[This is part 11 in an article series on Sin, Repentance, and Revival. See part one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

We have already shown how state rulers are—through the evils inherent to human civil government—at once a form of judgment upon those sinners who seek after worldly governments to rule over them, as well as subject to divine justice themselves for their own sins of ruling over men. And we have already made the case for state rulers as the workers of iniquity, both in scripture and throughout history. And we have already begun to make the case that God’s judgment against state rulers effectively serves as salvation for those men who are thereby liberated from their grips. 

While we have only really demonstrated so far that state rulers are workers of iniquity and the very evil men from which we need salvation, we see also that this Hebrew word used to describe these “workers of iniquity” in the Bible (`aven) is also used in the context of prayers to God for salvation from these men. By showing how requests to God for deliverance are often expressly to be saved from the hands of these workers of iniquity (i.e., freed from the statists of the world), we can strengthen the case for salvation as a holistic concept of being saved from statists on earth. When we look at the prayers of men in the Bible, we see their idea of salvation was that God would judge the wicked state rulers of the world and thereby free them from the predation of these men. The men of scripture were not just praying for the Lord to deliver them up to heaven when they pass away from this earth, but to destroy their enemies of earth for them and deliver them to an free society under God that entailed the absence of human rulers. 

Praying for salvation from statism 

Let us now look at these “workers of iniquity” in the context of prayer and the understanding that the men making these prayers had of salvation, which was never never just some idea of begging to be evacuated into heaven when our time on earth has come to an end, but rather was always a this-worldly idea of removing our enemies on earth. To further the case for divine judgment against state rulers as a form of salvation for repentant captives who have renounced the sinful statist ideology and practices that have wound them up in the bondage of Egypt, we see that the men of scripture specifically called upon God to work salvation for them against these workers of iniquity, i.e., to free us from the bondage of these violent men who call themselves “the government” or “law enforcement officers.”

“Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise against me. Deliver me from workers of iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed. See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD. For no fault of my own, they move swiftly to attack me. Arise to help me, and take notice” (Psalm 59:1-4).

Though the almost universally prevalent conception of salvation among Christians today is a purely heavenly-minded idea of escaping into heaven in the afterlife on a mere profession of faith or belief in Jesus, we see from biblical prayer, praise, and the stories of God redeeming a people before us that salvation has everything to do with God liberating those who repent from their Egyptian ways of thinking from the hands of the Egyptians who have ruled over them as a judgment against their sin, in a former time when they had yet to repent of these sins and consequently found themselves living under Pharaohs and their law enforcement officers. Though the majority of Christians today are only looking to the heavens as their idea of being saved, if we were to take after the men of Scripture, we would be asking God to save us from princes, kings, presidents, congressmen, senators, police officers, government judges, district attorneys, and all those other workers of iniquity who serve the human governments of the world, all of which are of the devil.

It is statists who are the wicked people of the Bible and our world today, and it is they who are judged by God for their evildoing. This judgment upon them, such as when God drowned Pharaoh and his officers in the sea during the Exodus, effectively becomes salvation for the people who were once in bondage under them. God frees a repentant people who begin to seek the ways of His Kingdom by crushing statists whose domination over them once functioned as a judgment upon the people for their own wicked works, but which has now come upon their own heads for their own evils. Though God makes use of the man-made human governments of the world that are raised up in sin and rebellion against His Kingdom in order to judge those sinners who engaged in this wickedness, those governments are themselves wicked too and deserving of judgment for their own evil, which once served as an instrument of divine justice but which eventually is brought to an end. 

Though many people today think of salvation as merely being delivered into heaven at death and spared from eternal damnation in hell on the basis of a vague repentance for vague sins, all while looking to human rulers as their saviors on earth, the men of the Bible knew they must trust in God alone to deliver them from their enemies here on earth — namely, the ungodly statist plunderers of the world, who are called “workers of iniquity” and who stand as the very men from whom we need the Lord to save us and whom God indeed destroys.

“To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward. Because they do not regard the works of the LORD or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more” (Psalm 28:1-5).  

The very men who we need to be saved from are those workers of iniquity who spend their lives hatching plots, schemes, and conspiracies in executive offices, capitol buildings, courthouses, city halls, and police departments, which are occupied by evil men who live for the thrill of plundering other men and making them into their slaves. They are the enemies of God and His children, who see us as their prey to be stalked, harassed, robbed, caged, and killed. It is from the hands and watchful eyes of state rulers that we cry out to God in repentance and ask Him to save us. 

When the men of the Bible call out to God to save them from wicked men and workers of iniquity, using this word `aven that we have shown to be connected with the evil rulers of the world, it is clear that salvation has a whole lot to do with being delivered from earthly plunderers and not merely escaping into the afterlife when we die. The biblical writers had a far more down-to-earth cry to God than the escapist prayers and conceptions of God found among those who call themselves Christians today, but who still take part in the very iniquities God calls men to turn away from and brings judgment against.

“Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me” (Psalm 55:2-3). 

It is against the statist predators of the world that we may make imprecatory prayer and call upon the Lord to put an end to the wicked acts and words of these men who rule over systems of human government. 

“O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within. Destruction is within; oppression and deceit never leave the streets” (Psalm 55:9-11).

The deceitfulness of statism is that while police and soldiers claim to uphold “law and order,” “secure the border,” or protect “the people” from foreign invaders or other criminals, this statist institution actually exists as a terrorist organization that plunders the very people who support it but are too foolish to realize their idolatry has made them complicit in their own bondage. The demonic deception of statism is that while this institution chisels “In God We Trust” on their courthouses of extortion, their police cars of predation, and their fiat currency of inflation, it is actually the government of the devil that exists solely to rob and enslave God’s creation. 

The organized terrorism that inevitably flows from systems of human civil government serves as divine judgement against a people whose sins allow them to come under these delusions. The price to pay for the sin of believing you need human rulers and their armies to “fight for our freedom” is to find yourself as a tax-slave who is on the hook for funding trillion-dollar annual military budgets that make you less free and more vulnerable to being attacked by the enemies you sought to avoid by turning toward governments for your “national defense.” The punishment from God for believing that police officers are needed for “public safety” and “law and order” is to find yourself living under a police state that operates a system of mass surveillance and incarceration against the people. The consequences for the sin of not trusting in the Lord as your only King, and instead appealing to domestic rulers out of fear of enemy invaders, domestic criminals, and other boogeymen, is to become a tax‑slave and subject‑citizen of these tyrants. The price to pay for the wickedness of thinking that human governments are in place to “protect and serve the people” is to be plundered and enslaved by them.

Statists have for so long set their eyes on various foreign enemies and threats (real, imagined, or manufactured) that they forget about their own problems at home: that they were raising up a police state in the name of a “war on terror” and funding a giant surveillance apparatus in the name of “public safety” and fighting crime. For the sin of statism, men pay the price of coming under the boot of the very men who they regarded as their “protectors,” when the very men they actually need protection—that is, salvation—from are these very men.

Whereas the ungodly statists of the world pray to the false gods of human government to save them, men of God pray to the Lord to save them from statists. It is for protection from the predatory class of wicked men who call themselves the “government,” and from the many and endless schemes they invent every day in their offices and on their beds, that we pray to God for protection and request His hand against these evil rulers.

“O God, have mercy on me, for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long. I am constantly hounded by those who slander me, and many are boldly attacking me. But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? They are always twisting what I say; they spend their days plotting to harm me. They come together to spy on me— watching my every step, eager to kill me. Don’t let them get away with their wickedness; in your anger, O God, bring them down” (Psalm 56:1-7). 

It is from the workers of iniquity of our world, such as the men who call themselves “law enforcement officers” and spend their days looking for men to rob and trap, that we seek the Lord’s salvation, which may come in the form of either God liberating us from their grips or crushing them in judgment. Contrary to the modern Christians today who not only think of salvation as a merely heavenly escape in the afterlife but who also praise human rulers as their earthly saviors under this escapist thinking, the men of the Bible turned to God precisely to be saved from their physical enemies on earth, such as the very men who statists tell us are necessary for law, justice, and social order. 

“Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise against me. Deliver me from workers of iniquity [aven], and save me from men of bloodshed. See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD. For no fault of my own, they move swiftly to attack me. Arise to help me, and take notice. O LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors. They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city” (Psalm 59:1-6). 

It is from the grips of the wicked predators who call themselves the “government” and its agents and officers that we better start praying to God today for deliverance and liberation. For the whole purpose of existence for the proud statists of the world, who mistakenly believe their predation escapes God’s sight, is to prey upon men and seek to destroy them. 

“Hear, O God, my voice of complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity [aven], who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows, ambushing the innocent in seclusion, shooting suddenly, without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. ‘Who will see them?’ they say. They devise injustice and say, ‘We have perfected a secret plan.’ They will be made to stumble, their own tongues turned against them. All who see will shake their heads. Then all mankind will fear and proclaim the work of God; so they will ponder what He has done” (Psalm 64:1-9). 

Though the statists are proud today, believing they cannot be stopped by God because of the strength of their police forces or militaries, let us pray that God crushes these wicked men and frees those who begin seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness from the Babylonian captivity from which we are now repenting. 

“O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth. Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render a reward to the proud. How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked exult? They pour out arrogant words; all workers of iniquity boast. They crush Your people, O LORD; they oppress Your heritage. They kill the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless. They say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed” (Psalm 94:1-7). 

Trusting in the Lord’s salvation

The salvation of the Lord is our only hope for liberty from the evil statists of the world who enslave the people who find themselves living under their governments, yet who are regarded as saviors by the idolaters of the world who beg to have these men rule over them. Let us then rely on the arm of God to save us from the statists of the world, knowing that there is no one else and that this judgment has been a result of our own sins.

“Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will stand for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the LORD had been my helper, I would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence” (Psalm 94:16-17).

What we need today are men who are prepared to seriously repent from the sins of statism and begin crying out to the Lord to save us from the hands of human rulers. This world has never had a shortage of sinners who trust in human government to “fight for our freedom” or “enforce the law.” We are in need of men who will both turn away from the worldly philosophy of human government and turn back to the Lord in this repentance, trusting that He will plunder the plunderers who have preyed upon us for so long. 

“My eyes are upon You, O God the Lord; In You I take refuge; do not leave my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, And from the traps of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, While I escape safely” (Psalm 141:8-10). 

The dividing line between false converts who claim the Lord’s name but do not do as He says, and men who can legitimately call themselves Christians and trust in the Lord alone, is a political one where men either pray to the false gods of the State as their lords and saviors or pray to the Lord their God as their only King, Lawgiver, Judge, and Savior (Isa 33:22). While sinners pray to human rulers to save them from their enemies, foreign rulers, or all the lawlessness, disorder, and chaos they believe will prevail in a society without human government, repentant men pray to the God of the Universe to save them from statists. What separates the sheep from the goats is that true Christians are anarchists who reject human government and seek God’s Kingdom alone, while false Christians are statist rebels who raise up human rulers and participate in the politics and ideology of the man-made kingdoms of the world.

The hope for salvation today 

While the people of the world continue to trust in the gospels of Pharaohs and human lawmakers who falsely promise to save their Egyptian societies and bring peace, freedom, and prosperity to the land, God’s people—those men who have repented from the ideology and practices of statism—look forward to an act of God against the statists of the world, as we begin to seek His Kingdom and trust in the Lord to provide the results. Though the people of the world—this is the characteristic mark of a “worldly” person—continue to trust in man-made political systems to heal the hurt of their societies that has already been brought about by these systems themselves, it is the hope and faith of men of God today that the Lord will crush the evil statists of the world so that we may rest easy and begin seeking God’s Kingdom, knowing the fate of all Egyptian-statist systems and the promise to all those who turn from this wicked path. 

“The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity” (Proverbs 10:28-29). 

Though the evil state rulers of the world sit securely in their high places at the present time, confident in the strength of their own arm that no one can bring them down, we know that “destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity” (Proverbs 21:15). The statists of the world, who are the workers of iniquity throughout history from Biblical times to the present age, seek to keep God’s children down and squash any efforts to seek another Kingdom outside of their rule. But our God has another plan for them, which is simultaneously another plan for those who repent and turn away from these wicked acts themselves and start relying on the providence of the Lord rather than the deceitful benefits and gospel-promises of false gods.

“They band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the LORD has been my stronghold, and my God is my rock of refuge. He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The LORD our God will destroy them” (Psalm 94:21-23).