Posted on 11/06/2017 5:34:46 AM PST by NorseViking
Link only.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Some monasteries traditionally worked on a “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” basis. It worked to a degree, in as much as they had taken vows of poverty...but even in such cases, I believe there was some barter commerce or outside sales of goods and services to surrounding communities. Also, such systems worked because they were God-centered, which is the antithesis of Marxist communism.
No. I give to you is Christian. I take from you for the greater good is commie.
The “having all things in common” was a spontaneous out-flow of the new believers love for one another, and was from the heart and not dictated by any leaders.
It was from the inside, to the outward. This is what real Christianity is.
Marx & Engels read the book of Acts, and reading it with atheistic minds (without the interpretation by the Holy Spirit) liked what they saw, and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone did that?” Yes it would.
So they devised an evil system, run by corrupt men, to FORCE everyone to do what love did in Acts.
Externally forced from the outside. This is not love - it is slavery - and theft.
Communism - and every other cult - is the result of what man’s mind does with scripture without light (revelation) from the Holy Spirit.
The communists also got the great idea of their cell groups from Acts, where saints met not in a church building (a concept that didn’t appear until the 2nd or 3rd century AD), but “house to house”......a practice that was key to the “spontaneous expansion of the church” (search Roland Allen on Amazon) and the upsetting of the world in the first century - and mostly lost to today’s church.
Interestingly, the “having all things in common” did not last, and never appears again in the NT. It was tried by the first settlers of our nation - and abandoned as it totally failed....as it was forced externally, and not from love for one another.
Agreed, but technically these were not the words of Jesus (as in the gospels).
As the Bible distinguishes between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is best that we do so as well.........
Under the Rule of Benedict, no one was allowed to starve but if you did not work you did not get meat. Nor beer nor wine I would presume.
I haven’t read the article but I’ve read lots from the author who is brilliant and one of the finest philosophical minds alive. He has commented in the past about the murderous Communist regimes. Still, maybe he’s read a bit too much Terry Eagleton who has for a long time tried to reconcile Christianity and Communism. But it can’t be done, at least without ignoring human nature and history.
The first Christians were “voluntary” “communists”. It was a voluntary thing within the overall non-communist culture. And it was not particularly successful, apparently.
Communism is not voluntary.
The question as posed is an oxymoron.
It’s like asking if a Police officer is supposed to be a criminal.
Communism requires the rejection of a supreme being as creator, making room for subjects to channel such loyalties and devotions to “the State”. “The State” (government) takes the place of God.
Thank you for noting that Communism is not voluntary.... Christians were never communists. In the Bible, out of need....the disciples shared everything. Many communities had to do that to survive. It was NOT a modern world by any means!
Truth!
Yes, they sold everything and shared as each had need. That is communistic in a way, kinda like the old hippie communes, but is not communism.
4 of 66 books.
Paul wrote 8 to 13 books of the New Testament, either himself or he dictated them.
Understandings about the meanings of words matter.Although our modern socialists' promise of greater freedom is genuine and sincere, in recent years observer after observer has been impressed by the unforeseen consequences of socialism, the extraordinary similarity in many respects of the conditions under 'communism' and 'fascism'. As the writer Peter Drucker expressed it in 1939,That is, communism did not work in Russia, but although the government accepted that as a reality, it did not admit it. Thus, it continued to call itself “communists” when in fact it was fascist. We think of Stalin, Mao, et al as communist - but where the rubber meets the road, all “communists” are fascists.'the complete collapse of the belief in the attainability of freedom and equality through Marxism has forced Russia to travel the same road toward a totalitarian society of unfreedom and inequality which Germany has been following. Not that communism and fascism are essentially the same. Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion, and it has proved as much an illusion in Russia as in pre-Hitler Germany.’
https://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/q1_bible_who_wrote/
PLEASE use facts, as listed in the Bible timeline. All of the books used in the Bible are Holy Spirit inspired, the real author.
The backbone core belief of communism and socialism is atheism. So no.
Christians serve God.
Not government.
Leave it to the New York Times to think that government is god.
Point being... If we are going to claim that the 4 Gospels, though written by others, from memories, years later, or that the Old Testament or any of the other writers of the NT were inspired by the Holy Spirit, we have to give Pauls writing the same authority, as it was written by the same inspiration of the same Holy Spirit.
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