I've been pondering the Declaration, on this our nation's birthday, and have done so, in a different matter, I think than before.
It seems as Americans that we gloss over the words--assuming that they're history, blah blah blah. I've spoken on the "in-a-lien-able" nature of these God-given rights before, but this morning I started think about them individually.
The founders wrote that some Truths are self-evident. That "ALL men" (of course this refers to all people) "are endowed by their (our) Creator with certain unalienable rights" and that "among these" are "Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness."
Ok, so let's break it down. By writing that these are self-evident, that means that no one has to explain it. It's just the way it is.
God, the Creator, the ultimate Law Giver and Supreme Judge (arbiter) of the World granted these rights before time existed--before Man ever had the light mist of a brainstorm start to form in his mind about what a law should or shouldn't be!
They are self-evident. All men are created by God, equal. The Bible in fact, goes so far as to say that we're "made in His image."
Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness. Note that Jefferson wrote "among these." --From this, he was inferring that God has given us other inalienable rights. Things that our Constitution can't guarantee us. Things that no document can create or take away.
Liberals, Conservatives, and "Moderates" ought to agree to this: what government gives, government may take away. I'd think that it would be much better to depend upon the inalienable rights from God, rather than even the venerable First Amendment to the Constitution!
But if God doesn't exist, or isn't supposed to be involved in our national experiment, who/what does that leave as the ultimate "end" for these rights?
That's a worthy subject, and one I could delve into, but let's consider the Right to Liberty.
What got me to think was how often that inalienable right to liberty clashes with oppression by men. I believe in the Rule of Law, as long as Law is upholding Right, rather than lawlessness.
This is the principle upon which our Founders swore "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." Do you know what the penalty for high treason was?
Click here. They literally signed that document with their own blood!
So, this brings me in a roundabout way to my point. I am considering what seems to be a discrepency between the God-given right to liberty and preventing illegal aliens from entering our nation's borders. Aren't they just seeking their right to liberty?
What does liberty mean? In the purest sense of the word, it means "freedom from physical restraint." The freedom to move around without someone/something unnaturally restricting you.
How is it that the two may meet?
The answer is in
Who the liberty is sought from. the inalienable right to liberty can only come from God. If it is granted by the United States, then it's not inalienable. Our country cannot be the deistic grantor of liberties.
There are several verses that bear this out:
Consider 2 Cor 3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Our Founders knew this and this passage works it even more thoroughly:
(Paul, speaking of the liberty to eat certain things)
1 Cor 8:9-12
But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
America was founded by men and women who understood the limitations of the freedom of liberty. Lest we forget, our second president wrote that our government was created for "a religious and moral people. It is wholly unsuited for any other."
The limitation is this: We must recognize that liberty comes from God, not man.
And not only us, but those who desire that liberty/freedom. They cannot seek it from other men--we cannot "give" it to Iraq any more than we can "give" it to illegal aliens stealing into the country under cover of night.
Our charge is preserving liberty and protecting it. Recognizing that it comes from God is the start. After all, our nation's symbol of liberty--the Liberty Bell--bears the inscription:
"Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land!" - Leviticus 25:10
The liberty that we cherish on this 228th birthday of our nation comes from God. If we forget that as a nation, could we be the ones crawling under the borders of the nation that remembers the Hand of the One Who made liberty?
Consider
2 Chronicles 7:14
