Theological political question: Is government welfare of God or Satan?

[Mr Khan]

mrstickball said:
Neither, necessarily.

However, the Bible outlines social welfare as being a key component of Christianity, not government. Even during the Levitical government, God specifically outlined how social welfare was to be taken care of - the people were to take a portion of their income, and give it to the poor and needy.

In the New Testament, you find a similar situation. Social welfare was one of the first issues tackled by the early church in Acts 5.

To take that away from Christians and make it part of government isn't entirely "Satan", but it certainly allows for the breeding of complacency among Christians, and is vastly inefficient compared to people giving of their time and money to help the needy.

And for government "of the people," welfare becomes part of the Christian mandate, if the state is the expression of the will of the people, it is the will of Christian people that the poor be cared for.