These observations come from the background information article for Session 5 of this Bible Study series.
Observation One:
A government’s deriving its powers “from the consent of the governed” is consistent with the biblical principle that government’s authority comes from God. We see this in that the powers of the kind of government the Founders affirmed were “just.” This implies the powers they had in mind aligned with, or that they fit, God-assigned duties for government under “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
Observation Two:
You show me a government that fulfills its duty to uphold God-given rights as described in the Declaration of Independence, and I’ll show you one that is doing exactly, or nearly exactly, what it is authorized by God to do in Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17. This is because when a government upholds God’s law by commending those who do good and punishing those who do evil, it also is protecting unalienable or negative rights. Remember this exercise from Session 4.
Observation Three:
The Founders understood the biblical principle that government’s authority is not absolute, and that when a government acts arbitrarily rather than in ways consistent with its God-given duties, its actions are illegitimate.
Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image credit: Independence Hall in the wintertime; both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were adopted here.
