Smashing the Idolatry of Taxation: A Breakthrough to Consider

JOHN FORSTER

Problem:

When the Church of Jesus Christ thinks wrongly about taxes (if it thinks about law or economy at all) it causes idolatry to flourish, encourages murder, kidnapping, and theft; leading to death, slavery, and poverty throughout the economy.

 Biblical view: 

Civil officers that fine, imprison, or execute men for failing to obey tax laws contrary to Biblical authority, have become the criminals murdering, kidnapping, and stealing from men as stewards of life, liberty, and property to Christ as Owner.

 Solution:

Men will reconstruct civilization by voluntarily shouldering the moral responsibility to punish crime as God defines it and refusing the dishonest gain of being partner with civil government as a thief in accepting tax-supported “benefits”.

What are the major points that you see the World and the Devil most successfully attacking?

 Questions regarding what should we think?  [Credenda]

1. Covenant Foundation for Civil Government: from Gen 9:5,6. “I will require” The Bystander to punish crime as a condition of human life.

Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it.

And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

^“Whoever sheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed,

For in the image of God

He made man.

• Though men have distorted or suppressed God’s law written on their hearts, they retain a sense of the criminal “taking away” of the life of the innocent. But that is only one aspect. There are 2 other crucial elements.
  • Definition of crime (some ‘taking away” of men’s lives)
  • Definition of punishment (restitution/lex talionis)
  • What God will do to society if they don’t punish crime in the right way.
  •  
• The foundational principle of all human civil government, forward from Noah’s covenant, puts the responsibility upon Bystanders to see that crime is punished. Failing to fulfill this responsibility by your witness, work, and wealth may not be a crime men should punish, but will be a sin God promises to judge directly ("I will require"). [Illustrated by: Ahab, Jehu, nations of Caanan, refusal to serve God/embracing human tyranny].
• When righteous men fail to take initiative -- by witness, work, and wealth -- to execute God’s sentences on God’s criminals, wicked men are only too eager to take the initiative to contribute work, wealth, and false-witness to punish the innocent and reward the guilty, and make the productive righteous pay for a “voracious and parasitic” bureaucracy to administer it. The wicked do not prosper enough to finance their own agenda. By deceit or violence they attempt control over the wealth of the blessed, prosperous, righteous man. Primary methods include legitimizing the theft of taxation, or a monopoly on money-issuance (inflation).
• Implication: Accurate and diligent enforcement is crucial. Being too lenient in punishment is sharing culpability with the criminal. Being too harsh makes a criminal of the Enforcer. The law-enforcers become criminal under cover of human legality tolerated by the Majority.

• How will God use the criminals if bystanders don’t carry out God sentence on them?
• What is the responsibility of the Bystanders when they discover that the law-enforcers are criminals?
• What will God do to society if they don’t punish crime in the right way or punish it at all?
• What is the responsibility of the nation if the head of all military and domestic law enforcement is a capital criminal? What if they are a mass murderer?
• How are these principles Illustrated by: by the stories of Joshua, Ahab, and Jehu?
• Where do the wicked obtain the capital to finance their agenda when God is cursing them economically for their sins and crimes?
• Who suffers when sentence against crime is too harsh?
• Who suffers when sentence against crime is too lenient?

2. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” from Matt 22:2021, as the Core Ownership issue.

And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”

1. Whose Likeness? We are created in the image of God, not Caesar, we have a higher accountability to God. Who are you looking to as Owner (Render to the owner what belongs to the owner). We are given to our owner(lord) Jesus Christ. Remember what was given to the head of gold: Nebuchadnezzar, and that Caesar was iron/clay inferior, but now, Jesus is given much more than any of those empires who became “chaff in the wind” by comparison. What has been given to Caesar?

³⁷ You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; ³⁸ and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.

³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

1. Whose Inscription? A society rejecting God’s law will want a “king like all the other nations”, willingly embracing the tyranny of his arbitrary laws over all persons and all property. What has God written about the amount of tax and the penalties for ‘failure to pay’? Whose inscription/writing are you going to believe and obey?
2. These considerations are opposite to the normal concept of “Render to Caesar”. We are taught the implication that God the Father has abdicated all right of judging over to whatever type of government Majority tolerates. This is opposite to John 5:22 “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, “ Both Divine-Right-of-Kings and Divine-Right-of-Majority claim, “for not even the Trinity judges anyone, but They have given over all judgment to sinful men tolerated by a supposed majority”
3. God “spanks” idolaters by allowing them to be exploited by unjust taxation, which tends to be used for evil instead of good.
4. Scripture shows the history of God ‘giving over’ using: raiding nations (Judges), rebellious kings (Kings, Chronicles), or imperial tyrants (The wicked side of imperial dominance). God ‘spanks’ with domestic or foreign wicked men to discourage populations away from idolatry and encourage their desire for God’s more gracious law.

• What has been given to Caesar compared to what was given to Nebuchadnezzar?
• What has been given to Christ compared to what was given to Nebuchadnezzar?
• What has been given to the saints of the Most High? (Dan. 7)
• What are the main problems of inaugurating “kings like all the other nations?
• Whose inscriptions should we look to for definitions of how much tax a man must pay?
• Whose inscriptions should we look to for definitions for punishments for failing to pay required taxes?
• Whose inscriptions should we look to for defining how contributions to governance should be spent (What crimes should they be used to punish, and how? What should happen to government officers if they apply tax money to purposes opposite to what God commissions government to do?)

3. “For This Cause You Pay Tax” from Romans 13;

 Rom 13:4….For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Rom 13:6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.

1. Civil government looks like collecting money (tax), spending it on goods and services (part of which is the salaries of the administrators and law-enforcers).
2. The Conservative reformer points out that limiting government function to original Fed and State Constitutions would massively reduce taxes and borrowing for deficit spending but leaves them subject to majority vote. Who is responsible to train the legislator/voter so as to know the right quantity of tax and right penalties?
3. For the theonomic reformer - Biblical law must define the evildoer [crime] in Rom. 13, and how God requires His wrath to be administered [punishment]. What are God’s crime/punishment designations when it comes to tax?
4. What tax amount or Does Bible require a tax amount or percent to be paid to government?
5. What substance or service/function does the Bible require to be paid?

       What penalty does Bible require for failing to pay what is required?

1. Rushdoony attempted to associate taxes not covered by Tithe function with the Exodus 30 Muster/Poll, half-shekel to the Service of the Tent of Meeting. Does this passage address what punishment Bystanders should inflict on those not paying the half-shekel? If not, why should we think it qualifies for the modern idea of "tax"?

• Are there any functions of human government which are not related to extracting (taxing) goods or service from its citizens and expending them towards a purpose?
• What if the rulers/leaders defined by the Majority of voters or legislators do not fit this description of “authorities”?
• If rulers/leaders are not obeying God’s laws, if they are punishing the innocent or rewarding the guilty as God defines – are they the authorities or the criminals?
• From one perspective Civil Government looks like its sole function is collecting money (tax), then spending it on goods and services (that is: the salaries for what these serving-men are doing) which are utilized to punish crime.
• If the punishments for failing to pay tax, turn out to be in violation of God’s law, what should be said or done to the voter, or government official who has perpetrated the murder, kidnapping, or theft upon the person who has been punished unjustly?
• What will God do to a society who refuses to apply His justice to those who control the collection and expenditure of taxes in an unjust way?
• Who is responsible to train the legislator/voter so as to know correct quantity of tax and correct severity of penalties?
• For the theonomic reformer - Biblical law must define the evildoer [crime] in Rom. 13, and how God requires His wrath to be administered [punishment].

What should we think[Credenda]? when criminals holding governmental power are murdering, kidnapping, and stealing from citizens who are honoring God’s laws:?

Recognize the idolatry and the remedy for it. God does not even authorize bystanders to punish those who fail to honor Him with the tribute He requires – how much less would He authorize human force against failing to support sinful, human, civil government. If you feel you need to pay taxes for the moment to avoid severe consequences, consider the impact on your stewardship of what God has given you, and the criminal activity you may be unwillingly supporting.

What should we do [Agenda]?

1. If we take the Biblical definitions of sin and crime [for wrongdoer, evildoer], we find there are no punishments [for men to coerce other men] – for failing to support official government function with minimum time or money. Therefore, we start our reformation of the civil order by refusing the dishonest gain government offers us out of the proceeds of unjust taxation.

• Who is the governing authority?
• What should the authorities be doing to you when you are not opposing the ordinance of God?
• Are they the authorities Paul is referring to if they threaten sanctions against good behavior?
• If they are not functioning as ministers/servants of God, are they the Authorities?
• If they are not devoting themselves to bringing God's wrath (sword) upon those whom God defines as evil, will Jesus judge you for failing to volunteer your money or work? Do you owe them tax/tribute?
• Not under God? Not implementing God’s Ordinances? = not the governing authority.

1. If we find criminals do have power over us, it could be that the saints have not been discipling the Nations. God is using wicked men to discipline the idolatry of the Land.

Eze 20:11,24,25  I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live….because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers. ²⁵ I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live;

Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’

1. What should we do? We stop being the criminals, partnering with the thief through human legality (majority vote). We take dominion by honoring these principles through refusing the dishonest gain of proffered tax-supported “benefits” (education, imaginary money, welfare, etc.),
2. Honor to whom honor – honor the stewardship rights of the producer/property-owner. Only after repudiating the legitimacy of tax penalties by our refusal of benefits will our consciences allow us to testify truly to the murder, theft, and kidnapping inherent in their unjust punishments. Only then will the World trust our witness of the condemnation of such crime masquerading as human justice. Only then will the World believe our demonstrations of the superior excellence of God’s Law.
3. One efficient application of these principles may require the repudiation and revocation of our covenant with the Social Security Administration – and especially our signing away the ownership of our Children away from Jesus Christ (in their Baptism) to a sinful and criminal human government in exchange for possible future “benefits” which cannot be provided without stealing. There may not be any other “moral high-ground” to stand on towards righteous tax-reform. It is fairly easy to demonstrate that no Social Security “benefits” can be paid-out today without theft by taxation, or theft through default on money borrowed. This could be why men like Matt Trewhella have more insight and more influence. He has not signed the ownership of his children over to the SSA (last I knew).
4. Ultimately, we sit down to one of two Meals: We will fellowship and feed around a meal which Christ has provided for us, unreservedly giving us Himself in His Body of flesh, and pouring out His blood (representative of His life (as Gen 9:5,6 represents life by blood) – or we will fellowship and feed around a meal provided by men as enemies of Christ who can only pretend to give what has first been taken from us (out of the productivity God has blessed us with being able to produce), after it has been diminished by wasteful administration (Bastiat’s “voracious and parasitic intermediary”). They will basically take -- by human force or threat of force – our own bodies and blood (life) and pretend they can profit and deliver us better than the God of the Bible.

Who are the authorities except the Saints of Dan 7? God has given:

• limited authority to Nebuchadnezzar under Yahweh for limited time
• limited authority to Caesar under Yahweh for limited time
• Unlimited authority to Christ and limited authority to Saints under Christ for expanded time

Questions regarding what we should we do [Agenda]?

1. Will we be able to testify against the excess coercion of taxes if we willingly accept the unbiblical benefits offered by Civil Government?
2. Are we rendering “Honor to whom honor” if we participate in government programs which transfer wealth from the (thus “dishonored”) owners, as God defines them?
3. What has been our covenant with the Social Security Administration and is there any part of it which is practically unsustainable or morally objectionable?
4. What are the Two Meals we might set down to, and who pays the bills for these meals?
5. Which type of water in Jeremiah 2 do you like best: Artesian or Cistern? Which law system do these respectively relate to?
6. Is it possible for sinful men, by violating God’s law, to protect and provide for the community better than God can protect and provide for a community which is trying to faithfully publish His truth and follow His law?