Holy Matrimony v. Marriage
Author Unknown

The original purpose of the marriage license was created during the civil war and to prevent marriages between blacks and whites. George Washington and Abe Lincoln never possessed a marriage license.   
 
By getting a marriage license is your first major mistake because you, now have given the state jurisdiction over you and your wife and invited them into yout marriage bed.
 
No state or country create marriage - God did. that is why almost every pastor, priest, minister and rabbi in the USA and other countries violating God laws to satisfy the Federal and state government (aka Caesar) ?  and if you are one of the above, well you sold out for 30 pieces of silver or your federal tax exempt status !!
 
1.     The definition of a "license" demands that we not obtain one to marry. Black’s Law Dictionary defines "license" as, "The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal." We need to ask ourselves - why should it be illegal to marry without the State’s permission? More importantly, why should we need the State’s permission to participate in something which God instituted (Gen. 2:18-24)? We should not need the State’s permission to marry nor should we grovel before state officials to seek it. What if you apply and the State says “no”? You must understand that the authority to license implies the power to prohibit. A license by definition "confers a right" to do something. The State cannot grant the right to marry. It is a God-given right.
When you marry with a marriage license, you grant the State jurisdiction over your marriage. When you marry with a marriage license, your marriage is a creature of the State! Therefore, they have jurisdiction over your marriage including the fruit of your marriage. What is the fruit of your marriage? Your children and every piece of property you own. There is plenty on case law in American jurisprudence which declares this to be true.
     When you marry with a marriage license, you place yourself under a body of law which is immoral. By obtaining a marriage license, you place yourself under the jurisdiction of Family Court which is governed by unbiblical and immoral laws. Under these laws, you can divorce for any reason. Often the courts side with the spouse who is in rebellion to God, and castigates the spouse who remains faithful by ordering him or her not to speak about the Bible or other matters of faith when present with the children.
1.     The marriage license invades and removes God-given parental authority. When you read the Bible, you see that God intended for children to have their father’s blessing regarding whom they married. Daughters were to be given in marriage by their fathers (Dt. 2:16; Ex. 22:17; I Cor. 7:38). We have a vestige of this in our culture today in that the father takes his daughter to the front of the altar and the minister asks, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

Historically, there was no requirement to obtain a marriage license in colonial America. When you read the laws of the colonies and then the states, you see only two requirements for marriage. First, you had to obtain your parents permission to marry, and second, you had to post public notice of the marriage 5-15 days before the ceremony.

Notice you had to obtain your parent’s permission. Back then you saw godly government displayed in that the State recognized the parent’s authority by demanding that the parent’s permission be obtained. Today, the all-encompassing ungodly State demands that their permission be obtained to marry.

By issuing marriage licenses, the State is saying, "You don’t need your parent’s permission, you need our permission." If parents are opposed to their child’s marrying a certain person and refuse to give permission, the child can do an end run around the parent’s authority by obtaining the State’s permission, and marry anyway. This is an invasion and removal of God-given parental authority by the State.
2.     When you marry with a marriage license, you are like a polygamist. From the State’s point of view, when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, but you are also marrying the State.

The most blatant declaration of this fact that I have ever found is in a brochure entitled "With This Ring I Thee Wed." It is found in county courthouses across Ohio where people go to obtain their marriage licenses. It is published by the Ohio State Bar Association. The opening paragraph under the subtitle "Marriage Vows" states, actually, when you repeat your marriage vows you enter into a legal contract. There are three parties to that contract.
1. You;
2. Your husband or wife, as the case may be; and
3. The State."

See, the State and the lawyers know that when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, you are marrying the State. You are like a polygamist! You are not just making a vow to your spouse, but you are making a vow to the State and your spouse. You are also giving undue jurisdiction to the State.
 
When Does the State Have Jurisdiction Over a Marriage?
God intended the State to have jurisdiction over a marriage for two reasons –
1). In the case of divorce,
2). When crimes are committed i.e., adultery, bigamy, etc. Unfortunately, the State now allows divorce for any reason, and does not prosecute for adultery.
In either case, divorce or crime, a marriage license is not necessary for the courts to determine whether a marriage existed or not. What are needed are witnesses. This is why you have a best man and a maid of honor. They should sign the marriage certificate in your family Bible and the wedding day guest book should be kept.
Marriage was instituted by God; therefore it is a God-given right. According to Scripture, it is to be governed by the family, and the State only has jurisdiction in the cases of divorce or crime.
 
It should be understood that the marriage license, like all licenses, is voluntary. A license is legally defined as a "voluntary consent to be regulated". That is to say it is never forced on you. You request it and pay a fee for it. In this case you are asking for a license to do (marry) what you have a divine right to do in the first place. Almighty God pronounced that marriage is a sacred act, a contract between you, your spouse and God himself.
 
Every marriage is a three party contract. When you ask for permission of government to do what God requires and gives you the right and authority to do, you have abrogated the authority of God –the intended third party-in your marriage. With the license the third party in your marriage is government, which will regulate your union. Your request for a license requests and authorizes them to regulate you - to grant a divorce, control your children, intercede in marital conflict, etc. You will have given them control over you.
 
Failure to demand a license, legal evidence that the couple acknowledges and accedes to the authority of government in the marriage, can cause the minister to lose his government granted authority to perform the ceremony and can cause the church to be closed and/or sanctioned by the government, such as by government removal of its tax exempt status. The minister is voluntarily ignoring his God-given authority and is placing the marriage under the control of the government.
 
 
Question: Is Holy Matrimony a legal marriage?
Answer: If two parties un-encumbered and free to marry agree to marry before God, openly exchange vows with the intent to marry and do so before witnesses they are legally bound upon consummation of the marriage.
 
Question: Will the State recognize our marriage?
Answer: Civil governments all over the world recognize marriage between the parties if there is verifiable documentation as to the marriage. Different countries have different standards and documentation requirements which they look for. The Church tries to meet these standards or exceed them.
 
Question: Where did State marriage licenses come from?
Answer: State or civil marriage has been around since the Hamarabi codes and ancient Rome. Church marriages have also been around from ancient times. In both cases the individuals are married, legally bound by contract. State marriages have become predominant in many countries during the last century but Holy Matrimony has a long and accepted history as a valid marriage.
 
Question: What is the difference between civil marriage and marriage before the Church?
Answer: The Church does not marry the couple but they marry each other. Cannon laws clearly state in many denominations over the centuries that the Church gains no exercising authority over the marriage. In Civil marriages the state is a party and gains an additional jurisdiction and control as a dominant party to the agreement to marry.
  
Question: I was married in a Church. Was that a Church marriage?
Answer: There is a legal distinction between a civil and ecclesiastical marriage. If your minister was performing a civil marriage by the license of the state, both for himself and the couple, then it was not an ecclesiastical ceremony. Since, there is separation of Church and State he can only act as agent for one institution, either civil or Church.
 
Question: Why do I need Church documents?
Answer: In the eyes of God you do not. But it is important to understand that marriage is not only based on trust, it is a trust. If you do not have a third party standing as overseer different countries or agencies may assume jurisdiction over what has traditionally been a holy and sanctified Domestic Relation, established by God and promoted by the Church.
 
Question: How does the Church license differ from the governments license?
Answer: License is permission and permission to marry by custom and tradition can only be granted by the family from which you come. The parents or guardians usually grant permission from a Biblical and legal point of view. If the State grants permission this is evidence that the state stands in position of the Father, as In Parentis Loci, and parens patriae.
 
Question: What is wrong with a state marriage?
Answer: Performing the ceremony of matrimony has been traditionally done by the Church and for good reason. Marriage by government is putting the civil authorities in position of the Father. It is a grant of additional authority to the state, a waiver of rights by civil contract. This was opposed by Christ, forbidden by Moses and refused by Paul. It is a pre-nuptial agreement that gives the state an unequal authority over what has been traditionally God's venue. The predominance of civil marriages is historically a recent aberration.
 
Question: How do Church documents work to keep my marriage free under God?
Answer: Church documentation works very much the same as civil certification without waiving rights or establishing additional authority. The contracts and licenses and certificates offered by the Church only bear witness to the supremacy of the family and the intent of the couple. If the family breaks down the Church has no power to prevent a battle between the parties. One of them may enlist the aid of the civil courts. Church arbitration has prevented a rush to divorce and permitted reconciliation. The state has not only agreed but demanded arbitration within the Church before proceeding. We can only delay the State from using its exercising authority which may be presumed because of other activities of individual parties. Church documents and testimony may also prevent unwarranted usurpations by over zealous agencies of governments.
 
Question: Has it been tested under fire?
Answer: The system of Matrimony as we lay it out is based on law, custom, judicial precedent, biblical precepts and an examination of modern laws at all levels in many countries. One real problem comes with children and our greatest concerns is in the event of the death or incapacity of the parents. The state may take the children if there is no a previous contract arranging for the care and placement of the children in accordance with the families wishes. Holy matrimony is just one step in that process.
 
Question: Hi thank you very much for the information. I do have some questions. Since my husband and I got married with a marriage license were we even really married?
Answer: Men and women marry each other. If you and your husband were sincere in your vows before God then you are married before God. Some people might call a marriage with a state license a matter of adultery because there is a third party entering into a relationship that was traditionally joined only by your intent before God.
Keeping records and documents are an outward expression of original intent to prevent unwarranted presumptions. According to the Supreme Court the people are "often cunningly coerced into waving their rights" as Husband and Wife by entering into civil contracts which are not required by law to marry. The addition of records to the contrary of that original error are created to counter the effect that might be assumed by others.
Many people feel better if they renew their vows in a purer or more pious setting to void in misunderstanding by jurisdictions that believe it has a right to interfere with the relationship between Husbands and Wives.
 
Question: Do we need to get remarried or just get new Holy Matrimony Certificate?
Answer: The certificate requires some witnesses and they should witness the exchange of vows between you we also encourage a marriage contract between spouses. Right to contract is a powerful right given by God and recognized by governments. Holy Matrimony is a contract between the parties.
You may use the original date with new witnesses signing below if the old ones are not available.
 
Question: If we sign these contracts through our local Church are we under any obligation or rules or are we just under God's holy word?
Answer: The Church provides assistance in the marriage contract. Only the obligation to each other and God is created. No obligation to the Church is created by these contracts. The Church is forbidden by Christ to exercise authority.
 
With all marriages there are obligation well established by precedent and custom. The Church does not stand between you, your liberty and God but between others and that Holy Domestic Relationship. The Church will aid in voluntary arbitration if called upon. The Church is only a servant, never a master.
 
Question: When we fill out new marriage license and birth certificates, do they override the old ones, and make the old ones void or do we still keep the old certificates, along with the new ones?
Answer: Some people send the old ones back and state that they obtain them by mistake. It is a maxim of law that, "It is natural for a thing to be unbound in the same way in which it was bound" (Naturale est quidlibet dissolvi eo modo quo ligatur).
If you make a will or a contract and wish to change it or find a mistake in the first, you write a new one if all the parties agree. The state may not agree but then you never intended to give them authority. The state may not want to release you from the contract but that is where the Church comes in to ask the state what interest they have in your marriage and bring in the new contract. This again is why some send the original back registered mail and keep a copy of the original letter sent with it that says you never intended to enter into a contract with the state. Remember documents are expressions of intent. What was your original intent?
 
Question: I wanted to know why we could not just sign our family Bible's with new witnesses that were at the wedding?
Answer: We highly recommend entering this record in your Bible. But Christ appointed the Church to serve the congregation of the people. We simply assist in making a generally accepted record which is only one small part of our services. The early Christian community did not apply to Rome or Herod for help like social welfare. Such systems existed then but the source were compelled contributions. It was called Quarban by the Romans and Corban by the Jews and Jesus did not approve.
There are many things that people do today that are contrary to the teachings of Christ. We were told that many will be deceived and we need to learn and do the will of God. It is not about just filing papers but turning around and seeking the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness.
 
Question: Can the government take our children away because we have a marriage license?
Answer: Many countries including the US and its agencies are insisting upon greater and greater control of the activities of the family. They base this authority on the Parens Patria of the state (Most countries make this claim of the right of the state as Father in their codes including the US) which is linked to civil contract like the marriage license.
 
1 Law & Liberty by Rushdoony Pg. 78-80
2 Savigny, System, &c. ii.52.
3 "gladii potestatem ad anim advertendum in facinorosos homines men,"
4 Unterholzner, Zeitschrift, vol. ii p. 139; Von den formen der Manumissio per Vindictam und der Emancipatio.
5 Consanguinity by a line of males only, as distinguished from cognation. --Bouvier. cognation. Relationship by blood; descent from the same original; kindred. (Law) That tie of consanguinity which exists between persons descended from the same mother;
6 Plutarch.
7 Cod. 8 tit.49 s5
8 Liv. xxxiv.2 , the speech of Cato for the Lex Oppia.
9 Braud's 2nd Enc. by J.M Braud.
10 "the remodeling of an old obligation." Webster's Dictionary
11 Vectigal, origina ipsa, jus Cæsarum et regum patrimoniale est.
12 Brande. Black's 3rd Ed. p. 1757.
13 PATRONUS: Bouviers Law Dictionary 1856 Edition
14 Qui in utero est, pro jam nato habetur questice de ejus commando quæritur
15 Public Law 97, 67th Congress, Session I, Chap. 135, 1921.
16 Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, et al.; Frothingham v. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury et.al.. 262 U.S. 447, 67 L.Ed. 1078, 43 S. Ct. 597
17 See USC TITLE 15, Sec. 15h. Applicability of Parens Patriae actions: STATUTE- Sections 15c, 15d, 15e, 15f, and 15g of this title shall apply in any State, unless such State provides by law for its non-applicability in such State.
18 Thomas Paine.
19 20 C.F.R., section 422.103
20 "the remodeling of an old obligation." Webster's Dictionary
21 tutor -ari, dep.: also tuto -are: to protect, watch, keep. guard against.
22 Bringing closer to the originator or father, even a substitute father.
23 (pathr) Strong's No. 3962 pater {pat-ayr'} 1) generator or male ancestor2) metaph.2a) the originator and transmitter of anything; the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself; one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds 2b) one who stands in a father's place and looks after another in a paternal way ...Bible and Concordance. W.B. F..
24 Strong's No. 2889 kosmos {kos'-mos} probably from the base of 2865; n m AV - world (186) - adorning (1) [187] 1) an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government.... , Woodside B. F. 1991.
25 Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
26 Rousseau and Revolution, Durant p.801. fn 83 Heiseler, 85.
27 Leviticus 25:10