SDA History: Church Pioneer Magan on Declaration of Independence

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. Revelation 13:11

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

 

The Declaration of Independence is a declaration of 

---great general principles,  

---as well as a recital of certain specific grievances. 

---It was never written to meet the exigencies of one particular time or people. 

---No nation prior to this one had ever declared it as a principle good for all mankind that all men are created equal, or that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

  

None of the great nations of Europe ever taught or ever believed these precepts. They were born simultaneously with the American Republic. 

They constituted her christening robe and her birthright, peculiarly her own, and the first infant cry of her national life. 

That nation of the old world which has ever been the foremost in

promulgating doctrines of freedom and liberty did not believe these things, for she it was who fought them.

---But the Declaration of Independence, with one simple yet sweeping statement, disowns, disclaims, and discards both the Roman and the medieval theories, and substitutes in their place a principle beyond comparison with them for its lofty and holy teachings. 

 
Wrapped in these words was a new doctrine. Here was the

enunciation of a principle hitherto unheard of. Heretofore sovereignty had been considered as being unlimited and illimitable. But the Declaration of Independence brought to the birth a new principle, that right is superior to all earthly power, whether vested
in prince or potentate or in a republican form of government. With the founders of this government it was not a question of what the nation was able to do, but contrariwise, what was right for the nation to do." 

P.T. Magan

Declaration of Independence

 "We do not maintain our rights merely because of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, or even the Bill of Rights. The reason for this is that these documents can be changed by man as circumstances change.
Whenever a threat to the safety of a nation becomes a reality, the rights of the citizens are diminished for the sake of security.
It is God who has given the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” not only to Americans, but to all men. 

 

 The Declaration contains five references to God:
• as Creator of all men
• as supreme Lawmaker
• as the Source of all rights
• as the world’s supreme Judge
• as our Protector on whom we can rely.

 

There can be no doubt that our forefathers acknowledged God as the Author of their inalienable natural rights. In the Declaration’s last section (made up of one sentence consisting of 158 words) we find an appeal to God: “WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the
Rectitude of our Intentions ...”

Provisions in the Declaration of Independence (and later in the amendments to the Constitution) reflect the truth of the creation of man in God’s image. 

Consider the first self-evident truth set forth in the Declaration of

Independence, that all humans are created equal and woman on planet Earth. This equality is illustrated in the creation of the woman from the man’s side. 

When Adam fell these rights were diminished greatly in mankind.
However, God was not caught off guard. His plan of redemption was put into effect immediately. Th at plan was simply the carrying out of God’s original plan—that man should be His image. Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world” in the promise of God (Rev. 13:8; Gen. 3:15). He would be sent “in the fullness of time” as universal Savior of this fallen world (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14) to save the race from eternal ruin and to restore the basic natural rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” irrespective of one’s belief or lack thereof.

Because man lost his ability to control himself, law enforcing governments were instituted to control those who desire to harm others (see Rom. 13:1-7)." 

 Gerald Finneman/GladTidings