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“ If so.. THEN our “Rights” are merely privileges.. granted by givernment..”

If so.. THEN it must be that you’ve read only what you quote to me (“Of The Constitution itself there is no “god” therein to be found”) and have read no further.

Certainly not “no religion, or denomination of a religion, may be established . . .” or that “no ecclesiastical dignitary is accorded, by right, a constitutional office, or other sinecure”
Or do you deny that the Constitution provides that “no religion, or denomination of a religion, may be established”? Or perhaps you insist that the Constitution does provide that an “ecclesiastical dignitary is accorded, by right, a constitutional office, or other sinecure”?

It must be, then, that you did not see where I wrote that “I understand you to mean the philosophy which impelled the creation of The Constitution, which is found in our Declaration of Independence.” Else why would you so take out of context what I have said (for eight years in this forum)?

Nor could you have noticed my remarks on Lincoln and his speaking of the “Apple of Gold,” or that 156 years of religious freedom and Judeo-Christian Tradition have proved sufficient to bring forth the grandest government ever conceived by man.

But perhaps a fuller exposition is required:
Do you recognize the following?
“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” . . .

A Creator. A Christian name for God. The product of the KJV Bible of 1611, only recently completed before the founding of America.

But this and the above was just the end of a long process:
It began with the Pilgrims (1620).

The pilgrims were English separatist Christians, fleeing Europe in order to escape religious persecution, and they literally began their stay in a new land with the words, “In the name of God, Amen.”

Determined to live their lives and govern themselves based on Biblical principles, but ignorant of the harsh conditions of a northern wilderness, the Pilgrims lost half their number the first winter when they attempted to install a communist-style system of resource allocation (see William Bradford).

When they overcame their initial mistake by following a more free enterprise form of resource allocation (see 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11) thanks to the judgment of that same William Bradford, the colonists, to celebrate their transition from severe want to a bountiful plenty, chose Leviticus 23:33-34 (The Feast of Tabernacles – see also Deuteronomy 16:13) as their guide. That celebration tradition continues today as Thanksgiving (although some would like to forget to Whom it is we are giving thanks).

The pilgrims were followed to New England by the Puritans, who likewise sought to establish bible-based commonwealths (New Haven and the Massachusetts Bay colonies). Roger Williams founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, based on the principle of freedom of conscience. Pennsylvania was established by William Penn as a Quaker colony. Maryland was a haven from Protestant England for Roman Catholics.

These commonwealths, and subsequent ones, practiced the same sort of representative government as their church covenants, and whether or not others can see the cause in the Bible and Christianity, they did see that cause. Those governmental covenants and compacts came to number more than 100, and were the foundation for our Constitution.

Virtually all of the first universities founded in the American Colonies were Christian (see the first Harvard student handbook Rule #1: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.” Harvard was surely a different place then than now!)

“Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage(emphasis mine), and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:” Exodus 6:6 (see also Deut. 26:8).

Our American forebears likened their journey to the New World (“the land of their pilgrimage (emphasis mine), wherein they were strangers”) as unto Exodus and likened their distance from GB to God’s deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians. They were very much students of the OT, fully as much as were they of the NT.

In the New World, being 150 years’ removed from King and homeland, they learned self-reliance and, more importantly, self-governance in their civil affairs and in their religious affairs, and acquired the ability to select their own leaders (leaders, not masters). Having a great measure of independence gave them a huge advantage over their cousins of a French Revolution, that started badly and ended worse.

Being left largely to their own devices, our forebears did not react well to kingly oppression or parliamentary arrogance when it did come down on them. Therefore was the powder keg of independence rather easily lit.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8: 31-32.

“And he (Peter) said unto them, Ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” Acts 10:28.

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof:” Leviticus 25:10 (people say they don’t see the connection with our liberty, but the Founding Fathers saw enough connection to put the passage on our Liberty Bell).

“Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.” Psalm 128:1-2. “The labourer is worthy of his reward.” I Timothy 5:18. (These passages fairly cry out in every part of the Constitution).

“But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” I Timothy 6:11. (A passage that surely must be detested by our Courageous Young President and all his acolytes).

In defiance of the “fact” that there is supposedly nothing in the Bible to show that God created all men equal, nevertheless, the Founding Fathers (and their forebears) saw themselves as equals in the sight of God. “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.” Deuteronomy 1:17.

“Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 25:17. “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” Malachi 2:10. “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.” Romans 2:9-11.

If you see fit to question the Founding Fathers’ Biblical judgment in thinking themselves free men and equals, then you will otherwise have to question them for the reasons. Pack for an extended trip.

“TO WHAT expedient, then, shall we finally resort, for maintaining in practice the necessary partition of power among the several departments, as laid down in the Constitution? The only answer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places.” (And later) “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
. . . . . FEDERALIST No. 51, For the Independent Journal. Wednesday, February 6, 1788. MADISON

“auxiliary precautions.” What does that mean? We’ve witnessed only now, in the past nearly four years, a party of tyrants who reject the idea of “the governed,” who are determined to control the people, and who are violently determined to tolerate no control of their behavior. They seem convinced the best avenue to their ambitions is to sever any connection with the Judeo-Christian Tradition upon which this nation was founded.

But what does any of this have to do (other than as a sidetrack) with the proposition that the philosophy of government the Founding Fathers developed over some 150 years was inspired by their Christian values? What is it that these Twenty First Century tyrants abhor? Justice? That as you sow, so shall you reap?

Did not the Lord bring the people of Israel out from Egypt and free them from the hand of Pharaoh? Whether these Twenty First Century tyrants approve of the vision, or not, our forebears saw a precise parallel in the Israelites coming out of Egypt and the Pilgrims coming to America. And though they first wished to retain their loyalties to the king of their homeland, did they not see being freed from the hand of a tyrant king as the same as being freed from the hand of Pharaoh? Indeed they did. Nor could they tolerate anymore the hands of the tyrant princes of the Church. Nor would they tolerate the oppression of these Twenty First Century tyrants.

“Oh, we are weary pilgrims; to this wilderness we bring
A Church without a bishop, a State without a King.”

“Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great;” (Deuteronomy 1:17)

“We know no King but Jesus.”

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29). See also Romans 8:17.

“Proclaim liberty through all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof”

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:16-17)

“And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!” 

“Thou shat not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither that a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.” (Deuteronomy 16:19)

“A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.”
. . . . . Calvin Coolidge, “The Inspiration of the Declaration,” Speech at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926.

“I told you before. I tell you again: “And what were these general principles? I answer, the general principles of Christianity (emphasis mine), in which all those sects were united; and the general principles of English and American liberty, in which all these young men united, and which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her independence.”
. . . . . John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated June 28, 1813, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Ellery Bergh Editor, in 19 volumes.

I do not demand, nor do I expect, agreement with anything I say, by anyone. I hope that my attitude and my perspective is now at least a little better understood.