The Biblical Form of Government
Anarcho-Theocracy
A lousy label for a great idea

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Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 11 Nov. 1947

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Bad Publicity

Most people don't care enough about politics to vote. Among those who vote, few care about the fine distinctions between the Republicrats and the Demoblicans. Only a small number of ideologically-motivated extremists would ever give much thought to "the proper form of government."

I would like my campaign to address those dedicated few, and enlarge their ranks by enticing the apathetic masses to consider a new way of looking at politics. I've heard it said that "bad publicity is better than no publicity at all." I know how to get lots of bad publicity, which I think could eventually be turned into good publicity. All I have to do is announce that I believe the proper form of government is "anarcho-theocracy" and that I believe so because "the Bible says so."

Both sides (and everyone in the middle)
will be attracted to the idea of
Vine & Fig Tree. 

Vine & Fig Tree is an almost politically-correct concept which cannot be feared or hated and will eventually win over (or at least pacify) its fiercest opponents. (I understand part of Micah's prophecy is on the United Nations Building in NewYork. This puts "Bible-believing" in a new light.)

A Paradigm Shift

You hear that phrase thrown around a lot these days. Everybody wants their idea to be the next "paradigm shift." Paradigm-shifters are now mainstream. I believe Vine & Fig Tree represents a true break with the status quo, a change as momentous as that described by Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, upon hearing of Locke's rejection of the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings: 

Never before had I heard the authority of kings called in question. I had been taught to consider them nearly as essential to political order as the sun is to the order of our solar system.

Vine & Fig Tree really is a new "paradigm," a "Copernican revolution," a radical way of looking at politics and society. It is one step beyond the radical vision that motivated America's Founding Fathers. It is a vision so old that it appears to be utterly unprecedented.

It inspires dedicated action. The vision of Vine & Fig Tree gives energy and hope to those who work for it.

For Rush, who was present in the Congress as a representative of Pennsylvania, the events surrounding the creation of the Republic marked nothing less than a turning point in the course of human history.   "I was animated constantly," he reflected in later years, "by a belief that I was acting for the benefit of the whole world, and of future ages, by assisting in the formation of new means of political order and general happiness."11 ___________________           11. The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush, edited by George W. Corner (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1948), p.161.

I am convinced that Vine & Fig Tree will contribute to the Glory of God and the greater happiness of mankind. It will animate future leaders and captivate the hearts and minds of many. I know it's captivated me, and I get enough enthusiastic e-mail from people who have discovered the Vine & Fig Tree web pages (even though I haven't listed them with any search engines yet) to believe that there is something here that will resonate with a broad section of Americans. 

Dr. Rush speaks of "a turning point," which is to speak of a turning  from something to something else. From what should we turn? To what should we aspire? 

I believe we must move

• From a world of priests and princes ruling over the immature and irresponsible, a world which is simultaneously "secular" and suffused with a host of pagan faiths
• To a world of self-governing families in which all believers are priests and kings under Christ, where the knowledge of the LORD covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Many people balked at the "turning point" which the Declaration of Independence represented. Many will balk at Vine & Fig Tree -- it is the overthrowing of ideas which many have believed are as essential to social order or the Christian faith "as the sun is to the order of our solar system." You may have already heard some of the leading lights of the Christian Reconstruction movement denounce these ideas as heresy. But Vine & Fig Tree was the aspiration of many of America's Founding Fathers, and made America "the greatest nation on God's green earth" (Michael Medved). Read their hopes here.

The Proper Form of Government

The only Biblically legitimate form of social order is not 

a monarchy
an aristocracy
a democracy, or
a republic

The Bible is a blueprint for human action in every field of endeavor. The Bible is a "textbook" in political science and economics just as much as it is a textbook in religion. The rejection of this textbook brings tyranny and mass death.

but a society which might be labeled an "Anarcho-Theocracy." It is a nation "under God," but a nation without the institution of "civil government." 

       We must forthrightly reject the modern myth of "separation of church and state," and embrace instead "the abolition of church and state." 

       The purpose of my campaign (and this web page) is to focus on the need to abolish "the State." Here is a link to a page which discusses the Biblical requirement to abolish "the church."

Detractors have called this vision "patriarchy," "anarchy," and "theocracy." In an age of sound-bites and slogans, when packaging is more important than substance, I admit I am hard-pressed to propose a consumer-tested label for Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision. Perhaps the next generation will have to adopt the most popular label of our opponents, just as Marx coined "capitalism" and Bloody Mary derided Calvin's "Geneva Jigs."

In 1776 America rejected the idea of "the Divine Right of Kings." The rejection of the idea of "the Divine Right of Kings" was Biblically proper. Monarchy was replaced by an experiment in "the consent of the governed." For various reasons, that experiment must now be judged a failure. We must continue along the lines that led to the end of the divine right of kings, reject the thinking that created the Government-run Post Office, and establish the divine right of the King of kings.

My goal is to set forth the basic outlines, blueprints, or "institutes" of this new social order in a well-researched and persuasively-stated manner that will allow people to break out of old patterns of thought, and raise up a new generation of Christian missionaries; missionaries in the fields of politics, economics, sociology, law, science, etc., who will guide these disciplines to Micah's world of Vine & Fig Tree.

1. Brief Outline
2. Statement of the Thesis
3. Motivation for the Thesis
4. Why This Thesis is Really Not That Controversial
5. Presuppositions
6. Definition of Anarcho-Capitalism
7. Prima facie Case for Anarcho-Capitalism
8. Response to Objections
9. Bibliography

"For the Americans," Tocqueville found, "the ideas of Christianity and liberty are so completely mingled that it is almost impossible to get them to conceive of one without the other; it is not a question with them of sterile beliefs bequeathed by the past and vegetating rather than living in the depths of the soul." 
Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, p. 448

America's Founding Fathers on the Importance of the Bible

Vine & Fig Tree
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