Proposed Tennessee Amendment Declaring God as Source of Liberty Advances in Senate
According to the news article at the above link, “A proposed amendment to the Tennessee Constitution that would declare that men’s rights are not derived from the government, but from God, has advanced in the state Senate.”
The news article goes on to say that “House Joint Resolution 37 was introduced by Rep. Micah Van Huss, R-Jonesboro, and simply reads, “[I]t is proposed that Article I of the Constitution of Tennessee be amended by adding the following language as a new, appropriately designated section: We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God.”
The resolution apparently passed the Tennessee House of Representatives last year and has been cleared to move on to the Senate. If it passes the Senate, it goes to the people for a vote, since it’s an amendment to their state Constitution.
To all of that, I say “Hooray!” to the bill’s author, Tennessee Representative Micah Van Huss, and to all who are working with him to get it passed. May every state in the Union pass a similar amendment to their Constitutions.
Representative Van Huss later stated, “We’ve never lived in a time such as we do now. It is important that we give the citizens of Tennessee the opportunity to reaffirm that their liberties do not come from Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or the King of England. They come from God.”
According to news columnist Dan Cabrese:
“Rights don’t come from the state. The state only protects them. The Constitution implicitly acknowledges that it lacks the authority to either grant or take away your rights, because the power from which they came is higher than government.
That power can only be God, and if you doubt that this is what the framers intended, all you have to do is read the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence — which many of the framers signed — to know who they believed was the giver of these rights.”
Unfortunately, we’ve reached the point in time in this country at which government at all levels – local, county, state and national — believe they’re the source of our rights.
Truthfully, I never thought I’d see the day in this country in which our elected representatives would have to work to pass a resolution to amend their state Constitution in order to remind Big Government to keep their mitts off our God-given rights.
But here we are, today, with brainwashed socialists marching in the streets demanding our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms be restricted, and social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter vying to see (with government approval and backing, of course) which can restrict our rights to free speech the most.
As the U.S. Declaration of Independence clearly states:
“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…”
Thanks to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government as well as all state and local governments exist solely to secure and protect our God-given rights. When we start down the road to allowing governments (and their corporate minions) to restrict those God-given rights, we’re on the road to serfdom. Never forget that.
The Bible states that, properly run, government is “not a terror to good works, but to the evil” (Romans 13:3). In other words, government is supposed to be a terror to those who would violate your rights. That’s government’s job. And in such a case, we’re to obey and support government, as it’s instituted by God for our own protection – the protection of our God-given rights.
St. Paul taught in Romans 13 that government’s purposes are two-fold: To restrain evil by punishing evildoers, and to serve peace and orderly conduct by rewarding good behavior. And that’s quite reasonable, as long as government fulfills that specified role.
But history is rife with examples of when government has turned on its own citizens, becoming a “terror” to good, and a promoter of evil. In Psalm 82, for example, our heavenly Father finds government lacking in performing its job. He asks the government leaders:
Psa 82:2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Our heavenly Father tells the governmental leaders they’ve been judging His children unjustly (i.e., by violating their rights), and embracing and raising up the wicked rather than being a terror to them.
Then He orders the government leaders to do right by His children, saying:
Psa 82:3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Psa 82:4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
By the end of the Psalm it becomes apparent that the governments have not done as they’ve been instructed by God, and as a result “all of the foundations of the earth are out of course.”
The Psalm ends with a call for God to arise and judge the earth. The Psalmist reminds our heavenly Father that He’s to inherit all nations, and therefore their governments are going to need to be cleansed of their wickedness.
Psa 82:8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
And that, beloved, is why a freedom-loving elected member of the House of Representatives of the state of Tennessee is finding it necessary to work to reaffirm the God-given rights of the people of Tennessee, and to put that re-affirmation into their own state Constitution.
The governments of this country – federal, state, county and local – have in all too many cases abrogated their responsibilities to protect the God-given rights of the citizens against evil, and have instead raised up evil people and protected them.
Equal rights under the law is almost a joke in this country, today, with citizens being harassed and in some cases even prosecuted for exercising their God-given rights, while members of the government write regulations protecting themselves from being prosecuted for their own misdeeds.
God’s coming judgment will resolve the situation. But in the meantime, we should back patriotic and God-fearing representatives who understand where our rights are truly derived from, and what government’s proper role in securing and protecting those rights are.
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