The 28 Principles of Liberty- Principle 8

28 Principles of Liberty- Principle 8
“Men are endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights”

The Founders did not believe that the basic rights of mankind originated from any social compact, king, emperor, or governmental authority. Those rights, they believed, came directly and exclusively from God. Therefore they were to remain sacred and inviolate.
We may do something ourselves to forfeit the unalienable rights endowed by the Creator, but no one can take those rights from us without being subjected to God’s justice. This is what makes certain rights unalienable. They are inherent rights given to us by the Creator. That is why they are called natural rights.

We have other rights that are called vested rights, which are created by the community, state or the nation for our protection or well-being. However, these can be changed whenever the law makers feel like it. These would be things like areas that are off-limits for hunting, or the right to travel on the public highway. But, the government could not pass a law to destroy all life under the age of two or lock up everyone that is of a certain race, religion, hair color and so on. They cannot destroy the right to life or the right to liberty. A person could lose their liberty due to misbehavior, but not because they have a certain eye color, hair color, or religion.
Besides the right to life, liberty and property, we have many more unalienable rights. If you want to know what those are, read the book.
This article was adapted by Charity Angel from W. Cleon Skousen’s “The 5000 Year Leap” Learn about the 28 principles at www.theprinciplesofliberty.com

The Reality of Priesthood Power

The Priesthood has been a major influence for good in my life, and I would be a very ungrateful individual to not share with others some of the blessings that I have experienced, and to share the knowledge of this great gift that God has given to us.

My testimony of the power of the priesthood is very strong, throughout my life and even into this day, I continue to have it strengthened as I receive blessings and they are answered, and also as I witness others blessings being fulfilled.

When I was baptized, and then given the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I felt an immediate change come upon me. The best way that I can explain it is that my mind was suddenly filled with light. I felt as if I had a moment of complete clarity, peace, and was given additional knowledge and the ability to receive more, my mind opened, and my spirit felt the presence of the Holy Ghost.

Later in life, when I was in a great deal of pain, and the pain itself was causing me to vomit from how intense it was, I was given a priesthood blessing of healing by two home teachers that came to our home by pure inspiration. Within moments of their blessing, a home teacher was inspired to use reflexology on my hand and the pain was gone.

Another experience I had came after the death of my son Ammon. I had conceived again, this time with twins. My first two pregnancies has not gone well, and this would be my third. The ultrasound technician told me that my abdomen was too small to carry twins, and that they did not think that I would be able to do so, but that they wished me luck. I went home feeling down, not certain what to do, and my brother, who was just preparing to go on a mission gave me a blessing. He blessed me that my twins would get here, and that they would be healthy, he told me that it would not be easy, but that the Lord would protect me. He also called down angels to surround me and protect my unborn children. There are things about this blessing, that I feel are too sacred to share, but I will say that every word of it came true. I know without any doubt that it was through divine protection that my twins were born healthy.

At the end of this same pregnancy, after being on bed rest for so long, and the pain of my stomach being stretched beyond capacity, I asked my husband for a blessing. In this blessing, he told me that the children would be born, and he gave a date that they would be born on, and that is the day that they were.

Another time, I had a dog that was going blind, and I really loved this dog. I did not want to see her go blind, and I asked my husband to give her a blessing, which he did. He commanded her eyes to be healed, and by the next day the cloudiness in them was gone and her eyes were bright and clear.

I have no doubt about the power of the Holy Priesthood of God. I have been given many blessings throughout my life, and I am incredibly thankful for this gift that Heavenly Father has given us.

Principles of Liberty -Principle #5

"All Things Were Created by God, Therefore upon Him All Mankind are Equally Dependent, and to Him They are Equally Responsible."

The Founders vigorously affirm throughout their writings that the foundation of all reality is the existence of the Creator who is the designer of all things in nature and the promulgator of all the laws that govern nature.

The Founders were in harmony with John Locke who said that a person who calls himself an 'atheist' is merely confessing that he has never dealt with the issue of the Creator's existence. Therefore Locke would say that an Atheist is out of touch with the most important and fundamental reality.

John Locke insists that everyone can know that there is a divine Creator. With Descartes each person can say "Cogito ergo sum'. With God, each person can say, "I AM!" Further more, each person knows that he is something. And something cannot be produced by nothing. Therefore what brought man and everything else into existence had to be something. In order for all of this organizing and arranging to be as such that it is, the Organizer would have to be all-knowing. The something would therefore have to be superior to everything which had resulted from this effort.

Locke taught that the Creator must be a cogitative being since man is cogitative. And that a non-cogitative being like a rock could never have produced a cogitative being like a man. Locke also taught that the Creator would reflect a sense of right and wrong, and a sense of indignation for violation of the law.

The American Founding Fathers agreed with Locke. They considered this truth as the most fundamental premise underlying ALL self-evident truth.

The Founding Fathers also relied on the writings of William Blackstone when it came to their foundation on God's revealed law. He stated that the will of God which is expressed in the orderly nature of the universe is called "the law of nature' and there are laws for human nature just as surely as they exist for the rest of the universe.

The Founders looked at the Creator as both intelligent and benevolent, and anxious and able to respond to people's petitions when they are deserving of needed blessings and engaged in a good cause.

Charles Bracelen Flood discovered in his research that during the Revolutionary War that there were at least sixty-seven desperate moments that George Washington acknowledged that he would have suffered disaster had not the hand of God intervened in behalf of the struggle for Independence. James Madison also acknowledged the hand of God during the Constitutional Convention.

We can now see that the Founders were quite sincere when they adopted the motto "In God we trust." And it is also now clear why they required all witnesses who testify to take an oath and swear before God that they will tell the truth.

In closing, a note from Tocqueville "A presiding judge remarked that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction (in law, that which gives binding force) of all testimony in a court of justice; and that he knew of no case in a Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief."

(The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from the book "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen. This article is also published at www.Myspace.com/angelsings www.LDSFreemen.com and the Cape Fair Cryer newspaper in Missouri.)

His Hands Are Holding YOU

This touched me, so I thought that I would share it.

Building up the Kingdom of God on Earth-Zion