Our Founding Father’s declared:
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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – From the Declaration of Independence 1776
The founding fathers built this nation upon fundamental beliefs that they called self-evident truths. Truths, as given by God, that would be readily apparent to any common sense thinking individual.
The first truth was to state that all men have been created equal by God. This implication was based upon the creative process as defined in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
They proclaimed that it was self-evident and a fundamental truth that these God-given rights were not to be deprived from the individual by anyone other than God Himself.
As a result of this creative process (giving man life), the right to life was extended to all men. They could see by God’s displeasure at Cain (for the murder of his brother) that all human life should be valued as sacred. This right to life, most certainly to our Founding Fathers, would also have been extended to be a right of even an unborn child, whether planned or unplanned, if it were possible for such an unthinkable act to have been done in their day.
It is also clear that God gave Adam the right of choice to eat or not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This indicated to them that God also gave man a right to have the freedom to choose his own destiny. In other words, a right to liberty.
Inherent in this liberty to choose, man was given the option to pursue his own course in life or to pursue a course of submission to his God. Thus, giving to man, the right to pursue happiness as he personally saw fit.
From these self-evident truths, the Founding Fathers saw the sole reason for the establishment of government. It was to ensure that those rights given to the individual by God would be protected. They further saw that government was an institution that derived it’s right of existence from the people – who themselves had derived their rights from God.
They, then, took the position that if any government did not respect these fundamental God-given, self-evident truths, it was the right of the people to take steps to change, or if necessary, abolish and reestablish new governments that would.
They felt it was also clear that the existing government had an intent to force them to submit to an absolute authority that would render them as slaves. Thus, depriving them of their God given rights.
They, therefore, felt it was their right and their duty to undertake whatever means necessary to rid themselves of an oppressive government that ignored their God-given rights and undertake what steps they felt necessary to protect those rights.
Therefore, they declared their independence.
Today, we should remember that our government was established to secure our God-given rights. Therefore, it is imperative that we continue to recognize the God that gave us those rights, less again, history repeat itself and there arise a government that will try to deprive us of those rights.
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