...It cannot be overlooked that the entire argument of "declaring independence" from tyranny was worded as such because of Biblical prohibitions of "Rebellion"...
"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."
http://biblehub.com/kjv/1_samuel/15-23.htm
Jefferson needed to word the Declaration of Independence from British Tyranny in the manner that he did in order to avoid putting forth a national position of the sin of rebellion!
Jefferson would have had no reason to declare independence from Tyranny so eloquently if the Bible had not been so specific about the evil of "rebellion".
Lincoln also must have understood this. I faintly recall Lincoln using the word "Rebels" for the Confederacy, and this moniker carried a terrible religious weight against the Southern cause, a weight our modern day mindset cannot truly fathom.
Whatever Jefferson was, he clearly studied the Bible, having composed two works about Jesus.
“No one sees with greater pleasure than myself the progress of reason in its advances towards rational Christianity.”...
“I have little doubt that the whole of our country will soon be rallied to the unity of the Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also.” - Jefferson letter to Adams