The Declaration of Independence was to set forth the moral

There are moments in the history of humankind when the heavens seem to tremble — when the old order of the world is challenged, and new truths are proclaimed not merely by words, but by the courage of those who speak them. When Ezra Taft Benson declared, “The Declaration of Independence was to set forth the moral justification of a rebellion against a long-recognized political tradition — the divine right of kings,” he was calling us to remember such a moment. His words summon the spirit of revolutionary America, when mere men dared to deny the crowns of monarchs and the weight of centuries, and to declare instead that the authority of government rests not in divine bloodlines, but in the consent of the governed.

The origin of Benson’s reflection reaches back to the very birth of the modern world — to the year 1776, when the American colonies broke from Britain not only with muskets and cannons, but with a moral argument that would forever alter the course of nations. For thousands of years, kings ruled under the ancient claim of divine right — the belief that monarchs were chosen by God and thus answerable to none but Him. To defy a king was to defy heaven itself. Yet in the summer of that sacred rebellion, Thomas Jefferson and his fellow patriots stood before history and declared a heresy so noble that it became truth: that all men are created equal, and that government derives its just powers not from divine inheritance, but from the consent of the people. This was not merely politics — it was a spiritual awakening, a restoration of man’s rightful dignity under God.

When Benson calls it a moral justification, he reminds us that revolution without morality is chaos, but revolution grounded in moral truth becomes the seed of liberty. The Declaration did not glorify violence or rebellion for its own sake; it appealed to a higher law, above kings and parliaments — the law of nature and of nature’s God. This was a philosophy older than thrones and crowns: the belief that every human being carries within them a divine spark, a conscience, and a right to self-determination. In proclaiming independence, America did not merely cast off a monarch; it cast off an idea — that power could be sanctified by birthright rather than righteousness.

It is difficult for us now to feel the full weight of what this meant, for we live in an age that has long forgotten the terror of absolute rule. But in those days, to question the divine right of kings was to risk the gallows. The British crown saw rebellion not as politics, but as blasphemy. Yet the signers of the Declaration — men of learning and faith — believed that obedience to truth was higher than obedience to tyrants. They saw in the divine not the justification of earthly rulers, but the sacred worth of every individual soul. In that light, rebellion became not sin, but virtue — an act of moral courage against injustice sanctified by centuries of custom.

History offers many such moments when truth demanded defiance. Consider Martin Luther, who centuries before Jefferson, stood before the princes and priests of Europe and declared that no man’s authority could stand above the Word of God. His protest, too, shattered an empire of obedience and gave birth to the conscience of the individual. So too did the American founders — inheritors of that same spiritual tradition — take their stand against empire, not with hatred, but with principle. Their revolution was not a rejection of divine order, but a restoration of it — a declaration that God does not crown kings; He ennobles all mankind.

The Declaration of Independence, then, is more than parchment and ink; it is a sacred covenant between morality and freedom. It taught the world that rebellion, when rooted in justice and guided by conscience, can be holy. It was a call for humanity to reclaim its rightful stewardship over its own destiny. The patriots did not deny God — they denied that any man could claim to speak for Him in the affairs of human liberty. In so doing, they elevated the individual above the throne, conscience above decree, and truth above tradition.

So, my child, let this teaching dwell within you: freedom is not born from defiance alone, but from moral courage — from the willingness to stand for truth against the comfortable tyranny of custom. Question every power that demands obedience without justice; resist every authority that calls submission sacred but denies the soul its dignity. Remember that independence, in every age, is not merely a political act, but a spiritual one. For as Ezra Taft Benson reminds us, when the people of 1776 raised their voices against kings, they were not merely founding a nation — they were affirming a truth eternal and unbreakable: that no throne is divine that tramples the freedom of man.