By Dr. Tom Snyder, Editor
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times about Catholic support for the two current vice presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan (who both claim to be Catholic), raised the question, Is God a pro-life conservative or is he a pro-abortion liberal? A side issue to that question is whether God favors a top-down social welfare state or a capitalist state of individual private effort and individual private charity, with no government handouts.
Of course, nothing in the article pointed to any Bible verses to back up either side’s position, much less the biblical position outlined in this article.
A thorough, objective investigation of the applicable Bible passages clearly shows that God sides with a very strong conservative position. Such a position favors laws against abortion, opposes all government aid to the poor and needy, supports a capitalist system that requires moral business practices and favors laws against fraud, promotes private charity instead of government handouts, protects private property, opposes taxes of 10% or more, and supports hard work as the best way to keep out of poverty and create prosperity for you and your family.
First, the Eighth Commandment God gave to the Hebrews through Moses the Prophet was, “Do not steal.” Also, God’s Tenth Commandment tells people not to covet their neighbor’s property.
Both these commandments protect individual private property. They don’t, however, support fraud or lying to get property or gain wealth. In fact, the Ninth Commandment tells people not to bear “false witness.”
Second, in 1 Samuel 8:1-20, God tells the Hebrews that big government and taxes of 10% or more are signs of tyranny that will lead to slavery and destruction.
Throughout the Bible, God recommends three ways to help the poor and needy, including the disabled:
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. Then, they have an obligation to the needy, poor, widowed, and orphaned in 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 “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, including full-time religious leaders who don’t have a regular job. 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 (see 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). Also, those who have families to take care of them don’t qualify, nor do widows under age 60 qualify, according to 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: “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”
None of these ways involves government handouts, even to the disabled.
Also, although the Bible speaks against exploiting the poor and taking advantage of them, it also says, in Proverbs 10:4 and 14:23, that laziness and mere talk create poverty, but hard work and diligence brings profit and wealth.
Furthermore, God’s Law shows, in Exodus 21:22-25, that God considers the accidental or deliberate injury or killing of an unborn baby to be immoral. He says it must be punished appropriately.
Finally, to those who object that this article is trying to mix Church and State, that is clearly not what it is trying to do. Romans 13 makes clear that there is a definite distinction, a separation if you will, between the spiritual government of the Church versus the political government of the State. This separation is not the kind of separation that liberals, leftists, and atheists mean when they describe a separation between Church and State. Thus, Romans 13 promotes a theocracy, but it doesn’t promote an ecclesiocracy where clergymen run the political government. In such a theocracy, political officials (including judges) are supposed to be ministers of God. As such, they punish evildoers and commend those who do good, but good and evil are defined by what Scripture says, not by what people say.
There you have it.
The God of the Bible is clearly a Charitable, Pro-Life Conservative Capitalist. And, neither Barack Obama, nor Mitt Romney, are truly following God in these matters. As Jesus notes in Matthew 4:4, all people are supposed to live by the Word of God. That includes politicians, government bureaucrats, judges, and presidential candidates.
The people of God must start holding these leaders’ feet to the fire with the Word of God. Otherwise, they will continue to have no one to blame but themselves for the poor leadership they get.
you dont know mitt romney AT ALL.
do some research, ask around, the man is all about service, service, service!!!
barack=never never never does anything for anybody-just shell out other people’s money