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Many people say Jesus was a "great teacher." But these same people, as well as many others, say the teachings of Jesus are applicable only in a "spiritual" sense. It would be very "impractical," "unrealistic," or even "utopian" to try to apply the teachings of "the Great Teacher" to the day-to-day realities of our workaday world. After all, Jesus taught His followers to be pacifists, and if the government followed Jesus, criminals would "take over" the world.
What would the world look like if criminals "took over?"
But this is actually the track record of "governments" in the 20th century.
How could it be worse if "criminals' took over? The politicians have already "taken over." They run a global racket.
The most intelligent (Harvard-educated) and fanatically motivated cut-throat criminals of all are living high on the hog in the lavish palaces of "government." Other criminals are incompetent amateurs by comparison.
And political criminals thrive because Christians say these organized crime syndicates are a "divine institution," "ordained by God." (See our website, Romans13.com.)
In 1994 “criminals” committed 7,885 bank robberies, taking $28 million. That same year, “government agencies” seized $2.1 Billion in “asset forfeiture proceedings,” often without “probable cause,” and often not returned even when innocence was proven. And it has only gotten worse.
If all Christians, Jews, and like-minded people were to follow the moral implications of 1 Samuel 8 and Isaiah 33:22 and abolish the false god called "the State," and do so not because they didn't want any one to "tell me what to do," but because God's Law prohibits "archism," we would live in a moral climate in which the initiation of force and threats of violence are frowned upon rather than applauded. We would have far less crime and a much higher standard of living.
Sure, there would still be criminals, but they would be marginalized, and the Bible says there would be fewer of them to the degree we obey God's Commandments.
The social costs of crime are much less under the pacifism and anarchism commanded by Jesus than under political "governments" which ostensibly "protect" us from crime.
That's our thesis. Let's explore it.
"Theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God Rules."
Theocracy is an inescapable concept. It is not a question of whether a society will be a "theocracy," but which god will rule.
The God of the Bible created human beings in families ("patriarchy"), with no institutions of "church" or "state." The Family was given the "dominion mandate" (Genesis 1:26-28) to develop the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15) into the "New Jerusalem" (Revelation 22:2).
Lazy patriarchs do not
want to do this work. They want someone else to do it for them. They create "the State."
Ambitious, power-hungry patriarchs want "to be as god,"
dominating other people. They reject a family-centered free market and run for political office.
The lazy and the power-hungry thus form a symbiosis.
This is "The City of Man" in opposition
to "The City of God."
"Statism" is the belief that "the State" can bring social "salvation." It is a rival religion that competes with the God of the Bible, who is our King, our Lawgiver, and our Judge (Isaiah 33:22), who alone will bring social salvation.
In human history as chronicled in the Bible, "the State" was formed by rebels like Nimrod. God nowhere commanded the formation of "the State." Obedient men like Abraham did not do so. Disobedience is seen in 1 Samuel 8, where Israel demanded an earthly king like Nimrod's gentile descendants. God said the formation of "the State" is a rejection of God as Lord, King, Lawgiver, Judge, and Savior. Jesus told His followers that the kings of the gentiles love to be "archists." An "archist" is someone who believes he has the right to initiate force or threaten violence to compel others to do his own will. Mark 10:42-45 has the Greek word from which we derive our English word "anarchist." Jesus said His followers are not to be archists.
www.How To Become A Christian Anarchist.com
Jesus prohibited His followers from using violence to overcome statism. If lazy statists vote for ambitious statists to confiscate your wealth, Jesus says "give to him who demands" (Luke 6:30; Romans 13:7). If statists want to confiscate your labor, give them twice what they ask (Matthew 5:41).
But -- and this is essential -- although Christians are commanded to pay taxes and be subject to enslavement, nobody is authorized by God to levy taxes or conscript laborers. Taxation is theft. Conscription is kidnapping. The fundamental nature of "the State" is immoral. "The State" is legalized crime.
Jesus commands His followers to seek the restoration of those who trespass against them (Matthew 18:15ff), not to seek vengeance (Romans 12.17-21). This patriarchal system of dispute resolution relies on persuasion and conversion by the Holy Spirit rather than vengeance and threats of political violence. Jesus said we are to love our enemy, the criminal (Matthew 5:44) and "resist not evil" (Matthew 5:39), but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Even the most evil entity on the planet: "The State" (Romans 13).
"The State" is a false god and a false savior. "The State" is the most frequently cited form of idolatry in the pages of the Bible. Christians should work to abolish the false god of "the State."
An objection will be raised:
Without the "thin blue line" of institutionalized vengeance and violence, society will collapse into chaos. Without "the State," criminals will "take over."
It is true, and must be conceded, that under both systems -- Patriarchal Theocracy ("Liberty Under God") and Political Theocracy (tyranny under man), there will be criminals. Even the Garden of Eden had Cain. There will always be a thief or a bully in every human society.
But if we abolish "the State," there will be fewer thieves and fewer bullies.
The social costs of crime are lower under Patriarchy than they are under Politics.
In a stateless Christian patriarchal society, criminals will impose costs. There will be burglaries. But the cost of Christ's prescribed system of non-violent dispute resolution is lower than the cost of "the State" and its violent prison industry. The costs of maintaining "the State" (legalized professional criminals in the "public sector") are greater than the costs of amateur criminals in a stateless "private sector." If you pay one dime of federal income tax (more than 40% of Americans do not), "the State" is confiscating two-thirds of everything you earn. If we abolished that humanistic system in a self-consciously Christian manner, criminals would never take that much.
And a society which is Christianized and has a self-conscious commitment to follow the Prince of Peace produces fewer criminals than a society dominated by corrupt politicians and warmongers. The education systems are radically different under the two competing theocracies (Family vs. State). There is an inherent tendency in polis-based societies to censor and repress the teachings of Christ. The politician, with his institutionalized theft and violence, sets a model for criminals. "Might makes right." The man of the polis experiences "cognitive dissonance" if he claims to be a Christian but ignores Christ's commands by acting like a Gentile king, conscripting and taxing others (Mark 10:42-45). Government schools inevitably become more secular, purging the curriculum of Christ and His influence. It is now "unconstitutional" in this once-Christian nation for a government-employed teacher to teach students that God says "Thou shalt not steal." As a result, theft increases under political theocracy. There is more crime with "the State" than without it. And "the State" itself is the greatest and most-costly criminal on the planet.
In the history of the human race, no political theocracy, with its rejection of Christ's pacifism in favor of institutionalized vengeance, has ever remained "Christian" (if it ever claimed to be so). Those who teach Romans 12 and Matthew 5 must be suppressed under political theocracy.
The social costs of crime are lower even in an ungodly "Free Market:" than they are in the godliest state-dominated society.
God promises less crime in a society which obeys God's Law. In one sense, that's a tautology. But there is an active, providential sense in which God increases the costs of crime as a curse upon those who do not trust Him. If we seek to be like the gentiles, and we build a vengeance-taking machine funded by theft, God will send more "archists" our way -- in addition to the ones we voted for. If we follow Christ and love our enemies, God will send fewer of them. In a Christian society, dominated by a moral ethos which eschews "archism," even the unregenerate will pretend to be moral, upstanding Christians. If we are willing to be enslaved (if that's the price of following Christ), we will not be.
Patriagora: A Family-Centered Free Market
