Lot’s of good questions you had there Neil. ” Should we forgive those who wrong us, but who do not admit their wrong and ask our forgiveness? ” you asked. Yes we can. Our forgiveness is not the same as God’s.

By giving an enemy a drink, we are not excusing his misdeeds. We’re recognising him, forgiving him, and loving him in spite of his sins – just as Jesus did for us.

He can only be truly forgiven, if he repents with faith. And it’s only God who can truly forgive him.

Good one again almond. Yes, we are different to the devil. He is an angel. A fallen one at that. Sometimes we forget too, that the devil can only act because God allows him to. Isn’t that amazing.

It’s a mystery really, but anyhow ” God works for good for those who love him. ” Romans 8:28.

Goodness, all this blog on Satan, sin, justice, Marxism, and love. And even the Health Care bill. All because we decided to comment on Glenn Beck!

God does work in mysterious ways.

Cheers.

also in scripture we are instructed NOT to judge those outside the church (1 Corinthians 5).

Query: Does the Bible admonish us to love “evil?”

Would we then be required to substitute the “devil” for say, Glenn Beck?

“Love the Devil as you would love yourself.”

Sorta has a “ring” to it, doesn’t it?

Does innocence on the part of the beloved matter?

Does the abortionist love the innocent unborn child that they murder?

As Pilate asked Jesus, the Christ, “what is Truth?” how would He answer the question: “What is love?”

God loves sinners and saints, after all Jesus, His Son, died for all our sins. However, His judgment for each, we are told, will be different in the end. Does loving someone mean that we can’t also judge them, and admonish them to mend their errant ways?

Can there be Justice without first an admission of wrong?

Can there be forgiveness without an admission of sin?

Will God forgive those who ask His forgiveness but don’t believe in their hearts and minds that they have done wrong and will correct their ways?

Should we forgive those who wrong us, but who do not admit their wrong and ask our forgiveness?

Are we required to be more merciful than God?

Is loving someone the same as forgiving them?

Do we owe our neighbor the duty to inform them of their “evil ways?” If not, why not? If not, kindly explain how Christ Church on Earth must operate.

Another Biblical reference for assisting the poor comes from the “gleaner laws” for the Hebrew Nation found in Deuteronomy. Here the law required that the farmer most not “glean” his crop (pick every bit of it), but instead leave the hardest to gather in the field to the poor and needy:

“Deuteronomy 24:19. When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. 20. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.”

Some Progressive like to compare Social Security to the “storing grain for lean years” in the story of Joseph. However, the analogy doesn’t work because while Joseph and the Egyptian government saved the grain for years of famine, our government spends every dollar it collects from Social Security every year. Additionally, grain is a commodity and is therefore pretty “inflation proof,” especially if you wait until “lean years” to use it. The cash that we all pay into Social Security is not inflation proof – therefor it should be invested in ways that will earn a return to protect against inflation. Investing in government will not accomplish that, hence the so-called Social Security “Trust Fund” does not contain sufficient dollars to met its “lean years” obligation for all its participants. Like the required storage of excess grain during the “fat years,” the Social Security program was sold as a “savings plan” for the “common good.” Unfortunately, it never was.

As for the “gleaners laws” of Deuteronomy, it said to support the modern concept of welfare programs. However, this too is an incorrect analogy. Modern Welfare works by forcing the productive people of society to pay substantial portion of the earnings by the “sweat of the brow” to government who redistributes it to those it deems needy. Unlike the Biblical “gleaners,” however, the modern welfare recipients are not required to work in order to reap their benefits. The Bible teaches us, both in the case of the stored grain and the “gleaners” that self help and not government handouts are the better way to promote the “Common Good.”

A set of scales can be balanced. The same weight on the left as on the right. Justice is a big subject. But in essence it means balance, we should strive for balance in all human endeavours. Wow, what a task this is. How do we get balance, so everyone is equal? We could talk about it till the cows come home.

As I mentioned in my post above ” harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. ”

All I can say is ” God help us. ”

The next best thing I can say is ” Jesus come back quick. ”

Alleluia !

I think the issue is: Is a secular government-run charity equal to independently run or personal charity. First and foremost how is God most glorified? Second what is the nature of the spiritual transaction between the giver and receiver – does that edify the parties involved and glorify God.

I think a secular government-run charity breeds resentment and contempt, while independent and personal charity builds relationships and understanding of our brothers. I think that we and not the secular government are called to be our brothers keeper. Overbearing government programs are nothing more than prideful human-centered efforts designed to create a Utopia, all without God’s will and His glory as the center of the effort. The humanistic, secular, worldwide Utopian effort to redistribute wealth and manage humans as sheep is simply a modern day Tower of Babel. Nothing is new under the sun.

Different terms should be used to differentiate between “Social Justice” as directed by the government and “charity” or “fairness” promoted by brothers in Christ.

Glenn Beck is correct – we must make sure the goal of our charity or fairness – or Social Justice – should be to glorify God, not to glorify the works of the hands of man.

You miss Glenn’s point entirely. Father Charles Edward Coughlin was also a talk radio hit, but only in the 1930′s when he had over 40 million listeners. His weekly paper, “Social Justice” promoted antisemitism and supported Europe’s supreme seeker of “Social Justice” the National Socialists in Germany, and his radio show promoted Nazism as a counter to Marxism. Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice. Interestingly, many of Glenn Beck’s critics on the left call him the present day Father Coughlin.

The misunderstanding that I see is how one defines “Social Justice.” Glenn Beck, who is by nature a very “Charitable” in the Biblical sense, is very generous to those in need. Those who object to Glenn’s political and economic philosophy are also very generous, although not from their own pockets, but instead those of the public.

And this is the rub – how do defend “Social Justice” and its end result “Charity.” If you believe Jesus, the Christ, taught that governments in order to practice “Social Justice” must coerce people into giving up their earnings so that those who will not earn on their own can have it, believe that Jesus, the Christ, was a Marxist, where the government redistributes wealth and calls it “Social Justice.”

However, if you believe, as Glenn Beck apparently does, that the “Good News” of the message of Jesus, the Christ, was not about big government and tax-collectors forcibly taking from one person in order to give to another, but instead about “true Charity” where everyone decides for themselves to dig into their own pockets, and not the pockets of their neighbors to help the less advantaged, then the way some churches and most politician use the term “Social Justice” is neither Christian, Biblical, nor is moral. Forced Charity afford the giver no Grace, while true, unselfish giving affords the giver true Grace. It is an abomination to believe that Jesus, the Christ’s, message was Marxist. It was not, and nothing in His Words in the Gospel would ever led anyone to believe that false teaching of evil men was His ideal.