by Rev. Matthew Trewhella

Sunlight was just beginning to break over the darkness of the morning as my wife and I headed toward the entrance of the cold brick-faced building. Fear and apprehension gripped me each step of the way. A thousand questions and thoughts raced through my mind. “How much pain will there be? Why the heck did I ever do this in the first place? Maybe I should just leave.”

As I entered the door, I figured these were my last moments to bolt and run. I thought back to when I had done something similar six and a half years earlier and remembered the words that blazed across my mind when the procedure began—I will never do this again! Yet there I was, about to have a vasectomy reversal. What could possibly bring a man to the point where he would be willing to go under the knife once again?

Two UnBiblical Beliefs

Only two things could convince a man to get a vasectomy reversal.
A) a radical restructuring of his beliefs, or
B.) a nagging wife.
For me it was the former.

In 1985, I held two beliefs which convinced me that getting a vasectomy was fine. The first belief was that God nowhere in Scripture condemns the use of birth control, therefore it must be okay. The second belief was that God wants us to use “wisdom,” therefore in today’s economy and because of my emotional makeup it would not be wise for me to have more than two children, and I already had two. Both beliefs are unBiblical.

The first belief, that God no where in Scripture condemns the use of birth control therefore it must be okay, fails to recognize the very first command of God in Scripture. It is found in Genesis 1:28. God says, after creating man and woman, “be fruitful and multiply.” This is not a suggestion – it is a command! By virtue of the fact that God commands us to be “fruitful and multiply,” He speaks against birth control.

When we use birth control, we are saying, “No, I won’t be ‘fruitful and multiply!”‘ We are disobeying God and we are abrogating one of His intents for marriage (Gen. 2:24).

Some would say that this command no longer applies because the earth is full. This teaching that the earth is overpopulated or may soon be is a humanistic, pagan myth. Christians who teach this display their ignorance and sadly show once again that too often the presuppositions of popular 20th century Christianity are the same as the world’s.The truth is, all the people of the world standing side by side in a four foot square area each could fit in the city of Jacksonville, Florida, leaving the rest of the world wide open. (Read The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective by Thomas Sowell.)

By Virtue of the fact that God commands us to be “fruitful and multiply,” He speaks against birth control.

The second belief, that we must use “wisdom,” is nowhere supported by Scripture and reveals our lack of trust in God to meet our needs. If God wants us to “use wisdom” i.e. use birth control, then why is it that whenever people in the Scriptures have many children God declares it is because He has blessed them? In I Chronicles 25:4-5, we read that Hamen had 14 sons. For what purpose? To financially burden him? No. God did it to bless him the Scriptures say!

God views children as rewards, gifts and arrows from Him (Psalm 127:3-5). He views them as a blessing (Deuteronomy 7:13,14), and as a sign of His approval (Exodus 23:25,26). Most Christians would view houses from the Lord as a gift, reward, blessing, or sign of His approval, yet, if they received four or five houses, I highly doubt any of them would say, “Well, we better use wisdom” and begin to practice house-control, not accepting more than two. Obviously, God’s view of children is very different from ours.

Historical Teaching

For too long birth control has been looked upon as a “Catholic issue”. It is fast becoming a “Protestant issue” however, as Protestant ministers like myself protest the heretical teaching of birth control that is being propagated in Protestant churches. We must understand that the Church had spoken consistently for 1900 years against birth control. Only in the last 80 years have Protestant churches begun to peddle this belief that God thinks it’s okay or wise for us to use birth control.

Listen to this quote, “The purpose of marriage is not to have pleasure and to be idle but to procreate and bring up children, to support a household. Those who have no love for children are swine, stocks, and logs unworthy of being called men or women; for they despise the blessings of God, the Creator and Author of marriage.” some Protestants would say, “This quote is obviously the mad drivelings of some medieval Pope.” It is not. Rather, it is the founder of the Reformation, Martin Luther who said this. Protestant Christians need to realize that their leaders consistently spoke against birth control up until about 80 years ago.

Who are some of the leaders besides Luther? John Calvin, John Wesley, Robert Dabney, Charles Spurgeon, A.W. Pink, Zacharius Ursinus, Heinrich Bullinger, Cotton Mather, Herbert Leupold, Johann Keil, Franz Delitszch, Matthew Henry, Adam Clark and John Machen, just to name a few, spoke against the use of birth control.

The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, once stated, “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.” This does not shock most Christians today because they agree with her and quote her daily. “I can’t handle more than two.” “I can’t wait until you grow up and move out.” “Will this be your last?” (Asked in church after a couple announces they are having a third child; no congratulations of course) All of these statements and those like them parade the party line of Planned Parenthood, and are in opposition to our Protestant forefathers.

“Those who have no love for children are swine, stocks,
and logs unworthy of being called men or women.”
– Martin Luther

Time has come for those of us in Protestant Christianity to come to grips with the teaching of scripture and our historical heritage and begin to follow the teaching of God and our forefathers, rather than the teaching of Margaret Sanger.

Blood in our Bricks

If you were to list all the reasons why Christians use birth control, you would see that they are the same reasons why a woman aborts her child. The number one reason (according to all studies ever done) a woman aborts her child is because the child is an inconvenience. The child interferes with the mother’s (or the father’s) pursuit of happiness or possessions. When we use birth control, we are embracing the same anti-child mentality. We are saying that our pursuit of so called happiness, our pursuit of possessions, is more important than obeying God. The question is,”How can we abrogate God’s design for marriage and expect to really be happy?”

In the Church today, we “warehouse” children. We don’t want them around us during the church service. Many pastors are advising newly married couples to use birth control the first two years of their marriage so they can have time to get used to each other without having undue stress added to the marriage. The cause for abrogating God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply,” is the same as the cause for abrogating His command “you shall not murder” – self-centeredness! One of the main reasons why the Church has failed to act against abortion is because it embraces the same anti-child mentality as those who advocate the murdering of the helpless preborn.

We have no God-given right to manipulate God’s design for marriage by using birth control. As long as we continue to make “possessions” and”self” our god and as long as we look at children as a diaper bill rather than a blessing, we will never see the Church act in mass against baby-murder. God help us to have His view of children and to obey His commands.

Pastor Matt Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn.

http://www.mercyseat.net/protestantProtest.html

Marriage License Not Necessary

by Rev. Matthew Trewhella

Every year thousands of Christians amble down to their local county courthouse and obtain a marriage license from the State in order to marry their future spouse. They do this unquestioningly. They do it because their pastor has told them to go get one, and besides, “everybody else gets one.” This pamphlet attempts to answer the question – why should we not get one?

1. The definition of a “license” demands that we not obtain one to marry.
Black’s Law Dictionary defines “license” as, “The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal.” We need to ask ourselves- why should it be illegal to marry without the State’s permission? More importantly, why should we need the State’s permission to participate in something which God instituted (Gen. 2:18-24)? We should not need the State’s permission to marry nor should we grovel before state officials to seek it. What if you apply and the State says “no”? You must understand that the authority to license implies the power to prohibit. A license by definition “confers a right” to do something. The State cannot grant the right to marry. It is a God-given right.

2. When you marry with a marriage license, you grant the State jurisdiction over your marriage.
When you marry with a marriage license, your marriage is a creature of the State. It is a corporation of the State! Therefore, they have jurisdiction over your marriage including the fruit of your marriage. What is the fruit of your marriage? Your children and every piece of property you own. There is plenty of case law in American jurisprudence which declares this to be true.

In 1993, parents were upset here in Wisconsin because a test was being administered to their children in the government schools which was very invasive of the family’s privacy. When parents complained, they were shocked by the school bureaucrats who informed them that their children were required to take the test by law and that they would have to take the test because they (the government school) had jurisdiction over their children. When parents asked the bureaucrats what gave them jurisdiction, the bureaucrats answered, “your marriage license and their birth certificates.” Judicially, and in increasing fashion, practically, your state marriage license has far-reaching implications.

3. When you marry with a marriage license, you place yourself under a body of law which is immoral.
By obtaining a marriage license, you place yourself under the jurisdiction of Family Court which is governed by unbiblical and immoral laws. Under these laws, you can divorce for any reason. Often, the courts side with the spouse who is in rebellion to God, and castigates the spouse who remains faithful by ordering him or her not to speak about the Bible or other matters of faith when present with the children.

As a minister, I cannot in good conscience perform a marriage which would place people under this immoral body of laws. I also cannot marry someone with a marriage license because to do so I have to act as an agent of the State! I would have to sign the marriage license, and I would have to mail it into the State. Given the State’s demand to usurp the place of God and family regarding marriage, and given it’s unbiblical, immoral laws to govern marriage, it would be an act of treason for me to do so.

4. The marriage license invades and removes God-given parental authority.
When you read the Bible, you see that God intended for children to have their father’s blessing regarding whom they married. Daughters were to be given in marriage by their fathers (Dt. 22:16; Ex. 22:17; I Cor. 7:38). We have a vestige of this in our culture today in that the father takes his daughter to the front of the altar and the minister asks, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”

Historically, there was no requirement to obtain a marriage license in colonial America. When you read the laws of the colonies and then the states, you see only two requirements for marriage. First, you had to obtain your parents permission to marry, and second, you had to post public notice of the marriage 5-15 days before the ceremony.

Notice you had to obtain your parents permission. Back then you saw godly government displayed in that the State recognized the parents authority by demanding that the parents permission be obtained. Today, the all-encompassing ungodly State demands that their permission be obtained to marry.

By issuing marriage licenses, the State is saying, “You don’t need your parents permission, you need our permission.” If parents are opposed to their child’s marrying a certain person and refuse to give their permission, the child can do an end run around the parents authority by obtaining the State’s permission, and marry anyway. This is an invasion and removal of God-given parental authority by the State.

5. When you marry with a marriage license, you are like a polygamist.
From the State’s point of view, when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, but you are also marrying the State.

The most blatant declaration of this fact that I have ever found is a brochure entitled “With This Ring I Thee Wed.” It is found in county courthouses across Ohio where people go to obtain their marriage licenses. It is published by the Ohio State Bar Association. The opening paragraph under the subtitle “Marriage Vows” states, “Actually, when you repeat your marriage vows you enter into a legal contract. There are three parties to that contract. 1.You; 2. Your husband or wife, as the case may be; and 3. the State of Ohio.”

See, the State and the lawyers know that when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, you are marrying the State! You are like a polygamist! You are not just making a vow to your spouse, but you are making a vow to the State and your spouse. You are also giving undue jurisdiction to the State.

When Does the State Have Jurisdiction Over a Marriage?

God intended the State to have jurisdiction over a marriage for two reasons – 1). in the case of divorce, and 2). when crimes are committed i.e., adultery, bigamy. etc. Unfortunately, the State now allows divorce for any reason, and it does not prosecute for adultery.

In either case, divorce or crime, a marriage license is not necessary for the courts to determine whether a marriage existed or not. What is needed are witnesses. This is why you have a best man and a maid of honor. They should sign the marriage certificate in your family Bible, and the wedding day guest book should be kept

Marriage was instituted by God, therefore it is a God-given right. According to Scripture, it is to be governed by the family, and the State only has jurisdiction in the cases of divorce or crime.

History of Marriage Licenses in America

George Washington was married without a marriage license. So, how did we come to this place in America where marriage licenses are issued?

Historically, all the states in America had laws outlawing the marriage of blacks and whites. In the mid-1800’s, certain states began allowing interracial marriages or miscegenation as long as those marrying received a license from the state. In other words they had to receive permission to do an act which without such permission would have been illegal.

Blacks Law Dictionary points to this historical fact when it defines “marriage license” as, “A license or permission granted by public authority to persons who intend to intermarry.” “Intermarry” is defined in Black’s Law Dictionary as, “Miscegenation; mixed or interracial marriages.”

Give the State an inch and they will take a 100 miles (or as one elderly woman once said to me “10,000 miles.”) Not long after these licenses were issued, some states began requiring all people who marry to obtain a marriage license. In 1923, the Federal Government established the Uniform Marriage and Marriage License Act (they later established the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act). By 1929, every state in the Union had adopted marriage license laws.

What Should We Do?

Christian couples should not be marrying with State marriage licenses, nor should ministers be marrying people with State marriage licenses. Some have said to me, “If someone is married without a marriage license, then they aren’t really married.” Given the fact that states may soon legalize same-sex marriages, we need to ask ourselves, “If a man and a man marry with a State marriage license, and a man and woman marry without a State marriage license – who’s really married? Is it the two men with a marriage license, or the man and woman without a marriage license? In reality, this contention that people are not really married unless they obtain a marriage license simply reveals how Statist we are in our thinking. We need to think biblically. (As for homosexuals marrying, outlaw sodomy as God’s law demands, and there will be no threat of sodomites marrying.)

You should not have to obtain a license from the State to marry someone anymore than you should have to obtain a license from the State to be a parent, which some in academic and legislative circles are currently pushing to be made law.

When I marry a couple, I always buy them a Family Bible which contains birth and death records, and a marriage certificate. We record the marriage in the Family Bible. What’s recorded in a Family Bible will stand up as legal evidence in any court of law in America. Early Americans were married without a marriage license. They simply recorded their marriages in their Family Bibles. So should we.

(Pastor Trewhella has been marrying couples without marriage licenses for 20 years. Many other pastors also refuse to marry couples with State marriage licenses.)

This pamphlet is not comprehensive in scope. Rather, the purpose of this pamphlet is to make you think and give you a starting point to do further study of your own.

Pastor Matt Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn.

http://www.mercyseat.net/marriagelicense.html

How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God follow Him…
1 Kings 18:21

We live in a statist culture. Christians who develop their worldview self-consciously understand this fact of life to one degree or another. The problem is, Christians in this country have only ever lived in a statist culture. It is normal to us. We like the leeks and melons. Just like the frog in the pot slowly brought to a boil we sometimes cannot even recognize the danger of our cultural environment. So, we end up baptizing our secular – often thoroughly pagan – activities and think all is well with our Christian life.

The modern state does not care how we interpret our actions or view our relationship to it. We can think what we want. It only cares that we act in obedience and consent to its claims by signing the form. We are so used to the signature ritual, we seldom ask what we are signing away, or signing into. It’s all so normal, you see. Everyone does it.

Have you ever asked yourself why Christians get a marriage license when they get married? A license is defined by Black’s Law dictionary as;

“The permission by a competent authority to do an act which, without such permission, would be illegal, a trespass, or tort….  Certificate or the document itself which gives permission.”

Now, that’s interesting. When a Christian couple asks their state government for a marriage license,  they are asking permission in law from that state to get married. Of course, the state doesn’t care how future Mr. & Mrs. Christian  interpret this act. They can think what they want. But what is important is that they sign the form.

States call this agreement a Marriage Contract. Contracts are always made between or among parties. Do you know who is always a party to any marriage contract? It is not just an agreement between Mr. and Mrs. Christian. (If it was then why would you need to sign the form offered by the state?) It is an agreement among Mr. and Mrs. Christian and the state. There are three parties to every marriage contract.

In the Bible it is very clear the civil government is to enforce the institution of marriage. The civil government is a minister of God. We support and uphold that legitimate function of the state.  But is there justification for the idea that the state owns marriage, in such a way that citizens must ask permission from the state to be “lawfully married”? Again, a license is permission to engage in an activity. This claim is not irrelevant, it is real – printed neatly in black and white. And when Christians – whether they understand it or not – ask permission for a marriage license they are agreeing to the claim of the state as sovereign and creator of the marriage agreement. Is this Christian or pagan?

How about the idea that the state, together with the man and woman is a party to the marriage? This gives a whole new meaning to being in bed with the state! To press the metaphor further, this logically means they have a legal claim to the progeny of that agreement. This is why the state is justified in using force against godly Christian families (eg. homeschooling issues). The parents voluntarily gave authority over their children by making the State a party to the contract that produced them. It is time to recognize paganism for what it is. Let’s go further. It’s time to stop acting like pagan state worshipers when it comes to marriage. Since marriage is a picture of Christ’s intimate union with his bride, the Church, inviting any other into this lawful union profanes and adulterates it. In so doing we present a false gospel picture to the world and to ourselves.

Marriage is not a contract designed for convenience. It is not the property of the state. It is indeed ordained for three parties but we dare not substitute the “state” for our Lord, Jesus Christ. There is no biblical  justification for Christian participation in marriage licenses and contracts. They are pagan to the core. They testify to the “god-state”, not to the reality of Christ’s relationship to his Church.

What we offer here is a biblical alternative. You can’t beat something with nothing. We believe it is a consistent outworking of Christian theology, and specifically, covenant theology. We recommend using this covenant, or something similar in the place of marriage contracts and licenses. The common law of each of the fifty states will recognize this as a lawful marriage, as long as it is signed by two witnesses. By using this marriage covenant in the place of the marriage license Christians avoid state worship in their actions. We have found this document to be helpful. It has been used in our community by five families. We believe it has been a blessing to re-center marriage in our lives the way it was given to us by God. It highlights a neglected concept: covenant. For too many Christians covenant theology is what happens in the mind. This is a way to actually live covenant theology.

May God be glorified as we think Christ’s thoughts after him concerning marriage.

Marriage Covenant

http://www.truthinliving.org/Marriage_Covenant.php

by Pastor Matt Trewhella

July 25, 2007

Recently, The Nation magazine, bastion of left-leaning drivel, wrote an attack piece against Christians who have large families. The article essentially declared that these large-family Christians are having many children for political reasons. Their aim was to warn the non-Christian world of this insidious behavior.

The truth is those of us with large families are not doing it for political reasons. As Christians we are a theologically-driven people and we simply see what the Scriptures plainly teach about family and children. What motivates us to have children, and be thankful to the Lord for lots of them, is Scripture itself.

One man mentioned in the article is Phillip Longman. Longman is a well-respected, world-renowned, demographer. He’s a secularist and a statist. He has written for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an organization consisting of the cultural elitists of the world bent on implementing their statist social engineering plans through public policy. He was commissioned by the CFR to publish a paper addressing the plummeting birthrates in the industrialized and developing countries of the world. He had very sobering news for them – people who are religious and who take their religion seriously are outbreeding them.

In The Nation article, he states plainly that no society can survive to reproduce itself without following patriarchy. “As secular and libertarian elements in society fail to reproduce, people adhering to more traditional, patriarchal values inherit society by default,” he says.

Here’s a pagan who gets it. Just by doing the demographics of the entire world – this is the conclusion he comes to – no society can survive to reproduce itself without following patriarchal values, namely, a man and woman marrying and having large numbers of children.

In The Nation article, Longman states that the solution is for the secularists to emulate the Christians having large numbers of children by returning to patriarchy and having large families themselves.

Let me tell you – they’ll never do it. Their worldview cannot support such notions.

As Christians, we do not believe that our sons and daughters are a mere commodity that we can glibly pay someone $450.00 to exterminate. Rather, we view our children as precious because they are given to us by God. We do not view our children as mere products of random chance, as mere animals that evolved above the rest of the species, who exist merely for their own ends, designs, desires, and pleasures. Rather, we believe each of our sons and daughters were created according to the purpose of God in order to bring glory to Him and enjoy Him forever.

These are two huge presuppositional differences – that are worlds apart from each other. This iswhy they’ll never do it. Their worldview cannot support such notions of patriarchy. They’ll never have large families. Sadly, nor will the vast majority of present-day Christians who are hell-bent to emulate the world, and in the end, immolate their God-given purpose, heritage and created design. They’re simply too busy following the world’s preaching – pursuing wealth and ease – and having children hinders such goals.

As Christians, we have children because we see God’s created order declared in Scripture and we obey it; we live in fulfillment of it; we don’t try to circumvent it. We are a theologically-driven people. We conduct our lives in accordance with Holy Scripture. We do what we do based upon what the Word of God declares. We have children, even large numbers of them, because we have fealty to the Lord and His Word. Our worldview is shaped by Holy Scripture.

God’s Word makes it clear that God has a way different picture about children than the world does (or for that matter, the vast majority of American Christianity does). God doesn’t view children as a burden – He views them as a blessing. He wants us to have children, and when He gives us many we are to take it as being blessed of God, not burdened or beaten down by Him. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them! (Psalm 127)

He was the One who commanded mankind to “be fruitful and multiply.” (Gen. 1:27&28; 9:1&7; 35:11; and Lev. 26:9) He states repeatedly in His Word that having many children means you are blessed of Him! (I Chron. 25:4-5; 26:4-5; Gen. 17:6; 22:17) The Scriptures repeatedly present childlessness as an unfortunate thing. (Hos. 9:10-17; Ex. 23:25-26; Dt. 7:13-14; Gen. 30:1; I Sam.1:10; Lk.1:6-25)

All this – and piles more I didn’t mention from Scripture – causes us to desire to have children – as we see His view of them!

As Christians, we have children because we see this created order declared in God’s Word and we obey it; we live in fulfillment of it; we don’t try to circumvent it. We are a theologically-driven people – or at least we’re suppose to be.

Matt Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church (MercySeat.net) and heads up Missionaries to the Preborn (https://sites.google.com/site/missionariestopreborn/).

http://www.mercyseat.net/pdfs/manychildren.pdf