Blog

by Jason DeZurik

The United States: A Unique Endeavor

As I finish up this short series on the USA, our form of government, and how we are to define terms within Romans 13, I’d like us to take a short look at a founding document of the USA. That Document? The Declaration of Independence. You can find the text here.

Please notice some very important words and phrases in this document, including:
* The Laws of Nature
* Nature’s God
• We hold these Truths to be self-evident
• All men are created equal
• They are endowed by their Creator
• With certain unalienable Rights
• Among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

As you can see, the founders of our nation recognized not only the “laws of nature” but that those laws came from somewhere, or in this case someone. If once wasn’t enough by bringing up “Nature’s God,” they reiterated this by declaring there is a “Creator” who gives us “certain unalienable rights.”

Our country though is then founded upon life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They are in that order for a reason. This is a very important detail that it seems so many people miss today. Let me explain.

Let’s take these in reverse order, so we can understand how to look at these: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

People can pursue happiness all they want, BUT once they trample on someone else's liberty in that pursuit, then they are wrong. For instance, if someone is pursuing what makes them happy and all of a sudden causes themselves serious pain, injury, or to contract some disease, then they cannot force another person to then pay for the consequence they cause upon themselves. For example, if someone chooses to smoke cigarettes, have consensual sex with many different people, or take illegal drugs in their pursuit of happiness, they then cannot force someone else to pay for their medical bills when they reap the just rewards from natural law that they deserve. If they did force another person to pay for their bills, they would be trampling on other people’s right to liberty and how they choose to live out their lives.

People can live out liberty all they want UNTIL they snuff out or trample on someone else's life. A perfect example of this are people who have consensual sex together and then produce a baby inside of the woman. This is the natural law that God has put into place. If two people of the opposite sex have sex, a product of that act very well could be a child. This is just one reason why there can never be compromise on the matter of taking innocent life. People living out liberty and then having an abortion, because they don't want or need an “inconvenience” or having their plans changed, doesn't work because that person is then saying liberty and the pursuit of happiness trumps life. Once we as a society fully accept liberty and the pursuit of happiness over someone’s life, then no one’s life will matter. I know it's sad, but it's true.

So, it really is quite easy to understand the phrase and concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We live in a sinful world, though, which in and of itself makes living this out difficult, because so many people today seem to be unwilling to be responsible with their own actions. But before you point fingers or throw stones at someone else, please look at yourself first and examine your life to see where you might be trampling on the God given rights of others.

How are you pursuing happiness while trampling on someone else’s liberty? How are you living out your liberty while trampling on someone else’s life? Innocent life must absolutely be the first and foremost thing we defend, followed by the right to liberty and lastly the right to pursue happiness. The order matters.

Without life there is no liberty.
Without liberty there is no pursuit of happiness.

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