doctrox

This is an erroneous presumption, as we have the biblical account that spells it out for us. In fact, Jesus himself was accused of forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar at his trial (Luke 23:2). Notice these were not false witnesses who accused Jesus of not paying taxes, because every time a false witness accused Jesus, the scripture tells us it was a false witness (Mark 14:57-59). Where did Jesus forbid to pay taxes to Caesar? In Mark 12:13-17, Jesus was asked if it was lawful to give taxes to Caesar or not. A silver coin, with Caesar's inscription on it, was shown to Christ. In this example, the Lord's answer requires everyone to make the determination as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God; Mark 12:17"...Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's..." Who did this silver coin belong to? Since the Scripture says, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts" (Haggai 2:8), that means that the silver coin shown to Jesus belonged to God. However, those who live, move, and have their being in the image of Caesar, as the disciples of the Pharisees did, will believe this coin belongs to Caesar instead. We are not to be deluded by the image of Caesar, but built-up in the image of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:7; 15:49, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Colossians 3:10). Others cry, “What about Matthew 17:24-27?”: And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee. Let's break this passage down. Verse 24: The tax collector asked Simon Peter if Jesus paid taxes. Verse 25: Peter said, "yes". But "Jesus prevented" Peter from paying the tax. Why did Jesus prevent Peter from paying taxes? Verse 26: Jesus said "Then are the children free" from paying taxes. This is why, because we are now free. But we must not use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. Verse 27: However, to avoid "offending" this tax collector (since, as was the habit of Peter, he opened his mouth too soon without really thinking and obligated Jesus by his statement that Jesus did pay taxes), Jesus told Peter to cast a hook into the sea, and catch a fish, and take out money from its mouth and pay it. Even though Jesus provided a coin to Simon for this tax, it was to avoid "offending" the collector, and because Peter rashly agreed to pay it, not because we are bound to pay taxes by Law. Jesus made the point to stress that the children are free from taxes. But notice, Simon Peter and Jesus did not give him any of their own money, but that which came from the fish! It is interesting to note that Peter was a commercial fisherman (a fisher of fish) before being called to be an apostle of Christ (a fisher of men), and when Peter opened his mouth before thinking (as he often did), Christ basically chastised him by having Peter return to his old life to pay his debt! He had to be a fisher of fish to catch that fish with the coin in its mouth. Thus, the lesson for us is: When you join yourself to the world, and make obligations to the world, you must become part of the world again to meet those obligations. Additionally, Jesus could not have fulfilled prophecy if he was to go to prison, which might have happened if he didn't pay that tax after Peter "volunteered" for him. It was not his time to go to prison yet. Likewise, Jesus could have called twelve legions of angels to his rescue, but because the scriptures would not have been fulfilled if he did, he refrained from doing that act (Matthew 26:53-54). Jesus taught that we are free from paying taxes if we are children of the king (Matthew 17:24-26), meaning the children of King Jesus (Acts 17:7, 1 Timothy 1:17). Now, for clarification, if a government is acting strictly as a minister of God, then it is lawful to pay taxes to that government (Romans 13:6), because that "silver coin" which belongs to God also belongs to God's ministers, as they are acting in his name and doing his will. However, if a government is not a minister of God, then there is no duty to give taxes to it. So now we know that Jesus did not ‘pay taxes.’ Rather, Jesus cleverly provided a coin to Simon Peter with which to satisfy Simon’s foolishly incurred legal obligation and thus teach him (and us) a lesson.

From the OP: When elections come up, people usually choose between the “lesser of two evils.” But we have to remember that there is no such thing as the lesser of two evils. Evil is evil, and there are no degrees of evil (James 2:10). So, whoever came up with that phrase, “the lesser of two evils” is a liar. And, when you do vote, you are not voting for the lesser of two evils, they admit that you are voting for evil. It doesn't matter what promises anybody makes, they never keep them anyway. But what spirit are they of? Are they of Christ or are they anti-Christ? That's all we have to look at. Why is it evil to elect men? Well, it's because you are electing men to rule over you. Similarly to what happened to Israel when they went to Samuel and told him they wanted to be ruled by men, like other nations (1 Samuel 8:4), and God said to Samuel, "they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). Therefore, if we would vote to have men rule over us, when we have the offer of the Kingdom of God to rule over our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7), we are rejecting God's rule over us. There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). This has to do with voluntary servitude. If you turn your back on God you become servants to men. When you go out and vote, you are saying, “I am a servant of men and I want these men to rule over me.” You are putting men in the place of God, and that's a usurpation of God and it's also idolatry. And if you're looking to men, God is not sufficient. And you know, God has already given us a King (Acts 17:7). God did not leave anyone here to rule over us. Actually, Christ refused to set up a worldly kingdom. That was one of the temptations Jesus was tempted with in the wilderness. The Devil showed him “all the kingdoms of the world” (Matthew 4:8), and that must have been one of the greatest temptations that Christ was faced with, to set up a kingdom and rule the earth. I mean, just think of all the good he could have done! And that's the kind of temptation that men think, when they say, “if only we could get a good man into power.” But, it's never going to happen because power corrupts, and another reason is the heart of man is evil (Genesis 6:5; 8:21, Ecclesiastes 8:11, Jeremiah 17:9). And you're pretty much at their mercy once you've given them approval. The State is set in place for dishing out privileges. They claim to serve the public, but at the same time they don't freely give anything. There's a duty attached to everything, and that's not the way that we're supposed to give. We're not going to change anything by voting the right people in government, because even if we got the right people in, it still wouldn't change the heart of the people. It's the heart of the people that needs to be changed on an individual basis. We, individually, need to turn our lives over to the King of kings. Voting is not going to do any good, and people are beginning to realize that. That's why the voter turnout is so bad, and people are fed up with the fact that they can't change anything. And the system is so corrupt that vote scam is so blatantly out in the open, and most people know that “the people” don't vote, and politicians get elected by those behind the scenes. Prior to the Civil was, there were no secret ballots, everyone voted in the open. The word “ballot” comes from “ball lot,” they cast their lot with either a white ball or a black ball (that's where the term “blackballed” comes from). But, with secret voting, the so-called powers that be can manipulate that vote any way they like, and that's why they keep their own people in power. And of course it's even better for them now with computers. The secret ballot originally came from Australia: Australian Ballot: A system of secret voting whereby the voter indicates his choice of the candidates who have been nominated by a mark alongside the name of the candidate thus chosen. The system originates in Australia, whence its name. Rayden's Law Dictionary, 1954. And that's why, today, we have no idea whether the actual vote count is true or not. All of the voting laws stem from the Reconstruction Acts after the Civil War. They passed a Voting Act in 1865-1866. Voting is an “elective franchise” and it is a “privilege” granted by the State. The word “privilege” comes from the Latin “privus” and “legis, and that means private law. So when you receive any kind of privilege from government, you are engaging in a private law, the law of the law merchant. That's what all the government officials are for, for this corporate government, which exists for business, for the economy. And the word economy is just another word for mammon (Luke 6:9-13). So you're electing those to give you all the privileges of the wealth of the world. To a large extent it's socialistic. But when you're engaged in a private law, you're not involved in the Law of God, which is NOT private law. You turn your back on God when you look to those things. When you look at the definition of “bribe” we always think of a bribe to a government official as the only kind of bribe there is. But what about when they make all these promises of what they're going to do for you and everything if you'll vote for them, that's really a bribe also. And I think everyone should consider that. When politicians make all kinds of promises, they're saying, “I'll do this for you if you vote for me.” That's the same thing as a bribe. Bribe: “Anything of value, any gift, advantage or emolument, any price, reward or favor. Any money, goods, right in action, property, thing in value, or any preferment, advantage, privilege or emolument, or any promise or undertaking to give any asked, given or accepted, with a corrupt intent to induce or influence action, vote, or opinion, or person in any public or official capacity. It is a gift not necessarily for pecuniary value bestowed to influence the conduct of the receiver and must be of substantial value to him.” Black's Law Dictionary. So what you see is when these politicians make all these promises, they are really bribing you for your vote. "Bribery: A candidate for a judgeship who pledges himself, if elected, to serve at a less salary than that provided by law, virtually bribes the masses to vote for him." A Dictionary of Law, William C. Anderson, page 136. And once the vote is cast, then they break their promises all the time. So, they're actually offering a bribe, and not necessarily coming up with it. “Every people looks primarily to its own benefit...Every government is organized selfishness. It is constituted for the food of its constituents. The Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America embodies this explicitly as the object of its adoption. It is the embodiment of a scheme, devised by the people of the United States to form a more perfect union of states then imperfectly united, to establish justice among themselves, to insure their domestic tranquility, to provide for their own defense, to promote their general welfare and to secure the blessings of liberty, not to the world at large, but to themselves and their prosperity.” (A Yale Law Review from 8 Yale Law 159, page 165, which is from a book called The People Of The United States, Simeon E. Baldwin, 1899). This fellow was a lawyer, so they know what government is all about, and it's all for the benefit of the people. We don't find Christ there, it's men ruling other men, giving benefits to one another. And when the natural man gives a benefit to you, there's a duty attached to it. There's no “freely” giving (Matthew 10:8) and expecting nothing in return, as scripture tells us. We are not to touch the unclean thing (2 Corinthians 6:17), and when you vote and become a beneficiary of the franchise, you are joining yourself to the unclean. And we have to take those things into consideration. Every man believes he has a right in the outcome of the destiny of society. This is a myth. If God directs men to move in a way that's led by God, then no vote can change the Will of God. The “voter registration” is secular man's faulty reasoning that he, in and of himself, can save all, if you just give him enough power, more money, more…more…more…and still more. As soon as you put your “X” on that thing that votes for that politician, you become part of the world, you voted to be ordered around. The politician needs your consent to crack a whip over your head, make you feel like the animal that you have partaken of. You are now part of the zoo of humanity. Bondmen of Christ cannot vote because that would be violence or force. We are not into using force, you cannot force the Kingdom of God, you cannot force people to love, you cannot force your love on others, you cannot force people to be free, because that requires violence to enforce it. And "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" (2 Corinthians 10:4). In the Old Testament, the people "voted" to kill Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:10). Right after they voted, God said, "...How long will this people provoke me? ...I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them," (Numbers 14:11-12), but Moses asked for mercy and God pardoned their evil ways. In the New Testament, during the trial of Christ Jesus, Pontius Pilate let the people "vote" between Barabbas and Jesus as to who they wanted set free (Matthew 27:17). The Pharisees whispered lies in the people's ears so they would vote the way they wanted them to vote. This "voting privilege" allowed Jesus to be crucified! By receiving a privilege or benefit from the government, we are gaining the favor of rulers; but scripture says, "Many wait on the favor of rulers; but justice comes to a man from the LORD" (Proverbs 29:26). In other words, those who look to the favor of governments will not really get justice, which is one reason why many people complain there is no justice in today's courts, no matter WHO they vote for. Why? Because voting does not bring about justice, in brings about injustice! Why does in bring about injustice? Because people do not "vote" to do God's Will, they "vote" to have people do their own will, for selfish reasons, and the consequences of selfishness is always injustice. In conclusion, voting is very unscriptural.

From the OP: Why? Because it takes a saint to know a saint! BTW, all will be judged - unbelievers and believers. I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom...Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:1, 8). If you've been wronged, and you know that you've presented a righteous case, and the jury is about to return to the courtroom, and the judge is about to render the decision, you can't wait for that verdict to be read! The only one who's not so happy is the fella sitting on the other side of the table... I love his appearing, and I seek his judgment. How about you?