In Genesis 1…we find that God reserves ultimate sovereignty to Himself, but has created man in His own image, and has endowed man with authority and dominion. Every man is under an absolute duty to live his life for God, to cultivate the image of God in himself, and to take dominion over the resources of the earth, which God has subjected to man. Every man has an inalienable duty, as it were, to live his life for God — to live out the image of God and to be a steward of God’s authority and creation. The image of God in man, and man’s possession of the creation mandate with its twin aspects of duty and authority are the starting point for the Biblical model of rights.
Men share that image and authority in common. Thus, all men are created equal. In human terms, no man is higher or better than any other man. No man is lord over any other man. No man may insert himself between God and another man. No man may interfere with another man’s righteous effort to fulfill his duty to live out the image of God and take dominion over the earth.
Biblically speaking, then, every man’s duty to God gives rise to rights between men. Men have a duty to respect and honor the image of God in other men and the duty to refrain from interfering with another man’s righteous efforts to take dominion over the earth. These parallel duties are not passive but active. Men’s duties to God are rights toward other men. Men are under a complete duty to God as stewards, and God forbids idolatry. No man is permitted to passively allow another man to usurp God’s control or lordship in his life. Every man has a duty to God to resist other men’s attempts to degrade the image of God in him or to interfere with his dominion activity, except when he chooses to suffer for the gospel’s sake. When one man degrades the image of God in another by murder or other crimes to the person and interferes with his dominion activity by theft or other trespasses, he tries to take the place of God in that man’s life and makes himself an idol. Likewise a man commits idolatry when he passively allows another man to take the place of God in his life.
Men’s inalienable duties toward God translate into inalienable rights between men. God gave and commands life, liberty, property, and a life of blessedness or happiness for man. Each man is a steward under an absolute duty to God for these things. As a steward, trustee, and protector under God, a man may resist other men’s unlawful interference with the performance of that duty. This is the historical analysis and starting point of the church’s doctrine of the right of self-defense and of rights generally.
Genesis 1 and the creation model, therefore, are the Biblical basis for rights generally and for inalienable rights particularly. Every man is created in God’s image and possesses the creation mandate. Every man is under an absolute duty to God to live out the image of God and to take dominion in the earth. God gave man life, liberty, and property, telling man that he would be blessed or happy if he lives his life in service and obedience to his Creator. Men are derelict in their duty to God when they fail to live out the image of God or to take dominion according to God’s command. They commit idolatry when they passively allow other men to degrade the image of God in them or interfere with their lawful and righteous dominion activity. Their duties to God are rights toward other men.1
1Gary Amos, Defending the Declaration: How the Bible and Christianity Influenced the Writing of the Declaration of Independence, (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1989), 107-108.
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