Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

The truth of the nature of the world’s political systems has become amazingly lost on most men of the world today. Whereas States have their genesis and continued existence in plunder and violence, which God abhors, they have been able to adapt themselves into seeming instruments of facilitating the “public good” by controlling various goods and services that the people come to think are necessary for the State to manage, as they have conflated the genuine need for such goods—food, healthcare, protection, education—with the State itself. The State is said to be necessary on the sole basis that the goods that it has prevented from existing on a private and voluntary basis are indeed necessary.

Thus many people are not able to see through the illusions of the State. They can’t see any other way for goods and services (eg., education) to be provided except to rob people and force them to pay for such goods and services. They justify the tax-robbery under many excuses like “we get schools in return.” The State is seen as some benign facilitator—a non-interested and benevolent middle-man—of “public goods,” as some indispensable part of the social order than all men must therefore become involved with by voting, running candidates, or cheering the system on. Many people, under the illusions that “the government is the people,” are able to ignore the violence and forget about the sinister motives for the coercive monopolization of these goods and services.

Since very few people are perceptive enough to realize that the State itself is violence and aggression, they don’t realize either that voting is the support for violence. So they see no need to regard such acts as unchristian for this reason alone — that even under the untrue and generous assumption that the State doesn’t go on to do the other evil things it always does with the money that it robs from people (like blow up children in the Middle East or put its own political enemies in prisons), that its very foundation is immoral and unchristian. Government is plunder even before it has grown up, when it is most definitely plunder and evil.

Christians then and now

And so, many “Christians” today find this unethical violence to be permissible because it is carried out by a so-called “government” with a “democratic” stamp of approval that gives it a veneer of being “we the people.” The State is unique in society for being the only institution that is regarded by men as exempt from the general moral law—thou shalt not steal or murder—that all other men as individuals are expected to follow. While neither you or I could legitimately rob someone, the State is able to do so and call it “law” with only a handful of anti-statists to point out that it is equally criminal, if not entirely more criminal for having legalized such crime. By voting in these systems of violence, voters become bound-up in the violence of the State, which uses these voters to help legitimize their own violence as “the will of the people.” Voting is the same thing as pointing a gun at your neighbor, albeit having the men who call themselves “the government” do it for you.

But this awareness of such violence and the unchristian use of it was high among the early Christians who rejected the sword. In fact, modern-day Christian voters would probably mock the early Christians for not engaging in the idolatries that they say Christians “must” be involved in. They are angry at anyone who points out that their worldly ways—voting, legislating, flag-waving, sign-staking, and furthering the kingdoms of men—are not the way out of Egypt and don’t advance the kingdom of God.

Those “Christians” who tell us we must be fighting on the political front, ie., making use of the sword of the State, would disagree with Tertullian (160-220) that, “Only without the sword can the Christian wage war: the Lord has abolished the sword.” That is, that only the “warfare” of preaching the word of God and persuasion are legitimate means of turning men to the ways of our Lord. Politics is not a Christian occupation, and is expressly ignoring Jesus’s commands and instruction. As Tertullian saw, “Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword?” It is not like their idea of “getting Christians in government” is to subsequently abolish the State. Christian voters are never abolitionist-minded. They want “Christians” in there to be the sword-bearers on their behalf. These people have not listened to the lessons of Jesus Christ, but have invented their own Jesus in their head, eg., “Republican Jesus.” 

The war-mongering, state-worshiping “Christians” of today, who can illegitimately separate God from earthly affairs to the point that they are able to claim we need human rulers and to wield the sword of political rule over our enemies, are a far cry from the early Christians who know Jesus as their Lord and understood the path of peace. We can see, in a small example here, how there was no conflict between heaven and earth as there is today, where modern-day Christians tell us we need a president/king down here below (which results in absurd ideas such as “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president”). They believed that Jesus was their Leader and King just as much as He was “lord and savior,” unlike many Christians today who confess Jesus as their “lord and savior” but have confined this meaning to a sort of spiritual, otherworldly, or afterlife realm, while claiming something more is needed (eg., presidents) in the meantime (as if Jesus isn’t King at present). As Origen wrote, 

“Those who ask us from whence we have come or whom we have for a leader, we say that we have come in accordance with the counsels of Jesus to cut down our warlike and arrogant swords of argument into plowshares, and we convert into sickles the spears we formerly used in fighting. For we no longer take ‘sword against a nation,’ nor do we learn ‘anymore to make war,’ having become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader” – Origen (185-253)

Many of the early Christians (rightly) saw absolutely no need to be involved in worldly politics and saw that our goal should be to completely walk away from such Egyptian systems. Christians do not vote, run for office, serve the State, join the military, become emotionally invested in its rulers, make use of the State against our neighbors, or have anything to do with it whatsoever. As Tertullian said, with much greater wisdom thousands of years ago than most we-must-vote-Christians today,

“I owe no duty to forum, campaign, or senate. I stay awake for no public function. I make no effort to occupy a platform. I am no office seeker. I have no desire to smell out political corruption. I shun the voters booth, the juryman’s bench. I break no laws and push no lawsuits; I will not serve as a magistrate or judge. I refuse to do military service. I desire to rule over no one. I have withdrawn from worldly politics! Now my only politics is spiritual — how that I might be anxious for nothing except to root out all worldly anxieties and care.” – Tertullian

Tens of millions of modern-day “Christians” mostly tell us just the opposite: “It is our duty to occupy government, vote Christians into office, and influence worldly affairs. We must take seats of power. We need Christian rulers who will appoint Christian judges to the Supreme Court. There is nothing unchristian about serving in Pharaoh’s military or becoming one of his police officers. These men are blessed by God and we hope they get home safe every day. We need to be paying attention to politics and become emotionally invested in certain politicians and candidates who serve our interests. Anyone who withdraws from such systems is apathetic and part of the problem!”

Worldly trust

Those who throw themselves into the evil of politics have abandoned the spiritual. They have decided that it isn’t good enough to have faith and trust in the Lord, but that they must seek to get the instruments of power to do their bidding for them. They do not believe that the gospel, preaching, prayer, and repentance are sufficient enough for social change, but say that the sword must be used to get our way. They would not like to hear Athanasius (295-373 AD), who said, “Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.” Anyone who would say such a thing today as a response to a call to vote would be said to be someone who is “sitting on the sidelines” and doesn’t care to dirty his hands in the empire. The voters’ mindset is a worldly one: “You think prayer is good enough? You think peace is a solution? We have to vote and use violence!”

“Christian voters”—as much of a contradiction as a Christian sword-wielder—tell us that because men are doing violence against us, that we must fight back and use the same means of violence (the political machinery) against them. They would not like to hear either from Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD), who said, “Christians are not allowed to correct by violence sinful wrongdoings.” The voter is telling us that because our enemies control such political machinery, that we ought to do the same. 

It is as if the “Christian voter” no longer believes that God is Sovereign, but that they must act through the State to protect themselves from the other statists who are doing the same. It is the same when they get behind the military or the police instead of trusting in the Lord. They believe that men are needed to keep them safe, as if God is not active or doesn’t provide protection to His people. Voters basically tell us that God’s rulership is not good enough and that men must fill the void. They would disagree with Ambrose (339-397 AD), another early Christian, who wrote, “The servants of God do not rely for their protection on material defenses, but on divine Providence.” Voters tell us that if we are to be safe from our political enemies on the one side, that we need to stand behind our alleged political allies on the other. “We can just let the democrats take over.”

We see that the way that millions of Christians think about the world today—that voting for human rulers and supporting their armies and police forces is legitimate and moral—is entirely at odds with scriptural calls against violence and the use of the sword, as well as antagonistic to some of the earliest defenders of the Christian faith, many who obviously wanted nothing to do with placing one’s hope in the sword for salvation.

There is no reconciliation to be had between political violence and Christian faith. One must decide where their allegiance lies. As Leo Tolstoy said,

“Government is violence. Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, and love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian cannot serve government.” – Leo Tolstoy