Tag Archives: covetousness

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What Am I Missing?

I’m perplexed by the behavior of Christians I know, especially the men. I’m a theonomist. Theonomy is trying to apply all of Scripture to all of life. We reject the idea that the Bible doesn’t talk about politics. I have tried to engage Christians in conversation on biblical topics many times. I’ve tried in person. I’ve tried passing out pamphlets about theonomy in church. I’ve tried on Facebook. I’ve tried to be nice. I’ve tried to be provocative. I tried to get them to go witnessing with me. I taught a Way of the Master class and about 15 people attended. A few went witnessing, but no one stuck with it or ended up coming with us weekly.

No one has ever really engaged with my theonomic arguments. Some have said they agree with me but haven’t really seemed to dive into all the implications of applying the Bible to politics and all of life. Some have opposed what I’ve said, almost all of them women. But none of them have carried on with the discussion. They say I disagree, and some have even explained why they disagree, but they don’t carry on with the conversation. The men have almost all remained silent. A couple days ago, one didn’t remain silent, but didn’t explain why and refuses to carry on the conversation. Here’s that “discussion”. I left a comment on a newspaper article about raising taxes for a swimming pool.

My initial comment consisted of four sentences. Which of the sentences did he disagree with? The first two sentences are absolute statements of fact, so he can’t disagree with that. The third follows from Romans 13:3-4, and all of the Old Testament. The fourth follows logically from the first three sentences. It all seems pretty obvious and true to me.

On one hand, him disagreeing is more than I get from 90% of Calvary Chapel men. On the other hand, why is he not willing to explain himself? Does he not know Scripture? If that’s so, why would he comment? Is he scared of arguing in public? Then why say anything at all? He wants to take a stand and go public as not agreeing while not being in any way capable of defending his position.

I think all of this behavior from these people comes from two errors.
1. Having a false understanding Romans 13.
2. Having a false eschatology (end times view)–premillennialism.

They have been taught the bootlicking interpretation of Romans 13 over and over. They think the government has a blank check to do what it wants. Their pessimistic eschatology teaches that they will be defeated more and more soundly until they are raptured. So, they expect to lose and so they don’t apply Christian ethics to government. I’ve tried to explain this all many times and no one really seems to care. My arguments from Scripture apparently aren’t overcoming their pessimistic presuppositions.

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Bootlicking Christians Part 783

Here’s a quick conversation I had with a Christian acquaintance. I posted about how voting for a tax increase is committing the sin of covetousness. I can’t remember ever getting a good argument against that. Here’s another terrible argument.

Her first argument is that voting for a tax increase isn’t covetousness because I don’t live in Canon City. The second response isn’t really an argument at all, just alleging that I’m a heretic without giving any reason at all. But she supports my First Amendment right to spread heresy. That certainly wouldn’t be my response if someone I knew was spreading heresy.

Her next comment is just to quote Romans 13. This happens so often that I coined this term a few years ago. I’m hoping the verb to “romansthirteen” someone catches on some day.

Romans 13, when properly understood, is dynamite laid at the foundation of tyrannical government. I would love it if as Romans 13 teaches, government left people doing good alone and pursued as criminals those who did something to earn God’s wrath.

Of course, no response to an actual explanation of what Romans 13 teaches except a laughing emoji. I think I’ve been Romansthirteened about 20 times by Calvary Chapel people.

Can someone please get these people some brain cells to rub together so I can have an actual conversation at some point? I don’t say that to sound pompous. I am the most humble man alive. The only reason I’m right is because I believe what the Bible teaches.

_______________________________________________________________________________The rest of this is the original post I wrote, to which she was responding:

Voting for a tax increase for a swimming pool is committing the sin of covetousness (the Tenth Commandment, Exodus 20:17). Coveting is wanting something to the point that you’re willing to get it by dishonest means.

Taxes are collected by government threatening to confiscate property or threatening imprisonment. What you are advocating when you vote for a tax increase is more violence, or at least threats of violence from government. I realize it rarely comes to violence, because most people would rather just pay than suffer serious loss. A mugger says “Give me your wallet or I’ll shoot you.” That is exactly what government does to collect taxes, except they do it through the mail and it takes longer. Voting is not a magic ritual that turns stealing into righteous taxation. Voting is just an attempt of a majority to force a minority to do something they don’t want to do.

If you are willing to pay for a pool, you’re free to do that. Rather than coveting, why don’t those who want a pool do honest work and raise money for it?

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Covetousness Is Idolatry

This guy is a greedy, covetous idolater who wants to take your money to build a very expensive swimming pool to be operated by the government, who are not exactly renowned for their efficient, cost-effective decision making. I told him that, and I told him government can’t give government permission to steal other people’s things. That’s circular logic. So, how exactly does theft mutate into taxation in his mind? Here’s his answer:

He says it’s not exactly government giving government permission to steal. It’s the founding fathers who gave the government permission to steal. So you see, it’s way different. It was all put in writing in 1788, so there’s a document that gives government permission to steal. It all makes perfect sense. Wait just a second. How does the Constitution, written by men, give a government made of men the right to take other people’s property? I have no idea. It’s his religious belief that he obviously takes on blind faith. There is no good reason to believe it. Ultimately the religious belief he has is that might makes right.

Scripture calls covetous people idolaters (Ephesians 5:5) and he’s putting his idolatry on full display. People always scoff at me on Facebook when I point out the religious nature of these discussions. If you want to engage in a discussion of morality and laws and how you can know things, that’s a religious discussion. There is no way to know anything or know right and wrong apart from Scripture.

The thing that is really reprehensible is this line, “Those who don’t wish to abide by it are heartily encouraged to find another country with a government more to their liking.”

Here’s what that means. We’re going to go on stealing from people and oppressing whoever we want. If you don’t want to be stolen from, you have to get far away from us. We’re not interested in just leaving you alone. We will get in your comfort zone with a 9 mm if necessary.

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Covetousness Is Rampant

“You shall not covet” is the Tenth Commandment. It’s on the list with obvious sins like “You shall not murder”. But, apparently both Republicans and Democrats, Christians and non-Christians can get on board with rampant covetousness.

You don’t have to watch the video from Kurt Zerby if you don’t want. His first error is that renters don’t need to worry about property tax hikes. As if expenses don’t get passed on to renters in rent hikes. His math may be correct, though it’s based on a wild guess on his part. But he’s obviously playing on people’s greed showing how their house value will go up. Just by voting to take your neighbor’s money via government extortion, your house will skyrocket in value.

Socialism is built on covetousness, greed and theft. You get free something or cheap something or financial benefits by forcing people who don’t want or don’t agree with something to pay for it. Capitalists are often accused of greed, but it is just the opposite. Capitalists make money when people voluntarily pay for something they value. Both the buyer and the seller are better off after the transaction. In socialism, you get something for very little. You can benefit from your neighbor’s stuff. This video is in-your-face, blatant covetousness.

If a rec center is so valuable, it would be supported by people donating to it and by customers paying to use it. But raising funds is hard work, and it may mess up his return on investment, because that is dependent on the cost being spread out to everyone.

Socialism just keeps creeping up on us, while Republicans and Christians go all in on each little socialist project as long as it’s not proposed by a Democrat. Now they’re even in favor of recreation services being provided from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. In reality, there’s only one political party in this country–the Big Government Party.