Not Socialism, But A New Life As A Serf

Continuing on yesterday's post...

Congressman Mike Pence said today that it is now clear the health care bill "is not about health care, but about changing the fundamental relationship between Americans and their government." In short, it will mean serfdom, as Americans will be made entirely dependent on federal bureaucrats for allocation of health care. Yes, this means "death panels" and the rest of it. Senior citizens will take the brunt of the "savings" that will be mandated, including $500 billion in designated cuts in Medicare. A study by Price Waterhouse Cooper estimates that the average family will have to pay $4,000 more for insurance by 2019, and individuals another $1,500.

The above is from a Front Line Alert from: Coral Ridge Ministries

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Government and Global Warming

What are we treating our government like?

As though it was our savior.

Is t the role of government to save us from global warming?

Of course we first need to ask whether global warming is real. Science Magazine reports that global warming stopped ten years ago (October 2, 2009 - page 28). But don't worry, they say, of course it will resume increasing in a year or two. But the current scientific evidence shows there is no global warming.

From a Biblical view does global warming make sense? Yes, it does. Following the flood what would naturally happen is a very cold period (ice ages) followed by warming. We're still in that warming period

So who is responsible for dealing with this? God assigned that responsibility in the Garden of Eden. It is our responsibility to care for the environment. It is also our responsibility to read God's word and use His word to guide our actions.

Our world was once much warmer. It will once again be much warmer. Our stopping the burning of fossil fuels will not make any difference, except to hurt people, cause hunger, and make people poorer - expect for those in power. Yes, we need to be taking care of the environment, but turning to the government as our savior is turning to the wrong savior.

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Your Responsibilities Vs. Government's Responsibilities

To start this series I pointed out some of the things government does that they should not be doing, such as welfare. There is a role for government in providing for those in need, but it is very small, with the vast majority of the responsibility falling on:

1. Close Family
2. Distant Relations
3. Friends & Neighbors
4. The Christian Church

Another area the government should not be involved in is that of education. Education is the responsibility of parents, who are also accountable for their children's education. Deuteronomy 6:6,7 says:

"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."

We are commanded to teach our children.

Ephesians 6:1 says how children are to respond... they are to obey their parents.

Parents have the ultimate responsibility for teaching their children. In today's world this may involve home schooling, or teaching them through a co-op type school. I describe it as a co-op because it needs to be a school in which the parents are heavily involved, and a school that is accountable to the parents. Government schools do not meet this criteria. Parents are only involved at the edges of the education that goes on and the school has no accountability to the parents.

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The Role Of Government

Romans 13:3-4 provides a concise summary of the role of government:

"For rulers are not a cause for fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."

Note that government workers are called "ministers of God" not once, but twice. This term also means "servants" of God. All governments are put in place by God and all government workers are ministers of God, putting them in a very special place and giving them serious responsibilities both to God and the people they serve. But this also makes sense, since all goverments are from God, then those representing the government are, in a way, representing God's will.

I find it interesting that some of the requirements for government service, in the early years of America's history, where that those in government positions be Christians. Our founding fathers understood what the Bible says about government workers being "ministers of God" and they wanted to help ensure wise choices where made for government service.

Let's look at the list of the three roles of government from yesterday, but I'll say them in a different way.

1. Punish wrongdoers - it is very clear from Romans 13:4 that government is to punish those who do wrong

2. Restrain evil - Romans 13:4 tells those who do evil that they should be afraid and notes that the government wields the sword (weapons) to be used against those who do evil. The way government restrains evil is by putting fear in the hearts of wrongdoers. This, of course, means that if they are not restraine by fear (the best option) then #1 above applies and it is the government's responsibility to punish those who do wrong.

3. Promote good - this means to treat citizens, who are doing good, in a just and fair manner. For example, government should be protecting the legitimate rights people have.

The Proper Role Of Government

I should have started this series many months ago, but other projects always seemed to push their way to the top of the pile. The Bible very clearly defines the role of government and the role of Christians. Unfortunately Christians have been neglecting what they are supposed to do and government has slowly moved in to take over the responsibilities of the church.

For example, part of the role of government is to provide protection and regulate commerce.

Part of the role of the church is to educate children and provide for the poor, both of which are now done mostly by government.

This ever growing expansion of government into areas of the church's responsibility is the source of many of the societal problems we have today.

I am not advocating a theocracy, a type of government that is run by the church. With the government involved in services such as welfare and education, it may seem that when I say these are church functions I'm saying the church should be running the government. Not at all. We're just thoroughly indoctrinated in those being a government function that we can't think of them being done in any other way. But they should be.

In the next post we'll take a look at the Biblical view of welfare, which includes the hot topic of the day... health care.

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