Five Thousand Year Leap
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| Author | W. Cleon Skousen |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
Christianity Mormonism Political Science American history |
| Publisher | National Center for Constitutional Studies |
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Publication date
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June 1981 |
| ISBN | |
The Five Thousand Year Leap: Twenty-Eight Great Ideas That Are Changing the World is a book that was published in 1981 by author W. Cleon Skousen. The book asserts that the United States prospered because it was established upon universal natural law principles passed down from Common Law and traditional Judeo-Christian morality, as many of the Founding Fathers were guided by the Bible among others, and consequently that the U.S. Constitution incorporates enlightened ideas.
In Ronald Mann's introduction to the 10th-anniversary edition, he praises Skousen for grasping the United States' choice of "Christ or chaos" and for acknowledging that the future of the United States depends on "accepting and demonstrating God's government."
The framers of the Constitution looked upon it as a miracle:
Benjamin Franklin- "I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance as the framing of the Constitution...should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being."
Madison- "the real wonder is that so many difficulties were surmounted with a unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution."
Washington- "The adoption of the Constitution will demonstrate as visibly the finger of Providence as any possible event in the course of human affairs can ever designate it."
There are two extremes of government; tyranny on the left, and anarchy on the right. The middle road is "all power in the people."
Jefferson wanted to restore Anglo-Saxon Common Law, or "people's law". Under this, they needed:
1. a commonwealth of freemen.
2. All decisions need to be with consent of the people.
3. The laws needed to be considered "natural laws" given by "divine dispensation",
4. Power was dispersed among the people, not concentrated.
5. Responsibility for problem solving was first the individual, then the family, then the tribe or community, then the region, and finally the nation.
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