When it comes to Christians and the State (government), they two seem to go hand-in-hand in the Western countries. Either a Christian Body controls the government, or the government in control is thought to be blessed by God. This comes from a misunderstanding of one of the Books in the Bible — Romans, and specifically one chapter of Romans, Chapter 13:

Romans 13

Respect for Authority
1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.3 For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you.4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong.5 So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience. 6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do.7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.

As you can see, it seems that everyone (believer and non-believer) is told here to submit to the government(s) above them. From the Book, we see that God supposedly institutes government, so we must not rebel against the authority of government, or we will be punished (by God?) The anarcho-pantelist believes that the mainstream Christian notion of submitting to government is not just in error, but in grave error.

For the anarcho-pantelist, these verses were focused on the believer within the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire lorded over Jerusalem — both the Jews and the Christians, as well as a non-believers of either faith. In what the anarcho-pantelist calls the Parousia (or the Second Coming of Christ), we believe that Christ did return 2000 years ago to conquer sin and finally judge God’s Chosen People — the Jews of the day that did not believe in Christ the Savior.

The way that God the Father and Christ the Savior finally vanquished sin and fulfilled the requirements of all men was by using the Roman Army to battle the Jews and destroy the Jewish Temple once and for all. This actually did occur in 70 A.D. With the fall of the Jewish Temple, animal sacrifice was ended forever by the Jews, and the Jewish leaders lost control of their flock. 1/3rd of the Jews in the area were killed by the army, 1/3rd of the Jews died through pestilence and plague, and 1/3rd were scattered. Even to this day, the majority of the Jews are scattered throughout the world — a view that God had finalized his Covenant with the Jews, bringing the New Covenant forth to the world as a whole.

It is important to see that the Early Church was given the words in Romans 13 to understand that they had to stay under the power of the Roman Army. God was quickly going to judge the Jews who ignored the Savior, and He was going to use the Roman Army to do so. This meant that Christians of the time had to keep with the Roman rule in order for God’s Prophecies of the End Times (basically, the End of the Old Age) to come to pass. And it did.

With the ending of the Old Covenant, the “regulations” of the entire Book of Romans also came to pass. With the sealing of the Old Laws, the New Covenant was created — giving all men stewardship over what they earned with their hard work and honesty, so that they could share their excess with those who were less fortunate. It is the Christian powermongers today who love the power of government, because they say that it is blessed by God and anointed for His Purposes. To the anarcho-capitalist, God has no more purpose on Earth to fulfill prophecy — God and Jesus are reigning over those in the afterlife, leaving the mortal world to the mortals to steward over.

In the Old Testament, God warned man against government and kings (see the entire Book of Kings). God shows that governments would enslave the populace, use them in wars, tax them and jail them. This always happens with all governments, including the U.S., which has enslaved more of its population than any other country in the world. We have the biggest army, and have committed more murders in wars than almost any other leading country. Is this what God wants?

If God anoints governments, and we are to submit to our authority, where does the Bible show the citizens under Hitler that they can rise against him? What about Saddam Hussein, who was democratically elected and had citizens to govern. What gives one country the right to overthrow a ruler, if that ruler is anointed by God? The mainstream Christian viewpoint on Romans is troubling because it tries to play two different sets of rules: one set f rules for the “us” and one set of rules for the “them.” We can look at all the great wars since the time of Christ and we see religion as the cause for them — including the various Crusades where Christians believed they were called by God to destroy heathens of other faiths.

The anarcho-pantelist disagrees with all forms of government. We believe we have One King and that everyone has free will to go against Christ’s teachings, or to accept them. Our very own congregations (”churches”) in the West have actually utilized the law to place themselves above the individual — congregations are allowed to bypass tax laws and restrictions that the average individual can not. It is wrong to think of the Church as needing the State to do what God wants it do to.

As we see in the story of Christ, even Christ’s own parents were told by God to ignore the government’s rule and flee. If God anoints all governments and we are to submit to all rule, at what point do we look for God when governments over us try to do evil things? When did Christ tell His Followers to get together and vote to help others? Christ didn’t — He told us that we as individuals must go and help others, not as a union of followers but as single followers of His Way to love and care for others more than ourselves. It is callous to think that congregations throughout the world continue to support dominion over the individuals. Christ did not tell us to make new laws over others, He told us to support them regardless of what society was already attempting to provide.

There is no anointing of the State by God anymore. If anything, the State goes against Christ’s teaching because the State uses force (men with guns, the thread of jail or fines, and even the enslavement of the military draft) to do what it thinks is right. The only thing that is right for an individual is what the Spirit guides them to do. If individuals fail to hear the Spirit or believe in God the Creator, that is between them and God, not between you and them. Christ told us not to judge anyone except ourselves as individuals, and the use of the State (government) is one big step of judgment against others.

This post will be added to on occasion

While Anarcho-pantelists believe in acquiring capital to steward over (capital meaning tools or physical possessions), we don’t believe in acquiring anything through debt or loans from others. We’re firm believers that one can’t serve two kings, and debt is shown to lead to problems in the future as you’re enslaved to the person or group you have borrowed from.

Borrowing
So what is an anarcho-pantelist to do when they need to purchase something that they can’t afford, such as a house or a car? The obvious answer is to change your mindset about what you need today. Why would you give up a good portion of your future just to acquire something today?

For most families, the biggest burden on their futures financially is the home, followed by the car (or cars, in many cases). We venture forth from our own parents’ home (which is usually still borrowed on!) and then take on our own debt to acquire our own home. For many families today, the length of a typical home loan is much greater than 30 years — in some cases, families will have to pay a mortgage for 40+ years once you consider the multiple refinances that happen over the life of the loan. When you look at a typical Christian congregation, you see family after family struggling to make their mortgage payments, forcing both parents into the work environment. These debts are destructive to the family, and they are also destructive to the individual — they take up valuable time that can be better spent living simply and using their extra time to love those around them.

The best solution — possibly the only Biblical one — is to not fear living with others while you save your earnings to purchase a simple home in the future. Consider that the typical family of 4 lives in a home that costs them, on average, about 6 times their annual income. But it doesn’t take 6 years to pay off, it takes 30-40 years to pay down that 6-year cost! If two or three families were able to ignore the socially negative idea of cohabitation with one another, they would be all able to afford a simple home in a short matter of time — 7 to 11 years. Instead of splurging on worthless possessions in your early 20s, many families could save more than the cost of a basic home in that same period of time, ending up with a nice home by the age of 30, but without an additional 30 years of debt to be enslaved to.

Cohabitational living is not easy, but neither is 40 years of debt taking over 50% or more of your net income. It also gives families the opportunity to share in the raising of any children, plus it gives families the ability to focus on the needs of others within the home. We’re not talking about huge communities of families living together, just a small 2-4 family community within a single structure.

Is it easy? Definitely not. But as we have seen in recent times (with the increased rate of foreclosure and bankruptcy), neither is borrowing from the future to buy a home now. By living together in a simple home, you also learn exactly how much home you will need in the future, and when you’re ready to buy, you’ll be buying something significantly smaller than your friends do, because you will be paying cash for the house rather than splurging on a large home with future earnings.

Loaning

While borrowing from another puts you in the debt/servitude of another, loaning has a similar negative effect on relationships and individuals. The loving individual may think that loaning someone else money or tools can have a benefit in that other person’s life, but in reality it just puts them into the same situation we were trying to avoid in the first part of this article: servitude to others. The best action a loving faith believer can perform is granting another person a share of your tools or savings. If you can afford to loan someone capital, you can also afford to give it away — and you should. The New Testament shows time and again Christ telling others to give to others what they need, and even give away your possessions if you are unable to understand the policy of true love. Since Anarcho-pantelists don’t believe in stewarding over more property, tools and savings that we can handle, it makes perfect sense to give away your excess to others in need. Many of us earn more income than we need to survive on, and this extra income would be a perfect love offering to those who have made the decision to live in debt and servitude to others. By helping those in your community extricate themselves from their debtors, you will be able to share the Love that Christ professed and demonstrated to us in the New Testament.

When granting a portion of your wealth or tools to another, though, we need to be careful not to judge what that capital is spent on or how it is used. It is the unconditional offering that is important in Spirit, and we must be careful not to make decisions based on what we think is best for others — others should be free to do as they please, even if they lose or squander or waste your gift. “It’s the thought that counts” is very important to understand here.

One large reason why many don’t attend an organized house of faith is the fear that many are only out for your money — and that fear may be true. The season after Christmas, the first quarter of the new year, often comes with the usual new “church” budget and teaching on tithings and offerings that God demanded in the Old Testament. Anarcho-pantelists don’t support tithing or offering for the same reason we don’t believe in taxes (although we pay them because the cost of not paying them is too high to avoid): there is no need for either.

Anarcho-pantelists believe that God the Father designed each new mortal with a unique combination of hands, mind, heart and ability. What we do with those talents from birth is what directly affects our futures. The Bible offers many parables, stories and examples of “reaping what you sow,” meaning what you do today will greatly affect you tomorrow, just as what you did in the past is a huge part of your current place is life. We don’t believe that God the Father actively works in anyone’s lives through miracles or “talking” to them — why would a Loving God perform miracles for some and not others? Why would a Loving God talk to some but not others? It doesn’t make sense — Biblically or visibly. Yet while we do believe in reaping what you sow, we also believe that many people fall victim to both sides of the sowing process: if you try to reap more than you sow, you will live a lifetime of enslavement to others, if you try to sow more than you can reap, you will live a lifetime of overwork and under-enjoyment of the fruits of your labors.

Many Christians believe in modern materialism combined with slavery to a bank or lender. Instead of living within their means with capital and property they can maintain without a great amount of overwork, they over-buy and spend their lives paying off what they believe is rightly theirs. The anarcho-pantelist believes you don’t really own anything: we are stewards of what we “buy” for God the Father that can not directly maintain the worldly items. If we attempt to steward more than we can maintain, we create two harmful side effects: some items will go unmaintained and fall apart, other items will go unused and not be appreciated by others who could use them in their own lives. When you buy a bigger home than you can use, you pay for it with sometimes decades of debt to pay off. Not only do you never get to enjoy the home you bought (by inviting over friends and family regularly if not daily), others have a reduced opportunity to purchase high-demand land, building materials and material needs, so they must pay a higher price. When you buy too much, you contribute to both a high burden of debt as well as a lower supply for in-demand items. When you buy just what you need, you are now in control of much less, and the market has more to provide others with lower-priced goods. This is a net benefit.

The anarcho-pantelist does NOT believe in communism or forced sharing of the assets that we can maintain in excellence. We believe in capitalism where our tools and our minds and our hearts are completely ours to use to maintain God’s property that is in our possession, but no more. We believe that no one else can tell us how much we can maintain or how much we must share with others. This is why we are against the idea of taxation. The anarcho-pantelist understands that every mortal is born with the ability to learn how much they can handle, and what they should share charitably or sell to others to handle. Not every mortal will take advantage of attempting to learn how much they can handle, but this is how God designed us — everything we sow we will reap in the future in the proper way. Those who use force will have force used against them. Those who tax will be taxed. Those who live by the sword will die by the reactions to their actions. Those who save will be prosperous, those who accept debt will be slaves. Not everyone should be equally prosperous if they continue to not learn from their actions. But no one should be forced to reap what others have sown, unless they do so out of the love of their hearts rather than force and coercion.

By only maintaining the property and tools that we can, it opens the door for new opportunities to share your lifestyle with others, helping them build a new foundation of proper stewardship of God the Father’s earth. The organized church has never been able to be a good steward for God the Father’s property. Why? Go visit a local congregation on a weekday and see how well they maintain and use the land and building that they were able to purchase through previous years of saving and hard work. Even worse, many of these organized bodies are in debt and ignore the years of servitude to others! Instead, each member of the organization should work to relinquish possessions they can not maintain or use regularly, sell the communal property of the body, and use the proceeds to extricate all of their community from slavery and debt. By reducing their future burdens, they will open their futures to sharing their lifestyles will many more, who will also learn to sow prosperity so they can reap prosperity, rather than reaping burden.