This article represents a grave error to be avoided. While I
can appreciate (in the larger article) the criticism of the Christian Right
calling on the state to transform society, the author (and interviewee) still
make the same fundamental error... that of Transformationalism.
Seeking to transform society they are simply positing yet another flawed and unscriptural method. Misunderstanding the Biblical teaching on the state in the age of Common Grace, when we live as exiles in the cities of the Beast, they instead argue for a revolutionary doctrine... even if it's supposedly non-violent. I'm not sure they've worked out the full ramifications of what they propose. There are many types of violence and many ways it manifests itself.
Christ was killed by the Jews manipulating the Roman State and
yet all of this was ultimately ordained by God who was pleased to bruise the
Son.
Trying to blame it on the tyrannical Romans and thus attack
the notion of government is to misappropriate the Biblical narrative and derive
incorrect ethical applications from it. Rome was an evil tyrant but the
petition for execution came from the Jews.
Government is violence and coercion and yet Romans 13 makes
it clear that God has ordained it for the common good. Will it be ethically and
ideologically good, wonderful and/or transformative? No. No model will, even
the anarchist model posited by the author of the linked blog post. We're not
looking for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or the protection of
property. Nowhere does the Scripture tell us to pursue these things. In fact,
quite the opposite. We're to be martyr-witnesses. Our liberty, property,
security, fulfillment and happiness are not things we seek after nor are they
things we are told to expect.
This rather dashes all Christian attempts at political
projects.
If there is a lesson to be derived from the way the Jews and
Romans colluded in the death of Christ, it is with regard to power and how
other powers can manipulate government. Few Anarcho-Capitalists seem to grasp
that the vacuum will be filled... by something. If it isn't government then
business interests seeking their own security and monopoly will fill the gap or
try to control the governing powers.
Anarcho-Capitalism is rooted in a Pelagian worldview. It
assumes that man will not act sinfully, that men will be content, that men will
play by the rules and not seek to manipulate the system. It looks great on
paper but doesn't work in a Fallen world. No system does and if they seem to,
it will only be for a short time. Static systems don't work in a dynamic sin-cursed
world.
The danger here is the commitment to a socio-political
system and then trying to read it back into Scripture... and thus
misinterpreting and manipulating it. This school of thought has a real problem
with the hands off/let it be posture toward government that the New Testament
teaches. Worried about rights, taxes, and extra-Biblical (and frankly un-Biblical)
economic principles it agitates and calls theft what the Scriptures do not. It
ultimately makes ethical demands that the New Testament labels as sinful.
Is the state going to always fall into evil? Yes. And since
we're not called to rule and view the state as a temporary measure that will
burn at the conclusion of the age, we realize in the end it doesn't really
matter if we live in the USA, China, Russia or a Sub-Saharan African nation. We
have to deal with the context wherein we are placed and our focus is to be on
the Gospel and the Kingdom. Fighting over politics and economics will not help
these ultimate concerns and causes. You're fighting over which is better, the
Babylonian or Assyrian model. It's a waste of time. Proclaim Divine Judgment
but don't proclaim some other fallen model is the solution, let alone
revolution. We're not called to suffer as busybodies in other people's affairs.
