Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris 

We see, in many scriptures, how the added little parts in passages help provide theological enrichment. One humorous phrasing that comes to mind is when the religious elites sent a mob after the apostles because “these men [have] turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). That’s a funny way of saying their gospel message of a new kingdom in Christ was a threat to the Roman empire. 

In the story of God’s people first seeking kingdoms of men, the scriptures add that they did it “to be like the other nations” (1 Samuel 8:5). That is, they wanted to copy those around them, who already had state systems set up. This is still a popular defense of statism today, when people tell us that we can’t go without a State because other “bad guys” around the world have one too.

The rulers of the American empire really helped to manufacture this idea in the public mind well after the Second World War, in the beginning of the “Cold War” era (another great psyop of the American ruling elites). While there was already a State, of course, Americans assumed they needed to expand their power because “the Chinese” were doing the same. “The Russians have gone socialist, so we must do the same,” they reasoned. “The only way to beat socialism is with socialism.” This alleged threat of foreign statism became a justification for the expansion of domestic empire. As one libertarian writer commented,

“To combat this new threat, U.S. officials said, it would be necessary to convert the federal government from a limited-government republic to what is known as a national-security state, which would consist of a gigantic and permanent military-intelligence establishment.”

Thus, from a more isolationist or non-interventionist past that held closer to an idea of avoiding “foreign entanglements,” the idea was highly popularized in Americans’ minds that greater statism at home was the only way of dealing with statism abroad. As the above author went on,

”The justification that was provided to the American people was that there was a worldwide communist conspiracy, with its base in Russia. This supposed conspiracy entailed communists coming to get us and taking control of our government and our minds. Freedom and limited government, U.S. officials said, were insufficient to prevent a communist takeover of the United States. To prevail over the communists, it was necessary, they claimed, for America to adopt the policies and practices that the communists were engaged in. The idea was that it was necessary to become Red to fight the Reds, sort of like using fire to fight fire.”

But this little snippet, “to be like the other nations,” tells us clearly that state-seeking was looking outside the bounds of what God wanted for us. It was to copycat the people of the world whose ways we were to avoid, to abandon God for the systems of men. That other men are engaging in acts of statism gives us no reason to do the same — it gives us no reason to trust in men to protect us. If this wasn’t clear enough in the above scripture, though, God added, “They have rejected Me as their king” (1 Samuel 8:7). To seek protection from men, eg., the “United States military,” is to abandon God, as God’s people should find no reason to trust in men for protection. Spiritually, it was the reasoning that because others sin grievously, that we must too. 

State-seeking is clearly ungodly, always — even if others have done the same thing. 

The statist’s god-State

But whenever the statist’s false god is attacked, they immediately reply, “Well what about X, Y, Z good or service? If we didn’t have a State, we wouldn’t have those things.” They simply conflate the State’s coercive monopolization of protection, policing, schooling, etc., with those things themselves, such that they can believe that they wouldn’t be provided whatever without a State. They can’t get past their own false dichotomy that either the State is to control something, or it doesn’t exist. The 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat explained this fallacy long ago:

“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain” (Bastiat, The Law).

It’s hard to express just how sinful this thought is that “without the government,” we would suddenly be vulnerable to foreign attack, criminals, warlords, starvation, homelessness, etc. For not only does government cause these things, but this is a belief that governments are the providers of all things. To trust in the state is a blatant distrust in the power of God to save, protect, feed, shelter, and be there for us. 

One can see why godless statists (as anyone who trusts in men is) feel this way: they need a substitute “god” to protect them in the absence of a faith in God, and they find it in the State. 

Americans didn’t make it explicit that they wanted to build and expand statism “to be like the other nations.” But by saying (as they still do) that they needed a State because there were other States around the world (e.g., the Chinese), they adopted this notion anyway — that the only way to deal with foreign States is to have one of your own. The gigantically evil American State today was built largely by the unwitting stance that the only way to fight “the communists” was to go communist yourself (playing perfectly into the hands of those who manufactured Cold War fears in order to build up a domestic militarist system). The fear generated by the government allowed men to submit to greater political rule against themselves. And we’re suffering the consequences of it today.

This idea that we must have a powerful and socialistic state (all States are inherently socialistic) of our own (it’s not really “ours”) to deal with foreign enemies, however, is to fully reject God’s protection and believe that we can only combat the alleged threats of foreign statism by building up a domestic system of our own (which becomes the very enemy of liberty that those statists originally sought to avoid). 

Avoiding statism

But God’s people—this applies to us today as much as ever—have been specifically instructed to avoid statism and all its practices. 

“You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs” (Leviticus 18:3).

God tries to warn us of the evils of statism. He even smashes statist societies as part of His judgment so that men might see His mighty works and avoid these practices themselves.

“Be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise'” (Deuteronomy 12:30). 

But men never listen, learn, and repent. At least not before it’s too late. They want to keep falling into traps like “Back the Blue” and attempting to “Make America Great Again.” They say that because there are socialists over here, that they have to meet socialism with socialism. 

But as God tells us, the way to guarantee socialism and slavery for yourself—whether by foreign statists or the domestic one that claims to be “ours” or “we the people”—is precisely to engage in these ways yourself. If you want to avoid being enslaved by others (foreign or domestic), the last thing you would want to do (as God-fearing men know) is set up a State.

Abandoning statism

Getting back to God and His ways requires that we abandon the statist path we’ve been on for centuries and truly put our faith in God for all things. 

But Americans are not ready to give up their false god State, and so they find themselves enslaved by men and their systems. They’re not ready to stop worshiping politicians, voting for new Pharaohs, waving flags, singing national anthems, and giving up hope that Babylon can be redeemed. But they would have to give up these things if they wanted to get right with God, notwithstanding their false belief that “God and country” are compatible ideas. 

“‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God'” (Ezekiel 20:7).

If men cannot abandon statism, but want to keep believing in man’s law systems and their “law enforcement” officers, they should expect judgment from God, which in the scriptures comes in the form of God sending political regimes against men.

“But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt” (Ezekiel 20:8).

Men who want to serve God need to see that seeking after States and their violent, political methods of organization is ungodly. They need to see that far from this institution being a godly one, that what they have done is “mingled among the heathen, and learned their works” (Psalm 106:35). 

Those who think that God gave us kings and presidents because we needed them, rather than because our people foolishly and sinfully beg for them, have left out that they are given reluctantly and after great warnings (1 Sam. 8:19-22). State rule is a part of God’s permissive will. He allows us to chase our own evils and suffer under them. But it’s not part of His perfect will, which is to live under the Kingdom of God. 

If men would have trusted in God instead, the American military machine never would have been built, and there would be no foreign enemies in which it was supposedly needed to fight against. Enemies are created when men abandon God in trust in governments. And these enemies are both foreign and domestic. If men wanted to stay out of bondage, they would have feared the Lord instead. This would keep away the alleged foreign enemies that justify a domestic state, and the domestic rulers that use such a bogey as a means of setting up against us.

If men want to avoid getting enslaved by others, the last thing they should do is set up a State to “protect” them. This system only brings enslavement upon them domestically, and creates real enemies globally, who otherwise wouldn’t be a threat if we have put our faith in God’s protection. When men tell us that “we wouldn’t be free without the government,” they’re not only blind to the captivity that we live under, but have adopted the very thinking that brings enemies upon us.