Even though not all the Founding Fathers were individual Christians, they had a biblical worldview and sought to apply it to every area of life, including government.
Take, for example, the issue of rights.
We hear a great deal about rights today, but what does the Bible teach about rights? Does biblical teaching align with what the Founders of America believed about them? To the Founders, rights were inherent, an inseparable part of being human because God made people in His image. To many if not not most modern Americans, rights are engineered and carved out for them by the government.
Principles of Liberty explores the meaning, not only of the term
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- rights, but also the meanings of the terms
- liberty,
- law,
- equality, and
- entitle.
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The series examines the perspectives of
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- the Founders,
- most Americans today, and
- Scripture with regard to these issues.
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If the Founding Fathers’ perspectives were closer to Scripture than are ours, don’t we need to adjust our thinking, as well as the policies that grow out of our thinking? One of the biblical assumptions embedded in the Declaration of Independence is this:
God and His laws establish the track on which men and nations must travel to attain happiness, fulfillment, and greatness; and to reach their God-given potential.
But Were The Founders Consistent?
One of America’s bedrock ideals is equality. We all know that in the Declaration of Independence the Founders 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.
So, how could they have said this and not abolished slavery in 1776 on the day of the country’s birth, or in 1787 when the Constitution was drafted? Does the Bible teach the kind of equality in which the Founders claimed to believe? And if it does, how could our Founding Fathers have ignored the very ideal they sought to uphold?
These are burning issues today, especially in light of the racial tensions present in our country, tensions that are intensifying in no small way because of a growing acceptance of critical race theory. What does the Bible say? We need to know this because properly applying its teachings really can help ease the hostilities we are facing.
Gaining a perspective on history can help us as well. If actions the Founders took are widely misunderstood, our misunderstandings can very well exacerbate our problems. We need to uncover the truth, wherever it leads. Principles of Liberty seeks to do that.
The Bible and Liberty
It also seeks to present the biblical perspective as conducive to liberty and human happiness to the greatest possible degree. It’s high time we learned what the Bible says about the principles on which this nation was established!
Principles of Liberty explores these ten ideals.
The Bible study is available here. It has been designed for group study, but an individual can benefit from exploring the material on his or her own.
You’ll be amazed as you learn about the convictions Founders and how relevant their perspectives are nearly 250 years after they established the United States of America.
We readily acknowledge that the Founders were not perfect men. Nor were all of them Christians. Yet all or nearly all held a biblical worldview. They were on to something. We need to rediscover their wisdom today —
and we can do that by learning from history, opening our Bibles, and taking to heart what God says in His Word.
Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.