The Perfect Law of Liberty
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass [mirror, NASB]: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:22-25)1
The law of Yahweh2 is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)
Any government not based upon the Bible’s perfect law of liberty is, consequently, devoid of God’s perfection, wisdom, truth, and righteousness. Case in point, the Constitutional Republic sired by the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration Speaks for Itself
Paragraph #2, Sentences 6–7
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
As we continue to biblically examine the twenty-seven Facts (grievances), take note again how many of these same abuses can be leveled at both the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers.
Grievances #13 & 17
He [Britain’s King George III] has combined with others [members of England’s Parliament] to subject us to … their Acts of pretended Legislation: … For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.
In addition to the Stamp Act, taxes on income, tea, paper, glass, and a host of other goods were being imposed upon the American colonials by Great Britain, without any representation from the colonials themselves. But should the lack of representation have been the American colonials’ chief concern? Hardly!
Without Our Consent
Without whose consent? Without the colonials’ consent?
Once again, the word “our” is the operative term, indicative that the Declaration’s signatories were impervious to King George’s violations against Yahweh and His law. Not only was this not their primary concern, it wasn’t cited at all. The colonials’ only concern was George’s violations against themselves.
This humanism invariably manifested itself in their own government of, by, and for the people, which the constitutional framers created eleven years later and which has become manifold times worse than the one they seceded from:
[B]ecause they have … trespassed against my law … they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind…. (Hosea 8:1, 7)
Oppressive Taxation
King George’s abusive unbiblical taxation pales in comparison with the oppressive and repressive taxation resulting from the unbiblical government created by the alleged liberty boys of 1776 and 1787, who are, once again, best depicted by the Apostle Peter:
[W]ells without water … speak[ing] great swelling words of vanity … promis[ing] … liberty, [while] they themselves are servants [slaves] of their own corruption. (2 Peter 2:17-19)
This is especially true regarding taxation. Consider the Constitutional Republic’s taxes, none of which would exist under a biblical government. Had the constitutional framers (like their early 1600 predecessors) established government based upon the Bible’s perfect law of liberty (including its economic and tax statutes), there would be no graduated income tax,3 property tax, sales tax, or any of the other Constitutional Republic’s sundry taxes inflicting economic havoc on today’s Americans.
Moreover, there would be no Federal Reserve, nor its mistress today’s usurious fiat banking system, nor its enforcement arm the Internal Revenue Service. Talk about liberty! Talk about prosperity!
Just think what life would be like without all of the Constitutional Republic’s taxes, the Federal Reserve, and the IRS, and if instead taxes were limited to only a 10% flat increase tax3 per the Bible—a voluntary tax for only those with an increase. The Bible’s 10% tax while mandatory is nonetheless voluntary in that it’s left to each individual to pay this tax without government coercion or threat. Precedent for this is found in Nehemiah 10:32 regarding the Temple tax, and in that there’s no civil judgment prescribed for God robbers. God will one day take care of that Himself.
Because of the incredible results from the Bible’s perfect law of liberty as government and society’s standard (Deuteronomy 4:5-8, 28:1-14, Psalm 19:7-11, Romans 13:1-7, etc.), coercion and threat would not be required for most people to willingly support such a government with their tithe.
If you have no increase above your expenses, you aren’t taxed anything! This would leave 90% of your increase to be spent on yourself, your family, others of your own choice (freewill offerings), or to be reinvested in your business.
Contrast this with the 18th-century founding fathers’ swelling words of vanity (hollow promises of liberty) that have only produced more and more compounded slavery, especially economic slavery. This is what inevitably comes from rejecting Yahweh, His Kingdom, and His perfect law of liberty:
Thus speaketh Yahweh of hosts, … This people say, The time is not come … that Yahweh’s house [His kingdom] should be built. Then came the word of Yahweh …, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled [paneled, NASB] houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith Yahweh of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag [purse, NASB] with holes. … Consider your ways…. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it [blow it away, NASB]. Why? saith Yahweh of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. (Haggai 1:2-9)
Sounds like what many contemporary Americans are suffering under the Constitutional Republic!
Limited Government
Under a biblical government,4 a 10% increase tax would be more than sufficient for what would be a truly limited government—unlike today’s Constitutional Republic’s behemoth.
Constitutionalists, Libertarians, and Republicans often claim that limited government was the constitutional framers’ objective. It is true that government was much more limited in the late 1700s than it is today. But do not believe for a minute that the Constitution provided America with limited government, even in the late 1700s. When compared with biblical government, a government consisting of a president, vice president, a House of Representatives, a Senate, and a judiciary can hardly be described as limited. When the framers rejected a biblical theocracy in exchange for the United States’ secular theocracy,5 they also cast aside limited government.
There is no more escaping theocracy (god rule) than there is escaping taxation. It’s just a matter of what kind of theocracy (biblical or secular) one chooses to live under and support with their taxes. There are no vacuums when it comes to legislated morality or, more often than not, immorality. Consequently, a government’s foundational ethical standard determines its God. Thus, there are likewise no vacuums when it comes to religious-influenced government, be it even Secular Humanism in its multifarious forms, and it usually is. Case in point: The Constitutional Republic and its God We the People.5
With some rare exceptions, biblical government consists of only one King and Legislator (Yahweh) and a judiciary to litigate His commandments and statutes, and enforce His civil judgments. That is limited government!
Biblical government has no need of a president and his cabinet, a House of Representatives or a Senate and their glutted bureaucracy, a tax-subsidized standing army, a prison complex, a Federal Reserve, an Internal Revenue Service, or a parasitical welfare system. Constitutionalists want to abolish nearly everything enumerated here, but they would have us “return” to the very document that birthed these excesses and robbed us of a truly limited government.
Today’s America is reaping the inevitable ever-intensifying whirlwind (Hosea 8:7) resulting from the wind (Hosea 8:1) sown by the constitutional framers and fanned by today’s hoodwinked Christians and patriots who have been bamboozled into believing today’s whirlwind can be dissipated by appealing to the wind responsible for spawning the whirlwind.
Unimaginable Prosperity
Under a biblical government, local communities (biblical ecclesias6) would prosper beyond our wildest imaginations—exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we could ask or think, per Ephesians 3:20. This is how you make America great and prosperous again, as well as the envy of the rest of the world:
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Yahweh my God commanded me…. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Yahweh our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
Today’s constitutionalists have audaciously commandeered these windfalls resulting from an earlier biblical American and have profanely claimed them to be the result of the 1776 and 1787 cadre of Enlightenment and Masonic theistic rationalists and their biblically seditious Constitution7 created after seceding from Great Britain.
That’s not how French Historian Alexis de Tocqueville declared America’s former greatness, prosperity, and fame was acquired:
They [the 17th-century Puritans] exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now presents to the world is to be found [in perfect fulfillment of Deuteronomy 4:5-8, demonstrating the continuing veracity of Yahweh’s law and its accompanying blessings, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14]
.
Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650. The legislators of [New Haven] Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ … copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.…8
It’s blasphemous for today’s Christians9 and patriots to credit either the Declaration’s signatories or the Constitution’s framers with what exclusively was derived from Yahweh, His government, and His laws.
Kingdom / Ecclesia Tithing
What’s the purpose of the Bible’s 10% tax, aka the tithe?
The answer to this question will surely come as a surprise to most contemporary Christians. The Bible tithe has nothing to do with supporting churches or church pastors, if for no other reason than because churches are foreign to the Bible, despite the appearance of the word “church” in the New Testament.10 Consequently, no one has been commissioned to church, and thus no one is biblically obligated to tithe today’s churches. In fact, to tithe to any church or ministry that’s anti-Kingdom here and now, anti-biblical dominion, and/or antinomian (anti-biblical law under the New Covenant) is an act of sedition against Yahweh.
The word “church,” poorly translated from the Greek word ecclesia, wouldn’t be in our English Bibles if not for King James’ third instruction to his translators:
3. The old ecclesiastical words to be kept; as the word church, not to be translated congregation [even better assembly and/or community], &c [etc].11
When you hear the word “church,” what comes to mind? For most people, the word “church” means one of two things, depending upon the context:
1) A building they frequent once, twice, or three times a week in which to pray, sing praises, and listen to preaching.
2) The people who allegedly make up the church, aka the body of Christ, who frequent a building known as a church to do the things depicted in Option #1.
What doesn’t come to mind is a community of believers in the fullest sense of the word—a biblical community established, not only on the Word of God, but also on the moral laws of God.12 When obedient to our ecclesia commission, these biblical communities will be established not on the Ten Commandments alone, but upon the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes explaining the Ten Commandments and their respective civil judgments enforcing the Ten Commandments and their statutes, adjudicated by biblically qualified men of God who are a continual blessing to the righteous and a perpetual terror to the wicked, per Exodus 18:21, Romans 13:1-7,13 etc.
There is not a living person today who hears the word “church” and thinks of what’s depicted in the previous paragraph. And yet this description represents the true meaning of the Greek word ecclesia, which has been tragically translated “church.”
Ecclesia is first and foremost a political term. This is easily proven from its etymology and its historical and biblical use. Consider the Encyclopedia Britannica’s definition of ecclesia:
[An] ancient Greek assembly (“gathering of those summoned”), in ancient Greece, assembly of citizens in a city-state. … the Ecclesia … the body of male citizens 18 years of age or over and [who] had final control over policy, including the right to hear appeals in the heliaia (public court), take part in the election of archons (chief magistrates), and confer special privileges on individuals. … Assemblies of this sort existed in most Greek city-states, continuing to function throughout the Hellenistic and Romans periods, though under the Roman Empire their powers gradually atrophied.14
That the Greeks’ ecclesias were eventually eliminated under the Roman Empire should not come as surprise. Much like King James dictating to his translators to render ecclesia as church, the Roman dictators made sure they also had the monopoly on such political assemblies over the Greeks. The Romans further designed to do the same with anyone like those depicted in Acts 17:6-7 who were in the process of turning the Roman Empire upside down by declaring Christ as their King, His laws as supreme, and thereby doing “contrary to the decrees of Caesar.”
The Free Dictionary sums up ecclesia as “The political assembly of citizens of an ancient Greek state.”15
The New Testament bears out this definition in Acts 19:21-41 where the Greek word ecclesia is found three times. It has absolutely nothing to do with either church buildings or Christians. Instead, it’s translated “assembly,” referring to a political gathering conducted by the town clerk for the purpose of litigating a legal issue against the Apostle Paul’s companions.
Because no one has been commissioned to church, no one has been commanded to tithe to churches or their pastors.
Commissioned to Ecclesia
Christians have been commissioned to ecclesia16—that is, to form local biblical communities in the fullest sense of the word. This includes civil governments established upon God’s perfect law of liberty, exclusively governed by biblically qualified men of God, particularly elder judges who adjudicate per God’s triune moral law of God—that is the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.17
Consequently, the biblical tithe is not a church tithe but rather a kingdom tithe18—a tithe for the support and maintenance of ecclesia governments and their laborers, especially men in full-time Kingdom service, who, in all likelihood, will have no other means of livelihood.
If not by the tithe then how is remuneration for services rendered to be determined in such ecclesias? God did not leave this up to conjecture, which would be an instance of doing what’s right in our own eyes, per Judges 21:25. The tithe has always been a Kingdom tithe and will always remain a Kingdom tithe—at least when employed as God intends, for the maintenance of local ecclesias and the support of Kingdom laborers.
The tithe was certainly never intended for anyone, non-Christian or alleged Christian alike, opposed to Yahweh’s extant Kingdom and its laws here and now.
If the Kingdom exists today (and it does19), it must be financially supported. Therefore, the tithe is as relevant now under the New Covenant as it was under and prior to the Mosaic Covenant.
Objections to the New Covenant Tithe Answered
Greed and covetousness aside, there are three principal reasons why many believers today oppose the tithe under the New Covenant. First, because of charlatans and their usurpation of the tithe, whereby they fleece the sheep only to enrich themselves. Of course, this no more justifies tithe hoarders than it does the charlatans. Who’s dictating our actions: the charlatans or Yahweh? Forget the charlatans! It’s your responsibility as a Christian, as a citizen of the Kingdom, to instead locate Kingdom ambassadors who deserve support—some of whom deserve a double portion:
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. (1 Timothy 5:17-18)
The second reason some people reject the tithe under the New Covenant is because of erroneous eschatology that has the Kingdom yet off in the future or exclusively up in heaven rather than here and now.19 It’s sometimes argued by such people that without an extant Kingdom here on earth (allegedly), there’s no need to polish brass on what’s a sinking ship, and therefore no need to support those polishing the brass—that is, performing Kingdom-related duties.
But to deny the present reality of the King, His Kingdom, and His law is heresy of the worst caliber. One cannot deny the present reality of the Kingdom without at the same time denying the present reality of the King.19
That the Kingdom is here and now includes the responsibility to financially maintain and advance the Kingdom. Your tithe still belongs to God, and thus still needs to be employed on behalf of His Kingdom via those who labor for the restoration of Kingdom ecclesias. This is especially true today since the Kingdom is in such disrepair with so few promoting the Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, per Matthew 6:10 & 33. Consequently, today’s Kingdom ambassadors are as essential as ecclesia judges once such ecclesias have been reinstated as in early 1600s America.
The third reason why some people are opposed to the New Covenant tithe is because they have failed to discern correctly the added law of Galatians 3:1920 and its implications regarding the Kingdom tithe that existed prior to the added Mosaic Covenant (Genesis 14:18-20 & Genesis 28:16-22) and is, therefore, likewise in existence now under the New Covenant.
Abraham’s tithing of all in Genesis 14:18-20 (rather than just an agricultural tithe under the Mosaic Covenant) is what the author of the Hebrews epistle uses as our example for New Covenant tithing. See Hebrews 7:2-17. Christ is our New Covenant Melchisedek, our New Covenant King. If the pre-Mosaic Covenant Melchisedek deserved Abraham’s tithe, how much more so our post-Mosaic Covenant Melchisedek and His Kingdom work here and now?
Malachi’s New Covenant Prophecy
Additionally, consider carefully the following from Malachi’s New Covenant prophecy:
I am Yahweh, I change not… Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Yahweh of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes … and prove me now herewith, saith Yahweh of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes…. (Malachi 3:6-11)
While it’s true that the Mosaic Covenant’s agricultural tithe ended with the New Covenant, the tithe of all per Hebrews 7 based upon Abraham’s and Jacob’s pre-Mosaic examples, is still very relevant and important today—not for the support of merely church men but Kingdom men, eventually ecclesia judges.
If you want to see the blessings enumerated by Malachi manifested in our time—including the overthrow of today’s devourers—the Kingdom and its laborers must be supported by tithes and offerings.
Otherwise, the government vacuum for the lack of support will be filled by another oppressive government that will be more than pleased to take you for everything you have via its surrogate taxes, the same as the one we live under today, thanks to the Declaration’s signatories and Constitution’s framers, who were more concerned with King George robbing them than they were with themselves robbing God.
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
Stay Tuned for Part 17.
Related posts:
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence” (Audio series)
“Biblical Examination of the Declaration of Independence, Pts. 1-12” (Articles)
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective
End Notes
1. All scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.
2. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to memorialize His name, per Exodus 3:15, in this article.
For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain, the third in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
3. Chapter 25 “Amendment 16: Graduated Income Tax vs. Flat Increase Tax” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
4 A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
5. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.
6. Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
7. See Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective, in which every Article and Amendment is examined by the Bible.
8. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (New York: NY: The Colonial Press, 1899) vol. 1, pp. 36-37
9. Not everyone claiming to be a Christian has been properly instructed in the biblical plan of salvation. Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:36-41, 22:1-16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; and 1 Peter 3:21 should be studied to understand what is required to be covered by the blood of Jesus and forgiven of your sins.
For a more thorough explanation concerning water immersion and its relationship to salvation, the bookBaptism: All You Wanted to Know and More may be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
Additionally, listen to audio series “I Had a Dream: Judgment’s Coming. Are You Under the Blood?” Part 1 can be found here. Or a MP3 CD, containing all ten messages, can be requested from Bible Law vs. The United States Constitution, PO Box 248, Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69363, for free.
10. Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
11. Instructions to the Translators
12. For more on how the Bible’s triune and integral moral law (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) applies and should be implemented today as the law of the land, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.
Also A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.
14. Ecclesia: Ancient Greek Assembly, Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/Ecclesia-ancient-Greek-assembly
15. Ecclesia, The Free Dictionary, https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ecclesia
16. Ecclesia vs. Church: Why Understanding the Difference is Critical to Our Future
17. A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
See also ten books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.
18. Listen to the audio series “Kingdom Tithing.”
19. Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
20. Listen to Parts 12 & 13 of “An Expository Series on Galatians.” Part 12 is subtitled “The Added, Fulfilled, and Abolished Law,” and Part 13 is subtitled “Mosaic Covenant vs. New Covenant.”