Susie-Q&A

• Aug. 29, 2009 - Warring Against Poverty; Know Thine Enemy

UPDATE: A friend makes some good points that I have not focused on here. 1. God's own servants are often poor. Contentment (Philippians 4:11), love, and gratitude, not necessarily lack of physical poverty, flow from having God as one's axis. 2. Our personal choices often naturally lead us into more reduced circumstances (choice of career, for instance). We cannot legitimately complain about the consequences of freely made choices, though we often find mercy in the midst of them. 3. Many people lead virtuous, successful lives without knowing Christ. God has built certain principles into creation that even unbelievers can follow to good results. Notice, however, Jesus' emphasis on being poor "in spirit," hungry and thirsty, mourners...who find their source in Him. All very true, and hopefully add dimension to this post without detracting from the main point, I think. Back to the original post...

I promised this post, and now it's time to think it through publicly.

Most decent people are sorry poverty exists. It's hard to imagine polling any American thus--"Do you wish you could eradicate poverty?"--and not getting a resounding "Yes!" regardless of party affiliation. I believe this is why the average individual is willing to give politicians the benefit of the doubt when it comes to social experimentation aimed at "decreasing the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest," though most do not closely examine the philosophy behind such a statement.

We declared war on poverty as a nation several decades ago, using collectivist means, and I think "How's that working for us?" is a fair question to ask. Have we won it? "Improved living standards [thank you free market]" but "Poverty rates have held steady," seem contradictory and indicate we have not. If any other war--say, the War in Iraq--were still going forty years hence, how would LBJ's party respond? Perhaps it's time to scrap the battle plan?

I submit we are not only using the wrong weapons, but targeting the wrong enemy as well.

What causes poverty? What will overcome it?

Cause of Poverty

I'll cut to the chase, in the interest of your time and mine, dear reader. Poverty is caused by spiritual darkness, and will be overcome *only* by the power of the Holy Spirit. You can forget using "carnal" (fleshly, human) weapons of warfare. Taxation, uncontrolled spending, political rhetoric, and centralized economies will do nothing but spur the cancer on.

Ask the likes of William Carey and Amy Carmichael: what is behind the sati, the untouchable caste, child temple prostitution, and the like? What other than the "powers and principalities" of this world, who deceive and enslave humankind?

What drives the drug trade, the slave trade, children pressed into civil warfare? What but that one who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy humanity? What causes flight to refugee camps resulting in loss of property, loss of income? What corrupts police officers, politicians, and judges? What drives the mob? What causes spouses to abandon one another, and even their children, for mere sexual pleasure? What causes fatherlessness; lack of initiative; contempt; rebellion; despair? Are social programs really sufficient to defeat the evil resident in the human heart, manipulated by spiritual forces? Can they overcome the powers of darkness?

How can anyone escape his fate in such a system of death (i.e., the world's system) except through the love, light, and life of Christ?

Worship Precedes Charity

You already know these passages, but I'll post them here in full, because so often the pushers of reconstituted communist philosophy abuse and redact the words of Christ to rationalize their violence against human liberty in the name of "overthrowing oppressors" (usually fingered as greedy capitalists).

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The Most Important. The MOST IMPORTANT.

Without the Most Important Commandment already in practice, how is the human heart in any wise prepared to love its neighbor? By what means? By its own frail means?

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." Love is from God. It can't come from any other source. Love arises from having God as the immovable axis, the single object of devoted worship of our lives. You can't revolve around self and God at the same time, anymore than a planet can revolve around two axes.

It's what drives the George Mullers, the Hudson Taylors, the William Wilberforces of this world. There was nothing intrinsically special about them; they were lit by a supernatural love that came from outside themselves, from outside time, from outside the cosmos itself.

Does the human heart, in its unregenerate state, naturally love God? Of course not. Scripture is clear: A human being must first become fully human, as he was originally created to be; must first be regenerated, brought back to life; must first be given a whole new nature. This is why we will never win any war against any social ill with the paltry power of the "arm of flesh." We are the problem, not the solution.

Consider this passage:

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

("He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. " One's thoughts turn to Congress at the trough--but this is beside the point.)

This is a surprising passage to those who are inclined to disconnect "love your neighbor" from the Most Important Commandment. Did Jesus have no heart for the poor? Was his "anointment for burial" more important than feeding many hungry people? What a waste! For that matter, why did he even have to die and be buried? Why didn't he simply use his divine power to feed thousands of hungry people every day? Why did that have to be an isolated thing--a mere "sign" instead of a substantive "solution"? Jesus had the power to turn stones into bread if he so wished. Why did he not supply the people with bread? Why did he not heal everyone in Palestine? Why did he not overthrow the oppressors of the people?

Here's a shocker: Jesus didn't come to feed the poor. He came for a far more pressing issue: to save our souls from death and hell; to make peace between us and him.   “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

There is no peace with God without unmitigated surrender to God. It's no good giving a person a bowl of rice without also pointing him to the only Way to peace: absolute subjection to Jesus himself. The bowl of rice is a kindness, a good thing, that unfortunately lasts about as long as the rice does; freedom from spiritual darkness, the cause of all human ills, comes by none other than Christ.

And since it is not the business of the government to convert people to Christ, I suggest we, the American church, not take the lazy Judas way and say, "Oh, my congressman will vote it in for me. So what if he takes a little pork off the top."   Your congressman, senator, president cannot do a thing to mitigate poverty.   If they can't win the war in forty years--if the communists, who were in control of *every aspect* of the economy, caused more poverty and starvation than they ever "solved"--is it not clear that the solution does not lie within the powers of humanity? That, indeed, the the very source of the illness is the powers of humanity?

Most of our political leaders do not even know Christ themselves. How can an unregenerate soul shed the love of God abroad in the world? Remember, the Most Important Commandment is the only thing that makes the second commandment possible. We simply cannot love our neighbor unless the love of God resides in us. Otherwise, we're just Pharisees, going through the motions to feel good about ourselves, seeking the praise of man.

If you find yourself more likely to be motivated by guilt-inducing, manipulative rhetoric than by the love of God, I suggest you stop for a moment and contemplate the Most Important Commandment. Ask yourself if He is really your axis. Nobody should be able to guilt you into anything, if you are completely enthralled by your Maker. He loves a "cheerful giver," one who gives as an act of worship. (Can we just settle the issue here, once and for all? Taxation does not equal worship.) He is not interested in our "burnt offerings and sacrifices" or "denarii."

"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

The Most Important Commandment.