A Prima Facie Case for Biblical Anarchism


The Case for Biblical Anarchism consists in a survey of the Bible from cover to cover. Nowhere does God command men to form "the State." The essential powers of "the State" -- those that differentiate it from the family, the corporation, or the church -- are violations of God's Commandments. A survey of the Bible is found here:

Table of Contents


Rethinking the State

"The Divine Right of Kings" was a paradigm that once dominated Western Civilization. It wasn't quick and easy, but that way of looking at things was replaced. The U.S. Constitution of 1789 set forth a new paradigm: a concept of governing the people "by the people," and ostensibly "for the people." But 200 years later, this concept of "constitutional government" has also proven to be a failure. We do not, by any standard, have a well-governed society. We are a socialist nation with an increasingly violent, lawless, and immoral people. The election of Bill Clinton and the years-long failure to impeach him is proof that the Founders' paradigm has collapsed.

The Frightening Violence of the State

Murder

One horrifying fact that drives me to "anarchism" is the conclusion of Prof. R.J. Rummel, who has spent decades studying and documenting the terrors of secular empires like the Soviet Union and Red China. Nearly 200 million murders have taken place in the 20th Century - all of them committed by the State. More astonishing, the murders Rummel documents are murders committed by the State against its "own" people. How many millions of "enemies" have been killed in countless wars designed to expand or to buttress political power? Not counting abortions, Statistically speaking, I think it safe to say that the governments of the world have precipitated the murder of 10,000 people each and every day of the year throughout this century.[2] If we add the number of murders of pre-born people to this list, the murder rate as I write is nearly 10,000 people per hour. These murders are all "legal." Mothers have a right to kill their children, we are told, and all of us have a "right to die." In this new 21st century, the Secular Humanist State is planning to enforce that "right" an additional 15,000 times per hour.

In other words, most of the killings that have taken place in this, the most violent and secular century in human history, have not been committed by those lawless "anarchists" and criminals from which the State is supposed to protect us. Most of the violence in this century has been either approved or ordered by the State. This is the State that justifies its existence by its claim to "protect" its citizens

We are all taught that the State's power is legitimate, that when someone does something "we" don't like, it is morally legitimate to destroy "them" and their entire village. Have the street gangs of the 1990's learned a subtle lesson?

If we are going to obey God's clear command to "Rescue those who are being taken away to death" (Proverbs 24;11) we must at least deny the moral legitimacy of those who are doing, approving, and ordering, incomprehensible numbers of killings. The State is organized vengeance; institutionalized murder.

This is a controversial proposition. Like Luther, I post these Theses for public debate. I believe I can defend them Biblically.

Theft

Statistics for theft are as incomprehensible as those for murder. I personally believe that Government "monetization of debt" is theft; the Bible plainly condemns it.[3] Trillions of dollars of debt have been thus fraudulently "monetized." The figure is so large and incomprehensible that we have lost sight of how evil it all is.

Some people say taxation is theft. I agree. As I read through the Bible from cover to cover, I found that nowhere does The Bible give any man the right to take the money of another by the barrel of a gun; just because the Bible says we are to pay taxes and not "resist evil" does not suddenly make evil acts morally upright.[4] Taxation is an act of violence, an act of conquest, "the power to destroy," as members of the United States Supreme Court have admitted.

Acts of nationalization are surely theft. Every act of socialism is an act of theft, and there is no government in the world today (nor can there be) that is not socialist in some degree. How many billions - trillions - of dollars have been stolen by "organized government?" More than by all "organized crime," and all disorganized "criminals" put together.

Destruction of property by war and bureaucratic regulation have also resulted in untold billions of dollars of damage. All the anarchists in the world could never have wreaked such havoc. But when the State does it, it is cloaked with the mantle of moral legitimacy or "public necessity."

The State is inherently Darwinian. It is institutionalized violence. It is the organized attempt to avoid having to follow Jesus to the Cross. The State was formed by people who believed in those slogans of secularism and materialism (above). Lord Acton has rightly observed, "Power corrupts." This means that even if Christians hold political office, they are holding the keys to a kingdom of violence and vengeance, not suffering and compassion. If they have "pure religion," it will be corrupted by the moral approval of the power to steal, kill, and destroy.

In short, the governments of the world claim moral legitimacy for protecting us from criminal acts, and yet the State is incomparably more evil and violent than "private sector" criminals. Governments threaten the world with nuclear annihilation, something even the largest mafia cannot do. And all governments in the 20th century, so far as I know, must be classified as hostile to Biblical Christianity: no private criminal enterprise ever succeeded in removing prayer, Bible reading, and even the Ten Commandments from the schools of tens of millions of children.[5] (Now those lawless, Christless public school students are inheriting the reigns of power. Their parents financed their Humanist university education, and now they finance their political reign. The future looks grim.)

Based on these facts, I have concluded that it's time Christians re-think the whole idea of the State. What I attempt to demonstrate in these 95 Theses — from the pages of the Bible — is that the concept of a State is a Humanistic, not a Biblical, idea. I believe that if we are going to get to the Kingdom, we must repudiate "patriotism" and embrace a Biblical social order, even if some would call it "anarchism."[6]

I believe it is time to move to an explicitly Biblical paradigm, one which is completely decentralized.

Patriarchy: A Paradigm so Old it Appears New

Aristotle was wrong: man is not "a political animal," he is a familial being. In the Bible, the Family is the basic institution of human society. Man is created in a Family, not a State. Setting up a State is clearly depicted as an act of faithlessness or rebellion. God created human beings to be born in families. Strong families are to assist weaker, broken homes. In the Bible, the State is denounced from cover to cover.

The technical term for a family-centered society without a civil government is "Patriarchy." This is clearly the form of social order prescribed by the Bible.[7] If the Bible does not repudiate all politics, then the Bible has no meaning at all.

The only paradigm that will preserve Christian character in our nation — and ultimately our world — is the Biblical paradigm, and that is Patriarchy.[8] It is the absence of institutionalized government and the presence of self-sacrificing families of deep, moral character.

Before radical social change can be put into effect, proposals for such must be heard and evaluated. As it is now, we are not able to "hear" the Bible's call for personal repentance and cultural reconstruction because of the mythology of institutionalized violence. Far more than previous generations, Christians today are content to let a secular State direct their lives and thoughts and educate their children. We must destroy the myth that the State has a moral right to exist. Only then will men be open to the call to follow Jesus, rather than seeking power over others; taking personal responsibility rather than "delegating" it to socialistic "elected representatives."

Patriarchy means we honor our elders, serve our brothers, and adopt the fatherless.

God wants parents to teach these values to their children. God wants children to honor and obey their parents even when their parents are statists and humanists. By submitting to Darwinist evil rather than taking vengeance, and by following  Biblical principles regardless of the personal cost, we develop the character of Christ, and God blesses our obedience with social order, peace, and prosperity. It starts in the home. The first step in global Christian Reconstruction is to denounce violence, repent of our vengeance, and repudiate the world, that is, the State (James 4:4).

The Myth of Anarchism

This is not "anarchism."[9] This is "Patriarchy." My desire is to see global obedience to every jot and tittle of God's Law, in practical ways that will mend the torn fabric of life. My desire is to reduce lawlessness and violence, and to restore "pure religion." There is no such thing as "anarchism."

In 1982, after experiencing my "paradigm shift," I sat down with my Bible at the kitchen table to write out 95 Theses (following Martin Luther) to reform our thinking on politics. I simply went through my trusty KJV and compiled a catalog of all the verses on politics that I had underlined during my cover-to-cover readings (I had color-coded them). These Theses are the result. They run counter to everything we've ever been taught about Christianity and Politics.

Does God affirmatively want human beings to form a "State?" The Bible says No. There is no doubt that God "ordained" the State; Romans 13 teaches that. As a "5-point Calvinist," I believe that everything is ordained by God.

But that is not the question.

The question is, Is the State "elect" or "reprobate?" The lives and eternal destinies of all human beings are "ordained" by God, and all men are either "elect" or "reprobate." The State is also "ordained" by God: the question is, is the State a "vessel of wrath" or a "vessel of mercy?"

You don't have to be a 5-point Calvinist to be able to answer this question correctly. Is the Mafia "ordained by God?" NO. Is prostitution a "divine institution?" The answer is clearly NO, but the Bible says that God is sovereign over both. Judas was — to use the language of Romans 13 — "ordained" to betray Christ. He "served" God's purposes as God's "minister." But woe to him! (Luke 22:22)

By using the word "powers" (exousiai) to describe the State ("the powers that be"), we are alerted to its demonic nature. We are to wrestle with the powers that be, not wave their flags (Ephesians 6:12). The State represents works of darkness which must be destroyed by the power of the Gospel.

The State is unquestionably "ordained" by God. In some sense God "wanted" Satan to harass Job, kill off his family, and destroy Job's property. If we turn to God when we suffer, rather than resist violently, returning evil for evil, we develop the Character of Christ. Only in that sense can it be said that God "wants" a State. Satan did not have an obedient, God-honoring heart when he "Stalinized" Job. But Satan's evil worked together — as all things do — for the glory of God. This is clearly the message of Romans 12-13.

But even though they are "ordained" by God, those who form political structures are disobeying God's Law, whether they call their enterprise a "democracy," "republic," "oligarchy," "monarchy," or whatever. They are rebelling against the requirements of God to develop Christlike character, work productively, and teach the children.

As long as Christians believe the myth that the State and its ways have moral legitimacy, they will be tempted to ignore the widow and the fatherless, and we will not have "true religion." If we in the 20th century do not learn any lessons from history, the 21st century will be filled with even more horrifying levels of violence; widespread destruction and genocide we cannot now imagine. As long as we believe that violence is legitimate when the perpetrator is wearing the badge and uniform of the State, we will be tempted — in economically difficult times — to get a job with the State, putting our neighbors — and even our own family — on the trains headed for the "detention centers." ("It's just a job.")

My purpose in publishing these 95 Theses is to destroy that myth; to show that the State has no moral legitimacy and must be abolished.


(2) Arguably surpassing in one day all "Christian" Crusades and Inquisitions combined. R. J. Rummel, Death by Government, Rutgers University/Transaction Books, 1994; G. Elliot, Twentieth Century Book of the Dead, NY: Scribner's, 1972.  [Back to Text]

(3) I have a small booklet on the subject of "false weights and measures," available upon request. Or Read it Online. Most people never think about the subject of money. Even the United States Constitution specifically says that no state can make anything but Gold and Silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts. (Art. 1, §10, ¶1). Most people don't even know what the words "legal tender" mean, even though they pass bills with those words on them every day. (Those bills used to say, "Payable to bearer on demand in Gold Coin." Why the change? My booklet explains the evil motivations.)  [Back to Text]

(4) My purpose for writing these 95 Theses was not to avoid taxes. The Bible says to pay them. In fact, Jesus says if we are ordered by the government to go one mile, we should go two. Doesn't that mean that we should pay double what the IRS asks? Maybe not, but just because Jesus says we are to "turn the other cheek" does not make cheek-slappers a "divine institution." Christians are to submit to evil-doers, including the State.  [Back to Text]

(5) Some have suggested that Zambia is a Christian State. Will the government use guns and gas chambers to protect "law and order" and its own power? Then it is not following Christ (1 Peter 2:21ff.). (I mistakenly said "it" in reference to the government; I should have said "they" in reference to those individual human beings who are a part of the government and make decisions to violate Biblical Law in the course of their political duties.)  [Back to Text]

(6) I don't call the Biblical view "anarchism" because the word means "absence of a ruler" and Christ is called the great "Archist" (Col. 1:18) or ruler (Romans 15:12). But Jesus says that Secular Humanists seek to be "archists" in the place of Christ, and that His followers are to repudiate their legitimacy and follow Christ alone (Mark 10:42-45). If Christians are not called "anarchists" by Secular Humanist caesars, then they are doing something wrong.
      The Biblical system of social order is not "democracy," or any other political system. The Biblical plan for social order is "patriarchy." All other systems are a rebellion against God's plan and command for self-sacrificing families, widespread Christian obedience, and no State.  [Back to Text]

(7) Feminists don't like the term "Patriarchy," but they worship the power of the State. The Bible has not led to the oppression of women: impersonalist, me-first, Secular Humanist statist industrialism has. The notion that the Biblical concept of Agrarian Patriarchy is in some way the root evil which has brought forth an urban, male-dominated fascist State which "oppresses" women is ably refuted in Barbara J. Berg, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism - The Woman and the City, 1800-1860, New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. When men formed the State to achieve wealth by coercive redistribution instead of productive labor, feminists did not protest the death of "economic man" and the birth of "political man." Incredibly, they too demanded the "right to vote"

On the psycho-sexual superiority of women and destructive male aggressiveness as a consequence of the rejection of monogamy/Patriarchy, see George Gilder, Men and Marriage, Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub. Co., 1987, or Sexual Suicide, NY: New York Times Book Co., 1973.  [Back to Text]

(8) This is not a carte blanche for male domination and abuse. It stems from the recognition that human beings are familial beings (industrialist cloning to the contrary notwithstanding), and that sexual differentiation is real.  [Back to Text]

(9) Technically there is no such thing as "anarchy." If the word is taken to mean "the absence of a ruler [or "archist"]" then there is never a case where there is such a void - as long as human beings are involved. If a human repudiates the rule of God he becomes his own god. If he repudiates the rule of a "government" he becomes his own government. Someone is always an "archist." "Anarchy" is not a possible condition of human existence because we are created in the Image of God, the Ultimate Archist. We are either archists "under God," or rogue archists. There is no other "archy"; no "an-archy." There is no escaping the option: Theonomy or autonomy.  [Back to Text]


I do not use the word "suffering" in the same way it is used by pietists and other "wimps." The strongest and most courageous people in the world are those who "suffer" at the hands of Zionist-Romanist persecutors. The true wimps are those who want their VCR and designer jeans so badly that they make deals with the Occupation Government to keep their personal peace and affluence. They are willing to keep silent and walk in line. Read Hebrews 11 for a catalog of those who were willing to suffer.  [Back to Text]