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At midnight on September 30th, our national government went into an “essential services” mode.  Only what has been determined by the Congress to be the very most important works are now being funded.  All of this has come about because the majority of the House of Representatives, as the majority of the American citizens, do not want Mr. Obama’s health plan funded.  This has far-reaching affects.  By law, because no agreement could be reached between the House and the Senate, the national government cuts back the money it’s spending to pay only for “essential services”.  This stops paying some 800,000 salaries.

Let’s do a new thing; let’s define this term, essential.  Noah Webster defined “essential” as meaning: “Necessary to the…existence of a thing.”  So “essential services” would be those services performed by government which are only absolutely necessary to the existence of government.  So what services are those?  To determine that, we first must know what is the purpose of government.

When God created man, He told him not to eat of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  This was man’s opportunity for “self-government”.  We chose to eat of it anyway; thus, failing at “self-government”.  God then instituted external government by having angels guard the Tree of Life to keep us from getting to it in our selfish state.  Later, He gave to Noah civil government in which men, as God’s agents of government, would rule over their fellow men.  Thus, mankind was being taught that government was for the purpose of restraining those who would not honor God’s right to rule them; because if we didn’t honor God’s laws, neither would we honor man’s laws.  That means no one’s life, liberty, or property would be safe from these who had no “self” control.  In other words, if we have no self-restraint, we must have external restraint.  This is the purpose of civil government.  The Bible teaches in 1st Timothy1:9 that both the moral and civil law are “…for the lawless.”

This is what Thomas Jefferson said in The Declaration of Independence,

“…that to secure these rights (of life, liberty, and property) governments are instituted among men.”

America’s Founders believed that government was necessary because of the root of selfishness in man.  He had to have external restraint to control him.  They learned this from the Bible.  William Blackstone, from whom they learned a great deal about law, wrote:

“The [teaching] thus delivered we call the  revealed…law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures…no human law should be [allowed] to contradict these.”

(Eidsmoe, Christianity & the Constitution, p.58)

Since the Bible teaches that, “All [government] authority comes from God,” (Romans 13:1) government’s purpose must agree with God’s purpose.  Never in the Bible does it teach that government is to a provider of services, like health care.  Government is only for the purpose of protection—so you can choose, among other things, what kind of health care you want.

Thus government’s “essential service” is to keep other men—including men in government—out of your life, except when you’re a threat to the life, liberty, or property of other men.  Since that is being done right now just like it was before the cutback in government services, why do we need any of those other services anyway?  If we cut those out permanently, maybe we could pay our national debt—and preserve our liberty!

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—
and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson, this has been Think About It.