Posted on 04/18/2016 3:42:27 PM PDT by all the best
The answer is no. Now let’s explain.
Doug Wilson has published an opinion that “taxation can be done right,” by which he means there is legitimate taxation according to the Bible. While I esteem much of Rev. Wilson, and there is tremendous overlap between us in general, I disagree with this sentiment, and I think it is important for the Christian’s overall vision of the future. I offer this intramural essay.
Doug makes a distinction between taxation that is without biblical warrant and taxation with biblical warrant, and which we should therefore accept as normative for society. While we would largely agree on the first category, it is the second where I dissent. Doug writes,
We know that taxation can be done right because the Bible talks about paying taxes to the one to whom it is due (Rom. 13:7). These are taxes that we owe, and are not to be considered theft at all. We should no more chafe at paying our legitimate taxes than we do paying our bill for satellite television.
My view, expressed online and in Restoring America, does not allow this distinction:
None of this, however, is to justify taxation in general. Ideally, there would be none, and public services would be much more like private services, if not in fact private services. . . . There is no biblical law regarding any taxation for civil government. This leads me to believe there should be none.
I am now more resolved in that belief than I was over two years ago when I first wrote it.
But Doug gives a Scriptural basis. What of that? While I certainly recognize the Scripture he references to support his concept of “legitimate taxes” which we cannot consider theft at all, I don’t agree on its import.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanvision.org ...
Food for thought on National Theft Day.
If the gov’t were actually defending the borders against invasion it might be different....
Well, the Founding Fathers did not agree. However, they gave the power to “lay and collect taxes” to Congress and not the executive branch; and they certainly never intended an executive-branch bureaucracy to exist that is supported by such taxation.
Tithing is very much Biblical. The author of this piece would not be too keen on supporting a priesthood such as the Levites, something tells me.
Tithing does not go to government. He might be more open to that.
great article thx for posting
....And once we reach this mental point, we can begin to fashion free alternatives to the slavish, thieving, and socialistic institutions of the modern state: in education, welfare, civil government, markets, defense, courts, and so much more. We simply need to get our little minds outside the box in which we’ve been stuffed. And once our minds are set free, and free indeed, it won’t be long before our butts want to follow. Maybe that’s what really frightens people—knowing that modern state might want to try to start kicking.
I’m reminded of the tax revolt against Rehoboam now. Sadly, that was instigated by his father Solomon.
The Ceasar of today taxes a helluva lot more than the Ceasar that existed in 33 AD
In short, not anymore.
Well as a nation I think having some uniformed federal roads need a draw from all states in order to have decent roads....their are some things that need to be paid for by all in order to travel and allow commerce.....road signs are uniformed...imagine if every state had their own rules?...chaos on the roads....
Roads, infrastructure and military maybe.
A rational government of a free society has a legitimate function: to preserve and protect the natural rights of the citizens from internal and external threats, to establish a system of objective laws that results in ordered liberty, and to enforce contracts including the resolution of disputes that arise therefrom in accordance with objective laws. Taxes that are used for this purpose are legitimate.
Uh, the Bible is mostly about religion and salvation, not civil government. But Jesus himself gave civil government taxation his OK.....render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. And that "is" in the Bible. Direct quote from the mouth of God Himself.
serfs only paid about 25% we are way over that.
bkmk
“There is no biblical law regarding any taxation for civil government. This leads me to believe there should be none.”
This joker doesn’t realize that the Old Testament laws were a covenant with the nation of Israel, and not a rulebook for all governments everywhere?
>Well, the Founding Fathers did not agree. However, they gave the power to ‘lay and collect taxes’ to Congress
....*ONLY* for that in which they have authority, by the Constitution. Anything else is THEFT, illegal and unconstitutional.
Right. And no involvement by the executive branch.
Not only is there a legitimate taxation, there is also a legitimate filing! Daughter and son-in-law filed their taxes with the proper forms regarding the information on the erroneous W-2s and 1099s and without any questions they received back 100% of all income tax withheld along with 100% of all FICA taxes withheld! The problem isn’t the law, The problem is the people’s ignorance of the law!
It’s just like “legitimate rape.”
Well, Jesus paid the temple tax, and Paul says “If you owe taxes, pay taxes.” A nation - really almost any group - requires common funds. The problem isn’t taxation as a concept, but how high they are, and what they are spent on.
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