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I'm actually researching the Little Season theory at the moment, which is why 1776 interests me, although perhaps for a slightly different reason.
I agree there may be something much deeper going on with 1776 than simply "America became free from Britain."
What strikes me about the Declaration is the direction of authority.
When you look at something like the Ten Commandments, the direction is clear. God gives the law and man receives it. Authority comes down from God.
The Declaration is unusual because although it still acknowledges God as the Creator and source of man's rights, the political authority itself comes from man. Governments are "instituted among Men" and derive their powers from "the consent of the governed."
So essentially:
Rights come from God.
Government comes from Man.
That is the part I find significant.
I wouldn't say the Declaration openly rejects God because it clearly doesn't. But I think it quietly changes the order. God is retained as the source of man's rights, while mankind assumes responsibility for governing itself.
Instead of authority being understood as something descending through an established God-centred hierarchy, sovereignty increasingly resides in man himself. Man chooses his rulers, creates his government, alters it and ultimately decides what authority he will live under.
That ties directly into what I'm researching with the Little Season.
If the Little Season is a period in which mankind is allowed to exercise its own choice and move increasingly away from God's direct order, then perhaps 1776 isn't important simply because America separated from Britain. Perhaps it represents an important stage in mankind effectively saying:
God has given us our rights and our free will. We will govern ourselves.
And once that principle exists, the acknowledgement of God can gradually disappear while the system remains.
So I don't necessarily see 1776 as the beginning of the Little Season or proof of anything. I see it as a po