A recent Bloomberg news article entitled New Abortion Restrictions in States Are 0 for 8 in Courts
encapsulates what has been the standard operating procedure regarding pro-life legislation for decades. State legislatures pass a law designed to curtail or regulate the murder of the preborn, and then Federal courts or the Supreme Court strike the law down in order to uphold their unjust and immoral 1973 Roe. V. Wade ruling.
I am writing this article to say this needs to end. We have been waiting for decades to see the Federal government that brought this bloodshed to the shores of our nation undo what they have done. This is utter nonsense. It is playing with what Patrick Henry called “the delusive phantom of hope.”
For years I have watched Christians and pro-lifers wait for a Federal remedy to abortion. It will never come. The Feds are the problem. They foisted this bloodshed upon our country and have kept it intact through their courts. Meanwhile, the lower magistrates act like there is nothing they can do – but simply obey – which is contrary to Scripture and the history of Western Civilization.
[click here for pdf version of this post or continue below]
State legislatures and city councils do not need to obtain the permission of the Federal authority to end the bloodshed in their state or city. When unjust or immoral laws are made by any higher authority, the lower or lesser authorities have no obligation to obey. This is known as the doctrine of the lesser magistrates.
The doctrine declares that when the superior or higher ranking civil authority makes unjust/immoral laws or decrees, the lower or lesser ranking civil authority has both a right and duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities may even actively resist the higher authority.
The killing of a preborn human via abortion is a brutal murder. William Blackstone, the most cited legal scholar by America’s founding fathers, said of God’s laws that “no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.” Abortion is murder. It contradicts the law of God. The lesser magistrates therefore have the right and duty to defy the Federal government and declare and defend total abolition of abortion in their state, city or town. We should expect no less from them. We must demand it of them.
Frederick Douglas understood this. When writing about slavery many years ago, he stated, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
We have given our state legislators a pass. We have not demanded the complete abolition of abortion. Our political pro-life organizations offer miniscule-measure legislation that just nibbles at abortion on the edges. The result of this decades-long horse and pony show has done nothing more than placate the pro-lifers; legitimize the pro-life organizations; and aggrandize the “pro-life” politicians.
Meanwhile, the preborn continue to be slaughtered.
Over forty years this butchery has continued and not one legislature, not one governor, not one city council, not one mayor has interposed and defied the Federal beast. Not one has stood down their unjust/immoral edict and defended the preborn.
John Knox stated disdainfully of the lesser magistrates who failed to act in his day, “For now the common song of all men is, ‘We must obey our kings, be they good or be they bad; for God has so commanded.’” But as Knox responded, “True it is, God has commanded kings to be obeyed; but likewise true it is, that in things which they commit against His glory, He has commanded no obedience, but rather, He has approved, yea, and greatly rewarded, such as have opposed themselves to their ungodly commandments and blind rage.”
America’s lesser magistrates need to understand that they should not obey laws by our Federal government or opinions by the Supreme Court which contravene the law of God. They should not always just obey.
Recently, I was contacted by a state senator’s office here in Wisconsin asking me to support their latest miniscule-measure to stop abortion, namely, outlawing gender-selective abortions. I told them I wouldn’t do it – that they need to do their duty and completely abolish this killing outright. I demanded they do so. It is time to end the horse and pony show.
Pro-lifers and Christians need to quit waiting for yet the next presidential election so that the right Supreme Court Justices can be appointed. The Supreme Court that gave us Roe v. Wade was a 7-2 Republican-appointed majority. The Republican-appointed justices outnumbered the Democrat-appointed justices on the Court at least 7-2 for nearly 40 years after that. Yet the slaughter has continued.
Other pro-lifers falsely wait for the “abortion issue” to be returned to the states. The truth is this matter never has been outside the hands of the states. State legislatures and magistrates of all kinds should have defied the Supreme Court ruling immediately back in 1973. Their duty to refuse obedience and protect the preborn has never ceased, nor been out of their hands. They should not wait for the Federal government to rectify this matter. It is the Federal government that made the unjust/immoral ruling and laws – it is the Federal government that needs to be resisted. They have a duty to interpose.
We must demand it of them.
Matthew Trewhella is the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn (MissionariesToPreborn.com) and the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church (MercySeat.net). He and his wife, Clara, reside in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area and have eleven children. He has written a book entitled The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates: A Proper Response to Tyranny and A Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government which is available at Amazon.com or LesserMagistrate.com.
You can also listen to a sermon by the author on this topic entitled Americans:Innocent Blood and Their Lower Magistrates – DT.21
