God Given Rights

The recent trend in education and politics to remove any mention of God or the Bible is really a subtle attack on individual rights and freedoms. Eliminating faith from public life weakens the nation's understanding that man's individual rights and freedoms are created and given by God, not the "State."

I believe that the endgame of removing the Bible from education and politics is to return us to a time when nations believed that individual rights were granted by kings or the government.

This was the belief and practice in most of the world until ideas described as "Classical Liberalism" were developed in England and led to the restriction of the absolute powers of the king. This 17th century movement whose principle ideas were limited government, individual rights, private property and a free market system was the source for many ideas that were enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence and later on in the U.S. Constitution. Simple ideas that revolutionized the world at that time by unleashing the power of individual liberty and opportunity for which the United States became famous, or as some say, exceptional.

Those who study U.S. history know that what makes America "exceptional" is that it is based on these ideas and everyone who comes here can prosper because these freedoms serve every culture in the same way. In other words, the U.S. is exceptional because it is based on these ideas, not on culture. As Thomas Paine observed, "The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind."

The danger we face as a nation is that there are forces at work in our country that would eliminate the connection between the Living God and the U.S. Citizen. If people can be convinced that there is no God and the Bible is not His word, it is a short step to usurping His role as giver and guarantor of human rights and freedoms and assigning this role back to the elites who gather and wield power in the form of governments or worse. Take a quick look at what the world was like under this system in the past and see how precious are the freedoms we now have.

The work of the church therefore is to maintain belief in God and Christ not only for salvation's sake but also to support our survival as a free nation.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
- Psalms 33:12

Ref. Inherited Liberty-John Hancock