A Lesson from the Old Testament

                If anyone follows me on social media, you probably notice that I fall on the conservative/libertarian spectrum of politics.  I do want to say that I can be persuaded depending on this issue to look and possibly accept other sides, but I want to present my main reason as to why I think one should be careful if they are a Jew/Christian, and think that we should be giving our power to the governing bodies because they think we should be like everyone else.

                In the Old Testament, the Israelites also wanted to be like everyone else, so they asked God to elect a king to rule over them (read 1 Samuel 8) because they saw that every other nation around them was ruled by a king. Now, many of these nations were deemed to be wicked, and ceremonial laws were put in place by God to help separate Israel from the rest of the world, because God wanted to show the world His chosen people and what benefits a relationship with Him looks like. Instead, the Israelites showed the common human hubris, and thought that man knew better than God.

This is what I see when I see people wanting the American government involved in every aspect of our lives. I see people that want the government to take care of others, instead of taking personal responsibility and compassion for their fellow man. I see people not wanting to be accountable for their responsibilities and rights as is given to us by our Creator, instead wanting others to be responsible for their well-being and protection.

We are commanded to be taking care of ourselves, and to work so that we can eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10), yet people advocate for welfare programs where people live constantly off of other people’s work. We are also commanded to take care of widows and orphans (James 1:27), and it has been shown that the individual, not the government, is more charitable in every aspect. The government also finds ways to impede individual assistance, as churches that have attempted to take care of the homeless on their own property have been subjected to litigation and exorbitant fines.

It is due to these, and many other examples of wasteful big government, that I find myself to be a Christian and a conservative. I do not want to be associated with the caricatured “Christian right” because I think many of these people blindly follow what their favorite pundit says. I want to be someone who can think for themselves, and I have independently come to the conclusion that the largest government that we should have is at the local level, not the federal.

While I do not preach this as gospel, or do I maintain that this is the proper Christian view of government, it is one that I have found to be consistent with what I understand from scripture and what I see going on in American politics. I would love to have a discussion with you over where you think I am barking up the wrong tree and where I am up the right one. God bless and have a good rest of your day.