The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - are they found in the BIble?

A friend of mine recently asserted that the Declaration of Independence's famous phrase, 

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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

is not a biblical concept. I disagreed, and this is the material I came up with:

1) Life: God created us according to the Bible: "...from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Gen 2:7. Genesis then goes on to note a somewhat curious detail. Genesis 2:9 notes that God put the Tree of Life in the garden: "In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

So when God drove Adam and Eve from the garden, He gave the reason why in Genesis 3:22: "He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.” Adam and Eve had access to eternal life, which was then prevented by their expulsion. But before, they could eat of it any time they wanted.

Revelation 2:7 brings it around full circle: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." As does Revelation 3:5: "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels."

Fast forward many years. The apostle John tells us in John 1:12-13, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." The true life, the life we receive by right, is eternal life, life in the Spirit, because there is no life without God. "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing." [John 6:63] The fullness of life is what Jesus came to restore to us (John 10:10), because the only other alternative is to have life stolen from us. We cannot have stolen what we do not possess!

And lest you think I am conflating the right to eternal life with the right to natural life, there is this verse: "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." [Romans 8:11]

2) Liberty, synonymous with freedom: Isaiah 61:1 establishes that the work of God is freedom: "He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners..." Captivity, bondage, and slavery are all going to fall because of the work of God. This hearkens back to the fact that God released the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians, and as a result Israel was commanded to set their slaves free: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you for six years, you must let him go free.’" [Jer. 34:13-14]

We begin to see that though slavery was a common feature of the ancient world, God was moving his people away from it. It is not the purpose of this post to document the biblical issues of slavery. You can find excellent discussions of that here and here. Suffice to say, it is God's highest purpose for mankind to be set free. "...that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

Paul writes, "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." [1Co. 7:22-23]

John writes this in Jn. 8:32: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Speaking in the spiritual sense, Paul writes, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." [Gal 5:] Interestingly, Paul recognizes that spiritual freedom is linked to physical freedom, freedom that can be abused: "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature..." [Gal 5:13] Peter writes about true freedom: "They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity — for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him." [2 Peter 2:19]

This freedom is expressed as law, which of course creates a legal right: "...because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." And it is quite fair for us to note that the idea of slavery is offensive, because it violates our moral sensibilities. We recognize instinctively that freedom is a right. As we have already seen, God's intention is to give us that right.

3) Pursuit of happiness: We see in Psalm 68:3 that happiness is pronounced as a blessing: "But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful." Here, it is not the present state, but rather something to be hoped for, dare I say, pursued?

King Solomon writes this: "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live." [Ecc 3:12]. Clearly one cannot obtain happiness without pursuing it! King Solomon cements the deal: "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work — this is a gift of God." These possessions, gifts of God, make men happy.

God intends for us to be happy: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy Festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.” [Zech 8:19] Ecc. 2:26 says, "To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God."

The natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are fully realized in the Gospel message as the spiritual destiny of those who call upon the Name of the Lord and are saved.