Just as it is in each of the divisions of the Department of Social Welfare, it is NOT the responsibility of the government to find jobs or supply any other social dependence for the needy. The Biblical reason and purpose of government is for God to have a system of justice to oversee His laws and to deliver the consequences when His commands are not honored. I'm not sure you will find any country in the world that has set the purpose of their government to do that. One of my favorite passages, which can help us understand the purpose of government, is in 2 Peter. Check this out:
“Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right” (1 Peter 2:13-14, NASB).
GOVERNMENT SUPPLIED JOBS: God clearly reveals in this passage the purpose for earthly government. When government steps out of its bounds and attempts to manage the hearts and morality of the people, BIG government is formed.
Once a government is functioning in its God-given boundaries, the local business owners are free to hire and fire according to their individual goals and beliefs. As soon as the government tries to manage the corporate sector, business owners begin to feel like their hands are being tied through government regulations. Once that happens, business owners can’t fire, hire, or manage workers according to their beliefs; but rather, the workers start managing the employers according to workers’ “rights.” Then, government is upside down and the people who are actually responsible for keeping unemployment out of the dumper are being lead around as if they have rings in their noses. The ultimate consequence for the employer is that they won’t “feel led” to leave a portion of their profits to the poor.
“Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10, NASB).
If you read the above two verses, you just saw one of the all-time solutions to poverty. Since we have BIG government managing small businesses through policies, poverty will only increase. The reason employers don’t leave a portion of their businesses for the poor to feed off of is because they feel like they are being taxed to death before they even hire their first employee. When you open your morning paper tomorrow, read all the headlines! Review just how much of the news is over this topic. You should discover the majority of news is over the privatization rights of small business.
GOVERNMENT PAYOUTS: Another topic you will read about frequently in the news is in regard to “government payouts.” Is it Biblical to guarantee monthly income like Social Security checks? I will most likely get “hate e-mail” over this one; but, NO – it is not Scriptural. Not only does this support the idea of BIG government, but it destroys personal responsibility and multigenerational family integration. Even though it is NOT free money, it feels like free money to the slothful (lazy). While it promotes laziness in some, it also causes erosion and destruction of the original structure of family. God puts the full responsibility of caring for the elderly and needy on family. If the family is unable to care for their elders and needy family members, they are to go to the church. The church elders are then to assign another family(ies) to help train and care for those who have needy members under their roofs. That leads us to the topic of nursing homes.
NURSING HOMES: Does the Bible support the idea of nursing homes? I am afraid not! I know that our postmodern structure makes it almost “impossible” to care for our elderly parents; but it doesn’t change the Truth.
Multigenerational care is not a new concept – not at all. From the design of the original Hebrew family to that of Jesus going and preparing a place for His bride “in His Father’s house,” it has been the norm of God to conduct family business in this fashion.
So – what happened to us? Satan has so fractured God’s original design of family, elder care, and social welfare of the needy, that we have become depraved to the point of shipping our parents off to institutions and paying for others to finish what was originally our responsibility. In many of these cases, the families don’t even pay for these services; but rather, put the government in the position of having to come up with the money to do what God is asking the children to do. It is no wonder why the government is trying to pass legislation to euthanize (medically kill) our elderly. Shucks, if I was a liberal government worker (and I am not), I would push for such legislation as well. Just from an accounting perspective, government sponsored nursing home care is a really dumb idea. The government will not only get this euthanasia legislation passed, the average person is going to support this crazy idea. The reason for their support is sobering. Our postmodern society simply does not want these feeble, grouchy, old people disturbing their progressive lifestyles. If you’re wondering about those medically dependent cases that need special care – to that I say, hospice. If a local hospice is not medically equipped to handle the medical issues, there is the local hospital, which should only be temporary in order to return our loved one home. When possible, elderly people should die in one of the homes of their children – preferably of the eldest child.
In conclusion of this segment, I understand that in 90% of the elderly cases, this is an impossibility. I understand our society has gone too far and the odds of returning to God’s commands are next to impossible. I also have embraced what Jesus said:
"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death” (Matthew 10:21, NASB).
I really do understand that we are living in these times. Family honor and respect is so “old school” that we WILL start killing off our loved ones like they are stray dogs and not feel one ounce of guilt because of it. Hard to believe – do you think Jesus is just speaking to homicide via guns and knives? No – it includes abortion, medically assisted termination, euthanasia, and even turning a loved one over to the Antichrist for torture.
To those who are truly listening to what I am trying to communicate, I challenge you to pick up your responsibilities when and wherever possible and do what you can do to support God’s design of welfare and family. In those cases where it seems impossible to care for your parent(s) or needy family member, I say, pray. Pray and ask God for a way and then go to your local church and ask for help and guidance as to how they can empower you to support God’s idea of family integrated welfare.
