Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear

 

 

 

 

On August 16, 2009, Sara and I were married. We had a covenant wedding and did not get a state-issued marriage license. God instituted the plan of marriage, so through study and prayer, we made the determination long before we were married that we did not need the government’s permission to be married.

Since this time, the questions have poured in… How did you do it? How did you change your names? How do you file taxes? How does it work? I received another question just today. So in an effort to address these questions and others like them, I am creating this blog post.
I’ll also post several resources at the bottom so that you can do your own research. I’m going to try and cover a lot here, but I’m sure I will miss some things! So please, if you have additional questions, post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

Now, if you’re just stumbling upon this information for the first time, and are thinking, “why would you want to get married without a license?”, I would highly recommend first reading our Wedding Ceremony Booklet so that you understand exactly WHY we did this.

That being said, let’s see what this whole no-license-marriage is all about, and how it works!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Won’t Be Easy.

First off, let me just say that even though what we’re doing is rooted in very old concepts, in today’s environment, we are breaking new ground here. The system currently in place is not made, nor does it appreciate people bucking it in the least. And so, this is most definitely a fight. One that may involve a bit of self sacrifice in order to gain ground. I think it is important to recognize what you are getting into beforehand. I challenge everyone not to take my word for it, but to study this for themselves.

That being said, I obviously believe that this is a fight worth pursuing. I also believe that among the many fights that you can take on, the marriage license issue is one of the easiest! We know other people who have fought driver’s licenses, taxes, permits, and many other issues; but the marriage license issue requires very little in comparison. At least that has proven true for us. Some of these other issues require many hours spent in court, writing correspondence to government offices and/or court officers, and of course lots of money. However, not obtaining a marriage license essentially just requires your non-participation in various aspects of the current system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be On the Same Page.

I have heard of couples divorcing over disagreements concerning the fight for freedom and liberty. Nine times out of ten, the husband is wanting to be a patriot and his wife thinks he is crazy for trying. Before Sara and I were even married, we were involved in study groups where we both became dedicated to the defense of liberty and the Constitution. We talked with each other, at length, concerning what was important and what our Christian responsibilities were going to be as a couple. We knew going into this that there would be a lot of self sacrifice involved in some of these decisions we were making. In our case, our agreement on this subject proved to strengthen our relationship even more. And so, I cannot stress enough the importance of being on the same page. Maintaining a marriage is often challenging enough without disagreeing on such a fundamental principle as liberty. Standing up for your rights can affect so many aspects of your lives as a couple. You MUST be in agreement on this.

 

 

 

 

Discuss the Future Impact.

This is where the “fight” comes in. As I write this, the de facto government (the widely recognized government of North Carolina, and the U.S. federal government) still recognizes my wife by her maiden name, and not her married name, Sara Muncy. As far as we are concerned, to us, our friends, our family, everyone that is important to us, and in natural law — Sara’s name is now Sara Muncy. But because the marriage license helps to initiate the name change, the de facto government does not recognize the change. Now, if it is important to you to be recognized by this government, there are other ways to change your name. For us, this was not important. But this decision is up to you, depending on how far you want to take your battle. To change your name without a marriage license, simply go to the courthouse after you are married, and petition the court to change your name. The courthouse will post notice of the petition, and if nobody objects within a given time, the change will become “official” (at least in that government body).

There are many things which are affected by your decision (or not) to obtain a wedding license. Among these are…

1. Driver’s License
2. Social Security Number (we refer to this as the ‘slave number’)
3. Bank Accounts
4. Paychecks
5. IRS Forms (W2, W9, 1099, etc.)
6. Filing Status
7. Bills / Mail
8. Employer / Associates
9. Children

Every couple’s decisions about the above items are going to be different. Are you self-employed, or working for a corporation? Is your employer willing to change your name on your cubicle without something “official?” (That’s a fun one. When Sara was still “working for the man” her employer changed the nameplate on her cubicle with no questions asked!) Are your feelings going to be hurt that the IRS doesn’t give you that deduction for filing jointly? (remember that whole self sacrifice thing?) Will you even be filing taxes? Does it matter to you what name your bill collector puts on the envelope? Will your bank require you to have the same last name to open a joint checking account? Does that matter to you? Will you have children? Will THEY have slave numbers? These are all important questions to ask yourselves.

When the government doesn’t recognize you as being married, and doesn’t even recognize that your name has changed, this affects a lot of things. We’ve discovered that for most of these things, there is a workaround. For example, we don’t have a joint bank account. So we operate largely in cash, and we just share the bank accounts we had before we were married. We both have access to the same information and we manage it just the same. Each of these issues has a different approach which we have had to discover for ourselves along the way.

When we were first married, admittedly we were a little scared about how all of this would go. Okay, we were VERY scared about how it was going to go. But we prayed about it, talked about it, and had a lot of encouragement from our friends. And most importantly, we took it ONE STEP AT A TIME. Today, we are a living example that you DO NOT have to have a marriage license to be married. Rather than begging for our rights, we have chosen to ASSERT them.

Finding a Pastor

Once you’ve done your research and you and your future spouse have BOTH decided that this is the right step, you need to find a pastor who understands what a covenant marriage is all about. Again, the system doesn’t like this. North Carolina (de facto) state law requires that a marriage license be completed and returned to the register of deeds who issued it. Unless they understand and are willing to join the fight, most ministers or pastors will adhere to this law. However, there are a few good patriot pastors out there who will perform a marriage without a license. You just have to look in the right places. Chuck Baldwin’s Black Regiment listing is a great place to start. If you need help finding a pastor, let me know* and I’ll be glad to help you with your search.

*Update: Email link removed. I am no longer able to respond to inquiries concerning pastor / officiant searches. Please see 11/20 update at the end of this blog post.

Prepare the Covenant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A covenant is between you, your spouse and God. Sara and I had a lot of help from friends and some pastor friends of ours to develop and customize our own covenant. Because we are in graphic design and both appreciate the Constitution, we not only tailored the wording of our covenant, but its appearance as well, to make it look like the U.S. Constitution. We had a lot of fun with it. But the wording and appearance of your covenant is up to you and your spouse. Feel free to use ours as a guide if you like, and customize it to your liking. You both must read your covenant thoroughly, and agree on every point. You will be living under this covenant for the rest of your lives!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to our covenant, we also created these Marriage Ceremony Booklets. Sara and I had a very small wedding. In fact, we only invited our immediate families and our grandparents. We did this because we wanted to focus on the covenant that we were making, rather than focusing on all the “fluff and pizazz” that normally goes along with weddings. Because our wedding was small, we were able to very inexpensively have these booklets printed and ready to hand out to our guests so that they would better understand why were getting married in this fashion. It really made an impact, and as usual, we got lots of questions. There was even a lady at the local Kinko’s asking us questions when we picked up the booklets!

Continue Talking About It.

Things don’t suddenly become easier after you are married. Should I even have to say this? But things are especially harder if you have made the decision to buck the system such as we did. Keep talking about it after you’re married! Get together with your spouse and discuss your plan of action as it unfolds. Talk about it every day if you have to. Seek comfort in one another when you’re worried about how hard things are going to be. Pray about it together. As a result, your marriage will grow stronger, and your relationship will grow deeper. Discuss what you’ve done with other couples! Sara and I have had great fun telling people about what we did — encouraging others to break free from the molds that society, and the government, places upon us.

“Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” -Matthew 19:6

About Cliff and Sara Muncy

We are Believers. We are strong advocates and defenders of the Constitution and of lawful government. As opposed to U.S. citizenship, we believe in state sovereignty and state citizenship as put into place by the founders. As such, we support the de jure (lawful) state of North Carolina (the North-Carolina American Republic) and the fight against the nationalization of citizenship and the unconstitutionality of Reconstruction. Our rights are inherent, God given, and cannot be legislated away. We understand and accept the responsibility that we must assert these rights in order to restore this country and to ensure life and liberty for us and future generations.

 

Update 11/20/13: First off, Sara and I are still happily married and remain active and dedicated to the liberty movement. Since the time this article was published in 2011, the response has been phenomenal. We have received many emails from across the country. We have found that the biggest roadblock for most couples is in finding a pastor who is willing to perform a marriage ceremony without a license. This has been both disheartening and eye-opening.

We must apologize to many of you, as due to time limitations, we have been unable to respond to each inquiry. Sara and I have future plans to write a detailed addendum or update to our article concerning the covenant wedding. We also have plans to develop a small book and get even further involved to help others learn about the covenant marriage; and to begin talking with pastors across the country. However, for now, our time is currently occupied with other pursuits. So these endeavors must be put on hold.

On the topic of searching for pastors, we only have a small network of pastors here in North Carolina who are willing to perform ceremonies for couples who made the choice to forgo the license, but we are not currently set up with the proper infrastructure to network with pastors across the country. Even so, we would like to express another thought on the topic.

Many of the emails we’ve received from readers seem to indicate that our usage of the word “pastor” has been taken quite literally. When Sara and I were married, we were fortunate to find an actual pastor of a church who would marry without license. However, as we’ve discovered from the myriad of correspondence, locating a pastor who is supportive of a purely covenant wedding is not that easy. In most de facto states, it is illegal for an actual pastor or ordained minister to officiate over a marriage ceremony without a license. That being said, we would like to encourage readers to think outside the box here. We truly believe that it is not specifically required that the officiant of your wedding be ordained or be a pastor. It is important to understand that being married through the vehicle of a covenant does not indicate some recognition or need for approval by a state or government body. Therefore, by performing a covenant wedding ceremony, we are reverting solely back to God’s requirements. The state’s “appropriate methodologies”, “requirements” or “recognitions” are irrelevant. As stated in the post, you simply have to decide which “benefits” you are willing to forgo.

Ultimately, this decision is up to you, your comfort level, and resources. If you can find a willing pastor, great. However, we believe that it would be much more important to find someone who has similar beliefs and would be willing to perform a ceremony the proper way, rather than to require that person be a pastor, and/or to be ordained at the risk of having to ask the state for permission. In today’s modern society, where licenses are accepted as the norm, there’s honestly not much information out there on the topic. At least that’s what we’ve found. But if we look at it simply — which I believe God does as well — we see that the marriage covenant is a simple 3-part relationship: you, your spouse, and God. These are the three most important parts. Outside of this, adding the accountability of several witnesses, and someone to officiate the wedding if you like — this is all you really need. Remember that in a covenant, you are looking for God’s approval, and His alone. I would encourage you to research for yourself HIS requirements.

Sara and I are hopeful to continue our writing in the future on this topic, as we realize there is a lack of information available. And again, we would also encourage you to do your own research and to become a help to those around you along the way. Talk to your neighbor, your pastor, your families. Feel free to print out this blog and the resources linked here and share them with others. Together, we can spread truth and knowledge.

the best argument for marriage is not tradition, but the Bible. And, as Russell Moore articulates even more clearly, “Our vision of marriage is not the equivalent of a church constitution and by-laws, adaptable by a majority vote. Marriage is not simply a cultural or legal practice, but is instead an icon of the union between Christ and his church, embedded in the creation (Eph. 5:22-31). Without a Christian vision of marriage, we have no! Christian vision of the gospel.”

 

So what do we do in the shadow of this court decision? We can guess that the “homosexual marriage” juggernaut will keep pushing; we can assume that our culture will grow less and less tolerant of Christianity; we can foresee that our freedoms of religion and speech will likely be stunted; and we can wonder if we will be persecuted for faithfulness to the scriptures. But what can we do?

 

Let’s be for something. Let’s celebrate God’s gift of marriage. Let’s resist the “revisionist view of marriage as fundamentally an emotional union” – that idea that as soon as the butterflies are gone, the marriage might as well be over. Let’s show the world what sacrificial love for our spouse looks like.

Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear

Marriage License

 

When it comes to marriage in the United States of America, there are procedures and standards for marriage that one must follow, in which one of those procedures is to acquire a marriage license. Many people go about following the steps outlined for marriage according to the State, without ever knowing the reasoning or history or legal aspect of what they are doing. The word license is derived from the Latin word Licentious, which means lacking restraint, ignoring societal standards, disregard for accepted rules. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, the word license is defined as – the permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal.” Now in other words, this means the government makes something that was lawful to do, illegal, so they can then tell you that if you pay the government money (which is a bribe), then they will turn their backs and give you a permit that allows you to break the law that they just said was illegal to do! So the question that people need to ask themselves, is why would it be illegal to marry without the State’s permission? This question is rarely brought up or addressed because people have grown so custom, to following the laws and statutes and commandments of man, rather than those of the Most High. Let’s examine the history of marriage license in America, and see how it came about, why it came about, and why the government and states enforce this system of enslavement upon the people.

 

History of Miscegenation Laws

 

Miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes interracial sex between whites and blacks. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed as “miscegenation. In North America, laws against interracial marriage and interracial sex existed and were enforced in the Thirteen Colonies from the late seventeenth century onwards, and subsequently in several US states and US territories until 1967. In the United States, miscegenation laws were state laws passed by individual states to prohibit miscegenation, nowadays more commonly referred to as interracial marriage and interracial sex. Typically defining miscegenation as a felony, yes, felony, and these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between persons of different races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies.

 

The word fornication in the year of 1303, was defined as a sexual act committed with a prostitute. The Latin word fornix, from which fornicātiō, the ancestor of fornication, is derived, meant “a vault, an arch, it was referred to a vaulted cellar or similar place where prostitutes plied their trade, thus making it in reference to a sexual act committed with a prostitute, in which the bible refers to as a harlot, in which a harlot is a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money. So upon the States knowing that blacks and whites would still be tempted to marry, instead of sticking them with just a felony charge, they redefined the definition of fornication, and begin using it when blacks and whites desired to marry one another, or have sex with each other, thus therefore making a lawful act, linked with a unlawful biblical act, therefore bringing condemnation upon two people coming together as a sin, and illegal. So with the majority of states being racist states and being owners of slaves, this word fornication was then instituted by scholars into the Holy Bible, thus giving it the meaning or definition as – “a sexual act when occurring outside of a marriage, such as any person who had sex without being married by the church. So through hiding behind Christ, this racist idiotic doctrine was brought into practice, and with the new definition of the word fornication being instituted, it now gave the states a cover, to continue racism by bringing those of different races into court to be tried, for committing a felony act of fornication, thus labeling them as fornicators.

 

When the government needed finances, some states began allowing interracial marriages or miscegenation as long as those marrying received a license from the state. So in other words, they had to receive permission to do an act which without such permission would have been illegal. Remember, in Black’s Law Dictionary it 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.” Not long after these licenses were issued, some states began requiring all people who marry to obtain a marriage license, seeing that they could make a profit off of the Union of Marriage. So 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, and by 1935, all states required licenses except Maryland, which soon followed shortly thereafter.

 

See what the people fail to realize with these procedures for marriage given by the Government unto States is that, 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, in which the fruit of your marriage is your children and every piece of property you own. When you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, but you are also marrying the State. With This Ring I Thee Wed, is of the state and is found in most county courthouses in many States. That phrase was published by the State Bar Association. They don’t tell you that when you repeat your vows, you enter into a legal contract, in which there are three parties to that contract, with the first being you, the second being the person you are marrying, and the third being the State you marry in. 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, thus giving undue jurisdiction to the State. The marriage license invades and removes the Most High given parental authority. When you read the Bible, you see that the Most High 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). Why do you think when couples get married today, the father is suppose to be present to walk his daughter down the aisle?

 

See man knows what the word of the Most High says, so he incorporates a little of it into his own agenda and personal desire, to give his method of marriage some credibility. It is a known fact that, there was no requirement to obtain a marriage license in colonial America, nor in the bible. When you read the laws of the colonies and then the states, you see only two requirements for marriage, with the first being that, 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. In the bible, the man had to obtain the father’s permission, abide with the father and do some work as payment for marrying his daughter, leave his father in laws house and prepare a place for his soon to be wife to live, and after a year, he would return and take unto him his wife, marriages were also put on public notice in advance. You won’t find nowhere in the bible where a man ever decided to take a wife, and had to go buy a engagement ring or wedding ring, nor will you find where a man had to acquire a marriage license, nor will you find where a man had to go before a preacher, or county clerk or sheriff or county judge just to be married, this Pagan doctrine was instituted by man, to replace the parental right of the Father, with the philosophy of man. Why do you think the man is sought after for child support and spouse support? The government knows how to break down a man, and replace him with Welfare and child support as being his children’s father, they do as Satan did with Eve and put the woman over the man, therefore crippling him not only financially, but spiritually, by putting him in a position as the weaker vessel and subject to the authority of his wife, that’s totally against the order of the Most High.

 

To further cement this doctrine of acquiring a license to marry, the Roman Catholic Church setup seminary schools, to also indoctrinate and empower those who desired to become preachers, the authority and permission to act as divine authority figures in regards to marriage. Most preachers who are under seminary delusion, have no idea that when they are marrying someone with a marriage license, they act as a agent of the State rather than a man of the Most High. Why, because they would have to sign the marriage license, and would have to mail it into the State, in which doing this is giving the State’s demand to usurp the place of the Most High and family regarding marriage, thus instituting into the Union of Marriage created by the Most High, it’s unbiblical and immoral laws to govern marriage. So the so called preacher of the Most High, is really committing treason against the Most High, by acting as an agent representing the laws and commandments of the State. A marriage license is a three-party contract between the man, woman, and the State known as an adhesion contract. An adhesion contract is one which is extremely one-sided, grossly favoring the State.

 

When a couple applies for a license from the State to marry, they are actually asking for permission to engage in the “unlawful” activity of marriage (License – a revocable permission to commit some act that would otherwise be unlawful – Black’s Law 7th ed). Why, because the State can regulate that which it licenses, by entering into a State-sanctioned franchise (marriage) as a married couple, a couple forfeits their rights to a private, sovereign marriage and any ownership control of their children or property; as a result of the marriage license. Child Protective Services receives its full power and authority to seize children via the marriage license under the ancient legal doctrine of parens patriae. When a State-licensed married couple has a child, the Birth Certificate is the document the State uses to claim ownership of the child under its marriage contract. State ownership remains as long as that child lives, even after the age of 21. If you have a birth certificate, the State owns you too. Couples married under a state-sanctioned marriage license also give up 1/3 of their property to the state. Should one person die, the government, through the inheritance tax, will demand the surviving party to “buy them out” – usually a 28- 35% tax.

Marriage License – The Institution of CPS (Child Protective Services)

 

Even though weddings are conducted in a church setting with a providential backdrop, when a couple acquires a marriage license to marry, almost all preachers who marry a couple who has marriage licenses, marry them by the authority vested in them by the State, not by the Most High as they loudly and lyingly proclaim. In 1923, the Supreme Court defined liberty as, among other things, “…the ability to freely marry, establish a home, and bring up children. Today, we need a license to do those “unlawful” acts. After all, that which the state licenses it can thereby regulate. The license is then converted into a certificate after the marriage takes place. Barron’s Banking Dictionary defines a certificate as – “a paper establishing an ownership claim.” -Barron’s Dictionary of Banking Terms, ©1990, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. p. 114. One of the main reasons the marriage certificate changed its character was the fact that the Panic of 1907 had just taken place and Senator Nelson Aldrich had been appointed to head the National Monetary Commission to ensure such panics never took place again. Senator Aldrich’s plan was ultimately realized in the Federal Reserve System of debt-based money that Americans suffer under today. Because the money system proposed was debt-based, the state and federal governments needed to have certificated property that produced wealth that they could pledge as collateral for notes in the upcoming debt money system. In 1903 only a few states had adopted a marriage license scheme, yes scheme because that is what it is used for today.

 

“The origins of the doctrine parens patriae and the law can be traced to medieval and late medieval English chancery courts where it played an important roll in maintaining the structure of feudalism. The King had a royal prerogative to act as guardian to persons with legal disabilities such as infants, idiots, and lunatics. Chancery, as an agent of the monarch, had a duty to maintain the orderly transfer of feudal duties from one generation to another and to insure that there would be someone available to perform these duties and the concept of parens patriae was usually invoked in connection with problems of property or guardianship.” In today’s world, the Department of Human Services functions as the Chancery, or agent of the monarch – which is the State – in orderly transferring the feudal duties of labor to generate a tax base on to future generations. That tax base is known as the “full faith and credit” of the American people and is pledged against every bond (a state bond issue is a loan) the people vote to approve. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, and automobile Certificates of Title are just some of the commercial paper the State government uses to collateralize their debt to the banks for all of the bond issues the people vote for. These certificates are serial numbered so the banks can more easily track them and all conform to the rules of negotiable instruments as outlined in the Uniform Commercial Code. You and your family have, in effect, been pledged as chattel to the banks for the State’s and Federal Government’s debts. (See also my link on Birth Certificates Truth)

 

Marriage License – The Institution of CPS (Child Protective Services)

 

YOU are the one who gave Child Protective Services permission to steal your children. Since the State can regulate that which it licenses, Child Protective Services has blossomed into a money making machine by snatching kids and receiving millions of federal dollars for them. In most cases, Child Protective Services has no interest in reuniting families because by keeping the family unit off balance, under constant worry and financial drain, the people of a state are more easily controlled, taxed and herded like sheep by the governmental power. A State which has strong, responsible families with good morals, an understanding of right and wrong, and the time to focus on solutions to state abuses would never be able to get away with the massive confiscatory taxation and licensing schemes the government, as well as all states, enjoys perpetrating against its citizenry today. Child Protective services receives its authority to kidnap children from the child’s parents the moment a marriage license was applied for and granted. The child is placed in a guardian/ward relationship with the state where the parents function merely as “custodians.” That custodial relationship may be terminated by the authorizing state agency whenever it declares the child is not being raised according to the standards established by the State, yes State!

 

So the States can sue the parents on behalf of the child, based on the State’s Rule of Civil Procedures, which states such as the one for the State of Maine, which states – “An executor, administrator, guardian, bailee, trustee of an express trust, a party with whom or in whose name a contract has been made for the benefit of another, or a party authorized by statute may sue in that person’s own name without joining the party for whose benefit the action is brought.” So, Maine can sue on behalf of the child without using the child’s name because you, the parents, gave the state guardianship over your child with the marriage license making the State a “trustee of an express trust”. America never had a Child Protective Services protecting our Children for at least the first 140 years of her existence, because assault on a child was already illegal and dealt with by the County Sheriff. If a child needed to be removed to a safer environment, he was brought to one of many privately funded homes which had to compete for money from the private sector. This competition forced the homes to maintain extremely high standards and, due to the limitation of funds, resolving family problems and reuniting the child with his family was of primary importance – unlike today’s State-administered system of bureaucratic red tape, and drugging programs that will damage a child for the rest of his or her life and ultimately alienate him from his family.

 

Marriage License – Conclusion

 

The phrase the government uses, “In God We Trust”, is a bold face lie, because the government is against everything the Most High stands for. So your trust and hope must be in the Most High and his laws and statutes and commandments, rather than in some governmental body.

 

So when the standards and procedures of the United States of America are not in compliance with those of the Most High, then as followers of the Most High this is what you must do.

 

Acts 5:29 – Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear

I have titled this expositional essay which passionately, informatively and factually details my strongly and sincerely held Christian convictions in this matter… because… it is a cogent question, especially in today’s society. The miasma of government interventions has further tainted a beautiful God ordained organic institution.

 

What you will read here is not all that can be said about such an important societal subject and practice. Next to receiving CHRIST as one’s Savior and Lord, natural marriage is the next all encompassing decision with blessings and the associated consequences.

 

I am not looking for a name of who.  Perhaps, I should change the title to who married you? Was it The God of The Bible or the state?

 

Thus saith THE LORD!

Genesis 2:18King James Version (KJV)

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Matthew 19:5

For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

 

1 Corinthians 7:9

But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

 

^{Hebrews 13:4} Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

 

Just a few Holy Scriptures  and there are more

 

There are a few more fundamental questions I need for you to answer before we really get rolling here.

 

 

 

 

Such as:

• Who invented marriage?
• Where did the first marriage on record take place?
• Who got married then & there?
• Who was the marriage officiant?

 

By the way, this is a test and your answers will be graded (and not on a curve).

 

Answers are:

• God Almighty Our Heavenly Father Our Creator (you know The God of The Bible and such as The Declaration of Independence)
• The Garden of Eden
• Adam & Eve

4)   Our Heavenly Father

You can turn to Genesis 2:2-25; 5:1-2

This represents the true will of God for holy matrimony and the natural family.

 

For most of man’s history, one man & one woman came together before God and witnesses with the preacher if you will and were joined together to be one flesh.

That certainly is a mystery as we read in Ephesians 5:32. This marriage is the only one truly sanctioned by The Lord Hebrews 13:4… all others are false. (We do not worry about political correctness or pleasing man here at this website)… Acts 5:29.

Jesus Christ is the bridegroom and His church is His bride, who is to be without spot, blemish or wrinkle. So, marriage here on earth (there is none in Heaven)… represents Jesus and His bride.

 

 

I will grant you that The Bible does not actually have a marriage wedding ceremony in it per se. Read The Song of Solomon for some ideas and Psalm 11.

Marriage, wives, husbands are mentioned often. So how one goes about the ceremony is up to debate as to culture, tradition and time frame.

 

What is in my mind and heart is that it is surely holy and it is from God in the way He planned it. It should not be taken lightly or profaned as some non binding useless formality. A secular wedding is no wedding at all… certainly from a Christian value system perspective. That brings me to the main thrust of this essay.

 

 

Should a man and woman who are going to marry get a state issued wedding license (ie the government’s permission)?

With what I know and have experienced, I say no! (as have many others).

 

• The definition of license in Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of The English Language is: v. t. To permit by grant of authority – to remove legal restraint by a grant of permission; To authorize to act in a particular character etc.

In Black’s Law Dictionary 4^th edition License is a certificate or document itself which gives permission. The state has no authority to grant/sell permission to do what violates God’s law. (For example abortion may be legal but it is not lawful; same sex marriage may be legal but it is not lawful.

I am not “comfortable “with the above definitions I object to them, they violate my strongly held Christian convictions. They also violate established American Foundational Principles as our rights being inalienable from Our Creator (The

Declaration) and freedom of religion (Bill of Rights).

 

 

 

Matthew 19:6

 

 

 

 

• The state should not be involved in marriage; it is a “ministry function” of the church. Since 1929 when the state got involved with licensing marriage it has thoroughly messed things up to the detriment of the health of our country. For the purposes of this writing I will not go further than to say Romans 13 tells us that civil government is necessary and has a limited function…. Messing with marriage/divorce etc is not one of those functions.

 

 

 

 

• The state obviously does not know what holy matrimony/marriage is and is proving that daily as we speak. Legislatures and courts have harmed many by their unacceptable imperial No other king but KING JESUS

 

 

 

 

 

• When there is a state issued license the state then has ownership (subject matter jurisdiction) over that marriage. That is why when there is a divorce (which The Lord frowns on) it is subject to a civil trial (usually not well handled, unfair and unjust) instead of an ecclesiastical court (church gathering). Divorce is big business in America and with no fault many a marriage that could be healed and fixed is “dissolved” destroying families needlessly for years to come.

 

 

• Until 1929, the state stayed out of marriage (with the exception of outlawing miscegenation- which later changed).

 

• At this juncture I want to let it be known that I do not intend to support ways “to force” anyone to go to the church to be married or keep them from going to the secular civil court to dissolve their marriage.
• If a couple chooses a non Christian, non Biblical, secular civil “marriage” with all the fixins (sic) then so be it. Let them take responsibility for that. On the other hand, neither will I be coerced/intimidated/held captive/tyrannized /forced into compromising/violating/abandoning my pledge & oath of loyalty to Almighty God to please an over active state or to my fellow citizens who choose to live a secular atheistic rebellious lifestyle!

 

Years ago in Louisiana, covenant marriage was offered as an option to those who did not want the state to have subject matter jurisdiction in their marriage. Good idea for every state.

 

 

 

In explaining why I believe what I believe to those who inquire, I often use this question.

Is a couple really married that goes to some commercial venue (such as a hotel ball room, court house, or business office etc?)  engages the services of a Justice of The Peace for 10 minutes or less who signs their state issued marriage license (you know by the power vested in me by the state of East Overshoe)?

 

Is a man and a woman who go through premarital counseling (or even if not) who go to see the preacher (of The Gospel of Jesus Christ) to be joined together in holy matrimony in the church by a wedding covenant ceremony service with witnesses present who have not bought a state license really married? I say they truly are because marriage is from The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit.

 

As an ordained minister of The Gospel of Jesus Christ for over half my life as a pastor, evangelist and Bible teacher I was once licensed by a state as a marriage officiant (A-3197  I still remember the certification number which I was supposed to enter with my signature on the state issued license).

 

On one beautiful day while “officiating” at a wedding, it was a Biblical wedding (as far a vows, music, etc.)… when we were nearly finished, I said by the power vested in me by The State I pronounce you husband and wife. A doom & gloom came over me; this thought pierced my very soul, who are you Garrett Lear to pronounce any one anything? What ever “power/authority” you possess is not because of the state it is because of Jesus! From then until now… I have said by the anointing and authority of Jesus Christ, I declare publicly with you, what JESUS The Lord has made you husband and wife. Kind of reminds you of Jesus before Pontius Pilate John 19:11

 

 

Rather than begging for our rights, we have chosen to ASSERT them

                                                              

Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear

In a culture that is immersed with technology, choice, feedback, and FOMO (fear of missing out), marriage is taking a new turn for millennials. Millennials are now wanting to Beta marry in order to find out if they are right for each other.

This ideology comes from the BETA stage in software development where a select few are chosen by the developers to “Beta test” the software program. These chosen few are called “Beta testers” who, use the program in order for the developers to find and fix any bugs in the program before it is released to the public.

Millennials take this concept and then apply it to marriage, because they are taught to approach life with a consumer mentality. They want a money back guarantee and no commitment required with everything in life. The Beta marriage is a two-year trial marriage, which, can be dissolved or formalized at the end without divorce or paperwork required. Millennials want a chance to test the product before they commitment to marry it without having the hassle of divorce.

Some Millennials even advocate marriage that needs to be renewed every four or five years removing the concept of “until death to us part.” Mexico City lawmakers in 2011 even proposed renewable marriage contracts. Others look at the rising divorce rate and simply do not want to set themselves up for failure. Millennials reason that they are eventually going to divorce anyway; therefore, they do not make a vow they will probably not keep.

Contrary to modern culture, marriage is not temporary. God who is the ultimately authority said that marriage is to be permanent despite what man says. Matt 19:4-6 records the words of Jesus Christ:

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Paul gave more incite into marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, “to the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”

The only way out of marriage is divorce or death. In addition, conditions must be met before divorce is even allowed. One of the conditions is adultery:

Matthew 5:31, “…everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Beta marriage is just another issue in the decay of the millennial or hookup culture of today. The culture has forgotten God’s law and formulated their own law holding it above God. Beta marriage is the cultures attempt to prevent marriages from failing and divorce; however, the solution is not beta marriage. The solution is to return to God and work through the problems within marriage with each other to have successful marriages that glorify God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently in the news:

October 23, 2014

The city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is threatening two ordained Christian ministers with arrest if they refuse to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

The Hitching Post Wedding Chapel is across the street from the Kootenai County Clerk’s office, which issues marriage licenses. Last week, Donald Knapp and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run the chapel, respectfully declined to perform a same-sex “marriage” ceremony.

According to the Coeur d’Alene city attorney, they now face up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines for each day they decline to perform that ceremony.

City officials said the Knapps are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires them to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies despite the fact that they are Christians and the chapel publicly states it only performs Christian-based ceremonies.

The Knapps have secured legal counsel through Alliance Defending Freedom and have filed a lawsuit claiming the city’s ordinance prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians is unconstitutionally forcing them to violate their religious beliefs by performing same-sex marriages.

Sermons are “Fair Game” in Houston — The real warning in the subpoena scandal

October 22, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., AlbertMohler.com, Oct. 17, 2014

The scandal over the subpoenas issued to several Houston-area Christian pastors continues, even after the city refiled legal documents, removing the word “sermons” from the demand. They have clearly not removed the scandal from their city, and from the administration of Mayor Annise Parker. As the mayor’s own comments make abundantly clear, she stands at the center of the scandal.

When news broke earlier this week that the attorneys working for the City of Houston had issued subpoenas to pastors for sermons, I was fairly certain that some mistake had been made. When the actual text of the subpoena came to me, I could hardly believe my eyes. Here was a legal demand, sent to Christian pastors in the name of one of America’s largest cities, to surrender “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO (an anti-discrimination ordinance), the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.”

That subpoena is nothing less than ruthless thuggery, exercised by an elected public servant and her city attorney. And that thuggery has been done in the name of the people of Houston, Texas.

The controversy started when Mayor Parker, often described as the first openly gay mayor of a major American city, led the effort to adopt an anti-discrimination law that, among other things, allows transgender persons to file a complaint and bring charges if they are denied access to a bathroom. Several Houston-area pastors were involved in an effort to rescind the ordinance.

They participated in a petition drive that would have put the question before voters, mobilizing their congregations on the issue. They were able to get more than the required number of signatures on the petition, but the city attorney ruled many of the signatures invalid due to technicalities. The city attorney intervened after the appropriate city official had already certified the petitions as adequate. This set the stage for the lawsuit, and the lawsuit set the stage for the subpoenas.

The subpoenas set the stage for the current controversy. The very fact that the subpoenas were issued at all is scandal enough — none of the pastors is even party to the lawsuit. But the actual wording of the subpoenas is draconian — almost unbelievable. The attorneys working for the city demanded all sermons “prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession” on matters that included, not only the mayor and the ordinance, but homosexuality and gender identity.

This is a breathtaking violation of religious liberty — and it is political thuggery at its worst.

Make no mistake: A major American city has subpoenaed the sermons of Christian pastors. And those sermons were to include anything that touched on homosexuality or gender identity.

The scandal that erupted brought, as expected, efforts on the part of the mayor and the city attorney to dismiss and to distance themselves from the subpoenas. First, the mayor declared that the subpoenas had actually been prepared, not by the city attorney’s office, but by outside lawyers working pro bono for the city. That is a meaningless distinction, since the fact remains that the subpoenas were issued on behalf of the city. Next, the mayor acknowledged that the language of the subpoena was “overly broad.”

“There’s no question the wording was overly broad,” Mayor Parker said, “But I also think there was some deliberate misinterpretation on the other side.”

This led New York magazine reporter Katie Zavadaski to describe criticisms of the mayor as “hysterical allegations.” But it is the mayor and the city attorney who are confusing the facts here, and it is the same two leaders who cannot get their stories straight.

At 12:21 a.m. on October 15, Mayor Parker posted the following on Twitter: “Always amazed at how little fact checking is done by folks who like to hit the retweet button.”

But, less than an hour later, Mayor Parker posted this: “If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game.” Fair game? Do the residents of Houston, Texas have any idea what their mayor is doing in their name? Do chills not run down the spines of Houstonians when they are told that sermons deemed by their own mayor to be political are “fair game” and when the subpoenaed sermons included anything that touched on homosexuality and gender identity?

This is one of those situations that looks worse the more you look into it.

The city attorney, David Feldman, also sent very ominous signals. He seemed to agree that the language of the subpoenas had constituted an over-reach, but he had also defended the subpoenas as legitimate. On Tuesday he told reporters: “If someone is speaking from the pulpit and it’s political speech, then it’s not going to be protected.”

Thus speaketh the city attorney of Houston Texas. You have been warned.

Houston’s mayor and city attorney stalwartly defend their right to demand that pastors surrender their pulpit messages.

On Friday, city officials announced that papers had been refiled to avoid use of the word “sermon.” But the change in no way removes the offense, nor does it even exempt sermons from the subpoena. As Mike Morris of the Houston Chronicle reported earlier today: “Though the subpoena’s new wording removes any mention of ‘sermons’ — a reference that created a firestorm among Christian conservative groups and politicians, including Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who accused Parker of trying ‘to silence the church’ — the mayor acknowledged the new subpoenas do not explicitly preclude sermons from being produced.”

Once again, you have been warned.

The debacle in Houston can indeed be a catalyst for “hysterical allegations.” No ministers are yet in jail. No pulpit has been silenced. No church doors have been bolted shut.

But the reality is hysterical enough. This is the kind of intimidation that would be expected somewhere in secular Europe or perhaps in the former Soviet Bloc. But we are talking here about Houston, Texas.

This is the kind of scandal that would lead most elected officials to backtrack like crazy, but Mayor Annise Parker is standing her ground, even as she tries to escape the heat by a mere change in the coercive language. What she is doing amounts to raw political intimidation.

At this point, it is five Houston pastors who are feeling the heat. But these subpoenas stand as a direct warning to every pastor, rabbi, minister, priest, and imam in America. You or I could be next.

This is how religious liberty dies. Liberties die by a thousand cuts. An intimidating letter here, a subpoena there, a warning in yet another place. The message is simple and easily understood. Be quiet or risk trouble.

But the subpoenas in Houston now alert us all to the fact that trouble is now inescapable.
Will the people of Houston stand idly by as this thuggery is done in their own name? When the mayor of their city refers to sermons as “fair game?”

1. Albert Mohler Jr. serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary — the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world.

 

GOOD LAWD: Did Matthew McConaughey Take A Stand For Biblical Marriage?

 

 

 

 

Posted on October 23, 2014

All right, all right, all right. Please forward to your satanic friends.

Matthew McConaughey is known for his acting skills and his southern charm. He’s also been married to his wife, Camila Alves, since 2012.

He opened up in a recent GQ interview about what marriage means to him and his and wife, and how they went about deciding to enter marriage.

“We did a lot of reading and talked to a lot of people that had been divorced, a lot of people that had been happily married. We talked to our pastor. In the end, our understanding was, ‘Let’s go make a covenant, with you, me, and God

 

Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear

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.

If you would like an audio sermon regarding this matter, just send a gift of at least five dollars in cash to: Mercy Seat Christian Church 10240 W. National Ave. PMB #129 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53227.
Pastor Matt Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn.
He and his wife, Clara, have had four sons and five daughter since the reversal.

Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear

“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32 KJV). O.K., I confess, I love The Lord Jesus Christ.  I love and trust God’s Word (The Holy Bible) pure and unadulterated straight up and in your face! You see I have tested it and I know it is true. I am certainly not the only person in this world who has had this same attitude or a Biblical worldview. I am also not the only American who has loved God and taken Him at His Word either. The Founding Fathers of America did.

I will also confess that I love this land America, my native land…the land of my birth. I must admit, though, that I am struggling with a high degree of disappointment over the direction that this, my favorite country is heading in. When you grow up in a historical town, Lexington Massachusetts, like I did… when you walk by the Minuteman statue practically everyday during your formative years and watch yearly reenactments of The Battle Of Lexington something profound happens to you. My appetite for freedom was whet very early in my life. Also set early in my life was a love for God and to this day, I do not see any conflict between being a devoted Christian and being a true American patriot. Our Founders did not have a conflict between their love for God and their love for America either…for me that is good company to stand with.

The greatest traitors that our country, in fact, the whole world must deal with, are those black hearted people I call “revisionist historians”. They are those pseudo scholars that alter the truth to meet their desired ends. In America, this brood of vipers has kept many of our countrymen from knowing the truth about the founding of this Nation as “One Nation under God”… and what happens when the church is not free.

How many “modern” Americans know that those much maligned and slandered Pilgrim/Puritans who landed at what is now Plymouth Massachusetts signed a sacred covenant with The Lord called The Mayflower Compact (America’s “birth certificate”)? How many know that the primary “slogan” of The War For American Independence (some call the Revolutionary War) was … ”We will have no other king but King Jesus”? How many know that of the majority of the signers of that marvelous cornerstone of American liberty, The Declaration Of American Independence, were devote, baptized, open, consecrated Christians? Let me give you the answer… not many and certainly not enough! What happens when the church is not free?

Today, this country spends billions of dollars on “education” but what have we gotten for these tax-extracted dollars? We have gotten a general population that is ignorant of some of the most important parts of our heritage. One of our founders was empathetic in noting that “ ignorant and free can never be”. Can you see now why I chose the Scripture verse I did to began this writing?

In the town of Lexington is a well preserved (thank God and some patriots) two story colonial house called The Hancock-Clark house named for two great Christians of the founding era…two great patriots, John Hancock and Jonas Clark.  Most people are more familiar with Hancock than they are with Clark

Please allow me to introduce him to you… people meet Pastor Jonas Clark. Are you shocked? You mean some one who was a clergyman, a church leader and a pulpit preacher got involved with “politics” and the cause of liberty? Can you imagine he had the “audacity” to harbor the known “criminals” John Hancock and Samuel Adams in the parsonage (church property)? Just before the British troops arrived in Lexington for that battle of note (“the shot heard around the world”), Pastor Clark delivered a rousing and inspirational message from Judges 6-8 encouraging the local militiamen to (the minutemen) fight fiercely for God and country. He knew what would happen if the church was not free. Now, stay with me, as I further lay out my case.

Is there any one in America today that would say that the church is really like what it was in the first century? Does any one care that it isn’t? I care. If you are a Christian, you will care too! Many will argue that the world is so vastly different than the first century but is it really? Jesus Christ began the church, that He expected to follow Him through the ages, in the Roman Empire. I certainly wouldn’t insult your intelligence to say that those times were the same as ours in areas of technology but do not be deceived, governmentally, socially, morally, behaviorally, they were very similar. I wish it were not so.

The beginning of the true New Testament Church was on The Day of Pentecost as recorded in the Book of Acts. Jesus declared His church (His Father’s House) not be a “ a house of merchandize…but a house of prayer”. He said His Kingdom was not of this world and emphasized the distinctions between His followers and the rest of the population. All of the early church leaders were martyred (killed) for their refusal to put devotion to Caesar (government) above devotion to God. They knew and understood the Ten Commandments (not the Ten Suggestions) and had the mind of Christ in regards to the proper role of civil government. A “mind set” we desperately need today. What happens when the church is not free?

Many casual Bible readers have been put off by the “difficulties” of the Book of Revelation.  Let me offer an explanation for its symbolism… the Roman government! If the Apostle John, as the “secretary” for The Holy Sprit writing it, had clearly spelled out what He wanted the readers to do concerning civil disobedience, the Romans would never have let those writings leave the island of Patmos (remind you of any other times in history). Believe it or not the Romans did have “ freedom of religion”… if … you accepted Caesar as God and took a license for your “church”… neither of which, the early New Testament Christians, in good conscience, could or would do! It was considered blasphemy and the way of destroying the truth of The Gospel. They knew what would happen if the church was not free.

It is amazing what one can learn reading someone’s diary. When we read the Bible, we are reading the way the Creator (The One mentioned in The Declaration of American Independence) wants life to be for us. When we read the writings of the Founders of the Plymouth colony and the writings of the Founders of America, we find out how educated these people were in tyranny. They were willing to die (and many did) to avoid it like the black plague. They knew what would happen if the church was not free.

The U.S. Constitution was crafted by men who did not want to repeat the atrocities of the state run church…(they had read about the “whore of Babylon and the mark of the beast”) such as was the case through out Europe and certainly in England. King George was both king of the civil government and head of the Anglican Church. Opposition to George was tantamount, in his thinking, to opposing God… although, he personally cared little what God thought about his actions. He knew what would happen if the church was not free. He did his level best to make sure it was not!

Beginning in the-mid 1770s, preachers began to deliver sermons critical of the abuses of the  British rule in the American colonies. Many colonists were stirred up in a similar way that had happened in England with the Puritans/Pilgrims in pre-Plymouth colony days. The truth was told and freedom was prized… but, as with all such situations throughout man’s history, not without a heavy price.

By the time of the War for American Independence, those preachers had a bounty on their heads… and for what? Preaching the truth…opposing tyranny…teaching the colonial citizens to stand up for their God given -freedoms and take responsibility for their walk with Christ. It became a capitol crime and preachers and their families were executed. They knew what would happen if the church was not free.

Most Americans know the famous speech delivered by Virginian Patrick Henry (a very committed Christian and a lawyer)… “Give me liberty or give me death!”.  Very few people, however, know why he said it. Henry had witnessed the flogging of a colonist by British troops. He, the young lawyer, inquired as to what this man’s crime was… he was told “preaching with out a license”. King George offered some very handsome rewards for the heads of the members of “ The Black Regiment” … the unlicensed, unregistered,  “free church” preachers who knew the proper Biblical relationship between church and state… and who the true Sovereign over the church was. They understood when Jesus said; you can not serve two masters, what He meant. They had read and correctly interpreted Romans chapter 13…  God gives us limited civil government…   not that government gives us God. They loved and feared The Lord and understood what happens when Jesus Christ is not Sovereign over His Church.

Until recently, you could not incorporate a church in the state of Virginia (the home state of; Patrick Henry; George Washington; Thomas Jefferson; and, James Madison).  I have read the original intent of the crafters of our U.S. Constitution. These men knew what they were doing and I believe were guided by God’s hand to set a rule of law for a limited Constitutional Republic which would deliver to its citizens the most freedom, prosperity, and opportunity ever known to man. Eldredge Gerry and Fisher Ames, both fine Christian men, wrote the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, as part of the Bill of Rights. It was to guarantee many things and to protect Americans from the whim of some, humanistic, rogue government, or a meglo-maniacal king). The most precious of these freedoms, to me, is the freedom of religion, which I know they meant to be true Biblical orthodox New Testament Christianity!  Not freedom from The Lord or His ways… not freedom from His Sovereignty and His loving guidance but freedom from government hindering The Truth that sets men free and keeps them free happy virtuous and prosperous. They knew what would happen if the church was not free.

What happens when the true Christian church is not free to speak out what needs to be said? Why not ask the Russians, the Romanians, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Sudanese and the Iraqis. More close to home, what has happened to “One Nation under God”? Are we freer and better off than we were in say, 1953? It sickens me to see the moral and spiritual condition of this great land. America is soul sick. America is confused. America has lost its moral high ground. The church has been silent and we have been hurt because of it. We have lost the direction that comes from a right relationship with our Creator.

I am not a critic of the true church of Jesus Christ. I am a critic and a repairer of her weaknesses. I am not a critic of America. I am a critic and a repairer of America’s weaknesses. I love America but I love my Lord and Savior more. As a preacher and church leader, the church I lead must be free to speak the truth in love… with out fear of government reprisal for not being politically correct. I need no licensing or official government recognition or empowerment… I have my calling from Jesus Christ and I say that in all humility. It is a big responsibility and a wonderful privilege. Jesus through His sacrifice bought me this freedom and the Founders of America in a blessed covenant with Almighty God secured it with their blood, their sweat and their tears. I will render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s but I will not give him, or any government agency, entity or officer what belongs to God alone. The church must be free or no one will be free. Someone must be there to remind Caesar that he is just a man under God like the rest of us.

All too often, I have heard preachers say they can not speak out because of the loss of tax exemption or the fear of sanctions and law suits. Why do they voluntarily take on the unnecessary restrictions to free Christian speech, which the 501 c 3 recognition of tax exemption imposes? Yes, voluntarily, because Congress has a long standing recognition of the contribution to the well being of America that is made by the Christian church and the First Amendment “establishment” clause. It is documented that no church needs to apply for IRS recognition. All income to churches is tax “immune”; it is published in the IRS own documents. It seems that church leaders have, like Esau in The Bible, traded their “birthright for a morsel of bread”. What was once considered sacrilegious and not Christian has now become the standard for preachers and churches.   Oh, if only they could realize how that displeases The Lord and how they are giving a way a great inheritance, which is secured even by the laws of this land.

Why are Christian preachers, that have voluntarily taken the IRS stamp of approval (that is the same bureaucracy that calls the  worship of satan a church) and state incorporation as non-profit religious businesses, reluctant to speak out against the many immoral and un-Biblical things that are happening in our country? They have signed an agreement saying that they would not speak out against any public policy. It is no wonder that the church in America has been largely silent about the grossest sins of our day and turns its back on the death of unborn children and adulterous presidents.  Thank you Father that Jesus and the early church leaders and the Founders of America had the grace and courage to make the right stand. I am a beneficiary of their courage. I will keep the church I lead free and teach others to do the same. In time, America may be returned to her former greatness as the home of a truly free people who love, honor and worship God in spirit and in truth and teach the rest of the world to do the same. The Frenchman, Alexis DeTocqueville, was dispatched to America in the 19th century to find out why America was so strong. He traversed this country, taking note of what he experienced. He later reported that he had “discovered the secret” to America’s greatness. He said that he visited America’s Christian churches and “their pulpits were ablaze with righteousness … America is great because America is good… when America ceases to be good America will cease to be great”. He knew what would happen if the church in America should ever not be free. Alexis knew then, what some do not appear to know now, that it is the mission and responsibility of the true New Testament Church of Jesus Christ to be an ever constant reminder that  ”Blessed is the nation whose God is The Lord”(Psalm 33:12).

These are my strongly held “religious” convictions in my relationship with God as a follower of Christ. For today at least, in America, I am by The Father’s grace with some perseverance and courage on my part, “entitled” to live by them. I will have no other king but King Jesus.

Written by The Patriot Pastor Garrett Lear