Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a phrase found at the beginning of our country’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence. These are rights that our founders recognized came from our Creator. This idea of these three rights coming from our Creator has its source in Genesis 1:26-28. This passage of scripture is known as the dominion mandate.
Human life is held as precious because God made man in His image and likeness. No other part of God’s creation is described in the same terms. Man has dominion over all other parts of the creation and all human life is precious regardless of ethnicity. Man was not made in the image of any animal (did not evolve). Mankind was made in the image of God.
The idea of liberty comes from the command in verse 28 to replenish the earth. It has the idea of using technology to better our standard of living. The freedom to innovate is in mind here to take dominion over the earth. Also in mind here was God’s law to govern the use of technology. Liberty without law is licentiousness (sin). Law without liberty is tyranny. Our Constitution is a document which seeks to keep these two in balance by using a biblical understanding of the sinful nature of man.
The phrase, pursuit of happiness, was originally property. It was changed so that our founding document was not used to further promote slavery. Slaves were considered property. The right to property ownership was found in the command to subdue the earth, also found in verse 28. In the thinking of our founders, property ownership and the pursuit of happiness were the same thing. Property ownership was and is essential for subduing the earth and taking dominion. Contained within this right was the idea of personal responsibility to bring order, to take dominion.
Imagine with me government and laws that do not violate these God given rights. The logical place to begin when interpreting laws is to use our founding document as a filter. Many complex political issues become much simpler when we begin at our founding document. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution have the Bible as their ultimate source. Regardless of what any progressive, liberal, pinko, commie, evolutionist, tree hugging, gun confiscating, Christ hating person may say, the USA was founded as a Christian nation. That has been the key to America’s greatness. The decline of America is directly proportional to its departure from the source of life, liberty, and property, the Lord Jesus Christ.