"Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. (Nehemiah 4:14)
Summary: This week the United States took one more significant step towards greater government control over the family with the passage of President Obama’s neo-Marxist health care initiative. The implications for medicine, entrepreneurship, and the Christian family are far-reaching. In the wake of this devastating news, Christians must stop and reevaluate their approach to health care. It is the purpose of this email to present you with a practical, affordable and Christ-honoring solution to the present crisis in the form of Samaritan Ministries."
Self Government or Statism:
The Battle for the Family
The defining cultural issue of this generation is the battle for the Christian family. At stake is the definition of marriage, the meaning of manhood and womanhood, the preservation of a godly seed, and the future of a multi-generational vision of victory in which our posterity will continue to enjoy the blessings of liberty.
Christians Must Not Become Welfare Junkies
This battle must take many forms. We must proclaim truth from the pulpit, disciple our children around the table, model Christ in our households, and even “stand with the enemies” in the very gates of the land without fear (Psalm 127). But there is another oft-overlooked, but crucial component in a wise strategy of defense for the Christian family — we must reject the welfare junkie mentality, stop looking to the state as our provider, and look to God to work through His people with private-sector solutions to real problems.
Two Theories of Salvation
The Bible indicates that it is the duty of the people of God who make up the Church, not the State, to meet the needs of the Church. Though we have a duty of love and charity toward all men (1 John 3:17, 18), our first obligation is to the household of faith (Galatians 6:10), and those directly within our jurisdiction of responsibility (1 Timothy 5:8). Those who fail to provide for their own are deemed “worse than infidels.”
A key difference between Christianity and humanism is our soteriology (our view of salvation). Christians believe that man’s basic problem is sin. Humanists believe man’s basic problem is his environment. Consequently, humanists advocate salvation through legislation. The idea is that the State can save man through education, wealth redistribution, or other environmental changes. This view of the messianic state — the state as savior — is at the heart of President Obama’s socialized medicine initiative.
The Christian Duty of Self Government
Christians, not the federal or state government, are to care for their own, including widows and the fatherless (James 1:27). One reason for this is that such care is given in the name of Jesus Christ and for His sake. A second reason is that long-term giving must come with accountability. A third reason is that God has ordained the state to wield the sword as a minister of justice (Romans 13), not to become a welfare agency.
Senate Health Care Bill Exempts Health Care Sharing Groups
The health care bill that was passed Sunday night by the U.S. House of Representatives, often referred to as the Senate bill, contains a provision that exempts members of health care sharing ministries from the bill’s requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance. This is the bill that president has now signed.
Every freedom-loving American, parent, and Christian should be concerned about the effect this bill will have on all the American people, our health care system, and the economy, if the provisions of this bill are actually implemented. While many of the provisions will take effect soon, the individual and employer mandates to purchase health insurance are not scheduled to take effect until 2014, after the next presidential election. We need to continue to pray for God’s intervention in this situation. But, we should act prudently now.
What is Samaritan Ministries?
More than any other successful piece of legislation in the history of America, President Obama’s bill promises to reshape the nature of medicine, creating disincentives for medical freedom, penalizing physicians and medical providers for excellence, and opening greater avenues for control of the family. Christian parents need a practical and meaningful alternative now. That alternative is Samaritan Ministries.
The highly professional executive team at Samaritan Ministries is made up of deeply committed Christian professionals (some are personal friends of mine) who understand that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. And the candle they have lit is burning bright.
Samaritan Ministries is not an insurance company. Samaritan seeks to meet the needs of the saints through Christians helping Christians. For more than a decade, Samaritan Ministries has been the “shared medical assistance program” of choice for thousands of families. Their track record of support and satisfied members is simply superior. This is a medical assistance provider that is run on Christian principles, by Christians, for Christians. More than just an outstanding alternative to the overwhelming costs of insurance programs, Samaritan Ministries is a means of strengthening individual families and the Body of Christ through a program of personal responsibility, prayer support, and shared financial needs. The benefits of being a member of Samaritan are strong, and the cost is extremely reasonable. In fact, Samaritan families pay a fraction of the typical costs to insure a family through an insurance provider.
Do Yourself a Favor — Investigate This God-Blessed Option
The mission of Vision Forum is to encourage the rebuilding of the Christian family. Samaritan Ministries makes my life, and the life of the families at Vision Forum, easier by standing beside us (and we beside them) in the advancement of this mission for the glory of God. They bless us by helping families with healthcare needs, by modeling a godly vision of Christians helping Christians, and by providing cost-effective, excellent alternatives to the exorbitant expense of modern healthcare.
Mention Vision Forum when you sign up and receive The Politics of Guilt & Pity, a life-changing book on Christianity and private sector solutions to economic and healthcare troubles.
With gratitude to the Lord for the executive team and the faithful families who have wisely and successfully managed Samaritan Ministries for more than a decade, I want to invite you to learn more about them at SamaritanMinistries.org or by calling (888) 2-OTHERS. Moreover, as a satisfied subscriber to Samaritan Ministries and a Christian brother who is deeply grateful to them for their principled efforts to work within the Body of Christ to provide crucial financial medical assistance, and to oppose the continued socialistic extremes of our nation’s civil magistrates, I am pleased to wholeheartedly recommend this Christ-proclaiming, family-defending ministry to my brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that God has raised Samaritan Ministries up for such a time as this.
Persevero,
Doug Phillips
President, Vision Forum Ministries
1 comment:
There are two trends I notice in this country, and they work together. One, we are declining in morality and moving farther and farther away from the God of the Bible. Two, we are being weakened from within by political division and increasing debt. If our debt problem spirals out of control, that can lead to such a decline in our economy that we will not be able to afford a strong military to protect ourselves. We are being set up for a fall.
This health care bill can contribute to that fall by increasing our debt and hurting our economy.
God shows in the Bible that He punishes nations for their sins, and I think that the United States will be ripe for punishment if we do not repent as a nation. There are warnings in Bible prophecy for nations that turn from God towards immorality, and the United States needs to heed those warnings.
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