The Founders Likely Built the Most Famous Phrase in the Declaration of Independence from a Christian Sermon

The famous second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence likely drew its phrasing from a sermon delivered in the early 1700s.

Tim and David Barton, the president and founder of Wallbuilders, respectively, explained the connection in a video posted by Allen Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The Bartons spoke at an event there last month, addressing the subject, “Does the Church Belong in Politics?”

Tim Barton held up a book that he said contained two sermons delivered in the early 1700s by John Wise, a Christian preacher from Ipswich, just north of Boston, Massachusetts.

“In one of these two sermons, John Wise, and I quote, says, ‘All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.’ That’s in the Declaration,” Barton explained.

Wise’s sermons also addressed the issue of no taxation without representation, and just government coming from the consent of the