A Lutheran Watchman Blog; EDITED AND ADAPTED FOR TODAY’S U.S. CHRISTIAN
FROM “OF CONSTRAINED DEFENCE”, MARTIN LUTHER’S TABLE TALK pp 280-282
The question whether without offending God or our conscience, we may defend ourselves against the president, should he seek to subjugate us, (which it appears he is indeed attempting, given the on-going erosion of our liberties under his administration and the foreign invasion now taking place at our southern border,) is one for lawyers, rather than theologians.
However, if President Obama proceeds to war upon us, he clearly intends either to destroy our preaching, our religion, and religious liberty or to invade and confound public policy and economy, that is to say, the temporal government and administration thereof. In either case, it is no longer as president of the United States, legally elected, that we should regard him, but as a tyrant and it is, therefore, rather ridiculous and futile to ask whether we may combat for the upright, pure doctrine, and for religion; It is for us a law and a duty to combat for wife, for children, servants, and subjects; we are bound to defend them against maleficent power.
If God grant that I live I will write an admonition to all the states of the Christian world, concerning our forced defense; and will show that every one is obliged to defend himself and his family and neighbor against wrongful power.
First, the president is the head of body politic in this temporal kingdom (The United States), of which body every private person is a piece and member, to whom the right of enforced defense appertains, as to a temporal and civil person; for if we defend not ourselves, we are a slayer of our own body.
Secondly, the president is not a monarch or lord in the United States; but all our elected representatives and law enforcement officers are, together with him, temporal members of the nation, each of whom is charged and bound to take care of it; the duty of every elected representative is to further the good thereof, and to resist such as would injure and prejudice it, having sworn a solemn oath upon entry into office to support and defend the Constitution for the United States. This is especially the duty of the leading head, the president. It is true, our elected representatives, though of equal power with the president, are not of equal dignity and prerogative; but they and the other elected representatives and officers of the United States are bound to resist the president, in case he should undertake anything tending to the detriment of the United States., (which he has indeed!), or which is against God and lawful right. Moreover if the president should proceed to depose any one of our elected representatives, then he deposes them all, which neither should, nor can be committed.
Wherefore, before we formally answer this question, whether the president may depose the elected representatives, or whether they may depose the president, we must first clearly thus distinguish: A Christian is composed of two kinds of persons, namely, a believing or a spiritual person, and a civil or temporal person. The believing or spiritual person ought to endure and suffer all things, it neither eats, nor drinks, nor engenders children, nor has share or part in temporal doings and matters. But the temporal and civil person is subject to the temporal rights and laws, and tied to obedience; it must maintain and defend itself, and what belongs to it, as the laws command. For example, if, in my presence, some wretch should attempt to do violence to my wife or my daughter, then I should lay aside my spiritual person, and recur to the temporal; I should slay him on the spot, or call for help. For, in the absence of the magistrates, and when they cannot be had, the law of the nation is in force, and permits us to call upon our neighbor for help; Christ and the Gospel do not abolish temporal rights and ordinances, but confirm them.
President Obama is not an absolute monarch, governing alone, and at his own pleasure, but The People's representatives are in equal power with him and under our Constitution; he has, therefore, neither power nor authority alone to make laws and ordinances, nor to chose which laws he will enforce, much less has he power, right, or authority to draw the sword for the subjugation of the peaceful citizens of the United States, without the sanction of the law, or the knowledge and consent of The People; in accord with the Constitution.
Lastly, we should know that when the president proposes to make war upon us, he does it not of and for himself, but for the interest of the very Anti-Christ, the Roman pope, to whom he is liegeman, and whose tyranny and abominable idolatry he thus undertakes to maintain; for the pope regards the Gospel not at all, and in raising war against the Gospel, by means of the president, intends only to defend and preserve his authority, power, and tyranny. We must not, then, remain silent and inactive. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)
But here one may object and say: Although David had been by God chosen king, and anointed by Samuel, yet he would not resist the emperor, etc. Answer: David, at that time, had but the promise of his kingdom; he had it not in possession; he was not yet settled in his government. In our case, we arm not against Saul, but against Absalom, against whom David made war, slaying the rebel by the hands of Joab.
I would willingly argue this matter at length, whether we may resist the emperor or no? Though the judges with their notions of temporal and natural rights, pronounce in the affirmative, for us theologians it is a question of grave difficulty, having regard to these passages: “Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” And: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also the froward.” We must beware how we act against God’s Word, lest, afterwards, in our consciences, we be plagued and tormented. But still, we are certain of one thing, that these times are not the times of the martyrs, when Diocletian reigned and raged against the Christians; It is now another kind of kingdom and government. The president's authority and power, without The People's consent under the Constitution, is of no value. Under our Constitution, the sword is no longer under the president’s sole control. It was given into our possession. He has over us but only gladium petitorium, he must seek it of us, when he proposes to punish or to go to war, for of right under our Constitution he can do nothing alone. He governs only by consent of The People. If our government were as that of Diocletian, we Christians would readily yield unto him and suffer.
I hope the president will not make war upon us for the pope’s sake; but should he play the part of an Arian, and openly fight against God’s Word, not as a Christian, but as a heathen, we are not bound to submit and suffer. It is from the pope’s side I take the sword, not from the president's. And the pope, it is evident, ought to be neither master nor tyrant.
To sum up:
First: The People and our elected representatives are not slaves under a Constitutional Republic.
Secondly: the president rules upon certain conditions: the Supreme Law of the Land ~ The Constitution for the United States.
Thirdly: He is sworn to The United States, to the elected representatives of The People and The People themselves.
Fourthly: He has by oath, to support and defend the Constitution for the United States, bound himself unto them, to preserve The United States in its dignity, honor, royalty, and jurisdiction, and to defend every person and their property in that which justly and rightly belongs to him; therefore, it is not to be tolerated that he should bring us into servitude and slavery.
Fifthly: We are entitled to the benefit of the laws, especially The Bill of Rights in The Constitution for the United States.
Sixthly: He ought to yield to Christian laws and rights as enumerated in the Constitution for the United States.
Seventhly: our elected representatives, soldiers, sailors and marines are bound by oath to The United States and its Constitution, truly to maintain privileges and jurisdictions in public and temporal cases, and not to permit any of these to be taken away.
Eighthly: these cases are among equals, where one is neither more nor higher than another; therefore, if the president with tyranny deals with The people; thereby he lays aside the person of a governor and loses his right over The People, by the nature of relatives; for elected representatives and citizens are equally bound the one to the other, and the President, as well as every other elected representative of The people, is clearly obliged to perform what he has sworn and promised by his oath to support and defend the Constitution, according to the proverb: Faithful master, faithful man.
Ninthly: the laws; Notably, the Constitution for the United States are above any elected representative and a tyrant; for the laws and ordinances are not wavering, but always sure and constant, while a human creature is wavering and inconstant, for the most part following his lusts and pleasures, if by the laws he be not restrained. (See also: “On submission to the Constitution for the United States as to 'the Ordinance of God'”)
If a robber on the highway should fall upon me, truly I would be judge and prince myself, and would use my sword, because nobody was with me able to defend me; and I should think I had accomplished a good work; but if one fell upon me as a preacher for the Gospel’s sake, then with folded hands I would lift up mine eyes to heaven, and say: “My Lord Christ! here I am; I have confessed and preached thee; is now my time expired? so I commit my spirit into thy hands,” and in that way would I die.
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