It would be useful if the Bible were to enumerate a list of fundamental God-given rights and liberties, but it does not. The Book of Mormon does much more than the Bible in promoting the principles of fundamental rights and liberties, but the Book of Mormon is not universally respected among Christians as divinely authentic, nor does it provide any such lists. What we have instead are commandments from God with implied fundamental rights and liberties, and we have oral traditions among Christians that define and promote them.

One of the reasons for this is that throughout Biblical times, Israelites and Christians were subjects of monarchs or feudal rulers, or among the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah they were subject to theocrasies and were ruled by judges and kings. They never had the chance, like the American founding fathers had, to form a new nation with a Republican form of government. Political science, as we now know it, wasn’t even that much of a thing back then. The Old Testament prophets were not political scientists or secular philosophers. They were preaching faith and repentance, punctuated with dire prophecies of doom and gloom if the people did not repent. Apparently, promoting such lofty ideals as fundamental rights and liberties was not high on their priority list.

In ancient times, people were told who their rulers were and what laws they must obey. At best, a few of them might get to pick their king; but then the king typically ruled as he pleased, according to what he thought he could get away with, or whatever was most politically popular or expedient. The Greeks and Romans argued and developed political theory, but their advancements and philosophies were far removed from the covenant people of God in ancient Israel.

Among modern Christians, it is generally understood and accepted that God gave us ownership of unalienable fundamental rights when He gave us life, when He gave us liberty (agency), and when He gave us commandments for the pursuit of happiness. We cannot be held accountable before God without these fundamental rights protecting our ability to comply with God’s commandments.

Our moral agency is part of God’s universal covenant with man. In this universal covenant, we are promised great blessings by doing good and keeping God’s commandments. Because this is a covenant with God it comes with divine guarantees, fundamental rights, and legal protections under God’s canopy of higher laws. These guarantees, rights, and protections are divinely given, or unalienable, meaning, no man or institution of man has the legal justification to deny anyone any of these things without due cause and without due process.

Our divine rights are imbued with divine authority. The authority you wield in claiming those rights is authority given to you by God as byproducts of life and the moral obligation to be intelligent. Inasmuch as you act with dignity and honor in exercising this authority, to include intelligently exercising these rights and privileges, you will have added dignity and honor rewarded to you again. And, inversely, the reverse is also true.

Our fundamental rights are biblically established by the commandments and doctrines found in the scriptures. For example, our right to life is established or implied by the commandment not to kill. Our right to property is established or implied by the commandment not to steal. A spouse’s right to fidelity in marriage is established and legally protected by the commandments not to commit adultery or fornication.

It is beyond the purview of this book to attempt an exhaustive analysis of the Bible in order to extract biblically protected, inferred, or implied rights, but in the next section, I shall summarily list our fundamental rights and liberties as can be easily deduced by reasonable analysis.

To be clear, the Bible does not list or define fundamental rights. Nor does it establish or recommend a form of government. The Bible is a record of events, doctrines, prophecies, and warnings. It is not a political textbook.

In a pluralistic society, it generally does not work to assert on everyone a single political philosophy based upon a single theology of rights. It would be highly unlikely to ever reach a unanimous or popular consensus from a standpoint of theology. Rather, a concise list of fundamental rights can and ought to be established based not just on broad theology, but upon simple reason, logic, and equitable deduction.

In the next chapter, I shall suggest a list of fundamental rights and liberties, based not on God-given rights, but upon the single basis of equity under the law.

If you are interested in an exhaustive and definitive treatise on fundamental rights and the proper role of government, I strongly suggest reading Joel Skousen’s essays on Philosophy of Law and Government (https://joelskousen.com/philosophy). I also suggest reading The Proper Role of Government by Ezra Taft Benson, and The Law by Frederic Bastiat.

Click here for Table of Contents

.