and our loyalty is to the Constitution and its principles and processes, not to any officeholder.”

            President Oaks warned that there are “many threats that undermine the principles of the Constitution.” This is one reason why members of the Church of Jesus Christ must “be knowledgeable citizens” and “seek out wise and good persons” to represent us.

No party, platform or individual candidate can satisfy all personal preferences. Each citizen must therefore decide which issues are most important to him or her at any particular time. Then, members should seek inspiration on how to exercise their influence according to their individual priorities. This process will not be easy.

 

Divinely Inspired Constitution

                The topic of discussion for this Constitution concerns the inspiration behind the Constitution of the United States and how it was drafted and ratified. We know that the entire Constitution was not inspired of God because God would never inspire any program that caused any of His children to live in slavery. God gave each of us moral agency in our premortal life and sent it with us when we came to earth; He wants us to be free to make our choices – good or bad – in order that His judgement because He wants us to receive the consequences we deserve. Slavery of every kind is a tool of Satan because he likes to control people.

                Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has spoken about the Constitution numerous times.  The source of my quotes is an article published in February 1992 Ensign titled “The Divinely Inspired Constitution.” He listed five great fundamentals of the Constitution that he considers to be divinely inspired.  [A version of this address, given at the Freedom Festival, Provo, Utah, was printed in Utah Forum, Fall/Winter 1989, pp. 1-11.]

                1. “Separation of powers [into the three branches of executive, legislative, and judicial]…. Thus, we see that the inspiration on the idea of separation of powers came long before the U.S. Constitutional Convention. The inspiration in the convention was in its original and remarkably successful adaptation of the idea of separation of powers to the practical needs of a national government. The delegates found just the right combination to assure the integrity of each branch, appropriately checked and balanced with the others.”

                2. “A written bill of rights. This second great fundamental came by amendment, but I think Americans all look upon the Bill of Rights as part of the inspired work of the Founding Fathers.  The idea of a bill of rights was not new. Once again, the inspiration was in the brilliant, practical implementation of preexisting principles….

                “I have always felt that the United States Constitution’s closest approach to scriptural stature is in the phrasing of our Bill of Rights. Without the free exercise of religion, America could not have served as the host nation for the restoration of the gospel, which began just three decades after the Bill of Rights was ratified. I also see scriptural stature in the concept and wording of the freedoms of speech and press, the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, the requirements that there must be probable cause for an arrest and that accused persons must have a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, and the guarantee that a person will not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law….”

                3. “Division of powers [between nation and states]. Another inspired fundamental of the U.S. Constitution is its federal system, which divides government powers between the nation and the various states.  Unlike the inspired adaptations mentioned earlier, this division of sovereignty was unprecedented in theory or practice.  In a day when it is fashionable to assume that the government has the power and means to right every wrong, we should remember that the U.S. Constitution limits the national government to the exercise of powers expressly granted to it.” [See the Tenth Amendment.]

                4. “Application of Popular sovereignty. Perhaps the most important of the great fundamentals of the inspired Constitution is the principle of popular sovereignty:  The people are the source of government power. Along with many religious people, Latter-day Saints affirm that God gave the power to the people, and the people consented to a constitution that delegated certain powers to the government….”

                5. “The rule of law and not of men. Further, there is divine inspiration in the fundamental underlying premise of this whole constitutional order. All the blessings enjoyed under the United States Constitution are dependent upon the rule of law. … The rule of law is the basis of liberty.”