Tax is legitimate, biblical. Money printing is definitely theft.
"Political Funny Money".
Discussion
This seems contradictory to me. I'd be interested to get your thoughts. So inflation is, in effect, a tax on savings. If the government were to stop printing money and instead impose a tax on savings, the effect would be largely the same. Is a savings tax moral but inflation immoral?
The only legitimate "tax" is a tribute paid to the governing authorities for punishing evil and rewarding good. This is less like the taxes we pay today, and more like paying for the service of civil justice.
Makes sense, thanks for the clarification! So this leaves the door wide open for non-coercive forms of punishing evil, rewarding good, and resolving disputes, right? To put it another way, do you think Anarcho-Capitalism and Christianity clash with one another? Asking as an An-Cap Christian who has received a lot of pushback from fellow Christians regarding the God-ordained nature of the state. The most common argument I get is essentially "God put these people in power, so fighting against them is fighting against what was ordained by God". The problem I see there is that no one would use that argument to justify blatant evil in their personal lives. No sane Christian would see someone getting mugged and not intervene because "well, God ordained that mugger to mug him, who am I to interfere with God's will?"
Yeah, just cause God raises up nations and knocks them down, doesn't mean we should ditch our prophetic role as the church to call all nations to repent and serve Christ.
I'm not anarcho capitalist in that sense. I'm a Christ Monarchist. All nations in subjection to King Jesus and His rule.
I think we are, on Christ's timeline, moving in a trajectory of freedom.
Jesus keeps giving mankind gifts that make oppression harder and harder. He gave us the printing press, the revolver, the internet. I believe, looking back, people will see 3D printed guns and Bitcoin as all part of the revolution of the internet.
We should be subject to authorities, but mankind is greedy for power. Fiat money is an invention which greedy men have used to become incredibly powerful. It is temporary, and Christ is bringing it to an end.
I think we are headed on a trajectory toward a world in which a society much like ancient Israel makes sense. No need for police. If you see someone violate the law, it's your duty (along with other witnesses) to pull out your pistol and drive them to the elders at the gates for an immediate trial and corporal sentencing. The elders will no longer spend their retirement at Hardee's complaining about the government, but will have real authority.
We happen to live under such a vile and bloated government, and this vision is so close to what the anarchists imagine, that I find then incredibly useful. I love Michael Malice, Dave Smith, and our brother, Tom Woods.
If we lived in a hyper bitcoinized world, I would probably find myself opposing anarchists, but, in the world we live in now, we are cobeligerants.
Well said! Appreciate the civic discussion
Jesus said give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. I take this to mean taxes are legitimate.
God repeatedly condemns unjustice weights and measures. That's what money printing is. Initially we trusted banks with so much gold, but the government kept changing the value of the money. We trust them with the value of our labor, but they trick us out of that value by counterfeiting it. This is not taxation, but theft.
I don't even agree with the common Reformed view that Romans 13’s description of governments bearing the sword is intended to be exhaustive. Governments may try to do other things, like build roads.
Without their counterfeiting machines, however, I think governments would be severely limited to only a few very important functions. #Bitcoinfixesthis