Who Owns What

A Yoke too Heavy to Be Borne

As a response to our last post on Fighting Yesterday's Battles, LaFemme asked, "What about God's view of who owns what? Where does that come into it?"

Good question. In our previous post we argued that historical grievances are often used to justify armed conflict. We see this on patent display in the Middle East--but also in many other places in the world. All historical grievances turn around the following general matrix: "our forebears were the victims of a criminal act; as descendants, we have inherited the damage, hurt, humiliation done to them. Justice requires that due punishment be inflicted upon the descendants of the historical criminals, and proper restitution be made to us. Only then will the evil be cancelled."

Now, without doubt, many evils and crimes were perpetrated upon our respective ancestors. Also, without doubt our own ancestors committed their fair share of crimes, rapine, murder and pillage. The guilt of historical crimes, even when proven beyond reasonable doubt, cannot justly be imputed to descendants. The descendants are not the perpetrators of the crime.

The City of Unbelief has no religious or conceptual framework to deal with this kind of problem. The City of Unbelief does not believe that there is a Final Judgment, where all sins, crimes, and misdemeanours will be justly punished by the Living Omnipotent God. Therefore, the doing of complete justice in the City of Unbelief requires all crimes, past, present and future legitimately fall within the bailiwick of the courts of the day.

Thus it has become fashionable and acceptable for governments to restitute and compensate for past crimes and sins. Present generations must pay for what their forbears did. The Crown expropriated land from a Maori tribe in the nineteenth century? The present generations shall pay back and restitute the descendants, so that justice can be done.

Even future crimes become subject to the justice system. Criminals who are believed to be likely to reoffend are treated more severely or harshly than those who are not: they are punished in advance for crimes which they have not yet committed.

The consequence in the domains of Unbelief is an endless cycle of grievance and counter grievance as the human judicial authorities vainly try to establish universal justice in the earth. The restituting of a past injustice creates new grievances, requiring restitution in their turn as the new victims gain political traction (usually in the next generation or two)--and so it goes on.

Jerusalem has a very different perspective, which effectively cuts through the gordian knot of vaunted rationalistic pride. Firstly, Jerusalem is built upon the truth that God alone is the original owner of all things. To Him belongs the cattle on a thousand hills. All property, all land, all territory, all wealth, and all possessions belong to Him: as their true and original and perpetual owner, He can dispose of them as He wills, as seems good to Him.

Jerusalem, therefore, utterly rejects the doctrine of eminent domain. This pernicious idea is a vestige of that terrible and destructive doctrine of the divine right of kings. The doctrine of eminent domain asserts that the government is the original and final owner of all property (that is, in principle,of the entire material world). The doctrine of eminent domain implies that the government originally and fundamentally owns one hundred percent of its subjects' income and accumulated property. Private property is "granted" or "permitted" at the indulgence of the state.

Jerusalem asserts that property is granted by God, not by the state. The Scriptures recognise three legitimate ways in which the Lord allows people to acquire property: work, trade, and inheritance. When property has been acquired legitimately in one or all of these ways God protects the ownership or stewardship over that property by the eighth and the tenth commandments (thou shalt not steal, nor covet). Therefore, no entity, whether public or private, has authority to take or damage another's property. To attempt to do so would be to act as one who would overrule God Himself.

Justice requires that the government recognises and protects the property rights of its subjects. When disputes arise over property, justice requires that the judge and court make decisions which reflect the rights of ownership.

Now this begs the question: what does one do with claims of injustice which pass across generations? Consider, for example, a Palestinian family which would have inherited a farm from their grandfather, but which was expropriated years ago. Israeli settlers now live in a high rise apartment complex on the old family farm. Do the descendants have a claim? Clearly, the property of their ancestors was stolen; as a result they did not inherit. Their lives are still being affected to this day.

The position of Jerusalem is that the courts have no jurisdiction. This is not to say, of course, that historical wrongs and crimes were not committed. Rather, it is to assert a statute of limitations upon crimes. Those who belong to Christ and have submitted to His gracious reign can accept this with complete equanimity, because the final court of justice is yet to sit.

In the meantime, though his or her parents and grandparents were illegally dispossessed, the citizen of Jerusalem accepts the providence of God, and meanwhile turns his hand to being a good steward of the creation, seeking to acquire control of and administer properly such wealth and property as the Lord is pleased to give.

We are very aware that this answer will not satisfy those in Athens--and particularly not those who believe themselves to be victims of past injustices. But that is the point. The relentless search and quest for justice in this life leads to a storm tossed sea, where there is no peace. Life is soon over, and it will have been spent in anger and bitterness, resentment and hatred, receiving evil and doing greater evil.

The quest for comprehensive justice in this world is a yoke too great to be borne. It quickly crushes those who are foolish enough to attempt to bear it.