Unalienable Rights

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” – July 4^th, 1776 The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

We the people, our founders, believed that man’s right to pursue Life, Liberty, and Happiness did not come from the government but that these “unalienable” rights came from our Creator. From God Himself. Men like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and among many others believed that we ought to be a people free in pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness without the restraints of government. The framers of our Constitution may not have all agreed on everything but they came together in the fact that these core principles would be the bedrock of the foundation of the new United States of America.

Just as recently as 2012 the Democratic National Convention previewed a video stating that “Government is the only thing that WE ALL belong to.” This type of thinking is opposite of what was written in the Declaration. Thomas Jefferson wrote these words regarding the role of Government in society “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Government’s role is not to create new rights but ensure that our “unalienable rights” are protected and that we have the God given right to pursue them.

Where did the idea for these basic “unalienable” rights derive from? George Washington, when he took the oath of office for the time, laid his hand upon the Word of God and declared that he would uphold these truths outlined in the Declaration, which would serve as the foundation in which the Constitution was framed, that he and the founders believed to be “self-evident”.

We grew up being taught in school that the main reason that the colonists wanted to break away from England was due to “taxation without representation.” While this was one of their many issues with the King, it certainly was not first and foremost. They had made a list of 27 individual grievances against England and at number 17 was “imposing taxes on us without our consent.” Look at the first amendment in the Bill of Rights, first ten amendments in the Constitution, and you will see what our founders were speaking of regarding these “unalienable rights.”

Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

1. Freedom of Religion
2. Freedom of Speech
3. Freedom of the Press
4. Freedom to a Peaceful Assemble
5. Freedom to Petition the Government

From the time the First Continental Congress convened to when the Declaration was drafted to when Washington put his hand on the Bible to when the Bill of Rights were written down in the Constitution our founders believed that these “unalienable rights” came from God Himself so therefore man could not take them away.

They believed that freedom of religion was the single most important issue regarding American Independence because man should have the free will that God has given him to pursue his right to freely worship wherever and whenever he sees fit. Whether that be in public office, public schools (we will get to this subject in our next blog post) and in general.

The only way that man can truly pursue Life, Liberty, and Happiness is to be free in Christ apart from the bondages of sin and our founders believed that man ought to be free to pursue Christ in all that he did in every area of his life. Man should have this free will not to be dictated by the government because God has given every man free will to make his or her decisions. Our founders looked to the Scriptures:

Galatians 5:1 – Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Galatians has often been referred to as the Declaration of Independence of the Bible. This is the God that our founders sought and believed in. The 10 Commandments given to Moses at Mount Sinai have been the foundation of our nation ever since its creation. There has been an agenda to destroy our nations founding principles overtime. The devil is patient and powerful and is behind the secular anti-God movement that has taken hold in our nation. The Bible says this in the Book of Ephesians:

Ephesians 6:12 – For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The scriptures also tell us that in the book of Hosea in chapter 4 and verse 6 that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

We must know our history. We must know our enemy. We must know the God of our Bible. If we are going to preserve these “unalienable rights” that our founders fought and died for along with the previous generations that have gone on before us that have sacrificed their lives to protect these rights, we must know Christ.

The only way to truly experience Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and all things eternal is in the freedom that we have been given in Christ Jesus. The government says belong to me and you can all be free. America found its liberty in Christ. Christ says belong to me and you will truly be free.