Template:Free bread

The free "Bread and circuses" or panem et circenses of the Roman Empire was a part of the Public religion of the state which provided common social welfare for the masses.
Those government benefits from the Fathers of Rome who called themselves benefactors but exercised authority to provide those wages of unrighteousness through force rather than charity conflicted with the teachings of Jesus and the message of Christ who provide His Flesh and blood through a daily ministration of righteousness and love through the clergy of Christ and the love for one another through a network of charity and hope.

Free Bread

Juvenal wrote, "..that the common people—rather than caring about their freedom—are only interested in “bread and circuses” (i.e. food and entertainment)".

"Bread and circuses" is from Latin, panem et circenses. It is a metonymic idiom for a superficial means of appeasement. It may also be translated bread and games.

In reference to politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval or the quieting of dissent through diversion, distraction, or the mere satisfaction of the immediate self-indulgent interests of the masses.

The dereliction of duty

This phrase "Bread and circuses" originates from Juvenal Satire X. It implies the erosion or ignorance of duty amongst the people.

"… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses."

Society is born in the Family where love and sacrifice are unified in the spirit of the next generation.

When the family is eliminated at the expense of others the soul degenerates which weakens society.

Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C. to win the votes of these new citizens: giving out cheap food and entertainment, "bread and circuses", the die was cast and the conscience was seared.

When care for others was no longer cultivated and water with the sweat and tears of parent and community the soul of society shrivelled and began to die.

The delinquent appetite of the soul for a lascivious diet provided by the sweat and blood of another would be the most effective way to rise to power a few over at the moral expense of the indolent masses.

The communion of society made the people less connected with one another as love was replaced by lust.

Blood and bread

The Bread was distributed to members of the public temples produced a welfare system of what Romans called the alimenta and the dainties of those tables were called the reward of unrighteousness and "things sacrificed to idols" by Christians.

To eat of those benefits from those systems is what Paul is talking about.

Polybius, a Roman historian from Corinth before its destruction, believed all democracies fail.

He wrote:

"The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch."

The Annona (grain dole) was administered through the government temples of Rome to make the people dependent and manageable by the despots who sought power over the people. The Cura Annonae ("care for the grain supply") begun under the instigation of the popularis politician Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 123 B.C. grew under the first Emperor Agustus and Tiberius who said that the Cura Annonae if neglected would be 'the utter ruin of the state."

The covetous practices of Welfare through the power of the State and other public benefits is to desire for the wages of unrighteousness. The desire to receive benefits at the expense of others through forceed offering or taxation 'massacres, banishes, and plunders liberty until the people degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch'. According to Peter these covetous practices of applying to benefactors who exercise authority will make the people merchandise and curse children. "... he that hateth covetousness shall prolong [his] days.
In America back the 17' and 1800s the top schools, like Harvard and Princeton,  were available for rich and poor. It was written into many college charters that no one was turned away because of poverty. Alexis de Tocqueville explained in the 1800's what made Americans great.
"Americans group together to hold fêtes, found seminaries, build inns, construct churches, distribute books, dispatch missionaries... They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method." Tocqueville also wrote, "I have seen Americans making great and sincere sacrifices for the key common good and a hundred times I have noticed that, when needs be, they almost always gave each other faithful support"
When FDR offered Americans a New Deal he was offering an old deal forbidden by God, the prophets, and Jesus himself. What he offered was a fast track to a socialist state that has divided and weakened the people, degenerating them into "perfect savages".
A major principle repeated by all the prophets and Christ was not to covet anything that is your neighbors'. That means you are not following Jesus, Moses, nor Abraham nor even the wisdom of Polybius if you desire benefits at your neighbor's expense.

Marcus Tullius Cicero who was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist said:

"The evil was not in the bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease."

Today, in America large groups of society sell their rights to obtain their own free bread. It began in interest wit FDR' New Deal and continued with LBJ's War on Poverty until the people have developed an "appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others..."

Now we may see riots in the streets as many "institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder..."

We may soon see the "perfect savages" and their ruler.

John the Baptist, Jesus and the Church provided the Daily bread of the people through faith, hope and charity and the Perfect law of liberty in what was called the Daily ministration. This can only be done by people who accept the spirit of Christ in their hearts and choose to follow the ways of Christ. 100 years after Christ others were still warning the people.

“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” –Plutarch

"I do not imply that bread and circuses are evil things in themselves. Man needs material sustenance and he needs recreation. These needs are so basic that they come within the purview of every religion. In every religion there is a harvest festival of thanksgiving for good crops. And as for recreation, we need only recall that our word 'holiday' was originally 'holy day,' a day of religious observance. In fact, the circuses and games of old Rome were religious in origin. The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease. The moral decay of the people was not caused by the doles and the games. These merely provided a measure of their degradation. Things that were originally good had become perverted and, as Shakespeare reminds us, 'Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.'"

Galatians 5 tells us, "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."

Social democrats have used this plan to obtain power since Cain and Nimrod. Many a politician was led by the same plan to obtain power over the people for they love power more than the people. They seal society into bondage to their will by spreading amongst them many benefits.

…Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses..."

This was the sin of Sodom.

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)

None of this would be possible except that the people love themselves more than their neighbor in contradistinction to Moses and Jesus and all the prophets of old.

People think that Religion is what you think about God and Government is supposed to fulfill your duty to your fellowman by forcing people to contribute. Pure Religion is to perform your duty to God by loving your neighbor enough to provide for his Welfare by charity. The Church was instituted to help people to actively love their neighbor as themselves in real ways.

There were lots of Welfare systems in the Roman Empire and even in Judea but Christians would not take those benefits because they were provided by the World through force. Early Christians did not pray to men who called themselves Benefactorswho exercise authority one over the other forcing the contributions of the people in order to provide daily free bread to the needy of their society.

• “And the wealthy among us help the needy ... and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.”

This is what John's Baptism was all about. It is what Jesus preached about Benefactors who exercised authority and it was the reason he condemned the Corban of the Pharisees which, made the word of God to none effect. The early Church provided free bread from house to house as they worked daily in the temple. This welfare by the charity of the people was at the core of the Christian conflict with Rome and the Eucharist of Christ was the bread of that welfare through His Church through love according to what Jesus commanded.

The Modern Church has need of Repentance and to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness which is to attend to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.

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"Follow me!" —Jesus the Christ.

• One of the most important things to do is to become involved in a network of Charitable Practices. Everyone should want to join a Living Network of Love and Charity.

• If you think you have a calling to be a Minister of God or you might want to dedicate your life to Christ as an Ordained Minister of His Holy Church, contact us to start the process of discipleship and become the benefactors who exercise only love, NOT authority.

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