Episode
The Quill and the Covenant #RTTBROS #NIGHTLIGHT #USA250 #AMERICA250 #NATION250
- Podcast
- RTTBROS
- Published
- Jun 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 165
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Summary
The Quill and the Covenant #RTTBROS #NIGHTLIGHT #USA250 #AMERICA250 #NATION250 “"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” — Romans 13:1 THE STORY Jefferson agonized over every word. The Declaration of Independence went through multiple drafts, multiple committees, and multiple rounds of debate. Jefferson was frustrated by many of the changes, most famously the removal of his condemnation of the slave trade, which the Southern delegates refused to allow. But there was one phrase that survived every draft unchanged. One phrase that Jefferson never reconsidered, never revised, and never removed. Endowed by their Creator." The rights of man, in Jefferson's Declaration, do not come from Parliament or from the goodwill of kings. They come from God. They are not granted by governments and therefore cannot be permanently taken by governments. They are inalienable because they are divine. Every government that has ever tried to permanently crush human freedom has had to reckon with those three words. Rights that come from God cannot be finally extinguished by men. THE REFLECTION Romans 13 has always been a difficult passage for readers who want an easy relationship between faith and politics. Paul's instruction that governing authorities are ordained of God was written under the Roman Empire. Power comes from God. All of it. Even the power of kings and tyrants is derivative, borrowed, contingent, accountable. The Declaration of Independence, read through this lens, is not a rejection of Romans 13. It is an application of it. When a government acts in direct contradiction to the source of its authority, the covenant is broken from above, not below. The Founders understood this. Their qu…