Is communism Biblical?

darrencorpe · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:48 pm Post subject: Is communism Biblical?

Some early Franciscans wanted to use a system of communism, such as the one used by the early apostles. Pope John at the time excommunicated them and reaffirmed that communism was heresy. Historically Communism is rejected, but Reformed Christians often deny many historically verified points. What do you think?

theseldomscene · Banned Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 7817

define how you define communism please...

Pondering · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Sep 2005 Posts: 1512

if you mean a utopian state of equality and sharing...sure. If you mean the form of government espoused by Marx and Lenin and as practiced by Stalin and Mao....not so much Wink

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darrencorpe · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject:

Acts 2

The Fellowship of the Believers
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 5

7About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"
"Yes," she said, "that is the price."

9Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."

10At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

As I said before, I am referring to the communism of the early Apostles.
Commune: a small group of persons living together, sharing possessions, work, income, etc., and often pursuing unconventional lifestyles.

It is written about in the Bible, some monks, Franciscans in the case I know of, argued that a system of communism (based on the Biblical example) should come to be. Some Christians argue for economic communism, others for a church commune...(basically take your pick on the type or severity of the system)... however my general point in posting this was to spur some opinions, questions, reasoning, debate... I just want thoughts.

SealedEternal · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:48 pm Post subject:

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

Good ideas, people!

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

Darren, you ask a good question.

I think that communism/socialism is certainly an ideal in line with the Spirit of Jesus' fundamental moral teachings. What do you think?
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darrencorpe · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 5:00 pm Post subject:

A form of communism should be instituted in the church setting. That is what the church is, a communal fund, for the brotherhood of believers. The church is run by elders and learned teachers, and those people say where the money goes. Economic Communism on the other hand, I believe is evil, although some Christians tend to think it should be so. Since prophesy says that the lamb will eat grass with the wolf - or the gazelle with the lion. Basically prophetically speaking a utopia will exist. Some think that people have to bring the world to utopia. I believe that Jesus will bring the world to utopia. As it is written, this world will be destroyed and a new will be created in which Jesus will rule. So basically there were two ideas I was getting at with this post: 1 that economic Communism is not Biblical, and 2 to what degree does a church practice communal qualities. Idea 2 is one which I wanted to expand upon, with the question, have Catholics been more communal (let's not argue about the pope & bishops here), or are Protestants more communal? It seems to me that in the past Catholics used communal funds to run schools and welfare (among other things) and also they presently run their own schools, whereas the Protestant style of faith turned itself to more of a self serving type of brotherhood, in that they stay out of modern day stereotypically political concerns. The point I am further making is that; should these "political concerns" be accepted as out of church control, or should the church be concerned with how much the brotherhood is under state control?
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OrdinaryRadical · Tadpole Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Posts: 23

To be true I think we should be worried about how much the church is under state control.

In Romans, Paul says that we should be subject to our authorities, but in 2 Corinthians Paul also tells us that Satan is the God of this world and according to Luke 4 Satan has the authority to give the Kingdoms of this world. They are his.

Whether or not you believe in the personality of Satan. Obviously there is something up.

I'm not sure how to reconcile all of this, but I think we should be keeping an eye on how much our churches get involved in state politics or control.

lone-traveler · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure if communism is something that is in a particular "place".

It's scattered around the world. It's not something that should be overseen by one man but by all mankind in common. There should only be one leader and that leader is our faith in love for one another. Taking care of eachother. Not to build up a treasury filled with money..
But a treasury filled with compassion and kindness.
The money thing would just be a way to distribute the physical needs...but what we need more is a way to distribute spiritual needs.

It's really not about the money...If all the markets were to fall tomorrow we would still be here..and we would find other means of trade to help one another.

So to me, communism isn't something that comes from the pocket. It's something that comes from the heart.
It's not an establishment that is built in a certain country or nation...rather an establishment that is built in each individual around the world.

just ramblin..
lone
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atoz · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 5:50 pm Post subject: