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Is God a Socialist? Is God a Capitalist? Is God a Libertarian? 5 facts to understand.
???1. Yes, God is a socialist. Or a Capitalist. Either way, God is NOT a Bernie-Bro or an Ayn Randy.
In the Bible, "poor" is defined to mean people with good excuses for severe poverty: orphans, widows, refugees, people with horrible disabilities like leprosy, and a few others. Socialists have pity for people with absurd excuses like "recessions", "outsourcing", "technological unemployment", "invisible disabilities", "COVID-lockdowns" and so on. God says these people should not eat: 2 Thessalonians 3:10.
The Bible urges Christians to donate to legitimately poor people. God urges economic redistribution. This is not the same as a welfare state, however. Charity is voluntary, whereas taxes are not.
Bernie-Bros might complain that never in history has voluntary charity been as effective as welfare states at reducing poverty and inequality, but that doesn't matter. God said the poor will always be with us, perhaps because He likes it that way. Or maybe Christianity hasn't worked because it's never been tried. (See what I did there?)
God threatens to send fat-cats/bourgies/kulaks to hell if they don't donate enough to charity. This is similar to socialist governments sending kulaks to gulags for failing to hand over their seed-corn. God works with greater efficiency, read Acts 5:1–11 to see God delivering summary executions to a Kulak couple suspected of donating some, but not all, of their wealth.
The fist of God smites the greedy Kulak: Acts 5:5
Another way to look at this: God is offering a capitalist investment scheme, and the way you invest money is to give to the poor on earth. Your return on investment will happen in heaven. (1 Timothy 6:17-19, Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 12:33-34, Revelation 22:12, Acts 20:35)
There are some instances where God supports the use of government for economic redistribution. It might not be as generous as your typical Bernie-bro is hoping for, however:
2. Yes, Biblical law demands that property owners make welfare payments.
Biblical law does demand a certain amount of economic redistribution by force of law.
Orphans, widows, refugees, and a few other categories of people (with excuses to be poor) have the right to harvest food from the corners of properties: (Lev. 19:9 , Lev. 23:22)
So, if you have a legitimate excuse to be poor, you are free to scrounge for edible weeds on the corner of my lawn. Dandelions can make a good salad, and many mushrooms are nutritious. Crabapples can make a great jelly. If hungry people pick up what they can reach from the sidewalk, I don't stop them.
You're welcome.
The modern English term for "Gleaning" is "dumpster diving".
3. Yes, Biblical Law includes Private Property rights. No, those rights don't extend to you.
All property in the world belongs to God: Lev. 25:23 . Tithing to the church therefore is not optional charity, it's the rent payment you owe to God.
And don't you dare claim your wealth is yours thanks to your own hard work, your wealth is thanks to God: Prov. 10:22 .
Bad Kitty! Both Buckets belong to the LORD!
This process of cancelling debts and freeing slaves is called "The Jubilee". In theory it was to be done every 50 years, in practice there's no evidence that this power was ever invoked. But the fact that Biblical governments have this kind of power in the first place proves that God is not a libertarian. Leviticus 25: 8-12
5. God imposed total lockdowns every single week.
Also known as the Sabbath: Exodus 20: 8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15. No exceptions for grocery shopping. No doctor's visits. No picking up sticks for a camping fire, on pain of death. (Numbers 15:32-36)
That also means no picking dandelions from my lawn. Attack dogs are off the leash starting 7AM-ish. Sorry, I didn't write the Bible, I just obey it.
In the Bible nobody gets stoned to death for stoning people to death on a Sunday, of course they always waited until Monday:
"I hate Mondays"
"I hate Mondays"
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