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This project is based around chapter 8 of the First Book of Samuel in the Bible, where the Israelites’ rebellion against God comes to a head: Rejecting faith in God’s providence, they demand a human king to rule over them, placing their trust in centralized state systems rather than in God’s protection. Paralleling modern tendencies of statists and voters, the Israelites abandon belief in God’s ability to safeguard them, instead calling for princes and kings to govern them.

In this chapter, God warns that those who entrust their safety and freedom to a political system and human leaders are guaranteed to suffer dire consequences. They will be subjected to oppression, theft, abduction, forced service, and even death — all hallmarks of human government. They will find themselves living in captivity.

Despite God’s repeated warnings about the inevitable consequences of choosing human rulers to stand over you, men have always and repeatedly failed to hear the alert and see the signs. They continue in their rebellion against God by having faith in man-kings to stand over them. They believe that presidents, soldiers, and police officers keep them safe and free. They have thought that man’s government is their lord and savior.

The warning that Samuel gave to his people is just as relevant today. Men have still not repented of their idolatrous worship of government. The ongoing pursuit of powerful political institutions, which reflects humanity’s rebellion against God, is as prevalent now as it was in Samuel’s time. In fact, the implications of this warning are fully manifested in the present age of all-around government control of everything. God’s message has not lost its significance — if anything, a love and devotion to the State in the twentieth-century and beyond has vastly expanded the system of statism far beyond what Samuel warned the Israelites about.

The tax code has become so complex and pervasive that even lawyers struggle to understand it, let alone those expected to comply with it. The State has grown far beyond the worst fears of the prophet Samuel, who recognized the trouble and ungodliness that would result from the people’s demand for a king and their desire to be like the other state-worshipping rebels around them.

This project aims to demonstrate the continued relevance of God’s word and warnings. It seeks to show both those aware of the evils in our world and those who refuse to see them that God’s cause-and-effect order remains in effect. We endeavor to do here what all the prophets of the past had done, for the most part to people who did not have ears to hear or eyes to see: To demonstrate that when men rebel against God and institute man-gods to rule over them, they should expect nothing less than to be absolutely plundered and robbed, as they are today.

We hope this will wake up those who refuse to see the inherent violence and brutality of human government. These cases of robbery and murder are not isolated incidents, but rather intrinsic evils of all political systems. As long as the State exists, its very foundation is violence and coercion. When Samuel warned the people, he did not simply say they would be robbed, kidnapped, and killed if they chose the wrong rulers — he described the necessary consequences of centralized political power itself.

This project aims to open people’s eyes to the evils of government and turn them away from the ungodly, statist philosophies they have learned by following worldly ideologies instead of biblical principles. With God’s help, perhaps it will enable some men to recognize the inherent wickedness of governments and inspire them to repent, return to the Lord, and work to undo the curse of human government that God inflicts upon those who abandon Him and His rule.