When one studies the Bible as a whole, focusing on foundational principles rather than on verses taken out of context, it is much more supportive of an economic system respecting private property and the work ethic (see especially Isaiah 65:21-22 and Jeremiah 32:43-44)."Thou shalt not steal" is the clearest declaration of the right of private property in the Old Testament.And, private ownership and stewardship of property is assumed to be the proper state of affairs throughout the Bible (Deuteronomy 8; Ruth 2; Isaiah 65:21-22; Jeremiah 32:43-44; Micah 4:1-4; Luke 12:13-15; Acts 5:1-4; Ephesians 4:28).
We go a step further and say that the people should also own the means of production and distribution.This is the foundational deceit of socialism - the fatuous claim that the government is identical with “the people.” Thomas Paine’s reputation is not one of being an advocate of Christianity, but it was interesting to read Michael Novak’s claim in his Writing From Left to Right that the reason Paine went to France (where he was imprisoned) was to persuade the revolutionary regime there not to establish atheism there because there was no possible foundation for human rights apart from God’s authority.
Anyway, in his Common Sense Thomas Paine puts paid to the idea that the government is the same thing as “the people” (or, as he puts it, “society”):SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.