The Lesser Magistrate Heresy

 http://vcyamerica.org/blog/2013/11/21/the-doctrine-of-the-lesser-magistrates

Here's a link to a CrossTalk programme. It's not a show I would recommend and to be honest I often have a hard time even listening to it. It's one of the worst programmes out there but out of morbid curiosity I listen every once in awhile. The guest Matt Trewhella is sort of the 'main guy' for really pushing the Lesser Magistrate doctrine.

It was formulated in the 16^th century and yet he tries to argue the Magna Carta was a precedent. We can be thankful for the Baron's Revolt and the civil liberties it secured but nowhere are we told to take up arms against unjust rulers. Romans 13 was written when Nero was the emperor of Rome. Paul wasn't outlining a blueprint for government, he was telling Christians how to think of government. It's violence but it serves a Providential purpose. In 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 he makes it pretty clear that as Christians we're not terribly interested in the government which is 'outside'. Sure, Paul would appeal to the law to stop the worst of abuses, to expose corruption and to keep from being tortured. But that's a far cry from the assumptions of Christendom.

Yes, I know Romans 13 calls the magistrate a minister of God. That's certainly true, but so was Assyria, so was Cyrus the leader of Persia. Read Isaiah 10 and 45. Nowhere does Paul suggest the Roman Empire or any other government was somehow to be viewed as Christian. All governments today are mere Babylons. We sojourn. We don't try and turn Babylon into Zion.

The ethic of Romans 12 is being contrasted with Romans 13.... except in the original there's no chapter division. It's one flowing argument.

Speaking of Babylon....

And then a bizarre fashion Trewhella tries to argue that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego also represent the Lesser Magistrate. I'm afraid that quickly falls apart. They resisted a call to idolatry and so should we. We should refuse all forms of Nationalism and Patriotic ritual, especially in the context of the Church. But Daniel's friends did not resist with violence. They suffered the wrath of the state... the exact 'opposite' of the Lesser Magistrate doctrine and what Trewhella argues for.

The Lesser Magistrate doctrine is an attempt to legitimize violent revolution by arguing that in following a Lesser Magistrate revolting against a Greater Magistrate your use of violence is legitimate. You're not acting as an individual but you're bearing the sword under sanction of a magistrate.

So if you believed George Wallace was right and if he had called the citizens of Alabama to take up arms against the Federal Government, then that would have been legitimate. Right? Perhaps Trewhella wouldn't like that particular example. Well, what's the standard then? He doesn't want individuals taking up arms (agreed) but individuals will still have to decide whether to follow the Greater or Lesser magistrate. Or perhaps he thinks the clergy should decide that for us?

He's begging so many questions it's hard to know where to begin.

The doctrine is fictitious and created at the time of the Reformation in order to justify Protestants taking up arms against Catholic monarchs. Since then it has been used by some to justify the American Rebellion of 1776. The movement has absolutely no Biblical justification and many Christians at the time rightly rejected it...and many suffered as a result. We are told to pay our taxes. No one says we have to like it. No one says they have to be fair. Roman taxes funded evil wars and pagan temples. Nowhere can a case be made for tax non-conformity or violence in order to resist taxation. Anyone who argues for this is in sin and is 'resisting' in the very way Paul warns about.

We should speak truth to power and refuse ideological conformity. But we do this while obeying the law up until the point the civil law causes us to sin. At that point we either suffer as Shadrach and company did, or we can flee. But never are we told to take up arms.

The doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate is rooted in theological error and is antithetical to the teachings of Scripture.

This is just a stepping stone along a path I will continue to warn about. Eventually Christians in the United States are going to take up arms against the Federal Government. And they're going to bring persecution down on all of us.

Once the Church enters the power game, truth is no longer paramount. Victory is all that matters. In order to achieve this goal these partisans will lie about the past and the present, they will appeal to whatever is required in order to manipulate their audience.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.