Religious Freedom and the Bible’s Freedom of Religion Clause
Nov. 5, 2026
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: David New
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 11/5/26 To listen to the podcast, click HERE
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Sam Rohrer:
Hello and welcome to Stand in the Gap today. And it’s also our bimonthly focus on the Constitution and American history. There’ll be a number of things here and biblical reference. And our recurring guest today is David New, constitutional attorney, historian, author, and public speaker. Now, with the shocking results of Tuesday’s US election still reverberating, the consequences of which will be significant and ripples will extend as we know, far and wide. But as I emphasized yesterday on this program, while many are looking to someone or for someone to blame and pundits or offering endless explanations as to why everything happened the way it was, believers I think should respond differently. Rather than becoming caught up defending or attacking various political narratives, I believe biblically we should mourn and remain in an attitude of repentance before the Lord for the sins of our nation. The reason is clear.
The American people have voted and they have voted their values. Now that’s a truism principle because as we regularly say, and it’s true, people do what they believe. According to George Barn’s latest research, which we’ve shared many times on this program, the prevailing belief system, what one believes, the prevailing belief system in America is the religion of syncretism by an astounding 94%. We can’t get away from that. 94% of the American people. In biblical terms, this is the evil of idolatry. So 94% of Americans embrace idolatry. That is a staggering thing because within that, God is no longer viewed as supreme. Truth is no longer viewed as absolute. It’s not for a long time. And man’s reasoning and pragmatism as a philosophy have replaced obedience to God’s word in the exercise of faith. Therefore, our hope must firmly rest in the Lord and not in political parties or candidates or governments or the promises of men.
But this matter of belief and religion and freedom, one’s view of God and the reflection of people’s view of liberty and freedom on display Tuesday sets the stage I think for the focus of today’s program, which I’ve been given the title of it as Religious Freedom and the Bible’s Freedom of Religion Clause. And that probably intrigues you a little bit, so stay tuned as we go through that. But most Americans associate religious freedom with the First Amendment. But where did that idea come from? Where did the idea itself originate? Did it arise from political philosophy, the enlightenment perhaps, or constitutional debate or does its foundation reach actually back to the opening pages of Genesis? Well, today David New is going to argue and we’ll talk about this idea that the Bible itself contains what may properly be called a religious freedom clause and that this biblical principle has profoundly influenced both American law and liberty throughout much of the world.
And with that laid down as the foundation, I welcome to the program David New. David, thanks for being back with me. Always, always a pleasure.
David New:
It’s blessings to be with you too, Sam, and blessings to anyone and everyone that’s listening with us today. Welcome to our show.
Sam Rohrer:
Amen, amen. All right. And David, let’s get right into this. I’m going to ask you, I’m going to have you introduce the foundation for this freedom clause that you’re saying was within scripture, first amendment clause, but I want you to just take a minute here too. Don’t get too far into the weeds, but everyone has a view about what happened on Tuesday as I mentioned earlier. And what kind of a top line personal view would you have regarding Tuesday’s election overall? If there’s a top line observation, what would you say it is?
David New:
Yesterday’s election was extremely disappointing. Ladies and gentlemen, if you ask me which would I prefer, a conservative president and the White House, or would I prefer five conservative members on the US Supreme Court? Which one would I pick? The US Supreme Court hands down. The US Supreme Court has powers that neither the president nor all of Congress has. And so five members of the US Supreme Court in many respects has far more power than the President of the United States. For example, the abortion, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, all of these decisions by the Supreme Court all come from one single word in the US Constitution, in the 14th Amendment and the word liberty. They massaged the definition. They fraudulently said the word gay and abortion is in the word liberty. These are all lies. They made it up out of thin air, but it only takes five.
That’s why the Senate vote was, to me, the worst. Now, the second big thing, that’s the only good thing so far about the election from yesterday, a lot of Democrat socialists got elected, but most of these people, most of their power are in the cities, which is too bad for them. You want your power as a Democrat socialist to be at the state level, at the governor’s level, because there you can showcase the advantages of socialism better than any other place. Of course, there aren’t any, but that’s the best place. If you’re a mayor of a city like New York, you’re hemmed in by state government. You have more opportunities to fail as a socialist elected as a city in the mayor than you do as governor of California.
Sam Rohrer:
That’s an interesting point, David. I’d love to go further with you on that, but I’ve got to get this question in. You need to set this up because our primary focus today is most people associate religious freedom with the First Amendment, not the Bible. Yet you contend that there’s actually a religious freedom clause in scripture itself. Set that up right now. Why do you say that? And take us to that point which will build out more in the next segment.
David New:
Most listeners of our program who are biblically people interested in God and serving our Lord and savior Jesus Christ have read this passage thousands of times, but they never saw it the way we’re going to discuss it today. I suspect in the vast majority of cases that’s true. This passage is the granddaddy of all religion freedom clauses anywhere in the world. This passage is the granddaddy of religious freedom in the First Amendment and ultimately all 50 state constitutions. It is Genesis one, verse 26 and 27. That is the religion freedom clause in the Bible. Now let’s quickly take a look at it.
Sam Rohrer:
All right. Well, David, you just set us up right there. We’re at a break. Just hold it. That’s a perfect spot just to hold it. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us because when we come back, David is going to open up that passage which you may have never thought about before, Genesis chapter one verses 26 and 27 as we, in the next segment, pursue this sub theme we’re calling it in the image of God and the foundation of religious freedom. Our overall theme today is religious freedom and the Bible’s freedom of religion clause. We’ll be back in just a moment.
Well, if you’re just joining us, we’re entering into our second segment today. This is Stand in the Gap Today and my special guest today is David New, constitutional attorney, historian, author and public speaker. And generally speaking, for many, many years, he’s been with me at least twice a month and our focus is on something related to the Constitution and always, as you’ll find even as today, whenever you speak about the US Constitution, there is always a connection to the word of God. It’s very interesting. But with that in mind, I welcome you back. In our first segment, if you happen to have missed it, we introduced a fascinating, and I’m going to say perhaps unfamiliar proposition, and that is while most Americans think of religious freedom. Everybody’s heard of that and we all think we know what it is, but I’m sure we don’t know where it came from, but it’s in our First Amendment, but many think that it originates in the First Amendment, but I’m going to say it does not.
Now, David’s going to argue and does that the true foundation of religious liberty precedes the Constitution by thousands of years and is actually found in the opening chapter of the Bible, specifically the book of Genesis. Now specifically, David points to Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27, where in that section, man is created in the image of God. His contention is, and he’s going to fully explain it here, that the foundational biblical truth is far more than a statement about human worth and dignity that this truth establishes, that it establishes the basis for human freedom itself. And that in same sense, it serves as what could be described as the Bible’s own religious freedom clause. Now if that’s true, this is why freedom, as we believe in this nation, our founders, is not a gift from government, not a privilege granted by kings or legislatures or courts.
It’s something that ultimately derives from God himself. All right, David, let’s begin now. Let’s go into this. You identified Genesis 1:26 and 27. You’ve said that these verses function as the Bible’s religious freedom clause. So here’s the question. Why do you believe the doctrine of the image of God is the foundation of human freedom?
David New:
Let’s quickly review the passage, Genesis 1:26. Then God said, let us make mad an our image according to our likeness. In verse 26, it says verse 27, “So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.” That is the foundation for religious freedom. Because we are made in the image of God, we have that image stamped on us. God is free. God is not a slave. God is not being bound or anything like that. Because God is free, we are free. It’s that simple. All religious freedom all over the world, whether it’s in our constitution or any other constitution, at least in the Western civilization, ultimately trace their origin for the freedom of a human being in the phrase image of God. That is it. Now, what follows from that is this. Since we are made in the image of God, this is a spiritual relationship, that means our very first relationship or our very first freedom is religious freedom.
We have to decide as people made in the image of God, will we honor that? Will we worship the source of us being made in the image of God? Will we honor God and obey him? That’s the very first human freedom. From that, all the other freedoms we have are a derivative of the first freedom of religion being made in the image of God. That means the freedom of speech, the freedom of press, the declaration of independence, all are based on the fact that we are made in the image of God. Without Genesis one verse 26 and 27, none of those freedoms would exist. Now, it’s likely this phrase image of God probably is the second most important phrase in the Bible. You say, David, why second? The number one passage in the Bible, the number one word in the Bible that’s the most important word that I would recommend is found in Deuteronomy six: four.
This verse is known as the Shamah. This is Judaism in one sentence. If I was asked, give me the one verse in the Old Testament that’s the most important verse, it is Deuteronomy six: four. The word Yahweh, the name of God is the most important word in the Bible, in my opinion. And in an Orthodox family, Jewish children are taught to say, “Not mommy, not daddy,” when the first thing they’re taught to say is Deuteronomy six: four, which says, “Hero Israel,” the word here means shama in Hebrew, “Here, O Israel, the Lord,” that’s Yahweh, “Our God, Elohim, the Lord Yahweh is one.” That’s the first thing a Jewish child is taught to say. And when you die, if you’re an Orthodox Jew, you are expected to say Deuteronomy six verse four as the last thing from your lips. If you remember the movie, The Winds of War on a long time ago with Robert Mitcham and Peggy Bergen, there was a character in that movie named Dr.
Jastro, who was Jewish. It was played by John Houseman. And when the Nazis finally caught up with him, they put him in the Nazi gas chamber and killed him. Listen carefully while he’s dying in the Nazi gas chamber, he says Deuteronomy six, verse four, which means it is highly likely the last thing Jews when they… There was six million. Nobody knows the number, but that’s the number of convention which I accept. It is highly likely the last thing many of these Jews were saying when they were dying in the Nazi gas chamber is hero Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. It breaks my heart.
Sam Rohrer:
David, that’s quite a bit of a history there that likely many of our listeners were not aware, but that goes right back to that part of worship and what you’re describing. God made man free and they were, Adam and Eve, they were free. Free to do what? Where to walk with God in the cool of the day in the garden when he came down and unobstructed with anything, there was perfect worship, or you could say freedom to worship God. And then you go to that verse right there. But when sin came in, all of a sudden now we’ve got trouble and we have a barrier that’s there and the Lord comes back in the scripture and has to tell Israel not to embrace idolatry, which was anything other than God. So if you could, there’s a few more minutes left here, but that understanding is so profound.
Go just a little bit further there and how that in the image of God influenced our founders, even the framers of the declaration perhaps, how they recognized this powerful truth.
David New:
Now look at this passage in Genesis one verse 26. It is extremely important what God says next. “Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Watch this, pay attention. He goes on to say,” Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. “Whoa, what’s happening? What’s happening? What is the best insurance that a human being will be free? How does God protect human freedom? He does it with property. That’s how he does it. And soon as we find out why we’re free, now God is telling us how to stay free. The stronger a nation’s property laws are, the stronger the people have freedom. The weaker the nation of property laws are, the weaker the freedoms are of the people.
It’s that simple. Property is the numeral uno of the guarantee or the certification of freedom according to our God.
Sam Rohrer:
And David, that takes us, as I think of this, the beginning of the declaration, we’re endowed by our cream of certain rights and among these are life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness and original, that pursuit of happiness was private property ownership, was it not?
David New:
It was. And the reason why Jefferson changed it is so that he could broaden the definition of what property was. It could be anything that you want to do as a person that makes you happy. It could be anything that you could do with property that will expand your freedom and is your freedom. So he wasn’t rejecting property. He was building and enlarging it and making a commentary on the word property.
Sam Rohrer:
All right now ladies and gentlemen, I hope that this progression as we’re walking through is helping to connect some things. Religious freedom and the Bible’s freedom of religion cause is our theme today. When we come back, we’re going to move from where we have just discussed to the broader aspect of how this whole thing has so greatly influenced American law. Well, we’re going under halfway through the program now, building out this concept on this constitutional focus. If you’re just joining us, maybe you’ve never heard us before, generally twice a month approximately, constitutional attorney David New will join me and we’ve done this for literally years and years and years. It’s actually an amazing thing how long it’s been, but take some aspect that can take us to the constitution, expand upon it, and always there is a linkage. As I said before, you cannot talk about our US constitution without also talking about the word of God because the principles are from the word of God first, including this one we’re talking about today, religious freedom.
Now, in the last segment, David made the case that Genesis chapter one, verse 26 and 27, where man is created in the image of God, that’s what that passage talks about. It serves as the biblical foundation for human freedom, and he made that case because man created in the image of God is an extension of the very image of God who is by nature free and unbound or unrestricted in perfect holiness. And that’s how mankind was made at the beginning until sin came into the world. But anyways, it goes back all the way to that point. And because mankind is created in the image of God, this passage, Genesis 1:26 and 27 actually serves as the biblical foundation for all of human freedom. His argument is that religious liberty and all legitimate human rights originate not with government, but with God himself. Now obviously that’s something as a God-fearing American, we know we all know to be true.
Our rights come from God, not government. Now, if that’s true, I’m going to say since it’s true, then an important question naturally follows. How did this biblical understanding of man and liberty influence the development of American law and constitutional government? America’s founders frequently spoke of rights as being endowed by our creator rather than granted by government. I just referred to that. The Declaration of Independence appeals directly to the creator as the source of unalienable rights, literally God-given rights, and the constitution was designed to protect rather than create those rights. All of these things we’ve talked about before on this program. Now David also argues that Genesis one contains another important principle often overlooked and that is in discussions of liberty and that’s the principle connection between freedom, dominion, which referred to in the last segment, stewardship and you though we’re going to introduce and bring in, and private property, which he talked about.
Throughout history, the protection of property has been very closely tied to the protection of liberty itself. So David, let’s now move from the theology, I’m going to say from theology, from the word of God, to constitutional application and examine how these biblical principles actually found expression in America’s founding documents. So here’s the question. Again, you’ve argued Genesis 1:26 and 27 influenced not only our understanding of freedom, but also America’s constitutional framework. Here’s the question. How do you see the doctrine of the image of God reflected in the Declaration of Independence and in other integral principles underlying the Constitution? So go right to the foundation. Demonstrate this linkage, please.
David New:
Surely, the word property appears four times in the US Constitution and its amendments, four times. To attend the constitutional convention in 1787 in Philadelphia, the vast majority of states had a property requirement. You had to own private property just to walk in the door. In addition, in early America, if you wanted to vote, you had to own in many states private property because it’s so linked to personal freedom. Now look at the constitution. Look, this is perhaps considered one of the most important phrases, if not the phrase, the most important phrase of all in the constitution. It’s the due process clause. That’s what makes sure people in this country are free. Look what it says. I’m going to read from the 14th Amendment. “No state shall deprive… “Oh, that’s the government denying something. “No state shall deprive any person of life.” That’s execution. “Liberty, putting you in jail or property giving you a ticket for speeding without due process of law.
That’s a five buck way of saying there has to be a fair trial. There’s got to be a fair trial before they can execute you, they can put you in jail or fine you for driving too fast. Due process of law. Here again, the word property is used in our constitution to protect the freedoms of the people. Now, again, look how closely the word image of God and property are in the same verse. If someone asked me, why did the USS fail? Why did the Soviet Union fail? Why was it a failed state? I would point to them, Genesis 1:26 and 27. They did not respect private property. They were communist. They rejected God’s plan to protect human freedom. Our good friends and the democratic socialists do the same thing. They reject God’s plan for our freedom. All of these characters that are Democratics, democratic socialists, they all ultimately want to see property to disappear.
And of course, as you can imagine, a lot of these democratic socialists, not all of them, are atheist or agnostic, or they’re not very big on religion at all. Now, what is the beauty of property ownership? There are 2,754 billionaires in the world. If the WealthX foundation is correct, it could vary different sources. The United States has 680 billionaires. That’s about 25% of the world’s total. Now look what happens next. The second one is the Chinese communist. They have 338 bailers, roughly 12% of the total. Why is Chinese communist in existence today? Because they sinned. They allowed private property, and that’s why the state is allowed and continues to exist because they’re able to grow. You want to see an example of the Constitution being influenced by Genesis 1:26? James Madison specifically used this phrase in the Constitutional Convention, which is why the word slave does not appear anywhere in the first seven articles.
What did he say? He said, “There cannot be property in man.” Why is he saying that? He’s saying it because of his knowledge of the scripture. And when the 13th Amendment came up for ratification, when it came up to end slavery in the Bible or in the United States, guess what? What was one of the key verses that ended slavery? It was Genesis 1:26. Look what this particular congressman said, John F. Farnsworth, June 15, 1864. The 13th Amendment didn’t pass at this time. After the November elections in 1868, the public got behind of the 13th Amendment, and so a motion of reconsideration was approved. But at this time, this is what this John F. Farnsworth of Illinois said. He was a brigadier general in the Civil War, and he fought against Jeb Stewart a couple of times. Look what he says. Quote, this is June 15, 1864.
“Our property was made property by Jehovah when he gave man dominion over it. But nowhere did he give dominion to man over another man. The absence of the word man in Genesis 1:26 was a powerful argument to end slavery in the United States of America.
Sam Rohrer:
David, again, you did an excellent job there in my opinion of making that clear. But again, the strongest argument is going back to the word of God. And as you’ve identified, our founders started with God, the author who gave us these things. There is no stronger place. David, just very quick, we don’t have much time left. But when God is thrown out of the equation, how can these important principles that have made our laws what they are, how can they continue and remain?
David New:
They will not. One of the reasons why America is losing more and more freedom every day is because of the influence of Christianity. As the influence of Christianity in the United States decline, personal freedom of Americans decline. As secularism rises, personal freedom of declines because the source of human freedom is the Bible. It is God himself. That was the secret. And that was the secret that made America great, was we respected the teachings of the Bible, the book of Moses. So America is in big trouble. If we don’t have some sort of a renaissance or a new birth experience in this nation, we’re heading for dark days.
Sam Rohrer:
And ladies and gentlemen, that’s why we say often and remind ourselves what God told Israel. Fear God and keep my commandments. That is essential for blessing. Anything other than that is judgment. We’ll be right back. Well, as we go into our final segment here now today, I hope that you’ve been with us from the beginning. And if you have, I hope that the logical progression, as I try to build into all of the programs that we do, just like today, a logical progression, a theme, a title, and then work our ways through and end up with a resolve. Because we believe, and if you’re listening and you do regularly, I believe you do as well. If we believe that the word of God speaks to all issues of life, which it does, then there is no issue that comes before us. Anything that we would hear in the news, anything that we would encounter within our families or from whatever side, whatever challenge, the word of God would speak to it.
I think one of the things that we as a church in America have not done well is instruct people well in the word of God. So the result is when we do not look automatically to God’s word regarding, well, everything, every choice that we make, what food we put into our mouth, even what car we drive, you say, “Well, does it make any difference? Well, we ought to be asking the Lord for what we can afford and all those kind of things. I mean, yes, how we vote certainly. We just had an election, all these things. If that’s not run through the word of God, the grid of the word of God, we’re not thinking biblically. And of course we know as we started the program, 94% of Americans, I keep coming back because it’s staggering. Americans voted. People vote what they believe. They make choices according to what they believe.
So what we saw on Tuesday is a reflection of what Americans believe. George Barna would say, and we’ve talked about it many, many times, if 94% of Americans actually embrace the religion of syncretism, with 70% of Americans saying they are Christians, but only 6% of them manifesting a biblical worldview, therein is the disconnect. So part of our emphasis on our programs is to take things which are, look at it from what word of God says to help us to be better discerning, such as this case today on this matter of religious freedom and what David’s been talking about. But we’ve also often overlooked the direct connection as we’ve been talking between freedom, the dominion mandate regarding property there in Genesis, the principle of stewardship comes next and private property. According to scripture, freedom is not something granted by government. We’ve talked about that. It’s something granted exclusively by God.
Likewise, property is not merely an economic concept. It is a right with an accompanying stewardship duty and trusted by God to mankind. That raises another critical question though. If God grants freedom and if God entrusts property and possessions to our care, what responsibilities accompany those gifts? And scripture teaches that liberty is never licensed and ownership is never absolute. Why? Well, because if we believe biblically, everything we possess ultimately belongs to God and every person will one day give an account for how we have used the freedom, opportunities, resources and responsibilities entrusted to us. So David, let’s just wrap up here. You’ve made the case that private property and freedom are gifts from God designed to protect human liberty, to maintain our religious freedom so that our relationship with God can be enhanced, which is what God’s plan of redemption is all about since the fall entered in in the Garden of Eden.
But yet scripture also teaches the stewardship and accountability. How do you believe the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, for an example, and the account of Ananias and Sapphire in Acts five actually inform us today about God’s standards governing the proper use, and I’m going to say possible misuse of property and freedom.
David New:
Yes. The parable of talents in Matthew 25 starting in verse 14 to 30, my sources indicate that the word talent is an old fashioned way for the word money. A talent was about 80 pounds of silver or it was about 20 years of labor. So a talent was a lot of money. And if you looked at this passage, here you’ve got where the kingdom of God is like a man traveling into a far country and he called his servants and delivered his goods to them, to the one he gave five talents to another two and then to another one, to each according to his ability. And immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made five other talents. And likewise, he would receive two, gained two more, but he that received one buried it and didn’t do anything with it.
God wants us to use our money according to our ability. He wants us to use our money to increase our wealth. One of the ways Christians will be rewarded or lose some of the words or some of their reward is how they use their property, how they use their talent. Did you use your property to provide for your family, man? That’s a man’s job. Did you do that? Did you use your property to advance the kingdom of God? If you look at Acts five, you could see how serious God takes private property. Ananias and Saphira, they sold some property. They said, it’s all yours, but it wasn’t. They lied. They kept part of it back. Look at Acts five: four. Peter said, while it remained, was it not your own? Here we have a statement inspired by an apostle telling us that God sees our property as our property.
Then it goes on, after it was sold, was it not your own control? We control our property. And then they lied to the Holy Spirit and this was a situation where they died. So this is a very serious situation. You can use your property to build more wealth, five and five, two and two, or you can use your wealth for bad and not use your ability that God has given you. Whatever talent God gave you, use it to the very best of your ability.
Sam Rohrer:
And David, that lays out the very heart of the matter of stewardship and obviously Ananias and Sapphira, as you made the point very clear, and a lot of people have never heard that as what the apostle said, this was your property. There’s no problem. It’s not a problem that you sold your property. That’s not an issue. It’s not a problem that you made a profit perhaps maybe on the property that you sold. That’s not a problem either, but it is a problem when you come and you publicly say, I am giving God whatever it was, but they held back part of it. And the lying to the Holy Spirit, that’s a great point that you brought out. So we don’t fool God, that’s the part of accountability. David, we’re just about done. I want you to close the program in prayer. I only have less than a minute here.
Can you do that please?
David New:
Yes, sir. Dear Father, in the name of Jesus, we claim the blood of the lamb for the remission of our sins. And dear Father, bless this nation, bless our people, bless our country. Help us, dear father, find our way back to the things that made America great. Oh dear father, we thank thee for thy church that is shall go forth boldly with a bold spirit and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the name of our great God and Savior, I ask this, we say this. Amen.
Sam Rohrer:
Amen and amen. David New, thank you so much again for being with us today and always a blessing. Ladies and gentlemen, you can pick up this program again on our app or on our website, which will be given here in just a moment and pick up a transcript. As I say often, it’s a great tool to take and read through it, listen to the program again. There’s so many things that there’s just too much to write down. But I thank you all for being with us and I pray that the Lord has blessed you through the program. Take something from this and apply it. Just even one thing, one principle applied from God’s word is how we grow. So David New, again, thanks for being with me. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us and if the Lord willing, join us tomorrow here on this program and have a great weekend.
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