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PDP 076 - Where do our rights come from?
21 Plays11 days ago
Happy Independence Day!
As America celebrates 250 years of liberty, fireworks, and family gatherings, we pause to ask a deeper question: where do our rights come from?
In this special episode, Preacher Dad Jarod Hinton explores the biblical truth that our rights are not created by government but given by God. Governments may recognize or protect them, but they cannot originate them.
Jarod also reflects on the Founding Fathers’ belief that true liberty is rooted in the Creator—and why that foundation still matters today.
This isn’t just reflection, though—it’s gratitude. A celebration of a nation that has, for 250 years, sought to protect those God-given freedoms and become a unique testimony in history.
Whether you’re at a cookout, on the road, or watching fireworks, this episode invites you to remember both the Giver of liberty and the blessings of a nation built to defend it.
Happy Birthday, America—may we never forget the source of our freedom.
Check out PreacherDad.com for more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Today's Topic
00:00:13
Speaker
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared, and I am the Preacher Dad. And here you are. You've made it. Today, we're going to talk about where our rights come from.
00:00:24
Speaker
And do they come from the United States of America? Do our rights come from the president? If you've been around very long, you probably
Invitation to Cornerstone Fellowship
00:00:32
Speaker
know where I'm going. But first I want to remind you that this podcast is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship.
00:00:38
Speaker
Cornerstone Fellowship is just a small country church out in the middle of nowhere, but we love Jesus a lot. We love his word and we want to love you. And so if you're ever in the Tombsboro, Georgia area, just a little north of Tombsboro, you can come visit us or you can find us on the web at cornerstonefellowship-ga.org.
00:00:58
Speaker
dot cornerstonefellowship-ga.org. And we would love for you to check us out there and listen in on Sundays or whenever you have time.
Origin of Rights: Creator vs. Government
00:01:12
Speaker
I want to talk to you today just for a second about the foundation of our rights. And I'm going to take us back to the Constitution of the United States.
00:01:23
Speaker
The Constitution says that we hold these, I'm sorry, not the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence says that 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.
00:01:47
Speaker
These rights do not come from our nation. We do not get our liberty from the United States. Our liberty, our freedom, our rights as people is granted to us from God.
00:02:00
Speaker
And we know from historical documents and the writings of the founders that they considered Yahweh, the God of the Bible, to be the creator that created all of us and endowed us with rights.
00:02:14
Speaker
Now, even, you know, there's scriptural basis for this. ah Our right to life, you know, ah we can look to Genesis chapter nine, verse six.
00:02:27
Speaker
It says, whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man. So God is is telling us that the the life that you and I have comes from being part of an image bearer of God to be part of him in the sense that he made us in his image is...
00:02:51
Speaker
is given to
Character and Liberty as Divine Gifts
00:02:52
Speaker
us from God. That's the life that we are granted. And we have a right to that life, a right to defend that life from others. And of course, then liberty,
00:03:04
Speaker
Hey parents, if you're looking for a fun and entertaining way to teach your children about character, then I've got the right podcast for you to check out. It's called Character Stories Podcast.
00:03:15
Speaker
On the Character Stories Podcast, we do voices of other shapes and sizes, and we have occasionally sound effects as well. And I would love for you to come and join us over there and hear a great story that has a great lesson and moral in it as well.
00:03:33
Speaker
So come on over and check out the Character Stories podcast today.
00:03:39
Speaker
Leviticus 25.10 says, and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof it shall be a jubilee unto you and ye shall return every man unto his possession and ye shall return every man unto his family so This is a stipulation by the Lord that shows how much he valued liberty.
00:03:59
Speaker
So much so that every 50th year, he would he decreed that the children of Israel should release every slave, should forgive every debt, should ah make everyone free again. every Every man would be at liberty again. Now the foreigners and things, that was maybe a little different, but you know when it comes when it came to those within your citizenry,
00:04:24
Speaker
This was everybody's free. It shows us how much God valued liberty and that he bequeathed to us or gave to us the right to be free.
00:04:37
Speaker
It didn't come from some government organization. It came from God himself. He also pronounces the death penalty for kidnapping, for stealing someone. So God valued the liberty that we have and he gave it to us.
00:04:51
Speaker
And then another scripture I want to give to you is Ecclesiastes 3.13. It says, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor.
00:05:03
Speaker
It is the gift of God. So pursuing happiness, should we should be glad, should be able to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of our labor.
00:05:13
Speaker
That is a gift from God. That's something that God decreed we should have. And so the pursuit of happiness comes from him as well, among many, many other rights that the founders ah defined for us in the Bill of Rights and throughout the
Government's Role in Preserving Rights
00:05:27
Speaker
Constitution. But...
00:05:28
Speaker
In this Declaration of Independence, we learned that our Creator gave us our rights. And so then what happens, though, is our nation preserves those liberties.
00:05:40
Speaker
Those rights endowed by our Creator are preserved by our nation. To continue with the Constitution here, it says...
00:05:52
Speaker
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Those rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, so many others, have been secured by our nation.
00:06:11
Speaker
have been protected by the country for 250 years. 250 years, folks, that's a ton of time. Most constitutions don't even last 17 years.
00:06:25
Speaker
That's the average throughout history. But for 250 years, we have been a nation protecting the rights God gave to us. We are a Christian nation. We are we've defined our society and our our rights, our morals on biblical ideas and biblical principles. And that is very powerful.
00:06:48
Speaker
It's very important. And you know it's not like you have to be a Christian to live here. We're not forcing people to adopt a certain ah belief system.
00:06:59
Speaker
except when it comes to their behavior and their morality, we are a moral and religious people. If we are not moral and religious, by and large, we will not succeed. Our our government won't won't succeed, according to John Adams.
00:07:14
Speaker
So I it just wanted to declare how proud I am to be an American citizen, how proud I am of this nation. This country has protected our God-given rights, protected the religious liberty that we value so highly for such a long time, over two centuries, two and a
Reflection on America's Protection of Rights
00:07:32
Speaker
half centuries. Our nation has done that.
00:07:35
Speaker
And so, you know, our country has plenty of faults. I'm not shy about talking about the problems in America or the things that this nation has done that are wrong and evil. There's no way that any nation, even the children of Israel in the Bible, were wicked sometimes, horribly wicked. That doesn't mean that we give up on the nation completely. I'm not ready yet to give up on the United States. And I think that this country has done an incredibly great job ah oh by and large, of preserving biblical ideas, the rights that are endowed to us by our Creator. We have preserved and protected those freedoms, and many people have died to protect those freedoms that we have in this country, and I am grateful for it.
00:08:20
Speaker
And so I just wanted to declare how grateful I am for being a part of this wonderful country. And here, ah hopefully this is coming out so close to Independence Day. Hopefully you can feel free to celebrate America.
00:08:35
Speaker
America is a great nation and has done great things. And so we should celebrate that and rejoice in it and be glad about it. So I just wanted to share that with you today.
Engagement and Closing Blessings
00:08:45
Speaker
And I hope that you will give us a like, that you'll subscribe to this podcast, that you'll follow us, wherever you might be seeing this or hearing it, any ah any comment that you make. Hey, look, if I'm wrong, tell me so.
00:08:58
Speaker
if you wanna If you think I'm right, tell me why. um You see how I said right that time? Yeah, you can tell me why I'm right. No, feel free to share your comments, whatever your thoughts are.
00:09:11
Speaker
Throw those in the comment section. That helps out our algorithm, helps out this podcast. And we would just love to hear from you. If you want to reach out to us, you can go to jaredhinton.com or preacherdad.com and you can reach out to us there and find out some more information about what we do here. But God bless you, folks. I hope that the Lord will just give you great favor and joy and gladness as you celebrate this great nation this coming weekend.
00:09:41
Speaker
God bless you. see you next time.