Pastors Facing Government Sanctions

The Wake-up Herald

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. Romans 13:11-14

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Robert McCurry, Editor & Publisher
November 18, 2013
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Pastors Facing Government Sanctions
Part 2

by Robert McCurry

sanction v. = punish, discipline, penalize, chastise, slap someone’s wrist, throw the book at.

In Part One of this series I said:

The sodomite invasion has far surpassed what I perceived and predicted it would be when I began my warnings forty years ago. Same-sex marriages? Sodomites requesting/demanding Christian pastors perform their same-sex marriage? Government requiring Christian pastors to perform same-sex marriages? Government sanctions on pastors for refusing to perform same-sex marriages? None of these questions were ever even thought about in bygone years. But we are faced with these realities in today’s real world. Stay tuned. There’s more to come.

The so-called “same-sex marriage” is now “the law of the land”; the full fall-out of this debacle is yet to be seen; every pastor will not immediately be confronted with performing a “same-sex marriage”, but every pastor will live under a menacing cloud of a possible confrontation to do so. As serious as these issues are, they must be recognized as ‘symptoms’ and not ‘causes’ of the problems if they are to be dealt with biblically and effectively. Here are some of the causes.

Pastors who perform a marriage ceremony with a State issued marriage license function as a State authorized/licensed agent of the State to facilitate a three-party contract between a groom, bride and the State.

license n. = "The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal."

This is why sodomites are successfully demanding that anti-homosexual laws be expunged and replaced with pro-homosexual laws, including the “right” to obtain a “marriage license”; fifteen states now grant sodomites a “license to marry”; these “marriages” are recognized as legal by all fifty states; predictably all states will eventually pro sodomite marriage laws and issue pro “sodomite marriage licenses”.

The problem of laws granting “sodomites” a “marriage license” is not the problem; the problem is the marriage license itself. Prior to the marriage license, marriage was a family and church matter.

Prior to the marriage license, the common practice used in the marriage process was known as ‘marriage banns’, also called the ‘banns of marriage’; this served as a formal announcement of intent to marry, usually three weeks before the marriage; the announcement was made by the pastor and posted on the church door. Marriage had to be approved both by the parents of the prospective couple and the church itself.

The banns indicated formal family and church approval of the marriage. They were also used to root out illegal marriages, such as those held between people who were too closely related or already married. The practice of reading and posting the banns ensured that anyone who objected to the marriage would have ample opportunity to do so before the actual day of the wedding. Banns is still included today during a public Christian wedding ceremony that include the words, “If anyone here can show just cause why this couple should not be lawfully married, let him now speak or forever hereafter hold his peace.”

Black's Law Dictionary for Marriage License:

"A license or permission granted by public authority to persons who intend to intermarry, usually addressed to the minister or magistrate who is to perform the ceremony, or, in general terms, to any one authorized to solemnize marriages. By statute in some jurisdictions, it is made an essential prerequisite to the lawful solemnization of the marriage." (Emphasis added)

Black's Law Dictionary, Revised Fourth Edition

The marriage license was created to legitimize interracial marriage.

Forty U.S. states once prohibited interracial marriage. Social prejudice accomplished much the same result in other states. In 1948, the California Supreme Court became the first state high court to declare a ban on interracial marriage unconstitutional. At that time, 38 states still forbade interracial marriage, and 6 did so by state constitutional provision.

Then, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the remaining interracial marriage laws nation-wide. A Virginia judge had upheld that state's ban on interracial marriages, invoking God's intention to separate the races.

The institution of marriage involves a covenant between a man, a woman, and God. Man and woman, by mutual consent, enter the arrangement. But the procedure, in order to be valid, must be consistent with God’s divine law.

Biblical teaching is unequivocal. Jehovah God created man and from his side  fashioned his wife. The two were designed to “cleave” to one another (Gen 2:21-25). In a discussion with the Pharisees, Jesus cited this Old Testament evidence, and declared: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt 19:6).

This first marriage that God performed is clearly the Biblical pattern; the Biblical marriage relationship is the “cement” that binds society together.

Christian couples should not be marrying with a State marriage license, nor should ministers be marrying people with State marriage licenses. Some have said to me, “If someone is married without a State marriage license, then they aren’t really married.” Given the fact that government has now legalized sodomite same-sex marriages, we need to ask ourselves, “If sodomites marry with a State marriage license, and a man and woman marry without a State marriage license—who’s really married? Is it the sodomites with a State marriage license or the man and woman without a State marriage license?” In reality, this contention that one is not really married unless they obtain a State marriage license reveals how Statist we have become in our thinking. We need to return to God’s perfect law and live Biblically.

The marriage license is used today to accommodate/legitimize sodomites ‘same-sex marriages.’ Pastors who continue to use State marriages to perform wedding ceremonies will do so at their own peril; they will have no defense when sodomites with a State marriage license request them to perform their “wedding” ceremony.

Jehovah God has said:

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known” (Deut 11:26, 28).

 

Wake-up, Pastors! Wake-up, Christians!

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The Wake-Up Herald is published by Robert McCurry. The publication is designed to exalt the true God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and inform, inspire, and challenge its readers regarding biblical truth and real-life issues. The contents are the sole responsibility of Robert McCurry and do not represent or speak for or on behalf of any other person or group. There is no subscription charge. The publication is a ministry of faith dependent on the contributions of its readers. Contributions are not tax-deductible. Send all correspondence to: Robert McCurry,605 Moore Rd, Newnan, GA 30263 or herbap@aol.com Remove? Send reply with “remove” in Subject line