Posted on 08/17/2011 8:52:17 PM PDT by lbryce
As the debate over the government’s debt and its role in assisting the poor intensifies, some on the far left have begun to claim that Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible advocate socialism and preach against capitalism.
While this notion gives many conservative Christians angst, it is an ideal that is quickly gaining steam among atheists (and some left-leaning believers) who find themselves more on the fiscally-liberal side of the political spectrum.
Last week, atheist Gregory Paul, a freelance researcher, author and illustrator, penned a piece for the Washington Post in which he claims that socialism has its roots in the Christian Bible. In his article, Paul questions why Christians have abandoned the socialistic inclinations espoused by Jesus Christ to embrace capitalistic beliefs that contradict, in his view, Biblical principles.
Paul contends that “a set of profound contradictions have developed within modern conservative Christianity.” These contradictions are so perplexing, he says, that they “set one’s head spinning.” In Paul’s eyes, Christians who denounce Darwin’s evolutionary science, yet espouse social Darwinism (i.e. capitalism) are doing so without examining the antithetical nature of their thinking. He writes:
Many conservative Christians, mostly Protestant but also a number of Catholics, have come to believe and proudly proclaim that the creator of the universe favors free wheeling, deregulated, union busting, minimal taxes especially for wealthy investors, plutocrat-boosting capitalism as the ideal earthly scheme for his human creations.
In citing examples straight from the Bible that he calls “outright socialism of the type described millennia later by Marx,” Paul pleads his case. The first example he gives is focused upon Jesus’ warning to the wealthy that they may not inherit the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24, which reads, ..
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
"Paul, Paul, why persecutest slanderest thou Me?"
No.
When you come right down to it, Jesus is a theocrat.
Crown, throne, scepter, King of Kings and Lord of Lords....
“It works when there is a shared degree of faith, and that God is central to their lives.”
It has worked in very few instances other than monasteries. Such as Jesus People USA (look it up) a small group in Chicago. Various utopian groups have tried it and failed (New Harmony, Indiana)
I think most people here get it right. Communal living was common in the early church partly because of the poverty in Jerusalem (Paul kept taking up offerings in his travels).
Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, has a broad panoply of issues in which they are at loggerheads with other branches of Judaism that are divisive, exclusionary and worse, whatever the Torah otherwise offers, provides.
In fact he did not preach government control or government-directed social welfare. He urged personal help by the individual to those INDIVIDUALS less fortunate. He did not support GROUP RIGHTS.
The single biggest argument against socialism in Scripture is that Jesus Christ, in His time here on earth, never ordered the government to do anything. His teachings on compassion, charity, love of fellow human beings, etc. are all rooted in the individual.
It's also important to keep in mind that He lived in a place and time where a totalitarian, often ruthless and brutal, government was the norm.
Modern accounting is based in part on the records maintained by Christian monks.
Socialism is an inherently humanistic doctrine that teaches that humanity can remove the curse of sin from itself by government dictat. If Jesue was a socialist, He wouldn’t have died for our sins.
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Socialism replaces God. It is a state religion.
No, but he's certainly disappointed with my initial thoughts on people who do make this statement.
I had to cut off one person for making this comment to me and then comparing Obama to Christ.
I just didn't need the day to day aggravation.
Come again?
Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jesus never said “Steal or take from your neighbor so you can help the needy”.
He did say “GIVE”.
Socialists BELIEVE in the TAKING. Conservatives much more in the GIVING.
If you look up the word, "sanctify" you will find out that is exactly what it means to be "not of this world," sic:
John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
1 John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
In my study of Sabbath Year, I found the Orthodox the most accepting. They were actually delighted that anybody cared enough about the Law to give it so much careful analysis. Yet I can also say that they (erroneously) treat Talmudic law as not to be questioned, where I can now show compromises and outright deliberate misconstructions (albeit for very solid reasons).
anytime!
That you found fulfillment, hospitality and sense of kinship among those you so admire, I say kudos to you but you can never speak for others. The fact is, on the whole the experiences those Jews seeking to worship God in their own way, is one of disenfranchisement not at all embraced, even acknowledged, to say the least.
I think you know that 'seeking to worship God in one's own way,' is an idolatrous idea from the get-go, because it is not seeking to worship God in HIS way. That said,
That you found fulfillment, hospitality and sense of kinship among those you so admire,
This is completely inaccurate. I do admire them for living with integrity, as they believe they are supposed to live; I do not emulate them, primarily because there is so much about the Torah they do not understand, by far most of it having been written by pastoral nomadic people. By the Time Ezra got to it, much of the original understanding had been long lost.
In Ezekiel 16:48-50 God compares Jerusalem to Sodom, saying “Sodom never did what you and your daughters have done.” He explains that the sin of Sodom was that “She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.”
Certainly threatening to rape angels was an integral part of why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. It was impossible to find 50 righteous people in Sodom... it seems that there are many ways that the cities were beyond redemption.
It is also worth noting that God had purposed to destroy Sodom BEFORE the angels were threatened. The angels were only present because God had permitted Lot to be saved. Even absent the perversion and inhospitality of the events surrounding the angels Sodom was still doomed.
Libchurches would love to make the damning Jude verse go away. Then again, they would like most of the Bible and the very doctrine of sin to go away along with it. It's all rainbows and unicorns and skittles with them.
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