Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

[This is part 8 in an article series on Sin, Repentance, and Revival. See part one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, eleven, twelve]

Though we have already covered some of the Hebrew words in the Old Testament that get translated into words like iniquity, there is another reference to certain men who are specifically referred to as “workers of iniquity.” This phrase might be most familiar to readers of the King James Bible who have read through the Psalms. Various verses speak of men who are “workers of iniquity” and tell us that God “hates all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5).  

So who are these “workers of iniquity”? Who are these wicked men who are constantly preying upon others and conspiring against people all throughout the Bible? Anyone with a shred of righteous discernment knows exactly who they are: the state rulers of the world who control the systems of human civil governments, all which are raised up and furthered by sinners for the purpose of plundering the people of the earth. They are “the wicked” of the Bible and of the world since the earliest days of creation, when Cain rebelled against God by setting up a city-state as the chief manifestation of this rebellion, or when Nimrod did the same thing afterward as the characteristic mark of a people who are revolting against God and His anarchistic Kingdom order. It is state rulers, along with those among the population who support them, who are the people who perpetuate plunder schemes against the masses of people and who prove themselves to be rebels against the divine, natural, Godarchist order where the Lord rules as a people’s only King. 

It should be easy for any discerning man to see this when we look into the context of references to the people who are said to be “workers of iniquity.” They are shown to be plunderous, statists of the world — both the rulers and their supporters — who think they are exempt from God’s Law and judgment. As the psalmist asks,

“Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD” (Psalm 14:4; cp. Psa 53:4). 

To present statists as the workers of iniquity is a lesson that won’t come easy though. If it did then we would already be there and the majority of people who consider themselves Christians would be anarchists who seek the Kingdom of God alone, at the exclusion of all other kings and kingdoms. Instead, for thousands of years we have had an awful scene where the vast majority of the people who come to represent the Lord have been apologists for the devil’s worldly governments. The professing Christian world today is no different. It is filled with statist idolaters—that is, supporters of human governments—who God has given over to a reprobate mind and left to destroy themselves through their own idolatrous thinking. They are deluded by so many false pastors and other institutionalists who teach that God is a statist like them, as well as lost in their own idolatrous and sinful thinking, that they have never seen that statists are enemies of God and have even been tricked into praising them as their saviors and the people who have given us a “free country.” These false converts, who claim Christ’s name while chasing after human rulers and legislators, are so hardheaded and hardheaded that even if you bound them and tortured them, they would still refuse to listen.

With a world of professing Christians who actually have hearts of stone and exist as the very friends with the world who scripture says are enemies of God, it is almost futile to even try and lead people to the truth who don’t already know it. These people can have their hands held all the way there and still reject the conclusions. Yet we will seek to make the case here anyway for those who don’t know it in their spirit that the wicked men of scripture and our world today are the statist predators who occupy systems of human civil government, all which are of the devil. We will spell it out for all those men whose idolatry and wickedness forces them to deny that statists like them and the men who rule over them are wicked and evil. As much as the hardheaded idolaters of the world will refuse to listen anyway and prove themselves to be reprobate by not knowing these truths on their own, still we can demonstrate this concretely by showing that the references to wicked men and “workers of iniquity” in the Bible are always shown in connection with the statist systems of the world and their practices of violence and bloodshed. After all, the overall aim of this series is to show that sin, wickedness, and evil is not arbitrary but in reference to specific acts of men, such as setting up human governments and carrying out their evil deeds. 

Delusions and distortions 

Naturally, that the Bible reveals statists to be the wicked predators of our world is going to be obscured by the institutionalists of our age, such as the seminary professors and so‑called pastors, whose chief role is to pacify the slaves and prevent them from conceiving of the anarchist nature of the Kingdom of God and actually seeking this literal Kingdom once adopting this ideology. These gatekeepers of Biblical truth must convince people that human government is “ordained” by God as His approved system for maintaining law and order, rather than as His form of judgment upon a sinful people who outsource their personal responsibilities to human rulers to administer their law, justice, and welfare on their behalf. Naturally, the clear biblical case that statists are the true evildoers—both in Scripture and in our present world—is watered down, dismissed, or twisted by most so-called Christian teachers and leaders in the churches, Bible colleges, and seminaries. Few will dare teach that mankind remains in the bondage of Egypt for the sin of statism, largely because they do not even see it themselves but also because they wouldn’t teach it if they did. They teach instead that the United States—another one of the devil’s governments in the same lineage as Babylon, Egypt, and Rome—is a “free society” and a “Christian country” that is fine by God and even received His explicit endorsement.

To be fair, then. the false teachings of statists in so-called Christian circles come in large part because these men don’t know any better themselves and are the blind leading the blind. However, there are also deliberate distortions that men are fed because our world is filled with downright false prophets who have come precisely to dilute the anarchistic politics of Scripture on behalf of the statists who depend on corrupted Christians to get their schemes over on the people. This is more or less the case here too. As one study guide dumbs it down, “In biblical context, ‘workers of iniquity’ refers to individuals who actively engage in sinful behavior, often in defiance of God’s laws.” This makes it seem as if the wicked people in the Bible are just your average man on the street or everyone as a whole, rather than a particular type of person—the man who straps on a tactical vest, boots, and badges to enforce the edicts of Pharaohs—who roams the streets looking for prey to devour. One topical Bible gives roughly the same, diluted explanation. “The term ‘workers of iniquity’ is a biblical phrase used to describe individuals who engage in sinful, immoral, or unrighteous behavior. This expression is found throughout the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, and is often used to denote those who actively oppose God’s will and righteousness.”

This fails to specify that the main people who actively oppose God’s will, since the days of Nimrod’s Babylon and the Egypts, Romes, and Americas that followed it, have always been those who set up and support systems of human government. Though the average man may work iniquity too, it is the State that does this on a colossal and organized scale. Though the average man may rob or murder, the State turns its plunder into law. Though the individual man may commit all sorts of evils, it is the State that is in control of law and justice of a society, and it is the society-wide, systematic perversions of justice that come from this institutionalized corruption that is the primary iniquity that God comes out against.

The same dilution is the case for people who ask who “the wicked” are in the Bible. You typically just get some circular explanation that never really leads anywhere. “Who are the wicked in the Bible? Well, they’re the sinners! Well who are the sinners? The people who do wicked things!” As one article says, “The wicked are sinners who have turned away from God and set their sights on what this world has to offer. They rebel against God. With greed and arrogance, they act unjustly to take what they want.” This doesn’t really tell us enough. In what way do sinners turn away from God? What is the chief manifestation of their sin? What exactly is their wicked fruit? How is it that men rebel against God? Arguably, it is in raising up and furthering systems of human government that men work iniquity and rebel against the Kingdom of God.

The wickedness of supporters of human government 

It is true that we cannot discount the need to apply the lessons of scripture to individuals themselves. After all, it is the sins of idolatry and covetousness of our people who have been responsible for instituting the system of human government in their rebellion against God. It is the sins of the average man that is ultimately responsible for the existence of statism.

However, the Bible also has something to say of these evil men who directly operate these systems, as much as they exist as a form of divine judgment against the wicked-hearted people who put them into place. They, too, are judged for their evils after serving their role as God’s “servants” of justice against the statists in the population whose evils were deserving of being returned on top of their heads, by the same men who they trusted in for their salvation. The point is that both the statists who actually administer these systems, as well as the statists who ideology and political practices like voting, are workers of iniquity. Both the men who strap on boots for Pharaoh and who “back the blue” are evil sinners. 

Though the State and its agents work iniquity on a society-wide scale, still it is the sins of the people—the statolatry of the masses and their perverted sense of justice—that fails to call for any good in the world by continuing to follow after such statist forms of inevitably-perverted justice. Thus, the prophets attack the sins of the people just as much as that of the state rulers, who are but the wicked fruit of these sins. “No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with honesty. They rely on empty pleas, they tell lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity” (Isaiah 59:4). The statists of the world who do not occupy positions of power but who approve of their existence must know that their own iniquities will come back at them, at the hands of the evil men who they assumed were necessary to social order. “He who sows injustice will reap disaster” (Proverbs 22:8). 

The word “iniquity”

In a previous article, we covered the Hebrew word `avon (transliterated) that is the most common behind the word that gets translated into “iniquity” in English. When it comes to “of iniquity,” we typically find another, very similar word. Behind the translation into “workers of iniquity” in Psalm 6:8 is the Hebrew word אָוֶן (Strong’s H205), which gets transliterated as aven (pronounced ah-ven). It is often used to mean “iniquity, trouble, wickedness, sorrow, idolatry, vanity.” Though its main English rendering is “iniquity,” it also gets translated into “mischief,” “vanity,” and “wicked.”

In one use of this word getting translated into “mischief,” we see clearly here that the type of evil is that of the political rulers of the world who prey on men to rob, cage, kill, and otherwise catch in their traps. The evildoing here is shown to be one of the lips as well, which may also bring to mind the political predators of our world who say they exist for “public safety” but whose true purpose is extorting the people and bringing back revenues for their masters. 

“His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might” (Psalm 10:7-10). 

With this description, it should not be difficult to see that presidents, soldiers, police officers, sheriff’s, sheriff’s deputies, district attorneys, judges, legislators, mayors, city councilmen, county commissioners, jailers, tax collectors, and all men who work for the thieving and murderous system of human government, are workers of iniquity — whether they push the papers through the bureaucracy and assure its operation on an administrative level as its background figures, or whether they directly put their feet to evil as badged officers of these wicked systems of human government. That lawmakers and law enforcers are the workers of iniquity in the world is also clear when scripture uses the word to speak of the men who “who enact unjust [aven] statutes and issue oppressive decrees” (Isaiah 10:1). 

We also see how not only are the deeds of these workers of iniquity (i.e., the statist plunders who spend their lives conspiring against the masses to rob and kill them) wicked, but that they are also men who manufacture lies and deceptions in order to carry-out their wicked schemes — men whose iniquity also entails a sin of the lips where they claim to “protect and serve” the people or exist as their “representatives,” when in reality the sole purpose for their existence is legalized robbery, hunting down slaves for their jails and prison system, and executing men who defy their orders. It is never just that these men are robbers and murderers, but that their schemes are supported by lies and deceit, too. As one psalm mentioning “workers of iniquity” says, in a cry to God to deal with them,

“By the sins of their mouths and the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride, in the curses and lies they utter” (Psalm 59:12).

We also see this here in a case of the word `aven being translated into wicked and wickedness.

“An oracle is in my heart regarding the transgression of the wicked man: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing. Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil” (Psalm 36:1-4).

To “work iniquity” then is often clearly associated with the men who shed blood, e.g., soldiers and police officers, along with everyone else who works to further the daily operations of the devil’s government. It was a statist scene that the prophets spoke of when they preached to a people their evil deeds which they needed to turn from. “Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood” (Hosea 6:8). The men who work or “devise iniquity” are often clearly shown to be the statists of the world, e.g., tax collectors, judges, or law enforcement officers who prey upon men’s properties to make them into the property of the State.  

“Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage” (Micah 2:1-2). 

Further descriptions of these workers of iniquity make it clear that they are just like the men today who call themselves “law enforcement,” whose daily operations as plantation officers for the devil’s government are finding men to rob, kidnap, or murder.

“They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city. They scavenge for food, and growl if they are not satisfied” (Psalm 59:14-15).

It is the men who serve Egyptian-statist systems with badges and boots and who seek out men to rob and destroy under the name of “the law” and the legal immunity of Pharaoh who we may call workers of iniquity. It is these men who “sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows, ambushing the innocent in seclusion, shooting suddenly, without fear,” who “hold fast to their evil purpose,” who “hide snares,” who “devise injustice,” and who have “perfected a secret plan” (Psalm 64:1-6).

Wicked works of men 

In covering the idea of there being men who “work iniquity” in the world, we should also make brief mention of the idea and word for work itself. For scripture upholds the idea that it is the works and deeds of a man—either his rotten or righteous fruit—that reveals his true character, not merely the lips of men, whom we know very well will say one thing (“I’m a Christian”) and do another (“I voted X for president”). The Hebrew word which gets translated as “work, do, or make” is פָעַל (Strong’s H6466), which gets transliterated as pa`al (pronounced pah-ahl). This means, without reference to good or evil, simply “to do or make (systematically and habitually), especially to practise.”

Though this word is very often used in connection with those who work iniquity or wickedness, being that it is a more general term that doesn’t necessarily imply wicked works, it also gets used for working and doing of all kinds. Sometimes, the general term for work (pa`al) is used to describe precisely the type of work that God does to all the statists of the world for those men who are starting to seek His ways again, who repent from the sins that led to their Egyptian captivity, and who want to be liberated from their enslavement to statists. In one reference, among many Biblical recollections of the episode at the Red Sea during the exodus, the psalmist says, 

“We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work [pa`al] You did in their days, in the days of old. With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out. For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them. You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob. Through You we repel our foes; through Your name we trample our enemies. For I do not trust in my bow, nor does my sword save me. For You save us from our enemies; You put those who hate us to shame. In God we have boasted all day long, and Your name we will praise forever” (Psalm 44:1-8). 

God, you see, is a worker of justice upon the workers of iniquity. He crushes Pharaohs, soldiers, and police officers for a repentant people who were once pursued by these predators, who now have a bed on the seafloor when He is done with them. It is to smash state rulers, who pretend to be our protectors, and keep them out of our lives, that we pray to God for salvation. “Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts” (Psalm 28:3).

You will know them by their fruits 

If you listened to most modern Christians today, whose support of the world’s wicked statist systems proves them to be false converts, you would think we are simply to accept men based on their profession of faith. If someone says they “believe in Jesus,” we are expected to take them at their word and receive them as a Christian. Even the people who have made men their civil fathers are supposedly Christian “brothers.” These people, of course, have an interest in making wide the narrow path: they need an easy way to count themselves as a fellow Christian precisely because their deeds are wicked and disqualify them as true followers of the Lord.

Yet Jesus himself warned against these false professions of faith by men who take His name in vain, i.e., those who say they are Christians but advocate for the existence of human government. It is not on account of one professing to be a “believer” that makes them one of the Lord’s children, but by their fruit that we shall know them. Are their deeds wicked? Are they workers of iniquity? Do they work to further systems of human government? Do they enter into Pharaoh’s voting booths and raise up human rulers as their fathers? Then they don’t know Jesus and He doesn’t know them. 

Since we define sin here as violations of God’s Law or commands, it is not surprising that the sense in which men are called “workers of iniquity” are people who actively rebel against God’s Law or commands through their wicked works and evil deeds. In fact, this is how Jesus used the term, in a teaching that comes just after telling us that “you will know them by their fruit” (Matt 7:20). The proof that a man knows the Lord is not that he says he does, but that He actually seeks to walk in His ways, as opposed to the ways of the world. Unfortunately, we should be more suspicious than excited when a man says that he is a Christian. For more often than not, he is just another worldly statist who actively fights against God’s Kingdom and works iniquity on behalf of the devil and his government. As much as statist idolaters will cry that we should accept them at their word and avoid questioning if their allegiance is truly with God’s Kingdom or not, the teachings of Jesus himself do not compel us to do this. As the Lord says, 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23; cp. Psa 6:8). 

These are the statists of the world who call themselves Christians, but work to further the government of the devil through their statist ideology, wicked acts like voting, or directly putting their feet to evil and becoming police officers or soldiers in Pharaoh’s government. They are the type of people who scripture says “profess to know God, but deny Him by their works” (Titus 1:16).

As much as false converts don’t like to hear such things, which come from Jesus himself, the fact is that many, if not most, professing Christians today are actually not “saved” and not part of the true faith at all because they are workers of iniquity. They seek the kingdoms of the world, which are of the devil, rather than the Kingdom of God exclusively. They covet the benefits of authoritarians who rob their neighbors and make the word of God to no effect. They sit around in so-called churches, rather than practice pure religion of serving one another in a voluntary, decentralized network of charity of people gathering together for mutual service to one another that exists as God’s Kingdom order.