“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
The Declaration of Independence, 1776
That great statement is the opening paragraph of The Declaration of Independence. It is literally the first thing our Congress ever wrote as a free and independent nation. It is noteworthy that the top of the page of the Declaration reads, “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America”. The document has never been amended, and has never been repealed. So, I still consider it the “Unanimous Declaration”. In the years since 1776, 37 additional states have joined our union, and signed on to our founding documents, so now it is the unanimous declaration of 50 States. Other than that increase, there is no change to these remarkable words.
WHy did they believe they had the right to separate?
Take a look at that middle section which reads, “…to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitles them…” So our founders believed, and all the states unanimously declared, that they were entitled to separate from Great Britain and to assume a position as a new, separate but equal nation, and the thing that entitled them to this was the “laws of nature and of Nature’s God”. Wow! If that is what entitled our founders to form a new nation, we need to understand what that line means!
In the Patriot Academy classes we host, David Barton mentions this phrase and tells us it was taken from William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England. (I haven’t read this 4 volume work yet, but I have read about it and I think the Common Law foundations Blackstone discusses are critical to restoring the foundations of our country.) Mr. Barton says the phrase, Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, tells us God reveals Himself to us in a couple different ways:
- In Nature – from the God who created nature
- In His Laws – the Laws of the God who created nature
Where did it come from?
Both of these are from God – the God of the Bible – and both communicate right vs wrong. So, by considering this methodology of determining right vs. wrong, our founders were able to determine that it was right for us to separate from Great Britain and form a new nation. I think our country could use a little guidance on how to determine right and wrong… Let’s see how these play out…
Laws of nature
We can consider the way God has naturally wired things to work by looking at the laws of nature. For example, under laws of nature, God’s creatures all have an inherent right to defend their home. We all understand that. If we’re in the woods, and we see something that looks like a mountain lion den – are we going to go mess with it? No! Nobody has a desire to go tangle with the mountain lion that lives there! We see from nature that defending our homes is something God wired all of us to do. It is not there for government to pass rules about one way or the other, but only to recognize how God set things up to work.
right to defend young
Another great example is that all God’s creatures have an inherent right to defend their young. If you see a cute little bear cub at Yellowstone National Park, are you going to pick it up? No! If you mess with that cub, we all know you may get the chance to meet the mama – and she won’t be happy to see you! This is the natural truth we considered in our article, Tourist Phobic Bears, where we saw the bears continuing to protect their young, no matter how many new rules were made.
Laws of nature are wired into the world by God Himself and are consistent with His design. We know they are right because God designed them and put them into the world He created. Therefore, we do not require any human legislation to tell us we have a right to do them. God designed His creatures with the right to defend their homes and their young, and government has no jurisdiction to attempt to change God’s design. We can like these laws of nature or dislike them, but we ignore them at our own peril.
Laws of Nature’s God
There are also things found in God’s law, the Scripture, that are not consistent with natural tendencies we see in nature – because many of our natural tendencies are influenced by the sinful, fallen world.
For example, Do we see theft occur in nature? Yes! Does that mean it is right? No! This is where God reveals His law in the Scripture, for example, “Thou shalt not steal”. So, even though we see animals steal from each other in nature, that does not mean it is right, because God gives us different guidance in His law.
So, we can notice how God naturally wired things to work (laws of nature), but if this is addressed and changed in His Law (laws of nature’s God), then we recognize His guidance. As we consider this, we begin to understand we can get a pretty thorough picture of right and wrong by looking at these two areas. If this definition of right and wrong is where we found the entitlement for us to separate from Great Britain and form a new nation, then do we now have the right to change it? No!! We cannot go back to these things and presume to change them as if they somehow no longer apply. We have no jurisdiction to do such a thing.
Let’s look at a few other examples that David Barton shares in Constitution Alive…
- Mr. Barton tells us about 70% of our founders were anti-slavery. In their discussions about slavery being wrong, they said it violated the laws of nature – you don’t find animals enslaving each other or anything that would cause you to believe slavery is a normal or natural relationship.
- No species in nature kills its young in the womb – abortion violates laws of nature
- Homosexuality violates laws of nature. Early American law books didn’t use Bible verses to say it was wrong – they called it a “crime against nature”
Put into god’s creation
Understand, these are things God put into His creation. We weren’t given a vote! We can like them or dislike them – but we can’t do anything about them. For example, can you imagine our Congress passing a law to suspend the law of gravity? That doesn’t work! That is part of the natural design of God! Well, so are these other things. God designed them, and He created us, so we don’t get to tell Him how things should be different. There are so many areas in society today where we are attempting to change God’s design of right and wrong for how He would have us to live. It is time we returned to our foundation of looking to God for the truths He built into His creation.
“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?”
Romans 9:20
Nicely done!
It is our personal obligation, our duty, our calling to know God and to make sure others know God. It is our choice to fulfill the destiny that God has laid out for us so generously through His love for us and the giving of His Son Jesus so that we might be forgiven and be reconciled to Him.
A secular society respects neither the laws of nature nor the laws of God who created nature. Rather, they believe they can alter such laws and nature to fit their selfish desires and abominable practices.
Our work is before us and the objective is clear – to help secular society come to see, feel, and understand the love that God has for them so that they, too, are faced with a decision to know Christ Jesus as their savior, finding the fulfilment of their pursuit of happiness in following Him and all that He has in store them. The alternative is for them to continue to rebel against His laws, live a life unfulfilled and ending in eternal damnation.
I agree with you Tim!
Wow – thank you, Tim, for these powerful words. Yes, I agree. I love how you are focusing on sharing the Gospel as being a key part of the fight to save our country. So often, we look at those as completely separate things – but they are very much intertwined. Thank you for your comment!
Very well written, and convicting…
Thanks Jason!
Thank you! I very much appreciate your participation and encouragement!
Well written article! I’m so grateful for strong Bible believing, conservative Christians like your family!
You are doing God’s work through the sharing of the truth found in the Christian Bible and in our Nation’s founding fathers, and the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights – all of which were created using Bible Scripture.
I know God will continue to bless your family.
Thank you for all you do!!
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words! We love doing what we’re doing!
Jason this is a great blog. And from what I’ve learned from the Constitution Alive classes that I keep taking And from things I’ve been reading on and about the Constitution and our Founder’s I’m noticing that in our government of today they seemed to have forgotten about all of these things. And that it is now up to WE THE PEOPLE to remind them of these NATURAL LAWS AND G_D’S LAWS.
Yes, sir, we definitely need to remind them! Thank you!
Hi Jason, this is it, another place where you expound across the Patriot Academy and Wall Builders simple in depth wisdom and share the insight that harnesses it in for me to recall the fine points more easily. I am working on a paper inspired by a question RaShell asked me to share my thoughts on in week one of Constitution Alive six week course with Patriot Hope. I aim to plug in my speak in the comment section of your Birth Of A Nation Blog spot when I am finished. You Provide such a great read. See you there soon!
Thank you so much for your kind words and for your comments! It is a privilege to get to work with the Patriot Academy materials – some of the best I have seen! Thank you again!
Looking up the definition of “Law”in the 1828 Websters Dictionary, (week five of the six week Constitution Alive Course) with Patriot Academy Coaches Jason and RaShell Southerland, they suggest we chew on this meaning of “Law of Nature”. As a take away from our group discussion’s. Doing just that, I am finding added task upon task that’s helping me grow more and more and more and more than ever before! This truly is powerful reinforcement. It is easy to grasp all Jason writes about here based on all the collective leadership giving us this straight forward teaching, in turn bringing an in-depth understanding of the Declaration and Constitution supported by GODLY original intent. Brilliant! We come away from this, rich truth and liberty instilled in our hearts. No one can deny the rewards that are coming from our working together scattering and cultivating seeds and crops that are sure to ripen into a swell harvest wave after wave of those genuinely desiring to call their own. This liberty found is Gods original intent. It is God our Father Himself who gives these rights and leads our recognizing the difference between right and wrong! Straight forward as it may seem, far too many neglected to see this reason why our Founders chose this phrase “Laws of Nature and natures God in the Declaration of Independence. Truly we are rising up although, a sloppy slow, it is NOT too late and declaring all the more as GOD would have us.
Amen! It is not too late! Like RaShell always says, God isnt finished with this country – we know that because we’re still here! Thank you so much for your comments!