Complimentary Story
April 2024On Tuesday evening, March 26, 2024, I had the pleasure of attending the presentation of “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates” written by Pastor Matt Trewhella at Freedom Project in Appleton, Wisconsin for the John Birch Society. There were approximately 90 patriots in attendance. Matt Trewhella is Pastor at Mercy Seat Church in Milwaukee, and founder of the organization Missionaries to the Preborn.
Family is massively important to Pastor Matt and his wife, Clara. They have been married for 42 years, they have 11 children of which 8 of them are now married, along with 35 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Pastor Matt eloquently stated “family and marriage has been under attack in America and has been under attack by design from the state and the reason they want to weaken and destroy the family in America is that every good statist knows that to strengthen the state, you have to weaken the family. They’ve done that by implementing no fault divorce, decriminalization of sodomy and adultery, the legalization of abortion, homosexual marriage and all to demean and belittle the institution of marriage.”
He goes on to talk about a book which was written back in 1947 called “Family and Civilization” by Carle Zimmerman, a sociologist and not a Christian. He states “he predicted that America would soon see divorce for any reason or no reason at all, no fault divorce by the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, that we would soon see legalized abortion (1973 Roe v Wade) and that we would soon see rampant and homosex within the culture. He made his prediction off the studies of Greek and Roman civilizations, the French and Bolshevik Revolution and other smaller groups in society. Most sociologists do one of two things with Christianity, they either act like Christianity didn’t have anything to do with the last 2,000 years of Western Civilization, or it had everything to do with the last 2,000 years of Western Civilization. Zimmerman was simply an honest man and he shows much of the good that Christianity brought the last 2,000 years. In his studies, Zimmerman came to the conclusion that the tipping point for any civilization or society for when they begin their descent into hell is the fact people no longer want to have children, not that they want zero, they want to have only one or two.”
America has been in a steep decline of not wanting to have children over the last 150 years and so much so over the last six years, Americans don’t even replace themselves numerically. Demographers say that you need 2.1 children per couple just for the population to replace itself. Last year we were at 1.68.
Pastor Matt went on to state “Zimmerman said the reason that’s the tipping point is when people no longer want to have children it’s because when men want to be husbands and fathers and women want to be wives and mothers, it produces within people, VIRTUE. But when men don’t want to be husbands and fathers and women don’t want to be wives and mothers, it produces within people, vice. He talked about how it takes three or four generations, with all the focus on ‘me’ and materialism, when it finally comes crashing down, the culture or society deteriorates and collapses so rapidly, everyone’s stunned at how fast it’s happening.”
Pastor Matt emphasized that marriage and family is the counterrevolution to all that the leftists and the elitists have been trying to build throughout the planet and it is important we all understand that. He encouraged everyone to hold their spouse dear and pour into the lives of our children. That is the besyt thing you can be doing to counter the evil that they want to pull off and it’s within your grasp to do those things! “As much as the statist dogs have been doing those things and invaded FAMILY government, we can govern our homes by finding a good spouse, we can have sons and daughters, we can raise our children,” he said.
He then went on to explain “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates.” “The doctrine is found within the Word of God and is seen through the history of mankind, proven to often reign in the tyranny of the superior civil authority and to reign in their tyranny bloodlessly, not always, but most always. We are bringing Christian thought to the civil government realm and this is massively important.”
The first important concept is understanding what “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates” is. It’s when the higher ranking civil authority makes unjust or immoral law, policy or court opinion, the GOD given right and duty of the lesser ranking civil authority is interposition. They are NOT to obey the superior civil authority when they are making evil through law, through policy, through court opinion, or making edicts which are contrary to the constitution, as we live in America. They also have the duty to actively resist the civil superior tyrants of civil authority. The duty of the lesser authorities is not to blythely comply. Their duty is interposition by using their lawful office to stand in between the tyrant superior authority and the people they represent in their jurisdiction. This is extremely important to understand.
As explained by Pastor Matt, “The Doctrine was first formalized in the Magdeburg Confession which was published in 1550. The reason it’s called the ‘Lesser Magistrates Doctrine’ is because it was a doctrine formalized by Christian men in 1550 in Magdeburg, Germany. The term magistrate is an old English term that means ‘one that possesses public lawful authority, whether by appointment or by election.’ In 1550 the churchmen of Magdeburg, Germany, which was then known as the Magdeburg Confession, showed from Scripture and history that their magistrates were right to defy Emperor Charles V and what he was doing. The writing of this doctrine was picked up by other reformers including John Knox, who wrote the foremost treatise on the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates in what’s known as his 1558 Appalachian to the nobles of Scotland. In this he cites over 70 passages of Scripture to show that this doctrine is sound in the Word of God. We see the doctrine in both the Old as well as the New Testaments, in Christian nations down throught Christian ministry and in the Jewish nation. We also see it in non-Christian, non-Jewish nations showing that it’s natural to man also.This Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates is rooted in the historic Christian doctrine of interposition. Again interposition is where you stand in the gap between the oppressor and his intended victim. You can do that verbally and/or physically.
“In Ezekiel 22:27-31, God said there was evil in the land and He was looking for someone to stand in the gap. One of the groups of people that He was looking for man to stand in the gap from was the princes, they were the lesser magistrates of their day, but God said ‘I could not find one.’ And then He declared that He was therefore bringing His judgement upon the land. The interposition of the lesser authority when there’s evil in the land is so critically important, it can actually make the just judgment of God on a nation.
“The Hebrew midwives out of Exodus 1 where Pharaoh told them to kill the male Hebrew children did not obey, they interposed and kept the male Hebrew children alive. Another example in the Bible is from 1 Samuel 14 where the people themselves interposed. Jonathan picked a fight with the Philistines, his dad Saul got involved and made a dopey edict that said nobody can eat anything until the battle is over and Jonathan ate a little honey, the battle is over, Israel won and Saul was going to put his own son to death. All of Israel rose up and said ‘not one hair shall be touched on the head of him who brought Israel such a great victory today.’ The people themselves interposed.
“The lynchpin of the ‘Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates’ is that the law of God is the objective standard by which we determine whether the laws of men are just or unjust, good or evil, right or wrong. That was the thinking of Western man for well over 1,500 years. If a law was made contrary to the Word of God it was to be resisted, it was to be treated as no law at all. It didn’t mean it was perfect because anything man is involved in is never perfect, but what it did mean was you had this objective standard so when the governments of men behaved lawlessly, men could call people to repentance, they could call men to repair, they could call men to reform. Now that we’ve removed this objective standard, not only by society hating the law of God but most of Christianity wants nothing to do with the law of God and has thrown His law under the bus, now the state is free to make it up as they go. Good is now evil, evil is now good and we live in an insane asylum at this point.”
Pastor Matt continues explaining the second important concept of The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates being if they exceed the limits of their authority. “Scripture limits the authority of the civil magistrates. We live in America, the US Constitution limits their authority. We live in Wisconsin, the state constitution limits their authority. If they exceed the limits of their authority they're going to be opposed.”
It’s important to understand that if the authorities exceed the limits of their delegated authority, they’re to be opposed. God is always to be on top and the four governments (family, church, civil and self) are to be under Him! Each government has its own role, function and limits and if they try to take over another one of the government’s roles or functions and exceed their limits, then chaos ensues in society. Our duty, as the people, is to prod our magistrates to do right and interpose against lawlessness by the superior civil authority and to assure them that if they do right, we will stand with them four-square with our person, with our property, with our prayers, both publicly and privately.
Our founders wanted it that way so that if any one branch or branches began to play the tyrant, another branch or branches would check them, would interpose against their evil. Our founders wanted these multiple levels, multiple branches at each level; they were throwing off a monarchy, they did not want power to reside in one man, nor a small group of men like an oligarchy which the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has become.
“People are getting involved at the county and local levels. The two massively important offices are county and local government. What’s happened to most of the states regarding the federal beast? They become mere provinces of the federal government. They become mere implementation centers of unjust and immoral federal law, policy and court opinion and unfortunately most of the county and local government thinks the same way. They view themselves as mere rubber stampers of the federal beast for the state government. They have to realize they are more than that; they are a lawful body in and of themselves. When the evil is done it is their duty to say ‘NO!’ and to stand against the evil.”
You can purchase Pastor Matt’s book online at: DefyTyrants.com.
