Are Equality and Inalienable Rights Biblical?
Q: A dear friend who is a mature Christian, with whom I have shared some of your Q&A’s and your Enduring Word Commentary, has a few questions. Because she and I both value your knowledge and application of Scripture, we would like to pose them to you.
These are related to the wording in the 1776 Declaration of the Thirteen United States and the Bible.
Where in the Bible do we get these “self-evident truths” that:
- All men are created equal
- They are endowed by their Creator with certain “unalienable Rights”, including the rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness”?
Do people of all nations have these “unalienable rights”?
Is the right to liberty the same as political freedom? (In Christ we are set free from bondage to sin.)
Many thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom.
A: I think these rights mentioned are inherently Biblical, and I think that governments that deny these rights are sinning before God.
Let’s make something clear about the idea that “all men are created equal” – when we say that, we mean “all men are created equal before the law.” All men are not equal – you have your unique abilities and I have mine. So we aren’t equal in what we can do or what we have, but we should be equal before the law.
The Bible doesn’t specifically say that all men are created equal, but it does say that all men are created in the image of God.
Genesis 1:26-27
Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness…. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him.
Genesis 5:3
Adam…begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 9:6
Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.
- This means all men (and women) have dignity and value.
- This means there are no people inherently “sub-human.”
- This leads to the belief that all men are equal before the law.
Because all people are made in the image of God, then all people are equal (in a sense) before God:
Job 34:19 (the words of Elihu)
Yet He is not partial to princes, Nor does He regard the rich more than the poor; For they are all the work of His hands.
Because all men are made in the image of God, then after the same pattern, all men are equal before the law:
Leviticus 19:15
You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
Because all men are made in the image of God, then it is morally wrong to do certain things to them:
- It is wrong to take their life from them (without good and proper reason), because this is murder.
- It is wrong to take their property from them (without good and proper reason), because this is stealing.
- It is wrong to take their freedoms from them (without good and proper reason) because this is a form of man stealing, condemned by Exodus 21:16. It is also showing partiality.
These are also rooted in the “golden rule”, where Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39).
- I don’t want my neighbor to take my life from me.
- I don’t want my neighbor to take my liberty from me.
- I don’t want my neighbor to take my property from me.
- I don’t want my neighbor to deny me the pursuit of happiness.
Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 7:21:
Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it.
Here, freedom is clearly the preferred state. If someone can be free, they should be free.
In 2 Corinthians 1:24, Paul told the Corinthian Christians, Not that we have dominion over your faith.
Paul was careful to point out that he was no one’s lord in the church, even though he was an apostle. It has been said that God reserves three things to Himself:
- First, to make something of nothing.
- Second, to know future events.
- Third, to have dominion over men’s consciences.
Sadly, there are far too many that are entirely willing to take dominion over other believers in a manner that Paul would not.
“The SACRED WRITINGS, and they alone, contain what is necessary to faith and practice; and that no man, number of men, society, church, council, presbytery, consistory, or conclave, has dominion over any man’s faith. The word of God alone is his rule, and to its Author he is to give account of the use he has made of it.” (Adam Clarke)
These rights are biblical, rooted in the understanding of man being made in the image of God, in the golden rule, and in other biblical principles.
Sometimes we think that only a democracy can guarantee these rights, but that isn’t necessarily true. But a totalitarian government or a police state will, by definition, violate these rights.