The doctrine of lesser magistrates is the doctrine that says that officials must obey God and act righteously even when a higher official tells them otherwise. Here’s a pastor who got to discuss that in front of the Montana state legislature.
Ignorant Americans
Why is America in the sad state it is in? Why do cops feel free to harass people and think they have a right to require ID? The answer is because Americans are ignorant of their rights. Below is evidence for that. It is the first several comments (with redacted cuss words)on the video below:
“I feel like these guys with open carry licenses go out HOPING someone tries to stop them to start ********.”
“people like this guy are just plain ***** of course someone is going to call the cops when some nutjob is walking down the street with rifles and/or pistols showing in public . there’s enough school shootings and such going on without people blatantly carrying weopons and scaring the public in general, you want to carry a gun do it concealed but just remember this you fool, you carry it and eventually youtr going to use it and someone just might take it off you and shove it up your *******, then what?”
“Why are people so paranoid, the cop was being very polite and just doing his job if it was some psycho carrying guns and the cops chose to ignore that, now that would go on national news, cops just can’t win”
“Is that seriously a law in Michigan? If you wanna open carry that’s fine, but if a police officer(or anyone really) wants to make sure you have a permit to do it that seems pretty reasonable.”
“…you stupid guy.. just give him your ID! You are the ***** here, buddy. You didn’t “school” anyone here.”
And it goes on and on.
The issue is that everything he was doing was legal. This man increased the freedom of every American, because now this cop knows that the law says he can’t demand ID and people can do lawful things even if it upsets or offends others.
You can think it’s unwise for him to walk around with guns. You can think it’s unwise for him to seek confrontation with the police. You can think whatever you want, but your opinion doesn’t count for anything. He is a grown man and can do whatever he likes within the law.
Ignorant Cops
Six Christians Arrested in New Jersey for Evangelizing.
I can just see these dirt bag, ignoramus cops saying all of this stuff:
Officer Baker demanded identification from all of the Christians under the threat of arrest. Parker said that at first he declined, but police insinuated that if they provided identification, everything would be fine. However, that did not turn out to be the case.“He told us, ‘That will cost you $250 a piece,’” Parker recalled the officer stating. “He said, ‘Anybody who is with them gets a ticket.’”
Parker explained that the police also confiscated the mobile phone of one of the Christians who was recording the incident, contending that it was against the law for them to record police, and that the officers were taking the phone as part of an investigation.
Jersey City police told them that they were not permitted to hand out tracts in the entire city without government permission.
“He kept asking me, ‘Do you know where you’re at? Do you know where you’re at?” Parker outlined.
When contacted, the Jersey City Police Department stated that because members of the public were upset with the message being proclaimed, the officers had a right to prevent potential violence. They stated that in such cases, police protocol is to disperse the crowd and silence the speaker.
Insubordination
The NYPD turned their backs on the mayor again.
1. What would happen to someone in the military who turned their back on the president or their superior?
2. What would happen to an employee who turned their back on their boss?
3. What would happen to us if we turned out back on these officers?
4. What happened to Eric Garner when he turned his back on the NYPD?
These guys are hypocrites who demand absolute obedience (even though that’s nowhere called for other than their wild imagination), but can’t even keep themselves from disrespecting the mayor. And this time, they not only disrespected the mayor, but disobeyed the request of the police commissioner.
The other point in this article is that the NYPD made fewer arrests and issued fewer traffic tickets. The purpose of this is not to punish the people of New York, but to punish the mayor and the city’s budget. Chaos didn’t erupt in the streets. People continued to drive safely. To me, it seems all they’ve done is show what a waste of money they are. Fifty percent ought to be laid off tomorrow.
Another One From Bo
This one is really important.
Our government is a reflection of our preaching; what comes out of our pulpits tells the government how far it can go in destroying liberty without expecting pushback. The real culprits for tyranny are not government agents who do injustice but church ministers who preach non-resistance.
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Jesus actually DID resist tyranny, and did tell others to do so. Why would He be killed if He didn’t resist tyranny in one way or another? Was He killed by tyrants because of His obedience to them? Why would a tyrant kill someone who is perfectly obedient and submits in everything?
Resistance comes in many different shades, and not all resistance is armed resistance, and not all submission is obedience. And armed resistance is not excluded, but it is not to be used foolishly either; the rules for war in Like 14:31 apply when we talk about our relation to a tyrannical civil government.
More From Bo
If De Blasio had Ronald Reagan’s courage, he’d fire every single one of those NYC cops who turned their backs on him. If these cops want others to respect their authority, they should respect the authority over them. By this act, the cops declared to the public, “We want others to obey the law and respect us but we will remain lawless and disrespectful.” They should be fired, their benefits suspended, their right to take another city job taken away; and if the NYC needs to have a police department, they should start building it from scratch, so that this corrupt lawless scum in blue uniforms doesn’t pollute the city with their crimes anymore.
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After this there was a decent amount of conversation, here are a few more highlights:
Desmond says, “Don’t get me wrong. Cops that break the law should be punished in a court of law. But think about it. If you fire all those cops you will end up with lawlessness. Trust me no one is in line to be a cop in New York at the moment.
Bojidar responds, “I can’t trust you on that. I can’t see a wave of resignations.
When you fire all these cops, you will take care of a huge part of lawlessness. In the last 10 years, crime has been on decline everywhere in the civilized world, and the only category of crime that has been on the rise is crimes committed by cops. Besides, 90% of the work of the NYPD has nothing to do with crime but with enforcing revenues regulations, collecting money for the city. And those 10% who have something to do with crime have no obligation to prevent crime or to protect anyone, by a court’s decision. By and large, the NYPD was created to serve Tammany Hall, and has never had the function of serving the people or protect them from crime.
So, no, it won’t end up with lawlessness. What it will end up with is the city being forced to change the gun laws for private citizens. And that’s it.
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The US didn’t have cops for a long time in its history. Most localities had only the Sheriff, and he was an agent of the court, serving warrants, not “maintaining order.” And everything was alright, and private citizens were doing alright without cops. So you can’t really be “reminded” about that without pointing to the fact that everything was alright without them. You have no “memory” of the US – or any other place – which fell into lawlessness because it didn’t have cops. If anything. lawlessness was created by cops in quite a few places.
The courts seldom hear cases against cops. Prosecutors make sure those cases never pass the Grand Jury – like the two murders of Brown and Garner. When a case reaches the court, the court often does the right thing.
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Desmond, “And guys I tend to lean towards a libertarian view. I’m just not keen on the idea a no cops.
Bojidar says, “Such statements bring back memories of Eastern Europe in the early 90s, when the old Communist price controls were still in force and the stores were all empty, and the anti-Communist politicians insisted on lifting the price controls and liberalizing the market. The older generation was terrified, for they had never seen anything else but government controls. So their reaction was, “Can you imagine what it will be without government price controls? The prices will skyrocket and no one will be able to afford to buy anything!”
Well, eventually the price controls were lifted. Within a week or two, the stores were full as never before (waiting in lines was normal under Communism), and the prices jumped a little bit and then returned pretty much to the same level, because of the competition. So everything was alright.
I remember it because my son was 1 year old when the price controls were removed in Bulgaria and we couldn’t buy anything in the stores, no food, no diapers, no clothes.
Respecting a cop for being a person is one thing. Obeying a cop because he is a cop is another thing. Idolizing the cop because he is supposedly fighting crime is a third thing altogether.
By the way, what crime was the cop fighting in the above example of stopping a motorist for a light?
This Is a Great Answer
I’m going to post Bojidar Marinov’s answer to a question he answered in a Facebook comment.
Q
What is the biblical justification for resisting the governing authorities when they aren’t commanding us directly to sin?
A
See, the biggest problem with that statement is that it is hopelessly pietistic and unrealistic. It presupposes that you can remain righteous while not doing anything about INJUSTICE. But the Bible says that RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUSTICE are the foundation of God’s Throne.
The modern state has a variety of ways to do injustice without forcing Christians to sin directly. Public schools don’t go to the individual Christian and force him to sin. Roe v. Wade doesn’t force the individual Christian to sin. Police brutality doesn’t force any individual Christian to sin. Even in the above example, these cops didn’t make the preachers sin; they just told them to not preach in the park. (There is no specific command in Scripture to preach at specific place, therefore it is not sin to move to another place.) Etc., etc. In all these examples, the state doesn’t force Christians to sin, it just expects them to remain passive in the face of injustice. Well, may be preach and talk against it but never do anything, and never resist. You imagine injustice only as “authorities command us to sin.” But this is hopelessly naive, and the pagan state hopes you will imagine it this way. The reality is, true injustice is, “We will oppress the weak without forcing you personally to sin, and we will do it in your face, and expect you to obey your butchered interpretation of Romans 13 and not resist.”
Find the conversation here.
Florida Clerks Object to Marrying Homosexuals
A “judge” has decreed that Florida county clerks have to start issuing homosexual marriage licenses. Here’s an interesting story about how some counties are going to stop holding ceremonies since the clerks would object to taking part in the ceremonies.
These clerks who object to performing the ceremonies apparently don’t have a problem issuing the license. I’m not sure how that works. But the end of the story is where Mike Huckabee is quoted saying some of the same things I’ve said. We must disobey when we’re asked to do something preposterous and immoral. Here’s what he says in the article:
Talk show host and former pastor Mike Huckabee stated in September during a conference call with the organization Vision America that Christians need to be more active in resisting evil in the land.
“I would remind people that the judicial branch is not the supreme branch, and the Supreme Court is only the Supreme Court, not the Supreme Being,” he said. “And I feel that we have failed in civics to understand that there are three branches of government, and one can’t overrule the other two, and all three of them together can’t overrule the people.”
“Yet, we have people who say, … ‘The courts have ruled on same-sex marriage, we have to live with it,’” Huckabee continued. “I would suggest no, we don’t. We shouldn’t just accept things that are ungodly and that will cause us to have to stand before God with bloody hands. I think that’s where we’ve failed.”
I call on every clerk in the country to not issue the homosexual marriage licenses. We will all stand before God and give an account for our actions–even the actions that we were ordered by our boss or a judge to do.
Doral PD Criminal Thug in Blue
This is ridiculous behavior. This old cop thinks he can raise his voice and tell people what to do, and I bet he actually believes that people have to obey him. This might even be the first time anyone has tried to disobey him. That is a shame, and all of us law-abiding citizens need to stand up for our rights. Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdzMrXL6BVc
The Public’s Right to the Press
This cop is clearly nuts and on a power trip. He needs to be fired ASAP. Too bad the cameraman caved in. It’s OK to cave in once. It’s not OK to cave in now that he knows better.