This is a philosophy of rebellion against arbitrary power, and of self-government. Jefferson wanted the Declaration to be “the signal…to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded [men] to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.”17 As that language indicates and as we’ll see, that philosophy makes the Declaration thoroughly anti-biblical. These two philosophical prongs, rebellion and self-government, line up nicely with the Declaration’s primary purposes—
