[loveliberty2]

Perhaps an examination of the underlying principle of America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution might help to shed light on its problems today. The following essay can be downloaded here. It highlights the difference between the founding idea of individual liberty and other ideas which place government over people.

"The Unique Idea"

Our Constitution embodied a UNIQUE IDEA. Nothing like it had ever been done before. The power of the idea was in the recognition that people's rights are granted directly by the Creator - not by the state - and that the people, then, and only then, grant rights to government. The concept is so simple, yet so very fundamental and far-reaching.

CREATOR

People

Government

America's founders embraced a previously unheard-of political philosophy which held that people are "...endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights...." This was the statement of guiding principle for the new nation, and, as such, had to be translated into a concrete charter for government. The Constitution of The United States of America became that charter.

Other forms of government, past and present, rely on the state as the grantor of human rights. America's founders, however, believed that a government made up of imperfect people exercising power over other people should possess limited powers. Through their Constitution, they wished to "secure the blessings of liberty" for themselves and for posterity by limiting the powers of government. Through it, they delegated to government only those rights they wanted it to have, holding to themselves all powers not delegated by the Constitution. They even provided the means for controlling those powers they had granted to government.

This was the unique American idea. Many problems we face today result from a departure from this basic con­cept. Gradually, other "ideas" have influenced legislation which has reversed the roles and given government greater and greater power over individuals. Early generations of Americans pledged their lives to the cause of in­dividual freedom and limited government and warned, over and over again, that eternal vigilance would be required to preserve that freedom for posterity.

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Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III:  ISBN 0-937047-01-5 Here.

[PieterCasparzen]

America's founders embraced a previously unheard-of political philosophy which held that people are "...endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights...."

The idea of Church and civil government being two God-ordained powers that have complementary roles goes back to the Old Testament. The role of civil government is clearly laid out in the whole counsel of God, notably by histories recounted of the Kings, prophets and priests of ancient Israel.

For example, Kings were to be held to the same laws as much as the least of the citizens were; they were bound to discharge their duties in a godly manner. Of course, there were many wicked Kings who did not, but certainly in the end God holds them accountable the same as everyone else. The monarchies of Christendom typically recognized that they were God-ordained institutions, however they certainly very often neglected many of their true obligations as described in the whole counsel of God.

The American founders simply chose the representative form of government, specifically, that the selection of leaders would not be by inheritence but by elections.