[This is part 2 in a series on “anarcho-theocracy.” See part one, three, four, five, six]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

While we submit here that statism is a false religion and never a genuine theocracy as defined by the rule by God, there is still a good reason for us to insist that statism is of a “religious” nature rather than to make no references whatever to a “theocratic” nature of such a system. Why is this so? Why shouldn’t we just say that statism is not theocratic at all? Why must we still maintain that “statism is a religion” (albeit a false one) if we are also attempting to show that it is nothing like the true theocracy of God? Do we say this just to express contempt for statists?

To call the State a religion and its rulers “gods” who are part of a “theocracy” is not merely just rhetoric to bash the statists with, however. It is not mere name-calling that we are using to try and disparage them as some “religious” folk unworthy of being listened to for that reason. Necessarily, all men in authority are “gods,” which necessarily means that all of their rulerships are theocracies. As the Christarchist, Kevin Craig, points out, 

“In the Bible, ‘gods’ are politicians, emperors, and military conquerors (or images of those Pharaohs, Caesars, and Führers, or the demons behind the political puppets).” 

Of course, state rulers are false gods. They merely pretend to be God and seek to substitute human thrones for the rulership of the Lord. But we still must maintain that they are “gods” for the sake of understanding the political system and contrasting it to the true theocracy of a rule by God.

Why must we maintain this? We must call out statism as a false religion or “theocracy” in order to condemn state idolaters in their choices. In short, to rebuke those who think that there is no contradiction or issue between pledging their allegiance to the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men. “Yeah, I believe that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, but Trump is my president.”

It should be easy to see the problem of avoiding calling statism a false religion, a theocratic system, and its rulers “gods.” If we do not call politicians gods and do not call their authority theocracies, then many “Christians” who buy into these mutually-exclusive theocratic orders can weasel their way out of the charge that they are supporting false gods and denying the Lord by saying that they can still love God while they vote for “just men.” They can pretend that they can simultaneously serve the Lord and Caesar with no issues, when these are necessarily antagonistic religions, so to speak. In short, they can act as if they can serve States (a false religion) while remaining “Christians.” If the State is not regarded as a false religion of false gods, phony Christians can avoid the charge that they are involved in a religious political ideology that negates their obedience to the kingdom of God.

Confining the Lord to heaven

This is why so many professing Christian see no problem with voting, joining the military, becoming police officers, or overall adopting the ideology of statism. They have been led to believe that the state religion is something that exists in the “secular realm” outside of their religious faith, the latter which they have relegated to a private and spiritual matter that has nothing to do with a real kingdom. Or rather, they have been able to think that statism is not a religion at all.

Many of the problems in modern Christianity, such as the justification for participating in the State, come down to this false division of the Lord into some artificial spiritual realm that has no bearing upon life on earth. And they do this all while they permit the religion of statism to be advanced below. As one Christian anarchist Michael Plaisted writes, 

“In spite of the clear message from Scripture that the Kingdom of God is a real kingdom, with a real government, with its own jurisdictions, laws, and civil society, most of Christendom throughout history has believed and taught the opposite. Some say the Kingdom is merely in the hearts of men and a place to go to after death, while others say that the mission of Christianity is to sanctify the governments of ‘this world’ in an attempt to compel a bad tree to produce good fruit. Yet the Bible teaches that Christ’s Kingdom will successfully and independently become an alternative sanctuary for those with ears to hear (Matthew 13:31-32) and will displace the very foundations and efficacy of the kingdoms of ‘this world’ (Daniel 2:34), both in fulfillment of blotting out the ordinances of worldly governments. Though Christians live in ‘the world,’ they are not to be of ‘the world’ (John 17:16). Rather, they are to be like the leaven that infects those in the world rather than remain reclusive. (Matthew 13:33).”

The State as a false god

When we point out that the State is a false god, it should prevent those worldly Christians who see no problem with their statism from participating in such systems as if they were benign or irrelevant to one’s faith. This is why we must point these things out and maintain that statism is a religion rather than to dispense with the concept altogether, even though it is of course antagonistic to the true or pure religion. While the godhood of state rulers is ontologically false, it is rhetorically legitimate, because it is a competing claim to sovereignty over mankind. They are not truly gods, but they are pretending to be so. We are not attributing divinity to them by calling them gods, only pointing out that they represent a false kingship that stands in contrast to the One True God.

Again, we might say that all systems are necessarily “theocratic” in a loose sense of the term. Statism is a false religion. But the point is that there really is no such thing as secularism. Another reason for addressing statism as a religion is not just to rebuke idolaters who call themselves Christians, but to show that “atheists” are criticize the true religion but embrace statism are no better. These “atheist statists” have merely substituted another “god” (the State) for their abandonment of the Most High God. This is because there is no such thing as a “secular” state that has abandoned religion and entered into a non-theological world that has escaped all association with religion, as these “atheists” think who champion a supposedly non-theocratic State. The State is a false god and enemy of Christ’s rulership. These “atheist statists” have merely bought into another (false) theocracy. It is an apt term to call them “statheists.” Their “theism” is statism.

The two theocracies

It is not possible to get away from theocracy. There is either (1) the theocracy of the one, true God, and (2) the theocracies of pagan gods who run statist systems that rule over people. There is (1) the theocracy where God rules in the hearts and minds of the people, through common sense and spiritual influence, where the law is kept by a regenerate people who wash the inside of the cup to be moral because they love God and Neighbor. And there is (2) the theocracy where state-gods rule through fealty, fear, violent man-made laws, police force, and binding men into “social contracts” and other illusions of political rulership. These “laws” are kept by a lost people who wash the outside of the cup only (Matt 23:25). They are not good people, but pretend to be good by being forced to obey their own democratically elected legalism. Because they hate their neighbor who they force into obedience.

This latter, statist system is the antithesis of the theocracy or government of God, which is a stateless society of men who regard God as their only ruler and only need God as their ruler because they are a repentant people who do not need state-gods to rule over them and keep them in civil bondage. Those who are in bondage to the civil fathers of the world—the false gods who represent the government of men—are in such a position because they have forsaken God and His kingdom and are being cursed for their failure to make God their King. Those who pay homage to these systems (eg., voters and statist ideologues) show that their god is in the State. And they get what they deserve.

We thus maintain that statism is a (false) theocratic system of (false) gods in order to expose those professing Christians who pay homage to another kingdom than that of the Lord. This leaves no room to hide for those who take the socialist fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This leaves no room for people to say “we’re not actually worshiping him” when they vote for man-gods to rule over them. Those who serve States are serving another god than the Lord, notwithstanding their claims that they can have it both ways — that they can serve God and men.

The men who run political systems are (false) “gods,” and they are contrary in every way to serving the true God. Those who serve God cannot also serve men (Acts 5:29), and vice versa. They must make God alone their God, and not the gods of the State. “A man cannot serve two masters” (Matt 6:24). They must reject the statist “theocracies” of the world.

While Godarchist (i.e., those who make God their only God) is a better term, true Christians, with regard to religio-political systems of man, must be “anarchists” — they must be anti-statists who oppose the godvernment and its false theocracy that is a rival to the true theocracy of a rule by God. They cannot work to advance the kingdoms of men as if they were innocent kingdoms that do not represent a religious faith. Statists are part of a false religion, and if one has not repented of their statism, then they are not truly a Christian; they are still serving false gods in their hearts, minds, and deeds.

There is no such thing as a “statist Christian.” There are only Christians who uphold the Lord as their only King, and statists who take the Lord’s name in vain.