The god of Government Feeding the Poor

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From the Editor

By: David Deschesne

Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal April 30, 2014

Modern Christianity’s Strange gods

continued from last issue

Part III

The god of Government Feeding the Poor

One of the core doctrines of the Christian faith is freely giving; the type of giving described by the Apostle Paul: “Every man according as he puposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” - II Cor 9:7 KJV

The word translated in the King James Version “cheerful” in that verse actually comes from the Greek ίλαρός, hilaros; meaning “propitious,” “merry,” also the cognate of our English word “hilarious.” God loves the hilarious giver because when He sees someone giving freely, voluntarily and plentifully He sees an image of Himself within them. God’s Spirit is a giving Spirit. He gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice to die for the sins of the world. When a person begins a faithing, trusting relationship with the Lord, that same giving Spirit enters into them and they too begin to exhibit those giving qualities - giving freely without force or coercion. Those who are on the receiving end of the Lord-led free giving understand that the person giving is doing so freely because he/she wants to, which is much more meaningful and appreciated than if the person were forced to give. God wasn’t forced to give His son, He doesn’t force us to accept his gift of eternal life and does not force us to help one another - we help each other because we want to, because it’s the right thing to do.

In addition to food, the Lord God establishes His doctrine of charitable giving in Deuteronomy: “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother. But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth." (Deut 15:7-8)

When our country was first formed, we followed these doctrines much more closely than we do today, because there was no strong central or local government in place - especially with the first settlers - confiscating the wealth of the producers to give to the non-producers.

Thomas Jefferson recalls the situation in the early days of the United States in his Notes on the State of Virginia; “The poor, unable to support themselves, are maintained by an assessment on the titheable persons in their parish...These are usually the most discreet farmers, so distributed through their parish, that every part of it may be under the immediate eye of some one of them...The poor who have neither property, friends, nor strength to labour, are boarded in the houses of good farmers, to whom a stipulated sum is annually paid. To those who are able to help themselves a little, or have friends from whom they derive some succors, inadequate however to their full maintenance, supplementary aids are given, which enable them to live comfortably in their own houses, or in the houses of their friends. Vagabonds, without visible property or vocation, are placed in workhouses, where they are well clothed, fed, lodged and made to labour...I never yet saw a native American begging in the streets or highways." (op cit. p. 259)

When a person gives the Lord’s way, the recipient, even if he/she doesn’t consciously realize it, is experiencing the Lord’s work. It is at once meaningful to the recipient and fulfilling to the giver. Satan has managed to upset this system of giving in today’s society. Rather than the Lord’s method of voluntarily giving to provide for the needs of the poor, Satan has created a counterfeit system which is implemented by man - a system that is based upon the antithesis (opposite) of the Lord’s - a system premised upon forced confiscation of one’s property in order to provide for the poor. Such social welfare programs that obtain their funding from coerced, confiscatory taxation are destructive in two ways:

1.) Through the compulsion of forced taxation to take care of the poor, the person paying feels “stolen from” as he/she is coerced into involuntarily giving up a portion of his/her produce to a strong, impersonal central government; and 2.) the recipient’s eyes become less focused on the Lord working though a voluntary giver and become more focused on man’s systems for their sustenance, thus making government their 'god' to whom they owe allegiance and worship. At the end of the day, the poor are taken care of by both systems. However, with the Lord’s there is love and compassion through the act of voluntary giving; with Satan’s system of compulsory confiscation, there is hate and animosity - the exact opposite of the Lord’s.

When one is dependent on man’s systems for their sustenance, then he/she must comply with the dictates and decrees that government establishes for them to receive its charity, thus elevating government to that of a god above the Lord God in that person's life. This system, today is a system of identification cards and numbers that are the tools Satan will use when he finally ushers in his Mark of the Beast system. The Psalmist wrote: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” (see Psalm 118:8-9)

“The monarchies and aristocracies have always lived on the fiction that they exist for the good of the people, and yet it is an appalling fact how few kings have loved their people and have lived to serve." (Christianity and the Social Crisis, ©1911, Walter Rauschenbush, p. 87)

Today’s coercively-funded social welfare systems as instituted by man and man’s government are in strict opposition to giving God’s way of volunteerism, and are therefore set up government to be a god above the Lord God in strict violation of the First Commandment given to us through Moses.

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