Monday, November 22, 2004

Jesus was a Commie?

I ran across this piece today. It is basically debunks the claims that Jesus was a liberal Democrat. Similarly QandO is commenting on a New York Times column about the hungry needing to be fed. Bets on who should do the feeding?

The truth is of course somewhere in the middle of all this. The early church was quite communist. Note the small "c". This is communism in the sense of a group of people living on a commune. When there was need, those with the resources would sell land, etc. to meet the needs of the group. This was to be done without personal motives, but out of a pure devotion to God and the fellowship. Don't come forward with impure motives though, because you might end up like Ananias and Sapphira.

One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity is that people should help each other. That much is true. However your property is your own. It was given to you by God and that places an obligation on you to manage it according to His will. If you do not, God will likely take it from you and give to someone else. Essentially all property is on loan from God.

You may note some similarities between this and Communism (note the big "C"). In Communism, property is owned by the state and the state will decide what you need and how you should use it. Essentially property is on loan from the state.

Notice the difference? While theologically the state is allowed to act as God's greater steward along the lines of Romans, thanks to Marx the state usually denies any allegiance to the Almighty. So what we have left is idolatry plain and simple.

Plus even a God-fearing state is run by fallible humans. So what happens when the state's stewardship fails to meet with God's expectations? The answer is that God takes that control away from the state and gives it back to the people. Sounds like the Fall of the Wall to me.

Gee and we wonder why good Christians have trouble with Commies.

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