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.Besides the fact that Jefferson did not believe in the God of the Bible we should not (as Christians) celebrate the Declaration of Independence. Much is made of the fact that Jefferson refers to rights granted by a Creator. He, however, believed in a God very different from what we find in the Bible. His Jesus was just an impossibly "good moral teacher" who never performed miracles or claimed to be part of the Godhead. Jefferson edited the Gospels and called the rest of the New Testament a "dungheap" (or was it dunghill?). Therefore we may safely assume no true Christian association is meant in the above sentence. This isn't the only evidence though.
~Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson
Where in Scripture can you find the idea that we as people have rights? We, the world, and everything created (i.e. everything in the universe) belong to God. We are His to do with as He will. He created each and every one of us. (Ps 139:13 For You [God] formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.) God created a good world. He is good and perfect, if He calls something good (Genesis 1--multiple verses: "...and God saw that it was good.") then it must be good, i.e. perfect and sinless. We, humanity, were the ones who marred and crippled that awesome Creation. As beautiful and awe-inspiring as the natural world is today think of how much, much, much it must have been better before the Fall. So let us review. God makes us, we say to God "I don't need you, I'm breaking your laws, I hate you." Quite reasonably he declares that our just punishment is henceforth death--all shall die because they have sinned and broken his divine law.
We have absolutely no rights, save one. We have the right (or the obligation) to die. We do not have the right to live. We do not have the right to liberty or freedom. We do not have the right to happiness or its pursuit. We do not have the right to privacy (an omnipotent, omnipresent God sees and knows everything, everywhere, everywhen). We do not have the right to live the "American dream." We do not have the right to equal opportunity. We do not have the right to succeed. God is "I AM," and we just can't ever hope to compare. His rules, His laws are all that truly matter. We have all broken His law: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom 3:23) We have no rights.
Matt 22:21 They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."I claim dual citizenship. God owns my life, America owns my vote. Yes, my first and truest citizenship is in Heaven--but this does not mean that I should ignore everything that happens hear on Earth. I was born in and am a citizen of the United States. I have obligations to the United States because I accept her citizenship. I believe it is my civic duty to vote. But my obligations are somewhat like the relationship between a state and the federal goverment (I said somewhat, so be quiet you naysayers!). If my country calls on me to break God's law then I will say no (and accept the consequences). If my country asks me to do something in line with or not contradictory to God's law then I will answer the call because I believe it is my duty.
America isn't God's nation. God takes precedence, and in many ways His ways and precepts are contradictory with America. We have no rights with God--we have only His grace and mercy. We are completely dependent on Him. In America we are taught to be self-reliant and to pursue self-agrandizement. God teaches us to die to self, to crucify our old man with Christ. Even if you dig back to the Founding Fathers and their generation you'll find that they lived in a man-centered universe rather than one devoted to God. But even if they had lived lives completely devoted to God it wouldn't matter. You can't impose God, you can't impose Christianity upon others from the outside. If you do it becomes mere religion--it is not living, breathing faith. It becomes a pale mockery of its true self. Jesus didn't come to found a temporal kingdom on Earth (read Ben-Hur for an excellent understanding of this). He came to build up a spiritual kingdom that should permeate every facet of our lives, but life separately from the kingdoms of earth.
America isn't a Christian Nation. It never has been. It never will be until Christ returns to overthrow the puny "prince of the world" Satan and rules over every land as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
~Matt
2 comments:
You are citing God's absolute sovereignty over us in order to establish that we do not have rights with respect to Him. But that same argument is used to establish that the rights we have with respect to other people are derived from God and therefore inalianable. To say that I have a right -- a just claim -- to life, is the same as saying that every other person has a duty to not kill me. This right/duty is derived from the fact that I am created in the image of God.
I disagree. Saying you have a right to life cannot just be limited to murder. It must include every form of death--and that cannot be. Since the fall everyone is under sentence of death. How can we have a right to life if everyone must die to fulfill God's law? Just because we are created in the image of God doesn't mean that we have the right to live.
Show me where in the Bible God says that we have any of the rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence or other Enlightenment literature? Those thought processes are unbiblical, they derive from belief in the supremacy of man and man's reason.
The idea of rights is contrary to what Christ teaches. We are taught to surrender our selfish, sinful desires to follow Christ. We are to remake (with the aid of the Holy Spirit of course) our wills to mirror His--so that what we want is what He wants, and will be granted. Invoking rights is just a display of selfishness. How can you be putting others first if you claim that you have absolute rights?
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