[This is part 6 in a series on the temptation of Egypt. See part one, two, three, four, five]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

For many professing Christians who are still of the world, buy into the lies and ideologies of the world, and do not think of themselves as citizens of heaven who are seeking to build a new kingdom under Christ, they remain tempted by the acts of other people to become involved in these worldly systems themselves, rather than leave them behind entirely and repent from any involvement in them.

One of the major lines of reasoning used to justify as a state system of “our” own is that others have one and we need one too. If the Chinese are going to raise up armies, then (this thinking goes) we must do the same. We are also told that if we don’t vote and seek human-kings like all the other rebellious men of the world do out of their fear of men, that other men who are (supposedly) more evil will get into power and rule us. Therefore, they argue, we have to get out there and vote for the lesser-evil. If we don’t, the heathens are going to vote on their political gods. So we should “at least” vote on a man who approximates Christian values.

In other words, we are told, that we should be just like the rebellious people of the world whose God-forsaking ways—voting on human rulers and supporting these systems—have caused this mess to begin with. Rather than come out of Egypt and steer clear of these systems that God instructs His people to avoid, we are told to remain in Egypt and partake in her sins. These people don’t think that repentance is sufficient for restoration of society, that God isn’t actually watching us, but believe they must continue to engage in the same unrepentant evils as before (eg., voting), which ironically keeps them trapped in the corrupt political society they complain about on the other hand.

Seeking God despite false god seekers 

The overtly sinful and unrepentant actions of masses should not drive us into adopting their ways, however. We are told to avoid the ways of the Egyptians and come out of the world despite the actions and ideas of others. The things that the people of the world do—setting up human rulers and idolizing them is chief among their sins—should not be a problem for those who are seeking the Kingdom of God, which must be conceived of as an alternative to the kingdoms of this world that will never be achieved through the political means, which are precisely the way godly societies are thwarted. God’s people are not to be bothered much that other men of the world are seeking to elect false kings into power and act like Babylonians. This should never cause us to compete with these false gods and engage in politics, elections, or campaigns ourselves in some alleged need to combat them through their own (political) means — as if all other things shall not be added unto us by the Lord if we sought His kingdom instead (Matt 6:33).

That men of the world seek the false statist kingdoms of this world should not much bother those of us who are seeking God’s kingdom, nor should they provide a justification for walking backwards and trying to reform Egypt rather than cross the Red Sea and seek the Lord and His ways. As one prophet puts it, 

“Though each of the peoples may walk in the name of his god, yet we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever” (Micah 4:5).

We are to stick to our goal of serving God regardless of what other people are doing, eg., casting ballots and making vows to their false gods. That the people of this world are electing political gods into power does not suddenly necessitate that we be partakers in this ritual darkness. If anything, it is a better reason to seek the Kingdom of God knowing that judgment is upon these kingdoms of men who have turned away from the Lord by seeking human gods to rule over them. 

Those who regard Jesus as our exclusive and only King have no need for other authorities, and they don’t find themselves ruled by them. Political bondage only comes upon those who fail to seek the Kingdom of God, as divine punishment for their evil ideology of statism. Egyptian slavery only arrives upon a people who believe they need Pharaohs to rule them. Those who participate in political elections deserve all the things that God promises will come upon men who ask for human kings to rule them (1 Samuel 8). 

This quote by the prophet Micah is alone a good case for Christians having no involvement in the political affairs of the world whatever, not even to supposedly try and stop the State from doing evil, nor to make it cater to our idea of a Christian order carried out with the sword. It provides a good case for letting the evil people of the world do their thing and pay the price for it, and for us going our separate ways and building our own Christian communities in accordance with the commands of the Lord. It is not our job to (attempt to) force everyone to be moral or Christian or see the imperative of organizing society differently (ie., voluntarily and freely) if we wish to avoid catastrophe. It is our job to leave Egypt and allow those who don’t want to follow to remain in the bondage that they evidently wish to have for themselves. Though everyone else is a statist who walks in the way of their gods, we will walk after the Lord our God instead.

After all, States are not some autonomously powerful entities that need to be stopped by our participation in them. They do not just mysteriously come from nowhere and start beating men up. They are the result of a sinful people who set them up and support them and are getting everything they asked for good and hard. Their existence and evils are divine judgment from God precisely for such things as participating and believing in them. They are being used by God to bring terror upon people who believe these systems are necessary to society. That God the Sovereign is even in control of States, and that such systems are used as a tool of His judgment, destroys any argument that we must attempt to reform them and make them better. The surest way to make the State go away is not by partaking in such evil systems, which is the very reason they have come, but to walk away entirely and seek God’s kingdom, knowing that He will provide for those who do this.

The idea that we must be involved in the State and the political affairs of society is just another faithless belief of men who do not trust in the Lord to provide for them, such that they have come to believe they won’t be provided for should they walk away. It is the same lack of faith as those who grumbled to Moses on the way out of Egypt not believing that God would feed them. These people don’t believe that God is active in the world and is actively using States, which are always evil, to dish out evils upon those fools who seek these systems to stand over them. They see the State as either necessary or inevitable, as some permanent and natural feature of social life, and can’t see any other solution than that they take part in it.

Walking away

True Christians, who know that the Lord is our King, would never have anything to do with setting up man-kings, as if God is not Sovereign or active in our world down here below. The kings of the world are false saviors. As God says, “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11). The man-kings who idolatrous people regard as “gods” by voting for them and approving of their rule are simply false. As the word says, “Besides Me there is no god” (Isaiah 44:6; cf. 45:5). There is no such thing as an earthly king that represents God down here below. “I am God, and there is no other: I am God, and there is none like Me” (Isaiah 46:9). The always-evil States of the world at best “serve” God by sinning, ie., by doing what States do and robbing and killing the people who think that social order can’t do without robbery and violence — who say such evil things as “taxes are the price we must pay for civilization.” That God uses States to bring evils upon an evil people who ask for it is however no case that statism is not evil or that we should seek it ourselves. It may be paradoxical that God uses States to judge people while He still thinks they are evil, but it is not a contradiction: God uses these terrorist organizations for His purposes of correction and still abhors them and calls us away from them.

It is the very act of state-seeking and approving of human government that is truly characteristic of man’s sin and rebellion against God. Moreover, such acts are going after the ways of the people of the world who we are told to not be like. Men seek States under the thinking that others have one and so they need one too. We read in Biblical episodes of king-seeking that such things were done to “be like all other nations” (1 Samuel 8:20). Those who truly believe that the Lord is their King do not need to copy all the foolish masses of the world in voting on human kings to rule over them, which is truly consenting to be enslaved (contrary to the worldly philosophical argument made by many libertarians that we’re backed in a corner and may as well make a “defensive vote”). That some men are out voting for human masters does not give us occasion to abandon our King and attempt to do the same. We Christians already have a King, and He doesn’t require the casting of ballots. 

When men vote on human rulers, they show God that they don’t regard Him as their King at all and that they desire human rulers and the kingdoms of men instead. God most certainly desires to reign as our King, and does so despite attempts to turn Him down, but He thinks that men, in seeking man-kings, have “cast Me away, that I should not reign over them” (1 Sam 8:7). Voting in pagan kingdoms is not just some innocent thing that men do in addition to their “religion” which they have relegated to being concerned with what one’s beliefs about God are rather than how they act all around. Those who participate in the kingdoms of this world do one of the very things that God explicitly says is rejecting Him and His kingdom (1 Sam 8:7-8).

The last thing anyone who knows that Jesus Christ is their King would do is vote on other men to rule over them under the heathen reasoning that “someone is going to rule over the kingdoms of this world regardless.” They would know that this isn’t true and that we’re in bondage for our sins, not because we failed to vote our way out of it. Those who truly believe the Lord is our God should want nothing to do with the kingdoms of this world. They shouldn’t be tempted in the slightest into serving them. Those kingdoms must be dead to those who are born again under Christ. Who cares of the ungodly statists of the world are electing man-kings to rule over them? We will trust in the name of the Lord our God. Amen. Praise the Lord!

A warning for the people

If we don’t warn the people of the consequences of their sins of idolatry and covetousness, which are always bound up with the systems of human civil government, then we may say that blood is on our hands. We should all be acting as prophets and foretelling of the disaster that awaits all men who pursue the statist kingdoms of the world. So long as we do this, there is no blood on our hands (Ezekiel 3). We are not in the position of beating idolaters over the head to leave Egypt, and this wouldn’t work anyway. We’re here to sound the warning: repent or be destroyed. If men do not wish to heed the warning and return to the Lord, they are only destroying themselves. They cannot say that a prophet had never brought the word to them.

To be sure, our evangelist duties remain even as we begin building God’s Kingdom. We must always take this Gospel message to unrepentant Egyptians who continue on the wide path of destruction that comes to all those socialists who defend human government. But at the same time, if men refuse to listen and show themselves to be men who hate the truth, then they may well be men who are going to reap what they sow. It is our responsibility to bring this message to the people and attempt to agitate them out of their dead sleep they are in while relaxing in their Babylonian recliners while their houses are on fire, but results belong to God.

Will you repent from your support for human civil government, which is idolatry? Will you come out of the kingdoms of the world? Or will you stay behind in Egypt and partake in her plagues? Will you start to build another Kingdom with us? Or are you going to vote for another Pharaoh and trust in the gospels of false gods, who promise salvation under their kingdom orders? The choice is yours. Choose ye this day whom you will serve: God or the State.