I am afraid you have a tough time ahead of you there...
There were some enlightenment era philosophers (Voltaire comes to mind) that heavily influenced the framers of our constitution. These were not necesarily christian men by any means. They did, however, feel that every man had a rtight to his own life and the freedom of how he lived it. They felt that the usurping of that freedom was anathema to the human soul.
In Plato's Republic (WAY before the "enlightenment"), Socrates teaches that there are "Universal Truths" that should mankind put enough effort into that we can discover. These are truths about anything, but primarily philosophical truths.
These two schools of thought formed the basis for the justification of the declaration of independance.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Biblical support for this position is pretty darn vauge. The new testament concerns its self not with the issues of government but strictly with the issues of salvation and the soul. One of the only scriptures that talks about governement says "Give unot Caeser's what is Ceaser's and give unto the Lord what is the Lord's". This passage is indicative of what the early church taught concerning governments: If you live in a country, follow their laws.
Early christians never had the right to bear arms. The didnt have the right to freedom of assembly. They had no right to freedom of religion. They often didnt have the right to freedom of due process. Yet the bible and their leaders still encouraged them to submit to their governments.
Now this did begin to change with the rise of the Roman Catholic Church after the fall of Rome, but that was because the Roman Catholic Church WAS the governemnt in many cases. And believe you me, they trampled over EVERYONE's rights. As a matter of fact, the rise of the nation state was, in part, to counter the church's influence. The formation of the United States and the Bill of Rights wa ALSO to limit the power of ANY church in the government process. The colonists had seen all too well what a state church did to people of different faiths. The United States was made up of many religions who were persecuted at the hands of a state church.
Whew!
Got me going, eh?
Well... Like I said, I think you are going to have a tough time proving that the Bill of Rights has any biblical basis. Its mostly a secular concept that concerns itself with the limitation of the Federal Govt's ability to dictate to the states. Until fairly recently, BTW, most of the bill of rights could be suspended in a particular state by STATE law. Just not by Federal law.
J.T.
As usual, FWIW, IMHO, YMMV and all that
