Since the Rescue, doors have opened to share our vision and mission with ABC, NPR, and a Swedish news agency. ABC is working with a team from Netflix on a documentary that will address the state of abortion in America and its future. They are coming to our pretrial on July 11th, and will return to film at our national event on Monday, July 24th, and Tuesday, July 25th, 2017.

It is through these interviews, we’ve had the opportunity to share on breaking the old Roe paradigm and no longer fight this battle based upon the premises of those who advocate baby murder. We told them we are creating a new paradigm based upon the tried and true foundations of God’s Word and its historical lessens as it was applied in times past to end the evil of our age once and for all. The doors opened to address the doctrines of interposition and its importance on both the church and the state level and the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate.

They are coming to see what impact this will have on Kentucky and how that may influence other states to follow their lead by Ignoring Roe, Establishing Justice, and by banning All Abortions Now in Jesus’ name!

Keep praying saints and make plans to join us “For Such a Time as This.”


Many of you are aware that on May 13th, 2017, something happened that has not taken place in close to 20 years in the battle to end the America holocaust. Eleven Christians took up the cross, followed the Lord, and fleshed out the doctrine of interposition. At a specific cue of a worship song, they offered to the Lord a sacrifice of worship by walking on the death camp’s property. They peaceably placed their bodies between the abortionist’s knife and the innocent children scheduled to be murdered for blood money.
It was a little pebble thrown into God’s ocean that somehow created a tsunami. The Rescue ignited a firestorm. It has reached to the White House, major news outlets, pro-abort media, and even went international. Men’s hearts were stirred, one way or another.
The Doctrine of Interposition, the theology of Christian Rescue, the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate, and the obligations of the Church were wrestled with in online debates, in blogs and vlogs, on radio programs, and on news broadcasts. A necessary conversation took place and it reached beyond our wildest expectations.
Limited Perspective
When one seeks the Lord to obey Him in this battle, we must understand that we still see in a mirror dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12). We have our finite ideas, goals, and godly objectives and then the Lord has His purposes. Truly, our only purpose for crossing that line at that particular time was specifically measured.
Christians were remonstrating in Kentucky for months to encourage the state authorities to cross a line, be brave, and defy the lawless, corrupt, and unconstitutional ruling of Roe vs. Wade. How could we expect them (the state) to do it, if we, as churchmen were not willing to do it first? We needed to provide a godly example for them to follow. This is what interposition looks like as churchmen. We lay down our lives so these children might live. What does interposition look like at the state level? The state is to use their God-ordained authority to defend the lives of the preborn by Ignoring Roe, Establishing Justice, and by Abolishing Abortion Now in Jesus’ name!
Response from the Rescue
Since May 13th, we’ve heard from people, literally from all over the world. Some to let us know how they have been impacted to love God and their desire to enter this battle to end abortion, while others screamed and sent us threatening messages. Their accusations were varied. According to some, we were being “foolish,” “misrepresented God,” “wrong methodology,” “fleshly,” “promoting civil disobedience,” (Instead of biblical obedience that we actually advocate) “protesting,” “not God’s way,” “counterproductive,” “unbiblical,” “brought shame on the Lord,” and finally we practiced “fruitless dead works.” There were others who proffered conspiracy theories, while others complained that Rescue as a tactic was a failure, both now and in history. It’s enough to take a man’s breath away.
On the flip side, however, there have been massive amounts of encouragement sent our way. We have heard from the young who are ready to storm the gates hell. We have heard from mature Christian leaders who stand ready to cross similar lines to the point of jail. They understand the value of redemptive suffering in this battle to end abortion.
As a result, we now find ourselves in an awkward position before the Lord. First, none of us could anticipate the magnitude of the repercussions that would take place in the aftermath of the Rescue. Second, we have to determine our responsibility before God in light of all that has transpired.  It is this situation that the rest of this article will prayerfully address.
To the Young in the Battle
First, I want to reiterate, it was never our intention to reignite the Rescue movement in this generation. Like most, I believe, Rescue as a tactic served God’s purpose and has come and gone. Rescue as a Christian witness, however, is always viable. Jesus taught, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
I know many young people’s hearts have been inspired emotionally by what happened on May 13th. In some ways, I rejoice, but must give some caution to temper any misguided zeal. To consider rescue is not a light matter. When I first contemplated crossing that line in the Fall of 1988 to get involved with Rescue, I wrestled with God, studied the Scriptures and history, and fasted and prayed for four months.
I took serious the admonishment to “count the cost” and wondered if I had the spiritual fortitude to pay the price (Luke 14:28-33). So, here is my advice to the young contemplating Rescue:
1)  Your motive for getting involved is as important as the actions you are contemplating to employ. God desires a right, right. He wants right motive and right action. The ends do not justify the means in His Kingdom. This cannot be about a rite of passage to prove your Christian or pro-life/abolitionist credentials. It must be an offering given to God from a willing heart. It is a sacrifice humbly given to Him to do with as He sees fit.
2) To have authority in God’s Kingdom, you must be under authority (Matthew 8:5-13). You must be covered in this battle by the church.
3)  Seek wise counsel of tried and tested elders. Proverbs teaches, “Plans are established by counsel; by wise counsel wage war” (Proverbs 20:18).
4) You must temper any emotional zeal with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (Romans 10:2). Otherwise, you can create more harm, than good.
5)  You must be prepared to endure redemptive suffering. There is a glory one experiences crossing the line, but afterwards, reality soon sets in. You may have to face a long prison term and heavy fines. This is a part of counting the cost. Jesus warned, ” For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has  enough   to finish   it –   lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see   it   begin to mock him,   saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish'” (Luke 14:28-30).
6)  Lastly, I’ve seen many good soldiers of Jesus Christ start well in Rescue and finish terribly. There have been many casualties in this battle to end the American holocaust. There are two two things you can be assured of, if you consider crossing the line to Rescue. First, spiritual warfare will take on a whole new meaning in your life. There will be retaliation for your actions on many different levels. This has the potential to ill affect your relationships with family, friends, other Christians, and even your church. Are you prepared to suffer persecution, bear the reproach, have your motives impugned and your actions condemned and be willing to respond with love and forgiveness?
If not, do not Rescue. A scandalon will certainly be waiting to create in you a root of bitterness. This will not only defile you, but you will spread that defilement to others. You will end up leaving the church and becoming a Lone Ranger for Christ. A very dangerous place to find yourself my friend.
The benefit, however, if you do decide to cross the line and handle it in a God honoring way, you will experience the Lord in ways you never thought possible on this side of heaven. The word of God will absolutely come alive and your faith will be energized.
To Mature Believers Who’s Hearts Has Been Stirred
This article is walking a tightrope. As with all paths, there are ditches on both sides of the road. To the youth, there must be caution, but to the mature, God forbid, the flame that was fueled in your hearts would be dampened by me or anyone else who has responded incorrectly to Rescue.
The cautions given to the young are obviously applicable to those older in the Lord. My only encouragement to you is to understand that you are needed in this battle to end the American holocaust. On May 13th, the doctrine of interposition was lived out physically. It can also be lived out verbally. The main issue I want to communicate to those older in the faith, it is not where you are on the wall, the main issue is are you on the wall?
Roe vs. Wade has established, just like in Nehemiah’s time, broken walls and burned gates that make us vulnerable to an enemy that has come to kill, steal, and destroy. Abortion is the main exposed area that is savaging our nation and people. Your willingness to intervene, interpose, stand in the gap, and make up the hedge is critical to secure a future and a hope (Ezekiel 22:23-31).
A good place to be encouraged, trained, and equipped to fight the battle for the souls of men, the lives of children, and the future of our blood stained, perverted land is to make plans to join us at our national event in July. The dates are July 22-29th, 2017 in Louisville, KY. The theme is taken from the book of Esther, “For Such a Time As This.” You can go to our website www.operationsaveamerica.org  or go to our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1320334234679001/  to get more information. Hope to see you there.
Future Implications for Rescue
From the media, friends and the enemies of the Lord, one question is repeated over and over again, “Are you planning any more Rescues?” My answer, “Not officially, but we are open to the Lord’s leading.” Will there be times in the future where Rescue is warranted? I believe it will not only be warranted, it may become absolutely necessary.
What happens if a governor of a state decides to do his duty to interpose and end all abortions from chemical to surgical in his state and the powers that be try to keep them open? That would be an incredible opportunity for the church to peaceably interpose and Rescue at the gates of hell.
Let us keep our eyes on the prize and continue to advance the doctrines of interposition, on both the church and state level, and the doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate. Let us also pray that if the opportunity presents itself that we will have the courage, humility, and spiritual fortitude to cross the line again and “Rescue those unjustly sentenced to death in Jesus’ name” (Proverbs 24:11, 12)!

OSA Official Louisville Rescue Video

Proverbs 24"11-12 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?In Louisville, Kentucky​ 4000 Preborn Children are senselessly slaughtered every year. On May 13, 2017, 11 faithful Christians interposed themselves between those helpless victims and those who would seek to do them harm. This official OSA video documents that day when murder happened and the wrong people were arrested. May this witness awaken the church in Louisville and the rest of Kentucky. May it cause civil magistrates like Matt Bevin to ignore Roe V Wade, Establish Justice, and Abolish Abortion Now. #AbolishAbortionNow#RescuethePerishing#MattBevin#OperationSaveAmerica#Louisville

Posted by Joseph Randall Spurgeon on Tuesday, May 23, 2017

 

Mother’s Day Rescue
Louisville, Kentucky, May 13, 2017
 
“Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”
Proverbs 24:11
Rescue those Being Led Away to Death
What does Christianity look like in a culture that sacrifices babies? Sometimes it looks like Rescue.
   On Saturday, May 13, eleven Christians with Operation Rescue National/Operation Save America peacefully blocked the entrance to Kentucky’s last remaining surgical abortion clinic. The early morning rescue was to protect babies and to appeal to Governor Bevin to “ignore Roe, establish justice, and abolish abortion now.”
The Rescue
   An 82 year old concentration camp survivor, a former pastor, a reverend, a prolife missionary and father of eight, a Christian father who has been on ten overseas mission trips, and a humble teenage girl wearing a skirt and head covering interposed between an abortionist and his intended victims-preborn babies scheduled to be murdered at 136 West Market Street in Louisville, Kentucky.
   The rescue coincided with Mother’s Day weekend. Over a hundred Christians left their hotel rooms while it was still dark to protect babies scheduled to be murdered for blood money. The Christians arrived at the clinic at 6 am and quickly claimed the sidewalk space closest to the front door. Mothers, fathers, great-grandmothers, and children stood shoulder to shoulder and waited for the sun to rise.
    “Clinic escorts” (who lead women inside the clinic for abortions) followed and set up shortly after the rescuers. Upon seeing the large gathering of Christians, one escort immediately called the police on a cell phone. Pastor Ante set up a sound system and worship music reached blocks away. As more and more clinic escorts arrived, Pastor Frank, Pastor Mark, Jordan, and David shared the Gospel and took turns preaching on the speaker. Pastor Dale had a significant conversation with members of the police force. His message was so convicting to one officer a superior officer stepped in and removed him from Pastor Dale’s presence. Some Christians sang, while others knelt in prayer.
   Apart from the large police presence, the gathering was reminiscent of a church service. After approximately an hour and a half, a clinic staff member arrived and unlocked the front door. As the button was pushed and the locked opened from the inside, a music cue on the sound system told the rescuers it was time to interpose. The eleven rescuers quickly left their places on the sidewalk, moved to the entrance, and sat in front of the doors, to the bemusement of the clinic escorts. Heads bowed, the rescuers put their faith into practice and peacefully rescued those being led away to death.
   Christian theologian Francis Shaeffer said, “Every abortion clinic should have a sign in front of it saying, ‘Open by the permission of the church.'” On Mother’s Day weekend in Louisville, the Church said, “We withdraw our permission. Now close this death camp down in Jesus’ name!”
Why Did They Rescue?
   According to one rescuer, Chris, “Rescue is a necessity.” A former pastor who once worked at a battered women’s shelter, Chris explained, “What would I do it if I saw a guy beating up a girl on the street? I wouldn’t pray. I wouldn’t go to church. I would go right over there to intervene. The defense of children is an inarguable thing.”
   82 year old Eva, a survivor of a Serbian “death camp” told the Courier-Journal, “I just wish the good Christian people of my country would have gathered in front of my death camp when we were shipped in.”
   OSA national leader and missionary, Cal, explained, “Of the 11 Rescuers unjustly arrested in Louisville, 6 of them have been on missions trips to China with me.” The Christian background of the four women and the seven men who rescued demonstrate that it was their faith that compelled them to love their neighbor as themselves and rescue them. As a result of the rescue, one baby that we know of was saved.
Pray for the Pretrial

 

   The rescue and arrest of the Christians was livestreamed on Facebook. Popular Facebook personalities, Activist Mommy and Josh Feuerstein, covered the arrests. The pretrial is scheduled for July 11. Please pray for Laura, big Eva, little Eva, Dennis, Jim, Chris, Jimmy, Tom, David and Rusty. Hosanna also rescued but because she is a minor, she wasn’t charged.  The purpose of the pretrial allows the prosecutor to meet with the abortionists, police, and the rescuers to determine the future course of action concerning the case. The elephant in the room, however, is our federal government and their draconian law called F.A.C.E., Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances. The misdemeanor charge of trespass can receive federal penalties, which include a prison term and thousands of dollars in fines.
A Christian Doctrine Fleshed Out
 
   In addition to the saved baby, the Christian doctrine of interposition was fleshed out and made real again through the rescue. As Pastor Matt Trewhella, author of the Lesser Magistrate Doctrine, commented after the rescue, “For those saying what they did is lawless or sinful or unbibilical: What they did is not a violation of Scripture. It is a godly demonstration of the historic Christian doctrine of interposition- which can be done verbally or physically. They have done it physically. May Christ be praised.”
   Rusty Thomas, National Director of Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, stated on a video press release, “The Rescuers exercised the Christian doctrine of interposition. Interposition takes place when one stands in the gap between a strong oppressor and a victim in order to rescue the victim from the oppressor’s hands. The Bible and history are filled with examples of interposition. It was interposition that ended the ancient evil of slavery, infanticide, human sacrifice and other atrocities. The Church of Jesus Christ, armed with the revelation that man is made in the image of God, led the charge to set the captives free.
A Necessary Conversation
   The rescue ignited a social media firestorm. The doctrine of interposition, the theology of Christian rescue, the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate, and the obligations of the Church were wrestled over in online debates, in blogs and vlogs, on radio programs, and on news broadcasts. A necessary conversation has taking place and it has reached beyond our wildest expectations.
   Rescue treats abortion as murder and the child as an immediate victim. Through the act of rescue, the humanity of the child is validated, the demand for justice is authenticated, and the culture is confronted with the need to immediately end abortion. God used the rescue to change the anti-abortion conversation. The conversation moved from defensive, “regulatory minded,” politically expedient, incremental strategy to proactive, “biblically minded,” uncompromising, immediatism.
An Appeal to Governor Bevin and Lesser Magistrates
   Civil magistrates have perpetuated the fiction of Roe vs. Wade that has entrenched our nation the culture of death. ORN/OSA used the media platform generated by the rescue to appeal to Gov. Matt Bevin to interpose to protect innocent life. In a video press release broadcast at the time of the rescue, National Director of ORN/OSA, Rev. Rusty Thomas, described the rescue as “an example for Governor Bevin, the legislators, sheriffs, and police officers to follow…in their God ordained authority.” The press release was in keeping with an earlier video Thomas and local leader, Pastor Joseph Spurgeon, released calling on Governor Bevin to ignore Roe, establish justice, and abolish abortion now in the state of Kentucky.
   Rev. Thomas reasoned that Christians were remonstrating to encourage the state authorities to cross a line, be brave, and defy the lawless, corrupt, and unconstitutional ruling of Roe vs. Wade. He stated, “How could we expect them (the state) to do it, if we as churchmen were not willing to do it first? We needed to provide a godly example for them to follow. This is what interposition looks like as churchmen. We lay down our lives so these children might live. What does interposition look like at the state level? The state is to use their God-ordained authority to defend the lives of the preborn and lead justice to victory.” On May 13th, however, the crime of murder was committed on that fateful day, but once again the state arrested the wrong people.

 

What the Rescue Wasn’t
   For our critics, the rescue wasn’t civil disobedience; it was biblical obedience. It wasn’t “clinic-centric;” it was Christ centered. It wasn’t human strategy; it was God’s strategy (Matt. 16:24). It wasn’t violent; it was peaceful Christians laying down their lives for another (Since Christians began interposing and publicly repenting at clinics 80,000 arrests occurred. Not 1 was for violence). It wasn’t new; interposition is biblical and historical. It wasn’t “regulatory” minded; the biblical demand was for the immediate end of abortion- without compromise, without apology, and without exception (as defined in God’s Word). It wasn’t incremental; it was immediate- immediate repentance, immediate rescue of a preborn neighbor, and immediate conflict with the culture of child sacrifice.
   Moreover, this was not an attempt to recapture the glory days of rescue. It was not a publicity stunt so OSA could regain attention in the public square. Neither was it done in the hopes of reigniting the rescue movement in this generation. The rescue was not necessarily concerned about strategy, ground game, or overall game plan to end abortion. It was a sacrifice humbly giving to God from the hearts of these rescuers to present to the Lord to do with it as He saw fit. We can report He did exceedingly, abundantly, above all we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).
Future Implications of the Rescue
   Proverbs 16:9 says a man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps. For the rescuers, the rescue in Louisville was a simple act of Christian obedience. According to the feminist Dame Magazine, however, “If Louisville is any indication; the FACE Act may be on its last legs.” Feminist media outlets reported on the Mother’s Day rescue inadvertently outlined a potential strategy for challenging the tyrannical Freedom of Access to Christian Entrances Act. Abortion supporters believe the Christians with ORN/OSA were smart enough to strategize a long term goal to overturn the draconian F.A.C.E. “law” by claiming religious freedom and freedom of expression protections, which, by the way, are ours to claim. According to Rewire, “Saturday’s events in Louisville were also a test of the Trump administration to see how far its recent executive order on so-called “religious freedom” will protect activities like abortion clinic ‘rescue missions’.” Rewire suggests, “in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court slid closer to protecting the rights of protesters over patients in McCullen v. Coakley, the challenge to a Massachusetts buffer zone law…anti-choice activists [will likely] launch another defense along these ‘free speech’ lines following Saturday’s arrests.”
   Supporters of abortion fear the rescue will be used as a test case that will reach past the Department of Justice to the Trump Administration’s recent curtailing of the Johnson Amendment. Section 1 of the order states, “Federal law protects the freedom of Americans and their organizations to exercise religion and participate fully in civic life without undue interference by the Federal Government. The executive branch will honor and enforce those protections.” Section 2 states, “All executive departments and agencies … shall, to the greatest extent practicable and to the extent permitted by law, respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech.” We will see if the rumor of God in their heads will become their worst nightmare. Keep pressing on saints to the high call and prize in Jesus name!

By my wife, Kendra Thomas

Why Rescue? Here’s 20 Reasons

1) Abortion is Murder
It’s time we acted like it.

2) Rescue Demonstrates Repentance
Religious systems may preach penance, political systems may argue compromise, and movements may promote human strategy— but God requires repentance. Repentance for sin, both individual and national, is not gradual. It is immediate. Jesus told us to cut off known sin or perish (Matthew 18:8). Rescue is a way to demonstrate immediate repentance for the sin of abortion.

3) Rescue is Immediate
It is immediate repentance, immediate rescue of a preborn neighbor, and immediate “agitation” with the culture of child sacrifice.

4) God Commands Rescue
The Word of God tells us to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death (Prov 24:11). Rescue is commanded. But Proverbs 24:11 is more than a command. It is couched in a warning against inaction. Verse ten reads, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” The Psalmist than warns, “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? (Prov 24:11-12). The hard word here is the warning regarding inaction. In other words, the onus is on Christians to rescue. God will reward us according to our works (Prov 24:12).

5) Civil Magistrates Have Neglected Their Duty to Protect Life
The role of civil government is to protect life and stop the shedding of innocent blood (Genesis 9:6). Civil magistrates are God’s ministers to punish evil doers and protect the innocent (Romans 13:1-4). Sadly, civil magistrates have not rescued the preborn “out of the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:4).

6) Rescue is Biblical Obedience, Not Civil Disobedience
When the laws of God conflict with the laws of men, “We must obey God rather then.” God established civil government to protect life and stop the shedding of innocent blood (Genesis 9:6). Civil magistrates are God’s ministers to punish evil doers and protect the innocent (Romans 13:1-4). They are delegated authorities, invested with power and answerable to God (Psalm 82). Biblical obedience therefore is not the same as civil disobedience. When Christians rescue they are keeping the law, not breaking the law. As John Knox wrote, “True it is that God hath commanded kings to be obeyed, but like true it is, that in things which they commit against His glory or when cruelly without cause they rage against their brethren, the members of Christ’s body He hath commanded no obedience. Rather, He hath approved, yea, and greatly rewarded such as have opposed themselves to their ungodly commandments and blind rage.”

7) God Will Judge Civil Magistrates for Neglect of Duty
As Pastor Matt Trewhella, author of The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate, explains, because civil magistrates “derive their authority from God…their authority is not autonomous or unconditional.” This means every civil magistrate will be judged by the Supreme Judge of the earth. Psalm 82:4 speaks to this truth: God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
According to Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, gods refer “to men delegated with office from God.” The Psalm “opens with the solemn statement that God had taken His official place as president of the bench of judges…He is among the judges as presiding judge.” As presiding judge, God rules that civil magistrates defend the fatherless. He orders that they rescue the needy “out of the hand of the wicked.” However, the Psalm says the civil magistrates “know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course” (Psalm 82:5). Barnes Notes on the Bible explains the civil magistrates “not merely judged unjustly…they did not desire to understand their duty.” Their lack of understanding was willful. Although God made His mind known to them, the civil magistrates neglected their duty. They would not rescue. It is the same today.

8) The Church is the Last Line of Defense for the Preborn
Barnes Notes on the Bible explains, “There are times on earth when wickedness is so prevalent, and when there is such a want of faithfulness in civil rulers, that we have no other resource but to call upon God to interpose.”

9) Civil Magistrates Must Respond Appropriately to Murder
Civil Magistrates have perpetuated the fiction of Roe vs. Wade and entrenched us in a culture of death. Preborn babies are not “agendas,” “next sessions,” “vacancies on the court,” “exceptions,” “things to regulate,” “planks in party platforms,” or poker chips to wager elections on. Preborn babies are real human beings dying torturous deaths while civil magistrates argue legalese, arm wrestle rules and procedures, conduct hearings that reinforce the lie of Roe, and wait for the next political season. They must be rescued.

10) The Church is Called to Disciple the Nations
Jesus commanded us to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). Christianity teaches “thou shalt not murder” and “greater love hath no man then this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). By peacefully and nonviolently interposing between a murderer and his intended victim, the preborn baby, the Church is teaching the nation the commandments of God.

11) Civil Magistrates Lack an Understanding of the Biblical and Historical Doctrine of Interposition and the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate
These teachings must be rediscovered and acted upon by civil magistrates and Churchmen alike. When we live out our faith, we inculcate these biblical and historical truths and become an example to others.

12) Churchmen Can’t Expect Civil Magistrates to Do What they are Unwilling to Do
We are called to rescue, to interpose between the victim and the oppressor. We cannot, in good conscience, call lesser magistrates to interpose for the preborn when we are unwilling.

13) Churchmen Cannot Expect Female Civil Magistrates to put themselves at risk by interposing, while men of God sit safely in Church.

14) Hiding Behind the Skirts of Civil Magistrates is Sin
Civil magistrates are not the plumb line for Christian obedience. When civil magistrates abdicate their duty, Christians must maintain biblical obedience. And while there are many passages in Scripture that instruct the civil magistrate as to his duty, there are many more that instruct the churchman. When God commands obedience, we don’t look behind us to see if the civil government is following. We must obey God rather than men.

15) Roe vs. Wade is Legal Fiction
Because courts cannot make law, Roe vs. Wade is legal fiction. Sixty million babies and forty-three years later, civil magistrates still perpetuate this fiction.

16) The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances is No Law at All Since FACE seeks to protect and institutionalize the murder of preborn babies (in violation of God’s law and the U.S. Constitution) and is itself built on the fiction of Roe vs. Wade, it should be challenged.

17) Rescue Restores the Integrity of the Church
As Rev. Rusty Thomas, National Director of Operation Rescue National/Operation Save America, stated, “If the Church says abortion is murder, but doesn’t live like people are actually dying, her witness rings hollow.” How can we expect the unsaved world to repent of abortion if our witness is inconsistent? If we believe babies are being murdered, we must act like it.

18) Rescue Reveals the Love of Christ
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

19) Rescue is Pure Religion
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).

20) Our Savior Rescued Us
Jesus “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:4).

 

 

In Defense of Peaceful Abortion Clinic Sit-Ins

Dr. Patrick Johnston

Operation Save America

 

On May 13, 2017, eleven Christians trespassed onto the property of the last surgical abortion clinic in Kentucky to sit peacefully and blockade the doors. They refused to move. One troubled mother changed her mind and decided to keep her baby that day. The eleven Christians were soon handcuffed and arrested.

 

From 1986 to 1994, almost 80 thousand Christians were similarly arrested blockading abortion clinics from New Jersey to California, led Randall Terry and his organization Operation Rescue. His slogan was, “If you believe abortion is murder, act like it’s murder.”

 

How would you act if your son or daughter were being led into a concentration camp to be systemically starved and slaughtered, their body parts divvied out to researchers? The children killed in these abortion clinics are children of God created in His image. To us they are “the least” of humanity. We cannot hear their cries or see their bloody carcasses. But God hears, and God remembers. He loves them, and calls His people to lovingly defend them.

 

Proverbs 24:10-11 says, “Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Surely we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?”

 

First John 3 and 4 inform us that if we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves, then we don’t love God. That includes “the least” among us. If we don’t love “the least” – God takes it personally (Matthew 25). Jesus said that it would be better if a millstone were hung around your neck and you be drowned in the depths of the see than that you should harm one of God’s little ones. If you were being led away to unjust slaughter, would you want to be protected and defended? Well, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Peacefully laying down our lives to try to protect the lives of children of God scheduled for slaughter is an act of love toward the preborn, an act of love toward God, and holds back the gavel of His judgment against our land.

 

Responding to Critics

 

There are many criticisms of Operation Rescue’s tactics of peacefully blockading abortion clinic entrances, preventing pregnant mothers from entering to murder their babies.

 

“Trespassing is illegal. God says to ‘Be subject to the governing authorities’ and ‘Obey every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake’ (Romans 13:1-4 and I Peter 2:13) As long as Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, we must obey.”

 

Romans 13 requires us to obey civil authorities, but in the same breath it describes the civil authorities to whom we owe obedience. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by… what? By every word of God. When we look at what God’s Word says about an issue, we need to look at everything it says, and come to it sincerely, pursuing understanding. Romans 13 says, “Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil… he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

 

If we are obligated to obey the civil authorities in obedience to God, they are obligated to obey God too. If they begin to use the God-ordained sword to punish the innocent against God’s will and commands, and reward murderers, and become thereby ministers of Satan instead of ministers of God, they are no more worthy of obedience than a bomb-wielding terrorist in the cockpit of an airplane, or a father who sexually abuses his children. Might does not make right. All authority is delegated, but it is also conditional.

 

We should obey the ordinances of man for the Lord’s sake, but that does not include lawless ordinances. Who would assert that this biblical principle required Nazi guards to put Jews in ovens because they were ordered by a superior to do so? Or that it would require Christians to take “the mark of the beast” in the Great Tribulation?

 

When told to quit preaching in Jesus’ name, Peter said, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5). The Bible is full of heroes of the faith who disobeyed tyrants to obey God: Daniel illegally prayed openly, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego illegally refused to bow to an idol, the Hebrew midwives illegally refused to kill the male Hebrew babies, and Rahab refused her king’s order to inform him where the Jewish spies were hiding. These examples demonstrate that there is a higher law that takes precedent over the laws of men. Not every ordinance of man is obligatory. On the contrary, conscience obligates us to resist godless, satanic ordinances that dishonor God and deprive the innocent of their life or liberty.

 

One of the reasons that God’s people, Israel, suffered starvation, defeat in battle, and were enslaved in chains is “the children of Israel sinned against the Lord… and had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen” (2 Kings 17). God doesn’t command His people to walk in the statutes of the heathen, in the lawless ordinances of the godless of the land, but rather, will judge them for it.

 

Moreover, Roe v. Wade is not “the law of the land.” It is a dangerous error to confuse law and lawlessness, as foolish an assertion to confuse God and the devil. Roe v. Wade is unlawful and non-binding for two primary reasons:

 

  1. Roe v. Wade violates the laws of God, which cannot be overruled by the opinions of men. Man-made laws, as Martin Luther King said, that do not square with the moral law of God are non-binding. The right to life is “inalienable” or uninfringeable. Leaders may dehumanize and kill the innocent, but it is not God’s will. It is a violation of His command, and an abuse of delegated authority. When government is rightfully restored, tyrants and government-empowered murderers are hung by the neck till dead a la Nuremberg Trials. The right to life cannot be legitimately or lawfully denied the innocent by tyrant or criminal without incurring divine wrath. Sooner or later, Retribution will come, either on earth or definitely on Judgment Day.

 

The second reason Roe v. Wade is unlawful and non-binding is:

 

  1. Roe v. Wade violates the U.S. Constitution, which grants the courts their power in the first place. Article 1, Section 1 declares “All legislative [law-making] powers shall be vested in a Congress.” If Congress has all of it, is there any left for any other branch? No. Our first Supreme Court chief justice, John Jay, said, “Any law repugnant [repulsive] to the Constitution is void.” The Supreme Court has no more right to make law than a police officer has to spank your kid, or a mayor has to take your car, or the president has to sleep with your wife. No power of man is absolute. Federal civil authorities have a limited jurisdiction, and the judiciary has the most limited of the three branches. The federal government is limited to powers specifically enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, and any powers not granted to it belongs to “the states or the people” according to Articles 9 and 10.

 

To respect immoral judicial decisions that defy God’s authority to shed innocent blood is to worship an idol, for we worship the author of the standard by which we live. Jesus said to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God what belongs to God.” When civil authorities command lawlessness or deprive the innocent of their God-given rights, to submit unto them is to render unto Caesar that which only belongs to God. Only God is due unqualified submission. To bow to man’s law in defiance of God’s – that is sin and idolatry.
“The examples of the Hebrew midwives disobeying Pharoah, Peter disobeying the Jewish authorities, Shadrach and friends disobeying the order to worship an idol – these don’t apply to those who do sit-ins at abortion clinics because the government is not asking them to sin, as it asked those in the above biblical examples.”

Personally and corporately, we are required to partake of bloodguilt through taxation that funds abortion. We are disallowed from defending the innocent, and disallowed to love “the least” as we would want ourselves to be loved, upon pain of severe civil penalty. And corporately, we are required to sin by way of the federal judiciary forbidding the states to do their lawful, constitutional duty and prosecute and wield the God-given sword of justice against murderers.

 

States are not obligated to obey this lawless and immoral, and therefore non-binding judicial decision, and it is the job of the church to “teach them whatsoever I [Jesus] commanded you” and “obey God rather than man.” That means teach and demonstrate interposition and urge justice for the preborn. What is interposition? It is laying down our freedom and safety to interpose ourselves between the “least of these” and the offending criminals. It includes prodding the lesser magistrates to do their lawful sworn duty in defiance of tyranny to protect and grant justice to the preborn, thereby abating divine wrath for the shedding of innocent blood (Numbers 35, Genesis 9:6).

 

We do not believe it is a sin to not do sit-ins at abortion clinics. There’s a difference between something being biblically obligated for all, and something being biblically justified. We are all called to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we have different callings and consciences that guide us as we obey that command. However, where there is a wholesale cruelty and murder of an entire class of dehumanized people, as in the days of slavery in the colonial era, as in the days of the German concentration camps throughout Europe, and knowing such innocent bloodshed brings God’s wrath upon the whole land, God’s people are historically called to greater sacrifice to protect the innocent and pursue justice for them. It was Christians who risked death to illegally save Jews from the fury of the Nazis, and it was Christians who worked the Underground Railroad to illegally rescue runaway slaves from their whip-wielding masters and federal marshals who hunted them down. They are heroes of the faith, worthy of emulation not condemnation.

 

“The Bible says the pagans worshiped Molech, which included child sacrifice. When Israel was corrupted by this great sin, there is no record of any prophet or saint ever physically impeding child sacrifice.”

 

Has this person not read Jeremiah 19? God calls Jeremiah to the altars of Moloch, smash a pot, and prophecy its destruction. God called Gideon to take out the Baal pole of his father in order to receive God’s power to defeat the tyranny of the Midianites.

 

This is also an argument from ignorance. Jesus never specifically condemned the molestation of children, homosexuality, or Molech worship. Does that mean he justified it? No. He taught “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Every word – not just the red ones.

 

So what does the Bible say about murder of children for Molech? Israel was conquered by her enemies and enslaved because of the bloodguilt from these slaughtered children, as God said repeatedly through the prophets (Numbers 35, Amos 5, Isaiah 1). And lesser magistrates can wield that sword of vengeance without the permission or even the knowledge of higher magistrates, and this will abate divine wrath (Phinehas in Numbers 25, for example.) Although there are no known cases where saints physically obstructed the sacrifice of children, there are cases where lesser magistrates (Moses, Josiah, Elijah, for example) employed the people to gather the murderers and idolaters together to execute them. That definitely implies physical force. Therefore, upon what biblical basis can we condemned peaceful physical force to defend the innocent?

 

“The only thing that has ever saved the lives of preborn children are laws that regulate abortion and incorporate exceptions to broaden our consensus to get those laws passed. Abortion bans and Personhood amendments have failed – no, worse than failed! Thanks to the judiciary overruling those laws and amendments, the judicial precedence has been strengthened in favor of abortion rights. Therefore, we must regulate abortion and incorporate exceptions into our ‘purist’ laws and amendments to broaden our consensus and gradually erode abortion rights until the High Court has a pro-life majority.”

 

In the rescue movement, it was believed that if enough Christians joined the sit-ins, a critical mass would rise that would elect leaders to replace judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade and the federal government would protect the preborn nationwide. When FACE Act made rescue and interposition too costly, and when the courts repeatedly strengthened pro-abortion precedence in jurisprudence, many pro-lifers focused their energies not on banning abortion, but on regulating abortion out of business, or making exceptions for rape, for incest, for maternal health, and for fetal handicap, to broaden the political consensus.

 

There are two primary problems, however, with attempting to curtail abortions by way of regulation and adding exceptions.

 

  1. Laws that say, in essence, “Do this and you can kill the baby” violate God’s law. Laws that allow the killing of some children stand in defiance of higher law and are evil, all good intentions notwithstanding. A law that requires an ultrasound before the abortion, for example, and then in the wording of the law permit abortions, is a lawless ordinance, even if it does save lives. A law that says innocent handicapped preborn babies may be killed, or that children conceived in rape and incest may be killed, though it may be necessary to get the broad consensus you need to get the abortion regulation bill passed, is a godless, evil law, even if it does save lives. God is the author of morality and justice, any law that dehumanizes the innocent and sheds innocent blood, or justifies any shedding of innocent blood, incurs His wrath, not His blessing.

 

The Ohio Heartbeat Bill is a good example of a law that, although it is marketed as a surgical abortion ban, is as godless as the Roe v. Wade decision itself (which also regulated abortion). The godless principles the Ohio Heartbeat Bill legalizes include: 1. Treating the preborn as subhuman through penalties that make killing a dog punished with greater severity, 2. Exempting accomplices, such as the mother, 3. The Bill specifically cites the federal judiciary as the standard of morality and justice, prescribing into law the unconstitutional supremacy of the Supreme Court over both the law of God and the state and federal constitutions. 4. The Bill does not criminalize abortion: if the abortionist does not document a fetal heartbeat in the medical record, and aborts the baby, it isn’t even a crime according to the Bill. If the abortionist documents a heartbeat in the medical record and does the abortion, only then is it a crime, which, of course, guarantees that no abortionist would ever document a heartbeat in the medical record.

 

What a waste of time and money! Especially since regulation bills are almost always overturned by the judiciary anyway.

 

And that’s the second reason attempting to curtail abortion by way of regulation and exception is problematic:

 

  1. The abortion regulation bills almost never survive the judiciary anyway. Almost all the laws that are celebrated by pro-life organizations as life-saving state regulations are overturned in court. We read their fund-raising letters and emails pushing for their regulation laws and celebrating them when they pass, but they don’t bother letting you know about its eventual overturned in court. It’s not a good way to raise money to let their funders know that all of it was for nothing. Abortion clinics shut down and the pro-life organizations celebrate their regulatory laws as the reason, but when abortion clinics consolidate their power – how is that a victory? The shrinking demographics explain how less babies die in abortion clinics: it is because less babies are conceived and because more and more babies are killed by RU-486 and over-the-counter abortifacients. Blood drenches our soil still, and the best of us still promote laws that justify some innocent bloodshed. Mourning, not celebration, is in order.

 

So if we must resist the judiciary to get even the most pathetic loophole-riddled, abortion regulation laws steeped in exceptions, passed and enforced, why not just defy the judiciary and protect every child statewide?
“Until we elect enough Republicans who will appoint enough pro-life judges to overturn Roe v. Wade, states can never successfully pass an abortion ban.”

 

It is a myth that Republicans appoint justices who will protect the preborn as full persons under the law. The Court that gave us Roe v. Wade in 1973 was comprised of seven republican appointees and two democratic appointees. The professing pro-life president Ronald Reagan gave us Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy – two judges who consistently favor abortion rights and deny the right to life of preborn children. George Bush the First, another professing pro-life president, gave us David Souter, who previously served as director of a hospital that performed abortions, and turned out to be yet another consistent pro-abort who denied the right to life of preborn children. George Bush the Second gave us Samuel Alito, who when he presided over the New Jersey Court of Appeals ruled New Jersey’s wildly popular “Partial Birth Abortion Ban” unconstitutional, and cited Roe v. Wade approvingly. John Roberts, Bush the Second’s second appointment, turned out to be the deciding vote in favor of abortion-funding Obamacare. True to form, our present Republican president has given us Neil Gorsuch, who in his confirmation hearings confessed that he believed the unborn was not a person under the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. He said that if Trump had asked him if he would overturn Roe v. Wade, “I would have walked out the door.”

 

The pro-life organizations who knowingly and repeatedly lied to the public about these judicial candidates are responsible for the misplaced faith in the failed strategy of working to elect Republicans who will in turn appoint pro-life justices. If history is any indication of the future, even if the Lord were to tarry a thousand years, this strategy will never protect the preborn in the United States. On the contrary, we should ignore the lawless and toothless Roe v. Wade decision and leaders should protect the innocent within their lawful jurisdiction as they are oath-bound to do.

 

Pro-life leaders should repent for providing cover for abortion-justifying “pro-life” presidents and candidates, should cease being content with crumbs from the federal government, and accept nothing less from any candidate than the immediate abolition of abortion, at the local level, the state level, and at the federal level. To equivocate on this is to be an accomplice in the American Holocaust. Our leaders have a biblical obligation to protect the innocent with their delegated authority within their lawful jurisdiction, and they should keep the oath they take to uphold the U.S. Constitution, which says a person may not be denied the right to life or liberty without a trial by jury.

 

“Trying to rescue babies threatened with abortion through peaceful sit-ins has been tried before and failed.”

 

With that argument, Israel would have never entered the Promised Land, the colonialists would never have rebelled against England’s King George and founded the United States of America, and we would never have banned slavery. That the rescue movement failed to successfully protect every preborn child through love and through law may not have been because we tried rescue and interposition, but because we gave up. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Act, passed by Clinton in 1994, was largely responsible for the end of the era of clinic sit-ins. Instead of a night or a week in jail, rescuers faced years. Perhaps right then was when the pro-life movement was camped at the foot of the Jordan River, at the very edge of the Promised Land, and we believed the ten false spies who said we couldn’t do it, instead of the two true ones who said, “If God be for us, who can be against us!” Maybe if we’d have loved not our lives unto death in 1994, abortion would have soon ended and we’d have liberty and justice for all.

 

Regardless, failing then is not an excuse for surrendering without a fight now. Making peace with child sacrifice is not an option. We must end abortion, or God promises judgment upon the United States of America.

 

“Jesus is coming soon, and the world is going to get more dark and evil in the days before His coming. We can’t save the world through passing laws and political action or civil disobedience. Our job is to preach the Gospel until He returns.”

 

A man reclines by the hotel swimming pool reading a good book, when his brother asks him to watch his young son till he can return from the restroom. The father is not gone more than thirty seconds when the child stumbles into the water and starts screaming and struggling to stay afloat, sinking over and over into the water. The man only briefly looks up from his novel, barely giving notice. Finally, the father of the child hears the struggling and comes sprinting to the pool and dives in, but unfortunately he retrieves his drowned child.

 

Tears stream down the father’s face as he clutches his dead son. “Why didn’t you help my boy!” he screams.

 

“It wasn’t my kid, it was a good book, and besides, Jesus is coming soon.”

 

The point is clear. The reality of the soon-coming Savior does not negate our obligation to love our neighbor as ourselves and to do unto others as we would be done by them. The second coming of Jesus should motivate action and rescue and missionary work, not be used to justify complacency and apathy. God said in Isaiah 1 and Amos 5 that He shut His ears to Israel’s prayers and shut His eyes to their worship as long as the innocent were slain among them and justice was not done.

 

Remember the Parable of the Talents? The servant who was entrusted with a talent of money by his master went and hid it in the ground, for fear of losing it before his master’s return from his journey (Matthew 25)? The return of his master was not a happy occasion for him, for he was cast out into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

“Operation Save America has worked with pro-life folks who practice violence against abortion doctors and clinics.”

 

Everyone who works with Operation Save America must take an oath of non-violence before being accepted to minister with us. Just as the abolitionist John Brown’s attack of a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, was used to discount the abolitionist movement, the violent acts of a few are often used today to denigrate the peaceful, non-violent acts of those who interpose and rescue to protect the preborn. Just as the abolitionist movement to ban slavery should not have been discounted because of the violent acts of a few, similarly, the violent acts of a few against abortionists and abortion clinics should not discount the motives or actions of those who interpose and rescue lovingly and peacefully.

 

The New Paradigm: The Immediate, Total Abolition of Abortion, Enforced by Lesser Magistrates

 

This is God’s will with regard to abortion: “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18). Not one! Can we pray with sincerity, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” when we work for laws that contradict God’s will? Can we honestly say God’s will is our will when we work for laws that end with the wording, “You can now kill the baby?”

 

The Bible says if we ask anything according His will, we will have it. “If we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him” (I John 5).

 

The Bible says if we don’t get what we’re praying for right away, keep asking and keep believing you’ll get it, and you will (Luke 11, Mark 11).

 

When the pro-life movement didn’t get an answer to our prayers to end abortion, what did we do? We shook hands with the devil and worked for laws that said, “Do this, and then you can kill the baby.” In so doing, we’ve been coopted. And we wonder why we can’t inhabit our Promised Land! At the foot of our Promised Land of “liberty and justice for all”, we turned tail in disbelief to wander the wilderness.

 

There is an alternative to compromising God’s will and law in pursuit of a democratic consensus through abortion regulation and adding exceptions.

 

The answer is found in Ezekiel 22. If you read it you will see God’s threats against His people for the shedding of innocent blood. He raises the paddle for their punishment, and they spurn Him still. Even His priests have turned against Him in persecuting the prophets and in comforting Israel in spite of the shedding of innocent blood in her midst. In spite of these threats and promises of judgment, God says, “I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord.”

 

God looked not for a majority, not for a democratic consensus, but for a man. In Numbers 25, Phinehas was that man, who through wielding his blade quenched the wrath of God on the people. Josiah was that man, who through putting an end to the child sacrifice in the tribe of Judah provoked God to spare Judah and not deliver her up to her enemies as He did the northern ten tribes of Israel.

 

This principle is confirmed in the Book of Judges. When Israel had a godly judge who governed by the law of God, they enjoyed freedom. When they were governed by the godless who walked in the statutes of the heathen, they lost their freedom. We don’t need to compromise our way to a consensus to abate the wrath of God against us for the shedding of innocent blood – we need justice for the preborn. That can be accomplished through state leaders without the permission of the federal judiciary.

 

The law of God confirms this principle. Deuteronomy 21 teaches that when a person is murdered in the countryside, a line is drawn to the nearest city. The leaders of that locale were then made responsible for avenging the guilt of innocent blood through justice. If they failed, the citizens under their jurisdiction could suffer divine judgment. It wasn’t Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel, that was responsible to punish the murderers. No, it was the local criminal justice system.

 

This is similar to the system our American forefathers founded. Murder isn’t a federal crime any more than rape or theft is a federal crime. Justice must be rendered, but it is outside of the jurisdiction of the federal government to do it. If you give your friend the authority to mow your lawn with your lawnmower, does he also have the authority to spank your kids and be the head of your wife? No – his authority is delegated and limited, and to exceed his jurisdiction is to criminally usurp power you did not grant him. The federal government is likewise limited to specifically enumerated powers in the Constitution. The federal government should not let states legalize the killing of the innocent. It is ultimately the duty of the community nearest the crime to prosecute murderers to abate bloodguilt. That is the rightful, constitutional jurisdiction for criminal justice.

 

Unfortunately, the early rescue movement was largely void of the emphasis on the lower magistrates keeping their oath to protect the innocent within their lawful, local jurisdiction in defiance of tyranny. Randall Terry’s focus on federal remedies may have limited the impact of the rescue movement. The rescue recently led by Rusty Thomas in Kentucky was different. It was prefaced by a one and a half year campaign to prod the Kentucky leaders to protect the innocent and defy judicial lawlessness. The Kim Davis rallies and concomitant lesser magistrate campaign in Kentucky to defy the courts on same-sex marriage really plowed the soil there. I know one state Representative who purchased 2,000 of Matt Trewhella’s books The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate to distribute to pastors and to those in all three branches of Kentucky state government.

 

Those who rescue and interpose today, those who work tirelessly for Personhood amendments and abortion bans don’t just want to save a baby or two with their sacrifice. They don’t just want to impact the culture. They don’t just want more press and more people to join them. They don’t just want rewards in heaven. They aren’t motivated by the thought of gradually eroding abortion rights and the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade. No. They want equal rights for preborn people, and they want it now.

 

There must be justice for the preborn now in order to abate the wrath of God on the land now. For that, we only need a lesser magistrate to defy the lawless and immoral federal judiciary and do their sworn duty to protect the innocent within their lawful jurisdiction. The interposition and rescue of these slaughtered children by God’s people can empower the hand of the lesser magistrate – the Sheriff, the Statehouse speaker, the governor, the mayor – to choose between protecting the innocent or sitting idly by while the innocent preborn are slaughtered and their righteous rescuers are persecuted.

 

History reveals similarly: the federal government didn’t even begin to think of ending slavery until Ohio and Wisconsin defied the Dred Scott decision, the Federal Fugitive Slave Act, and protected the “illegal” runaway slaves via the Underground Railroad. Poland, Hungary, and Romania did not protect the Jews until Christians laid down their lives to interpose and illegally rescued those being led away to slaughter.

It is my opinion we will never end abortion at the federal level until states begin to defy the federal government in obedience to God. States, however, will probably never begin to defy them until we, the church, through word and deed live out the historical Christian doctrine of interposition ourselves and use our example to instruct the civil magistrate on his before God to defend the lives of the preborn. This is the new paradigm that demands our states ignore and defy Roe vs. Wade, establish justice, and abolish abortion now.

Conclusion

 

Interposition and rescue is the pattern of the cross: victory over sin, death, and hell through sacrificial love.

 

“Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren [Satan] is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death” (Revelation 12). How do we see God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done, and trample the devil underfoot? Sin-cleansed hearts who proclaim God’s love and truth, with courageous, sacrificial love can demolish the demonic strongholds of child sacrifice and the shedding of innocent blood.

 

Trying to rescue children scheduled for slaughter through interposition, whether on the public sidewalk or by crossing on the death camp’s property to demonstrate “no greater love” can set powerful Kingdom realities in motion. When the church lays down its life to stand in the gap between the offending criminal and the victims whose life is threatened, Jesus can lead justice to victory (Matthew 12:20).

 

Civil disobedience, which is in reality Biblical obedience, can, without a doubt, be a Biblically justifiable means to protect the innocent. Rescue can and has provoked others to love and good works. It has saved many lives (a baby was saved due to the Kentucky Rescue) and it has shut down many death camps. Rescue can also postpone divine judgment and perhaps inspire the lesser magistrate to do his duty and abate bloodguilt and judgment.
By God’s grace let’s provide an island of light in the midst of this land overflowing with darkness. Let’s give Him a reason to show mercy to a remnant. Let us pray for a lesser magistrate to rise, do justice, and stand in the gap before the land. When he rises to defy tyranny and protect the innocent, let us rally to support and encourage him. Let us pray and act as if the freedom of our children depends on it. It actually does.

 

 

About the author: J. Patrick Johnston is a family physician, the father of ten home-educated children, and the author of ten novels. He directs Personhood Ohio and the Association of Pro-Life Physicians. His wife is the social media video-blogger the “Activist Mommy.” He produced The Reliant which is a family friendly action film starring Kevin Sorbo, Brian Bosworth, and Eric Roberts, and is based upon his novel The Reliant (www.TheReliantMovie.com). The movie will release to theaters probably in the winter of 2017/2018. His first novel The Revolt of 2020 provides a fictional account of how interposition and rescue forces the lesser magistrate’s hand to resist the feds and protect the innocent preborn, protect marriage, and preserve our Christian heritage. It is the first of a Trilogy that includes The American Tyranny of 2020 and The Uncivil War of 2020, and is available on amazon. Operation Save America’s annual July event has been on the calendar of the Johnston family since 2004.

 

 

 

The following are two articles defending the interposition of rescue.

By Pastor Matt Trewhella

Recently some Christians blocked the door of the abortion clinic (deathcamp) in Louisville, Kentucky. Some have condemned their action because they have “broken the law.” One slogan I have heard repeatedly to explain why they should not have broken the law is: “We should only disobey the government when they make a law which would cause us to sin personally.”

And this is wrong.

It is wrong biblicaly. It is wrong historically.

The standard that Christian men have followed down through the ages is: “When the State commands us to do what God forbids or forbids us to do what God commands – we are to obey God rather than man.”

This is far different from “We only disobey if we have to sin personally.”

If that assertion is true, then Corrie Ten Boom was wrong for hiding Jews from the Nazis in her home. No one told Corrie she had to personally place Jews in the concentration camps. Yet she took action – broke the law – to try and keep Jews (at least some) from ending up there.

If that assertion is true, the abolitionists were wrong for helping slaves escape to freedom in America. No one told them they had to personally own or mistreat a slave. Yet they took action – broke the law – to try and help slaves (at least some) make it to freedom.

And, if that assertion is true, these Christians are wrong for trying to spare these babies a brutal death. No one told them they had to personally get an abortion. Yet they took action – broke the law – to try and rescue these babies (at least some) from being brutally murdered.

But that is the point – the assertion is not true. The standard is not “We only disobey if we must personally sin.” Rather, the standard from Scripture and history embraced by the Church for 2000 years is: “When the State commands us to do what God forbids or forbids us to do what God commands – we are to obey God rather than man.” The State has declared that innocent preborn babies can be murdered. These Christians have obeyed God instead. They have followed the teaching of Jesus when He said: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Like the Christians in Nazi Germany and the Christians in antebellum America, they acted on behalf of their neighbor in need even though they were not being commanded to sin personally. All of them came into conflict with the State because of their faithfulness to Christ.

And this is the history of the Church.

Matthew Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church (http://MercySeat.net), founder of Missionaries to the Preborn (http://MissionariesToThePreborn.com), and author of the book The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates(http://DefyTyrants.com).  He and his wife Clara have eleven children and reside in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.

To read an excellent appendix on ROMANS 13 from the book The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates: A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and A Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government, click here.

To hear the audio version of the appendix on ROMANS 13, click here.

Listen to the sermon: Romans 13 Does NOT each Unlimited Obedience to the State

Listen to the sermon: Christians are the Best of Citizens

Watch a 2-minute video on Romans 13.

NOTE: This false assertion – “We only disobey when we have to personally sin” is rooted in Pietism which views Christianity as a purely personal matter. To learn about the ill effects of Pietism upon America and the Church, go to the short articles:

The Destructive Influence of Pietism in American Society

A Brief History on Pietism and Statist Rulers

The Bane of Pietism and the Murder of the Preborn

Watch a 35-minute teaching on Pietism.

To all the fatherless children in America, I dedicate this video to you. May it be used to heal your broken hearts and inspire you to run to your Heavenly Father who has promised to never leave or forsake you like feeble, sinful men who do not know how to love or be responsible enough to care of you. Prodigal children come back home to the Father’s House, Jesus is waiting to save, heal, and deliver you.

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For Such A Time As This

For Such A Time As This July 22-29OperationSaveAmerica.org#OperationSaveAmerica

Posted by Ending Abortion on Saturday, May 13, 2017

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