Before getting into the meat of this article, it should be noted that, believers do have a responsibility to the poor, the helpless, the sick, the homeless, etc. However, the key is not taxing someone else more and having the government pick up the slack. Some of our responsibilities are covered in more detail in Psalm 41 (HTML) (PDF) (WPD) (see v. 1 in particular). What is being covered in this article is the spin and distortion which has been put upon the Bible, which is then used to shill for the redistribution of wealth, socialism, communism, bigger government and more taxes and richer people that you do not like.

Preface:       The other day, when listening to Michael Medved, a guy came on the radio and began ranting about the 300 verses in the Bible where God condemns the rich. It was clear from listening to this guy that he had not personally done any of this research, nor did he know anything about the Bible, but that he was getting this from some website.

After a quick search on the internet, I located the following article:

http://www.zompist.com/meetthepoor.html

This is an approach which I always find fascinating, and so many people do it—allege or even attempt to prove that Jesus agrees with their viewpoint. Because most people who write this stuff do not realize that Jesus is God, they do not realize that they are attempting to form God in their own image.

This sounds like a person who is serious about the Bible, getting the interpretation of the Bible right, the condition of today’s churches and spiritual growth. However, at his own website, there are no other “religious” papers; there are no links to “good” churches, there are no recommendations of organizations which work with the poor that we ought to give to. Apart from 2 or 3 other articles, this particular essay seems to exist in somewhat of a vacuum on this webpage.

More importantly, there is nothing at this website about Jesus. The central theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ. He creates and restores the world in Gen. 1, His death on the cross is illustrated in Gen. 3, and in nearly every chapter of the Bible, there are illusions to Jesus Christ and His Work. On this website, where this author seems to be so concerned that American churches have departed from Biblical values, there is not a word about Jesus Christ. There is one other article on religion called Have Evangelicals sold their souls to the devil? Although I have not yet read the article, would it be presumptuous of me to assume that he is going to trash evangelicals in that article?

So, right away, one ought to understand that the authors of this piece have no real understanding of the Bible or Jesus Christ, except to use them politically; and they have no real interest in the poor, except to use them politically. The idea that they are offering up this page to be used “as the basis for a Bible study” is quite funny to hear from people who have a webpage which is 99% secular, offering 100% secular solutions.

Therefore, we would expect an essay all about the Bible and the poor to be dropped into the middle of a secular website where progressive ideals are a part of this person’s philosophy. There is no interest here to make people better Bible students; there is no real interest in the Bible or in Jesus Christ; the authors simply want to manipulate Christians to believe as they do. My guess is, their ideas came to them via a secular route, and they stand on their own, apart from the Bible. However, such progressives want to sell us on the idea that the Bible agrees with them; God agrees with them.

This is simply a distortion of what the Bible teaches, as well as a distortion of the emphasis of Biblical theology. Men who do not believe often spend a significant amount of time trying to distort the truth of the Bible.

The exodus is all about God bringing the Jews to the promised land, which they had to take by force from the heathen who live in the land; afterwards, they worked their land and farms. Out of curiosity, does the person who wrote this support Israel’s right to exist, to defend her borders, and to remove the heathen (so-called Palestinians) from the land? Since the authors are leftist, I would assume not. Most believers, recognizing that God gave this land to Israel 4000 years ago, have no problem with Jews living there or with them completely running the Palestinians out of there, if necessary for their own safety.

All that is in yellow, came directly from the website cited above. For much of this “study,” you will see verses from the Bible simply thrown together, which have very little in common with one another. Here we jump from the promise of God to give the Israelites the Land of Promise to Jesus Christ identifying Himself as the Messiah, as the fulfillment of the passage in Isaiah from which He reads.

Jesus Christ proclaims the good news to the poor—is this good news that He just recently petitioned the Roman government to set up a public free food store that the poor can go to? Of course not! Is the good news that he is organizing a protest on behalf of social justice, and they are going to meet outside in the quad in 20 minutes? Absolutely not! The gospel is the good news that Jesus would die for their sins and provide them peace with God through His death.

Although the poor refers to the literal poor, more often than not; this is a condition in which we find ourselves as human beings. We are without the wherewithal to save ourselves. We do not have the resources that we could use to get to God. We are poor; we are destitute; and God uses this to illustrate our poverty before Him. Slavery is used much the same way in the Bible. God uses that which we know and understand in order to teach us divine truth. Throughout the gospels, Jesus taught parables. These are stories about things that we know in order to teach us spiritual truth, which these stories illustrate.

Only a true ideologue could take a passage like the one above, intentionally leave out portions of the verse, and then present it thematically as if it is all about the poor.

In the synagogues, various people would stand up and read from portions of the Bible (in that time, this would have been the Old Testament). Jesus stands up, and reads a passage from Isaiah, and stops right in the middle of that passage (there is a reason for that), and all the eyes of the synagogue are on Him. Some looked at Him because he stopped in the middle of a passage. Some looked at Him because they recognized truth spoken by God. And then, after a dramatic pause, Jesus tells them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This is one of the most dramatic passages in all the Bible. Jesus has just told these people in the synagogue that He is the Messiah!

Here is the unedited passage (Luke 4:16–21): And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And, as His custom was, He went in to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And unrolling the book, He found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me; because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and new sight to the blind, to set at liberty those having been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And rolling up the book, returning it to the attendant, He sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him. Then He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” All of Israel knew Who the Messiah was; they understood the Old Testament to varying degrees, but they all understood that God would send them a Savior. Jesus Christ stood up before these people, read the passage from Isaiah about the Messiah, stopped in the middle of the passage (the rest of the passage deals with the 2^nd advent of Jesus Christ), and He sat down. Everyone in the synagogue was looking at Him. Then He told them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, this is the Messiah, Who moments ago, stood in front of them and read from the Holy Scriptures about Himself! When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, coming into being out of a woman, having come under Law, that He might redeem those under Law (Gal. 4:4–5a).

God is concerned with fairness and justice for the poor. However, just be leftist groups use the term social justice, that is not the sort of justice which is taught in the Bible. God’s concern for the poor is His concern for all mankind; however, as stated earlier, the poor better represent man before God. They do not have the ability to reach Him, as is true of all mankind.

This chapter is all about the enemies of Jehovah Elohim, and for them to come before Him. Much of the language in this chapter is not literal, but representative or similar to those found in the parables of Jesus. Behold! I have made you a new sharp threshing instrument, a master of teeth; you shall thresh mountains and beat them small, and shall make hills like the chaff (Isa. 41:15). God was not speaking of literally turning people into threshing machines or that they would harvest mountains or anything of the sort. The verse in question reads: The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, as the God of Israel I will not forsake them. (Isa. 41:17). The afflicted and needy are those who are searching for God and for the truth of His Word. What is promised to these is God taking them into the Millennium: I will open rivers in bare places, and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the desert for a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant cedar in the wilderness, acacia, and myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set fir, pine and boxwood together in the desert; so that they may see, and know, and set up, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah has done this; and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isa. 41:18–20). There eis nothing in the context of this verse which deals with “serving the poor.”

There is no promise here to the poor that Jesus is bringing to them a great welfare state. For the poor and destitute (which encompasses all unbelievers), Jesus offers them the kingdom of God; all they have to do is to believe in Him (John 3:16, 18, 36). If Jesus was some great social reformer, then any honest revolutionary must admit that He did a lousy job, as He changed absolutely nothing politically in that time period. Rome did not become a better place because Jesus was some sort of political activist. Furthermore, none of his disciples who carried on His message changed the world politically. They did not organize marches for social justice or demand that the government spend more money on the poor, or that the government tax the rich more. So, by the standards of the authors who wrote this paper, Jesus and His followers failed miserably, if they are to be measured by the authors’ standards. In fact, they did absolutely nothing for the poor, insofar as is recorded in Scripture—at least, nothing similar to what the authors would like to see done.

Why don’t the authors find other social reformers in history and use them, rather than take from the Bible? If Jesus and the disciples did nothing for the poor, then why hold them out as great examples? Why use their words? The answer is simple. The intent of these authors is to distort the words of the Bible and manipulate Christians of today to pursue political social justice (and they have been very successful in this endeavor; hundreds, if not thousands of churches, over the past 40 years, have been turned from teaching the Bible to teaching political social justice).

Any person can believe in Jesus Christ. However, those who are destitute often are more likely to turn to Him. Those who are rich often spend so much time involved with their riches that they do not consider their own spiritual needs. If we were to logically follow out the meaning that the writer hopes us to take from this verse, then we would want to increase the number of poor people on this earth, so that more people would be rich in faith.

God is certainly concerned about the poor. There is no doubt about that. However, let’s understand that the bulk of the Old Testament is about the nation Israel, which is the nation through which God worked. God set out specifics for how the nation Israel ought to be run, which clearly included fair treatment for the poor, the widow and the helpless. This fair treatment was extended toward slaves and toward foreigners living in Israel.

The person who put this together did not bother to include the verses which tell what God actually told Israel to do, with respect to the poor.

The purpose of liberals is to either establish a welfare state where a list of “needs” are defined (housing, education, food, healthcare) and then provided for by taxpayers who work; or to simply establish a socialist or communist state. That is the end game, none of which is found in the Bible. Jesus did not command His disciples to go out into the world and to demonstrate in order to make the governments better. Paul, in his many epistles, did not encourage his readers to become politically active. In the very country which persecuted Paul, Paul clearly called for believers to obey the authorities over them (Rom. 13:1–7).

We know that such propagandists are not trying to establish a government similar to that defined by God in the Old Testament, because everything else found in the Old Testament about Israel as a nation is ignored. They are simply looking to sell the welfare state, socialism and/or communism, and they will do that using any means possible. They use the Bible to capture the minds of the unlearned. They use a few verses in order to bring those who believe in the Bible over to their side.

What we do not find as a companion piece on this website dealing with the sexual immorality described in the Old Testament, and how God handled it. These same people do not quote all of the verses on sexual immorality and what the Bible says about it, and then proclaim, notice that our attitudes about sexual immorality are a world away from God's attitudes, as described in these verses. Sin arouses judgment from God-- and action! Of course not. They take out of the Bible what they can use to manipulate believers. The rest is unimportant to those in the social justice movement.

Back to the poor and what programs God actually instituted for the poor. Farmers were told to leave portions of their field unharvested; like the corners of a field. Then the poor could come in and harvest. So, you will note, the poor actually had to work in order to eat. A portion of the Book of Ruth tells about Ruth doing this, as a poor woman from Moab. There was no sitting at home waiting for a welfare check to come in. If you wanted to eat, you go out and worked for it. That meant that these same poor had to make provisions for the rest of the year. They had to deal with storage and preservation of food, which is more work. Even in the New Testament, working in order to eat is clearly taught: If anyone does not desire to work, neither let him eat (1Thess. 3:10b).

After quoting a few verses, then the author writes: I think it's fair to say that American attitudes toward the poor-- and perhaps not just in America-- are mostly disdain and fear. They're dangerous and different. Sometimes there's a suspicion that their condition is their own fault, that they're simply lazy or inferior. Other Americans are more kind-hearted, but prefer not to look at the poor too closely; it's depressing, and they're surely not fun people to be with. Have you ever read such silly drivel in all of your life? Some people are poor certainly because of not valuing hard work. Some have faced difficulties. But to say that many Americans look at the poor as dangerous and different, and not fun to be with, it is hard for me to even comment on, the accusations are so ridiculous.

Christians believe in helping the poor. If you look at the soup kitchens and missions which have been founded, most of them have been established by believers in Jesus Christ. Many churches have founded such organizations or support such organizations.

3 things ought to be noted here: the amount which is collected, how often it is collected, and who it is collected for. This is the closest thing that we have to institutionalized welfare in the Bible. 10% was collected every 3^rd year, so that is 3⅓% per year. This would be given to, the orphan and the widow, who represent the poor and the helpless. However, this is also collected for foreigners who are apparently having trouble in the land of Israel. Finally, do not overlook the first-named recipient on this list: the Levite. This is the spiritual class of the Israelites. These men have been set apart by God to serve Israel’s spiritual needs. So, a portion of this 3⅓% per year is given to pastors and teachers of the Word of God. So, let me ask, do you think the authors of this piece believe that the government ought to be partially supporting our churches? After all, if they believe in some form of institutionalized welfare, as we find here; then they must believe that a portion of this ought to go toward our churches. So, if the writers of this piece want to tax me 3⅓% per year and give a third of that to the churches, a third of that to the indigent foreigners and a third of that to the widows and orphans, I am fine with that. By the way, note that this is for widows, not for single mothers. The latter has children and no husband by choice.

This is a commandment given to the farmers of Israel, which was much of Israel. They were to leave small portions of their fields unharvested so that the poor could come and work that portion of the field for themselves. Note that there is work involved. These farmers were not told to harvest this food and then set up a free fruit stand for the poor; the poor had to go into the field and work, as we see in the book of Ruth.

In that day, kings (and sometimes their sons) functioned as judges, and the writer of this passage is telling the king to justly judge the poor and the needy (which is a precise translation of this portion of v. 8). I am certain that every person reading this believes that the courts, ideally speaking, ought to treat everyone equally by the law. A rich influential person should be given no more justice in the courts than a person who is indigent (or vice versa—we ought not to think that a poor person deserves a judgment of money simply because they are poor and their opponents are rich).

I suspect that someone else gathered these verses, and the writers here offered their own comments. In any case, the gist of this chapter was phony religious worship, when there should have been acts of righteousness, which included sharing with those who had not. There is no institutionalized socialism here; it is simply personal acts of kindness toward those who are in need.

In both of these passages, the context is, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and they would be sent out as His ambassadors, and these were the things they were to do in order to prepare. Missionaries do much the same thing when they go out. This was not a general command for all believers. The authors who collected these verses did not sell all that they owned to give to the poor. According to the website where this paper is posted, one of the authors have a marvelous vacation in Brazil.

If you read the entire passage, John the Baptizer is telling those in the crowd to be honest and just and charitable in their lives. Again, you cannot read this, and then suddenly make a leap to the idea that the government now owns everything and ought to distribute property as it sees fit.

First off, there is no verse in this list which speaks of serving the poor, as if this is some exalted class of people that we need to do some sort of obeisance to. Secondly, the last thing we ought to do as voters is to help form a permanent class of dependent poor (which the government of the United States has done). Over and over again, the Bible speaks of the orphan and the widow; and provision needs to be made for these. This is not the same thing as providing free school lunches (and other meals) for 10–100% of the school children in any given city.

Secondly, this author seems to be accusing Christians of being stingy with their charity if people are Black or immoral or if they do not speak English. This is obviously an ideologue who has never helped out in a soup kitchen or at a mission. My recommendation is for this person, because he has so much concern for the poor, involve himself with some of the church-supported outreaches in his own community, so that he can see with his own eyes that people are not turned away because they are immoral, Black or speak with an accent. Such accusations are incredibly foolish, self-righteous and self-serving.

There are certainly blessings for those who perform acts of divine good, which can include personal giving to those in need. One of the advantages of individuals and churches here is, people do not tend to permanently collect a check, as does institutionalize welfare. This might help a family get through a difficult month or even a difficult year; but churches and individuals do not tend to take on the responsibility of supporting those who simply choose not to work, as our government does.

If we were to look through the groups of poor, those who are actually unable to provide for themselves; those who have absolutely no family, we are probably looking at maybe 1% of those who receive welfare. I am personally in a unique position where I work with people who are on disability social security, or who receive help from the government through section 8 housing or food stamps, and I have not yet come across a single person who is truly unable to work or to provide for himself (or herself). Over the past 30 years, I have encountered 2 people who are so crazy and out of control, that both should have been institutionalize (and one of them was not on welfare). However, for the rest of them, welfare was a nice perk; it meant that they did not have to work quite as hard to get what they wanted.

Please don’t misunderstand me at this point. This is the world in which we live. Most of these people were brought up to believe that government needed to help them out. Our government has gone along with this notion. I have come across very few people, in my life, who would starve in the streets if they did not receive welfare. And I have known hundreds of people whose lives are partially subsidized by government.

This is why private assistance is far better than an institutionalize government assistance. The former tends to be temporary and to help a person or family to get a leg up; the latter tends to make huge numbers of people dependent upon a government check for the bulk of their lives. And these people who depend upon government assistance when they don’t need to—and these are not terrible people (although some most certainly are)—they are simply a part of this society which teaches certain groups of people that government is the answer for all of their needs.

We already covered the first verse above, but the second verse is from a very fascinating passage. Jesus was speaking to a man who desired to be saved by keeping the Law (no man can be saved be keeping the Law—Gal. 2:16); so Jesus is simply pointing out where this man failed at keeping the Law of Moses. The key to this passage is not the specific shortcomings of this rich young ruler, but that we all have shortcomings; we have all sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). If you are a liberal, and you are reading this, and you have not believed in Jesus Christ, then you are trying to stand on your own works before God. You are just like this rich young ruler. All of those who stand upon their own works will be cast into the Lake of Fire (John 3:18 Rev. 20:11–15). Jesus’ message to you is the same as His message to the rich young ruler—your own personal righteousness is not enough; you must stand by faith on the finished work of Jesus Christ. [God our Savior] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His Own mercy, by the washing of regeneration [= the cleansing of the new birth] and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the confidence of eternal life (Titus 3:5–7).

This particular passage, where Jesus tells this man to sell all of his possession, give them to the poor, and follow Jesus, will be discussed in full later on. However, let me make this one observation: I can guarantee you that these 3 individuals who wrote this essay, have not sold all of their worldly possessions, given this to the poor and then have gone on to follow Jesus. They will accuse Christians in this piece of all kinds of evil (not having any compassion for the poor; particularly the immoral, Black and foreign poor); and they will demand that Christians ought to give until it hurts; but they do not follow this advice themselves.

The United States is filled with religious quacks; and the prosperity gospel has been with us for a long time. Now, God does promise us blessings in this life, which, for some, includes riches. Just as these verses about the poor are in the Bible, so are there verses about blessings which we receive from God (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were not paupers by any means; nor was Solomon or David). However, it ought to be made clear that, just as God does not promise every believer that He will make them rich; God does not promise unbelievers that He will bless them for giving to the poor. Nor does God promise anyone great blessings because they help to bring socialism into a country’s government (ask those who live in North Korea about their lives, as compared to their counterparts in South Korea—oh, sorry, you cannot easily ask a person in North Korea anything).

Speaking of North and South Korea; the former is founded on communist principles (which the writers of this essay believe, at least, to some degree) and South Korea is founded upon freedom and free enterprise. If I wanted to begin corresponding with a person in South Korea, I could do that easily. If I wanted to do the same with a person in North Korea, it would be nearly impossible (and it might endanger their lives). If I wanted to fly to South Korea, it would be the easiest thing in the world (apart from the cost, of course). However, if I wanted to go to North Korea, it would not be easy, and I might be captured there and used as a human bargaining chip.

If you ever wonder, would we be better off under a socialist government or under a capitalist government, see Paul Noll’s excellent site where he compares the 2 Korea’s:

http://www.paulnoll.com/Korea/History/index.html

God does expect us to share our wealth, to some extent; but this is not the central message of the Bible. The Bible also speaks of sexual immorality and defines the boundaries of a sexual relationship. The writers of this essay will never gather up all of these verses and call for Americans to become more moral. Sexual morality, like helping the poor, is not the central message of Scripture. Jesus Christ is the central theme of the Bible, and His efficacious death on our behalf. We find this in Gen. 3 22 Psalm 22 Isa. 53, passages which are written hundreds and thousands of years before our Lord walked this earth as Jesus.

The people who have spent time going to the Bible and gathering together verses like this have no intention of turning unbelievers toward Jesus Christ, nor are they interested in guiding believers to be more charitable in their lives. They are looking to turn the government into a welfare state government; or to turn us toward socialism and/or communism. This has occurred numerous times in both South America and Latin America, where Liberation Theology crept into the Catholic church, and where these verses are presented as the central Biblical theme. See Liberation Theology (HTML) (PDF).

People who tout this theology have little or no interest in the Bible, except to turn believers away from a legitimate establishment government toward a far left oppressive government. In Red China, communists got the support of Christian missionaries by showing that they too were against immoral behavior. Once their communists objectives were achieved, missionary activity was persecuted next.

Those who wrote this original article on the poor are not interested in you personally; they are not interested that you know Who Jesus Christ is; they probably do not know themselves Who He is. They are interested in establishing a political system, and if this involves running circles around those who are believers but do not know the Bible, that is fine with them. But never expect such writers to clearly present their end game; do not expect them to clearly lay out exactly what they want our society to be. Their idea is to move us, bit by bit, little by little, toward socialism (which is why they call themselves progressives); and if they must use the Bible in order to do this, then that is fine with them. They know the Bible is important and influential, and that is why communist governments often outlaw the Bible once they are established.

As we find throughout, this discussion or commentary bears little resemblance to the verses quoted. The only passage which appears to require all of us to give stuff away “way past our comfort level” is that of the rich young ruler. It is a passage like this which requires a good pastor-teacher to explain exactly what Jesus is saying. The entire passage reads: And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One Who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt. 18:16–26).

This man has come up to Jesus and he asks Him, “What good thing must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus knows the hearts of men (Matt. 9:4 Luke 9:47 Acts 1:24), so, for instance, when He is asked, “What must we do in order to be doing the works of God?” Jesus determined that he could give them the straight-out definitive answer, which was: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.”

On the other hand, with this rich young ruler, Jesus approached eternal life from a different point of view. This man was ready to hear that he did not keep the Law f(as he thought he did), but he was not quite ready to hear the gospel (Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved). So, you will note that Jesus Christ begins ticking off the Ten Commandments, beginning with commandment #6 then 7 then 8 then 9 and then....Jesus goes back to commandment #5, Honor your mother and father. So why is this? Why did Jesus begin the quote the commandments in order? This man, in his own mind, had kept commandments #6–10. When Jesus began with “You will not murder” the rich young man began to bob his head up and down, indicating, “Yeah, I keep that commandment.” Then the man thinks that Jesus is about to say the tenth commandment, which is “You will not covet...” and this rich young man can afford ot buy whatever he wants, so he has no need to covet what someone else has. So he is ready to say, “Yes, sir, I am keeping all of these commandments.” But Jesus, instead, doubles back, and says, “Honor your mother and father.” Now why does Jesus do that? In that time period, a man could declare his wealth korban, which, in effect, meant that it was dedicated to God; and therefore, he could not be compelled by social pressure to, for instance, take care of his own parents. Then Jesus tells him to love his neighbor as himself. Again, under the korban gimmick, this man had his wealth dedicated to God, so he did not have to give any of his wealth to the poor (under the Law, there was a tax for the Levites, the alien and the widows and orphans of 10% every 3 years). If his money was already dedicated to the Lord, then he could avoid this obligation. So, in these final 2 items, he is no longer bobbing his head up and down enthusiastically, but, he is thinking that he has still fulfilled the letter of the Law. So then Jesus tells him how he can be perfect: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Jesus had hit upon that which the rich young man would not do—he would not part with his money. The point of this story is not that, you have to keep all of the commandments and give away all of your money, and then you are considered perfect by God. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). In case you doubt this, Salvation (HTML) (PDF) is an 11 page document listing hundreds of verses about salvation, and how we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone and not by any works which we have done. This is the basis for the entire Christian life (something completely ignored by these socialist propagandists who wrote this essay on the poor).

What Jesus did with this rich young ruler was to point out where he did not obey the spirit of the Law. Ideally speaking, the rich young ruler was to ruminate on this, and, hopefully, be ready to hear the gospel on a later date. Some people believe in Jesus Christ the first time they hear about Who He is; and others require more time and preparation; particularly those who are self righteous.

None of the rest of the verses quoted suggest that we need to give and give way past our comfort level (something which the authors of this essay have not done).

Again, this author makes all kinds of accusations of the reader, that we do not give to the poor if they are immoral, Black or speak another language. The people in the United States are the most generous people in the world. We give as individuals more money to more disasters than does any other nation in this world. Few if any look at disasters in Haiti or Sri Lanka or Thailand, and say, “Well, hell, we want to give, but they aren’t Americans and most of them don’t speak English. And, besides, their skin if a funny color.” This sort of accusation is absurd, and yet the authors of this essay make it two times.

We get a brief peak into the psyche of authors of this piece. “Can you imagine classifying one group of human beings as illegal?” There are people who believe that there ought to be no borders (at least, in the case of the United States; I have heard these same types of liberals justify North Korea taking prisoners of those who wander into their territory). They do not believe that the United States ought to be able to define and enforce its own borders. The Bible clearly teaches nationalism. See the Laws of Divine Establishment (HTML) (PDF); particularly examine the section on nationalism.

Does this mean that we ought to treat illegal aliens viciously? Of course not! There are very few people who believe in the sovereignty of the United States who want to see illegal aliens harmed in any way. What we want to see is, all illegal alien criminals dealt with severely; the borders closed, and then we are willing to talk about the illegals who are already living here.

Jesus does not ask for immoderate giving; we have a choice—we can be absolutely perfect in order for God to like us (which is an impossibility) or we can place our faith in Him. As you will notice with any liberal who uses the Bible, they will never, at any point, suggest that it is important that you believe in Jesus Christ. They are not concerned with what the Bible is all about; they are concerned with Christians buying into their interpretation of the Bible, and to be consequently swayed politically by this.

Nations have a corporate identify, and how a society treats its poor and helpless is something which is important to God. Those who are spiritually mature are often called to organize missions, soup kitchens and the like. Such people dedicate their entire lives, I many cases, to teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ by helping the helpless. Many other people give to these causes. Many churches support these efforts.

As has been shown statistically again and again, conservatives tend to give much more than their liberal counterparts; and they are more likely to give of their time and resources to non-Christian causes. Not only have studies been done, but John Stossel illustrated this once by putting a salvation army booth in SF and in some small, but religious Midwestern town, where the income per capita was much lower. Who gave the most? Of course, those in the community of the small Midwestern town.

In looking over the webpage of this author, there was something that was very conspicuous in its absence: links to soup kitchens, missions, or places where we could give to serve the poor. There were many links to various comics, to a trip to Brazil (with pictures!), science fiction and gaming (see their main page). So, I am reading through this paper they did, taking verses from the Bible about how we ought to give until it hurts; and meanwhile, they are spending money on comics, on games, on trips to Brazil; and I see no evidence whatsoever of them spending money on the poor. Where is their mission? Where is the soup kitchen that they organized? Of course, there are no links to anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is all, “This is all the stuff I am into; yay me!” And that is fine by me; it is his webpage and he can put on it whatever pleases him. I don’t expect him to take his time and give it to the poor. I am simply offended by his self righteous attitude, which is clearly expressed in this particular paper; and yet, it is quite clear by his actions, that he does not buy into any of this.

We are allowed another view into the writer’s brain. Sexual immorality is not so bad; not serving the poor, now that is bad. As discussed previously, there is a lot about sexual immorality in the Bible; there is a lot about what we ought to do and what we ought not to do. The Bible devotes about a half-dozen chapters to the consequences of David’s sin, which included adultery with Bathsheba. So, sexual immorality is an important topic in the Bible; and these people did not seem to write a companion piece about it. I won’t hold my breath waiting for it.

And note his words about what is happening in the USA: exploiting workers, oppressing immigrants, robbing the needy. Now, why exactly does most of the world want to come to the United States? Why do people risk life and limb and spend every available dollar that they have in order to sneak into the United States? Exploiting workers, oppressing immigrants, robbing the needy describes perfectly what occurs in all communist and socialist countries. If I was dirt poor, do you know where I would want to live? In the good old USA. The so-called poor in America live much better than do average people anywhere else. The last thing that I want to do is to fundamentally change the structure of the United States, which is the city of hope on a high hill.

Again, after looking at this person’s website and the trivial matters that he concerns himself with, the dripping self righteousness of this essay is absolutely offensive.

In this set of verses, it appears as if the authors just threw together some miscellaneous verses, some which have to do with the attitude of the giver, and other verses which should have been offered up earlier.

No Christian would argue that giving ought to be voluntary and with the correct mental attitude. From what I have read of the author’s blog, he appears to want much higher taxes, particularly upon the rich. Taxes are not giving. Paying one’s taxes is not voluntary nor does it engender a good mental attitude. Many of us, when we work hours to earn our keep, and then have to give large chunks of it to the government, which seems to piss it away and then some—that does not make me feel cheerful. From what I can see, they are using my money, most of the time, simply to buy votes in order to stay in office longer. And our politicians do not live like paupers (nor do the leaders of communist and socialist countries). Many of our leaders act like they are in some higher class, and they spend our hard-earned money like it was nothing.

[I have rearranged some of the verses and their commentary to deal with this topic specifically]

Those who are trying to sell communism and socialism through using the Bible often quote these verses. This establishes, insofar as we know, the first socialistic commune. This was a very unusual time in history. The recently established Christian church was getting it from both sides. Judaism attacked them for their Christian beliefs, and sometimes cut these people off financially; and the Roman government attacked them, and tried to dissuade, through force, people from practicing their Christian faith. The book of Acts records what was done in those days. Just as we are not supposed to follow Judas act of hanging himself, we are not to do everything that we find in the book of Acts. Now, if Paul or Peter later exhorts us, to gather into a Christian commune, that would be different. If Paul, on Mars Hill, gave the sermon on how to properly organize Christian socialism on earth, then we would need to pay attention. However, that is not what happened here. The early Christians in Jerusalem were having a very difficult time of it, and one approach that they tried was a communal approach. We find out later, in the gospels, that this never worked. Rather than the combining of their wealth providing them with great prosperity, this approach guaranteed that they would fall deeper into poverty, as testified to by 1Cor. 16:1–3, and other passages which refer to the continual financial support needed for the believers in Jerusalem. In other words, they tried the socialistic commune approach and it did not work out.

Do you know one of the great things about America? If you really believe in this or that form of government (this or that level of socialism), you can save up enough money in America within a year, for most people, and move to whatever country in the world you want to. We, as Americans, can choose the country with the most perfect amount of socialism and government control and move to that country. If you move there and renounce your citizenship here, most of these leftist countries (including Europe) will welcome you with open arms. If you are an African-American and you think the USA has given you a raw deal, save your money and move to any nation in Africa. If you an Hispanic living in America and you think that you are treated poorly, then save your money and move to whatever Latin-dominated country you want to move to. If you are a Muslim and you think that Muslims are treated poorly here in the United States, then you can move to a myriad of Muslim countries. And, if you are a socialist or an out-and-out communist, then save your money, and move to Russia, Cuba, Red China, North Korea or to whatever paradise on earth that you want to go. In America, we have the freedom to do this. This author had enough money to fly to Brazil and back; and, if it is a better country, then move there. More power to you! That is the greatness of freedom that we enjoy here in this country.

What I would love to see is a detailing of the money which these authors take in through their various income sources, along with a list of the poor that they have given to. I am hoping to be inspired by their great example of their generous giving. I want to be moved by their generosity. And, if they believe that the government ought to do this, then I want to be inspired by the additional amounts of money that they send in for their taxes. I so want to titillated by their choice to see that government is taking, say, 80% of their income, because that strikes me as sacrificial giving; that strikes me as them leading the way by example. You know what would be cool? A video of the authors showing their tax returns, the amount that they have to send Uncle Sam, and then a check that they will write for twice that amount, because the government is good with our money! And move in for a close up of the big smile on their faces as they write this check.

How often do you go to church yourselves? What do you spend your time on? Going to Brazil, comics, games, politicis, literature? That is fine, as long as you do not look down your self righteous nose at me.

Do you notice with this comment that the writer is no longer quoting Bible verses? Does the Bible anywhere exhort government to provide more jobs in order to reduce crime? The Bible does have verses telling us what governments ought to do about thievery, but these writers decided not to include those verses.

What has happened to us during our recession here in the United States (I write this in 2010)? Has crime gone up or down?

There have been a lot of studies on criminal behavior, and criminals tend to be criminals because that is the way they think, not because they are looking to steal a loaf of bread in order to feed their family. Selling drugs, for instance, requires a lot of work and a lot of precautions. Do you think that a person who sells drugs might be able to find another line of work? Work which does not involve the chemical murder of thousand sands of people in order for him to get by from week to week.

There are all kinds of crimes. White collar crime is just as evil as street crime. Few Christians would disagree with this.

This verse deals with God becoming a man in order to save us. It has nothing to do with Jesus having a successful business and then selling it and giving His money away so that he could be poor. As God, Jesus is rich; however, He took upon Himself the form of a man, and the degradation of the cross, so that He could bear our sins.

Paul tells us to have the following mental attitude in ourselves: Have this mindset among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philip. 2:5–11). The vow of poverty that Jesus took was to become man.

True, true; no Christian would argue with any of these verses.

Again, salvation is not through works, but through faith in Christ. Separating sheep from goats is separating believers from unbelievers. Believers who are mature reveal this in their works, which does include—particularly in desperate times (the context of this verse)—giving to those who are in need.

Again, there is no government involved here. Jesus is not saying, “Make sure your government taxes you until it hurts, because that is how you will get into heaven.” We are to obey governments and we are to pay whatever taxes we owe (Rom. 13:1–7); however, there is no command in the Bible about being communist revolutionaries, nor does the Bible call for government control of everything.

Jesus is a revolutionary, only in this way—He tells us that salvation come through faith in Him. The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." (John 4:25–26). “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6b). Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36). And Abraham had believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).

Almost no one in the Christian community thinks that Jesus should have come as a tycoon or a cult leader. The writer apparently is not all that alarmed over the parable of the sheep and the goats, as there is nothing on his webpage about serving the poor (what organizations he has personally set up).

It is another straw-man argument to say that believers today think that Jesus should be building multi-million-dollar cathedrals. Can you find a single notable Christian who has ever made such a statement, ever?

Again, no one argues that our lives ought to revolve around money; but it is money in the hands of private citizens which goes to feed the poor without causing them to become a permanent underclass that is always dependent upon the government.

What we have found is, that if man is given the maximum amount of freedom, as we have here in the United States, this raises the status of everywhere. There really is trickle down prosperity. We had a very liberal president in President Carter, who gave us an economy so terrible, that a misery index was established in order to describe it. However, when President Reagan came into office and began to reduce the tax burden (on rich and poor) and began to encourage Americans to depend upon their freedom rather than upon the government, we had a prosperity wave which continued for decades. Bill Clinton along with a Republican Congress, continued in this same vein, balancing the federal budget and instituting welfare reform. President Bush continued in this same vein, reducing taxes once again (but not, unfortunately, subjecting himself to greater fiscal discipline; and not regulating FNMA and FHLMC, which entities sent our country into a financial tailspin). In any case, for the better part of nearly 30 years, America enjoyed great prosperity, and the lot of the poor improved tremendously over this period of time as well. All of this goes back to what President Ronald Reagan did and taught.

Word Clouds

This first Word Cloud comes from the Zompist webpage (where all of these comments boxed in yellow came from). You will note what is missing: the word government, taxes, socialism, communism, redistribution or any related words. However, this is what people like this believe in. As liberals, they believe that the government ought to step in, tax the rich more (no matter what they are paying in taxes already), and redistribute this wealth. But they are so very careful not to actually speak of such things.

The second Word Cloud looks quite similar to the first, but it was taken from this particular study on God and the poor, taking into consideration what has been said on the Zompist webpage and debunking much of what is put forth there. A lot of things have changed, although you may not notice the changes at first: poor (the topic of both pages) and God stand out as important topics, but note that there are 3 more words which become very prominent: Jesus, government and Bible. Jesus is the key to the Holy Scriptures; the Bible is our textbook, but what the Zompist webpage is actually selling is bigger government, higher taxes on the rich, more government control and more government redistribution.