The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate with Brother Bryce

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The Doctrine of The Lesser Magistrate with Brother Bryce

March 30, 2022

This Wonky Wednesday, Bryce walks us through the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate. The doctrine is seen throughout church history but wasn't formalized until the Magdeburg confession of 1550. Bryce walks us through the doctrine based off a book we recently read by Matt Trewhella called unironically, "The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates". The book is definitely worth reading. Bryce makes a comment in the discussion about a right of other religions to worship. The first commandment of God lays our clearly that humanity is not to have any other gods besides Yahweh, therefore there is no God-given right to freedom of religion in the sense of freedom to make false idols. If we are to legislate according to God's laws and not man's laws (secular humanism or any other manmade religion) then the law of God prescribes in his word is that you do not have the right to worship false idols. Every government is a theocracy and derives their laws from metaphysical principles. That may manifest in "reason" and "logic" from the secular atheist that is tolerant of every worldview besides every other worldview or from a holy book in various religions. Regardless, this is the clear teaching of the 1st commandment and when God visits a nation in judgement he holds them accountable to the false idols they made and does NOT recognize their "freedom of religion" in the sense many understand it today. Read Isaiah 10:5-11 for a clear example of this.

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Transcript

What this does mean for us is we should be like John the Baptist. We should go out and preach to Herod that it is unlawful by the standard of God's law for him to sleep with his brother Philip's wife Herodias. It's unlawful for him to do that.

Why? Because God has spoken. He said in his word that it is wrong to commit adultery. So therefore because of that, it's unlawful Herod for you to have your brother Philip's wife.

Okay, so we really need to understand that. And as soon as we get away from that, that's when a society is falling. A society is built upon the good and righteous laws of God.

And as soon as the government contravenes those righteous laws, they have effectively become tyrannical. Don't think I will even ask you to make Jesus Lord of your life. That's the most preposterous thing I could ever tell you to do.

Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. Whether you serve him or not, whether you bless him, curse him, hate him, or love him, he is the Lord of your life. Because God has given him a name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and tongue confess that he is Lord.

Some of you will bow out of the grace that has been given to you and others will bow because your kneecaps will be broken by the one who rules the nations with a rod of iron. And I will not apologize for this God of the Bible.

[Music] Alright, so the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate is the book study that we've been doing over the...that's the title of the book by Matthew Chuella.

The doctrine is a historical doctrine that goes all the way back to...yeah, Rocky... I think I was in Marowat. We're done now. Yeah.

It goes all the way back to the Hebrews and the Old Testament in the way that they would interact with the civil magistrates. But it goes all through...it's in the lifeblood of the reformers, something that John Knox talked a lot about. The Magdeburg Confession is something that's very important to the doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate because that's when the words were first formalized of that Christian doctrine.

For example, the Trinity is something that is revealed in the New Covenant, but it wasn't something revealed in the Old Covenant. So it was a doctrine that was first espoused in 1550 at the Magdeburg Confession, and that's just an example of it. So we're looking at the doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate.

We have to clarify terms. Doctrine is essentially a Christian teaching. I think you guys should all know that.

And magistrates, for those of you who do not know, this is how Matthew Chuella defines it, is any civil government with authority either elected or appointed. Okay, so there's a huge assumption when we say a Lesser Magistrate because that clearly and obviously assumes a higher magistrate. So there's two kinds of magistrates.

There are higher magistrates, which are those who have supreme authority, such as the King, President, Vice President, Parliament, England right now, Supreme Court justices. Those are of the higher sort in the civil government. They have a higher level of authority within the government itself.

It's not just a king. It's also people like a Supreme Court justice. Those are very important within the society that we live.

And then the Lesser Magistrate itself, which is what the doctrine specifically focuses on, are those who have subordinate authority under higher magistrates, such as Francis, a general in the military, County Sheriff, police officer, county judge. So the Lesser Magistrate is someone who is subordinate underneath those of the higher magistrate. So Matthew Chuella defines the doctrine as this.

When the superior or higher civil authority makes unjust/emoral laws or decrees, the Lesser Magistrate or lower ranking civil authority has both a right and a duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the Lesser authorities even have the right and obligation to actively resist the superior authority. OK, so this is the doctrine of Christian resistance.

This is what all of us is assuming. The doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate is the higher magistrate has gone tyrannical and it's how does the Lesser Magistrate within the government rise up against that tyrant. OK, a chief example of this that Matthew Chuella lays out in the book is a guy in the Trajan, in the Roman period, Trajan sent Petronius to the Jews to essentially erect up an idol in their temple and make them worship it.

And ultimately, the people were crying out to Petronius not to do such a wicked thing because it's against the law, it's against the political code. They have to worship God in a specific way and that's against God's commandment, the first commandment to have other gods before him. So they cannot do something.

They can't even bow down an idol. It's completely against the Israelite law. So they are saying these things to Petronius and Petronius inevitably comes to the point where he is going to reject Emperor Trajan's... Actually, I think it's Caligula, not Trajan.

But Emperor Caligula's order and even if it calls him his own life, that is not only his right, Matthew Chuella says, but it is his responsibility. We should not have Lesser Magistrates who say, "I mean, Roe v. Wade's kind of the law of the land so we just have to kind of submit to it." You know, that is a tyrannical Lesser Magistrate, one who just submits to the tyrant. That is not something that we want.

The Lesser Magistrate has a responsibility to stand up to unlawful and unjust ruling and that's what Matthew Chuella says. So there's two points of information that I want to really focus on and this is what, again, Matthew Chuella laid out in his book. And it's one, that all authority is delegated authority.

You see this in a number of texts. Jesus is before Pontius Pilate and what does he say to him? You have no authority other than that which has been given to you. Right? Romans 13, that there is no authority except that which has been given to God.

Romans 13, Romans states that we should all think of this. Unloved with his ways. That is just like John Knox says, that's the common song of the people, right? That we must obey our kings for God has so commanded.

Right? And that's a wicked ideology. That's not something that comes organically from the text. That's something that effeminate men have produced.

So all authority is delegated authority. Pontius Pilate has it only from above. We see in Daniel 2 21 that he changes times and seasons.

He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. Right? God is the one who removes the kings and sets them up.

We see in Proverbs 21 that the heart of the king is like water in God's hands and he turns it any which way he pleases. Right? So this is the clear testimony of scripture that the authority, not just the church and the family, is something that has been delegated by God. And because it's delegated by God, they have a duty and a responsibility to submit themselves to the one who delegated that authority.

Right? If there's no authority above, if there's no, if there's no God above the state, then the state has become God. Right? And that's when the state rejects the God of the scripture who has delegated that authority and they are subverting his authority and thus becoming a tyrant. So that's what a tyrant is.

It's one who rejects the law of God. And when we say the law of God, whatever you're referring to, not these abstract principles that exist outside of the Christian God. We are talking about the moral law which is embedded in the Christian God.

It's something that is a reflection of this character. That's what we're referring to. We're talking about the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

Right? The Ten Commandments is a summary of the moral law of God. So when we're saying that they have a responsibility to uphold that which is righteous, that which is just and lawful according to the one who delegated that authority, what we are referring to is that we want them to uphold all of the Ten Commandments, especially the first four. And I'm going to read a quote at the end by Calvin and he essentially agrees with me.

So all authority is delegated and then two, all authority is judged by the moral law of God. I already kind of hinted at that. But this is something that should be abundantly clear to Christians, but for some reason we've completely lost it.

Adultery is decriminalized in our lands. Nobody bats an eye when somebody commits adultery. Christians are still kind of irked out about it, but it's really not something that we want the government to take into control.

But we would want that because there's supposed to be a terror to those who do wrongdoing and they're supposed to reward those who do good. They're supposed to reward good conduct. But right now, like the Proverbs say, they are justifying the wicked and they're condemning the righteous.

So they are completely subverting the law and authority of God. They're contravening God's law. And now they are a law unto themselves.

Right? Just like in Judges, the people who live what was right in their own eyes because there was no king in the land. There was no, they were not submitting themselves to God's law. And you even see this in the Old Testament too, when the law is rediscovered by Hezekiah, when I think it's the priest Hilda finds the law and he reads it.

And he's weeping before the Lord because he's like, you just recovered what saves our people. Not that the law saves, but that the law points to Christ. And that's what we get in Galatians 3, 24.

Right? The law is our tutor, which leads us to Christ. We need the law of God. If you take out God's law, you throw out the gospel.

There's no gospel without law because law is the thing that pierces your heart and convicts you of sin. And the gospel is the thing that mends you. Right? You don't know you need mending if you don't have the piercing.

Right? You have to have both. There's no gospel without law. And that's why we would want this as Christians.

So they are supposed to be submitting themselves to the moral law of God. We see this when Jesus says in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, that all authority in heaven and earth are to be given to Him and go therefore make disciples of all nations. So the moral law is for all of them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded of us.

Okay? And what does Christ uphold? I did not come to abolish the law of the prophets. I came to fulfill them. Right? He's upholding the law of God.

He loves the law of God. Romans 3, 21. The law is holy and righteously good.

We should uphold God's law. We don't abolish it. It's a good, godly thing.

Because again, without the law, and this is Paul's point in Romans and Galatians, there is no trespass. Without trespass, there's no need for forgiveness. And Jesus did not come for the righteous.

The righteous ones who say that we do not need the law, He came for the sinners. He recognized the law exposes us of our sins. What this does mean for us is we should be like John the Baptist.

We should go out and preach to Herod that it is unlawful by the standard of God's law for him to sleep with his brother Herod. His brother Philip's wife Herodias. Right? It's unlawful for him to do that.

Why? Because God has spoken. He said in his word that it is wrong to commit adultery. Right? So therefore, because of that, it's unlawful, Philip, or sorry Herod, for you to have your brother Philip's wife.

Okay? So we really need to understand that. And as soon as we get away from that, that's when a society is falling. A society is built upon the good and righteous laws of God.

And as soon as the government contravenes those righteous laws, they have effectively become tyrannical. I want to read from Psalm 33, 8 through 12. And it says this, "Let all the earth fear the Lord.

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsel of the Lord stands forever.

The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage." So we see that the Lord brings Psalm 33, 8 through 12. So we see in this passage that the nation who has the Lord are God as their God is blessed.

And he says that all of the earth, let all the earth fear the Lord. This is the mission of the church, that we disciple the nations. We bring them to the knowledge of the truth of God.

Another very important text specifically about the law of God is in Isaiah 42, which is a servant psalm of referencing to Christ. And this is something that we really pass over a lot. It says, "Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen and whom my soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations." That's the goal of Christ. That's quoted in Mark 1.10. That's what Jesus is doing.

He will bring forth justice to the nations. And then it goes on to say, in verse 4, "He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. The coastlands await his law." That's what the coastlands are waiting for.

They're waiting for God's law because without the law you don't have the gospel. They're waiting for the law to be put into the lands so that they can see their need for the glorious Savior. Now ultimately, this is referring to the nations being gospelized.

Ultimately, someone's shaking his head because of the post-millennial. It's hard to miss it here, by the way. I don't know how you can read this on a lineally.

So, why is it saying a lot of post-mill things right now confidently? It's weird because I'm wondering, if you guys have noticed, I've just been reading the text. It actually didn't say too much about the post-millennial text. I missed it too much.

I didn't know we were talking about it. So, this is what the doctrine of the Lesser of Magistrate assumes. It assumes that there's delegated authority and it assumes that these nations are under and responsible to uphold the law of God.

So, this is vitally important for us to recognize. We must know that these authorities have only been given authority by God and because they've been given authority by God, they have a responsibility to uphold God's moral wrong. Exactly.

So, specifically with the doctrine of the Lesser of Magistrate, we have a lot of different proof texts for it in the scripture. So, in terms of the responsibility to disobey unlawful and tyrannical orders, we have the example of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1. Pharaoh tells the Hebrew midwives, "All the firstborn male children you must murder." And they ultimately say, "The Hebrew midwives fear the Lord and they are very strong." They get birth before we even come. Notice that they are lying to Pharaoh.

They're purposely lying to him. That's a different discussion. No, they still leave us.

The babies are there. We get there. Yeah, seriously.

It's funny, but they are disobeying tyrannical orders. They are saying, "You must murder these kids." And they're saying, "Not a chance." Yeah. Okay.

We haven't the example. Because they fear the Lord. Yeah, exactly.

That's why they didn't obey. Right. And that's the whole purpose.

They fear God rather than man. And that's something that we see even in the New Testament. We have the example of Daniel for us.

And he was ordered by Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah. Nebuchadnezzar to bow down and worship the golden image.

And what did he do? No, I'm not doing that. I would rather die, him and all his buddies. We would rather die than worship another God.

Why? Because they did the first commandment. That's breaking the first commandment in the second and the third. Dude, I just thought about this.

Starting to interrupt you. This wasn't in the book. I thought about the Magi that don't go back to Herod.

Yeah. I was actually about to bring that up. They did lie to him, but they're commanded.

Yeah. Come back and tell us. They go, "We're not going to go back." Yeah.

And they don't go back. Right. So they disobeyed.

They didn't lie, but they disobeyed. They did. It's like a magistrate telling them to report.

They said, "Phew." Yeah. That's good. That's a really good point.

I wasn't even listed. I just thought of it. That's like literally my next text.

I'm sorry. You said, "You know, you said my first order." That's good. No, that's good.

Yeah. The Magi, they did not go back to Herod. They recognized him as acting tyrannical and as lesser magistrates because Magi's had specific power authority.

Did God save him? Like, didn't God? In a dream. That's right. Okay.

Yeah. And then we have the common statement in Acts 5.29 that we must obey God rather than man. Right.

4.29. 4.29? Should we check him? Yeah. Whether it's right at the side of God or man. He's going to be right.

That was like a half memorized Acts yet. Sorry, guys. Seminary student or the engineer? I got the engineer.

It's 5.29. I told you. It is? Yeah. But Peter the possum, we must obey God rather than man.

I swear I memorized this. 4.29. Did I? Might have memorized the wrong... You could have. The wrong reference.

Dang it. The references are always the hardest parts. You know what I mean? I can do all things to God who strengthens me.

Genesis 5.2. Don't click your day job. I'll just click your day job. Yeah, that was kind of awkward.

Guys, just give me a chance, please. No, no. I was thinking of Acts 4.19 and 20.

Okay. He says the same thing. Whether it is right in the side of God or listening to you rather than man, you must stretch where we cannot speak as to what we have seen in her.

That's Acts 4. That's Acts 4.19 and 20. Yeah. Will they get brought before the Pharisees twice? So those are the proof texts specifically for us as individuals when the government commands us.

But again, we got to go back to the doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate. What about the Lesser Magistrate specifically? So we have a lot of different proof texts in the Old Testament. One example that comes to mind is when Saul gives an unrighteous vow in 1 Samuel 14, and he says that essentially nobody is supposed to eat until something happens.

Until they kill all the Philistines. Yeah, kill all the Philistines. What is the meaning of lambs in my ear, right? Sorry? And then the sample says when he shows up, and he's like, "I hear I'll be sheep." Oh.

Is it different? Yeah. Is it different? Because they were supposed to kill everything and they kept the sheep? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So with this text specifically, nobody is supposed to eat anything, and then Jonathan, his son comes back, and then Jonathan begins to eat something, and then Saul is like, "My son, what have you done?" And Saul committed a rash vow. He should not have done this. He took the Lord as God's name and vain, not to say it's wrong to vow.

It's okay to make vows, actually it's godly, but this was a rash vow. It should be done in reverence, not in quickness or haste. So a very important point is the people ransomed Jonathan, the text says, and how did they do that? Because they said, "Then the people," this is in verse 45 of 1 Samuel 14, "Then the people said to Saul, 'Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel, far from it.

As the Lord lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.'" So the people ransomed Jonathan so that he did not die. So you see, the lesser magistrate, the military men who are in the battle, they rise up against the tyrannical rash vow of Saul, and they said, "Not one hair of Jonathan's head is going to fall to the ground. He's not going to die.

You made a rash vow where we would rather obey God than murder Jonathan." So again, it's based on the law of God specifically. You have a text in Jeremiah 26 and 36, you have different portions of Jeremiah going into prison over something, and he's... But once it says the eunuch comes and saves them out of the wealth. Yeah, that's exactly what that's literally what it's about to say.

Okay. Well, you said there were various parts and I was like, pick them one out. Yeah, no, yeah.

The eunuch specifically says to the king, "He's going to die in here. Let him out." So this lesser magistrate, the eunuch who is in the house of the king, he says to the king, "Let this guy out. He's going to die." So in other words, he recognizes that he's culpable under the house of the king and he's saying, "I'm not willing to murder this man." So the doctrine of the lesser magistrate is that the lesser magistrates themselves recognize the tyrannical order of the unjust or an unlawful king and they recognize that he's forbidding righteous things and they disobey because they have a responsibility and a duty to do so.

So Matthew Turellis says this, "When the state forbids that which God commands or commands that which God forbids, we must obey God rather than man." This applies to the natural man. This is what we are supposed to do to people and the lesser magistrate. When they say, "We have these COVID lockdowns.

You need to stop going to church." We obey God rather than man. We recognize that this isn't even consistent with the scientific data, nor is it consistent with God's commands. So we want to rebel against this unlawful, unjust edict and we want to obey God rather than man.

And in the same way, in our rebellion, we don't listen to them and in the lesser magistrate's rebellion, what they should do is displace a tyrannical king or come against him so that he backtracks from his tyrannical order. That's what the lesser magistrate is responsible to do. So people who are in a position of being a lesser magistrate, if they are obstinate and appliable, they neglect their authority that's been delegated to them by God and subvert or contravene God's law and they don't go against the unlawful or unjust order, they themselves are submitting to the tyrannical order and thus subjecting themselves from what God has delegated to them.

So they must obey God rather than man, even if they're not a Christian. So it's not just the Christian sin, it's also the pagan sin. Todd Houston and Jerry Torr within Indiana, the committee chair and the speaker or whatever, them shooting down the pro-life bill, they are culpable because they didn't want it to be heard.

They are culpable for that sin. The blood of these unborn infants is on their hands because they have been given responsibility. Just because Pilate puts his hands in a little golden dish and washes it and says, "The blood's on you, it's not on me, right? I'm relieved of Jesus's murder." Just because he does that, that doesn't mean he's actually relieved from him because in Acts it says that not only were the Jewish leaders responsible, which is why we have the destruction of the temple in 1870 with Jesus, but also the Roman Empire through Pontius Pilate is culpable for that murder because they gave authority to him and all that authority is delegated by God specifically.

So again, I'll read the quote from Matthew Turella, "When the state forbids that which God commands or commands that which God forbids, we must obey God rather than men." So another question we can ask, and this is what Matthew Turella brings up in the book, is what do the people do, right? We aren't lesser magistrates. So one, we should support lesser magistrates and teach them. We're supposed to disciple the nations and that includes our local officials, our lesser magistrates.

It also includes our higher magistrates, but it certainly includes our lesser because they are specifically in our sphere of influence. So we want to preach the gospel to these people. We want to teach them God's law and want to be like John the Baptist and say that's unlawful or that's righteous.

Praise God for that. Thank you. Thank you for upholding righteousness.

And again, Jesus, like it says in Isaiah 42, he will not grow weary till justice is established and he does this through his church. So another thing that we do is we remonstrate. This is something he brings up.

And what does that mean? It means essentially there's an unlawful order and an edict and like the Canadian truckers, we all go and remonstrate before the people and we do a sort of demonstration, a protest against the unrighteousness that we will not stand for it. So that's what the people are responsible at. Have the responsibility to do.

And notice the responsibility needs you must do it if it happens. Right? We have that responsibility. And majorly, as we preach the gospel to these authorities, that is something that we must be doing and we must be teaching them.

We must be people of the book and recognize that it's not on our authority or our subjective preferences like Carter mentioned earlier. It's specifically upon the Word of God as that is brought to bear on the men's consciences in authority. So here's the question that I'm going to pose to you guys.

How do we know when to resist? How do we know when to resist? We are commanded to do something against the law. Forbid to do what is said in the law. Yeah.

And what is the law? God's law. God's law, which is properly summarized in what? The Ten Commandments. Sorry.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're right. I'm just trying to push it even further.

Because I want to specifically hone in on the Ten Commandments specifically. It's important that we, like, the whole law is summarized in the two greatest commandments, "Love the Lord your God, by your heart, mine soul, and strength," and the second is like it, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." And those is, that's really a summary of the Ten Commandments. And the Ten Commandments is a summary of all the judicial law in the old covenant.

Right? So ultimately, we want to look specifically at the Ten Commandments because that is the, it says in the Old Testament that God is the one who wrote the Ten Commandments with his own finger. Moses wrote... He applied it in the judicial law. Moses applied it with the judicial law by writing with his finger.

Yeah. Right? So this goes into a little bit of covenant theology, but in Jeremiah 31, Hebrews chapter 8, when it's talking about the law being written on our hearts with God's finger, that's talking about the Ten Commandments specifically. Right? Not the judicial law.

So we're honing in specifically on the moral law, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments, and that's what we need to understand. So we will resist when the Ten Commandments are broken. So if the luxury is decriminalized, we need to begin standing up and resisting that.

How do we do that? We're monstrating against it. Right? We should be calling upon our civil magistrates to uphold God's law rather than man's law. Yeah.

So I'm going to read a couple quotes by Calvin, and then that's all I have. So Calvin says this in Institute Book 4, chapter 20, section 8, "Even magistrates ought to do their utmost to prevent the liberty of which they have been appointed guardians from being impaired far less violated. If they are sluggish or little careful, they are perfidious traitors to their office and their country." So again, he's bringing up the responsibility that the magistrate has specifically to uphold God's law.

They can't be sluggish in doing so. And then this other one was too long. I didn't want to write it down, so I took a picture of it.

So Calvin says this, and this is in, again, Book 4, chapter 20, and this is section 3, so a little bit earlier. He says, "This, I say, is not its only object," and he's talking about the object of the law. "But it is that no idolatry, no blasphemy against the name of God, no colonies against the truth, nor other offenses to religion, break out and be disseminated among the people, that the public quite be not disturbed, that every man's property be kept secure, that man may carry on innocent commerce with each other, that honesty and modesty be cultivated, and sure that the public form of religion may exist among Christians and humanity among men.

Let no one be surprised that I now attribute the task of constituting religion a right to human polity, though I seem above to have placed it beyond the will of man, since I know more than formally allow men a pleasure to enact laws concerning religion and the worship of God, when I approve of civil order which is directed to this end, i.e., to prevent the true religion which is contained in the law of God from being with impunity openly violated and polluted by public blasphemy." So that's a mouthful. But essentially what Calvin is saying here is that he wants the government to punish against blasphemy for the external forms of religion. He wants people, like for modern day example, a Muslim tries to set up a synagogue.

What do we want the government to do? We want, this is what Christians should think, we want the government to say, "Not a chance. You can't bring your religion here. You must perform at least the external religion of the Christian faith." That's what Christians think, that they should uphold God's law, and that's the duty of the lesser magistrate, even though, you know, the First Amendment, right, that the government should make no law concerning religion.

What the framers meant by religion, when you go and read the Puritans, when you read the founding fathers, when they used the word religion, they meant Christianity. They didn't mean Buddhism, they didn't mean Mahometianism. That's not what they meant, they meant Christianity.

So what I think we should think is that Muslims should not have the right to worship a pagan god because it impunes the law of God. And the lesser magistrate should uphold that. So that's what I've gathered from this book.

The doctrine of lesser magistrate is very important for Christian resistance, and we need to understand the clarity. Thank you. Thanks for asking.

Praise God. Any questions for Bryce or anything? I read the book so I'm good, but I don't know, some people didn't read it. Do you have anything you want to talk about or do you get it? And obviously there's a lot of people who are going to agree with that in modern-day Christianity, that you shouldn't punish last members, but I will say that's the universal testimony.

I think I disagree with that politically, and I haven't fleshed that out. I don't think that's probably the most beneficial thing. You know, I do need to go, I need to eat for you, however, I agree with almost every person.

You know what I mean? Like I want people's hearts there, you know? Right. But if like, there's a lot of steps that need to happen for sure. And that's why we need to focus on the post-millennial kingdom that we need to advance to gospel.

But you know what, I'm joking, but I'm not really fighting. That's a good step. That is not sufficient though, and I'm not, I, it's gonna look like I'm doing this for the sake of argument.

On the 16th, you know that, you know the heart. But I'm, you know, you end up getting, like you could have the Pharisees, which had that type of environment, right? Where it's like on paper, people were observing the law, but they were whitewashed too, right? Like their hearts were full of dead man's bones. And so screw the Muslim setting up a synagogue.

I don't want him pretending to be a Christian and worshiping Allah in his heart. You know what I mean? Like, I want his heart regenerated more, you know, more than just a power of eternal, like, the external, like, power of dwelling in that. And I know that's why I want him to think being a Christian either.

I will say I would rather him be fake being a Christian though. I would rather him be performing an external religion. Because with what you're bringing up specifically, that's just your normal, pietistic notion of our society, that the Christian faith is really privatized.

It's really just in the heart, as opposed to the Christian religion is something for the nations. We're supposed to disciple the nations, right? And obviously, there's steps that come into play before you, you know, set up a law that we should stop blasphemers or we should preach adulterers, obviously, stuff like that. But again, going back to the point, how are these people going to know the law? How are these people going to know the gospel if they've never been exposed to the law of God? Right? They have stored, they have put out idols in their hearts who are worshiping Allah, and I would rather them have the external state coming against them so that they can see a temporal reality of the wrath of God.

Sure. And that's the whole point of like why the law is required. It's disappointing.

Why is the government stopping me? Well, because it's wrong. Why do you think it's wrong? Because it's not Christian. Well, why does that matter? Because that's the right way.

You know what I mean? Like, I understand why you get that conclusion. Right. And I would much rather have that then.

I mean, why do we think that blasphemy isn't punished today? Your secularist is punishing the Christian blasphemers against the state against the God, which is the state, right? They have their gods, they have their priests. And when you come against the blue-haired feminists, you're treated as a blossom, a blasphemer. You don't make a cake for a gay guy in a throwing jail.

Exactly. Like, seriously, it's not whether you have the law. It's whose law or whose law? I'm sure.

Yeah, sure. And it's going to be God's law rather than the secular, the humanistic law, the state as it being God. Yeah.

Or even the definition of tolerance isn't, that's right too. It's not, you can be a Christian and I'm going to be a gay man. It's if you don't tell me that I'm great, you're going to go to jail.

Right. It's like, what do you mean? That's not tolerant. Right.

If I'm not allowed to believe, but I'm going to believe you, you know, it is like you started your whole explanation of like, you can have, or it's really like never condense it, right? Or it's like, you can have a gun, put that on to me too. It's like, I can't bow down to this. You know? Yeah.

Hey, let's wrap it up to do something. Yeah. That's good.

Good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

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