Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

The Pharaohs and Caesars of the world who attempt to subdue people with their political power and the accompanying ideology of statism that lends pseudo-intellectual support to their legitimacy are up against a few different type of people: 

• 1) Enthusiastic supporters, who wave the flags of their human gods proudly, wear the “USA” t-shirts, sing their national anthems, and pledge allegiance to them. These are the good slaves that make Pharaoh the most happy. These men pose no threat to the system whatsoever. Indeed, they lend positive support to it by defending their idols and being outwardly devoted to serving them. And they are many. 

• 2) Passive supporters, who have no strong inclination toward liberty, may even not like the government that much, but nevertheless maintain their ideological support for it and don’t object to state rule in principle. These are perfectly tolerable go-alongers to Pharaoh. They still do what they are told, follow orders, file taxes on time, believe that taxation is ultimately necessary even if they feel robbed, obey the decrees of the rulers, etc. They are probably the largest group of people in the public. 

• 3) Passive resisters, who don’t really think Egyptian rulers are necessary at all, but nevertheless find them inevitable and apathetically and nihilistically assume there’s nothing we can do about them. They may lament the political system, but are contented to sit back on their couches and make it through their lives without causing much trouble or having their voice stand out too much. These people are perfectly acceptable to Pharaoh so long as they’re tamed and don’t get out of line. 

• 4) Active resisters — the righteous men who know that Egypt is a house of cards built on swords and deception, that God’s kingdom is what we ought to be seeking, and that none of this is inevitable and should be actively done away with and replaced by agitating for free Christian communities. These men are Pharaoh’s worst nightmare. 

Though the first two options are obviously the most heinous and evil, the third option is not much better. While many professing Christians are appallingly part of these first two categories, many others are pacified into the third one. They have been taught that there’s not much we can do down here on the earth below and are to just wait-out our heavenly glory at the end of our days. They have been made to believe that Christian action toward the Kingdom of God on Earth is futile and even against the teachings of the Lord, despite Jesus instructing us to pray that His will be done on earth as in heaven (Matt 6:10).

Once one believes Kingdom-work is futile, they’re not likely to take many steps agitating society or planting seeds toward that end. These types often resign into apathy and think there is nothing we can do about the Babylonian captivity, if they even see it at all. They may look forward to being raptured or even persecuted, seeing nothing but doom and gloom in the future and thus no reason to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and organize and network with their brothers and neighbors in a decentralized system of welfare and aid.

In the rare case that a man is even able to see the nets that Pharaoh has strung throughout the networks of men and their communities, they often sadly fail into despair and give up on thinking that they have any power to do much about their slavery. They are not like Jesus Christ and His disciples, who sought to turn the world upside down and made progress doing so (Luke 23:2; Acts 5:28, 16:20-21, 17:6, 24:5). They are “this is just the way things are” type of people.

A reason for hope

These men should rearrange their thinking. The only thing inevitable about statism is its failure and God’s judgment upon these political systems. If men had this in mind, perhaps they could reorient their thinking to advancing God’s kingdom in the expectation that the kingdoms of men are coming to an end and hold no future for them, and that men are going to need another kingdom to come into — one that is not like the violent/political kingdoms of this world, but nevertheless a kingdom.

If we ever hope to get out of the Egyptian system we live under, which has tempted people into accepting tax bondage in exchange for their bread and protection, then we must build the alternative system based on freedom and charity. It is when men forgo God’s instruction to love their neighbor, instead opting for socialist systems based on tax-theft and slavery, that they find themselves living in political slavery. As one article explains,

“Israel entered into the bondage of Egypt when they waived a right to a portion of their labor in order to receive the free bread of the Pharaoh through a social safety net provided to the masses through legal charity instead of Pure Religion.”

Unless we are prepared with a private, voluntary system of charity, mutual aid, and love of neighbor and God, men will fall right back into the arms of political rulers when the statist systems fails. As the above article goes on,

“The people in the “bondage of Egypt” had to sacrifice a portion of their labor to the government of Pharaoh every year. The people who went into the bondage of Egypt did so because there was a famine or dearth and they need the welfare assistance of the Pharaoh who gave it if the people would give him a portion of their labor.”

States purposefully destroy economies so as to leave men helpless and turn to them for aid. They deliberately impoverish people so that they will seek the welfare provided by them, which comes attached with chains. This is why we must form alternative methods of welfare and governance (so to speak) if we want to avoid falling for the political trap once the system falls apart and fractures more. As it continued,

“The Pharaoh offered benefits in hard times in exchange for a portion of their labor but he gained more and more power over the Israelites and all of the people who lived in the land Egypt. Those who signed up for his benefits system of social welfare through the power of the State became a part of his house, and he became the benefactor or ruling father of the people. The Israelites went into bondage because they depended upon the Pharaoh to be their benefactor.”

It is sort of problematic for one to lament the current political situation, yet refuse to do anything about it under the notion that all action is futile in the earthly realm, as it has been precisely such irresponsibility that gave way to the present system, where men handed over their responsibilities and authority to rulers who claim to be benefactors but exercise authority over other men.

Anyone who truly hates the political system and wants to see it abolished must strive toward the alternative, as found in the gospel of God’s kingdom. The way out of Egypt, so to speak, is to seek God, live according to His ways, and trust in His providence and deliverance from the hands of men.

Working on the Kingdom of God

There is nothing keeping us from seeking liberty and human freedom and ridding our society of human tyrants who claim to have “authority” over us. We have it in us to pursue God’s kingdom and are told by Jesus to do just that (Matt 6:33). It was only an accident that men have been deluded by the philosophies of the world into believing that political order is necessary and essential to society. There is nothing wrong with men that keeps them from living freely under God, only that they have been led astray from this mission by the temptations of the world to advance the socialist kingdoms of this world. As the word says, “God hath made man upright, but he sought many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

God made us to be kingdom-seekers. But we have been duped by the false theocracy of statism. It isn’t that we are incapable of having a society based on voluntary association, free market production and exchange, private property, mutual aid, free will charity, love of neighbor, and having the Lord as our Lord and God’s Law as our Law. It’s that we have ‘sought many inventions,’ i.e., have mistakenly believed in the Salvation State. It is that we thought a gang of socialist rulers could plan economies and keep us safe. It is that we have trusted in government police for “law and order” and “justice.”

Men can stop chasing after artificial, man-man political orders (i.e., socialism). They can come to God and begin seeking His kingdom and stop dreaming about these state-imposed fantasies of evil lunatics like Karl Marx who want nothing but to destroy the foundations of society and impose the tyrannies of men upon them. 

God didn’t make men incapable of seeking His kingdom. Men simply deviated from His will, namely by erecting statist systems.

His kingdom plan has been restored in Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come simply so that men would vainly meet in buildings called churches once a week and consider that they have done their duty to the Lord through singing songs and smiling at people in the pews. Jesus is the Christ. He came to start a kingdom. It’s time for men to start working on a building for the Lord. The kingdoms of men are done, and we better start working on the alternative before they collapse and leave men running right back into their arms for help.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). 

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, let the whole world be transformed. Let men quit believing in the lies of men for the first time ever. Show them Your strong condemnation against the kings of the earth, the outstretched arm that thou bringeth against them. Show them that the kingdoms of the world are passing away and that there is no hope in them. Put Your spirit on men who seek it, and show them Your law and your ways and how different they are from the ways of men. Teach them of their follies and fallacies and foolishness in trusting in kings to keep them safe. Show them Your law, Your commandments, and restore this whole world from the Babylonian captivity that we have been rightly given for our sins. Turn men away from the sins of patriotism, statism, voting, and hanging on to worldly kingdoms and hopes. Help those who want out of Pharaoh’s bondage to break out of their bands and stocks and run free out of Egypt. Deliver us from Caesar’s hands, who have been laid on us for our own iniquities. Get men working on Your kingdom and coming out of the kingdoms of men and effectively abolishing them. Lord be with us in the trying times, for the bondage is heavy upon us. Amen.