“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.”
John Witherspoon “The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men,” Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, p.549.
The earth and all that is in it is God’s property. God has commanded man to take dominion of earth, and private property is one of the main mechanisms by which mankind fulfills this duty. A man’s external property is required for the free exercise of his internal property because it is the mechanism by which we freely express our liberty. This liberty is necessary to pursue happiness and to freely fulfill our moral duties to God. When property is jeopardized in a society, liberty is also compromised. This has been shown repeatedly in history. If property is valued in a society, the result is prosperity, ingenuity, and generosity, as seen in the history of the United States.
Teach the Children
- A person’s property includes his external property—his material possessions, and it also includes his internal property—his conscience.
- External property is required for the free exercise of internal property because external property gives us the platform to express our internal property.
- The free expression of our internal property results in the liberty to fulfill our moral duties to God and to pursue happiness.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1