Increasing Learning
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Public Speaking
  • Contact Us

What is the Law of Nature's God?

7/8/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
 
These famous words form the opening paragraph of one of the most influential documents in all of human history – the American Declaration of Independence.  According to this paragraph, the American claim to independence was established upon “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” but what did Thomas Jefferson mean by this phrase?  Nearly all of the modern historians who have written about this phrase have accused Jefferson and the other signers of the Declaration of abandoning the God of the Bible and erecting a more deistic god of nature in His place.  But this accusation is entirely false.  Jefferson’s reference to the laws of nature and of nature’s God had a very specific meaning that was well understood by eighteenth century Americans.

To understand what Jefferson meant by this phrase, we need to consider how it was used in the time leading up to the writing of the Declaration.  The earliest use of this phrase that I have come across is found in an article on suicide in an edition of the Scotts Magazine that was published in 1700.  The author of that article described a man who was “deaf to the voice of nature speaking within him, and to the voice of nature’s God.”  This description reveals a very important fact about Jefferson’s phrase.  Most people assume that Jefferson used the plural word “Laws” to refer to a single system of many laws, but in this article in the Scotts Magazine the voice of nature and the voice of nature’s God are presented as two separate and distinct voices.  This means that when Jefferson wrote about the laws of nature and of nature’s God, he may have been referencing two separate systems of law.
 
This idea that Jefferson was referring to two separate systems of laws is supported by a statement made by John Quincy Adams in a court case in 1841.  He claimed that:
 
“In the Declaration of Independence the Laws of Nature are announced and appealed to as identical with the laws of nature’s God, and as the foundation of all obligatory human laws.”
 
Here, Adams refers to two separate systems of law – the laws of nature and the laws of nature’s God – and he claims that the Declaration pronounced those two systems of law to be identical to each other.  This explanation that the law of nature and the law of nature’s God are two separate but identical systems of laws is strongly supported by the literature of the eighteenth century.  For example, in another famous court case in 1741, Miss Polly Baker defended her promiscuity by claiming that she was following her “Duty of the first and great Command of Nature, and of Nature’s God, Increase and multiply.”  In Miss Baker’s defense, she equated the law of nature’s God with the commands of the Bible.  Could Jefferson also have understood the law of nature’s God to be the Laws contained in the Scriptures?
 
The answer to that question is a resounding, Yes!  Thomas Jefferson was a student of Lord Bolingbroke.  He first began studying Bolingbroke’s writings at the age of fourteen, and he read them again at the age of twenty-three as he was preparing for a career as a lawyer.  Jefferson’s Literary Commonplace Book contains more quotations from Bolingbroke than from any other author, and I do not know of a single historian who has not given Bolingbroke the credit for Jefferson’s famous phrase regarding “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  What these scholars keep hidden is the fact that Lord Bolingbroke provided a very specific definition for this phrase.
 
In a renowned letter to Alexander Pope, Lord Bolingbroke wrote the following words which were to become the basis for Jefferson’s opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:
 
“You will find that it is the modest, not the presumptuous enquirer, who makes a real, and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths.  One follows nature, and nature’s God; that is, he follows God in his works, and in his word.”
 
Here we find a definition from the very individual that all scholars recognize as the source of Jefferson’s phrase.  According to Lord Bolingbroke, the law of nature’s God is the Law which is found in God’s Word.  This was the definition which was intended by Jefferson, and this was the manner in which his words were understood by our forefathers.  The law of nature’s God upon which our nation was founded is nothing less than the Bible itself.

For more support of this conclusion click here to read my review of Matthew Stewart's book Nature's God. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Bill Fortenberry is a Christian philosopher and historian in Birmingham, AL.  Bill's work has been cited in several legal journals, and he has appeared as a guest on shows including The Dr. Gina Show, The Michael Hart Show, and Real Science Radio.

    Contact Us if you would like to schedule Bill to speak to your church, group, or club.

    "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning." (Proverbs 9:9)

    Search


    Topics

    All
    Abortion
    American History
    Apologetics
    Archaeology
    Atonement
    Benjamin Franklin
    Bible
    Bible Contradiction
    Buddhism
    Calvinism
    Children
    Christmas
    Citizenship
    Coaching
    Context
    Covid
    Creation
    Debate
    Doctrine
    Evolution
    Geography
    Government
    Homosexuality
    Immigration
    Islam
    James Wilson
    John Adams
    Marriage
    Masks
    Meditation
    Morality
    Mormonism
    Open Theism
    Parenting
    Politics
    Sacrifice
    Sam Harris
    Science
    Self Defense
    Self-Defense
    Slavery
    Solon
    Soteriology
    Strategy
    Tactical Faith
    Textual Criticism
    Theology
    Vaccines
    Video

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    RSS Feed

You can help support Increasing Learning by browsing through our Red Bubble store. 
We offer a unique blend of spiritual, witty, nostalgic, and just plain fun designs.
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Public Speaking
  • Contact Us