[This is part 2 in a series on “thou shalt have no other gods.” See part one, three]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris 

Contrary to those worldly fools who might tell you that the reason things have gone bad is because “we voted for democrats” or “the government didn’t stick to the constitution” or something stupid of that nature, things go wrong for men from the very inception of human civil governments, which are always set up by sinners in their rebellion for God who are then bound to reap an evil harvest from the evil seeds they had sown. It was not some deviation from the constitution—a covenant with false gods to begin with—that we landed here in a plunderous empire today, but the natural result of walking in the wicked path of sin that sets up human government and apologizes for its existence. The evils that we’re reaping today are merely the rotten fruit of the seeds sown centuries and millennia ago when these political systems were erected, which have only been further watered by men who have turned away backward for the Lord and maintained their support of their existence. The evils that come from the systems are not unavoidable “if we just stick to the constitution,” but inevitable given the ungodliness involved in them. The manifest evils we see today are just the outgrowth of a system whose very origins are sinful and in violation of the basic commands of God against theft, murder, covetousness, and having other gods. They are not something that could have been avoided if we voted for “the right guys” or “if the government had just stuck to its limits.” The evils we see today from the statist systems of the world, of which we are caught in the middle, are what had to happen given that they exist in violation of God’s Law. 

We need not wonder how the supposedly humble and “limited” beginnings of state power has expanded into a massive, plunderous empire that has made men into property of the State — at least the lay reader of God’s word need not wonder, although those lost in the world of statist philosophy remain dumbfounded. The reason that men have gone into bondage to Egyptian-statist systems of the world that plunder and enslave them for all they’re worth is due to their sin, namely the sin of statism that violates the basic commands of the Lord to have no other gods before God, which men raise up when they believe, in their idolatry, that human civil government is necessary to society. As the prophet explains, 

“The heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword” (Ezekiel 39:23). 

Far from being some blessing or gift to humanity, God allows state rulers to plunder people who sinfully believed that they were needed for their “freedom” or “security,” as men believe today as they apologize for human government and, not surprisingly, live in a police-state society for their sins of statist idolatry. God allows men to wind up being ruled by men when they lust after human rulers to protect them. God hands people over to these political plunder systems when they seek these other gods than the Lord to rule over them, ideally so that they may realize their grave sin and erroneous understanding of the providential law. 

“On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’ And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods” (Deuteronomy 31:17-18). 

Contrary to those who think that God will bless state rulers, soldiers, police officers, and people themselves while they refuse to repent from these systems and continue to serve them, it is the very sin of statism—the idolatry for state rulers—that turns God away from our society. “But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). We cannot expect that God even hears our prayers when we wave “thin blue line” flags and say such whorish things as “support the troops.” Men need to repent for their statism before they can hope for God to be with them, for God doesn’t listen to the prayers of wicked-hearted statists who lust after systems of political power. “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18). God does not even open His ears to those who support the evils of political control societies, as all statists do in their mere support of these systems. These systems are based in robbery, violence, and murder, and turn God away from them. Men need to repent from statism if they wish for God to hear them and free them from wicked plunderers. God does not care to hear from evil statists who champion systems of violence and bloodshed. “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood” (Isaiah 1:15). He hears only those people who are thinking about Him and His Kingdom, not the wicked plunderers who rule over us or those who support them with “back the blue” slogans. “The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29). Evil works, such as setting up human governments, turn God away from a people, even when they start kicking and screaming that these plunderers who they supported turn out to be everything other than what they thought they were. “Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done” (Micah 3:4). States are set up by sinners against the will and commands of God, and so God doesn’t listen to them. “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will” (John 9:31). God is waiting for a people to repent for the sin of statism before He is willing to hear them. He is waiting for men to cry out for deliverance from their bondage, confessing the sins that led them there, after finally allowing the tyranny of human government to serve as correction to them. “I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me” (Hosea 5:15). 

Repentance is needed for God to turn back the curse of statism, where we have become tax-slaves in our stubborn refusal to be governed by God alone. For this statist captivity has come upon us precisely for these sins of having others gods, eg., trusting in “presidents” and militaries to “save” us and make us “free.” When men cannot keep the basic commandments of God (not even the first of the Ten Commandments to have no other gods) and do wicked things and serve idols instead (2 Kings 17:11), He turns His back on people and lets them fall into the arms of the spoliators who they prostituted themselves out to for protection and prosperity.

“So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained, and even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced. So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence” (2 Kings 17:18-20). 

When people trust in men for their salvation, as all statists do whether they admit this implication or not, God hides His face from a people and gives them over to the enemies they deserve to have rule over them. State rule is a judgment for the wicked works that set these systems up and support them. Statism, conceived of here as the plunderous practice of political rule, is the judgment for the ideology of statism that supports these systems. God turns away from statists who idolize systems of human government and trust in these men as their gods, lords, and saviors. He gives up those who cheat on Him with human rulers and prostitute themselves out to the kingdoms of this world over to these systems and all the evils they entail. 

Trusting in God alone

Attempting to raise up human rulers (archists) through voting is entirely unchristian, disobeying Jesus’s command to not be archists. So is the aspiration for political office by individuals who want to campaign for a seat in man-made systems of government. Those who vote are disobeying Jesus’s command to not rule over other people as a means of achieving our goals. The Kingdom of God is not advanced through the political mechanism, and indeed is thwarted by it. Moreover, they are seeking salvation from men — from “presidents” who they hope can “Make America Great Again.” 

Here we see that the contradiction of a “Christian statist” is even more deep when we see that the idea of a “savior” is also primarily a political concept. The salvation that God offers is not just an otherworldly one where we escape to heaven when we die, but a liberation from political enslavement for a people who repent from this statism, as was the case for the Israelites in the bondage of Egypt who turned back to the Lord and were ready to trust in His provision and turn from the sinful, statist belief that we are in need of Pharaohs and Egyptian systems for law, order, liberty, welfare, prosperity, and security. It is completely backward to trust in Egypts (ie., state rulers and their militaries) for one’s salvation when what we need to be saved from is precisely political bondage, which we have gotten ourselves into through the very sin of believing that these systems should exist and supporting them after they have been raised up. Liberation from statism is the nature of God’s salvation. God frees His people from Egyptian captivity, crushing statists for us and drowning them in seas if need be in order to get them to stop stalking us to plunder us (Ex 20:2).

We cannot hang on to the gods of the systems of the world—the presidents and congressmen that people look to as their saviors—and expect to be blessed. God needs us to turn away from these false gods completely and seek another Kingdom. The first of the Ten Commandments of God to have no other gods is exclusionary. We are to have no other lords and saviors but the Lord alone. This implies anarchism — perhaps a conclusion so radical that few have been able to accept it. Christians need no other kings, lords, or saviors than the Lord our God, who is all these things for us (Isa 33:22). Contra all those men who seem to believe that the “constitutional republic” is some “godly” form of human civil government that is an exception to the rule that all human civil government is idolatrous and sinful, this idea of the “three branches” of government that men have been propagandized into believing are “checks and balances” on each other are actually a total mockery of the Lord our judge, lawgiver, and king who will save us. If we truly believe that God is all these things for us, as the prophet Isaiah says, then judicial, legislative, and executive branches of human government are not only not needed by Christians, but are a mockery to God as being all these things. 

Repenting for the sin of statism 

The way out of this bondage—for God to grant us our exodus moment—is to do the opposite of the thing that landed us here: to repent from the sin of statism, turn our eyes, hands, and feet away from the false gods of human government, and seek the Kingdom of God outside of these worldly systems, praying that God will bless us and free us from the grips of men, who God allows to plunder those who who evilly believe that they are needed for “justice” and “order” in society. 

What men need to repent from in order to be liberated by God is precisely the sin of statism, whereby it is claimed that men, rather than God, are the givers of law, order, and society itself. What men need to repent from is the whole host of statist fallacies that make men out to be the saviors. They need to turn back from all their little slogans that they have believed in their unrepentant hearts and reprobate minds, like “taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” They need to realize, instead, that tax-bondage is the price they pay for failing to serve God, and that trusting in the Lord as our only Savior is to be liberated from tax bondage on to a society that doesn’t require it to operate. Statism is sin par excellence, for it is to trust in men rather than God for everything. When people believe that human government should exist under the thinking that it is “necessary” for protection from enemies or welfare or whatever other reason, they are necessarily confessing that they believe men to be their saviors. They need to repent of this belief and confess the Lord alone as their Savior, as their God. They need to say, with God and His word, that the Lord alone is our God and Savior (Deut 4:35; Psa 62:1-2; Isa 43:11, 44:6, 45:21; Hos 13:4; 1 Tim 2:5).

It is not good enough for a people to merely claim they “believe” in God while still clinging to their worldly philosophy of statism. God needs a people who are willing to turn away from their statist idolatry and put their eyes back on the Lord as their only Savior — something that Americans are highly unwilling to do at this point in time, deceived by many false gods who promise salvation to those who will vote them into political office. In order to turn back the political bondage that God has sent upon for our sin of raising up human rulers and apologizing for their alleged necessity to social order and liberty, God wants us to repent for these sins and turn back to Him alone. Though God would prefer in the first place to never punish a people with slavery by statism, and that men had never even believed in the systems of false gods who they have made covenants (constitutions) with, He still looks for men to repent—to turn their hearts and minds away from the worldly statist ideology—to have a reason to deliver them from the yoke of human rulers, which they ultimately placed around their own necks. In order to be blessed with liberty and to undo the curse of state rule that God allows to come upon the sinners who set these systems up, God wants to see hearts and minds changed back to Him, which is nothing to ask. 

“If they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land” (Leviticus 26:40-42).

Those who make God out to be some arbitrary tyrant who only destroys a people, for one, don’t understand that these statists are only bringing judgment upon themselves, and secondly, that God takes no pleasure in having to dish out justice to an unjust people who he would have preferred to repent.

“As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11).

The alleged inevitability of human slavery 

It is curious that so many Christians have resigned in the fight against the political slave systems of the world, with most of them slipping into a heavenly-minded escapism that thinks only about the afterlife and considers seeking God’s Kingdom on earth to be futile or wrong. It is even worse that people who see through these “we’re just passing through” or “this earth isn’t our home” ideas have jumped to the opposite extreme and believed that we are to Christianize the world through worldly political systems. Both of these positions are wrong. We are indeed to seek the Kingdom of God, albeit not through the political means. God’s Kingdom is indeed not of this world, but that means that it is not like the systems of political violence we have always known, not that it is purely heavenly, spiritual, or otherworldly. Both the escapists and the statists miss the mark. We aren’t to seek heavenly escape, or worldly political power. We are to seek the Kingdom of God on earth, which is precisely sought outside of the Egyptian plunder systems that “Christian Nationalists” and other statists seek to work through.

Those who seek a Christian society through the State are right to point out that other Christians don’t care at all about social life on earth and forsake the calling to act, but they are wrong to believe that our goals are to be accomplished through the pagan kingdoms of the world and that voting is akin to acting and advancing God’s Kingdom. Many of the escapists are right to condemn the statists, but wrong to seek escape and believe that “we only lose down here.” Political slavery is not inevitable. It is the result of people who have rejected the Lord as their King and were subsequently handed over to the plunderers they begged to have over them. The alleged inevitability of the State has always just been propaganda by the ruling elites who had every incentive—securing their continued existence as legalized plunderers who siphon off property from the people to enrich themselves and their allies—to spin it. In this way, men would give up on leaving Egypt, thinking that such a goal would be futile in the face of a supposedly inevitable existence as human property to the State. As Murray Rothbard wrote. 

“It is important for the State to make its rule seem inevitable; even if its reign is disliked, it will then be met with passive resignation, as witness the familiar coupling of ‘death and taxes.’ One method is to induce historiographical determinism, as opposed to individual freedom of will. If the X Dynasty rules us, this is because the Inexorable Laws of History (or the Divine Will, or the Absolute, or the Material Productive Forces) have so decreed and nothing any puny individuals may do can change this inevitable decree” (Rothbard, Anatomy of the State). 

The goal of the statist intellectuals who spin these lies for the regime is to effectively trick men out of trusting in God alone and make them believe the statist gospel that salvation is found in no other name than Caesar. The goal of all these lies of statists—that human government is inevitable, necessary for various public goods and services, or set up by God for our good rather than by sinners in their rebellion against God—is to make men believe that if they sought the Lord and His Kingdom and trusted that they would be provided for in their liberty, if they had no other gods than the Lord their God, that this would only result in “anarchy” and “chaos” and “lawlessness.” As Rothbard also wrote, in order for the State to gain its much needed acceptance and legitimacy in the eyes of the people whose support is essential to their power, “the majority must be persuaded by ideology that their government is good, wise and, at least, inevitable, and certainly better than other conceivable alternatives” (Rothbard, Anatomy of the State). 

The difficulty has been to get men to see another way — to get them to repent and seek the Kingdom of God. Most men derive their ideas from the status quo political order and assume that whatever the majority believes must be right. Since most men are statists, statism of some form—they may differ in kind but not in principle—must be the correct politics a man should hold; anyone else is assumed to be some fringe and lone theorist who doesn’t know how the world “really” works. Since human civil governments exist, they assume this is the way things must be, and that we may well adopt a politics that approves of the present order.

It is nonsensical to argue that we ought to be statists because the States exist, however. For anyone who knows how God works, the only reason that human archists have come upon us is because we have not obeyed God’s command to have no other gods. The worldly political ideology of our people has been statism, which is necessarily the belief that we must have other gods than the Lord. It has not been the political theology of God, which is anarchistic and opposed to human rulers. We have gone into captivity for this statist iniquity. God has not cursed us irredeemably; this is why He sent His son after all to die for our sins and restore us to Him and His Kingdom. The very thing that God saves a people from is statism, just as He allows a people who idolize these systems to become their subjects. State rule and all its inevitable tyrannies is a curse for the sin of statism, and liberation from men is a blessing upon the repentant. When men repent and turn back to God as their only Savior, keep His commandments, and seek His Kingdom, God will save them from living under archists, which He has allowed to dominate them due to the sin of statism that has set them up. 

If men understood how God operates, how He is in control of “the sword” and sends it only upon those who disobey His commandments and lust after archists to rule over them, they would never set up or support States in the first place and would not justify them as needed in some sort of interim period before God’s Kingdom drops from the sky in the future. They would never function under this statist assumption that the only way to find protection and freedom from other States is through having one of “your” own, which only leads to domestic plunder and captivity and manufactured foreign boogeyman to justify it. Rather, they would see—contra the statist logic that most men have bought into—that the only way to be free from invasion and occupation is to trust in God alone and avoid setting up political systems! Although most men have been trained to believe that peace and order comes about only through statism, as well as an unrepentant and reprobate mind leading them to believe this, the truth is actually the reverse: peace is only possible in an anarchist society. 

The only sense in which the State is “inevitable” is that they will inevitably come upon all those who think and act like statists. God has never commanded men to set up a State; they come only as judgment upon people who believe and participate in political power. Those who claim that God permits us to seek States and set them up because He has “ordained” them for His purpose of judging statists are jumping from one idea to the other. They are suggesting that because God makes use of Assyrians to punish people who sought to be like them too, that it is thus permissible for them to act like Assyrians themselves, most often under the justification that they are needed to keep the some other statists (the Chinese or Russians) away. This is a very confused position. For, again, it is only for the adultery of statism, whereby men lust after statist systems and their militaries that get a people enslaved. If men weren’t statists and held God as their only God, they wouldn’t have to worry about Assyrians at all. That God may make use of States and even calls their rulers His “servants” does not mean that we are to do the same. Again, God sends these “servants” of His for this very statism. 

What the Lord wants of us is to make Him our sole and exclusive King — to have no other gods, kings, or human rulers than Him. If we began to keep these commandments, which necessarily mean to turn away from the systems of this world and the political gods who operate them, and seek God’s Kingdom as the only genuine alternative to these false kingdoms, then we can surely expect to be blessed. God is looking to free some people from bondage who don’t want to live in it anymore. It’s one of His favorite things to do. But sadly, there are few men who want it bad enough and seek it earnestly.