The above title may seem like strong words, for surely that can’t be correct? Jesus an anarchist? One must be joking, right?But you read correctly, and I will demonstrate exactly that. At this point you may be incredulous, but I assure you that I am quite serious. If you are a Christian and find the above title at all hard to believe then you of all people owe it to yourself to find out what the basis of this charge is, for if the above comes as news to you then you still have much to learn about Jesus and about the most vitally important struggle which has plagued mankind since the dawn of history: mankind’s continuing struggle between freedom and slavery, between value producers and the violent parasitical elite, between peace and war, between truth and deception. This is the central struggle which defines mankind’s history and, sadly, continues to do so. As Christians and as people in general, what we choose to believe and accept as the truth is equally as vitally important, for ultimately it is people’s beliefs about the world that will shape and determine what outcomes transpire in the world. If the mass of people believe in political falsehoods and deceptions then mankind will continue to repeat the same gruesome mistakes, as it does presently, and the aforementioned struggle will continue to be no closer to a desirable resolution. Genuine change must first come by changing one’s mind, and if what one had believed before was in error then one cannot expect good results to proceed forth from it. And all change starts with the individual. You can help change the world by simply changing your mind. All I ask of you is to believe in the truth–know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:32). It is the purpose of this document to demonstrate the above claim, and if you are a Christian then I submit that it should be your task to honestly consider what is presented here, for if the above claim comes as a surprise then I will show that what you thought you knew about Jesus was not the whole story: Jesus is far more radical than many would have you believe, and for good reason–it threatens the status quo. For the consequence of this truth becoming understood and accepted by even one-tenth of the population would be quite dramatic indeed: governments would topple like so many dominoes. For as the 16th century Frenchman Étienne de la Boétie observed in The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude(http://www.blancmange.net/ tmh/articles/laboetie.html), all governments ultimately rest on the consent of the governed, even totalitarian dictatorships. Now this “consent” does not have to be in the form of active promotion and support of the State, it could simply be in the form of hopeless resignation, such as accepting the canard “nothing’s as sure as death and taxes.” All governments can only exist because the majority–in one form or another–accept them as at least being inevitable. They believe in the deception that even though government may be evil that it is nevertheless a necessary evil, and therefore cannot conceive of a better alternative. But if such were true then Jesus Christ’s whole message is a fallacy. But such is not the truth, there is an alternative: liberty. And I will show that Jesus has called us to liberty, and that liberty and Christ’s message are incompatible with government. You may wonder where I got the one-tenth figure from in the above if all governments require the acceptance of their rule by the majority of their population. Again, the reason is because this acceptance doesn’t have to be active support but merely resigned, as it usually is. If just one-tenth of the population strongly believed that government was itself the greatest moral evil and that there was a better alternative it would be enough to turn the tide. Since most people are followers and uncritically accept the reigning political opinions, those who do not accept the status quo and who are able to form and articulate a critical alternative will come to be the intellectual leaders by default when the popular regime suffers a crisis and people begin to look for alternatives. If the history of governments teach us anything it is that such crisis is a regular occurrence, for governments by their nature tend toward instability. If it be asked Why then do we still have government?, it is here answered that it is because no viable alternative to government has been articulated by a critical mass at such a crisis, in that most people throughout history have accepted the deception that government is a necessary evil and could not conceive a better alternative. Now I will articulate that better alternative, the one that Christ commanded us. I will show that Jesus and His message are necessarily anarchistic. And what better place to start than in the beginning?: Jesus’s Very Life Began in an Act of Defiance to Government (And Would Later End in Defiance to Government)If it were not for Joseph and Mary’s intentional act of defying that which they knew to be king Herod the Great’s will and escaping with baby Jesus from out of Herod’s mid as fugitives to the land of Egypt then Jesus would have been mercilessly killed and needless to say His ministry and the fulfillment of Scripture would have never come about. Thus in the most fundamental of regards, there is a great antagonism from the very start between Jesus and government (to say the least): Jesus was born into the world as a criminal and would latter be killed as a criminal–a criminal as so regarded by the government, that is. And what was baby Jesus’s crime? From Matthew 2:1-6 we find the answer: Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ” (NKJV, as elsewhere unless noted otherwise.)
So here we learn that Herod became troubled at the thought that there might be someone else that people would come to regard as their king other than Herod. Herod regarded Jesus as a threat to his power: was his fear unjustified? It is my judgement and this document’s central thesis that Herod was correct in his assessment of Jesus as being a threat to his power–although not just to Herod as an individual but to all that Herod represents, in a word: government; along with the unholy usurpation, deception and subjugation of people that it necessarily entails. For as I will show, Jesus’s Kingdom is to be the functional opposite of any Earth-bound kingdom which has ever existed. And for government, this is the ultimate crime of which Jesus was guilty, and which required His extermination. Matthew 2:13-15: Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
As well, so enraged was Herod upon learning that the wise men had disobeyed his order to report back to him on the location of baby Jesus that he ordered the extermination of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas from age two and younger, all in the hopes that baby Jesus would be among the slaughtered (Matt. 2:12,16-18). It was only after king Herod the Great had perished that Joseph brought his family out of the land of Egypt, and then only to Nazareth as Herod’s son Archelaus was then reigning over Judea (Matt. 2:19-23). Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
At the time Jesus offered the above advice He would have been referring to Herod Antipas. Jesus would later be mocked and ridiculed by Herod Antipas before finally being put to death as a common criminal by the Roman government (Luke 23:8-12). In handling the case of Jesus, Herod Antipas asked Jesus many questions, but Jesus refused to answer any of Herod’s questions (Luke 23:9). Thus, not only did Jesus’s very life begin in an act of holy defiance to government but it would also end in holy defiance to government. It was also Herod Antipas who beheaded John the Baptist (Matt. 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 9:7-9). The Golden Rule Unavoidably Results in AnarchismJesus commanded us that in all things we are to treat others as we would want others to treat us. Thus: Matthew 5:17-18: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
Matthew 7:12: […] “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (See also Luke 6:31.)
By saying that this commandment is “the Law and the Prophets” Jesus is saying that by following this one commandment that one is thereby fulfilling the Law of Moses and the principles of the Prophets–in other words Jesus is saying that it is the be-all and end-all when it comes to the proper ethic of social relations. This ultimate social ethic which Jesus commanded everyone to follow is commonly known as the Golden Rule. Jesus does not Respect the Person of MenAccording to the Bible, every person is equally subject to the commands of God, and one does not become exempt from God’s law simply because one has managed to receive some sort of title of nobility. We are instructed to treat everyone by the same law. Yet this automatically rules out the possibility that governments could ever be legitimate, as they can only exist do to a privilege of monopoly on the ultimate control over the law which they enforce while excluding all competitors. As well, they collect taxes, which they call “theft” and “extortion” if anyone else engages in the same behavior against them or others. Matthew 22:16: And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.” (See also Mark 12:14.)
Yet this would have been merely conforming to people’s expectation that Jesus would have been following the Old Testament commands not to regard the person of men (Lev 19:15; Deu. 1:17; 16:19; Job 32:21; 34:19; Prov. 28:21.). But that this is indeed the case was confirmed in the apostles’ writings: Galatians 2:6: But from those who seemed to be something–whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man–for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.
And: James 2:8,9: If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (See also 1 Peter 1:16.)
Yet consider what James’s above admonition means as it concerns Jesus’s ultimate ethical command of the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31). If we as Christians were to take Jesus’s command seriously and apply it to everyone without partiality, then it would necessarily require that we demand the abolition of all governments wherever they may exist, as they can only exist by a continuous violation of the Golden Rule (see above). Jesus on Taxes: Nothing is (Rightly) Caesar’s!The story of Jesus commanding us to give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s (Matt. 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26) is commonly misrepresented as His commanding us to give to Caesar the denari which he asks for (i.e., to pay taxes to government) as–it is assumed–the denari are Caesar’s, being that they have Caesar’s image and name on them. But Jesus never said that this was so! What Jesus did say though was an ingenious case of rhetorical misdirection to avoid being immediately arrested, which would have interfered with Old Testament prophecy of His betrayal as well as His own previous predictions of betrayal. So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.
Thus, Jesus was not free to answer in just any casual manner. Of the Scripture prophecies which would have gone unfulfilled had He answered that it was fine to decline paying taxes and been arrested because of it are the betrayal by Judas (Psalm 41:9; Zech. 11:12,13), and His betrayer replaced (Psalm 109:8–see Acts 1:20); see also Acts 1:15-26 and Psalm 69:25. Here is a quote from Peter on this matter from Acts 1:16: “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.”
In Matt. 26:54,56 and Mark 14:49 Jesus testifies to this exact same thing after He was betrayed by Judas. As well, Jesus Himself twice foretold of His betrayal before He was asked the question on taxes–see Matt. 17:22; 20:18; Mark 9:31; 10:33; and Luke 9:44; 19:31. See also John 13:18-30, which testifies to the necessity of the fulfillment of Psalm 41:9, as Jesus here foretells of His betrayal by Judas. Tax Collectors are Sinners!A further demonstration that Jesus considered the institution of taxation to be unjust is given in the below story: Matthew 9:9-13: As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (See also Mark 2:14-17; Luke 5:27-32.)
It’s important to point out here that Jesus actually made a stronger case against the unrighteousness of tax collectors than the Pharisees originally had in questioning Jesus’s disciples about it: the Pharisees actually separated the tax collectors from the sinners when they asked “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Yet when Jesus heard this He answered the Pharisees by lumping the two groups together under the category of sinners–thus: “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” On Paul and Romans 13 and Titus 3:1It is often claimed that Christians are required to submit to government, as this is supposedly what Paul commanded that we are supposed to do in Romans 13. Thus: Romans 13:1-7: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
But in actual fact Paul never does tell us in above excerpt from Romans 13 to submit to government!–at least certainly not as they have existed on Earth and are operated by men. In fact, Paul would be an outright, boldfaced hypocrite were he to command anyone to do such a thing: for Paul himself did not submit to government, and if he had then he would not even have been alive to be able to write Romans 13. For Paul himself disobeyed government, and it is a good thing that he did as we would not even know of a Paul in the Bible had he not disobeyed government. As when Paul was still only known as Saul he escaped from the city of Damascus as he knew that the governor of that city, acting under the authority of Aretas the king, was coming with a garrison to arrest him in order that he be executed. This was right after Saul’s conversion to Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. The Jews in Damascus, hearing of Sauls conversion, plotted to kill him as a traitor to their cause in persecuting the Christians. Saul was let out of a window in the wall of Damascus under cover of night by some fellow disciples in Christ (see Acts 9:23-25). In none of Paul’s later writings does he divest himself, or disassociate himself, from these actions that he took in knowingly and purposely disobeying government: in fact, this very event is one of the things that he later cites in demonstration of his unwavering commitment to Christ (see 2 Cor. 12:22-33)! Galatians 2:4,5: And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
Paul never intended that his letter to the Roman church be kept secret, and he knew that it would be copied and distributed amongst the populace, and thus inevitably it would fall into the hands of the Roman government, especially considering that this letter was going directly into the belly of the beast itself: the city of Rome. Thus by including this in the letter to the church at Rome he would help put at ease the fears of the Roman government so that the persecution of the Christians would not be as severe and so that the more important task of the Church, that of saving people’s souls, could more easily continue unimpeded. But Paul wrote it in such a way that a truly knowledgeable Christian at the time would have no doubt as to what was actually meant. Hosea 8:4: “They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.”
But, some may inquire, what about Paul telling us to pay taxes in Romans 13:6-7? Thus: Romans 13:6,7: For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
But does Paul really tell us to pay taxes here? Again, just as with Jesus, nowhere does Paul actually tell anyone to pay any taxes! Paul continues with the rhetorical misdirection that he started in the beginning of Romans 13, knowing–just as Jesus knew before him–that those who would be hostile to the Christian church would automatically assume what they are predisposed to assume: i.e., that the taxes and customs “due” are due to those in control of the governments who levy them. But here Paul was being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, as Paul never said any such thing. For when Paul says “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs” this just begs the question: to whom are taxes and customs due? The answer to which could quite possibly be “No one.” And this is precisely how Paul proceeds to answer his own question-begging statement, in Romans 13:8-10: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
So there we have it in no uncertain terms: Owe no one anything except to love one another! Yet since when have taxes ever had the slightest thing to do with love? As was explained above, all mortal governments throughout history steal and extort wealth from their subjects which they call “taxes,” yet at the same time governments make it illegal for their subjects to steal from each other or from the government. Thus in taxes we see that historically all governments do to their subjects what they outlaw their subjects to do to them. Thus, all Earthly, mortal governments, by levying taxes, break the Golden Rule which Jesus commanded everyone as the supreme law. 1 Corinthians 6:1-8: Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!
Paul said that the government judges “are least esteemed by the church to judge”! It is clear that he considered them to be no authority at all! Mark 10:42-45: But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
By saying this Jesus was in fact rebuking the supposed “authority” of the Earthly “rulers”! Just because mortals on Earth may consider someone to be an “authority” and “ruler” does not mean that God considers them to be so! On Peter and 1 Peter 2:13-18Another Bible passage that is sometimes cited by statists in an attempt to demonstrate that people ought to submit to mortal government is 1 Peter 2:13-18: Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men–as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.
But Peter himself did not so submit! Peter and the apostles were arrested in Jerusalem by the Sadducees for preaching the gospel of Jesus and brought before the Sanhedrin court for questioning: Acts 5:27-32: And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
So here we have it from Peter himself: We ought to obey God rather than men! Yet Jesus already commanded that the ultimate Law is for everyone to treat others as they themselves would want to be treated–therefore, according to Peter, any command by men that are contrary to this ultimate Law are automatically null and void. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men–[verse 16:] as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
The NIV Bible translates verse 16 as “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.” Most other modern English Bible versions translate the beginning of this passage as either “Live as free” or “Act as free.” So in other words, when this is combined with what Peter said in Acts 5:29, we can take the entire passage of 1 Peter 2:13-18 to mean that we ought to obey all the ordinances of men: except for all such ordinances that happen to conflict with our God-given liberty and Jesus’s ultimate commandment–which is virtually every single one of them! But other than that, do indeed obey every other ordinance of man, for in so doing one will merely be obeying Jesus’s commandment–in which case the ordinances of man which one ought to obey are merely redundant! 2 Peter 2:9,10: […] then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, […]
As has already been pointed out, the statist fallacy when encountering such statements is to automatically deem the “authorities” and “dignitaries” spoken of in these cases as necessarily being the “authorities” and “dignitaries” that the positive law (i.e., the government’s law) so regards–but such cannot be the actual case, as it is written: Hosea 8:4: “They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.”
As well, Jesus Himself rebuked the supposed “authority” of the Earthly “rulers”: Mark 10:42-45: But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
The Ruler and God of This World and Age which All Mortal Governments Worship is Satan (A.K.A. Lucifer)The Bible is quite explicit as to who it is that really controls all the mortal governments on Earth, and which god is the god that the mortal rulers worship: Luke 4:4-8: Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (See also Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12,13; Luke 4:1-13.)
This is one of the offers Satan made to Christ during the forty days in which Satan tempted Jesus, an event now sometimes referred to as the Temptation of Christ. Satan wasn’t lying when he made the above offer to Jesus: it was an absolutely real offer that Satan would have delivered on. This is necessarily the case, as Luke even writes in verse 2 of the above chapter that here Jesus was “tempted for forty days by the devil”–thus, this had to be a real offer or else it could hardly qualify as a real temptation, as certainly Jesus would have known whether or not what Satan said here was true: if what Satan was saying here were false then Jesus would have already known that, and hence Satan’s offer could not have been the least bit tempting to Jesus. 2 Corinthians 4:3,4: But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
And in Ephesians 6:11,12: Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
All one has to do to realize just how literal and true Satan, Jesus and Paul were being when they made the above statements is to consider that more than four times the amount of non-combatants have been systematically murdered for purely ideological reasons by their own governments within the past century than were killed in that same time-span from wars. From 1900 to 1923, various Turkish regimes killed from 3,500,000 to over 4,300,000 of its own Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, and other Christians. Communist governments have murdered over 110 million of their own subjects since 1917. And Germany committed genocide against some 16 million people–6 million of them Jews. (The preceding figures are from Prof. R.J. Rummel’s website: http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills.) Over 800,000 Christian Tutsis in Rwanda were hacked to death with machetes between April and July of 1994 by the Hutu-led military force after the Tutsis had been disarmed by governmental decree in the early 1990s, of which disarmament decree the United Nations helped to enforce. On several occasions, United Nations soldiers stationed in Rwanda actually handed over helpless Tutsi Christians under their protection to members of the Hutu military. They then stood by as their screaming charges were unceremoniously hacked to pieces. This massacre happened one year after the United Nations helped to put in a national ID card in Rwanda, and it was that very national ID card system which the Hutus used to track-down and identify the Christian Tutsis. Needless to say, all of the subject populations of the above mass murders had been disarmed beforehand. Jesus Defended the Right to Freely Contract and Private Property RightsBesides the Golden Rule which Jesus commanded as the ultimate social ethic, another Biblical account of Jesus’s teachings which clearly demonstrates His attitude toward the institution of private property and the free and voluntary trade thereof is given in His below Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: Matthew 20:1-16: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’ So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
It never ceases to amaze me when Socialists sometimes try to claim that Jesus was some sort of proto-Socialist or Communist. Anyone who is the least bit familiar with the Socialists’ attitude toward such matters would know that the typical Socialist response to such a landowner’s actions towards his workers would be to scream bloody murder! Of course, a Socialist government’s response to such a land owner would be to exterminate him. Yet here Jesus reinforces the correctness of the libertarian creed on the absoluteness of lawfully being able to do what one wishes with their own possessions, as well as being able to freely and voluntarily contract said possessions as one sees fit–even if doing so greatly upsets others! So long as one has kept one’s word in the contracts in which one has agreed to–and so long as one’s actions pertain to their own property–then the right of the individual to make decisions concerning their property remains absolute! Greatness is in ServingOne of the things which most clearly demonstrates just how different Jesus’s Kingdom is to be from the mortal, Earthly kingdoms and governments–and also why we should be very careful to never confuse the two together–is given in the story of when the apostles James and John came to Jesus asking if they may have the favor granted to them of being able to sit on either side of Jesus’s throne, one to the right and the other to His left, and this is how Jesus answered them: Mark 10:42-45: But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (See also Matt. 18:4; 20:25-28 Mark 9:35; Luke 22:26.)
How diametrically opposite the Kingdom of Christ is indeed from that of the mortal, Earthly governments! Thus, when it is claimed herein that Jesus is an “anarchist” it needs to be born in mind that this is in relation to how all mortal governments on Earth have operated. If one wishes to refer to the “Government of Christ” or the “Kingdom of Christ” this is fine so long is one realizes that the Government of Christ will in no sense be an actual government as they exist on Earth and are controlled by mortals. Slaves Obey Your Masters?While although not directly related to the issue of the ethical status of government per se,some individuals have asserted that certain statements in the New Testament by Paul and Peter condone the institution of slavery, and for this reason it is important as it concerns social relations in general. Thus: Ephesians 6:5-9: Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
Colossians 3:22-4:1: Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
1 Timothy 6:1,2: Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.
Titus 2:9,10: Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
1 Peter 2:18-25: Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
But to quote the above passages as condoning the institution of slavery, one would thereby be confusing the offering of pragmatic advice on how to best handle a bad situation as granting the rightness of that situation. Yet obviously Peter and Paul didn’t so regard the institution of slavery as being at all just, for then there would have been no cause for Peter compare the slave’s suffering to that of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:21-25–as certainly any true Christian regards the scourging and execution of Jesus to have been unjust, to say the very least. Thus the fact that Peter did compare the slave’s suffering to that of Jesus is by itself enough to demonstrate that he considered it to be unjust. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
So here we have it: Jesus Himself said that He came to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set at liberty the oppressed! For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.
It is here where the seeming contradiction of certain passages in the Bible whereby Paul and Peter admonish slaves to “obey their masters” (see Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22; 1 Tim. 6:1; Tit. 2:9; 1 Peter 2:18) is cleared up. Such an admonition is a pragmatic one, not an categorical moral one–as Paul himself declared his absolute rightful freedom from all men (and also called for people to “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ,” 1 Cor. 11:1)! So rather than laying hands on one’s Earthly “master,” or trying to run away–which in the end would probably only affect one’s freedom in a negative way–a much better and effective solution would be to convert one’s Earthly “master” to Jesus, and if one has truly succeeded in doing so–i.e., whereby one’s Earthly “master” becomes infilled with the Holy Spirit–then one will have at once gained one’s God-given absolute liberty, at least in relation to what the positive law considers one’s “master.” The reason that this is necessarily the case is because Jesus commanded the absolute law as treating others as you would want others to treat you (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31), yet the very institution of slavery is founded upon the exact opposite principle, as Abraham Lincoln pointed out (if only it had been that Lincoln himself had bothered to follow the logic of his below argument!): If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.–why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?–
You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.
You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.
But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest;you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you. (Abraham Lincoln, Fragments on Slavery, c. April 1, 1854)
In the above discussion on the Golden Rule as commanded by Jesus it was pointed out that to not follow the Golden Rule is to do the opposite of the Golden Rule: i.e., to treat others as you would not want others to treat you–of which ethic was termed the Luciferian Principle (see the above discussion on this as to why such a designation logically follows). Yet this is the very principle on which the institution of slavery necessarily rests. 2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The word “liberty” in 2 Corinthians 3:17 is a translation of the Greek noun eleutheria and is completely congruent in meaning with the English word “liberty,” i.e., as in “freedom from slavery,” “independence,” “absence of external restraint,” “a negation of control or domination,” “freedom of access,” etc. Thus, it is the complete negation of a state of slavery. But in fact, Paul even goes further than this in the very passages above which some have contended condone the institution of slavery. Thus in Ephesians 6:9 Paul writes: And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
Yet it is plainly clear that if a slave’s “master” were to actually and truly give up threatening–of all things–then there can hardly even be said to exist a state of slavery any more in relation to what the positive law considers the “master” and the “slave,” as the very institution of slavery is enforced by the threat of either physical harm for non-compliance or recapture in the case of escape. Thus, this passage is actually a case of advocating the de facto abolition of slavery even while a state of de jure slavery–as considered by the positive law–may still be in place! 1 Timothy 5:23: No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.
Yet this statement by Paul is completely unqualified, and far more direct than his above advice to slaves. Thus, for those who would contend that Paul was giving a categorical moral imperative as to how a slave is always to conduct himself in relation to his “master”–as opposed to merely offering advice as to the best and most practical way in which a slave could go about obtaining his God-given liberty in relation to his “master”–such individuals, if they are to be consistent, would also have to contend that according to Paul it is a sin not to drink wine! In fact the case for this contention would actually be much stronger than in that of Paul’s advice to slaves, for unlike in his advice to slaves nowhere does Paul qualify the above statement! Yet obviously to make such a contention would be absurd, as in both cases it would be confusing pragmatic advice with a categorical moral imperative. Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (See also Luke 16:13.)
Yet what in the world is the institution of slavery if not mammon? If the institution of slavery does not qualify as mammon then there is nothing that possibly could! For it is a method of obtaining wealth that is a complete and utter violation of Jesus’s ultimate ethical commandment: Matthew 7:12: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (See also Luke 6:31.)
Thus it becomes clear that the institution of slavery is just another product of this sick Satanic world system–of which system Jesus is to ultimately overthrow in the time of His Judgement. Mammon indeed! Jesus Supported the Collecting of Interest (Usury)One of the Socialists’ great bugbears has been the institution of usury, or otherwise the collecting of interest. Yet in the only instance in which Jesus commented upon this He was clearly in favor of the concept, as is given in His Parable of the Talents, in which a man traveling to a far-away country leaves his three servants with some talents to make use of in the best way they see fit while he is away–the first two servants invest the talents and receive more talents from their initial investment, and this makes the lord of the estate happy to hear this upon his return; but here is what Jesus says of the third servant: Matthew 25:24-27: “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.” (See also Luke 19:21-23.)
Now obviously this parable is a lesson on how Christians should be ever vigilant in converting people to salvation in Christ, in that we should not keep the Gospel of Christ to ourselves but always seek to increase the number of Christians in the world. But even so, it nevertheless demonstrates that Jesus was hardly hostile to the concept of the collecting of interest, considering that this was his only commentary given on the subject. But moreover, it ties in quite appropriately with Jesus’s attitude toward the absolute lawfulness of an individual doing what they wish with their own property–including freely contracting thereof–as told by Jesus in his Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard as recorded in Matthew 20:1-16. The Cleansing of the Temple: Righteous Libertarian VigilantismThe only recorded act of violence by Jesus was what is now known as “the cleansing of the temple”: Matthew 21:12,13: Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (See also Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45,46; John 2:14-17.)
Now this event is often misinterpreted as being some sort of revolt by Jesus on the bad aesthetics of commerce being conducted inside of God’s temple, and so is given as anti-libertarian and free-market commentary. But if that were really what this episode was about then there would have been no cause for Jesus to accuse the priests of turning the temple into a “den of thieves.” For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come–In the volume of the book it is written of Me–To do Your will, O God.’ ” Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law) […]
If we assume that Jesus is God’s Messiah then He was in a particularly unique position to accurately determine whether or not these animal sacrifices were achieving what was being claimed for them, and having determined that the priests were defrauding their patrons He took appropriate libertarian action (per Rothbardian theory in particular) by using retaliatory force against these thieves. It is important to point out that it is only a true Messiah from God which could have rightly taken such action, for any normal man would not have possessed the requisite information in order to make that determination honestly. Thus, not only was Jesus’s only use of force quite libertarian, but it was also in a situation which would have been inappropriate for most anyone else. Jesus on the War on Drugs (and all Forms of Prohibition)In the modern era one of the most virulent scourges which has plagued the Western societies in particular is the so-called “drug problem,” i.e., the use of, and combating the use of, illegal drugs. Yet, why has the “drug problem” only become such a problem within, predominately, the last century? What is the cause of this? But first, before we answer this question, the more important issue from the Christian’s viewpoint is: what is Jesus’s position on the so-called “drug problem,” i.e., whether it is called “the War on Drugs” or “Prohibition”? More directly, what does Jesus have to say about prohibiting by law the use of certain drugs, or inebriants? “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?” And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (See also Matt. 15:11, 17-20.)
This is the only directive that Jesus gives in the entire Bible as to what substances should be, or should not be, prohibited. Some may claim that Jesus was only talking about food in the above, and not psychotropic drugs. Yet if this were truly the case then Jesus’s above claim is a false one: Jesus saying “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him” would be wrong, for then there would indeed be something which could thereby defile a man–namely: psychotropic drugs! Yet Jesus is absolutely clear on this issue: there is no substance a person can consume which could possibly defile them! Also, there is not even any clear distinction between “drugs” and “food” in the first place: just about any drug, in principle, can also be made into a food–and traditionally often have been and continue to be: thus, the drug ethanol is almost always consumed not by itself, but in combination with non-inebriants as a drink; the drug caffeine is almost always consumed as the beverage known as coffee; marijuana has often been consumed as an edible baked into brownies; cocaine was once an ingredient in the original formulation of the name-brand soft-drink Coca-Cola; etc. If the modern-day Prohibitionists desire to maintain that Jesus did not mean to include substances such as psychotropic drugs when He gave this clear directive then the burden is on them to show where in the Bible Jesus qualifies His above statement to include the possibility that psychotropic drugs are an exception to His above all-inclusive directive. But search the Bible high and low and no such alternate, qualifying directive is anywhere to be found. Ezekiel 47:12: “Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
So quite simply put, if one were to so maintain that all drugs must be meant by the above passages in Revelation then one would be going against Biblical doctrine, as what little the Bible does have to say about medicinal drugs it is nevertheless clear about: that curative drugs are a good thing. Thus, if these passages in Revelation actually meant “drugs” instead of “sorceries” then the Bible would be contradicting itself here, as the passages in Revelation would thereby be inclusive of all drugs, not just any kind in particular. But even if we were to here grant for argument’s sake that one could somehow narrow it down to some sort of drug types in particular, one still would not be able to derive that such drugs should therefore be outlawed, as nowhere would these passages in Revelation then so much as even suggest that mortal governments make any laws against such drugs. Colossians 2:20-23: Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations–“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using–according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. (See also Rom. 14:14.)
So we see in no uncertain terms that all forms of drug-prohibition are completely unjustifiable from a Biblical viewpoint, and indeed anti-Christian. If then such drug-laws are extra-Biblical and anti-Christian, how is it that many self-professed Christians came to be on the forefront of all the various forms of drug-prohibition within recent history? Quite amazingly, this very question was already answered almost 2000 years ago by Paul, and in shocking but no uncertain terms: 1 Timothy 4:1-5: Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
As was already pointed out above, there is no clear distinction, in principle, between “drugs” and “food”: just about any drug, in principle, can also be made into a food–and traditionally often have been and continue to be. Indeed, the first truly large-scale form of drug-prohibition in a Western society in the modern era was what was known as simply “Prohibition” in the U.S., which was the outlawing of consuming the drug ethanol, i.e., “alcohol.” Yet alcohol is consumed almost exclusively as a food-stuff in mixture with non-inebriating potables! Indeed, strait laboratory-grade ethanol is virtually inedible, if not actually quite painful to so consume. So how very true and accurate Paul was when he wrote the above words, as it was predominately self-professed Christians who lead the movement to outlaw the food of alcoholic beverages! And to grasp the awful extent that these self-professed Christians must have been truly deceived by demons in order to prohibit the food of alcoholic beverages, just consider that the first miracle recorded in the Bible by Jesus was to turn water into wine during the wedding at Cana (see John 2:9-11)! What absolute blasphemy for them to prohibit the resultant product of the first miracle of their self-proclaimed God! Deceived by demons indeed!! Truer words could not have been written by Paul to describe such a perverted situation. Matthew 9:16,17: “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (See also Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37.)
In ancient times goatskins were used to hold wine. As the fresh grape juice fermented, carbon dioxide would be generated by the living yeast’s metabolism, increasing the volume of gas contained in the wineskin, and so the new wineskin would stretch. But a used wineskin, already stretched, would break. Not only that, but before 1869 it was impossible to store grape juice in temperate to hot climates (which are the climates grapes grow in) without it either quickly going bad or becoming wine. If grape juice is left exposed to the open air then it will quickly go bad due to mold and bacteria–sealing grape juice from the open air protects it from these aerobic microorganisms because the yeast which is present naturally in the grapes creates an atmosphere of carbon dioxide while at the same time making alcohol. Consequently, storing non-alcoholic grape juice was an impossibility until 1869, when Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch succeeded in applying the process of pasteurization to freshly squeezed must. About the only people who may have been drinking grape juice before 1869 were those who pressed the freshly picked grapes themselves (without refrigeration grapes will quickly go bad, unless they are dried into raisins). It is for this reason that the suggestion that the fruit of the vine that Jesus and the twelve disciples drank during the Last Supper on Passover (Mark 14:23-25) was grape juice is absurd, as the growing season for grapes in Palestine is from April to October (the dry season), yet Passover starts on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan (the actual Last Supper occurred either on the 14th or 15th of Nisan, it’s debatable which day it actually was), which is a lunar month that roughly corresponds with the latter part of March and the first part of April–so quite simply, there would have existed no unfermented grape juice at this time, as no grapes would have existed, since the growing season for them had just started. Woe to Lawyers!In Jesus’s day, as well as in modern times, lawyers have had quite a system worked out for themselves. Not only are lawyers the ones that write the laws, but they are also the ones who become rich in prosecuting and defending people from those very laws that they or their colleagues have written in the first place. As well, most politicians, especially in modern times, are also lawyers. Thus, throughout history there has existed a grotesque system whereby the very people responsible for the laws have a perverse incentive in making sure that they are as arcane, unintelligible, Byzantine and numerous as possible–hence, always insuring a healthy demand for their services. Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (NIV)
Luke 11:46,52: And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. […] [verse 52:] “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
This is not to say that all lawyers throughout history are unrighteous. There has existed and does exist a few principled lawyers who entered their profession in order to defend righteous people from the unjust laws that their colleagues are responsible for–but they are and have been quite a minority indeed. The simple fact of the matter is that most lawyers are simply in it for the money, and generally have shown little to no interest in rolling back or defending against unjust laws if doing so negatively affects their bottom line. Even the ones that often appear on the surface to be fighting against bad laws are usually being paid quite handsomely in doing so (think ACLU), or are loyal opposition and have already been bought and paid for to purposely lose the case in order to generate bad legal precedent in the case law, etc., etc. Jesus on Government Courts: Avoid Them!Another thing which is quite congruent with Jesus’s above warning to lawyers is Jesus’s advice for the faithful to avoid the government’s courts if at all possible: Matthew 5:25,26: “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
And: Luke 12:57-59: “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.”
Needless to say, government judges are also lawyers, so Jesus’s advice here fits in with His warning to lawyers. It also completely demolishes the notion that Jesus considers what the government’s positive law regards as “authorities” to be true authorities–or otherwise Jesus would have no problem with such government judges resolving disputes among the faithful. In fact, Paul absolutely confirms this notion in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8: Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!
And this also conclusively demonstrates that the “authorities” that Paul spoke of in Romans 13 could not possibly have been the “authorities” as so regarded by the government–as Paul said that the government judges “are least esteemed by the church to judge”! Thus it is clear that he considered them to be no authority at all! But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?
It needs to be pointed out that most of the rich in the days in which the above passage was written were rich due to grants of privilege by the government–particularly that of collecting taxes. Thus when James writes in the above of the rich oppressing the faithful and dragging them into the courts he is speaking of actual violations of individuals’ just property rights, and not of individuals reneging on voluntary contracts in which they had entered into. And this brings us naturally to the next point which needs to be made: Jesus on the RichJesus had this to say about the rich: Luke 18:18-30: Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: “Do not commit adultery,’ “Do not murder,’ “Do not steal,’ “Do not bear false witness,’ “Honor your father and your mother.”‘ And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (See also Matt. 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31.)
Some have given this as anti-libertarian commentary. But first of all, in analyzing this statement by Jesus it needs to be pointed out that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for any person whatsoever to enter the Kingdom of God. But Jesus also said that “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (verse 27). It is standard Christian doctrine that it is impossible for anyone to enter the Kingdom of God on their own–that the only way in which anyone enters the Kingdom of God is through the saving grace of Jesus Christ alone (see John 14:6). Thus, the rich are by no means unique in this particular aspect. And so also, from this alone it cannot be claimed that Jesus had it in for rich people per se more than any other group. Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.” (St. Augustine, Book 4, Chapter 4 of The City of God.)
Thus, when Jesus offered this counsel to this particular rich person, He was merely telling this person what any good libertarian would have said in the same situation–particularly a natural-rights libertarian such as a Rothbardian. Jesus Engaged in Conspicuous Consumption when He Could have Provided for the Poor InsteadSome have maintained–usually in an effort to make some larger political point–that Jesus was some sort of ascetic who was against individuals having material riches, especially when those material goods could be used to provide for the poor instead. Yet Jesus Himself engaged in conspicuous consumption when He could have provided for the poor instead: Matthew 26:6-13: And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” (See also Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:37,38; John 12:1-8.)
Yet here in this case of luxurious consumption on the part of Jesus is purely of ornamental value, i.e., of a purely aesthetic value–and a fleeting one at that! When Jesus’s disciples complained about this “waste” Jesus told His disciples to stop bothering the woman about it! At the very least, this demonstrates the notion that Jesus was some sort of austere, principled ascetic to be an untenable one–and thus also, any attempt to make some larger political point out of such a notion is automatically moot. 2 Thessalonians 3:10: For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
Jesus Has Called us to Liberty–Yet Those Who Pay Taxes are not Free!Another Bible passage that is sometimes cited by statists to supposedly demonstrate that Jesus supported the paying of taxes–but which in actuality demonstrates the exact opposite–is in Matthew 17:24-27: When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”; he said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”
But it appears that the only reason Jesus paid the temple tax (and by supernatural means at that) as told above in Matt. 17:24-27 was so as not to stir up trouble which would have interfered with the necessary fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture (see Psalm 41:9; 69:25; 109:8; Zech. 11:12,13–see also Matt. 26:54,56; Mark 14:49; John 13:18-30; Acts 1:15-26) and Jesus’s previous prediction of His betrayal as told in Matt. 17:22–neither of which would have been fulfilled had Jesus not paid the tax and been arrested because of it. Jesus Himself supports this view when He said of it “Nevertheless, lest we offend them . . .,” which can also be translated “But we don’t want to cause trouble” (CEV)–at any rate, this comment by itself clearly demonstrates that Jesus was hardly enthusiastic about the prospect of paying taxes. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
So here we have it: Jesus Himself said that He came to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set at liberty the oppressed–and yet Jesus also said that those who are required to pay taxes are not free! 1 Corinthians 7:23: You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23: For though I am free [eleutheros] from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.
2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [eleutheria].
Galatians 4:6,7: And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 5:1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty [eleutheria] by which Christ has made us free [eleutheros], and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:13,14: For you, brethren, have been called to liberty [eleutheria]; only do not use liberty [eleutheria] as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
James 1:25: But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty [eleutheria] and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
James 2:12: So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty [eleutheria].
1 Peter 2:16: Live as free [eleutheros] men, yet without using your freedom [eleutheria] as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. (RSV.)
It needs to be pointed out that the Greek noun eleutheria is completely congruent in meaning with the English word “liberty,” i.e., as in “freedom from slavery,” “independence,” “absence of external restraint,” “a negation of control or domination,” “freedom of access,” etc. Some have contended that any demarcation of property “restricts liberty,” i.e., the liberty of others to use these resources, and so have maintained that the very concept of “total liberty” for everyone is an untenable one. But as Prof. Murray N. Rothbard has pointed out in Power and Market (pg. 242): This criticism misuses the term “liberty.” Obviously, any property right infringes on others’ “freedom to steal.” But we do not even need property rights to establish this “limitation”; the existence of another person, under a regime of liberty, restricts the “liberty” of others to assault him. Yet, by definition, liberty cannot be restricted thereby, because liberty is defined as freedom to control what one owns without molestation by others. “Freedom to steal or assault” would permit someone–the victim of stealth or assault–to be forcibly or fraudulently deprived of his person or property and would therefore violate the clause of total liberty: that every man be free to do what he wills with his own. Doing what one wills with someone else’s own impairs the other person’s liberty.
Jesus Will Overthrow All the Governments of the World and Punish All the Rulers in the Time of His Judgement (i.e., His Second Coming)In the above it was clearly demonstrated that the Earthly, mortal governments are firmly under the control of Satan–that it is Satan who is the true god and ruler over this perverted governmental world system wherein power-mad psychotics rule over our existence and exempt themselves from every standard of decency which people would otherwise expect from any common stranger. Yet this diabolical, demonically-controlled government system is not to last forever. The Bible is quite clear and explicit in many passages as to what God’s Judgement–i.e., the Second Coming of Christ–is to be about. Psalms 110:5,6: The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall execute the heads of many countries.
And the above prophecy is also mirrored by the prophet Isaiah: Isaiah 24:21,22: It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth. They will be gathered together, As prisoners are gathered in the pit, And will be shut up in the prison; After many days they will be punished.
This is quite amazing indeed when one realizes that the prophet Ezekiel foresaw this exact thing concerning God’s End-Time Judgement–this time as it specifically concerned the rulers over Israel: Ezekiel 34:1-10: And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”–therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”
Now obviously when God, speaking here to Ezekiel, refers to “shepherds,” He is using this as a metaphor for rulers, just as “flock” is a metaphor for the masses of people. Consider also the following passage by the prophet Zechariah concerning God’s End-Times Judgement: Zechariah 10:3: “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, And I will punish the goatherds. […]”
Now obviously again, God, speaking here to Zechariah–just as Ezekiel before him–is not talking about literal shepherds and goatherds, but is using these expressions as metaphors for rulers–indeed, this is how the NRSV translates it: “My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. […]” 1Corinthians 15:23,24: But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
How could it possibly be stated any clearer?! The governments of the Earth are not of God, they are of Satan, and Jesus will come to utterly destroy them ALL during His Judgement! Revelation 19:19-21: And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.
In the above passage from Revelation, the “rest” referred to being “killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth” of Jesus in verse 21 are “the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army,” which was previously referred to in verse 19. God’s People are to be Volunteers and Self-Rulers in the Kingdom of ChristSome may object to the designation of Jesus as an anarchist–as some may counter, What about the Kingdom of Christ that is to be established after the Judgement? But as was pointed out in several places above, the “Kingdom of Christ” will in no sense be an actual government as they have existed on Earth and operated by mortals. For the Kingdom of Christ is to be the diametrically functional opposite of any government which has ever existed on Earth before. Thus, it is perfectly fine to refer to the “Kingdom of Christ” so long as one bears in mind that it has nothing whatsoever to do with any historical government that has ever existed. And so when it is said herein that “Jesus is an anarchist,” this is merely an objective designation as it refers to all Earthly, mortal governments, and all governments of their kind. People have been trained from birth by the Satanic, mortal governments to fear this word and to recoil from it, but it is used here only in its most objective sense. Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth. Thus the people of God’s Kingdom shall be volunteers! How different indeed from all the mortal governments which compel people to support them through theft and extortion! Revelation 5:8-10: Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, [verse 10:] And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (See also Rev. 1:6.) Yet what exactly is verse 10 in the above passage talking about? If we righteous shall all be volunteers and all the workers of iniquity have been cast into Hell, then who exactly is left for us to be king over and what exactly shall we be reigning over? Each other? Does that make any sense? 1 Corinthians 15:23,24: But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
Amen. In Closing“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.”–Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Part I, Chapter 5, “The Unfinished Temple,” in What’s Wrong with the World.
In all of my research into Jesus Christ I have discovered that He is nothing if not a perfectly consistent libertarian, at least as it concerns His political ethic. I could come across not one instance of Him contradicting this position, either in word or in action. I can’t say that I was really surprised by this, although I suppose to many it may be surprising to learn this. For one thing, when Jesus gave the Golden Rule as the ultimate social ethic (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31), it’s clear that He actually meant it. Yet, as was demonstrated above, this ethic is just a different formulation of the libertarian Non-Aggression Principle, at least as a political ethic. As a strictly political ethic it is actually completely congruent with the libertarian Non-Aggression Principle, in that as political ethics they actually prohibit the same activity: i.e., aggression against people’s just property–and ultimately all just property titles can be traced back by way of voluntary transactions (which would thus be consistent with the Golden Rule) to the homesteading of unused resources; or (2) in the case in which such resources were expropriated from a just owner and the just owner or his heir(s) can no longer be identified or are deceased, where the first non-aggressor possesses the resource (which can then be considered another form of homesteading). 2 Peter 3:11,12: Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
And another extremely important reason for this message presented herein has already been touched on in one of the above sections. The Bible tells of a massive End-Times deception perpetrated by Lucifer upon the masses in the form of the Anti-Christ. Although if one understands what the coming of God’s real Christ is to be about–as Paul puts it “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Cor. 15:24)–then it will be impossible for one to be deceived by the Anti-Christ, as the Anti-Christ will come to strengthen government, not to abolish it. Some Christians mistakenly believe that so long as one accepts a person called “Jesus” as their Lord and Savior then they will have eternal salvation. Yet there will be many people in the End-Times Judgement who will consider themselves to be good Christians worshiping the true Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and yet in doing so they will have condemned themselves to Hell! The Anti-Christ will present himself as being the Second Coming of Jesus! But Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6)! Thus if one worships a lie in place of the truth then the fact that one will have called this lie by the name of “Jesus” will be of no help! In fact, to do so is blasphemy! In order for one to really worship Jesus one first has to know what the truth of Jesus is about. And that, my friends, is the ultimate purpose of this document: that people may come to know the real Jesus. And what Jesus is about is liberty–at least as politics is concerned. Can you help us out? Click here to see why you should support anti-state.com.
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Easter like you won’t get it elsewhere – James Redford on Jesus
March 31, 2013 by BruceMajors
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