Land Taxes vs. Liberty

This week the people of North Dakota had an opportunity to vote out the land tax in their state. Measure 2 would have amended their constitution to forbid all land taxes. With the growth of oil revenues, the value of the land tax was overshadowed by the sheer immensity of the oil taxes pouring in. Yet, when the vote was taken, 76% of the voters wanted to keep the land tax law in place, an astonishing commentary on the mental and spiritual condition of what is normally considered a conservative state.

This vote demonstrates several things for us. One is that even a very politically conservative population is not necessarily Biblically conservative. Conservatism as a philosophy is not necessarily Christian. In fact, the things being conserved may be anti-Bible, anti-Christian. I submit that in the case of this vote, that is exactly what was expressed by the citizens of North Dakota.

Everywhere we look in Scripture we discover that the Earth is the Lord’s (Exodus 9:29, Deuteronomy 10:14, Psalm 24:1, 1 Corinthians 10:26). Within God’s word, the earth is never declared to belong to man or to any organization of man, including civil government. The earth and all it contains belongs to God, we are told. And, make no mistake, the land tax is a declaration of ownership. Only the owner, one who has complete control, can rent or tax anything. Land taxes always reduce the purported owners to mere tenants who may be, in fact will be, removed if the tax payment is not made.

In the event we have overlooked this, it may be useful to note that God’s tax is the tithe. He demands 10% from all men as His tax to support what He has deemed important. He owns the earth and ordains that all men on it pay 10% toward His government of it. This is the closest thing to a land tax allowed or demanded under God’s law. There is no other provision. It is when man rebels against Godly rule that he imposes land taxes. Man seeks to redesign society on his own terms with his own programs in violation of God’s. This is exactly what the people of North Dakota have done.

According to a CNN Money report the pro land-tax crowd preached fear that the big oil money could evaporate as fast as spilled gasoline on hot asphalt (OK, I made up that metaphor) and thus the land taxes must remain available. More than that, they were concerned that local governments would necessarily lose some control by losing the right to tax land. Much of this was a control issue not a money issue. Control is a vital issue because man must either live under God’s control or else under man’s control. Rebellious men prefer to escape God’s control, no matter what the cost, due to their inherent sin nature. Without true freedom in Christ men have no ability to live under freedom at all. It appears that 76% of North Dakotans would prefer to live under the unbiblical slavery of the land tax than to live under the greater liberty that was offered. They simply cannot imagine personal freedom. Their lives are framed, managed, and made viable by the ministrations of civil government on their behalf. They would prefer security under slavery rather than freedom under God. Hence, because of the realities of life without God, in the long run they will likely receive neither security nor freedom.

Our forefathers understood the necessity of untaxed land as an anchor of Christian liberty. The first Continental Congress in 1774 denied that Parliament could tax real property. Their belief was that once the state was given the right to tax land, personal freedom under God had been usurped. Man would become a creature of the state instead of a creature of the church. Primary allegiances would be undermined and a false allegiance would be concocted. It was recognized as a major step into slavery. It is the same mindset and experience that the people of Egypt expressed when they told Joseph that they would willingly become slaves of Pharaoh, giving up their land and more for food (Genesis 47).

Land taxes in the United States came in slowly starting on the east coast. Implementation followed the spread of Unitarianism, Deism, and atheism. They were imposed in the South during the North’s Reconstruction of the South after the War Between the States. All of this is instructive in that we can follow the decline of Christendom and the rise of humanism on our continent as reflected in the taxes assessed against God’s people by their new masters. Judging by the vote in North Dakota, the transformation is so complete that even when given an easy opportunity to return to God and His law and society, Americans would prefer the rule of humanist, anti-God precepts. We continue to seek security under the state rather than liberty under Christian law and it’s God. We are slaves as much by choice as by any regimen forced upon us.

Jesus began His public ministry (Luke 4:18-19) by reading from Isaiah 61:2:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

It was no error on His part that His first public proclamation revolved around liberty and its root in the Lord of liberty. From Christ’s reading until now nothing has changed. Sinful men run from Godly rule with liberty, toward humanist rule with slavery. It is the very nature of natural man to reject God so violently that he will embrace the worst tyranny rather than walk in the light of our God. The human heart is still desperately wicked as Jeremiah instructed. True freedom always must begin with Christ and the liberating truth of His gospel of freedom. Man, entrapped by his fears and hate, cannot produce freedom under his own power. Only God can produce a spirit of freedom in us. Without that Spirit to transform our souls we only return to slavery like a dog to its vomit. The North Dakota vote demonstrates for us that they (we) are not spiritually ready for liberty from land taxes or for any other freedom. We are slaves because that is what natural man always is, a slave. To be free is supernatural. Freedom comes from the miraculous power of God making new the hearts of a generation. Do we want land tax freedom? Do we desire any freedom? These things are only possible when we as a nation return to the faith of our fathers. All else leads to slavery.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 6-16-12