Giovanna,
The way I live out Christ's commandment is quite simple, Mt 22: 36-39
36 "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to him, " "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
The values of social democracy are not 'man-centred.' The values of social democracy are community centred and is not 'Christ-hating.'
You said,
When God says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10: :"...we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat", socialism says: "We will forcibly seize, under penalty of law, the wages of those who work and give it to those who do not". That is socialism, a Christ-hating philosophy, acting in direct opposition to the commandments of Christ.
In (Acts 2:42-45) in the early church "42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
And
Act 4: 32-35
32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35 They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"). 37 He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
We all pay taxes. Even the post ardent neo-Conservative needs tax money to pay for government, for the war in Iraq etc. The difference is I'd rather see my tax money being use for the benefit of a just and equitable society, and not for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
I don't claim to be able to peer into the mind of God or use the Lord's name in vain by suggesting I can judge who stands in open rebellion of God. There are many in my Church who are Christian on Sunday, and athiest the rest of the week, but I still reach out my hand at the passing of the peace and say, Peace be with you.
Mt 13: 24a-30 reads,
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' 28 He answered, "An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he replied, "No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.' "
The seeds have been sown, and the weeds have taken root. It is not our job to seperate the wheat from the weeds, or the sheep from the goats. This is the job of the one whom we profess as the Risen Lord. Does this mean we tolerate injustice. Definitely not, but it does mean that judgement is for the Lord. I assume you are a Christian, and that the seed of truth has been planted in your heart. I don't assume you, or anyone else is a weed sown by the enemy. Through-out the history of the Church good men and women have stood up as witnesses for Christ. Sometimes these martyr's witnessed to the state (Peter, Paul, Thomas More, Oscar Romero) and thus lost their lives for 'treason,' othertimes, martyr's have witnessed to the Church itself and have suffered excommunication and even death. Whatever the case, the church of Christ needs women and men in all places and all times to witness to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus first public appearance after his baptism as recorded by Luke was in the Synagogue in Nazereth,
"he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
I continually ask myself the question, am I listening, am I hearing the Word, proclaimed in scripture and lived in this world. The Kingdom we pray for in the Lord's Prayer will only be fully realized, will only be fulfilled in our hearing the Word of the Lord. And the word is being proclaimed by those women and men of good will and faith, who stand up in the synagogues of our society, in public squares, at George Bush's front gate, on Parliament Hill, in public office, in war zones, in zones of poverty, among the alienated and the marginalized. These people are taking the scroll that is written on their hearts, opening it, and through their witness proclaiming ""The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
and for many in our society, "When they [hear] this, [they are] filled with rage. 29 They [drive the prophets out] of the town, and [lead them] to the brow of the hill on which [our society] was built, so that they might hurl [them]off the cliff."(Luke 4:28-30)
Giovanna, you are a fellow sojourner in Christ. I pray that I will be able to see the risen Christ in you and that you can see the risen Christ in me. In Christ, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, no longer socialist or capitalist; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
Peace be to God, Amen.
Chris D-Hales
"Social democracy" is a buzz word for, yes, man- centered, government-is-God, communal, Marxist, philosophy. "Loving thy neighbor as thyself" is not accompanied by "from each according to his ability to each according to his needs". Christ-centered charity that is traditionally meted out by the church is one thing, socialism, by which the secular government picks winners and losers and, using cofisicatory taxes that are seized by the producers of a society under threat of imprisonment, enslaves entire populations of human beings, is quite another.
Politicians seizing wages from one group of people and giving to another group of people who have done nothing to earn it has nothing whatsoever to do with anything said by Christ. Be careful that you don't let socialist politicians use the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ to justify their own power grabs, or contempt for certain people, or policies that intentionally keep people in poverty. Jesus Christ and Karl Marx are, well, Jesus Christ and a fallen, sinful man who rejected God's way of government for a secular humanist way of government. The two are as different as heaven and hell and Christians have to be careful to not merge the two.
Regarding your reference to Acts - this moment in time of the early church whereby people were tithing to God has nothing to do with the way modern governments are run and is not an endorsement of secular humanist socialism. Again, nothing that Christ ever said, or that God ever did, translates into socialism. Socialism is man-centered, God-rejecting, and soul-destroying. Christ is soul-saving, the Giver of abundant life, and has made it clear in His Word how we are to deal with the poor. And it's not by embracing a philosophy that rejects Him, and enforces policies which are the complete opposite of what He commanded.
We all pay taxes. Even the post ardent neo-Conservative needs tax money to pay for government, for the war in Iraq etc. The difference is I'd rather see my tax money being use for the benefit of a just and equitable society, and not for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
And which definition of a "just and equitable society" are you going to live by? That of socialism, whereby injustices are perpetrated on a few to enslave as many as possible, or that of freedom where government is kept out of the lives of people as much as possible, and everyone has the freedom and opportunity to better himself according to his own abilities and ambitions? You said that you don't want your tax dollars to benefit the few at the expense of the many. How about not wanting your tax dollars used by power-mad elected socialists to keep certain people dependant on government for generation after generation? How about not wanting your tax dollars used by elected socialists to denegrate certain people and tell them that they're too stupid and incompetent to do anything for themselves? How about not wanting your tax dollars used by elected socialists to make certain people believe that they are victims and will never have what it takes to climb out of the gutter and have a good life?
I don't claim to be able to peer into the mind of God or use the Lord's name in vain by suggesting I can judge who stands in open rebellion of God.
Nice try but you don't need to be able to "peer into the mind of God" to be able to see rebellion against Him. All you have to do is look at what Jesus said and then watch what people, some of whom claim to be Christian, actually do. That's why Jesus said we would know them by their works. That means He gives us the ability to spot the phonies, the hypocrites, the socialists who do use His name in vain to further thier own selfish aims- the ones who twist His teachings and commandments to promote a philosophy that is straight from hell and which has not one iota of commonality with anything Christ ever said or did.
And the word is being proclaimed by those women and men of good will and faith, who stand up in the synagogues of our society, in public squares, at George Bush's front gate, on Parliament Hill, in public office, in war zones, in zones of poverty, among the alienated and the marginalized. These people are taking the scroll that is written on their hearts, opening it, and through their witness proclaiming ""The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
LOL. What are you talking about and where on earth do you find anything Christ-like among the anti-American, mass-murdering dictator-loving, terrorist-coddling Bush haters that continually fight to stop the liberation of the Iraqi people? These are people who love the fact that Saddam Hussein murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people, who love the idea of being able to put one's political enemies through wood chippers and dip them in acid, who love the idea of enslavement espoused by the Islamofacists, who identity totally with killers because they love death. Because they have reached the level of hate that enables a person to sympathize with murderers and adore the idea of genocide. These are people who have whole-heartedly rejected Jesus Christ and are completely on the side of death and hell. They may be "opening the scroll that is on their hearts" but the scroll is that of Satan, not of God. And they are not proclaiming anything having to do with Christ. Satan is who these people follow, not God.
Wow. Up until this paragraph, I thought you were just misguided but this last bit is quite revealing. The fact that you can actually believe that avowed Marxists who do everything in thier power to ensure that America loses the war against psychopath terrorists, who have stated that we should free Saddam Hussein, who go to Iraq and Israel and openly sympathize with and help mass murderers, the ones who, having been elected to Congress, use thier position of power to give aid and comfort to those who slaughtered thousands of American citizens, are "proclaiming Christ", tells me that your brand of "Christianity" certainly isn't the same as mine. I hope for your eternal sake you will examine your beliefs and seek earnestly seek God and come to a true knowledge and understanding of who He is. I think you will find that trying to marry Him with a philosophy that is completely against Him and His teachings is an exercise in willful, futile, self-inflicted deception and blindness. The ways of Satan are not compatible with Christ. It's as simple as that.
There is no possible way that Christ can ever even remotely be associated with not only socialism but also with murder and terrorism. And those who don't really know Him but try to use Him for thier own purposes will have to face Him one day. And because they don't know Him, and don't really believe anything He said, the fact that they will have to give an account of thier lives to God tragically never occurs to them.