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God's Labor Laws, part 4

Because most people are used to defining terms by the traditions of men, it takes some study and a change of culture to learn how to function in a Kingdom setting. Ancient Israel attempted to function as the Kingdom of God, but in the end they failed. God judged them for their refusal to steward His land, His economy, and His culture or way of life. Israel was dispersed among the nations until the time of the end, when the appointed time arrived for the promise of God to be fulfilled.

Throughout history, men have forgotten the laws of God and have often misunderstood those laws even when they attempted to study them. When men study the laws of God by the power of the soul, the desires of the soul/flesh always run interference in the pursuit of truth. That is why it is so important to be led by the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13). The soul perceives traditions of men as truth; the spirit understands the word and law of God to be truth.

God’s labor laws are one of the foundational truths we need to understand, so that we are able to understand the origin and purpose of property and money. Because men have not understood that labor is property and is protected by the eighth commandment from all forms of theft—including unjust taxes—men have been able to impose ungodly traditions of men for their own gain.

All authority originated from God, who delegated authority by the power of His own sovereignty and by right of creation (Genesis 1:26; Romans 13:1). Governments have been instituted to steward the land and the people on behalf of God. As stewards, all governments are subject to the laws of God, and when they cast aside His laws, they lawlessly usurp power and refuse to recognize God’s rights as the Creator.

Tithes and Offerings

Tithes belong to God, because they represent a return on God’s labor. Offerings are gifts that are given freely out of one’s own labor.

God requires tithes on the increase that is generated when man uses God’s labor to derive wealth. God does not tax our own labor but protects it from government theft. In biblical days most wealth was generated from farming, fishing, ranching, and mining—all of which depend fully upon nature that God labored to create.

There were herdsmen in those days who were hired to work for the owner of the flocks. A typical herdsman paid no taxes, because his wage was an equal trade (barter) of property—money for labor. Neither did he derive his wage directly from God’s labor, as did the owner of the flock or herd. A tenth of the lambs or calves belonged to God, and the herdsmen were paid out of the nine other animals that represented the increased wealth of the owner.

In a general sense, one might argue that all of man’s labor is derived from God’s labor, seeing that man himself was a product of God’s labor. For this reason some have argued that tithe is owed from all of man’s wages. However, the law of God makes no such demands insofar as tithing is concerned.

The fact that man, as a product of God’s labor, is under God’s authority means that he must serve his Master. All of his labor, in that sense, is slave labor, because it serves the will of his Master. Slaves do not owe tithes or taxes, for all of their labor is already owned by God.

Yet tithes are based not on slave labor but upon a business partnership of sorts. Hence, tithes are owed only on the increase from the ground, from the flocks and herds, and any other form of wealth generation that partners with God. All other labor is a derivative of such grass-roots wealth generation and is non-taxable.

Taxes increase the price of goods. So when a farmer pays a tithe on his crop, the remaining 90 percent must be sold at a higher price to cover his expense. In effect, the tithe that he pays up front is passed on to the consumer in the form of increased price. For this reason, we should not think that farmers and ranchers are unfairly paying all the taxes to support the government. In reality, all consumers pay for the grass-roots tax.

God’s Kingdom, when stewarded properly, is quite inexpensive. Justice in God’s Kingdom requires thieves to labor (if necessary) to pay restitution to their victims, rather than to house them in expensive prisons. Man’s laws are exceedingly complex, requiring hosts of lawyers to sort through countless laws that most men do not know or understand. God’s laws can be found in a single book in most houses in America.

Practical Application

If a lumberman harvests ten trees that God created, he owes God one tree. He takes the nine remaining trees and adds value to them by putting his own labor into them. By shaping the trees into boards, value is added. By cutting the boards into suitable pieces, he makes furniture, and more value is added. If he then sells the furniture or barters it for another form of wealth, he reaps the reward of his own labor by converting his property (furniture) into something else that he wants.

All of his labor increases his wealth, because true wealth is the result of labor. The more labor is done on earth, the more wealth is generated. The amount of wealth increases when we produce more than we consume, destroy, or wear out. Under God’s laws, it is relatively easy to increase wealth, because everyone is given a land inheritance that cannot be taxed. Under man’s laws, however, as we see today, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

The Apostle Paul tells us that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10 KJV). Governments are run by men who are not exempt from this fleshly desire. History shows that regardless of how altruistic a government is at its beginning, it tends to degenerate and become more corrupt as time passes.

One way of measuring the level of corruption is by looking at the tax rate. Basic tax rates increase as governments use money unlawfully in ways that no longer glorify God or support Kingdom culture. Hence, men have devised new ways to steal money from others, and governments are no different. Governments of men assume the power to tax, not as stewards but as owners.

Men have thus come up with something known as the Value Added Tax (VAT). If a lumberman harvests ten trees, he is taxed at whatever rate the government has established. If he cuts it into boards, adding value to the wood, and if he sells it at a higher price, he is taxed. If a man buys the boards and makes a table, he adds value to the wood, and if he sells it, he is again taxed on the increased value.

At every step, the VAT is a tax on each man’s own labor. The government thus assumes the right to tax labor, not recognizing that the purpose of government is to protect the rights of God and man. Governments were instituted to protect men’s labor and property rights, not to steal it. That is why America’s Declaration of Independence stated: “All men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are… the pursuit of happiness,” i.e., man’s right to work and to use his property as he sees fit.

Men’s ungodly governments function as slave masters, not as stewards. Hence, they assume the right to tax as they wish, for they claim to own all of the labor done by their slaves. Governments of men, then, are slave systems, for they dare to tax and confiscate men’s labor, instead of using the tithe that is earned by God’s labor.

The Right to Work

In accordance with God’s law, as understood by our founders, America’s constitution expressly forbids a direct tax on labor. The government was funded mostly by tariffs and excise taxes for more than a century. It was only when the nation was sold into bondage to Mystery Babylon through the Federal Reserve Act (1913) and through the 16^th Amendment (1916) that the people were brought into divine judgment—slavery to a foreign power.

From then on the people began to eat the fruits of their lawlessness. The 16^th Amendment gave congress no new powers of taxation, as the Supreme Court itself ruled later. It only gave congress the right to tax corporations, which were creatures of the state. This right had been determined by the Corporate Tax Act of 1909.

http://www.tax-freedom.com/WhereDoesIncomeComeFrom.htm

The right to tax corporations was based on the fact that corporations were state-created entities and therefore functioned under privilege. Privileges are granted by governments and can therefore be taxed, whereas wages are given to those having the right to work. Income is legally defined as corporate income, even as wages on labor are an equal exchange of property—usually, when labor is exchanged for money. Hence, in the good old days when the Constitution was the law of the land, wages were non-taxable.

The provisions of Corporate Tax Act of 1909 were then made part of the Constitution itself through the 16^th Amendment. As it was written and interpreted by the Supreme Court, this amendment did not contradict the Declaration of Independence and its guarantees of the right to pursue “happiness.”

However, new masters had taken over the country, and they interpreted the amendment in their own way in order to enslave the American people. Our new masters found it useful to keep the people ignorant of the difference between rights and privileges, income and wages. Gradually, they began to license virtually all professions and people, so that their labor itself would be done through government privilege, rather than through one’s natural right under God.

The Solution

While some chafe under the dominion of Mystery Babylon, it is important to see the bigger picture and to understand why we are in captivity to beast systems. Mystery Babylon is not the problem. The problem is that God’s people have been lawless. God has judged America and the world, not because of the sin of the world but because of the sin of His people. God has always used ungodly nations as His agents of judgment.

Therefore, the solution is not to fight Babylon but to repent of our own lawless ways. When our sentence is complete, God will open the eyes of His people, giving them the ability to repent. When they repent, then God will end the captivity. As Daniel 2:35 tells us, in that day the stone will strike the Babylonian image on its feet and toes, ending the rule of the four empires pictured as metals (gold, silver, bronze, and iron). The Stone Kingdom will then grow until it fills the whole earth.

We are now in training through the Word and the Holy Spirit for the time when the Kingdom of God is established as a fully-functional government on earth, led by Jesus Christ and His faithful stewards. A large part of our training is to understand the laws of the Kingdom, because if we do not know these laws, how can we implement them in the Kingdom of God? We must know these laws in order to teach others the righteous principles of divine government, so that the creation itself can be “set free from its slavery to corruption” and enjoy the liberties given to the children of God (Romans 8:21).