For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)

The Declaration Speaks for Itself

Paragraph #2, Sentence 1

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.

Is Liberty a Right?

As we’ve seen, even life is not a right, except to the Creator. What about liberty?

Americans are noted for their gullibility. Their unfounded confidence in the United States Constitution56 is no exception. Because the Preamble57 claims the Constitution was ordained to secure their liberty, most Americans take it at its word, despite the fact that the first three articles of the Constitution enslave us to an ungodly congress,58 president,59 and judicial60 system—something the 17th- and early 18th-century Americans flourished without.

The constitutional framers could not provide their fellow Americans with liberty for the simple reason that slaves are never able to grant freedom to fellow slaves:

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption…. (2 Peter 2:19)

Liberty is only attainable individually via the blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Christ* and as society via the Bible’s perfect law of liberty.**

Neither of these means of liberty was the goal of either the Declaration’s signatories or that of the Constitution’s framers. Instead, liberty was officially lost (incrementally thereafter) when the 18th-century founding fathers replaced Yahweh’s immutable and perfect law of liberty with their own man-made, capricious Constitution—when liberty was made a goal instead of a corollary of implementing the Bible’s liberty laws (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) as supreme over society.

America’s Greatest Liberty

Except for the British kings’ occasional meddling from across the Atlantic, Americans experienced their greatest liberty in the 1600s and early 1700s. From the ratification of the Constitution until now, liberty has been whittled away. At present, we would be hard-pressed to find a nation with less liberty than the United States of America. As Pastor Mather Byles purportedly put it prior to the American War for Independence: “Which is better—to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or by three thousand tyrants not a mile away?”

Fat and Happy Slaves

It is extremely difficult to convince well-fed, content, and happy Americans they are not free. But contentment has nothing to do with freedom. A slave is a slave even if he’s fat and happy. “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”61

2 Corinthians 3:17 states, “…where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.” The Spirit of the Lord cannot be found in either the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution because Yahweh and His perfect laws of liberty were flagrantly disregarded therein.

Instead of liberty, the Declaration and the Constitution it birthed eleven years later yoked Americans with bondage: reprobate and dishonest legislators, an ungodly court system, an unnecessary and inept prison system, corruption, licenses, permits, countless registrations, ungodly wars, ever-expanding debt, resulting in ever-increasing taxes on nearly everything. None of these atrocities can occur under the Bible’s system of liberty established upon His triune moral law.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. (Matthew 7:16-18)

What has been the fruit of the Declaration and the Constitution it sired? We have only to look at the historical record of the last 230-plus years to know the Constitution shackled us with slavery instead of liberty. Man-made surrogates never have and never will provide liberty. Only Yahweh, by way of Jesus’ blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection, can free us as individuals, and only His perfect laws of liberty can free us as a nation.

Yes, America has been a blessed nation in many ways for many years—a residuum from the early 1600s governments of, by, and for God, established upon His laws of liberty, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Since the U.S. Constitution was ratified, those blessings have been gradually replaced by the curses for disobedience to Yahweh’s laws, per Deuteronomy 28:15-68.

Paragraph #2, Sentence 2

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

“Securing” the Impossible

It’s impossible for man-made humanistic secular governments to secure anything, other than what their leaders line their pockets with. It’s likewise impossible for them to secure rights to which man has no claim in the first place. On the other hand, futilely striving to secure the impossible helps to further enslave those so engaged.

Powers Derived From the Consent
of the Governed

Do Christians even pause to consider such statements in light of the Bible? Can such a declaration—what amounts to saying government comes from the approval or permission of the majority—be justified by anything found in the Bible? Or, instead, does the Bible condemn this overtly humanistic claim to divinity from anti-Christ Thomas Jefferson?

Paragraph 2, Sentence 2 is humanism of the rankest sort, and only goes to demonstrate that Jefferson’s “tip of the hat” to his creator and nature’s god was nothing more than window dressing at best. It was a futile attempt to make God a partner in the 18th-century colonials’ usurpation of Yahweh’s exclusive authority in determining how mankind is to be governed.

God doesn’t look to the consent of the governed for permission to establish government or anything else. Furthermore, one would be hard pressed to find anything good accomplished by the consent of the governed, the majority of whom are in the broad way leading to destruction:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

The consent of the governed is what banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and exiled the Israelites to the wilderness for forty years.

Thomas Jefferson Not Alone

Such claims as in Paragraph 2, Sentence 2 were not at all unique to Thomas Jefferson. Such unbiblical assertions were common fare with Jefferson’s contemporary theistic rationalists, aka founding fathers. For example, in one of his many arguments on behalf of the Constitution, James Madison revealed where ultimate power resides in their Constitutional Republic:

As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power ... it is from them that the constitutional charter under which the several branches of government ... is derived.62

Is it any wonder the Constitutional Republic has been dubbed a government of, by, and for the people?

Alexander Hamilton stated it similarly:

The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.63

Such an emphasis on the people cannot be found anywhere in the Bible.

Freemason George Washington (who presided over the Constitutional Convention) confirmed this self-originating authority in his Farewell Address:

This government, the offspring of our own choice uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation ... and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and support.64

Talk about metaphorically slapping God’s sovereign face! And these are men whom constitutionalists promote as Christians?

The Constitutional Republic’s fifth president, James Monroe, concurred:

The people, the highest authority known in our system, from whom all our institutions spring and on whom they depend, formed it.65

John Adams confessed to the same humanism regarding the states’ constitutions:

It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [the establishment of the States’ Constitutions] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven … it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.... Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone….66

No surprise it was President John Adams who signed the Treaty with Tripoli in which the following is found:

[T]he government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…. (Treaty with Tripoli, of Barbary, Article 11)

While it’s true the original states’ Constitutions were more biblical then the federal Constitution in some of their components, they were nonetheless mirror images of the federal Constitution as it pertains to their humanistic promotion of man as Sovereign. Following are samplings from some of the state Constitutions:

[A]ll political power is vested in and derived from the people only. (North Carolina, 1776, “Declaration of Rights,” Article I)

[N]o authority shall, on any pretense whatever, be exercised over the people or members of this State, but such as shall be derived from and granted by them [the people]. (New York, 1777, Article I)

All power residing originally in the people and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government vested with authority—whether Legislative, Executive, or Judicial—are their substitutes and agents and are at all times accountable to them. (Massachusetts, 1789, part I, Article V)

[A]ll power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority. (Pennsylvania, 1790, Article IX, Section II)

[P]ower is inherent in them [the people], and therefore all just authority in the institutions of political society is derived from the people. (Delaware, 1792, Preamble)

Consequently, a return to the states’ Constitutions (or the federal Constitution’s Tenth Amendment67) will not solve America’s propensity for humanism or save her from her present national woes created by the federal and states’ humanistic Constitutions alike. Both were born of Jefferson’s audacious declaration that just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, which is just another way of declaring the unbiblical sovereignty of man over himself. This, in turn, is a blatant rejection of Yahweh’s exclusive authority over man, government, and society with or without the consent of the governed.

Paragraph #2, Sentence 3

—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.

Right or Responsibility

As Christians, subjects of the King of kings, it’s not our right but our obligation to work toward replacing any biblically incompatible government with local governments of, by, and for God68 (aka ecclesias69) exclusively established upon His moral law,70 per Matthew 6:10, 33; Romans 12:21; 13:1-7; 1 Corinthians 6:1-6; 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, and 1 Peter 2:13-15.

For example, when Romans 13 is interpreted as intended by the Apostle Paul (as dictated by its context), we don’t find an optional right but instead a mandate for establishing biblical governments over society.71

Thus, it’s our duty to replace any form of government of, by, and for the people that’s invariably opposed—yea, destructive—to government of, by, and for God.

Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome [literally subdue] evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

This commission doesn’t end at the doorsteps of government. In fact, Romans 12:21 is strategically located at the scriptural doorstep of Romans 13:1-7. Romans 12:21 is the verse immediately preceding Romans 13:1-7, in which Paul depicts a biblical government established upon the Bible’s triune and integral moral law and adjudicated by biblically qualified men of God (Verses 4 & 6), who are a continual (Verse 6) blessing to the righteous and perpetual terror to the wicked (Verses 3-4).71

What does this then say about our responsibility to work toward replacing the biblically seditious Constitutional Republic, born of the biblically adverse Declaration of Independence? Rather than vainly attempting to save what can never be saved—the Republic built on sand,*** a house divided from its inception**** —we’re commissioned to overcome evil government with good government—not by the consent of the governed but rather by the command of Yahweh.

Never-Ending Futility

Do not overlook that Paragraph 2, Sentence 3 of the Declaration is as much an endorsement for any man-made government as it was for what eleven years later became the United States Constitutional Republic. According to Thomas Jefferson, regardless the nation in which you reside, if the present form of government of, by, and for the people is in your opinion (or anyone else’s opinion) abusive, you have the right to replace it with what you hope will be a better form of government of, by, and for the people.

Because all forms of government of, by, and for the people are built on sand* and ultimately houses divided,**** they are thus inherently self-destructive. Thus, that which was promoted by Thomas Jefferson and the other signatories to the Declaration is inevitably a never-ending experiment in trying to find a better form of man-made government. In other words, it is an experiment of perpetual futility—that is, until each nation recognizes that what they’re looking for can only be realized in government of, by, and for God.

As to Them

Paragraph 2, Sentence 3 ends by saying, “laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” The three words “as to them” is unabashed humanism. Where in the Bible do we find anything whereby God leaves it to the people to decide their own form of government as to what they determine will make them most happy?

Talk about a recipe for disaster!

Case in point: the biblically contrary Constitutional Republic, which has destroyed man’s happiness in multifarious ways (including the lives of millions of infants slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs)—as with all governments of man’s own creation. This, juxtaposed with what’s perfect, sure, right, pure, true, and altogether righteous, resulting in conversions, wisdom, joy, true enlightenment, better than fine gold, sweeter than honey, and providing a great reward, per Psalm 19:7-11.

Man is incapable of fixing his own problems, either individually or collectively. Yet, that’s what many of today’s blinded Christians and patriots laud as allegedly occurring in the late 18th-century at the behest of men in rebellion to their God and Creator.

* John 8:32, 36; 2 Corinthians 3:17; etc.

** Psalm 19:7-11; Psalm 119:44-45; James 1:25, 2:12

*** Matthew 7:26-27

**** Matthew 12:25

SOURCE NOTES

56. For evidence that the Constitution is biblically seditious, see Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible, at bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/blvc-index.html.

See also audio series “Bible Law vs. Constitutionalism,” beginning at bibleversusconstitution.org/tapelist.html#T742.

57. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt3.html

58. Chapter 4 “Article 1: Legislative Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt4.html

59. Chapter 5 “Article 2: Executive Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/bible law-constitutionalism-pt5.html

60. Chapter 6 “Article 3: Judicial Usurpation” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt6.html

61. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Otto Wenckstern, trans., Goethe’s Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science and Art (London, UK: John W. Parker and Son, 1853) p. 3

62. James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46 (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888) p. 217

63. Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, No. 22 (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888) p. 135

64. George Washington, Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols. (New York; NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892) vol. 13, p. 297

65. James Monroe, “Views of the President of the United States on the Subject of Internal Improvements,” 4 May 1822,
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/preambles20.html

66. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1865) vol. 4, pp. 292-93

67. Chapter 19 “Amendment 10: Counterfeit Powers” of book Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective,
bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt19.html

68. A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government, bibleversusconstitution.org/biblicalConstitution.html

69. Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future, bibleversusconstitution.org/onlineBooks/ecclesia.html

70. For more regarding how the Bible’s immutable/unchanging moral law applies today and should be implemented as the law of the land, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant at bibleversusconstitution.org/law-kingdomFrame.html.

71. The Romans 13 Template for Biblical Dominion: Ten Reasons Why Romans 13 is Not About Secular Government,
bibleversusconstitution.org/Romans13/Romans13-contents.html

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