Ninety-Five Theses Against the Z.O.G.

A CALL FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT

Table of Contents for the Ninety-Five Theses

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The Idea of 95 Theses

The Protestant Reformation (1517) is said to have changed the face of Western Civilization. It began when Martin Luther posted "95 Theses" on Justification by Faith on the door of the Wittemburg Church (the conventional method of inaugurating public debate on an important subject).

I hereby inaugurate debate which I humbly believe has the power to change the face of Western Civilization.

Who has "true religion?"

Some people say all religions lead to God. Others disagree, claiming they alone are God's "chosen people." From a Christian perspective, two things characterize pure religion. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). But there is a social side to "true religion." It can be summed up in the words of the Apostle James:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and
to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27

I desire with my whole heart to be a person of "pure religion." I want to be the kind of person who spontaneously, and from the heart, has the compassion of Jesus, and visits the weak and afflicted.

My success at treating the weakest members of society with love and compassion is a divine indicator of my allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. If I treat the "marginalized" with contempt those acts will be imputed to my account as though I had personally treated Christ that way (Matthew 25:31ff.).

For this reason, it is absolutely vital that I remain "unspotted" by the agenda, mythology, and weltänschauüng of the world. The world-and-life view of our culture is summed up in the phrases "survival of the fittest," "looking out for number one," "I'm not going to let him get away with that," and "take this job and shove it." It is an impure religion of the worship of self, and the denial of God. It is the refusal to love even our enemy, and to follow Jesus to the Cross. It is the religion of Secular Humanism. As a product of government schools, this religion has left my spirit spotted and impure. I must get these ideas out of my head if I am to find myself at Christ's right hand (Matthew 25:34). I must become "unspotted."

"We have no king but Caesar!"

This incredible confession was made by the religious leaders who sought the execution of Christ.

Their religion was not the religion of Abraham.

They worshiped at the altar of the idolatrous Humanism of Rome.

The Polis of Rome was not the City of God.

But tragically, Judaistic religion and Roman law both infiltrated the followers of Jesus, true sons of Abraham.

Our history books tell us little of the history of decentralized Celtic Christianity, only of the centralized "Roman Catholic Church," a hybrid of Roman law and Judaistic religion.

"Reformers" of the sixteenth century Protested many elements of the Judaism of Catholicism, but the politics of Rome were left untouched.

The Reformers and the Roman Catholics were both challenged by the Anabaptists of the 16th century, who suggested that society would be better off without a "State" or institutional "church." Early in his career, Luther spoke loudly and clearly against usurers -- those who live off others by loaning them money in their time of need and charging them interest. Luther clearly had Scripture on his side, but when faced with political pressure, capitulated, and chose to remain silent in the face of those charging interest.

Some of these "radicals" argued that society could only be just if it were patterned after the "Mosaic Law" of the Old Testament (a view which sounds remarkably like that of the modern "Christian Reconstructionists"). Calvin, trained as a Roman Law lawyer, repudiated this view, calling it "stupid and false," and thereby unleashed human autonomy in the name of "public equity." [*]

Civilization really changed very little. In fact, an argument can be made that "the Protestant Reformation" in many respects hastened the Bush-Clinton "New World Order."

What will it take to rid the world of what some of us call the "Zionist Occupation Government?" Assassinating all the "conspirators" is not the answer; how many people who complain about "Jewish Bankers" rush like suckling pigs to these same bankers to obtain "instant gratification" for their material lusts, and then pay the bankers hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest over the course of a lifetime? If one set of "conspirators" were wiped out, millions of people would rise up and demand that they be replaced with a new set.

Most Americans, including those who feel they have been "educated" concerning the "conspiracy," also worship at the altar of Zionist-Roman Law Humanism. The only thing that will rid the world of this government is to rid the world of those who prop it up. Is that you, dear reader? Does a "new creation" await the death of your old nature, your world-and-life-view, and your present life-style?

I would like to humbly suggest that what is needed in our day is a "paradigm shift."

The Structure of Cultural Revolutions

Fifteen years ago I read through the entire Bible, cover-to-cover, three times, in one year. It created in me what scientists call a "paradigm shift."[1] It completely altered the way I look at the world, myself, the future, even the Bible and God Himself. I concluded that there was no way to justify Biblically the religion of materialistic Humanism, which virtually all institutional churches accept, and especially the institutionalization of the violent worship of self which we call "the State." And I also concluded that one of the most poisonous beliefs regnant today is the belief that we should all just sit around and wait for the Messiah to come a second time and rescue us all by setting up a Jewish-Roman Empire. I experienced a "paradigm shift" in my thinking about Church, State, and Prophecy. I would like you to experience that same transformation.

Rethinking Church and State

The religious leaders of Jesus' day did not have pure religion. Neither do their descendants. The murderous Caesars of Jesus' day certainly did not have pure religion, although, as Paul says, they were very religious (Acts 17:22). The great monuments in Washington D.C. are modeled after the palaces and temples of these pagan dictators. Church and State claim to be "separate," but they are in bed with each other. And most Americans are the illegitimate offspring of this Zionist-Romanist union.

Our picture of a Godly society has been colored by this cultural hybridism. We need to return to a pure paradigm, as set forth in the Bible. When I experienced my "paradigm shift" I realized that the Bible is at war with the Church-State hybrid we all think is so wonderful. I realized that the society which Abraham worked for was not dominated by priests or caesars. I guess what I'm saying is that by really reading the Bible I became an "anarchist."

Please bear with me. The label "anarchist" brings up images of bomb-throwing assassins and libertines. I am totally, unequivocally opposed to violence and lawlessness. But from my reading of the Bible, the rise of lawlessness and violence is usually caused by the State. Therefore, to be a true opponent of crime, violence, and lawlessness, one must be a true opponent of the institution founded on the Zionist-Romanist hybrid.

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 is proof that the Founders' paradigm has collapsed.

The Frightening Violence of the Polis

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 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]

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.

We are all taught that the State's power is morally 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 this Thesis for public debate. I believe I can defend it 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 throught the Bible from cover to cover, I have found that the Bible nowhere gives one 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 that is not socialist in some degree. How many billions - trillions - of dollars have been stolen by organized government? More than by the "criminals."

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 the organized attempt to avoid having to follow Jesus to the Cross. It is institutionalized violence. The State was formed by people who believed in those slogans of secularism and materialism. 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 Christian compassion and suffering. 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 and Bible-reading 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. 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; the fiction that violence, when perpetrated by an elite, is morally legitimate. 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, or escape from personal responsibility.

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 over the past year (I had color-coded them). These Theses are the result. They run counter to everything we've ever been taught about Christianity and Politics.

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 "ordained" to betray Christ (Luke 22:22). He "served" God's purposes. But woe to him!

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.

Rethinking the Church: A Failed Institution

We live in the most violent century in several millennia, but most "pastors" never mention that fact. They never challenge us to repudiate the myths of conquest which are perpetuated by the State, to their great profit. The "pastors" do not challenge us to remain "unspotted" from the Babylonian/Roman world around us.

The Bible clearly repudiates this ideological failure, as well as the priestly caste which uses liturgical smoke and mirrors to cover the stench of death. Abraham did not depend on priests and pastors to create social order. He obeyed God's Law in his household. The only priest Abraham depended on was Melchizedek: both a Priest with no "Apostolic Succession," and a King Who pointed to a Government remarkably unlike the empires of the day (Isaiah 9:6). He was a type of Christ, not a Judaistic-Romanist caste of celibate priests. If you can't see the failure of human priesthood in the pages of the Bible, you just aren't reading the Bible.

The institutional church is the handmaiden of the State. Jesus put an end to all human priesthood and religious hypocrisy. The institutional church must go the way of the State; it must be abandoned.

Sounds "radical" doesn't it? The failure of all our most cherished institutions. If we can't trust politicians and clergymen for the salvation of the social order, who can we trust?

Hope for the Future: Rethinking Prophecy

The Puritans and their heirs, the "Christian Reconstructionists," seek to remake society. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to reconstruction is the belief that all work in this age is doomed to failure; that nothing lasting and wonderful can take place until Jesus returns again. Some expect Jesus to rule from Jerusalem, and oversee animal sacrifices in a re-built temple. Others simply expect Jesus to give us all new bodies and arm us with iron rods to beat the pagans up. Both groups lack a firey resolve in this present age to transform the earth into God's Garden-Temple. They long for "something" in the next age, or beyond the grave. Reconstruction is delayed; evil advances; sanctification is postponed.

Ask yourself, what did Jesus come to accomplish? The redemption of priests and politicians alone? No, He came to make us all sons of Abraham. Godly men of leadership and cultural healing.

This redemption does not await a future "Second Coming." The Scriptures plainly declare that Jesus triumphed over the Old World Order at His First Advent, and history is now moving toward something New. This is "The Christmas Conspiracy." It begins with us, in our lifetime. This New social paradigm leads us to a transformation of our view of the future and of our study of "last things," eschatology.

The acceptance of an optimistic eschatology (whether "post-mil" or "preterist" ["consistent" or "partial,"]) is obstructed by a tension between a zealous, aggressive social involvement, and the prospect of the destruction of "unalienable rights" by a "theocratic dictatorship." In other words, many "pre-mils" or "pessimillennialists" fear that "dominion theology" goes against the Biblical concept of "suffering," "persecution," and "taking up the Cross." In a sense they are right. 1 Peter 2:18ff. commands us to follow Jesus "in His steps," steps which led to the Capitol -- not to assume the power to put "enemies" to death, but to be put to death. How does this picture square with current attempts by "reconstructionists" to assume the reigns of political power?

The Patriarchy paradigm resolves this tension by noting that the destruction of "the elements of the world" is not a prophecy of a future nuclear annihilation, but a description of Jesus' victory over the Jewish-Roman hybrid, the "principles of the old world." We eschew violent revolution, "submit" to the Empire, and wait for Jesus to destroy it from Heaven. Our work for a decentralized, family-centered society is accomplished by following Jesus to the Cross, not by buttressing the power of the Secular Humanist Empire in the name of "strong national defense," "law and order," or "cleaning up America." The Spirit uses little acts of obedient sacrifice, day by day, to build the Kingdom. The Spirit does not use the World Bank and military socialism to build the Kingdom.

The Kingdom Jesus established is described by the "Vine & Fig Tree" imagery of swords beat into plowshares. A different concept of the "millennium"; a manly and victorious strategy for reconstruction; an optimistic view of the present age.

I invite you to "search the Scriptures" (Acts 17:11) and see for yourself that we must repent of our statist idolatry, our ecclesiastical toadyism, and our historical escapism, and be willing to follow Jesus.[10] I am confident that if you read through all these Theses and look up all the Bible references you will find yourself saying, "Hmm, I guess the Bible really does require Christians to be anarchists." Soon, you will be following Jesus. Soon you will be a Godly Patriarch.

Click here for 95 Theses for the 21st Century

NOTES

(*) See the extraordinary account in Nelson, Benjamin, The Idea of Usury: From Tribal Brotherhood to Universal Otherhood (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).  [Back to Text]

(1) Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Univ. of Chicago, 1970.  [Back to Text]

(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. Watch this jump for the Internet Web Page. 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 (Rom 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," because 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 destructive male aggressiveness as a consequence of the rejection of monogamy/Patriarchy and the psycho-sexual superiority of Godly women, 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]

(10) I would be deeply appreciative of your comments and feedback. I believe that you have some degree of responsibility to correct me if I am wrong, because the Bible says that if you see your brother stumbling, you should help restore him. If you would like to confirm my character to ensure than I am teachable and you would not be wasting your time correcting my errors, you may contact Prof. John M. Frame at the Westminster Theological Seminary, 1724 Bear Valley Pkwy, Escondido, CA 92027. He and I are not in 100% agreement on these Theses.  [Back to Text]

I do not use the word "suffering" in the same way it 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 catolog of those who were willing to suffer.  [Back to Text]

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