“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…“
Human rights. We hear so much about those these days. If history teaches us anything, it is that they are vitally important in protecting us from each other in a fallen world. There is great wisdom in the quote above; our basic rights are not derived from other men or from a government, but from our Creator above.
We’ve seen throughout history that as rulers and governments grow more powerful, what suffers every single time is individual human rights. We begin to mistreat each other as humans become merely “resources” or “capital” to an all-powerful state; simply a means to an end for the powerful. Just do a search on the Uighurs in China or spend a few moments here. Forced slave labor interred in roughly 85 camps across China, a nation notorious for human rights violations because in an atheistic state, the state is ultimate.
But this is not really a post about human rights from that perspective. It is a post about when we take human rights to an extreme.
WAIT…what?! How is that even possible?
It is possible when we take individual human autonomy to the point that it overrides a FAR greater and higher thing:
Creator rights.
That is something no one is talking about. This is one of the fundamental issues these days even with believers – many believe in human rights over and above Creator rights. This is an attempt to get all of us to think about that now, before we stand before Him and answer for our beliefs and actions.
You see, the most foundational and fundamental verse in the entire Bible is this one sentence:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 ESV
If he created it all, from nothing, he has the absolute right to set all the rules of his own creation. He has the right to do with his own creation as he pleases. If we argue with that then we don’t understand the word “Creator” and its implications.
Genesis 1:1 is what all of our societal (and individual) issues are really all about – we rebel against this. We fight against Genesis 1:1 at every twist and turn. We will not have this Creator rule over us and tell us what we are to be or do. If we even acknowledge His existence, our attitude is essentially “Who does he think he is?”
Well…He is the one who not only created everything that exists, but upholds and sustains it all by the word of his power. The great I AM says to the universe “BE!” and thus everything, all matter everywhere, holds together. It is that fundamental.
Fight against him as we will…but we don’t stand a chance. In Him we live and move and have our very being. Our ability to even exist right now is a derived ability to “be” from Him.
I’m convinced many don’t understand or believe this. The whole idea of “God is the Potter and we are merely clay” escapes them. Why do I say that?
Because they are all about individual pot rights over and above Potter rights. Any right of the Potter to His own creation must step aside to individual pot rights.
They may acknowledge he did once have the right to do this, but only once in one ancient society thousands of years ago as documented in the Old Testament regarding one theocratic nation called Israel. They refuse to see that the Potter has the right to set the moral rules (defining right and wrong) for every pot of every nation at every time. They think American government and the “will of the pots” have the sole right to set the moral rules irrespective of what the Potter says. The pots have established our own democratic rule around here – Potter be gone. Our self rule has shifted here in America so that we grant ourselves the right to blatantly oppose the Potter with our own pot autonomy rules.
I think the main reason we do this is we know that if we were to mention the Potter’s right to set the moral rules, that might upset and anger some fellow pots, whose approval we crave. We’ll say we do this out of fear other pots won’t then listen to our evangelistic efforts. But the whole point of those efforts is to…show them the Potter and explain His right to rule them, for their good! Most magnificent in that rule is his right to display His grace and mercy on whom He will, which would be them if they repent.
Or maybe our thought is all pots should have the individual right to freely oppose and reject the potter, therefore we should enforce no Potter rights concerning morality in society. I find that to be a non-sequitur. I also find no one saying we should, or that it’s even possible to legislatively coerce pots to recognize the Potter. We’re only saying we must have some basic Potter morality for the good of all pots. No one knows how to care for pots better than the Potter that made them. It’s also as if we forget that every single pot comes into existence rejecting the Potter and lives every moment in that state and no one has to allow them that right. Actually, the Potter himself allows them that, whether they are in a Uighur slave camp or Martha’s Vineyard. It is as if we’ve not read 2 verses past John 3:16 where it says we are all condemned already. We certainly don’t need a government or any fellow pots to grant us the “human right” and freedom to freely reject the Potter – we are born in that state.
Pots are scared that the Potter has rights. We throw out labels like “Christian Nationalism” and paint in a bad light the fact that the Creator has rights over his creation. How He defines right and wrong is the true definition in every nation at all times, regardless of what all us pots think we have a right to. We are instead in Romans 1 territory, worshipping the creation (fellow creatures) rather than the Creator. That Creator has said that if we continue, he will turn us over to increasing levels of sin leading to a turning over to a “depraved mind.” We are now there. We are in full lockstep with the one who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). We are using pot rights to do the destroyer’s bidding. What is sad is as we do this, we think it virtuous and signal such to each other relentlessly. Look at me supporting all these “pot rights!”
Maybe our primary issue is we’ve rejected Creator rights. The Creator tells us we should and must love and serve our fellow pots, and we call it “love” as we elevate them over and above the Potter’s right as Creator to set the rules for the good of all pots. As we do that, we do NOT love our fellow pots or the Potter. We help destroy fellow pots now…and for eternity.
If there is one thing we consistently do, from Genesis 3 to today, it is to make idols…of pottery.
You turn things upside down!
Isaiah 29:16 ESV
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?