Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)1
In the previous seven installments, I discussed dominion, property rights, labor, inheritance, restitution variations, property restoration, grazing rights, accidental damage, trusts, responsibility for borrowed and rented items, usury, care of the poor, pledges, surety, labor laws, items lost and found, boundary markers, eminent domain, amassed property, monopolies, just weights and measures, and debasement.
Government Theft
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards…. (Isaiah 1:23)
Generally, governments reflect the morality and character of the people whom they govern, a fact alluded to in the following comment from the book of Hosea:
And there shall be, like people, like priest2: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. (Hosea 4:9)
Rousas John Rushdoony elaborated:
When men are given to lawlessness, their society will also be lawless, as will be their laws and courts. In legal extortion or fraud, men use the agency of the state or its courts to conduct their robberies.3
Governments tend to be more ingenious than the average citizen in the ways they steal. In 1848 Frederic Bastiat wrote the very insightful book The Law, in which he expounded upon this inherent flaw of human governments:
The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become [sic] the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!4
…unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective. It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.5
This fact, combined with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law,6 and in proportion to the power that he holds.7
Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on.8
While most of this should sound all too familiar, the average citizen, regrettably, does not usually recognize such legislation as theft.
Public Lands
The creation of public lands is one method that the United States government employs to steal from its citizens. Identifying these lands as "public" is a part of the ruse to cover up the theft. Except for fact that the public is permitted to enjoy them, they are not public at all. In other words, the public does not own them, the government does. Even public use is changing given that the government is incrementally restricting access to more and more of these areas. The very fact that it can restrict access further proves that these lands are owned by the government. Moreover, the public is perpetually paying – taxes for upkeep and entrance fees – for what is supposedly already theirs.
Most people’s support of public lands is misplaced. The government has yet to demonstrate that it can manage anything better than can private entrepreneurs. Certainly private owners of the Yellowstone area would recognize its potential source of revenue, making parts of it available to the public, probably at far less expense than does the government. Dude ranches are one example of private citizens doing exactly this on a smaller scale.
Eminent Domain
Public lands are just the tip of the iceberg. All of America is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the government via eminent domain. Most people are unaware that eminent domain confers ownership of all land to the government. Although government is required to pay what it considers just compensation for the land it annexes, it ultimately can seize any citizen’s land at its discretion:
Eminent Domain as Exercise of Sovereignty. It was the theory of Grotius that the power of eminent domain was based on the principle that the state had an original and absolute ownership of the whole property possessed by the individual members of it; antecedent to their possession, and that their possession and enjoyment of it being subsequently derived from a grant by the sovereign, it was held subject to a tacit agreement or implied reservation that it might be resumed and all individual rights to it extinguished by a rightful exertion of this ultimate ownership by the state.9
The superior right of property subsisting in a sovereignty, by which private property may in certain cases be taken or its use controlled for the public benefit, without regard to the wishes of the owner…. The right of every government to appropriate otherwise than by taxation and its police authority … private property for public use.10
If a property owner does not have total control over his land, he does not own it. No middle ground exists. With the exception of that which is owned in a partnership, you cannot partially own something. It is oxymoronic to say you own something but do not have control over its use. Therefore, because the government maintains the right and the power to exercise eminent domain, the property that most people think they own is not really theirs at all.
That the government seldom exercises its claim to eminent domain does not make it any less a reality. The fact that government can and does exercise eminent domain anytime and anywhere it chooses proves that it has stolen title to all the land in America.
Property Tax
That the government owns every inch of land in America is also demonstrated in its power to tax property:
The ultimate ownership of all property is in the State; individual so-called ‘ownership’ is only by virtue of Government, i.e., law, amounting to mere user; and that use must be in accordance with law and subordinate to the necessities of the State. Senate Document 43, April 1933
I also commented on this insidious tax in Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy:
Most landowners are under the mistaken notion that the government steals their land when the sheriff and his deputies show up and physically removes them from their homestead. In reality the government had already stolen their land when it legislated to tax it in violation of Yahweh’s11 law. Under America’s current ungodly tax system, land "owners" are only temporary tenants who may be removed when the "laws of the land" are brought into play. Our response to the legislators should have been the same as Naboth’s when King Ahab wanted to confiscate his vineyard: "… YHWH12 forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee." (1 Kings 21:3)
Yahweh never abdicated title to the land. His eminent domain encompasses the entire earth. Consequently, governments that confiscate land are thieves who steal from Yahweh.13
The only difference between what King Ahab did when he stole Naboth’s vineyard and what the United States government does under the guise of taxation and eminent domain is that today’s government is more sophisticated in its methods.
Moreover the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession … that my people be not scattered every man from his possession (Ezekiel 46:18)
When the Israelites of Samuel's day clamored for a king and a government like that of all the nations around them, Yahweh warned them that their property and possessions would be in jeopardy:
And Yahweh said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have … rejected me, that I should not reign over them…. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of Yahweh unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants…. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. (1 Samuel 8:7-17)
If only it were just ten percent! Today’s typical citizen is taxed much more than ten percent via property tax, the graduated income tax, and numerous other obvious and hidden taxes.
Tax his land, tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor, tax his mule.
Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow, tax his goat,
Tax his pants, tax his coat.
Tax his ties, tax his shirts,
Tax his work, tax his dirt.
Tax his chew, tax his smoke
Teach him taxes are not a joke.
Tax his car, tax his ass,
Tax the roads he must pass.
Tax his tobacco, tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze, tax his beers,
If he cries, tax his tears.
Tax his bills, tax his gas,
Tax his notes, tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers, tax him more,
Tax him until he’s good and sore.
Tax his coffin, tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.
Put these words upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me to my doom!"
And when he’s gone, we won’t relax.
We’ll still be after the inheritance tax.
(Author Unknown)
Under Yahweh’s perfect system no one is ever dispossessed of his property because they are unable to pay the tax. Only the increase from a person’s property is to be taxed. In other words, only those who prosper are required to pay taxes. The poor or anyone who at any given time is not prospering is not to be taxed.
When property itself is taxed, the man who for whatever reason has no increase from which to pay the tax is forced into the ironic position of having to sell his property. Thereby his and his posterity’s inheritance is stolen from them.
Under Yahweh’s system not only is the increase the only thing taxed, but the tax is also never to exceed ten percent, an amount that anyone with an increase is able to afford. With the ever-increasing property taxes under America’s current perverted economic system, the day will come when only the super rich will be able to afford property:
The absence of any land and property tax in Biblical law very definitely protects enduring ownership, whereas modern tax laws destroy ownership. To cite one example, in one city, a lovely area of very superior homes, from ten to twenty rooms, some of stone construction, became, in about 25 years, so heavily taxed, that the homes either had to be torn down to make way for apartments, or sold for use as dormitories. The ownership of these homes was made prohibitive to impossible by means of taxes.
In another area, taxes led to the deterioration of the area, as people moved out and homes were made into multiple dwellings. Taxes then went down, and others moved in, so that a 90 percent change in population occurred in less than ten years. People who had built there, expecting to remain for life, lost heavily. Taxation of property is a means of destroying property and is a form of robbery.14
Property is basic to man’s freedom. A tyrannical state always limits a man’s use of his property, taxes it, or confiscates that property as an effective means of enslaving a man without necessarily touching his person.15
Property tax is a consequence of man’s rejection of Yahweh’s laws and is, therefore, one means by which Isaiah’s warning is being fulfilled today:
Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge … because they have cast away the law of YHWH of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 5:13-24)
In To Heal the Nation, Franklin Snook pointed out just how insidious property tax is:
To tax property is to make it a liability rather than an asset, and to tax improvements on property is to penalize the industrious and the thrifty – a stumbling block to prosperity.
Under the present system in America, a man may work for 20 or 30 years buying and paying for a home only to find that he must pay an annual rental fee (tax) to the city, county, or state. In his declining years when his income is low, or non-existent, he may well lose his home to the taxing authority by default and spend his remaining years in an institution.
Only when taxation is based on a person’s ability to pay – that is, on his income16 – and on that alone, will equity and justice be a fact in our land. The tax must not be graduated for that is nothing more nor less than a penalty on incentive.17
End Notes
1. All scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Portions of Scripture have been omitted for brevity’s sake. If you have questions regarding any passage, please open your Bible and study the text to ensure that it has been properly used.
2. The Levitical priests often served as judges.
3. Rousas John Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1973) p. 498.
4. Frederic Bastiat, The Law (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1987) p. 5.
5. Bastiat, pp. 8-9.
6. Man cannot make law (James 4:12, Isaiah 33:22), he merely legislates. Any legislation in agreement with Yahweh’s laws was already law and did not need man’s ratification to validate it anymore than the law of gravity needed man to name it for it to be a viable law. Any legislation not in agreement with Yahweh’s law is immoral.
7. Bastiat, p. 11.
8. Bastiat, p. 22.
9. William M. McKinney and Burdett A. Rich, editors, Ruling Case Law, quoted by Rousas John Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1973) p. 500.
10. John Bouvier, "Eminent Domain," Bouvier’s Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia (Kansas City, MO: Vernon Law Book Company, 1914) Volume 1, p. 1008.
11. YHWH is the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton (hw`hy))), the Hebrew name of the God of the Bible, most often pronounced Yahweh. For a more thorough explanation concerning the use of the names of God, "The Third Commandment" may be read at www.missiontoisrael.org/3rdcom-pt1.php, or the book Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy God in vain may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, 69363 for a suggested $4 donation.*
12. Where the Tetragrammaton hw`hy+ (YHWH) – the four Hebrew characters that represent the personal name of God – has been incorrectly rendered the LORD or GOD in English translations, I have taken the liberty to correct this error by inserting YHWH where appropriate. For a more thorough explanation concerning the use of the names of God, "The Third Commandment" may be read at www.missiontoisrael.org/3rdcom-pt1.php, or the book Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy God in vain may be ordered from Mission to Israel Ministries, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, 69363 for a suggested $4 donation.*
13. Ted R. Weiland, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (Scottsbluff, NE: Mission to Israel Ministries, 2004) p. 39.
14. Rushdoony, p. 492.
15. Rushdoony, p. 486.
16. Biblically, he would be taxed off his increase, not his income.
17. Franklin Snook, To Heal the Nation (Salem, OR: J. Franklin Snook, 1977) pp. 134-135.
* We are admonished in Matthew 10:8 "freely ye have received, freely give." Although there is a suggested price for our books, we do not sell them. In keeping with 2 Corinthians 9:7, this ministry is supported by freewill offerings. If you cannot afford the suggested price, inform us of your situation, and we will be pleased to provide you with whatever you need for whatever you can send.
|
