Template:Covetous practices
America became great not because of what the government did but what it did not have to do. America became great because of the philanthropic voluntary association of the people, by the people and for the people.
It was private charity and a general practice of loving their neighbor as themselves that made America great. Socialism will take us farther from that charitable practice and centralize governmental power through public welfare instead of Private welfare, which will make it easier for a few to control the whole government system and everyone dependent upon it.
In the New Testament, Peter talks about Christians becoming Merchandise because they would become covetous. But he also talks about those practices cursing our children.
- "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:" 2 Peter 2:14
We see a similar warning about cursing children back in the Old Testament.
- "I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.” Ezekiel 5:17
So, why did God say these things about children being robbed and parents being robbed of children?
Does it have to do with the same message we see in Galatians 5:15 about being careful to not be Biting one another less we be devoured on of the other?
Was it because the message of God was changed by the Sophistry of men?
- "And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that [are] round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them." Ezekiel 5:6
They had judged for themselves to do something God called wicked instead of do what God saw as good. In fact the workers of iniquity called good evil and evil good.
What was it that they were doing that was so wicked that it would cause "fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers" as we see in Ezekiel 5:10
Is there a deeper meaning than the Modern Christians should want to know about the early Christian conflict with Rome? There has always been two welfare types in society. One was dependent upon charity and the other used force. One bound the people together with honor and virtue and the other with contracts and force.
- "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent." Revelation 2:4 5
Today, every child is born thousands of dollars in debt to their national governments, and they will be required to pay that debt back with greater and greater amounts of their labor and service, plus interest. They are literally born in bondage because of the sloth and covetousness of their parents.
This is because governments are allowed to borrow against the future, because what they take is never enough for their appetite. But then the appetite of the people for benefits offered by that government, seems unrestrained. If people were following the precepts of the Bible, they would restrain their appetite as Proverbs 23 tells us. We would also not be coveting our neighbor's goods even through the power of government. We would live by charity and not by force, like John the Baptist and Christ said.
You see this was the Christian conflict as Rome and Herod offered Socialist systems of welfare like the Corban of the Pharisees and the government of Herod. History is repeating itself.
We have desired Free education, Free healthcare, Free Welfare and many other things at the expense of our national neighbor through the authority of men who call themselves our Benefactors, just like the nations all around us.
Jesus told His Apostles, when He appointed to them a kingdom, that they were not to be like the kings of the the other nations who exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.[1]
The spread and acceptance of Socialism, which "advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole" and not in the hands of the individual and their families, is without a doubt a covetous practice.
Have we cursed our children with this, covetously desiring benefits from men of exercising authority or have we lived as God said, by "Fervent Charity" and love for our neighbor as commanded by Moses and Jesus?
Enslaving our neighbors
Is our desire for benefits, or what was once called the dainties of the kings and Fathers of the earth, at the expense of our neighbor "Covetous Practices"?
Rand tells Bernie why you only have negative rights and that positive rights require enslavement of others.
In the video, Rand Paul makes a good point about thinking you have the right to force someone to provide you with benefits like healthcare. If you have a right to force someone to provide what you want, then you must believe in slavery. In a Democracy, you have a right as the majority to force the minority to provide for you what you want, which is why early Americans sought to form a Republic and until the early 1900s, democracies were considered to be a bad form of government that always fail, except by men like Karl Marx who like democracies because they lead the people to communism. So, no one can think they have a right to healthcare and the right to force others to provide it for them, unless they think it is okay to covet their neighbors goods, labor or resources. That is why socialism must be considered a "covetous practice".
The Bible talks about coveting as an evil practice and sin from the beginning to the end. Christ, Paul and Peter all condemned coveting, which is desiring to or wanting to take from your neighbor for your personal benefit.
It is clear that all socialism by nature is coveting what once belonged to someone else so that its value is converted to your benefit. No where does the Bible say or suggest that coveting is okay if the person is rich and you desire his stuff or possessions.
And if it is wrong to force people to contribute to your desire for healthcare, then it should also be wrong to force people to contribute to your education or the education of your children. It would also be wrong to force people to provide welfare for your parents, even if it is legal to do so.
All Public Educational systems are socialist institutions. They are welfare, and so is Social Security, which has been bankrupt for years.
There is no rational Christian argument that may justify desiring to force your neighbor to contribute to what you want. Do you try to justify coveting and still pretend to be a Christian?
- "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." 2 Peter 2:3
Should we be seeking a righteous way? Should we, if we love one another, be attending to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.
The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.
The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.
The modern Christians are in need of repentance.
"Follow me!" —Jesus the Christ.
- One of the most important things to do is to become involved in a network of Charitable Practices. Everyone should want to join a Living Network of Love and Charity.
- If you think you have a calling to be a Minister of God or you might want to dedicate your life to Christ as an Ordained Minister of His Holy Church, contact us to start the process of discipleship and become the benefactors who exercise only love, NOT authority.[2]
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Covetous practices in context
The word translated covetous practices in the Greek text of the Bible is pleonexia [3] also translated covetousness and greediness which appears 10 times in the text.
- Mark 7:22 Thefts, covetousness <4124>, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
- Luke 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness <4124>: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
- Romans 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness <4124>, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
- 2 Corinthians 9:5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness <4124>.
- Ephesians 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness <4124>.
- Ephesians 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness <4124>, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
- Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness <4124>, which is idolatry:
- 1 Thessalonians 2:5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness <4124>; God is witness:
- 2 Peter 2:3 And through covetousness <4124> shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
- 2 Peter 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices <4124>; cursed children:
- ↑ Luke 22:25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
- ↑ Matthew 20:25-26 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mark 10:42-43 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:
Luke 22:25-26 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. - ↑ 4124 ~πλεονεξία~ pleonexia \@pleh-on-ex-ee’-ah\@ from 4123; n f AV-covetousness 8, greediness 1, covetous practices 1; 10 1) greedy desire to have more, covetousness, avarice