I didn't write this substack to cause a ruckus or to get scolded or to be lectured about how "bad" America really is (yes, I've deleted some comments.) Good grief.
I wrote this article to show that the Bible was used by the Founding Fathers and has been referenced by many presidents (the quotes were from The Founders' Bible).
And since this IS July 4th, it was meant to be reflective and somewhat patriotic. It was not intended to be a BOOK -as many BOOKS are written on the pros and cons of America and her history.
I was going to only post it on my other substack page, www.TenpennyWalkWithGod.substack.com because of the Biblical overtones. But since this substack has a wider circulation, I posted it on both pages. Perhaps I should have followed my initial instinct,
I have read a number of articles recently about famous athletes, movie stars, and a number of other sad and woefully uninformed individuals complaining about America. What on earth?! Lebron James makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year and then has the audacity to complain about the country that gave him all the opportunity? I don't care how good you are at basketball, if he grew up in Thailand he wouldn't have anything. Did anyone notice Brittney Griner finally standing for the national anthem? I guess that is all it takes to wake up from being so self absorbed is a few months in a Russian gulag. Has anyone noticed that not a single person that complains about America ever leaves? Go live in China for a while and complain about the government - you will disappear and never been seen again. I am a Canadian living in Canada and I have 2 American flags hanging in my room. I know that if is wasn't for the blood that was spilled by brave American soldiers fighting for freedom, Canada would be a Russian satellite state. God bless the USA!
That is a great question. Winston Churchill said, "The farther we look into the past, the farther we can see into the future." So, to answer your question first, no, everything does not have to have historical significance to be worth knowing. However, when we are trying to communicate truth to people, often they will argue and say, "well you don't know how this will turn out." Communism is a perfect example. There are a ton of communists in the United States spewing their propaganda. They LIE and LIE and LIE about what communism is and what it does. If I cannot express the historical significance, I have a very hard time combatting their lies. The proof of the evil of communism is in the pudding. The best book to read about this is https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1072531
The Naked Communist Thanks for the question! Have a great day! :-)
May God bless you Dr Tenpenny for reminding us of these truths. America was founded on biblical principles and when I pray I ask God to remember that and to not give up on us…. We Christians really need to be asking for Gods forgiveness for ourselves as well as our country, and be praying for Americans to turn from sin and be saved. You worded it so well.
I wrote a Substack article myself on where rights come from and what the meaning of inalienable right is. I’m glad to see someone else tackling this topic. It’s sad to see how bad our civics education has become.
Amen and Amen!! Happy 4th of July, Dr. Tenpenny!! God bless you and thank you for all that you do!! 🙏🙏🙏🇺🇸 2 Chronicles 7:14
King James Version
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
First, thank you for your amazing first video you released about 3 years ago now? My mom sent it to us and that helped us tremedously in making sense of this. You might have helped save our landlords life! as far as the treatise goes, I have put it out to about 200 people so far, and have had very positive feedback. I am working right now on meeting with pastors to make the case to have me come and speak, or at least give them the tools so they might introduce these concepts little by little to their congregations. It is tough going. I know that it is an uphill battle, but I also know that there are many believers that want to do something, but they don't have the Bible tools to show pastors where they are missing it. I have considered making video series to post to deal with each different excuse I hear about not standing up. I have also written a smaller 8 page treatise titled: "Is taking the vax a sin?"
What a blessing to read your most encouraging article! For those who may not understand or agree with citizens taking steps to free themselves from government tyranny, please note these critical but virtually unheard of Bible verses. Hosea 8:4 "They have made kings, but not by Me. They have made princes and I knew them not." By this verse we know that God has not put all wicked tryanncial governments in place like they falsely claim Romans 13:1 says - when it does not. Furthermore, Lamentations 3:35 says "They deprived the people of their God-given rights, in defiance of the Most High." First, this verse tells us that our rights are given to us by GOD - not government. Secondly, this verse tells us that any government that deprives the people of the God-given rights is in DEFIANCE OF GOD HIMSELF. I have written a 30 page treatise on the correct response of the church to a tyrannical government. If anyone out there wants a copy, simply email me at freedom14921@outlook.com and I will send you copy.
I'm sure you used this post from something you read, so my comments below are not pointed at you.
Unalienable and inalienable are not interchangeable and have never meant the same thing.
The word Thomas Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence was "unalienable" pronounced un-a-lien-able with the root word being "lien". A lien is when someone, such as a bank, has a higher claim to what you think of as yours, such as a car that the bank has a lien against. Unalienable rights were "endowed by our Creator" and being unalienable it means they are above the ability of government to control, remove, change or declare that government has a higher claim to those unalienable rights than it's citizens do.. Unalienable is the correct original word in the Declaration of Independence and was confirmed during a visit to the Declaration House in Philadelphia some 15 years ago.
The word "inalienable", pronounced in-alien-able, root word "alien" did not appear in the Declaration of Independence until Feb. 21, 1871 when an act of Congress replaced the "u" in unalienable to an "i" making the word inalienable. That fact can be shown in most any old college level US History book printed between 1880 and 1895. I have had the privilege of reading 3 of those old US History Books back in the late 1990s and all 3 told the same story of the change from a "u" to an "i". An alien is someone from another country who desires to have US citizenship. They go through the naturalization process and become a naturalized citizen and the US government gives them "Inalienable" rights which are also known as "Privileges and Immunities.". And what government gives, government can take away. The post-Civil War 14th Amendment was an attempt, through the Amendment process, to remove "unalienable rights" and replace them with "Privileges and Immunities" or "inalienable rights. The Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1 says; "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." This means that when in a State that is not where you reside, the US Government grants you the same Privileges and Immunities as that State you are visiting in gives to their Citizens. The 14th Amendment builds upon that portion of Article IV as can be seen in the wording of the 14th Amendment Section 1; "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of Citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law." A little reflection on the 14th Amendment shows that it and Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution are talking about the rights or privileges and immunities that is within governments ability to give a citizen and not about Rights endowed by the Creator, who is above government!
This is an excellent comment and I so appreciate what you've written here. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
As you rightly point out, our rights -- bestowed upon us by our Creator -- are "un-a-LEEN- able." No lien may be put upon those inherent rights except by due process of law, which places all of the burden upon the accuser. You have educated me re how the change happened from this original meaning to our present day meaning and spelling. Thank you!
Also, via the 14th Amendment, we all became -- arbitrarily -- citizens. "Citizen" is a creation of the State, not God. God has made each of us a sovereign being; being a "citizen" is a 𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 status. The only power above a sovereign individual is God, but as you say, the government has supreme power over those it has reduced to "citizens."
Not only are words important but even capitalization of words are important in a legal document like the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights and the rest of the Amendments.
When our rights came from the Creator, i.e. God, we were Sovereigns designated in the above documents as "Citizens" with a capitol "C" no matter where that word was in a sentence. After the Civil War, starting with the 14th Amendment, you will notice that the word "citizen" was from then on in the Amendments, written with a lower case "c" showing that after the 14th Amendment we were no longer Sovereigns with rights from God, but "aliens" i.e. lesser or lower beings,"citizens", whose rights only came from Government.
In other words, the 14th Amendment had the effect of beginning the removal of God as the source of our Rights in legal documents from the U.S. Government.
I understand, however Webster's is an English Dictionary that gives the current definition of a word in common English Language. Part of the reason for that current definition would be the effect of the change in 1871 by the act of Congress. However, for the true understanding of the Declaration of Independence we need to know both the meaning and pronunciation of Unalienable when it was used in 1776 and what it meant to Thomas Jefferson and the other members of the Continential Congress.
Since it is a word in a legal document we need the definition out of a legal dictionary of the time when the word was used or from an old history book on at least a graduate level.
Just like when we need to know what a word means in Medicine, we use a Medical Dictionary from the time of the document /paper that the word was used. Example: "Dropsy" in Webster's is basically "edema". "Dropsy" in Dorland's has about a dozen different definitions depending on "where" it is. and some 150 years ago one of the common meanings of"Dropsy" is what today we call "Congestive Heart Failure."
Again, I am not picking on you, Dr. Tenpenny. Merely pointing out that as definitions change, to have a complete understanding of what a word meant in the context of a document or paper, we must understand what that word meant in that context when that document or paper was written.
Thank you for pointing out the difference between un-alienable and in-alienable! It was an edge that caught as I read Dr T’s rather beautiful substack.
After reading your excellent comment, I find it odd that Dr T was rather defensive about it.
You’ve highlighted an important consideration on the legal use of exact wording. Thank you
You are making a big deal over this definition in THIS article; in fact, this substack was NOT INTENDED to be a thesis (there are entire BOOKS written on this) nor was it about that particular word.
While I appreciate your explanation, it seems you're really missing the point of the substack: the Bible was part of the formation of our nation.
My point exactly. The Bible was a part of the formation of this nation and "unalienable" is a part of the proof that the Bible was a part. Since "unalienable" rights came from the Creator, i.e. God, and "inalienable" rights come from government, i.e. man, the change of the word from "unalienable" to "inalienable" shows a shift in the thinking and beliefs of Congress as far back as 1871.
Again, I am not picking on you. We actually seem to have either very similar or the same beliefs about the formation of our nation.
Odd…I didn’t get the feeling that Bitterroot was making a big deal about it? I for one was grateful for being educated on the important distinction.
You, Dr Tenpenny, have written a beautiful and moving essay here. Why not just be grateful for the clarification and leave it at that.
As I read your article, I kept thinking how much I wish our educational system taught this level of insight and deeply beautiful history.
Charlotte Iserbyt was an educator who worked in Reagan’s Dept of Education because she wanted to help him dismantle it (which Reagan had campaigned on). Alas, VP Bush, Skull and Bones NWO, thwarted many of Reagan’s good intentions. Charlotte Iserbyt sated that: “The Dept of Education is a Marxist factory”
I didn't write this substack to cause a ruckus or to get scolded or to be lectured about how "bad" America really is (yes, I've deleted some comments.) Good grief.
I wrote this article to show that the Bible was used by the Founding Fathers and has been referenced by many presidents (the quotes were from The Founders' Bible).
And since this IS July 4th, it was meant to be reflective and somewhat patriotic. It was not intended to be a BOOK -as many BOOKS are written on the pros and cons of America and her history.
I was going to only post it on my other substack page, www.TenpennyWalkWithGod.substack.com because of the Biblical overtones. But since this substack has a wider circulation, I posted it on both pages. Perhaps I should have followed my initial instinct,
I have read a number of articles recently about famous athletes, movie stars, and a number of other sad and woefully uninformed individuals complaining about America. What on earth?! Lebron James makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year and then has the audacity to complain about the country that gave him all the opportunity? I don't care how good you are at basketball, if he grew up in Thailand he wouldn't have anything. Did anyone notice Brittney Griner finally standing for the national anthem? I guess that is all it takes to wake up from being so self absorbed is a few months in a Russian gulag. Has anyone noticed that not a single person that complains about America ever leaves? Go live in China for a while and complain about the government - you will disappear and never been seen again. I am a Canadian living in Canada and I have 2 American flags hanging in my room. I know that if is wasn't for the blood that was spilled by brave American soldiers fighting for freedom, Canada would be a Russian satellite state. God bless the USA!
Great observation B! thanks for your comment!
Thank you Doctor! This is a wonderful article! Absolutely brilliant.
A beautiful tribute & reminder of our Founding & what Founds US. Bless you!
thank you for that important info.
Thanks Dr. T. Great post.
That is a great question. Winston Churchill said, "The farther we look into the past, the farther we can see into the future." So, to answer your question first, no, everything does not have to have historical significance to be worth knowing. However, when we are trying to communicate truth to people, often they will argue and say, "well you don't know how this will turn out." Communism is a perfect example. There are a ton of communists in the United States spewing their propaganda. They LIE and LIE and LIE about what communism is and what it does. If I cannot express the historical significance, I have a very hard time combatting their lies. The proof of the evil of communism is in the pudding. The best book to read about this is https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1072531
The Naked Communist Thanks for the question! Have a great day! :-)
wow. cool. that helped a ton. thank you
May God bless you Dr Tenpenny for reminding us of these truths. America was founded on biblical principles and when I pray I ask God to remember that and to not give up on us…. We Christians really need to be asking for Gods forgiveness for ourselves as well as our country, and be praying for Americans to turn from sin and be saved. You worded it so well.
I wrote a Substack article myself on where rights come from and what the meaning of inalienable right is. I’m glad to see someone else tackling this topic. It’s sad to see how bad our civics education has become.
Thank you!
i will check it out :-)
Most beautifully written...cause for reflection....thank you, Dr. Tenpenny.
Amen and Amen!! Happy 4th of July, Dr. Tenpenny!! God bless you and thank you for all that you do!! 🙏🙏🙏🇺🇸 2 Chronicles 7:14
King James Version
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
DR Tenpenny,
First, thank you for your amazing first video you released about 3 years ago now? My mom sent it to us and that helped us tremedously in making sense of this. You might have helped save our landlords life! as far as the treatise goes, I have put it out to about 200 people so far, and have had very positive feedback. I am working right now on meeting with pastors to make the case to have me come and speak, or at least give them the tools so they might introduce these concepts little by little to their congregations. It is tough going. I know that it is an uphill battle, but I also know that there are many believers that want to do something, but they don't have the Bible tools to show pastors where they are missing it. I have considered making video series to post to deal with each different excuse I hear about not standing up. I have also written a smaller 8 page treatise titled: "Is taking the vax a sin?"
thank you for your kind remarks. I've done so many videos I'm not sure which one(s) you're referring to... but grateful they were helpful
Perhaps you've seen what I Have written about this topic:
https://tenpennywalkwithgod.substack.com/p/god-forgives-if-you-ask
It was roughly January of 2020? Before our first lockdown in Canada which happend in April and May of 2020
Dr Tenpenny,
What a blessing to read your most encouraging article! For those who may not understand or agree with citizens taking steps to free themselves from government tyranny, please note these critical but virtually unheard of Bible verses. Hosea 8:4 "They have made kings, but not by Me. They have made princes and I knew them not." By this verse we know that God has not put all wicked tryanncial governments in place like they falsely claim Romans 13:1 says - when it does not. Furthermore, Lamentations 3:35 says "They deprived the people of their God-given rights, in defiance of the Most High." First, this verse tells us that our rights are given to us by GOD - not government. Secondly, this verse tells us that any government that deprives the people of the God-given rights is in DEFIANCE OF GOD HIMSELF. I have written a 30 page treatise on the correct response of the church to a tyrannical government. If anyone out there wants a copy, simply email me at freedom14921@outlook.com and I will send you copy.
Thanks for your response! How widely have you been able to circulate your treatise? Do the churches listen?
Dr. Tenpenny,
I'm sure you used this post from something you read, so my comments below are not pointed at you.
Unalienable and inalienable are not interchangeable and have never meant the same thing.
The word Thomas Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence was "unalienable" pronounced un-a-lien-able with the root word being "lien". A lien is when someone, such as a bank, has a higher claim to what you think of as yours, such as a car that the bank has a lien against. Unalienable rights were "endowed by our Creator" and being unalienable it means they are above the ability of government to control, remove, change or declare that government has a higher claim to those unalienable rights than it's citizens do.. Unalienable is the correct original word in the Declaration of Independence and was confirmed during a visit to the Declaration House in Philadelphia some 15 years ago.
The word "inalienable", pronounced in-alien-able, root word "alien" did not appear in the Declaration of Independence until Feb. 21, 1871 when an act of Congress replaced the "u" in unalienable to an "i" making the word inalienable. That fact can be shown in most any old college level US History book printed between 1880 and 1895. I have had the privilege of reading 3 of those old US History Books back in the late 1990s and all 3 told the same story of the change from a "u" to an "i". An alien is someone from another country who desires to have US citizenship. They go through the naturalization process and become a naturalized citizen and the US government gives them "Inalienable" rights which are also known as "Privileges and Immunities.". And what government gives, government can take away. The post-Civil War 14th Amendment was an attempt, through the Amendment process, to remove "unalienable rights" and replace them with "Privileges and Immunities" or "inalienable rights. The Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1 says; "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." This means that when in a State that is not where you reside, the US Government grants you the same Privileges and Immunities as that State you are visiting in gives to their Citizens. The 14th Amendment builds upon that portion of Article IV as can be seen in the wording of the 14th Amendment Section 1; "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of Citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law." A little reflection on the 14th Amendment shows that it and Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution are talking about the rights or privileges and immunities that is within governments ability to give a citizen and not about Rights endowed by the Creator, who is above government!
This is an excellent comment and I so appreciate what you've written here. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
As you rightly point out, our rights -- bestowed upon us by our Creator -- are "un-a-LEEN- able." No lien may be put upon those inherent rights except by due process of law, which places all of the burden upon the accuser. You have educated me re how the change happened from this original meaning to our present day meaning and spelling. Thank you!
Also, via the 14th Amendment, we all became -- arbitrarily -- citizens. "Citizen" is a creation of the State, not God. God has made each of us a sovereign being; being a "citizen" is a 𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 status. The only power above a sovereign individual is God, but as you say, the government has supreme power over those it has reduced to "citizens."
Thanks again! Really grateful...
You are Welcome, SheThinksLiberty,
Not only are words important but even capitalization of words are important in a legal document like the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights and the rest of the Amendments.
When our rights came from the Creator, i.e. God, we were Sovereigns designated in the above documents as "Citizens" with a capitol "C" no matter where that word was in a sentence. After the Civil War, starting with the 14th Amendment, you will notice that the word "citizen" was from then on in the Amendments, written with a lower case "c" showing that after the 14th Amendment we were no longer Sovereigns with rights from God, but "aliens" i.e. lesser or lower beings,"citizens", whose rights only came from Government.
In other words, the 14th Amendment had the effect of beginning the removal of God as the source of our Rights in legal documents from the U.S. Government.
That definition came from Webster's dictionary online.
I understand, however Webster's is an English Dictionary that gives the current definition of a word in common English Language. Part of the reason for that current definition would be the effect of the change in 1871 by the act of Congress. However, for the true understanding of the Declaration of Independence we need to know both the meaning and pronunciation of Unalienable when it was used in 1776 and what it meant to Thomas Jefferson and the other members of the Continential Congress.
Since it is a word in a legal document we need the definition out of a legal dictionary of the time when the word was used or from an old history book on at least a graduate level.
Just like when we need to know what a word means in Medicine, we use a Medical Dictionary from the time of the document /paper that the word was used. Example: "Dropsy" in Webster's is basically "edema". "Dropsy" in Dorland's has about a dozen different definitions depending on "where" it is. and some 150 years ago one of the common meanings of"Dropsy" is what today we call "Congestive Heart Failure."
Again, I am not picking on you, Dr. Tenpenny. Merely pointing out that as definitions change, to have a complete understanding of what a word meant in the context of a document or paper, we must understand what that word meant in that context when that document or paper was written.
Thank you for pointing out the difference between un-alienable and in-alienable! It was an edge that caught as I read Dr T’s rather beautiful substack.
After reading your excellent comment, I find it odd that Dr T was rather defensive about it.
You’ve highlighted an important consideration on the legal use of exact wording. Thank you
You are making a big deal over this definition in THIS article; in fact, this substack was NOT INTENDED to be a thesis (there are entire BOOKS written on this) nor was it about that particular word.
While I appreciate your explanation, it seems you're really missing the point of the substack: the Bible was part of the formation of our nation.
Dr. Tennpenny,
My point exactly. The Bible was a part of the formation of this nation and "unalienable" is a part of the proof that the Bible was a part. Since "unalienable" rights came from the Creator, i.e. God, and "inalienable" rights come from government, i.e. man, the change of the word from "unalienable" to "inalienable" shows a shift in the thinking and beliefs of Congress as far back as 1871.
Again, I am not picking on you. We actually seem to have either very similar or the same beliefs about the formation of our nation.
Odd…I didn’t get the feeling that Bitterroot was making a big deal about it? I for one was grateful for being educated on the important distinction.
You, Dr Tenpenny, have written a beautiful and moving essay here. Why not just be grateful for the clarification and leave it at that.
As I read your article, I kept thinking how much I wish our educational system taught this level of insight and deeply beautiful history.
Charlotte Iserbyt was an educator who worked in Reagan’s Dept of Education because she wanted to help him dismantle it (which Reagan had campaigned on). Alas, VP Bush, Skull and Bones NWO, thwarted many of Reagan’s good intentions. Charlotte Iserbyt sated that: “The Dept of Education is a Marxist factory”
God Bless your endeavors, Dr T ❤️🇺🇸
Thank you Featherjourney,
I had never a thought of doing anything but showing the important distinction between the 2 word "unalienable" and "inalienable."
Came through loud and clear for me, Bitterroot.
I read your initial comment to my husband earlier and he also appreciated the distinction and the importance of it.
Have a great day ❤️🇺🇸