Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris 

The first article I was able to muster with this ministry covered the idolatry of the Fourth of July, which very few Christians even recognize. But these idolatrous state holidays are so abundant, I was hardly able to cover all the one’s I wished to the first year around. I managed to slip “Memorial Day” in there, but missed “Veteran’s Day,” “Flag Day,” etc., all which many “Christians” participate in. These statist holiday are unfortunately, but not surprising, practices in the false “churches.”

It’s a curious “holiday” all around, even for the non-Christian. What is supposed to be a celebration of “independence” ignores the Egyptian bondage that we still live in today. Breaking the yoke of one regime (the British grip) centuries ago is supposedly enough to rejoice now, when all we have done (long ago) is walk into the yoke of another. Most of the people who will celebrate this day with backyard beers and burgers may give some faint notion of breaking away from the bondage of foreign kings, but they are the same people embracing the other false kings of the world (e.g., Donald Trump). The real spirit that animates most men on this day is the typical idolatry of statism, i.e., the worship and veneration of men as the saviors of society. 

One would think that men might be celebrating some faint spirit of secession from state rulers, but they have most just embraced the statolatry of the day, and those behind the holiday have helped to make it a holiday that works in their favor rather than against it. Setting aside the history of breaking away from kings, which is supposed to be remembered on this day, most men have brought aboard vague notions of celebrating “America” (by which, it is meant, the United States). They have been able to spin this history into something that allows men to (once again) “support the troops,” praise “our police officers,” and generally look at the modern system of statism as if it’s something that has worked to secure “our freedom.” As always, the rulers are able to exploit the idolatry in men and get them to worship the State and its rulers as their saviors, even when the day that they are supposed to be remembering supposedly had more to do with escaping from the grips of rulers rather than showing one’s support for them and waiving their flag. 

Those who celebrate some alleged “liberty” on this day, however, have been duped by propagandists who have worked to make them think they’re “free” and that the “government” is “ours” and works around-the-clock the protect “we the people.” Even though holidays as these would seemingly undermine the State, since they could be made to represent liberty from tyranny more than loyalty to the rulers, they have been sufficiently twisted today to pacify men into accepting a false sense of security under the present rulers. 

But don’t we have “religious freedom”?

But it makes even less sense why a professing Christian would celebrate a statist holiday, which gives credit to men for “liberating” them. It makes more sense for the ungodly to celebrate such a day, because without a belief in God, they should theoretically be more likely to make the State their “god.” But unfortunately, many professing Christians and atheists share a (false) “god” in the State. 

So what does anyone find worth celebrating today? If not a freedom in general, most Christians celebrate some vague notion of “religious liberty” on this day (which for them is easily conflated with liberty in general). This is the idea that since the Christian faith (supposedly) isn’t attacked by the United States Government (though forget the rest of freedom!) that we have a reason to rejoice and even praise the political system. 

Soft Christianity

But even if it were true to say there is the freedom to practice religion in America, it’s easy to say this when your watered-down “Christianity,” which makes most every exception for the religion of statism, isn’t a threat to the State. You can bet that if Christians today became the threat to the State that they should be if they knew their Bibles and truly professed Christ as the only King, that this “religious liberty” would go away. Happily for the State, most “Christians” are Caesar-worshipers, and thus tolerable—even preferable—to have around. There is no reason to undo “religious liberty” if it helps make men think that Caesar serves them. 

But today’s breed are unlike the men of old who were serious about their claim that Jesus was Lord and knew that this was effectively a political claim that meant Caesar was not. The early Christians came to a head with the Roman system because, unlike men today, they saw through its false claims to divinity. The Caesars/Trumps were not gods, although they claimed to be, and these Christians refused to recognize them as so. 

But modern “Christians” praise presidents, politicians, and police as the indispensable kings, lords, saviors, and princes of our society, and so give the State little reason to come down on them. Indeed, modern “Christianity” in America has been a great aid to the religion of statism, a friend of the regime, another propaganda device to trick millions of people into believing that statism and God as compatable, that “God and country” go hand in hand, that there is no problem for a Christian man to raise up Caesar’s flag up on their homes and chuches. 

This is far different from the ways early Christians regarded the Roman system. There is a great conflict between the kingdoms of the world and the kingdoms of men. As one book notes, 

“Jesus had warned his followers that they were to live the kingdom of God in this world and that the world would hate them for it. The powers would drag them before governors and courts, beat them and insult them, feed them to beasts, and hang them on crosses. Look what happened to Jesus. And hate his followers is what the world did — at least for the first couple of hundred years. The young church lived with the messy collission of kingdoms. The more the early Christians reflected on the life and message of their Rabbi-Messiah, and the more they tried to live the way of the gospel, the harder they collided with the State and its hopes and dreams, militaries and markets. In fact, Christians in those first few hundred years were called atheists because they no longer believed in the Roman gospel, they no longer had any faith in the State as savior of the world” (Clairborne and Haw, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary People, p. 141)

So long as men support the contemporary Romes and Egypts as they largely do today, the Caesars and Pharaohs are happy to grant “religious liberty.” So long as its practices are squished into the tiny space of heavenly-mindedness, Sunday worship, and otherworldly salvation, rather than trying to change our world and have the Lord as our guide in all things (including political theory), these men are tolerable to have around. As the Christian anarchist Michael Plaisted says,

”They would not have murdered Jesus if his message was just about some after-life, ethereal kingdom. His message had teeth because it condemned all man-made authority in human institutions over ‘worldly’ kingdoms. There is real power in this Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, and this is why men in power hate it.”

As long as “religion” is only about spirituality, devotionals, or confessions of faith, rather than truly attempting to live under the Lord as our only King, then the man-kings of the world can tolerate these “Christians” being around. Indeed, so long as these men preach “freedom” and sing the praises of the State, it’s better to have them around than not. For they are able to raise up more generations of flag-worshipers that help further Caesar’s regime and make the word of God to no effect. They are able to give pseudo-theological justifications for the State and its tyranny, to strengthen the alliance of Throne and Altar. 

Few Christians today are the holy trouble-makers like the Christians of old. Very few of them risk jail and execution for proclaiming the things that early Christians were charged with. 

“These people who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here…They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another King, one called Jesus” (Acts 17:6-7). 

For engaging with the State, voting for its rulers, joining its gang of plunderers, and buying into the statist ideology, today’s “Christians” are much more like those in the scriptures who proclaimed “we have no king but Caesar!” (John 19:15).

Those who claim to follow Jesus as Lord, but every other day of the week turn toward the kingdoms of men and even serve them, are not a threat to the cult of statism; they still acknowledge the “gods” of the State. It is when men refuse to treat the State as “god” that they get themselves into trouble. As Francis Schaeffer noted, 

“Let us not forget why the Christians were killed. They were not killed because they worshiped Jesus….nobody cared who worshiped whom so long as the worshiper did not disrupt the unity of the state, centered in the formal worship of Caesar. The reason the Christians were killed was because they were rebels….they worshiped Jesus as God and they worshiped the infinitepersonal God only. The Caesars would not tolerate this worshiping of the one God only. It was counted as treason” (Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live?, p. 24).

Those who compromise today and more or less loosely profess Jesus as Lord, while also giving homage the State-god, are simply not a threat to the regime. And it’s no wonder they have not come into conflict with state power, as men did before when a profession of His lordship meant that Caesar was not God.

Those who celebrate such statist holidays as the “Fourth of July,” which nods the head to the idea that our rulers today keep us “safe” and “free” (i.e., save us), are fools, liars, and tolerable dupes to have around. 

But the truth is that we’re living in captivity to political rulers, even though most men foolishly think we’re “free.” And yet you would be hard-pressed to find a pastor of a church saying this on such idolatrous holidays as the “Fourth of July.” Indeed, you will find mostly the opposite: men who praise man’s systems of government as bringing us “liberty.” That is, you will find mostly false pastors who contribute heavily to the American thinking that statism and God are compatible, when nothing could be further from the truth. 

The false pastors and “churches”

As such statist holidays come around, churches and their leaders celebrate this religion of statism (showing who their “god” really is). They’ll sing the national anthem, or use some of Pharaoh’s uniformed troops to parade the American flag down the aisle. Sanctuaries will be decorated with statist garb, patriotic hymns will be sung, etc. 

This is all a blasphemous deification of the State, rather than the Lord. Christians should have nothing to do with supporting state flags, soldiers, or police officers — whether physically (by joining them), monetarily (donating to them), or spiritually (by supporting them ideologically). And yet this is what so many of them do on the “Fourth of July.”

We can’t agree with other ministries that defend participation in such statist holidays in the church that we may “use prayer time to lift up the sacrifices of veterans and active military.” (While we may pray for men to repent of their service to Pharaoh, this is never what men mean when they say to “pray for a safe return from for our soldiers and ‘our’ police officers.” They are praying for them God to grant divine protection when their “jobs” are a shift out thwarting God’s kingdom and enforcing the “laws” of men). These “sacrifices” are not for “freedom,” but for the furtherance of the plunderous kingdoms of men, and shipping your kids off to die in Pharaoh’s wars are on par with the child sacrifices referenced in the Bible. Godly men don’t believe that freedom comes from the sacrifice of state servants, like the much-idolized “American soldier.

For pastors to get in on repeating the lies of the civil religion is telling. As I have mentioned before, one way to tell a false prophet is to see if they are saying good things about the State, and preaching a false prophecy of hope and safety in a life under statism, rather than the real case of judgment that comes down on such systems as ours. 

The false pastors of the Bible

But it is no surprise that many of the pastors and so-called churches in our time are participating in such holidays as the Fourth of July, which (whether consistent or not) occasion much idolatry for the State. The scriptures don’t speak very well of the (false) pastors of the world. We read of the “shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” and “have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them'” (Jeremiah 23:1-2). 

Many churches—hence the flags and the preaching of obedience to the rulers—are just non-secular versions of the secular propagandists who sing the praises of the State in philosophy articles, economic journals, or academic papers. They are just statist propagandists who, as opposed to the secular ones who don’t need to appeal to God, try and square the religion of statism with the God of the Bible for “believers” who require more of a “theological” defense to be convinced. Caesar smiles when the false pastors drape their churches in his flags, for he knows that he is effectively keeping them from knowing the Lord — he is effectively keeping the sheep scattered and the remnant isolated from each other. 

One of the main ways the “pastors” of the modern church scatter the flocks (as well get men to betray the Lord) is by getting them to buy into the idolatry of statism and participate in the sacraments of this false, civil religion — which many don’t even realize are sacraments of the false idol of statism: like voting, encouraging men to sign up for the military, singing the hymns that worship the State, saying the pledge of allegiance, honoring veterans, flying the American flag, holding “military appreciation days” at your church, calling soldiers “heroes,” decorating the church with flags, praying for the safety of “the troops,” and hundreds of other ungodly, idolatrous rituals that have for so long been made to seem compatible with true Christian faith. Or, as one of these “ministries” promoting statist sacraments suggests for the holiday, “engag[ing] in special outreach to veterans or military families such as mailing out care packages, having children write letters/cards or arrange a visit to a VA hospital.” Or, as another adds, “participate in a parade” or even (more sickeningly) “enlisting the children in your congregation to march down the center aisle waving American flags.”

Sometimes it seems as if the sole reason for so many (false) pastors’ existence is to train men up on the false religion of statism. This would make sense that propagandizing for statism is the job of the false pastor too, rather than this being something that they just innocently happen to do in addition to running churches. For there is really nothing more contrary to faith and devotion for God than making men—presidents, politicians, police, soldiers, etc—their kings, lords, princes, etc. When men fall for the false god-kings of the world, they decidedly turn away from Christ the King. Men cannot have two masters (Matt. 6:24). Men have to decide if they are walking with the one true God, or false gods (1 Kings 18:21, Joshua 24:15). 

Those who refuse to teach others about the false religion of statism and its false gods are leaving men spiritually empty against the evils of our world. They are false pastors who “have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost” (Ezekiel 34:4). 

Men who don’t know of the evils of statism, but attend church all the time, are obviously not being brought up in the word of God and are thus lost in the world still. Or as the prophet says of such men under false pastors or without one entirely, 

“They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts. My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:5).

If statism is a guarantee of judgment and slavery, and yet the pastors are preaching that we have “freedom” in this country, then we know we’re dealing with false prophets. The people who tell us that “all is well in Babylon,” rather than warn us of our dire need to repent from the religion of statism, are liars. If we were following the voice of the Lord, we wouldn’t fall for it.

“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you” (Jeremiah 23:16-17).

It’s not true that “our government” is here to secure peace for us and that no harm is coming to us for having sinfully erected a statist system, as those who find something to celebrate on this day are effectively telling us. Anyone who celebrates “July the Fourth” has been duped by false prophets. 

The political slave society 

But where are all the men to preach on the lack of liberty that we have on this day? Or the blessings that we have in spite of the State, rather than men calling us to say “thank you for your service” to uniformed Pharaoh-servants they’ve invited into their congregations?

You can’t hardly find one person preaching about the captivity we’re living under. And yet, if a man isn’t preaching about the blatantly obvious captivity we’re living under, how can he be trusted? How could a man read the scriptures and not realize—which is apparent from the existence of a State—that we have been cursed with captivity for our sin of trusting in these men? 

Far from “thanking the troops” for their “service,” as men will do on this July 4h, such things as tax-funded standing armies that rob us for trillions of dollars a year and government police who stand ready to enforce thousands of “laws” of men are symbols of a curse from God. A society that was obedient to God would have a place where they can “dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid” (Ezekiel 24:25). Yet we live under powerful men who can decide at any time to wield one of their laws or law enforcers against us. The existence of states, their weaponry, and the servants of Pharaoh who use these things against men, is far from proof that we’re free and obedient to God. These are things that are built up only when men rebel against God: chariots (tanks), horsemen (soldiers), conscription, taxes, transfers of wealth to state servants, etc (1 Sam 8:11-17). 

If anything, July 4th should be another day to lament the captivity that we have fallen under for our sin of worshiping governments, rather than doing the same thing—praising the state—that leads men into captivity. It should be a reminder of our unfreedom. This scripture is no less true today then when the prophet Isaiah penned it millennia ago. 

“This is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, ‘Restore'” (Isaiah 42:22).

We’re slaves to man’s “governments,” and far from crying to God to be restored, men are still praising men for a false liberty that they don’t even have. 

We’re out here getting robbed by false saviors who call themselves “the government,” and no one even cares! 

“Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers” (Isaiah 1:7).

We’re occupied — and men call it “freedom.” Our hard work is plundered by tax agents — and men call it a “free country.” Men are the source of “law” — and we pretend “this is a Christian country.”

What’s to be exicted about?

Given that we’re living in captivity to men who have substituted themselves as lawmakers for the Lord-as-lawmaker (Isa 33:22), it’s hard to know what there is to be excited for on July 4th insofar as we are to be thanking the political system for something. If men truly knew what circumstance we were facing today under this statist regime, if they knew how great of a threat from man’s “governments” that we live under, they would be weeping and repenting rather than celebrating. 

Our people are so lost and foolish, they’re praising the captors for a false liberty and even (worse) thanking God for them. They say such stupid things as “God bless our troops,” when if they were awake to the evils and saw the State as a curse, they would be inquiring, “Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our guilt? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?” (Jeremiah 16:10). And if it weren’t for their false, state-worshiping pastors, who led their sheep astray and have had 50 stars to blind their own eyes, they could maybe answer their own question: “‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction” (Jeremiah 16:11). 

This idea that we have something to celebrate on July 4th, or at the very least that what is being celebrated is thanks to soldiers, is very different from how a man would react who knows of the evils going on around us: which is to admit to our great sins, such as supporting state rulers, and see a great need to repent and turn back to the Lord. 

Any man who can celebrate July 4th, under the delusion that this is freedom, shows just how much he is unaware of the captivity. Those who embrace the statist spirit of such days as these show just how much they refuse to hear the word of God calling them to turn away from such idolatry. 

Conclusion

Just as we might use the occasion of “Memorial Day” to emphasize the need to turn back to God, so might “Independence Day” be a good today to preach repentance from statism (as opposed to the relishing in it that usually goes on). It is through repentance, not voting or revolution, that we can turn back the Egyptian bondage. If anything, all the idolatry that’s associated with “July Fourth” should occasion men to realize that it’s time we “turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (Thessalonians 1:9). 

Any real pastors would be preaching repentance for statism every day, but probably a great portion of them are dressing up their churches in the American flag without seeing any contradiction between the bloodlust that it represents and the freedom and exit from statism that God calls His people to seek. 

Whether it embodies the real meaning behind such a day or not, it is on July 4th, a “holiday” of the State, that so much of the statist idolatry in our world is on heavy display. It would be futile anyway to try and “recover the real meaning.” July 4th represents worship of the State. 

If you’re cheerfully watching the fireworks today, thinking of how grateful you are for the “heroes” in government who supposedly keep us “safe” and “free,” then your eyes are not on the Lord — they’re fixated upon men and their Egyptian systems of slavery, which you have proved you are content with keeping.