The Christian And Rights
June 2017
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Christianity is under attack in America like never before. Our public education system has been purged of any semblance of our Founding Father’s faith. The rich history of the Pilgrims and persecuted believers in Europe, who were seeking to establish a society that gave freedom to worship God and serve Him in liberty, has been expunged from school textbooks and classrooms.
Our children are now fed a liberal, progressive diet of secular humanism. Self is the new god, and satisfying self is the new religion. Man-centered ideals are extolled and exemplified. These ideals are reinforced by the modern prophets who speak to its followers from Hollywood and the liberal media. Grassroots organizations cooperate with politicians and the liberal media in selling the politically correct agenda to silence any and all expressions of Christianity in the public square. Their deceptive message is now so persuasive that unsuspecting believers are seduced into embracing their perverted redefinitions of morality and lifestyles. Many Christians and so-called preachers have joined the liberal-progressive movement with the idea that they are protecting the rights of American citizens. The idea is that we can all get along together in love while overlooking sin. In many cases, they redefine sin to appease their consciences because they are doing good works. This has submitted them to legitimizing the liberal-progressive agenda.
Origin Of Rights
The Declaration of Independence established the principles of our nation, the United Sates of America. Our Constitution and its amendments provide for a rule of law for our government to accomplish those principles. The Bill of Rights protects our individual rights as American citizens. The Declaration of Independence says:
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“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 them are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Our Founding Fathers held the highest regard toward God and His sovereignty over the affairs of men. By recognizing that our rights came from God, they believed government was to protect our rights. Our founders placed God’s laws as a higher authority than civil authority. In the book of Acts, we witness an example of this when Peter and the other apostles said, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
John Locke and French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu’s writings influenced our Founding Fathers with philosophical wisdom and insight on the structure of government. Locke wrote Two Treatises on Government, (1690) from Psalm 115:16, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth has He given to the children of men.” Locke argued that people were born with certain natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that governments are formed to protect the rights of the people.
Baron de Montesquieu, in The Spirit of the Laws, believed the best form of government, which would incorporate a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, would be based on natural law.
Bill of Rights
Thomas Jefferson and the Antifederalists raised some resistance to the approval of the United States Constitution, with concern that too much power was given to the federal government, and American citizens were unprotected. James Madison submitted amendments to the Constitution on June 8, 1789. The Preamble of the bill states that the Bill of Rights is to prevent abuse by the government. As history reveals, by December 15, 1791, all the states ratified 10 amendments, which are now known to us as the Bill of Rights. The evidence is clear that our founders believed in a limited role of the federal government. The 13 established states became confederate to fight back against the tyranny of England. The men who sought liberty knew that with God’s help, they could and would create a country that came closer than any other society in supply, respect, and dignity to human life. Although not perfect, our founding documents created a foundation built on man’s accountability to God and man’s responsibility toward fellowman.
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