Is Foreign Aid a Christian Concept?

The Christian Post has reported on an open letter denouncing the Trump administration’s cuts to welfare programs, foreign aid, and large-scale deportations of illegal aliens. (You can read the article at: https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-100-christian-leaders-denounce-trump-cuts-to-foreign-aid.html). This letter was signed by over 100 Christian pastors and social justice advocates. The Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, led by Evangelical progressive activist Jim Wallis, organized the meeting for faith organization leaders in January to generate the letter.

To be clear, all of those participating in the meeting and signing the letter follow a false form of Christianity that sees God’s mandate from a material point of view rather than spiritual, and they interpret the Bible in a way that understands God’s primary mandate to mankind to be to defend the vulnerable in society, rather than point them to a personal relationship with God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Put another way, this material mandate represents their view of salvation (the ultimate a person can achieve in this life).

They derive their theology largely from Matthew 25:31-46, and assert that this passage represents God’s highest priority in the world.

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 And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, but 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.’ ... 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, 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.’

And they see the primary means for accomplishing God’s work as the use political and economic methods to make people’s lives better.

Thus, when the Trump administration began cutting off foreign aid to various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other groups that these people believe are helping society’s most vulnerable, these social justice warriors interpreted the move as cutting out the work that God was accomplishing through the United States government. In fact, one line in their letter reads:

For followers of Jesus, budgets are moral documents. Any necessary deficit reduction should never be a(t) the expense of low-income families, while benefits are disproportionately given to the wealthy. This moral tradeoff is unacceptable. Our Scripture(s) are clear that we will be judged by how we treat the poor.

While this passage in Matthew is very important, it does not represent what these people claim. It does not constitute, as they believe, the ultimate purpose of God for mankind. God’s purpose for mankind is to enter into an eternal relationship with Him by faith in Jesus Christ. 

So, exactly what part does the passage in Matthew 25 play? Rather than representing God’s ultimate purpose for mankind, it represents the kind of mindset that those who know a personal relationship with Jesus should have toward their fellow man. It is the result of a person’s salvation, not its means. Additionally, the passage is focused on pointing individuals in the right direction, not on directing government action.

While the people who champion the social justice mentality represented by this letter claim to be Christians, they are not. Their beliefs do not represent biblical theology at all. Rather they espouse naturalistic philosophy. Rather then exegeting the meaning of the biblical text to discern what it actually teaches, they begin with some form of liberal theology and eisegete (interpret the text by reading their own subjective interpretations or biases into it) to try and make the text say what they want it to say. They do this by taking verses and passages completely out of context in order to promote their own personal agenda.

Ultimately, the Bible is really not directly interested in the topic of foreign aid. Its focus and purpose is to point people to an eternal relationship with Him.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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