God Is Not a Socialist or a Liberal!

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.

Either support this implied accusation of hypocrisy. Or don't make it.

Is this really necessary?

You're the one who declared we must;
"Trust in God. Not in Government."

And I pointed out that to say this in response in this debate is HYPOCRITICAL unless you have refused unemployment and any other Govt service when YOU have been in need.

You should just be a holy roller and trust God. That's all.

"Well it doesn't make sense. It seems so disingenuous."

It certainly does make sense. And it is hardly disingenuous.

It IS ABSOLUTELY disingenuous... AND phoney.

The idea that person who is really concerned about helping the poor, and is willing to make personal sacrifices to do so would be UPSET that at Govt agencies like welfare, food stamps etc is absurd.

You are arguing from idealism which is the antithesis of reality.

In reality Johnson’s Great Society and the War on Poverty have done more to increase poverty, break the backbone of the family, create a permanent underclass that any action in history short of the Fall of Rome.

All the wailing and crying about incarceration rates of young black men can be placed right at the WOP’s feet.

God created the family with Mom, Dad and children to be at the center of his first covenant.

WOP made it Mom, many transient sperm donors and a bunch of half siblings and Government.

A society is only as strong as it’s families and the government has done everything fiendishly possible to undermine both the stability and the authority of the family.

Direct transfers of money to individuals with government acting as Robin Hood is the least efficient means to deal with poverty.

Look at the difference between the citizens after the Great Chicago fire and the Katrina in NO.

It’s the difference between free men and women and slaves...

Individual Christian families are better at being generous then huge government bureaucracies. We use the money more effectively. We help the needy get on their feet...while the government just tends to build unhealthy dependencies.

Well when you get old and need Social Security, be sure to return your Govt check each month and just tell "Christian families" that you are their financial burden from now on.

I am willing to bet you don't practice what you preach.

And I pointed out that to say this in response in this debate is HYPOCRITICAL unless you have refused unemployment and any other Govt service when YOU have been in need.

Which is clearly a false accusation as I already demonstrated.

False accusations against your neighbor may be against the the 9th commandment, but it does indeed seem to be a stable used by liberals to shut down debate.

If I force you to buy a certain car from a certain car dealer whether you want to or not. And if you then object, I guess I can call you a hypocrite if you decide to drive the car you were forced to buy?

Ofcoarse I won't because I'm not a liberal.

You are arguing from idealism which is the antithesis of reality.

Nonsense. According to you we should just be able to cut the poor, the elderly and disabled off of all Govt assistance and everything will be great.

That is absolutely nuts. You're the one out of touch with reality.

What you advocate WILL NEVER become a reality in our world.

"And I pointed out that to say this in response in this debate is HYPOCRITICAL unless you have refused unemployment and any other Govt service when YOU have been in need."

Which is clearly a false accusation as I already demonstrated.

False accusation? What are you talking about? How on earth could you "demonstrate" ANYTHING in response to this?

What, did you post your financial and tax statements?

You're not making any sense.

False accusations against your neighbor may be against the the 9th commandment, but it does indeed seem to be a stable used by liberals to shut down debate.

ROFL! This is beyond funny.

You're not presenting any "debate" to shut down.

I can see you can't tell the difference between charity and stealing by gov't proxy.

Right. It's "stealing".

Call 911. Better yet pull a David Koresh and challenge the Feds to a standoff.

I can hardly believe the extremist nonsense some people post on these boards. Grow up already.

You sure read a lot into what I said.

I never suggested one word about the elderly or disabled. You made that part up.

Poverty is not exclusively but is predominantly self inflicted...

It can to a very large degree be mitigated by finishing high school, no kids until out of high school and married, staying married .

You get the behavior that you pay for. With Johnson’s Great Society government payed for...read that rewarded....teen pregnancy, multi generational teen pregnancy...many many illegitimate children.

When kids have kids the off spring don’t have a chance...teen agers have nothing to give to children.

They aren’t educated so they don’t value education.

They haven’t had a stable family so they don’t provide a stable family.

They have no values so they teach no values.

There were always gangs of one variety or another but it was relatively limited until the Great Society...with the sheer volume of fatherless children the gangsta culture emerged.

“The poor will always be with you”...not my words.

The only thing the government has done is to re institute slavery... .

One group is owned by the state and the other group is profoundly abused wards of the state.

You sure read a lot into what I said. I never suggested one word about the elderly or disabled. You made that part up.

It's the logical conclusion of what you said.

If not, then we are in agreement and I don't see why you are arguing with me in the first place.

“The poor will always be with you”...not my words.

The words of Christ. Aren't you clever.

The same Jesus that said "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" when it came to taxes.

The same Jesus who IS GOD who clearly said those who turn away from helping the poor will have no help either when they are in need.

I am willing to bet you don't practice what you preach.

I am hardly guiltless or without blame. And although I promote trying to live by God's standard, I often fail. But ironically, in this particular issue you just happen to be very wrong.

The Lord has financially blessed us recently. We have had the chance to give generously, and have done so. And I dare say we gave to causes which were not designed to get votes, but rather to help in the most effective, loving way possible. Nor did we require anyone who was unwilling to chip in.

You're not presenting any "debate" to shut down.

Fine. I demand all your money NOW! I will give it to charity for you.

Please send all your bank information by private mail to facilitate.

Or do you refuse to practice what you preach?

If we are truly a caring charitable people, and our Govt is of the people and for the people, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with Govt aid for the poor and elderly.

But that is not the case. Maybe at first, a small number of people get helped and the majority gladly pay, but the dole grows ever higher, and soon the majority in gerrymandered districts are on the dole. It is then the poor who vote themselves more money for things like drugs, alcohol, and cable television. And the politicians cater to them by offering them more to get re-elected.

"We" then aren't "caring charitable people", but greedy thieves voting to take more from the remaining minority who still work.

Just look at how scared politicians are about fixing a failing social security system.

Thanks. Now if you choose not to respond agreeably to my post 74, it does not mean you are a hypocrite. It is illustrating the same kind of fallacious argument you used on me about the unemployment check.

First I straw-maned your position, then I pompously insisted you comply to avoid being seen as a hypocrite.

Now when you try to defend yourself, I just make snarky "LOL that's funny" responses as you parse the difference between your views and the straw man.

You're not presenting any "debate" to shut down. Fine. I demand all your money NOW! I will give it to charity for you. Please send all your bank information by private mail to facilitate. Or do you refuse to practice what you preach?

LOL. You are too funny.

Unfortunately you don't read my posts and don't know my position on this.

I always said I was against the idea of redistribution of wealth by Govt.

You missed my point entirely.

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