Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

If you told your average undiscerning Christian on the street that we don’t need taxes or the State system that it funds, they would be quick to respond with “render unto Caesar” (as if any advice to pay tribute money, being that you’re already under it, would somehow be equivalent to an approval of it). The non-Christian might be quick to tell you that “taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” This phrase c0mes from the Supreme Court “Justice” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. It is one of those sayings that originated on high but spread throughout all of the population as a sort of knee jerk justification for political robbery. 

This quote has been highly effective for propagandizing the masses into believing they can’t live without a plunder system called “government.” (It is even evilly engraved above the entrance of the IRS headquarters to reinforce the lie). Our people have been scared into believing (essentially) that if they trusted in God and His natural order, there would be no society whatsoever. Society comes from the State, as this quote implies. So such lies as these had to be spun. The rulers doing the robbing had to make men believe that they protect everyone from this Hobbesian ‘state of nature’ that would otherwise leave them to die. 

It was easy for average people to adopt these slogans given that they were committed to the false god-State and needed a rationale for its existence. Not having any real excuse for robbery and the obvious transfer of wealth from the productive people to the parasitic political class (and probably even a little bit of a need to soften the pain of being extorted yourself), statists resort to pretending that everything we have—wealth, security, safety, schools, food, and society itself—comes from the government, which wouldn’t be possible without robbing people. Thus, they can spin the theft of taxation into the idea that it actually purchases civilization. As the rest of the Holmes quote says, “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”

Tribute as punishment for turning from God

But really, taxation—paying tribute to a ruling elite—is what you get when you trust in men to rule you instead of God. God’s people were warned of this from the day they sought kings for their protection rather than God (1 Sam. 8:10-18). When men abandon God as their God and turn their societies over to man-gods, they should expect to be ruled by tyrants who do not care about them. Any society that doesn’t want to serve God should expect to find themselves as tax slaves to god-kings. Nehemiah makes clear this connection that permeates the books of the prophets:

“They would not serve You or turn from their wicked ways. So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness— here we are as slaves! Its abundant harvest goes to the kings You have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress” (Nehemiah 9.35-37).

If we don’t serve God as our God, we will find ourselves in bondage to false gods, e.g., men who call themselves “governments.” And God guarantees it. 

“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle” (Deuteronomy 28:47-49).

We see in the scriptures how God gives His people everything they could ever need when they do as He has told us to (Neh. 9:20-25), or turns us over to statist slavery when we chase after these false god systems of men instead. Unfortunately, men are mostly hard-headed and trust in militaries, police, presidents, and legislatures to save them instead — and so get ruled for it. 

Here’s a good example of the endless back-and-forth struggle that permeates the books of the prophets — of godliness leading to freedom, and the sin of statism being punished with oppression. 

“They were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies. So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies. But as soon as they had rest, they again did evil in Your sight. So You abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, who had dominion over them. When they cried out to You again, You heard from heaven, and You delivered them many times in Your compassion. You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey. You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. But in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them; nor did You forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God” (Nehemiah 9:26-31). 

Sin and slavery

As we have seen, there is a clear connection between sin and tax-slavery. Sin leads to statism leads to bondage. Men sinfully seek after human rulers (statism) who bring them under tribute. They turn away from God by seeking refuge in men. To turn to men (i.e., governments) to protect and provide for you is to betray God and His offers of the same. The existence of statism is one of the greatest manifestations of sin in any society. When people wave flags, praise the military, and “back the blue,” they get just what they deserve: a plunderous police state. 

As the prophet Isaiah said, 

“Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they spoke and acted against the LORD, defying His glorious presence. The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves. Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor. Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done” (Isaiah 3:8-11).

God does not tolerate wicked statist systems forever but eventually punishes them, more or less by leaving them to fail by their own devices. Any society where the sin of statism is active will eventually be judged by God. As He saw in Sodom and Gomorrah, “They were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore, I removed them” (Ezekiel 16:50). 

God allows men to suffer under all the evils they bring upon themselves, even sending more of it—say foreign Babylonian invaders—to make the judgment even more pronounced. God allows men to be overcome by evil who, through trusting in the systems of men, asked for it themselves. 

“So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day. Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD, and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in His instruction, His statutes, and His testimonies, this disaster has befallen you, as you see today” (Jeremiah 44:22-23).

A more or less consistent political law in the scriptures is this: Trust in man-made kingdoms (States), and get destroyed — by God, you could even say, but really, by your own evils. God does not allow Egyptian plunder systems to stand forever.

“The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him” (Jeremiah 46:25).

God turns statists over to their biggest fear, which they thought was the very reason—the fear of foreign “bad guys,” “criminals,” or some other manufactured threat —they needed to go statist themselves: Other statists who are not their friends. 

“I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives—of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers” (Jeremiah 46:26).

God makes sure that the pride of statism, e.g., the popular idea that “America is the best country in the world with the most powerful military,” doesn’t go unpunished. He makes sure the idiotic, flag-waving “patriots” pay for their sins. As the Lord promises, “Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed” (Isaiah 20:5). In other words, those who have placed their faith in the “US military” or the police are in for a shocker. God does not tolerate these destructive false gods. 

Conclusion

Taxes are not the “price of civilization.” They are theft of the very productive forces which help empower civilization and order. This connection of taxes with civilization is the very false identification the State wants to create with society. For everything the State does can be done privately and locally, and cheaper and more efficiently. 

The popular saying, like all statist slogans, is a reversal of the truth. As one article says, restoring the truth, “Civilization is the price we pay for taxation as we sacrifice goodwill and human compassion to fund the state.” Another article corrects this lie by pointing out that “taxes help to undermine what is left of civilized society.” Or as Mark Skousen wrote in his 1990s pamphlet, Persuasion vs. Force:

“Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.”

While these secular points are not wrong, the issue is a little bit more deep than pointing out that taxation doesn’t actually make us richer and, therefore, doesn’t actually lead to more civilization. This is but an economic point that doesn’t dive deeper into the heart of the issue, that taxes are what you get when you don’t serve God as your only God — when you don’t take up the rallying cry, No King But Christ. Taxation is the price we pay for refusing to be ruled by God.

Taxes are tribute to Leviathan. They are proof that Christians forsook their duty to family, neighbors, friends and strangers, to serve one another — and gave it up to the plunderers instead, who purposefully usurped these private, community-based responsibilities in order to insert themselves in society as the dominant authority. 

Societies find themselves occupied, extorted, and left to die by legalized thieves for their sins, namely of turning away from God and believing in these man-made plunder systems. As the prophet Jeremiah devastatingly put it, 

“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners. We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows. We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price. We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest. We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment. Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands. We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger. Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah. Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect. Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim — because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes” (Lamentations 5:2-18).