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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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Biblical Taxation in Ancient Israel 0:00 Hey. Chapter 14 in the well versed small group series is taxes.0:05 Let me ask you a question. Does the Bible say anything about taxation? Does it have anything to say that should be a guideline to our present day government? In my book,0:16 Well versed, Biblical Answers to Today's Tough Issues, this 1 I wrestle with the most. I put together a team as we process some of these things, and we really had a lot of discussions over this this0:28 topic. Does the scripture say anything about what the government has a right to tax? Now the scripture does say the government has a right to tax, but the question is how much? Is there any type of taxation that's0:40 biblical or some types of taxation that are not? Current types of taxation we have now in our country, as most of you know, there's the progressive tax. That's tax on income. But the more you make, the higher the0:52 percentages of your income that you pay. There's what's called the fair tax. That's a tax on purchases. Some people wanna go just to that. There's what's called the flat tax. That'd be where it's a1:03 percentage, but it remains a constant percent all the way across no matter how how much you make, how much you don't make. Are any of these distinctly biblical or non biblical? What about property tax and other1:15 types of taxes? Doctor Ben Carson, when he was running for president, made a statement during 1 of the debates. He said, why should the government get any more than God does? God God gets1:27 10 percent in tithing. Why why should the government get any more than that? Now the fact is, for many people's income, the government gets way more than that. How do you feel about the government if it's getting 301:38 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent, or 70 percent? Are are there any are there any guidelines in the scripture that that might have relevance to us? Now I wanna concede the point that1:50 the the Bible isn't totally clear on this 1. So I say it with a a degree of cautiousness, but is there are there some principles from ancient Israel and a theocracy on this2:02 issue on taxation that's transferable across several millennia and can land in America in a constitutional republic with democratic principles that that could apply to us.2:15 In the old testament, they had a poll tax. We don't have 1 in the US. Had a poll tax. Every male above the age of of 20 would pay that. And then they also had a 10 percent that we're2:26 familiar with, the the tithe that was given unto the Lord. There was no property tax. And the reason there was no property tax is because the earth belonged to the lord. Now private ownership is2:38 affirmed in scripture, so people have, in a sense, stewardship or use of land or property for a short period of time. But, ultimately, the earth is the lord's. All of us that own property, we only owned it2:50 for a short time. We're not here on this earth all that long. The earth ultimately is the lord's. The question is should we have a consumption tax? Consumption tax simply simply is the same as as this fair tax3:02 on what you purchase. Well, the scripture doesn't seem to speak of that. The scripture seems to, speak of a tax on what you produce, your productivity. There is a taxation there that's allowed. We don't3:14 see evidence for these other types of taxes in the scripture. Why is tax taxation so important? I take you back to a famous 18 19 Supreme Court case. It was McCulloch versus3:26 Maryland, in which the justices said the power to tax involves the power to destroy. So a government's power to tax is a very strong power. It can destroy. It can kill things3:38 by its schedule of taxation. So the question is, are there any of these that seem to be more biblical than others? And and let me just give you kind of a conclusion. Once again,3:49 remember, in the Old Testament, they had a poll tax, something that every male above the age of 20 would pay. And then they had the 10 percent that went unto the Lord. And then they4:02 had 10 percent of the best way I can describe it. By the way, it was a theocracy, so this was sort of the government and church all in 1. And then they had 10 percent that was kind of a forced4:14 savings, because they were required the males at least were required to make 3 trips a year down to Israel, and so they would save for that. And then they had a 10 percent once4:26 every 3 years, a poor tax. So that would come to 3 and a 3rd percent per year to care for the poor. Now, let's just play around, have some fun4:38 with this a little bit. What if that had some relevance to present day America? Let's start with the poll tax. Now, some people would really resist that and not like it, but we're told that almost 50 504:49 percent of the people in America are not paying tax. What if everybody got a little bit of skin in the game by having something it had to be back in ancient Israel, it had to be so low that the poorest person could pay5:00 it. But the richest person didn't have to pay more than that. It was a set person set amount per person for anybody over 20. So what if if every let's not make it just males. Whatever male and female, and let's change it5:12 from 20 to 21 by the time you get out of college. Every 21 year old young adult from then on would pay some tax. I'm gonna arbitrarily pick a number. Okay? I'm gonna pick 1 percent5:24 of a 25000 dollar income. So they pay 250 dollars a year as a pullback. That way, everybody pays something. Wouldn't that be advantageous over a lot of people paying5:36 nothing? Couldn't people afford that, every person over the age of 21? The answer is yes. Then let's say, if you're a follower of Jesus, 10 percent is your tie that goes to your church. Now, let'sApplying Israel's Model to Modern America 5:47 limit the government to 10 percent, like we talked about a little earlier. Why is that? Because if the government would stay within the framework of its enumerated powers in the constitution, if it would stay within the5:58 framework of what is mandated by scripture, I would contend the government could live on 10 percent. And that would mean there'd be a whole lot of things it wouldn't do. What's the government supposed to do? Protect the6:10 citizenry, restrain evil. There's law enforcement. There's military. The government is not supposed to be the health and welfare. That's where the church comes in. And let's suppose there's another 10 percent. Remember I6:21 said, in the ancient Israel, they had a sort of a forced savings? Now the government has no right to force us to save. But what if they incentivize that there would be no taxes taken if 10 percent of your income was6:32 going into savings and, catch this, no taxation off the end of it when you take it out. You know what would happen? Americans would be able to prepare for themselves considerably better. This is not our discussion on6:44 Social Security, but this would address the Social Social Security dilemma in an enormous way. Let's go 1 more. The poor tax has 3 and a 3rd percent per year. If if we then had 3 and a 3rd percent,6:56 and where was it originally administered? Through the faith community. If that was to be shifted back to the faith communities across America, there's 320000 just Protestant churches alone. And if we were7:08 to shift a poor tax back into that arena and administer through the churches, I know what some are saying. Oh, no. Separation of church and state. We can't have that. Well, this is the proper separation of church7:20 and state. This is the unique lane that the government's supposed to stay in for theirs, and the church can stay in it for theirs. This is the right separation of church and state. Health and welfare can be done by local7:31 congregations. Imagine if they were administering with with the the DNA of every local church is is Christ honoring. We wanna serve. We care about the health and welfare of people. We could address7:43 so much the issue of poverty with just 3 and a 3rd percent per year. That's 10 percent every every 3 years. Think if there were hundreds of volunteers. In some larger churches, thousands7:55 of volunteers helping to administrate this. Freeloaders would be cut out because it'd be locally administrated. We'd know who's milking the system. And think of the options that could be done in terms of ministering to8:07 our communities. You say, well, that can't be done. Well, it was done forever until the last few years when we shipped to the system. And how has that been working in this new system?8:19 The answer is not great. And I say we courageously try something that worked for a long time, several thousand years, and try to once again see that happening.8:31 So my my cautious prognosis would be that if we would follow a system like this, then we could see taxation leveled out in a way we could get8:43 overregulation off of people. People would be able to give more to the poor If overregulation was off and hyper taxation was off of people, there'd be more capacity to give. And I would love us toGroup Reflections and Key Quotes 8:55 see how we could address the poverty issue, care for the widows and the orphans and the disenfranchised in our communities. I would contend we could do it considerably better. But what has to9:06 happen is the church does its part, the state does its part, each understands its role, the family understands its role. We get back to that, and we can make a difference in this country.Conclusion: Right Roles for Church and State 9:21 The 3 quotes that stood out to me in this chapter was, 1st off, doctor Ben Carson saying, why should the government get more than God gets? The reason why this is significant is because if God's tied is 10 percent, why9:31 should the government get more than that? You know? And then number 2 is, the US Supreme Court saying the power to tax is the power to destroy it. That really stood out to me. And number 3 is9:43 Will Rogers, he said something really funny. The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.9:51 Yeah. And and I love what you're saying here. The power to tax is the power to destroy. Anything that's taxable, the government has power to destroy. So what if, like doctor Goll had proposed, the government stayed10:00 within their lanes that they, they they just taxed on 10 percent and and they stayed in their their duties to to restrain evil and protect its citizens. And they left the church, they left the church to do what the10:11 church does best, health and welfare. I think that was an interesting point.10:15 Yeah. And this quote really stuck out to me from US Senate Chaplain Barry Black. He said, we have no problem in Washington DC that prayer cannot solve, and there is no governmental problem we have to which the10:26 Bible does not have answers to, including taxes.In this video 0:00 Biblical Taxation in Ancient Israel5:41 Applying Israel's Model to Modern America8:44 Group Reflections and Key Quotes9:16 Conclusion: Right Roles for Church and State
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