Statism: the Golden Calf of the Modern World

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” (Ex. 32:7-8)

Israel worshiped a golden calf. Many Christians in the world today, especially the western world, worship a golden calf as well. But this is not a physical golden calf. It is something more subtle, but just as destructive. It is the golden calf of socialism, the god of statism. This false god is one of the greatest threats to Christianity in the 21st Century.¹ In recent elections we have seen people tearing off their “gold rings” and clamoring for such a god. To those who worship this golden calf it seems to be a good god that will do good things for them. It promises them provision, security, comfort, and much more. Beware! This god will gradually consume you, your family, your business, and your freedom.

View Comments (3)

Consider one small action of this golden calf as reported in World Magazine, June 9, 2007:²

“Melissa  is finally home, but it took almost three months for the 16-year-old German to return. Along the way, she went halfway around the world, through a psychiatric ward, a children’s home, and foster care — all because her parents homeschool her.”

“Homeschooling is illegal in Germany. A Nazi-era prohibition, the ban grew out of Hitler’s worry that too much parental control would supersede the state’s influence.” Even so, about 400 German families homeschool. But they face “fines, imprisonment, and loss of custody of their children.”

Despite the risk, when disruptive classes made Melissa fall behind in math and Latin, her parents decided to tutor her at home. She took advanced courses in English and French and sang in the school choir at a community college, but the school she had been attending noticed her absence and alerted authorities.

The family skirted the police for months, even sending Melissa to Australia to avoid the state of Bavaria taking her into custody. But on Feb. 1, 15 police officers in multiple cars arrived at the Busekros home and took Melissa, then 15 years old. “It was like the Russian invasion of [Czechoslovakia] or Hungary,” said Melissa’s father, Hubert Busekros. In custody Melissa underwent a psychiatric evaluation that found she had “school phobia.” The state placed her in a clinic’s psychiatric wing for two weeks. She complained and said she preferred being homeschooled, but officials told her this was the result of “tyrannical” parents forcing her into it.

Melissa stayed briefly at a Catholic girls’ home and then she was placed by authorities with a foster family on Feb. 16. They treated her well, but Melissa wanted to go home. She knew when she turned 16 she would have more rights regarding where she lived. “So on her birthday, April 23, at 10 minutes past midnight, she left her foster family as they slept.” After writing a good-bye note, she slipped out the window, and trekked some 60 miles to her home.

The authorities continued to press their case against the Busekroses, but the family won a major court appeal on May 16 that returned Melissa to her parents’ custody. While this instance turned out happily for the family, this is usually not the case as German courts almost always rule against homeschooling families since, according to one activist who followed the case, “they don’t want parallel societies.”

Statist nations do not want and cannot afford to have parallel societies. All those who believe and act contrary to the statist philosophy will find themselves gradually restricted in their rights and freedoms. A society cannot serve two gods. It cannot have two sources of authority, law, and morality. One will ultimately prevail. Statism is the belief that the civil government (or man via civil government) is the ultimate authority in the earth and as such is the source of law and morality. The state defines what is right and wrong, what is lawful and unlawful, what is moral and immoral. The state becomes the de facto god of the society, or in the words of Roscoe Pound, President of Harvard Law School in the 1920s, “the state takes the place of Jehovah.”³

Jesus taught that we are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s
and to God the things that are God’s.

In attempting to trap Jesus, the Pharisees sent their disciples to ask Him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not (see Matthew 22:15-21). Knowing their malice, Jesus responded by having them show a coin and asking them whose image was inscribed upon it. When they replied, “Caesar’s,” he said, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus was teaching an extremely important concept here — that of jurisdictional authority. Jesus used a coin with Caesar’s image upon it to illustrate that civil government does indeed have certain jurisdictional authority, such as in the area of taxation. However, Christ went on to pronounce that the state’s jurisdiction is limited when He said that we are to render “to God the things that are God’s.” The inference is that there is a sphere of life where civil government (i.e. Caesar) has no jurisdiction at all. That sphere is implied here as involving the soul and mind of men, being made, not in Caesar’s image, but in the image of God. Jesus was affirming that religious worship and opinions, and any endeavor relating to thoughts or speech, must remain completely free from government control.

This is the Biblical idea of the separation of church and state. It is not like the modern idea, which says we must remove God from public life. The principle of separation of church and state, the separation of school and state, and the separation of the press and speech from the control of the state, which are articulated in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, are rooted in this historic political teaching of Christ. Before Christianity, the pagan world always included religion and education under the jurisdiction of the state. It was a radical political concept for Christ to declare that Caesar’s power should be limited and, therefore, was used against Jesus when He was convicted of treason and crucified under Roman law. Christ’s teaching has since changed the western world.

Caesar thought he was Lord, but Christians declared that “Jesus is Lord.” Caesar saw this declaration by early believers as a threat to the state and to his reign and, hence, persecuted and killed many Christians. The responsibilities of the state are to be distinguished from that of the individual, family, and church. Usurpation of authority occurs when one jurisdiction encroaches upon another jurisdiction. The result is tyranny. Usurpation is exercising authority or power that belongs to another. It is “the act of seizing or occupying and enjoying the property of another, without right.”

Rendering to Caesar the Things that Are God’s

Jesus taught that we are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s, but today Christians throughout the world have been rendering to Caesar the things that are God’s. It is not surprising that secularists will do this because, since they have no god (but themselves), the state readily becomes their default god. It is surprising that Christians are worshiping this golden calf.

Does this mean they are worshiping the civil government? Do people have images of the Capitol in their house that they bow down to each day? Do they have Barak Obama bobble-heads on their coffee tables that they pray to each day? No, their idolatrous action is not so obvious.

The second commandment says, “you shall not make for yourself an idol” (Exodus 20:4-6). Habakkuk 2:18 says:  “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he  fashions speechless idols.” Isaiah described well the absurdity and futility of those who worship the very thing they create. In chapter 44, verses 9-19, Isaiah tells how a man planted and raised trees, then cut one down and burned part of it to warm himself and prepare his food. “But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for thou art my god’”(Isa. 44:17).

We would consider it stupid to worship the thing we create with our own hands. Modern western man wouldn’t think of making a golden calf, setting it up in his living room, and bowing down before it. What he does is much more subtle.

Humanists are sophisticated idol makers. They are like the guy who carves an idol and worships it — they trust in their own handiwork. They create their own laws, think up their own value systems, form their own governmental and educational systems, and worship them, trusting in them to be “god” (that which is right and true). They can do this, but it is not too smart, for if it is not based upon God’s truth, it will lead to ruin. Such idol worship produces bondage, not liberty.

Isaiah speaks of those who worship what they create, ending by asking, “Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” (Isaiah 44:19). Americans must ask themselves, “Shall we as a nation fall down before a block of wood?” “Shall we worship the creation of our own hand?” Shall we look to civil government to be our provider, our comforter, our savior, our god? Jeremiah warns that those who do “are altogether stupid and foolish” (Jer. 10:8).

While civil government is a divine institution with an important purpose, it is very limited in what it is suppose to do — it basically is to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens (Rom. 13:4; 1 Pet. 2:14). But we have made it like Babel, thinking the state (something of our own creation) will do much more than God says it is to do, where it takes on the role of God, the family, the church, and business. Many people look to the state to meet their needs from cradle to grave, to bring peace and utopia on earth, to help them in times of trouble, to solve all their problems, to care for them when they are sick, and to control and regulate all things. We as a nation have given over to the state many of the responsibilities that God says belong to individuals, the family, or the church.

The following charts give a brief comparison of the Biblical conception of society (and the role of civil government) with various man-made views of how societies should be governmentally structured.⁴

Used by permission The Providence Foundation.  Stephen McDowell

.  .  .  .

To see the charts and read about the following topics, order a copy of Rendering to Caesar the Things that Are God’s at our Store.

To regularly receive the Providential Perspectives, as well as getting many other benefits, become a Member of the Providence Foundation.

.  .  .  .

Order Rendering to Caesar the Things that Are God’s and learn more, including:

What Are We Rendering to Caesar?

We have rendered to Caesar the things that are God’s in two primary ways:

Rebuilding the Tower of Babel

Statism: the Golden Calf of America

Statism in the World Today

“Christian Socialism” in Western Europe

Growing Socialism in America

Fruit of Socialism

What Can We Do?

End Notes

1. Other great threats to Christianity include materialism, animistic religions, and Islam. All three go hand-in-hand with statism. Materialism rests on the belief that the universe is comprised only of physical matter, that nature or the physical universe is all there is. Those with such a worldview think that man and material things are primary, and much of life involves acquiring material assets. If some people or nations are in poverty or have less than others, then transferring material wealth is the solution.

Spiritual or internal resources are not considered; thus, people tend to look outside themselves to those with material wealth and power to provide their needs, solve their problems, and help them in life. Adherence to this worldview promotes statism, since using the power of the state is an easy means of distributing material wealth. In addition, if there is nothing outside the physical universe there is no higher law or source of truth than man. Thus, man via the state is supreme.

Animism is the belief that the supernatural controls all areas of life, and that man has little control over what happens.
Characteristics of animism include fatalism, spiritism, and ancestor-worship. Hinduism, Buddhism, and most indigenous native religions are animistic. The animistic universe is unpredictable and chaotic, which is the nature of societies built upon this worldview. The social order is full of corruption, bribery and poverty. Civil government also tends to be corrupt, centralized, and strong-armed. (For more on materialism and animism see, Scott D. Allen and Darrow L. Miller, The Forest in the Seed, Phoenix: Disciple Nations Alliance, 2006).

Islam (which is animistic in many ways) is more of an external threat than an internal threat. Since its inception Islam has spread more by force, or by natural growth within Islamic families, than by internal conviction. It has historically been militant, using force to keep everyone under its domain obeying the rules, or advancing its reach by use of the sword. A strong government that preserves and advances the “truth” has been its ally.

2. “Melissa’s gumption,” Priya Abraham, World Magazine, June 9, 2007, p. 65.

3. Roscoe Pound, The
Spirit of the Common Law, in Stephen McDowell, Building Godly Nations, Charlottesville, Vir.: Providence

Foundation, 2004, p. 197.