Posted on 04/27/2007 7:32:08 PM PDT by Simi Valley Tom
By Dr. Tom Snyder, Editor of Movieguide®
A group of self-described "progressive" Christian Evangelicals calling themselves "Red Letter Christians," and led by the liberal, left-oriented Sojourners Magazine and left-oriented religious pundits like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, has recently emerged in the body politic. These self-proclaimed "progressives" have been making a lot of noise recently complaining about the ties that other Christian Evangelicals have long held with the conservative movement in the United States, including the conservative movement in the Republican Party.
One conservative policy under attack by these "progressives" is the conservative effort to "cut programs to the poor." They say that such a policy goes against Jesus Christ's commands in Chapter 24 of the Book of Matthew to feed those who are hungry.
These "Red Letter Christians" are making a lot of noise, but they are just a bunch of clanging cymbals. And, the love that they claim to spout has no truth in it whatsoever.
What these misguided religious zealots conveniently fail to note is that, nowhere in the New Testament, or the other books of the Bible, do Jesus Christ, His apostles, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, Moses, or the Hebrew prophets command the government to take money from its citizens and transfer it to poor people. In fact, the Bible says just the opposite.
God presents us with three general ways in the Bible to take care of the poor and needy: 1) Through the family; 2) Through the church; and 3) Through individual charity. The applicable passages for these three ways are Deut. 14:28, 29, Numbers 18:24, Matthew 6:1-4 and 1 Timothy 5:3-16.
Now, the first two ways are pretty clear. People’s first obligation is to the needy, poor, widowed, and orphaned in their own families. Only after they do this do they have any obligation to help the needy, poor, widowed, and orphaned through their local church organization. God established the pattern for this kind of church giving in Numbers 18:24 and Deuteronomy 14:28, 29. As David Chilton points out in his great book "Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators," the bulk of Christian giving to the local church should be geared toward financing professional theologians, experts in biblical law and church discipline, teachers of God’s word and leaders skilled in worship. It was only every third year that all the giving was set aside to help the needy, poor, widowed, and orphaned. Even then, the money was not given just to anyone who showed up. Those able to work but don’t, do not qualify for help. Also, those who have families to take care of them don’t qualify, nor do widows under age 60 qualify, according to the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 5:3-16.
Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, talks about the third way in Matthew 6. He tells His listeners that they should give individual charity. He also says they should give such charity secretly: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”
In other words, God is not a socialist. Nor is he a liberal. In fact, in none of the Bible passages just cited, nor in any others I know of, does Jesus, God or even Moses cite the government as the means by which the poor, needy, widowed and orphaned are housed, clothed and fed.
Thus, a simple, straightforward reading of the Bible, God’s Word, including the "Red Letter" words of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, clearly shows that the American welfare state is anti-God, anti-Christian and unbiblical. Any Christian or Jew who advocates such a government welfare system (including clergymen or women) should be harshly rebuked and disciplined by their church and synagogue congregation or hierarchy. Furthermore, any members of any political party, including Republicans, Democrats, Reform Party members, Libertarians, or whatever, who advocate such a socialist system yet claim to be Christian or Jew should be reprimanded by their fellow brothers and sisters and by all church and synagogue leaders. If any such party members refuse to repent and change their ways, then their names should be posted at their church or synagogue and throughout the whole land so that all Christians and Jews in the United States or elsewhere can know not to vote for these people or place them in positions of authority and leadership.
Of course, all Christians and Jews should encourage families to take care of their own. And, they should also encourage their churches and synagogues to give at least one-third of their gross income to help the poor, needy, widowed, and orphaned.
On that note, it is interesting to recall that the Tenth Commandment in Exodus 20:17 actually protects private property by commanding people not to covet their neighbor’s house or belongings. That commands applies to the average citizen as well as the elected official, the judge and all other government officials.
Furthermore, the Bible condemns laziness and praises hard work. Proverbs 10:4 says, “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” Proverbs 14:23 says, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
Finally, it is interesting to note that, in Mark 7:20-23, not only does Jesus Christ declare that all sex outside of heterosexual marriage, including homosexuality, pre-marital sex and adultery, is evil, he also declares that both greed and envy are evil. Thus, Jesus Christ condemns both the greed of the rich man as well as the greed of the poor man, and the envy of the poor man as well as the envy of the rich man.
Thus, God condemns the politics of envy of the left, and He extols the virtues of hard work and capitalism, not just the value of charity!
Liberals and socialists like the "Red Letter Christians," Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Barack Obama, and Al Gore are violating the commands of the God of the Bible. If they truly want to follow God, they should stop their ignorant opposition to the conservative movement in America and join it. One of the first things they should do immediately is help cut government programs for the poor.
Americans and Europeans must stop the ungodly, immoral rape of taxpayers by the totalitarian, socialist welfare state of liberalism! They must establish a proper and godly system of family, church and private charity. Everyone should follow God’s clear guidance in this matter. God will reward people mightily for their total obedience in these matters.
Note: A journalist with 20 years of experience, Dr. Snyder has a BA in political science from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and a Ph.D. in film studies and communications from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he studied politics and film and political philosophy. He is the author of "Myth Conceptions" (Baker Books) and co-author of "Frodo & Harry: Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives" (Crossway Books). He has done post-graduate work in Christian apologetics, history and philosophy at Simon Greenleaf University and at Answers in Action in Southern California, where he lives with his wife, Jan. You can write to Dr. Snyder at tlsnyder42@yahoo.com.
It will be included in my FR profile update this coming Summer.
I just read it real fast, and I thought I’d find trouble there, but I couldn’t. That was surprising.
Thanks for sharing.
I hope you aren't using this verse to say we as a nation should allow those without jobs starve.
Paul was addressing a specific situation within the church with this passage.
No one should be allowed to starve. The truely incapacitated and children need to be looked after.
The able bodied should work and not be taught that work is dishonorable.
Under the welfare state they are taught that it is dishonorable to work.
Tithes were intended to support the Government, and not some external religious establishment. You won’t see the truth of that, just like most.
In a secular system of Government, taxes are inevitably exploitatism, and inadequate for the regime, at any level.
I do not know you, but, if you want to talk about folks getting their knickers in a twist, I’d advise you to remove the mote from your own eye first.
Me, too. The Methodists are beyond repair.
The article is based on what God and the Bible says about the topic. Re-read the passages cited. They, and others not cited, refute your position.
ts
LOL. More misapplied copy and paste scriptures.
Spare me the hypocrisy.
Am I supposed to actually read the articles before I post out here? J/K.
Actually, I did, and now your post has me thinking that I missed something.
I’ll look at it again in the morning.
“13 million children in the United States go to bed hungry each and every day.”
And, I’m sure they richly deserve to do so.
See, the government is working better than we thought!
If you want to accuse me of hypocrisy then spell it out.
If you think that you can go head to head, or toe to toe with me on this stuff, then I invite you to bring it on.
You can’t, you won’t, and it don’t matter, because for me this particular day is just about over.
I’ll be around as much as I can, but bring your concordance with you if you really are interested in a knock down.
I submit, that you do not know a whole lot about what you are talking about when it comes to the Bible.
You can prove me wrong in due time.
I sort of like talking about these things, because I never cross swords with folks I agree with, or folks that I deem to be too dumb or ignorant.
You have all night (and perhaps longer, cuz I don’t live here) to get back at me now.
From Second Samuel Chapter 12 (NIV):
1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,
3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."
7 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!...
Would not this apply to rich congressman and senators who make themselves out to be generous...but use the money of those with less to do so?
Jorge... I see God telling me to do these things..I do not see where God is telling me to have the Goverment do it by force others to do it for me...
If we are truly a caring charitable people...
Those who are charitable do not need the government to help them give to the poor.
Those who would force another to be charitable are not demonstrating any charity themselves, anymore then who would not give if not forced. Thus does an enforced charity system has no charity in it.
Without love, no act of "charity" is worth anything to God. Huge bureaucracies like our government do not act in love.
Trust in God. Not in Government.
And a son. And a Holy Spirit.
But I was referring to His politics.
I know what you mean. The Presbyterian church I used to attend and one of the largest Methodist churches in my area both chartered busses to take members to the anti-war/Bush-bashing rally in DC a while back. The rally originated in the Episcopalian-run National Cathedral. The local Gannett paper ran an article the other week about how the major Protestant denominations in the area are suffering a major membership drain. Not a word was mentioned about how they’ve aligned themselves politically with the left, and how this might be contributing.
Excellent article!
Not only that. They are losing a lot of members because people start to learn the Bible and realize that their church is actively going against it. So, one must leave. The Methodist church that I left can't figure out why people only hang around there for a few years then head off to another church (believing church). I think it's obvious.
Those who are charitable do not need the government to help them give to the poor.
We ARE the government in this country. Or at least we're supposed to be.
But they ARE our resources, and as I said our tax $$$ are used for far lesser causes.
I just don't believe anyone who is willing to give their own resources to help the poor would object to the Govt using their tax $$$ to do the same.
Of course the is a limit, and I am not for communism using Govt to make everybody equal either.
Next time you're laid off you should refuse your unemployment check and just "Trust God".
The fact is God often uses Govt's as an agency of His authority.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.