Every Christian in America should ask two questions and then vote. What species of government did our Founding Fathers birth? And what does scripture say about government?
A cursory look at the Declaration of Independence shows our founding fathers believed the “laws of nature and of nature’s God” dictated that every human being is “endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In other words, these rights are so fundamental they cannot be legislated. The only thing a government can do about these rights is protect them.
In Genesis, we read God created man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and gave him the freedom to eat of any tree in the garden except the one that would make him unhappy (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Therefore, scripture teaches what our founders believed: God gifts every human with guaranteed rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Relationship with God is the foundation of human rights. God puts such a premium on these rights that he allows humanity to pursue happiness even at the expense of true happiness – as Adam and Eve did at the Fall. Since sin obliterates our right to true happiness, God adds means of repentance, restitution and restored happiness.
The diaries and speeches of American founders like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Benjamin Rush and Alexander Hamilton reveal strong arguments that liberty is a “holy cause” given by “a just God who presides over the destinies of nations.” John Adams, second president of the United States writes “nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and blessing of Almighty God; and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety, without which social happiness cannot exist, nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed.” Quite simply, the Founding Fathers birthed a nation for the dual purpose of 1) acknowledging and protecting inalienable rights as guaranteed by God and 2) influencing and promoting social happiness as the progeny of morality.
A study of Exodus shows God gave laws and ordained government for his people so they might live at liberty and in happiness. Therefore, scripture teaches what our founders believed: God establishes law and government to promote morality so that life will not be destroyed, liberty will not be jeopardized and happiness will not be impinged. The idea is that a moral people will be a just people – a lively, free and happy nation.
Our founders specifically chose a biblical model for government instead of using Enlightenment thought, which deals with humanity and rights in an entirely non-divine, naturalistic perspective. The idea is that every man (but not necessarily woman) has the innate need to experience life, enjoy liberty, and own property as he wishes. However, since one man might want the same property or liberty of action as another man, and both have an equal claim, conflict or mini-war is the inevitable result. This war between one man and another forces men to form societies with rules limiting benefits of life, liberty, and property. The men relinquish their rights for the sake of a little security, motivated by fear. Fear mandates fairness, necessitates war and coerces peace. The society adheres together until the advent of 1) dissention within or 2) war with outsiders who are larger or stronger. The war-to-society process continues until it reaches the imaginary point where no one in the world has any better life, more power or nicer possessions than anyone else.
Rather than a perfect society, however, the French Revolution, Stalin’s communist regime, and Hitler’s Third Reich show that the pinnacle of such progress for the Every Man equates tyranny. Thomas Paine calls such thinking “error,” writing “Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles. He can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”
This type of society resembles the society liberal politicians promote. This variety of progress epitomizes the humanist version of Satan’s goal to usurp God’s authority. This sort of politicks sucks up the lifeblood of the American spirit.
We cannot afford a society where peace cannibalizes life, safety suppresses liberty and equality upstages property. So instead of sucky politicks, I choose God and government.
