The Law of Nature in the Bible


Saint Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli, 1476 (National Gallery). Drawing from the ancient Greek philosophy of Aristotle as well as Romans 2:14-15 of the Apostle Paul, Italian theologian Thomas Aquinas in his 1200s Summa Theologica notably identified the Law of Nature in man’s reason and “written in the hearts of men.”
In the Declaration of Independence of 1776, a key founding document, the American Founders presented the founding philosophy of the United States of America. One important philosophical principle the Founders recognized in the Declaration is a universal moral law among mankind, the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God,” as the basis for self-government and just civil law. The Founders’ view of this moral law was consistent with and supported by their God-centered and/or Judeo-Christian worldview, for this law is found in the Bible.
Emerging in the Old Testament and in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, the Law of Nature, or Natural Law, was understood as the moral law that dwells within the heart, conscience, and right reason of every person. It includes mankind’s basic understanding of good and evil, right and wrong, and it supports the general view that one should not harm others but rather should love others, treating others with dignity and respect. This basic morality exists among all humanity, regardless of nation, religious belief, culture, etc. Indeed, it exists before civil society.
This universal moral law was arguably first found in the Old Testament in Genesis 9:6, written by Moses in 1400s BC, in which God sets a moral law to govern humanity: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.” It is also reflected in God’s great commandment in the Bible to love others as ourselves as found in Deuteronomy 6, Leviticus 19, Matthew 22, Matthew 7, and Mark 12. One of the key verses where this law was specifically identified was in Romans 2:14-15 in 50s AD by the Apostle Paul. Paul writes in Romans 2:14-15:
Paul points out that this moral law written on the human heart is given by the Creator God to mankind in nature and is validated by a person’s innate moral sense and reason.
The Law of Nature was affirmed by God-oriented medieval and modern thinkers who recognized and cited Paul’s description in Romans 2. These thinkers included Bible or religious scholars like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Richard Hooker, and William Ames; legalists Edward Coke and William Blackstone; and political philosophers Samuel Rutherford, Samuel Pufendorf, and John Locke. These thinkers helped to shape Western Civilization and the American Founding.
From the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, the Law of Nature was taken up by Christian thinkers and incorporated into European church theology and canon law. It was then taken up by modern European political reformers as the basis for just civil law and government. It also became part of Christian legal thought and English common law. This idea, in turn, influenced those who migrated to and/or lived in the American colonies. The principle of natural law was thus passed down from Christian thinkers to English legalists and European political theorists to the American Founders.
The Law of Nature was expressed in the United States’ Declaration of Independence as the legal foundation for a new, self-governing nation. Further, civil laws in this nation aim to abide by this higher moral law. Civil laws that align with the Law of Nature are considered just, while laws that contradict the Law of Nature are considered unjust. While the Law of Nature is acknowledged by many secular rationalists, the expression of the Law of Nature in the Declaration shows that early American’s found it to be consistent with and complementary to the Bible and their God-centered, Judeo-Christian beliefs and worldview. Indeed, the Law of Nature was largely advanced in Western Civilization by God-oriented thinkers.
Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.
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Source for more information:
Kamrath, Angela E. The Miracle of America: The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief. Second Edition. Houston, TX: American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.
Related articles/videos:
1. The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2. The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact Initiated Self-Government
3. Great Awakening Principle: All Men Equal Before God
4. Great Awakening Principle: The Judeo-Christian Law of Love
5. The American Revolution
6. American Revolution Debate: The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
7. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
8. The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
9. Freedom: The Most Important Characteristic of America
10. American Revolution Debate: God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
11. American Revolution Debate: Obedience to God Over Man
12. The American Quest for Self-Government
13. The Creator God: The Basis of Authority, Law, & Rights for Mankind in the United States of America
14. The Law of Nature: The Universal Moral Law of Mankind
Poster: Declaration of Independence
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Activity: The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 7, Part 1, Activity 5: Understanding the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God,” p. 235, 347-348, 360-361, 366-371. MS-HS.
Understanding the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God”….
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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org. To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.
Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation. All rights reserved.


Declaration of Independence, 1776. The Declaration opens, “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 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.”
When the American Founders drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence of 1776 to form the United States of America, they set down the principles for the new nation’s founding philosophy. One of the key principles of the Declaration acknowledged by Americans is a universal moral law, known as the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God.” This law serves as the legal foundation of self-government and of all civil law in this country.
For a century before the new nation was founded, the American colonists had relied on the British constitution and their colonial charters and laws for the protection of their rights. As such, when Britain began to impose more intrusive policies on the colonies in the mid-1700s, just prior to the American Revolution, the colonists cited the British constitution and their charters to defend their freedom. However, when the colonists petitioned for their English rights, King George III rejected their petition, announcing that the colonies were in rebellion and must be controlled by force. The colonists thus realized they could no longer defend themselves under British law and rule. In response, they turned to God and His higher moral law, the Law of Nature, as their final defense and hope. This law is supported by nature, reason, and the Bible.
Recognized for centuries in the West, the Law of Nature is understood as an eternal, constant moral law given by the Creator God to mankind. This law is naturally revealed in a person’s reason and conscience, or in common sense, and it is considered a natural, rational version of God’s moral law of love in the Bible. It sets down standards of right and wrong, how to treat others, and justice in society. It cannot be abolished or changed by any earthly power but simply exists as the will of God. God purposes this law for the morality, order, and preservation of mankind. This law is superior to all man-made laws, existing before any civil state existed. All people and nations are subject to this law at all times, and to oppose it would be ungodly and unjust. Indeed, just civil laws reflect this higher law. When applied to civil states, this law is sometimes called the Law of Nations.
Some of the earliest references to the Law of Nature can be found in Genesis written by Moses in 1400s BC, such as Genesis 4:7 in which God tells Cain to “do what is right” and avoid sin. Other early references came from ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in his 300s BC Rhetoric and from ancient Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) in his 54-51 BC The Republic as reported in 3 AD by Lucius Lactantius, the Christian Roman author and advisor to first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine I. Cicero was one of the first secular writers to articulate a moral law from God that ruled over all men. He defined this moral law as man’s “right reason.”[1] The concept of “Law of Nature” emerged, then, in the Old Testament in ancient times and again during the time of the Gospel and New Testament. It became part of Western tradition.
Some key historical thinkers who influenced early Americans in their understanding of the Law of Nature included Cicero; medieval churchmen Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Francisco Suarez; and modern-era thinkers Edward Coke, Samuel Pufendorf, Richard Hooker, and William Blackstone. These thinkers wrote from a God-oriented worldview.

Portrait of Sir William Blackstone by Thomas Gainsborough, 1744
British jurist William Blackstone was one of the most frequently cited secular sources of the American founding era. He affirmed for Americans that the Law of Nature was the highest law, given by God, and that civil law should be based on it. Blackstone acknowledged the Law of Nature in his 1765-1769 Commentaries on the Laws of England, the best-known description of English common law. He sought to compare the common law with “the Laws of Nature and of other Nations.”[2] His Commentaries, taken from his lectures at Oxford University, became the basis of legal education in England and America. It sold as many copies in America as in England. Blackstone’s work, observes Russell Kirk in his The Roots of American Order, “confirmed Americans in their appeal to a justice beyond parliamentary statute.”[3] Blackstone expounds on the Law of Nature as the first and highest moral law, given by God to mankind, and as the basis of just civil law: …
British philosopher John Locke affirmed this idea of the Law of Nature in his influential 1689 Second Treatise of Government in which he states that the Law of Nature teaches and obliges every one that “being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or posessions.”[5]
The early Americans, including the American Founders who wrote and signed the Declaration, largely understood and affirmed the Law of Nature as presented by Blackstone. Blackstone described the Law of Nature through a God-oriented, Bible-based worldview as the law and will of the Creator God and the universal moral law of right and wrong to which all men and all civil laws are accountable. This law was a key principle and value held by the American people.
Founding-era Americans ultimately based their independence and new self-governing nation on the Law of Nature. For if one nation’s civil laws or rulers repeatedly violated the Law of Nature by a “long train of abuses,” that nation’s laws and/or rulers were no longer just or legitimate. The people had a right to separate and govern themselves under just civil laws. The Declaration of Independence thus opens by stating, “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 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.” As such, the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God” served as the legal foundation for the American people’s freedom and right to govern themselves as an independent nation, as the United States of America. Later, the “Law of Nations” was acknowledged in Article I, Section 8, of the U. S. Constitution.
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[1] Marcus Tullius Cicero, Treatise on the Republic, in The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, vol. 1, ed. Francis Barham (London: Edmund Spettigue, 1841), 270.
[2] William Blackstone, Announcement on the Course of Lectures which led to the Commentaries on the Laws of England, 23 June 1753, in William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 1, ed. William C. Jones (San Francisco, CA: Bancroft-Whtiney Co., 1915), xv.
[3] Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, Third Edition (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1991), 369.
[4] William Blackstone, Blackstone’s Commentaries, in Five Volumes, vol. 1, ed. George Tucker (Union, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, LTD, 1996, 2008), 39-41.
[5] John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1689, in Two Treatises on Government, bk. 2 (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1884), 193-194.
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Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.
This essay is available as a printable PDF handout in the member resources section on americanheritage.org. Simply sign up and login as a member (no cost), go to the resources page, and look under Miracle of America essays.
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Source for more information:
Kamrath, Angela E. The Miracle of America: The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief. Second Edition. Houston, TX: American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.
Related articles/videos:
1. The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2. The Mayflower Compact: The Pilgrims’ First Self-Governing Act in America
3. Great Awakening Principle: All Men Equal Before God
4. Great Awakening Principle: The Judeo-Christian Law of Love
5. The American Revolution
6. American Revolution Debate: The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
7. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
8. The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
9. Freedom: The Most Important Characteristic of America
10. American Revolution Debate: God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
11. American Revolution Debate: Obedience to God Over Man
12. The American Quest for Self-Government
13. The Creator God: The Basis of Authority, Law, & Rights for Mankind in the United States of America
14. Self-Evident Truth: A Philosophy of Rights in the Declaration of Independence
15. The Law of Nature: The Universal Moral Law of Mankind
16. The Law of Nature and Nature’s God: One Moral Law Revealed by God in Two Ways
17. The Law of Nature and Nature’s God: The American Basis and Standard for Just Civil Law
18. John Locke and Algernon Sidney: A Bible-based Defense of Equality and Popular Sovereignty for the American Founders
19. The American, Bible-based Defense of Unalienable Rights
20. The Unalienable Right to Pursue Happiness
Poster: Declaration of Independence
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Activity: The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 7, Part 1, Activity 5: Understanding the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God,” p. 235, 347-348, 360-361, 366-371. MS-HS.
Understanding the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God”….
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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org. To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.
Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Creator God in the Declaration: The Basis of Authority, Law, & Rights for Mankind in the United States


Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1932. The painting depicts Founders Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.
During the American Revolution in the 1700s, the American Founders drafted what would become a key founding document for their new nation, the U. S. Declaration of Independence of 1776. This document announced their forming of a new nation, the United States of America. It reflected the values of the American people and comprises principles based on a God-oriented worldview including the recognition of a Creator God as the basis of authority, law, and rights for mankind.
Influenced by a Bible-based and/or Judeo-Christian worldview, the Declaration notably acknowledges a Creator God, just as early Americans had always done. Whether or not they held orthodox Christian beliefs, most of the American Founders (including those who contributed to the writing of the Declaration like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams) acknowledged a Creator God as well as this widely-held belief among the American people. Their view of a Creator God of mankind is essential to understanding their perspective on the law, rights, and value assigned to human beings.
American Founder, professor, and Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, for example, explained in his 1790-1791 Lectures on Law how the Creator God is the basis for all authority and law. He cited Swiss theorist Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui’s 1748 Principles of Natural Law on the point. Influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, Burlamaqui was often quoted in political sermons of the American founding era, and his Principles was often used as a textbook. Burlamaqui notably referenced the Bible in his view of God. Wilson paraphrased Burlamaqui and his allusion to Acts 17:28 to explain the Creator God as the source of all authority and law: …
Wilson affirmed this idea that the Creator of mankind is the ultimate ruler and law-maker of mankind. Human beings have an obligation to this Creator and to His laws which are made to preserve moral order. Further, humanity’s own man-made laws should necessarily reflect the Creator’s for the same purpose. Wilson observed that this principle raised by Burlamaqui “contains a solemn truth, which ought to be examined with reverence and awe.”[2] Wilson asserted, “That our Creator has a supreme right to prescribe a law for our conduct, and that we are under the most perfect obligation to obey that law, are truths established on the clearest and most solid principles.”[3]

An excerpt from the Declaration of Independence appears on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
American Founder James Madison—primary writer of the U. S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and fourth U. S. president—also acknowledged that recognition of a Creator God was essential to the order and benefit of mankind. He observed, …
In addition to upholding the moral order and law of the Creator God, the Declaration upheld the dignity and rights of the individual human being. For human beings are created by God and made in His image and likeness according to Genesis 1 and 2 in the Bible. The individual’s worth in the eyes of God became the basis for man’s natural rights. Russell Kirk affirmed in his The American Cause that man’s dignity as God’s creation is the source of man’s rights and freedoms. He elaborates, …
In sum, the American Founders laid the groundwork for the American philosophy in the U. S. Declaration of Independence of 1776, with its reference to a Creator God and to a moral, natural law and natural rights. In the new nation of the United States of America, God as Creator and Supreme Judge is recognized as the highest moral authority. And all individual citizens, as human beings created by God, are recognized as possessing certain unalienable rights and freedoms. Later, the Founders would base the U. S. Constitution on these principles—in its rule and application of just law and in recognizing that citizens have certain legal rights and protections.
To be sure, United States citizens have religious freedom and are not required to believe in God. However, it is important for citizens to recognize that individual dignity, rights, and freedoms in the United States are, in fact, based on the philosophical idea of a Creator God. Removing God from America’s founding philosophy would make the nation more vulnerable to abuse of power, tyranny, corruption, and loss of individual rights and freedoms.
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[1] James Wilson, Lectures on Law, Part 1, 1790-1791, in The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, vol. 1, ed. Bird Wilson (Philadelphia, PA: Lorenzo Press, Printed for Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), 109.
[2] Wilson, Lectures on Law, 111.
[3] Wilson, Lectures on Law, 108.
[4] James Madison, James Madison to Frederick Beasley, Montpellier, 20 November 1825, in The Writings of James Madison, vol. 9/1819-1836, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910), 230.
[5] Russell Kirk, The American Cause, ed. Gleaves Whitney (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2002), 20, 23.
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Contributed by AHEF and Angela E. Kamrath.
This article is available as a printable PDF handout in the member resources section on americanheritage.org. Simply sign up and login as a member (no cost), go to the resources page, and look under Miracle of America articles.
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Source for more information:
Kamrath, Angela E. The Miracle of America: The Influence of the Bible on the Founding History and Principles of the United States of America for a People of Every Belief. Second Edition. Houston, TX: American Heritage Education Foundation, 2014, 2015.
Related articles/videos:
1. The Principle of Popular Sovereignty
2. The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact Initiated Self-Government
3. Great Awakening Principle: Dignity of the Human Being
4. Great Awakening Principle: All Men Equal Before God
5. The American Revolution
6. American Revolution Debate: The American Quest for a New, Bible-Inspired Republic
7. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense: God’s Opposition to Absolute Rule
8. The Bible was the Most Cited Source of the American Founding Era
9. American Revolution Debate: Submission to Authority
10. Freedom: The Most Important Characteristic of America
11. American Revolution Debate: God Desires Freedom, Not Slavery, for His People
12. American Revolution Debate: Obedience to God Over Man
13. The American Quest for Self-Government
14. John Locke and Algernon Sidney: A Bible-based Defense of Equality and Popular Sovereignty for the American Founders
15. Self-Evident Truth: Equality and Rights in the Declaration of Independence
16. The American, Bible-based Defense of Unalienable Rights
17. The American, Bible-based Defense of Religious Freedom
Poster: Declaration of Independence
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Activity: The Miracle of America High School Teacher Course Guide, Unit 7, Part 1, Activity 4: Principles of the Declaration of Independence, p. 235, 354-356. MS-HS.
Principles of the Declaration of Independence
Purpose/Objective: Students learn key principles of the Declaration of Independence including Creator God, Law of Nature and Nature’s God, Popular Sovereignty, Unalienable Rights, and Social Contract, and how historical, influential thinkers and early Americans connected these concepts with the Bible.
Suggested Readings:
1) Chapter 7 of Miracle of America reference/text. Students read sections 7.1 to 7.20, 7.23, & pp. 236-237, 240.
2) Essay/Handout: Principles of the American Revolution by Angela E. Kamrath found in the “Supporting Resources” of the Miracle of America HS Teacher Course Guide, pp. 354-356, or in the “Miracle of America Snapshots” handout under member resources at americanheritage.org.
3) Related blogs/videos (see above).
Reading and Questions:
Have students read the “Principles of the American Revolution” and “Principles of the Declaration of Independence” reading handouts and, as desired, relevant sections in Miracle of America text as indicated on the handout. Assign specific sections to read, and then analyze and discuss the reading together as a class. You may wish to project some text on-screen. Answer questions, clarify vocabulary, and fill in other information as needed. (The text analysis will help students grasp the terms and concepts, and it is a great practice for having students read historical texts.) After the reading, have students write answers to the questions that follow on the handout. Discuss. This reading or portions of this reading may be done in either the first or second part of this unit as the teacher finds appropriate. See “Principles of the American Revolution” reading and questions in the “Supporting Resources” section of this course guide, pp. 354-356. See “Principles of the Declaration of Independence” reading and questions in the “Supporting Resources” section of the course guide, pp. 363-366. (These questions are also found in Chapter 7 of Miracle of America text, p. 240.)
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To download this whole unit, sign up as an AHEF member (no cost) to access the “resources” page on americanheritage.org. To order the printed binder format of the course guide with all the units, go to the AHEF bookstore.
Copyright © American Heritage Education Foundation. All rights reserved.