The Gospel According To Charlie

by JASmius

Because everybody knows that moral advice from a tax cheat is like it came from False Messiah himself:

"Anyone who is familiar with the Bible," Rangel said, should know that "Jesus said you're going to Hell if you don't treat the lesser of his brothers and sisters" with compassion. Republican believers, he explained, will be assessed by a "higher authority" for attempting to thwart government programs that help the poor: "He said he was hungry, you didn't give him food stamps ... He was thirsty, you didn't purify the water ... he said he was naked, you didn't give him Social Security."

NOTE from D[ouble] D:

First of all, God will not judge me based upon how much care my government doles out to people or lack thereof. He will judge me on what I gave above and beyond what is TAKEN from me by Caesar! Jesus said to Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's and Give to GOD that which is God's.

Therefore, We taxpayers give what is required by law to give (Caesar's) and God still expects us to give to HIM (through ministry/churches, feeding programs, helping on an individual and financial basis through our tithing etc...).

Rangel is rewriting the Bible to fit his agenda.

Well, you know the old saying about the devil quoting Scripture to his own ends.

For the record, the passage Rangel is twisting into hemp Twizzler is from Matthew 25:31-46.  Better known as the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 25 is an overview Jesus gave His disciples of "the last days," the times just before Christ's Second Coming.  Verses 31-46 depict the judgment of Tribulation survivors after the risen, glorified LORD has returned to Earth (as opposed to the Great White Throne Judgment, where the resurrected dead of all time will be judged a thousand years later).  These survivors will be judged based on how they regarded and treated Tribulation believers (those who accepted Christ after the Rapture of Church-era believers before the Tribulation period began).  As Revelation illustrates, to be a Christian during these seven years will be a functional death sentence; since they will be forbidden from buying or selling as a consequence of their refusal to accept "the mark of the Beast (AntiChrist)," they will unable to either work or to procure the barest necessities of life - food, clean water, clothing, shelter, medicines, etc.  Their only means of survival will be the charity of what might be termed "the Christian Underground," fellow believers who have eluded AntiChrist's "dragnet"; for these people, doing so will risk the same terminal fate.

Here is the passage, de-Rangelized:

31  “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.  ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³ and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; ³⁶ naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ³⁸ And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ³⁹ When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ 

⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴² for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not ^[a]take care of You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

In short, Jesus is not referring here to treatment of the poor in general, but treatment of a viciously persecuted minority - Christians - during a specific future period of time - the seven-year Tribulation - at the end of which He will return.  It is also a description of personal charity that has the ultimate risk attached to it, not regime mass theft and welfare enslavement.

As for Good Time Charlie, I'll start lending him an ear when he ponies up my share of his vast "stash".  After all, when he does, he won't just be doing so to me.