[This is part 3 in a series on “thou shalt have no other gods.” See part one, two]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

When we assert that Christian and anarchist are synonyms, unfortunately a good deal of confusion is involved. Not only because most professing Christians are statists who have bought into the wicked philosophy of the world and don’t grasp the idea of having the Lord as our sole and exclusive King, but also because secular anarchists, who buy into such slogans as “no gods and no masters,” try and charge that we are not anarchists at all because we hold the Lord as our King — as if Jesus rules as the authoritarian kings of the world do.

While we submit that men can never really escape gods, kings, and religion, and that the question is more so which god, king, and religion they will subscribe to (whether the non-authoritarian God of the Bible or the false, authoritarian gods of this world), a bit of clarification could be helpful to make the Christian anarchist position more understandable. More specifically, it is the idea that Christ is our only archist, and that we are anarchists only concerning human archists. In one sense, it would not be right to say that we are not anarchists, because we do not accept the idea of human rulers. In another, it isn’t saying enough to leave things at the label anarchist, because we do accept the Lord as our King. Amen.

Christarchism

In order to avoid confusion, then, we must qualify the idea of Christian anarchism further. As already mentioned, one misguided criticism often received is that “you’re not anarchists at all since you believe the Lord is your King.” Our position is indeed the mantra, No King But Christ! But there is one problem with this criticism. To say Christ is King—a rallying cry that is unfortunately also adopted by statists who don’t actually believe it—still means that there are no legitimate human kings. In that human sense, we are non-archists. We do not accept the idea of men ruling over other men. Our political position is to abolish human archism, not necessarily archism in general. Jesus is our archist. But here’s the main point: Jesus the Christ does not rule over men in the way that the kings of the world do, and says so Himself that we are not to act like the authoritarians of the world who claim to exist for the “public good” or to the benefit of the people, but who operate their protection and welfare rackets with the use of the police club.

It is not a valid criticism then to act as if we are still in support of authoritarianism because we maintain the kingship of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not an authoritarian; He was a servant and pointed us to this same servant-system of social order ourselves that operates on charity rather than the sword. And while we are referring to a literal Kingdom of which Christ is the King, this is not like the kingdoms of this world (ie., States) that have human kings and princes to carry out their provision of goods and services via taxation, coercion, violence, and imprisonment. There are none of these things in the Kingdom of God.

Nevertheless, the Kingdom of God is a “government” that has minister-servants who carry out the daily welfare needs of the people and distribute charity across a network of people who love God and their neighbors, though they are not “congressional representatives” who rule over claimed jurisdictions and force themselves on the non-consenting public who never elected them as their ministers. The “governmental” nature of the Kingdom of God is only difficult to grasp because the States of the world have corrupted all terminology. Really, to call a State a “government” is a misnomer used to get people to buy into the idea that there is only welfare and security in violent systems of human rule — that societies and social service only exist when there are systems of taxes and police officers to beat and kill anyone who doesn’t pay into them. This is why most people cannot conceive of social order outside of human rule, and why they think a stateless society is one of lawlessness, disorder, and disorganization. They have conflated the kingdoms of the world with being truly systems that look after the people, when they are nothing more than organized and legalized bandit gangs that exist to plunder and enslave the people who fall into their grip due to their sin of believing that human rulers are needed. So really, there is no “government” at all with the systems that people presently call “government,” and yet there is such organization in the voluntary, decentralized, anarchistic Kingdom of God. In this society, which is stateless to be sure, Jesus is our King and there is no need for man-kings who rule as false gods.

While we might say that Jesus was an anarchist, we should probably be sure to clarify that He was an anarchist in His political philosophy. He tells us to not act as archists ourselves, ie., to not be like the rulers of the world who lord their authority over other men (Mark 10:42-45). In another sense, to say that Jesus was an anarchist could imply that He rejected all kingship, including His own. This doesn’t really help us to make matters clear. An improved statement would be that Jesus was actually an archist (ie., a ruler), and that He was instructing others to have no other archists (ie., human rulers).

For all intents and purposes, this still means that Christians must be anarchists as far as human rule goes. For those who will inevitably nitpick this point however, we might clarify that we are really Christarchists or Godarchists. As we have said, some pedantics like to claim that if we believe Jesus is King then we are not “really” anarchists after all. Others like to claim that we are speaking of abolishing all archism while purposefully ignoring that we are only speaking of abolishing all human archism. I hope you see the point. Christian and anarchist are synonyms. But if anyone wants to try and pick this position apart by claiming that we believe that Jesus is King, then our general position is unchanged: Christians must be anarchists as it concerns the worldly systems of political rule by men. 

The point is that Jesus is the only legitimate archist; this is Christian politics; anything else (men as kings) is a false political theology derived from the world rather than scripture. A true Christian society is without any other archists than the Lord, which is to say that it is archist-free as far as men go. If there are human archists around, it’s not a Christian society; it’s an ungodly one full of people who have rejected the Lord as their sole and exclusive King.

Jesus as King today

Moreover, we believe that Jesus is King today and that we are not waiting on Him to be crowned King; this has already happened and we should live like it is so and seek His Kingdom now rather than continue to partake in the kingdoms of this world and thinking of ourselves as a citizen of “two kingdoms.” God’s Kingdom is sought exclusively through non-political means. This means there’s no excuse for having one foot in the kingdoms of the world in trying to advance the Christian cause. The work of God’s people is done wholly outside these systems. Therefore, there’s no need to be a part of them whatever.

Part of the reason that people have been able to believe that other, interim human god-kings are needed is a futurist eschatology that has led them to believe that Jesus is not yet the Christ, such that they either need to be involved in worldly politics “in the meantime” or sit out any activism, agitation, and evangelism entirely. Despite Jesus himself saying that all power has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, despite Him saying that He had tread down the powers, despite Him saying that we ought to pray that His will be done on earth as in heaven, people still believe that some sort of earthly, subordinate kings are needed as stand-ins for his supposed lack of kingly reign. This is not the Christian anarchist position, which is that Jesus is the only legitimate King in the present age. 

The Kingdom of God

This distinction between the violent, centralized, authoritarian kingdoms of this world, and the free, decentralized, non-authoritarian Kingdom of God is where people struggle to understand things. Rather than see that Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world (ie., not like the Roman and Egyptian political systems we know today), as He told us Himself, they believe that we must work to “Christianize” these Roman institutions, rather than build outside of them altogether. And they think that anyone who doesn’t vote or campaign for worldly political office is, therefore, doing nothing to advance the Kingdom of God. In their minds, one is apathetic if they aren’t a statist. Unfortunately, their conflation—the idea that the Kingdom of God is to be advanced and done so through worldly governments—isn’t helped by the fact that many Christians who rightly oppose worldly politics are also entirely heavenly-minded and don’t care about seeking the Kingdom of God at all. Since these “just passing through,” “the world is not my home” Christians rarely believe in seeking the Kingdom of God and taking dominion of the earth, the “statist Christians” (contradiction) are able to present a false dichotomy where one is either (1) sitting on the sidelines waiting for heaven, or (2) active for the cause of God and involved in politics. They can’t see that the true Christian position is neither: the Kingdom of God is to be sought, albeit not through the political means. The Christian anarchist position is entirely off the table to them. They don’t see at all that there are Kingdom-seeking Christians out there who are not statists, and that the only way to seek the Kingdom is outside of worldly politics. Since most dominion-minded men who profess Christ are statists, and most otherworldly Christians are apathetic to seeking the Kingdom, both people fail to see the Christian anarchist vision of seeking the Kingdom outside of the State. The former complain that the latter aren’t political enough, but conflate the indeed political nature of the Gospel of the Kingdom with being involved in worldly politics. They are missing the point. In one sense, Christianity is entirely political: it is about seeking the Kingdom of God, which is a literal kingdom. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the gospel of the peace and prosperity of another Kingdom than the kingdoms of this world — it is the gospel of salvation from statism through following Christ and His Kingdom. In another sense, Christianity is entirely anti-political: the gospel stands in opposition to the kingdoms of this world, which we are to have nothing to do with. To agree that Christians should be “political” does not imply that we are to be involved in worldly kingdoms. It means we are to hold a political ethic, which is decidedly an anarchist one that tells us to have nothing to do with the States of the world.

It is here that both the “Christian nationalists” and the heavenly-minded escapists get confused. The Kingdom of God is a “government.” It has ministers that serve people and look after their welfare and needs and distribute the free will offerings of the people who are organized into this network of loving God and their neighbors. This bothers both of these people though. “Statist Christians” (contradiction) don’t want to hear this because they make the kingdoms of this world their gods and governors, and don’t want to abandon their idols and seek the Lord’s Kingdom. Christian anarchists also like to nitpick this because they understandably don’t like the word government, and often sort of envision a stateless society without anyone carrying out the works of charity across a network. Nevertheless, God’s Kingdom is a government — albeit not like the kingdoms of this world that exercise authority over others. It has a King, albeit not like the worldly kings we know today who rule by threats of violence and enslavement of the populations they have conquered due to the idolatry of the people within them and their failure to make the Lord their King and seek His Kingdom at the exclusion of all others.

Conclusion

However much we need to explain the caveats of what we mean by anarchism and add that we are really referring to the kingship of Jesus, Christians must be anarchists; to believe, as statists do, that men should rule over us, is to have other gods than the Lord. However offended one is by the word an-archist, it simply means not an archist, ie., not a ruler or against rulers. It is understandable that people do not like the term anarchist, especially since the statist propagandists of the world have trained men to believe that anarchism, rather than statism, means violence and disorder, and that their violent and murderous systems mean “government.” They have been trained to believe that archists (presidents, congressmen, judges, police, etc) are the “good guys” and that anyone who opposes them are the “bad guys” — even though the former group is the ones who have killed millions of people in the twentieth century and called it “governing.” Nevertheless, Christians must be anarchists — they must oppose human rulers. If you’re not an anarchist, then you’re an archist, and Jesus tells us to not be one of them. Christians cannot conspire to rule over other people, as Jesus’s apostles imagined His Kingdom would be in their worldly thinking that they had not yet shed. Christians cannot seek positions of political power or elect others to take them. This is not Christian behavior, but the behavior of ungodly men who seek to further the pagan kingdoms of the world.