Government is not a necessary evil. It is necessary because of evil. God ordained the civil government to be a blessing to us as we live in this sinful world. When the government doesn’t follow God’s pattern as found in the Scriptures, it is more of a curse than a blessing. This is where we find ourselves now; the government protects evil and punishes good. Here are seven ideas for changing our civil government to a more biblical one. As with the last three articles, there are many more than seven aspects of our civil governments that could be rebuilt. Anyway, here goes…
1. Decentralize. The human heart is wicked. This is why we need civil governments. However, since the human heart is wicked, we shouldn’t give too much power to any one person or group. A centralized government is just that: a government where those at the top have all the power.
Ungodly governments, such as those in Communist countries or third-world dictatorships, tend to give all the power to those at the national level. The state (or provincial) and local government officials exist to do the bidding of, and enforce the will of, those at the national level.
The biblical model for the civil government is decentralized, meaning that power is spread out through many different levels of government. In a biblical society, the local governments would be the governments that most individuals would interact with the majority of the time. The national government would have virtually nothing to do with the daily lives of individuals. The main purposes of the national government is to settle disputes between the states (or tribes, like ancient Israel had), and to organize the nation’s fighting force (which would be in the hands of the states) if the country is invaded.
Another benefit of a decentralized government is that if one branch or level of government is behaving badly, the other levels would have some power of their own with which to “check” the bad behavior of the other.
2. Get out of the welfare business. When we look at the things that God has told the civil government to do, we do not find that the government is responsible to help the poor. Individuals, families, and churches can help the poor, but the government cannot (at least not in the sense of giving them financial assistance). The government may say that its charitable giving is helping people, but remember, the government has no money that it doesn’t first take from someone else. If it didn’t take as much money from us as it does, we would each have more money to give to the poor.
The reason the government got into the welfare business was not because people weren’t being helped, it was because the government wanted to enslave them. I know those are strong words, but those in power knew that if they could get people to look to the government to give them things, they would always have their votes. Also keep in mind that whoever funds you controls you. Your employer can tell you what to do (to an extent) because if you don’t do what they want, they can stop giving you a paycheck. Likewise, the government often threatens to take away aid or services if you don’t do what they want (like vote to raise your own taxes). The forms of “welfare” in our day go way beyond food stamps (EBT). The forms of welfare that our government has control over today include: food programs, Social Security, corporate subsidies, foreign aid, and more.
In our day, it is very hard to avoid taking part in the many “welfare” schemes the government is running. And while I’m not suggesting that anyone allow themselves or their family to starve, we should do everything we can to avoid being supported by these government programs.
3. Return to biblical punishments. This point may cause even many Christians to shudder. Even many Christians think of biblical punishments as being cruel and draconian. This mostly comes from misconceptions regarding what the Bible actually says about crime and punishment. Since this is the main responsibility of the civil government, this is an important issue.
First, a biblical civil government doesn’t have the authority to go around looking for criminals. The government only goes into action when someone notifies them that a crime has been committed. This means that those under a biblical government, people (even unbelievers) would have far more liberties than we as Americans do today.
Second, shouldn’t we Christians look to the Bible as the standard for what constitutes a just punishment? Do you really think that we humans can come up with a better, more just law code than God can? Certainly, the Bible does address the issue of crime and punishment. Are you really going to say that following the Bible’s instruction relating to what the civil government is supposed to do will lead to a harsh, oppressive government? Do we serve a God that favors tyranny? Obviously not.
To be sure, there are many laws in Scripture that need careful study to find out just what they are saying. Also, the whole issue of what in the OT carries over into the NT would also need to be hashed out. But I hope that Christians would agree that the Bible needs to be our guide for what type of punishments the government should give for certain crimes.
4. Taxes. This is a huge issue. I don’t complain about taxes simply because I want to keep more of my own money (though I do). I complain about taxes because the government would not be involved in so many unbiblical activities if it didn’t have the money to do so. One way to keep the government from intruding into every aspect of life is to make sure it doesn’t have the money to be involved in every aspect of our lives. A biblical tax system would go a long way in ensuring that the government stayed within its biblical jurisdiction (area of responsibility).
There are different opinions as to how the government should collect taxes. Some would favor a tax based on a percentage of your income (like the tithe); others would favor a once a year “head tax.” Whatever the method of collecting taxes is, the tax rate needs to be very low. In 1 Samuel 8, God says that when a government takes 10% of your income, you are living under tyranny. God can demand 10% of your income, the government cannot.
In our day, most (I believe, all) of our taxes are very unjust. The government uses taxes to control your behavior. Do what they want, get a tax credit; don’t do what they want, get a tax penalty. This is not biblical. The worst tax, however, is what is called “taxation through inflation.” This one is the worst because it gives the government a very large percentage of its income and virtually no one knows it’s happening.
Taxation through inflation works like this: Let’s say I’m a politician. I want your vote, so I promise you free stuff. How I am I going to pay for that stuff? One option I have is to raise taxes. Of course I can only do this so much before people stop voting for me. Another option I have is to print more money. Of course, you the citizen are not allowed to do this because it wouldn’t be fair for everyone else. But since I make the laws, I’ll allow myself to do it. Now I can have all the money I need to buy your votes.
The problem with this scheme is this: when something is rare, it is worth more. The more of something you have, the less that thing is worth. This is true with dollars as well. The more money is printed, the less that money is worth. So in the long run everyone is paying the “tax” of having their money lose value. Because this isn’t a direct tax and because it happens so slowly, we don’t even realize it’s happening.
5. Foreign policy. Another pressing issue that needs to change is how our government deals with other nations. For many years I was of the opinion that since Americans are the good guys, they have the responsibility to make the world safer, more prosperous, and more free. In one sense this is true. We have a rich Christian heritage and God has blessed us with quite a bit of prosperity. Because of that we can and should help other nations if we can. But when I say “we” in this sense, I’m speaking about fellow Christians.
However, when most people say “we” need to make the world better, what they really mean is that the federal government of the United States needs to do all of these things. The government needs to give money to poorer nations. The government needs to promote freedom around the world. No it doesn’t. A national government is responsible for what happens within its own borders, not for what happens in other nations. Our government is not responsible for making poor countries rich. Freedom comes to a nation when the gospel is accepted and people start obeying God’s word in every area of life and society. Is it the job of the government to spread the gospel and teach God’s word? No, that is the job of the church.
Furthermore, should we consider the federal government the “good” guys? Do they really help the poor here, or do they just use them? Are they actively promoting freedom within our borders, or are they constantly trying to take it away? If the federal government is doing bad things here at home, do we really think that they are doing good around the world?
6. Free Markets. Many people think that free market capitalism is causing problems in our nation. This is impossible because we don’t have free markets; in fact no one alive today has seen a truly free market system. A free market is where I give you money in exchange for a good or a service. The government should have no part in regulating this transaction. The government only gets involved if one of us is being cheated. This is the biblical view of markets.
Today, the government thinks that it must have “free trade agreements” with other nations. If the government is involved, then the “trade” is not free. Free trade is where my business decides to buy parts from a business in another country. We don’t need the government to make a “deal” for that to happen.
A free market is also one where employers get to hire who they want and pay them what they want. As long as both the employer and the employee agree on what the wages should be, the government has no business getting involved. By the way, jobs are created only when someone decides to hire someone else. Our politicians tell us that they “create” jobs, but the only jobs they create are government jobs. The more government jobs are created, the more funds the government needs (a.k.a. more taxes), and the more our freedoms disappear. The best thing the government can do is get out of the way.
Lastly, a free market is one in which the government is not giving anything to businesses. This would mean no subsidies or even tax incentives. It also wouldn’t give them the burdensome regulations that they ask for. It may seem like businesses would never ask for burdensome regulations, but the larger businesses do. The reason they do this is simple. A business needs to hire a lot of lawyers, accountants, and other experts in order to comply with all these regulations. Doing that requires a lot of money. Big businesses have a lot of money, small companies don’t. Big companies ask to be highly regulated in order to make it hard for their competition (the smaller companies) to succeed. Big government and big business have rigged the game in their favor. This is not a free market.
7. Land ownership. The Bible is clear that God owns the land. God has given the land to a caretaker or a steward. The family is that steward. In America, however, the government thinks that it owns the land. This is why we have property taxes. As long as there are property taxes, you don’t really own your property, you merely rent it from the government. If you don’t believe me, stop paying your rent (taxes) and see if you don’t get evicted. The Bible doesn’t prescribe any sort of property tax, but the Communist Manifesto does.
When Israel was enslaved by Egypt, how much land did they own? None. When God brought them out from their bondage and into the promised land, how much land did they own? Lots of it! There is a correlation between freedom and land ownership. This is why Karl Marx (coauthor of the Communist Manifesto) wanted the government to own the land. This is why when a Communist dictator of Romania (Ceausescu) came to power, he had all of the rural areas bulldozed and moved everyone to government owned high-rises that he built in the cities.
In the U.S. Constitution, the federal government is allowed to own land in each state only for “the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings…” Today, in some states, the federal government owns over half of the land (84.5% of Nevada). The federal government also likes to give grants to local governments so that they can buy up the land and turn it into nature preserves. They say that they are doing this in the name of conservation. Forgive me for being skeptical, but I doubt this is their real motive. I suspect that they just don’t want you to have that land.
As you have seen in these last four articles, we Christians have a lot of work to do. Rebuilding all of life and society will take effort and time. It won’t happen all at once and certainly not in one generation. But, if God wills, it can be done. If you’d like to learn more about rebuilding any of the three God established institutions, please contact me at Mike@5thkingdomministries.com or by phone at 904-501-2374.