I looked at the one you told me about. Isn't that enough? I already had my doubts about everything I hear, so what's new?
Hi
@Mark Quayle
Because you can't go around having doubts about 'everything' that you hear. There is truth out there. There is the reality of what is happening in real life, real time on the face of the earth. There is truth. So, my encouragement, rather than doubting everything you hear, which leaves you wide open to believe the cow dung that some talking head is trying to push, you need to have a mind of discernment. God says that His children should all have stable, discerning minds.
G5426 - phroneō - Strong's Greek Lexicon (kjv) - Blue Letter ...
https://www.blueletterbible.org › lexicon › kjv
...to have understanding, be wise. to feel, to think. to have an opinion of one's self, think of one's self ...
In the letter to the Philippians, Paul prays, “that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,” (1:9). Paul’s end goal is for the Philippians to live like Christ, who is the express image of God in bodily form, who is love. But in order for this love to not be open ended or blind, Paul couples this love with knowledge, and discernment. Throughout the whole book of Philippians, Paul shows the Philippians what this
phreneo is, which was also in Christ Jesus (2:5). Paul exhorts the Philippians throughout the letter to have this
phreneo (mind), and to have it collectively amongst each other, and to live out their faith and love through this schema of thinking, which has its focus set to the heavenly citizenship, where Christ is, as opposed to setting their mind on earthly things (3:19-20).
Phroneo - is to have a discerning mind. Because of this phroneo type of mind, we should know when the Antichrist comes. We should know when we're being fed cow dung for truth. Now, that's not to say that we can't all be fooled from time to time by empty platitudes and such, but even that comes from our pride and ego to even listen to platitudes that build us up beyond what we deserve.
Phroneo - is exactly what God expects of His children, even in living in this world. We should not be fooled by empty talk. We should seek after truth in everything that we do. Spiritually and in our lives in this world. God commands us to not bear false witness. Now, you may not want to hear this, but it must be said so that you can't go around saying, "Well, I didn't know!" You are bearing false witness when you promote these unproven 'truths' that Donald Trump and his crew want you to believe.
What you are doing, by not believing anything, is exactly what Paul teaches about. That leaves you open ended and blind because you don't know what the truth is, because you haven't done the work to find it. You just listen to talking heads tell you what to think and you think that thing.
Is America moving towards socialism? Not so much. Sure we've got some socialistic programs like unemployment, welfare, social security, medicare and medicaid. These are all programs that are based on the contribution of the entire group to provide for those who can't provide for themselves. But all wealthy nations have socialistic programs. Great Britain has 'free' medicine. No, it's not free, but it's paid for through a socialistic framework in which everyone pays taxes that pay everyone's medical costs. A lot of nations have some socialistic form of payment for medical costs. Even medical insurance is based on socialistic principles. All insurance is!!!
Most all wealthy nations have some form of socialistic retirement program. The Netherlands seems to have the best, as rated by Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2020:
Its retirement income system uses a
flat-rate public pension and a semi-mandatory occupational pension linked to earnings and industrial agreements. Most of the Netherlands' employees are members of these occupational plans, which are industry-wide
defined-benefit plans. Earnings are based on a lifetime average.
Then comes Denmark:
Denmark has a public basic pension scheme, a supplementary pension benefit tied to income, a
fully funded defined-contribution plan, and mandatory occupational schemes.
Rounding out third place is Israel:
Israel's retirement income system is comprised of a universal state pension and private pensions with compulsory employee and employer contributions. In most cases, annuities are paid from the private pension system.
For anyone interested the U.S. retirement system ranks 18th in this study.
Socialism, as a word, is not necessarily a bad thing. True socialism, as defined:
a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. Doesn't work very well. But the problem with true socialism is that the community or government owns or regulate the means of production, distribution, and exchange. What you are referring to as 'socialism' is nothing more than some efforts being shared efforts by everyone. I don't know who it was that made up the idea that this is a bad thing. All successful, wealthy nations have some forms of this shared socialism and it isn't a bad thing. I would challenge you to find one bill that is pending or has been passed in all of our states and our nation as a whole, that is promoting the government or a community having control over the means of production. We are still very, very strongly working through a framework of private enterprise and private control of all means of production. If you can't find such a bill or law, then you can't say that America is becoming 'socialist'.
Believe me, when I'm 92 years old I'm not going to want to, even if I am able, to work to put food on my table everyday. Fortunately, I live in a country that has a 'socialistic' retirement plan and I don't have to.
God bless,
Ted
