Are All Men Created Equal?

Our question for this issue is indeed an interesting one: A reader asks: "Has God created all men equal?"

Perhaps the most famous statement of equality is found in the American "Declaration of Independence" (DoI). It says that "all men are created equal." Their equality, according to the DoI, consists in this, that "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Many Americans believe that the DoI is a Christian document, and point to such statements as these as proof. What they overlook is the fact that these statements are humanistic lies from beginning to end. They come from the Deism (a denial of God's presence in and government of the world) of the French Revolution rather than from Scripture. The fact that the DoI mentions a Creator should not blind us to this fact.

Nowhere, does Scripture say that men have certain "unalienable rights." In fact, the truth of Scripture is that men have no rights with God at all, especially in that they are fallen into sin (Dan. 4:35; Rom. 9:20). Perhaps we could say in connection with the fall, that they do have one unalienable right, the right to eternal damnation!

That men do not have certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and happiness, also suggests that the DoI is wrong when it teaches the equality of men. That, too, is not Biblical. That statement especially comes from the God-hating French Revolution, whose slogan was "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

The Bible, in fact, teaches that God not only creates men unequal, but that He deals with them unequally in time (Ps. 75:7; Dan. 2:21; Matt. 11:25). This follows, first of all, from the doctrine of Providence, the Biblical teaching that God rules and controls and brings to pass all that happens in the world (Matt. 10:29; Ps. 115:3). If that is true, and it is, then it is God who makes one rich and another poor, who gives life to one and takes it away from another already at birth, who gives peace and health to some and sends to others a life of misery and trouble, who brings it about that one is born into wealth and freedom, while another is born into poverty and slavery.

Even in human relationships men are not all equal. Some are raised up by God to positions of authority and others not. Some are kings and some are commoners. He created the man to be the head of his wife, and gives parents authority over their children.

Ungodly men always oppose this sovereign rule and right of God, denying the authority of parents over their children (denying them the right to punish their children), denying the headship of the man over the woman, and teaching as the DoI does that Government is not of God, but "of the people."

Indeed, this sovereign God has not only dealt unequally with mankind in time, but eternally, as GOD. He has dealt unequally with them, predestinating not only the inequalities of life, but also their eternal destinies, decreeing some to eternal life and passing others by in His decree that they perish in their sins. This does not mean God is arbitrary or unjust (Rom. 3:5-6; 9:14), but glorifies Him as God alone.

For believers, this truth that God determines and brings to pass all things is of endless comfort. Even when they suffer the inequalities of life, they are able to say, "This God is our God, He will be our guide, even unto death" (Ps. 48:14).