Reformation Theology Gave Rise to the Political Doctrine of the Unalienable Right to Liberty

Christians who deny that America is a Christian nation have varied reasons for believing this. Probably the most prevalent in American Christendom today is because of the doctrine that erects a wall between the sacred and the secular. These Christians will deny that there is an unalienable right to liberty. They would argue that liberty, in a Biblical sense, is spiritual, and that God, does, indeed deny that liberty to those who deny Him. That, of course, is true. However, when the founding fathers spoke of unalienable rights they were not referring to the spiritual liberty that is found in faith in Jesus Christ. They were speaking of political liberty.

The vast majority of the population of America at the time of the revolution and the Constitution were influenced by the doctrines of the reformation. The reformers did not separate the sacred from the secular. They believed that the Bible was the only rule for all of faith and life. For the reformer, and the 18^th century American, there was no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular; everything was sacred; that was their understanding of polity. They did, on the other hand, believe in sphere authority. They believed that God had separated authority within the realms of family, church and state. Yet “religion” (scripture) held sway over each of these spheres.

When they spoke of the unalienable right to liberty, they understood it to be governed by Biblical principles, yet within the sphere of government, or the state. So what Biblical principles led the founders to a belief in an unalienable right to political liberty? It followed, naturally, to the doctrines of the human condition, and the virtues that were taught in scripture.

Man was created in the image of God, placing upon all men a value that cannot be violated by another man. The inviolability of that value is seen in God's command to the state to execute any man that unjustly takes the life of another man. That command applies whether the victim was unregenerate or whether he was a Christian. By virtue of this inherent value man could not arbitrarily abnegate the freedom of another man.

Secondly, Christianity teaches that rulers are not greater than their subjects. They are no different from their subjects except that they have been entrusted with an authority that is used to promote the equal justice within the body politic. Scripture teaches that the ruler is a servant of the people, and not a tyrant.

The reformation doctrine of the priesthood of the believer gave rise to an understanding that all men had the same right as the king to determine how scripture was to govern his actions. Not that men can interpret scripture in whatever way they wish, but that the subject as well as the king were servants to the same Master; the heavenly King. Both king and subject must be governed by the rule of scripture.

They saw political freedom as a natural consequence of the doctrines of justice, benevolence, good-will, and charity. The founding fathers believed that Christianity was the only system that could tame barbarity in the people and quench the spirit of a thirst for power in the ruler. In other words, they understood that the unalienable right to liberty could only be realized by creating a Christian government.

The following quote from early nineteenth century Princeton professor, Samuel Miller, sums up the Founding fathers' confidence in the scriptural doctrines of the reformation for insuring political freedom. “But when, at the auspicious era of the reformation, the great source of day rose again upon the benighted world; when, the true knowledge of the Lord revived, the truth speedily made men free. When, in this splendid and glorious light, they began to see what they were, and what they ought to be; they delayed not to cast off their chains, and to assert their rights, with dignity and independence. This is the light, which ever since those days, has been gradually undermining the throne of tyranny in Europe.”